DZR CYCLING SHOES

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I’m a daily commuter and I do it on my ’07 Cannondale CAAD5 (capo) which I ride fixed wheel. I ride everywhere I go, and being in a car is rare for me. I remember early on I struggled to even consider a balance between the desire for speed and the need for functionality; I was in clips about a month after I started riding. I was hooked immediately, going from cages to an SPD cleat. The power increase was unexpected – I knew it would be big, but it felt huge. I went with an SPD cleat because I hoped to avoid bringing shoes to change into after a commute. I wasn’t happy with the esthetics of any of the available shoes but settled on a modest pair of Shimano touring shoes. About three months later I saw the shoes DZR had made for Mission Workshop.

The Rondell was everything I had wanted in a shoe. It looked like a normal sneaker, had a good amount of style and the cleat was recessed so far that you could comfortably walk around in them.

I’ve owned these shoes now for about two years, I couldn’t afford them on launch but it was a limited run and six months or so down the line all that was left were irregular sizes. Luckily for me, that meant I could buy a pair.

I’ve yet to try any to the offerings DZR produces for themselves and I’m not sure I will. I was let down by the manufacturing quality of the Rondell. The soles began to come away from the shoe early on. Shortly after most seams on the shoes began to fail. If you only commute a few miles and don’t ride outside of that, the style and function of DZR shoes will suit you well. If you ride them however, they’ll disintegrate. my strava

After riding straps for about six months and wearing thru 3 pairs of shoes I began my hunt for better ridding shoes. I also commute to work and don’t have a car, so something that I was going to be able to ride and wear at work was necessary. I decided to look into the market of different SPD compatible shoes that had more of a sneaker style, and to my surprise there was a good variety available at the time. However, when I heard that Prolly Is Not Probably was coming out with limited edition DZR shoes I had to get them and waited almost 6 months for them to arrive.

At first look they are sweet, I mean pretty much everything you ever wanted a shoe to look like, all black rugged super stiff to give you a nice platform. From the first ride I realized they really weren’t going to hold up the way I expected them to; the glue holding the front of the shoe began to come apart and within the first couple hundred miles. The shoes look pretty worn in. It didn’t get too bad until I started mountain biking, with the extra weather and mud and I guess the abuse they get while riding the trails really took their toll on the laces. Quickly I found myself needing to do some very important modifications to get them to work better for me.

I walked into CVS and purchased the cheapest insoles they had and they fit perfect with no modifications. I also purchased their black shoe laces and like magic the shoes transformed into a completely enjoyable experience. They were more comfortable and I could actually wear them at work all day, they’re now one of my favorite shoes.

If DZR was to release the exact shoes again I don’t think I would by them, however if they were to make some modifications to their design the shoes have the potential to be some of the best urban/mountain shoes around. My Strava

Images by BUSTAPHOTO

Summer Nights

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Summer nights have a different meaning in Miami, those come in abundance. When late August rolls around a switch turns on, the real summer begins. One of endless nights, long sunrises and eternal sunsets, when groups of friends meet groups of new friends where the air is never still. With so much to do and places to be riding can easily take a back seat, however this year there is something new I haven’t noticed before…. Bikes! As the summer swells so does the amount of bikes on the road, I have no idea wether it is the Olympics and Le Tour de France happening all at once but there is definitely a bigger bicycle presence in the city this year. Taking advantage of the cycle friendliness going on we decided to take to the streets for an FGFS session.
Here’s a short series of Fransisco Peréz in the dissapearing light of Biscayne Bay.

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Waiting

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It seems that since the accident the thing I do most is wait.

I can’t tell you how frustrating this is. Even the prospect of attempting and inevitably failing to accurately describe just how frustrating it is, doesn’t begin to measure up to it, as frustrations go.

I find myself consistently at the mercy of time. You might be thinking to yourself, “well sure, that’s life”, but hear me out. Monday I had my first post operation exam. Well, first after the second attempt anyway; I’m going to use Monday as an example of how much time I spend waiting.

Without my bicycle for transportation I’ve had to endure Miami’s awful excuse for a transit system. A commute that used to take me a little over an hour in the saddle has become a two and a half hour ordeal in a crowded cage. What’s worse is for most of the journey I’m traveling on the same road. There I sit, or stand, on that bus after waiting for however long for it to arrive and time is just wasting away. Outside, through the window, I’ll see cyclists pass by the bus in either direction. I used to blow by busses on this road… I’d be where I mean to go by now. If I’m not waiting for a bus or train to arrive, I’m waiting to arrive on it.

All the time I’m waiting for my body to heal. I wait to see doctors, surgeons, and for radiologists. When I first get to the hospital I wait to pay. I was given an appointment, be here at the specified time to receive a number and wait in line. It’s ridiculous, I wait for a day where I have healthcare.

After paying I wait a few hours to get an X-ray, then another couple to have a doctor see me.

