2012 How to Rent your Bike for Defcon 20 @Cycleoverride Bike ride

Update: You can either meet us a McGhies or we’ll be trying to find some drivers to leave from the valet area around 5:30am.

Update 2: for TShirt/Jersey info click here.

Hello Hackers and OverRiders! Welcome back to the 2nd Annual #Hacktheheat Defcon Bike ride.

The date of this years bike ride is July 26, 2012, at 6am. We will meet outside the Rio at 5:30am by the valet.

Registration is here. This is just so we can get a count and capture if you want a tshirt or bike jersey. It will also give us your email so we can blast out any details needed pre ride, or at 5:25am on July 26th 🙂

Here’s the deal – we have partnered again with McGhies Bike Shop in Las Vegas for our ride. Yes – they will throw your clipless pedals and seat posts on if you insist. They have 3 levels of road bikes:  a ~$40 Cannondale Synapse,  and a ~$100 Lance Armstrong starter kit road bike (think Madone.)  There’s also a $125 level also.

Bike rental is first come first serve! — there are about 18 $40  male road bikes and 5 female — after that it’s a hybrid or a $100 bike.  You can always ship out your bike for about $130 also on some airlines!

Here’s what YOU have to do:

You need to go here and reserve your ride. You will need to pay with a credit card. You should note anything special here and you should indicate you are reserving for the Defcon Bike Ride.

Here is what you should put in the comment box: (your own specs of course)

“Defcon Bike Ride

Size: 54 cm – will bring my own pedals

Need bike at 6am”

And for pick up:

Please select pickup at store – Las Vegas

Use this chart based on your height and inseam to figure out your size and fill the comment box out accordingly:

From mcghies.com

You alone are solely responsible for your bike reservation. McGhies is aware that we are running this event and will support us, but it’s on you to make sure you are all set with a bike.

THE ROUTE

NOTE: This ride may be at a higher altitude than you are used to. (2600-3800 ft)

OK — last piece the route — you can see the route here. This is the same route as last year. Basically the route is slightly uphill out – and mostly downhill back. It’s looking like we’ll have a car heading up the back. There may be a bigger loop for those interested – we’ll let you know soon (basically taking the scenic loop around and catching up w/the group on your way back) – but it will likely be unofficial.

We are looking for sponsors so let us know if you are aware of anyone interested in throwing in some schwag or some cash to help support this ride.

What do I do next?

Once you reserve your bike — all you have to do is wait Defcon next month! Oh and keep riding!

Cheers!

The Cycle Override Team

PS if you have any questions — leave a comment so everyone can see the answer!

 

Dates for Hack the East and 2nd Defcon Bike Ride

So we have our window for Hack the East! August 5-25th. We are looking at a ride from Baltimore up the east coast towards Boston. No exact route yet, but we will hone in on one soon. Bruce and I have some ideas for some really nice summer riding along the Atlantic, maybe even straight through NYC! Keep an eye here for more updates as things get closer!

Finally on July 26 we will have the 2nd Defcon Bike Ride! Hope to see you there and enjoy Shmoocon!

Where are my Proform Tour de France Trainer Shifters?

Well ever since Bruce posted his review of the Proform TdF trainer we’ve had a bunch of comments about the Shifters. Since I have gotten my trainer a few weeks ago I have been through a series of events that lead me to believe not every revision of the TdF trainer has these shifters. Let me say — I am pretty happy with this purchase. The only complaint I have is that it’s not obvious on the website that some training plans are for running, and I did my first 2 workouts to a running workout — and I was wondering why I was at 20% grade for 3/4 mile. (Treadmill workout) That – and you need a fan in front of it.

So my bike arrived in good shape and on the last piece I put on (Left pedal) I stripped the threads. I also managed to push the headphone jack into the computer and didn’t (at the time) realize you could access the computer from the back.

When I went to the customer service site I looked up Model PFEX01311.2. This search returned these results:


This leads me to believe that there have been at least 3 “versions” of the 2011 TdF bike. Seems like the shifters, the packing strategy, as well as the offer with a free heart rate monitor and mat are newer features.

Below are some pictures of the shifters and the heart rate monitor that works with my model (heart rate monitor is a Polar T31.)

I hope this helps some of our readers who have been asking what they look like.

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Left Shifter (front crank)
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Right Shifter (Cassette)
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Polar T31 Heart Rate Monitor (sorry it's flipped)
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Pic of Console

Review – ProForm Tour de France Stationary Bike

If you watched the Tour this year, you couldn’t help but notice the ads for the ProForm TDF bike.  It inclines and declines up to 20%.  You can plot your own routes on Google Maps and download them to the bike or ride preset routes like each Tour stage from 2011.  It adjusts resistance to simulate wind speed based on your size.  It slices, dices, and overall looks pretty damn sexy.

The initial geek in my wanted to reach for the phone and order one straight away.  The little pragmatist in me (yes, there is one… just not very loud) said I should hold off until all the bugs were shaken out and I could see some reviews.  Even now, the reviews on this bike are few and far between.  There’s reviews on ProForm’s site, which arguably may be a bit biased.  There are some write-ups from ppl with early version problems. and only one or two comprehensive reviews… So I’m writing this one.