Boomers on Bicycles

Cycling fans have a busy summer coming up. This is the time for quite a few national road race championships and grand tours. For Boomers, it’s a great time to see how the less mature are carrying on. Here is an update on the Webcor Builders Womens Pro Team, and a bit of news from Lance Armstrong:

The Canadian National Championships, in Edmunton, Alberta, Canada, was a great race, especially at the end. With attacks, counter attacks, and several breakways, the womens teams  got it down to a 4 person lead out, which finally resulted in two of the women in a head-to-head sprint to the finish. Webcor took the win, with Canadian Joelle Numainville of Webcor standing at the top of the podium, as the Canadian National Champion. Webcor sent two of the team to the Canadian race, Joelle and Erinne Wilcox, both Canadians, and with a fine example of teamwork, took the win. Joelle put an all out 250 meter sprint to the finish to beat BC rider Allison Testeroete.

In Austria, Webcor rider Andrea Graus, after some flight delays, and much too long on a plane, reached Austria 2 days prior to the Austrian Road Championships. Andrea describes a difficult race: 2000 meters (6,000+ feet) in altitude differences over 3 laps of 38 km (22.8 miles) each. 1kilometer (.6 miles) before the finish featured a steep 500 meter (1500 feet) climb. Andrea put her head down, got a few extra turns on her pedals, and finished 2 seconds in front. Andrea rode with the Austrian Radteam NO.

Webcor now has two national womens road race champions riding for them. This is a team to watch. Go Green!

The big one, Le Tour, the Tour de France, starts in Belgium this Saturday. Lance Armstrong sent a tweet out yesterday. This, he says, is his last Tour. Armstrong is arguably one of the best known names on the Tour, and a 7 time winner of the Tour. He has quite a few other interests, is getting older, and maybe, just maybe, this will be his last ride in le Tour. Time will tell. His performance at this year’s tour will most likely be like his other Tours: ridden well, strategically on top of it, and with everything he and the Radio Shack team can put together.

If you spend a bit of time reading, or just looking at, the numerous  magazines about bicycling, a couple of things are likely to happen.

You might find yourself in I-Need-A-New-Bike land. Close to that is the state where you have convinced yourself that you need some new piece of equipment, say, a new helmet or backpack water bag, or an entire set of tools. Could be that your need for new cycling shorts or a great looking new jersey will take an upward spike too. It’s all there for you to look at and read about, in full color too. The national economy needs us to spend money. It’s how things work.

But, do you really need all that stuff to enjoy riding your bike? If what you have is worn out, broken, or really smells bad, maybe you do. I rather like cruising through whatever bike shop is at hand, just to look at all that really cool stuff in there. Sometimes I actually spend a few dollars, and on occasion, a lot of dollars. Sometimes, it’s actually something I need.

Most of us in Boomer status aren’t professional riders, road or mountain bike. We aren’t going to look like those young men and

Ride on.

women who are pro riders. After all, if you look at any pro peloton, it’s obvious that it’s impossible to come up with enough body fat in the whole group that can be measured in any meaningful way. Our need for bike stuff is quite different than the professional, or even semi-pro, group. How many category rated riders, who are in the Boomer years, are there, any way?

Why do we ride bikes? My guess, and it is a guess, is that we ride because we can, it’s fun, and mostly helps us stay healthy. Some of us ride to keep diabetes in check, or our blood pressure under control. Riding on a consistent basis helps control weight. Maybe we are cancer survivors and riding helped us re-gain the strength that chemo and radiation took from us. Keeping the good cholesterol from being overrun by the bad cholesterol is another reason. Maybe it’s just a great way to clear your head of all the chatter that spews about all day.

Mostly though, I think we ride because it is simply a great thing to do. Once you have the bike and helmet, it doesn’t cost much to get on your bike and start pedaling. Fixed budgets like low cost things. It’s a pretty good way to meet people too. Every other rider this rider has spoken to has been very pleasant, and generous with ideas and information. Trading info on what kind of bike you’re riding is a good way to find out the good and the bad about other brands. If you are stopped by the side of the trail or road, most bike riders will stop to see if you are ok. While on a recent ride with my friend Ed, we came upon two riders, each on recumbent cycles, stopped by the side of the trail. We stopped and helped the young woman, who couldn’t walk, get her chain back onto the cassette. Bike people generally do things like that. All for one and so on.

With summer here, our opportunities for riding are pretty good. Longer days, warm (in some places, just plain hot), great riding weather. Take advantage of it. Having fun has no age limit.

Check your bike, then ride

On Monday, June 21, at 4:28 in the morning, summer arrived. It’s official. Summer is here, and it is time to make sure your mountain bike is ready for the long days of summer that lie ahead.

