Ryan Trebon 2007 cyclocross Nationals Crash

that's got to hurt in so many ways

ski bike

having taken up the misery sticks this year, as well as purchasing a pass for the windsor park nordic centre this year, i wanted to try and ride my bike to most of the ski trails in winnipeg. after looking at several options for transporting my skis on my bike (i.e. strapping them alongside the top tube) i settled on the bob trailer with a rack made of pvc pipe. the system works great; the inaugural trip took 50 minutes from my house to windsor at an even pace.

phase 2

last night was christmas for me. put together the sledgehammer (my silly name for the bike - stolen from napolean dynamite) with some borrowed parts as i need to wait for a few parts to come in. it is here that i need to bow to the wisdom of paddy - if i had ordered everything months ago and received it then i would be looking at one or two trinkets which would be very pretty but somewhat unhelpful for the construction of the bike (i guess this is how shops keep somewhat of a normal semblance of inventory, by listening but not acting on every knee jerk whim of impatient customers - sigh). any ways, here are some pictures of the evening:

the lewis getting stripped of the cranks and headset. anybody need a large single speed frame that comes in at under 3.5 lbs?

like the chain on your bike, keep your mechanic well lubricated

the naked frame

i have a 140mm rotor on the back; to accommodate the brake tab/wheel location we added an additional spacer to move the brake a touch higher

the obligatory chain line shot

sledgehammer

the sledgehammer comes in at just over 21 lbs with these tires (and tubes) - this should drop by .5 lbs with new tubeless tires and other stuff

phase 3 will be the addition of the final components and the decals (minimal) and headbadge . i also need to figure out the correct stem length as the effective top tube length is slightly longer than that of the redline. phase 4 will be improving the engine that drives this thing, which is much harder and takes longer (and may not be possible) than actually planning, collecting the parts, and putting the bike together.

thanks to the mike t., tom, paddy, and especially mrs. dr. who supports my silly habit. woo hoo!

phase 1 pt. 2

the other photos that did not load this morning.

phase one

crap - there was suppose to be a couple of other photos of the frame on the blog when i got to work. tried to download three photos just before i left for work so i could do my silly little write ups with my morning java - guess it didn't work.

things i discovered about my frame:
it comes in at 4lbs 7.8oz - sweet
it is not a 27.2mm seat tube (guessing it might be 27.0 - will find out at the shop)
it looks very nice with the new wheelset i had built up (black stan's rims, black revolution spokes)

more later

this just in...

well not really, it was in earlier this week, but it is now in this province. the hard thing is, i have not actually seen it in the flesh so to speak. the frame was sent directly to winkler. cousin john picked it up for me and dropped it off at powder coat shop on friday. he was nice enough to send me the following pictures of the raw frame. the colour of the frame is going to be RAL 9001 (an off-white)





with any luck i will be driving to winkler next weekend to pick up the frame (and with more luck, to put the bike together so i can do a loop of the lake trail).

mncx2007, and don't believe your own press

so state's has come and gone for another year, and if you have never gone you should really go (i am looking at all fgbc members - think of it, $35 gets you into the best cross party in town, even better than cross 'tona).

