Monday, June 27, 2005

A Bicycle Built for Two

Tandem Riding

In April of 2004, my wife and I decided to buy a tandem bicycle. This was not a decision to be made lightly as good tandem bikes are pricey, not to mention the possible strain on our marriage, i.e. I can’t get away from my wife when she pisses me off as she’s literally riding right behind me.

Our Cannondale Tandem Posted by Hello

As my type A personality dictates, I spent a good month and a half researching tandem bicycles on the ‘net and trying to find a used one for sale. I decided on a used tandem to be our first tandem bike. I didn’t want to spend too much on a bike that may never be used again by us if the experience is not to our liking. By the month of May I had found a used 1999 Cannondale RT 1000 owned by a couple in Houston, Texas. They claimed to have put in only 500 miles on it and that it was in great condition – the price, about $1400. It was a good deal so we picked it up. The bike was as advertised; pearl white with a mixed bag of Shimano components on it. Ultegra shifters, 105 front derailleur, XT Deore rear derailleur, with a 9 speed cassette.

Club Ride Posted by Hello

One of your first considerations when getting ready to ride a tandem for the first time is who is the captain and who is the stoker? The captain sits up front and steers the bike, applies the brakes, and shift the gears. The stoker sits in the back and pedals. In our case this was an easy decision, as my wife has never learned how to ride a bicycle. She comes from a tiny village in Mexico with dirt roads and never owned a bike.

Club Ride Posted by Hello

Your next consideration is to understand the Primary Rule of Tandeming as put forth by Bill McCready of Santana Bicycles, a noted tandem bicycle company. This rule states:

The Stoker makes no mistakes

In other words, my wife can make no mistake on the tandem that can cause us any problems. It is my responsibility to ensure the bike stays upright and we follow the correct line while taking a turn. The primary rule does not say that the stoker has no responsibility. The stoker should do nothing that causes the bike to become unstable or something unnatural on the back of the bike, etc. The primary rule does not say that the stoker must not berate the captain for going too fast down hill, for not applying the brakes when the stoker says so. Pretty much, the stoker has a lot of control over the bike. If my wife feels we’re going to fast and asks for the brakes I must comply (safety considerations always apply however.) Our Cannondale even has a drum brake that is controlled by a lever at the stoker position. So my wife has control over that brake but I have asked her to let me know when she plans to use it as I don’t want to try to accelerate out of a dicey situation only to find my rear wheel is being braked. This of course does not stop her from yelling out, “brake,” whenever we’re screaming down an 8% grade. She’s asking me if she’s got permission to activate her drum brake. And that’s another thing you will learn about your tandem; it will really scream going down-hill. You’ve got a real heavy bike, what with two riders and all, so it doesn’t take much of a down-grade for the bike to really pick-up speed. On the other hand, the bike can be shear torture on the slightest up-grade. Our front crank is a triple and we did use the “granny” gear in the beginning but that was long ago. We’ve put in nearly 3000 miles on the tandem in the little over a year we’ve owned the bike. We now pride ourselves on never using the smallest gear on our triple.

Drum Brake and Rear Derailleur Posted by Hello

Our tandem has Look pedals for both the captain and stoker. So getting the bike going can be a challenge and there is a right way to do it. We use the method where I, the captain, straddle the top tube and apply both brakes. My wife than steps on the left pedal and “clips in.” She uses this pedal as a step to mount the bike. My wife now clips in with the right pedal. At this time I am completely holding up the bike as my wife is clipped in. If I stupidly drop the bike, she’s going with it. Remember the Primary Rule, if the bike falls over, my wife, the stoker, is not at fault at all. My legs are spread fairly wide apart so that my stoker can back pedal the front crank into the right position for me - I like to have the left pedal in about the 2:00 position. If I didn’t keep my legs spread the pedal would whack me in the shin. I now clip into the left pedal and say, “push.” This lets my wife know that we are starting out. As I push down on the left pedal that pedal “lifts” me up and I sit down on the saddle. I then clip in my right pedal and off we go. Stopping is pretty much the reverse of the above. My wife never unclips from the pedals unless she is going to exit the bike. When we stop at traffic signals I am the only one that unclips and keeps the bike upright, my wife never unclips. I don’t recommend you ride in towns or cities with a lot of traffic and traffic stops until you and your stoker get real comfortable starting and stopping the bike.

In the beginning, communication between the captain and the stoker can be a problem. I always communicated with my wife when I planned to shift up and especially when I planned to shift down. You need to build in time to coast and ease the stress on your butts, and I would call out when I was going to stop pedaling and start coasting. But after a month or so, my wife could “feel” when I was going to shift and when I was going to ease up on the pedals. After a year of riding I rarely have to say anything about shifting or pedaling, she just senses it and complies. When we are climbing a steep hill we’ve learned to “honk” the bike one at a time. We tried to climb out of the saddle together but could never get the timing down. So our method involves only one of us climbing out of the saddle or standing on the pedals at a time. It’s actually kind of neat when we start on a steep climb. I’ll jump out of the saddle first and take the first half of the hill, and as I sit down my wife jumps up and takes the rest. We’ve even started riding with the local bike club, The A.V. High Desert Cyclists, on their Sunday ride. My wife is a strong rider and with all the training I do for solo bike racing we make a formidable tandem team. Everyone wants to draft the tandem but there are only a handful of riders in the club that can stay in our draft without getting dropped. Give us a slight down-grade, like heading East on Ave K between 110th St. West and 70th St. West in Lancaster, and there is not a single rider in the club that can stay in our tandem's draft. My wife and me have actually hit a speed of 52 mph in that stretch of road with its 2% down-grade and the ever constant West wind of the A.V. at our backs.

My wife and I are hoping to upgrade and purchase a lighter tandem for time trials and century riding. I’m thinking about the Co-Motion or a Santana tandem. But with prices starting above $5,000 we’ve got to save our pennies first. In the mean time, we’ll both jump on our Cannondale at 0530 on a summer morning, strap on a backpack filled with a picnic lunch, and head off for a 70 mile ride.

Wednesday, June 15, 2005

TrainingPeaks.com for Self Coached Athletes

I’ve been a Track and Field coach for most of my 21 years in education. So I’m comfortable being a self-coached athlete. My specialty in Track & Field is coaching middle distance and distance runners and a lot of the techniques I use in coaching these athletes carry over well to cycling. But only to a point, so I did a lot of research on coaching techniques specific to cycling. During my research I came up with Joe Friel's "Training Bible" books and the wealth of information they provide. His book discusses an on-line coaching service called TrainingPeaks.com. I looked it up on the ‘net, studied it carefully and subscribed. I started in October of 2004 and believe the program has given me a focus in my cycling training that I lacked before I started.

Training Peaks Title Page Posted by Hello

There are a lot of components to the TrainingPeaks experience, Annual Training Plan, Race Tracker, Workout planner, Daily log, and much more.

Keeping a journal or daily log is important to all athletes. I always encouraged my athletes to maintain a log. TrainingPeaks takes the difficulty of formatting a log for you. The log keeps track of many biometrics and has a cool graph function. You can also upload data from many heart rate monitors as well as GPS unit data. Here is a couple of screen shots from my daily log as well as graphed data from my Timex Heart Rate Monitor and GPS system.

Daily Log Posted by Hello

Graph of Interval Hill Workout Posted by Hello

The core of Joe Friel’s program, and any program that uses periodization, is an annual training plan or ATP. The ATP allows you to build your whole program for the whole year. In other words you can see the “big picture” in regards to your racing and training plans. Here is a screen shot from the TrainingPeaks web site.

Here is a screen shot from the weekly workout planner. I love this part of the system, it gives you recommendations for your workout but easily allows you to edit and reconfigure your workout.

Workout planner Posted by Hello

Payment for this service runs anywhere from $16.99/month to $119/year.

It can be pretty tough to coach yourself and this program can really help the “self coached” athlete. I know there are other programs on the ‘net out there. I just recently heard of a service set up by Lance Armstrong’s coach, Chris Carmichael, and I’m eager to check out this service too. It is called Trainright.

If you want to race bicycles you need coaching – by you or others. Check out the services available on the internet and get going.

Friday, June 10, 2005

L & 20th's Own Kevin Walsh in RAAM

CyclingNews.com has an article on Kevin's 1st attempt in Race Across America or RAAM. Here is a copy of the article but you can read the original post in CyclingNews' lastest news.

