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

MOAB

STOP! Before you go further, go to the ToG entry below to read everything in chronological order from the last few weeks.


After dropping off riders at the airport in Tucson my plan was to head back to Wisconsin. I decided to head North.


Heading North from Tucson you get to Flagstaff. I stopped in for a coffee at Late For Train coffee shop and behind the counter was an old college friend, Pete Meirs. Pete and I were in the same major in school and did our NOLS semester together. He is one funny guy. I remember non-stop laughter when in his tent group. In addition to guiding for Western Spirit Cycling Adventures, Pete is living in "Flag" to attend nursing school. Pete showed me around town that night and gave me the scoop on the town. Flagstaff is a pretty cool place. Every one I met with Pete rides a bike. I've never seen as much bike flavor anywhere else. He is also a member of the local band the Shindaggers (they have a myspace thing. funny stuff).


A mistake picture that worked out pretty good. Which way is the gun show!


Moab, Utah is one of my favorite places. I love the Canyonland country and didn't realize how much I get a special feeling when I'm there. There is a loop ride that goes through Castle Valley. I didn't know much about it. Two years ago I did some of the loop but had to turn around when a freak snow storm blew in. This time I did the whole loop. One of the best rides I've ever done. Partly because I knew nothing about it. The whole loop is about 70 miles and is a beautiful ride through desert and climbs into the La Sal mountains. I came upon a sign that warned of a "bridge out ahead- local traffic only." I interpreted this as, "go ahead, bikes can probably get through." If not, I would have to ride 45 miles out and turn around. The ride took about 5 hours and a good 3 hours was probably climbing. I'm not sure. I only know it climbed forever. If you are ever there you have to do this ride. There is plenty of downhill too and I saw about 5 cars the whole day. Quite the memorable ride.


Nine miles left and I'd know if the bridge is out or not. This sign was all wrong. I never saw the bridge until two hours later. I'd already been climbing for about 1 1/2 hours at this point. EPIC!


THe view from somewhere on the climb. Still not done climbing. I started way down there where the road is disappearing into the horizon.



Snowball


I made it over the top and the bridge was okay for bikes to cross.


Lot's of downhill to get back to Moab.


Goofing around.


I once spent two weeks in the Canyonlands Backcountry. This is what I saw every evening. How can scenery like this not affect you?

Thanks for visiting the blog again,

DOUG

Gila

Last week was the Tour of Gila in Silver City, New Mexico. The race went great for the team. Lot's of tough stages and Colavita let the other teams know they are the ones to watch. I've never been to Silver City. To be honest I didn't get a great vibe from the town. I'm sorry I just don't know how to describe it.


My view of the race.


Our rental car for the week was a Lincoln Town car. My mom has this car I think. We used a similar car two years ago at Altoona and I was carsick almost everyday. We had a lot of sarcastic "nice car" comments from the other teams. All in good fun.


Dotsie on her way to 2nd place in the time trail. FAST!


One of the best days of racing I've seen. Although you enter the day's race with a plan it may not be the plan at the end of the day. That's what makes racing so exciting. Plan A went to Plan B which morphed into Plan C etc. By the end of the race, Dotsie went for plan E which was to take on the sprinters for the win. Look at the gap she had.


Andrea had a great race too. Here she is in a 5 up breakaway sprint.


Sarah riding with the climbers like it was no big thing.


PHEW! I feel like a soggy potatoe chip. I'd rather have a cup of coffee.


RAINBOW

Tucson

Before and after the Tour of Georgia I spent time in Tucson, AZ staying with Dave and Candice. Thanks for your hospitality Dave and Candice. Hope to come back again.

Here are the images!


Dave and Candice are opening a new bike shop in Tucson. It should be opening any day now. While I was there boxes were being opened and stuff being merchandized. I was able to lend a hand and assemble a few bike racks and bicycles. It was fun to be part of that scene for a bit.


Candice doing her pregnant lady exercises though the store. She also thought it was important to eat a few Girl Scout cookies in the process to keep her energy up.


This is a Trek Portland. Cool bike. Kind of an all purpose bike. Something to commute on. Disc brakes. Rack mounts and really cool fenders. The fenders have a nice quick release lever.


Candice snapped a picture of me: 1. picking up my garbage that was blowing away or 2. practicing my double poling for next year's ski season.


Candice was laughing at this kid in the neighborhood and snapped a picture of him. Kids!

Once again move on to the next entry above. You can take a break if you want and come back later. Perhaps go get a snack.

DOUG

ToG

Okay as I said above, this is where the journey in pictures begins. Welcome!

Seems like Tour of Georgia was a long time ago. By gosh it was!. Here is a few more images from the race I came away with.


One of the bikes ready to ride!


Early morning with the bikes. In it's own way there is beauty to found in the sport. Beauty is found in many things in life if you look for it.


Speaking of beauty. Look at this guy! What do you think. Seriously, washing bikes has it's beauty. I actually find it relaxing sometimes to wash them all up. They are all shiny and such.

Okay, move on to the next entry above.

Burnt Skin

Another day at the Tour. Three more days to go. I definetly got a bit tired of the routine tonight. I couldn't face the chance of another disappointing dinner so I headed to a Chili's that is by our hotel for some dinner and time by myself. I haven't felt quite right since feeling sick so I thought a steak to replace some iron might be the ticket.

Yesterday, Eric and I switched roles and I went in the team car for the race. Had to do some adjustments on the fly which means leaning out of the rear window of the car. This never happens in women's racing for some reason. The adrenaline was pumping because I never noticed the raspberry on my inner arm until later. I must have brushed against the bike tire as I reached around to adjust Gustavo's rear derailleur. Try spinning a wheel at 30 miles per hour and then graze the fleshy part of your inner arm against it. Ouch! It's a cross between a burn and a cut.

Well, I wish I could tell you the end was in sight. Not yet. We still have some racing to go. Enjoy the photos!


I forgot to post this photo of me sitting on the plane. (Keith, I took this from the camera that's in my MAC)

Mr. Dickie himself, Chris Davidson, is working with Navigators this race. Check out his updated diary entries on cyclingnews.com about the Tour of Georgia. Good behind the scenes stuff.


Nice looking gold campy wheels on the spare race bikes. Reminds me of the Rolf wheels that were gold from awhile back.


Tim and Rachel in a rare moment of nothing to do. They take care of the rider's needs. From food and drink to massage and perhaps a joke or two.


This isn't a great picture from the car but it's the only one I took. I was feeling a bit car sick trying to take a picture and ended up only trying once.

Tour of Georgia

I'm in Georgia folks for the Tour of Georgia. Real quick this is what I've been up to.

1. After Timex camp took some personal time to visit Arizona.

2. Ran into Joe Conn (Lake Placid) resident in Flagstaff. Small world!

3. Left the van and trailer in Tucson.

4. Flew to Atlanta on Saturday to meet up with the men's team for the ToG.

5. Got food poisoning so Sunday I was not doing so good. Food is almost appetizing again. Almost.

6. Today was the first stage. Not much room at the hotel for all the team trucks/trailers but it all worked out somehow.

7. Looking forward to bed. Being sick wiped me out.


Riding in Arizona.


Remembering the days of Oakley Factory Pilots. These were the hot thing back in... oh let's see... 1986ish. I had the black ones that I got for Christmas one year. I didn't even ask for such a thing so I don't know how mom and dad even decided to buy them.

On a serious note. Today was the shooting at Virginia Tech. The largest mass shooting in U.S. campus history. This stuff gets me mad. What kind of world is this? Students should be able to live without such worries. We all should be able to live without such worries. Who is to blame? The shooter? Parents? Video games? Media?

Life is valuable and there is more to it than the Tour of Georgia.

Say hello to people tomorrow, do a good deed, and smile.

Cheers,
DJB

The Ocean

Carlsbad, CA - At the beach as promised.




I would love to be able to surf. It's one of those things on my list of things to try. It really intrigues me how the force of nature is acting upon you. Rachel from the Timex Team has promised that on Sunday morning after Hawaii she will take me out.

Later,
DJB

Timex Camp

Carlsbad, CA - Man oh man! What day is it? It feels like Monday morning but it's actually...let me see...Wednesday. That's what happens when I'm so busy. everyday becomes like the one previous. Camp is over for these tri folks. A lot was accomplished. Although once again most of what I saw was from the back of the truck. This year at least I had some help from, "the new guy", Tristan. Tristan was awesome and a HUGE help getting everyone's bike requests done. We had a bunch of this and that work to do. Besides the long hours of standing in the parking lot we did have some time to interact with the athletes. It was great to see the returning athletes from the last couple of years and to meet the new ones. All in all the camp seemed to be a huge success. Everyone left with some great product and product knowledge. I really feel that Timex has some great sponsors and folks associated with the team. Everyone from the athletes to staff to sponsor contacts are happy with the TIMEX vibe. Way to go everyone!

Here are few pictures from camp that I remembered to take. Enjoy!


Yes, I swear I was very busy most of the time. But that doesn't mean you should ignore the tennis ball launcher. This is Chris T. pumping up the gun to the ideal psi.


"Fire in the hole!" Moments before shooting. Don't try this at home and don't let the athletes see you playing around because they will want to try it too. HA! Notice another excellent use for a Park bike stand. I wonder if Park would put that in their catalog?


The day started every morning with a 6am gathering at the truck. From here athletes had a few hours to bike or run or swim.
There was always the last minute bike adjustments too. I heard many times "Can I borrow an alen wrench". I often cringe when I'm asked that. I don't like lending out my tools. Sometimes they don't get put back so then I have to hunt around for it wasting time. I don't want to seem mean but it can make a 2 minute adjustment a ten minute job when I can't find the right tool. My tip of the day when working with team mechanics is to ask politely, return promptly, never reach into their tool box, and expect a no response sometimes. By the way it doesn't hurt to butter us up with cold drinks, coffee, chocolate chip cookies, lunch, shoulder massage..........


This particular morning was a few days into camp. People were familiar with one another now. This impromptu circle started to form. "oh boy" I thought to myself, "something is going to happen." Alas, noone started break dancing or anything. Just some talk about socks vs. no socks. A brief exclamation by Carol announcing that "THIS SHOULD BE AN EASY RUN THAT GOES AS FAR AS THE STARBUCKS", and a few stretches thrown in before the pitter patter of sneaker rubber hit the streets.


John the photographer catching all the goings on. His camera is bigger than mine.


The bike. Happy to be working the Trek bikes. The athletes have been giving great reviews. Dean Gore and Scott Daubert from Bontrager and Trek were here to check things out and answer everyone's questions. They both gave some informative presentations and I had some good one on one with these guys about the machines. Glad they came out and that Trek is happy to be supporting the Team.


A mechanics lunch sometimes. Ah, that picture says a lot. Mostly, it says I'm too busy to eat so put my sandwich on the cleanest place possible for later.

"So Tristan! The waves were awesome this morning dude! I've never been surfing before but it's like I was born to do it. I was riding the wave like this when..."

Hope you enjoyed the pics. Today my plan is to head to Tucson, AZ to visit some friends for a much needed break for about a week before flying to Georgia for the Tour of Georgia. Before I leave though I'm going to go down to the ocean. I'm right on the ocean and haven't even stuck my toes in the sand. That is my plan this morning to say I've been there. I tried the other night but the parking areas were closed.

Later,
DJB