October 23, 2004

Trek 5900 Headset Fix

David Diamond wrote me pointing out that the 5900s from 2000-2003 had a problem where the headset was not loctited down so they are sticky. Its a little complicated to fix, but he has the procedure. Trek will fix under warranty too apparently. Here are his fix-it notes or maybe take it to your local bike shop and print this out since I'm sure they won't have heard of this problem

Best to use a workstand for this operation. Obviously you have the fork out of the headtube. Clean the inside of the lower cup with acetone. Careful not to get any on finished surfaces (it will remove paint, etc.). Clean the outer surface of the lower bearing also. The outer surface meaning the flat metal area that is parallel to the headtube and steerer. Place Loctite 680 on the outer bearing surface and the same area inside the lower cup the Loctite on the bearing will come in contact with. Just apply to a Q-tip so you can get it just where you want it.

Carefully insert the fork up into the headtube and make sure it is seated all the way in. You have about 10 minutes to assemble the top
headset/compression ring and stem. Adjust it real snug at first to make sue that you're completely seated and the bottom and top bearings are parallel.

Now back off the adjustment a little so that you can smoothly turn the handlebars all the way to the left and right without any areas of
resistance.

Don't touch the bike for 24 hours as this is how long it takes the Loctite to completely cure. You should be good to go at this point.

Let me know how this works for you.

Posted by rich at 08:16 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 24, 2004

SR-520 BRIDGE OPPORTUNITY SLIPPING AWAY

_A quote from Cascade Bikes

The good news is that no matter how many lanes wide, the new SR-520 bridge will make room for bicyclists and pedestrians. However, if a few noisy NIMBY's get their way, getting to the bridge from the south won't get any easier.

For years, the State and other stakeholders have been talking about connecting the bike/ped lane on the bridge to a street-end in Madison Park. A connecter from SR 520 wouldn't just get people to the bridge - it would open up an easier north-south route between lake side neighborhoods.

Some residents of Madison Park, or the nearby gated-community of Broadmoor, have suggested they will sue on environmental grounds if the connection is considered. However, if there are any environmental impacts from connecting the ped/bike lane to dry land, the SR-520 Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) is
where they should be studied.

So, the State won't study this connection in the unless asked by the City of Seattle, and the City, under pressure, is letting our window of opportunity to close.

WHAT CAN YOU DO? TAKE ACTION TODAY!

Mayor Nickels needs to hear from you today. Tell them you want a connection between the new SR-520 bicycle/pedestrian path and a street in Madison Park in the SR-520 EIS.

Send an e-mail or call right now, before you forget, to Mayor Greg Nickels and Deputy Mayor Tim Ceis at (206)684-4000, or tim.ceis@seattle.gov. To email Mayor Nickels, go to http://www.seattle.gov/mayor/citizen_response.htm

If you have time, don't forget the City Council at (206)684-8888 or jim.compton@seattle.gov; richard.conlin@seattle.gov; david.della@seattle.gov; jan.drago@seattle.gov; jean.godden@seattle.gov; nick.licata@seattle.gov, richard.mciver@seattle.gov; tom.rasmussen@seattle.gov;
peter.steinbrueck@seattle.gov.

Posted by rich at 10:23 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Kryptonite locks are not...

I have one of these Kyptonite locks for my bike. How depressing when this happens.

Here net is from Kryptonite

Kryptonite U-locks with a typical cylinder lock can be opened in seconds with a common BIC plastic pen.

Videos of how to do it have been downloaded hundreds of thousands of times from websites in the last few days.
After inserting the open end of the pen where the round key goes, several wiggles pop the lock.

Kryptonite has moved quickly to supply a solution. If you own one of its many vulnerable U-locks, you can
get a free or discounted crossbar that isn't so easily picked. The details are at www.kryptonite.com

Meanwhile, the word is out. If you have a Kryptonite U-lock that uses a round key, don't trust it to protect
your bike.

Posted by rich at 10:18 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 14, 2004

Bike Fitting

I've had three folks in the last month ask me about how to buy a bike. Here are the three pieces of advice in order:

  1. Materialpost.com. John Gallagher runs this group. For $150, you will actually get a bike that fits you. Believe it or not, this is about 80% of the performance and comfort on a bike. So, you can have Lance Armstrong's bike and it won't help if it doesn't fit and a guy on a $200 20-year-old bike will whip you if his fits right. Give John a call, he'll do a fitting, adjust your current bike as close as possible and then sit down with you on the web and give you a list of bikes that will really fit like a charm. He's also a huge seller of custom bikes so you can get a custom made one.
  2. Gregg's or Montlake Bike Shop are two of the best dealers in Seattle. If you don't know much about bikes, you can go there and they'll take care of you. They charge a little more, but it is worth it if you aren't a do-it-yourselfer.
  3. ebay.com. If you are a do-it-yourselfer and don't mind the risk, then ebay is a great place to get a used bike. There are plenty of folks who will buy a new bike every 1-3 years or who own 4-6 bikes and are selling. Also, racers sell the bikes sponsors give them. The discounts are anywhere from 30-50% off, but it is caveat emptor. Still, if you don't mind setting things up yourself, not a bad option.

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August 11, 2004

Campy Compact Cranks

Campy CT Cranks. These are compact cranks, so you don't need to get three rings in the front. Great for guys like me that don't need 53×11 big rings.

They are 50/34 rings vs. 53/39, so a little lowe4r range. Also, they are lighter overall apparently too, so that is even better.

Posted by rich at 11:06 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Klein Palomino

www.cyclingnews.com news and analysis . Well, there are sure a lot of great bikes now. The Klein got a glowing review from cyclingnews.com as did the new XT system particularly the cranks.

Posted by rich at 10:50 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 29, 2004

Tour de France Photos

www.cyclingnews.com presents the 91st Tour de France, 2004. Great photos from the Tour de France. The race may be over, but the memory lingers on.

Posted by rich at 08:49 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 23, 2004

Quote of the Day (Stage 17)

Tour de France - Daily Scoop (Stage 17). Those Texans can be so endearing

"I said to him, 'How bad do you want to win a stage on the Tour de France?' and he said, 'Real bad.' I said, 'How fast can you go downhill?' and he said, 'I can go downhill real fast'. He said, 'Can I do it?' And I said, 'Sure you can do it'. Then I told him, 'Run like you stole something, Floyd.'"

--Lance Armstrong, retelling the conversation he had with teammate Floyd Landis on top of the day's final climb, the Col de la Croix Fry.

Posted by rich at 07:43 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 22, 2004

Lance is a stud...Bike Lust continues

What about that Texan. An incredibly classy day today and I'm even more impressed with how hard those guys at the Tour De France work.

And, for those of us looking for the perfect mountain bike, perusing Cycling news gives us the new Klein Palomino XV based on the Tuner Monoshock.

Posted by rich at 08:30 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 17, 2004

Giant TCR Advanced

Jan Ulrich's Bike. This is a Giant TCR Advanced with an integrated seat tube so you don't actually need a seatpost or clamp.

That makes it just 900 grams and you save 125 grams on the seat post and clamp. Wow.

Posted by rich at 11:45 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Lance looks strong and Bike lust continues

Jen Voight's Cervelo. Now stock bikes are easily less than 15 lbs. Here's how:

Posted by rich at 11:13 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 08, 2004

Biking Identification

MILITARY STYLE SPORTS ID. No, not for your bike silly, its id you might want to carry if you are riding and get hurt. How many of us travel with ID (actually, I keep a business card, credit card, $20 and proof of insurance in my backpack, but I'm a nerd :-)

Here's a $8 solution. Just get a set of dog tags so they know where to call.

Posted by rich at 08:01 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

July 07, 2004

US Postal in 2004 becomes Discovery 2005

:: Discovery to sponsor Lance's team. I'm sure the US Postal service was amazed that they got Lance to sponsor. Kind of too bad, they could never take advantage.

The big boys are moving in though, next year, the Discovery Channel is sponsoring Lance.

BTW if you are wondering if there is a God, check out the Lance Armstrong Chronicles. 13 part series on Lance preparing. Just watched a segment, now I know why people buy Tivos. Wish I had one.

Posted by rich at 10:14 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 06, 2004

Tour de France Diaries

How do these guys have time to do it. Here are a collection of daily rider diaries from folks actually on the TdF:

Posted by rich at 11:11 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Bike Lust

After a few years of relative stability, the new bikes are pretty amazingly cool. Here are some highlights for lusting:

What do all those numbers mean? Just that the bike material is 50% lighter (55 vs. 110). Yikes, that's amazing. They also did a wheelset that is 100 grams lighter than ever. That's amazing.

Posted by rich at 11:03 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 04, 2004

Tour de France on the Web

OK, some amazing ways to catch the Tour de France other than on a TV:

Posted by rich at 06:32 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 30, 2004

Tour de France is here!

Well, its Tour de France time and the fever over here is high. Lots of bikers hanging out here. Here are some great places to look by google pagerank:

Posted by rich at 08:15 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 01, 2004

Mountain Bikes 2004

Now that my knee is better, time to start thinking about a great mountain bike. Some things have changed, but here's a quick review of bikes I've looked at:

Here's a list of key components. Again, its an update since 2003 when I last look at this:

Posted by rich at 11:48 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

May 08, 2004

Amazing Wheels

HeadAngle - And I thought my wheels were expensive.... I'm getting well enough to actually get on the bike again, so on to reading about more cool gear.

Reynolds has carbon wheels at $1,500. Campagnologo Hyperon Ultras are $3,000 at 1,345g per pair.

Interesting to see that the Topolino wheels are a relative bargain (if you can call it that) at $800 for a wheelset that's 1,420g per pair, so there is definitely diminishing marginal returns.

Posted by rich at 12:22 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 28, 2004

Bicyling in Hawaii

Well, I've been to Hawaii a bunch but never figured out how to really get a good ride in there. Here are some resources:

Posted by rich at 08:57 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack

January 30, 2004

Polar Power s720i output meter is broken...

Darn it, I like the monitor, but thing has mysteriously died. I get heart rate and speed, but I don't get cadence or power anymore. Sent a note to the folks at Polar and they think:

_If the Power sensor shows green light, then cadence should work. Have you chosen the cadence ON (also power) in your wrist unit (options - bike set)? Other possibility is that the chain speed sensor or its' wire is broken (yellow led is not blinking). On that case you can contact your local distributor for further assistance, you can find the contact information at "Polar":http://www.polar.fi/polar/channels/eng/polar/contact.html_

So it has to go back to the shop. Too bad I actually like the thing and was just getting used to training by watts.


Posted by rich at 09:25 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 03, 2003

Dura Ace 10 for only $1600!

Motobecane for just $1700 with Dura-Ace 10. Hat tip to Joe, check out these new Motobecane bikes that are going for $1700. They normally cost $2700. Man, I wish I needed a bike. BTW, this is less than the kit cost of a Dura Ace 10 setup at Excelsports.com

Posted by rich at 09:44 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 29, 2003

2 Years Later: The USE Alien Seatpost

Alien Clamp Fitting Instructions. Well its been two years since I installed this. The reviews are right. It is super light (just 140 grams), but incredibly hard to adjust. When I sit my fat butt on the seat, it literally locks into place. When I disassemble pieces go flying.

