Even the agnostics and the athiests must enjoy the end result of Christ’s arrival and subsequent continued celebration (the reason for the season as is a de rigeur expression these days). Unless you’re one of those victims that line up in who-knows-what weather to save a bit of dough on something you likely don’t need and possibly dig even a deeper debt hole for yourself; you’ve probably kicked back a bit, seen some family and friends and sat around with a bit more time to think. I know I have.

One of the thoughts running around my chaotic cranium has been the appreciation I have of the fact that virtually all my bicycle customers are great folks………pas de morons! It gives me faith in this what seems an over-techno’d, brain dead society. My person of extreme significance and I were just across the street at one of the local burnt coffee dispensaries (yeh…….Starbucks) and shook our heads at many of the folks around us with their myopic eyes fixed upon some 2 x 4″ screen. We felt sorry for the poor little fellow at the next table, out for a drink with his dad. Papa Moron barely lifted his head from his handheld brain controller the whole time we were there, let alone speak with his little guy. They just don’t get it.

Indeed for me its been another year of people coming by the shop brimming with common sense, enthusiasm, willingness to learn and a desire to improve themselves. Some come by in need of a bike, which will become both their vehicle for self-improvement and their friend on that trip. Others to simply sort out what they have so its all a better ‘fit’. Its so great for me to watch their relationship with the physical bike, the activity of cycling well and their own potentials and improvements.

There’s one in particular who has been a customer (and certainly now a friend) for a number of years. He’s never raced and in fact didn’t even become an enthusiast until his late 30’s. The natural, easy flow found within a group of good bike riders is something that’s more difficult to learn and feel when you start at an older age……like music and languages I suppose. Riding in a large peleton that’s just ripping along with guys getting shelled out the back is the best way to learn safe survival, but how many late starters ever get that chance? Most that start as adults remain fairly nervous in a tight group situation. As well, as adults we tend not to listen as well either, making the process that much more difficult. Well, in the good doctor’s case, he’s been absorbing info and observing over the last couple of season’s and has now become what I would call a bike rider. One of the defining characteristics of that moniker to me is, when I can shut my brain off when riding 4-6″ from their wheel….even in a cross wind. VERY difficult to find. But such is my friend’s velo prowess that I happily told him after our last ride that my brain function went to basics……..and that’s good. Safe and efficient was he!

There are of course, others too that are on that path and it makes so thankful for the opportunity to do my bit in making, to parody the old USMC posters, ” A Few Good Riders”. I feel a lucky bloke.

When I get the next bit of time, I’m a gonna tell you how you can be a manly climber and flatten those hills, and give you proof that it works.

Best for the New Year!

I’ll bet y’all done thought I’d evaporated or somethin’.

Well its actually just been the craziest, most project filled year of my life. No complaints though as its been a great time. Well, the only complaint was that my wonderful dog Norton passed away after fifteen + years of being my best pal.

Norton, ‘The King of Cool’

He was an extraordinary guy with an endless list of fans and friends and I feel totally blessed to have shared his life. “See you again someday little man.”  The only upside to the sadness has been the introduction of Mr ‘Ballistic’ Benson to our lives. Acquired from Skagit Animal Rescue, he is totally full of beans and is psychotically loving.

Benson the leapin’ lizard

Havin’ a beer with Benny

Anyway, the crazy boat project continues to forward and since the last scribing I’ve had it out of the water and stripped the entire underside (with a torch and a belt sander) to bare wood….the first time in at least fifty years. Replaced some damaged planking, refilled nearly 4000 screw recesses etc etc. Mustn’t ask myself why or I might stop.

Finally all Navy Gray

Then of course there are the car projects. The most exciting has to be the resurrection of one of my all time favourites, an earlier E Type coupe. Purchased as a Christmas prezzie for the love of my life, this previously Texas owned vehicle needed (and still needs) a bunch of sorting. As an interesting bit for the bicycle keeners, The front end of a Jag E type is a space frame design, like the race cars it was developed from. This entire front end assembly is built from Reynolds 531 tubing. In fact, one of the damaged tubes I had to replace was a standard sized top tube from a bicycle. The whole thing was apart but now its heading together again….maybe in time for this Christmas.

Those 1″ rad support tubes are Reynolds 531 top tubes

But probably the most exciting thing is that Rob ‘The Wizard of all Things Carbon’ Mulder and myself have been cobbling up some pretty cool scratch-built carbon frames. Rob is known far and wide in these parts for his ability to produce some pretty wild carbon creations including some very well though out aero handlebar sets. His designed and built products have won medals in World Cup, World Championship and Olympic events. In the cycle world though, his biggest reputation comes from fixing/repairing hundreds of broken carbon bikes.

