old and new

Nothing against Orbea bikes but it's refreshing to work on other bikes once in awhile. The shop is loaded with equipment for the Timex Team right now. During my short time in Wisconsin, I put together a couple of bikes to get them out the door and to their respective athletes.


The equipement room is all aglow with the orange of Trek TTX's and Madones.


I haven't had my hands on the latest generation of Madones in years. I am impressed with this frame and am thinking I might need one. I like the simplicity of the BB-90 bottom bracket. Curious how the Madones ride.


Team TTX


Let's all admit that this bike may be coolest bike in the shop right now. Yes, it's an authentic 7-Eleven team bike. Tom Schuler's to be exact. The one he won the USPRO championships on back in 1986 (1987?). It was recently willed to him and arrived in a box. Ask Tom about it since its a great story.

Update after Taiwan

One of my favorite host families. Jonathon picked me up one night during Tour of California for a little escape from the hotel. I had a nice visit to see the parents and then out for some local Fresno sushi.


The day before I left for Taiwan I went on a little mountain bike adventure. I prefer to call it an adventure because when I ride someplace I've never been before it seems a little more "out there". In this case, it was pretty out there. I rode it rather safe since it got into my head that if I screwed up I'm not sure anyone visited this area much too find me. It's about 50 miles outside of San Diego. Since I happen to be a former Boy Scout, I was prepared. Plenty of water, extra clothing, and even some matches in case I had an unplanned bivy. The wind was howling and the temperatures were 20 degrees colder at the highest point. In the picture I'm pointing to a dirt road at some point I had started out on.


Looking for a public restroom after one of the stages I stumbled across this temple.


This is my image of Taiwan. Every city looks like this to me.


Driving is somehow pretty orderly even with all the scooters everywhere.


During our "cultural exchange" tour we were taken to a place that had something to do with the important history of smell sticks. From what I can gather it was about incense and it's importance in religious ceremony. Our hosts tried their best to interpret in English what the Taiwanese tour guide was saying. Many people lost interest but I thought they were putting in a great attempt to share something with us that was important to them so I followed them around and just nodded my head as if I knew what was going on. I basically made up my own version of what we were looking at. This stump is a carving of one of the woods that is used in incense. Very old carving...I think?


This is the Tour de Taiwan tech portion of the blog for my cycling friends. These CKT bikes were nice looking. Very color coordinated. In case anyone needed to know if those wheels were tubular... it say so right on them.


Never have seen this White stuff. Taiwanese stuff made by Microshift.


One day the director asked for some help. Said they were not shifting well. I had go with it. Seemed like it didn't release from the cogs very well. He indicated this was the first race with the bikes. I did notice the drivetrain was built with some brake housing and the director said "hmmm, that's interesting."




Prototype rim made by Citek. Thin aluminum disks on a carbon rim.


One of the frustrated things about the Taiwan race is the bike racks we have to use. They don't fit modern bike tubes. I had to rig it up to work and most of the time the bikes were at a odd looking angle. Toe straps and Thule straps are my favorite items to travel with.

Never regret a ride

Hey,

I'm off to Taiwan tomorrow for the Tour of Taiwan stage race. Last year that was a new experience for me. I'm sure at times I had the "deer in the headlights" look. It just seemed some things were done with out any common sense. I'll have a better idea this time of what to expect and look forward to it. The best part is the Taiwan people. Very nice people and hope I'll see some of the folks associated with the race from last year.

Up until 3 days ago I thought I was pretty much set to go but once I started packing equipment and my stuff I realized there were a million little things to do. What I thought would be a few hours in the morning packing turned into all day and several trips to the store for little things. Thank heavens for GPS. I'm beginning to really rely on that now. It's pretty busy here in San Diego and I'd go even more crazy if I didn't have the GPS to use.

While I'm almost set to go, I won't be able to take a breath until the bags are checked in and all I have to do is sit on the plane. I'm not the greatest plane traveler and prefer to stay in the States but a few big trips a year is okay. My back and hips are knotted up which is probably due to a little stress I put on myself.



Yesterday I brought the truck to Campagnolo North America to leave in their parking lot. They were very nice to let me drop it off for safe keeping while we are out of the country. The only thing was that I had to ride a bike 35 miles south to get back to the hotel. Although I was hesitant about having to ride the road on the knobby mountain bike tires, it turned into a great ride along the coast which involved a few chances to ride right on the beach and even on some dirt next to a railroad line.



My friend reminded me that a ride like is good for the head since it takes you away from the work world for a bit. All you have to think about is riding your bike and not the million things that need to get done. How true! It really legitimizes while I insist on having something to ride on the truck. They'd have to pay me a million bucks to leave a bike at home.




Someone sent me this picture from Tour of California. That's the documentary film crew sneaking up again and filming nothing in particular that Doug is doing. If they make the film someday, I hope it shows me doing something cool. Usually they seemed to catch me washing the hub caps on the car or tying my shoe laces.
I'll try and update from Taiwan,

DOUG