Week 1

Well, If your going to race, you gotta train, so you gotta start some place. (I think the word gotta is the word gimme's Italian brother . . . just a passing thought). Any here are my first week stats. Since CX season doesn't start for another 10 or 12 weeks I'm going to build up my long distance days to about 3 hour long rides in the next 8 or so weeks. the 50 minute ride I did Sunday was the longest ride I've done in a long time, maybe since the 108 mile ride I did in Feb.

I'm also doing a group ride once a week if I can. Not sure if it good in staying with the tradition of "Base Miles", but it's something I can use as a gauge to see how I'm building back up. (Most group rides around here . . . KCMO . . . end up as a race).
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Last tues. I did the 75th Street Brewery Ride. It's about a 17 mile loop through Waldo, leawood, and Overland Park. It involves a lot of neighborhoods, and stop lights. But what else do you want starting at 75th& Wornall? On the turn around the ride starts getting fast, while I wouldn't call it a messenger race, A messenger appititude is good for "Timing" the stop lights just right.

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Last week I rode my fixed gear bike. I had been riding 40x15 but for the group ride I changed to 44x15 to keep up with the jones. Normally on group rides I'll ride a 3:1 ratio (45x15, 48x16).

But since my 45 doesn't look as cool as my 44 tooth Pete's Precision Products BMX chainring, I rode 1 tooth shy of 3:1 . . . didn't miss a thing and retained my perceived coolness factor!
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I've been riding a fixed gear because . . . well that's all I got right now . . . (Kinda, I still have my Raleigh together, but I'm just not feeling it ). . . I'm not digg'n the 44x15 for everyday riding though. Hills can be a drag . . unless your from the school of tacking .

This is the route I took going up a hill last Saturday. It's not just for ships I've been telling y'all. This is a picture from Eddy B's (Edward Borysewicz) book from the 80's called Bicycle Road Racing (Complete Program For Training And Competition).

Wow . . . A picture of Pro's having to ZigZag up a hill. However I realize it is back in the day when a 6 speed rear cluster was cutting edge. Ahhhhhh, even more reason to do it riding a fixed gear.

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Especially now that I've geared up to 48x15. On the tues night ride there is a big down hill, followed by a big up hill. I don't know how fast I was going, all I know everybody else was coasting down the hill, and I was spining fast enough to drive my heartrate up to 185 beats per minute. It's hard to stay with everybody when they are rested and take off up the hill and your already at 185 bpm. In fact I was glad I was at the front going down the hill, because going up the hill I ran out of gas and went straight back down the line. glad the paceline was 20 people long, or I would have been off the back and by myself. 48x15 might be a bit much, but we will see.

LEGO for a ride?

The Pink & Green Fixie

Pink Side

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Green Side

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Middle Side

The camera is a little off, but I assure you it's centered, and there is about 3mm of clearance on both sides.
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This frame is a lot stiffer than the Super Bee , and I find it all around more responsive with it's steeper angles. Will there "Bee" a Super Bee-2 in the future? Not the near future, but maybe. If I had it to do over again I'd tweak a few things different to make it stiffer. I DIG the short chainstays on both bike though. Short Wheel bases Rule! . . . at least for short rides.

Spray Paint, Spray Paint, Spray Paint

This side it's Green!

This side it's Pink!

A new coat of paint, on a frame that was just sitting around. It was originally painted with Krylon hammer finish paint. So I just went over that with some Krylon Pink and Green.

Not exactly the colors I wanted. I still might add a couple Yellow panels that say . . . ? . . . who know what's going to come out of my trap? . . . I'll think'a some'm.

