Illness and Training

It tickles in the throat, taunting you, daring you to get out in the cold and train through. There may or may not be a little voice in your head mocking you:

"If you were a real hardman, a little cold wouldn't bother you."

"What doesn't kill you will only make you stronger."

"Do you think that [insert arch rival/nemesis's name here] takes the day off due to such a minor cold."

"------ is probably training right now!"

"Pussy!"

Competitive cyclists are a dedicated lot. We train through the worst weather and endure grueling training regiments, all while balancing an adult life complete with mortgages, careers, student loans, household chores, significant others, family, other interests and even non-cycling friends.

Training through illness seems natural, after the privations of normal training. But unlike pushing a little harder on Watertower Hill, pushing through illness will only weaken you.

Every March, I become run down. I get a cold and have to take a few days off from training. And every March I beat myself up as a slacker, a laggart and a softy for succumbing to the illness.

This morning in the shower, I had the first signs of a cold, slightly scratchy throat, runny nose. I am curious how other competitive cyclists handle a slight cold.

Do they train through;

do they take a day off;

do they go easy in their workouts;

or do they power through and come out the other side as anointed hardmen?

Bikes Are Not Art

 

 

Most bicycle frames have no soul.  They are mass produced by automatons or human automatons in gigantic factory complexes in Asia.  All lugged steel bicycles have similar dimensions, use the same tubes and are bound together using the same methods.  Aluminum frames are produced the same way, mostly by robots from identical tubes.  Carbon bicycles take the similarities a step further, most are produced in a small region of Taiwan, many brands produced in the very same factory and branded only on the way out the door. 

 

Those of us who want bicycles with soul usually order custom frames from boutique manufacturers or accept the weight penalty and ride a vintage frame.

 

Recently I was discussing this topic with Mark McCormack in regards to my cycling team's decision to have two simultaneous bicycle/frame sponsors, Fuji (soulless, yet highly functional factory bikes) and Igleheart (individual framemaker who has more soul than anyone).  MM's point was that a bike is merely a tool and that if two bikes have the same dimensions and are made from the same materials, then they are the same bike.  The only direct quote that I can remember from MM: "Bikes are not art."

 

I suppose that this is the attitude that we should expect from a seasoned pro whose racing moniker has long been “The Business Man.”  McCormack has been riding bikes for money for many years.  He races on what his sponsors provide for him, whether he likes it or not.  Under these conditions, it would not be beneficial to become attached to a specific framemaker’s bikes, as it is unlikely that they will be sponsoring your team next year.  

But the rest of us pay for our bikes.  We buy the most bike that we can justify given our financial circumstances.  While most of us are looking for performance, many of us would reject a bicycle that performed well, but looked horrible.  Aesthetics are important to us.  In my case, I have chosen to have most of my race bikes custom made so that I can dictate how they ride and their dimensions. 

In addition to my custom “race bikes” I have a growing stable of vintage bicycles and frames.  Many of these were mass produced in a factory, but somehow the years have bestowed character on them even though they were also likely produced in a huge factory.   Some of these bicycles offer a better ride quality than my custom bikes.

A great example is my Team Fuji.  To the untrained eye, this is an ugly brown bike, which explains why it has never been stolen or had parts stolen despite my flagrant carelessness.  Those with discerning taste will notice the lugwork and the chromed out crown fork (I crashed mine and had to replace it).  The frame absorbs shock and transfers power better than today’s top of the line carbon steeds.   In fact, I found that most modern frames failed to even approach the “Team Fuji Benchmark” that I set when I was test riding fancy bikes on my last round of bike purchasing. 

 

I have seen two other Team Fuji’s on the road in the 10 years that I have been enjoying this bike.  One of them is under a gentleman who I know.  I have put in a standing offer in to buy his frame, since it is the same size as mine. 

 

After the IF Party this weekend a woman named Johna  rolled up to the Independent in Union Square on her Team Fuji as I was locking mine up.







  Johna had a similarly convoluted story about how she came to her TF and how many versions of the bike she had had.  Johna expressed the same kind of love and attachment to her TF as I have.   We are now BFF’s, as we share a weird bond that only another Team Fuji owner can understand.  Incidentally, Mark McCormack told me that his brother Frank’s first race bicycle was the Team Fuji.  I plan on asking Frank about it next time I see him.

