Sorry for the lack of any development on CIM lately, I am so, so busy getting my first iPhone app shipped.

Good food = good body = good mind.

You can’t go smashing epic French rides out without epic food.

Good food is key to being a happy little vegemite (read more here about what can happen if you don’t eat well). I wrote a post about the most excellent custom protein bar/shake company YouBar here (including a 10% discount for Shredquesters) and today I am bringing you Kapai Puku.

Kapai Puku is basically bird seed with some raisins. Don’t believe me? Let’s see, the ingredients say: “buckwheat, sunflower kernels, raisins, sesame seeds, linseed, millet seed, pumpkin seed, poppyseed, rice bran, puffed aramanth, almonds.” Everyone laughs at me over their big Coco Pops guts. Who’s laughing now!

Here’s the deal with Kapai Puku. It’s epic. Epicly healthy. I eat it every day. Blows nearly every other cereal out of the water.

I think Western society has become a great big sugar addict and we need to return to eating like this.

Since I started eating Kapai for my cereal, I’ve dropped weight, and feel WAY better digestively.

It’s Australian made, and about $34 for 2kg. You don’t need a lot of it (a handful is heaps), and can easily add some more nuts and banana to it.

Get onto it and buy it here.

PS: the only food radder than Kapai is avocado and banana.

Get it!

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Things have been a bit lax here of late, and any new visitors probably arrive and say “what the hell is this site?” I’ve noticed a few people registering, which is awesome, so I thought I should share some information on what’s coming up.

To be honest, this site has had none of my attention lately, as I’ve been super focused on getting wherespresso.com done. Wherespresso is undergoing a major facelift and functionality improvement in the submission form, so it’s necessarily taken priority so I can get some other stuff to do with that site done (iPhone app).

Additionally, I’ve had some coders working in the backend to deliver the widget that shows you information on the ride planner around distance and calories. This is a nice step forward, but I’m far from finished.

Here’s a list of features that are currently being implemented.

• Ability to add water, coffee, rest or other stops/markers to the ride.
• Addition of elevation profile to each ride plan, so you can see what you’re getting yourself in for.
• Addition of height, weight, age, gender & fitness level into the user registration form. This will then allow the calorie/distance widget to grab this data from your profile (if logged in) and pre-populate the fields. This way, when you plan rides, and are logged in, you’ll only need to plan your ride, enter the MET rating (which is basically equivalent to how fast you’ll be going, more on this later).
• Ability to make your ride public – this will essentially send the ride to a special “feed” on the site, which will list all public rides. This lets people following in your footsteps check out cool rides and copy them.
• The ability to log a ride as “done”. This will allow you to build a record of what activity you’ve done.
• Ability to export your ride to different formats for iPhone and so on, and the ability to import rides.
• iPhone app that will grab rides directly from your account online so you can follow and log them on the road, and then upload your performance later (perhaps from a Garmin or Polar file?).

As you can see, a lot is planned. Whilst I realise not many beginners will need the ability to export to phone, import from phone/watch etc, it’s a handy functionality set that I can add, that I myself would definitely use. In any case, this might turn into something much bigger than just a tool for beginners, who knows.

But, for now, my aim is to give you a tool which allows you to plan rides, print them out, and log what you’re doing, so you can see the effect of your hard work.

Stay tuned!

Tim M

If you’ve got any ideas on how to improve this, or any features you want us to think about, put them in the comments below!.

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I am a big Bonsoy fan. I think their soy milk absolutely blows their competitors out of the water in terms of taste and texture in coffee. It doesn’t impart an overt soy flavour to the coffee, rather, it sits in the background and just adds substance.

Bonsoy’s superiority is obviated by its use by most serious coffee places.

So, it is with great sadness that I need to alert you all that Bonsoy has been recalled due to excessive iodine levels (from the seaweed concentrate). The amount of iodine present in the quantity of Bonsoy in even a small latte is around 10x the daily limit.

You need to take this very seriously, as excessive iodine can cause thyroid problems. My friend Matt has had troubles with his thyroid for a while now (affecting his heart) and they had been unable to pinpoint it until now. His doctors now suspect Bonsoy had a lot to do with this.

I also have had some lethargy and energy problems (especially in cycling races and training and running), and it now appears Bonsoy had something to do with this (as well as a virus).

Sadly, there is no replacement for Bonsoy that is of a similar quality. I’ve just spent 2 weeks trying Vitasoy, SoGood and Coles Soy. All are woeful replacements. I’ve tried skinny and full cream coffees, but of course, that burnt-fat milk taste is a taste killer.

As soon as I hear more about release of Bonsoy without the seaweed, I’ll let you know.

Read more here or on the Bonsoy website.

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Ah, the fun part! The array of choices and configurations on bikes is dazzling, so your best bet is to follow my advice below. It’s based on what I went through.

Part of me starting this site was in response to the numerous questions I get from friends asking what type of bike they should buy.

Your bike choice is largely governed by how much you can afford to spend, and what type of riding you are going to do. It’s also brand-based; many of us have a loyalty to one brand (for me, it’s Specialized, Wilier and Time, yes, I’m a bike wh0re!).

Most people when they’re looking to get a bike want to spend as little as possible, and that’s totally understandable. Be aware though, that as you move down the price scale, you certainly move down the quality and durability scale.

When people ask me what they should get for say $500, all I can honestly tell them is “I don’t know”. At that end of the market, you simply need to walk into a bike shop, and spend the money. At that end of the price scale, you will get something that gets you going, but, if you plan on riding regularly, will not last. Chances are it will be heavy with poor quality componentry.

As we move up in price from $500 to $750-1000, and 1000-1500, and beyond, we start exposing ourselves to a wider range of possibilities, but, for the purpose of this exercise, let’s stick to the price bracket of <$1000.