The most depressing thing is that it uses 2.5mm hex key which isn’t standard on my little Park tool, so if it slips (when it isn’t tight), then it is a real problem on the road. It says it only need 11.5 inch pounds or 1.5 newton meters to tighten. Hmm. Mines needs much more to stay locked in. May be why the hex bolt is now stripped.

In any case, it is great, but just hard to adjust. Next one I try I might give up a few grams for easier adjustment.

Posted by rich at 02:18 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 28, 2003

Campagnolo Record Bottom Bracket: Use Phil Wood instead

Hat tip to the folks at roadbikerider.com for this one

Uncle Al’s Rant: Campy Record Bottom Bracket

Dear Uncle Al: Uh oh! I’ve read how much you don’t like the Campy Record bottom bracket. I have 5,000 miles on my 2003 Record Carbon crankset so would be interested to know specifically what’s wrong with it. — Larry S.

Uncle Al Fires Back: The short answer is that it’s the most over-designed bottom bracket I’ve ever seen. There are twice as many parts as needed, and many of them are made of
materials (carbon fiber and aluminum) that do not stand up well to the terrific loads we exert on them.

Trying to make a bottom bracket light with gee-whiz materials is fine when the design gives us something that is reliable and long-lasting. But my experience with Record bottom brackets is that they will barely last a season, let alone many seasons like I think they should.

The more surfaces that interface, the greater the chance for slop in the system, which accelerates bearing wear. In terms of added durability, Campy’s dual bearings on the drive side accomplish nothing that a well-designed, two-bearing cartridge system can’t.

I’ll bet if you pull both crankarms and turn your BB spindle by hand, you’ll notice it’s not very smooth after only 5,000 miles.

Solution? All three Phil Wood bottom brackets have a simple design that’s executed with extreme precision. There is no unwarranted movement, and under hard use they will last for many, many years. When play is finally detected, you can send them back for refurbishing for a nominal fee.

The stainless-steel Phil BB is as light as the Campy record at 192 grams. And it has a lifetime guarantee — an offer no one else makes.

If you want the ultimate, install Phil’s proprietary Ti/Magnium BB. At 135 grams, there’s nothing lighter or finer. Try one. You’ll never use anything else.

_Branford Bike or Phil Wood Online has these in stock, here are the prices. Amazing thing is that they’ll last 20,000 miles without maintenance. Wow, for me that’s about 8 years of riding, so although expensive, very economical with pricing and when it wears out you send it back to Phil Woods and he puts new bearings in for $30. The generic Titanium with the Alloy rings seems like the best buy:_

PartPriceWeightComment
Stainless Steel Campy$99198 gramsSame weight as Record
Titanium Campy$159137 gramsGeneric Titanium
Magnium Campy$249134 gramsSome magnesium/titanium composite
Teflon/Alloy Mounting Rings$3811 gramsBritish threads
BB Mounting Ring Tool$14n/aReally need two to adjust easily

Posted by rich at 09:01 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 27, 2003

Titanium Break-Away just a concept

Five components that caught Andrew’s attention. It’s sad that one of the top five things that caught Velonews interest is just a concept. I asked Johannes over at Ritchey Logic (a great guy btw, answers email very quickly and is approachable in the extreme) and here is what he said. Sad to me they had enough interest, but are too busy it sounds like to make it a product. Heck, maybe folks can lobby them at Ritchey

From: Johannes Schmidt
Sent: Monday, October 27, 2003 9:35 AM
To: Rich Tong
Subject: RE: Titanium Break-Away

Rich,

That bike was a concept bike and we do not have any solid plans for development. We did have enough interest to make the Ti bike a reality but at this time I do not have any time line or pricing available. Keep your eyes on the website for updated product info.

Regards,
Johannes Schmidt
Ritchey Design Inc.
860 Hurlingame Ave.
Redwood City, CA 94063
f. (650) 261-1317
http://www.ritcheylogic.com/

Posted by rich at 08:29 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 26, 2003

Supergo coming to Seattle

Mountain Bikes,Bicycle Parts, & Accessories from Supergo Bike Shops. Supergo is a discount bicycle store down in California. They are going to open up a store here in Seattle. Don’t know where yet, but nice to know folks like coming up here!

Posted by rich at 09:07 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 18, 2003

Ultra-lightweight Cyclocross

InterBike: Five of my favorite bikes Another amazing find at InterBike, a 16 pound cyclocross bike!

Moots PsychloX-SL
Even though it is a cyclo-cross bike, at under 16 pounds the PsychloX-SL may be the lightest bike in the Moots booth! The clean and elegant frame is welded out of Reynolds 6Al/4V butted titanium tubing. The bike hits its sub-16-pound weight equipped with Reynolds carbon Stratus deep-section wheels and carbon ‘cross fork, Campagnolo Record group, and (what else) hand-made Dugast tubular ‘cross tires.

Posted by rich at 09:23 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Bike Lust: Titanium Ritchey Break-Away

Five components that caught Andrew’s attention Here’s #5 that caught Velonew’s attention at Interbike 2003. Man what I wouldn’t give to have a Titanium Ritchey Break-Away with Dura-Ace 10 components and have it weigh 17 pounds

5. Ritchey BreakAway
Ritchey’s new foldable BreakAway bikes are full size, standard geometry steel road bicycles with 700c wheels, that feature a unique coupling system that allows the bike/frame to be quickly disassembled and packed into a 26×28×9” suitcase. The bike weighs 19 lbs and is equipped with Ritchey Pro and Shimano Ultegra components. Suggested retail is $2500 (includes case). A 17 pound prototype titanium version was shown at the booth and may or may not see production.

Posted by rich at 09:06 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 05, 2003

Intense Spider XVP Desire

Johnny Vanderlinden 20Lb. Spider. Well, Brad and I both agree the Intense Spider XVP is the bicycle to lust after. HEre is a one that is just twenty pounds.

The frames are super hard to get. List for $1950 and Brad says they are backordered 3,000 frames. All handmade in California.

The Santa Cruz Blur is much cheaper and the same basic design, but it is like comparing Porsche to Honda really. Great specs on this bicycle too:

Posted by rich at 10:06 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

September 21, 2003

Another Senseless Death...

Ken Kifer’s Bike Pages — bicycle travelogues, bike safety, bicycling advocacy, and cycling humor.. Sad to say, Ken got hit by a drunk driver while biking at home. An eclectic guy, sad to see. A great site he has/had.

Posted by rich at 09:59 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 15, 2003

Your First Road Bike: A Guide

I’ve got no less than three people asking me about bicycles to buy. Here’s quick list for Peter, Tim and Brad. First, here are the information sources to look at in order of importance:

  1. Road Bike Reviews. This is a site that doesn’t seem to have become polluted with biased reviews like C|Net. I usually look at the bicycles by most reviews and then scroll through the ones with ratings of 4.5 or higher and have 10 reviews or so.
  2. Bicycling Magazine. They don’t tend to do many reviews, but it is the biggest publication, so interesting to look at and compare with Road Bike Reviews. In fact most of the bicycling magazine don’t really review road bikes. Lots of mountain bike reviews though.

Decisions to Make

There are a couple of key decisions to make. I’ll divide it into a couple of steps that will tell you how much to spend, what class of bicycle to buy, what frame material and what component level.

  1. How committed are you to the sport? $1,000 gets you a decent bike, $2,000 gets you a very nice one and $3,000-4,000 is ultra nice. I would say the sweet spot in terms of value for dollar is in the $2,000 range right now.
  2. What kind of riding are you going to do? Three choices here are: a) all out day racing so you want the lightest thing possible, b) a general purpose bicycle that can do a little of everything and c) something that is going to be comfortable and not fast, but general purpose.
  3. Where should you get fitted? A not very good bike that fits is going to be much better than an ultra-deluxe model that doesn’t. So, how do you get a great fit. The best option is to find a dedicated fellow who does fitting. John over here in Seattle does that. It is expensive. $150 or so, but worth it. He’ll leave you with the set of bikes that will work for you and consult with. An alternative is to go to a local bicycle shop (see below). Way too much to go into hear, but the key measurements are the top tube distance (determines how stretched out you are) and the standover (determines if it really hurts if you stop quickly and the top tube hits you-know-where).
  4. Where should you buy? Most folks should go to a reputable local bike shop that knows what they are doing. Here in Seattle there are quite a few, the best ones I know are Gregg’s Bellevue Cycle, Montlake Cycle (the original one in Montlake). I’ve also heard good things about TiCycles. ebay if you are roll-your-own kind of guy (ebay buying will typically get you 30-50% off compared to a brand-new bicycle but caveat emptor).
  5. When should I buy? The best time is right now in the fall. The new model year (2004) are coming in and most local bike shops are discounting 15-30% off of list to move out the 2003 models. Particularly for road bikes, things don’t change that much from year-to-year. So a last year model is a great thing.
  6. What particular frame material should I buy? This is a topic of endless debate. There are steel, titanium, carbon fiber and aluminum as the major flavors. I’ve pretty much tried them all and it is a matter of taste and how well the bike fits overall for me. The conventional wisdom is that steel is heavier but more comfortable and easy to repair (it gives more), titanium is has the steel ride but is lighter and very expensive, aluminum is the harshest riding but great if you are a heavy and it is inexpensive and finally carbon fiber tends to be the lightest but is expensive and feels deader. Try and see what you like, but generally, the big guys seem to get aluminum, if you are average then I see carbon fiber (because hey Lance uses it) and titanium if you’ve got the cash. There is quite a bit of fashion in frame materials. The latest trend for instance is titanium or aluminum with carbon seat stays. So you get the stiff aluminum and the compliance of carbon. I haven’t tried this exotica yet myself. Other trend is to a sloping top tube which is slightly lighter (like 2 ounces), but looks cool and more importantly from a bike manufacturer POV means you can make fewer sizes since standover height is less important.
  7. What level of components work for me? Besides the frame, the other important thing are what is the component level. Most folks will be getting Shimano components (they are the leader in the various bits and bobs you put on a bicycle like the shifters, gears, etc.). The main decision is whether to go Dura-Ace (best), Ultegra (better) or 105 (good). As with most things, Ultegra, the middle, is the best price-performance. For those who like exotica and impressing their SOs, you can also go to Campagnolo. They have a huge line, but the basic choice is Record (more expensive that Dura-Ace and there are endless debates about how good it is) and Chorus. Think of this choice as picking between Toyota and Ferrari. This is pretty much tied to the first question on what you want to spend. 105 equipped bikes are the $1K range usually, Ultegra are $2K and Dura-Ace $3K+. Second decision is whether to get two or three rings in the front. Two means a total of 18 gears (2 in front and 9 in back) while three means 27. If you are old and fat like me, get the additional gears, it makes a difference on those big hills because biking is a sport where you don’t want to “blow up”. Just 5 minutes of burning agony are the equivalent of 5 hours of easy riding.
  8. What about wheels and things? Most folks can use the standard set of wheels, but if you are a big person. Say in the 200 pound range, then you need to beef things up. That means much stronger wheels (ask for 3-cross, 32 or 36-hole, your bike guy will know what that means).

