There are two main problems with bikes…well now that I think of it, lots of problems…but I’ll stick with two. Problem one is I’m lazy. I’m usually lazy because I don’t get enough sleep. I don’t get enough sleep because I stay up all night watching TV and writing gems like this. This, though, can be solved.

I have a nice bike; if anything were to happen to my bike, I’d be crushed. This leads me to the 2nd problem. It would be great to ride my bike to a shop for a quick item or something, but I’m insanely afraid of someone breaking my bike while it’s locked up on the street, or even worse stealing it. This has lead me to the idea of finding a cheap used bike. This way I wouldn’t need to worry (as much) about someone vandalizing it or stealing it. But me being attached to everything I buy (everything has sentimental value) I’d probably be crushed if anything would happen to el cheapo also.

But, this gives me a chance to get a different type of bike…a road bike. I could buy a road bike, convert it to a single speed (or fixie if I dare), and have some fun. How hard can it be to find a used road bike? With the amount of people that sit in front of TVs every chance they get, and everyone’s willingness to drive everywhere, it shouldn’t be too hard to find a cheap bike that isn’t being used, should it?

Sports I really enjoy watching include rugby, Formula 1 racing, and soccer/football/whatever you want to call it.

Soccer has become more common to see on TV in the U.S. thanks to the MLS. Most of the MLS games though are on cable channels, with ABC occasionally showing a game here and there. I have no problem with these games.

This year marked a first as Fox Sports took the plunge and showed the Champions League final. I thought it was terrific that such a big event was available to such a wide audience in the U.S. Sadly, not many people in the U.S. are familiar with the European clubs, which sadly Fox realized. Problems started in the pregame show with the commentators continuously pointing out how big the Champions League final match is. The commentators spent alot of time talking about how popular and great the players are. Thankfully soccer is popular enough that they didn’t feel the need to explain the rules of the game.

But it bothered the hell out of me listening the commentators bringing up how big the match was, how great the players were etc etc over and over. The majority of the audience were probably the big fans of the sport, and they already knew this. Fox knew that to make this work, they needed to get the people wondering what Champions League is all about, people that haven’t really ever paid attention to it. Once they tune in, the commentators had to remind these viewers how great it was so that the viewers kept watching.

This happens with Formula 1 racing also. SpeedTV carries the races in the U.S. and to be honest their coverage is great fun. Bob, Steve, and Dave are both know their stuff, and keep it funny at the same time. A car as a technical problem, Steve can give the viewers a pretty good guess as to what the problem is within a few seconds. If the team finds new parts on the cars (which happens throughout the season), the commentating team sees them and explains how it will make things better. They educate the viewer keeping in mind that the viewers already know the basics. They aren’t going to waste our time explaining why the steering wheel isn’t round…we know that already. They will tell us if Mercedes GP are running a longer wheel-base car, which is something F1 fans find interesting.

I bring F1 up now because this coming weekend is the Canadian GP and Fox is airing it. The SpeedTV commentator team will have the call, but it’s on Fox. Traditionally when F1 is on network TV, whether it be CBS (a few years ago) or Fox, they always dumb it down. Once again, trying explain what’s happening, give the viewer history of the sport, in the hopes of bringing in new fans. On the flip side, while chatting about the basics, it bores me to death, and I’m sure other regular F1 fans feel the same. I can only hope the same doesn’t happen this year, but it always has in the past, so I’m not betting on change.

Finally, I love rugby. I watch rugby online, I tune into Australian ABC radio to listen to NRL games, it’s great. This last weekend NBC decided to give rugby a try. They aired Rugby Sevens with college teams. I’m not familiar with Sevens other than the fact that they play with 7 players instead of the usual 15 and the games are much shorter. There were a few rules changes from what I’m used to, but picked up on them quickly, and I enjoyed the matches. But NBC hit a new low with their attempt to introduce the sport to new fans…new low for me anyways.

Rugby has positions like “prop”, “fly-half”, and “wing”…or “the flyer”. What was NBC’s way of describing them? Football. They actually used a graphic listing the football position equivalent like “quarterback” “running back”. Wow! Once again, to the majority of the audience watching, they probably liked that. Viewers that enjoy rugby already probably hated it, like me.

This whole thing leaves me between a rock and a hard place. On one side I’d love to see the sports I’ve grown to love get bigger in the U.S. and receive more coverage. On the other side, I don’t want to sit through games, matches, and races listening to commentators tell me the basics I already know. Part of me wishes network TV would give up on these sports and leave it to the specialty channels that know their audience to broadcast. (ah hem F1 races…Fox, give up…keep them on SpeedTV and let Steve, Dave, and Bob do their thing.)