Another example is my Basso Loto.  This bicycle was never in mass production, but Basso was a larger bike builder back in the day.  My friend Gustavo (who you may have noticed as one of the important people behind the scenes at Embrocation Cycling Journal), lusted after this frame when he first began competitive cycling in the mid-1990’s.  He has wanted one ever since.  Gustavo  has not even seen my bicycle in person, but he has put in a standing offer to buy the frame, since we are essentially the same size.  Gus does not need the frame in a functional sense, but a yearning for things lost compels him toward this frame. 

My purpose in writing this whole post is to ask a series of questions:  Is there a connection between people who are riding the same bicycle?   Do bicycles have soul?  What is the essence of this soul? Does a handmade bicycle perform better than a mass produced bicycle?

PowerCranks Update--Update Overdue--Sprinting--PowerTap Ordered

It has been awhile since my last update.  There have been a few developments, none of them dramatic. 

 

My goal this last week was to pedal the cranks for 45 minutes straight through.  I succeeded, but was obliged to stop pedaling for one 15 second and one 35 second period due to outside stimuli.   Also, I must note that after 45 minutes my taint area feels like someone has been repeated punching it.  At this point, my legs are not my limiter, my grundle is. 

 

One solution to the taint beating issue is to ride out of the saddle.  I installed a 50 tooth chainring to the Powercranks, as I was finding myself spinning out my biggest gear when I had only a small ring installed.  





I would have installed a bigger gear, but my current PC bike set up will not allow it. 

 

I am now able to get out of the saddle and limp through a sprint.  While standing, it is very difficult to maintain a set velocity with the PC's.   I have to always be accelerating in order to stay upright and keep my pedal stroke smooth.   When I try to keep my cadence steady while standing I find the “deadspots” in the pedal stroke and eventually miss a stroke.  I fail to bring one of the crank arms upwards enough to get it over the top of the stroke.  This results in swift and violent backsliding of that crankarm and a serious jarring as my rhythm is broken unexpectedly.  I have not had this happen on the road yet, but I think that it could easily cause a crash. 

 

Also, I have ordered a Power Tap pickup to install on my PC bike.  After spending months becoming proficient at keeping these things moving, it is now time to start actually trying to product power with them.  Luckily my training schedule is also at the point where I am ready to start producing power in training. 

 

Up until now, I have been using heart rate to guide me through PC workouts.  In the future, I will be setting goals based on time and power output, instead of heart rate and power.  This will be a more effective training strategy, as my goal is to become faster on the bike which is the result of increase power output; my goal is not to have a high heart rate. 

 

According to my perceptions, at a given power output my heart rate is higher when that power is produced with the PC’s.  With the installation of the PowerTap, I will be able to gather data to back up or refute this perception.  Also, according to the PC website, I should see my heart for a given power output decline over time due to the use of PC’s.  Obviously, I don’t have the baseline data to accurately track such a development, but I can track any changes in heart rate for given power outputs with the PC’s. 

 

I still have not been able to use these cranks outdoors.  Every time that the weather and road conditions are appropriate, I have a workout scheduled that can’t be done on PC’s.   I am hoping that some of the issues, such as the taint problem, will be less intense once I am able to ride these on the road again.  

This Just In--Shaming Works--PVB Buys Clip on Fenders.

I was at the Cambridge Bicycle and none other than cycling VIP, Pierre Vanden Borre came in and exercised his team discount to purchase clip on fenders and a super soft Cambridge Bicycle shirt.  

Now we can stick PVB out in front on rides and not have to sample the local gutter water.  

I, for one, am very pleased with this development.  

(PVB declined to have his picture taken for this post)

Shop Review: Wheelworks--Expensive, But You Get What You Pay For.

Wheelworks is the benchmark that I measure other area shops against.  They have incredible stores of product in stock, new and old;  they retain an impressive array of spare parts for vintage and obsolete bicycles; they carry enough flashy product lines to make even the most jaded roady pay attention; their service center is unrivalled for attention to detail and thoroughness. 

 

When you walk into Wheelworks, either location, you are immediately greeted by a professional staff member and politely asked how they can help you.  I have never seen any Wheelworks employ act in a condescending manner, no matter how misguided a customer is. 

 

If you indicate that you are merely browsing, they back off and give you distance.  But they remain attentive and nearby to answer the questions that you will inevitably have.  They carry so much stock that they will always have something that you haven’t seen before, even if you are in the bicycle industry.