OK, so those are the main things. You should know have an idea of price range, type of bicycle, where you are going to get fitted and when and where you will buy it. Now let’s go virtual shopping for models.

Things you must do (but won’t and regret it)

Here are some of the things that you won’t want to buy, but which will completely change your life if you take up riding in order of importance:

  1. Castelli Progetto Y2K Bib Shorts. These are outrageously expensive listing at $150 (although ebay has them for $120 many times). So, why spend 10% of the total budget on a clothing? Well, believe me when you put them on, it will make riding 50 miles seem like going 5. I know you won’t believe me, but it is true. This is one area where if you want to love the sport, spend the money. Really. BTW, bib shorts mean that they are shorts, but have these fishnet suspenders. They are the most comfortable because you don’t have a elastic thing crushing you when you are riding. Look dorky, but work great. Get a good wicking undershirt too while you are at it since the suspenders go over delicate parts of the anatomy (Defeet Undershurts are really great for that).
  2. Clipless pedals and shoes. You gain 30% more power by using these special clips. They really are easy to learn to use and make you more efficient. For folks starting out, the Speedplay Frog pedals with Sidi Dominator shoes seem like good price/performance.
  3. Brightest lights you can afford. The fact of life is that you are out there with folks driving 5,000 lb SUVs with one hand on their cell phone and the other holding their latte. The only real defense is being blindingly obvious (beside riding defensively). Ideally, you want a headlight on your helmet that would blind a driver in broad daylight. People don’t drive into something they can’t see and having it on your head makes it easy to point. Best lights in the business are the Light & Motion Cabeza HID for example. Heavy, but worth it.

Pure road bikes

To start the analysis, I took the top rated road bike from roadbikereview.com for the 2002 and 2003 and looked at those with at least 9 reviews and scoring 4.5 and above. Think of this as the elite mainstream list that roughly reflects popularity of geeks who ride. Here’s an analysis of these bikes by their product family. Most models are really just changes in components, so lets look at the super families that seem popular on roadbike review in order of number of reviews:

Other bicycles to consider that are off the mainstream. These rate highly, but I haven’t seen them around much here:

Touring bicycles

This class of bicycles aren’t going to go as fast as the bicycles above. They are meant more for touring for a day and can carry a pack. The ones above are best for a day out and about where you don’t need much stuff. These are more upright and comfortable, but go a slower. It’s my bias, but I find that touring bicycles are 1-2 mph slower. Doesn’t sound like much until you realize that after a 30 mile ride, you are going to be a mile or so behind the other guy.

Hybrid or comfort bicycles

These bicycles are closer to mountain bicycles and are quite upright. They are best for the casual rider I’ve found. Not someone who wants to go fast, but someone who wants to have a good hour or so riding. These are also called urban bicycles. They tend to have mountain bike handlebars and also some of the top end ones have disc brakes. These are good in the rain. If I worked in a bicycle shop, I’d sell these all day long to the people just getting into cycling who don’t want to be intimidated by the whole thing.

Posted by rich at 07:17 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

September 13, 2003

Santa Cruz Blur Fit and Build Kit Analyzed

OK, if Brad thinks the Blur is great, let’s have a look and see what I need:

Blur Sizing

I’m 5’ 10” to 5’ 11”, so the recommendation is medium with a 120 stem. The effective top tube is 57.7 cm (I usually ride a 56.1 cm and 120 mm stem on my road bike).

For 5’11” it is a large with a 100 mm to 120 mm stem. Effective top tube is 59.3 cm which feels long to me, but is geometry different for mountain bikes.

Intuitiion says something less stretched out would be better which is why I have looking at mediums.

Build Kits

Per Brad’s recommendation, I looked at the XT-level kit. The Super X with Disc brake option has:

Pricing

The list price is $1500 for anodized and $1350 for powder coated for the frame alone. List price with a Fox F100 RLC is $1975 for frame and fork List price for the above with the Super X disc brake option is $3435

Posted by rich at 08:59 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Mountain Bike Review

Been in brain lock about buying a mountain bike. My good buddy Brad finally gave me a push. Here are some of his words of wisdom below. There are quite a few Santa Cruz Blurs now on ebay as the early adopters are getting their next bikes. The powercoat lists for $1300 and the anodized for $1500, so if you can get a frame for $1,000 or so that’s a pretty good deal.

You should really buy one. they are so much fun. it sounds like you’ve done a lot of research. have you talked to the guys at downhill zone? i’ve found them to be the most knowledgable guys in town for mountain biking.

With this new vpp design and new shock designs (stable platform), there are new bikes coming out all the time.

i would think you want a trailbike with 4-5” travel. with the new designs, you can get a 5” travel bike that rides great, like a 3” bike used to. I don’t think you’ll be doing stunts or drops or jumps — which would steer you to a beefier, heavier bike (5-7” travel).

the bikes on my short list for a trail bike would be the blur with 5th element shock, an ellsworth truth (which I have), and a turner 5 spot. the blur is 4.5”, the truth 4”, and the 5 spot 5”.

i really like intense bikes too. the spider xvp though is supposedly more of a race bike than the blur. there was a head to head review in mountain bike action that i think i still have if you want. i heard intense is coming out soon with a more trail oriented vpp. but it took them so long to get the spider out, i wouldn’t hold my breath. the downhill zone guys though would know — they are well connected with intense (a few are sponsored by intense).

the intense tracer is nice but it’s only 3”.

for components, i’d go with xt, hayes hydraulic disk brakes, and either xt or chris king hubs. standard stuff that will perform great and is not too expensive. Mountain bike stuff wears out or you crash and break it, so it’s less appealing to go xtr to me (plus i’m undecided on the new xtr shifting). disk brakes are great — especially around here where it’s wet.

For fork, with a 4” bike you want a 100mm fork, like a fox or a manitou super air. I am not a huge fan of rock shox anymore. Marzocchi is also good but their best are more freeride oriented. the marathon sl is a good fork.

The best thing though is to talk to the dh zone guys if you haven’t already. they know their stuff and can help you pick the best frame and parts.

Posted by rich at 08:24 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

September 10, 2003

Beware! Time Monolink Stem Bolts can break

Time Sport USA. I’ve got a brand new Time Monolink stem. It is amazing. 125 grams made of carbon fiber. Unfortunately, while hammering up a hill, one of the titanium bolts snapped right at the head. Wow, I’m lucky I didn’t crash.

In any case, the nice folks at Time Sports USA actually answered my mail. Told me that they were switching from titanium bolts to steel bolts and sent me another set. If you have this stem, beware!

Posted by rich at 09:13 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 04, 2003

ProLink Chain Lube Use

Hat tip to Roadbikerider.com newsletter on this tip about ProLink.

I can’t say enough about ProLink. It keeps a chain running clean, it lasts longer than any lube I’ve used, it seems impervious to water, and it increases chain life substantially. You can find our full review at ProLink

If you buy the 32-oz. size, you’ll save some dough and have enough to last a couple seasons. There’s no need to lube as often because this stuff lasts.

I know this sounds like an ad, but the guys at Pro Gold Products did their homework on ProLink, and then some.

A word to the wise(guys): Don’t apply ProLink or any other “dry” lube just before a ride. It’ll get slung all over the back end of your bike and the chain will vacuum up road grime.

A dry lube must be allowed to dry before you ride. If you can’t wait overnight, steal someone’s hairdryer to speed up the process. If you get caught, claim the devil made you do it and promise never again (with your fingers crossed behind
your back, of course).

Bottom line: More important than what you do to a brand-new chain, keep it clean and lubed throughout its life. Life ends when there is measurable stretch.

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Road Rides late 2003 and 2004

Well, it’s time to think about virtual next year. The summer is done, so what rides am I committing to and training for. Here is the list:

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September 02, 2003

Power Tools for Power Meters

Power Profiling. First set of tools I’ve seen for firguring out what all that wattage stuff means when you are training.

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September 01, 2003

Eurobike 2004

Eurobike 2003. More things to drool over in terms of biking hardware. Notable things:

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Rides around Seattle

Seattle has some really great road bike rides as well as close by mountain biking. Here’s a list of places that I go:

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August 26, 2003

Tyler Hamilton's Inside Story

Tyler tunes: Teamwork smooths out bumps in a tough Tour. The Tour de France is long over, but I thought this inside story on how it went for Tyler’s team (CSC) was pretty amazing. Shows how much suffering there is. Some samples:

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August 25, 2003

Trek 5900 Headset Problems

Replacement headset for Trek 5900. Great set of posts about the headsets in the 5900 vs the 5500s. A good discussion about the custom headset used in the 5900 frame that saves a few ounces and allows an a strong aluminum steerer rather than a carbon fiber one that will get destroyed if you over torque the stem bolt. Yikes, those things are delicate.

I’ve notice my own headset if pretty tight compared to say my buddies Cannondale CAAD7 with Campagnolo headset. Maybe the reason is this adjustment problem with their headsets which are apparently custom.

Mike Jacoubowski over at Chain Reaction Bicycles (the very first place I ever bought a bike 20 years ago!) says that you have to reinstall the lower bearings to get it smoother. Yikes, who knows how to do that. Maybe I need to call him. He says:

All you need to do is remove the fork, remove the lower bearing from the fork, reinstall the bearing and then reinstall the fork (with bearing attached). In 90% of the cases, that takes care of it. It doesn’t seem to be a misaligned cup, but rather an issue with how the lower bearing seats in it.

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August 08, 2003

FSA Carbon Pro Elite

FSA Carbon Pro Elite CranksWhen Tyler Hamilton crashed and fractured his collarbone in the final kilometer of the Tour’s first stage, many people felt that his race was over; there was no way a rider with a broken collarbone could tackle the big climbs that were to come. But we’d reckoned without Hamilton’s sheer determination, and a little help from component maker FSA. FSA supplied Hamilton with a special version of its new 515gram Carbon Pro Elite crank, with a 110mm bolt circle, allowing him to run a 36 tooth inner chainring with a 52 tooth outer.

The lower gears helped Hamilton stay seated on the climbs, and recover enough eventually to break away from the peloton on the first slopes of the Col de Soudet and take out a stage win.

And, this is really a good compromise between three rings in the front. It makes the range better for weak guys like to have 52-36 in the front vs. 53-39. Couple that with a 12-25 in back and you have a really wide range. Or if you have a 13-26 in the back, you can pretty much go anywhere.

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August 07, 2003

REviews of Power Meters

Bike.com - Power Meter Reviews. Basically this says that the Polar is the cheapest and least accurate. The PowerTap is probably the best value given its accuracy.