cam, ian and i left early friday and got to minneapolis in time to stop at both one on one and hurl's c-r-c coffee bar. saturday started off with the stop at the sunny side up for breakfast. having learned from last year's fiasco of ordering huevos rancheros for breakfast (and also witnessing what biscuits, gravy and italian sausage did to the good dr.), i ordered the oatmeal with raisins and brown sugar. this proved to be a much more reasonable breakfast, with none of the after effects of 'oh crap, i think i am going to see my breakfast again' after 2 laps of the race. after breakfast we arrived at the course and quickly registered. cam and ian had the option of the 35 minute singlespeed category, or the 60 minute (cat 1&2)/35+ category, while i had the options of the singlespeed or the 45 minute 45+ category. cam and ian chose the singlespeed and i chose the 45+ which meant that we would go off at different times (cam and ian were in the first "b" wave, and i was in the second). b1 was huge, starting 92 riders, while there were only 60 riders in my wave. if there is one thing you should experience in your biking life, it is the feeling of starting a race with 60-90 racers surrounding you as you leave the line - cool. cam and ian started a little back in the pack but managed to make their way through the ranks to finish 4th and 10th in the singlespeed category, an excellent result. having had enough of cam kicking my ass this season it was nice not having to race him in my category, of course i now had a mess of cat 3 and other 45+ guys to deal with that were going to kick my butt all over the place. the start of the race was good, but i found myself in the middle of the road which was not a good a place to be because of the crazy washboard that made up that part of the road. after negotiating the start i quickly settled into my race. i received some good advice from ian and cam and avoided some of the pitfalls they experienced with the start of their race (cam found himself squeezed into the snow fence, and on top of the fence at one point when too many riders bottlenecked into one of the first corners). highlights of the race included cheers of "go winnipeg" by the kenwood boys, passing a cat 3 guy on the inside corner going into the corners while on the uphill climb, and taking a whiskey hand-up at the double barrier. it was a good race, where i did not get lapped by the leaders (a goal this year - which i met in most of my races). checking the results after the race it initially looked like i finished in 2nd place for the 45+ category which was very surprising - but this was latter dispelled when i checked the official results today; 11th in the 45+ which was not bad (not too confident about this as they had ian listed as sam hall, they missed jesse lalonde in the "a" category, and cam and ian thought that i was higher than this based on the guys that came in ahead of me - but official is official).

the "a" was complete nutty with more whiskey hand-ups, dollar primes on the ground and barriers, insane bunny-hopping of the double barriers, firecrackers thrown at the feet of the leader, great tunes all over the course, and a guy dressed up as death stalking all the riders. this and the 24 hours of nine mile really need to make it on to the calendar of future fgbc events, right up there with the annual spring ride.

more alberto photo's here.

getting closer

this in today from mr. truelove...

Hi Hal,
the frame is pretty much done.
I would like to stamp a serial #, usually 6 or 7 numbers or letters of your choice.
The balance owing: the DT was less $, but the dropouts were more $, and more work. So it kind of balances out. I'd like to keep the price at $900
so,
$900 + $54gst = $954
subtract $450 deposit

balance owing $504.00

the frame is being shipped to winkler and powder coated by enviro-tech

hope to have it in a couple of weeks. here are the two pictures that came with today's highly anticipated email:

(i really like them paul drop outs)

okay, now i am excited

here we go, this was in my inbox - i am going to be checking my email way too often over the next few days

the down tube is in and the top tube, head tube, and down tube are attached

cx provincials

as always, a blast. in fact the whole cross season has been a blast to this point - well, the civic park course was more than painful, but still fun in a sick sort of way. mud, pea gravel, turns, climbs, the course had it all. a few quick observations:

• singlespeeders rocked, taking 7 out of the top 10 spots in the senior event
• the mud bog was more than a challenge, running it was better than riding in terms of racing because your bike stayed clean and if you were not riding a mountain bike, it was more often miss than hit
• 39X17 was good, but i think 39X18 would have been better - scott m. and i discussed the merits and difficulties of singlespeed cross and it is the acceleration out of the corners where we can, if pushing too big a gear, lose a lot of ground to the gear-heads. of course having said that, long straights also prove challenging - it seems like we're damned if we do, damned if we don't. definite benefit is not having a derailleur spin into your spokes in the mud (sorry allan).
• belgian beer is wonderful, especially when accompanied with fries and mayo
• there might be no better club house than the belgian club (waiting for the flames on this one)
  
• pea gravel sucks - took me 200 -300 meters to get clipped in after every run through the stuff.
• there are no better pictures than cross pictures (kevin, dave b, aiden's (with some help from me))
  
• the fans at provincials (and all cross races) make racing even more fun
• thanks to ian, tom, olympia, and everyone that helped put on a great event.

apparently i am too tall...

