Tips for being bike OCD like me

So I've just finally recovered from all the sweat and tears that went in to my Lemond Paris-Roubaix build. Totally knocked the bike geek out of me for a few days. I'm back now, though, and raring to go on new projects!

First, though, some things I learned/relearned when working on this latest project.

Researching Bikes

I've mentioned them before, but there are some incredibly valuable websites out there for anyone research about team bikes. I leaned on them while documenting Merckx team bikes, and I continued that trend while working on the Lemond. My usual tactic is to look up a team, load up the picture pages for each of the riders on that team, and see what turns up for pictures. Here's the list:

• http://www.memoire-du-cyclisme.net/
• http://wielrennen.hour.be/
• http://www.cyclingarchives.com/

cyclingarchives.com is particularly awesome - its got an english interface, and their search facilities are really excellent.

Google searches won't help find a picture of a specific bike unless its captioned. So get creative. If you're looking for pictures of a bike from a specific year, search for events that bike would have been used in - in this case, "Paris-Roubaix 1994" and the like.

Period magazines are key! I had a whole slew of 1993/1994 magazines already, but eBay is a great place to keep an eye on as well. There's bound to be pictures of the bike you're looking for if you look hard enough.

Here's a trick I recently started employing. When you DO find pictures of the bike you're looking for, or even pictures of events you think will have pics of your bike, Google the photographers name. This will usually show up on the side or bottom of any picture - both the photog's name, and the agency they were working for. I found a picture in a magazine by Stefano Serotti. Googling him turned up his website, and a ton of pictures of riders on the frame in question at the Ronde van Vlaanderen.

Building Wheels

About 10 years ago, I used to build wheels regularly, but hadn't built any since maybe 2004. This build called for a somewhat special wheel set, and I decided I'd do it myself.

First - tensiometers are awesome. I had never built with one before, but I'm older and wiser these days. I highly recommend using one. It took a lot of guesswork out of building my wheels. Recommended tensions are available from most vendors. Keep all of your spokes in the same ballpark, and you'll end up with strong, straight wheels that can stand up to anything - including the horrible cobbles of Brooklyn. My 571/2 wheelset stayed straight and properly tensioned. They may even be straighter now than before they were ridden!

While I'm older and wiser, I still like to save some money when I get a chance. I've used Wheelsmith Spoke Prep in the past to good results. This go around, though, I really didn't want to buy a $20 jar that'd end up going dry before I used it again. So I did a little research, and made a little bet with myself that PTFE plumber's pipe thread compound isn't radically different than the Wheelsmith stuff. Same general design goals - lubricate the threads, act as a quasi-thread locker, without hardening. The PTFE versions contain teflon, just like the Wheelsmith stuff. Regardless of whether its EXACTLY the same, it works great, can be obtained at a decent hardware store, and is dirt cheap - I paid $3 for a tube that'll last me through at least a dozen pairs of wheels. Don't use too much though, it can be a little messy.

Finally, the Wheel Fanatyk blog is awesome, and this tip of theirs is brilliant. In a nutshell, you build and partially tension the drive side of the rear wheel first, adjust for roundness, and then tension the non-drive side to bring the wheel in to dish and trueness. Done correctly, the spoke tension will be perfect on the drive side just as the wheel becomes properly dished. Touch up trueness, make sure its still round, and you're done - in less time that it takes to build a front wheel. I found myself needing to lower the tension on the drive side as I was pulling the rim to the center, and would probably initially tension the drive side to 60% when building an 8 speed whel in the future (at least, that same hub + rim combo). Even still, it was a far, far easier method for building a rear wheel than I had ever employed before.

None of my pictures show them off, but I made custom Mavic team-style decals for my rims, like you'd see on a set of Paris-Roubaix tubulars. You know, the individual letter decals M A V I C that show up just over to the right of the valve stem. There are tons of custom vinyl decal cutters on the Internet. I used this guy, and they came out great. I think it was a nice little touch on my part, that I entirely managed to not photograph. Oops!

Tomorrow: Paris-Roubaix! Brooklyn Pavé reminder

I don't know about you, but in order to get a whole Sunday for watching a race and going for a ride, I have to put in some family time the day before. So just a quick reminder for you New Yorkers about tomorrow's ride:

1pm: Meet up at Old Stone House
2pm: roll out
5ish: return

Beers/foods in the general area. Either The Gate, Park Slope Ale House, or location TBD.

