Murphy Time Trials!

It's that most wonderful time of the year! Or it's at least in the top five or so most wonderful times of the year!

The Murphy Time Trials have been a Freewheel tradition since around the Louisiana Purchase, when President James K. Polk shrewdly secured Park Place and Marvin Gardens in exchange for his extensive (but, as it turns out, worthless) railroad holdings. The French subsequently went bankrupt soon after landing on the "Go to Jail" square in back-to-back turns, and thus the tide of world power was turned.

Anyways, the trick at Murphy is to go fast and not hit all the roots. They slow you down. The picture below will help:


If you memorize this picture, it will give you a distinct advantage. Take special note of where all the roots are. I went ahead and marked them with red dots.

The other key to a good time trial is to have a good song stuck in your head. The theme song from "Hawaii Five-O" would be a dandy, or the finale to "The William Tell Overture." "Volga Boatman" would not do at all, nor "Entry of the Gladiators" (yes, that song has a name!!!), nor "Ring Around the Rosie," especially if you know what it means.

Need some details? Find them here or if you know everything already, you can register here.

See you there!

On a Bike Guy's Day Off

Some people who work in bike shops get their fill of bikes and bike-related intrusions into their lives at work. My dad was kind of that way. He still rode, but not a whole lot after us kids got bigger and more demanding. He would occasionally take his days off and head up to Levis Mounds, not just to ride, but also to scout for grouse hunting in the fall.

Personally, I'd rather ride my bike than do most anything on my days off, even if it's only for an hour or three. As Kevin says, it's cheaper and more rewarding than psychiatry, and it has the additional benefit of making supper taste extra yummy.

On occasion, I like to take off and do a ride that is well beyond my current fitness level, just to see what's in the tank. Some of those times include ankle chips and number plates, but usually I'm smarter than that and just do it for fun. Today's ride was like that: just for fun.

Murphy Hammerhands, scene of the previous evening's ultra-sweaty shenanigans, served as both the start and the finish venue. I ended up riding Murphy twice, Lebanon Hills, and Terrace Oaks, for about 70 miles on the day.



Along the way, I saw this log that looks like it belongs in Middle Earth. Hungry as I was, I didn't eat the amazing fungus for fear that I would shrink or grow like Alice in Wonderland and my new bike wouldn't fit anymore.




I was hoping this picture would turn out better. Of course you can't see it, but there's a Farmer's Insurance blimp over behind those trees. I think it was just being bashful when it saw my camera.




Yeah, I was still feeling pretty good when I took this picture. I was at the Lebanon Hills parking lot, about to ride the South Metro Dirt Roller Coaster. Afterwards, the bottom-left number was much closer to 40 and I wasn't feeling as chipper.



This is what it looked like from space on a rather blurry day. I crashed, bonked, got rad, helped some dudes fix a flat, cramped, gave out some business cards, ate pizza at Kwik Trip, drank five bottles of water and a Red Bull, and tried to take a picture of a blimp. We'll call it a good day off. Thanks, Google, for the blurry image.

Come learn to work on your own suspension fork.

One of our our goals at Freewheel Bike is to encourage the Do-It-Yourself spirit that so many cyclists embody. After all, cycling is a liberating sport and it is what attracts most of us to it. For me it brings back that sense of freedom that I felt as a child when I could get around the neighborhood on my own to go to a friends house or get to school without having to ride the bus or just get out and exploring the local woods. 

    I also remember when that sense of freedom was lost because I got a flat tire or my chain fell off and I had to walk my bike home. Although I'm kind of embarrassed to admit this, that actually happened to me this summer. I got a flat on my way home from work one night and used up my only spare tube. I was pleased that two people actually asked to see if I needed help because this seems to be getting more and more rare among cyclists. The next day on my way to work I got another flat but had not yet replenished my spare tube. The hole was too large to patch and it would not hold air at all, so I started to walk. I think I was passed by about five other cyclists but no one offered their assistance. I have no patience and I wanted to get to work so I just rode my bike the five miles with a flat rear tire. Again, no one even seemed to notice my situation, no offers of assistance came, no one took pity on me, no one even snickered at me for riding on a flat tire (that I saw anyway).
     The lesson here is that you can't count on anyone else to help you if your bike breaks down, not like the olden days when I first got into biking in the mid 90s. You also don't want to be that person that always counts on other riders for help because you neglected your bike. This is why we think that you should learn to do as much of your own maintenance and repair work as you can. And that's why we offer bike mechanics classes at the Freewheel Midtown Bike Center. One area of the bike that people neglect the most is the suspension fork and rear shock. We want to change this so we are offering a Suspension Fork Maintenance Class. The next one is scheduled for Sunday August 14th and will be taught by the legendary B Rose.