It does sound like his installation wasn’t quite right given the issues discussed about how wattage varied by gear.

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August 06, 2003

Wattage Training and Polar S-720i Installation and Comparison

I finally sprung for a bike computer with wattage in addition to cadence and heart rate. It’s a Polar S-720i and I’ve finally gotten it to work. Here are some tips and what I’ve learned so far about training with wattage:

Tips on using the Polar S-720i

After you follow the directions carefully, but it is a little flaky otherwise:

  1. Sandiway Fong on S-710i installation. This applies to the S-720i too. Wish I had read this before I installed it.
  2. Checking Polar installation. Here’s how to test the Polar to make sure installation is accurate. The main issue is that the chain speed sensor at the derailleur picks up interference. Main idea is move the chain speed sensor as close as possible to the chain. You also want the chain tension sensor as high as possible. It should actually hit the chain on the small-small gear combination.
  3. Ever so often the thing will go to zero across speed, cadence and wattage and beep twice. What has happened is that the watch is loose, there are two contacts on the back that have to be hard up against the bike mount. Jiggle the watch and it will slip in, beep twice and you are back in. I’ve found this happens no matter how tight the band is.
  4. When you start, you must follow the watch to record correctly: a) wet the heart rate monitor belt thingy, b) push the red start button on the watch and you must wait until you see a heart rate reading at the lower left (otherwise, heart rate won’t get recorded), c) push on the upper right button until you see the Trip odometer, d) hold the upper left button for 5 seconds to reset the trip meter otherwise, the distance won’t be right.

Chris Carmichael on Power used in training

Why use Power Meters. Watching your wattage during the course of a ride is not very useful. Wattage fluctuates quickly and often; heartrate is a much better gauge of workload during a workout.

Power becomes useful when you are sitting in your living room after the workout. I recommend purchasing a power meter that can be downloaded to your home computer. Downloadable power meters help you see how your power output changes with your heartrate, speed, and cadence during the course of a single ride, a few weeks, or several months.

Increasing your sustainable power output at lactate threshold is very important for improving time trial performance. The intensity level for these workouts is critical. They must be done very close to an athlete’s lactate threshold heartrate, but not above that heartrate. You want to ride at the highest sustainable workload possible without accumulating lactic acid, which will force you to slow down. One way to keep the intensity high enough without overloading the muscles is to keep the cadence for lactate threshold workouts above 90 rpm. The higher cadence shifts some of the stress of the effort from the legs to the cardiovascular system.

Power Meter Options

Meinnovations on Power Meters for your Bike. A good review of power meters here:

Training programs using power and wattage

Hat tip to the meendurance.com site for these references

Posted by rich at 09:37 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

August 01, 2003

MountainBike on the Trek Madone 5.9

More Madone reviews and also a CAD article about how it was designed:

Mountain Bike - News - News. This is Trek’s first all new OCLV product in ten years and it’s a bike that Trek and Lance have been working on for the last year. The idea was to build a single bike that Lance could race throughout the Tour instead of having one bike for road stages and one for the climbs.

Besides, the “A-stay” seat stays, the new frame shaping is most distinctive on the lower part of the down tube and seat tube. The Madone I rode was outfitted with a slew of bitchen new Bontrager Triple X Lite road components that will be showing up in the fall. Besides the fork (Trek claims even with the alloy steerer the 110 OCLV fork is up to 50 grams lighter than a full carbon fork), there was also the new single-bolt clamp, infinite angle adjust seatpost and some of the new Bontrager wheels which have probably been the biggest labor for Bontrager over the last year. The carbon tubular wheels also use Trek’s own OCLV technology to come in at a claimed weight of 495g front and 695g rear.

Studiotools allows 5 months design time for Madone. The bike Armstrong rides in the time trial stages took Trek seven months to move from concept to reality in the year 2000. That was a remarkable accomplishment at the time, given that earlier bikes required 12 to 14 months to develop. This year the design team was able to break its own record, creating an all new peloton model, the Madone 5.9, in just five months.

The bike frame saved Armstrong 10 watts of energy, equating to a savings of an entire minute in a 200 kilometer stage race.

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Bicycle PAC

Arrggh. I’m so aggrevated by the choices we are making in Seattle for transportation, but the bicycle one hits really close to home. Here are some great sites to learn more:

In the mean time, I’m going to see about political campaign contributions and forming a PAC.

Posted by rich at 09:38 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 31, 2003

Seattle International Randonneurs brevet routes

SIR Achives. For those of who are who are bored by simple bike routes around Seattle, here are some local long ones.

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Saddleco Flow -- Cool Saddle

SaddleCo. Hat tip to Road Bike Rider on this one. Very cool looking saddle. Have you seen the innovative Flow saddle at www.saddleco.com? It has intrigued a number of roadies, and they’ve asked us to review it.

The Flow has a see-through mesh top stretched across a nylon perimeter. It promises comfort, lightness, airflow and cool looks.

Pretty cool looking. Great lust factor.

Posted by rich at 09:18 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

July 29, 2003

More on the Madone 5.9

:: Lance Armstrong Official 2003 Tour de France Website: Close look at the Trek Madone 5.9. Some moe details, but not the price which will be amazing I’m sure. Coming this fall to a bike store near you. Will have the new Dura-Ace 10, new ultralight fork from Bontrager.

Although it is slightly lighter, the main advantage is aerodynamics. Says, you’ll save a minute over a 200km ride. Wow, 160 miles and you sae 60 seconds. At the pro level, that’s amazing. For us ordinary mortals, maybe we should train a little more :-)

Still what a drool factor. Just look at the photos of the Dura-Ace crank and the frame itself.

Posted by rich at 08:33 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

July 28, 2003

Great summary of a great Tour de France

News: Chris Carmichael on the Tour de France. A great summary by Chris. Here are some excerpts

There are always heroic performances in the Tour de France, but in 2003 we saw more than usual. Tyler Hamilton surprised everyone, including himself, by finishing the second stage of the race after breaking his collarbone inside the last kilometer of Stage 1. He soldiered on through the mountains and time trials, attacking all the way, and ended the Tour de France fourth place overall, with a stage win from a solo breakaway and a second place performance in the final individual time trial. In 2004, I expect Tyler to be standing on the podium in Paris with Lance Armstrong, though the CSC leader will have to wait at least one more year to win the yellow jersey.

This 2003 Tour de France will be remembered most for the epic battles between Lance Armstrong and Jan Ullrich for the yellow jersey. Armstrong was not as invincible as he was in previous years, and Ullrich was stronger than he was back in 2001, the last year he and Armstrong faced off in the Tour. Lance had to call on his team and his experience to find the strength and the strategy to win his fifth Tour de France, and he will savor this victory for a long time.

Even after accomplishing the goal that he has pursued since this time last year, Lance won’t take that much time off the bike. Following the Tour, Lance and I need a short break from each other. He doesn’t want to follow structured training for a few weeks, and I don’t think he needs to, so we’ll talk less frequently than usual during August. He is booked to ride a few post-Tour criteriums, and there are some media obligations to take care of, but he’ll still find time to ride almost every day. Once the excitement dies down, though, it’s back to work on preparing for the 2004 Tour de France. There are plenty of riders already lining up to challenge him next year, but I believe that if Lance arrives at the start next year in the same or better shape than he was in this year, no one will be able to ride through him to win the 2004 Tour de France.

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July 27, 2003

Lance Wins #5 and new fans

The Seattle Times: My take: Tour works wonders to rejuvenate biking interest. He did it! And, in the course of winning made lots of new biking fans including me of course.

Interesting that at the two parties we went to last night, the Tour de France came up. Folks were interested and even the average sports fan seemed to know about the race and quite a few had even watched it live or on Tivo. Amazing.

Hope he gets a few days rest before training starts for next year :-)

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July 25, 2003

Really Low Gear Cranks.

RoadBikeRider.com. Yet another great tip from Ed and Fred about how to get really low gear ratios

Dear Uncle Al: I read that Tyler Hamilton was running 52/36-tooth chainrings for the climbing stages of the Tour. I’m wondering if I could set up my road bike like that. It seems to be a great way to gear down for a hilly event or multiday tour. — Sheila O.

Uncle Al Fires Back: Tyler is using a team sponsor’s really cool carbon crankset with a 110-mm bolt pattern. It allows a 34- or 36-tooth small ring. Full Speed Ahead (FSA) makes that 110 crank for just the reason Tyler uses it — better climbing ratios called the Carbon Pro Compact. Pinarello has a similar carbon crank. I really like the idea! This is for 9-speed Shimano compatible. Only 521 grams too. Wonder when the Dura-Ace 10 compatible one comes out :-)

Unfortunately, a Shimano double-chainring crank has a 130-mm bolt pattern, and Campagnolo uses 135. Neither is designed for smaller than a 39-tooth ring. I hear of 38T rings in the
aftermarket, but they’re not made by Shimano or Campy.

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Carmichael commentaries are great

Chris Carmichael has some of the best commentaries about what is going on with Lance I’ve seen. Here are few key ones before the Time Trial tommorrow. Good luck Lance!:

Posted by rich at 09:27 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Latest Trek and Dura-Ace News

For all you equipment geeks, here’s the latest from www.cyclingnews.com:

Here’s the Q&A’s on the new Dura-Ace 10:

Posted by rich at 09:15 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

July 23, 2003

Ultimate Travel Bikes

OK, after studying the market pretty carefully, here are the two bikes I would get for “have fun while traveling use”. I said two because one would be for speed and the other for rough road and touring:

Ultimate Road Racing Bike

Ritchey BreakAway Bike. I still need to test ride one, but low cost, here is how I would outfit it today (it’s basically what’s on my road bike now with a few to-die-for accessories:

Touring Bike

Co-Motion Norwester Pilot. This is a S&S coupled bicycle that’s steel. It does weigh 3.85 lbs plus 0.5 for the couplers, but it is flexible enough to run a wide range XTR drive train plus Dura-Ace on top:

Posted by rich at 11:13 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

July 21, 2003

Lance lost 6 Kilos at Stage 12

VeloNews: Chris Carmichael on Lance and the Time Trial. Wow, hard to imagine someone who weighs 158 pounds dropping nearly 13 pounds in one day!

Lance Armstrong lost about 6 kilograms of fluid weight between the morning of stage-12 and the end of the stage-12 time trial, and also lost 1:36 to Jan Ullrich during that same time period. Losing 2 percent of your body weight due to dehydration leads to a 10-15 percent drop in performance, and Lance lost 8 percent.

Lance consumed a lot of water and sports drink throughout last evening and the morning of Stage 13. Even though his waking body weight (measured after using the bathroom) was nearly normal, he knew it would be one more day before he regained all his power. During stage 13, he rode carefully and tried to conserve energy wherever he could. All things considered, Lance put in a great performance to finish stage 13 only seven seconds behind Jan Ullrich, and to pass Alexander Vinokourov in the last 500 meters.