Same caveats as before - this is a friendly little ride not affiliated with any responsible entity. If the rider has a flat or breaks a fork or gets socked by Bernard Hinault, we'll help out but we're not culpable.

2 days! Who's ready for Paris-Roubaix? This guy right here

Just in case you hadn't noticed, I have a couple of topics I seem to write about. I'm clearly a Mavic junkie, a super-fan of late 80's/early 90's racing, and a pave obsessive. Most roadies cringe when you say Rock Shox, but I get all excited at the thought of suspension on cobbles.

So when an insane opportunity arose to merge all of those in to one project emerged, I couldn't say no.

What we have here is the nexus of all the things that get me excited in a bike. Lemond Team GAN, decked out about as close as possible to the bike Gilbert Duclos-Lassalle rode the latter portion of 1994's edition of Paris-Roubaix.

In 1994, GAN was sponsored by Mavic, and rode the Zap electronic shifters in some events - or at least, tried to. As you can see here, Lemond was riding Zap at least a little during the spring classics.

I'm not going to make any assumptions about why, but they did NOT ride Zap in Paris-Roubaix (and, in fact, in a lot of other races as well...but thats a different topic). Instead they rode a mixed drivetrain - the crank was a Mavic 631/2, the 862 front derailleur, and 571/2 front and rear hubs. For shifters, they used Campagnolo's Record Ergopower shifters, along with a Record rear derailleur. The 571/2 would likely have had a Campagnolo Exa Drive body on it, though it could also have been a custom spaced Mavic proprietary cassette.

Up front, they were riding Rock Shox Paris-Roubaix SL forks. Mavic 451 brakes. Cinelli bars and stems - Duclos-Lassalle rode Criterium bars (yes, with Ergopower). They used a variety of stems on the bikes, including the Oyster and the 101.

Selle San Marco saddles - some Rolls, some Regals, and some Titanios. Selcof posts.

Obviously, a few liberties were taken in building the bike. I'm in no way scared of tubulars, but I AM scared of the price tag associated with Mavic Paris-Roubaix rims. Tracking down the 1994 version of the Record Ergopowers proved something of a pain, so I acquiesced and went with a set of 1995 Chorus levers - identical to the Records of the prior year, save some cutouts in the lever. There are a few other things I know are wrong, but I'll leave it to the astute - and annoying - reader to nitpick on my project.

I'll be riding this bike Sunday, April 11 in the Brooklyn Pavé ride. It's a ride around Brooklyn, hitting some of the handful of cobbled streets that still remain. It starts at the Old Stone House in Park Slope (4th St. + 5th Ave) at 1pm - we roll out at 2. Please note - this is a friendly little ride not affiliated with any responsible entity. If the rider has a flat or breaks a fork or gets socked by Bernard Hinault, we'll help out but we're not culpable. Moderate pace over some pretty bumpy roads - you'll feel 'em way more than I will, what with my suspension fork - so nerves, or at least an ass of steel recommended. Email me (upper right corner of this page!) for additional info.

Still 4 days until Paris-Roubaix

I'm only scratching the surface! More cobbled mayhem all week!

VeloNews, April 26, 1993

4 days to Roubaix: The correct answer is "elastomer"

A few months ago, I wrote about the full suspension bikes that some Team Gan members were riding in 1994 at Paris-Roubaix. At the time, I wasn't sure what the deal with the rear suspension was - was it air/oil, or elastomer. The article below solves that mystery. (it was elastomer)

That's a whole lotta technology on Greg's bike in the above scan. Early SRM power meter, Mavic Zap shifters. Most riders don't care what they ride, but Lemond definitely was the bike geek's racer - he was more willing to try out some of the new technologies that were beginning to emerge, even if some of those technologies, like electronic shifting, are only just becoming viable today.

MERCKX TEAM COLOR SCHEME ALERT: The Lotto rider between Lemond and Cipo is riding a Caloi - which is really an relabeled Merckx. Different color scheme that I'd previously documented - guess I was right when I said there was a Lotto scheme I was missing.