Our last Suspension Fork Maintenance class was taught by Tyson Acker. He had two students in attendance.

Tyson stressed good habits like keeping a clean and organized bench.

He demonstrated good technique....

...and he watched over his students like a doting father...

...yet he made sure that they could do it themselves...

 

Don't be intimidated to sign up for the class if you don't have much experience working on suspension or bikes in general. This class is designed for you.

An eventful day of working at Shockspital

     I spent the day working at Shockspital in the Midtown Bike Center trying to help B Rose and Dave Vance get caught up with the overwhelming demand for our suspension service. The Midtown Bike Center is an unique place with a lot of stuff going on.
     As luck would have it the next work order up was an old Rock Shox Mag 21 from around 1995. This brought back some old memories of my early years of working in a shop. This one had a lot of corrosion but we wanted to save it because it was custom painted to match the bike.

Here it is in all it's former glory!

 

I started by applying Kroil to all the bolts and the main oil seals and let it soak in.  Then I started slowly and carefully removing the external hardware.

 

Unfortunately  one of the bolts broke

 

The tool marks on this crown tell me that someone has worked on this fork before me and that someone was not very familiar with servicing this fork.

There's a large snap ring that has to be removed in order to pull the stanchion and oil seals out.

You used to be able to take these old forks all apart.

 

Meanwhile B Rose  was working on a Manitou Dorado on the next bench over.

 

 

 

Does anyone remember using the old basket ball needle to inflate your fork? I used one to drain the oil while depressurizing  each leg.

Then it was time to pull the stanchions and seals. You clamp the stanchion using a radius jaw and  unthread that two piece gold and silver seal puller using a 36mm and a 32mm headset wrench.

You have to be careful that the stanchion doesn't slide up and out of the radius jaw.

  

If all goes well the internals pop out together.

 

While trying to concentrate on all of this I had to help B Rose supervise Michael.  You see, Michael hangs out at Shockspital so much that everyone thinks he is B Rose' son. B Rose figures that he might as well put him to work.We're not sure if we should pay Michael or send his parents a bill for day care.

I was skeptical that Michael was qualified for the job.

Anyway, back to the old mag 21. If things don't go well the stanchion pulls out but the seals and bushings remain in the fork.

 Oh yeah, this is Derek.

He is putting elastomers on RT Rybak's Proflex.

I had to remove the Mag 21 crown/steerer assembly in order to try to remove the rest of that broken bolt. There was a lot of corrosion on the steerer tube.

But I polished it up.

A couple nice looking packages showed up which meant more work.

 Michael did a nice job assembling B Rose' new work bench.

Unfortunately that old mag 21 could not be saved but I had fun reliving my glory days and seeing all the fun stuff that goes on here. Luckily RST still sells a fork with a 1' threadless steerer and brake bosses. It just won't match anymore.

Scenes from Hammerhands

The brotherhood that exists among bike shop guys is a thing of legends. Like a unicorn or manticore, most people have never actually seen brotherhood amongst bike shop guys, so when I begin to ramble on and on about the brotherhood that exists amongst Freewheel Bike shop guys, you should sit up and take notice.

You there! Sit up and take notice! If this is a good time for you, that is!

Tonight's ride was memorable in that we had pretty much every location of the business represented: Freewheel Mobile's own Thadwick Cialek; West Bank's Tyson Acker; Midtown's John Bemel; Ben Erickson from the front office; and me (Chris) from Eden Prairie.

We talked shop. We talked life. We talked trash. We took bad lines. We cleaned rock gardens. We accidentally skidded once or twice. We awarded style points. Most of all, however, we reminded ourselves and each other and other folks around us why we're in the bike business: we love it.

Perfect conditions and perfect weather (maybe just a touch on the hot side at the start) combined with one of the best trails around are just icing on the cake, but honestly, we could have fun riding around an old city dump at nine miles per hour and getting dizzy from all the turning... oh wait, we do that at Theo Wirth. Yep, we have fun there too!

I've been told that people don't read anymore, and that a picture is worth 1000 words, and that I look like I'm Irish, and that my bike creaks. It does creak, but I'm a mechanic, so I know why it creaks, and if I'm not worried about it, you shouldn't be either, so there! And I AM part Irish! And you're reading this, aren't you?!? But anyways, here are thousands of words worth of pictures.

