Bling is good

It is rare that people would ever be jealous of a bike shop owner, but if you have found your way to this blog, you might actually understand this one. Every now and then you get to rediscover why you are in this business in the first place and a little bit of bling just carries you away from the rest of the world for a while.

For those of you who have been paying attention to Goose Creek for the last week it might have seemed like there is not a lot going on. The FedEx guy hasn't been coming and going as much as normal, the website just blinks you over to a "our site is down" message, and we have been keeping our energy costs down by not losing heat from customers walking in and out.

So from the outside it may seem like we are just hibernating for the winter. The opposite is very much true. Bike and Skate guys alike have been franticly working on the new improved site, getting products uploaded, categories and search functions working properly. I have been on the phone almost constantly with tech guys from three different companies trying to figure the programming.

On top of this we are putting together a pro/Elite Endurance team and we have been negotiating with sponsors and gearing up for all that is involved with a team of this caliber.

Somewhere in all this it the simple fact that this is supposed to be about riding bikes has slid into the background. But as I said before, there is nothing like a little bling to snap you out of a funk.

The nice thing about being the boss is that you can pick your projects. So you can be assured that if a Huffy comes through the door, Schoen will be your mechanic and I will be working of something else. Today's project was a little different.

At 7:30PM, and hour and a half after close, I grabbed a stack of tools and pile of parts for a little home wrenching. By 9:30 PM dinner was done, the little man was in bed, and I pulled a $1200 hub out of the bag and started lacing it up. (Sorry Schoen, no bling for you, I claim this one)

Before I go further, let me say that if you don't build your own wheels, you need to start. There is some sort of zen experience involved that I can't really explain. Visit SheldonBrown.com and he will help you through it.

Now mind you, tonight was not a typical disappear into the basement with a six pack of beer and wrench until you get the urge to raid the fridge night. This is a Caffeine Free Diet Coke so your hands don't shake night. Somehow an old Trance CD seemed fitting and computer synthesized music blaring in the headphones seemed to go nicely with the slow spinning of an alien looking PowerTap hub with enough technology to launch a space shuttle.

I build wheels slowly. I am not one of these guys that builds 20 wheels a day, so I lace them up one spoke at a time. Keyspoke first, Driveside Trailing spokes next, and group by group the wheel comes together. Headphones come off so I can hear the rim in the truing stand. Tension comes up 1/8 of a turn at a time, there is no shop mechanic that will sort out any slush in the build later. The wheel is tensioned into dish, and true and round are checked after each round of tensioning. Two Hours dissapear.

By midnight where there had been a pile of parts, a ZTR 355 / Powertap / Revolution 29er Mountain bike wheel sat spinning in the stand. If you could walk into a store and buy this wheel if would cost you over $1400, more than the average cyclist is willing to spend on the entire bike. And if you bought this particular wheel from a bike shop your would probably be thinking that the shop owner would be really excited for such a big sale, but you would be wrong. The reason for that look he has on his face is that this one wheel, that one project, that one piece of craftsmanship is the reason he is in the shop in the first place. In a world where cheap machine build junk is a dime a dozen and there is still a place for products that are crafted rather than assembled. He would have built that wheel for free.

12:15am

Time to trade the Caffeine Free Coke in for something with a little more kick and return to the real world. There are products to be uploaded to the site and we need as much of it done as possible before the shop ride at 10:30 in the morning.

Slow day at command central

Website conversion is almost complete. It is January. It is raining. Perfect time to open up command central at the shop. Good news is that this will double as living quarters for employees who are working late.

Sneak Peek

The new shopping side of the website is under construction, and the guys are uploading products, descriptions and images as fast as they can. You can check out a sneak peek here Our instore database is liking to the site as we speak, and we should be able to process orders within the week (Probably tomorrow). The site should also start looking a lot prettier by next week. So for those of you that like to be on the cutting edge, you can start looking around.

Also watch for some special promotions coming down the line. We will be linking up some likes that act like coupons and having some contests. For example, the first 100 unique customers to order from the new site will receive a 10% discount off all their future orders for life. (Not a bad reward for fighting through our site in the current disorganized fashion.)

Power transfer and Cycling shoes.

