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The Thule Echelon/Thule Crossroad Rack Review

01.19.2010 by Ray Niekamp // Leave a Comment

Guest poster Jeff Hemmel fills our winter days with thoughts of warmer climes — and taking our bikes along. Here’s his take on a Thule rooftop rack system.

Like a lot of people, I occasionally take a bike on vacation. Other years my Giant Sedona DX typically came along for the ride, but lately I’ve spent a lot more time on my Trek road bike, so when out latest trip drew near, it was the Trek that got invited to the dance. (Sorry, Sedona, but it really meant nothing, and I swear I was thinking about you the whole time. Honest.)

Problem is, my trusty hitch-mount bike rack didn’t really fit a road bike’s contours — and cables — too well. On top of that, we were also considering taking our smaller car, one without a receiver hitch. Enter the subject of this review, the Thule Echelon fork-mount bike carrier.

Or rather, the Thule Crossroad rack system and the Thule Echelon bike rack review. Huh? You see, today a lot of cars (okay, a lot of cars of the sport wagon/SUV variety) come with lengthwise factory rails, but no widthwise crossbars, leaving it up to the consumer to add the rack portion of the equation. In other words, before I could rack, I had to rail.

I’ve had good luck with Thule equipment in the past, so I chose their Crossroad system. Setup proved pretty simple. A polyethylene-covered, galvanized steel Thule load bar slides through a pair of the Crossroad’s feet, and then the assembly can be placed atop the factory rails. Thule accommodates a wide variety of rail styles by relying on a flexible, rubber-coated steel band to actually secure the foot to the rail. To fasten, pass the free end under the rail, hook it in the appropriate slot on the foot, then simply tighten things up. The outer cap of the footpad includes the necessary Allen key, and also serves as a handy knob to tighten things down. As you tighten the strap around the factory rails, the mechanism simultaneously locks the load bar in place, no tools required. Once I had the front half installed, I repeated it on the back.

Hints? Do a basic line-up beforehand. At the rubber-coated base of each footpad is a small arrow. Try to line it up with the center of the factory rail to best spread the load. I would also suggest upgrading to the locks Thule offers, both to keep your rack secure, but also to just make sure no one pops off an end cap and leaves you without your tightening tool, or a loose cap ends up along the side of the highway. Single-key lock packs come in multiples of two. Plan ahead to cover all four feet, as well as whatever carriers you choose to install afterward.

With the basic Crossroad system installed, next came the Echelon. A square bracket and two bolts lock the front of the carrier to the forward load bar, and the rear is attached to the aft bar with a simple backing plate, bolts, and screw knobs. That’s really all there was to it. Loading the bike is just a matter of positioning the rear wheel in the carrier tray, slipping the front fork’s dropouts onto the front skewer, and clamping everything in place.

I preferred the Echelon’s front clamp to cheaper alternatives for multiple reasons. For one, the cover/cam lever secures the fork in one simple motion. For another, a large adjustment knob makes for quick adjustments while securing and releasing. Loading a bike takes under a minute. At highway speeds, the rack proved surprisingly solid, although I’d again upgrade to a lock on the clamp just for peace of mind, not only to keep the bike in place, but also to keep the bolts inaccessible for any really determined thieves.

The complete Thule 450 Crossroad system, with a pair of 50” load bars, runs $240; the Echelon bike carrier $150. You can see how your own vehicle measures up at thuleracks.com.

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Categories // Accessories, guest post, Review Tags // Accessories, guest post, Hemmel, Review

When Should Cleats Be Replaced?

01.17.2010 by Ray Niekamp // 7 Comments

When riding earlier this week, I had a heckuva time trying to engage my cleats. Usually, I can click in without looking, but on this particular ride I missed the pedal every time. That’s especially bothersome when trying to cross a busy intersection, even when the cross traffic is stopped by a red light. When I got home, I took a look at my cleats:

Yipes! The right one, especially, the one I use to click in almost exclusively, seems to be beyond worn. No wonder I couldn’t get the cleat to engage the pedal. It’s a far cry from what they looked like when they were new:

Then, I joined our regular Sunday morning club ride today. About halfway through the ride, I realized I was having no trouble getting the cleat to click into the pedal. I was — still am — baffled. Why did it give me such trouble four days ago, but not today?

And just when should cleats be replaced?

I know from experience that they should be. The cleat I had in my previous shoes wore this badly, and once it came right out of the pedal at a bad time — when I was applying power to climb a hill. In fact, that happened more than once, and the second time I crashed because I lost control of the bike.

So I’m going to get a new set of cleats ASAP. As I said, they’re obviously way past replacement time. But just when are cleats worn badly enough to merit replacement? Are there things to look for that serve as replacement clues?

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Categories // Equipment Tags // cleats, Equipment, shoes

The “Technique” Ride

01.14.2010 by Ray Niekamp // 9 Comments

I was chatting with a friend about biking the other day, and he asked what rides I’d done lately.

“Well, yesterday I did the ‘technique’ ride,” I said.

He looked confused, and asked what I meant. I told him that once a week, I do a ride where I don’t worry about speed, or training, or endurance, but instead I try to improve my technique on the bike.

Lately, I’ve been concentrating on three things: cadence, pedaling in a circle, and cornering.

I used to work exclusively on cadence. When I ride the Veloway, I try to keep it at 90 rpm or above. That might mean I’m using some fairly easy gears on some stretches of the route, but that doesn’t matter. I’ve found that getting used to pedaling in a high cadence makes me faster, improves my endurance, and makes it easier for me to draw on my reserves if I’m starting to flag on a long ride. But recently, I’ve caught myself ignoring cadence, and mashing the pedals. I’ve gotten a little slower. So it’s time to get it back. Most of the time, I maintain my 90 cadence in the small ring. I can do it in some of the easier gears on the big ring, but by using the small ring, I don’t worry about my speed — just cranking those pedals fast enough.

When climbing hills, or pushing to catch up to the pack on the flat, I always try to remember to pull up on the pedals. That uses the big thigh muscles to generate power. But two summers ago, I discovered that pedaling in a circle accomplishes the same thing, and the process is much smoother. But it’s really easy to forget that, or to get lazy, and the next thing you know, you find yourself mashing down on the pedals, instead of applying power on the upstroke. So during the “technique” ride, I constantly check that I’m pedaling in a circle.

Then there’s cornering. There’s no real secret to this. But over the past year, after a few crashes, I found myself entering corners with a lot less bravura than I used to. I noticed that I was paying too much attention to the road immediately ahead of myself when coming into a turn, and that resulted in a turn at a slower speed, and maybe some issues with holding my line.

But a couple of weeks ago, it occurred to me: I haven’t been using the proper technique to corner my bike. Remember, the bike will go where you look, so it’s always a good idea to look well ahead, and even around the corner. Taking my eyes off the road right in front of my front wheel makes a marked difference in how well I get through the turn. Remembering to jam my outside foot down on its pedal, and point the inside knee into the turn, adds more stability to the bike. I’m liking my rediscovered confidence in corners.

These are fundamental skills for me. But how much time do gifted athletes spend on the fundamentals of their sport? Yeah. By concentrating on these three things once a week, I find that they’ll be there when I need them on my other rides.

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Categories // Technique Tags // Technique

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