Here are some things you should look for on your mountain bike, to make sure it is up to the rides that are coming up:

* Check your tires. If your trail tires are worn, the knobs are more like bumps than knobs, get new ones. As the summer progresses, the trails in the woods will get softer. Moon dust is the term used by the riders in the woods. You need a tire that will grip when you are cornering, especially on the downhill turns.

* Comfort tires–the ones with the normal tread in the center and knobs on the outside edge, are fine if you are going to ride almost exclusively on hard packed trails that will stay hard packed, or any paved trails. If you have comfort tires on your mountain bike and you get into a loose and bumpy trail, slow down. Common sense should rule the day.

* Check your frame, no matter what it is made of. This is critical if you are a hard rider on the off road trails, hit bumps pretty hard, pump over rocks and rock gardens, and do any kind of flight maneuvers, which, if you are a Boomer, you shouldn’t be doing anyway. If you only ride on paved trails, check the frame anyway. A cracked frame that fails while you are riding can ruin your day, or the rest of your days. If it is cracked, head to your local bike shop. Pay attention to what they tell you.

* Check your brakes: elevate your bike, get the wheels turning at a pretty good clip, and grab your bakes. Your tires should stop immediately. If they don’t, tighten the cables. If you have disc brakes, you’ll need to bleed them. If the travel of the brake lever feels mushy, or if it almost touches the handlebar before the wheels stop, tighten the cables or bleed your brakes. If you don’t know how to do either of these chores, head down to your local bike shop. Sacramento has many shops to choose from.

* Check your head set. It should be tight. If it isn’t tighten it.

* Check your chain. Clean it, then lube it. If it is an older chain, you may need a new one.

* Check your pedals. They should be tight on the pedal arms, and the pedal arms should be tight in the bracket.

* Lube anything that should be lubed, with the right lubricant. Putting the wrong oil or grease on your bike will cause many problems.

* If you clip in, make sure that your shoes, and pedals, are still doing what they are designed to do. These things do wear out after a while.

* Check your seat post. No cracks is good. Cracks mean it needs to be replaced, before you ride again.

* Check your seat. Everything should be tight. If anything isn’t, replace it.

* Check your helmet. If it even looks like it may have a crack in it, or you’ve already done one head hit with it, put it in the garden, plant something in it. Buy a new one.

Now that the season has begun in earnest, make sure that your bike is ready for the pounding that comes along with hitting the trails. One of the best things about mountain biking is the joy of the ride. Make sure that your ride is a joy.

Mountain bikes are an ever evolving species. Anything that stays static for too long tends to wither. The mountain biking community, and the mountain bikes they ride, are anything but static. The technological advances involve physics, and materials. Physics determines whether or not the material will stand up to the rigors of being part of a bike that is likely to take quite a bit of stress.

The materials debate will not fade, nor should it. The debate revolves around carbon fiber, aluminum, titanium, and steel, and combinations of them. Each material has it’s champions and detractors, although the detractors aren’t the kind who spend time completely dismissing whatever it is they don’t care for. It’s more a matter of technical disagreement about which is the absolute best for a bike.

Reality is that the absolute best material for a bike is relative to the type of bike it’s being used for. The reason most entry level bikes, especially the ones for younger children, are made of steel or aluminum, is cost and common sense. Children outgrow bikes before the bikes need repair. Only the oldest child gets a new bike. The younger brothers and sisters get the outgrown bikes.

Mountain bikes get more serious as the age and weight of the rider goes up. The price goes up because the materials used cost more. For instance, the Specialized Stumpjumper FSR Comp has an alloy frame. It costs $2200 out of the box. At Walmart, the 26” Mongoose XR-75 Dual Suspension Men’s Bike, featuring an aluminum frame, runs $129. All aluminum is not created equal. A Trex Fuel EX 9 has what Trex calls an alpha red aluminum frame. This bike will set you back considerably more than $129. This version of an aluminum bike runs in the $3,360 range. There is a difference not only in the aluminum in the frame, but in the components that are used.

Carbon, aluminum, titanium, alloys. Each one is chosen for strength and the ability to absorb shocks. Mountain bikes need to be able to absorb shocks on a repeated basis. Even on the most tame roads and trails that this rider ventures out on, bumps are always present. In the woods, bumps are constant. The mountain bike must absorb all the stress on the trails and keep the rider safe. It has to still be a bike when the day is done. Failure in the frame is always catastrophic.

Consider all of the new technology, geometry, and materials when you head to your local bike shop to find a new mountain bike . The crew at the shop will want to know about how and where you ride. Look at several types of bikes: hard tails, front suspension, full suspension.  If you are heading out on the single tracks, or anywhere out in the forest, remember that safety counts. You’ll pay for it, either because you bought an actual mountain bike, or because you didn’t. A good bargain is one thing. A cheap bike is quite another.