A helping hand

I can't tell you how many times I've been interrupted while in the middle of taping bars.  The phone rings or I forget to grab the electrical tape.  Or, worst of all, trying to cut the end when it slips out of your hand and flops around and around, enravelling the work you are about to finish.  Then a few weeks ago I found an answer.  I was hanging out in my buddies garage and saw him grab a spanner wrench and use it to pinch the bar and hold his tape in place.  Where has this been all my life?  Now I use this trick every time I need to tape handlebars and I'm passing it on to you.

There are a few ways to skin a cat.

A few mounts ago, I was at the bike shop talking with the guys about all of the new rear axles coming out and all of the parts we would need to have machined in order to accommodate them.  We had about 15 new Scott Sparks and a handful of Treks waiting for fittings.  We came to the realization that we were screwed and that we would never be able to keep up, so we needed to find a solution.  After a few sleepless nights, I came up something.  

Since the rear axle configuration is different from brand to brand and the industry has not yet adopted a standard, it made sense to think about fitting a bike from the front fork.   These measurements are more standardized; 9mm, 15mm, and 20mm.  So I started measuring every bike I could find and building a database of wheel bases and axle heights.  With that information in hand, I was able to draw my design.  My good friend, Ernie Wieber, looked over my design and put it into SolidWorks.  EW then handed the design over to a friend who used his laser cutter to make the parts.

 

A few weeks later we had our parts back.  Seeing them ready to be put together was amazing.  Imagine seeing pieces to a puzzle that you designed yourself.

A couple of my buddies at Grunion Customs, Kevin Grunion and John Ryder, were nice enough to let me assemble it at their shop.  

Keven knurling the adjustment rod on his lathe.

It was a little nerve racking for me, I hadn't welded since the shipyards in Alaska last summer.

It was really starting to come together.

All of the fabrication was finally done, I couldn't wait to get back to the shop and install it.

We decided to modify our old table in order to accomodate the new system.

After a few hours of measuring and cutting, we finally had it bolted in straight.  It was so much fun to see Kaolin on the first test ride.  Because of the rubber mounted main beam and heim joints on the adjustment rod, it had a certain amount of sway while still staying on the same plane.  This will give the rider a more natural feel.  With a comfortable rider it is possible to get a more realistic fit.  This is somethting that was previously impossible, unless the fitter was using a set of rollers and cameras.

There are a few problems with fitting a rider on a bike that way.  First of all, it's not easy for most people to ride on rollers.  Also, fitters are unable to make adjustments on the fly.  Lastly, the fitter is not able to physically touch the rider, which makes it difficult to accurately measure flexibility. 

As far as I know, the Flat Tire Bike Shop is the only shop that can offer a fit on any bike that is currently made.  Oh yeah!  And for you nay sayers...We can fit fat bikes and Lefty's as well.  Boom!

This is an indstry of tricks.

Bicycle mechanics work in an industry of tricks. Every little trick saves time and every little bit of time adds up to more services done. This is important in the shop or at a race.

This is a little trick I came up with for the Park BBT-10. 

You start by grinding both sides down evenly until the tool is 2mm wide.

Then you grind the top edge until it is square.

You still use the tool in the same way. But when you would normaly reach for a flat head screwdriver, you just turn the tool on its side and use it to flip up the plastick retention tab.

And voila! Just a little trick that saves you one step.

Today I want to show all of you one of my favorite tools, the Park BTS-1 bottom bracket, tapping and facing tool.  The reason it is such an important part of proper bike assembly is because it makes both sides of your bottom bracket perfectly parallel.  Anytime you have two barrings running in parallel, they need to be on the same plane or they will be working against etch other.  If this happens, they will either wear out prematurely or create drag, which no one wants.

Step One is to put your bike in a work stand, of course.  It's important to have a stable platform to work with.

Step Two is to identify the left and right sides of the tool which is designated by a LH and RH on the tap.  Now you would think that the left handed thread would go on the left side, but it is the opposite.

Step Three is to cover the cutting tool with fluid and flood the bottom bracket shell.  I like to use Cris King cutting oil.  Don't be worried about putting on too much, cutting dies are super expensive and the oil is cheep.  So lube it up good.

