what is your bike made out of?

This one is made of steel.  On my home home from work I made a bonehead move- a left hand turn into an oncoming car.  No idea why I didn't see it.  I've been riding to and from work most days for 10 years.  I hit the front of the car at an angle, went over the bars, bounced off the windshield and landed on my feet.  I completely caved  in the windshield and don't even have a bruise myself. Really stupid and really lucky.  The visibly shaken but nice woman in the car that I hit and I had a short but pleasant conversation and exchanged information.  I put the wheel back in the skewed fork and rode home, slowly.
 Try that with a carbon fork.  I'm afraid the fork is beyond help this time but I had the people at Elliott Bay straighten it from a crash several years ago. Right now there is a trend for even steel frames to use a carbon fork.  I would rather ride a carbon frame with a steel fork.  A frame is a nice strong triangle and less likely to fail, and even if it does you can probably land safely.  If, on the other hand, a steerer tube or fork leg snaps while you are riding- and we all know that it happens- you are going to hit the ground hard.
Other benefits of a properly designed steel fork, aside from reliability, in my opinion, are better ride quality and better clearance for mud/fenders/bigger tires.  Its probably true that carbon transmits less road vibration and has a nice damp feel to it.  The straight legs on carbon forks are really stiff vertically.  A steel fork with the offset in a nice round bend near the dropouts, like this Colorado II fork, is much more comfortable.  If anyone has an orphaned Serotta Colorado fork with 9 inches of steerer let me know!

Steilacoom

After riding towards the front of the Cat 3 field for the last 5 years, I finally got a win today.  Usually I'm content to just race but I really wanted a win at Steilacoom.  My first cross race was at Steilacoom in 2005, with no spandex and on my trusty Bontrager hardtail.  I had just read an article in the Seattle Times about cyclocross.  I didn't know anyone who raced cyclocross but I had to try it.  Steilacoom, even without the legendary Knapp time run up, is one of my favorite courses- along with Woodland Park and the old Fort Flagler.  Now its on to Cat 2 pack fodder.  Its been fun.

I'm normally not one to geek out on gear.  I have no idea what is taking Don Walker so long to build my new  cross bike.  I'm still racing on a generic aluminum frame with barcon shifters I built up in 2006.   But today I had on a new set of Challenge Fango clinchers.  I have used a Challenge tubular on the front before but I never got around to building up a tubular rear wheel because I rolled the front tire off once or twice.  You can't have a decent result if you roll your tire.  So I usually just use a clincher with WTB cross wolf tires.  They do corner really well.  But I've got to think that a handmade tire with a really supple casing has noticeably improved rolling resistance.  I think its true that a tubular is faster if you can get it to stay on, because you can run them at lower pressures and therefore have better traction in corners.  They are also lighter but I think the weight is a non issue.  But I suspect a handmade clincher with a cotton or cotton/poly casing has the benefit of extremely low rolling resistance, similar to a handmade tubular tire.  The Biccyle Quarterly people have done some really interesting tests on rolling resistance that seem to bear this out.  Its really kind of funny that with all the carbon wheels, electronic shifting, and other high zoot items that seem to be must-have items for a lot of people- the single best thing you can do to make yourself faster, with respect to equipment, is buy some old fashioned handmade tires.  One nice thing about that- we are talking about 80 dollars instead of 40 dollars for a tire.  Not thousands for carbon wheels or electronic drivetrains.

It must have been close to 80 degrees at Steilacoom today.  I'm hoping the odd color of my urine is from beet salad and not dehydration.  It was dry and dusty, but a lot of the corners were still tricky due to loose dirt/sand/gravel.  My plan was to not eat it too hard in any of the turns and pick people off going up the long hills and it worked.  One of the dudes in the creepy pink kit with kittens and knives on it was killing it on a singlespeed- I would have been in trouble if he had been riding a geared bike.  A Keller Rohrbach rider was close too but I think I heard him slide out at one point and he couldn't make it back.

running stairs

Cyclocross season is almost here- I suspect most people have some sights, sounds, or habits that are the harbinger of fall.  Maybe its the chill in the air in the mornings or the leaves starting to turn color.  One thing for me is running stairs.  Usually the ones overgrown with blackberries and ivy off of 98th street, because they're close to home.  It is a sure fire way to get in a maximum intensity interval workout and wake up the running muscles that occasionally are called into use in a cyclocross race.
I started running stairs before I started racing cyclocross.  I worked for a guy in the veterinary school in Pullman in the summer, making anatomy specimens.  I had heard he was a helicopter machine gunner in the Vietnam war.  He had an odd, quiet intensity about him.  He always won his age division in running events in the area and had a tendency to quench his post race thirst with beer.  If you worked for him, there was a deal that on tuesdays you could exercise for an hour or two on the clock.  But you had to exercise- if you were eating, reading, or on the computer you had to clock out.  I'm sure it was a flagrant violation of university policy but nobody ever questioned what this guy did.  So we would run stairs at the stadium on the clock.  We usually had to climb a chain link fence to get into the stadium but nobody ever seemed to care.  When I moved back to Seattle after graduation, I was irked that it was not possible to get into the UW stadium to run stairs.  If I ever own my own business I am going to continue the tradition of physical fitness tuesdays.

