Dave Koesel on Bike Snob NYC

Not sure if many of you know Dave Koesel, but this is worth checking out:
bikesnobnyc.blogspot.com/2009/10/bsnyc-interview-dave-koesel-of-felt.html

The previous Guru article mentioned by BiSnoNYC is wickedly fun and snarky. This interview with Dave is a bit out of character in its tameness. It's informative without the usual bite.

Some of Dave's Ann Arbor background is mentioned in the article. Spelling his name is the hard part. I do the Dave part ok, but the last name is a challenge. I think he should change it to K-cell. That would be much more scientific-like-ish.

K-cell is a great guy. He helped me deal with some of my pack riding "issues" at Runway after a few nutball moves on my part. He did it in a helpful way. No anger. No yelling. It was much appreciated, taken to heart and put into practice thenceforth.

As to the Guru video, I loved the terminology. At one point Guru co-owner Robert Pinazza said, "we're gonna pay homage to the last percentage of the aeroquation, which is the frame." Wow. Aeroquation. That is so technojargospeak.

The word flowfield is also used in a sentence. Or maybe it's two words.

It was all brought back to basics, however, when Danny Knezevici, even with his PhD in Aerospace Engineering, said, "focused on those ones." He was apparently lighting bottle rockets off in the hidden corner of the school yard when he was supposed to be attending his basic English course. (Attn: Guru video editor, consider correcting this in order to improve the verbal flowfield.)

For the record, I do not own either a Felt or a Guru. I'd like to.

Halloween CX at Vet's Park Ann Arbor

Ghosties and Goblins...
Whooooohooooooooo!
Two Wheel Tango is putting on a charity race immediately following the Tailwind CX races at Vet's Park in Ann Arbor on Saturday. This should bring out the true goons and goofballs in the regional bike scene.

It'll cost you $5 to stumble around the course and be eligible for a SyCip frameset. You must wear a costume. No exceptions. Sure, much of the rest of society thinks we're already wearing one with our spandex, but for now step beyond your stretchy shorts into something even more ghoulish.

Jess, a staff member at Two Wheel, did her own version of this race by herself last year, all decked out in her tutu. This year she gets to be a knucklehead with multiple other wackos.

Jolly Pumpkin Ales will also be involved (after the race, though many of you probably wish it was during).

When Where Why How
Date: Saturday, October 31 (Halloweeeeeeen!)
Time: 2:30
Place: Veterans Park Ann Arbor
Corner of Dexter-Ann Arbor and Maple Roads

Be there. Be scary.

Oh yeah, and if you're not sitting at home putting together the costume at the last minute, race in the Tailwind race as well. It's arguably the toughest course of the series and there's a repeat of the pain on Sunday.

European Cyclocross Videos 2009-10

Nathan Spear CX Videos
The comprehensive European cyclocross video website, ccx.nathanspear.com, developed by Nathan Spear is currently down, but it's scheduled to be back online over the Thanksgiving weekend.

My guess is that many of you know about these, but for those who don't, they're low res tapings of the Dutch Sportza network broadcasts. They're start-to-finish coverage (60 minutes) of the major cyclocross races throughout Europe. These include the World Championships, the World Cup series, the GvA Trofee (Gazet van Antwerpen), and the Superprestige (see below for a synopsis of these major series).

Nathan attempted to bring these broadcasts to a wider audience before last year, but there must have been some copyright infringement and his site was shut down mid-season. In the 2008-2009 season he was given the golden cowbell or something because we were able to view and download thirty-plus low res versions of these races, with a final trofee of our own, a full res version of the final World Championship race, including women and U-23.

It was a major coup for all of us who were cooped up late last fall and over the winter spinning on our trainers in the basement. If you know the Dutch language you have an advantage, since these are not translated into English. But to be honest, there's something quite primal and satisfying about watching a race in its homeland and surrounding environs broadcast in its native tongue. Cyclocross is like music in that way. It translates well in any language. We were able to follow the ups and downs of Niels Albert, the continued dominance of Sven Nys, and the struggles of Jonathan Page, as well as follow all the other luminaries of cyclocross, as they blasted over the greatest, toughest courses in the world.

Nathan even includes a number of women's races--often under-reported--so we'll be able to watch Vos, Wyman, van den Brand, Havlikova, and Compton as well. These are just as exciting as the men's races.

Major European Races
World Championship - one day - races by nationality - UCI - begun 1950
World Cup - series UCI - begun 1993 (women 2005)
Superprestige - races by commercial team - held in Belgium and the Netherlands - begun 1983
GvA - races by commercial team - held in the province of Antwerp, Belgium - begun 1987

Keep your browsers peeled Thanksgiving weekend and go to ccx.nathanspear.com (or just nathanspear.com) to find the beginning of a CX feast.