Being around his shop was something of an eye-opener to me. While many of the broken frames are products of a crash, a huge number are ones that ‘just broke’. These are all the big names too…and the expensive ones at that. Trek 6.whatevers, Looks, Cervelos by the score, Wiliers, Specialized….craziness. Many of the riders around here are thankful for his ability to keep their bikes out of the trash a bit longer.

Those that know me and/or my mindset with the modern cycle industry, know how disappointed I am with the lack of any real wide range of frame shape options for different shaped riders. Well now we can do it all. Not only tailoring the tube lengths and angles, but we also lay up different laminations to tune the frame characteristics to the rider’s needs and desires. As a further plus, while the vast majority of today’s carbon frames (carbon anything actually) are built with a 50/50 ration of carbon and resin, the carbon being the strength and the resin being the glue that keeps the carbon together, the carbon we use has a much higher carbon content. We heard that Enve composites in Utah were producing high end bicycle tubes made with hi temp, pre-preg carbon. These tubes end up being 70% carbon with 30% resin. A quick calculation shows that to be 40% more carbon per weight volume. Not only does this make for a much stronger frame, but the lesser amount of resin substantially reduces road shock. Its really weird actually. When Rob first tried the first road bike down the road, he though the tyres were nearly flat, such was the smoothness. The same comment has been repeated by all that have ridden these bikes now.

On the performance benefit side, the extra amount of carbon in the equation substantially adds to the ’snap’ of the frame. This would be the very quick response time when a frame snaps back after deflecting under hard pedal load (ie climbing, sprinting). Contrary to what current bicycle adverts/tests tell you, straight frame stiffness does not make for the fastest all around bike. Its the frames ability to ‘pump’ that energy into the back wheel like its spring loaded. Just ask any competitive sailor/sail boarder (carbon masts that deflect then snap back in gusts shooting the vessel ahead), or a pole vaulter that relies on a quick snap back of the pole to throw them higher in the air.

The frames are constructed with all tubes mitered against each other allowing for a very strong triangulation effect. All the joints are glued, then wrapped in whatever the lamination schedule calls for. Any joints that are to be ‘aero’ fillets, get special ultra light filleting foam shaped into the area then wrapped with more carbon.

In spite of the extra expense, we use only American made titanium BB shells and cable stops. Aluminum has been known to present problems when bonding with carbon and resin whereas titanium has no such tendencies. Nothing is riveted through the frame either. All frames thus far have used the fabulous Enve forks. Enve build their forks in a continuous, fully molded fashion. Even the front brake hole is molded in so as not to cut through the carbon weave as would be the case if it was drilled.

Frame in the jig getting set up for initial resin tacking.

The only downside to this little project is the copious hours it takes to make one. When you add in the fact that the material cost alone is well over double what Pinarello pays Suk Wang and Wak Yu to make a Dogma…painted no less, it makes this look like a pretty dumb business decision. Especially when we sell these for about the same price. Nevertheless, its pretty cool to make stuff like this AND to get such marvelous feedback and results.

Finished frame with ‘aeroized’ filleting and extra laminations.

Some head tube detail

So guess what happens when you try and find 7 or 8 hours a week to actually spend some more time your bike? Something else has to give. Writing in this little news journal being one of those somethings.

Three things instigated the real push for a few more miles. One, I’d committed to joining a group of folks on a two week cycling mission to  the Pyrenees, an area where the only thing flat would be the occasional tyre…..a far cry from the tarmac outside my door. The second is that I’d clicked ‘pay now’ on the Whistler Gran Fondo website some months ago and simply HAD to scrap the rubbish out myself so I could do the ride. The third was simply that it had been a long time since I had anything beyond ‘Joe Everyman’ fitness. Ever since I stopped serious racing, I’ve always thought its a good idea to ramp it up a bit so that you can coast on it for a bit. Trouble is, as you get older the coasting bit feels like there’s a wheel rubbing and you don’t get to coast for long…better than nothing though.

As a pre -GF and Tourmalet prep, I also signed up for the Axel Merckx ride in Penticton. Rolling countryside, a few lumps and at 160km likely the longest ride I’d do this year. This being the first bit of July, the month May seemed about the time to get the lead out….I mean start going for real rides…pretending you still could at least.

Turns out an even older cyclist than me, in fact he was one of the stars locally when I were a lad, George Streadwick, had signed up for the two Fondos (Fondi?) as well. Although he too had been drawn heavily into the world of sailboat racing in the last ten years, he’d also managed to keep the pounds down. So on a dreary Sunday the two of us joined in on our Club’s ride part way up the Squamish Hwy. This is part of the route used in the Whistler ride as well.