First you have to GET there. At 5:00 on a Wednesday, it took over an hour.
That's the Thadmobile in red.

So this is us, minus me. I'm busy being the bad photographer.

Tyson, saving it despite a shaky entry.
Note the incredible seat tube on that custom Waterford!

And he sticks the landing!
That's John Bemel's stunning red and black sock in the lower left corner.

Ben, telling an animated story. Thad had apparently heard the story before.

Eating Chipotle in front of a Casual Male XL store seemed ironically appropriate.
Our tapeworms were grateful.

Oh drat my luck! Guacamole blowout, and I forgot to grab a spoon!
Why did I get out of bed this morning?!?

Don't worry, I took it back inside when I was done with it.

6 PM. Wednesdays. Murphy parking lot. You're invited.

Superbe *or* Wizards of Suspension!

Simplicity through Design

In my opinion - the side pull brake is the pinnacle of bicycle component design. They aren't the easiest to adjust, the most powerful or flashy, but something about the simplicity and effectiveness of the design makes me smile.

With a few minutes of their day anyone can figure out how to disassemble, clean and reassemble a pair. Adjustment takes a special wrench, but even then it's just a turn and a tug to get them in the right position. Their form follows their function, but who among us is immune to the charm of satin finish? Now, though, dual pivot and the allure of carbon fiber have taken hold our collective imagination and the side pull has been relegated in all it's glory to the cheapest of brakes, mass produced in Taiwan with not the love or respect the design has known. They have immeasurable beauty inside and out - well worth the hunt for a decent pair from the 70's, 80's or 90's.

It was to my surprise that sitting on BRose's countertop the other day I came to find a pair of Suntour Superbe awaiting an owner. Probably lost in some bin at the cave which was his old home, now they sat with their satin glow. I picked them up and wondered how they got to this location. You see, BRose isn't known for simple...

Step back into the bowels of the Shockspital and you'll find forks, components of all anodized colors and shapes, frames in various states of repair, tools which defy the imagination. It is a lair of wizards and magic, ladies and gentlemen. With Dave Vance at his side their combined knowledge borders on the ridiculous - there is no problem too nuts for them to tackle. Just walking back into the haze of technical babble and disc brake fluid is enough to set even the most serious mountain cyclist into a frenzy of joyous babble.

BRose has set out to make the mystery of suspension and this 'mountain cycling' as simple to me as my beloved side pull break. Over these next few months I'll begin to spend more time with these two gentlemen and try to absorb as much information as possible. It's true, I've never ridden a mountain bike, but I'm going to do my dardest to try. What kind of spandex does one wear in the woods?

So here I stand, in the midst of this wondrous and mysterious land. Feeling almost as out of place as these brakes. Still, the handsome BRose and the wise and all powerful Dave Vance have something to offer and I'll do my best to relay my lessons on to you all.

It is with a heavy heart that I must leave my home in the cafe to the far off land of the Shockspital, but I'm sure my girl back home will be waiting when I return.

Kind Regards,

Aaron Smith

Wrenching at the Nature Valley Grand Prix

The Nature Vally Pro Ride is an awesome opportunity for several amateurs to realize the dream of riding in a real pro event. Thirteen riders from all over the US of A were randomly shanghai'd from regional events and smuggled sketchily into Minneapolis in perforated cardboard crates. They were allowed to bring their bikes, but Nature Valley supplied their kits. Those sprockets on the shoulder? Yep, that's us.

Which is to say, we have to keep their bikes running throughout the event. Golden Wrenchers Pete Hamer and Tyson Meyer have done this sort of thing before, so they took to the opportunity like a chicken watching a card trick. At any rate, these are amateurs who are being treated like professionals, and part of that treatment is bicycle kindness, Golden Wrench style.

Last year we sponsored the women's team, and I personally worked late into the night on a bike that had been ridden into the ground. It didn't shift, the brake pads were more-or-less shot, the rear wheel had a bad hop in it, and the chain was worn out. Peel the tubular back, scoop out the fossilized tubular glue, find the right wrench, true the wheel, ghetto-patch the glue, good as new! Run all new cables plus new housing at the derailleur loop, presto! Write an inspirational message on the bar tape in Australian, yessiree! I happen to speak a bit of Australian: that's how I'm able to understand Andrew the Shimano Tech Rep. In fact, I translate for some of the other guys who frittered away their high school years on Donkey Kong and riotous living.