Check this out for a YouTube taste, though imagine it from the starting crack of the gun to the final raising of arms as the winner crosses the finish line.

Trail Love, or Bridge of Sighs

Maxwell, My Stunt Double, at Bandemer Park BMX Track

I took my first post operation mountain bike ride last night on the "Local Loop." I even snuck onto the BMX track in Bandemer Park for a furtive spin over the humps. Every other time I've been there kids are flying on it and I'm far too self-conscious to perform in view of their trenchant gaze. My version was quite milquetoast, but still fun as a cartoonish slo-mo variation.

The Bridge

Farther along, after crossing under M-14, weaving through the woods, up over the infamous logpile, and eventually across Pontiac Trail, I came upon a couple "spooning" (forking, knifing, panning, potting) in the woods behind Leslie Park. They were seated and entwined on the narrow wooden bridge over the steep trench drain. I had to wait while they liberated their interwoven limbs. They were in advanced middle age, so it took time.

The Logpile

I was patient as I watched their laborious extrication. They looked like a pair of aging vines that had been wrapped for eons as they detached from each other tendril by archaic tendril. Rather embarrassing for them, judging by their sheepish looks, since, though surrounded by a major roadway, a large housing development, a city park, and an active golf course, they thought they were somewhere in the wilderness and humans never ventured this far into the depths of that deep dark forest. I would have gone around them and left them to their allemande, but the drain had a wide channel of water coursing below and it would have dampened my Sidis.

The Logpile Up Real Close

Eventually they stood aside, brushing themselves off and muttering to one another. I crossed the bridge and rode beyond them toward Olson Park, letting them know over my shoulder that a pair of bikers I'd seen earlier would probably soon pass their way. I pedaled with abandon through the nearby trails for the next half hour and returned by the same route. I rode unimpeded over the now open ladder bridge, passed another trail rider coming my way, then found the couple trudging up the single track, acting a bit grumpus interruptus by a knobby civilization bent on crushing their sylvan romance. " Oh, you again," I said, and received a grunt and a sullen look.

Local Loop Beater Bike

It was a beautiful Indian Summer day for a ride--warm, blue skies, leaves in full chromatic glee, the heady musk of fall in the air--and at least some of us felt joyous and fulfilled by the marvel we'd been given, if only for a short time, before we retire for the season to the succor of our heated homes. I rode happily along the narrow trails back the way I'd come, my front wheel dancing over the responsive earth.

Ah, the great outdoors.

Mad Anthony Cyclocross Race in Detroit's Fort Wayne

When Mad Joe Lo! grabbed the microphone and started belting out the words to "Crossroads," I thought, yes, Mad Anthony is in the room and laying it down. Who needs cowbells when you've got Joe!









Historic Fort Wayne near downtown Detroit is the place to host cyclocross. It's certainly a great place for madness, and psychocross is as close as you'll ever get without involuntary brain implosion.

It would be exciting to imagine all the battles that took place in Fort Wayne. It would be very exciting. Except battles didn't happen here. It's never come under attack, though it was built in the 1840s to defend against those pesky British across the Detroit River in Canada. Then we decided that the British weren't so bad after all because soon they'd bring us Sherlock Holmes, the Beatles, the Stones, and Winnie the Pooh, so instead of busting head or getting shot there was a lot of musket shining, brass polishing, and general obsessive tidying to fill that time.

It took a hundred and seventy years, but the warriors finally clashed. The lactic skirmishes were hard fought, ramparts were scaled and plummeted over, and many tires were impaled, all in the name of cyclocross.

The race itself wound inside and along the outside walls of the battlements. Karaoke Joe told me that if it weren't for the soccer match going on nearby, the race would have wound further into the extended grounds of the fort. The plan next year is to schedule it after the soccer matches are over for the season and the cyclomanics will have the whole place to themselves. Then the battles can rage from one end of Fort Wayne to the other.

Saturday's bastion scaling began with the C race and a mad barrage of maniacs charging the first hill. These were short climbs, but they required a good explosive prep in the flats below due to the wicked pitch. Those who didn't or couldn't build enough momentum found themselves in full halt halfway up the slope.

When it all sorted out, the winner of the women's C race was Lynne Sienkiewicz, with Lacy Jones second, and Vanessa Stauffer, and the men's Trey Cassidy, followed by Ryan Katulic and Scott Gifford.