 

I have had the pleasure of buying a bicycle from them several years past.  I paid very close to MSRP for my mountain bike, which turned out to be a bit of a lemon.   Gary Fisher had some design problems with the Cake.  Wheelworks went over and above the call of duty to try to remedy the consistent chainsuck that plagues the model line.   

 

Wheelworks swapped out the crankset (selling me a better one at cost) and replaced a chewed up chain at their expense.  They even hit the marred chainstay up with touch up paint every time it was serviced.  At one point they offered to pursue Gary Fisher for a warranty, since it was clear that frame design was at fault.  I declined to

 

On this same bike, my front Hayes Nine hydraulic disk brake stopped working properly.  A Wheelworks mechanic took the brake apart and figured out that the product had failed due to a bad valve.  Wheelworks fixed both brakes (servicing the rear preemptively) and pursued Hayes after the fact for reimbursement.  This repair cost me nothing and took 3-4 hours.  I took the bike to them in the morning and was on the trail after lunch.

 

I find that the best reason to go to Wheelworks is when you need something immediately.  I often need some obscure parts.  I have never been asked to wait while they ordered it.  Instead, the counter person goes in back and confers with a more experienced mechanic and the mechanic rummages around and comes out with the part. 

 

My recent fulfilled requests have included: a lock nut for a first generation Campagnolo Chorus 10 Speed hub (located after 10 minutes of searching and installed free of charge), derailleur hangers for 2000-2001 model year Gary Fisher mountain bike (in stock and immediately located),  Shimano 600 brake pads (easily located), SwissStop Yellow brake pads, valve cores for tubular tires, Bontrager Valve Extenders, Mastik Tubular Cement (competively priced, even when compared to internet pricing) and various Campagnolo componentry.  I have never had to wait for Wheelworks to order an item; everything appears to always be in stock. 

 

Every time I have needed a piece of cycling clothing to address a need, Wheelworks has had a great solution.  Their glove and base layer selection is great.  They keep all sizes in stock, so there will never be a need to buy something that fits poorly just because you need it today. 

 

Wheelworks  also has great display items, vintage racing bicycles, autographed jerseys, photos, etc.  The Belmont location is worth a visit just for the tour of the shop. 

They have a world class bicycle fitting center in the basement of the Belmont location.  I haven’t used it yet, but if I needed a fit, this is where I’d go.

 

 

There are only two small things that I can say against Wheelworks:  it is pricey and there is usually a considerable wait for service. 

 

At Wheelworks, you get what you pay for.  Wheelworks justifies their prices every time they offer exceptional service, every time that they answer a mechanical question free of charge, every time a seasoned mechanic takes time out of his busy schedule, free of charge to rummage around for a part to fix a vexing problem that you can’t solve, every time they charge you a nominal fee for a vintage part that they have stored for 10 years and that you can’t ride your bike without. 

 

In short, Wheelworks earns their money.  You should go there if you are looking for a premium road bike or a premium mountain bike and you don’t mind paying MSRP in order to get exceptional service and fitting.  Don’t expect a discount, none will be offered. 

 

As for service, it is top notch.  Their attention to detail is unmatched in the Boston area.  Expect to drop the bike and wait a couple of days for it though.  Some shops are able to conduct repairs while you wait.  Wheelworks has a queue year round.  The consolation is that your bicycle will be returned to you clean, repaired properly and on time. 

 

They only area that Wheelworks is outdone is in track bikes and fixed gears.  Cambridge Bicycle covers that market better than anyone. 

 

Every time that I go into Wheelworks, I have to steel myself against buying anything more than my intended purchase.  They always have things that tempt me. 

Clip-on Fenders-Mounting Advice.

Every sloppy ride, there is someone who refuses to use clip-on fenders, thereby spraying their friends and frenemies alike with road slop.  

 

I am forever hassling these riders and in some cases, I stop inviting them on rides (PVB, even though you are a prime offender, you will always be welcome on my rides).

 

The purpose of this post is not to complain about lack of fenders, it is to make sure that the people who I have goaded into getting them don't mar their frames when mounting clip-ons. 

Clip-on fenders have little rubber stoppers where they come in contact with your frame.  In theory these should prevent your frame from being scratched by the fenders.  Don't be fooled.  Sand and grit gets under the rubber stops and etches the clearcoat.  Eventually it can wear through the paint altogether. 

