Lee's Cyclery Blog

How well do you think you know the Tour de France?

If you know it well, it could mean a $50, $75 or $100 gift certificate from Lee’s! All you have to do is pick the winners of four of the competitions awarded at this year’s Tour de France, plus a couple of tiebreaker questions in the event that this proves too easy for the experts amongst us!

Competitions
Yellow Jersey – General Classification (overall winner)
Green Jersey – Points Competition (best sprinter)
Polka Dot Jersey – King of the Mountains Competition (best climber)
Best Team Competition (no jersey awarded)

Tiebreakers
#1) Who will win Stage 15 from Pamiers to Bagneres-de-Luchon? (It’s a 187.5 km stage with an above-category climb and a very tricky descent to the finish)
#2) Who will win Stage 19, the individual time trial?
#3) How many minutes and/or seconds will Lance Armstrong finish behind the overall winner in the general classification? (Enter :00 if you think he’ll win it all!)
You will have until Stage 7 (end of the day on July 10th) to submit your entry!

Prizes
1st Place – $100 gift certificate
2nd Place – $75 gift certificate
3rd Place – $50 gift certificate
Stop into Lee’s North, Lee’s South or the Trek Store in Loveland and ask to fill out an entry form. Good luck!

Our Trekfest sale was quite and success and we created a lot of new riders this month. Some folks haven’t been on bikes in years and for some this might be their first bike ever. Furthermore, some of these people are on bikes to improve their health and fitness and others are riding for environmental reasons. Now matter your reason, we wanted to take this time and talk about bike safety.

The City of Fort Collins has put together this excellent guide on the basics of city riding and how to avoid common crashes. We wanted to share these great resources with you.

Basics of City Riding
How to Avoid Common Crashes

We’ve also beefed up our event calendar. There is now an intro to road riding class, beginner mountain biking class and a new night ride. Be sure to check our event calendar so that you can take advantage of all these new events.

Bye now, I gotta go ride.

This week we have a guest blogger, Roscoe Cummins. Roscoe is a mechanic at our north store and spends time with Mavic SSC.

I believe the best thing possible to do for your bicycle, is to clean your bike properly. For the longest part of my career as a mechanic I never knew how to clean a bike properly. I wish someone had shown me this earlier.

Tool List:
2- 5 gal buckets
1 – Hose
1 – Set of brushes i.e. Park or Pedro’s
1 – Sponge
1 – Water soluble degreaser – i.e. Simple Green
1 – Mild degreaser, I use Pedro’s
1 – Dish Soap, I prefer Dawn
1 – Bike Stand or method of hanging your bike
A few clean rags

Step 1 – Preparation
Prepare the buckets. Fill your buckets ½ way with water and place the water soluble degreaser and a stiffer brush in one bucket; dish soap, the other brushes, and the sponge in the other bucket. Hang your bike in the stand and remove the wheels.

Step 2 – Washing the Wheels and Stanchions
Begin by holding your rear wheel at a 45 degree angle with the cassette facing down. Spray the degreaser on to the cassette. MAKE SURE YOU DO NOT GET ANY DEGREASER ON TO THE WHEEL OR THE TIRE. (This is Tip #1 with cleaning bikes. I will explain it later.) Lean the rear wheel against an object to let the degreaser work. Start washing the front wheel by using a brush or sponge from the dish soap bucket. I typically wash the tire and rim edge on both sides, followed by the rim in between the spokes, and then the hub. When washing the wheel inspect the tire for cuts, wear, or other sorts of damage. When starting with the rear wheel clean the cassette first with a stiff brush or the drive train brush, but make sure that none of the degreaser or grease gets onto the rim or tire. After you are done with the cassette wash the rear wheel as you did the front. Rinse both the wheels and set them aside to air dry. By washing the wheels first you keep contaminates off of the tires, tire glue, or disc rotors, which are the most vulnerable to contamination. If you are washing a mountain bike with suspension, this is the time to use a clean rag to wash the stanchions (legs of the fork). Using even a slightly dirty rag can contaminate your stanchions. Your stanchions have very small pores that help to lube the seals when the fork is being used. You want to keep them clean.

