Better Than Drafting

I've seen a lot of things happen in bike races I've attended over the years. Tacoed wheels. Missing saddles. Guys running with their bikes to stay in the race. But I've never seen this. I got my October 2008 edition of Bicycling Magazine today and this pic was on top of page 34. I sure got my attention. The short article reads:

"EVEN BETTER THAN DRAFTING"

"American Pro Billy Demong, 28, found a new way to finish a bike race when he completed stage two of July's Cascade Classic in Bend, Oregon, sitting on the saddle of Astana's Chris Horner - while carrying his own broken bike. Jason Gay spoke to Demong, a world class skier who races bikes to stay in shape, about the incident.

"What happened, Man?"
"I crashed with about three kilometers to go. I took one look at my bike an knew it was torched. I ran about one kilometer and some guy said, 'Get on my bike and we'll go'. I was like, 'Hey, Chris.'

"Did you hesitate?"
"There was a spit second where I thought: I can make it on my own. But I was psyched to have that ride. Running in cleats is not my favorite thing.

"Was this, um, legal?"
"Don't ask me man. I have no idea. As far as I know, we're the only ones who've ever done it. But the officials were cool.

"What did you and Horner talk about on the way to the finish?"
"Not much - we were just enjoying the day. He'd pedal 10 times and then we'd coast. The marshals radioed ahead and said, 'Get some cameras ready - you guys aren't going to believe this one.'

I never would have.

Drat...

I have a cover for my bike that I use when I leave the bike outside for very long. It's nothing fancy, but enough to keep the sun and a bit of the weather off of it. It's fairly lightweight and it doesn't take much of a breeze to have it filled and/or blowing around everywhere. The bottom of the cover is a heavier, heat-resistant material that can lay against the hot exhaust pipes without any trouble.

This morning when I got to work I went through the usual routine of putting the cover on the bike. I hook the back of the cover over the luggage rack on the bike, pull the front down over the faring and front wheel, then pull the back of the cover over the saddlebags and exhaust. This morning as I was snugging up the front, a breeze blew the cover off the back and down to the side of the bike. The lightweight, non-heat-resistant top went right for the right-side pipe and immediately melted.

Now I've got a fist sized hole in the cover and a blue, gooey, smelly mess on the front of my exhaust can. That'll take a few months to burn off. Nice.

Lance Armstrong Plans a Clean, Victorious Comeback

as posted September 10, 2008, 10:38 am on the Wall Street Journal

He retired in 2005 after winning seven consecutive Tour de France titles. He’ll probably always be known as the tour’s best rider ever.

And he’s baaaack.

Lance Armstrong, the Texan who beat testicular cancer in 1996, vows to compete in five races next year, including the Tour de France. His reasons: He wants to raise cancer awareness, and he wants to become the oldest winner of the Tour de France. At 37, he’d be a year older than Belgian Firmin Lambot was when he won the event in 1922. And despite Armstrong’s consistently clear drug tests in the Tour de France, he’s all too aware that there are many skeptics who believe his victory in 1999 wasn’t clean.

Maybe we should have seen his return coming. Mr. Armstrong finished second last month in a grueling 100-mile mountain-bike race in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. He’s also been inspired by 41-year-old swimmer Dara Torres, the Olympics silver medalist from the Beijing Games.

While Armstrong’s drive to win and compete can’t be questioned, he admits in an interview with Vanity Fair that his back tires more easily than before, and it’s harder to get out of bed. “But when I’m going, when I’m on the bike — I feel just as good as I did before,” he tells the magazine.

“But at age 37?” writes Douglas Brinkley. “A 2,000-mile, 23-day race, much of it uphill? By next July? I asked him, rather ungraciously, if he wasn’t too old to get back into shape that quickly. He laughed. And he was off and running.”

Fort Worth Star Telegram columnist Gil LeBreton isn’t surprised by Armstrong’s comeback. “A part of him, Armstrong admitted, wants to return to lay the last of the doping rumors to rest,” Mr. LeBreton writes. “The cynics and critics still wonder how Armstrong won the Tour seven times, while so many of the others who finished second, third and so on have all confessed or been banned as doping cheats.”

In the Chicago Tribune, Philip Hersh writes that Armstrong raises more questions than he answers by returning. The biggest challenge will be mental, Robbie Ventura, a cycling coach, tells Mr. Hersh. “Physically, Lance can definitely do it,” Mr. Ventura says. “The hardest part will be to go back to the mental discipline of training, eating and sleeping with 110 percent commitment. Snapping your brain back into a mode of being perfect all the time is difficult.”

But the Washington Post’s Sally Jenkins, who has written two books about the cyclist, believes Armstrong can raise the funds and mobilize the science to defeat cancer. “Lance’s enemies and critics, who are legion, will sneer that his accomplishments were dope-fueled and that his comeback is vanity-driven, and even some of his admirers will question whether it’s sensible to try to add to his record of seven Tour de France victories after three years away from the bike,” Ms. Jenkins writes. “But the fact is that cancer and improbable odds are the keys to his fierce personality, they’re what propelled him over 2,300 miles and up mountainsides in the first place. ‘Watch, I’m gonna win it again,’ he said, after the first one. ‘Know why? ‘Cause everyone says I can’t.’”