If you missed the Original Curb Destroyer see it here.
http://curbdestroyer.blogspot.com/2008/02/well-it-rides-good-if-nothing-else.html

CycloCross (CX) season is coming up fast

CycloCross (CX) season is coming up fast. I hope to participate in the races coming up this next season. I do have a CX frame, but it’s setup for single speed. I think if I get back into the swing of things, it’s going to take gears. Plus it’s an excuse to build a new frame.
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Right now I ride a Raleigh to commute back and forth to work. I’ve build a number of frames, yet I don’t ride any of them. Well the big reason is I haven’t built a frame with room for fenders. A CX bike would also remedy that. I used to ride my CX bike every where. I even rode it in a few time trials. I call it the "Do-All-To-All". It’s a CX bike, a road bike, a commuter, just swap the tires, plus it’s also got fender clearance.
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So what am I going to build? Everybody knows I’m not a guy who follows the conventional norm. I’m going to build a frame based on an old school BMX frame. . . . . Surprise! . . . . And the bike of choice . . . Champion.

I guess the question is, . . . is this design going to be a "Shouldering" nightmare.
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Some of you might be asking, what is "Shouldering". During a cyclocross race, sometime you have to put your bicycle on your shoulder to take it up obstacles.

The people in the picture above are shouldering their bicycle. Not that anybody in the KCMO area will see anything like this.
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The only course designer with the imagination to do anything like this is Jeremy Haynes and his Boss-Cross Series.
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http://www.bosscross.blogspot.com/
Saturday, October 31, 2009 Boss Cross #1
Saturday, November 21, 2009 Boss Cross #2
Sunday, November 29, 2009 Boss Cross #3
Sunday, December 06, 2009 Boss Cross #4
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I understand that the majority of CX racers come from the Road Racing discipline, where the major element that determines the race winner is brute fitness, but this is CX. You’re going to have to learn to negotiate obstacles or lose to someone who is not as fit as you. I’ve won a race simply because I could bunny-hop my bike over log, where the faster guy had to dismount . . . Sorry, but this is CX. The added element of superior bicycle handling skill can level the fitness playing field. I know I’m on a rant, but I just hate it when I hear someone at a CX counting the obstacles because he believes there are too many.

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OK . . . back to the topic . . . the frame. The first thing you will notice is the extra bar running from the seat-tube to the head-tube . . . and yes I mean head-tube, not Down-tube. Upon inspection of this cut-away picture you will see that tube passes through the down-tube and attaches to the head-tube, for an added element of complexity

. . . . What? . . . Added complexity and over complication . . . I’m in!
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It’s not done to just be different. There is a good reason it was done the way it was done, even if it’s not necessary.
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From the Champion frame review in the 1983, February edition of BMX Plus:
"Over a year and a half was spent in experimenting with different styles designed around one constantly remaining feature: the original Champion's dual front triangle. From a visual standpoint it appears as if the middle-gusset tube is connected to the down-tube and seat mast. Don't be misled. The gusset tube actually extends though and is welded to the head tube. To accomplish this, all the tubes are jigged up in a fixture. A welder then tacks the gusset tube to the seat mast. The down tube is carefully slipped rearward along the gusset tube to expose the head-tube/gusset-tube butt joint. After that joint is welded, the down tube is moved back into its position and welded. From that point the frame is 100% welded in the jig.
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The objective of the dual triangulation is to spread out the concentration of stress loads in the most efficient fashion. To do this, the gusset tube has to be connected directly to the head tube and triangled with the top tube where it ends at the seat mast. Any other arrangement would not fully be effective. Champion's dual triangle gives it perhaps the best strength to weight ratio going."
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The frame designer (Mike Konle) on the Double Triangulation:
"It’s been my experience, in aircraft and in crane booms, the way you get strength is through heavier wall thickness. You can make a frame lighter and equally as strong if it's triangulated correctly. It's the same as a boom on a big crane. They are triangulated all the way out to the tips with small diameter tubing, yet they're as strong as if they were a solid stock six-foot square. But a solid square of solid stock would bend like a garden hose under its own weight if you lifted it from one end. At the same time, your triangulated box section would barley sag under its own weight.
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When you land from a jump, imagine as the front wheel hits the ground it wants to spread the wheelbase apart. That 5/8" tube welded in there gives us a straight-pull reinforcement of the head tube area."
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Cane Booms? . . . Does my frame need to be as stiff as a crane boom? Don’t know, but the prospects have got me all giddy inside with anticipation.
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So what kind of tubing am I going to use? Straight gauge 4130? . . . Heaven forbid a double butted, bicycle specific, tube-set? I do have concerns.
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1. The gusset tube will have to be a 5/8" straight gauge 4130 tube, or a 1" double butted tube.
2. Should I use bike specific chain stays, or use round, 5/8", 4130 to create a rear triangle like the original frame? I would have to fabricate a set of custom dropouts.