 

My advice is to wrap your seatstays and your fork in electrical tape so that the areas of contact are protected.  As you can see in the photos, there are scuffs in the electrical tape where the grit would have scratched my frame.  



Matt Roy has some pro looking rubber wrapped around his contact areas, but few of us will ever attain Mr. Roy’s level of professionalism. 

 

My IF has scratches from before I knew better.  I hope that I have prevented you from messing your nice frame up.   

Two Bottle Cages Break on One Ride--Explanations?

I rode lots this last weekend.  Some people noticed that I have a janky red Lucite/clear plastic second cage on my Basso.  I endured some ribbing.


It is because two weekends ago, I broke 2 cages on one ride.  The ride was 5-6 hours and the roads were bumpy, wet and salty.  



The cages are quite old. I got them when I bought a Tomassini as a complete bike 4 seasons ago. The cages had been used for 10 years before I got them.

They saw 3 winters of abuse with me and then I moved them to my mountain bike for summer and back onto my B bike for a 4th winter.

It is unclear what specific incident actually broke the cages, but I find it odd that they both broke on the same ride.

Lucky for me, they continued to hold my bottles until the end of the ride. I did notice that the cages seemed a little loose when I was reinserting bottles.  In my oxygen deprived state, I thought that perhaps the bolts holding the cages in place were loose.  I figured out that the cages were broken when I was cleaning the salt off of the bike after the ride.






I am curious if any of you science/engineering people can give me a statistical probablity of both cages breaking within the same 5 hour time period after enduring years, perhaps over a decade, of abuse together.  

Photos of the Wilier Alp d'Huez

In the discipline of bicycle photography, Yasushi Katsumi is my mentor and prime influence. For your edification and as an homage to the mighty Japanese cyclocross racer, I offer you gratuitously detailed photos of my track bike, the Wilier Alp d' Huez. I don't expect my photos to approach the same level of detail and execution as my mentor's but I do hope that I provide a sufficient homage.

Basso Loto--An Italian Lugged Steel Delight

This bike was a Craigslist score: $160 for the frame, fork and complete Shimano 600/Dura Ace gruppo. The parts were in a box, but it was the complete gruppo, Dura Ace hubs laced to Campagnolo Omega ceramic rims included.

As I am Campy rider, I sold most of the Shimano stuff on eBay, recouping my investment and even turning a modest profit. I kept the Turbomatic Saddle, ControlTech seatpost, Shimano 600 brakes and 600 front derailleur. I have found that Shimano 600 brakes from the 8 speed era are far more effective than the Campagnolo brakes of that vintage. In fact, the 600 brakes are among the best brakes ever made.



This is one of the sharpest looking frames ever. It rides like a dream, inspiring confidence on descents and in sprints. I suspect that, like my beloved Moser frame, it has a lowered bottom bracket which adds stability to a bicycle's ride.



The Basso currently weighs exactly 23 pounds built with Campagnolo 8 speed (Record/Croce d'Aune/Chorus mix), mid level Shimano SPD Mtb pedals and clip-on fenders.

I am considering building this frame up with contemporary Campagnolo Centaur 10 Speed in the near future.

Product Review: Fizik Microtex--Looks Good, Grips Good But Can Be Stinky.

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The Microtex is very thin tape. So thin that when I got my first roll via mail, I was skeptical that such thin tape could offer any shock or vibration dampening. Happily, I have not noted any extra harshness in my handlebars since using it. In fact, I like that the bars feel a little more immediate, which gives me a corresponding feeling of confidence, especially when I am in the speed hooks in the rain. It is grippy.

The thinness of the tape does present problems during handlebar wrapping. Because the tape is so thin, it has a tendency to twist and bind, unlike cork tape which is relatively simple to stretch into place. Also MIcrotex, by design, does not stretch, which further exasperates the kinking problem during wrapping. With care and patience, along with experience, most mechanics should be able to achieve a clean wrapping job on their second try.

I must qualify my statement about Microtex’s excellent grip. It is achieved only if you are wearing gloves. If you ride barehanded in wet conditions (or even on the trainer), you may find that the tape is slippery. On the other hand, if you are wearing gloves, grip improves if you dampen the bars. Spit and water both work.

