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Large Scale Shops, Small Scale Shops

08.30.2012 by Ray Niekamp // 2 Comments

Guest poster Don Blount wonders which one you prefer?

On a recent Sunday I took my bike to a local store of Performance Bike, the national bicycle company, for a derailleur adjustment.

It is one of two bike shops in my area that I use.

The other, the Bicycle Café, is a small mom and pop shop in nearby Lodi, Calif. I actually prefer this shop, although I use Performance nearly as much.

It’s the difference between a large scale national brand and a small scale local retailer.

It is fair to say Performance serves a general market. The staff there is friendly and helpful. The bike mechanics regularly share knowledge and since my bike is a Performance-brand Scattante CFR Comp I get priority when I come in. (Free adjustments for life!)

The products I purchase are warrantied so that if I do not like them or they do not perform as advertised, they are returnable – no questions asked.

But the staff turns over quickly and sometimes I have to hunt to find a familiar face.

The three-year-old Bicycle Café serves a more specialized market. When I first walked in, the bikes there had names that were totally foreign to me like Campagnolo, Orbea, Time and Guru. That is not too surprising because I was still relatively new to biking.

But this is a place where they make you feel at home. I know the owners, met their kids and see them at a variety of cycling-related functions.

The staff, which has also had some turnover, is helpful and friendly and has never let me know how little I know about biking and how much they do. They too aid me in my search for products and knowledge. Service is impeccable including pickup and drop off of my bike for service. They set up group rides and are actively involved in the cycling community. And the owner is knowledgeable, an encyclopedia of biking information and skills – he builds frames among other things. And I trust him without question when it comes to handling my bike. And I can go there and hang out to talk biking just for the sake of talking about biking.

One of the few things that can be offsetting here is price. Some of their prices are out of my price range. But there aren’t many places I can go where they would allow me to hold a $7,000 bike frame. And it is located a bit out of my usual circle of travel, so it has to be a destination trip.

But I enjoy going to the Bicycle Café when I can, what I thought was a chichi place is quite warm and comfortable. Performance can’t be the same thing — too big, too much volume. But I am still tied to both places by service and bikes. And I will continue to use both as it works for me.

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Categories // Equipment, guest post Tags // bike shop, Blount, guest post

Bar Tape — A Quick and Easy Fix

08.21.2012 by Ray Niekamp // Leave a Comment

Guest poster Don Blount has some suggestions about changing your bar tape.

I recently changed handlebar tape from a synthetic leather tape that looked great but provided absolutely no padding, to something not as flashy but much more comfortable. It was a quick, easy job.

Old tape on left, new on right.

Changing bar tape is an inexpensive way to give your bike a different look, from black to red, white or blue, you can accessorize your ride.

I stick with black tape. It matches my bike and doesn’t show dirt easily.

For some, taping handlebars can be frustrating. But with a little practice just about anyone can handle this job.

Here are a few quick tips I received from a bike mechanic to get a clean, professional-looking job:

Start the tape at the bottom of the bar. And instead of starting the tape with a half-inch or so hanging over the end of the bar, align the tape with the edge of bar. This will provide a clean look while eliminating the task of trying to stuff the tape in the bar end and getting the bar end plug to stay in.

Don shows how he wraps electrical tape around the base of the bar plug.

Many handlebar tapes come with a sticky backing, which helps it stay in place. If it does not have this backing, you can use a small piece of electrical tape to hold it in place.  This will be out of view when the bar is wrapped. You can also wrap pieces of electrical tape around the inside of the plug, the part that goes inside the bar, to help it stay in place.

And, with a few exceptions, remember to wrap over the bar and away from the frame, this tightens the tape naturally as you ride. Look at how you twist your hands in the drops and this will help you determine how to wrap the bar. If you turn you hands in, wrap in that direction and vice versa.

Also, use the small rectangular piece that comes with the tape to cover the bottom of the brake levers. Finally be sure to stretch the tape as you wrap but not as if you’re playing tug of war, and check your work so you don’t leave gaps.

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Categories // Accessories, guest post, Maintenance Tags // bar tape, Blount, guest post

A Drinking Problem

08.07.2012 by Ray Niekamp // 5 Comments

As a sort of follow-up to the last post about problems eating during a ride, guest poster Don Blount addresses his trouble with drink.

I am not afraid to admit that I have a drinking problem.

I have had the problem of drinking too little when I’m riding my bike. (rimshot!)

That may not seem like a significant problem to those who do not ride or who drink more than enough. But it is a huge issue for someone such as me who has suffered from hellacious, make that H-E-L-L-A-C-I-O-U-S leg cramps.

I found that I would go through about 14 ounces of fluid, about 2/3 of a 20 ounce bottle, an hour instead of the recommended 20 ounces an hour.

Given this, why not just drink more?

Three reasons: 1) I was not thirsty 2) I was not sweating much 3) It seemed that the more I drank, the more frequently I had to go to the bathroom. This was inconvenient enough on solo rides and even moreso on coed group rides.

It was not as if I was not carrying enough fluids with me as I carry one 20-ounce bottle of water and another with an electrolyte such as Nuun or Endurolyte.

But after a last round of leg cramps a few months ago that led me to borrow some electrolyte pills from a fellow rider, I just decided enough was enough and I would tackle this problem head on.

I started by making sure I had some fluids in me before leaving for a ride.

While on the bike, like Pavlov’s dog, I would work at conditioning myself to grab for a bottle at a given signal. In this case I used the lap timer on my Garmin as my signal to take a sip. When the Garmin chirped at the one-mile mark, I would take a drink.

Of course this time could vary by as much as a minute or two depending on where and how fast I was riding. Early on it seemed terribly inconvenient but I forced myself to follow through.

A mile goes by – grab the bottle and sip. Another mile – when it seemed like I had just put the bottle away – grab it again and sip. Initially the miles seemed to come up far too quickly but slowly, and I do mean slowly, I found myself drinking regularly even without the Garmin reminder. An hour would pass and I would have one bottle down and had started working on another.

On really hot days I would go through 20 ounces before the hour mark. My new problem became calculating where I could refill my bottles on longer rides and choking down the inflated price of Gatorade or Powerade at convenience stores.

I have not had any cramping problems since I began this program. I have not even had to stop more often to do No. 1. Perhaps my body conditioned itself. More than likely it shows how much I really needed those additional fluids. Overall, at least for me, it illustrates the important role hydration plays in cycling.

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Categories // guest post Tags // Blount, hydration, sports drink

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