4000 Miles and Counting

This morning on my way to work the odometer on the new ST hit 4376 miles. I bought it with 376 miles on it. That gives me 4000+ miles since July 3rd. I know for some riders, that's not much, but when you consider that I ride more for utilitarian purposes (commuting) rather than for fun (weekend rides to the coffee house), that's quite a few miles in nine weeks.

R100GS For Sale

1993 BMW R100GS Bumblebee, 69,670 miles. $5500

Central California bike, daily driver, always garaged. Engine, transmission, & drive shaft are tight with no leaks. Very little off-road use; fire roads only.

Less than 100 miles on newly rebuilt transmission (new bearings & shift forks); work done in August. In June, the neutral switch and clutch switch were replaced and a full Service 2 performed. In April, the voltage regulator, throttle cables, and air box breather hose were replaced. In March, it got new steering bearings. The pushrod tubes and head gaskets were replaced in late summer 2007. Progressive fork springs and new a fork tube was installed in fall 2006. All parts were new OEM and the work and service was performed by Cycle Specialties BMW of Modesto.

Almost completely stock with two-tone, two-up seat and hard touring cases. It has a rebuilt (and rebuildable) starter, a newer, non-stock alternator, volt meter, throttle lock, and exhaust extension. Dealer installed options include heated grips, hand guards, handlebar pad, and a tinted windscreen. Tool kit, service manual, and owners manual included.

Contact kewaneh[at]gmail[dot]com for more info and links to detailed pics.

Two Bikes

Well, I got the Beemer back from the shop. It only took six weeks and a large chunk of change. They ended up replacing the shifting forks and all of the bearings inside the transmission. (sigh...) I found the ST the day I dropped the BMW off at the shop and while it was there, I bought the ST and managed to put more than 3500 miles on it. Most of those miles were just commuting.

Road Trip

Yesterday, we went to the beach for a last day of summer for the girls. On the way home, we stopped and ate at a resturant in Gilroy. Lora brought the camera in with her but she thought I had it when we left. I'm still trying to figure out why Lora would think that I had the camera in the first place. She took it into the resturant, one would think she would take it out. While we were there, I even asked her why she brought it in. (I know, it sounds funny. It sounded just as funny when I was asking it. She doesn't go ANYWHERE without it.) But somehow, since I was the one who left it behind, I was the one who had to go get it.(?)

I figured I could make a ride out of it on the new bike. The fact that the new ST gets better than 40mpg made it an easy decision. I'm not one to ditch church, but I really didn't want to be riding accross the Valley floor on a near 100° summer afternoon, so I headed out in the morning.

I got to the resturant right at the noon rush and met a harried manager who would have been happy to have one (or six) less things to deal with at that moment. I told him who I was and he quickly told the hostess, "I'll be right back. I gotta go get this guy out of the doghouse." (What did Lora tell them on the phone last night?) A moment later, the manager was back, he tossed me the camera over the counter (literally), and I'm out the door.

As I'm getting on the bike, a quick look at the GPS reminds me that I'm only 6-8 miles from the top of Hecker Pass. This is the pass between Gilroy & Watsonville, and while it's short, it's twisty and one of the prettiest roads in the State. Since I was right there, I ran up to the top, just in front of a local Mustang car club. I snapped a few pics and headed back down.

On the way back, I stopped in Casa de Fruita for a moment. While I was sitting there, two more bikes, a Yamaha FJR and a Harley Fat Boy, each with two riders, pulled up and stopped next to me. The guys & I talked bikes for a while, and I overheard one of their wives saying how funny it was to be out on a trip with two Kevins. I looked at her and asked if her husband's name was Kevin. She said "Yes" and added that both of their husbands were named Kevin. I raised my hand and said, "Well, so am I!" She then asked if my middle name was Wayne. When I said it was, she yelled at her husband (the FJR rider) "Hey! This guy's your twin!" It was his middle name too. When she asked the other Kevin (the Harley rider) what his middle name was, he declined to answer.

Over Pachaco Pass, past the San Luis Reservoir and B. F. Sisk Dam and through the Valley's inversion layer. Up in Gilroy, the temperatures were in the 70's. Headed into the Valley, the temps were climbing into the 90's. The wind was very strong blowing into the Valley; between the downhill grade and the tailwind, my fuel consumption gauge was showing 60-70 MPG! Very nice. I stopped at the San Luis Drain visitor's center on top of the dam to look at their exhibits about the dam construction. (Interesting to me, probably not so much for the girls.) The water was very low behind the dam, so low, in fact, that the dam power plant intakes were exposed. They're usually under 50 feet of water. Interesting to see. After a short visit, and a few pics. I was on my way again.

By the time I got to the Valley floor, it was afternoon and well above 90°. Just where I didn't want to be and the reason why I left early in the morning. No matter. It was fun to get out on a second road trip in two days. I may have to start leaving things behind on all of our family road trips.

Total trip: 260 miles.
Average fuel: 46.3mpg.
Camera: returned (with a few extra pics).
Lora: Relieved and Happy.

Mission accomplished.