Good morning, a few days ago, I woke up with an idea to utilize the new site. The idea I had was a fantasy cycling application.
Now, there are plenty of freely available fantasy cycling apps around but I have a few ideas to make ours different. However, I won’t release these just yet. Right now, I’m looking for feedback on the application. I know most of you will use fantasy cycling leagues already, so my first question is what do you look for in a league? My second question would be whether you prefer to predict winners or choose a team? Finally, just the grand tours or everything? Please submit answers to these questions or add any feedback on the subject in a comment on this post, it’d be greatly appreciated.
The second feature was suggested by Minus one moose. On the new website, we will add a ‘readers rides’ feature which will be a place for everyone who reads the blog to showcase their own bikes and new kit. If you’d like to submit photo’s and be a part of this, add a comment and include information and pictures. This feature won’t be available until after we transfer to the new website, so there’s time to submit yet!
Just as a quick note on the transfer, it will take place this week, either tomorrow or throughout the weekend. Thanks for your patience.
The Veho Muvi is one of the smallest helmet cameras on the market. It costs £69.99 from Evans here, which includes the extreme sports pack which contains several useful mounts, should you want to mount them to helmets etc. If you shop around, you may be able to find it cheaper but I recommend buying from Evans since their service is top notch. (Nottingham store anyway). There are also alot of clones of the Veho Muvi in the market, mostly from eBay. After reading several comments about the clones, it seems as the quality is not quite as good audio and visual wise, and the life time is much shorter, and you have no warranty.
Muvi Camera sizes
As you can see from the image above, the camera is quite compact. It’s very easy to mount it onto anywhere on yourself, or your bike. There are several mounts which allow you to either mount it to your helmet, handlebars, forks, armband or anywhere you can think off. I’ve even put it on my seatpost using some simple selotape and the results were quite good. You can mount it to your handlebars, just by using some elastic bands around the bars+camera, and I quite like that position. I didn’t like it mounted on my helmet, because the only way I could mount it was to put it in the middle of my helmet, making me look like a Dalek.
The camera comes with a 2GB micro SD card, which is enough to film around 3 hours of footage. The battery lasts about this long aswell in my experience, but other users quote different results. Charging is done via USB cables, which are provided in the kit. It shoots 30 frames per seconds, in 640×480 resolution, so good enough to capture action whilst cycling.
There are 3 buttons/switches on the main camera body, which allow simple operation. There is an option to record whenever the camera hears a sound over 65 decibels, perfect for all those stalking reasons ;). The other switch is just a simple power on/off switch. To record, you just simply press the button on the top of the camera when it’s turned on. You will be able to operate this whilst wearing gloves.
Below is some footage, one daytime and one night-time.
Daytime
See video above.
Night-Time
There have been some problems though. For one, is that about 9 months into having the camera, the recording button broke. I took it back to Evans, who were superb, and they got a replacement from Veho for me. One of the screws which hold the camera together also fell out when going over a bump, but after contacting Veho, they sent me a replacement FOC. Excellent customer service from them aswell. The final problem is the standard mounts. They have a tendany to crack off in the corners. This has happened to everyone of my mounts, but they still function with 2/3 of the clips.
A month in to our blog, and everything is going amazingly well. We have had around 5,500 views. On one day, we had just about 500 views! We have had 47 comments and we have 20 e-mail subscribers. That also doesn’t count the amount of people who have bookmarked the site, or are following us on Facebook or Twitter. We have had amazing support from forums where we have posted links. Especially BikeRadar and CyclingForums.
As we’ve said before, we really weren’t expecting these amount of views and comments. We would like to thank you all once again.
We were able to run a competition a few weeks ago. The two lucky winners of the vouchers have been given their vouchers, and both have spent them. Ryan spent his towards some DHB arm warmers to get ready for the winter, and Gaz put his towards some Knog Lights. If you have not received your stickers if you requested them, please e-mail us again at velostage@gmail.com.
We are going to be hosting our own blog within the next few days. This will allow us to provide more content, and hopefully better quality in the long run. There will be a few minor changes to the layout and design of the blog, but nothing major. The WordPress URL will automatically re-direct you to the new site anyway, but our new URL is much easier to type in. We will transfer everything over in the next few days. The new site will contain a chat-room, so you can all pop in and say hi and talk about anything with us, should you want to. We will be able to use alot of plugins, which we can’t use at the moment, to make the site better for all users.
I would also like to say that anyone who is subscribed to us via e-mail, could you please click the confirmation link that you will be sent after we have finally gone over to our new site. That is all that is required for you to do, nothing else. That way, you will still get updates on when we post a new post ect.
Hi guys, Adam here, just a quick note on the transfer. If the site is at all down once we’ve moved then I’ve probably messed something up and had to close it for a while so I can sort the issue. If this is the case then just try and access the site again in an hour and we should be back. To finish, just a personal thankyou to everyone who has commented, rated and subscribed to us over the past month, we didn’t expect any thing near the reception we’ve had and we’re going to boost the amount and quality of content that we’re producing to suit. 🙂
One of the most frequently asked questions on cycling forums, and even new cyclists asking you in person is “What shall I take on a bike ride” Below is a picture of all my gear which I take on every ride.
