PFN Mystery Bike Photo Contest #17! Before or after prohibition?!

Yes, and pole-sitting was actually a fad as well.



By the bicycle design, can you guess the year? Correct answers in the comments receive the undying adulation and bitter envy of fellow readers.

Cannondale: The final dollar drops

The sale of Cannondale and Sugoi is nearly complete. Who's buying them? Dorel, a Canadian furniture and stroller company. Would it be mean to say that Cannondale's mountain bikes are a perfect fit for Dorel's other offerings? Probably. I know at least one credible and authentically cool dood who swears by Hed-Shok forks. (Hiya, Hollywood! Where's my State CX schwag?)

Still, I couldn't help noticing this reference in a Canadian news story about the deal:

The deal fits with Dorel's goal of building its bicycle and juvenile segments while stabilizing its shakier furniture business, he said.

I read the words "stabilize" and "shaky," and all I can think about is the Cannondale Scalpel. That bike featured a really lame plastic rear triangle ( I kid not), which made the bike handle a bit like you'd expect: like a hook-and-ladder firetruck with steering wheels on both ends. Let's just say that a rear-end that loose belongs on the dance floor, not the singletrack.

Still, you gotta respect the history of the once-proud bike manufacturer. Before going into bankruptcy right around the time they introduced the Scalpel, Cannondale was publicly owned. Do you know what their stock ticker symbol was?

As usual, a fistful of PFN fender stickers for correct answers in the comments. Alternatively, convince me of one good thing -- anything -- about the Scalpel. (The Lefty? Don't waste your breath.)

P.S. Don't hassle me about the roadbikes, though. I know, I know, they're tight.

Contest # 212: Bike on a treadmill?

If you're at all inclined to science geekdom, you know one of the hottest controversies in science right now is the airplane-on-a-treadmill argument. In short, can an airplane take off from a conveyor belt that is moving at precisely the same speed in the opposite direction? The question is more complicated than it seems, and it tends to polarize people. The guys at Mythbusters will settle this argument once and for all, come this Wednesday.

In the meantime, let's try a bike-themed corollary:

If you were doing a track stand on a conveyor belt that was moving 10 mph, and you did a perfectly vertical bunny hop, would you land in exactly the same spot?

Legitimate-sounding answers get a fistful o' PFN stickers!

Mystery Photo Contest No. 16: What is it?

If you can guess what's actually going on here -- or make me chuckle with your version of what you think is going on here -- you'll win a fat fistful of Pinch Flat News stickers!

Thursday Quiz: What is this?

And more importantly, why do I find it so damn annoying?

Obree speaks: Plus the answers to yesterday's quiz!

We failed to give you the answer to yesterday's impossibly difficult quiz, so here it goes: The first formula is for calculating the oxygen-carrying capacity and performance of cyclists at altitude who are acclimatized. The second is for non-acclimatized athletes, otherwise known as "flatlanders" or "wussies."

What's that got to do with the One Hour record? Well, there are actually three separate one-hour records -- one for UCI-approved trackbikes on an approved track, one for UCI-approved track bikes at altitude, and one no-rules, any-design, salt-flat-in-Nevada for geeks in clamshells.

All of which just makes us pine for the language of a common man in lilting Scottish brogue...

But seriously, Grame. Did you really wear spandex when you were a messenger?

PFN Contest! Win valuable prizes!

In all likelihood, the second formula applies to you, and it will make it much harder for you to set a new One Hour Record.

What do the formulae represent, and what's it got to do with the One Hour Record?

y = -1.12x2 - 1.90x + 99.9 (R2 = 0.973)

or

y = 0.178x3 - 1.43x2 - 4.07x + 100 (R2 = 0.974)

First one to guess correctly wins a handful of PFN stickers. (And yes, the usual knuckleheads win kudos for clever jokes.)

PFN Mystery Bike Photo Contest #14! "This is not a trueing truing stand..."

1) Who made this, and what's it for? 2) What connection does it have to smoking cigarettes, if any?

You, Constant Reader, will post the correct answer (or a hilarious, wrong answer) in the comments and win a fistful of our rare and beautiful stickers. (You have to answer both parts of the question, though. Cuz it's kind of an easy one. C'est la Vie!)

Mystery bike photo contest #13

If you know what this contraption is and does, and why it's historically significant, tell us in the comments. You'll win a handful of our bandspankingnew PFN fender stickers!