so, on friday i had this email in my mailbox

Hi Hal,
I ran into a snag on your bike. The down tube I have here is not long enough. A 29er has a lower BB 'drop' and your top tube (25") is pretty long. Those factors combine to create a long distance between the BB and head tube. The reynolds 853 tube I ordered is pretty standard (680 mm) Your bike needs a DT about 710 mm long I checked the specs from reynolds and they DO offer a DT that is 730mm, however I can only get what the distributor in California stocks. I will find out tomorrow. I also have access to True Temper tubes. They have an 'OX platinum' series at the top of the line, it IS long enough ( 740mm) to work. I also moved the jig around a bit to find out what I could build with this tube. The closest to your geometry I could get was a 24.75" TT (not 25) and a 71.5 deg ST (not 73) I know this kind of sucks, I've made lots of 29er frames, but none this big. Unless the longer reynolds tube is available (this is unlikely) I guess its a choice between the true temper or modifying the geometry. thanks mt

so, it looks like i won't be having 853 on the down tube. the geometry is more important than the material, and besides going to the OX platinum is more of a lateral move than a vertical one. i asked MT his opinion and he likes both, saying that i would not notice the difference in ride characteristics between the two.

looks like the shipping date will be sometime during the week of nov. 12-16. i am going to have it shipped directly to enviro-tech in winkler who is doing the powder coating and clear coat ($125).

yipee.

sweet

found this in my mailbox this afternoon...

Hi Hal,
OK, I just got those dropouts, should be starting your bike early
next week.
i'll keep you posted.
mt

frame update

received an email from mike truelove, and it looks like there is movement happening on the new bike front.

here are some specifics for the bike:

29er singlespeed

head tube angle: 72 degrees
seat tube length: 21.5"
seat tube angle: 73 degrees
top tube length: 25" (sloped)
chain stay length: 17.5"
BB height 12"

seat tube and down tube will be reynolds 853
top tube is tange ultimate
seat stays and chain stays will be reynolds 725
dropouts are paul single speed rear drop outs with axle keepers
adjustable disc mount

other details:
two water bottle mounts and guides for hydraulic brake lines

the bike will be built with the following:
thomson elite seatpost
selle italia slr gel flow saddle (if it comes back from warranty)
race face next sl handlebar (31.8 mm)
ritchey pro stem
chris king headset
avid jucy 7 hydraulics
pace rc29 carbon fork
truvativ stylo cranks (180mm)
egg beater candy pedals

i'll have two sets of wheels for this bike
set 1 (just built by the poosher) will be tubeless with notubes ztr rims, revloution spokes, white industries hubs, and a 16/18 dos freewheel (tires to be determined)
set 2 i will use with tubes. this gives me flexibility to use different tires and ability to use these wheels on my cross bike. they have mavic open pro rims, revolution spokes, and chris king hubs (singlespeed rear).

this is about as close as it gets to being like a little kid at christmas.

we need a drum band

that time of the year

the banner of this blog says it is about bikes, beer, and bread - well its october and that means it is time to start baking again.

one helluva race

one of the better races and cross courses to come our way. fast, with a nice mix of technical sections - also a very pretty course to ride on. probably, one of the best races of the season to watch (too bad for those who missed it). the "b" race ended with a print to the finish line between rick y and dan lockery - a great race where rick had the lead the whole race as dan continued to make up ground lap after lap, finally catching him with 3 to go. dan took the lead going into the final lap, but rick caught and passed him at the line. there was a lot of support from the "a" racers and it was a riot watching dallas and others rag several "b" racers, while giving support to others. in fact the support for all the riders was classic - pure cowbell madness. The "a" race also ended in sprint to the line between ollie and daniel with daniel taking it by a wheel or less. luc rocked and almost stole 5th from jon b in a sprint to the line. there was some classic racing go on in the middle of the pack as cam and tom broke out on their own as jon, kuc, brain s and I worked together to try and reel them in at various points. eventually brian fell off the back and the rest of us conitnued our pursuit of the second tier crown in the "a" race. cam got too far ahead of us but the lead between the rest of us changed hands several times. jon broke out alone eventually, and tom also created a gap. luc and i found ourselves trying to catch tom somewhere in the middle of the race. we worked together for 3 laps and managed to pull tom in and the three of us rode together for a bit. luc jumped again and he and tom took off after jon - I just couldn't hold their wheels and settled into 8th place with nothing left to try and catch tom. luc managed to reel in jon and the two of them sprinted to line where jon won by three inches. sweet stuff. i was pleased with my race, finally making it through a race without getting lapped by the leaders, a first for me in an "a" race.

keeping up with the jones's

okay, i made the leap into 29er-ville at the beginning of sumer more on a lark than a well laid plan. in spring i thought that i would be racing the bianchi lewis and using the redline as a fun bike. what i did not realize at the time was that this bike, the redline, would become my preferred choice for a race bike and that the bianchi would just end up sitting in the basement (hope to be selling it soon). at the end of this season i decided that i wanted to get a lighter frame and decided to look into buying a new frame. after consulting with the poosher and paddy at the shoppe i have finally made a decision on a custom made fame from mike truelove. some of you may recall that i was looking into this earlier, but did not bite at that time. well, that is no longer the case as mike and i have sent several emails back and forth and a new custom made frame will soon be in the works. so far i have decided on a more aggressive head angle, more slope on the top tube and slightly longer top tube. the bike will be mostly made from reynolds 853 and maybe some tange ultimate tubing. even though the frame is not scheduled to be built until some time in october, i am way too excited - almost like a small kid at christmas. more details will follow.

wednesday morning cross training

who ever thought that running cross training rides the morning after a fgbc tuesday night ride was a good idea may need to reconsider their decision making abilities.

(does this look like it is going to lead to high levels of participation for cross training?)

by the time i got to bed it was 1:00 am, and the thought of getting up at 6:30 to be at omand's creek park at 7:00 sat about as well as the sometimes skanky beer that is served at the f-n-h. regardless, i rolled out of bed with the encouraging words of mrs. dr. trailing behind me ("are you nuts?"), and got into cycling gear. half of my motivation for getting out of bed was that this was going to be good for me, the other half was avoiding the ridicule of the others if i did not show. when i showed up, only deanna and scott were there. with scott still on the mend, deanna and ran hills, did laps, and practiced our cross dismounts and mounts. after 45 minutes we were done. we headed home feeling good about the training, and for me, an added sense of moral superiority that i showed up (soon to be dispelled i am sure)

running laps up and down the hill

this time with the bike

xc8

last weekend the poosher and i headed out to xc8 for eight hours of joy and pain on the fabulous course at buffalo pound provincial park. we left the city at about 3 pm and headed west

(yet another car window view of the prairies as we speed by)

7 hour later we arrived and promptly set up the tent and had a pint of the good stuff

the morning was cool and we woke up to find a slew of other manitobans had made the trip (dave, seema (sp?), corey smith, shawn zayak, mike kuczer, shane lindsay, and others). it was at about this time that the karma that the poosher was going to experience the rest of the day made itself apparent. at the very first wednesday night race of the season someone left a nice cycling vest at the race site, tom picked it up and carried it around for the next 5 races. since no one claimed it, tom thought he had some nice trail swag for himself. of course the first time he wore it (this weeked) shane identifies the vest as his and tom gives it back - which is not so bad, but tom felt embarrassed. that behind him, tom got ready for the race and just prior to the start did a warm up climb on the hill which was the at the start of the race. anticipating a long day the poosher had selected some tunes for his ipod shuffle and clipped it on to his jersey. he did not turn it on for the warm-up so he did not notice that it had come off during his warm up some where on the hill - where it still lies as i write this post. with the embarrassment of the vest and missing shuffle behind him the poosher settled into the race. on his third lap tom was pushing the pace and attacking a downhill section which was fairly straightforward except for a few bumps and at times a high sided rutted main path - well this got the better of him. as he describes it he knew he was in trouble even before he got in trouble, and the trouble was there was nothing he could do about it. tom caught the rut at a bad angle and slammed hard into the ground, breaking his catlike helmet. it was right after this that i came upon him and he was pretty banged up and shaken. we discussed whether i should go get the medic, but tom said he felt okay enough to ride out - his race and weekend were done.

