Flat Tyre

Pacific Bicycle Company is one of the largest Bicycle Conglomerates in the world. Some of its brands include, Schwinn, Mongoose, GT, Pacific, and NOW potentially Cannondale.  Cannondale, compared to Pacific's other brands is a high end bicycle company with made in the USA tradition and a strong racing history. This is similar to when Pacific bought Schwinn and GT in the late nineties since their purchase, these companies have declined in quality and do not offer the range of bicycles they used to. The thing about Pacific is all of its brands before Cannondale were slowly outsourcing to Asia. Cannondale has a handful of models that are made in Taiwan, the rest of its line is made here in Pennsylvania. If Cannondale is successfully integrated into Pacific Cycles, will they start to outsource more of their bicycles? Its very likely more of Cannondale's line of bikes will be outsourced to Asia, reason being more of costs than influence by it's owner, but the ownership by Pacific, a Taiwanese based company, is not going to help keep the Cannondale brand in America. Since Pacific is now breaking into a higher end market by buying Cannondale, will they be on the verge of bicycle monopoly in the next few years? A monopoly implies having control of the majority of the market, in this case Pacific has a long way to go, but is it better to have all these bicycle brands under one ownership? Or is it better to have a bunch of smaller companies? Having lots of smaller companies will definitely promote innovation with new products. The only thing to do is to wait and see what happens....

It is now at least 6 hours since the snow has stopped, and my appartment complex has yet to clear the parking lot. My first question, is someone gonna have to fall and bust their head open before they start clearing it right away? AND Do they realize that many people ride bike and walk through our parking lot ? Clearing roads and parking lots in the borough isnever on top priority and I see people fall all the time. The one path of the pattee mall that goes from pollock road to the allen street gates is always clear, theres either pipes or a tunnel underneath it, but i don't understand why a similar thing couldn't be installed on the rest of the paths? Time can only telll.

CRBC The Centre Country Bicycle Coalition, announced the other day that State College Police will be cracking down on light use on bicycles. My question is, why all of a sudden? No laws have changed, cyclists have always had to use lights. But now they are cracking down, not a year ago, but now. Is there a level of cyclists injured because of lack of lights that make it more important now  to crack down on bicycles without lights. Is there a number of pissed off motorists before the Police decide, "O we should now start enforcing a law thats been around for years." What ethics does the government and police force run upon? And REMEMBER if you're riding in the dark, use lights!

V- Brakes or Cantilever Brakes? Not really a choice anymore for most, where most bicycle corporations have moved to V- Brakes, A stronger, safer brake that applies more brake force. You may ask... why is it stronger? well I'll explain; the distance from the brake post to the brake pad is the same on both types of brakes (A). The thing that makes the V-Brakes stronger is the longer moment arm (B) compared to that of a cantilever brake (C). The longer moment arm will take the same force that is inputed at the brake lever from your hand and the longer moment arm of the V-Brake will have a larger amount of force placed upon the rim. The move from cantilever brakes to v-brakes happened through the nineties due to there increased strength over cantilevers and in turn, there increased safety compared to cantilever brakes. So there you have it, why V-Brakes are better than cantilever brakes.

Commuting on a daily basis to class and to work by bicycle, creates an opportunity where one can critique parts of his bike daily.  As of late, here in state college we have been getting our fair share of snow and commuting in such white muck will make you realize how well your "All Terrain Tires" work in "all terrains". So from my experience over the last few weeks I have found that a narrower knobby tire works best in the snowy/icy conditions at a medium pressure. Contrary to what one might think, Wider mountain bike tires don't do very well in the snow because the float on top of the snow and actually provide more opportunity to slide, as where the skinnier tire actually digs or cuts through the snow or ice to actually  make contact with some asphalt. So, remember if you're commuting to class in the snow, make sure you've got a tire that goes into the snow, not on top of.
tires.bmp

On PSU's main campus, there are many "paths" that run between the main roads through the campus. These paths are not illegal to ride bikes on and are aimed more for walkers than anything else. On these paths are pedestrians aware that they should stay to the right or not take up the whole path with their friends? Not only for cyclists to ride by but so on coming foot traffic doesn't have to step off the "paths" and into the grass/snow/dirt? Not only on the paths is this a problem, but on parts of campus, roads are either closed or to the pedestrian's right of way and in these areas, bicycles can still ride through. In many cases I have seen pedestrians walk across the road or "path" and not look either way for traffic of any sort, whether it be a bike, another pedestrian or even a car. Walking is undoubtedly the most popular way around campus, but that does not mean pedestrians own everything they walk on.  In the case that there is a "walk" next to a road, cyclists SHOULD ride on the road and not the side walk, and pedestrians SHOULD NOT walk in the road. In the case of paths and closed roads and cross walks, pedestrians AND cyclists should be aware of their surroundings and be polite and stay to the right and not take up the whole path. Nothing is more annoying than trying to ride up and path on a bike to be blocked by four sorority girls walking four abreast across the path. Mainly, we should treat these paths as roads themselves where faster bicycles should be able to pass on the left and the slower traffic, the pedestrians should stay to the right and be aware whats going on around them. ciao.