Step Four.  Carefully start threading the tap into the bottom bracket shell by a few threads.  Once both taps are started, turn them at the same time in the appropriate direction until you feel some resistance.  From this point on you should turn them no more then a half turn, then back a quarter to clear out the threads.  Remember to keep adding cutting fluid every full rotation or so.  Once you have the tool started a few full turns on both sides you can alternate from side to side.  Keep going until the tap is recessed into the shell.

Step Five.  Now we can start facing.  Pull the handle completely out of bottom bracket leaving the tap tool inside.  The tap will now act as a guide for the facing mill.  Install the facing mill cutter on the handle, then reinsert the handle into the taps.  Add fluid to the cutter, then apply steady pressure to the center of both handles and rotate only in a clockwise direction.  If you turn counter-clockwise it will dull the tool.  Only apply enough pressure to get a good 360 cut, if you press too hard you will gouge the shell.  A little chattering is ok, its only cosmetic and won't affect the function.  Repeat this step on the other side.

  

At first, you will just be removing paint.

 Almost there, just a little more.

Final Step.  Remove the tool from both sides of the frame at the same time, then clean off the tool and re-oil before storage.  Now you can clean out the frame and wipe it down. It's important to remove all remaining metal.  The final touch is to wipe a little grease on the new threads with you finger.

I hope you enjoyed seeing how this tool works, it's always fun for me to use it. 

Jan 12, 2013.  The first race in the New Year.  Twelve hours of Papago is a fun event held in an odd location under an over pass in downtown Tempe, AZ.  It looked like the kind of place you would dump a body or score some drugs.  But on this day it was filled with hundreds of mountain bikers getting ready for a 12 hour endurance race.

On this fine morning, Kaolin and I were up at 4:00 am to get to the venue. He was racing on a coed quad team for Nationwide and I, of course, was their mechanic.  I couldn't believe how cold it was when we got there.  Twenty-four degrees.  If you're not from southern Arizona, you're probably laughing right now.  But 24 degrees is frigid by Arizona standards.

While we were setting up for the race, a rider who was warming up rode by our tent when his freehub locked up.  This wasn't someone that was on our team and we actually had never even met him before.  But Kaolin and I dropped what we were doing and rebuilt his freehub on the spot.  We also decided to remove a spacer that was improperly installed in his cassette and re tune the bike.  This one of my favorite things about endurance racing.  Everyone helps one another, even if the person you help might end up beating you.

As the day went on, it was your typical AZ 12 hour race, except for the cold weather.  The day consisted of many dirty chains and a few minor tweaks.  We were lucky enough to have our pit right at the finish line.  It was so much fun listening to music and watching the racers run through the timing tent.

I have been to thousands of mountain bike races in my life and seen some spectacular finishes, but nothing compared to the last lap of the Open Quad.  Nationwide and Bicycle Haus had been battling it out all day and it came down to the final lap.  Haus was in the lead buy just a few minutes and everyone was watching in the change out area when they both came in at almost the same time.  Rick Bucker from Haus made the handover first with Matt Barolt right on his heels.  The entire croud was watching as they sprinted by us and back onto the course.  Rick is a Cat 3 road racer and a monster at the crits while Matt is an ex-desert moto cross racer who is one of the best technical riders I have ever seen.  No one knew who would prevail; the big motor or the skilled handler.  Everyone was gathered around the finish line staring into the darkness looking for a hint of one of their lights, when all of a sudden a single light appeared.  It was Matt and Nationwide had taken the lead from Bike Haus!

I tried to take pictures to share with you, but nothing turned out.  Here is how we did.

Nationwide Duo One - Duo 12 Hour - 3rd Place
Nationwide/Veloworx LABBW - Duo 12 Hour - 6th Place
Nationwide SHNT - Quad 12 Hour - 1st
Nationwide/Veloworx Do-Nut-Count Us Out - Quad 12 Hour - 13th
Leah McCabe - Solo Womens - 1st
Nationwide - Quad CoEd 12 Hour - 2nd