2012 Plan So Far

It's Two weeks into the new year so I thought I would try to get off to a good start by putting in my first of every two week post for the season, well that's the plan any way.

For the top tier pro teams their season has already started with the TDU. For the second Pro Conti level teams, for most it's the final weeks of training camp phase with their first races in just a matter of weeks. For the lower third tier Continental teams like the one I work with, it's training camps and preparation time. For some they are half way through this stage, for others it's just starting. The trick to getting a good start to the season is early preparation. Your next season should really start when the current one begins, there is that much planning to do and deals to get signed.

So this year I am back with the Norwegian outfit, known this year as Osterhus-Ridley. So still no top pro team for me this year, but I feel I'm getting closer. Last time I was home I was asked the question which I sometimes ask myself, "when was I going to a big team". Well it's not quite that simple. Positions don't come up that often and it is still even hard when new teams form, because usually some also stop. It is a bit of a case where once your in your in. There is people in the circuit that aren't that great at what they do but still manage to go from one big team to another because they're in the top level circle already. It is all about who you know or with some people how much you talk the talk. I've heard of guys that have been in the game less than me but still manage a big team gig. I sometimes wonder what it will take, but if it means sucking up to someone then I'm happy where I am. With this team I have good equipment, plenty spare materials and a pay rate that I probably take home close to the top pro level anyway.

As always with most continental teams, everything is last minute. At this level it is always hard to secure a good sponsor and eqiupment sponsorship is mostly all swollowed up by the bigger teams. All these negotiations at the top level are done by staff working almost around the clock on the next deal.
The teams plan was that after many months of discussions a big sponsor would sign, and everything could be organised before the year was out, so come January we could get started directly with the season at the teams first training camp in Spain, which started this week. I began to picture building bikes looking out over a Spanish coastline. For this to happen thou deals needed to be signed and sealed well before, and that is something that is always one of the bigger challenges at the Continental level, securing that big deal early.
In December there was still talks on things like what groupset we would use, what wheels we would ride with, and the week before Christmas I was informed of the decision to get bikes with custom team paint schemes done. From there I knew even with a big sponsor or not that I wouldn't be starting work in January.

So despite things not quite going to plan the team moves forward and things now are quickly coming together. Bikes are again obviously Ridley but with a bit of a change. Racing Depot is the distributor for Campagnolo in Norway, so why we rode with Shimano no one really knows. But this year we have made the switch, So I will build all bikes with Campa Record. I briefly worked on it with the Marco Polo team in 2009, but I have not used Campagnolo myself for 10 years, so I'm a little anxious to see how far it has come. Each rider recieves two bikes of either Helium or Noah and then we have four reserve bikes which will be the Excalibur model, one of which will be mine to use during the season. Then they also recieve a Dean TT bike.
Wheels and componets will again be 4ZA, with the addition of their saddles also. Last season was a good test for 4ZA wheels and I liased with them a number of times regarding the deveopment of the wheels, so it's good to have them on board again in 2012. With the whole Shimano thing out we also change pedals to Look.
just half of the Record groups that arrived to me. One thing I can say about Campa is that it's nicely finished, and I'm a fan of the traditional looking chainrings, can't wait to see how it works. One other thing with the Campagnolo is I've had to do something I love doing, purchase some new tools, but more on that later.


As for riders, the team is all young guns, all U23. The new structure on the team should bring some new races, and maybe some good results. The older riders have stopped and the two Swedish are out making it an all Norwegian team.
On the staff front, I will solo on as the mechanic, but Philippe is not with us this season. He has a back problem that would soon see him walking like a crippled man if he kept going the way he was. With that in mind he decided to take a position on another team closer to home with less traveling and less labor intensive work. For him it was the right choice, but as far as his replacement I'm not sure what will happen there, we really need a fulltime soigneur.

So hope you stay tuned for the season ahead.

Back With It

I think it has being a while since I last posted something and I have probably lost a few loyal readers due to it, so my apologies there. I thought I should get back with it since I've had a few people quietly mention my posting is lacking and since that 2011 is almost over I thought I should get one in before the year is out. So I hope everyone had a great Christmas and is enjoying their festive season, I'm certainly enjoying mine but I have sure kept busy this winter.

So why the long pause in posting? Well my last post was about my trip to Dubai, so that was May,"Gee, it has really being that long since I posted". Well after that came June and that month is always a busy race schedule in Norway with the Tour of Norway and the Nationals. July was some time off but most of that was spent at home. Lindsay and I bought a house around then so July and August was spent packing, moving and renovating. We did some quick reno work by stripping all the outdated wallpaper. Some of the plaster work was in bad condition but we did a quick patch up job and painted it so we could move in. In the months gone by we have totally stripped what appeared to be a lush garden but was indeed well over grown, we moved the fence back a meter and installed a gate and done some more painting inside the house. Now I am building a laundry in the garage, since we can't really fit the car in and is full with bikes anyway, may as well make a decent laundry. So the house has kept me very busy. Philippe helps me wash the bikes of the now current National champ Alexander Kristoff.


