BMX bikes

Many people who reach their 40′s and liked to run or jog, suddenly find that their knees and joints are not as sympathetic as they used to be. As a result, they are reluctant to pound the pavement like before and search for new ways to exercise.

Not surprisingly, a lot of exercisers turn to gyms and the ever wide array of aerobic machines available. Elliptical machines, stair climbers, recumbent bikes, etc. are all available, including more knee friendly treadmills.

When this happened to me, I immediately missed the out of doors from my former running days. It just was so much more boring when the only landscape change was the next segment on ESPN or the Shopping Channel or whatever else might be on the gym television to entertain us. I knew I had to find away to spend an hour or two outside getting my heart rate up.

I had always loved bicycles, but had never ridden anything more than your basic Schwinn from the 60′s. I happen to live in a college town where there is an active cycling community. But, would cycling in your 50′s make sense?

First, I pulled out my old hybrid bike (one that is half road bike and half trail bike) to get it tuned up at the one of the local bike shops. When I picked it up, I asked if they had any suggestions about cycling for general fitness.

Most people working in bike shops are usually pretty passionate, and are willing to help you get started. In this case, the young man suggested joining a bike club. I was really even certain what a bike club was, but decided, after a few solo runs that it would be much more fun and safe to ride with a group.

I was really uncertain about my ability to immediately join a club of people riding mostly road bikes and being able to keep up. However, what I learned was that there are all kinds of clubs around that cater to various levels of ability. And, the one I joined turned out to offer a variety of levels.

They usually post their rides on-line with time, place and difficulty information. Since “joining” means showing up for a ride, one Saturday I decide to go for a 35 mile ride, not believing I could make that distance. (Usually there are different distance options)

I won’t tell you that it was a cake walk, but I made it! I was hooked because riding with a good club means people actually stay together… which feels much safer on the roads. You also immediately learn a lot of the little tricks and etiquette of riding with a group.

In fact this group turned out to have all ages…it was not just cycling for babyboomers. One gentleman led a ride (people volunteer to “lead” rides, meaning they make sure everyone gets back safe) each year on his birthday. This past spring you had to ride 73 miles in you wanted to go the whole way with him!

Non-cyclists think the distances sound daunting, but you can ride much further than you would imagine. After all, you can rest on the downhills and hopefully have a wind to your back sometimes.

If all else fails, try the first good advice I learned. If you are struggling, get a few inches behind the largest person you can find in the line, and enjoy the almost free ride. Just know, when you get stronger, you are expected to reciprocate. And if you ride much at all, you will get stronger.

By: Athens Scott

I will be discussing how to measure a road bike frame as a mountain bike frame differs when measuring. It is important to properly measure yourself and the bicycle for a proper fit. This will allow for a comfortable ride when going long distances. Be aware there are many different methodologies for bicycle measurement that are too in-depth to go into here. I will be explaining the most common and simplest way to measure for your bicycle. It is always best to consult a bike shop as most shops will gladly measure you for the correct fitting bicycle.

Top Tube Length

The top tube is the tube running from the handlebars to the bicycle seat. I suggest measuring everything in centimeters as this is the standard for road bikes but keep in mind there are always exceptions where you will run across some older bikes listed in inches. Using a hard measuring stick, measure from the welds on both ends of the tube, take notice to be as precise as possible. If you have a longer upper body and arms you will want the top tube length to be extended.

Down Tube Length

The down tube is the tube running from the handlebar to the pedels. Again measure from the welds at both ends of the tube.

Seat tube Length

The seat tube is the tube running from the seat to the pedals. Notice this is the length that is given for bicycle sizes [http://www.spikedbikes.com] for most manufactures of road bikes. Again there are always exceptions which is why it is a good idea to always measure the bike for yourself and always road test your bike before purchasing your bicycle. If you have a longer lower body and legs, you will want the seat tube length to be extended.

By: Jason Ham

It’s hard to go out with a girl who is better at a sport than you are. Unlike most girls who grew up playing with dolls or dressing up in their mother’s clothes and shoes, my girlfriend Cindy’s favorite recreation is ping pong. She had been playing the game since she was five years old and is now a member of her school’s ping pong team. Yes, she’s that good.

I also know a thing or two about ping pong and actually considered myself quite handy at the game. That is, until I started playing against Cindy. She humiliates me at ping pong quite regularly, as a matter of fact. And because of this, I have become an ardent student of the game. I even know the history of ping pong.

Ping pong, which is also known as table tennis, actually has its origins in merry old England where it was a popular after-dinner recreation for the upper class Victorians during the 1880s. The game started as a table imitation of tennis, particularly in an indoor environment and, in the beginning, normal household objects were used as equipment in the game. For instance, a row of books would serve as the net, the rounded top of a champagne cork or some string would serve as the ball and the paddle would simply be the lid of a cigar box.

