Find the problem, win a prize

Ok,  as professional bicycle mechanics,   a significant amount of what we do is undoing what home mechanics did at home.    You may or may not beleive the number of people who say "I was trying to do (fill in blanlk) and it just doesen't seem to work right,  so I am giving it to you to figure out."  Most common on the list is "I had some spokes loose so I tighented them..."  Occasionally a home mechanic will create a mystery by doing something strange like using parts that are not compatable.  Often it takes you a while to find the mistake because your brian just doesn't question that it could ever be set up the way it is.    At any rate,  here is one we didn't notice until we started to put the bike back together.   The first person to spot the problem in the picture, and post what it is in the comments section will get a free waterbottle.   Also we know that the chain is not installed,  we just hadn't gotten that far when the picture was taken, the problem is more interesting than that.     (if you are local, you will have to pick the bottle up at the shop,  if you are elsewhere,  we will send you a coupon for a free waterbottle with order from our website.   Contest excludes employees and people who saw this bike while in the shop.)

Update:  Congrats to Peter who was the first to spot the problem.   As a side note, it may interest you that on this same bike they asked us to install this crank....

Night Lights and roadside hazzards

A near death experiance prompts me to remind eeryone that when you are riding at night your lights are not only safety and for vision of the road,  but also for keeping an eye on what is going on around you.     Oddly enough I came to this realization while testing out the x-fire Bike Lane tail light so I was really paying more attention to what was going on behind me than in front.

Those of you who know me know that I am a big advocate of the Knog Skink front light that has plenty of power to see the road ahead of you,  and for my commutes I go back and forth between my 350 lumen off road light and my little Skink. 

On my way home last night I had my Skink and my Knog Strobe both on flash mode and my new Xfire on the rear.   It had grown dark buy I had not yet moved my lights to constant mode,  and I was on a small back road (Old LaGrange Road for you locals).    This road is roughly wide enough for a car and a half,  so when there was an oncomming car, I knew I had space, but needed to be close to the edge of the road.   Those of you who night ride know that if it is truly dark,  an oncomming cars lights will blind you, unless your lights overpower the cars.

So that is where I was,  hugging the side of the road with very little visibility and luckly going pretty slowly when suddenly a deer stepped right in front of me.  Fortunately I had scared it enought that is started runnig,  but I came within a foot of it before it disaperared in a clatter of hooves.   Two otherse crossed in front of me,  at least one behind me,  and I looked up I looked up in time to see a large buck siloetted against the night sky standing on top of the railroad track.  

I bet the car had a great view of me crashing throught a herd of deer, but all I saw was a white tail and the buck.  A scarry moment,  but a cool memory,  and a reminder that if you are not in the city your lights ought to be bright enough to see whats coming at you from the side of the road as well. 

No Credit card surcharges...

Some of you may be wondering if Goose Creek will be among those adding a surcharge to credit card transacctions.   We will not be adding any new credit card surcharges,  but the thing that has been lost in the coverage of the new surcharge policy is that YOU ALREADY PAY THEM at every retailer who accepts credit cards. 

The fees that merchants pay are so widely variable between different cards that there is no way to keep them straight.  I usually just assume that it will cost me about 3% to make it easy,  but each card has a different "exchange rate" which is a percentage of total trannsaction that is retained by the issuer of the card.  (when i say "each card" I really mean it,   a Visa issued by your PNC bank will have a different rate than one issued by your Rebublic banks,  will be different than a Visa Gold, or Visa Platinum they are all different)   On top of that a merchant service comany will apply their own fee for being your link to the exchange.  This will usually look like a per transaction fee plus a percentage, plus batch, and monthly fees.

If we forget about batch and monthly fees,   an individual transaction for a particular card may be $0.10 plus 2.2%.     So if a customer buys a $500 bike in Kentucky the money trail looks like this.

Cost of bike $500
tax $30
Total Purchase Price $530
Credit card fees charged to merchant $11.76
amount received by merchan for sale $518.24
Tax given to government $30
Net amount retained by merchant $488.24

Because the merchant has to make sure he is paying for the product, paying his employees and making money based on teh $488.24 number it is safe to say that you are already paying a $11.76 surcharge on this sale already.    Until recently the merchant could not itemize this surcharge, you paid for it even if you were a cash customer.    

To combat this,  Goose Creek instituted a 2% discount for cash and Dwolla sales over $60 some time ago.   We will not be changing this policy.  As always we appreciate your business,  and remind you that when you pay with cash your money is going to the people providing the service rather than the credit card companies.