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Stage 15: Lance Wins, Still Great Sportsmanship in Biking

Velonews on Stage 15. Proving that there is still great sportsmanship in professional cycling. Lance falls, but Hamilton and Ullrich tell the race leaders to wait for him

Armstrong was sent toppling to the ground just as he was accelerating away from Ullrich and the lead bunch of riders with about 10km to go. Armstrong had just shot by the attacking Iban Mayo (Euskaltel) and drifted to the right side of the road when a fan’s yellow musette hooked the right side of Armstrong’s.

It was my fault because I was riding too close to the fans,” Armstrong said. “The bag hooked my handlebar and there wasn’t much I could do.”

Ullrich swerved to his left to miss the downed Armstrong and Mayo, and the race was thrown into chaos as the leading bunch was unsure if Armstrong would continue in the race. Ullrich pedaled on ahead with Tyler Hamilton (CSC), Ivan Basso (Fassa Bortolo), Haimar Zubeldia (Euskaltel) and Christophe Moreau (Crédit Agricole). Hamilton and Ullrich told the other riders to slow down and wait for Armstrong.

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July 20, 2003

Lance on Lance's Decline at Stage 14

After Stage 14, Lance is in trouble. Ullrich is looking very strong at 15 seconds behind and Vino is just 18 seconds, tomorrow is the last mountain stage and Lance hasn’t been great at the individual time trials…gulp, here’s his own personal assessment

With astonishing frankness, Armstrong spoke about his supposed ‘decline’. “It’s fair (to ask that); I’m not riding as well as I have in years past,” he admitted. “I can’t exactly say why, but I wouldn’t argue with people who say I’m declining. This is a sport where you can not only look at the differences between other riders, but you can look at the times on certain climbs. If you look at the times on l’Alpe d’Huez, that’s four minutes slower, so it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that that guy is not as strong as he was two years ago. Something is not clicking.”

“I knew it was going to be close but I probably didn’t expect it to come down to the last few decisive stages,” he added. “There’s one more day in the mountains and the final time trial. But, hey, I mean something’s not gone right… but there’s nothing I can do about that now; all I can do is wake up every morning and do my best. And that’s what I’m doing. If we get to (the final time trial in) Nantes and I have fifteen seconds (lead) and I lose by the time trial by sixteen, it will go down as the closest Tour de France in history. And I’ll go home and have a cold beer and come back next year. So I’m not going to cry and whine; I’m just going do my best.”

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July 18, 2003

Custom Jerseys

Custom Clothing. Hat tip to rec.bicycles.tech, Sugoi makes custom jerseys. Just the thing for the STP. Get a bunch that say ignition on it :-)

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Ullrich could win

Ullrich Wins!. Wow, Ullrich, decisively won the Stage 12 time trial. What a performance to watch.

Ullrich has won before and with four mountain stages coming, this is going to be a very interesting race. Now Stages 13-16 are going to be super interesting. It’s on at 6 AM Pacific Time on Outdoor Life. You can also hear it on OLN. Can’t wait. Makes me want to ride myself.

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July 17, 2003

Big Day Tomorrow

Lance is only 30 seconds or so ahead, so the upcoming time trial is key. Chris Carmichael says that this could be the deciding moment. A short race, perfect for an Ullrich vs. Armstrong race.

Also, if you missed it, here the incredible footage of the Beloki crash on stage 10 and Lance doing the cross country thing to stay in the race. Incredible.

Posted by rich at 08:50 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Bike Materials

tubing. A long thread on what frame material is better led to this article that is an objective view of the material strength. Great for geeks, while others debate (endlessly) whether a steel, aluminum, titanium or carbon fiber bike is better.

Anyway interesting reading, it shows essentially, that steelis the most dense between aluminum and titanium.

Also says that for a given density (e.g, same construction), then the stiffness of aluminum and steel are identical (would not have thought that) Also, that the stregnth of the latest type of steel (Reynolds 853) is greater than aluminums and nearly that of Titanium.

Basically, it used to be that steel was heavier for a given stiffness, but with Reynolds 853, this isn’t true. Titanium particularly the high end 6Al-4V beats everything, but is super expensive (40% stronger than Reynolds 853 and same stiffness). The last disadvantage is that steel does rust and does fatigue, so has a theoretically shorter life if you ride like a maniac.

Posted by rich at 12:34 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Ciclosport HAC4 vs. Polar s720i

Heartratemonitor.co.uk Comparison. A good comparison of the two best cyclocomputers out there. The Polar, I have. It is twice as expensive because it measures power output more exactly, but the HAC4 has more features.

Plus, Lance uses the HAC4. Anyway, I ordered the power output kit for the Polar, so we’ll see. Beside the more accurate power output calculation, the HAC4 has more altimeter functions such as the gradient, rate of ascent and descent.

Summary is the HAC4 sounds like a better value, but the Polar is more accurate. Also see the Cycling Forum thread that essentially says the HAC4 software isn’t that good and the Polar is unreliable in its readings.

Posted by rich at 12:12 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 16, 2003

Cool new bikes at the TdF

Roadcycling.com - Cycling news - It’s a secret … sorta. Great article about new bicycles. Good picture of the Trek Madone 5.9. Also, Cannondale has a bike that weighs just 14.8 lbs (!!!!).

And, the new Campagnolo Record Carbon apparently has different directions for their carbon fiber, so a derailleur won’t snap like a toothpick if pressed the wrong way in a crash. Good idea!

Cycling News on Dura-Ace 2004. There is also lots of news about the new 10-speed Dura-Ace and other hcanges they’ve made.

Posted by rich at 11:42 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Ritchey Break-Away

It’s amazing, but there is actually something called The Folding Society that reviews folding bicycles. Here are some other notes on the Ritchey Break-Away folding frame. Excel carries them for $1,100, so quite a bit cheaper than getting an all custom frame with S&S couplers (about $1,600+400 for steel from comotion.com and $2,100 plus 600 for titanium from davidsonbikes.com):

Posted by rich at 08:41 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 15, 2003

Polar s720i and Power Output

I got the Polar s720i and got it working. It’s an incredibly complicated watch that is hard to operate. I’ve been using the Campagnolo Ergobrain with a Polar heart rate monitor with good success, but this means just one device (so it is lighter) and also includes power.

Main disadvantage is there are an incredible number of menus to understand. Now I’m off to get the Power Output meter. Here’s where:

Posted by rich at 11:51 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

New Favoriate Online Bike Shops

With the demise of a favorable UK exchange rate, I’ve had to switch my purchasing to US stores. Here’s a list of places I’ve been using:

Posted by rich at 11:43 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 13, 2003

Finishing the STP 2003

Cascade Bicycle Club: Group Health Group Health Seattle to Portland Bicycle Classic. This was my first ever bicycling event (heck, I think I calculated, it is the second organized event I’ve ever attended…yes, I’m a nerd). In any case, 200 miles or so of riding. It was great to meet the physical challenge.

There were over 7,000 riders on the event. I had never been at such a big bicycle party. I took off with some great people and learned to like them even more during the event. In the first hundred miles, we averaged over 17 mph. (Slow if you are Lance Armstrong, incredible if you are Rich Tong). Got a chance to ride with including Dave Malcolm, Deb Armstrong and Dave Bentley.

All are incredible people and great team mates. I had not realized how much riding is a team sport and how after 8 hours on the road, you can actually tell within 1 mph how well someone is doing. It almost feels like you are connected together. We also met two of Deb’s friends, Roger and Jerry, retired ski instructors with 16 STPs under their belt and 1 trip across America.

In any case, it was a beautiful Friday. The kids and Connie took off for Portland and we had a terrific “bring your own pasta” dinner. Lots of discussion of the miracles of Lance Armstrong, the merits of GU2O (orange tastes terrible, lemon-lime like water with a lemon) and most important, would it take one day or two. We were finally in bed at 10PM and up at 4AM, out the door at 4:41AM with an incredible view of Mt. Rainier and then the sound of a thousand bicycles rushing towards us. The first 25 miles were scary as Steve Hooper pointed out to me. I learned so much about proper bicycle signaling and pacelining while avoiding one near accident from a mixed pace line when someone stopped very short.

We started out strong in the first 100 miles, but eventually the incredible wind meant that Deb, Bentley, Jerry and Roger went on, but Dave and I stayed in Kelso at the wonderful Motel 6 where Wanda did a great job taking care of us and the wonderful Hilander Bowl & Restaurant who fed us Pot Roast and Teriyaki Chicken. Not to mention the excellent pizza “second” dinner from Vernie’s Pizza.

On Day 2, we were up bright and early and out the door at 5:40 AM this time. Got into Portland at 9:37 AM. Pretty sure we were the first two riders there out of Kelso (mile 149) where we stayed. It was fun to be there. Total time on the bike was almost exactly 12 hours, mileage was 200 miles or so and average speed was 16.4 mph. First 100 hours was 17+!

Here are the things I learned (for next year and others):

Training

The training schedule they have for one day riders is right, but it really isn’t that difficult if you can just find the 8 hours to do it. Key for us was getting out at 4-5 AM on Saturdays. Meant we still had most of the day with the family. Also, taking a Friday or two off for the 10-12 hour epics mattered. BTW, I found that after 2-3 hours on the bike, it really didn’t matter if you do 5, 7 or 12 hours. Main issue was we never got our 140 mile ride in because of mechanical problems.

Etiquette

There really should be a short course on etiquette of what signals and sounds to make on a long ride like this. After 12 hours of “on the job” training, we did get good at it. The things to remember were to signal and yell vigorously in order of importance are to:

  1. Say and gesture at least twice and ideally three times
  2. STOP and left hand straight out and sort of downwards
  3. SLOW and left hand out if you are slowing down, always assume someone is 6 inches behind you, bikes are quiet and the wind is loud
  4. if you hear someone yell something, repeat it and the gesture so everyone knows
  5. LEFT and point with the LEFT hand
  6. RIGHT and point with the RIGHT hand
  7. BUMP, GRATE and HOLE and point towards those obstacles
  8. TRACKS and signals with a left-right motion behind you when you see railroad tracks. Don’t accelerate into tracks, coast and take them perpendicularly
  9. Point at loose gravel and rotate your hand a around
  10. CAR BACK, means a car behind
  11. CAR FRONT means a car ahead
  12. CLEAR if you can see there is nothing behind you and the leader of your paceline is looking back and getting ready to pass

Pacelines

Here are some things I learned about them during this ride in order of importance that you don’t normally find in standard advice:

  1. Stay far apart (like a couple of feet) until you get to know the people you are riding with. Don’t assume the person ahead of you won’t just jam on the brakes randomly or they know what a paceline is. Get closer as you get more comfortable. The pro’s at 30 mph are far apart with good reason.
  2. don’t get fixate on the front wheel, but listen to the pedalling ahead, when he stops, you should stop. Most people stop pedaling before they brake. That’s an important clue. You should always know the terrain, as in rising, falling or flat
  3. when you are zooming downhill, slowing, stopping or getting to tracks or other obstacles, break the paceline and spread out so you can stop as needed
  4. if you are taking over on the front, DON‘T accelerate, let the lead rider fall back. That’s what your speedometer is for. When the adrenaline is rushing, it is hard to remember this. Otherwise, you’ll lose the rest of the pace line.
  5. Stay below your lacate threshold (165 bpm in my case) unless you want to just die in hour 8 at the front. Odds are the folks behind you are dying too. This isn’t the Olympics.
  6. If you are at or close to your threshold, slow down, it is better to go slower than blow. Besides, 90% of the time, you’ll find that you’ll end up ahead of the “faster” guys since they’ll have to take a break at every rest stop while you motor on.
  7. if you want to talk to the person behind you, look at your downtube and speak normally. It is amazingly like a megaphone, you can talk in a normal voice
  8. watch your speed exactly and ideally your cadence, towards the end, I could tell Malc, I’m going to do 39×15 at 92 rpm and know this meant 17.5 mph on the flats
  9. to look ahead, rise up and look over the front person’s shoulders, f) when you fall back, just pedal slowly and make sure you know where the back of the line is since in these races, there are always stragglers who are looking for a free ride in back
  10. limit your pulls to 30 seconds or 10 hard kicks of the pedal if you are really driving, but again, don’t go over your threshold

Posted by rich at 10:11 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Panic! I-90 Bike Route Disappearing!