NASA engineer to compete in RAAM
47 year-old NASA aerospace engineer Kevin Walsh will be one of 26 solo competitors in the Race Across America (RAAM), which begins on June 19. Walsh is an aeronautical propulsion engineer at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, California, and is aiming to complete the 3,000 mile (4800 km) course in 10 days.


Kevin Walsh Posted by Picasa

"I am competing in the Race Across America because it is the ultimate endurance bicycle race," said Walsh. "RAAM has been one of my life goals since the first one was held in 1982 when it was called the Great American Bike Race. I want to compete before I get too much older. I believe I'm ready.

"I have been averaging over 450 miles of riding per week since February to prepare for the race. I have competed in a number of cycling competitions, including multiple double centuries (200 miles). I won an event during which I rode 410 miles in 24 hours, and cycled 360 miles during a recent weekend in the heat near Las Vegas."

"I believe my chance of completing the race is very good. Training has been excellent and I have an exceptional crew of six who are very motivated to get me to Atlantic City."

Training for this race has Walsh in the best physical condition of his life. He is 6'2" (188cm) tall and weighs 170 pounds (77 kg). He hopes to gain four or five pounds before the RAAM, when he expects to lose a pound each day. Walsh hopes to maintain his energy during the race with a special diet of liquid foods, supplements, fruit and light solid food. His long hours on the bike have also helped him adapt to the sleep deprivation that will occur during the race.

The Race Across America begins in San Diego. The competitors will cross 13 states, climbing and descending 109,880 feet (33,500 m) before reaching Atlantic City, N.J. That means riding up to 22 hours per day, with no designated rest stops and no drafting behind other cyclists or vehicles. The route is shared with normal traffic on secondary roads with an occasional venture onto a freeway.

Read more about Kevin in a previous post on the L & 20th boys (L & 20th Part II)

Sunday, June 05, 2005

L & 20th Group Ride, Part II

I discovered the X-Box and Halo late and I'm having a great time kicking the Covenant and the Flood’s butt – when I’m not riding my bike, that is. So I haven’t been posting as much as I should. A while back (see the L & 20th post) I said I would discuss the L/20th boys so here goes.

There are three Bobs. I’m one of the Bobs the other two Bobs are actually a Bob and a Bobby. Bobby is a 43 year-old mountain bike racer that hasn’t discovered road bike racing yet. He should, he is blazingly fast and at about 140 lbs a great hill climber. I chased his butt up all the nasty grades going out to the Devil’s Punch Bowl. And after I hung with him on the last grade he said, “you’re a pretty strong climber for such a big guy.” Ah, there it goes again; a good climber for such a big guy…He’s riding a beautiful Look frame with a compact crank. As I said, he climbs like the dickens but does not descend as well at speed. Partly due to his 140 lbs, and partly due to the compact crank but I find I can out descend him and have had to catch up with him after a nasty climb. He would be a placer in road races. Mountain biking has left him with excellent bike handling skills and tremendous endurance. He is very close to being the fasted L/20th boy.

The other Bob is in his late 40’s or early 50’s and owns a furniture store here in Lancaster. He rides a nice Colnago, C40 and is tall and thin. He loves the ultra distance stuff and has “won” double century rides. If I did anything over 100 miles I would just fall off my bike at the end and convulse. I haven’t talked him into road racing yet but he would do very well. He has no problem keeping up when the group is averaging 25 mph +, in fact, he’s probably leading the group out. He climbs very well, perhaps the 2nd best overall climber in the group. So that leads us to the number one climber…

