These are heated gloves made by Venture, the name makes me laugh because it reminds me of the cheap department store from years back, but these aren't too cheap. They have a lithium ion battery pack that sits in each glove and is rechargeable in about four hours. Depending on power settings Max, High, Med, and low the battery lasts between 2-10 hours. Having cold hands normally I of course put them right to Max on a ride into the wind 25 degree temps. I was shocked when 15 minutes in my hands were too hot, turned down to high, another 15 minutes still too warm, turned down to medium.... perfect. The reason I think they work so well is that they heat so that the finger tips are the hottest, then cooler as they work down toward your palms, just the opposite of how your fingers are.
They come up high on your arm and have two different adjustment points at the cuff and midpoint. 
One of the better things for me about these is if you do get cold they ramp up hot enough that they'll snap you back to comfortable quickly, that's the benefit of not having to run them on the highest setting to be comfortable. If you have to stop and change a flat on a 20 degree day, you can pop these to max and get comfortable again quickly. They are expensive but when I go through close to 100 of those little chemical warmers in a year, these seem like a much better alternative for the environment. When you add it all up they pay for themselves in two seasons. I'm looking into carrying them at the shop if you are interested drop me an email.
What's that saying "don't put the cart before the horse"? Oh well screw that. The first piece of Custom 09 "Team Pony Shop" cross bikes.
Nationals sounded like a blast, still can't find too many photos, but I stole this one below from Mike's site. He has a good recap of his racing this weekend, had an awesome ride, even with trouble to finish on the podium of the D1 race. Brian had a good ride in the masters race. And Devon is our new Colligate D2 National champion. What impresses about Devon is that she raced the elite race 1 hour after her win in the colligate race, and was riding in 8th for most of the race! 
We have lots in store for 09 and I look forward to keeping the team going for years to come. It has truly been a pleasure working with everyone.
What is that saying "train like you race" or something like that. Mark and I figured in our wee little heads that it would be a good idea to go out this am at five o'clock and ride for an hour to let the lungs acclimate to the cold temps. Well that's kind of like how the riders in the 50's used to smoke to acclimate their lungs to the bad air quality, it hurts! Everything is icy as hell along the lake.
Matt Pacocha from Velonews just posted a great article about tire choice. Funny because after last week in the Iowa slop the subject has come up a lot. He's promised a more in depth look at the tires he's ridden this season coming soon. If you have favorite combinations email them to me lou(at)ponyshop.com and I'll post them up here. No time like the present to plot next season's tire budget! I'll go first, wish list.
Jonathan Page no longer on Ridley bikes, has switched to Blue for the remainder of the season. I never quite understand how this end of the industry works. Ridley is a sponsor of the Planet Bike Team, the majority of the team is riding beautiful custom painted X-nights or X-fires. They were out in force at Jingle Cross last weekend, and let me say The Planet Bike Team has set the bar high in terms of professionalism and having nice approachable riders. Bob has done a great job with his team and all their sponsors. How is it that JP can decide to just break his contract with Ridley and pick up a new bike sponsor? I'm guessing he has a different deal than the rest of the team, but it still seems like a very unprofessional thing to do, especially when just days later you are trash talking Ridley whose bikes the rest of your team is still currently riding.
Steve Tillford's Trek. (Thanks julie)
Todd Well's GT
Jack's Redline post race Sunday, more snow than mud in the am.
Aspen after the 2/3 race.
Ben's Rock Lobster
Sherer's C-Dale
We had 12 wheels in the back of our car!
Pam and Isaac watching over the heard. Isaac's specialized in the foreground.
This guy actually crashed on the downhill below and flipped over the fencing.
Look in the background... it wasn't out of the ordinary to see guys sliding down the hill ahead of their bikes.
Hemme rocking the 2/3's.
Aspen in the 2/3's.
This was the easy run up, which led to the off camber section.
Winter wonderland. Overall great weekend! Devon wins her first UCI cross race! Got to spend time with lots of good friends, and race 3 cross races, doesn't get much better.
