I get pretty obsessive over items like bike set up and
the impact of the small things on overall performance. It could be said that I put too much emphasis
on the details, perhaps so much so that I miss the big picture. If I ever find the right balance I will let
you all know.
Details or big picture?
A few weeks ago at cross camp I didn’t have a chain
keeper on my cross bike. I run a single
ring up front and I figured it wouldn’t be a big issue. Having to stop about a dozen times in two
days and put my chain back on convinced me otherwise. It wasn’t the stopping so much as losing my
momentum and then having to catch up to the group. Last week I was able to install a K-edge chain
keeper (which, by the way, is amazing) and not a dropper since. Yes, small things can make a big difference.
Details or big picture?
A few years back I dusted off my cross bike and installed
a new stem and showed up for the first preseason race thinking I was ready to
go. This venue featured many interesting
challenges including a short, bumpy descent with a sharp right-hand turn at the
bottom whereupon the route climbed sharply.
Needless to say, you wanted as much speed as you could handle at the
bottom of the turn while still being able to make the turn. I had pre ridden the course, but not all of
it at speed, and when I hit the descent at race speed the jarring was
significant. I squeezed the brakes as I
approached the turn and without warning my handlebars rotated forward in the
stem taking my weight over my front wheel. Instinctively my hands clamped
tighter on the bars (and the brakes) launching me into a somersault at the apex
of the turn. The trail turned right and I did not. I landed on my back in a
blackberry bush with my bike on top of me. My fellow racers asked if I was okay
(an indication of how bad it must have looked) and of course my gender-driven
rote response was that I was okay.
The big picture
says you test ride (beyond your driveway) and shake out any new bike modifications. The big picture also says you take some hot
laps before any race for a myriad of reasons.
Details or big picture?
I have an excel spreadsheet with my bike
measurements. In addition to the usual
seat height etc., I have X and Y coordinates for BB, the nose of my saddle and
the c enter line of my bars in my stem.
Based on this I THINK I can set up any bike by using the BB as a
reference and adjusting the saddle (up/down and fore/aft) and the bars by
adding or removing spacers (up/down) and changing the stem (fore/aft). This means I have some long stems and I disdain
short head tubes.
Even after the tape measure says it fits, I still swing a
leg over and try it out. And if I am
going to race it, I test it a LOT. I was
amazed at how long it took me to get my Ridley dialed in as well as how small
the changes were. Tiny things like bar
angle made a big difference. The story
is the same with my cross bike. When on
a ride I realized I wanted to lower the left brake hood a bit and didn’t have a
long enough hex key with me, I was uneasy.
It was as if I had to pee or something, I could not get
comfortable. Oddly, when I got home and was
able to adjust the brake position, I felt a sense of relief not unfamiliar to
male cyclists of a certain age.
I read somewhere (probably in Cyclocross Magazine) that
during cross season Marianne Vos rides her cross bike exclusively no matter if
she rides in the mud or on the road. She
knows how important it is to feel comfortable on it. While I have tried to dial in the details I
am aware that the details only exist as part of the whole bike. Getting comfortable on that bike is important
and I have logged over 200k on my new cross bike and I would say I reached my
final configuration where I can declare it “spot on” just this past Friday.
The big picture tells me I need to get my legs in shape
pretty quick if I hope to have any kind of success at all in 2013.
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