Results for today’s race have been posted:

 CLASS:  BEGINNER MEN 30-34

Place Name                   No.   Sponsor                      Finish
===== ====================== ===== ============================ =======
    1 Andy Bix                 563                              1:00:30
    2 Jacob Koczergo           538 JOSEPH DECUIS RACING         1:04:26
    3 Andrew Beecham           505 BREAKAWAY BIKES              1:05:13
    4 Jake Pangle              502 REVOLUTION BIKES/MIDSTATE CY 1:05:40
    5 Chris Brower             507                              1:05:43
    6 Bruce Sneller            517                              1:06:35
    7 Seth Fiedler             423 TEAM LAST DAYS               1:06:54
    8 Newton Leitelt           555                              1:08:27
    9 Douglas Santos           506                              1:11:22 
   10 Sabinel Deacu            552                              1:13:21
   11 Eric Sanko               514                              1:16:48
   12 John Martin              620                              1:21:07
   13 Ben Bunce                561                              1:23:11
   14 Jerimie Ike              597                              1:24:33
   15 Chad Aiello              566                              1:25:33
   16 Tom Bell                 706                              1:26:48
   17 Todd Wade                536                              1:33:48

I’m a little disappointed with the results, I was hoping to at least be in contention for a podium finish. However I did improve my time from last year by 5 minutes. They did reverse the direction of the course this year which seemed to make it a bit more difficult. Eric is closing the gap, I’m going to have to step up my training!

Still, it was a great day for a race. As predicted, since we canceled our plans to camp the weather was quite nice, as opposed to the rain they predicted. Sarah came along this time to watch her first race. We grilled up some hot dogs afterward. Someone finally had the genius idea to draw all the prizes at once instead of calling people’s names one at a time and taking hours to accomplish the same thing.

Lining up at the start:

At the finish:

Wednesday night D-Rob and I went for our first ride together.  I got to try out my newly outfitted road bike, and he’s still getting used to his brand new LeMond.  We did 17 miles, would have done more but we had to get back in time for the end of his daughter’s soccer practice.  It was insanely windy, making even this length ride quite a workout – he said we averaged over 17mph the whole way.  I still haven’t hooked my computer back up to the bike so can’t put an exact figure on it.

Today the weather was quite nice again, over 70 but still on the windy side.  Did 20 miles into town and back for my last workout before Yankee Springs on Sunday.  Felt darn good, and have high hopes for the race.  Although I don’t feel I’m as prepared as I could be, I’m a world more prepared than I was last year at this time.  Will take it easy tomorrow and stay well rested for Sunday.

So it all started last year when I purchased a used Trek 1200 road bike off Craigslist for dirt cheap. It was old school with a threaded fork and downtube shifters, but it got the job done, the job being training for mountain bike races. Problem was the fit was not great, the stem was just too long and the reach got uncomfortable quickly. However, unlike on modern threadless headsets, a threaded stem is a bit more of a chore to change. Not to mention its just plain hard to find quill type stems anywhere – none of the usual online discounters sell them. The solution? Convert the whole darn thing: headset, fork, and stem.

Actually the best solution is not buying a bike with a threaded stem fork in the first place, but absent that, conversion is the way to go. After finding out the bike shop wanted a fortune to do it for me I decided it was a great chance to learn some bike mechanic skills.

There are lots of places to learn to do this online, and in various books. I have Zinn’s The Art of Mountain Bike Maintenance which is very helpful. It doesn’t tell you step by step how to do this exact type of conversion, but all the individual pieces are there. I won’t go into the gory details, but I will discuss the specific problems I ran into.

