idle banter

This page is dedicated to the idle banter, chit chat, and opinion so often heard at bicycle shops.

Opinions, oh boy what a way to start an argument. I've been known to have a strong opinion on tons of subjects regarding bikes what follows are some of them. If you don't like them, work up a good retort based on fact and come on down for some conversation and coffee.

1.Doping in the pro peloton: if you test positive for a banned substance in a UCI, IOC, or other cycling governing body drug test, sorry dude, in my opinion you're guilty. You were innocent right up to that point, its not you're guilty and need to prove you're innocent, when you tested positive you're guilty. Don't give me a line that the test was fallible, not proven, or you're some abnormal freak, admit you used and get on with life. I think the UCI takes a good stand on doping, if you cheat you're out.

2. Why Campy and not Shimano: We're a Campy Pro Shop, do I like Campy? yes I do, do I like Shimano? yes but with a qualification. Campy has history first and foremost, it feels more alive to me, a good blend of high tech and high fashion. Shimano on the other hand is perfectly competent, sort of like a Honda, a great car but it lacks emotion or maybe passion, you don't see guys getting Dura Ace tattoos but you do see Campy tattoos. Campy also has reparability, everything breaks, at least with Campy you can fix it, Shimano throw out that STI lever and get another. I've tried the SRAM Force road kit and I've got a about a thousand miles on it and the stuff works really good and the kit is real light. My first impressions of the double tap shifter have been positive, it's a shallow learning curve, Shimano guys will find it really easy, Campy guys will take a few rides to be really comfortable with it. You've probably read about the SRAM shifters ability to upshift while holding the lever against the drops, this works unbelievable when your sprinting, just grab the lever and flick your wrist.

3.Materials for racing bikes, why do I like Titanium and not Carbon, Aluminum, or Steel, Ti rules, light, stiff if it needs to be, flexible if need be, corrosion proof, tough. My problem with carbon in frames is it appears to be the "flavor of the week" every manufacturer makes or has made for them a carbon bike. With loads of them coming out of Asia, are they good? I would say good enough, corrosion between the dissimilar materials in the frame (BB shell, dropouts, headtube) can cause major long term durability problems. How long do you want to keep your bike for? If you answer years, buy Ti it will look as good in the future as it does now. What about aluminum? If your sponsor is giving you the bike fine or if you're buying a production bike they're great, cheap, light, stiff, if you race a lot, buy something better. How about the old stalwart steel, great material for bikes, strong, cheap, stiff or flexible, easy to make into a bike, light enough....but, rust, if steel didn't rust it would be the greatest material for a bike, but corrosion is its down fall. So back to Ti, it does everything all the other materials do except it won't corrode, it has exceptional ride quality, and is very impact resistant. What more could you ask for? Ok if were a little less expensive........As with everything I've succumbed to the lure of light carbon, I'm trying a Trek Madone SSL 58cm with SRAM Force I hate to say it but this bike is really good, if it lasts it will be one of the best bikes I've ever ridden.

4.Tubular(sew ups) or Clincher: First let me say is the current crop of tires which everybody calls clinchers are actually wired ons, which should you use? Easy, train on wired ons, race on tubulars (sew ups), Tubulars are lighter, ride better, and don't pinch flat. Down side is cost and reparability, wired ons are cheap and easy to repair. What do I ride on? tubulars of course (I do own a bike shop you know).

5.Greatest cyclist of all time, oh come on its not Lance, Lance is a great rider I would say possibly in the top three of all time but number one has to be Eddy Merckx, he won everything at least once (except Paris-Tours).

6.Top ten cyclists of all time, after Eddy in no particular order Fausto Coppi, Jacque Anquteil, Bernard Hinault, Miguel Indurain, Lance Armstrong, Louison Bobet, Felice Gimondi, Francesco Moser, Sean Kelly

7.Top American pro cyclists (modern era) after Lance and Greg no particular order. Lance Armstrong, Greg Lemond, George Hincapie, Bobby Julich, Marty Nothstein, Andy Hampsten, Jonathan Boyer, George Mount, John Tomac, Ned Overend. (I had to remove Tyler and Floyd because of their involvement with doping,sorry)

