Composer and sound designer Johnny Random transformed his bicycle into a musical instrument: created without the additional use of synthesizers, samplers, or drum machines, Bespoken by Johnny Random was inspired by childhood memories of riding bicycles and placing cards between the spokes to hear them in the wind. But it is much more sophisticated than that: Johnny Random utilized a violin bow and other music accessories to achieve some of the unique sounds produced.
The American team Garmin-Sharp and the Russian team Katusha have unveiled their new kits for the upcoming 2014 season.
Breadwinner Cycles is a framebuilder shop from Portland, Oregon, US. They have manufactured a special frameset, Breadwinner Lolo for Campagnolo’s electronic groupset Super Record EPS.
One of the bikes that Graeme Obree “the Flying Scotsman” used in his world hour record bid in 1993 in Hamar, Norway has been sold on eBay for £10,000 by his former manager, Vic Haines.
Obree attacked Francesco Moser’s record, on 16 July 1993, at the Vikingskipet velodrome in Norway, using the bike Haines had built for him, a replica of Old Faithful built by London bike shop Shorter Rochford with aerodynamic carbon fairings added by famous engineer and frame designer Mike Burrows. He failed by nearly a kilometer.
Team Mulebar Girl is a UK-based women’s cycling team. They will ride on Cannondale Evo bikes in 2014.
Current UCI World Champion Rui Costa is the new member of the Italian team Lampre-Merida. The Portuguese will wear the rainbow jersey this year, except time trials, and ride a Merida Reacto EVO Team, in custom-made rainbow colors.
Today’s quote is from Tyler Hamilton. Hamilton was a teammate of banned cyclist Lance Armstrong during 1999, 2000, and 2001 Tour de France where Armstrong won the Yellow jersey. He is the only American rider to win one of the Five Monuments of Cycling (Liège-Bastogne-Liège in 2003). Unfortunately, he was doping when he won the race, like the vast majority of the pro peloton, in the “dark ages of cycling”.
But after reading his book, The Secret Race, I am convinced that Hamilton is a good guy. You can also read the comments about the book on amazon.
Lotto-Belisol 2014 jersey has a retro look, and it is red and white in color. The Belgian team revealed the new kit on their website and stated that “With ten riders leaving and nine newcomers the team will be partly different in the upcoming cycling year. That’s why there was chosen for a restyling of the shirt and the team will have a new look!”
Dutch team Belkin’s (former Rabobank) new bike sponsor is Bianchi, for two years. Here is the first look at Team Belkin’s Bianchi Oltre XR.2 and Infinito CV.
Here’s the quote of the day by Eddy Merckx: “In cycling, being sure of yourself is an almost inevitable guarantee of not winning.”