I’d have to make them Vertical instead of horizontal, nothing a little 4130 plate and a file can’t handle. Also I’d have to put an S-Bend in the chain stays is order to have the tube parallel to dropout. I like the Surly combo dropouts.

That way I can go gears or single speed, but then cantilever brakes and horizontal dropouts have to go through a lot of adjustments. Eccentric Bottom Bracket? Maybe since I already have a Single speed frame I'll keep it simple amd go with a standard Bottom Bracket

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Well the thing to remember is, I’m not trying to build a Champion, I’m just experimenting with the gusset tube concept . . . and the concept was High Performance. So I believe that if Champion had a chance to use double butted tubes, they would have so I’m going to go that way.

Blue Hills Bike & Hike

If I get enough information together, I'm hoping to start a Vintage Kansas City BMX web site. I know the information is out there, I just have to find it.
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I'm going to start things off with Team Blue Hills Bike and Hike.

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Above from left to right are, Curt Bales, Drew Jameson, Mark Denton, Brian Duff, and Todd Dean. If you were from Kansas city and you were fast on a BMX bike, odds are you raced for Blue Hills Bike and Hike. I believe the picture above was taken at the St. Joe. BMX track the summer of 1979. I didn't start racing untill the fall of 1979, so that picture is before my time.

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I still have my Blue Hills Bike and Hike Shirt . . . No Really . . . I still tote around a t-shirt from 1979.

I still wear it sometime, and people ask me how old it is, and I tell them I wore it to go see "Jaws". OK 3 years off, but I have a 30 year old T-Shirt, You gotta give it to me, OK who else still has and wears . . . Wears Mind you . . . a 30 year old T-Shirt? . . . None of you, thought so. By the way it's a Hanes Beefy-T, made in the good ol U.S. of A.

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While I'm tooting this T-Shirt's horn, I'm going to say, try that with T-Shirts of today. You will be lucky to get 30 days, much less 30 Years. I got a whole closet full of today's POS T-shirts, that after the first wash they start curling up at the bottom.
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Quite a transition for tracks today. Hey check that out real dirt. Most tracks today are paved until the first jump, and all the national tracks have the corners paved. This was when BMX was Bicycle Motocross). Also notice that guy standing to the side of it all. He the race starter, He tell the guys to get ready, then he pulls that rope, realing the latch that drops the gate, then has to pull it back up by hand. . . . allllll freaking day . . . No electronics, or hydraulics, Just a lot of hard work for pat on the back if he was lucky. I beleive the riders are starting left to right are Curt Bales, Tim Edwards, Tim Applegate, Drew Jameson, Doug Prather, and Mark Denton.

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Not quite the perfectly manicured tracks of today. That's one thing you don't see, Car tires lining the course. I'm not sure why they don't do that these days. It's not like there is a shortage of used car tires.

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This is the race Flyer for the series.

I Knew St. Joe was small, I guess small enough to reguard the Bike shop as "The Bike Shop" if you need race information. Special thanks also has to go to Dick Gibson for his efforts in promoting BMX at that time. His Son Steve Gibson was also reguarded as being one of the faster kids on the USA at the time. He was on Torker's Factory Team.

He's back

He's back. Been busy, and encountered a few computer problems. The Father day ride didn't happen as planned since the night before I was up to 2am with these guys.

These are some of the people that gave genesis to BMX in Kansas city. Maybe I should put that in other words. These are the kids of the parents gave genesis to BMX in Kansas City. It's been a little over 20 years since we (Patterson/Jameson Dist.)have been all together.
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I'm going to get together a retrospective of the origins of BMX in Kansas City. I have already done a little history on the subject. But since getting together I have pictures and flyers from as far back as 1978, or 79.