The Fiscal Cliff Explained so a cyclist can understand it.

Three people are in a car about to drive off the fiscal cliff. The driver and the co-pilot are sitting in front and the cyclist is sitting in back along for the ride.

Driver: OMG we are about to drive off a fiscal Cliff!!!!!

Co-Pilot: Quick Turn the wheel and get us back on the road!!!!

Driver:  No can do, this road is clearly too dangerous to be driving on.

Cyclist: Why am I in a car,  I hate cars.

Co-Pilot:  Just follow this road a little further, I'm sure we can find another way down.

Cyclist:  But the signs the whole way up have said "Warning: Dead end and Fall hazard"

C-pilot:  I don't think they really meant that, they were just trying to scare you, lets go a little higher.

Driver: Besides I am pretty sure that if we floor it, tilt our heads to the left, close one eye and hope really hard,  a bunch of pink sparkly faeries will catch us and set us back on the ground.

Co-Pilot:  That's Crazy

Driver:  Just because you are a bigot and don't think faeries are as good as the rest of us doesn't mean they aren't real and won't help us.  In fact, the only way my plan can fail is if you don't hope for the faeries hard enough.  So if we total the car and sustain serious bodily harm after I drive this car off the cliff, it will actually be your fault because you are a racist.

Co-Pilot: I'm not racist, in fact my daughter has a binder with faeries all over it, and I help her with the math homework that she keeps in it.  Why just the other day I was having lunch with my friend Larry,  and I brought up the topic of her binder full of faeries and was saying how great it was that she would share it with me and if she lets me I am going to bring it with me to work next week.  So don't tell me I don't like Faeries because....

Cyclist:  Um.. guys we are still driving towards a cliff.  Couldn't we just turn around?

Co-Pilot:  Not anymore,  I just paid a friend of mine at the DOT 5 million dollars to move the bottom half mile of the road to the top of the mountain to buy us some  more time,  but bozo here is intent on driving off this cliff here instead of the one we just put in on the top. 

Cyclist:  I think I just saw some sweet singletrack, let me grab my bike off the top of the car. 

Driver:  Not just now I need to get up some speed if we are to break through the guardrail

Co-pilot:  Couldn't we just drive the rest of the way up with two wheels over the edge and two on the road.

Driver:  Nope your plan won't work,  it's my way or nothing. 

Co- pilot:  Ok,  but if it doesn't work,  I blame you.

Driver:  I'm Flying!!!!!!

Co-pilot:  No this is free fall,  where are the faeries?

Driver: You are not hoping hard enough!  we are going to crash

Diver and Co-pilot together:  This is your fault!!!!

Co-pilot:  Hey where did spandex boy go?

 (2  miles away heading for some sweet singletrack)

Cyclist:  mmm Singletrack......

Buy Nice Pedals

I have long said that upgrading a bike to clipless pedals is the single greatest upgrade you can make to a bike. I also remind friends and customers that unlike most other upgrades,  it is one that you will take with you to your next bike.  So while it may not be worth spending $500 on a new suspension fork and putting it on a $300 bike, spending a little extra on the pedals is well worth it because they will look just as nice on your next bike.

All this really hit home when one the guys here asked me about a set of pedals I was putting on my new road bike,  and I realized that I had had them for about 13 years.  There are all sorts of stories here,  but let me run through some examples of pedals I have owned and I think you will see where I am going with it.

First clipless pedals were $30 cheapie SPD style Welgos I bought online.  Rode them on my mountain bike and destroyed them in a season,  repurchased them and destroyed the second set as well.

Time MTB pedals -  Started running Time's on a recommendation from a teammate.   Due to cash constraints I bought the less expensive Time ATAC pedals. Loved the system but found myself destroying them regularly.  It was to the point where I had a box of spare pedals and if ever I had both a left and a right pedal in there I would run them as a set.   Finally I sprung for the Time World Cup Pedals which were times high end version of the same pedal I was riding.   I didn't think about it at time, but as the World Cups quietly worked on one of my bikes I continued to destroy the others on my other bike.
Ended up selling all my pedals (including the World Cups) when I switched to Crank Brothers as I was frusterated with breaking so many pedals.

