In my book, GU makes the best energy gels, both in nutritional content technology and flavor. Now they have upped the ante by introducing Roctane, basically a double load of calories and performance enhancing components in around the same volume. With double the content, comes double the price: A regular GU retails for about $1.25 USD, whereas a Roctane retails for around $2.50 USD. I bought a few back in December before heading to Japan for snowboarding and gave them a try. Indeed, the effects are more noticeable than with a regular GU. The added aminos and citrates that Roctane includes helped delay the burn and maintain performance levels. This was especially critical, since I didn’t bring with me my normal complement of sports drinks that usually provide these. There are two flavors, a vanilla/orange and a blueberry/pomegranite. Of the two, I only like the blueberry. The orange has a bitter orange peel flavor. This is in line with my dislike of GU’s other orange-flavored products – the regular GU gel and the GU2O electrolyte beverage powder. Continue reading ‘GU Roctane Energy Gel’
Archive for the 'bike' Category
Page 24 of 40
Whenever a package arrives from Chain Reaction Cycles, it’s like the holiday season in the office! While Ckucke and I were away, a parcel arrived, bringing wonderful things from the UK. I got a long-sleeve Hope Technologies DH Jersey (more later), and my long-awaited pair of gold Hope brake lever reservoir caps! They came packaged with black TORX-head replacement screws, but I retained the original stainless metric hex-head ones. Installation was quick and simple. I didn’t really need these, although one of my caps had a cosmetic ding from an OTB incident in Whistler, but now all my Hope stuff has gold bits wherever possible, with the exception of the two-piece rotors (those are next!). Continue reading ‘A Bit of Bling, UK-Style’
WTF?!
It’s Sunday the fourth, and I find myself climbing Tantalus with Ckucke and Scat again.
My recent conviction about enjoying riding comes into question right around the first chicane below the Contemporary Museum. My legs feel better this time around, but the heart rate climbs, and my ability to uptake oxygen maxes out. The sitting area has not yet recovered from the New Year’s Eve ride, and the arms are definitely experiencing the wiggles from not having trained or ridden for far too long. I am pegged through the turns and up through euco. Although I am able to recover heart-wise and lung-wise when it flattens out, I only become aware of the discomfort in my ass, feet, and hands as a result. I essentially ride alone, having been dropped by Ckucke and Scat back when the houses ended. Continue reading ‘First Ride of the Year’
“Oh man.”
“Why am I doing this?”
Not even out of sight of the parked cars did these thoughts cross my mind. Winter had brought the rain to Hawaii, so there had been little as far as bike riding going on for me since the beginning of November. Immediately, my feet and left hip began to hurt. It was New Year’s Eve and I got out of work after half-a-day, so I met Ckucke, Scat, Jeff, Sara, Danny, and Dr. Paul for a spin up Tantalus. Root got stuck at work with the last minute rush, so he didn’t make the start time. The first section up to the stop sign went leisurely. I had gone a little ahead to take pictures of everyone passing, but after putting the camera away, I ended off the back – where I would stay for the remainder of the climb. The lack of recent saddle time and a chili-dog plate lunch eaten only an hour before ride time dragged me down. Continue reading ‘Last Ride of the Year’
Finally replaced my M Frame Rx’s. I’ve always had problems finding sport glasses to fit my face. Low nosebridge the most annoying problem so that glasses nosepieces were superflous and the bottom edge would sit on cheeks, and a gap over the top of frame I could look out over. At the time the M Frames were one of the few (or only) high coverage sport glasses with a single layer prescription lens. I learned to live with the nose bridge. The optics were stellar. But the prescription insert eventually would cause the outer polycarbonate lens to crack. I actually had one of the first generation models, and went through three iterations. Each successive one Oakley improved on the problem, but eventually those stress cracks would still appear. Continue reading ‘Oakley Flak Jacket, XLJ G30, Rx, Asian Fit’
Wow, Chain Reaction Cycles is pretty fast considering we’re all the way in the middle of the Pacific and they’re all the way on the other side of the world in Scotland… I sent the mismatched set of shifters back on 14 November 2008, they received them on the 20th, and shipped out a replacement set. Those arrived on 01 December! I didn’t have time to put them on before heading to Japan, but I threw them on Tuesday at McBike along with the new cassette and 9-speed chain. Shifters are quite nice. They seem to stick out more than the XTR’s, but that’s just an impression. I did have to remove the Optical Gear Displays so I could mount the shifters outboard of the brake levers. In that position, the shift paddles line up correctly with my fingers with my hands in the normal position on the grips. More on the shifters in a future review…
Saw a Saabaru last week with a mangled roof rack Q/R-style bike tray. The picture from my keitai didn’t really come out that good, so I outlined the two trays in yellow so y’all can see what’s going on. Essentially, put a bike on the tray, drive, and run the handlebars of the bike smack dab into the header of your garage door! The fork bends back, but before it breaks, it presses the frame backward and downward, forcing the rear wheel to bend the thick, extruded aluminum tray (before both the frame and wheel also break). The bike definitely didn’t survive this encounter! I wonder which poor bike store employee had to hear the, “I was just riding along…” story ?
I picked this up in the automotive section at Wal Mart for a buck – really, $1.00 USD! It is rare to find a common houseware like this that isn’t made in the PRC, and no less for a dollar! Of course you can use this for it’s intended purpose of getting automotive radiator coolant into the tank or reservoir, but I got this to use with sports drink powders. Most kitchen funnels have really small openings, generally around 8 to 10mm. Dense powders like Endurox R4 or Cytomax have difficulty getting through openings that small without tapping or shaking the funnel. I was looking for a jar funnel, but those are difficult to find, and the ones I have seen have openings that don’t fit in the neck of a standard sport bottle or liter-sized Nalgene. The 25mm+ opening on this funnel lets powders through unobstructed! Once you use it for coolant, don’t use it for anything else! Get two if you need one for coolant and another for sports drinks.
Highly recommended
Four out of four techno monkeys
$1 USD plus tax!
I saw these on closeout from Chainlove.com last week. I did a quick check on the Endura site to see what they were all about, then emailed Chris. He said that he had a set of Endura shorts from last season, and they were really good, so I decided to give them a shot and ordered a pair. Chris recommended that I go up a size, so I ordered a “Large”. My waist is about 88cm (34”), and these fit perfectly. The outer short is made from Teflon water-repellant treated Cordura nylon. They should be very durable, but time will tell – I only have one ride on them. The crotch gusset area and some small side inserts are a stretch nylon material. The stretch crotch is nice because it keeps that area in body contact and prevents snagging on the saddle nose or tail. There are some reflective details sewn on front and back. The inseam is 30cm (12”) and is appropriately long. Continue reading ‘Endura Burner Baggy Short’
Jarrel at McBike is planning on bringing in these and the more skate-styled BMX/DJ helmet this season, but Ckucke and I couldn’t wait to get our hands on them. Jeff had an unused size L/XL “lying around”, so I bought it off of him. That size was too big for Ckucke, so he got a S/M off of Backcountry.com. Like most current high-end MTB helmets, this is an in-mold EPS helmet with a removable visor and a rear retention system that keeps the helmet from rocking forward and backward on the head. My other current helmet is the Giro Xen, so I will compare it to that. Continue reading ‘Fox Flux MTB Helmet’