As you may know, we’re doing something a bit different during Bike Week. We’re making it more convenient to commute to work — provided you work in downtown Kalamazoo. How? Showers and bike storage. We provide a place to shower and a spot to keep your bike during the work day. You just need to show up at the shop after about 7:00. We’ll provide a hot shower, but you’ll want to bring your toiletries. If you’d like, we’ll store your bike (and gear, if you wish) for you during the work day. You just need to pick it up before we close for the day.

Should you have questions/comments/concerns, please email or call the shop at 269/567-3325.

I pimped the living heck out of the Barry Roubaix race this year. Now that it’s over, perhaps a few comments and perspectives are in order.

One of the reasons I like the BR is that I think it’s a race for anyone. This is not to say that it’s easy. The course — any of them, 24, 36 or 62 miles — is challenging.  And — hey! — it’s a race, not a charity ride or a leisurely bike ride through the countryside. Still, if you’re willing to give it a shot, the race is yours for the taking.

In the weeks and days leading up to the race, I became increasingly nervous as a result of the weather, in no small part because I planned to race my tandem with my friend Megan, a ferocious athlete with a disposition that I thought might pair well with mine. Megan has two young kids and a full season of racing planned. I did not want to be the guy that crashed the bike and ruined her summer, so I whined a lot. Megan, nicely, suggested that I shut my yap and prepare myself for, at the worst, an adventure. It didn’t occur to me until much later how much faith she put in my ability to pilot the bike.

We had an exceptional day. The course was very frozen, super-fast on the dirt and super-spooky on the icy parts. While we saw a lot of crashing, we participated in none. Megan says that she closed her eyes and kept pedaling when she got nervous. We yelled at the people we knew and tried to thank all of the volunteers. Again, it was great.

This race was my brother’s first. He had a couple of issues, the most interesting of which was that his brakes froze while partially engaged. He was more than a little frustrated and sent me a text when he finished, “The most dreadful thing I’ve ever done in my life.” Later that evening after some time, some pizza and maybe a beer or two he said, “I’m glad I did that.” I LOVE the fact that he and his wife both took a swing at this thing and finished strong. Very excellent. Proud? Yes. Also.

Degrees of Separation: a friend went to see (as in spectate) the race and was asked to ferry an injured racer to the hospital. Sure enough, the injured dude was a customer and Shop Friend. I wish him a speedy recovery from his broken elbow.

As part of sponsoring the race, we agreed to give away two pair of Scott mountain bike shoes. Our Scott rep Brad was instrumental in this regard and drove up from Louisville to check out the scene and give the race a go. I was quite envious of the tires he chose — 700×40 semi-slicks — and am actively looking for something similar. Regardless, Brad is a Secret Stud and had so much fun that he rode the 62 mile course instead of the 36. Then drove back home to Louisville.

Ryan had a great race, though he used his typical tactics: Always Be Pulling. Ah, youth! Megan and I passed him on the pavement doing about 30 and told him to fall in behind us and rest. This seemed to make him mad, so he passed us back and was gone, not to be seen until after the finish.

I contend that it’s one thing (and a big one) to nail your pride to the wall and sign up for a race, another to do the darn thing and yet one more to bask in the glow afterward. If there’s one thing that Rick Plite (BR’s promoter) does well, it’s provide a good environment for basking. Many were the smiles and stories in the beer tent after the race. Some fell. Some fell hard. Some were kissed by fortune. Some had to work harder than expected. All were just happy as heck to have cooked their lungs and legs and done the deal and to have friends with which to share their stories. It was beautiful. And then Brad told me that he locked the keys in the van.

Adventure? Sign us up.

One of my favorite past times these days is listening to everyone worry about the right tires and tire pressure for the Barry Roubaix. With that in mind, I took a picture of our current inventory and will share a little information about each.

Bottom left is a Vittoria XN. This is a very fast “file tread” tire. If the dirt roads are hard-packed and dry or your bike handling is top-notch, these would be great. Conditions seem a bit damp and messy for the XN to be the perfect tire for this year’s race. That said, a lot can change in 10 days.

Middle left is the Vittoria XG, which is a terrific all-around tire. New this year is the tubeless-ready TNT model, with which some of our customers have had great success. It’s also the reason we put the little bottle of Stan’s on the box. The XG rolls very quickly and has a good amount of grip.

Top left is a Vittoria XM, which is a high-traction mud tire. You’ll give up a little bit of rolling resistance to the other guys, but you’ll have terrific grip. This might be a good choice if it keeps raining, but… I’d probably go with something a tad less aggressive if I had a garage full of tires from which to choose. (Also: I could be way wrong.)

To the right is a Schwalbe Rocket Ron. This is a very light, fast rolling tire with a good amount of traction. The Rocket Ron is just a tad wider than the VIttorias, but not really enough to write home about.

The tire we stock that’s missing from this picture is the Michelin Mud2, which is a very high traction tire similar to the XM. Listed as a mere 700×30, the Mud2 seems and performs wider. It’s a fantastic tire, but not as fast as the Rocket Ron or the XG.

What do I recommend? For this race, probably the XG or the Rocket Ron unless it’s really soupy, in which case I’d look at the Mud or the XM. That said: you don’t need new tires to have a good time at the race. Yes, many of us like to race with our friends and frenimies, and maybe special tires might give us an advantage maybe real and maybe mental and maybe both. And maybe that’s part of the fun.

A customer recently lent me a book, “Just Ride, a Radically Practical Guide to Riding Your Bike,” by Grant Peterson. I read it last week and have since spent a good amount of time thinking about the book’s content and tone. This is not a traditional book review.

The premise of the book is that modern cycling is largely led by bike racers: we buy the bikes that professional racers buy and we wear the things that racers wear and in the process we make it too darn expensive, too darn uncomfortable, too darn silly (e.g., the clothes), too darn exclusive. The author paints a picture (very well, I might add) of a more relaxed style of cycling with comfortable bikes, normal clothes and lower speeds — cycling as lifestyle or activity or mode of transportation as opposed to cycling as capital-s Sport. I am 100% in agreement. Cycling can be for anyone with any budget and any (or no) aspirations. Cycling should be inclusive.

The thing that sticks in my craw is that the author portrays bicycle racing as the villain, the thing to be avoided, The Devil. Maybe he didn’t intend for his book to have an us-vs.-them feel to it, but it does. C’mon, dude! Different strokes for different folks. I have raced my bike and worn silly-looking clothes, but that’s the equipment appropriate to the task at hand. When I ride the shop’s lunch-getter bike to (yup) get lunch, I wear whatever I’m wearing: jeans or shorts, normal (non-cycling) shoes, a T-shirt and my shop shirt. I ride a bike and wear clothing appropriate to the task at hand. Guess what: I have experienced great joy in both circumstances.

I appreciate Mr. Peterson’s advocation of a comfortable, less competitive brand of cycling, but I am not impressed with his divisive tone. Strike that: I find his tone gratuitous at best, irresponsible at worst. We, as cyclists, face some pretty significant challenges with regard to urban and suburban infrastructure, distracted driving, trail usage and sometimes public perception. We cyclists will stand up to these challenges best if we stand together. There just aren’t enough cyclists in the country — much less our small city — for us to get bogged down in arguments about racer vs. commuter, gears vs. fixie, road vs. mountain, etc.

Instead, let’s just ride.

Toward the tail end of a day at Interbike, the bicycle industry trade show, I was wandering about the Jamis booth, looking for a chair so that I might give my feet a break Through circumstances I cannot really recall, I found myself seated at a table with Greg Webber, the Jamis VP of Product Development. Greg has been with Jamis for a lot of years and is a very interesting guy, thoughtful and spare with his words. I was a little bit intimidated, but very much enjoying a chance to chat with the man.

At some point I asked about 650B. He said that Kirk Pacenti (pretty much the motive force behind the current resurgence in 650B mountain bikes) called him several years ago in an effort to get Jamis to build one or more 650B bikes. To that end, Kirk sent Greg some 650B wheels, tubes and tires for a little experimentation. Greg and Jamis tried to fit the wheels to then-existent 26″ bikes. When the wheels fit, it was test ride fiesta. People loved the way the bikes felt with these new wheels and soon frames were soon built around the 650B wheel size. Fast forward to today, and Jamis is a leader in 650B bikes, having both hard tail and dual-suspension models.

 Recently, we’ve tried similar experimentation. First was a lady with a very small, very neat 26″ titanium frame with a Fox fork. Just for fun we grabbed a set of 650B wheels and tried the fit. They did fit, but it was close. She rode the bike and was pleased with the results. We then got her Velocity hubs laced to Blunt SL rims. Nice! However, the Velocity rims were wider than those we had originally tried, and tire rub on the chain stays became a problem. We searched for a more narrow tire with trepidation. While there are LOTS of new 650B tires available for 2013, not all of them are available now. Combined with the current trend toward wider tires run with lower pressure, I thought I was going to get a nice wheel set out of this deal (No way I’d let a customer eat a set of wheels that didn’t work.) Fortunately, Ritchey Design had something a bit more narrow and really nifty-looking. It worked perfectly. This customer: very pleased. Like this:

Next up was a customer with a steel 26er equipped with a Fox fork. For this one we tried Stan’s rims laced to American Classic hubs with a Schwalbe up front and a Ritchey in the rear, both tubeless. Absolutely no fit issues. Plenty of room all around. And the results? I quote: “Love, love, love it.” We later chatted in greater detail. He (perhaps obviously) loved the change from the wheels, but went on to say that, “You know, I think there’s something to this tubeless thing. I almost came by your house to get your damn digital pressure gauge because everything felt perfect.” Nice to hear.

Is this change/upgrade/test for everyone? Probably not. Though we’ve had a terrific success rate so far, I’m confident that there are bikes upon which the bigger wheels just won’t fit. There are likely people who won’t like or notice the change to a bigger wheel. That said, if you’d like to try it out, give us a call. We like to experiment.

What a premium day we had yesterday during the cyclocross race at Markin Glen. Thanks to all who raced, watched and helped. What a happy time.

Our race would not have been possible without the support of the Kalamazoo County Parks. In particular, David Rachowicz is a major advocate of our race and helps us in any number of ways.

KissCross does a great job and has been quite generous by allowing us to host a race so far from its core market.

The Trikats, as always, provided fun, friendly volunteers. I love the Trikats and love working with them.

Chad VanDerwall and his fellow WMU Exercise Science students were instrumental in setting up the course Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning.

Several friends of mine and of the shop (lots of overlap there) would be embarrassed if I called them out by name. I won’t, but I thank them all the same.

If you liked it, more cyclocross fun can still be had this year. Please look at the RunUp and KissCross schedules.

And so it was that we found ourselves wielding pumps and fancy-pants digital pressure gauges in the freezing cold pre-Iceman parking lot when our neighbor, a guy approximately my age on a very nice, very expensive bike with good tires, joined in the conversation. “I run mine about 50,” he said. “Or I’ll just put ‘em right in the middle of the numbers on the tire, so that if it says 30-70, I put in 50.”

Wow.

When customers come into the shop to talk about mountain bikes, we discuss many things: geometry, forks, drivetrain, brakes, but I fear that we very rarely talk about tire pressure, and shame on us for not doing so. You are absolutely not getting the most out of your mountain bike if you’re not dialing in your tire pressure.

In general, there’s been a gentle movement toward lower tire pressure. Lower pressure allows the tire to deform and track over small imperfections in the trail. Conversely, the same tire with higher pressure will tend to bounce over these same small bumps. While higher pressure might feel faster — all loose and bouncy and really hell-yeah-we-are-getting-it-on — the opposite is generally true. The lower limit on trie pressure is controlled by three things: pinch flats, dented rims and personal preference.

Pinch flats occur when the tire is pressed hard against the rim, cutting the tube. Dented rims are obviously a more severe and expensive outcome of the same situation, not enough air to keep the tire off the rim. If you’re running tubes, a dented rim will almost surely have a pinch-flat component. Should you suffer from either, raise your pressure a few psi. (Through interesting decision making (read: tubeless cyclocross setup), I’ve been put in a position in which I need to monitor tire pressure closely. In doing so, I’ve noticed that pumps can vary W I D E L Y in reported pressure. Thus I’d recommend using the same pump or, if you travel with friends or consistently mooch a pump, you might want to purchase a small gauge.)

Personal preference can take many forms. Some folks get a queasy feeling when they bottom out. Personally, I don’t like to “feel flat,” that bouncy feeling you get, particularly from the rear tire, when the air is going out but before it’s riding on the rim. Regardless, you won’t know what you personally like and don’t like without a bit of experimentation.

Where should you start on your pressure journey? Well, that’s tricky, and it depends on a few things: how much you weigh, the size of your tire and wether you’re using tubes or a tubeless system. Here’s good data from Mountain Bike Action, Stan’s No-Tubes and Schwalbe. Remember: all of these are starting points. If you’re serious about this stuff (and, by the way, it is 100% totally cool if you’re not. I get that just a nice ride through the woods is its own reward. But if you do want to nerd out…) you’ll need to do some testing. Maybe even (gasp!) make notes. Regardless, the number is probably less than 50.

Music for your tire pressure journey. Get it? Huh? Yeah. I know.