Gotta admit I didn’t feel all that spiffing as the ride progressed and it appeared Geo didn’t either. I think the biggest frustration is looking down at your cassette while climbing and thinking, “gee….that’s the same cog I used to use” but then realizing it used to be on the big ring on the front…and not a compact.

George and I ended up doing some more two-up rides well up that coastal road and gradually cracked more of the ice of the solidified fitness, nothing great but better.

The road trip to the AM ride in Penticton went well. I had a goal of just doing the 100 miles in 5 hours, 20 mph average or 32 kph. Nothing stellar but at least the old training pace. Turns out George had signed up for the Medio version. I’d call it the girly one but as Axel’s well known papa, the Great Eddy was doing that one too….what can I say?

3,2,1 go and I started too fast…and it started up a little crank breaker hill. Not a bad idea actually as it sorted the 2000+ riders out much quicker. But dang, I forgot my nitro glycerine. What was it that Fred Sanford use to say? “lisbeth….its the big one!”

Anyway all got sorted and I ended up being at my mark within 20 seconds. George called a few hours after it was over and reported that he’d won his age Cat (66….a week younger than Eddy) and had dropped Eddy on the last hill. Just to clarify, there was NO pretence of greatness here. Very tongue in cheek as the amount of respect anyone from our racing era has for Merckx’ achievements is massive. It just sounded so funny.

Couple of weeks later I crated the bike and was off to the heart of Pryenean cycling. A two week stay in Bagneres de Bigorre put us near the foot of the Tourmalet and a number of other famed TdF hills. Nothing flat in that area as even the valleys follow rivers so you’re either going up or down them.

My epic day there was not because of cycling achievements but because of my stupidity. I’d just finished grunting up the famed Tourmalet (see below)

and had descended to the valley floor and had begun the ascent of the Col d’Aspin when I spied a rushing torrent of sparkling mountain water cascading its way down the hill beside the road. A quick pitstop for a bottle fill then on my way to yet another summit to conquer. A little further up the grade the same river met the roadway again only this time there was a huddle of bovines enjoying the water rushing by their feet.

The effects weren’t felt until the next evening but suffice to say everything I’d eaten in what seemed a week headed for the exits…several times.

Ended coming back home with a bit more hilly fitness nevertheless….and a bit less weight. It added up to a bit more comfort on the slopes. A very tedious process though…this getting fit on hills. (Don’t be discouraged if it seems to take you forever, keep at it.)

Ended up doing a hilly ride that Richard Wooles had organized with some of Canada’s best riders, the ever congenial and gracious Svein Tuft being the top attendee, as well as Zach Bell, Will Routley and a liberal sprinkling of other pros  and some of the top girls including my favourite, the aforementioned Jasmine Glaesser. Kind of a social cruise, hammers were left in the toolbox.

Some Canada’s best riders in a rare get together at the lookout on Cypress mountain. That’ll be me lurking behind the helmeted Jasmine Glaesser right of center.

Whilst I could still maintain some talk rolling up the Cypress hill the good guys were yakking so much I don’t know when they were breathing. I couldn’t help but notice Jasmine though. Even on such a ride, when it would split, she’d instantly jump across…competitive lass that.

That was a few days before the Whistler ride that I certainly had apprehensions about. Not so much about my ability at that point, more like my safety. Hoping to get under four hours, we got underway on the appointed day in a crowd of nearly 6000. (They said 7000 but there were over a thousand non-starters). It was a pretty sketchy episode with some five riders hitting the pavement around me at various points. Only had to put my foot down once to avoid hitting anyone. George and I managed to stay together for many miles which was surprising because of the chaos that reigned so often in the group. Splits were happening all the time. Finally lost contact with him on one of the longer climbs.

The weather couldn’t have been better and as the start was so early, it kept much of the course in the shade. Happily, it reduced the need for liquid substantially. In fact I managed the ride on well under two bottles….should have finished my Snickers bar though…bit of glycogen shortage in the last 15 km.

Rolled across the finish line and into the then hot parking lot within my personally allotted time, three minutes to the good actually. George came in under 10 minutes later for a 9th overall in his age group (out of hundreds) so another well done for someone who was creeping six months ago.

I was a little miffed when I went to the refreshment tent and found the only thing to drink was chocolate milk….not the first thing I’d think to give hot, thirsty, tired cyclists. No juice, coke, electrolytes. Only other thing was plastic flavoured water from a hose arrangement near that tent. On the plus side for the event, it was very well marshaled…never an issue with a car or directions….best Id ever seen.