5 days until Paris-Roubaix

Cycle Sport, April 1994

Strong Backs and Weak Minds

Harry's exhibit about the Coney Island Velodrome, Strong Backs and Weak Minds: The Saga of the Coney Island Velodrome opens this week at the Old Stone House in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn, NY. If you find yourself in the area, make sure to stop in for a visit!

HIncapie's rookie year Paris-Roubaix

This'll be George Hincapie's 14th try at Paris-Roubaix, I believe. He's come close to winning, finishing 2nd in 2005, with a handful of other top ten finishes. He's got the experience, but it seems to take a liberal dose of luck to succeed.

Here's a little one pager from 1994 about him, from the June issue of Winning magazine. I wonder what 20 year old George Hincapie would have said had they asked him whether he would be racing Paris-Roubaix 16 years later - let alone whether he'd be considered a contender.

Mike Melton Aero Bike?

Anyone know anything beyond the usual about Mike Melton's work in aero frames?

I'm aware of the work he did with Dave Moulton on the 1980 Olympics bikes, and I've seen some examples of later Olympic bikes attributed to him. But what's the deal with the bike above?

It's built from True Temper RC. Fillet brazed throughout, except for the chainstays. Approximately 54cm. 74° seat and 75°-ish head tube.

Funky little faring behind the BB. The seat and downtubes sleeve OVER the bottom bracket sockets. All of the tubes are shaped in some way, be it flared or flattened.

Flattened seat stays. Shimano drops

Oddly roomy for such a small bike - I usually ride a 57cm, and don't feel cramped in it. Probably the steep head tube angle.

None of the equipment is original, just the frame and fork. Is this a TT bike? Tri-bike? Normal road bike? Was it built for a specific purpose? Team? Lots of mystery around this one...

Harry's Coney Island Velodrome Exhibit

TFG (that's TearsForGears) buddy and NY Bike Jumble founder Harry Schwartzman has spent years working museums, and is finally getting the opportunity to do a bike-related exhibit. His latest project is on the Coney Island Velodrome. It's set to open up on April 1, at the site of the Brooklyn Bike Jumble, the Old Stone House. (also the site of the original clubhouse for the Brooklyn Dodgers, for those of you who care about such things). Putting on an exhibit like this is a serious undertaking, and donations go a long way in helping to defray the associated costs. If you feel like you can spare a few dollars for whats sure to be a great exhibit, I know Harry would appreciate it. Click here for more info.

Road Bike Action August 1993 - Paris-Roubaix

58 days until Paris-Roubaix. You ready? I'm ALMOST ready...still have a little work to do...

Here's a little weekend reading, to get you in the mood - Road Bike Action's coverage of Paris-Roubaix 1993. Won by the previous year's winner, Gilbert Duclos-Lassalle from the Gan team. With the success he had riding a Rock Shox fork the previous year, the peloton went a little suspension crazy, riding Rock Shox Paris-Roubaix's, suspension stems, and all sorts of other mad scientist style creations.

Merckx Teams 1989

ADR, Domex, La William, Teve Blad, 7-Eleven, Hitachi and Stuttgart. As its says, Kelme not included.

scan provided by 'J2000E'

VeloNews July 1994 - Rock Shox and Campagnolo

My scanner is really terrible at handling large format documents. It only fits up to legal size, so that made it a little hard to scan in this latest batch of stuff. I apologize for the crude re-piecing of the first page - hopefully everything is still readable without inducing a migraine.

It's pretty obvious I'm on an early 90's tech kick at the moment (and, I suppose, the last 4+ years of this blog). Some stuff survived this transitional period, some didn't. The scans below cover 2 items, one of which fizzled out, and one that talks about the comeback of Campagnolo. From the July 11, 1994 VeloNews, Maximizing use of your Rock Shox and Campagnolo: An Italian renaissance. Read on!

No, no, I'm not going to start talking about vintage MTB stuff. The Mag-21 IS almost identical internally to the Paris-Roubaix, however, and tuning is a pretty similar experience.

Little article on Campy's comeback as well...

Ready to tune your Paris-Roubaix now? Whaddya mean you don't have one?!

Sorry, the crappy scanner necessitated chopping the very top of Indurain's TT bike.

Rock Shox Paris-Roubaix EXPLOSION!

No, no, no...not an explosion involving a Paris-Roubaix fork. A exploded assembly view for said fork!

BTI's 1995 catalog contains diagrams for just about every suspension fork on the market at the time, including the Paris-Roubaix. Back then, you could use the diagram to order replacement parts. Now, you can use the diagram to lament that fact that you can't order replacement parts.

GPM scans

Poor, unloved Gipiemme. One of a handful of unloved Italian component makers (along with Ofmega, Galli, Regina, and probably a few others), who just didn't have the appeal of Campagnolo. Was their stuff bad? Nah - some of it was sourced from other vendors, like Simplex, that made some parts that people love. In their zeal to set themselves apart, however, GPM managed to churn out some seriously ugly groups in the mid-to-late 80's.

Chronosprint Aero

Chronosprint Aero. Probably their high-end group, perhaps alongside WHITE LASER (queue laser sounds).

White Laser

White Laser. I can only assume its named that because you want to burn out your retinas after seeing it, and a laser would make a fine tool with which to do that. Obviously an answer to Shimano's Sante group.

Chronospecial

Chronosprint Economy

Pista

Any GPM fans out there?

A table, a chair, a bowl of fruit and a violin; what else does a man need to be happy?

Trade the violin for a nice bike, and I'll agree to that. I may not NEED anything else to be happy, but there are definitely a couple of items I really really WANT, that'll make me just a little happier. If you find yourself with any of the following items, and think you might want to sell or trade them, please let me know. Email address is in the about me box on the upper right!

Mavic 631/2 crank: Did you know there are two versions of the 631 crank? It's true! In 1994, the 631 was redesigned. It was relieved on the backside, to lighten it. The arms are boxier, and it'll take a smaller chainring in the outermost position. AWesomeness, and I can't find one! Whatever size, I am not a picky man.

1994 Campagnolo Ergopower shifters: Record OR Chorus. 1992 and 1993 brifters have metal bodies. 1994 is the year they switched to a plastic "carbon" body. The brake levers have no cutouts, and the area directly above the lever is screened 'CARBON' on the Records. Chorus have no marking. Yes, in this case, I am being stupidly picky.

Those are the two more difficult items. I'm always on the lookout for more 571 hubs or parts - can't have enough spare pawls, and I have a little project that requires some 36h shells...a silver Cinelli 101 stem in 100mm would also be nice, as would a nice set of Criterium bars. A single Mavic 451 brake, front or rear too!

Thanks for reading!

Post title is an Einstein quote. Pretty sharp guy! ;)

Full suspension at Paris-Roubaix

The last couple of years have seen some vendors slowly introducing shock-absorbing materials in to road bikes available to the public. It seems like quite often, these bikes are first seen in public during Paris-Roubaix. A big deal was made of Hincapie's 2005 soft tail Trek, even though that bike design never was made available to the public. Far more successful are some of the dampening technologies, like Specialized's Zertz inserts, which are available in all sorts of bikes in their lineup. Every article that mentions these bikes, without fail, mentions the widespread adoption of Rock Shox forks by riders in Paris-Roubaix in the early 90's, and how Museeuw used a full suspension Bianchi in 1994.

There were actually a few others that were tried as well. An interview for France 2, with Gilbert Duclos-Lassalle and Greg Lemond gave us some interesting glimpses at a full suspension rig they both used for at least part of PR in 1994.

Full suspension Lemond front-end. Note the Grip Shift adjustment knob for the rear shock...

According to the information in the bottome part of the article here, these bikes were built by Clark-Kent, in Denver CO out of Titanium. The recollections in the article are, unfortunately, a little flawed - Duclos-Lassalle finished first in 1992 and 1993, and came in 7th in 1994.

Duclos-Lassalle was off this bike, and on to a Excell tubed Lemond within the first 1/3 of the race that day. Why, we don't know. I think its fair to assume something as simple as a flat that early in the race wouldn't necessitate a bike change - and given that watching 1994 footage closely suggests he changed bikes again in the latter half of the race, to another Excell tubed frame, makes it unlikely whatever went wrong was easily fixed.

Check out that crazy rear suspension system - reminds me of the Moots YBB soft tail.

This scanned clipping over at the Mombat site gives a closeup of a Lemond that looks very similar to the one shown in the interview - it doesn't appear to be the same frame, but its probably fairly similar. Air/Oil shock? Or maybe the white thing in the picture above is some sort of elastomer?

Requisite Rock Shox Paris-Roubaix. Mavic 451 brake.

