Monday, October 5, 2009

Good times, Bad Times



Ever since it was given to me in the mid-90s I've always loved this picture of me. It was taken in autumn 1982 as I sat on the 'bars of my beloved (and later stolen) Viner, in a pose that I saw a Belgian pro use in a cycling mag and adopted at every opportunity. In the days of my youth I firmly believed that how one looked was by far the most important thing, so if it was good enough for Maertens it was good enough for me.

I'm not posting it just as yet another excuse to show off (as if I even needed one!) but because it was taken by an old friend of mine whose most recent success I wish to briefly acknowledge. I raced and trained alongside Gary Gibson many times on the road and track in the early 80s, and it gives me great pleasure to see him being awarded the SPARC Volunteer Coach of the Year 2009 Award for his exemplary work with the PNP juniors over the last few years. He puts a huge amount of effort into this unpaid work, and the results are flowing on from his labours. Good stuff, Gary! More on this here.


Gary in PNP colours in 1986

While on the subject of the old Mafia from my racing days, I had the pleasure of having my old friend Nick visit a week or two ago, the first time we've caught up since Nick moved away from Wellington in 1982.


Nick (right) and I nervously await the start of the Palmerston-Wellington Classic 1982

It was great to catch up with him, neat to hear he's still putting in big miles in his early 60s, and very, very cool to see he's still riding around on the Mitchell I built him in 1982.



Apart from the old Dura-Ace Black Series rear derailleur that finally died last year and the modern saddle it's essentially as I built it for him, including the 1980 Dura-Ace components he bought second-hand off me. The wheels I built with Super Champion Arc En Ciel rims on Suntour Superbe hubs - nice to see they are still going strong! The brakes are Superbe also, by the way, just proving I wasn't always a Campag snob...

He sent me these neat pictures of the bicycle as it is today which I thought you may be interested in seeing...
Hi Oli,
Remember when you got me this bike from Bicycle Village on Ghuznee St?
I think it was 1982 when I moved to Whangarei with the frame and components. Dura Ace and Suntour Superbe. It's an Ishiwata 022 one. Mitchell Cycles from New Plymouth also made 019 ones for track and of course Reynolds 531 frames. They also made a Mondiale as opposed to their Professional.






















The working week began with my finishing off Nic's Felt Virtue Team. Among other things the build required I had to extend the travel on her Rock Shox Reba forks. It turned out beautifully in the end, and will hopefully provide her with many hours of fun - the trail bike much more suited to her DH background than the XC machine's she's ridden of late, in my opinion.



I then gave Pete's lovely 24lb Santa Cruz Blur a bit of a going over. The brakes needed bleeding along with the wheels getting a bit of love. Cool rig and so LIGHT!



Chris brought his RIH back in for some remedial work after he has been putting in the miles of late - great to see Chris falling in love with cycling before my very eyes! This lovely bike is named for one of the RIH founders, Adam Bustraan, whose name is painted in gold on the down tube.



I had to re-tension the back wheel, as well as sort out a few creaks and groans as things settle in from all the work Chris has been putting in. I decided to replace the baggy old front derailleur with a much better 600 one I had in my spares boxes too, but the main thing I found was that his (original) headset has all but locked solid through corrosion and brinelling.



So a good home was found for a 1990s Shimano 600 sealed bearing headset I've had lying around waiting for just such a project...



Et voila! Thanks to a smooth turning headset Chris will now be able to ride no handed, although he points out he hasn't yet attempted to master that skill! I do love this classic Dutch racing frame...



Still on the slightly antique tip, I fixed up this rusty and badly neglected old Specialized for the daughter of one of my sponsors to get around on. Again, the ideal location for getting rid of some of my ever-dwindling stock of old bits and pieces from the boxes of crap I have lying around. Bodhi and I dropped it off to their place in Lyall Bay on the way to the Warehouse to buy him some school holiday Lego...



From this classic 90s aluminium MTB to this 21st century carbon road machine, lightened and tweaked. Hayden had several noises emanating from his hard-raced EMC2, as well as a munted rear derailleur caused by a bent tooth on his jockey wheels jamming the chain. To get rid of all the noises I had to rebuild the headset, bottom bracket, trim the gear housings and tighten the stem bolts - the hubs also needed servicing while I was at it. The major was sorting out the rear derailleur, which I replaced, then swapped out the bling alloy pivot bolt.



The new derailleur reassembled, but before I had twigged that it was the pulley wheel that was the culprit - I couldn't check the gears until the derailleur was on the bike! The original Shimano pulley wheels ended up being used in the end...



And Hayden's bike ready to race - an impressive 7.16kg!



The next job I had to do was very exciting. Dave from Bike Fixation dropped me off another absolutely stunning bit of titanium majesty, a faultlessly crafted Litespeed Icon frame with blingalicious Campagnolo Chorus 11 speed parts.

Up in the stand clamped ever-so carefully by the AlphaQ carbon post, as I fit the lovely pewter Chris King headset then work out how much steerer tube to cut off.



Steerer cut, headset preload sleeve insert epoxied in, stem (and bars) loosely fitted and brake calipers installed.



With the bottom bracket not even requiring any chasing or facing I was able to easily thread the cups in by hand, then I torqued them down and fitted the sexy Chorus carbon cranks.



And the equally hot rear derailleur...



Out with my 11 speed chain tool that both joins the chain in the conventional manner and peens the joining rivet.



To complete the drivetrain which I swear is the crispest shifting drive system on the market, bar perhaps the new electronic Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 set up. Unbelievably smooth and fast shifts right across all eleven cogs and both chainrings. Of course (for the trainspotters among you) this picture was taken before the cables were actually connected up...



The view from the saddle of the new 11-speed Ergoshifters, which are super-comfy and much easier to access from all over the 'bars than the older versions.



And done. Very nice indeed and just a hair over eight kg without pedals, but with heavy Mavic Aksium training wheels - pretty good weight for a non-carbon machine!



And the money shot...



My Quest For Fitness has taken a bit of a hammering of late - although my motivation is still super high Life hasn't allowed me any time to ride my bikes. The Icon build was finished off late on Thursday afternoon, by which time I realised the week had gone by without one single ride of any kind, mainly due to one job early in the week that had run way over time, causing a Butterfly Effect that lead to a few late nights and long days just to get back on terms with the scheduled work of the week - it only takes one job going slow to tip the balance from it being a relatively relaxed week with the workload moving smoothly in and out, to becoming a stressful rush to meet deadlines without neglecting the many other obligations of life. As usual when this occurs the first thing to get de-prioritised is my riding time, so when Friday morning arrived and I was essentially on track with both work and family stuff I was determined to get out for a long overdue road ride.

Friday morning was as windy as only Wellington spring days can be, with glowering clouds scudding forcefully across the sky casting rapid moving shadows that chilled to the bone. This was my first ride on my new set up with my recently obtained Columbus Muscle forks, and first impressions were very favourable. They felt stiffer than the ITMs they had replaced, although ironically it didn't take long before I decided I would drop the stem back to where I had it on the old forks! The extra height I thought I wanted wasn't to my liking at all - perhaps a sign that my fitness and flexibility are better than I thought? The new forks look good too which, as we've already established, is after all the most important thing...



Despite the vile gale blowing, the bitter cold, the occasional spots of rain and some silly motorists, as well as no riding since my MTB ride with Al last Sunday, I felt great. The sheer pleasure of my legs turning over was enough to place a huge goofy grin across my face. The clouds were causing an odd yellow light (not well portrayed by my cell phone sorry) to cover the Kaikouras as I made my way around the South Coast...



As I rode past Moa Point I had the dubious pleasure of being narrowly avoided by a woman pulling out on me from the Airport Road. She looked straight at me as she pulled out across my bows, but I'm used to that behaviour from drivers - it's like they see us but we don't register on their scale of important objects to avoid like cats, trees or puddles. However, what made this particular incident odd was that she spent the whole maneuver driving one-handed while vigorously picking her nose with the other! The fact that she didn't even bother to indicate as she pulled out became more understandable when I realised just how busy she was...

While I wended my way home I reflected on this and other incidents of late, such as the recent highly publicised incident on Tamaki Drive where a young woman drove through a stop sign and plowed into a large group of cyclists injuring four of them, one very badly. Sadly, despite such tragic accidents, it seems there is a growing antagonism towards cyclists at the moment, partially propagated by poor reporting from many sectors of the media and voraciously fed by dullard talkback listeners with idiotic axes to grind.

The tragic irony of the type of losers hating on cyclists for running red lights or riding two abreast while in all likelihood breaking several laws and basic road rules whenever they get behind the wheels of their over-used cars was brought into stark relief by the moronic encounter that I finished my ride with...

I was making my way happily home through Berhampore when a fat slug at the wheel of an improbably large behemoth of a 4WD behind me took umbrage at my temerity in going straight through the lights as two cars failed to understand the confusing give way to the right rule and both stopped dead. Outraged, he followed me through the intersection (doing exactly what I had done??) leaning on his manly horn the whole way, stopping the cacophony only when I cast a scathing scowl his way, whereupon he suddenly decided the lamppost next to him was more worthy of his attention than me.

I made my way around the corner as he was held up by a bus, only for him to shoot past me on Luxford St in an angry mesh of badly shifted gears. I turned the corner into Rintoul Street just in time to see him recklessly run straight through an orange light turning red, seemingly oblivious of any other traffic or pedestrians that may be present. No doubt he was still righteously irate at my perceived slight, yet equally no doubt he was utterly ignorant of his own poor driving behaviour and the blatant hypocrisy of his ire.