Crank Brothers-  Landed a sponsorship deal with Crank Brothers and was riding two sets of EggBeater Twin Ti. pedals which were one step off of the top of the line.   After countless 24 hour races, thousands of hours of training, and more abuse than I care to mention,  I am still riding these pedals after over 11 years.  Naturally I was really happy with them and have been singing the praises of Eggbeaters.   A few years ago I brought my wife on board and bought her a cheap set (MRX) of Eggbeaters for her occasional riding,  I also had a second set that I was going to put on my commuter, but never got around to it until a year and a half ago.   In about a year of commuting on the MRX I destoyed a bearing and cracked the shell on the pedal,  and if finally dawned on me.

 I was not breaking pedals because of the brands,  I was breaking pedals because of the quality I was purchasing from that brand.

Suddenly spending $200 on a pedal that will last 10 or more years and outlast 3 bikes makes more sense than buying a new set of $60 pedals every year.

In summary:

Nice Twin Ti Eggbeaters -  11 years and counting
Nice Look Road pedals - 13 years and counting
$180 Times - Rode for 2 seasons and then sold them in good condition.
$30 wellgo's - Less than a season and done
$60 Time's - about a season

Conclusion:  Buy nice pedals.  It is well worth the investment.

Rookie Mistake, Pro Save

Ok,  we have all been there,  you get in a hurry and do something dumb.  So if you need to feel better about yourself,  here is my dumb story and the trailside fix that let me take my son on his first mountain bike ride rather than pack it up and go home.

So here is the short version of the mess up.   Going to take my son mountain biking,  but running behind.   Pump up rear tire. Pump up Front tire but there is a problem at the valve and it is losing air.  

Discover that the valve has separated from my stan's tubeless rim strip.

Remove rim strip.

Forget to sweep the tire.  (note:  if you are running tubeless with Stan's solution, just because you didn't go flat doesn't mean there are no thorns in your tire.  I find that there are ALWAYS thorns in my tire, which make me even dumber for not sweeping it out)

Put in spare tube.

Grab Spare tube and saddle bag off wifes bike

Go to park.

Discover that tube in now flat and leaking rapidly when inflated.

Choose now as a time to remember that wifes bike has schraeder valves so I can't use her spare tube.   Also a good time to notice that her patch kit has rubber cement that is no longer usable.

Now we are at the decision point,  go home or try something drastic.   I will have you know that Lane and I rode for 5 miles which is what made this picture possible.

Also know that the fix lasted not only for the five mile ride,  but also sat in my garage overnight,  and made the 15 mile commute into work the next day without having to re-inflate.

So if you get in a bind and need to fix a flat tire without a spare tube or a patch,  this is one of my favorite trailside fixes.  This is the second time it has bailed me out,  but you can check out the pictures of us undoing the fix at the shop the next day....

 Photo 1:   Me riding in the shop on the temporary fix which has been holding for over 24 hours

 The reveal of how the fix was accomplished....

The 26" Tube which was tied in a knot to make what amounts to a 22" tube which can be stretched to fit a 26" wheel / tire.   Small section of the tire that would have a flat spot due to not having air in it is counter balanced by the extra rubber from the knot and the part of the tube with the hole.  As long as you tie a nice tight knot this fix rides well and gets you back on the trail.  Hope this saves a ride for you sometime.

The Debate on the new ordinance

Hi all, for the past few days I have been in a friendly private debate with my local magistrate about what the effects of the new Oldham County Bike ordinance will be. Basically my position is that club rides shouldn't need a permit because they are normal traffic and subject to normal rules of the road. I agree that there needs to be a process by which large events notify and gain approval for their events from the local governments, but it is unreasonable for them for have to file separate paperwork and fees for every city and county through which they pass.

The Magistrates last e-mail to me was cc'd to a slew of other government officials, and referred to me as a fear monger, so I guess we have moved our conversation from private to public. Below is my response which is basically an outline of some of the concerns that I have about the ordinance. I welcome your comments, and encourage residents of Oldham county to weigh in with their magistrates on this issue as well. Because apparently I am the lone voice in the wilderness on this one.

Link to actual ordinance: http://www.goosecreekcycle.com/EventOrdinance.htm

Discussion on forum site: http://www.goosecreekcycle.com/phpbb3/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=6429

Mr. Sparks,

I have noted your concern about the presentation and authorship of the bill on our forum site. I was actually done with this conversation, but as I see we have added a larger group to the cc list I will respond because they have missed much of our conversation. Largely you have heard these arguments, so you can ignore the rest of this if you wish, but for those of you just joining the conversation...

First I don't consider posting a current draft version of a ordinance on a forum site and asking for discussion "fear mongering". I think presenting an ordinance to the community that will be primarily affected by an ordinance before it comes up to vote is important. I don't know how widely the authors consulted the cycling community before drafting this but i am glad we are having the discussion now.

