Father's Day

Father’s Day 2007

Once in awhile someone will ask me how I learned to work on bikes. Usually, I mention I took to it as a kid working on my own bikes. There is more to that brief explanation for sure. I did tinker around with bikes but good old dad brought on most of that tinkering. You see, as far as I knew, Dad’s were supposed to fix everything around the house. My dad, Jackson E. Berner, fixed, maintained, or built most everything in our house growing up. Whether it was fixing the car or building a deck, he did it all so I’m sure that’s where my fascination with mechanical or “do it yourself” things comes from.

I’ve seen what an influence my dad was on me. For one thing if he didn’t know how to do something, then he taught himself with a book and gave it a go. He also instilled in me having the right tool for the job. Our garage and basement workshop was loaded with all sorts of tools. I remember as a kid loving to look through all the drawers. As I got older he never said don’t touch but rather showed me how to use tools. Mostly he led by example rather than formality. Some of the tools in my toolbox are his tools. I even have stuff that was from his dad. I like the history of those tools and enjoy when I can use them in their honor.

One fond memory I have was the first thing I ever took apart on a bike. I inherited my brother’s ten-speed but it needed to be re-assembled. I don’t know whose idea it was, but we decided to take apart the guts of a 5-speed freewheel. This sounds ridiculous now but it made perfect sense to clean it out and re-grease the thing. I’m pretty sure we (actually he) had to make a tool to get the thing apart. I’m not sure it was supposed to come apart but it did. I cleaned all the little ball bearings and pawls to see how it worked and put it all back together. No big deal. If I started with this then I could certainly handle just about anything.

My dad passed away 8 years ago this June. I don’t have him around to show him my cool toolbox but on this Father’s Day it is good for the soul to relate how I came to be good at what I’m doing right now.

Cheers from this professional bike mechanic who was taught by a professional dad,

DOUG

The past month

Pictures of the last month or so:



I spent 2 short night in Lake Placid before heading to Montreal. I stayed with my friends Randy and Lisa. Randy has the outdoor shower hooked up. It is a pleasant Adirondack experience.


My friend the “bead lady”. Stacey owns Just Bead It which is a bead store in Lake Placid. I really don’t feel that tall.


Here are a couple of the dudes, Bill and Whit, from Placid Planet Bicycles. One of the best shops anywhere.


Literally behind the scenes of a World Cup start in Montreal.


One of my favorite people, Audrey, came by to say hello while we were in Montreal. Audrey was on the team the last two years but is taking a break and going to University as the Canadians say.


That’s the Kiwi Jeff, the Canuck Gina, and another Kiwi, Meshy, from Team Expresscopy before the start in Philadelphia. They are always pleasant people to see at the races.


Iona had the benefit of her personal assistant, Clay, to attend to her every pre-race need. Okay, Clay is Iona’s husband. Iona is the Jamaican national champion therefore her kit is designed around the country’s flag colors. If any of that stuff fit me, we’d be doing some bargaining for sure.


LOCAL FLAVA. This local guy on a Huffy decided to jump into the race and pedal his little heart out. It was hilarious. Eventually the cops got to him though.


Because Rachel’s phone dials me from her pocket, I thought I’d post this picture of her for all to see. Actually it’s a cool picture and shows how steadfast and steely-eyed she is in the face of the onslaught of hungry bike riders looking for a feed. She does make up far fetched stories that involve me that I don’t remember and I can’t convince her she is a little loopy (in a good way). Go Rachel! No, go away Rachel and eliminate me from your speed dial. PLEASE! I can’t take another muffled phone message in which I hear you singing along to ABBA while in your car. It’s all too voyeuristic and it upsets me. Make it stop. Make… It… Stop!

In my shoes

When I was signing in to my blog account I noticed it said the last time I updated was May 10th. That seems like ages ago and a lot of racing and traveling has happened since then. I wrote this piece below about 10 days ago so I'll wet your appetite with this until I get some time to do more updating. I've noticed I'm not the only one updating that much. Many "cyclist's blogs" are stuck in limbo due to all the racing and traveling that occurs this time of season.

Enjoy my "one day in the life of a pro mechanic" piece.

Tour de Grande Montreal, Tues, June 5, 11:37pm – Today was one of those unique workdays that happens in the life of pro mechanics. Not a typical day but at the same time not unheard of so I thought I would give you a hour by hour, blow by blow of what you could be doing in my shoes (I thought it might help me to relax since I’m a bit wired to go to bed).

6:03 am – woke up not knowing where I was for a second. Oh yeah I’m staying at the University of Montreal dorms. College is cool! Right?

6:15-7:00am – Made myself pretty with a shower and stuff like brushing the teeth. Boy, do I need a haircut!

7:00 – 7:45am – Bacon and cheese omelet with diner coffee. Then on the way back to the University bought a latte to suck on while working.

8:00 – 11:30am – Because the yesterday’s stage started at 5:00pm and ended about 8:00pm I didn’t get back to the trailer until about 10:30pm. Therefore I decided to wash and tune the bikes this morning. And because it was pouring rain yesterday the bikes were especially dirty. Loaded the spare bikes and wheels on the car.

12:00-1:00 – Managed to budget my time wisely and thought I’d put on the chamois for a little spin on the bike. Stopped at Subway for a sandwich to bring back too! Italian BMT for those keeping track.

1:30-2:00pm – Descended the elevator from the 17th floor of the dorm to load the race bikes on the van.

2:00-2:15 – Waited for the 2:15 departure and consulted the map.

2:18-3:30ish – Drove to race venue.

3:45- 4:15pm – unloaded bikes and applied rainy day lube to the chains since it looked like it was going to be another wet one for the ladies.

4:15-5:30 – Joked around with other mechanics about previous days stories from the caravan. Waited in line for the porta-potty. Drank a diet-coke. Adjusted a front derailleur (typical last minute nervous rider adjustments).

5:30-8:20 – Sat in the caravan and watched it get really dark and rain down buckets of water. Puddles were very deep in places. Ran out once for a crash in the peloton but none of our riders were down. Can’t believe there weren’t more crashes. Lots of flats today. For other teams though, not Colavita. We had zero flats. Some teams were getting multiple call ups for service.

8:30-8:45pm – Within 15 minutes I had the race bikes loaded onto the team car so I could bust out back to Montreal while the riders got dressed and got something to eat at the dinner banquet.

8:45-10:00pm - Time to myself to listen to the radio while I drive back to Montreal.

10:00-11:30pm – When I got back to the trailer the weather had gotten really windy and the temperature was down to 45 degrees which was a bit annoying while trying to wash the bikes. Anyways, there was no time to waste and I got them all sparkly clean again.

12:15pm – I’m now drowsy and will take off my coveralls to go to sleep. That’s about an 18 hour day right there in which people were depending on me to do a great job. Pretty amazing stuff. There is even stuff I forgot to mention. 6:00am wake up call will be here quick I suppose. Tomorrow is a double stage. 11;30am Time Trial and a 7:30 criterium.
We are leaving at 9:00am and will need a few hours beforehand to tune the bikes. NEED TO SLEEP NOW!

Thanks for reading,
DOUG