Author Alex Hutchinson

It was a beautiful August morning here in sunny Florida. I took my CX singlespeed onto the Legacy trail in Venice to get in some miles and carve through a few local parks. For some reason my seat was not cooperating, it squeaked and twisted under my weight giving me some early saddle pains. I was not off to a good start. I broke off the trail into some dirt, cutting corners but trying to keep her steady. My Kenda Small Block Eights were not holding up their side of the bargain. That bargain exists between every rider and the rubber they count on. We put trust into that compound, they must withstand abuse and not let us down when it matters most. 16 miles later my Kenda's failed. Sand spurs, ever the scourge of Florida trails, had brought me to a compete halt. I was 3.8 miles away from my car in the unforgiving heat with no help and a minor limp from an earlier injury. I pushed my bike back but with a grudge, I had trusted my tires and they let me down. It was not the

After a recent case of saddle sores I thought it prudent to grab at least one more pair of padded shorts. In the past I have used shorts from Pearl Izumi, Specialized and Louis Garneau. They have done their jobs admirably but not to my full satisfaction. For this reason I have never before written a review of cycling shorts. They all seemed the same - adequate for the job but also lacking that little extra which would be deserving of praise. Having said all of that I decided to try something new when I visited the Cycle Clothing Shop in my hometown of Englewood, Florida. I was pleasantly surprised by their prices which made me suspicious of the quality of the apparel. Aren't good shorts supposed to cost a lot of money? Isn't it expensive and difficult to create a high quality product? Or, is that what we are taught to believe? I was introduced to a variety of SPEG shorts , from intro to pro, from a basic thin pad to the orange cushion in the Ferro design. Tha

Lately I have been trying to practice Amor Fati , a love of fate. The problem is that you never know where fate might lead. I never imagined that one day I'd be a widely followed blogger. It was a job that didn't exist when I was young. Growing up there was no internet so there was no such thing as blogging. Back in the 1980's writers scribbled in isolation and hoped one day to be noticed. Luckily I got noticed very early on. My journey started at 12 years old when a few of my poems were published in a school poetry book ( You can read the story here ). I didn't know it back then but that was the start of my writing career. It was a bittersweet beginning because although I liked having a talent, I didn't want to be a writer. I certainly didn't want to be a poet. The truth is that I wanted to be an athlete. The problem was that I sucked at organized sports. As a kid I played 2 seasons of soccer, 1 season of baseball and 1 season of basketball. In all