Tip #1 – Use the mildest washing agent as possible.
Use dish soap on bikes and degreasers on drive trains. A degreaser WILL matte your anodized rims, matte your finish on your bike, and eat the glue on tubular tires. It is too harsh for normal washing of your bike. And yes Simple Green is a degreaser. I understand Simple Green is a great product and is very mild, but I do know for a fact that it will matte the finish of some high end wheels.

Step 3 – Cleaning the Drive Train
Your bike should be in the stand, with its wheels off, and be begging to be cleaned. Insert a dummy axle or Pedro’s Chain Keeper into the rear drop out of your bike. If you don’t have either you can use a quick release, just make sure not to tension it to much, and damage the frame. Spray the degreaser onto the drive train and let it sit for a minute to work. REMEMBER TIP #1. Do your best to limit the amount of degreaser that gets onto the frame. Clean the drive train with the brush out of the degreaser bucket. Make sure not to put in the dish soap bucket or to cross contaminate. The order in which you clean the drive train isn’t important. What is important is that you do it the same way every time, so that you develop the habit of washing it thoroughly and correctly. When done cleaning the drive train, rinse it off.

Tip #2 – Develop Processes
If you develop orders of doing things, not only do you become faster and more efficient, you become more reliable. This allows you not to forget steps of doing complicated processes. This tip can apply to many different aspects of bicycle maintenance, i.e. overhauls, washing, and tune ups. Many times there is no correct order of doing things, but their can be incorrect orders.

Step #4 – Washing the Frame
Begin washing your frame with the dish soap bucket and its sponge/brushes. There are many different orders to washing your bike frame. I prefer to start at the top and work my way down, forward to back. Just remember Tip #2, develop a process. You will also see in the brush kits (Park or Pedro’s) there are different size and shapes of brushes. It’s not hard to use your imagination for their use when cleaning your bike. The best one to remember is that the long skinny brush is great for getting into the brake area’s; around frame arches, brake calipers, and other hard to reach spots. If you notice greasy build up on your frame around your drive train area, chances are you are using to much lube. Rinse the frame of when you are done. Don’t spray a direct stream of water into area’s that have bearings.

Tip #3 – Don’t spray pressurized water into bearings, pivots, or any moving part. This could blow the grease out of your bearings, introduce water into sealed bearings, or push dirt further into a moving part. If dirt is introduced to bushings or bearings, they wear quicker and parts will need replaced sooner.

Step #5 Dry the Bike
I like to wipe as much water as easily possible and let the bike air dry. With the wheels, let them air dry most of the way, take them and bounce them on the ground a few times to knock off the few remaining drips of water. This should give them a spotless look.

Summary
Cleaning the bike is a very important step to maintaining your bike. It is also the first step of a tune up or any other complex procedure. When you clean your bike it allows you to inspect for damage and wear. If you can catch a worn or damaged part early, chances are you will be replacing fewer parts on your bike and minimizing costs. As you know a damaged or worn part usually will cause other parts to wear much quicker.

Many of us take for granted our abilities to complete many of the local climbs in town. Do you remember the first time you rode up to Horsetooth Mountain Park or climbed Rist Canyon?

I personally remember my first climb up Rist Canyon distinctly. I was with a group of Lee’s employees shortly after I moved here in 2005. I had never ridden a long climb like that before, much less a long climb that became so steep at the very top after I was already so tired.

I stopped at probably the steepest part of the climb and I couldn’t get back on my bike. It was so steep that I couldn’t get the pedals to turn over before I thought I would fall down. I remember Tyson had to push me to get me going again. In some ways it was humiliating, but really it was an experience that made me a stronger more resilient cyclist.

