Good Things Do Come In Small Packages

I bought myself this cute, sweet little 'dirt bike'. There aren't enough exclamation marks in the world to convey what a nice ride it gives!

I think I'm enamoured with it because the quality surprised me a great deal. And that's because I was biased, narrow-minded and judgmental about it in the first place. But who isn't with some things, eh?

I normally associate BMX bikes with tall early-teenage boys sporting long legs and when riding the bikes, their knees come up to their ears. I never considered it a "serious" bike or for adults. Then, two Fridays ago, I bought one. More about that another time. Maybe.

This is a Giant 2009 Method BMX or so the paint job says. If I sound like I have my doubts that it's that exact bike, it's because the Method on Giant's website is US$490.00 and I paid US$220.00 for mine. No, I didn't get it from a hooded guy in an alley in the dark of night. It was daytime. I'm kidding...now back to the bike.

The ride is just too nice! Since the bike is constructed to be ridden on a motocross-type circuit, it's a sturdy little thing. It also must be made well because it's additionally used for stunts and tricks. Plus, Giant is one of the top bike brands.

(The guy in the pic above is not falling, he's doing a stunt.) The bikes aren't made for sitting down on for long periods of time, but I remedied that by switching to a much longer, smart-looking, silver-coloured seat post which looks just fine against the black bike (you can see this in the first photo). So now the seat is raised high enough for my legs to stretch out comfortably while pedaling.

This brings my little bike collection to 3. Two Treks and a little Giant. That's nothing if you're a cycling fan. One of my cousins has 6 bikes in his garage! Six I tell you—which means that presently I'm only half the cyclist he is!

"Wired To Win"

Wired To Win: Surviving the Tour de France is a movie which was released in 2005, after five years in production. It's a mixture of fantastic visuals of France, with the science of the brain in its role during the race, described as the most grueling of sports events on the mind and body. What intrigues me most about the film is that's it's an Imax film. An Imax I tell you!!

The Featurette is gorgeous in itself, with the crew and others talking about some of what it took to capture the event on film. One example was rigging an Imax camera to a motorcycle, with the camera being operated from a helicopter 2,000 feet away! The filmmakers make use of 3D computer generated imagery which is excellent. You can see the movie trailer here.

I attempted to find out if there is a DVD version, but something tells me that Imax films may not be readily available in that format. Still, I sent an email enquiring about it to the producers. It's already been a whole four hours—why haven't they replied!?!

Moving Billboards

Sponsors are the life-blood of cycling teams—without them, the cycling world would be very different. In the early days of the Tour de France they dressed from head to toe with what they personally owned. Only after some time did some manufacturers seize the opportunity for having their products seen by tens of thousands of people. Today, there are millions of people looking on at Tour.

It was good to learn that Skype has stepped in as one of the sponsors for the HTC-Columbia team now taking part in the Tour de France.

One of Skype's managers summed it up nicely when he said, "That's the beauty of Skype; it allows people to do the things they normally do together even when they are thousands of miles apart." I've used Skype for several years and it's a great program.

But, who knew there was still room on the kit for yet another logo!

The Business of Cycling – Managing Your Image

Public Strategies Inc. is the company Lance Armstrong has contracted to handle his image, or the public's perception of him; or perhaps manage the American public's perception of him. I'm guessing about that last part. Actually, he's been a client of theirs for quite some time now, at least a few years it seems.

The company describes their occupation as helping "leading companies transform their corporate reputation into competitive advantage by building trust with key audiences through campaign, transaction, crisis management and corporate partnerships."

Tiger Woods hired a consultant (a White House guy I believe) to help him manage his image when he found himself in a crisis a few months ago. Right about now (well, starting in May actually) I'm certain a seven-time-tour-champion has been in daily contact with PS Inc., since some dark clouds of allegations about the very seven-time-tour-winner had gathered over his seven-time-tour-myth image.

Getting back to Public Strategies, whose information about themselves is noticeably scanty (possibly a strategy in itself), they reassure you that all your bases will be covered, including the use of online social networking, such as Twitter.

Recently, I read this saying: If you take care of your behaviour, your reputation will take care of itself.

I feel that a person's established reputation is one of the best defenses for crisis management. If that isn't working, there's always a company out there willing to help you with how to Twit and what pictures to release to the public.

They wouldn't, for example, release pictures like this: