WTDF?

I guess I am not paying attention to cycling much these days.

Exceptional Frothing

10SH fan and friend Lucho sent me this photo of an amazing frothing from this year's Vuelta. This Francais de Jeux rider, Yauheni Hutarovich, a Belorussian with a marvelous grip, showers the podium girl with a heaping amount of froth and foam. I must say, she seems exceedingly pleased to accept the champagne. Normally, such frothing is usually heaped upon one's podium mates or teammates, but here, this, this is a rarity among podium rituals. We should be glad and grateful to have this decisive moment immortalized forever.

My next bike may or may not be pictured below.

The waiting game continues.

Excited

Picture this bike as a Look 585 with Campy.

More on the Motorola

After quickly exchanging parts from one Merckx to another I gave the Motorola Merckx the customary test drive. It shifted pretty well, I thought, but suddenly stopped shifting at all. As mentioned in a previous post, the cable housing broke. This afternoon I rode over to G Fit Studio to shoot the breeze with my friend Jason. Jason is to sick bicycles what Golden retrievers are to cancer patients. I had barely spoken a word before Jason had the patient on the stand and started to operate. Step one was a cable housing-ectomy. I proudly showed him the nice bit of cable housing that I had brought with me (just in case). Jason took a cursory glance at the short piece of black plastic and said, “That is brake cable housing.” I felt like someone who brought a heart to a lung transplant operation. Being the awesome mechanic/teacher that he is (even though he is not officially a teacher), he proceeded to tell me the differences between brake and derailleur cable housing. You probably already know this, but beside the obvious size differences, brake cable housing is coiled and more robust and flexible.

Soon Jason noticed that my handle bar tape was touching the ratcheting system under the brake hoods. So I re-wrapped my tape while he helped a customer. Then Jason re-re-wrapped my tape. Then he decided he should check the front derailleur. I wont go into every adjustment that he made, partly because it will embarrass me and partly because we would have to upgrade to Blogger-Pro to use that much bandwidth. Thanks to Jason my bike looks better and functions better.

And Congratulations to Jason and Laci on your recent marriage!

"Ridiculous Custom" $500 to $1000

Been meaning to share my daily search criteria on Craigslist. Occasionally come up with some nice stuff. Feel free to put it on your own bookmarks toolbar:

http://chicago.craigslist.org/search/bik?query=Ridiculous+custom&srchType=A&minAsk=500&maxAsk=1500

I would be curious to see your bike-related RSS feeds or bookmark links.

One Good Merckx Deserves Another

The Motorola arrived safely in Boise.

Blutini on the stand

The Motorola hanging with THC's Raleigh

Ready to roll.

But, a few minutes later the cable housing for the rear derailleur exploded and shifting stopped. Almost ready to roll.

All 'Crossed

Green Mountain Cyclocross Day 2 Bar Cam from colin reuter on Vimeo.

Cyclocross is an ugly sport with too much jarring, shaking, and grunting. Where road cyclists float up mountains on clouds made from dreams of podium girls and or race headlong toward Roubaix fueled with cans of flat cokes, cyclocross racers are brutes, redolent of minty embro and gasping of bad breath. It's a perversion, like giving your girlfriend of six years Larry Clark's "Tulsa" for her birthday (which I did).

Road cyclists who try CX gasp and wheeze about how tough it is. It's OK, because the toughest thing in cycling is the moment in a road race or crit when you fall off the back and everyone goes up the road without you. Cyclocross is forgiving in that regard -- you may show up to a gun fight with a toothpick, but hey, unless you're in the P/1/2 race, you get to do your full time.

One Speed Hero

Dear Todd Hero,

I put some SRAM Red on the frame you traded me. I hope you approve.

Love,

Kevin Hero

PS: I apologize to all the artists for the horrible photo.

A book

Another thing I found in a box recently. A book my sister-in-law Janice made for me when I was 17. The yellow blotch on the left, I think, represents the yellow cycling cap that advertised the Tour of Nevada City Bicycle Shop and Campagnola that I wore everyday. I did not have a bike at the time. Somehow Janice knew the color my eventual bike would be.

Nevada City Early 1980s

I found this image of the Nevada City Bicycle Classic among images of flowers and of a solar eclipse. From left to right: Andy Hampsten, Eric Heiden, and Greg Lemond. Or three anonymous cyclists - I can't tell, it's blurry. My brother Stephen Hero (he has to have the same last name as I do, same dad) took this photo.

Someday We'll Tell Our Grandkids About This

We'll tell them about early autumn in Chicago, when we'd commute to work by bike along the Lakefront. Seven miles, into the wind both ways. Back when jerseys were still made of wool and "Tenspeed" actually meant something. Pedal down.

Wishing Ezra the Best

Just read that Ezra from Fast Boy Cycles is dealing with a second bout of cancer. Tough to read. I always enjoy his flickr page and of course his great bikes. Best wishes from the Tenspeed Hero Crew on your speedy recovery.

His Flickr
His Blog

Ken Hero's Team SC

Ken Hero never thought this day would happen. But we finally completed his Team SC. He wanted a bike for a $1000.00 so we cobbled together this frame off Ebay for $350 that I bought years ago with a eccletic mix of new and used parts. Gotta say the new Mirage Crankset is pretty awesome for $69. The Shimano 105 Rear Brake with the Campy Centaur Front Brake says "Yeah I know my socks don't match but who cares...?" Looking forward to our first ride.

Special Thanks to Todd Hero for doing an awesome job on the build.

Eurobike Pictures

Just in Case you want to see every booth at Eurobike Click Here

Also make sure to take a look at Nicomousse's R3SL with a Look Fork. Looks Cool.

11 Speed Hero

That's right boys. 11 speeds. I'm excited.

Canyon Young Heroes?

Ok It seems that the folks at Canyon Bikes have a program called the Young Heroes. I was tipped off by one of our fans in Europe. Crazy but True. Link I thought Stephen E. was our Young Hero and that we had the only hero development team around.

Double Loop Champions

1. Macho Salad
2. Pdiddy
3. Andreas Hero

Double Loop

Hail to the Heroes. They Come Back to Rome with Dull Swords and Blood on Their Shields.
Old Roman Saying

Double Loop Google Map and Que Sheet

View The Double Loop in a larger map


Batteries were low on the Garmin so we plotted this one out manually on Google. Do some satellite recon before Sunday.

Que sheet on Google Docs here.

**map not perfect and subject to weird google glitches - que sheets will be at the race

Double Loop Screen Saver/Bernard Hinault

Motivation for Reaching the Podium

David Zabriskie Quote of the Day

This comes from the blog by American Tejay Van Garderen on cycling news. Below he discusses how the heat was affecting the usual chit chat in the peloton during the Vuelta.

Anytime I would try to talk to someone all I would get was a grunt or a wheez. I went up to Dave Zabriskie to say hey and he straight up told me, "It's good to see you man, but I can't breathe right now so you're gonna have to shut up."

Die Mannschaft In Chicago

Dear Heroes,

Die Mannschaft is in Chicago. Patrick Hero took the first photograph. I am hoping to have this built up for my first ride post-separated shoulder. When Patrick and I started putting it together we both agreed that Zach Hero was born to ride this bike. Le Ramrod meets Die Mannschaft.

Double Loop Notes. Looking at a good crew with some out of state competition flying in for the dirt and the post race Kielbasa. Gonna be a great day.