During the MS 150 training ride this weekend I had the opportunity to accompany Paula on her first ride up some of Northern Colorado’s toughest climbs. She did great. I knew she was hurting, but I had her get in her lowest gear and just keep pedaling. At one point I worried that I was annoying her, because I was chanting, “pedal, pedal, pedal.” But I knew if she stopped it would be hard to get started again especially on the steeper gradients.

Paula made all the climbs and here are some pictures of her enjoying the views from the top.

This is a shout out to Paula for doing a great job on Sunday. Good luck at the MS 150, girl.

It was a rough week in professional cycling last week. I’m sure that many of you read about Floyd Landis’ admission to doping and then his attempt to take down all his former teammates with him. I don’t believe we will ever really know the real truth. I’m sure that all the racers walk a fine line between legal performance enhancing supplements and doping.

Then of course a day later, Lance crashes out of the Tour of California. Bicycling magazine had a video showing his difficult decision to abandon the race. Unfortunately it is no longer available. It was clear that Lance was in pain, bleeding and his eye was swelling shut which was probably the main reason he had to drop out.

Lee’s also wishes a speedy recovery to the many local racers who crashed this week.

So you think that racing is just for the pro’s?
Next weekend we have a hill climb race up Northern Colorado’s most storied climb, Rist Canyon. There is both an ACA licensed division as well as a citizen’s race. Lee’s staff will have a tent west of the feed zone in Belview. Please stop by if you need anything.

I had the most awesome experience with a customer this weekend. I got to introduce to someone to the joy of road riding.

She came into the store with her boyfriend/husband and it was obvious that this was something they wanted to do together. What I loved most was her commitment to getting into riding. She genuinely wanted to make riding a part of her life and I got to be the lucky person to help her get started.

Personally, that’s what I’ve always loved about working at a bike shop. I believe there is such a shear joy in riding but the joy is even better when you get to share it with someone else.

I remember the person who got me into riding. Sometimes I wonder, had we not met would I still be 25 pounds overweight and gasp, smoking. Would I not understand the joys of riding as a form of transportation or the pounds of CO2 that I didn’t spew into the air?

With that, I remind you to share the joy of riding. Riding is great, but it’s always more fun to share. Just think, maybe you could be the catalyst for change in someone’s life.

As I said in my first blog of season, I was going to try my hand at a little mountain biking and give the New Belgium Short Track series a try. All I have to say is wow, what a blast. First, I have to say I didn’t come in last. I also have give a shout out to my friend Jill Napiwocki for her first place finish in the women’s division and Hannah Garvey for being the first girl in the kids’ division. I know that Heath Garvey and Tyson Kaman had a great race as well. I hope I didn’t miss any other Lee’s/TrekLove racers, but I did want to say thanks for coming out and cheering us on.

I know some of you reading this probably think I am a sissy. But maybe you have a spouse, significant other, sister or maybe even an out of shape friend who you want to introduce to mountain biking. Let me give you some do’s and don’ts on how to introduce someone to mountain biking.

I’ll start with the don’t list
• Don’t take them someplace where it is very rocky. Rocks are very intimidating to newbie’s. Start them on smooth trails where they can get a feel for their bike.
• Don’t take any skill for granted. For you hopping a curve may seem instinctive, but for someone who hasn’t done it before it can be a bit intimidating. Find a small curve or other obstacle and build up to larger curbs and logs.
• Don’t just tell them momentum is their friend – show them. Progression is key here so that the rider can understand how the bike moves beneath them.

Do List
• Tell them to look where they want to the bike to go and not at the obstacle they want to avoid.
• Focus your weight on your feet and not on the seat. When going down something steep think “boobs to the tube” (top tube that is.)
• Use your whole body to propel the bike. Sometimes you will feel like you are throwing or pushing your handlebars over the top of a hill or obstacle.
• Use your gears and downshift before heading up a short steep hill, but don’t be afraid to stand up and power over the top.

I know that I’ve only scratched the surface with my tips. These are some of the ideas that have helped me. Please chime in with other tips in the comments below.