Sauser taking his first win of the season

Yesterday's diary entry of Mr Sauser linked to video of him taking the gold on his first race of the season. Not to shabby for the start of the season, or for some of us off-season. Great to see him racing in my homeland, South Africa. Really beautiful this time of the year in the surrounding esspecially as they've had a ton of rain this year. Unfortunately I'm on the other side of the world trying to figure out a way to keep warm on the bike and the flu at bay.

A Day in the Life

Found this link to some photo's of a day in the life of a Team Specialized rider. Pity that some of us have to do real work.

Chain Stay

The chain stay is often the most overlooked component of the frame. Possibly due to the fact that its tuck away under your tush and generally has more interesting components of the drive train packed around it. For this exact reason I thought of checking out what type of performance issues the chain stay affects. Here are a few quotes from various websites with the statements regarding the chain stay and how it affects performance.

"Venus C7 ovalized tubes and box chainstays for lightning-fast acceleration, razor-sharp handling and ultra-low weight"

"combined with the 17in chainstays made for quick acceleration and stable handling at speed"

"Short 15.75in chainstays keep acceleration ultra snappy"

"short, stiff chainstays improve acceleration and tuck the rear wheel beneath you for optimum climbing traction"

So how does the length actually effect the control you have and why is acceleration increased by shortening the chain stay. It does seem though that things like weight of the bike and even tire selection would be greater factors as to why you can accelerate faster than a shorter chain stay?? Even the fork can effect how fast you could pull away or get back up to speed after a tight corner but these statements are found time after time.

Well there are two obvious features that could help in terms of weight savings thus less mass to try to get going. The shorter chain stay has less material and so does the chain because you have shortened the length needed. These seem like two small changes but seem to me about the same as shaving off the extra length of your fork tube or changing pedals. To see benefits of weight savings the best places to start are the areas of rotational mass, so it could help in terms of acceleration. But as I dug deeper the actual reason was that you get a greater power transfer with a shorter chain stay. More power = faster acceleration.

The other main factor bandied around with shorter chain stays are that the handling is much better. This I can understand because your wheel moves forward and under your tush. Your weight would also shift over the back wheel making the bikes climb better. Handling however has more to do with the fact that you have shortened your overall wheel base so you can make tighter turns.

However as Newton taught us what goes up must come down. When heading down the hill you seem to loose the stability that a longer chain stay would give you. Here again its down to the wheelbase shortening. Think about it as a ship versus speed boat, the latter would corner like a king but try loading it up and you might start rolling about like a hyperactive kid on a rocking horse. For a more stable ride you would rather opt for longer ride as most touring bikes have or even the new Kona UTE.

Another thing to look out for is chain suck and mud clearance of the wheels. With chain suck the chain fails to disengage from the bottom teeth of a front chain-ring ; instead the teeth snag the chain and carry it up and around the rear circumference of the ring, winding it back onto itself, and jamming it between the chain-rings and chain-stay. Doesn't sound pleasant and luckily, touch wood, has happened to me.

So as you can see there are benefit's as well as drawbacks but looking around on the various manufacturers websites you will find that they normally range in the 17" ranch. I will check that up and then then get back on the chain stay length's of some manufacturers and post what they are.

Frame Design

So here is the basic setup of a bike frame with the labels as I'll use them in future posts. This is a dual suspension cross-country racer, more specifically the Santa Cruz Blur XC. Here we can see the main angles and the tube titles as you would normally see them on a companies website or browsing through a magazine. These vary for various rides and from company to company and I'll try to cover the significance of each of these area's and how the individually work to improve performance. I would also like to look into how length or angle changes affect the bike.

From what I've seen the main material's bikes are made from include Steel, Aluminum, Titanium and Carbon. The increase in price also goes up as I listed the materials. I will in future posts look into each and what the benefits and drawbacks of each is.

The list below will make up the other type of posts as I delve into how each of these affects the overall handling and performance of your machine:

• Top Tube
• Head Tube
• Seat Tube
• Chainstay
• BB Height
• Wheel Base
• Standover Height
  
• Seat Tube Angle
• Head Tube Angle

Geometry of our trusty stead's

The next few posts or may be quite a few more I want to dedicate to the geometry of bicycle design and more appropriately the design of mountain bikes and how they have developed the way they have. My musing will be purely what I trawl off the Internet and slap together into some form of consensus of the issue. Manufacturers often have us believing one thing and then the riders another.