However, the game became popular and a number of enterprising manufacturers began to sell ping pong equipment commercially. For paddles. they used pieces of parchment paper that were secured around a frame which produced a sound like “ping pong” which is how the game came to be known by that name.

In 1901, an English enthusiast of the game named James Gibb produced the next major innovation when he discovered novelty celluloid balls while vacationing in the United States. He quickly adopted these balls to the game.

By 1903, E.C. Goode had invented the modern version of the racket by combining a sheet of pimpled rubber to a wooden blade. By 1901, ping pong tournaments were sprouting up everywhere and by 1902, the first unofficial world championship of ping pong was staged.

By: Jonathon Hardcastle

What a child want? To play with his own bicycle but a kid of 4 to 10 years old cannot do races with his own bike because there must be a lot of hurdles and different obstacle with which he has to cope. In the past, when the middle aged child used to ride the bicycle, he had to face wounds while learning strategies and tact to handle it. While practicing, he used to receive injuries and sometime these wounds used to take a long time for their healing, but now the era is changed and the mental ability to use the strategies and tact are being taught through bikes games. Now there are ample games available on internet and they are really easy to play as well.

If your child is four years old and cannot ride bicycle but is keen to play with it, you need not to concern because this urge is satisfied by the games of bikes on internet. These are very simple to play and require acquaintance of basic controls merely. Through the use of these controls, he can have his initial lesson to ride a cycle. After that, with the physical growth, he will need to do little practice and without having any injury, he will be able to ride appropriately.

There are a lot of popular playoffs on internet played by children daily. The most widely played games in this regard are Cycle-Maniac, Cycle Racer, BMX Master, Wheel Barrel Bike, BMX Trick, Mountain Bike Challenge, BMX Stream, Stunt Bike Island, and Reno 911. Some of them are multiplayer in which the race between different players occurs whereas some of them are single player games in which the individual has to cope with some barriers difficult to pass. In overcoming these obstacles, he uses different strategies which further he applies in his practical. In this way, he learns and enjoys simultaneously.

Though these bike games are not as much popular as four wheelers are yet some kids prefer them over four wheel vehicle. Observing this point, just like four wheel games, the developers have produced hundreds of playoffs having different types such as racing, hurdle passing, puzzling, mountain riding, and stunt performing. All these games are easy to play and cause the learning of the individuals of little age.

By: Ernest Lloyd

Cycling is a sport with many dimensions. There is mountain biking, race biking, triathlons, regular street biking and more. One type of cycling that many younger cyclists enjoy is stunt bicycling. Stunt bicycling can be an incredible thing to watch. It is a sport which takes great skill and control to master. There are guys that ride on narrow ridges and stay balanced. Some guys can ride on the edge ridge of a train track and jump across the tracks to the other side, landing and staying balanced. They can also jump and turn the other way on the same ridge, staying balanced. It is pretty amazing.

Bikes that are used for doing stunt usually differ from your regular street bike. The stunt biker either modifies his/her own bike, or gets a bike that is already made with the modifications. The bike that is commonly used is the freestyle bmx bike. This bike’s frame is constructed differently than a normal bike and it has a different tire size. These modifications are to help the bike to be stronger and to help the biker to perform better. Another thing the freestyle bmx bike has is pedals with more space. This allows the biker to have more room for their feet when performing their stunts. As the stunts can be pretty tricky and involved, the biker needs to be able to stay well balanced and in control. The last thing that some stunt bikes have are handlebars that can rotate 360 degrees without messing with the break cables. This also allows for more stunts and tricks while allowing the rider to stay in control.

By: Austin Chase

For those of our nations fighting men and women who get deployed, finding a way to pass the time can be difficult. You can only log so much time working out, or any other physical activities made available to you wherever you may be stationed, before things start to become a drain on your mind. Solution? Gaming. Free text games.

Sure, many troops may like playing their console games down range, but there is the constant worry of something happening to their system causing it to break. The option to play Massive Multiplayer Online games exists, but perhaps there is not enough bandwidth to pipe your game through. Heck, maybe you bought a netbook because it’s cheap and lasts a while, leaving you lacking on the requirements to play many of those MMOs out there. Here is a really cheap (free) way to pass the time and still have some fun. Text based rpg games or MUDs (multi-user dungeons).

With the multitude of online text games available for your entertainment, there are always a variety of options available for what to play. I, personally, find that playing free text games keeps my mind occupied when it’s not busy defending the nation. It gives me a creative outlet to exercise parts of my mind that are otherwise unused while out in doing the military job. I can easily connect to an available internet source and play online text games to my hearts content, socializing, fighting other players, or just running around killing every denizen in the online text game world in which I choose to play. The possibilities are endless for those of us out here, and those of you who might be in some of the trickier places out there.

