Breaking the Bike

Watch This Bike Disappear… So just locking your bike...

traeblain — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 14:34:06 -0600

Watch This Bike Disappear…

So just locking your bike doesn’t mean someone won’t still take your bike.

Weird Bikes! How about that tricycle.

traeblain — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 16:10:24 -0500

Weird Bikes!

How about that tricycle.

When Drama Overrules Safety...

traeblain — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 10:44:49 -0500

If anyone is following the Tour de France you’ve probably seen the absurd amount of crashes that have taken place in only the first week. Crashes in the back of the peloton are fairly common in the first week, but if you’ve seen the crashes up to today you’ll wonder what the hell the organizers are doing.

Some may say that this year they’ve been doing better since 10 riders have withdrawn in 8 stages where last year 10 riders withdrew in 5 stages. But just because last year’s stage 3 was so brutal versus this year’s stage 9 shouldn’t negate the fact that organizers are putting Drama over Safety.

Since the 2009 Giro d'Italia organizers have put the riders in uncompromisingly dangerous situations without a thought. And to be honest with you, although the rides are making news, it’s hurting the sport and the perception world wide.

You don’t have to get me started on how the number of quality riders that crashed out, or crashed into a situation where they no longer were riding for GC last year that hurt the spectacle of last years tour. Despite all the setbacks, Andy Shleck and Alberto Contador put on a show, spitting in the face of the organizers. This year, the same has happened but the situations have been worse. Last year, although the cobbles allowed for high drama, the dangerous roads hurt many of the team’s chances of riding for GC. This year, it’s been the small roads, spectators, and television vehicles that have been the source of the carnage. Not to mention the disgusting display of television reporters and cameramen ogling while Vinokourov’s being carried up an embankment by his teammates.

If you know me, you’d know I’m as about anti-union as they come. But this is getting absurd. It has become apparent that the race organizers have developed an utter disregard for rider safety, and the UCI is apparently powerless to respond. That and the UCI’s insistence on putting riders in less safe situations by removing race radios. It is definitely time for a Cyclist’s Association giving the riders the capability to respond. I don’t think they should take the union as far as to organize bargaining and salary agreements, but a unified front to counter the absurd decisions the UCI and event organizers are doing to the cyclists.

Five Seats to Save Your Penis From Your Bike

traeblain — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 12:53:16 -0500

Five Seats to Save Your Penis From Your Bike:

I’ve seen people with these saddles and I’ve always wondered if they’d help stop that numbness you get every once in a while on those long rides. I’m interested in the Adamo to see how it works, but I’ve seen people with the Comfort Saddle and others and find it interesting that they seem to always have a hard time staying seated. Any thoughts?

I wanted to remind everyone of the importance of protecting you...

traeblain — Fri, 27 May 2011 19:20:11 -0500

I wanted to remind everyone of the importance of protecting you noggin. Whether it’s a short ride to the store, or an all out race. Thanks!

The More You Knooooow!!!

Wear a helmet (by Matt Forsythe)

Cycle Plank! Points off for incorrect arm placement. Thank you,...

traeblain — Tue, 24 May 2011 23:06:35 -0500

Cycle Plank!

Points off for incorrect arm placement. Thank you, move it along.

(via Planking Pictures | Best 65 Plankings | Geekosystem)

A Joke

traeblain — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 21:51:23 -0500

Since I haven’t had time to post any weight loss news, how about a joke:

The IRS decides to audit Ralph, and summons him to the IRS office. The IRS auditor is not surprised when Ralph shows up with his attorney.

The auditor says, “Well, sir, you have an extravagant lifestyle and no full-time employment, which you explain by saying that you win money gambling. I’m not sure the IRS finds that believable.”

“I’m a great gambler, and I can prove it,” says Ralph. “How about a demonstration?” The auditor thinks for a moment and says, “Okay Go ahead.”

Ralph says, “I’ll bet you a thousand dollars that I can bite my own eye.”

The auditor thinks a moment and says, “No way! It’s a bet.”

Ralph removes his glass eye and bites it.

The auditor’s jaw drops. Ralph says, “Now, I’ll bet you two thousand dollars that I can bite my other eye.”

The auditor can tell Ralph isn’t blind, so he takes the bet.

Ralph removes his dentures and bites his good eye

The stunned auditor now realizes he has wagered and lost three grand with Ralph’s attorney as a witness. He starts to get nervous.

“Want to go double or nothing?” Ralph asks. “I’ll bet you six thousand dollars that I can stand beside one side of your desk, and pee into that wastebasket on the other side, and never get a drop anywhere in between.”

