Chamois Time

ultra-bike

2008-01-18T14:15:00.000-08:00

Where did all the snow go? About a month ago I was expecting to see a thick layer of snow on the ground all the way through March. What happened? It was something like 65 degrees a week and a half ago on one particular day. I went for a rare ride outside on that day for a circa 3 hour spin expecting myself to feel like a total crap-ball. In reality I felt a little bit better than that, so I was pleased. I was only wearing arm warmers in addition to shorts & jersey. Of course, the road conditions were flood-like and covered in sand and mud because of the rapid rate of snow meltage. Cleaning my bike took over an hour after that ride, and the bearings in my front wheel are literally ruined. I don't know if the seals can be cleaned or whether I need to completely replace the bearings, but there's some uber-nasty grit that found its way in there. I'm not sure if the ride was worth it or if I shoulda just stayed indoors.

My finance class at the Harvard extension school reached its successful conclusion two days ago on Wednesday. I had been preparing for the final somewhat nervously for the week prior, and wasn't too confident on how I would do. I hadn't had a taste for the midterm like the rest of my classmates because I was in New Zealand competing in the Tour of Southland during the time that it was given. This meant that not only had I not had a taste of what a test in this class would be like, but it meant that I had even more riding on my performance in the final since my grade would essentially also count for the missed midterm. I don't have my grade yet, but there weren't any stumpers on the exam, and I made my way through it pretty confidently.

It really is time now to turn more focus to the bike. Yesterday I had the great privilege to visit the Independent Fabrications factory in Somerville to get fitted up for my new custom rocket ship, and also to check out the factory and all the amazing artisans at work behind the scenes. IF's president Matt Bracken took me through the fitting process and was more than happy to listen to my desires regarding the special little details that I was looking for in my dream bike. He patiently spent time with me fooling around on the computer bike design program tweaking tubes by millimeters here and there to achieve something ideal.

Let me take you through the details, since I'm sure you care as much as I do:

My current bike's geometry:

Top Tube: 58cm

Head Tube: 18cm (integrated)

Seat Angle: 73

Stem Length: 13cm

Bottom Bracket Drop: 68mm

IF BIKE:

Top Tube: 58.5cm

Head Tube: ~18cm (non-integrated)

Seat Angle: 74

Stem Length: 12cm

Bottom Bracket Drop: 65mm

Now, I need to note some things. My position on the bike is not changing. 'How can this be?' you ask, given those changes. Well, I'm planning on keeping my saddle in the same relative position behind the pedals as it used to be. On my current bike I have the saddle pushed pretty far forward on the rails. On the IF, the steeper seat angle of the bike will mean that having the same saddle position results in the seatpost clamping the saddle more in the center of the rails. By keeping the same saddle position, but steepening the seat angle one degree, the 'reach' of the bike (distance from saddle to the handlebars) is increased by about .5 cm. You also notice that the top tube is .5 cm longer on the IF. This overall 1 cm net gain is negated by using a shorter stem. Why make the changes necessary to go to a shorter stem? For stiffness. The extra flex that you get from going from a 12 to a 13 cm stem is much greater than the flex you gain by making the top tube .5 cm longer, so it's a good trade. A shorter stem slows the handling, so with the IF we specced a shortish fork rake of 40mm (normal is 43-45) to speed the handling back up.

Non integrated headset cups take up approximately 23mm of stack height in addition to the length of the head tube, so by looking at that geometry it would seem as though the IF will have a higher front end than my current bike by about 23mm since otherwise the headtube lengths are the same. However, on my current bike I'm running 25mm of spacers underneath my stem. Spacers under your stem reduce the stiffness of the front end of your bike. With the same position as I currently have, my new IF will have 0-2mm of spacers underneath the stem... effectively nothing. Having the stem sit as low as is possible = stiff and badass. On the new IF I'll still have close to 15cm of drop from the saddle. That's what we call an aggressive position. Eat your heart out Tom Steels.

The other big difference with the new IF is that it has a 65mm bottom bracket drop. My current bike, with it's 68mm drop is already pretty high for a stock bike. Normal on stock road bikes is a drop of 70mm. The reason for less drop is so that I have a bit more insurance when pedaling my huge 180mm cranks through corners. In the past I would be scared to start pedaling too soon as I came out of corners. 3mm isn't a huge difference, but it translates to more clearance than you might think. If you consider that 175mm cranks are a somewhat normal length (...still a bit on the big side) and that many people riding them are on bikes with 70mm bottom bracket drop, they have the same cornering clearance as I will on my new IF. So I may never have world-beating cornering clearance for as long as I choose to run 180mm cranks, but at least on the new IF I won't be at a disadvantage relative to other racers like I have been on past bikes.