After years of cycling, reading the literature and spending hours and hours on new equipment of all levels and qualities you develop ideas about things that you just stop questioning in your mind. The problem is that over the years, as equipment changes and riders progress advancements in products are for the most part small incremental changes. Updates to products are the results of geeks on computers in labs and wind tunnels. We generally accept that what their computer models say are true, but the actual difference you feel on the bike is so small that you have to believe that all these product testers for magazines are simply regurgitating what the manufacturers say simply because the have to say something.

The discovery I made today comes not from side by side duels of the latest and greatest, but rather from backing up a few years.

The standard line on cycling shoes is that the stiffer the sole the better. The logic goes that a stiff sole basically becomes the platform of the pedal which is why we can get away with having tiny little pedals like Speedplays or Eggbeaters. This stiffness allows more energy to go into each pedal stroke and less energy to be lost trying to keep your foot from flexing around the pedal. As an exaggeration you can go ride barefoot and see how well you do.

The problem for me is that the last time I did a serious ride in tennis shoes I was a freshman in high school. From there is was a slow progression. My first pair of cycling shoes was a pair of resin soled velcro Shimano shoes and I attributed the boost in performance to the clipless pedals that came along with it. Maybe once in the history of all the shoes I have had have I really noticed a significant boost in power transfer between the old worn out shoe and the new one. So while I have sold and been sold on various shoe designs in the past it has always been more of a theory than experience. Because of this I have passed up Carbon soled shoes because they didn't seem to warrant the expense.

Today by taking myself completely out of my normal element I learned the real value of good cycling shoes. As many of you know my winter project bike this year is a 1982 Schwinn Fixed gear bike. I have been riding it mostly in sneakers and toe clips. The performance dip from my other bikes is across the board. In other words I didn't just change to sneakers, I also changed to a fixed gear and toe clips and a frame that was made when I was just learning to ride my first BMX bike.

But todays ride was a little different. I had left my fixie at the shop and I wanted it back, so I jumped on the Fat Chance with a pair of old SIDI shoes, rode to the shop and switched bikes.

For the last few week I have been learning to skid on the fixie. I feel like it is a skill I need to be able to ride safely, but the problem has been initiating the skid from high speeds which is where you really want it. As I headed out in the SIDI shoes with toe clips I hit a little skid just to see where I was at and found myself actually pedaling backward while still moving forward. The difference of changing only the shoes was amazing. No longer will I make fun of the people in spin classes who want cycling shoes but aren't using cleats. As it turns out the performance enhancement that until today I had attributed mostly to being locked in the pedal comes largely from the stiffness of the sole of the shoe.

Mind you I am not advocating that everyone go back to toe clips and just use cycling shoes, but never again will I regard the shoe design as just a little perk of going clipless. The difference is night and day. It just took linking pedaling power to braking to demonstrate just how great the increase is. So for this winter I will be wearing cycling shoes and have a lot more control over the bike. Next season maybe I will spring for some carbon soled shoes.

It's my fault, Sorry

I have a long standing tradition of building up a strange bike and riding it through the winter. The logic has always been that in the off season training is not as important to have dialed in. Keeping things new and interesting is the key to having fun on the bike, and having fun is the key to successful training. Also it sucks to take a $5000 bike out into the salt and slush when you could build up a beater and not care about it.

Back in Maine I has a single speed Trek Antelope with drywall screws in the tires that I would ride on snowmobile trails and ice tracks when available. Also raced a February Ski Resort Downhill race on it once. Did pretty well, but got taken out in the semis.

Here in Kentucky I have taken to riding Fixed Gears. Two years ago I went with a stock KHS Flight 100 that broke me into the fixed gear realm, but this year I went full on hipster and built up my own out of parts that we found laying around the shop and a Schwinn Traveler that was built when I was still in diapers (perhaps before).

As we didn't have any brake levers laying around, we went hardcore fixie. Toe-clips and No brakes. The front wheel is set up with the old school 27" wheel, but we had to put on a new rear wheel to fix it, so I am running a 700 in back and as it turn out a 700 X 32 tire that we had lying around has exactly 2mm of clearance between the tire and the chain stays. Looks crazy, but works great and gives me a little extra rubber to burn through as I learn to skid.

I should have known that I had jinxed myself by going to the fixie a little early when the temperature dropped for the maiden voyage. We have been having great luck with a late season, but when I strapped on the lights and took it out for a 3 mile night spin in jeans and a hoodie, the temperature seemed to drop just because I was out there.