August was the teams last month of stage races with a tour in Spain in which the guys did really well with some podium results. The other tour was a 2.1 in Italy. September was the last month abroad with some single day races in Belgium before heading back to Norway for the final National Cup race at the begining of October. August and September were by far the busiest with me working 410 hours over that two month period, but in 42 days instead of 60. October was just a few days work with packing everything at Racing Depot and cleaning out the truck to finish the season up.

November was back to work on the house, but the weather was still quite warm so a morning ride was a must. It was the first time I could get out on the bike and explore our new area in which we now live, and I wasn't sure when the weather would turn really cold so I got out for a spin while the higher temps still lasted. I also purchased a cross bike back in April but only now really had the chance to spend a heap of time riding it, and there is some good forrest trails here compared to the other side of town where we used to live.
I also had a friend of mine, Matt, come visit from the UK so I could teach him some wheel building. Matt bought all the materials and I just showed him the technique and tricks to make a decent wheel. I wouldn't go as far as saying I'm a master wheelbuilder but I know my way around when it comes to the more traditional style wheels. It is the more classic style wheel that I really enjoy working with. After a week he had 2 sets of nice 32 spoke training wheels.

With December almost over I have spent most of it working around the house. I also did one bike service for the husband of a collegue of Lindsay. He was not so happy with his bike servicing from to his local bike shop, so hopefully I have sorted his troubles and it might just bring a few more clients my way come next winter.
We had friends from Dubai visit for Christmas before they headed to Amsterdam for their New Years, for Lindsay and I, it will be a traditional kind of New Years at home with a small group of friends and a show of backyard fireworks.

So have a great and safe New Year and I hope you keep reading next season.
Cheers

Something Different

So here we are in July, summer time, Tour time, vacation time, whatever you want to call it. Last year Linds and I were in the Alps on vacation but this year there will be no Cols climbed. The last month has being a tad stressful, well for Linds anyway, she has been the one dealing with it all. But the reason for no post was, one, I was working and I never get time to post while working, and two, just recently we got the final go ahead on a house we bought here, so June was busy and now July is moving time.

But last post I mentioned some work I did in Dubai, so i will give some insight into that as it is different to what I normally do. It was May when I headed to Dubai to oversee the set up of a new store there. A good mate of mine, Lukey, put me in touch with a friend of his that wanted some help with the bike department within the store, so no, not just a normal bike shop. In the end I'm not sure of how much help I was, becuase Sam is a well organised guy and knows what he wants. Sam Whittam is the founder of Adventure HQ, the master mind behind it all, the man with big ideas. A store of 30,000sq ft with it's own climbing pinnacle and high ropes course inside the store. There is even a walk in fridge that can go to -25 to test your snow gear, not that you need that in Dubai on a daily basis, but what the hell. The store is your one stop outdoor adventure store, everything from bikes to jetskis, fishing rods, camping, rock climbing, 4WD, snow gear, you name it this store will have it.
the store logo sits in a brick wall which features as a waterfall.

When I first visited the store it was a empty shell, 6 months later [there were some delays] things had moved ahead at a rapid rate. This picture is taken from where the bike department is situated looking out to the main entrance.

So my main objective while there was to set up the work counter and plan out where everything would go. Also to train the mechanics and maybe do some short video clips for the shops website. I only had 8 days there and I wasn't sure what to expect, with anything. A while ago I had drawn up a plan of the work counter and sent to Sam, so that was pictured in my mind. I arrived in Dubai at 1am, was up at sparrows fart to go for a ride with Lukey, then off to the store. First thing was to sort out the tools. As it was not the Park Tools Kit I had in mind, thou would be enough to do most jobs, I had to sort out what tools there were and see what else extra the workshop may need. In a professional workshop you don't want to be working on a customers high end frame installing BB30 bearings with a hammer and screwdriver. it is important you have the right tool for the right job, this gains the customers confidence and trust for the workshop.

Here the work counter finally gets installed. Now that picture I had in my mind just went out the window. Still, a nice big custom made counter. A stainless steel surface would be laid on top at a later stage. The thing I had to work out was how to store everything. There was a huge amount of empty space inside the counter and trying to figure out how to best utilise that space was a small challenge. A bike shops work counter is unique, it's not something you just order off the shelf. It must be thought out, how all the small spare parts and such will be stored.
I spent much time thinking and planning, putting everything on paper trying to piece it all together to get everything to fit. I had no stock to go off so I had to think of all the spare parts they may carry for stock and think of how it would be stored. Sam was wanting all workshop related items stored in the counter, so that is a lot of stock to fit in.