All in all, this new bike is gonna be amazing, and I'm so excited that I really can't convey it in type. It will be racy and aggressive in performance and looks. The Reynolds 953 stainless tubes will all be the largest possible diameters, and thickest buttings, to achieve greatest stiffness, yet will still be competitively light. I can't wait to ride the IF to success, and have tremendous appreciation for all the people at IF who are making this dream bike a reality for me.

Rock & Republic Controversy

2007-12-23T12:25:00.000-08:00

It seems that Michael Ball and his Rock Racing pro cycling team have been getting heat from a lot of folks. Generally the complaints have to do with the management style of Ball - his deliver or be fired attitude - and also that rumors have been circulating about several riders of his that are dirty. The detractors point to the fact that he's hired several individuals that have either tested positive or have been implicated in doping scandals in the past (Botero and Hamilton) and also suggest that Ball's way of managing enforces the belief within his program that doping is an acceptable means to an end. All of this at a time when management of many pro cycling teams are introducing expensive internal drug testing programs, it seems to some that Ball is a step backwards in the fight against doping.

Let me be the devils advocate here.

I too have heard the rumors about certain Rock Racing members having tested positive in the recent past. But I have to wonder why, if such circumstances are true, that those riders wouldn't have been sanctioned, or at the very least the public would have heard about a positive 'A' sample.

With regards to the internal dope-testing that teams like T-Mobile (now High Road), CSC, and Slistream have implemented in their teams, I think that it's easy to see that the impetus for adopting these programs is to alleviate concerns over potential scandal for the sponsors, or at the very least to give the appearance that the management of these squads disapproves of doping, and that if a case were to come up, that it could be written off as a rogue occurrence. For corporations investing large sums of money, they want what guarantees they can get that their image is safe before they make a large investment. It is a matter of sponsors wanting control in how their image will be reflected upon. But in the case of Rock Racing the situation is different because the management and sponsor is one and the same. In essence, Rock & Republic the company has complete transparency of the ongoings of the cycling team, and the ultimate control in how it wants it's image to be reflected upon by it's investment in a cycling team. This is more than the executives at CSC, or any more traditional sponsorship arrangement, can say for the control that they have over their teams. For Rock & Republic, all this is without having to spend several hundred thousand dollars on a program that attempts to offer the impossible guarantee that a rider will never test positive.

You may make the argument that Michael Ball is perhaps not the most tactful person when it comes to media relations. However, stating to the press his emphasis and desire to have his riders winning as opposed to 'taking their time to develop' or 'doing their best,' does not to me equate to pressuring his riders to dope. I think it's a fair argument that a man who is making substantial financial investments in his riders can define what constitutes adequate results lest they be released from their contracts. It's a simple exchange of goods for services. Money for race wins.

Rock Racing has got to have one of the biggest budgets in domestic cycling with riders like Rodriguez, Pena, Hamilton, and Botero. Shit, if I were ponying up the cash for that roster to compete in comparatively easy stuff (for that caliber of athlete) like NRC races, I would probably demand nothing less than victory either. It is up to the riders, as professional athletes to perform their jobs to the satisfaction of their employers while abiding by the rules of the organizations under which they compete.

None of this is to condone doping. As far as I'm concerned, doping is against the rules, and there is absolutely no excuse for it. I agree with nearly everybody else's opinion in that the level of competition needs to be level, and that the most naturally talented, skilled, and hard working should be the victor. It is true that beyond reasonable doubt Tyler Hamilton cheated his fellow competitors in an unknown number of events before ultimately being caught as a cheater, and receiving a two year ban from the sport. I hate him for that. That Rock & Republic has signed past druggies like Hamilton and Botero, some are calling for race organizers to withhold invitations to their events from the team. This would be an injustice on the same level committed by dopers in the first place. Both of these riders on Rock's roster have served their respective suspensions, and have the same status now as any other athlete who had not gone through a suspension. If you feel that it is right for organizers to take measures to exclude these athletes, then you feel that their suspensions should not have been the duration that they in fact were, but rather had lasted a lifetime. Whatever you think, it doesn't matter. They got the suspensions that they got. Signing up these guys probably makes even greater sense to a 'bottom line' and 'results driven' kind of businessman like Ball considering both riders could probably have been signed for much smaller contracts than a rider with equivalent accomplishments not coming out of suspension.

Rhetorical question: If you were a real world business would you hire an ex-con (assuming they were not dangerous, of course)? I think you need to look at a person's qualifications for the job, and not let past demerits completely blind you. Martha Stewart was already extremely successful when she broke the law in efforts to get even further ahead. In that case too, you can argue that she cheated many of her fellow investors. She paid a serious price, and whether you think it was sufficient or not so, the fact is that she has traveled down the appropriate avenues of the law, and has now been given a second chance to compete in her occupational realm. That she has succeeded in returning to equivalent or greater status than before I think probably speaks to the fact that with her talents, she deserves her plot on the map.

... I never thought I would draw a Martha Stewart analogy in a discussion of drugs and cycling, but there you have it.

Please don't read into these comments too much regarding my own feelings of the Rock Racing team and Michael Ball. But I think that these are the facts. As far as we know, Rock Racing isn't breaking any rules. If everyone unanimously feels that an injustice is being perpetrated, maybe a rule change is in order. Until then, I think we'll see Rock Racing around, and personally, I think they'll be winning a lot.

Novelty bike tricks

2007-12-19T20:09:00.001-08:00

Our house has been undergoing a lot of renovation in the past few months, and most recently it's been the windows that are being replaced. As such, there's been a team of three contractors that have been in the house since Monday. One of these guys is a Brazilian named Marcos, and it came to his attention that I was a cyclist. It probably had to do with the bikes in the house. Maybe. He was talking to me yesterday about how he sorta rides bikes, and he mentioned that he had a video clip of himself doing a wheelie. Being friendly, I told him that he should bring a copy of it the next day... also known as today.

I dunno what I was expecting exactly. Some buddy of his filming him pop a brief wheelie on the street? Nah. Marcos, apparently, is way tighter than that.

I'll let you check this out:

Personally, I like it towards the end of the clip when he's in his winter outfit. The expression on his face throughout says to me, 'It's no biggie. I camcorder myself doing tight shit all the time."

Props, Marcos.

Just bust a move.

2007-12-18T19:27:00.000-08:00

I'm on my way over to the Weston Ski Track to XC ski at around noon today, when I get caught behind this school bus in traffic. Naturally, I'm staring right into the big windows at the back of the bus, and I have the good fortune to witness these three kids - around eight years old I'm guesstimating - totally breaking it down. I had just been thinking about how I could really use a dance performance. One kid in particular was really killing it and looked like he was lifted out of a Missy Elliot video. Of course I was listening to tunes, and he was almost matching up to the beat which was sick. After a minute, the kids caught sight of me and started staring at me while they were dancing. It got kinda awkward for me.

XC skiing went wellish. I bought my own skis the other day, but they won't be here till at least thursday. The rental stuff is kinda crap, and doesn't fit that well. The place was pretty empty on a tuesday early-afternoon like one would expect. Most of the others who were there were really experienced types. I flattered some guys by letting them know how fast they were and in return they would give me a mini lesson in how to suck less for around 15 minutes. One guy in particular had some tips that seemed to make a difference.

I'm still a bit of a thrasher... but tangibly less than last time I went which is encouraging. Tuesday night races start in January, and I'm hoping that I'll be good enough by then to not be too embarrassed to compete. I don't want to be beaten by too many high school girls.

Oh, it's snowy here.

Off Season Part 1 of 92

2007-12-14T21:58:00.000-08:00

So it's definitely winter now that we've had our first major storm. For all those who continue to ride outside, be it on a road bike or other two wheeled device... chapeau to you my friend. Don't tell me that the roads are clear because the day's high is 38 degrees. I'm telling you, it's way below freezing at night, and whatever melts at the side of the road during the day is re-frozen and waiting just for me in the shadows.

I suck at riding the trainer. It's a bunch of factors really. I don't want to solely blame the fragile state of my grundel for why I can't handle 4 hour trainer sessions right now... but if yours is made of leather, all I'm saying is that you shouldn't take that quality for granted. My sanity can't really take the time spent in my basement either. It's gotten so much worse since I was junior.

The training program that I wrote up for myself about a week and a half ago - which took me into the beginning of January - I now can tell you is overly optimistic about the volume that I think I'll be doing on my bike in the basement this winter. I had been thinking all along that maybe some XC skiing would be nice to do this 'off season.' With the way I'm feeling about long hours on the trainer, the skiing is going to take center stage.

New Plan:

1 hour on the trainer every day. Hard tempo.
XC ski at least 5 (if not 7) days a week for 2.5 to 4 hours.

This very simplified training plan will probably take me into early March when hopefully the notion of outdoors training becomes more realistic... at least to me.