Potential technical issues aside, looks like a very cool ride, and I'd certainly like to know where any of these ended up after the race.

1993's prices...

Ever wonder what the stuff you collect now cost back in the day? It's not too terribly difficult to find vendor catalog scans with a Google search, but finding catalogs from bike stores is a little harder.

Fortunately for us, Harry is a pack rat like no other, and gave me a 16 year old Colorado Cyclist catalog. Here are a couple of scans - 2 pages of Merckx bikes, and their Campagnolo Record, Suntour Superbe Pro, Shimano Dura Ace and Mavic component pages. I think its safe to say that the lamentation of "if I knew then what I know now, I would have bought 100 Mavic headsets" is bunk; very few of the items sell now for as much as they sold for then.

Campagnolo Record, Chorus, Athena, Veloce and Mavic


Shimano Dura Ace, Ultegra, 105 and Suntour Superbe


Merckx MX Leader and Century


Corsa Extra and Corsa

Urban legends, and things I was right to believe in...

If you ever hear an urban legend about a kid who cut off his nose with garden shears, that is categorically true - I went to junior high with that kid. At the time I thought it was hilarious. Still sorta do...

And much like the garden shears kid, every once in a while something that people thought was an urban legend turns out to be true.

A month or so ago, I saw this on eBay:

It's a 571/2 hub...ED? I had previously seen hubs marked 571/2, and 571/2 HG - HG being, of course, hubs with Shimano's cassette splines, instead of the Mavic proprietary type. This particular hub has a serial indicating its from 1995.

Through a roundabout series of purchases and ultimately a trade with Harry, I ended up with the 571/2 ED. When I got it out of the box and took a look, though, I was dismayed to see the Mavic spline pattern on the cassette body.

It's worth noting that the Mavic proprietary cassette came in 2 flavors. With the 571 hub, the outermost cog was threaded, much like Shimano's Ultraglide (UG) cassette. With the 571/2, Mavic went to a lockring setup, like Hyperglide (HG). If you're ever looking for Mavic cassettes, be aware of the difference. The spline patterns are the same, however, so you can adapt a 571 cassette to work on a 571/2 if you can source a correct 8th cog and lockring

For a long time, I had believed that Mavic made an Exa Drive version of the 571/2. So once I saw the hub marked ED, I decided to consult my primary materials to see if it was true. Turns out, I couldn't find any evidence that it existed. Chuck Schmidt over at Velo-Retro sells a phenomenal collection of Mavic catalog reprints, and it wasn't in there. I checked magazines that had information about the 571/2. I read about ZMS. I read about Mektronic. They all mentioned that HG was available, but no mention of ED. Maybe the early Cosmic wheel set, that used the same cassette mechanism as the 571? No dice.

Moving right along. I thought I had captured my Moby Dick, but it turned out I had a normal Mavic splined 571/2 hub, with a weird ED marking on the model band. Facing facts, I came to the conclusion that I was wrong - no Exa Drive 571. Just what was this ED marking though? Electronic Drive, marking it as part of the Mektronic group? That didn't sit well with me, especially since Mektronic was designed to work with Shimano (and Mavic) cassette spacing.

So it stood. Until I spied something weird in an eBay listing from France.

The thing that piqued my curiosity was that, based on what I would see, the splines looked weird for Shimano. They had a trapezoidal quality to them, and based on wishful thinking, I counted 8 splines. Shimano HG has 9.

Sure enough, when I received it, my suspicions were proven correct. 8 splines, undercut a little. EXA DRIVE.

Seperated at birth?

The Mavic sponsored GAN team sometimes rode an odd combination of components in 1993 and 1994. Mavic brakes, cranks, front derailleurs and wheels, with Ergopower brifters and a Record rear derailleur. Were they using the 571 or 571/2 rear hub when they rode that setup? There are a few ways to pull that off - respacing a Mavic or Shimano cassette being the easiest other than just using a Record rear hub. Is it possible they were using an Exa-Drive body like the one I now have?

I can't say for sure this is de facto evidence that Mavic produced an Exa-Drive 571/2 for the public, and marked it as a 571/2 ED - though I certainly think they did. But if anyone tells you that either the pruning shears story OR the existence of a Campagnolo body for the 571/2 is total bullshit, send them my way.