Author Alex Hutchinson

You only have three contacts points with your bike - your hands, your butt and your feet. Let's face it, your feet are the most important. They carry most of your weight, maintain your balance and provide propulsion. Your feet can rescue you when facing an imminent crash. What you put on your feet is crucial. The right shoes can quite literally save your life. I ride and race on a small budget (Even with sponsors) so I use platform pedals. To get the most out of my flats I wear shoes appropriate to the task. Enter the SixSixOne Filter. The Filter is a skate style flat bottom shoe that has a hidden opening on the sole should you want to use it as clipless. The reason I love this shoe is that it is a tank. It can handle a serious beating. When my old ones finally showed their years, I ordered a brand new pair. For the sake of disclosure I am a SixSixOne sponsored athlete. However, they did not ask me to write this article. In fact, the reason I wanted to be associated with

The summer weather in Florida can be fickle. The forecast for most days is a combination of hot, bright sunshine with the occasional thunderstorm. These summer storms can come from any direction: north, south, east or west, shifting course without notice. They can can be small, lasting only a few minutes and producing little more than a sun shower. They can also slam down an epic deluge of golf ball sized drops from a black swirling void of thunder, lightning and tornadoes. The dilemma is that you can never quite tell what you are about to face. On May 14th, 2015, Tim Reifschneider planned out one of his legendary time trials to be held at the Carlton Reserve in Venice, FL. Tim is the creator of the long standing Tempo & Timmy's Time Trial Series which was done in association with the now closed Tempo bike shop. While these free time trials are done without advertising or even much notice they can get rather large. The peak attendance came during the summer of 2012 wh

On May 17th the National Indie Excellence Book Awards announced their 2015 recipients. These awards were created to recognize and celebrate excellence in independent book publishing. This  prestigious National award, based in Los Angeles  is open to all English language books in print from small, medium, university, self and independently publishers. The National Indie Excellence Awards exists to help establish independent publishing as a strong and proud facet of the publishing industry. Recognizing authors that put their heart and soul into their work, the NIEA is proud to be a champion of self-publishers and small and independent presses that go the extra mile to produce books of excellence in every aspect. Awarded since 2007, the NIEA competition is judged by independent experts from all aspects of the indie book industry, including publishers, writers, editors, book cover designers and professional copywriters.” Winners and Finalists are determined based on “Overall

I have only ever tested a handful of 29ers. I generally found them to be more stable, aggressive on technical downhills with laid out geometry that felt race focused. While that sense of balance and control left a positive impression, I have never been able to afford such a beast. However, I will get to race one. Bicycles International of Venice and Luksha Reconstruction noticed my recent boost in name recognition, mostly due to the popularity of my book Twisted Trails . Then I told them about my ambitious racing schedule so they decided to sponsor me for the 2015 season. What I needed most was a bike good enough for cross country racing and gravel grinders. It didn't have to be a world beater but it had to stand a step above my now beat up Trek Four Series. Admittedly, that would be an easy task. "What kind of bikes do you see at the races?" asked Jason Luksha, owner of Luksha Reconstruction. While the trends have been fluctuating over the years between 26, 27