Solution to the enegy crisis.

Energy crisis? Wait I though we were in an economic crisis.

Lest we forget, our economy, and the economy of the world, is very closely linked to the energy that powers it. So what fuels our economy right now? The quick answers are Coal, Oil, Natural Gas. People thinking a little further will start listing our electicity sources, Solar, Nucular, Wind, Hydro etc. But the one we often forget is food.

A huge segment of our productivity is human powered which means that the energy source is cheeseburgers, Clif Bars and sweetpotatos, and pasta. The beauty is that most food stuffs are domestically produced, renewable resources. So while our politicians work out all the details of trying to find ways to get greener sources of energy for our big machines, we have the ability to change many things in our lives over to food fuel.

Now I want everyone to stop and examine the treadmill.

A treadmill is a machine designed specificly to waste energy. The average treadmill user will get in their car, drive 2-8 miles to a gym, get on the treadmill, run for fourty minutes, get back in their car and go home. Now lets look at that in terms of energy.

Our treadmill runner had a cheeseburger for lunch which was 400 Calories which she now feels guilty about because she thinks it is going to make her look fat, so she heads to the gym. Assuming 5 miles each way in a car that gets 20 miles per gallon, the car ride to and from the gym will burn 1/2 gallon of fuel. At the gym she is on the treadmill for 40 minutes to burn the 400 Calories. Now remember that the treadmill is an electrically powered device with a roughly 2.5 horsepower motor that will be running for 40 minutes. The calculation of how much coal you have to burn to create the electricity to run a treadmill for 40 minutes is beyond me, so let it suffice to say that it is an amount that exists.

So in sum we are out the 400 Calories in the Cheeseburger, 1/2 gallon of gas, and some coal to power the treadmill. Net work done? zero.

All of this energy was wasted by design.

Alternativly, our heroin could have simply eaten the cheeseburger and ridden her bike home from work. The 400 Calories that she didn't want in her body would be gone, but they would have been used for productive means, and we would have saved the energy consumption of the trip to the gym.

Now I am not saying that we should stop using the gym, but I wonder if we all converted a fraction of the energy we waste by design into productive energy what kind of effect we could have on the energy market. Understanding that biking to work is not always logistically possible, here are the two big things that cyclist can do than many of us neglect.

#1. Ride to the Gym. If you go to the gym for your winter workout, ride your bike there and back. It makes for a great warmup and cooldown.

#2 Ride to your Ride. How many times have you gotten in your car and gone to meet someone to go riding? Next time ride your bike to the start of the ride, it saves you the effort of loading up your car, and you also get to feel smug about having ridden more miles than anyone else there.

Your bike is a great toy. It is also an amazing tool, and too many of us forget to use it as such.

Stans in my car?

Okay, I have recently had a rash of slow leaks in my car tires. Normally when I get a flat I check the tires and see if it is time to replace them. If it is, I just do that. If not, I use a plug kit. But these last two flats have been slow leaks. These are the kind that you pump up and the tire stays inflated as long as the car is sitting, but as you drive you slowly lose air. I coundn't plug them because I couldn't find the hole, and I was not due for a change in tires, so I decided to put Stan's in.

Considering that I have had better luck with Stans than Slime on my bike, it seemed to be the way to go in my car as well, but I checked with Stan first. So the things you will proabably want to know.

#1: Yes the normal Stan's is the same as the Lawn and Garden Stans. They just put it in a different bottle.

#2: The recomended volume of Stans in an Auto tire is 2oz. More that that may mess with your balance at high speeds.

#3: The best way to get it into the tire is to remove the valve core, then use and injector to measure and inject the Stans, then put the valve core back in, pump up the tire and drive around your neighborhood to spread the Stans around in the tire.

#4: The soulution remains liquid down to about -40degF so it will work fine in the winter

#5: The solution may dry up in a few months, depending on how many flats it prevents, so you can either add a little two or three times a year, or you can wait until you get a flat as a sure indicator that the sealant has dried up and then add solution.

All of this was done with the same tools and solutions I use on my bikes, so other than being out 8oz of solution this (about $4 retail) This was a very inexpensive fix to what would have otherwise meant buying new tires. This should also prevent further flats in those tires. So again I have found new uses for my bike stuff. If you care to join me in my worry free driving experiance, everything you need to get your car proteted is at the link below.

Stans Stuff

Stans sues Specialized

Ok, I just got the press release today that Stan's No-Tubes is filing a suit against Specialized asserting that some of Specialized Wheels infringe on patents that Stan holds. It will be interesting to see what happens with this. Comparativly, Stan is a very small company and so if Specialzed wanted to they could probably just burry them in paperwork until such time as they didn't want to produce that wheel anymore, but who knows. Anyway, press release is below

NoTubes.com Files Lawsuit against Specialized Bicycle Components Inc.

BIG FLATS, N.Y. – Nov 12, 2008 - On September 15, 2008, NoTubes.com® filed a lawsuit against Specialized Bicycle Components Inc. (“Specialized”) alleging that certain rims and wheels of Specialized infringe U.S. Patent No. 7,334,846 (the “‘846 patent”). This lawsuit, styled K.G. Motors, Inc. v. Specialized Bicycle Components, Inc., is currently pending in the United States District Court for the Western District of New York.