The benefits to just zoning out into a video game are quite evident: passage of time. Nothing really helps passing the time more than logging a few free hours fighting the forces of magic or perhaps building a Clan that worships a forbidden deity of a long-lost culture. You can easily burn through most of a deployment working out, doing your job, and playing some text adventure games.

Yet another benefit of playing these free online text games is the ability to maintain your social networks. Logging in to one of these online text games, even at some odd hours compared to our friends back home, gives you ample opportunity to converse, maybe about real life, or perhaps engaging in a roleplaying scenario within these text adventure games to help you forget about your hard situations (even if only for a little while). I find that just being able to talk to friends from my Iron Realms online text games helps me push through some of the tougher humps I encounter while deployed. Being away from families and friends can be hard, but being able to log in as my favorite characters and talk to those who have become friends through these free text games makes it so much less harsh for me after long months of living the deployed lifestyle.

The last big benefit I will hit on is a technical one. When I’m deployed, I see many of my brothers and sisters in arms using netbooks. It doesn’t really offer much for gaming (unless you’re willing to reach back and play games from long ago), and most of the time the only thing it’s good for is checking e-mail or playing solitaire. The netbook I use is FULL of lots of spreadsheets and documents about text based rpg games, including my mud client (ZMud for those who are curious). It’s got a long battery life (which is awesome considering how rarely you get time to really charge it back to full life) and decent hard drive space (300 gigabytes average for most netbooks on the market) for storing all your photos, videos, music and miscellaneous text based rpg information. The best part: they run ALL online text game clients I have ever seen hit the market, meaning you can use your favorite client and just log in, playing until your eyes bleed.

So, all in all, I’d say that online text games as a whole really do help me pass the time, as I know they help others who serve our Nation’s Military. The social aspects, the time aspects, and the fun aspects all help Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines pass the time day to day. Sure, we work hard, but we like to play hard, too. And, as an aside, I’d like to say a big thank you to all my Brothers and Sisters in Arms who I serve next to day in and day out while I’m deployed. You are the biggest bunch of crazies out there, and I would NEVER choose to serve next to anyone else. I love you guys.

By: Derek McCullough

Mountain biking is a sport that involves riding bicycles off paved roads. It is an activity that is gaining popularity all over the world since it is does not require any special skills other than being able to ride a bicycle and can be done anywhere.

A mountain bike is a sturdy bicycle with a strong frame, wide tires, gears and horizontal handlebars. This bike has special tires that are fat and knobby, providing the extra traction that is required for dirt trails and unpaved terrain. Though called mountain bikes, these bicycles are often used for off-road cycling and can be ridden cross country, on gravel roads and even on dirt trails.

People use mountain bikes for several purposes including trailing, dirt jumping and street-urban riding, but the most popular versions of mountain biking are down-hilling, cross-country and free riding. Apart from a few common features, the specifications for mountain bikes differ, depending upon the activities that the bike is primarily designed for. For example, a cross-country mountain bike normally weighs between 20 to 30 pounds and is lighter than bikes designed for down-hilling and free riding. Mountain bikes can also be ordered online.

Although bicycles have been used since the time they were invented, the first specialized mountain bike was built by Joe Breeze in 1977. The first regularly available mountain bike frame was built by Tom Ritchey, with accessories being built by Gary Fisher and Charlie Kelly. These bikes were sold by their company called MountainBikes, later renamed Gary Fisher Bicycle Company. It wasn’t until 1982 that the first mass produced mountain bikes were sold. These were called the Specialized Stumpjumper and Univega Alpina Pro. A huge range of mountain bikes with specialized features are now available to cater to the ever growing population of mountain bikers.

By: Kevin Stith

There are a great many historic places that people can enjoy when visiting this financial centre of Switzerland. Gardens, parks, museums, historic and religious sites, galleries, and zoos abound in this city.

Botanic Garden has a huge selection of living species from Caledonia and Africa. You can enjoy the many rare specimens that this garden enjoys. More than three million plants can be seen in this garden.

Urania Observatory allows people to see through a telescope to look at Zurich and the distant Alps. You can enjoy views of planets, stars, and galaxies. Since the observatory is located centrally in Zurich you can enjoy seeing all parts of the city and more.

St. Peter’s Church was built back in the thirteenth century on the bank of Lindenhof. This church is the oldest church in the city and has a clock face that is the largest in Europe. You can see the huge hands of the clock with a minute hand that is more than thirteen feet in length.

Eluntern Cemetery is where James Joyce is buried. Near the tomb for James Joyce is a unique statue of the author. People come from far and wide to view this statue dedicated to the author of Ulysses. Many other famous people are buried in this cemetery.