Second. I am not against any event ordinance, and I understand that there are real issues out there, but I would argue that the primary ones that people are complaining about are NOT addressed by this bill, and there are some of the best things about cycling in our community that are damaged by the bill.

The ridiculous thing is that I am going to go through this whole argument and all I am asking for is specific clarifications on a few definitions and more precise language in the bill so we can make the bill do what it originally claims to do.

There are really two issues here. The one this bill attempts to address and the underlying issue which is causing most of the complaints that led to the bill. There are also a number of types of riders on the road and this bill addresses each of them differently. My point here is that this bill is most harmful to those who are in general the most courteous and least disruptive to traffic, and generally leaves alone those who are most likely to be causing the problems and generating complaints.

First the Riders: There are 4 main types of rides on our roads (more depending on how many hairs you want to split, but I will divide into 4 groups.)

Group 1: Races- These are riders on relatively short highly Marshaled courses who are in a competition. As such they expect the right of way under all circumstances and courses are usually either blocked off, or contain only right hand turns. Racers generally pay an entry fee. Organizers typically carry event insurance. Organizers fully expect to have to file permits and generally lean on local officials to lead them through this process.

Group 2: What a cyclist would call Event rides, but as this ordinance defines "Event" differently I will call them Charity and organized tours. Typically these are typically large rides with over 100 starting but they tend to break into groups of 15 or less within the first mile or to and often feature a rolling start where people just sort of start when they please. Course are often marked with signs or paint on the tar. Riders are considered normal vehicles on the road and are expected to obey the rules of the road. Usually these are run by or to benefit non-profit, and riders are either required to raise a certain amount for the charity or pay an entry fee. Organizers typically carry event insurance

Club Rides: Usually 5-60 riders. Most are well below the 50 rider mark, but because there is only a sign in, and no registration actual head count is not generally known until the ride starts. Courses are not marked, but riders are generally provided directions. Riders are expected to obey the rules of the road. Rides are typically swept which means there is an experienced ride captain near the back to help out less experienced riders while stronger riders go off ahead. Rides typically thin to groups of 3 to 10 within the first mile or two. This is where young riders typically learn how to navigate the roads safely on their bicycles as well as how to ride in close proximity to other riders. Rides are covered by the clubs insurance, and rides are subject to termination or modification if the club finds the ride to be dangerous or otherwise disruptive, or if the ride captain is found to be wanting in some way. These tend to be some of the safest rides because riders are no only accountable to the law but also to the club and the stigmas that are attached to breaking the rules of the road or riding recklessly.

Non-Organized rides: This is probably most of the riders you see out on the streets. They are riders who either meet up with friends and teammates, and go for a ride, or simply go out alone and see who they meet. Groups are typically between 1 and 10 and they tend to all stay very close together as there is often not a determined route. Many of the racers tend to fall into this group on non race days because they are doing specific workouts that don't lend themselves to club rides.

Now the issues. There are really two issues here, the one we are talking about and the one we are dealing with but pretending like we are not. This was crystallized for me by two examples that Mr. Sparks sent me in a prior e-mail, and I think it makes sense to use his examples so you know I am not just making stuff up.

Excerpt 1 :

" I HAVE VIDEO I took one day of a club running the sign in Pewee valley. I think I can send to you if the file isn’t too big. Don’t play with me and pretend these guys don’t run signs all day long. I am being honest with you and I don’t think you are returning the respect. If these guys weren’t breaking the road rules all the time people wouldn’t be calling us. I wager I can go this weekend and catch them doing it, if the weather is nice. In fact I almost side swipped a guy the other night because he was riding on the wrong side of the road and I didn’t see him until he raced up on me… It scared the crap out of me. He was in one of your fancy outfits with all the club names and sponsors on it.. I am not stupid. "

This is the underlying issue that we are talking about here, but are saying that we are not. It is also an issue that members of the club as well a sponsors of teams have been harping on more and more. Teams are getting pressure from above, because organized cycling realizes that we are held to a higher standard than other vehicles on the road. For this reason the kind of this mentioned above is seen much less on club rides than in non-organized rides. The problem is that the general public can't tell the difference.

Side note on jerseys. The club issues precious few jerseys, the ones you see are largely purchased, mostly logoed with manufacture logos, random images, or logos of pro teams. The ones that do tell you who the rider is, are largely racing teams which is why the teams are coming down to hard on their riders, because they are identifiable by their clothing if you know what you are looking for.