The next planning out was the tool board, which I first did on this sheet of cardboard by laying out the position of the tools and then outlinning once I was happy with it. Again, I had not all the tools on hand, so I had to figure out the space to leave for the tools still to come. Here two workers hold up my cardboard draft as I stand back to see what it looks like, then take the photo to send to Sam for his approval.


Next big job was to install the Park Tool workstand. Now there was some drama with this. The thing I wasn't used to about working in Dubai was dealing with the workers. These guys work a normal day but get paid peanuts. Their not qualified tradesmen either, they have had no special training or even have the right tools. Workers would be using a nail to file or chisel something, rather than use a proper file or chisel. There was times I lost my patience I will admit, but mainly with their lack of urgency to do something, for me anyway. Once the position was decided for the stand, the tile was cut out. The foreman had drilled the first hole and made a mess of it, then some time when by before he sent a worker to finish the job. I had to explain to the guy 3 times that the 8mm bit they were using was not the right size needed for a 10mm expander bolt, but the foreman said they didn't have a 10mm bit. I was left there shaking my head in frustration. In the end the bolts were not secure enough to hold the stand in place for even a days work of servicing bikes. The foreman had to oversee everything in the whole store, he was a very busy man and only had a small handfull of workers to do things, and the stand I think was the last on their to do list. So after me asking nicely to try have it fixed with failed progress it was left to do before opening.
At least the stand was in the correct position, we could run the air line from the huge 10bar compressor which sits in a storage bay out back. Workers stood way beyond a ladders top saftey step to fix the air line along the roof to hang down at the center of the workshop where the workstand is situated. I had to make some further adjustments but I would use a higher ladder.

I then had to install all the storage draws inside the work counter, in the end I used just a simple Ikea product.
This storage solution just fell short of filling up the huge space inside the counter but it was the best solution. They are screwed in place to avoid moving about and there is 9 sets in total. These will hold all the workshop servicing related items, which should be more than enough. On top of the counter will sit 3 storage boxes, these will store all the smaller parts like bolts, cable tips, headset parts etc.


In the last days there the stainless piece had arrived for the tool board, so I set to work on that with my plan I had drawn up, thou there was a few minor alterations made along the way.
So this was the finished result, although not completely finished yet, the empty spaces are for the tools which were yet to arrive. The hard task was finding the right types of hooks to hang the tools. I wanted something that was clean looking to match the stainless surface and would work with the different tools. The other thing was doing the outlines, some I had to do free hand or with a ruler. I was happy with the end result. The last thing to do was drill the holes in the work top for the Park truing stand and bench vise to be fitted once the stainless top was installed.

So it was a good experince there, something different to working on a team. Now to the main story, I even got to do a race while I was there. A local organiser was running a criterium event, thou it was more like a kermesse. It was at the Autodrome, Dubai's F1 motor racing track. The racing scene in Dubai is not really developed like here in Europe but it is slowly growing, maybe due to how readily accessable it is, thou it is not a sport to do in summer.
I was doing the B race becuase I didn't have a licence to do A, Sam was also doing B. Lukey did the A race which started at 6am, to beat the heat of course. We donned our hot off the press specially made Adventure HQ jersey's to promote the store. Lukey won his race beating the national sprint ace, which he did by hitting him from a long way out. Then it was my turn, a 90 minute race with the temps already in the mid 20's at 8am, with stuff all training in my legs I wasn't real confident. There was an attack right from the line, my immeadiate thought was SHIT, but I settled in ok. As the race developed I was feeling ok, there was a break of 5 away but I wasn't too worried, finishing was the goal. Organisers had people around the course giving out bottles of cold water, not your qualified soigneur [or even experiencd at giving a bottle] but it was very welcomed, especially for one not used to the heat. I managed to grab a few bottles in the closing laps which kept me hydrated. Sam had blown so it was up to me to fly the Adventure HQ flag. I put in a few small attacks but the bunch seemed unwilling to really continue the attacks.
So by two laps to go the break had split, I calculated to be 3 remaining out front. The remaing breakaway riders were in sight, the pace had lifted. Two riders went hard up the last hill, I quickly slotted into 3rd wheel. The guy that led the chase had blown just as we caught the breakaway, the rider on second started his move for the line, I stuck to his wheel as he was giving me the perfect lead out. The race announcer was shouting in the loud speaker "THIS IS FOR THE WIN", but I had the feeling it was not. Out of the final turn I come off the wheel and kicked to win the sprint. I quickly learned there was one guy still out front, he finished 8 seconds ahead of us. None the less, second was good, I was surprised myself just by finishing.

Check out Adventure HQ at www.adventurehq.ae or if your in Dubai stop in at Times Square Center, Sheikh Zayed Road, Dubai.

Til next time