(morning of the race)

the race course at buffalo pound was excellent, much like birch, but with some really fast twisty flowing single track descents - what a blast and one of the better coursed i have ridden. i was riding the 29er with a 32X20 set up which was find for the the first 4 hours, after that i wish i had 22 cog for the back, because the climbing started to take its toll. the last 4 laps that i completed were hard as the climbs and bumpy descents (i also like to punish myself by riding a rigid fork) added up. i managed 10 laps and think i finished 7th overall which i was pleased with. dave finished with 11 laps and corey had an excellent race and finished in 6th with 10 laps just ahead of me. seema rocked with 8 laps and managed to make the podium with a third place finish, where she got a medal, prizes, and cheap champagne to spray over the crowd - cool.

following the race the poosher and i packed up and headed back to winnipeg, arriving at 3:30 in the morning; a long day, but well worth it (tom may disagree).

i heart dr. laura

when it comes to beer in winnipeg, our selection is somewhat limited. we need a better beer store. someone needs to open a fine beer store, just like there are fine wine stores. minneapolis has plenty of fine beer stores, and laura proved that by bringing these fine selections home from her weekend trip to the twin cities. yeah! i am going to put on my belgian cycling socks, pop in a 'cross dvd and enjoy a fine lambic.

friday night fun

with mrs. dr. out of town visiting friends from her doctorate progam, my social calendar was wide open. with nothing better to do i headed to the shop to hang out and shoot the breeze. paddy was building some wheels, the poosher was helping a friend price out bike parts, al was working the front, and john and adrian were turning wrench in the back. upon discovery that the fridge was bare, i departed for the f-n-h to replenish the stock. upon my return i was pleased to see that jon b and dave had joined the fray. we sat around the back, talked and had few beers as jon's trusty steed got a makeover. when it was time to close the shop jon, dave and i decided to take in a movie. now, i had a couple of beers, jon had a couple of beer, but dave - dave had a couple of beers and a bottle of wine earlier in the day. i had no doubt jon and i would make it to the theater in tact, but dave was another story - would he survive the ride to the theater. the short answer is no - in fact dave wiped out big time on portage avenue as we made the turn to cross the st. james bridge. big ouch (thank goodness for helmets). dave got up, dusted himself off and declared himself good to go - and he was until just before we got to the theater. we stopped so jon could take care of some plumbing issues and when dave came to a stop down he went like a poorly constructed house of cards. dusting himself off, dave once again declared himself good to go and we finished our ride to the theater. arriving at the theater we locked our bikes to the rack - well at least jon and i did, dave on the other hand managed to get the lock on his bike and that was about all. i quickly re-locked dave's bike to the rack and the three of us found our way into the theater to watch the movie. good times and a funny movie with some great lines. after the film we parted ways and i made my way home - what happened to the other two i do not know, but there must be another story there somewhere.

belgian fun in the sun

the belgian triathlon went off on saturday afternoon - what a blast. the day started with an early morning meeting at the pole archery grounds where myself, tom and ian met to set up the 'cross course

(the poosher surveying the grounds - "yes, it is good")

following the setup i headed back home to get my ultimate gear and make it to assinaboine park for our first playoff game. on the way i had a very president-like moment when i lost control of my bike after hitting a rock on the river trail behind balmoral hall, causing me to careen into a tree - ouch. after a hard fought battle on the ultimate field (we lost - however, our team came back in its second game of the day to win. yeah team.), it was back to the pole archery grounds for the triathlon. the format for the triathlon had one cyclocross rider pared with a bowler, pared with a archer. each team received points based on how the team member did in their event, you could enter any or all of the events. maybe i was still feeling the effects of the run-in with the tree, for whatever reason, i did not put my name in for all of the events and found myself only entered in the cyclocross.

ian and eric figuring out the teams

cyclocross went first and we had to race around a short course which was all grass. nothing kills me more than racing on grass - it sucks you dry from the get go.

tim on the 'cross course

the next event was belgian bowling. belgian bowling consists of rolling a beveled disc, which curl as they roll, at a stake placed in the ground.

jon

gianni

apparently tom has signed us up as team for the belgian bowling league this winter. our team name is mucr-vecken(sp?) and our team uniform - yellow 'lion of flanders' cycling socks.


the final event was the pole archery. pole archery is where you try and knock birds off their perch on a pole 110 feet above your head with a bow and arrow. the arrow's have blunt ends which is a very good thing for obvious reasons.

birds on the 'fork'

here is what it looks like from below

tim shooting with his homemade bow (he built this while in high school)

arlene shooting at the women's target which was 40 feet away and horizontal

sol shooting

the next four pictures show colin preparing to shoot

of course the final event of the day was going back to the belgian club for their other national activity - hooray for the belgians!