Zoological Garden contains more than twenty-two hundred animals. You can enjoy the aquarium and an open-air aviary. There are several houses to visit including the elephant house, ape house, terrariums, and the giant tortoise house. This is one of the most popular attractions in the city.

Zunfthaus zur Meisen is one of the city’s oldest guild halls. Wrought-iron gatehouse opens into the Munstehof. Most of the guild hall is dedicated to ceramics and porcelain of Zurich.

Fine Arts Museum is the home of many nineteenth and twentieth century paintings. The museum was founded in 1976 and today houses the largest collection of modern and classical arts. Many wonderful paintings are included in the collection including some from Marini, Picasso, Chagall, Bonnard, and Lipsshitz.

Events in Zurich

The Zurich International Art show has work from five continents and exhibits a great variety of art work from paintings to sculptures, videos and photography.

Freestyle takes place every room in September and shows off the top BMX riders, skaters, skiers, and skateboarders.

Expovina is the city’s largest wine exhibition that has thousands of visitors flocking aboard dozens of boats in the harbour for wine tasting. Do not miss this annual event each November that takes place on the fair waters of Lake Zurich.

Blickfang allows people to enjoy fashion, homeware, and jewellery. International designers participate in displaying their wares and are often on tap to answer questions.

Zurich Silvesterlauf takes place every December in the city. This race takes place through the streets of the city and allows more than ten thousand people to run on the roads that have been cleared of traffic

By: L D Sharma

Today, the company that is known for coming up with the best clothes for cycling is Assos. In fact, even cycling veterans strongly recommend purchasing and using cycling apparel from Assos.

Assos makes sure that each piece of the set of clothes they manufacture function very well alone and with the other pieces of apparel they also produce for the public to use and enjoy. This indicates that before the Assos team came up with the products, they concentrated on each piece of the apparel, regarding its design and its engineering aspect.

At present, Assos is regarded as the world’s leading providers of high quality cycling apparel, mainly because of the comfort they provide with their products. Aside from making sure that their buyers feel comfortable, they also make sure that majority of the pieces of apparel they come up with are highly innovative.

Being based in Switzerland gave them a chance to use their geographic edge to their advantage. And since the main part of their market come from Switzerland, Assos targets the possible problems that can be caused by the Swiss cold weather.

Aside from making sure that their clients are kept safe from the possible damage that the cold can do to them, they also make sure that Assos wearers can still be stylish whenever they start to go cycling.

The most saleable piece of apparel that Assos has been receiving huge profits from are the cycling caps manufactured by Assos. These cycling caps are loved by everybody of all sizes and ages because one size fits all. The head circumference does not matter because, surely, the caps will fit anyone’s head.

According to those who have been around the cycling business for quite sometime now, the cycling caps also help in uplifting somebody’s status. This is mainly because cyclists look much more professional when they are cycling while wearing Assos caps on their heads.

The caps are also very elastic, especially at the cap’s rear end. And since such caps can be a bit fitting at times, Assos installed a mesh panel vent at the very same elastic portion to release the heat that was trapped inside the cap. Cyclists also love to wear the caps made by Assos because of the cotton fabric, since cotton makes the caps perfect for cycling both indoors and outdoors.

By: Paul S. O'Brien

The Scooby Doo team is often not seen as the pushy and serious detective team like CSI, but they do attract huge fan following especially by the fans playing their online games each day. The Scooby business is huge as well, with the large number of online resources, movies, games, toys and clothing line as well. If you are huge fan of this team like me, there are more than fifteen games online for you to keep connecting with your favorite detective team.

While Scooby might be carrying the detective team name, the other team members like Shaggy, Freddy, Velma, and Daphne are equally fun characters also. Playing the Scooby Doo games quite easy as the most audience wishing to follow this consists upon the young kids.

The Scooby games can be found in various sites including the official site of team as well. From the list of more than fifty games, you should select the one you wish to play. The 1000 Graveyard Dash is quite exciting game with the challenge of running through the graveyard as fast as you can. There are many ghosts in the hidden locations. You can collect the goodies hidden in different locations also.

Survive the Island is yet another fun game too; Scooby and Shaggy are a team in here. They must collect the different objects like coconuts from different sides of beach. There are some falling monkeys that should be avoided to keep the energy level intact.

The Scooby Big Air game is quite exciting as well; you get the chance to ride the skateboard with Scooby Doo in different locations. You can perform many tricks on the skateboard as well to earn extra points as well. The speed of game can be increased to increase the challenge to suitable level as well. The other games like Scooby Doo and MVP baseball, and Hunts and Holidays are also fun games which one can enjoy online also.

By: Chris J Anderson