We hung around for a couple of hours and then jumped in das auto and headed back down the highway home. We saw hundreds and hundreds of folks of that road still pedaling their way to the finish in the now 29 degree weather. Some still had several hours to go. I often think that these people are the ones that really have the gumption and drive to complete what to them is a VERY arduous undertaking. Ex-racer types, myself notwithstanding, sometimes think we’re pretty tough just because we go faster. Truth is, I think these folks are tougher simply because it hurts in a bad way when you do stuff like this and you’re not fit…and for a lot longer.

Congratulations to all those that finished it!

Now hopefully I can hold some fitness until I can get a track bike together for the indoor season.

I get asked on a pretty regular basis how I go about fitting someone on a bike. Its certainly a fair enough question. Cruisin’ the Net, one can soon see that there are hundreds if not thousands of ‘expert’ bicycle fitters on this continent alone. Its easy to see why it would be so confusing for those recently coming to the sport….or even the uneducated who have been drifting around in it for a while. Super laser-assisted, intergalactic double espresso, latte equipped, endothermic equipment with capabilities only just short of being able to rid the world of all known diseases surely must do a fab job, no? Throw in the dough it seems to cost to get this all happening and you’ve gotta be the first one to the top of the Alpe.

I still have my doubts, largely because with the hundreds of folks I see in all the gear, riding bikes right out of the adverts, only one in about ten (not including real racers)  look half way good on his/her bike. That means only one in ten is going to be able to get the best out of themselves in a comfortable, efficient fashion.

How hard can this be? In our our eg0- infested western world we seem to make a big deal out of almost everything so that many that even think they have any knowledge soon become bloated on self importance, perhaps to mask their own dubious worth, then miss the point by not really having a common sense look.

All that said, let’s be simple about this. One of my favourite bits of advice is to suggest that those that want to observe what good positioning on a bike should look like, is to simply acquire a DVD of some Euro pro racing. Whilst playing the disc, take the opportunity to slow or even stop the PLAY. Observe to what extent the legs extend at the bottom of the stroke, see how relaxed the arms appear and note where the riders hips may be in relation to the bottom bracket area. Granted some of the pro riders tend to have a significant vertical drop to the bars that is not suitable for many but the long relaxed reach should remain…..just higher up. The arms are your suspension, the triceps the springs.

So that’s what I set people up to ride like. That’s the goal. To begin that little journey, I use four anatomic measurements. These are the tickets for a family of four to get into the ballpark. They are inseam, femur length, body length and arm length. Of these I feel that the relative length of the femur compared the inseam is paramount. The long or short of it is what determines where you sit in relation to the cranks, that bit of the bike that receives the energy for ahead motion. If the cranks get weak signals guess what?…you go slow(er).

The business end of the femur is the area where it attaches to the pelvis/hip zone. This is anatomic ground zero for power production. No matter how strong are the quads, if your glutes and all their little surrounding buddies can’t give full foundational support, your cranks will be short changed. If that bit of your body is too far back, too far forward or too high in relation to those cranks, the foundation is weak.

Once we’ve got the basic measurements, I can get the riders position pretty close, at least ‘on paper’ close. While we’re at least in the park, without the vital refinements we’ll never make it out of the dugout. This is where we need to see the rider actually pedaling. As you can easily imagine, riding the bicycle locked onto a training rig is not the ultimate method to observe this. The bike is not flowing underneath the rider. Any naturally occurring upper body movements that most of us have when we ride will get snubbed by the stationary position of the bike.

Whenever I can, I ride with the customer on the road. This is the best way to determine what is the natural pedaling style for the individual. Its where I can see if and what effect one leg shorter than the other is having (always set saddle height to the shorter leg…unless its really radical and then a lift should be employed). Too much tension in the arms and shoulders usually effects the steering (wobble-matic).  Some folks have a natural and unavoidable heel up style and on the road is where it can really show up ( not the greatest thing and it should be cured if excessive as it decreases the effectiveness of the hamstrings in getting a longer more powerful stroke). This is often the result of too many miles with the saddle being too high…by far the most common malaise of people’s cycling positions.

Muscle attachment points can also make something of a difference which can show up in ‘on the road’ style. For some reason God decided my quads would attach further away from the knee area than most folks of my femur length. Therefore, I need to be slightly further ahead to compromise for the reduced leverage.

So in a bit of a nutshell….that’s what I do. Not every rider is going to be a ground-pounder like Cancellara, but an awful lot more folks could be sitting on their bikes in a similar fashion.

Common sense and observation….in cycling and life.