I know that Andy Klumb won the men's B race, but I'm not sure who won the Elite women's race. I think it was a Wolverine. I do know that the inimitable Anne Grofvert was on the course, and Jess Bratus was up near the front somewhere, and Laura Johnson found the one stubby root on the entire course to kick her front wheel out and land on butt first.


I slipped away and drove along the river about ten minutes before the end of the A race, so I'm not sure who won, though when I left Vince Roberge was leading by a good margin, Jonathan Card was cranking to get back to his wheel and Jay Moncel was a ways behind them.

Videos & Photos
MattMTB1 Video:

It gives a great sense of the surroundings and of the race. Nicely crafted video.

Go to
picasaweb.google.com/Pulcipher/MadAnthonyCXOctober172009#
for unpasteurized, unretouched photos of history happening where it should.

Also check out Hans Nyberg's Ten Mile Media and Andrea Tucker for really good photos.

Whatever Happened to Punishment Park?

Somewhat Jolly Pumpkin Series
So, what did happen to the Punishment Park and the infamous Jolly Pumpkin series? It deserves a good answer, but it won't come from here. It's not my job to make sense of things. If I can muddy up the clear pond of reason I will do so.

What Happened?
We did have two and a half rejuvenating races. Jason and Ben dominated the first two in the A's. Alex and Thien, with Paul Singlespeed always a close second, capitalized the B's. The last race, a DIRTHAMMER exclusive, transcended racing and became clouded in a lactic haze of attrition until no one was left to sort it out at the finish. No one. What race can ever top that? That ended the series as we know it.

Look Out!
It's time to look toward the future. Rich is building the course or courses of the century. (This is so cloaked in secrecy that even he's not sure what he's doing or if he's doing it.) There are more spoke gnarling twists and turns, more bravado breaking barriers, more knuckle clawing crawl ups, more axle sucking mud and sand, more precipitous off-camber treachery than any one mind, two legs, one pounding heart, and two bursting lungs can comprehend. It will take a year to complete to the satisfaction of Rich's demented standards.

In that year, the glorious 2010, we plan to return with the Punishment Park CX Pain Prep Challenge for those of you who enjoy pre-season self-imposed agony before the weekly anguish offered by the seasonally appropriate and much more official CX series. There are never enough sore muscles to go around. Or go aground.

For Now
In the meantime, ride the DIRTHAMMER on Tuesday evenings and race every CX race you can get your legs to agree to. The more miserable the weather the better.

..............................oRo...

Sauterbilt Wheels

Steve Sauter is to bike wheels as Mel Blanc is to voiceovers, Magic Johnson is to layups, and Chuck Close is to faces. He has a focus he's passionate about.

I spent a couple afternoons hanging around Steve as he built wheels in the shop. As I go over my notes, I realize that my ability to transfer what he said will not pass with clarity through my brain and back out to you. Suffice to say, he makes strong wheels. He's been doing it for over seven years. I am going to try to explain what he does and why I think his work is important.

And why should I, Mr. La-di-da Non-Technical, be interested in this subject you ask? Because wheels are primordial. We live in a universe of interesting round things: sun, moon, earth, the dirty ring around my drain, Dante's Circles of Hell, my miniature cyclical thought process, the glasses I wore in the 70s, something we can all make with our index finger and thumb that means OK, peas, pizzas, gerbil play structures, peace signs, blowfish, our mouths when we say "oh", amyloplasts, nuclei, reincarnation, hamburgers, and...wheels. More specifically in this case, bike wheels.

I like a well built bike wheel. I've had poorly built ones pop spokes on me at inopportune times. It'll ruin any good ride. Even after you true it back to a ride-able state, you'll still wobble about and worry that other spokes will follow the broken spoke's lead and pop as well. If that happens it's either a long walk to home base or a cellphone call for a pick up.

Bike wheels need to be two contradictory things: strong and light. The lighter the better, but strong still needs to be the other major player. That's why Steve isn't too thrilled with the experiments by Rolf and Bontrager to minimize spokes. He thinks that in order to accommodate fewer spokes, they had to make heavier rims, which, since that's where you experience rotational inertia, was the wrong approach. Good stainless steel spokes, he says, have been light and strong since the 70s. A balance between spoke count and rim strength is the best combination.

Generally, he likes 36 rear, though the front can be 28 or 32. And it also varies depending on the needs and weight of the rider and materials used. He's built them up to 48 rear. You can go down to 20 front. Who cares? You might when you're miles from nowhere and you hear that awful pop, then feel the brakes come on even though you aren't clamping down on them. It's not even fun when you're in the middle of somewhere.

