If it’s one thing I’ve learned about competitive cycling, it’s 71.2% mental.  A competitive cyclist’s psychological approach to situations, both racing and training, can make or break careers or races.  The ability to climb on the bike when it’s too hot, too wet, too cold, or too windy is part of it, but knowing their physical limits is also key.  Sense of when to obey the boundaries that the body has instituted, when to push past them, and for how long. 

These basic examples are just the tip of the iceberg when talking about what a racer’s head must sort through in order to be as fast and efficient as their fitness will allow.  The top race teams will ensure their top pros have nothing to worry about but going fast.  Subaru/Gary Fisher Mountain Bike Team’s Willow Koeber told me the only things on her mind were picking up imaginary gold coins from the race course (kind of like in Super Mario Bros.)  and causing change in the earth’s rotation with each pedal stroke.  Probably why she’s such a great short track racer.  We should all be so lucky.  I think most of us have at least the slight thoughts of utter suffering on our brains in race situations, no matter what.  I’m sure Willow and her teammates rarely go into a race with a bike that is less than mechanically perfect, which is why riders on that caliber of a team have learned to not even consider skipping gears at start time.  They are well aware that they have a strong team backing them and doing what it takes to make sure they can focus on riding bikes fast. 

Which brings me to the point of this post.  The Pedal Wrench is offering pro team level race and ride support for cyclists that don’t want to worry about the chain not dropping from the middle to the small ring.  I for see the endurance racers, namely 24 hour racers, truly benefiting from this service.  The Pedal Wrench has a complete mobile shop that can be set up anywhere in the western United States.  Besides tools, we offer a pop up tent, generator, significant outdoor lighting, espresso machine, and a long list of other race pit necessities.  We can even arrive stocked with the parts your bike may need over the course of the race.

Prices will vary by event, location, and job description.  To give you an idea, a 4 person team at the 24 Hours of Moab mountain bike race will cost in the ballpark of $800.  That’s only $200 per racer, a small price to pay for mechanical piece of mind on race day.  That rate includes all the labor/bike repairs and we’ll even make sure the bike gets sent home shiny and happy. However, any bike parts used would be extra.

This is an opportunity to gain one of the huge advantages the pro teams have over the rest of us.  Seems to make sense!  Input on the value/price of this service is welcome.  

  

In a perfect world bicycle tubes would grow on trees. They would be free and have no environmental impact. Maybe they wouldn’t go flat at all and you could use a tube throughout your whole life and even pass it on to generations. But tubes do go flat and aren’t free and they don’t just disappear from the face of the earth. That is why The Pedal Wrench suggests patching tubes. However, I rarely patch tubes on the trail. Having a spare ready to go is fast and courteous to your riding company.

Patching tubes is something I do in my spare time in the comfort of my home. I’ll typically have a few tubes in the rotation and will sit down and patch multiple tubes in a patch session. The lack of debris, time constraint, and stress makes the task much easier to deal with and boosts the success rate.

My life is filled with bicycle tubes. I deal with them all the time. Something I’ve learned to do to save myself time and frustration is to tie a knot in punctured tubes. This is an obvious reminder that the tube does not hold air and it needs to be patched. Trust me, it helps a lot.

While I’m on the subject of patching I’ll run through some helpful pointers on getting a tube patched successfully.

1. Locate the hole. I usually inflate the tube and listen/feel for the hole or holes. Your lips are very sensitive and can feel the slightest leak of air.

2. Deflate the tube completely. Remember to keep an eye on the hole, you can mark it with a marker.

3. Apply glue. A thin coating in a circular motion around the hole. Too much glue is messy and doesn’t help the patch stick any better. Make sure the area of glue is larger than the patch being used. Try and keep the hole in the center of the glue circle. This will help you center the patch.

4. Let the glue dry 60%. This is the step that usually gets skipped. People are in too much of a hurry. If you applied the proper amount of glue it should only take a few minutes.

5. Press the patch on. Place the tube on a hard surface and use a rigid cylinder to roll the patch on. This gets rid of air bubbles and helps the patch bond with the tube.

6. Let it dry more. This shouldn’t take long. If you’re in a hurry you could probably skip this step.

I tend to leave the plastic covers on patches so the outside doesn’t stick to the tube as I fold it for storage. The plastic can also keep the glue from sticking to the inside of the tire. I’ve never experienced any problems from leaving the plastic on, but let me know if you have.

Good luck. Earth day every day.

One more thing. Cut the tubes that can’t be patched into rubber bands. They are great keeping spare tubes wrapped tight and bundling $$. There is probably at least 500 more uses, let me know what you come up with.

There are a few tools I use more than any others, and until just a moment ago I would have listed the 5mm hex wrench and my homemade spoke poker as the top two. As I write this I realize that my repair stand is actually used more than any other tool in the shop. I’m actually using it now and I’m not even working on a bike.

A bike repair stand is the mechanic’s way of having a stable platform to clean, inspect, build, and adjust a bicycle. Most repairs would be possible without the use of a bike stand, but struggle is often the case. The repair stand will stabilize the bike and articulate to give the mechanic the best view of the part of the bicycle needing attention. The ability to bring the ailing part of the bike closer to eye level is a huge advantage. You can also use a bike repair stand as a fancy kickstand when you just need to store a bike.

For someone that’s never used a bike repair stand it’s hard to know what to look for in a stand. There is more than likely going to be some compromise when deciding on a stand to aid in fixing your bicycle. Price is always a consideration, but what else should influence the decision? In my opinion, durability, portability, and stability are the key factors. Most repair stands will hold a bike with no problem, especially if you go for an established brand. How well and how long are where stands start to differentiate from one another.

The Ultimate Support Pro Elite Repair Stand is a top contender in the portable bicycle repair stand world. The 13lb repair stand folds down with the flip of a couple quick release levers and slides right into it’s own little duffel bag. No need to make special arrangements transporting the Pro Elite Repair Stand from place to place, it’ll fit just about anywhere. Folded down, the Pro Elite Stand is as compact as any other stand I’m aware of.

The ease of transport is irrelevant if the stand doesn’t make working on a bike easier. The first thing I noticed when I removed the stand from the box was the newly redesigned clamp. Ultimate improved on the knob that tightens the clamp around the bicycle and added a large release button for easier removal of the bike. The Ultimate claims “industrial strength”, and I definitely had zero problems over the course of weeks of use and hundreds of bikes. It even handles tandems and downhill bikes that weigh upwards of 60lbs with no problem. Besides being burly, the clamp is about the easiest clamp I’ve used to date. Getting it properly adjusted with one hand was no problem. The release button was a nice feature too, the clamp is instantly loosened once you hit the button. You just have to be careful about hitting the button while working on the bike. I fell victim to that once, but once my awareness was raised it wasn’t an issue again.

The set up of the Pro Elite Stand is as easy as th break down….maybe easier. The tripod easily opens every time and secures with a quick release lever. The height adjustment is also secured with a quick release and offers short to as high as I would ever want. The clamp arm is secured with a knob and let you adjust the angle of the clamp and how the bike is positioned. If I had to guess, I would say the total set up takes about 20 seconds. That’s darn quick.

The lightweight aluminum construction does have a bit of flex, especially with the heavier bikes. The amount of flex was certainly acceptable, and compared with other manufacturers designs, is well worth the exceptional weight savings. Besides that, care should be taken in positioning the tripod legs to the bike. One incident with the wind caused a bike and stand to fall over, but again, my raised awareness kept that from being an issue again.

The Ultimate Support Pro Elite Bike Repair Stand receives a 5 of 5 rating from me after a significant amount of use. Portable stands will never be as stable as the 300lb shop stands and they don’t need to be. The price of the Pro Elite stand is makes it a decent value and works at least $100 better than most of it’s competitors. The customer service department at Ultimate Support is easy to deal with should there be an issue with the product.

The Pedal Wrench highly recommends the Ultimate Support Pro Elite Bike Repair Stand and is claiming it’s the best portable or stationary home mechanic’s stand on the market today. Check it out.

In this line of work, I have quite a few opportunities to ride bicycles of various designs, manufacturers, and part specs. The down side is I usually don’t get to ride said bicycles long enough to form an educated opinion about them. One ride is just a taste of what a bike has to offer. Getting the suspension and fit dialed in are key to really knowing what a bike has to offer.

That said, I did have the opportunity to ride and dial the 07 Cannondale Carbon Rush Team over the course of a couple of weeks. This bike is deemed as an all mountain endurance bike with the weight of some of the nicer x country bikes on the market combined with a non abusive ride that lets you sit comfortably in the saddle for hours upon hours. The bike weighs in at a feathery 24.5 lbs, pretty dang light for a ride with 120mm of rear wheel travel. The carbon frame saves 200 grams over the aluminum version, but the stunning weight is helped in part by a build that considers weight and efficiency throughout.

As soon as I put my foot to the pedal I was in awe of the weight. The Carbon Rush is about 9 lbs lighter than my Giant Reign 1 trail bike. The suspension did a good job eating up the bumps once I set them a touch softer than the manufacturer recommended. The suspension design in conjunction with the Fox Float RP3 climbed hills with little feedback or flex. The only flex I noticed was while climbing out of the saddle in gears harder than I should have been in. I left the rear shock in the fully active setting for the most part ans I felt very little efficiency loss.

I really only ride up to ride down, so the down is where I tend to completely make up my mind about a bike. Once I had the tire pressure, shocks, and brakes adjusted properly it was on. Anything the bike lacked in quickness because of the geometry was made up for by the weight and the Rush’s superb ability to track where you aim it. A solid 20 minute downhill had me giddy as a school girl and the pedaling capabilities had me inspired to ride up and do it again. Six hour rides were finished with little upper body fatigue leaving me fresher to ride the next day.

The ballpark price of $6500 is a touch out of my price range, but I think it to be a wise choice for the cyclist competing in endurance events. Some of the Cannondale pros use this bike in XC events over the lighter Scalpel and Taurine bikes. Also a good choice if you’re not competitive but have some extra dough to play with. In my opinion, the other down was the Avid Juicy Ultimates‘ 4″ rotor on the rear. The brakes are sweet, but the small rotor has me on the front brake more which leads my front wheel to wash out in the loose corners. A simple brake adapter and rotor swap had me singing a new tune. I’d be interested to get anyone else’s’ feedback on the 4″ rotor.

My overall rating for the Cannondale Carbon Rush Team is a solid A. The lack of an A+ is due to the steep price. The rest of the bike performed beyond my expectations and the manufacturers claims. But as a broke ass bike mechanic I have to look at value. Not really Cannodale’s fault, they don’t control the price of components or materials, nor am I the demographic they are marketing this bike to. The bike

There are Cannondale demo trucks driving around the country as we speak. Check with your dealer to see when you can ride one. Go to www.cannodale.com for more info on the demo program.

Supporting benefit rides is just one of the many outlets I use to practice my bike repair skills. The opportunity to volunteer for the AIDS Lifecycle 6 came about with phone call from Cannondale’s Bill Rudell. As the official tech sponsor, Cannondale was responsible for stocking and staffing a mobile bike repair giant for the almost 600 mile ride. The ride would take nearly 2800 cyclists 7 days to complete as it wound south down the coast of California.

Equipped with 1300 700c tubes and just about every other part that could possibly break on a standard road bike, Bill and his team of 9-15 mechanics and fit gurus converged on the AIDS Lifecycle registration at the Cow Palace, just outside of San Francisco. For the techs, the registration day was dedicated to getting the riders’ bikes unboxed, built, and working as smooth as possible. This day was my introduction to the massiveness of the event and the diversity of the participants.

Each bike I built was an introduction to a person I had never met before. I would try and find the bike shop sticker on the bicycle that might give me the geographical lowdown on each bike and it’s rider. The conversations were typically focused on the wheres and whys of these people, many of whom had traveled great distances to participate. Besides the prospect of riding nearly 600 miles in 7 days, the $2500 minimum donation showed a level of commitment you wouldn’t see at most other charity rides. I suppose that’s why the 2800 riders raised over $11 million before the start of the ride.

Often the bikes I built were loaners, yet unridden by the person standing in front of me. Other times I would remove bikes from the boxes they had been so carefully sealed inside of at the end of the previous Lifecycle. I admit my skepticism about certain riders’ readiness was high. The comedic highlight came at the expense of a person on a department store bicycle. The seatpost was cut leaving no room for adjustment, the seat was always down, and the frame had a 20lb. U lock around it. I guess you had to see it to appreciate it. You should know he made it all the way to the end.

Each day was a new adventure for this country mouse. The team of mechanics would wake early to have cyclists on the road by 6:30. As the flow of riders would decrease to a trickle, teams of mechanics would race to various rest stops along the way to set up a make shift bike shops before the riders started arriving. As I set up shop at the lunch stop on day one I paused to take in the scenery. The ocean lapped at the sand only a few hundred feet away as the seals soaked up the sun, birds soared, dived, bobbed, weaved, ate, slept, and a multitude of other activities, all for my viewing pleasure. The participants started pedaling in within a short time.

The bikes I saw suffered from ailments of all varieties. Usually it was a simple shifting issue, but I witnessed many broken spokes, broken derailleurs, slashed tires, crash damage, and just about anything else that could go wrong with a bike. The mechanical feat of the week was performed by Murray of Cannondale and Q of Shimano with their zip tie remedy for a lost b tension plate on a Campy rear derailleur. It really opened my eyes to the power of the zip tie, especially since it was still running strong at the end of the ride after breaking the first day. Bill would scurry from shop to shop, sometimes hitting 8 in a day, just to meet the mechanical needs of the participants’ bikes. The proprietary spokes and Italian components seemed to be the hardest items to replace on the road.

Besides tubes and tires, pedal cleats seemed to be in the highest demand. The amount of walking was a cycling anomaly with some riders going through 3 pairs of cleats during the week. The Look and Shimano cleats were definitely the most prone to wear, while Speedplay and Time faired slightly better. The cyclists that showed up with cleat covers and used them religiously were spared the anguish of worn cleats. If I was going to ride in the AIDS Lifecycle I would definitely be using my mountain shoes and pedals. My feelings about common, easy to locate and replace bike parts was certainly strengthened over the course of my repair endeavors. A snazzy wheel is no good if you can’t find a spoke to fix it.

Fortunately for the cyclists with bike problems that weren’t immediately fixable, Cannondale was loaning bikes to those in need. The Cannondale loaner bikes were the latest and greatest and typically an upgrade for the riders needing to borrow them. By the 4th day of the event most of the demo bikes had been loaned out, saving the ride for many participants.

The bike shop would close in the evening when all of the bikes that could be fixed had been. This usually freed us bike mechanics up around 10:30 or 11 at night. The tent cities that formed our temporary homes was impressive both in size and efficiency. The night life was minimal as the staff and cyclists were exhausted, but the portable cities had most of the luxuries of home and left little to want for. Then in the AM they would pick it up and move it to the next spot leaving no hint that these metropolises had ever existed.

Hopefully I’ll be back for the AIDS Lifecycle 7 next year. The people I met and the places I saw made the experience unique and rewarding. The event even had me fixing bikes in a red dress, hopefully all of those photos have been destroyed. A big thanks to Cannondale for the invite and all of the other volunteers I met along the way. Do yourself a favor and meet me there next year.

I just wanted to re share a video I’ve had posted on thepedalwrench.com for years. This represents the hard work and hard riding of many Park City locals and the editing skills of Matt Collins. Much of the footage ended up as bonus material on the Tangerine Dream DVD from Teton Gravity Research. Sick.

Hope you enjoy.