Gear
Bottles – Depending upon length of ride, either one or two. I use orange squash all the time. Gels – Depending upon length of ride, I use a gel or two. I sometimes take some jelly babies to give myself an energy boost.
Pump – Goes without say really. Top-peak pocket rocket. Able to get up to a rideable pressure. Spare inner tube – Again, goes with out saying. Any tube the right size will do. Puncture Repair kit – This is getting to obvious isn’t it? In case of two punctures, I can just repair one and ride on. Tyre Levers – To get tyres off obviously :P. I have cheap park tools ones. Multi-tool – A free one which came with my bike. Got allen keys and a cross-head screwdriver. Sutible for tightening bolts which have come loose mid-ride or a quick adjustment to your gears if they mess up.
Credit Card – Should I need anything from a shop, I use this. I usually take some cash with me aswell. Bus card – My local buses allow cycles on them if the bus is not busy. So if the bike becomes un-rideable, I can just get the bus home. Phone – Cheap phone, should I fall off dosn’t matter about damaging it. No pin on it in-case of emergency where someone else needs to use my phone to contact my parents. Keys – To get into my house duh 🙂
One thing I do need to add to my kit is a chain quicklink and a multitool with a chainbreaker. I don’t fancy being stuck in the middle of no-where with a broken chain.
Any items which you want to add, just comment below.
-Ant.
PS. We are going to be hosting the site ourselves within the next week, so you may notice a few little changes here and there for the layout. Don’t worry though, you will still be able to access the new site from this url. E-mail subscriptions will also still be sent.
I just got a spasm in my finger, and it made me remember the the most painful thing that had ever been caused by cycling.
I have been hit off my bike, ended up in theater and hospital for 4 days. I have ridden 70+ miles with horrible saddle sore. I have had the nose of the saddle pretty much all the way up my ass after a seatpin breakage. But none of those are as bad as the following.
I was pushing for a new 10 mile TT PB. Going hard, at the 2 mile point I was on track to beat my PB by 30 or so seconds. There was a small incline, so I got out of the saddle, and as soon as I did my left calf got a horrible spasm in it. I got a massive wobble but didn’t come off. I stopped as soon as I could, and then just laid down on the grass verge. I couldn’t bend my knee, or move my foot. I laid there for ~5 mins trying to get rid of it. I rubbed it, squeezed it and even hit it. Nothing stopped it. I had about 5 mins of pain, laying down at the side of a quiet country road. As soon as it had gone, I did some stretches then got on my bike to take it slowly back home.
I was on a little training ride just after a heavy raining session, and I see this ;). It’s the first one I have seen in my life, so had to take a picture.
When I watch racing, I choose not to get involved in the dark side of our glorious sport. This sport that is steeped in tradition, unwritten rules and etiquette that only those involved in the sport in some way understand. They’re not hard rules and they’re not there to make anyone’s life difficult but rather to ensure that our sport remains the way it is meant to be.
Performance enhancing drugs are fast becoming what pro cycling is known for in the public view and there is increasing evidence that drugs are affecting the sport. There are many scandals out there, that I personally don’t want to give the publicity to. But that’s not the point I’m making. Drugs are even affecting those teams with a zero tolerance policy to drugs and drugs testing. I’m talking about HTC Highroad. It was announced earlier this year that the team itself was closing shop and riders were to find new homes. Just this week, the team exercised their zero tolerance policy when Alex Rasmusen was fired from the team after missing a drugs test.
Now, I don’t normally pay attention to any doping stories but when I saw this story, it spoke in volumes to me. How can a team with an anti doping policy like HTC Highroad’s go down after three years, and collecting the most wins of any team in the pro peloton, lose their main sponsor? Either the sponsor clearly has had enough and doesn’t think there is any more gain from the sponsorship or they don’t want any bad publicity from being involved in what is perceived as the dirtiest sport in the world. Now, this was only the start of things that told me that I couldn’t stick my head in the sand any longer and just ignore the problem and enjoy the racing.
A few months ago, I was sitting in a lesson when I got a complaint in my chest. While I was sat in the doctors answering questions for a diagnosis, I mentioned my cycling. Further questions were asked about what I’d done recently etc. Then there was a question that really struck me. I was surprised an amateur racer in cat. 4 could be asked this so seriously. The question was “Have you taken performance enhancers?” This, coupled with the news of HTC made me realise that something really does need to be done about the problem of drugs in our sacred sport. Now, the sport is a lot cleaner than it has been in it’s past but when it effects the sport in such a negative way, no amount of solo attacks on the cobbles of roubaix, mountain attacks in the heat of the moment and long sunny runs through sunflowers at the greatest bike race in the world can continue to mask the noble sport of road cycling.
