Crazy pedals

Obsessed with having a low pedal stack height? then these Vista pedals may be for you. By moving the bearings out from underneath your foot and putting them directly next to the crank, the pedals platform can drop down low enough to set your foot up level with the pivot point of your crank, instead of slightly above as with standard pedals. Moving the bearings to the side of your foot though does have the potently unwanted consequence of increasing your Q factor, which is why vista also sells an integrated crankest where the bearing is housed inside of the crank arm to allow for smaller Q factor. Lowering your stack height with Vista also allows you to lower your seat post 15 to 20 mm which can increase your aerodynamics allowing for easer drafting or faster time trials. They are also pretty light Magic X pictured below is about 120g. It's definitely an interesting idea, if it starts catching on I wouldn't be surprised to see Look or Time do something similar with their pedals.

While the US falls deeper and deeper into debt, home are being foreclosed by the thousands, and oil price hitting record highs at about 103 dollars a barrel. Places like Duabi in the United Arab Emirates are literal building new islands and creating cities on them like this.


wikipedia has this to say about the United Arab Emirates economy

"The United Arab Emirates has a highly industrialized economy that makes the country one of the most developed in the world, based on various socioeconomic indicators such as GDP per capita, energy consumption per capita, and the Human Development Index.

The GDP per capita is currently the 5th in the world and 3rd in the Middle East after Qatar and Kuwait as measured by the CIA World Factbook, or the 17th in the world as measured by the International Monetary Fund; while at $168 billion in 2006, with a small population of 4 million, the GDP of the UAE ranks second in the CCASG (after Saudi Arabia), third in the Middle East — North Africa (MENA) region (after Saudi Arabia and Iran), and 38th in the world (ahead of Malaysia)."

While Duabi may be rapidly constructing the facade of a 21st century Modern western city which is a destination for international tourism there are many elements of the society still remain arcane and backwards. Homosexuality is considered a crime which is punishable by prison time and mandated psycho therapy.

Fire breathing alpaca of the Apocalypse

ever since reading todays post on BSNYC and contemplating the acquisition of the Cinelli Vigorelli frame which has recently become available for purchases I have been tormented by images of this abomination.

Photos & Paintings

Some pieces from my portfolio: