We’ll start off the Water Bottle Wednesday series by looking at this nice water bottle from Trek Bikes.

This is a quality water bottle that looks and feels good. The color and design make it more apt to a beach cruiser, as I don’t know of many racing bikes in the baby blue and navy blue color scheme!

But it works. It’s actually on par with the Specialized brand water bottles, so I wouldn’t hesitate to use it in a race situation.

What’s cooler, though, is how I got it. It was actually a door prize (which I rarely win) at the 2007 Shannock Valley Community Festival MTB race (which I’ve done about five times now.) It might be my only door prize though!

Thanks goes out to Trailz End Multisport Bicycle Shop of Indiana, PA for donating it. I’ve used it over 6 months now and it still looks good!

You can keep your studded tires to yourself! Heck, I don’t need tires or even a drivetrain!

As you can see I’ve been sporting my wonderful Ski Bike this winter and I can’t get enough of it! This is basically a bike with skis instead of wheels, but riding it is out of this world.

I just had to share my pictures, so check them out below. It’s a good time, you should try it!

Just remember, always wear your helmet! (Riding a bike downhill is dangerous enough, let alone riding down on something you rigged up in your basement!)

So build your own and try it out, it’s a lot of fun. It’s also surprisingly easy to learn. If you can ride a bike, you can probably ride a ski bike just fine.

However, if you can’t build a bike very well, be careful!

The Attack Position is a little different on one of these guys - you sit down, hold the bars, and stick your feet out.

You can carve turns just like you’re on real skis.

And don’t forget tricks like The Superman.

Carving down the mountain = loads of fun!

P.S. Click here for ski bike build instructions.

And stay tuned - the video will be posted shortly!

This article depicts professional riders on closed terrain. Don’t try this at home.

Want to keep your hands warm and toasty but can’t find or afford proper pogies?

Then break out some plastic jugs and duct tape and a little elbow grease! I found this great idea the other day over at the Bicycles and Icicles blog, which is full of good stuff when it comes to winter cycling.

It looks like you take two jugs, one for each side, and cut a gap out of each one so you can put your hand in it. Also cut small holes for whatever brake and shifter cables you have. Then you duct tape the jugs to the bar and apply the duct tape liberally to make things look nice and classy.

A perfect pogie replacement!

Or if you have some cash and can act fast, look at these handlebar mittens on sale:

They are made for ATVs and snowmobiles, but they should work fine on a bike. And for $12.99 for the black ones, it’s a steal! (Advantage Timber is $14.99, but hurry, they could sell out real fast!)

One annoying thing about clipless pedals is how hard it is to ride around in regular sneakers. It’s fine if you have an XC race bike and a townie on hand at all times, but that’s not always feasible.

So what do you do if you need to ride around on your race bike but still keep your feet on the pedals with regular shoes?

Those little plastic inserts? Those suck. They’re hard to put in and even harder take out, and sometimes they’re just as slippery as your pedals themselves.

So make your own!

The best option is to use a skateboard and some old SPD cleats. I saw the idea at the Sooper-Genious blog, and I’ll admit, it’s a genius idea since the skateboard has grip tape and just the right shape.

Basically you take a skateboard and cut two pieces of it for the platforms. Then you mount some SPD cleats to each one, and viola, temporary platforms!

And remember, skateboards break all the time. So take a walk by the closest outdoor skatepark and look for a broken board. Chances are some kid left one there for the trash.

The full tutorial is here: Skateboard Deck Clipless Platform Pedals

Let me tell you a little story about properly routing the cable for your front disc brake…

It all started when I purchased my Specialized Stumpjumper at Landry’s Bicycles. I was replacing a stolen bike in the middle of the NCCA collegiate racing season, which also happened to coincide with the gap between bicycle model years. I was lucky to find a bike that fit that was in stock, but I got one.

And what did I do the day after buying it? Raced it, of course!

With the stress of a stolen bike, college, work, and racing season, I couldn’t be bothered with checking out the bike. Plus, Landry’s is always on the “Top 100 Bicycle Retailers” list and they were a sponsor of our team, so I trusted them.

But that led to a little problem… (more on this later.) The problem was caused by the front brake cable routing, which can be seen in the picture on the left.

See, the brake cable is wrapped tightly behind the fork crown and down the fork leg. I never questioned the cable routing until one day when I realized the cable was eating into the aluminum on the fork crown!

You can see the damage in this picture:

Granted, the fork will still work fine. But if given the choice, I’d rather not have the cable rubbing like that. To fix it, I wrapped cable ties around the cable on the fork crown and the head tube (kind of like makeshift cable guides.) That fixed the problem, but it caused another!

The cable tie around the head tube wouldn’t stay in place, so it ended up scraping all the paint off the head tube!

I wasn’t happy at all so I just said “screw it” and let it go.

Then one miraculous day I found an article at BlueCollarMTB.com about proper front disc cable routing. Then everything made sense!

It turns out the cable was not routed properly in the first place! So with the help of that guide and a little common sense, I re-routed my cable to go in front of the fork and down the inside of the leg.

(See the picture on the right, or the picture below, for an example of the proper routing.)

After that simple switch, my braking performance has improved and I have a feeling my fork legs and cable housing will last a bit longer!

What’s the moral of the story then?

Always double check a new bike to be sure it is setup properly.

Chances are the cable was routed improperly when it left from the Specialized warehouse. And not all bike mechanics will bend over backwards to make sure things are perfect. (Although a bike from a bike shop will at least be put together properly, unlike Wal-Mart bikes.)

So you have to look out for yourself! If something looks wrong, it could be. Check it out, read up on the subject, or take it back to the shop if you have to.

(Of course, you could learn to do your own repairs, too.)

Also, note that the “complete idiot” in this case is me, for assuming that the cable was properly routed to begin with.

Happy trails!