So we just finished up with 3 cross races in 4 days between the Coonamessett Farm Eco-cross and The Plymouth Festival of Cyclocross. Quite the show. I'm glad it's over. We had a great time at Coonamessett, Harpoon supplied beer to lubricate the racers and volunteers alike. Sunday's Plymouth race had a great little kids race, we had 16 kids race in 3 age groups and beyond a pile up in the "older" kids race everything went smooth. The bouncy house definitely gave the parents a break while watching the adults race. One of our masters racers Chad saw his son Carter show glimpses of future sucess nearly winning the 3 lap big kids race after coming back from a first corner crash and a back of the group start.
My brother Bill and his son Adam set up a real pro race with their company International Cycling. If you need crowd control fencing, finish line trusses, or anything related give Adam a call or visit them on the web www.intlcycling.com They'll make your event pro.
So as Toby would say "the hipster tractor pull" is over for this year. We hope to return Coonamessett to a weekend next year so we can draw a few more riders to our event.
All for now.
Cheers,
G

Loud pipes save lives.

So I'm sitting in the bike shop building a wheel, which if you've ever done it can be very therapeutic. While I was relaxing and working 8 or so really nice guys on most likely v-twin powered motorcycles came roaring by. So my question to you is what gives you the right to (1) violate federal law and remove the stock pipes and (2) disturb my peace with some juvenile show of macho ism? I'm not anti-motorcycle I've owned a bunch of motorbikes and I still have my leathers and helmet so I can ride when my friends bring their bikes by (hint hint) but I never laid into the throttle around town, short shift your hog dude, give my ears a break. So to any of you that like the straight pipe sound I'll offer you a freebie, next Monday morning around 3am I'll come by with my Honda lawn mower and mow your lawn for free! Mulched and bagged too,think about it you'll be the talk of the neighborhood, a free lawn mowing. Sound good, well think about how your motorbike sounds riding through my town, and think about what you're doing when you drop your Visa on the counter for the totally bitchin' Vance and Hines pipes about to be installed on you bike, you're violating federal law and pissing a bunch of people off, why do you think you get hassled and stopped? Oh and by the way loud pipes don't save lives, use your mouse and look up the Doppler Effect on Google, the sound is emitting from behind the vehicle, not the front like a horn or siren, you're past the person you're trying to make notice you before they hear your drag pipes.
Oh and grow up.

botd=BBC Steel Rail Extra Pale Ale

Titanium bikes

So carbon rules right? Well we've just had 2 different Ti IFs come through the store with totally different set ups and uses. One is a replacement for a road bike I built for a customer around 5 years ago that came to an untimely end when it fell off a car rack on rte 128. The geometry and set up rules out a carbon bike so what to do, custom Ti is what, the bike looked as good the second time as it did 5 years ago and the fit is spot on. The second is my main man Sammy's Ti 29er. He's been jonesing for a Ti IF forever and finally pulled the trigger this fall, the boys and girls at IF hooked him up on the paint for a true one of a kind. I must say its a really nice bike that will be with him for a long time. So I guess the long and short of this post is Ti is still alive especially if you need custom fit that you can't get in a carbon bike or you want something that will last nearly forever. Consider it the next time you think about the "last bike I'll ever own".
Ok I don't own a Ti single bike anymore but I still have my Merlin Ti tandem, maybe the next bike I get will be a Ti Club Racer or Independence.

botd: Sierra Nevada Pale Ale (they finally got rid of the twist-off caps)

bike fitting

So I recently went through 2 days of bike fitting torture. Trek "requires" its dealers to attend bike fitting seminars. I chose the Virginia local to do my time, great 3 days at the Dulles Airport Marriott. Not to be a know-it-all but 35 yrs in the business and over 1000 fits somewhat qualifies me as a bike fitter. I have to say I learned some and realized I knew a lot, but now I have a cool certificate that states I'm a Level 1 fitter. The most important thing I learned is how important hamstring and back flexibility is to cycling. Another cool thing is now I know how to measure it to help in fitting. I also learned a bunch of cool new words to make it sound like I actually know what I'm doing. I'm actually looking forward to the Level 2 seminar to expand my knowledge (probably in some other nondescript hotel near an airport).
The head guy in Trek's fitting service is a guy named Michael Sylvester he set up Serrottas fit program and runs a fit studio in bike land Portland, OR the cool thing is he only does fits, no bike sales no tune ups fitting only. I need his job. We've had similar life paths, he's 3 yrs older but started fitting back in the early '80s with the Fit Kit which was a product of Bill Farrells mathematical mind. My brother bought the 17th FitKit and I was trained how to use it. A few things came of my seminar, the Fit Kit is a sizing system, the system I use Bikefitting.com is a sizing system, what I do after the sizing is fitting. Mike Sylvester still uses one part of the FitKit, the R.A.D. cleat rotational device. I still have a set. He states" baring none this is the only way to adjust the rotation of the cleat". Interestingly enough he is a full believer in full or partial float cleats, ie; Speedplay. Something to think about if you're thinking about changing pedals systems.
that's all for now, come by and we'll talk fit:)

a new thing, botn or botd; beer of the night or beer of the day

botn; Magic Hat H.I.P.A.

Contadoper

So Alberto pops positive like you couldn't see that coming. The dude weighs 130lbs and time trials like no body's business and is possibly the best climber in the world. So how much "landis" do we get with this, I'm waiting to send my money to the "Alberto is innocent fund". I love cycling and racing but don't much like the idiots that are treating it like a crack house. A few things should come from this; 1. Alberto cop to the charges and save everyone involved a bunch of time and money. 2. No more 2 year bans, lifetime or nothing it will weed out the dopers and cheats. 3. Revoke the license of the team that has a positive test and ban the director sportif for 2 years.
My 2 cents.
cheers,
Geo

Earl the cat 0 'cane

So we battened down the hatches and drove everyone off the Cape for what? The whimpiest hurricane on record. Yeah I know it could have been worse. I wonder if all of this computerized "accuweather" actually works, it appears they weren't even close on this one. Thanks to the Jim Cantore's of the weather world our Labor Day weekend will probably be the early end to the season. I know the weather geeks get all sorts of excited and probably didn't sleep all week, but give me a break, a cat 4 hurricane in the Caribbean isn't a "major cat 3" off New England (Matt Noyes NECN Weather). I guess I get to look forward to the fall sailing season when I put the cat boat back in on Sunday. The part that gets me the most is the waste of time fooling with boats for the last 2 days.
Because of the weather we did get to play with a new Speed Concept at the store today, this bike is ultra trick. Zak and I spent a bunch of time setting it up, possibly the most difficult bike to set up I've seen, fortunately after building it future adjustments are really easy.
more after the "storm"
cheers,
Geo

Cross season already?

So it appears that cross starts in August now. It would start sometime in October "back in the day" So the boys are racing GMSR this weekend then transitioning to cross the following weekend. Hopefully appearing this year will be the Corner Cycle team trailer. JB and Jamie should be towing it to the races this season, stop by for a visit and check out the totally bitchin National Champion paint on JB's Stevens. Most all of the boys will be racing Stevens this year.
I'm looking forward to seeing 2 of my guys in National Champion kit until December and hopefully after.

This at that summerwise

So we're winding down the summer months and looking foward to 'cross season. We've had a great year at the shop, busy every day. An interesting thing is retail can be a lot like teaching, you often times remember the worst of the students or customers and forget the friendly ones. This year we've had our share of both, but I'll work hard to remember only the goods ones and forget the bad ones.
We started a new tradition at the shop this year with all of the staff getting together for cookouts. The employees all pretty much get along, it's nice to see more than 13 people of different ages and experiences just having fun together, it makes the day go much smoother when everyone gets along.
A long standing tradition at the shop is I buy lunch every day. This year we exposed our staff to a much greater range of food. Indian food from The Golden Swan has been a favorite of Sam, Zak, and myself so this year everyone gave it a try with varing levels of success. We also did the old take out standbys Burritos, Chinese, Pizza and subs. Probably the number one lunch pick is Bean and Cod on main street Falmouth, they always have the best sandwichs and soups.

Here are a few shots of the boys. Tyler dressing as the formal bike mechanic/rental bitch. Toby and Zak just doing what we do.

Internet bikes

So we've been seeing a bunch of these internet bikes at the store lately, Windsor, Dawes, Motobecane and others. Do yourself, and every bike shop employee a favor, steer clear. They're junk. So you fancy yourself a bike mechanic? Do you know anything about fitting? We've seen these $500 specials in the store, you're so much better off buying a real bike from the store you'll bring the internet shitebox to for repair. A nice bike from Trek, Specialized, Fuji and the like will cost so much less in the long run. How's that warranty from Bikes Direct working out for you? Oh that's right you don't get one from Bikes Direct you get it from the manufacturer, try collecting on that one. Oh and by the way if you want your Bikes Direct bike assembled, sure we'll do it, as of today 6/30 we're scheduling repairs for July 19th and it will cost $60. You can have a properly fit Trek 1.1 for $600 in less than 3 days, and do you know what? We're here to take care of you, we'll explain how to shift, how to lube the chain, and we'll tune it up free after the bike has gone through the break in period. Don't like the seat we'll exchange it. Try that with your key board and mouse.

BMW rant

So what is it with BMW drivers? Does asshole come with the owners manual? So I'm coming to a stop at a full red light getting ready to turn left and some toolbag in a X5 comes flying by me in the right lane. Dude it wasn't even questionable the light was red! Are you some entitled dick or what? Oh and by the way just because you bought the ultimate driving machine doesn't make you a better driver you're still a dick for nearly causing an accident. So I don't mean to lump all of you Bimmer drivers together but if you buy the ultimate cock machine you deserve criticism and ridicule.

So we needed another blog why?

So instead of trying in vain to update my website with some regularity I've decided to try a blog. This may get some of the info and pictures out quicker than my website. So without further explanation here we go......