• This may sound obvious, but buy the right size parts. All modern bikes typically have 1 1/8″ steerer tubes, but a lot of older bikes like mine have 1″ (the old standard). It can be a bit difficult to measure with the parts in place, so if you aren’t absolutely sure, start disassembling so you can measure before you buy. I didn’t want to do this so I could keep riding while I waited for the parts, but ultimately I would have saved a lot of trouble. Finding a 1″ threadless headset was not easy, Cane Creek was the only one I found. Everything is 1 1/8″ now. (except those freak Cannondale frames)
• Removing the stem, fork and most of the old headset is a piece of cake – the exception is the cups. You will almost certainly need a special tool to get them out – a hammer and screwdriver will not work! You can buy the Park tool for the job which is sure to work. Or find a nice bike shop who will do it usually for about $10, or free if you ask really nice (Thank You Wheels In Motion!!!) Or build your own like this copper pipe job.
• Pressing the new cups in is a snap if you use a DIY tool like this, dirt cheap and worked like a charm. Many similar tools recommend PVC instead of the copper fittings, but these worked for me and PVC just seems like a bad idea considering the force involved. Some people claim to do it with a block of wood and a mallet, but that really seems like a bad idea, and considering how cheap and easy this is, there’s really no reason. Definitely don’t go out and buy a $70 press tool.
• Take your new parts to the hardware store with you! Its a lot easier than guessing if that PVC or washer you want to buy is the right size.
• This wasn’t obvious to me, but the new crown race comes with the new headset. I was confused because it was a lot smaller than the one on my old set. Setting it is as simple as it sounds, you literally just hammer it down over the tight fitting at the bottom of the fork tube – not rocket science. I personally just rammed it into the fork tube until it set, though you may not want to do this if you care about scratching your frame. They sell special tools for this, but again, all you really need is a properly sized piece of PVC or metal tubing and mallet.
• I personally recommend splurging on two specialized tools: the fork tube cutter and the star nut setter. Both are pretty cheap and will save you a ton of trouble. I guess if you were going to forgo one make it the tube cutter – you can probably make a pretty good go of it with some combination of a vice and miter box assuming you have access to them. But honestly I don’t see a reliable DIY tool to set the star nut with.
• Don’t put the bearings in upside down! Again, for a noob like me the proper orientation is not obvious. It helps to keep them oriented right out of the box but its easy to get things jumbled up in the process of installation. Fortunately it is pretty obvious when you do this, the fork will not seat properly and will rock a bit. Properly installed the entire head assembly should not move in the slightest – except side to side of course.

From there I felt the the rest of the assembly was a piece of cake. Taping the bar is obviously an art that requires some practice – its easy to get it done but it won’t look perfect. Getting that professional look will just take time.

I can’t say its exactly gone smoothly, but it was very satisfying tonight to finally press in my new Cane Creek headset, Forte carbon fork, and Forte threadless stem:

No not the automotive kind, the bike kind. This week was SEMCOG’s “Commuter Challenge” which enticed people to use alternate transit (carpooling, public transit, bike, walk, etc) to get to work by offering some nice prizes. I had been kicking around the idea of biking to work for some time, this was just the motivation I needed. Nothing get’s me interested like free stuff!

Unfortunately the weather this week sucked, with rain and high winds predicted everyday. After analyzing the hourly forecast, I decided on driving into work Wednesday, riding home that evening, then riding back in the morning, and driving home Thursday night. It worked, and aside from some high winds Wednesday I managed to stay dry.

My commute by bike is 16.4 miles one way, meaning that with a little simple math I need to average about 16mph in order to make it to work in about an hour. Any longer and it would just be too much extra time, plus I can’t reasonably get up any earlier than 5 am. Did I mention I start work at 6am? That means my ride in is in the dark.

The ride home Wednesday afternoon wasn’t bad, it was sunny and drivers were courteous on the road. The 15mph headwind was a real drag though and held me to a meager 13mph average speed. The fact that I am still working on putting a new headset, fork and stem on my road bike meant that I had to ride my considerably heavier and slower mountain bike.

The ride in to work in the morning was actually much better, although still frosty in the morning there are so few cars at that hour that I felt much safer. I nailed my required average speed and cruised into work right on time. I’m lucky enough to work in a manufacturing plant which has lockers and showers, so I’m able to make myself presentable for the rest of the day.

A few of my crucial pieces of gear crucial for a successful commute:

• Pearl Izumi Cyclone gloves
• Pearl Izumi high visibility wind breaker
• Wrap around behind ear muffs
• Cycling shoe covers
• Orange reflective triangle for my backpack
• Reflective ankle bands
• Front safety light and rear blinky red light

I don’t know if commuting everyday is feasible, but definitely 2-3 days a week.  With my car, at $3.45 per gallon gas, I will save $4.53 each day I ride instead of drive, not too shabby!  That’s potentially $22.63 a week and $90.53 a month!  Plus I’ll probably lose weight and be in better shape for racing.