"Never Went To Church"

Yeah - the streets...

the opening lines are serious kick ass
"Two great European narcotics,
Alcohol and Christianity,
I know which one I prefer"

I know which one i prefer...

but i also know neither of them are going to help get closer to that 'genetic' potential...

Which brings me back to a very specific and almost more important aspect of cycling and maximizing your potential.

BIKE FIT

its sick, sad, twisted to see people sloggin away on ill fitting bikes or with sub-optimal fit. Saddles too low, too high, weird contorted back angles...

Why is it so hard to get a bike to fit? Why? because its almost impossible to fit a 'novice' to the most efficient position. They haven't developed a sense of what is best yet. Down side is they make habits that can be bad. Muscle memory tendencies that are counter productive or power robbing.

I've got a few friends who've been rather particular about it. One nailed it from the start and has been extremely effective at making it work. One who has taken literally 10 years to get to a position of power. And man oh man is he strong now...

One of the suprising, but shouldn't be, things was his bike fit (we'll call him Tom) was stagnant for a long time. He was changing saddles, stems, seatposts, shoes, all the contact points trying to get comfortable. He also was someone who could and did just buy stuff and try it out. But never got anywhere. He had great spin, his physical stuff is rather remarkable... but never every any power.

He bought a custom seven, they have a rather complicated custom bike form. Lots of measurements, lots of questions. The bike came back and the measurements came back, with specific saddle height and all. He's never been faster. And gets better and better. Then the last bit - shoes. Angles and all that - the last contact patch...

now... based on everything, he's topped 50 and is one of the fastest on the club rides in Michigan... I attribute most of it to the time invested on the bike, but i cannot deny that he's gotten faster because his position has improved so dramatically.

I feel good about my position, i've bounced around with saddle heights, fore-aft positions and generally feel pretty good about it all. Its been remarked that my position looks good. And like when i was rowing, i strive for form. Get the form down right, use the proper muscles, then make them work with more power/strength.

If the bike don't fit right it don't matter what genetic potential ya got. Ya never gonna realize it - no matter HOW much hard work you through at it.

And no, no a Fit kit or a 'fit system' in a bike shop can't always get you set up right. Ya need a very detailed analysis, like the one Seven does. And like many other custom builders use. But just cause a builder is a 'custom' doesn't mean the bike will be built well, or built to the size you think... Bringing to mind SB's comments about C-Dale. And the two 58s that didn't measure up in any dimension. I hear about 'custom' frame builders without a Frame table! WTF? How do you build/weld a bike without a frame alignment table? The answer doesn't make me feel any better about it: Its welded in the frame jig so its already aligned... Um... lets see... we'll heat the hell out of the metal and let it cool and expect it not to change. RIGHT.

KL and i should definitely have our own frame shop. Tall and Small cycles... or what was it called? Anyway, Focus on building quality frames, and let some other schmo paint them. Paint is excessive, and only the Klein's seem to have a worthy paint. On the other side, does it need to be pretty? Nah just fast. Down side, i'm sold on this aluminum crap. And the problem with making aluminum right is tube shape, wall thickness and being able to vary the tubes ala gradient tubing that Gary Klein made up.

Here... as much as i think Wiki is stupid... its got the best back up for my man Gary:
Gary Klein (Inventor) can be considered the innovator of the oversized tube aluminum bicycle, which is now a feature of the cycling market. He first developed the concept in 1973 as part of the Independent Activities Period aluminum bicycle project at MIT, where he was an engineering student and bicycle racer, then took the concept commercial after graduation.
One of the old catalogs talked about Gary racing in Boston and breaking frames. He's big, 6'3" or 4, and big, not like twiggy me. And the whole Aerospace Engineer stuff at MIT was somewhat helpful.

Ya wonder why GK has a billion patents? Cause he really was/is an innovator in aluminum stuff.

Integrated headset? Gary's been doing it lightyears longer than anyone. Back then ya know what they said? It is stupid, no flexibility. Look at the market now? Its worse than it was then. Besides, i've seen 20+ year old klein bearings working no problem. Kinda funny. When you use good stuff off the bat, that it lasts.

Now put your panties back on - or unbunch em at least. I don't sell em. I don't have any stock in em. They don't make Cross bikes, they've gone and done stupid stuff like replace kick ass killer aluminum stays with STUPID heavier, less ride-able carbon, and well the brand has been polluted from the analytical brilliant mind that gary envisioned. Sure he still has some directional control with the product. And yeah he had that one toxic cleanup issue.

Take a look at the time line. What's interesting there in 1989?
A woman's specific design. HOLY CRAP? Back then? Yeah... him and what? Terry? The only thing missing in his stable of firsts is a Cross bike.

Anyway...

I didn't start off to go off on Klein. But I find many east coasters not quite as educated about Klein bikes. They seem to (regionally acceptably i guess) biased towards C-dales. And there is some curious connection, C-dale was making trailers and clothing and crap. Then decided to make a touring bike... in '83... Those were heavy, unrefined, and scary compared to modern Alu bikes... and back then, they weren't really that much lighter... They played catchup with klein, as the two oversize aluminum frame makers cutting ground. Then the big boys jumped in...

Raleigh with the 'Technium' (i thought they were cool till i realized a 30 pound rigid aluminum cro-mo bike was about 7 pounds overweight - but it still is indestructible - hanging in the barn), Specialized with their M2 stuff. Giant with the toothpaste welded Taiwan stuff...

I'm a techy dweebish bike geek. The little stuff. Cool. And as with biology, i'm fascinated by the transitions, the evolution and the interrelatedness of everything.

Sure i'm biased. Everyone is. And on one hand i will agree - a well fitting bike is a well fitting bike and doesn't really impact how fast someone is unless it breaks.

Man i haven't even made it to the list!

The elevator. I waited 15 minutes to go down one flight with the trailer. Freaking PISSED ME OFF... gd... i'm okay now...

The ride... Well there was going to be a ride off at the Bike Shop at 9:30... i stuck around till 9:35-9:40... no one showed... and i had a great ride by myself.

On those drizzlin days the one bad thing about a group is the spray from the wheels infront. No wheels, just solo. My Belgian tan was 100% me. And it was fantastic. A gorgeous black line above the sock.

Wound up only about 44 miles, but i stretched it out to 44 miles or so, and using the RI bike map hit every damn hill i could manage. And it was fantastic. The bike was great. I don't think the grades were much more than 8-10% at max, and a few of them were longish... here's the loop i did... gmap r=219819. Its only a partial loop.... I went up and around on Lime Rock and Ridge road to get there.

Oh and i got a nice flat right about post 5 on there. Nice arrowhead of glass, pointing out #1 that i have no more 48mm valved tubes, #2 i need new 28c rubber... it's less than 1 mm at the middle of the tread... not good. And #3, i'm sold on the Stans no flat stuff, and i haven't even tried it yet. Kinda funny. In michigan i went 5-6 years maybe more without getting a flat. I'm here and have blown through a half dozen tubes already.

My average speed sucked... but i kept stopping to look at the map, took one leak, and was riding the hills... and not burning the descents... something about the roads being wet, it being dark, not wanting to blast around at 35-40 too much not knowing what is at the bottom stuff... Its a good loop, not many cars... the blackstone river bike path let me see the flooded damns and lots of water and gave me a chance to get comfortable in the aero position with the spinach bars.

And all except the flat, and my crappy gloves blowing a hole in the palm somehow (i dunno, i started the ride and the left one was intact - somewhere along the way the palm gave way) it was great. Raining, but not cold enough to need more than arm+knee warmers and a wind vest.

And Geert might like to hear - i even hosed the damn bike off when i got back. YEAH?! image that shit? I figured it was wet already, might as well put it away clean and wet rather than wet and dirty... although who doesn't like it wet and dirty? (sounds like a certain principle got an eyefull of wet and dirty). And for the guy who suggested i put more in my waterbottles than just water... i broke down and bought some Gatorade powder... took two 24 oz bottles of slightly strong G-ade for a change... maybe it helped... i think it did... the 3 hours, even though some of it was rather mellow and just sight-seeing miles, the extra energy made a difference...

And today begins the whole single working parent few days... Which was something i was thinking about. There will always be someone out there who won't understand, and in the same hand someone who'll wonder why you are complaining. And that goes for everything. For every guy who goes out and rides a 45 mile ride, some people will say 'hey, i've never done more than a flight of stairs' and others who'll say 'that's it? i rode a double century this weekend.'

the only measure is my own... its my life, i have my baggage, mental and physical to carry through. I'm not in a position to just ride on my schedule. I have to juggle lots, but it feels worthwhile. Will i mean i'm slow as hell? Maybe. Will it make me enjoy it all any less? Feck no... Maybe the opposite?

Whymiwriting that? I dunno - cause its rattlin around in my head and i wanna come back and read it sometime down the road. So that i understand the perspective i have now...

Oh and i wonder, i've go these feeling i've lost control of myself. In someway its that the entries flow more freely now, less deliberate. I don't know if its a good thing or not. Feel free to let me know... or not...

I'd better get this off the desk... loads of interruptions... hopefully its not that much more disjointed/disorganized than normal... although all those handwritten love letters from High school and college i'd writen to former and (almost) GFs weren't a whole lot less scattered... maybe its why the lecturers i've enjoyed the most are tangent filled... gimme three or four stimulus feeds and i'll be satisfied...

oh and Haverhill... i can assume its the BOB crit at the indus park? In september? Me... a Crit? shame - well maybe i can be shamed enough to show up... maybe...