I’ve been really busy with my new position at Pearson. What can I say…I love my job. It’s busy, I work with great people, I’m challenged daily to come up with unique solutions and really pushed to resolve our customers needs to have software that gets out of their way and let them do their jobs. It’s been great working on PowerTeacher Gradebook, PowerSchool and a new product that I’m not sure I can mention at this point. Anyway it’s great work and a lot of fun too.

In follow -up to previous entries, my Truvativ cranks continue to loosen on each ride. I carry an 8mm wrench with me at all times. I’m taking them to Performance tomorrow to talk to them about what they can do for me. It’s a total pain in my heiny.

On another note I watched the Blue Angels do flybys last weekend and here are some pictures from the event. It was the Capital Airshow at Mather Field in Rancho Cordova.

Go to a bike shop!

This isn’t an elitist bike snob statement, it’s a statement made for your safety. Here’s why. When bicycles arrive from the manufacturer, they come in a box with some parts removed. The shop needs to assemble these parts and adjust them. Most department stores do not employ professional mechanics. That means that the stellar customer service you get at Walmart is assembling your bicycle. This is not a good thing.

Parts aren’t parts

Each part on the bicycle has a specific purpose. To illustrate this lets talk about brakes. Brakes slow you down and stop you from moving forward. If the brakes are of poor quality, or poorly adjusted, the results could be fatal. Stopping suddenly when a car cuts in front of you, or when the trail ends suddenly are not tasks that you want to entrust to cheap parts. Here is a test to see if you have good brakes, or if the bike you are shopping for has good brakes. Go into a department store, or out to your garage if you bought a department store bike, and try to bend the metal parts on the brakes with your bare hands. If they bend, or are loose, or the levers are loose or bend you have bad brakes. When you are rolling down the road and apply the brakes there are significant forces being exerted on the brakes. If your brakes are of poor quality, or badly adjusted they may not be up to the task.

So far I have just talked about the brakes but you can connect the dots for the rest of the parts: Poor quality = reduced reliability = increased safety risk = your life and health in the hands of a crappy collection of parts. Think about a few other consequences. Handlebars fail, you crash, maybe loosing your teeth or being run over by a car. Wheels fail, you could have a very long walk ahead of you. The frame breaks…you get the idea.

What style of bike?

Assuming that you have walked into your local bike shop, you are now confronted with having to choose between all the styles of bikes. While there are multiple choices they really break down to one thing, where do you want to ride? If you want to ride on park trails, paved and unpaved, or in the city at a slower pace, a hybrid may be the best bet. Hybrids have smooth tires that are fat like a mountain bike. They have upright handlebars for good visibility. These are great bikes for everyone. Now here are the guidelines for straying from the hybrid. If you want to go fast, or far on the road, get a road bike. If your idea of a trail is more dirt, rock, and ruts get a mountain bike. This is a great set of general guidelines to start with. To hone in on the exact bike from the three styles talk to a bike shop or email me and I’ll try to answer your more specific questions.

How much to spend?

As the old adage goes, “you get what you pay for”. But what are you paying for? With bicycles you are getting reliability, durability, weight, and longevity. The more you pay the better these qualities become to a point. Unless you are racing in the Tour De France, or training as hard as the pros do, you probably don’t need the top of the line parts (components). Unless you are planning to never ride don’t get the bottom of the line either. The middle ground is a nice safe place to start looking. Think of it this way, if you fall in love with the sport do you want to go out and buy a new bike right away because you cut some corners? Do you want to spend out for the de-luxe bling only to be depressed every time you look at the bike and realize that you never ride it? Do some shopping and ask questions. Down the road when you are totally committed and it becomes a lifestyle then you can re-invest in a top of the line bike, and keep the old one for trips around town and locking up to the bike rack.

If you are an established rider I recommend either Ultegra, or 105, unless you can settle for nothing but top of the line. I can personally testify that Ultegra will last nearly forever and it is very reliable. 105 won’t last quite as long, and is a little heavier, but if you’re on a budget, can’t wait to save up another few hundred dollars, and don’t want a used bike, 105 is a good option. The same is true in mountain bikes. Aim for XT, or LX. Both are great component sets, and follow the same logic as the road groups I’ve mentioned. Ten years ago I could have stopped there but there are new players in town, SRAM and Sampson and they are looking to be fantastic products with the same level of quality as their Japanese competitors. Last, but not least Campagnolo. This venerable manufacturer was and is the Ferrari of bicycle parts. They have always had great quality and reliability but were tended to be on the expensive side. I personally haven’t ridden anything newer than Nuevo Record…that from the 60′s so it’s hardly relevant. Because they tend to run on the expensive side most mid-level bicycles are not equipped with Campy parts. They tend to reside on the high end bikes exclusively. With any of these choices, ride them. The only way to tell which one you like is to ride the ones you don’t like.

Which Brand?

The second most common question is “Is this a good brand?” Sure. If you’re looking at a bike shop it’s probably a good brand. Many of the manufacturers have their bikes made in the same factory in Taiwan, or China. So even if the sticker says Brand X, or Y the same company probably put it all together. This is even more true of the mid to low range of bikes. As the bikes get more expensive there is more variety in the manufacturers and your shopping gets trickier. If you’re riding at that level you can read the magazines, talk to friends, and go on test rides to help you decide.

Buy your accessories

When you purchase your bike buy all the accessories you will need. Here’s a list:

• helmet
• gloves
• tubes
• tire levers
• patch kit
• seat bag
• tire pump
• bottles
• bottle cages
• padded bike shorts

Not only should you be able to get a deal on these items when you purchase them with a bike, you need them. These accessories will all make you ride more comfortable, safer, and allow you to avoid being broken down on the trail or road. Even if you don’t know how to change a tire, having the tools will allow a good samaritan to help you out.

Make some friends

The best way to start riding and stay riding is have friends that ride. Everyone needs motivation. If your friend is going on a ride it will help you to get out the door. It’ll be more fun and you’ll want to do it more. Riding by yourself can be very boring, especially really long rides. Additionally the slightest obstacle, cold, rain, wind, can be just enough for you to put off riding that day. If you have friends that say “who cares, let’s go anyway” you’ll forget about it because you don’t want to be the wimp, or let your friends down. Lastly the more the merrier. Riding in a group of two is fun. Riding in a group of 10 is fantastic!

Conclusion

These are just a few of the basics to get you started, hope they help. If you have any stories that you can relate let me know by commenting.

So when you think about Scatante frames, and their cousins, realize that they are being built by companies that manufacture the majority of the bicycle on the road today. That would make them the experts.

Martec of Taiwan for example makes the Scatante frames and forks. They also make Orbea, Kuota, and Kestrel. Logic aside most reviews you run across for these bikes run something like this one from Pez Cycling News about the Kuota Khan:

“I don’t mean to get boring here, but I have to speak about the build quality. It is the logical result when the factory is an ISO 9002 approved facility. That means they have to live up to top flight standards not generally associated with the cycling industry. Adding another set of eyes and opinions and living up to a higher standard at Sintema is nothing but good from a consumers point of view… But enough of the babble about factories.”Read the rest at Pez

So the real question is if they build them, who designs them? Most of the brands design their own frames, either in house or hiring an outside industrial design firm. The manufacturer will offer suggestions on engineering, or the brand may have their own engineers working on solutions with the manufacturers. So when it comes down to how a bike rides it’s mostly the design that determines those characteristics, and as long as a good company is making the frame that should be of little concern.

I’ve added an image at the top of this article that I think warrants some special attention. It is taken from a newsletter that Trek bicycle produces. I saw it when I read this article on the Bicycle Design blog. While it looks bad, it may not be structurally inferior. Additionally Trek makes no reference to the manufacturer, or brand of bike that was dissected. No one has any idea how cheap this frame is. I doubt that Specialized, Giant, Fuji or any other recognizable brand has construction as poor as this. Additionally, with Martec in mind, I doubt that these products meet ISO compliance.

The next time you look at a bike, worry less about who made it and more about how it rides. So go out and ride!

Here is a great article really laying out who makes which bikes.

Anatomy of a Crash

Even at moderate speeds the physical trauma that you can sustain can be severe. As an example my roommate in college, Mike Spitz, was descending Mount Hamilton on his bicycle and in a corner hit some gravel. He had slowed down for the corner, so he was only going about 30mph. As a result of the crash he had extensive road rash, torn ligaments in his forearm, and was unable to ride for about a month due to the impact injuries. Had he been going a bit faster he would have hit a barbed wire fence and the injuries would have been even worse. Keep in mind also that Mike and I were experienced cyclists, very fit, and very comfortable descending. More specifically Mike had no fear when descending, he was a monster. After the crash it took Mike a few months to get back on the horse, he lost his confidence descending.

The Cult of Naked Motorcyclists

So how does this apply to motorcyclists? Here in Sacramento I see a high percentage, say 50%, rolling around with shorts, t-shirts, or sandals as a set, or mixed and matched with slightly more appropriate gear. Worse still guys with their hot girlfriends in next to nothing on the back. A cyclist in spandex is about as exposed as a motorcyclist in shorts and a tshirt. Now
take the injuries that Mike sustained and compound it with the impact at higher speed, a car, or having the motorcycle land on your leg. It’s a pretty simple equation to work out, the more exposed you are the higher risk you run of sustaining injuries in an accident.

It’s not all in your head

One of the most illuminating articles I’ve read on motorcyclist injuries was an article in Motorcyclist Magazine. They tested several helmet designs and compared the results and how they correlated to the certification standards. While the helmet information was a revelation, the body trauma data was even more amazing. It seems that motorcycle related fatalities are dependent on several factors. While having your head smashed would kill you, having extensive damage to your body and no head trauma can also kill you. It makes sense when you say it, but think about it a bit. As your body sustains damage it tries to heal every damaged part. The more damage, the harder your body has to work to repair the damage. So if you have internal and external injuries your body doesn’t choose which parts it heals first, so you may die as a result of internal damages that don’t heal fast enough.

The Importance of Armor

It’s not the external scraping of flesh that will cause the most damage, it’s the impact damage. The deep tissue damage, the slamming of limbs onto the pavement, or into a car bumper, or being crushed by your bike. When I was three years old, my neighbor laid his bike down and pinned his leg under the bike as he slid into the side of a car. His leg was amputated below the knee. So wearing leather, or textile suits, with armor is critical to preventing severe internal injuries. Remember that Mike tore ligaments, and had some pretty deep impact injuries under his road rash.

The Price of Freedom

While I’m all for freedom of choice, it seems like a pretty imprudent choice to risk severe bodily injury, and potential death. Even if you take the vanity excuse, you don’t want to look dorky, is having a scarred up face, or road rash scars on you legs sexy? Think about how hot your girlfriend will be with half her face ground off. It’s not a pretty sight, and I won’t even both linking to the pictures to illustrate my point, Google them yourself if you doubt how grotesque these injuries can be.

If It’s too Hot in the Kitchen…

The other mentality is the “it’s too hot to ride in leather”. My philosophy is simple I’d rather sweat than bleed. Yea it can be hot. If you can’t stand the heat get a better suit, something with better ventilation. There’s no reason that you can’t protect yourself and stay cool enough. Sit up in the wind, open your vents, buy a suit that’s perforated, even unzip your suit a bit if you have to. I’ve found that the only time it was unbearably hot was sitting at a light in the 103 degree sun with no breeze in my perforated one piece full leather suit. Once the light changed and I had some wind blowing in my face I cooled right down. It’s not as bad as you might think, and it’s better than the alternatives.

It’ll never happen to me

If you’ve ever said this, or thought it, go out right now and buy a lottery ticket, bet your whole bank account on a crap table, or spin the cylinder on your revolver, because you obviously are the luckiest person on the planet, or you can predict the future with total certainty. No one can predict the future, and while you may be that lucky the idiot in the car next to you isn’t. You’re the most incredible bike handler in the world, and can control a two wheel skid with one hand, because you were scratching your ass when someone pulled into your lane. So you’ve never had someone slam on their brakes in front of you? Never had a near miss with someone cutting in and out of traffic? Never seen someone pull a u-turn from the far right lane? Keep riding you’ll see it all. I saw it two blocks from my house hen I was living in Napa, California. A sixteen year old kid got a bike with his parents help, after he’d saved his wages working at a theater. He t-boned and old lady who pulled from the curb across two lanes of traffic making a u-turn and was killed instantly. He was pulled over for doing 100 in a 25 the previous week. Drivers do stupid things all the time, why not stack the odds in your favor and wear some protection?

What is your life worth?

If none of this has given you pause, think of what you have to lose. Do you have a family, or a significant other? Do you like like how you look? Is it a good thing to have all your limbs? Do you like being alive, and healthy, and happy? I do, that’s why I wear leather and armor when I swing my leg over my bike. If you think you can’t afford the equipment, can you afford the hospital bills, or being dead?

Heres a link to the article in the Roseville Press Tribune.

Here is the link to the temporary official site, http://waninggibbous.com.

Doing a search on the SRAM/Truvative site I found this manual (PDF) which states that the splines, and threads need to be greased. Well, I guess I need to call their warranty group to see what they have to say.

UPDATE:
After striping the grease off the crank bolt, spindle, and bearing seal, the crank did not come loose. In light of the SRAM tech specs though I decided to try another solution…

Upon further research several sites have posted threads discussing Truvative cranks coming loose. It appears that the solution to the problem lies in greasing the head of the bolt, the splines, the floating seal, and using loctite on the threads on the bolt. I only had blue loctite and will try this first. Many posts seemed to indicate that the heavier-duty green loctite was the solution. Time will tell.