I have always been interested in the more technical aspects of the bike riding. So it seemed to me a great idea to start leading in a certain direction with regards to my blog. Coming from a mountain biking and more specifically a racing point of view I will try to concentrate on how the bike geometry of the bikes affects my racing rig compared to say a dirt jumper or downhill monster.

Geometry and how it affects our riding styles will also differ so nothing here could ever be set in stone. My wanderings through the information out there will only ever scratch the surface and I will not build on anything in any specific order but rather as my reading on the subjects extends so I will add to my posts.

Riding the Crater

This weekend went cycling down in the dessert. Pretty much the best time to go now because in summers its just too hot. Thursday we left at about midday and halfway there went riding on the border of the West Bank. Everything is beautiful and green after the rains but the area was really rocky and I came off my bike. Luckily no damage to me but bent the hanger on my rear dérailleur, so had to make some bush repairs because I didn't have the spare on me. No worries cause the guys that I went with are well trained in this type of thing so after twenty minutes of huffing and puffing I trundled back to the car. Got it fixed at a shop and then headed down to the kibbutz where I first started, Sde Boker. Bit of trivia this is also the place where Ben Gurion, the first Prime Minister, is buried)

The next day was breakfast then on the bike and heading out into the windy Negev. We planned on cycling till four in the afternoon so I took it really easy, also wanted to check how the repairs would hold up before I would start pushing. Its really beautiful out there with rock formations that look like a combination of a lemon meringue and some lunar landscape. The weather held up really well but there was a chilly wind coming down most of the little valley's we were riding up down. The trail was extremely technical so I was in and out of the saddle to try and stay on the bike. The highlight of the trip was the Crater called Makhtesh Gadol, image on the left, provided by Wiki). This is the middle one of the three, the largest one being just South. Interestingly this landmark is not created by either a Meteor impact or as I initially thought a volcano but rather erosion from a glacier called a cirque.

So after the whole day on the bike it was a three hour drive back home and back to the grind. But how peaceful it was out there is amazing. Something so inspiring about the dessert, a really nice break to clear the mind. I highly recommend getting out into the dessert to any city slickers that want a truly awesome experience, especially as its a break from the tree lined singles we're normally used to.

The cold, cold morning

Had training again this morning and for the first time since I started riding I really felt what the cold felt like. It got inside the bones and there was absolutely nothing you could do about it. Had the leg and arm warmers on as well as two long sleeve jerseys but it still penetrated through all those layers and straight into the mirth of my inner soul.

I was browsing around on the net about various techniques of how to stay warm and came to the common conclusion that most people inevitably say that the cold will still get you. The most interesting theory and one that I also seem to believe the most is that the body works pretty much the opposite to internal heating of your house. Once you set the temperature say 37 Celsius on the thermostat then the heating system will kick into gear whenever the temperature drops below that level. Your body however has evolved an entirely different way of survival instinct. When the temperature starts to drop you brain decides that you could survive without those ten little digits on the ends of your hands and feet so it save the heat for the more vital life sustaining organs. Sounds reasonable and most people who have survived the winter elements only to come back two or three fingers less will probably substantiate this theory.
Well can't say it was cold to the degree of getting frost bite but here in Israel the temperature doesn't have to drop that much for you to feel the cold. Quite an interesting thing happened while we were riding though, as we cycled over certain parts of the surface ice actually began to form on the surface where our tires had been leaving a glittering trail in our wake. Took some photo's so will upload them as soon as I can.

Back in the Saddle

Well back in the saddle again after a prolonged break. Was back home in South Africa for a few weeks, no mountain bike ,no Internet, computers or connection to our plugged in world. Not because there was none available just wanted to step out of rat race for a little bit. Had a fantastic Christmas with the folks and can happily recommend to anybody to simply take a few weeks, switch off the cellphone and computer and simply relax. Ice cold beer after a long day sweating under the African sun was always welcome as well as the BBQ with grill full of hearty meat.

Me, Tammi and Dad loving the Christmas Cheer

So been back two weeks and just took the first week to actually get the work gears turning again. I have to say that did not think it would take so quick to rust up the old clogs but they were soon forced back into cruise mode. Last week started training "seriously" and noticed a rather sharp decline in fitness. Not to worry as it is the off season and have until the end of the month to get things back onto a competitive level.