I wonder if people in England have the same problem when it comes to NFL games that air there. Do the few die-hard fans have to sit through basic rules (the yellow flag means a penalty) and history (the Packers won the first two Super Bowls) the whole time? And if you don’t understand what I’m complaining about, aren’t you annoyed just a little bit that I told you what a penalty flag is and about the Packers’ SB I & II wins? You know that, I know that, but this is the bs the networks feel they need to point out with new sports. ugh.

Back as a kid I think I rode my bike everyday…or at least nearly everyday. I remember I had an old-styled red one. Finally I got a BMX bike…my black Huffy. That bike saw a bit of abuse in it’s days. I went through the freestyle mode with a Dyno Compe that was painted in brighter-than-the-sun orange with black bars. I rode it quite a bit, but never did learn much for tricks (bar spins were about all). I then wanted a mountain bike. I got a turquoise Murray that would probably be too big for me even now if I rode it today. At that time I had no idea about frame size…but I do remember that bike was huge and the seat post couldn’t go low enough. I then went to college and got a Specialized Rockhopper A1 FS. I still have it.

I haven’t ridden my Rockhopper nearly as much as I’ve wanted to. It is a cool bike, but now once again my ideas of a nice bike are changing.

I blame my brother for getting me to understand how much faster bikes without knobby tires can be on pavement. I always knew street tires were better, but I also assumed that as long as a knobby tire was pumped up full it would be fairly close. haha Yeah, not so much.

I also blame my brother for getting me to understand skinny tires…you know…the tires on old 10-speed bikes. I knew they were faster on pavement, that’s not the issue. I was scared of them. I had the idea that you were screwed if you hit a stone on the road, rode over a big crack in the pavement etc etc. My brother has an old 10-speed bike with skinny tires. While visiting I rode it for a very small bit, but it was enough time to understand: there’s no reason to be afraid of skinny tires and those weird looking 10-speed style bars (drop bars).

I blame Portland, OR and my Rockhopper for my next change in view on bikes. There are alot of bike riders in Portland. During my recent trip I saw people riding all types…mountain bikes, old crappy bikes, expensive speed bikes, and single speed bikes called fixers. A fixed bike is basically this: when the rear tire moves, the pedals move. If you push the pedals backwards, the bike goes backwards. There is no coasting on a fixed bike…if you’re rolling, the pedals are moving. I even saw some people riding fixed bikes without brakes. I remember taking my brake off my Rollerblades way back in the day…but taking brakes off on a bike? Crazy.

But then I got to thinking about it. For a long time I had the idea more gears = more choices = better. Now I’m thinking less gears = simplier = easier to maintain = more pure fun = better. I’m now looking to get a single speed bike. There are bikes that can be single-speed freewheel (you can coast), or you can take the rear tire off, flip it around, and it becomes a fixed bike (pedals keep moving as long as the bike is moving).

At one time I thought skinny tires and single speed/fixed bikes were insane. Now I’m looking forward to trying one out at a shop and possibly buying one. Wow how things change…

Formula 1 does knock out qualifying. All cars on track for 15 minutes, and the 7 slowest cars at the end of 15 minutes are out and take the last places on the starting grid. Then a 10 minute 2nd session…again the slowest cars are done. Then a final session for pole position.

I like to watch qualifying on TV. I also like to keep tabs on things on the Formula1.com website with their live timing. Until now I haven’t yet been able to log onto the live timing due to them updating their site’s timing. Well, it’s working now, and I’m not happy.

On TV we have 6 minutes left in the 2nd session. According to the website’s live timing, session 3 started 2 minutes ago.

I understand delays and all that…I work in TV. I guess I’m just bummed by the huge delay. I remember last season when I’d watch the race and watch the live timing at the same time. Hopefully the race tomorrow night will be better (as in no delay).

First off is a sport that already started with the Aussie Open. Tennis. I still love playing tennis, although these days it’s difficult to find someone to play with, so when I do make it to the courts I usually just hit serves. Roger Federer is my favourite athlete of all sports. If I had to pick a famous person to call a role model…it’d be him.

March brings Formula 1 back to my TV screen and formula1.com is now back to being checked everyday. This season is huge with alot of changes. For one thing, more teams…which means more cars…which means more new drivers. I can only hope that the new teams can catch-up in technology quickly with the veteran teams so that slow cars aren’t getting lapped all the time. I also hope the new drivers don’t cause crashes all over the race track. Yeah that’s right…I don’t want crashes. This isn’t NASCAR, this is racing haha.