Critical Vote. If you live in the King County area and think it’s great you can actually get across Lake Washington, start to panic.

Ron Sims and Connie Marshall both will vote on WSDOT and Sound Transit (ugh, oxymoron there!) plan to close the I-90 bike lanes for two years and narrow it to just 8 feet.

Help, send them mail ASAP and tell them as describe on the cascade site:

WSDOT and Sound Transit are pushing a plan for the I-90 Bridge that’s unsafe for cyclists, pedestrians and neighborhoods. This plan, called “R8A,” would move buses out of the center lanes into a new, added outside lane.

The new lane would be created by narrowing and re-striping the existing lanes - including the bicycle and pedestrian path. This project:

  • Could close the bicycle/pedestrian path for 2 years during construction - stranding hundreds of commuters.
  • Is unsafe for bikers and walkers. I-90 is the only cross-lake bike/pedestrian path, and two-foot shoulders would put bicyclists and walkers dangerously close to cars and trucks.
  • Puts more cars on the roads, and in our neighborhoods on both sides of the lake. The new lanes will encourage more people to drive, adding congestion to the streets where we live and where our children walk, bicycle and play.
    Is bad for bus and car commuters. Substandard shoulders mean disabled vehicles will block traffic and increase commute times.
  • Is dangerous. Narrower lanes significantly increase injury accidents for motorists (55+ more injury crashes per year.)

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July 08, 2003

Tour de France on TV and Internet Audio

Outdoor Life Network - Tour de France - 2003. The Tour de France is on 6-8:30 PT everyday. Nice to have this kind of coverage. Also, there is a live link to audio as well at Listen Live.

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Tyler Hamilton Grits his teeth

VeloNews: 2003 Tour de France Special CoverageIf you can believe it, Tyler Hamilton has a cracked collarbone and is muscling his way through the Tour de France, now that’s inspiration. Here’s what he says about it

“Sometimes I was wondering if I’d finish with the front group, but I grit my teeth and kept going,” he said after finishing 43rd and safely in the main field. “There’s pain all the time, all day. If it was a sharp pain, I’d have to reconsider. I tried not to think about the race today. I sang songs to myself to take my mind off the pain.”

“Tyler is a tough dude, he’s a fighter,” Reuters quoted Armstrong said before the start of the stage. “I dislocated my collarbone once and I didn’t want to get on my bike but Tyler’s got a lot of ability to suffer. Yesterday the stage to Sedan wasn’t an easy day, especially if you don’t have complete control of the bike. I was riding along thinking, ‘man, how’s he doing it all taped up and in pain?’ I admire him a lot for having the courage to carry on. I knew he’d finish if he managed to start the stage but that’s the kind of guy he is.”

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July 05, 2003

Lance-wannabes: New Trek and CicloSport

VeloNews: 2003 Tour de France Special Coverage

Trek aims for new heights with Madone

Waterloo has been particularly tight-lipped about its latest high-end road racer, which will replace the 5900 Superlight. Lucky for us, information has just leaked out on the bike that Lance (and possibly his teammates) will race on in certain stages of the Tour. Here’s the scoop:

The new bike, to be called the Madone 5.9, features a radically aero’ OCLV tubeset - one that pushes the UCI envelope regarding aerodynamics. Both the top and down tubes are radically flared, while the seat tube also sees heavy shaping to reduce windage from the rear wheel. The frame also incorporates an “A-Stay” seat-stay cluster for added lateral stability.

The company says the Madone 5.9 is the “culmination of Trek’s decade-long knowledge of working with carbon technology.” It is claimed to be the lightest, most streamlined frame ever produced by Trek while keeping in mind the proven geometry and the ride characteristics of the 5900 USPS Superlight.

2000 Superlight vs. 2003 Madone

Madone
Frame: 1100g (2.43lb)
Fork: 339g (0.75lb)
Total: 1439g (3.17lb)

Superlight
Frame: 1145g (2.52lb)
Fork: 345g (0.76lb)
Total: 1490g (3.28lb)

CicloSport Computer

How do they keep track of all those miles?
In this year’s Tour, U.S. Postal will use CicloSport computers to monitor distance, speed and a host of other variables as well. The limited-edition USPS HAC 4 ($320) has all the same functions of the Standard HAC 4 - that’s 57 total functions. A few key functions are:

Similar stats and price compared with the Polar S720i that I just got. Will be interesting to see reviews. If it is easier to use, then this is the one to go for given it has wattage.

Posted by rich at 09:26 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Tour de France Starts Today!

Yippee, the Tour de France starts today and so does my collection of TdF blogs and other sites. Here we go:

Posted by rich at 09:17 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Rivendell Review...

PR3. One of my favorites sites, Roadbikerider reviews a all-purpose bike calledl the Rivendell Rambouillet.

I almost bought it just because I’m a Lord of the Rings fan. In any case, for $2K, you get a 22 lb bike that is indestructible. Something to think about. Doesn’t have couplers though.

Posted by rich at 09:12 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 03, 2003

Campy 2004 and other cool hardware

Well, the Tour de France is about to start and delightful new gear is appearing. First there is the new Shimano Durace 10-speed coming out. No word on whether they are going to do a triple, but given that it is 1/3 less than Campagnolo Record, good to hear. Also, Campy Chorus is going to get a bunch of hand-me-downs from Record. And of course there is:

First Rumors: The 2004 Line. Gear geek delight. The new Campy Record…

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June 29, 2003

Ritchey Break-Away

Google Groups: View Thread “Ritchey “Break-Away” bike — opinions?”. Been looking at a bunch of custom bicycles with S&S couplings. Great in the $1300-1600 for the frame plus $400 for the couplings. The Break-Away is an $1,100 frame, but what about the quality. Here are some notes from rec.bicycles.tech. Great the way google caches and indexes this.

Bilenky. Here are some interesting S&S coupled bicyles mentioned in the the previous post.

A major concern for many riders is how to eat before an
early morning ride or race.

When we wake up in the morning, we have essentially just
undergone an eight-to-ten-hour fast. This overnight fast
lowers the glycogen stores in the liver and greatly impairs
the production of blood glucose. (Glycogen and glucose are
primary fuels for muscles and the central nervous system.)

Because events lasting more than an hour rely heavily on
blood glucose for fuel, performance will be adversely
affected if you skip the morning meal.

Waking up earlier to eat is one option, although the
disruption of your sleep is probably more detrimental to
your performance than depleted liver glycogen.

Your other option is to eat a small meal containing both
simple and complex carbohydrates. This combination will
give you some readily available energy as well as some
longer-lasting energy.

The pre-event food should be primarily carbohydrate with a
touch of protein. Carbohydrate is the preferable fuel during
exercise, and a bit of protein will aid with satiety.

Be careful with your choice of protein foods, as many are
also high in fat — bacon, cheese and other dairy products.
Fatty foods should be avoided, as they delay stomach
emptying and can contribute to feelings of sluggishness.

Most importantly, never choose foods before competition that
you have not tried in training! It’s never smart to try anything
new on the day of an important event.

It may take some practice to determine exactly what your
stomach can tolerate before a training session and how long
it is going to take you to digest your pre-event meal.

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June 27, 2003

Campagnolo Derailleurs Explained

CAMPAGNOLO 2003 RANGE - INNOVATION. It’s been confusing which of the three different derailleurs you should get. Here’s a simple explanation

The Campagnolo Record, Chorus and Centaur groupsets offers three models of rear derailleurs with short, medium and long cage. The rear derailleur with the short cage is for equipping the 2×10 drivetrain, while the medium cage version is required for the 2×10 drivetrain with the 13-29 sprocket cassette and for all the 3×10 drivetrain combinations with the exception of 13-29 which requires the model with the long cage.

The new crankset is distinguished by smart refined styling and the excellent functionality of its construction. It is available in two combinations, 30-40-50 and 32-42-53.

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Carbon Fiber: It's brittle too...

Well, as most folks know, I just love carbon fiber. It’s in just about every component that I have on my bike. Today though, I learned that it is a miracle material for sure, but it does have its downsides. Caveat Emptor.

Campagnolo Record Seatpost: Don’t overtighten even once!

My good buddy Dave has one of these. Someone tightened it too much with the seat post collar facing to the rear. This tore through the carbon fiber. The bike shops and his bike fitter though it looked OK, it was just one little tear. By the time we were 50 miles into our ride, he had to tighten it up three times and when we pulled it out, it was an oval and the crack ran down six inches. A reminder that carbon fiber is only strong in one direction (in this case vertically, so the horizontal force of tightening cracked it like a peanut shell). We dug around and found Bike Master in Spanaway. What a great guy! Does BMX, but replaced this $100 part with a $12 aluminum seat post and it was fixed.

Easton EC-90 Handle Bars: One crash is all it takes

On the ride back, I was tired, ended up on a busy street, hit the brakes too hard in the front. This caused the front wheel to wobble. Like an idiot (or someone who had been riding for 11 hours), I tried to stand up at 15 mph. Predictably, crashed. The bar came down hard on the curb. Snapped in right in half. I only had a scrape. Same problem as the seatpost. The fibers are lined up left and right, so an impact that was vertical, just snapped it. I was lucky, the break was three inches to the right of the stem, so I could ride home by using the close to the stem hand position. A nerve racking hour I can tell you. I think I’m going to get aluminum bars from now on. This is my second cracked handlebar. The first was from tightening a 25.4 stem on a 26.0 EC-90. Cracked right away. Then, one impact and this 31.0 EC-90 is dead. Plus, aluminum is cheaper too. You’ve been warned. The Deda 215 looks good. Make me nervous about my Time Monolink carbon fiber stem, but I think it is unlikely to take the brunt of a crash. Unlike bars, which are almost always going to.