The auditor, twice burned, is cautious now, but he looks carefully and decides there’s no way this guy can manage that stunt, so he agrees again. Ralph stands beside the desk and unzips his pants, but although he strains mightily, he can’t make the stream reach the wastebasket on the other side, resulting in him urinating all over the desk.

The auditor leaps with joy, realizing that he has just turned a major loss in to a huge win, but Ralph’s attorney moans and puts his head in his hands.

“Are you okay?” the auditor asks.

“Not really,” says the attorney. “This morning, when Ralph told me he’d been summoned for an audit, he bet me twenty thousand dollars that he could come in here and pee all over your desk and that you’d be happy about it.”

Tips from Trae

traeblain — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 22:56:39 -0600

So I’ve given a few tips that you can think about to loose weight casually. I’m no expert…seriously…I’m not. But when you look at things the numbers seem to tell you things you may not know.

When I started “dieting” I wanted something that I could stick to. So the diet plans that had pre-packaged food, a long list of food to not eat, or cutting out certain ingredients were last on my list of plans to follow. Why? I wouldn’t stick to it. If I had to follow these rigid rules, I (like most people) would give up and move on. So the best plan for me is managing what I ate. Keep an eye on the the calories (etc.) you take in and try not to over do it.

Lately I’ve been thinking about alcohol. Many people say that if you are trying to loose weight stay away from alcohol. Well, again rules that were made to break. I was a beer drinker and didn’t mind shifting to Light beers to help manage my intake. Granted, those Light beers weren’t the most satisfying and from time to time I’d grab some good stuff, but it was better for me. But now I’ve been looking at other alcohols and found there are healthier options out there. Simply: liquor.

Most light beers have around 100 to 110 calories and pretty much 0 on all the other nutrition fact (save Sodium which is around 11g). And liquors all seem to fall in the 70 calories range.

A shot of Makers Mark, some Jameson’s and Coke Zero, glass of Johnny Walker and ice, or a glass of Svedka and Diet 7up will yield less calories than a beer. And on those times I drink socially, I tend to drink less of these items than I do beer, therefore less calories overall.

But please, be safe and drink responsibly.

Love this image…enjoy.

traeblain — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 20:41:32 -0600

Love this image…enjoy.

"Doctor said, to control your Cholesterol we can do two things. One is to try a new pill that’s..."

traeblain — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 14:58:20 -0600

“Doctor said, to control your Cholesterol we can do two things. One is to try a new pill that’s more potent but has more side affects. Two is…you know what it is…loose weight. I said, give me the pill.”

- – Guy at Work

I overheard this guy at work telling this in the break area. I wanted to turn around and kick him in the nuts. If life or death can’t motivate you to loose weight…

Stupid SOB…

GPOYRBBW (Gratuitous Picture of Yourself Reading Before Bed...

traeblain — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 00:03:17 -0600

GPOYRBBW (Gratuitous Picture of Yourself Reading Before Bed Wednesday)

Why yes, that man boob is smaller.

Monday’s friendly reminder to all you cyclists: This is...

traeblain — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 12:42:36 -0600

Monday’s friendly reminder to all you cyclists:

This is why you should wear your helmet. Please do so.

Thanks. The More You Knooooooooow!

via i.imgur.com via reddit.com

Updated site

traeblain — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 13:49:51 -0600

This is two fold. 1) It answers a question by Pat Monahan on my Diet Reservation post. 2) I want to let you know and be sure you guys check it out.

PatMonahan asked if I left Tumblr when I went of the Diet Reservation as well? Yes and no, I took a break from posting because I didn’t want to post the same thing over and over. It would be posts that say, working like crazy and no time to ride (I was working long days and weekends at the end of last year), eating really good food and not watching what I eat real well (Thanksgiving and Christmas meals were wonderful), a yo-yo of weight gain and loss. So due to the heavy work schedule and other I chose to focus my online efforts. Which also implies what I’ll talk about next (hence the tie-in).

Please check out the new website design. Although I know many of you just look at these things from your Tumblr Dashboard, but I did put some effort into the design so please check it out and let me know what you think.

To explain, my main website is here: TraeBlain.com . And I’m in the process of consolidating all my sites into a common structure so they are easily recognizable as mine. (Now if I can only get Posterous to accept Javascript! grrrr). So that’s why BreakingTheBike is changed the way it is. Hope you like! If there are any issues that I’ve missed please let me know.

Wednesday Weigh in...

traeblain — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 10:31:55 -0600

So it’s been a while.

I have my reasons.