One of the best parts of this handlebar tape is cleanup. The deepest ground in filth can be removed with a rag and some hot soapy water. I use Palmolive. It requires a little scrubbing, but would you rather scrub or rewrap your bars? I was able to use the same roll of white tape for the bulk of last road season since it always came clean and looked good afterwards.




This tape is available in a multitude of colors and finishes. Pictured on my Basso is the metallic blue.



All varieties are perforated, which I think it very sweet looking, sort of old school. I am most fond of the "Soft Touch," but it get dirty quickly and does not clean up as easily as the other varieties.

My only real complaint with this tape is the stink. That’s right, it stinks. Sweat gets under the plastic impervious layer and makes a home in the fibrous layer underneath. The sweat festers under there, since there is no way for the air to get to it through outer layer of the tape. For about a month, I couldn’t locate the rotten cheesy smell in my bike room. Finally, frustrated, I went around sniffing all of my bike stuff until I isolated the odor to my road bike’s handlebars. I pulled the hoods away and scrubbed at the underside of the brake hoods and the bartape with a clean brush and extra soapy water. The stink returned the next day. When I unwrapped the bars, there were blackened colonies of…this disgusting issue has been corroborated by other local cyclists.

Overall Fizik Microtex is decent handlebar tape. Light feeling and grippy, it inspires confidence when conditions deteriorate. Once you figure out a workable application procedure, the tape looks pro and stays looking that way with a little maintenance. If you frequently change your tape you should be OK, but if you clock major hours on the trainer, expect cheesy aroma to develop. By way of endorsement, I am still using this handlebar tape on my race bike, but I am interviewing similar candidates on the training bikes to try and find one that doesn’t become a biology experiment after a month of sweaty criteriums.

Product Failure and User Error: Asigning Blame and Rejecting Excuses.

We all have the friend who flats out of the winning break every time he managed to get there. He or she is the one who takes the hole shot in a Verge race and then throws their chain and gets lapped. Better yet, he gets the whole shot and then snaps his chain and crashes out half the field (thanks to Zach for reminding me of that incident).

He is the friend who is constantly destroying gear. These are riders who ride so hard that they prematurely ruin gear. Cracked frames, tacoed wheels, freehub bodies catastrophically notched, multiple flats, derailleur hangers sheared off, wheels always knocked out of true.

I am talking about the guy who regularly experiences product failure. Sometimes rider weight is a factor, which is understandable and excusable; we compete in a sport where very few professionals are over 160 lbs. Weight is not what I am talking about. I am talking about inexplicable and consistent product failure.

There are many skills that one must master before they can be considered an seasoned competitive cyclist: holding a wheel, taking predictable and logical lines, high speed cornering, pacelining, working efficiently as a group and as part of a group, sprinting, climbing, cadence control, proper nutrition (before, during and after rides), maintenance, mechanics and hand signaling. I am deliberately leaving out the esoteric fashion rules, as those contain more than one post worth of material, and furthermore, I think that it is valuable for people to learn cycling fashion from experience instead of being told.

I would like to add one more skill to the list of imperative skills to learn: Not destroying bike parts. This would include practicing proper maintenance beyond lubing the chain and pumping tires, proper bike handling so that the bike it not thrust full force into every pothole and divot that the rider goes over, proper preparation before the ride so that tire pressure is optimized for the conditions on the road and using clip on fenders when the riding is sloppy (prevents wear on the drivetrain and brakes) and being light on the bike so that when you do hit an unexpected pothole, it doesn’t cause you to flat every time (at 175lbs I ride through potholes daily and almost never flat).

Bad luck happens. Flats happen. Products fail sometimes. But there are riders, we all know who that are, who experience these failures far more often than most. Some of them experience multiple failures in the same ride or race. When this happens and happens often, one must apply Occam’s razor and deduce that luck has nothing to do with it; user error is at fault.

Some of these riders will use mechanical failure as an excuse for poor performance in a race. Somehow having a mechanical absolves the rider of all responsibility for their misfortune. As if getting dropped often due to overly frequent mechanicals is more honorable than getting dropped due to lack of fitness.

I am not having any of it. Once or twice a season it is acceptable for a mechanical to take you out of a race. If it is every other race, then the mechanical failure is a reflection of the rider’s lack of skill in one of the key areas of cycling: don’t abuse your bicycle.