The hysteria and anger that surrounds this issue of cyclists sharing the roads with motorists amazes me - instead of the Government spending hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars on pathetic and over-wrought drink-driving and speeding ads that I believe do little to deter the people doing the drink-driving and speeding, why don't they spend a bit of money on educating society how to co-exist tolerantly with each other? Isn't being civilised the very definition of civilisation, for Eddy's sake?

Most of societies ills are directly attributable, I believe, to people simply not giving a shit about anyone but themselves. If everyone treated each other with a bit of simple courtesy and patience most of the issues that bedevil us would disappear.

I don't blame it all on motorists either - I see enough dodgy riding from my two-wheeled brothers and sisters to know that we need to accept our part in the whole deal. However, the big difference between poor cycling and poor driving is in the outcome - I've never heard of a cyclist killing a driver yet, but whenever the two intersect the cyclist WILL be hurt, and sometimes even killed. Let's just all be more aware and considerate of each other.



Once I got back to work after my ride, I had some fun work to do to chill me the @#%& back out. Mark had dropped his sweet Bianchi Reward in on Thursday afternoon for me to tweak the bar and STI lever position a bit, as the ITM Sword stem (in matching Celeste natch!) had stuck a bit. A bit of lube soaking overnight followed by a few judicious smacks with my knockrometer sorted it all out no worries.



My man Dave's trusty singlespeed needed a service, so he took the chance while his knee is recovering from surgery to get it in to me. I rebuilt the Surly hub, replaced both freewheels with new Shimano DX ones, and added a Sram PC1 chain to the Surly stainless steel chainring he supplied. New rear brake pads and cable housings and it's ready to go when he is, so all the best for a speedy recovery Dave!



My friend (and NZ MTB Team, Olympic Cycling Team and Tall Blacks Doctor) Pete is slowly assembling all the parts for his eagerly anticipated Soulcraft Holy Roller 29er that is being custom-built in Petaluma, California as we speak - you may even remember the beautiful Hadley/Arch wheels I built for it a couple of months back. Next up he wanted forks, so we got him some lovely Fox F29 120mm 15QRs off my boys at Blue Shark, which on Paul Larkin's recommendation I wound down to Soulcraft genius Sean Walling's specified 100mm travel.

Why not simply get 100mm forks, you may well ask? Well, the stiffness of the 120mm wound down is allegedly greater than the 100mm version (more stanchion in the leg), plus Pete may well want to move the forks over to the inevitable Santa Cruz Tallboy Paul and I see in his future...



Friday finished off with me unpacking and prepping another frame for a build. Tom had bought a carbon Planet X carbon SL Pro from the UK, complete with a 2009 Shimano Ultegra gruppo and some generic Planet X wheels for less than most carbon frames are sold for in NZ - I won't say how much it cost Tom, but it sure surprised me a lot especially once I'd read some reviews and even more once I'd had a brief ride. This bike is a very nice ride and doesn't feel anything like a cheap bike, in fact I reckon some much pricier name brand bikes should be bloody worried!



A fruity box of bits...



The wheels, not the lightest but sound as a pound and ideal for training on.



Unfortunately, the Butterfly Effect meant that I wasn't able to finish the build off on Friday. The day passed all too quick and I had to leave work to deliver a couple of bikes, so to get Tom on the road for the weekend I headed in on Saturday morning for a few hours.

Luckily for me, this also coincided with a lovely visit from Dr Pete who was down from Napier for the World of Wearable Arts Festival. I was rapt he was able to swing by for his first visit to the Batcave, and also to pick up his F29s of course. Great to see him!

Once Pete departed, I got stuck into it...



After telling him on Friday I wasn't able to build it, Tom wasn't expecting me to text him on Saturday. Despite the late notice, he responded fast and turned up just as I was finishing taping the 'bars. So while he parked up on the couch with a magazine I took the SL out and test rode it and took a couple of quick pictures of this very cool carbon rig.



Hopefully Tom enjoyed riding it on Saturday arvo as much as I enjoyed building it for him...



Unfortunately, the trend continued with zero riding all weekend and today, so I'll finish the week's blog off with a shot of my latest black t-shirt. This one is special as it's got my name on it, even though I didn't have anything to do with making it. My great friend John Randal (Roadworks Star Rider Supreme) is riding a leg of the Round Lake Taupo race as part of his father's team, the eponymously named Ross's Rouleurs, along with his brother and sister. As I'm doing a similar thing with my beautiful wife's team (as yet unnamed) I'm really looking forward to sharing our first event since John and I raced (and won!) the 2004 Creek to Peak together.

Very cool t-shirt too, so thanks as always for your support John. You are the dictionary definition of a Champion...



As always, thanks for your patronage folks. I appreciate you letting me ramble on...

1 comment:

Joel said...

great post oli. as always