Call it the wonderful holiday fare when it came to food. So my last weigh in before Thanksgiving. It was 209.8 lbs. I didn’t post it, but I should have. Where am I now?

I’m at 213.8lbs. 4 lbs. Here’s how my holiday went:

November 22nd: 209.8lbs

December 3rd: 214.6lbs (Thanksgiving was awesome! Sorry, it was…)

December 23rd: 210.1lbs (Yeah!)

January 5th: 213.8lbs

So that’s the bounce of the holiday, but I’m determined to get it off. I’m honestly not worried. All the success of the past year has made me feel pretty good, so I feel I can definitely hit my goal of <200lbs in the next 6 months or less.

I’m pumped, you?

Reshuffling, Reworking, and Re-Hitting the Gym

Tue, 04 Jan 2011 12:27:31 -0600

For many of you following me, you’ll know that I pretty much only ride my bike for my fitness regiment. Why do I do this? Because I love it. I love getting outside and pushing through the wind, traveling off 20-30 miles away and getting to see new areas. Wintertime has always been difficult for me, because it’s a bit harder to ride. Dallas stays pretty dry in the colder weather, so I just have to bundle up to ride in the cold, but the problem I have is finding someone to ride with in the cold. Dallas isn’t the greatest city to be on the roads by yourself. Maybe if I was in Austin, people in their cars would be easier on me, but Dallas drivers aren’t the kindest of folk. It’s just safer to ride with someone. So, where do I go? I’m heading back to the gym. I’ve actually had practically let my gym membership lapse since I was riding all the time, but I’m going back in. Not sure what I’m going to do, maybe swim, but I will hit the gym to keep my fitness going strong. This also means a reshuffling of my life and priorities. I’ve just got to sit down and structure this year. I’ve never made a New Years resolution, and I don’t plan to this year, but I do need to sit down and work out the next few months until warmer weather. That’s the plan, there you go. Thank you all for your support, I’ll start re-posting weekly weight updates and more so don’t you worry. Later!

Who went totally off the Diet Reservation for Thanksgiving?

traeblain — Sun, 28 Nov 2010 13:27:59 -0600

I did…

3/4ths Trae

traeblain — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 18:07:26 -0600

A guy stopped me in work today to encourage me and let me know that my weight loss is noticeable. This was awesome and I’m really thankful when people come and tell me these things. Especially since I’ve plateaued hard.

The way he put it though was, “You look 2/3rds Trae!”. (1) He said that and I thought if that was true. I told him, “Not quite 2/3rd, but I am ¾ths of myself!”. Then I started to think about that. ¾ths my weight. I like to say I was only 270lbs, but the highest point I weighed myself was 278lbs. I’m now plateauing out at 210lbs. That’s 68lbs…4x68 is 272…I’ve essentially lost ¼th of my highest weight. (2)

Then I started thinking about other things to which I can equate my weight.

I’ve lost 3 of my year old sons.
I’ve lost what would now require a 2 men to lift per OSHA
I’ve lost 3 automobile tires
I’ve lost about 3 human legs
I’ve lost an average Labrador
I’ve lost around 544 chicken eggs
I’ve lost around 3x the amount of pizza an American eats in a year
I’ve lost an average Irish Setter
I’ve lost just over the weight of an elephant’s penis
I’ve lost ½ a newborn giraffe
I’ve lost over ½ my wife (3)

Crazy huh!?!?

(1) I work with a ton of engineers so math analogies aren’t sparse.
(2) Again, I’m an engineer so 6lbs difference is close enough to allow me to say right at ¼th my weight.
(3) Not sure if this one is completely true, but I think it’s pretty safe.

10 Bicycling Websites

traeblain — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 21:04:35 -0600

10 Bicycling Websites:

MakeUseOf has a decent list of some great bicycling websites. I’m happy because it doesn’t include Fatty and BikeSnobNYC which for some crazy reason make every cycling list ever. I’m not pleased about the About.com piece, it’s not all that good…maybe that’s why it’s the last one. One that I’ve not see is the Pedaling website, which I plan on checking it out, but not sure it has much for my area.

I’m beginning to think that Clif Bar doesn’t really...

traeblain — Sat, 06 Nov 2010 10:13:52 -0500

I’m beginning to think that Clif Bar doesn’t really care about product presentation. One toss of this bad boy into the water and the swimming pool is all mine.

By the way, this thing is delicious.

Where have I been?

traeblain — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 09:07:48 -0500

Loosing weight that’s where! Sorry, it’s been a really busy time in my life. I’m getting back on the saddle soon though…stick with me people. I love you…crap, now I made it weird…