Mtn. Biking Video

by Erik Olsen on

As someone who has always been interested in videography and
photography, for me to see the emergence of fresh voices in these media
on the Web has been a welcome experience. It took a long time to get here, but I think we’ve arrived. With cheap
camcorders readily available and broadband penetration basically mainstream, you can now find a lot of great video
content online.

So for mountain biking fans, I thought I’d post a link
to some great video. Most of it is available in QuickTime, easily my player of choice, and it is all quite good,
very professionally produced, yet guaranteed to get your heart pumping, even if you are, at this moment, a desk jockey.
Some of the single-track scenes in this video
featuring Brent Floyd are inspiring. I was trying to figure out where it was shot. Anyone know?

Motorcycle Adventures

by Erik Olsen on

Carla King has been taking her motorcycle to various spots around the globe
and filing dispatches about her journeys. Her most recent moto-dispatches come from Europe, where
she spent a week or so circumnavigating the Adriatic Sea on a Moto Guzzi Breva 750. She’s currently in Greece, enjoying
salty breezes and grape leaves.

King is a pretty good writer and even if she wasn’t, well, you have to admit that you’d want to check out the site,
because there is something immensely cool about riding around Greece on a motorcycle.

I have to say the whole see the world on a motorcycle thing has become tres hip.
Obi Wan Kenobi made headlines with his recent ride around
the globe, and apparently is planning several new trips, flush with cash from the success of Sith. But where will he go
next? And will the Force be with him?

Weblogs Inc. Greatest Hits

by Erik Olsen on

Howdy folks, as you may—or may not—know, the blog you are now reading belongs to the Weblogs, Inc. Network
(WIN).

The Weblogs, Inc. network features over 80 independent, unfiltered bloggers producing over 1,000 blog posts a week
across 75 industry leading blogs that include Engadget, Autoblog, and TVSquad. We figured we would skim the cream and
give you some of the top posts from a number of these sites—as determined by our bloggers—in one easy to read post each
week.

Tons of linkage after the jump… enjoy!

Engadget has Creative Zen Vision about Microsoft “breaking some new
ground” with a… Battlebot (?!) walking around with Sony Ericsson’s new
W600 Walkman Phone
and chatting up how the Nintendo Revolution won’t support HD.

AdJab covers AutoTrader’s attacks, on
Heinz one-liners,
marooned on Gilligan’s
Island and then

asks what
ads do you love?

Autoblog speaks of
face lifts, how easy it is to be
?green? over a
Bugatti Veyron on eBay, and brings us back down with Flint?s
Buick deathwatch.

Blogging Baby reports on
Viagra for kids, why an OB resigned
over c-section quotas, a catchy new
Backyardigans CD you?ll be humming to yourselves for
weeks, and how men
are using their nipples? Whoa.

Cinematical watches Humphrey Bogart
chew scenery, then casts a
hypothetical
Simpsons movie, while handing out screening passes to
wannabe rappers, and
wonders: did the maid kill
Marlon
Brando?
 

DIVESTER covers
tankless scuba, to observe
intrauterine cannibalism, and
dolphins using tools while a
Great White Shark attacks…
Wow.

Over at
Gadling they are grooving on
Pink Floyd and really
into their newest podcast Quit Your Job.

LUXIST waxes on about
Rick Schroeder?s $29
Million Ranch, Lenny
Kravitz?s Phantom for sale on eBay, while ?Cigar Jack? reviews the
Domaine Avo 50 Cigar.

TV Squad
live blogs The Jackson verdict,
catches the ?flickr-ization? of Futurama
title cards, tells us about some new DVDS,
The Daily Show, and
summer reality shows.

TUAW discusses the possibility of
O

Pedaling Spain

by Erik Olsen on


Several years ago when I was living in Madrid I remember taking a car trip out to the countryside and remarking to a
friend how cool it would be to take a long bike ride along Spain’s country roads. The Spanish countryside is a
beautiful sprawl of gaping fields dotted occasionally with magnificent castles. And then you come upon these little
Spanish towns where it sometimes seems things haven’t changed for 100 years.

Well, the New York Times travel section

had a piece this Sunday about biking in Spain that picked up on the concept. They recommend biking in a few places
like Girona, about an hour’s drive northeast of Barcelona, and the place that Lance Armstrong (mentioned in
another entry today) turned into his training base back in
2001.

The allure if Spain is simple. it is beautiful, but the terrain is also very inviting for bikers. There are trails
leading into the foothills of the Pyrenees to the west and the beaches of the Costa Brava reside to the east. And while
the professionals have made it their own biking haven, there’s no reason you can’t suit up and get out there
too.

Outside Tour de France Issue

by Erik Olsen on

Lance fans unite. Outside’s July issue is dedicated entirely to the Tour de France and to a man they call on their cover the world’s greatest living athlete: Lance Armstrong. Sadly, there are not many articles yet online, but if you’re like me, you’re a subscriber and are beginning to devour this delicious issue.

The coming Tour de France as most people, and ALL Lance-fans know, will be Lance’s last. He has said so publicly. What he will do after he retires is anyone’s guess, but perhaps he will settle down with Sheryl and make more little Lances. This Tour is Armstrong’s seventh bid at a seventh consecutive Tour de France title, and if he wins, he may just be considered the best athlete in the universe.