More Things On Which to Waste Your Money

This "industry" (bike) has become a marketing driven monster. A new product surfaces every 8 minutes that is designed to be better, stronger & faster (who does that remind you of?)

Well, all of you gotta have it now types with gads of cash just falling out of your Armani pockets- here you are. Just in time to take all of the fun out your riding- the Rocket Science Sports aerodynamic water bottle. It's from a company that:

"...provides the athlete with quality products not only geared to enhance performance but also to provide a refreshingly cool look that will be sure to make heads turn."

This bottle is a normal shaped bottle that has hundreds of little dimples all over it, like a golf ball, to break up the laminar flow of air across its surface, blah, blah. What the hell. I mean, most people couldn't average 18 mph over a flat 20 miles. How is a dimpled water bottle going to make them faster?

"The majority of drag associated with water bottles results from the separation of airflow causing what's known as pressure drag. Air flowing past a traditional smooth exterior water bottle separates quickly resulting in a high pressure drag. Bottle holds up to 20oz of your favorite beverage. "

When I read that, the only beverage I can think of is frickin' Jack Daniels.

I would argue that the majority of drag associated with water bottles has less to do with any separation of airflow and more to do with gobs of sticky hydration drink that has spewed out of the bottle because the rider is too hypoxic from their effort to remember to shut the damn thing. Then the goo drips down their downtube, to the bottom bracket cable guide where it turns to glue covering the shift cables and guess what? they can't shift their gears. What is slower? A "standard" water bottle, or a rider standing on the side of the road fiddling with his rear derailleur barrel adjuster for 5 minutes?

In it's defense, the D.D.W.B. (damn dimpled water bottle) is only $7, which is only $2 more for the wind-tunnel-proven-slow Vecchio's water bottle.
So if you have to have one, I've included the link above. Spend to your heart's content...just be careful, all the folks whipping their heads around to catch a glimpse of you being fashionable might slap you with some sort of lawsuit for their injuries.

Thanks for reading...

Alright. So it's been a long summer. It's been a fun and great summer, too, but it's been a bit tedious at times. There have been a lot of guys (and gals) coming in with some sort of emergency. It usually plays out something like this:

Customer- "Hey, I was wondering if you could help me out. I've got this REALLY important race ("race" usually means it's a charity ride with multiple rest stops and a free t-shirt) coming up and I've been training for it for like 6 months and I had to register for it 3 months ago and I've spent about 12 hours reviewing the course profile and 6 hours putting all of my gear ratios into an Excel spreadsheet and 1 hour taping the gear combo cheat sheet onto my stem. Now the last thing I need to do is get my bike completely overhauled."
Bike shop guy- "Well...okay. When is the event?
Customer- "Well, it's tomorrow."

So the question that we are always asking to ourselves when this interaction takes place is "If you've been planning this for ride/race/event for months and months, why didn't you plan to get your bike in working order sooner than the day before?"

Please try to avoid this behavior - your bike mechanic will be much more receptive to your requests and ultimately do a much better and more thorough job when you plan in advance to have your bike serviced.
Thanks