Formula 1 also changed a few rules. I don’t know them all yet, but one of the big ones is no refueling during the race…the first time this rule has been in place since the 1993 season. This will change the entire way races are run! I won’t bore you explaining it because if you don’t know by now then you probably don’t care. To sum it up: this rule changes everything.

Rugby is also back in action. As I write this, NRL teams are playing their first games of the season. NRL of course is National Rugby League…it’s an aussie thing, with one team from New Zealand. I’m a New Zealand Warriors fan and I hope they actually do well this season. There’s nothing like trying to find an audio or video feed of their game every week only to watch/hear them getting killed.

Anyways, I just watched my first Formula 1 practice in Bahrain. After I click publish I’m going to NRL.com.au to check the live scores.

I love this time of year.

1. First there was the band Kill Hannah. Now a band named I Hate Kate. If I were to name a band after a girl I’m upset at, would I keep changing the band name as the years went by? On the other side of things, at least the Bouncing Souls have a song titled “Kate is Great”.

2. Which would you rather have: a guitar that is known throughout the industry to be the ‘standard’ for which everything else is judged (Stratocaster, Telecaster, Les Paul for a few examples), or would you rather have a high-quality instrument that noone else is likely to have which you’ll probably end up describing to everyone that “it has the clarity of a Strat but with the fullness of a Les Paul, yet retains that trebley jangley sound of a Tele”?

3. Formula 1 is about to start. Driver lineups have changed at nearly every team (except BMW Sauber and Red Bull). It will be a great season no doubt. I just remembered I forgot to write my annual Preseason preview. I still have a day or two to do it…

4. When will Yamaha release sound clips of their new Pocketrax 2g mini recorder? it looks so nice and small and portable. Yamaha, are you really going to make me wait until April for sound reviews? booo. It’s still the Pocketrax vs Zoom H2.

5. My computer sounded like it was about to blow up tonight the fan was running so hard. Then it started working super slow. Makes ya wonder when I’ll break down and buy a new machine.

6. Thanks to the WIAA state basketball playoffs last week I still haven’t watched last week’s episode of LOST. I’ll bet $100 it won’t be aired again tomorrow thanks to the girls WIAA basketball. blah.

7. DIY effects pedals seem so fun at the moment. Too bad the easy-to-build pedals are a bit useless to me….boosters and fuzz pedals. How bout a DIY phaser, flanger, or delay…but make it easy to build. I guess that’s why there are pedal companies that build pedals haha.

8. NRL (rugby league) starts this weekend too. My Warriors travel to Melbourne to take of the Storm…who just happened to win the title last season. To make matters worse, one of Warriors’ key players got injured during a preseason game and is out for the season to recover from surgery…and the season hasn’t even started yet. It will be a long season.

9. Keeping with sports, Premier league is getting towards the final part of the season. Fulham better start winning…NOW.

10. That’s all for now. Just as I’ve said every other time…photos and new features etc etc are coming soon haha.

Men’s soccer world cup is slowly gaining popularity in the US, but compared to the rest of the world it still doesn’t exist. Most people that somewhat follow sports will know that the women’s US soccer team has much more success at World Cup events. Now, how many of you know that the women’s soccer World Cup is taking place right now?

There are other World Cup events in the world of sports. There’s even one going on right now in France (no, not the soccer World Cup). The Rugby World Cup is on a roll in France right now. Yes, the US and Canada are represented. Neither of the North American squads will advance out of the pool stages, but at least they got there.

The Rugby World Cup will be determined by about 3 or 4 teams. New Zealand All Blacks are favourites to win it all. Another strong team is the Wallabies of Australia. The third team capable of taking the cup in my opinion are Springboks, the South Africa team. If you’re looking for a fouth team, Argentina’s side is playing well and the Pumas could possibly decide the fate of a few of the other favourites to win.

England are the defending champs, but this year they are in danger of not even advancing, thanks to a strong Tonga side. Of the U.K. teams, Scotland seems to be the top team, followed by Wales, with England and Ireland having disappointing performances. Even Wales is in a battle with Fiji to advance.

You can be sure I’ll be cheering on the All Blacks to win. No, I don’t like them just because they are good…there’s a certain kiwi that gives me a pretty good reason for All Blacks to be the team I cheer for.

