Followers of the Race Across America likely already know, but in case you haven't heard, Team RANS has successfully completed the race in the 4 Person Male category in FIRST PLACE!

According to the RAAM web site, Team RANS rode for 6 days, 3 hours, and 40 minutes with an average speed of 20.46 MPH. The team were outfitted with RANS X-Stream recumbent bikes.

Congratulations to Team RANS on their victory. And also congratulations to two people who did a great job covering this race. Larry Varney accompanied Team RANS and did a great series on their efforts. BentRider regular jalexartis has been covering RAAM blow by blow on his Cycling Experiences blog. Thanks to both for helping to build excitement around Team RANS' achievement.

There's no stopping evolution, especially on websites. That's my way of explaining the fact that our blog format has changed and that all the URLs are now different. Our RSS feed has changed, too, so if you subscribe to our feed, you're going to want to resubscribe.

That's not the only change coming up here on the site. The galleries will all be changing to the new thumbnail hover format that we used for the 2009 rally photos. And the store is getting tabbed interfaces for the product details in order to shorten the length of the pages. How very unexciting, eh?

In order to jazz this up a bit, here's a big man on a little recumbent.

PS - For those who do not buy into the theory of website evolution, I am more than receptive to being called this site's intelligent designer.

We see things enter the shop on occasion that really surprise us, like the 1991 ICE recumbent, a Cannondale recumbent, and, most recently, a pristine bright yellow RANS Vivo. According to the prior owner, it was ridden a total of 10 miles. It looks it!

For an idea of why this is remarkable, take a look at the Vivo review from BentRider Online ... from 2003.

We'll be selling this fine specimen of classic recumbent bike, so if you're interested, please give us a call.

If that teaser photo we posted earlier wasn't enough, then you'll love these much sharper images posted to the Catrike forums. Again, these run $139 a pair. Catrike also mentioned that the bags are made from recycled materials and that "Arkel is using a handicapped team to help make them".

I won't call it the worst kept secret of trike accessories, but I will say that it's a relief that all of the parties involved have now admitted to what we already knew. Arkel and Catrike have created rack bags for the Catrike Trail, Expedition, and 700 trikes.

The bags were first "revealed" at the last Catrike factory tour and rally, where attendees walked away wishing they could have bought them on the spot. Then they were shown in Paulo's factory tour video. And now Arkel is spilling the already spilled beans on what are admittedly very cool looking bags.

Here's the word from Arkel:

Yes, it's official! The Catrike bags are ready to go! We've tried to keep this one under the covers as long as we could but it's now time to spill the beans and tell everyone about the new bags for the Trail, Expedition and 700 trikes from Catrike. These bags are made right here in North America from 100% recycled 600 denier polyester fabric with foam and high density polyethelene stiffeners. These new bags will be sold in pairs and fit snuggly on each trike. No rack necessary! The new designs are made to carry from the frame and require no other hardware. MSRP $129.99/pair. You may contact Arkel or Catrike directly for more info.

So there you have it, $130 a pair for bags that fit perfectly in the seat frame nook of Catrike trikes. Below is an image that was distributed with the Arkel e-mail announcement.