On Bicycles, and.... what else is there?

Back in July I designed a jersey for what is at present the Belkin team, but which will become the Dutch Lotto team. It was just a hack. I didn't expect the professionally designed one to actually look similar to any significance: The actual jerseys of the team for the 2015 season were just revealed: Not too bad, I think...

Dutch Lotto is replacing Belkin as the title sponsor of that team next year. I threw this together during some way too crowded Caltrain commutes. Not too creative. It's using the Pro Cycling Manager kit template. The design's been iterated since I first posted this, and is looking more and more like Pantani-vintage Mercato Uno...

Working from home today due to a follow-up appointment with the oral surgeon, I was pleasantly surprised by FedEx which delivered my Low-Key Hillclimbs kit. And I was very pleased with the result! Here, for reference, was my post on the design. Here's a brief photograph, taken by Bryn Dole, who also ordered one: Compare and contrast with the preview: It came out pretty much exactly as expected, with one small detail: I implemented a drop shadow as a translucent black layer, which forms grey on white but darkens other colors. Somehow that came out as grey on colors as well. But it still works. It's a very minor detail. Also, the green on the front extends a bit higher than I'd anticipated. But the rest of the design came out extremely well. And the fit: perfect. It's a lightweight jersey which fits me snugly, perfectly suited for hillclimbs (okay, perhaps a skin suit would be better for hillclimbs, but this is still excellent). And the pockets are a ni...

In January I summarized jersey designs I've done for Pro Cycling Manager , a video game where players manage pro cycling teams made up of real-world riders, who in virtual form are supposed to ride similarly to their flesh-and-blood counterparts. I've never played the game, but I like using the model for visualizing cycling jersey designs. I was so happy with Jakroo going live with the Low-Key jersey design , a jersey something I've thought about doing the whole history of Low-Key Hillclimbs . We actually had a leader's jersey in 1996, but it wasn't a full design: Well, I had jersey design stuck in my mind, and during a few Caltrain commutes I couldn't put it aside as abruptly as I'd have liked. I stumbled across a this jersey contest on the Pro Cycling Manager forum. For the January contest I figured I'd enter the Low-Key design. After all, I liked it. I thought the color balance was good: black, but with complementary blue and green highlig...

After preliminary designs, previews, rider surveys, design submission, multiple iterations of vendor designs, the new Low-Key Hillclimbs jersey is finally ready to order . I went with Jakroo, who did the WeightWeenies kit I really like. They have high quality stuff, ship directly to individuals, and have no minimums. Here's the design: I went with their top-of-the-line garments, including the "Tour" jersey with its "slim fit" option which fits me better than any other jersey I've tried. Indeed the Jakroo fit options are the best I've seen, with men's and women's, a range of sizes, and three fit styles. It's always a small risk trying a new jersey maker but I was super-happy with taking that risk in ordering the Weight Weenies jersey. I had 20 people respond that they wanted to buy a jersey, 19 of those wanting the full kit. Now that it's time to put down the money it will be interesting to see how many follow through. But a...

This whole jersey design thing is addictive. I've really got to move on... but at least Team Low-Key is ready for greatness:

I love this jersey design: the 2014 Strava-Marc Pro team, based in northern California: As an aside, the jersey is done by Jakroo , the northern-California-based company which also did the WeightWeenies jersey, and which I plan to use for the Low-Key Hillclimbs jersey . I really like my Weightweenies jersey: it fits snugly without being tight. It's a perfect race jersey for me. Unfortunately I can't wear it in sanctioned races. Bill Bushnell photo On the subject of Strava , I'm a bit disappointed that they dropped me from their Ambassador program this year without any notice (starting 1 Jan, I was back to "premium"). But after they stopped sponsorship of Low-Key Hillclimbs of which hey were an enthusiastic supporter, stopped sponsorship of my cycling club, and now this, I'm naturally a bit less of a fan. Maybe it's a natural consequence of their amazing growth. And it's important to handle disappointment.

Last time I wrote about my Low-Key jersey design , which I previewed with the Pro Cycling Manager "shirt" 3-D viewer . I've used this before for various jersey designs I've done. Most are based on the 2009 Pro Cycling Manager templates, which are half the resolution of the 2013 standard. However, they all work fine on the previewer and, I assume, the actual game. Here's a summary. Broccoli Man This was a fun design based on a "superhero" who featured in some on-line videos a few years ago. Metrigear I was a big fan of Metrigear, and I did this design based on the art on their website. They were since bought out by Garmin, who already has a great jersey design with their pro team. Team Roaring Mouse This is my bike racing team. I did a design proposal for the team. The proposal was rejected, which was a disappointment, but the design that was chosen turned out to look really good. Weight Weenies Of the designs shown here, this is the on...

I was working on a jersey design for Low-Key Hillclimbs using a mixture of template files which correspond to pieces of fabric. The templates are good because they have a roughly 1:1 correspondence to fabric area and are thus a good reference for the jersey art department to render final artwork which will be printed on actual fabric. I used a combination of templates: a jersey template from Voler and a shorts template from Jakroo . I really like Jakroo since they have good quality stuff available in a great range of sizes with pricing which forgiving to low-quantity orders. Indeed their small "slim-cut" jersey fits me great: no excess but comfortable, exactly what you want for a racing jersey where "excess" equals needless wind resistance. Additionally, unlike Voler's version, I find the pockets a useful size. I love my Jakroo WeightWeenies kit I received as a gift. Here's some designs I came up with for Low-Key (the kit info page is here ). I d...