8.Observations on fit; We fit tons of cyclists to their existing bikes and spec customs for others, a question that is asked frequently is can you make any stock bike fit. The answer is yes and no. I fit based on certain parameters. I believe if the seat tube or top tube are longer or shorter than your accepted fit measurements by 2 cm the bike/frame cannot be properly fit to the rider. The stem shouldn't be shorter than 70mm up to a 51cm frame, 80mm up to a 53cm frame, 90mm up to a 54cm frame, 100mm up to a 56cm frame, 110mm up to a 58cm frame, 120mm up to 61cm frame. Conversely the stem shouldn't be longer than a 90mm up to 51cm frame, 100mm up to a 53cm frame, 110mm up to a 54cm frame, 120mm up to a 56cm, 130mm up to a 63cm frame. This is to balance the rider over the center of the bike. If a standard frame forces you out of these guidelines you're probably a candidate for a custom. The difficulty comparing the current generation of sloping top tube frames to standard frames is the ability to "see" the position of the rider in regards to their positioning and not where the frame is. For example, just because the bike has 8" of seat post exposed doesn't mean it doesn't fit, are the other measurements within the guidelines above? Is the drop within range for the rider without resorting to an excessive stack of spacers (no more than 80mm)? I believe it comes down to the saying if it looks right it probably is. Questions on fit are always welcome, email me: info (at) cornercycle.com

9. Top 20 or so cult/classic movies in no particular order, these should be in your collection: Repoman, Pulp Fiction, The Holy Grail, Young Frankenstein, Blazing Saddles, The Italian Job (original), Buckaroo Banzai, Airplane, Blues Brothers, A Clockwork Orange, Full Metal Jacket, Apocalypse Now, Deathrace 2000, Mad Max, The Shawshank Redemption, This is Spinal Tap, Fahrenheit 451, Psycho, Casablanca, To Kill a Mockingbird. The Star Wars trilogy, and for Sammy Morse, Slapshot. As always more to come.

10. CD's/Albums/MP3's on your iPod to take to your private island: Who's Next, Tommy, Live at Leeds, Hendrix Are You Experienced?, Neil Young Harvest, Pearl Jam Ten, Nirvana Nevermind, Iggy Pop Greatest hits, Sexpistols Never mind the Bollocks, Led Zepplin 2, Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon, Stevie Ray Vaughn (anything by SRV would suffice), Dave Brubeck Time Out, Mozart Piano Concertos, Beethoven Symphony #9, U2 best of 1980-1990 (before Bono became a pretentious dick) Tom Petty & the HB's original release, Black Sabbath Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, Vivaldi 4 Seasons, AC/DC Back in Black, Cream Best Of, Bob Marley Compilation or Jimmy Cliff The Harder they Come, Beatles White Album or Sgt Pepper (my daughter likes and has been listening to One the cd with all of the Beatles number one hits), Rolling Stones Her Satanic Majesties Request, A good Motown compilation, and last but not least, Some really bad rap (think NWA or Eminem) and Madona to make you appreciate the other music you brought with you.

11. Things bike shop dudes and dudettes have heard way too often.

1.The old stand by "I was just riding along" now known in industry parlance as a "JRA".

2."Could you just".......it never ends well, that statement is usually heard on a smokin' hot day in July or August around 3:00 and you haven't eaten lunch yet.

3."But I know George" yeah and so does everyone that reads this sorry excuse for a website.

4."Shouldn't that be under warranty" applied to the kids bike that mum or dad drove over in the driveway with the gigantic SUV, or the similar "I thought these bikes were rugged".

5.Walking in with a flat in hand stating "I just had this fixed and I hardly ever rode it" upon review of the receipt noting to the customer that they had the flat fixed the previous year and 12 month warranty on a flat repair was probably excessive.

6.One of my personal favorites "but my shop back home in East Nowhere or West Somewhere fixes my bike for free" well unfortunately you're not at home and I still need to pay the person fixing your bike and unless your name is Eddy or Lance you'll need to pony up.

7."Why does that cost so much to do, you did it so quick, if I had all of the tools you have I could do it too" well tools and training cost money so you can buy the tools and the training and fix it yourself or you can pay us to do it. If you're nice and want to learn, buy the tools from us we'll show you how to do most repairs and then we've made you the best kind of customer, one that understands and can fix their own bike. Sort of like "give a man a fish feed him for a day" etc etc.

8.Come in on Thursday or Friday in season and start the conversation with "I need it for Saturday morning I've got a race". yeah great and how long ago did you sign up for the said race?

9. The one I hear frequently about my employees "that young man (or woman - Meg) was very professional and very helpful." My employees are my store and when you're happy with the way you've been treated I'm ecstatic, I know then that I've trained them well and they're passing on my enthusiasm.

more to come, I'll entertain commenting on other subjects if you email me.