Tour notes

So I wasn't too far off with my prediction of Chris Horner being the best placed American.  He finished 19 minutes off of Wiggins, in 13th place.  I didn't anticipate Tejay van Garderen riding so well: 5th place and 11 minutes off of Wiggins.  He is from Tacoma!  And interestingly, van Garderen outrode his captain, Cadel Evans.  Chris Horner was the strongest climber on his team in the Pyrenees.  I have to wonder, like always, what he would be capable of as a team captain.  He is always top ten or close to top ten in the GC while riding as a domestique.
Garmin basically had a disaster tour, aside from David Millar salvaging a stage win.  Maybe only Cofidis was having a worse time?  I feel bad for Tyler Farrar.  I think a lot of people were expecting more this year.  Its hard to know what you are capable of in a sprint if you can't stay off of the pavement.  And that is the final thought- why so much crashing this year?  I don't think there was a crash-free stage this year aside from the time trials.

Obligatory Tour de France post

So the tour starts Saturday.  Can we all just agree from the beginning that Chris Horner, even though he is over forty, is the only real American podium contender.
 Incidentally, Obamacare was signed into law today.   I can't decide whether that is a good thing or not but either way, lets add to the list of reasons for the lack of success for American bike racers, that maybe nobody is racing their bike because we all know we're one broken collarbone away from filing for personal bankruptcy.  
Maybe we shouldn't write off Leipheimer just yet, if he can manage a Cadel Evans-like transformation from wheel sucking second place whiner to World Champ/Tour Champ badass.  I think I would like to see a Cadel repeat in the tour this year.  I want to see him literally or figuratively punch whoever tries to take that stuffed lion from him.

Freedom of movement

As a veterinarian I am often asked to assess a patients quality of life.  I usually discuss the ability to eat, being  free from constant debilitating pain or anxiety, and the ability to have a basic amount of mobility.  It has caused me to reflect on peoples' quality of life too...
I think in our society the idea of freedom of movement or mobility is often neglected.  Automobiles have become the de facto mode of transport for most of us.  City infrastructure being biased towards autos limits movement for those without access to cars.  I can think of  a lot of places where it is dangerous or downright unpleasant to walk or ride a bike, and where buses are not a great option either due to bus schedules or proximity to bus stops.  I just read somewhere that the free bus ride zones downtown are going to be eliminated at some point.  We have to remember that this will affect a very basic human right for some of us, especially the poor and disabled- freedom of movement.  The problem with transportation infrastructure being designed with autos as the lowest common denominator is that not everyone can afford to own and maintain a car.  So the lowest common denominator has to be a person on foot- and a close second would be bicycles and public transport.
This idea of the lowest common denominator for movement has plenty of other applications.  For example:

Hiking trails-  If a trail is open to motors it is unpleasant and useless for all other users.  I have encountered plenty of these trails in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest.  If a trail sees heavy use, which most do in King County, the trail should be designed for a hiker because that is the least exclusive user.  All you need are shoes to walk in.  Bicycles and horses are next.  If there isn't too heavy usage, hikers/cyclists/equestrians should be able to get along with some basic courtesy. I think the system on the middle fork of the Snoqualmie River is a good compromise- bicycles are allowed on odd numbered days.  The even days are for feet only.  Motorized use should be last priority, because motorcycles and ATV's are expensive to own and maintain and are at odds with other users of a public resource.

Have you ever noticed that the most desirable areas in a city are those in which there are numerous options for movement?  For example, a walkable neighborhood versus, lets say, some sections of Lake City Way or Aurora Avenue which are unsafe and unpleasant unless you are surrounded by a steel box (car)?  


This leads to the same old mantra:  whatever you build, infrastructure-wise, will be utilized.  If a suburban neighborhood is designed almost exclusively for its residents to move around by car- that is exactly what will happen.  On the other hand, look at the new and improved Dexter Avenue.  You have auto traffic lanes, bus stops, and a separated bikeway.  All of them are being heavily used!  Isn't it better to have more than one option for getting around?

alpenrose heartbreaker

It was a heartbreaker... As a newly minted Cat 2 I thought it was high time to gain some experience on another track; the home track being Marymoor.  Alpenrose is a different deal, a much shorter track with much steeper banking.
So this last weekend I hauled the kids down to Vancouver WA to hang out with their grandparents and give the wife some peace and quiet.  The grandparents were nice enough to come out and supervise the kids while I raced.
 I felt totally out of my element on this track- the short steep turns just about made me dizzy.  I was out of sync with the other riders.  They would jump fast and hard and almost instantly get 20 meters on me, I would claw my way back in time to have to have about 10 seconds rest, then someone else would attack again, instantly lose 20 meters again, repeat for 100 laps...  I was strictly in survival mode, clinging to the back of the pack for dear life the whole time. It didn't help that being out of sync with the race like this made it so that I wasn't even on a wheel most of the time.  Not a very efficient way of "racing".  Maybe having an off day and racing against some animals like Steven Beardsley had something to do with it too.  If nothing else it was a good learning experience.