All Over the Place (with topics)

   My recovery is going fairly well, as the maxillofacial surgeon who repaired my lip told me the gum looks healthy and pink with no pooling of blood. He is confident the nerves will regenerate, but I’m pretty frustrated with the effort it takes to chew and do something simple such as smile! The skin from my chin to my lips is still somewhat numb, plus the muscles are tight and don’t respond normally.

   There are moments of extreme pain, when it seems as though the nerves are trying to recall where they belong, but can only come up with what damaged them in the first place – and then they decide to remind me exactly how that felt! Of course the wonderful (sarcasm) thing about extreme mouth pain is that it radiates through your teeth and jaw. I am sucking it up, but man, am I starting to understand folks who are addicted to pain killers.

   I did manage to get myself back in the saddle, though. I was antsy and really needed to get out, but there was way too much thinking about what I was doing, and I’m pretty sure I noticed every single unguarded and/or unmarked roadside ditch along the way!

   I rather suddenly have a whole bunch of projects in-the-works, so I didn’t have a lot of opportunity to take photos to accompany a summary of that activity. I’ll postpone that article for next time, but I had several thoughts recently that I wanted to share. There is no real connecting theme, except that they are mostly random.

   During my senior year of high school, shortly after Greg Lemond won his first Tour de France, I started reading Winning Bicycle Racing Illustrated. And when I say “read”, I mean everything in the publication, the articles (of course) and the advertisements, trying to learn as much as possible about the riders, their machines and all the various parts available to put together a dream bicycle. Unfortunately the magazine had a rather short run - its last issue was published in August 1990. I had gotten into the habit of saving the front covers as a mental index of what was going on month-to-month in the cycling world, but I ended up having a great memento of my formative years as a cyclist and pro racing fan.

   Winning occasionally provided a full two-page image (I’m not going to call it a centerfold) of a current cycling star in the middle of the magazine. I saved these over the years, and many adorn the walls in my third floor space (I’m also not going to use the pathetic “man cave” label). There was very dated wallpaper that I didn’t want to bother to remove, so I made my own wallpaper from all of the magazine covers I saved.

   Some of those which are opposite windows are fading pretty badly from sunlight – maybe I’ll start replacing a few with covers from Cycle Sport Magazine. It’ll be sad to see some of the old favorites come down, though.

   When reading Bicycling Magazine these days I’m more selective, and find myself skipping through to items that interest me. I don’t generally read about mountain bikes, because they just aren’t my focus. With the ability to build a bicycle up from a bare frame, I also don’t pay as much attention to the ads, although I do get sucked in by the “bling factor” occasionally. I tend to skip over the training articles, too – I’m not going for the Olympics, and I’ve been at this long enough to know what works for me. I also know how hard I can (or want) to push it, and I’ve learned the importance of recovery.

    Don’t you love it when right away, shortly after sitting on the saddle, you know right away that it is going to be a good ride. It doesn’t have to be great weather, but it sure helps, as does taking on some favorite route. You don’t just pull out of the driveway and ride away – you jump on the pedals and sprint away for a few seconds, holding that pace for a little while without feeling any weariness.

   Sure, most days it takes a bit of time to warm up or you’re shaking out a little fatigue left over from a really long hard ride last time out. But those times when you are fresh and really want to “hammer it” are magic! (I had one of those moments Monday evening.)

  

   I don’t dig disk brakes. I certainly understand their usefulness in certain situations, but my biggest objection is that we are trying to make a relatively simple machine too complicated. The last thing I want to become is an auto mechanic, so why would I want bicycles to become more like a car.

   Unfortunate, and gruesome, injuries (I won’t share them here, but if you are a bit twisted, images can be found online) inflicted on Movistar’s Fran Ventoso, which were a result of contact with a sharp brake rotor in a crash during this year’s Paris-Roubaix, emphasized the dangers of having the brakes in professional cycling. This isn’t the way I would have chosen to have them banned from cycling, but I’ll take it. Manufacturers generally follow the lead of the pros – what they will use is what will be made/sold, and the inverse is certainly true!

   I’ve often said that the best part of this bicycle business is the wonderful people I meet, and sometimes the relationships I form actually pay off financially. Not only have some of my customers made recommendations and bring in more clients, but sometimes they give me leads for bicycles and parts. I recently met a guy named Bill who used to be a masters level racer in the area.

   Bill actually had sponsors and had equipment and bikes supplied to him, and over the years accumulated quite a collection of leftover “stuff”. He isn’t into eBay or craigslist and the whole “reselling game”, as he called it, so he contacted me one afternoon and asked if I’d like to visit. He had a pile of old wheels that he was otherwise going to take to recycling and wondered if I might like to pick through.

   He didn’t ask for it, but I absolutely had to give him some type of payment, because he was going to just let me walk away with nine wheels, including a fantastic Rigida set (photo above) that reminded me of those Gipiemme wheels I used for the Pantani build. There were also a handful of wheels laced around Dura-Ace and Campagnolo Record hubs, plus a couple wheels with top-quality Mavic Open Pro rims.

   There was a pair of vintage Mavic MA40 wheels that I was hoping to use for an upcoming project, but the rims had very bad “hops” (flat spots). I’m not a wheel-builder myself, but I did save the Campy hubs to sell. I did a quick look around my shop, gathered a bunch of parts I have no plans to use and now have a good sized collection to list on eBay.

Check in next week for projects galore!