Anyways, in the frenzy of trying to get to her first professional bike race of her amateur career, one of the athletes forgot her shoes at the host's house. Now, this was the St. Paul crit, and if you've ever tried to get into or out of St. Paul at 6 PM, you realize that shoes in St. Louis Park (for example) would be inaccessible. She was determined to throw down in her running shoes, but we found another way!

Jake, the General Mangler, has the exact same size feet that she had!!! and he carries his road shoes around in the back of his car!!! and his car was only slightly further than a comfortable distance away!!! but nothing he couldn't cover on a borrowed bike!!! and Pete's bike was just sitting there!!! so off he went!!! and back he came!!! and most of his cleat bolts were not stripped or seized, except for that one!!!

Not to make it more dramatic than it needs to be, but we managed to get the shoes from Jake's car, get the ratty old cleats off (including one stripped bolt), install some brand-new Shimano SPD-R cleats (crookedly), and install them on the athlete at the starting line. She was only about 5 seconds late leaving!

Well, her race went to pieces on her. After she caught back up to the group, a crash in front of her forced her to unclip, and she was never able to clip in again. Heartbreaking, especially considering how hard she worked to get there. She was glad to have the absolute worst experience of her cycling career behind her, and if nothing else, we were glad for that as well.

So that was stage two. There were more stories I wasn't privy to, and I heard it through the grapevine that our man Timothy Rugg put on a show for the fans at Stillwater, and went home with a Most Aggressive Rider jersey (with some sprockets on it). He's going somewhere and could use some good fans!

Murphy Hammerhands Hammers Hands

This Wednesday we're going to bring some demo bikes to the Murphy Hammerhands Wednesday Night Ride at Murphy Hammerhands. If you'd like to try out one of the new Trek designs to see if it makes all the difference in your single trackin,' you should oughta call and reserve one of the bikes we'll be bringing.

Choose from Trek Remedys, Hi-Fi DLX's, EX 9.9's, and others! With these proven suspension designs, you'll be laughing at Murphy's hand-hammering tendencies. You will dive into the "Berm of Suck" and laugh aloud at the wrist-shattering braking bumps. You will slice through the random rock garden and laugh aloud again. You will hit the big, partially-concealed ruts in the parking lot left by high school kids whipping donuts in small pickup trucks and laugh aloud. Your voice will be hoarse from all the laughing aloud that you will do.

Oh, and join us for food and refreshments afterwards too.

Winning...

Recently we did some work on the bike of an area mountain bike racer. He had recently done a local mountain bike race in Inver Grove Heights, and his nondescript mountain bike was exceedingly muddy afterwards. This area mountain bike racer was nice enough to clean it up for us, but it seems that he wasn't happy with the gnawing sounds coming out of his nondescript mountain bike. Apparently it was worth the while of this area mountain bike racer to bring his nondescript mountain bike (which was creaking and squeaking like a Conestoga wagon) in to get some Golden Wrenching.

Incidentally, this particular area mountain bike racer had won this particular local mountain bike race by a particularly wide margin. We wanted to find out how, so naturally, we looked at his nondescript mountain bike.

As Tyson tore into the nondescript mountain bike belonging to this area mountain bike racer, he discovered and documented some (and it pains me to report it) "mechanical indiscretions." Now the reader will notice that I have very charitably refrained from calling Mr. Moore (Oops! I meant "this area mountain bike racer!") a "cheater" or a "weasel" or a "mountebank" or a "charlatan" or a "scoundrel" or a "canteloupe" or a "Swede" or an "orangutan" or a "continent" or a "dinner plate" or a "wristwatch of impeccable craftsmanship," but certainly some of these epithets crossed my mind in relation to the abovementioned area mountain bike racer.

Let's have it out: clearly he had maliciously modified his bike for what may be considered an unfair advantage over his hapless competition. One of these "modifications," a derailleur pulley shaved down for extra aerodynamic advantage, he even boasted of on his own blog! The nerve!

In addition to the shaved-down derailleur pulley (saving probably eight grams of crucial rotating weight, plus eliminating the rotation), this area mountain biker was also using ultralight brake pads which consisted of only the metal backing plate. In other words, he was willing to risk life and limb in order to save about ten grams of braking material. Is this truly the cost of winning, and if so, is winning to be done at all cost?

The final straw was revealed when we removed the crank arms from the nondescript mountain bike and discovered that, in direct violation of literally several ethical somethings, he had lightened up his bottom bracket by removing several of the bearings. Certainly one could find wiser ways to save a few grams!