Posted by rich at 08:57 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 26, 2003

Singletrack Ezine

Singletrack - Home. A ezine from Britain. Got a good review from Adventure Cycling as a place to look for mountain touring and other things.

Posted by rich at 09:11 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 17, 2003

Exchange Rate Depression

With the drop in the dollar. All my favorite overseas places are not longer price competitive. The pound when from $1.44 to $1.69 overnight. So, in buying things, you can either get them for list price from Excel or you can get some discount from Licktons. I am not haunting the ebay auctions more too.

Here are some parts I’ve been looking at:

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June 13, 2003

Road bike tire advice

RoadBikeRider.com. Every road bike rider should get their newsletter. Here’s some great advice about tires I haven’t seen elsewhere. I’ve been throwing away my tires a little early, so this is a great set of tips:

Dear Uncle Al: How can I tell when it’s time to replace my tires? And does it make sense to rotate them like with car tires to extend their life? — J.J. P.

Uncle Al Fires Back: This is easier than finding WMD’s, J.J. My technique is to keep the rear tire on until the brownish casing starts to show through the black tread. Then, I put the
front tire on the rear wheel and install new rubber up front.

If you don’t move the front tire, it’ll probably rot on the rim before it ever shows signs of serious wear. So this type of rotation is a smart idea.

Not smart is rotating a half-worn rear tire to the front. Don’t make it easier to lose control because of a front-tire flat or blowout. Have your best rubber on the end of the bike that
has the most to say about staying upright.

Besides plain ol’ wear, there are a couple of other compelling reasons to retire a tire.

One is a cut too big to be “booted.”

A cut through the casing can be patched, or “booted,” if it’s small and straight. A cut that’s jagged or curved is probably a blowout waiting to happen, so chuck the tire if it looks that bad.

You can boot a cut from the inside with a tube patch or tough strapping (filament) tape. I like to use a couple of layers and cross the fibers, kind of like the bias of the casing itself. Strapping tape is strong, and the fix should last the life of the tire.

The second sign that it’s replacement time is when the rubber has dried like a prune on a Phoenix sidewalk.

Riding on a dry, cracked tire, no matter how little tread wear there is, is a bad idea. It’ll grip about as good as eggs in a Teflon pan. (I know, I know — mine stick, too.)

Check for dryness when the tire isn’t inflated. Pinch the tread and look for telltale cracks. Scrape your fingernail along the sidewall and watch for powdery residue.

Tires dry out from too much sun exposure, like I’m starting to do. And from ozone exposure when they’re stored near electric motors or LA smog. A dry climate, like we have here in Colorado, will do it, too.

I’ve been told that Armor All will prevent drying, but I’d be wary of putting anything that slippery near rims and brake pads. Remember, these are just bike tires, not works of art. Replace them if they’re questionable.

One other note: For you gals and guys who race, never do it on a compromised tire. A blowout in race conditions could put your life on the line (and the lives of riders around you).

If you can’t race on good tires, stay home and earn enough dough till you can afford them. Sketchy equipment cannot be tolerated in the peloton.

Get ready to have a flat!

It’s fine to be a world-class flat fixer, but it’s better not to puncture at all. This quick checklist before you leave the house can make a puncture less likely—and quicker to fix if it does happen.

Find these bad boys by checking the tread in bright sunlight or with a flashlight. If you spot something, carefully pop it out (not into your eye) with the corner of a small screwdriver.
Dig a little to made sure you don’t leave the sharp tip.

While doing this, look for thin areas where the casing is beginning to show through the tread. Never continue to ride a worn tire. It’s a lot more susceptible to punctures. A front flat can make it hard to keep the bike upright.

Put each tube in a zip-shut plastic freezer bag. They’ll be easier to pack than in a box, and less likely to have holes worn by rubbing against tools. Sprinkle talcum powder into the bags as another way to reduce friction. It’ll make the
tubes easier to install, too, and it might even reduce the chance of flats.

By the way, do you have the right size tubes? We’ve seen riders flat on their 700C tires and pull a 26-inch mountain bike tube out of their seat bag. Or, riders on fancy wheels with deep V-shape rims will have useless tubes with standard-length valve stems.

Posted by rich at 12:12 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

June 11, 2003

Road Wheels and Disc Brakes

Wheelcraft. Australian, they make a 700c wheelset with MTB hubs. Need to see the axle spacing required. Not much written about this. These folks appear to be one of the few doing it.

However one thing to watch out for is the stress. According to Alan Cline over at Co-Motion, who wrote to saying:

I feel the canti brake setup is the best for touring - disk brakes interfere with rack mounting and make packing the bikes (with couplers) more difficult.

Disk brakes on rigid front forks are an especially bad idea -when the braking forces are moved from the rim down close to the hub, it places incredible rearward stresses on the fork. This is exacerbated by heavier loads. We do not offer a disk brake on our forks.

Posted by rich at 07:19 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 05, 2003

Polar Power Kit

OK, got Hoops an S-720i, but now we need the power output kit. These are harder to find at a discount. Here are some sources listed in order of my confidence in them:

These are listed in google page rank order:

Posted by rich at 09:21 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Cassette Sizing

Branford Bike: Campagnolo 10 Speed MK 2 Cassettes. Dave Malcolm and I are going to ride the STP and he asked me about what cassette in the rear to use. He has an 11-23 cassette and is wondering if he should get a bigger one. Here are some facts, but

Well. I’d reco a 12-25 in the back. A 13-26 doesn’t add much at the top end (a ratio thing, it is just 26/25ths longer). If you want Excelhttp://excelsports can get you a pretty good price. About $150 or so as I recall the the record titanium/steel cassette. If you can wait, Sdeals or Total Cycling has better prices (dependent on exchange rate, they are in the uk). Also, Ebay has auctions on these, but you have to know where to look and get it from a reputable seller.

You actually can’t go beyond 13-26 unless you replace just about your entire drive train. The derailleur you have is what is called a short cage so only supports up to 26 in the back. Also you would need a new front derailleur. About $400 plus, so that isn’t super practical.

By the way, last piece of advice is to make sure you follow the shifting recommendations closely. The campy drive chain is very delicate racing oriented. If you run improperly even a short time, you can trash the rear cog, the chain and the front cog. The chain should last 2-3,000 miles and a cassette up to 7,000 miles if you take care of them.

What’s proper? Make sure when you shift, you never, never run the small ring in the front with the smallest three gears in the back. Also the large front ring should never run with the largest 3 cogs in the back. I destroyed my drive train in 500 miles doing this.

Voice of experience. We should also check your chain length as well campy chains are notoriuous for having relatiely short life. Like 1500 miles if you aren’t careful. Given how hard this bike was raced it could be worn. That’s is lengthened so that it actually wears the cogs.

Posted by rich at 09:06 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 29, 2003

Buying a Touring/Commuting/Crosscycle Bike

I’ve been looking for my second bike. I love my Trek 5900, but it isn’t that practical for all the other things. Fortunately, Steve Hooper told me about Adventure Cycling Association. Here is what I found out:

Buying a Touring Bike. A great comprehensive piece. There is not much on touring in mainline publications like Bicycling.com, so it was nice to find this. . I ideally would love to get a touring/cyclocross bike that also is packable. Ideal specifications would be:

  1. SS Couplings. The Frame splits so that it can be transported in a standard sized suitcase.
  2. Cyclocross Tires. So that I can do light mountain biking with the kids. No need for a suspension for a while. Also, this would be an ideal compromise for the wet, wet winter commutes.
  3. Disk Brakes. Again for the wet and also given the loads. Weighs more, but Avid now makes mechanical brakes that can be used with road bike levers.
  4. Stiff. Assuming that this thing will be carrying/pulling weight. I’ll probably get one of those one or two wheel trailers for camping with the kids.

Here are some bikes that meet some of these requirements listed in rough order. The amazing thing is that I emailed these guys and in every case someone answered right away:

These bikes are wonderful but don’t have couplers mainly:

Posted by rich at 09:15 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

May 22, 2003

Topolino Wheelset Review and Veloflex Pave Reviews

Topolino Wheelset

Topolino Tech. I’m a crazy dope with too much craziness for lightness. In any case, I just got these wheels. A great deal from Bethel Cycles that includes tires, rim strip and tubes. I finally got these and mounted them with a set of Veloflex Pave 700×22 tires. Here’s a review of them after about a month:

Veloflex Pave Reviews

I’ve been using the Veloflex Pave’s now for a little bit. They are 700×22c and I’m at 110psi (so breaking all the rules below). Nice tires. Theoretical an ounce light (180g) than the Michelins. Main difference is they are very squirrelly at high speed (above 35 mph) and also in the rain. So they are fast fair weather tires. Probably not a good choice for all weather use, but terrific for the summer.

Also, they don’t take kindly to glass, my first set of Pave’s ended up getting a casing tear after 200 miles because of glass and junk on the road.

I’ve use the 700×23C Continental 3000GP. Got a true 1,500 miles out of the rear tire and still going on the front. The idea is to do a rotation because the fronts don’t really wear out. Decent rain performance.

Tried also the Michelin Axial Pros. Had the same problem with a tear in the casing due to road debris. Probably a fluke. Thought they were very nice. Similar to the Continentals.

Sane Tire Recommendations

Road Bike Rider. Here is the conservative recommentation from folks who are riding 15,000 miles per year. I’m not kidding and what to recommend to ordinary, non crazy folks.

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May 19, 2003

Buying a Polar S720

Polar S720 on ebay. Hoops has been on me to get him a new bike computer. The S720 is about $330 from excelsports.com, so I’ve also been looking on ebay. The query above is one way to find it. You have to subtract out items because folks list the S720 as S-720, S 720 and 720 which are queries that you can’t run a one liner on ebay.

Anyway, this shows that the lowest price has been about $212-232 for this, so it is quite a savings from the $300 at Colorado Cyclist.

Still need to get the power kit separately from Colorado Cyclist. The cadence thing is just $40 separately, but the power output kit is a cool $315 although this includes cadence and power output.

You can also get the whole thing direct from a big Polar reseller for $690. This is a Polar S720i, a Power Output kit and a USB/IR connection. We don’t really this last thing, although it is very convenient if you don’t have a laptop.

Posted by rich at 10:37 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 13, 2003

Campy Only

Campy Only!. If you are a Campagnolo Bike part junkie, there is actually an entire web site just for you. Now that is narrow casting.

Posted by rich at 10:42 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 11, 2003

Polar all in one

Polar S720 Heart Rate Monitor. Wow, it is amazing what a heart rate monitor can do. This one combines a cycling computer with an incredibly sophisticated heart rate monitor.

I have a Campagnolo Ergobrain and a Suunto Advizor, but this is both of them. Only issue is that the Ergobrain is integrated into the bike levers, so you don’t need to move to push. On the other hand, this thing actually has strain gauges on the pedals to measure power. It also has cadence and IR bi-directional to a PC.

All that for $200 or so. Cool.

