If you’re still looking for the perfect gift for the mountain biker in your family, check out the BetterRide cycling camps. It’s the gift of mountain bike skills, a gift that lasts a lifetime.

Gene Hamilton founded BetterRide in 1998 to provide structured, professional mountain bike skills coaching to riders of all ages and experience levels. Gene is a licensed USA Cycling Expert Coach and has over 17 years of coaching experience including 11 years coaching mountain biking. His coaching highlights include coaching many top pro racers (Lynda Wallenfels, Chris Van Dine, Eli Krahenbuhl, Mitch Ropelato, Sarah Kaufman …) top junior experts (Ben Hulse, Naish Ulmer, Parker Worthington, …) and over a thousand passionate riders of all levels.

Camps are three days long and range in price from $499 to $699 depending on location and guest coaches. BetterRide’s spring 2010 schedule is available. More info at BetterRide.

“Teaser for the 2010 Men of Point 83 Calendar” by Sweendo. The 2010 Men of Point 83 calendar is available for only $10.00 – Preview the other months (click on “Yes, I’m Serious”) and order yours now here.

To see more Pics of the Day, click here, and to submit your own photo to be shown to the world, go here.

Founded in Manhattan in 2008, Bowery Lane Bicycles makes affordable bikes to meet the day to day needs of urban cyclists. They actively support urban cycling advocacy and the goal of reclaiming city streets for safe and sustainable transportation. They are a part of the 2% of bicycles in the USA that are actually MADE in the USA. Bicycles are welded, painted, assembled, packed and shipped all in Brooklyn, NY. No big assembly lines, no mass production, no robots. Just human American hands. The factory also has solar panels covering most of the roof, aiding their sustainable efforts.

The Dutch inspired Broncks Black (above) features a limited edition classic sprung leather saddle, sustainable cork handles, chain guard, fenders, kick stand, coaster brakes, rear rack and a locally hand crafted wooden crate that can easily carry a briefcase, grocery tote (or 2 six-packs of your favorite local brew…theirs is Brooklyn Lager). The Broncks Black is a clean and sophisticated bike.

More Images and Specs below…

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Outlier has made several articles of clothing designed for use on and off the bike. Check out their newest dress shirt, redesigned for what we do best; ride.

From Outlier: This is quite simply a better men’s dress shirt. We started out with a basic task, how could we make a shirt that moved better on a cyclists body, but we wound up with something a bit more subtle. A buttondown shirt cut to fit the body better and open up a range of motion constrained by traditional shirt construction. An experiment in form, the Outlier Pivot Sleeve Shirt.

The basic challenge was straightforward, when you lean forward on a bike a buttondown shirt stresses. It pulls uncomfortably taut across the shoulders. The sleeves pull up exposing your wrists to the cold, and the tails pull out of your pants, leaving you either untucked or with a blooming blouse of a shirt. Our solution is the patent-pending Pivot Sleeve, a completely reconstructed buttondown that retains the traditional look and feel of a dress shirt while working equally well both on and off the a bicycle.

Check out more Images, Info and Pricing for the Pivot dress shirt, as well as, the new OG khaki pants below…

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Cycle Component Network, CCN, is a new online market place to buy and sell bikes and parts “securely”. The new site will allow people to not only list an item for free, but negotiate online, agree on a price, and ship with integrated shipping.

For example, a buyer in New York can find an item for sale in England, pay for it and have it shipped to them, secure in the knowledge that FedEx are the ones picking up and delivering it. The seller accepts the offer, indicates when is suitable to collect, then simply prints the FedEx shipping label. CCN holds the payment in escrow until the buyer receives and accepts the delivered bike or part. The funds are then released to the seller. CCN coordinates and facilitates shipment which can be tracked online. This is all in a secure online global environment.

It will also offer event listings and registration processing. We haven’t used the site yet, but if you have, tell us what you think.

“day 13: tis the season to enjoy bikes” by mceric7.

To see more Pics of the Day, click here, and to submit your own photo to be shown to the world, go here.

Since the debuet of Rafael Hoffleit’s custom carbon triathlon bikes at this years  European Handmade Bicycle Exhibition, the r-008, r-009, and now the r-011 (above), have gotten in some serious ride time. Including the 2009 Challenge Barcelona and the 2009 Ironman Frankfort.

The new r-011 has an“integrated hydration and steering system, which allows the use of standard cable shifter systems totally hidden inside the stem and frame.” The “Fluid” hydration system is open at the top and can be refilled while riding. It is also easy removable for cleaning or for UCI races where the extended headtube fairing is not allowed.

More information on the r-011 and other Rafael models at Bicycle Design.

From BikeRadar:

British Cycling have named the first 50 “cycling heroes” to be inducted into their new Hall of Fame. They range from road, mountain bike and BMX racers to behind-the-scenes staff, coaches and managers, TV commentators and volunteers.

The famous names on the list include Olympian and hour record breaker Chris Boardman, Beryl Burton, who dominated women’s time trial racing for three decades, Britain’s first star downhiller Jason McRoy and former BMX world champion and 4X racer Dale Holmes.

In coming up with the shortlist, the Hall of Fame panel decided to recognise past achievements over current successes, so there’s no sight of any of Britain’s 2008 Olympics team or modern mountain biking stars like current world champion Steve Peat.

More information and full list below…

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By EDDIE PELLS (AP)

TELLURIDE, Colo. — The anger that used to be his constant companion comes and goes now, bubbling up in the starting gate when he needs something extra to push his 41-year-old body down the mountain.

Twenty years ago, that anger drove Shaun Palmer into a 24-7 obsession to be the best at everything — snowboard rider, mountain bike daredevil, businessman, punk rocker, partier.

A near-death experience, a bunch of bad breaks and plain old time have mellowed him. But he is still standing on the snowboard in that starting gate, trying to make the Olympics, ready to show that, yes, Shaun Palmer is still a factor in the sport he helped create.

“Young kids don’t even know who I am anymore, but I don’t care,” Palmer said. “I just really wanted to make the Olympics this year. That’s all I want to do.”

More on Palmer below…

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BIKERUMOR.com REVIEW: The PediGreen Spidey Mesh Helmet Cover is a super bright stretchy helmet cover for kids (and adults). It’s available in Neon Green, which is similar to the flourescent yellow-green used on school zone and crosswalk signs–which studies have shown is quick to catch drivers’ eyes. It’s also available in Hot Pink and Glo Orange. The lightweight stretchy mesh wraps around the full helmet including the visor, and is hightly visible even in bright daylight. And it seems to stay put, we haven’t had it pull up or come off once.

I tested it on my almost-five-year-old and he loved it. It’s cheap at just $10.00 and adds that extra little bit of visibility, which is great for kids–and the fact that they think it’s cool means they’ll keep it on their helmets. While I probably wouldn’t put one on my helmet, if you’re a mountainbiker headed out into the backcountry during hunting season, the Glo Orange one’s probably not a bad idea.

Check out more pics after the break…

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…and these guys are “hardcore” by fogindex.

To see more Pics of the Day, click here, and to submit your own photo to be shown to the world, go here.

We’ve been scooped on a 106 year old story! (You would think we would have had enough time). On a tip to DC two weeks ago, I toured the Smithsonian Institute’s Air and Space Museum. There I saw the Wright Flyer, read about Wright brothers, and learned about the greatest bike hack of all times: the invention of flying! The two brothers were bicycle builders who funded their early work through their bike shop, used bicycle parts and designs, and performed invaluable experiments on “angle of attack” (an aviation term for the angle of a wing with relation to direction of airflow), using a bicycle (see in the inset picture above). Yet before bringing this story to you, our beloved readers, the folks at Quickrelease.tv wrote THIS ARTICLE with excellent photos and information. Kudos Quickrelease.tv, kudos.

Definitely check it out. It makes a great bed time story, “Once upon a time, there were two brothers…”

Fun fact: One of the 5 bikes built by the Wright brothers known to still exist, the Saint Clair, is on display in the Wright Brothers exhibit at the Air and Space Museum.