He’s a 53 year-old man that looks older than his age. Off the bike you might think you need to help him around but looks are very deceiving. Eric has a titanium rod in his left leg and rides with a funny left knee out position. He is easily recognizable by his riding style. He has a number of bikes but his beauty is his carbon fiber Calfee. But I actually rode with him while he was using a fixed gear Russian bike…and he stayed with the whole group at speeds of over 25 mph on the 50-mile ride. Eric may actually be the finest rider in the whole Antelope Valley. He’s an ultra marathon guy who kicks butt in double centuries. He climbs like an angel, as if gravity means nothing to him. I believe he was a Cat 2 racer back in the early 80’s. Eric is an inspiration to many riders in the L and 20th group and throughout the Antelope Valley. The first time I ever rode with him we had just both finished a 50 plus mile day (he coming back from 3 Points, and me coming back from 3 Canyons) and we were in the wind down phase of the ride. This phase has damn 70th street to deal with. 70th street is a gradual 4-6% grade for several miles before you can turn off it and head home. I’m used to just grinding away on 70th at around 13 mph or so. It is within 4 miles of my home so it’s a good place to slow down anyway. To make matters worse the constant wind in the Antelope Valley is always in your face on this grade. As Eric and I moved up 70th he never slowed down. He would have pulled away from me had I kept up my usual 70th street cadence – this would have been unacceptable of course so I pedaled faster to match his speed. He easily kept up a conversation with me, and I happened to glance at my heart rate monitor and saw that it was sitting right at my LT and getting ready to push beyond. A quick glance at the computer showed that we were making 20+ mph up this damn grade and the “old man” wasn’t even breathing hard. With about a half mile to go I “blew-up.” I dropped into his draft and said I had had it. He looks back at me and says, “I feel a little bonked myself.” He actually says this without a hint of breathing difficulty but he did drop the speed down to around 15 mph. Eric is incredible.

Randy…Randy is the source of a lot of conversations about the L and 20th group. Randy is a Masters 45, Cat 2 racer and very fast. He is tall and slender but with the powerful legs of a sprinter. No one, and I mean no one in the group, if not the whole Antelope Valley, can challenge Randy in a sprint. I’ve seen Bobby try but Randy always pulls it out. Randy is a very traditional road racer, an in your face road racer. He is not happy unless he’s kicked your butt and he has a way of letting you know that he is happy about kicking your butt. When I rode with the Santa Cruz guys 20 years ago almost all of them were like Randy. He is good and knows it and some others find him very abrasive. I just find him good and someone to ride with if you want to get better. In my book if you’re not chasing someone you’re not going to get any better. Getting dropped by a better rider is a right of passage for a road racer – Randy can drop a lot of riders.

As you ride around the good ride spots in the A.V. you’ll notice that someone took the time to figure out the percent of the road grade and spray painted it on the right hand side of the road, right where a cyclist would see it. I always thought this was pretty cool and I enjoyed writing in my journal that I climbed a 13% grade today, thanks to the unknown “grade analyzer.” It turns out that the guy measuring inclines is a late 50’s rider called Don. Don is an engineer out at Edward Air Force base and must be in his late 50’s or early 60’s. I’ve asked in discrete ways like, “Hey Don, what masters category would you be in if you decided to race?” He replied, “Masters 90.” Don can ride. Don is never dropped in an L/20th ride unless we’re ascending a steep grade. If the group is eating up the road at 25 mph plus, Don is right there taking his turn at the front. Don has been with L/20th since its inception. I like hearing Don grouse about how it used to be when the group would actually stop and wait for someone that had been shelled off the back of the pack.

Watch the Race Across America this year and you’ll se an L and 20th boy. Kevin is in his late 40’s and loves the long stuff. He loves to compete in the double centuries and even likes to compete in 24-hour events. I believe he is going to be California’s only representative in RAMM this year. He is a heck of nice guy and very easy to talk to. Like Don, he’s an engineer out at the base, though I’m not sure if he works for Edwards or NASA. He routinely rides his bike from his home in Lancaster out to Edwards Air Force Base, a distance of 25 miles or more. Going out in the morning to work is one thing but he also has to get back home and that means he’s got to head west. The A.V. almost always has a 20 – 30 mph West wind blowing in the afternoon. Sometimes it’s a lot worse; 30 – 40 mph with gusts to 50 +, and Kevin is right there plodding through it. Kevin will not usually out climb you and he definitely can’t out sprint you but if you’re riding for distance he’ll wear you down.

Other riders come and go with the group but these are the top personalities. We also have a 26 year-old second lieutenant in the Air Force that rides with us. He’s a Cat 4 racer and easily stays with the group. But even Kyle, at age 26, can’t get over how he can’t out sprint Randy, he can’t out climb Eric, and he would probably have trouble keeping up with Kevin after 100 miles have gone past his tires. We haven’t seen Kyle in awhile, so I guess the Air Force “deployed him.” They are a unique bunch and should be an inspiration to riders of any age. When you’re in town and want a fast ride come over to the corner of L and 20th and you’ll find it. Now that it’s getting hot we leave at 0700 hours – sharp.

Devil's Punch Bowl RR 4-30-05 Posted by Hello
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