Preferred nipples (okay, the adolescent among us can get the chuckling out of the way now) are brass. Alloys can corrode and weaken if Jupiter doesn't quite align with Mars.

His preferred rims, and this is only a general list, are Mavic, DT, Velocity, Kinlin, and American Classic.

His favorite hub is one made by a small company named Alchemy. It's a light, durable hub with good flange spacing and great lateral stiffness. I held it in my hand, and it truly is a thing of machined beauty. Other, more mainstream favorites include DT, Ritchie, and American Classic.

It's the lateral stiffness that Steve emphasizes a lot. I have a photo of him as he nears completion of a wheel he's built. He stands on each side of the wheel and walks around it, with a bounce here and there for good measure. If it can withstand that kind of lateral abuse, it will take just about anything you can bash through and it will still stay true. Can you say that about many of life's experiences? He also talks about radial stiffness. That is achieved with well chosen components for the specific use desired.

Steve can build a wheel in about an hour. The whole process takes a few hours if you include the discussions between buyer and Steve. He works to get you the exact wheel you need.

Once he's determined the most apt wheel and components for the client and all the parts are available and delivered, he first consults a chart that gives him the necessary spoke length for the project. It's filled with numbers that cross reference each other. I tried to follow along, but felt like I was in the midst of a numbers mine field ready to explode my cranial blob. Those numbers get into a lot of decimals. My eyes turned into little x's and then went to blur.

Then he grabs a fistful of spokes and cuts them to size and we're off. He lubricates the threads with linseed oil. He's done enough (about 150 per year) to chat and weave effortlessly. He does all kinds of styles upon request, but often it's the standard over 2, under 1 lacing, the one you see on most bikes. Again, it's strong and efficient. After he gets the spokes snugged the first time, he evens up the tensions by plonking at the spokes with his fingers and listening. At times he'll use his favorite FSA meter designed by Jobst Brandt, but mostly from what I saw, he just plunked away like he was in jug band. Then he brings it up to 110 kilograms tension (120 for DTs) on the drive side as he balances out the other side. There's some nice squeezing of the spokes with his hands, then he repeats. This stress relieving is what he sees as the key part of the process. Everything has to seat and the spokes need to be good and straight.

Eventually, he stands on the darned thing. It's one of those moments when your eyes bug out as he puts his entire weight on it. Then more truing, but it's almost complete at this point. A few more twists and turns and there's your wheel.

There's a lot that Steve does beyond simply the hands-on building. He studies wheel building like a nuclear physicist studies exploding atoms. He's built a machine that tests the stress levels of various types of wheel configurations, and he prints out rather elaborate result sheets that compare those results. He's also in the process of further developing his machine to more fully understand the impact of stress on wheels. Oscar Bustos, the owner of Great Lakes, is all for it. He's quite proud of the fact that he has someone of Steve's expertise to help fine tune the shop's reputation as a major wheel building hub (sorry, it was just there).

At 28, Steve's got years ahead to keep honing his skills. He's studied at the United Bicycle Institute in Portland, Oregon to learn as much as he can about this skill (as well as getting his suspension certification), but he says he's learned more just from his hands on experience in the shop. Except for a short hiatus in '99, he's worked at Great Lakes since he was fifteen years old. He says he was a brat who he would have fired immediately, but they kept him on and he's focused his talent into something he loves. He was mentored by other mechanics along the way, in particular, Dave Nordwall and Brian Route.

Bikes are his thing and have been for quite some time. His mechanical skills take precedence over riding, though he does get out on a spin now and then. He used to be a mountain biker, and he still rides the GT he's had since '97. With the increased family obligations in recent years--a new baby boy, plus a 3 year old girl--he's finding that road riding is less time consuming and highly enjoyable. He rides a CAAD 8 9-speed with stock R550 wheels. "I'm too cheap to build my own," he says with a wry smile.

That shouldn't deter anybody from having Steve lace up a nice set for themselves. Judging by his ethic and expertise, the wheels he builds will not leave anyone stranded miles from home. Of course you could still get stranded if, like I do, you flat with a mountain bike tube in your road bag. Don't do that. It's not good.

For more information go to his web page on the Great Lakes site: greatlakescycling.com/service/sauterbilt-wheels/

Wheel building books recommended by Steve:
The Bicycle Wheel by Jobst Brandt
The Art of Wheelbuilding: A Bench Reference for Neophytes, Pros & Wheelaholics by Gerd Schraner

Contact Steve at 734.668.6484
Great Lakes Cycling & Fitness
2015 W. Stadium Boulevard
Ann Arbor, MI 48103