This is what we’re working with:

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I’m told it looks good and that I’ll need to come back in a month. For now, no lifting. Keep my arm in a sling to limit movement and make others aware that I’m injured. The hardware is all permanent and can still fail. For the next month I’ll be waiting to go in and get it looked at again. I’ll be waiting to see if it’s holding strong or if it’s begun to bend.

You mean I can bunny hop a 29er?

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You mean I can bunny hop a 29er?

Mashing down the street in traffic with a curb on your right isn’t the ideal situation, that is unless you got the hops to get up and over with some chunk ass tires :)
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I’ve been ridding my Volume Cutter V2 exclusively for the last 2 1/2 years, trying some tricks along the way while constantly having fun. I have always been an aggressive rider, but lately on my fixed I’ve been feeling this comfort take over me to the point where there is little challenge in riding even though there is plenty of room to grow. I needed some change and I’ve always liked riding my fixed gear for the simplicity, strength, and the ease of maintenance. My love for bikes grew from fixed gear and the thought of having a different favorite bike never went through my mind.
Recently, I’ve been going to Oleta River State Park to ride the trails with some friends and to my surprise it was a lot more challenging than I ever expected. Oleta has over 14 miles of trails ranging from beginner to advance has some man built obstacles and wicked bumpy roots to tread through. Since we started renting bikes there at least once a week for the last couple months, I rediscovered the idea of being careful on my bike and I can’t begin to explain how great it is to feel progression all over again, something I have been missing for a long time. This extra push has also helped all other aspects of my ridding as well, I can finally wheelie my fixed, I feel I can hop higher and I’m just more confident on all my bikes since my transition.

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This made me want to go out and a buy a new bike, I wanted this progression to be available all the time, before and after work, everyday off, while it rained ALL THE TIME!! Checking out some bikes here and there, I finally decided to treat myself and get my first new bike. Not just new because it hasn’t been ridden before but new because it a Hardtail 29er with hydraulic disc brakes, and gears all new to me. It’s been a couple weeks now and I still have the same feeling that I had the first time I hit the trails except now I am much more confident and a 15 mile trail ride is only a half way venture for me. Here is a starva with my latest ride.
As you can see from the ride Virginia Key North Point Trails is quickly becoming my new home away from home. Having a bike of my own has allowed me to explore closer rides than I was able to before allowing me to get to know the trails and push myself knowing that home is a bike ride away. I’m definitely going to be writing more about these awesome trails along with posting videos going more in depth on all the experiences on the trails, so there is plenty more rides to come.

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Recovery

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I can’t say I was expecting this.

Sure I knew it would hurt, after all there’s a huge metal spear impaling one of my bones. I just didn’t imagine it would be so much worse than the last time. They inserted a much larger diameter pin and even went so far as to secure it with wire. First they had to remove the failed hardware and some bone along with it. I even received a bone graph, there’s a little pice of a dead guy growing inside me.

Here’s the failed hardware they had to pull out.

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So here’s the new config:

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I’m about to say I’m in pain.

The thing is though, this is a truly incredible amount of pain. Even on the drugs they’ve given me, this pain is a bright ball of awful in the foreground of my mind. It’s not something easily pushed aside. There’s really nothing I can do about it though, apart from heal.

So I guess I’ll get to that…

Accidents

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Well that’s no good.

That’s all I could think. I felt like I was floating. Well, more like sinking. That’s about when I felt my shoulder twist against the pavement, then the rest of my mass topple down after it. My bag began to slow me down as the pavement tore into the Cordura construction, my lower torso flailing around behind me. I’m dazed, I hit my head pretty hard, my shoulder’s an explosion of pain strapped to my body. There are still what seems like an infinite line of riders coming, I need to grab my bike and get out of the road. I made my way out of the street and looked my bike over; somehow it was still in one piece.

After sitting on the corner and watching the rest of April’s Critical Mass ride pass by I worked up the nerve to try and ride to the ending point. Someone had tried to cross the road through a gap in the mass of riders, and I had collided with them. Later that night I would learn my collarbone was broken, ankle sprained, t-spine disks herniated, and had suffered a concussion. For now though, I needed to ride to the Filling Station.

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So that’s it, it’s fractured and displaced. I’m told the Clavicle’s similar to your ribs in that most cases are simply left alone to heal. There’s just really no reason to do anything. That brake however needed to be pinned together. It may have healed given enough time, but certainly wouldn’t have been ideal. The solution was a surgery that employed a screw to get the bone on the mend.

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I’m no expert, but it looks like a pretty solid job. There was one issue though, tolerance. The size of my Clavicle and location of the brake, I believe, created a fulcrum that applied too much pressure to the screw.

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Every movement of my neck, torso, or shoulders – every involuntary cough, shake, or shiver applied force to that screw.

Until it broke.

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It’s been about nine weeks since I’ve ridden my bicycle. That last image was taken yesterday; That’s when I found out I need another surgery. When I found out I won’t ride again for another ten weeks or so.

I’m not big on the idea of more surgery, less so on not riding. The idea of not being able to preform in the future is even more terrifying. So surgery it is. Sometime next week actually. Hopefully this time I’ll heal up quickly enough to trash some other part of my body before the year’s over.