As set forth in NoTubes’s complaint, Specialized is alleged to infringe the ‘846 patent by making, using, selling, offering for sale, and/or importing into the United States certain tubeless wheels and rims, including without limitation Specialized’s Roval brand wheels. The technology disclosed and claimed in the ‘846 patent was invented by NoTubes’s founder and owner, Stan Koziatek, while pursuing a better solution for tubeless bicycle wheels and rims.

Georgia Gould wins at USGP.

Yeah so Georgia Gould took the win, but the cool thing is Goose Creek Cycle Rider Caitlyn Swinford got her picture taken with her...

The Tubeless revolution continues

Those of you who know me or have visited our shop know that every time I sell a tube, it is with a heavy heart. I discovered Stan's tubeless system a few years back after a 24 hour race in which I had 6 flats. Even in 24 hours, fixing that many flats costs a significant amount of time. So within a week of that race I had my first Stan's tubeless system mounted on my bike. Since then I have had only one flat in a race, and that includes numerous 24 hours solo bids, and local cross country races. So whats new?

Stan has been busy over the last few years. With the way paved by Hutchinson and Shimano with the developement of road tubeless systems, Stan jumped in with rim strips that will allow you to convert any road rim to tubless (sorry you have to use the Hutchinson tubless tire). Also in stores now is the cyclocross version and a cyclocross version of Stans "Raven" tire which is specifically designed for lower pressure riding.

So it looks like, from now on there is really no need to buy tubes ever. So whatever your reason for hating tubes (don't like flats, sick of paying for them, don't like to buy stuff from China, not hip enough, boring, the term pinch flat, etc) It looks like you can leave that in the past.

Below is some other suggested reading:
Original stans review - Includes tips
Pricing

Both of these products are now in store for us, but are not up on our website due to the impending website conversion. Feel free to call in your order.

Offroad Catagories Changed for 2009

According to VeloNews, there will be a change in the ranking system for mountain bikers in the 2009 season. The move makes the off road catagorise look a lot more like the Road catagories and is designed to enlarge the pro field. How will this affect you?

If you are a Beginner you are now a Cat3

Sport-------> Cat 2

Expert -----> Cat 1

Semi-Pro-----> Your choice Cat 1 or Pro

Pro ------------>Pro

Why they felt the need to rename the catagories is beyond me, but basically they just eliminated the Semi-Pro Field. Leaving Semi-pros the option to go big or go home.

Their gamble is that more of the Semi-Pros will suck it up ang go pro rather than take the perceived drop in catagorization. At first this will probably be true, but I predict that people are a lot more cautious about jumping out of the Cat 1 class that they were in the old system. I hope I am wrong here, but what it will take to really get the move upward started is to ensure strong (numberwise) Pro fields at local races. Riders will want to have some feel that they can ride at a pro level at all of their races and not be strictly limited to traveling to big national events to get enought pros together to have the race be worth while on a pro level.

As it is now I have seen local races where only one pro shows up and only needs to turn the laps to win. There is not fun in that and it is not worth anyones time. With the semi-pro ranking at least there was the feeling that you could race the pros if they showed up and race in with the experts without feeling too much like a schmuck if that was the only competition you had. We will see what happens. Maybe I will actually get a NORBA liscence this year so I can get stomped by a bunch of Cat 1's who used to be semi-pro. (and also probably the Cat 1's who used to be Expert, either way I'm getting stomped)

It has been a while

Ok, it has been a while since I have posted to the blog, so I may as well let you all know what has been going on at the creek. So here is the brief run down.

Product: Since the last time I posted, be have become a Salsa dealer, and have a couple of frames on the floor. Look for a more complete line to show up for 2009. We have also taken another big skate shipment so expect to start seeing some more skate related cloting. Preseason orders are filling in from any number of other product lines, so expect to see a lot of new product in the next month. Also we have some 2007 bikes left on the floor which have now been marked way down, we should start to see 2009 bikes shortly, so we don't want to be sitting on and 2007's

Racing Team: We have added a few new riders to the lineup. Rich Buchannan has been pulling down some good results in an Ironman and some Local Tri's. Luke McLaughlin has joined the team and pulled a 4th place at the Otter Creek Sport Class race. He should be flying for Cross season which is now upon us. (First local race in Sunday)

The Shop guys: There is a little flux in the shop guys and folks head back to school. Ryan joined the Army and is off at basic, so Will has picked up a bunch of hours. Schoen is at the shop quite a bit and is holding down the bike side for the time being. I am a little in and out of the shop, and am working on some big things on the online side. Expect our new online site and shop to by up and functioning by end of year.

The deals: Because of the transfer in the sites, we are going to start having some screaming deals on the old version. This saves us from having to upload products to the new site, so check the site out frequently you sould see some deals on there that are beyond the normal good pricing. Check out our selection of bike parts