Incidents like the ones above, as well as a general feeling that because cyclists tend to slow down traffic and that they shouldn't be on the road is what generate hard feelings towards cyclists in general. These hard feelings lead to complaints. I am guessing that most of the complaints about the larger events are not as much about the events, which really only occur 2 or 3 days a year in our county, but those events are sort of the icing on the cake. In other words a person who is generally ticked off at cyclists is more likely to call in a complaint about Ironman.

All this is tangential, because the riders above most likely fell into Group 4 and as such are not affected by the ordinance.

Excerpt 2:

"And simply put… the issue isn’t individual riders or even groups… it is EVENTS. Last year I was driving down the road on my way to take my kids to school. It was Friday and this guy was out hanging signs on every street corner stop sign. I asked him what he was doing and he said, “we are having a ride here tomorrow and I am laying out the course”. I said, “No you are not, I haven’t been informed of any such event”. He said he had every permission to do so. (apparently he had called state and they didn’t care if he did it on their public roads) I called the chief of police right there in his presence and asked him. The Chief confirmed (not a quote) that he didn’t know anything about it. This was an event they planned to have some 250 or more riders all day LONG. And they were setting up in parking lots for refreshments and the such (with out permissions I am told)…. This was a LOUISVILLE “charity”. They said they do it every year. NO ONE… NO ONE in our local govt had been contacted, nothing had been approved. Etc etc. And this guy on the side of the road had NO intention of listening to me until I had to call the Chief of police.

Well, this is your problem… and this isn’t the only case. It is just one perfectly glaring example of what you guys want to pretend isn’t happening. "

Now we are to the real issue and what the ordinance tries to and does address, the problem is we need to clarify our words to make sure it doesn't hit all the wrong things.

I agree that the county government should have known about an event this large if it is on county roads. But it sounds to me like the organizer did jump through all the hoops he was supposed to there was just a communication breakdown in the system that we have for notification of our government officials. This is why my initial suggestion was that permitting be handled by the largest government body involved with rights of refusals to smaller bodies. So for an event such as this that may pass through 3 or 4 counties and many more cities, it is unreasonable for an organizer to be expected to file a $50 permit fee along with separate paperwork for each city and county that it passes through. He should be able to contact the state (as he did) and get one permission that any of the smaller bodies could reject based on the larger application to the state.

Similarly, an event contained on only county and city roads could file one application with the county and the county official could get the okay from involved cities.

If it is all in one city, the permit goes through the city.

What we are talking about here is simply administrative streamlining which makes it easier for all involved to bring events our state, county and cities, and for all involved to know what is going on.

So we are done right? Unfortunately we struck with too wide a hammer and there are a lot of unintended consequences. The biggest is that under current definitions club rides, which are open to the public, will not know if they are an "Event" or not until about 5 minutes before the ride, so they will have to do some crazy work around if too many people show up and risk heavy fines for themselves and their riders.

Alternatively these unpaid volunteers who typically host two or three rides a month could shell out a few hundred in permit fees and risk being told they need officers at every corner for what turns out to be series of 10 rider rides.

The more likely result is that ride leaders will simply pull their rides out of Oldham County. And yes I have already talked to ride captains who have said they will do this, but I have not heard any official response as to what the Louiville Bycyle Club will do. This is not to say that there will not be cyclist here, but that we will have eliminated the rides which are organized,insured, and routed along the safest roads possible. In their stead will be a series of uninsured, loosely organized rides, which will make it difficult for our rookie riders to learn how to ride safely on our roads unless they take their cars, their bikes and their dollars into Louisville.

For this reason my suggestion is that we limit the ordinance to commercial events. With commercial being defined as "Any ride or race that can reasonable expect 25 or more participants where the participants are required to pay and entry fee or raise money in order to participate -or- any event that will request or require road closures or traffic redirection"

I also ask that it is specified that the event must have aspects on county roads or property to require a permit from the county. And that if a mixture of state and county roads are used that State level permissions should override county leaving the county with a right of refusal based on the information provided to the state but sparing the event coordinator from having to pay separate permit fees in every county and city that decides to pass an ordinance such as the one we are discussing.

Finally if this seems too complicated to only target the big events I suggest that we revert to the status quo where we simply accept that bicycles are part of traffic and are subject to the same rules and regulations as any other vehicle, and leave it at that.

Again this is just my opinion and since I am already being called out as a fear monger I am going to share it with my friends as well, thanks for your time. - Jon Kindig