Yesterday I skipped the Cross race and took the fixie out for her first real ride. Bright sun cut the cold as I rode to the start of the 30 mile club ride, but it was clear that winter riding had begun. A small group of riders started the loop unaware that they were accomplice to the winter bike jinx. And we weren’t but 3 mile in before the first of the riders decided "screw it, it is too cold".

Four of us finished up the 30 mile ride. And the ancient fixie held up well except for a small problem with the braking system (I lost one of the toe clip screws so the strap kept sliding to the side). When I got home I parked the bike and took one of those long showers that you have to take. You know the ones where it is a race to see if you can get your core temperature up before you run out of hot water. Had some dinner and went to bed.

This morning I woke up to see snow on the ground. So sorry to all the drivers who wrecked on the Gene Snyder this morning, and all the riders who hang it up when the white stuff flies. And all you business owners, myself included, who's livelihood depends on nice weather, I have brought the long awaited winter by breaking out the "winter bike" a little too early.

Whats up with headsets

Tech Questions #1- Headsets

Question from customer: "I'm looking at headsets, and the tech sheet says 1 1/8", non-threaded, integrated. What is all this?"

Our answer in three parts:

1. Headset size
2. Threaded vs. Threadless
3. Standard vs. Integrated

Definitions you will need to know.

Steer Tube - The part of the front fork that sticks up through the frame

Head Tube - The part of the frame that the Steer Tube passes through.

Headset - The part containing the bearings that allow the steer tube to turn freely in the head tube (more simply this allows you to turn the bike)

Headset size:

1 1/8" headsets are the most common on the market right now. Second most common is 1" and there are some 1 1/2"s out there but they are rare. Almost all modern mountain bikes use 1 1/8". The measurement is actually the diameter of the steer tube on the fork, so it is basically the interior diameter of the headset.

Non-threaded vs threaded headsets:
This refers to how the fork is attached to the frame. Threadless means that there are no threads on the steer tube so the fork is held on by clamping the stem to the steer tube. On a threaded headset the headset screws onto the top of the forks steer tube (this means that the fork has to be purchased with the proper length steer tube and can't be cut) In a threaded system it is the headset rather than the stem that holds the fork to the bike, and a quill stem is inserted down the center of the steer tube. Threaded headsets are seen mostly on older bikes, inexpensive bikes, and BMX bikes.

Integrated vs Standard headsets:

Traditional headsets have the cups pressed into the frame. In integrated headsets a sealed bearing inserts directly into the frame and then the top and bottom of the headset are the same as normal. Remember that with a sealed bearing the balls are completely contained so there is actually no movement against the frame so you don't have to worry about damaging the frame the way you worry about damaging the cups in a traditional headset. Integrated headsets are a little lighter and a little less complex than traditional headsets.

For the most part, the type of headset you choose will be dependant on what frame you pick. If the frame is set up for 1 1/8" integrated, that is what you will have to use.

USGP Derby City

Given that he is the CFO of a bike shop, it seemed only logical that he start racing. So this weekend shop mascot and Cookie Finding Officer Lane entered his first race. Now there is no going half way for this kid so he started out at one of the biggest Cyclocross races in the nation, Derby City USGP.


After a considerable amount of effort trying to corral him away from the big boy course he settled into his grove on the junior course which was complete with a couple of run ups, a mud pit (bikewash run off) and a staircase run-up.

A couple of warm up laps and he was off to the obligatory port-a-pot visit.


And then the start.

The first lap held some excitement with a three-kid pileup that blocked traffic right from the start. After a short pause Lane was able to take the inside line and get around. He blew through the Cannondale tent and was out on course.

As the only one with training wheels Lane was at a bit of a disadvantage on the back section because as it turns out when you are on an off camber slope, the training wheels try to push you over rather than hold you up. It is because of this section that his pit crew believes that he so narrowly missed the overall win.

He blasted through the mud pit and dismounted for the staircase where he did have to receive a little outside assistance lugging the bike up the stairs. Back on the bike he headed out for lap 2.




With an uneventful lap 2 under his belt, his race was over, but he was not going to stop for something as silly as everyone else being done. Like a true champion he headed out on a victory lap so while everyone else was at the award ceremony Lane was turning a few extra.



Eventually we had to drag him from the course, but if you ask him today what he wants to do, you are sure to get his new standard answer.

"I want to do cyclocross"