Winter at the Shop

We often hear at the bike shop "you guys must be really be slow this time of year". The truth is, we are pretty slow. At least compared to the summer. However, what really changes is the pace of work. We still have enough to do it's just not the frantic craziness of summer. Which I is pretty nice to say the least.

So what goes on during a normal day in January at the shop? I took a few pictures of things going on around the store on a typical day.

Always lots of new bike builds....

New build, Lapierre Pulsium. Definitely has a different look to it.

Interesting rear brake adaptor. The frame is designed to work with both standard reach and "mid reach" or 57mm brake calipers. This adds some extra tire clearance for running fat road tires.

Another build starts.

New Marin Lombard, not a bad commuter bike for 1k.

Niner Jet9, another fresh build. Trying to get the tires set-up tubeless has been a bit of a project. They seem to be finally holding air now. 

Besides a lot of out of the box, new bike builds, winter is a good time for working on custom bikes. Some customers know this and will come in during the winter to work with us to build their new dream bike.

These wheels are going on a custom built Gunnar Fast Lane.

DT 350 hubs and Velocity A23 rims, designed for light touring with lots climbs for a light weight rider.  

Fat slick tires and big cassette installed on the new wheels for the Gunnar, for long and hilly road rides.

 It is always fun when new products come in that we haven't seen in person before. These are my new rims for my old, freshly painted, Gunnar. They are Pacenti SL23 rims, 24mm wide and relatively light. I'm interested to see how they build-up. More on this project later. 

Nicely finished brake track and wear indicator on the Pacenti rims.

My recently painted Gunnar, ready to be build back up.

Lots of people in madison ride all winter. So we stay surprisingly busy all year working on bikes.

Doing things like installing studded tires.

Amazing how many people use the bike path that runs by the shop.

In the summer the path can be backed up a long way with riders waiting to cross West Washington Ave.

All of these pictures were taken in about a 5 minute period, pretty busy bike path for a not-so-nice  January day.

This bike came in for a tune-up. Pretty comfy looking handlebar set-up. And yes, she wore her chain out.  

Those are some pretty sweet pedals! The bearings are a little loose, I'll tighten them up when I do the tune-up. 

Our new bike rack just got finished last week. Winter is the perfect time for shop improvement projects.

Stay warm and get out for a ride in the snow!

My 2014/15 Cannondale SuperX

Cyclocross season is officially over, but I though I might post a bit about my Cannondale cross bikes from this year.

The last two seasons I was on Treks: two years ago on Trek's carbon Cronus and last year on a pair of aluminum Crocketts. Three years ago I had two Cannondale SuperXs, however, so this is not my first time racing Cannondale cross bikes.

The first thing I felt when I got back on a Cannondale SuperX was "wow, this is a race bike." The Cannondales handle much quicker compared to the Treks, which seemed to lag during hard accelerations. This could be due to the top of the line carbon composition of the Cannondales, whereas Crocketts are made of much heavier aluminum. The Treks' front steering geometry also felt a bit off to me, which is interesting because the differences between the Crockett and SuperX are slight: .5cm shorter chain stays; slightly higher bottom bracket; and slightly steeper head tube angle on the Cannondales. But those differences add up to much quicker handling, which suited my needs perfectly.

Depending on what you are doing with your cross bike the quicker handling of the Cannondales isn't necessarily a good thing. Treks are ultra predictable. The stable feel of them makes bombing high speed road descents and rough technical sections easy, making them a more versatile bike overall.

The other major difference on my bikes this year is disc brakes. Anyone who says discs aren't needed in cross hasn't ridden them. My SRAM brakes added a whole new level of confidence, particularly in faster dry races when I needed to get on the brakes hard before corners. I could brake later coming into corners, which was a big advantage over other riders on rim brakes. And being able to stop in all conditions was pretty nice too. Finally, the pads on this years' brakes sat significantly further away from the rotor than previous generations, eliminating any issues with pad rub, and I swapped wheels a lot!

So what didn't I love about my bikes this year? Well I wish I would have had more than two pairs of good wheels. I had two pairs of awesome Zipp 303 carbon tubulars, one glued with Clement PDXs and one with Clement MXPs. Then I built a third pair of tubulars with Velocity Major Tom rims and DT hubs. Having raced a lot of aluminum wheels, I stand by my statement that any tubular wheelset is better than a clincher for cross. The Major Tom wheels were strong and stable, but the Zipps were noticeably faster in all conditions. They also accelerated better and turned easier thanks to their stiffness and light weight. No comparison.

The MXP tires were disappointing. I know a lot of people like them, but I didn't find a condition in which they outperformed the PDXs. The Clements were good in general, and stood out for their durability. I'm still searching for a tire, however, that is as versatile as the PDX but with slightly more supple casing.

Anyway, enough words, here are a few shots of my bikes as they sat in mid October.