In any case, rugby isn’t very popular in the US. Maybe someday it will grow in popularity, but probably not in the near future. In the meantime, enjoy all the World Cups the world has to offer, whether the US media covers them or not.

Anyways, another thing that will be fun will be my Formula 1 season review. It’ll mention what teams I thought had a good season, and what teams lost the plot. Some of the review could be written before the final race, but there are a few important storylines that aren’t yet finished.

Anyways, keep your eye out for the season review. And once it’s here you can say “Hooray, finally some content on this site!”

First off, Premierleague.com is one of the most organized and stats-packed sites ever for any sports league. You can find detailed stats about every player and team going back a number of years. They don’t just track how many minutes a player has played and such no no. They go as far as showing graphs on the number of times a certain player scored with his left foot, right foot, or head, and where they were on the pitch (field) when they scored…and that’s for every player that’s played! If you like, go to the site and click on Actim stats. You’ll find all the stats you can handle. The MLS website can be a pain to navigate as there is no single place to find all the stats.

Another feature of the Premier League website is the best, most well-organized fantasy league game ever. I’m not big into fantasy sports, but I started playing Premier League fantasy simply to force me to learn about the league and other teams besides Fulham FC. Now I quite enjoy it. At the beginning of the MLS season started the MLS fantasy game. The game isn’t nearly as organized and is actually a pain trying to find player stats and such. Sure I’ve learned a little bit about MLS, but I still don’t know much more than I did before.

One other reason I prefer Premier League to MLS is because, well, the quality of play is better. I’m not saying MLS sucks, but Premier League is one of the top football/soccer/whatever leagues in the world, and attracts many of the best players in the world (kind of like the NBA and NHL here is the US). No matter how good MLS is it would be tough to top it. Plus, the closest MLS team is a nice 6 hour or so drive from here…Chicago Fire. Since I’m not about to drive that distance to watch games, and not ever game is televised, I depend on internet for stats and news. Well, keeping up with Premier League via internet is much easier than MLS.

Anyways, now you know why I like the league and such. Now I’m going on record with my predictions for the season:

1. Arsenal
2. Chelsea
3. Liverpool
4. Manchester United
5. Tottenham Hotspur
6. Blackburn
7. West Ham
8. Newcastle
9. Bolton
10. Fulham
11. Everton
12. Charlton
13. Portsmouth
14. Aston Villa
15. Middlesbrough
16. Manchester City
17. Reading
18. Watford
19. Wigan
20. Sheffield United

I know picking anyone but Chelsea as #1 immediately puts up red flags, but I have my reasons (and it’s not just because I’m a Fulham fan). Cheers.

I won’t go into all the things I hate about NASCAR because this would then become the longest post I’ve ever written. So instead I’ll focus on a few bright spots for JPM:

1. He and his wife are expecting their 2nd baby this fall. Since they live in Miami it will be better for him to stay in the States rather than flying around the world in F1.

2. He’ll tackle NASCAR with his old boss Chip Ganassi and drive the #42 Target car. I’ve read some recent comments that the two are good friends, so he should fit in with the team. I only wish JPM would have joined up with Ganassi to drive in the IRL series (C.G. also has a team there with drivers Scott Sharp and Dan Wheldon–who is one of my current favorite IRL drivers).

3. I like Target stores.

4.

Well I guess that ends the “Pros” of moving to NASCAR. Deep down inside JPM kinda bothers me with this move. Besides that fact I hate NASCAR, I still remember an appearance on the David Letterman show. During the interview he said something to the effect of (I’m not sure on exact wording) “No offense to NASCAR, but driving an F1 car compared to a NASCAR car is like driving a Ferrari vs. a pick-up truck”. Now I read quotes about how excited he is for this new challenge. But how can he seriously be excited about walking away mid-season from a sportscar and jump in a pick-up truck?

The other thing that bothers me about the move is I’ve read a few JPM quotes in the past that suggested the JPM/C.G. relationship wasn’t so grand. Now of course every article makes them out to be long-lost brothers finally reunited. What’s the real deal?

JPM is a great driver, but he has to kick some serious NASCAR ass. History is not on his side when it comes to drivers switching from open-wheel cars (real racing cars) to NASCAR (crap racing cars). If he ends up only performing to mid-pack status, then he’ll not only write the lowest chapter to his great racing career, but NASCAR drivers and fans will lose respect for all F1 drivers in general, when I reality I truly believe that F1 drivers are the best drivers in the world (WRC drivers are a very close 2nd).

Good luck Juan Pablo!