Ted’s Video Roundup: Bikes on Amtrak, Zwift HQ tour, Powertap factory, and more

Welcome to the first Video Roundup of 2017! Since I missed a few weeks there are a lot of videos. I watched about 150 videos this week so we can show you the best.

First up is this video from Giant/Liv. I usually shy away from featuring a promo/marketing video, but this is low-key with beautiful footage.

Here’s some footage of cyclocross from 45 years ago. How cool! (thanks M.O.)

GCN’s weekly Q-and-A video is called Torqueback (get it?). This one is helpful, discussing winter topics including mudguards and snot.

Speaking of winter conditions, road.cc put up a video showing their wet and muddy Rapha Prestige ride in Staffordshire, England. It’s also a bike review.

There’s new Brumotti in the deserts of Dubai. It’s pretty much the opposite of the last few videos.

The Brits at GCN went to Zwift. In Long Beach. Huh, Long Beach isn’t exactly a tech hub. The Big Wheels seemed strange. (also: CX training mode)

Russ and Laura of Path Less Pedaled (PLP) cycled from SLO to bike-camp at Montaña de Oro:

PLP also went gravel grinding outside Ojai. It looks really pretty- and car-free.

Finally, PLP also risked Betteridge’s Law in this video, but ultimately what makes this video fun is how excited Russ is. (also: why you should use Amtrak in your bike touring, putting your bike on the Amtrak Surfliner, Topanga Creek Outpost bike shop tour, starting their Amtrak adventure, tips for taking your bike on Amtrak, SLO Bike Kitchen co-op shop tour)

Speaking of being a little nutty, GCN did a retro-training episode, remarking on how training was done 30 years ago.

The DJI Mavic Pro is (almost) a suitable drone for the solo cyclist. But is it good for a unicyclist? It doesn’t really matter, unicyclists are awkwardly funny to watch.

Speed wobbles can be wicked. Here are some tips to get out of them.

Di2 electronic shifting has made it to mountain bikes with some smart changes. Here’s a good overview:

For fans of “How It’s Made“, here’s a factory tour of the Powertap power meter manufacturing:

Road bikes are becoming much closer to ‘cross bikes. That leads to an obvious question:

They followed that up by comparing a CX bike to a MTB on a nice MTB trail:

Portland (PBOT) has at least one bluetooth sniffer set up on Broadway westbound at Williams. With two units on the same block, bicycle travel times can be discovered. It’s hard to do with normal inductive loops. This doesn’t really explain how the Bluetooth sniffer works but does explain how the data is used.

Candence is important and controversial. GCN did an anecdotal test to see what their most efficient cadences are:

Mountain bike frames have had such interesting evolution. Here’s a Top 10 list of mountain bikes:

This video shows MTB freeriding combined with .. I don’t know. Flow? Trials? Anyhow, it’s really beautiful with nice music. It’s a good “lean back and watch” video.

If you have become bored while riding, these tips are for you. Certainly local anti-walk/roll groups would love tip number four.

Honorable Mentions

This week’s honorable mentions: top 5 mountain bike excuses, slight downhill equals keeping up with motorized two-wheeled road users, MTB freeriding, 12 minutes on design of the new Cannondale CX bike, good race between cross-country and enduro bikes- with a 4kg weight difference, Tour of Sufferlandria announcement, GCN riding Haute Route, review/ridethrough of Pittsburgh’s Wheel Mill Indoor Bike Park and Fairdale Bikes rides Glacier NP.

Inclusion criteria: If I’ve missed something, post it in the comments! I prefer videos published in the last week or so. Note if there’s a specific point in a long video that is worth highlighting. Also note if there is colorful language. I will delay videos containing pro racing spoilers by 7 days.

– Ted Timmons, @tedder42 on Twitter

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