Lucky to have two awesome bikes!

Fizik Aliante is a personals favorite. I'm interested to try the newest version that just came out. Fizik claims that it is the same shape, just a longer tail and tip, which should be better for mountain biking. 

SRAM's new Centerline rotors are much better then their old design. They were quieter and had a smoother feel. I rode with 140mm rotors front and rear this year, which gave me all the breaking power I needed. 

120mm Zipp stems. Very nicely finished stems the hold the bars well. Not sure how I feel about the T25 torx bolts.

Wolf Tooth Components helped us out with their Drop Stop chainrings. Never dropped a chain, even in the muddiest races. 

CX1 with a Quarq. 

Zipp 303's rode very well. Stiff, light and strong. 

As always, feel free to ask any questions! 

Pros Rides

This time of year is always exciting for the professional road racing fan because racing has finally started with the Tour Down Under. It is also exciting for the bike nerd because all the pro teams are showing off their new rides!

Cycling Tips has done a great job showing all the World Tour Team's new bikes.

Couple of my thoughts on these bikes...
-Lots of Shimano.
-Sad to see so much electronic these days. Still love my cables.
-Too many carbon FSA stems! 
-Its amazing how many pro teams are riding power meters on their race bikes now. With the weight of bikes coming down so much, there is no reason not to.
-Lots of aero frames. Marketing? Or is the weight thing again? Why not ride an aero frame if your bike is at the weight limit (6.8kg/14.99lbs) already?  
-Still lots of saddle to bar drop for most riders. Kind of thought that was going away now that more teams are working with bike fitters. Seems pro riders still do what they want! 
-Every single bike has tubulars. Seems like a lot of talk about all these new "high performance clinchers". Pros don't seem to be listening... If you are racing, tubulars are still king, period.
-These bikes were shot (I assume) after or before stage 1 at the Tour Down Under, a flat, fast day on the bike. The winner averaged just over 27.5mph. All but Kittel's bike feature each wheels sponsors medium or semi-low profile wheels. Almost all of these companies make a deep, more aero, wheel. I think this goes to show, first how aero many med profile wheels are in real world conditions, and how more often than not a medium depth, lighter wheel, is the right choice for a fast day in the saddle. Better acceleration and predictability in a nervous peloton. 

I don't often get excited about specific teams, but this year I am excited to have Garmin on Cannondale's. Very cool to see these two partner.
I just wish they would stop taking pictures of Ryder Hesjedal's bikes, they always look so goofy...

 

Ryder is a lanky guy who runs a lot of drop.

Maybe they could have shot Ted King's bike instead? A little more "proper" of a set-up I think. This is King's 2014 bike.

 

 It seems like if your marketing a bike company you should at least try to set-up your bikes so they look good!

Whats your favorite bike from this list?

About Me

My name is Isaac Neff. I live with my girlfriend, Megan, in Madison Wisconsin. Originally from Goshen Indiana, I moved to Madison about 5 years ago. I am currently the store manager at Motorless Motion Bicycles, a newly opened (July 2014) bike shop. I have worked at bike shops since I was a kid, over 15 years, and love just about everything to do with bicycles!

I am also an avid racer and hold a professional mountain bike license and race a ton of cyclocross in the fall. I just got back from the Cyclocross National Championships in Austin TX where I finished 2^nd in the single speed race. The Elite race was a bit of a mess (in more then one way) and I had a rough ride, finally rolling across the line in 28^th, not what I had hoped for!

I’m already motivated to make 2015 my best season yet racing. I’m very pleased to be back riding for the 5Nines/Motorless Motion/Cannondale team and to be racing Cannondale bikes again!

Single speed podium at CX Nationals 

Outside of bikes I love to spend time with my awesome girlfriend. Although we both spend a lot of time working and training, when we have free time, we like cooking, traveling and generally spending time outside.

Megan and I in Colorado this summer.

Because this is a blog about bikes, here are some shots of a couple of my bikes from this season. I will post more about my 2015 bikes in the future. 

Cannondale SuperSix EVO. 

Seen here in "training mode", I didn't log many race miles on the EVO this year, but lots of training hours. Awesome bike, fast, light, smooth and responsive. Shown here with a pair of H Plus Son Archtype rims laced to a Power Tap hub. 

Cannondale SuperX Hi-Mod. 

Now these saw a lot of racing! Couldn't be happier with my set-up this year. Zipp 303 wheels and SRAM hydro disc/CX1 components. One of the best CX race bikes around. 

Cannondale Scalpel 

Finally a full suspension bike I feel fast on! Sad to see this one go, but happy to be on the same bike in 2015.

Welcome!

My goal with this blog is to show what I see everyday at the bike shop, races and out on the road. As well as give commentary on current trends and news in the cycling world.

I hope you will find interesting content here!

Isaac Neff