There are a lot of gaps in this smile.

I dunno. Maybe these fast guys just think differently, but this seems to be taking things a bit too far. We are thinking about having a sit-down intervention with this fellow before he starts sawing out his down tube, ventilating his handlebars, or drilling holes in his chain rings.

Wednesday Nights at Murphy Hammerhands

So, last summer a few of us Freewheelers decided that it would be a good idea to have a weekly off road ride at Murphy Hanrehan Park. Over the course of many weeks, we gained more and more riders. Eventually, somehow, Murphy got the nickname of Hammerhands (get it? Hammerhands = Hanrehan)... there is an official mascot, but, to avoid lawsuits, I will not post it here (Imagine "Fighting Irish" with hammers for hands).

Anyway... The second annual "Murphy Hammerhands Freewheel Bike Summer Long Group Ride on Wednesday Nights" is back by popular demand!

What we have in store: (1) A great ride! We are out to have fun and enjoy the summer trails. This ride is open to any level of off road rider. (2) Socialization post ride. Continuing our tradition, we will be roasting off meats and vegetables in the parking lot and will have refreshments available as well.

We will start this week (5/25/11) and go right up till the time trial series (also on Wednesday nights at the end of the summer, stay tuned for more info). Meet in the trail head parking lot off Hanrehan Lake Dr at 6pm. We won't ride if the trails are wet (check trail conditions at MorcMTB.org).

See you out there!

Although it is exciting and fun, cycling is an inherently dangerous sport: Freewheel Bike and its representatives are not responsible in any way for any perceived or actual injury before, during, or after group rides. Please take personal responsibility for your own safety. Helmets are required for all rider.

We Officially Welcome BRose!

We're officially extending a hearty Golden Wrench "WELCOME ABOARD, YOU FELLOW!" to Brian Rose, the gentleman-provocateur Alpha wolf from Shockspital. He's a disarmingly jovial fellow who lives and breathes bicycle history. He knows his retro bikes, and he knows his modern bikes, and he knows his own bike, and can often be found discoursing on the strengths and weaknesses of bygone designs.

And to top it off, the man himself rides an AMP fork: not the single-sprung unit, we're talking the dual-damper, titanium-legged fork that they made right before they bowed out of the industry. That's retro-bike nerd for "legit," as many of our readership are well aware.

Offically, we welcome you, Brian Rose, to the usually-temperate basement of the Midtown Bike Center!

The man, obscured by his fork

That's our official position. Privately, however, we're a bit worried. When he actually began moving into the Midtown Bike Center, he brought with him several enormous tool chests, some housewarming decor, his own bad self, and an extensive omnium-gatherum of suspension oddments dating from my earliest memories. Red plastic bins full of bicycle suspension archaeology form a neat little bunker where BRose can work his magic.

Instant Credibility! This tool does nothing that a well-wielded hammer and a drift punch cannot, but it says AMP on it...

The trouble is not merely the presence of the bins, it is that we have to catalog and inventory their contents. The bins themselves are large and heaping-full, and they are numerous. Plus, some of the parts have long since celebrated the tenth anniversary of their parent company's closure. It's going to be a challenge.

A lively box of springs: one of many such bins in the collection.

Lo, an air can from a Stratos shock! Behold, a damper from a Noleen Smart Shock! Begorrah, if that isn't a Boxxer spring! And what is this beautiful thing? Nope, I dunno. I'll have to ask.

Well, officially, we're going to give him the benefit of the doubt. He's got a pile of stuff to do: there's a Lefty from New Mexico, a Fox Alp 4 from Illinois, an old SID from Massachusetts, a lineup of local stuff, and a bunch of conversations to keep up on. As long as those bins don't start multiplying, we should be fine...

Good thing I created a "weather" category

Here in the Upper Midwest we occasionally get some pretty spectacular thunderstorms. Like tonight, for instance. A tiny little storm that barely registered on regional radar still managed to make me run into the house for the camera...

Check out the mammatus action on that sucker! And has anyone ever seen bigger hail? I admit I have not.

Hope you weren't riding home in that.

We want to service your suspension.

And you want this guy to do it.

We now have rental forks for when yours is being serviced!

We just received three rental forks from Rock Shox, two 26" and one 29er. This is just one more step we've taken to make it convenient for you to bring your fork in for it's annual maintenance. These forks are available for rent when we are servicing yours or sending yours in for warranty. The rental fee is $40 for as long as your fork is in for service and installation is included.