The other thing to consider is what type of bike; hybrid, road, mountain, flat-bar road, dual suspension. I honestly recommend you don’t even consider dual suspension unless you want to spend over $2500, at the lower end you just get a heavy bike with poor quality components.

Since your aim is to ride a lot, anything that is light with good rolling and momentum efficiency will allow you to ride longer for less effort, thus allowing you to enjoy yourself and burn calories.

We don’t need to worry about brake types, groupset (all the gears and so on), etc etc, we just need to work out what type of riding you want to do, and how much you can afford to spend.

Type:
1. Mainly bike paths, some road, and nothing else: fully rigid frame (no suspension) either mountain bike frame or flat bar road bike. Since we’re eliminating suspension from the bike, the quality of components is likely to be better than something that has front suspension. We can easily just look out for something with rim brakes [link to page with glossary of terms] too. No need for disc brakes. You’ll only need hybrid tyres too, since we’re not going off road. This type of bike is going to feel easy to ride and afford you a lot of time on the bike.

2. Bike paths, some easy/flat single track, hopping gutters: you want something with front suspension and you could go with either rim or disc brakes. At the lower end of the price scale, the disc brakes are going to be cable actuated (rather than hydraulic) and therefore not as good. The suspension will be poor-adequate, but, get you going.

Price versus Longevity

Ah, the next conundrum! How much to spend. A tricky question.
As we spend less, we decrease the longevity of the bike, and bring forward the time when we need to upgrade anyway. This particularly applies to anything you take off road and therefore subject to rough treatment.

If you’re a Type 1 rider and only hitting the bike paths or road, a rigid framed bike up to $750-1000 is going to be fine for ages.

If we’re looking at a mountain bike, we need to be more discerning, if longevity is a consideration.

When I got my first mountain bike, I prevaricated over spending $500. My mate begged me to spend $1000, telling me I’d get a much better bike. I didn’t listen, but he was right. In 6 months I’d spent another $1000 on an Avanti. Had I just spent $1000 or even $1500 up front, I’d have a much longer lasting and better quality bike.

So it’s up to you. Less money now and another bike soon, or more money now, and less money later.

1. Price point: $500-$1000, for bang for buck you want to look at Giant, Avanti and Jamis. There are loads of other brands but I have focussed on these. Avanti in particular usually do a reasonably priced bike with good components. You’ll get a decent rigid framed bike in this range, but anything with suspension will be of lesser quality.

2. Price points: $1000-$1500; at this level we can look at Scott and Specialized flat bar road bikes, and a Specialized, Giant, Jamis or Avanti mountain bike.

Remember, it’s not until you start spending upwards of $2000 that you can start really lightening your bike and getting something kick butt.

Seeing as most people at that level have been riding for a while, and this site is largely for beginners, we can look to spend between $500-1000 and get a rigid mountain or hybrid bike with no suspension, or a flat bar road bike (lots of efficiency and light) or a front suspension mountain bike.

Like I said, walk into a shop, with a rough idea of what you want, and tell them your price limit.

Helmet:
You’ll also need a helmet. My personal preference is a Specialized Decibel. DO NOT skimp on a helmet. Get something by Giro, Specialized, Catlike etc. There’s a lot around, so get something you can afford and that is light.

Just to get going, you don’t need much beyond the bike and helmet, but some handy extras include:

Gloves
Tyre Levers
A tube or two
Hand pump

I highly recommend you grab some tyre levers, a couple of tubes and compact pump in case you have a flat. Check out this video of how to change a flat tyre before you ride [link].

YOu can just use whatever sunglasses you have, and as for clothes, I’d recommend getting some padded shorts. Plenty of shops have plain black mountain biking shorts with padded lining. Get them. Your bum is going to hurt – it will toughen up for sure, and quickly, but the padded shorts make it all easier.

OTHER CONSIDERATIONS
I’ve had a couple of good questions about scaling the bike purchase, from someone who is pretty fit already (he runs marathons), and he wants to add a bike to his arsenal. I hadn’t considered this person, so I’ll address this below.

Q1/ Should i spend more on one bike that fits all my needs or buy a
separate ‘commuting’ bike?

This is a great question and largely depends on your budget and how much riding you’re going to be doing. I think to get started, a commuting type bike (either a hybrid, flat bar road bike or proper road bike) is a good start. If you plan on getting more serious and doing some mountain biking or racing, then it’s going to be inevitable that you need to buy more than one bike.

As a start just to get some fitness, I really think a rigid framed bike of any sort (hybrid, flat bar road bike) is a perfect start.

Q2/ I don’t like buying twice, what’s the best way to aportion my money
so that my purchase scales?

This is another good question and depends on the type of riding you’re doing to be doing. As I discuss above, if you only plan on doing one type of riding (road, bike paths) or mountain, you only need one bike, and you should spend as much as your budget allows.

I find what happens is you start with one type of riding and can be drawn to another, either outright, or as an addition, i.e. I mountain bike every now and then (races, recreational) and ride seriously on the road (train, race, commute).

Oh, and don’t forget if you subscribe to the 10 week beginner list (free), there are a bunch of discounts etc in it.

Have fun and feel free to ask any questions below or add your own thoughts – these are just mine as how I see things.

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Ok, we need two individuals as test cases for our website.  You can qualify as follows.

Person 1: you are already pretty fit, but don’t cycle.  You want to start cycling, either for fun/leisure/fitness, or a bit more seriously.

Person 2: you are totally unfit, don’t cycle, don’t run. Probably don’t do much. You desperately want to get fit, but don’t know where to start.  Riding a bike sounds great, but, you don’t know what to buy, where to buy, where to ride and so on.

If this sounds like you, email us from using the form below.
[contact-form 1 "Contact form 1"]

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