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May 05, 2003

Northwest Cycling News

Two sources for Northwest cycling news:

Posted by rich at 08:35 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 04, 2003

Suunto Advizor

Suuonto Advizor. Thanks to Brad Silverberg and John Zagula for getting me this a few years ago. It is the most complicated watch in the world.

It is two years and I’m still learning how to use it. BTW, I‘ve mirrored the Advizor Manual in case they decide to get rid of it later.

Posted by rich at 01:27 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Polar Watch Servicing

Polar USA. Eventually everything needs a new battery. My Polar watch should be sent back to those folks for a new battery.

They don’t encourage you to just get a new battery from a jeweler. Wonder if that is revenue protection or if you can really damage the waterproofing. In any case, both the watch and the transmitter are going back.

Posted by rich at 01:20 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 02, 2003

Training Right

Train Right with Carmichael Training Systems. So, I finally decided to try this and get more systematic. I’m going to start recording my times and what I do in this blog. Blogs are such a good place to store things as Zagula points out.

Here is what I did today:

H4. Training Goals

These are the starting point questions from Brian over at CTS:

  1. How many hours/miles have you been training per week for the last 4-6 months? It’s varied, but during the winter it has been 2-3 times per week probably for a total of 4-5 hours or so. So, not much. But, thank goodness it is getting sunny again. It was depressing riding in the wind, dark and rain all those winter months.
  2. Briefly describe your current training program. I ride to work and back primarily during the weekdays. This is 10 miles each way. If I have time, I tack on a loop around Mercer Island (live in Seattle) to take it to a 20 mile jaunt. Most of this is what you would be zone 2 (140 bpm) and then I typically at the end will drive for zone 4 (160 bpm). I’m estimating my Max HR at 185, but haven’t done the test described in Chris’s
    book so don’t know the measured actual. One of these days, I’ll do intervals of max effort for 10 seconds and then rest for 50 seconds with 10 reps.
  3. What events are you focusing on for this year and next? Main event is the Seattle-to-Portland (STP). This is a 200 mile event. Working to get this done in a day. Although I reserve the right to do it in two if I’m not in shape. There is a tune-up June 23 which is a Century as well I’ve signed up for.
  4. What is the date of your major goal event? July 12 is D-day!
  5. What distance are you racing/touring? What class? Not a racer and I’m not sure what you mean by distance. I’d like to be able
    to bang out a century pretty reliably.
  6. How many days and hours per week would you like to devote to training? Great question. I think a minimum of 4 days per week during the week plus Saturday (got dispensation from the wife) to do a long Saturday. I can do a
    long Friday too in the afternoon say 4 hours. So that total might be 10-16 hours per week.

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April 30, 2003

Getting Ready: Food and Trainers

I’m getting ready for the STP. Just read Chris Carmichael’s training book (the one with Lance on the cover). Was helpful. Increased average speed on my run to work (10 miles almost exactly) from an average of 16 to 17.4 mph just by the pedaling advice and some training. Here are other things I’m doing:

Posted by rich at 07:42 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 29, 2003

MTB Stem

My buddy Gary needs a shorter stem. I volunteered to help him out. He has a Gary Fisher Sugar 3+ and it is a 110mm stem, but he probably needs a 90mm stem. Here are links if you need to do the same thing by checking out Stem Reviews, Specs and Shopping Information.

A good place to find the right stem in the first place. Mountain bikes are a little confusing in that there is DH (downhill) where you need massive stuff for falling down hills, cross country which is light and fast and freeride somewhere in between. Gary has a cross country bike, so good stems look like those that have at least 7 recent ratings (there are some stale ones) and score 4.4 or above:

To find the best prices, I troll:

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April 24, 2003

Shifting -- When 27 is really 19

Uncle Al. A great newsletter that I get and some good advice too. This one I haven’t seen covered, but what do you do with the zillions of gears. I haven’t doing it right for a while.

DEAR UNCLE AL: I just had a 9-speed drivetrain put on my bike. I’m wondering how many cogs at either end I should avoid when in the opposite chainring. For example, when I’m on the
big ring and shifting towards larger cogs, where should I stop? I’ve heard different advice. — Dan D.

UNCLE AL FIRES BACK: Cross-chaining, like cross-dressing, happens all the time, Dan-O, but it’s not really recommended behavior. One involves metal, gears and chains; the other, chiffon, lace, shaved legs and spiked heels. (I’m just guessing here. No, really!) Neither should be attempted without adult supervision.

If you are running double chainrings with that new 9-speed cogset, and you are on the big ring, it’s kosher to run up to the # 3 cog (the biggest cog being # 1 and the smallest being # 9).

If you’re on the small ring, it’s cool to run down to # 7, provided you can “trim” the front derailleur to stop the chain from rubbing it, and provided the chain doesn’t tinkle against the big ring.

That’s for normal riding. If you’re racing, all bets are off. In your delirium you can do whatever it takes as long as it doesn’t make you crash.

If you are running triple chainrings, you are either Roberto Heras on the Angliru or you are a geek who’s lost all climbing power. If you are the latter, like me, the idea is to run the chain nearly straight to the cassette.

This means that when on the small inside chainring, use the 3 or 4 largest cogs.

When in the middle ring, run # 8 up to # 2, occasionally # 1 in a pinch. But if that gear isn’t low enough, you’ll have to shift to the small ring and your chain will drop onto the bottom
bracket shell about half the time (unless you have a chain watcher). Prevent this by making your shift to the small ring before you’re up on ol’ # 1.

When on the big chainring, it’s okay to run from # 9 up to # 3 regularly, and # 2 occasionally.

The bottom line is that your 27-speed bike is actually a 19-speed but is even better as an 17-speed.

Never run the small ring/smallest cog combo or the big ring/biggest cog combo, or I will hunt you down and hurt you. You are asking for trouble if you don’t run the chain relatively straight. Those combos put it at the max angle.

The whole purpose of multiple gears is to give you what you need and do it with good chain line. This results in less wear and tear on your equipment, less noise and maximum efficiency.

There isn’t always the “right gear” for the job. Sometimes, it has to be your legs that make the difference. Don’t be afraid to push a little harder or spin a little faster to prevent cross-chaining. It’ll make you a better and stronger rider.

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April 23, 2003

Biking Accessories: Gloves, Arm and Knee Warmers

All of mine have now fallen apart. So off to get some more accessories like gloves and knee warmers:

Sunglasses:

Other miscellaneous stuff:

Finally some reviews of stems now that I have got the Easton EC-90 31.7mm bar:

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April 20, 2003

Bicycle Stem and Bars

Every 2-3 years, Lennard Zinn recommends replacing the handlebars. So, I’m off on a search for lightweight set of bars and stem. Right now I have a 3TTT Prima 199 and Icon Sterling Stem. These are pretty light. 200g and 120g respectively, but the Prima is certainly quite flexy. Also, these are 26.0 mm diameter parts and the new thing are 31.8 mm which are supposed to be less flexy. And, of course carbon handlebars. The Icon Sterling is a one bolt binder, so it won’t work with carbon bars, so I need both. Here is what I found out thanks to Weight Weenies and also Light Bikes which have actual weights of components.

The net for me is I’m probably going to go all carbon bars (no surprise there) with Easton EC 90 via ebay. Then, get a stem that is either magnesium, the Deda Newton Mag 00. If I feel rich, I’ll get a carbon stem (either the Time Monolink or the FSA K-Force Lite). If I feel poor, get a very light aluminum one like the Stella Azzurra Vice Versa or the ITM Millenium.

Handle Bars

The net for me is I’m getting Easton EC 90, but I’m not clear if I should get 26.0 or 31.8 mm on ebay. See notes below:

26.0 mm front clamp stems

These stems are quite a bit lighter, because obviously, the clamps are smaller. In general Totalcycling.com and Wiggle have great prices. I’ve ordered from Total and they have been reliable, but not with Wiggle. Here are the choices:

31.8 mm front clamp stems

For 31.8 mm stem components, here is how the choices stack up as whether to get a magnisium stem. These are very delicate, but very light and hard to maintain, but a dream. It is also pretty clear that most new stems are 31.8 now. Choices are:

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April 19, 2003

Travel with a Bike

Ritchey BreakAway Bike. A real dilemma how to do this. You can get a gigantic case or a special bike made, but here’s a commercial one with a decoupler. Interesting.

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April 18, 2003

Coolest Bike Wheels

Well, I’m pretty sure they won’t make me any faster, but these are certainly the latest in technology at:

Now there are other cool wheels, but it is kind of amazing to get experts opinions just on the web.

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April 16, 2003

Bike Fit

John Gallagher. Great guy. Getting a great fit on a bike is the number one thing. A bunch of us are going to STP it and some will need new bikes. So, it is first get fit properly then look for a good bike that fits.

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April 13, 2003

Bike Update

Well, it’s biking season again. here are some of the latest toys I’ve been looking at:

For my Cyclocross project:
BIKEMAN‘S On-Line Store: MECHANICAL DISC BRAKES. Good place to buy Avid Mechanical Disc Brakes for Road bikes. There is a magic adaptor required as well.

Mavic Speedcity 700c. These are 700c wheels with disc hubs. So you don’t have to ask someone to build up a 700c rim with a disc hub. Not that that is that hard. Front is about $150 and rear is $200.

For my road bike, major thing, lighter stuff:

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March 06, 2003

Tandem for the kids

Sheldon Brown on Tandems and Kids. Hmmm. Sheldon has a good idea here. Get a tandem and we can all ride together and not worry so much about them getting hit by a car. Will have to look into this.

Trailer Bike. An alternative is a Trailer bike that attaches to an existing bike. Not too expensive and works up to 85 pounds too. Maybe I’ll try one from some friends.

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Chains and things

Chain Maintenance. Just replaced my chain. First time I’ve ever worn one out. I should have checked earlier. I had thought the grinding was due to a loose bottom bracket, but in retrospect, it was probably the chain. That’s not mentioned in diagnostic manuals I have. So something for people to watch out for. If you feel like there is a slip and a rumble, it might be the bottom bracket, but it might be the chain. Particularly if it has been 1-2,000 miles since you changed it.

It was very worn out and this article talks all about it. I sure hope I didn’t ruin my cassette. That is expensive.

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February 27, 2003

Lance Armstrong Separates

Jeffrey A. Cross: Armstrong And Wife Separate. How depressing. Lance and Kristin celebrate. I think I’ll buy Connie some flowers.

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February 24, 2003

Bike Works

Bike Works! Helping Columbia City Ride Bicycles.. This is a great organization. You can donate your bikes to them. You can also teach inner city kids how to repair bikes and then if they work long enough, then they get to keep them for themselves. A neat idea.

We have a bunch of kids bikes and I’d love to volunteer in their shop. Would learn some things too!

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February 13, 2003

Santa Cruz Blur

I've been looking for a mountain bike for a while and had my heart set on an Ellsworth Truth. Seemed perfect, but then the Blur came along and now there are too many choices again. But, here are some reviews of it that make it sound so sweet: