Weekend racing…

Incredible racing was on tap during the weekend. I mean, you’ve got Paris-Roubaix and the Little 500. I read somewhere that the Little 500 is the only live network broadcast of a bike race in the US. A little embarrassing considering the level of other races held in the states. Maybe it’s because of videos […]

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Celeste trifecta…

Okay, so the Ciocc isn’t technically Celeste, but it’s close. And by virtue if it’s C-Record group, including Delta brakes, qualifies it as the hippest roadie bike in the shop. It’s interesting each of these bikes is totally different from the other. One roadie, one ‘cross, one…uh, one, well, it used to be a mountain […]

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Aye yai yai…

Aye yai yai is right. Imagine tooling along at 45-50kph and…ooof, wondering how you ended up on the deck. It’s interesting watching the crash unfold. The rider in front of the Saunier Duvall rider who crashed, had a bit of a gap so the S-D rider should/could have seen the curb, but if you are […]

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Along came a spider…

I don’t know what it is about West Marin, but it seems like we have an awful lot of spiders out here. I’m constantly cleaning spider webs out of the eves, any corner, and even the wheel wells of the car if it sits for more than a few days. Anywhere there is a harboring […]

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Time to get back to bikes…

Had a guy come in over the weekend who needed to replace the brake pads in his Campy Record brake holders. The pads had worn a bit – not to the worn line, mind you – but enough so that the tire guide was scraping on the rim. Not a good idea when your rim […]

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Be careful what you say…

Especially when it’s directed at Lance Armstrong. It was reported today that Trek is severing ties with Greg LeMond. There is one thing that stands out in the release, though. The release states: “In 1999, the LeMond line was one of the fastest growing road bike brands and one of the top five largest road […]

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Seemed like a good idea at the time…

A 9-speed Dura Ace shifter came to me recently with a problem. The release lever wasn’t working. It worked if the main brake lever was held in place at the same time the release lever was activated, but that is a very awkward contortion while riding. Usually, this is a symptom of a sticky pawl […]

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Pictures from the pits…

I always like seeing photos of the bikes that will be used for the annual Paris-Roubaix race. It interests me to see the special preparations that team mechanics make to the bikes and parts to survive the race. This one race has the potential to have mud, dust, heat, rain, wind, calm… But one thing […]

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How do they do that…

A friend of mine is building up a new bike and asked me how much it would cost for an XTR group. He told me that he had been looking at the prices on a mail order site in the UK. I checked out their site and found to my disbelief that the price they […]

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One second…

I recently built up a new race bike for Daniel, a local high school kid who races in the NorCal high school mountain bike league. A nice, light, no-frills Orbea aluminum frame, Fox Float RLC fork, SRAM X9 drivetrain w/ XT crank, light wheels with Stan’s rims and White Industries hubs, and Juicy Carbon brakes. […]

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April Fool’s…

Yes, today is April 1. Yesterday was March 31. I didn’t even think about today being April Fool’s Day until a few jokes started popping up on the internet yesterday. The bike industry, it seems, is rife with jokers. Some are okay. Some fail. Some are brilliant. In the failed category, I submit Commute By […]

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If the Cannondale sale didn’t shake things up…

The sale of Specialized to GM certainly will. Yep, you heard that right, GM is now the owner of Specialized. The owner. Not a 49% shareholder or even 51%, but they got the whole kit and caboodle. If the thought of Cannondale being sold through Performance Bike shops was enough to throw the dealer industry […]

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