Reviewing stuff

Editor's note: I some how managed to delete the top couple of paragraphs of this post when I was adding the picture. So, I shall try to recreate what I wrote.

A couple of months ago, Global Ride sent me an email asking if the beat bike blog would like to review their "Hawaiian Rides" DVD box set. I'll try anything once, so I said sure. They arrived several months ago, but as it is the summer months, I much rather ride a bike in reality than in my guided imagination. The three DVDs are Maui Rollers, Oceanside Ride, StrenDurance Hawaii. I'm not sure that "StrenDurance" is a word, so I stuck with the other two.

They're really pretty rides and they're almost a substitute for the real thing. Well, I suppose if you live in Hawaii, they're definitely not a substitute, because you can actually go on these rides. They're also very well shot, but I have one complaint: the car or whatever is holding the camera takes sharp turns very strangely, as in it seems to favor the outside of the turn and mildly makes you feel like you're not going to make the corner and crash. The other sort of weird thing is that it'll fade out of sections of road into totally new sections. I'd rather just stick with the same road/route, but the variety is cool, I suppose.

I found the music to be pleasant, but I'm predisposed to liking jazzy techno, because my dad was way into soma.fm for awhile. You can also turn on a coach's voice, who tells you encouraging coach-type things to make you pedal harder and sweat more. That's definitely helpful, because if it doesn't actually because more difficult to pedal when the DVD shows you going up a hill, why would you pedal harder?

The DVDs end with these 1/2 hour core strength training stuff. That's not really my thing, but I'm a man with a naturally strong core.

Once I am legit in my training apparatus, I think I'll do a follow-up to this. My verdict at present is that it's definitely better than power yoga, but probably not as good as Wayne's World. When the weather is nasty, this allows you to go on an ersatz nice ride, but what Global Ride really needs to offer are tickets to Hawaii along with the DVD. Also, my favorite work out show ever was definitely Bodies in Motion with Gilad Janklowitz, which was shot in Hawaii, not so much because I ever did the workouts, but because he seemed like a really nice guy. It was interesting to learn that he was originally from Israel. He's the only Israeli workout guru I know of in Hawaii. I'm not sure how Gilad and cycling training DVDs are related, so on second thought, never mind.

Speaking of more reviews, this guy, Tyler, from CSN Stores & luggage.com emailed me last week and wanted to know if we wanted to review some other stuff. I replied asking him why he thought a bike blog was the right place to review luggage, mattresses or cookware. I mean, there's nothing exceptional about our sleeping and I know just as many soporific adjectives as the next guy. But, he persisted and insisted that they sell all sort of stuff, even bike related stuff. I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth and the blogging side of me (unlike the work side of me) has no problem accepting gifts. So, whatever happens to arrive in my mailbox, I'll write about it.

Soon, maybe I'll write about riding my bike agian. There doesn't seem to be anything new an interesting in that regard, though. (The copious links were requested.)