Lance Armstrong rides aged tubulars

wrote:
what do we smell here?

Garlic butter chicken with roasted garlic mashed potatoes and seasoned
broccoli followed by some red wine. Would you like some?

--
Phil, Squid-in-Training

"Mike Krueger" wrote in message:
This guy's been a
pro mechanic for 40 years, so he might know something about the
subject.
Comments?


Back in the mid-80's I recall an article in a cycling publication where a
mechanic for a pro team said they would re-use the same set of tubulars for
certain major races. He said that they would use a team set of Vittoria
Pavés for the Paris-Roubaix, then after the race put a thin coat of latex on
them (to *prevent* aging), dismount them and put them away for another year.
That tire had reputation for being bomb-proof at the time, but maybe too
heavy for other races. Perhaps this practical system evolved into the aging
practice mentioned in the documentary.

Blake

Mike Krueger wrote:
Discovery Channel aired a TV documentary yesterday entitled, "The
Science of Lance Armstrong". In one segment, Lance's longtime Belgian
mechanic was profiled. He took the camera crew down into his "wine
cellar"

Wine cellar? That would slow the whole process down and seems to do the
opposite of what they want. The key is to buy them new, put them in the
oven on clean, and then you can have properly aged 7-year tires in less than
2 minutes!

--
Phil, Squid-in-Training

Phil, Squid-in-Training wrote:
wrote:

what do we smell here?

Garlic butter chicken with roasted garlic mashed potatoes and seasoned
broccoli followed by some red wine.

Dinner menu @ Gitmo?

Phil, Squid-in-Training wrote:
wrote:

what do we smell here?


Garlic butter chicken with roasted garlic mashed potatoes and seasoned
broccoli followed by some red wine. Would you like some?


Make that a good ale and I'll be right over.


Robin

Mike Krueger Wrote:
Discovery Channel aired a TV documentary yesterday entitled, "Th
Science of Lance Armstrong". In one segment, Lance's longtime Belgia
mechanic was profiled. He took the camera crew down into his "win
cellar", where he stores scores of tubular tires for the pro team. H
had stacks of tires specifically designated for Paris-Roubaix, th
other spring classics, and, of course, the Tour De France, for which h
claimed the tubular tires had been specially *aging* for up to seve
years to improve their performance characteristics. This guy's been
pro mechanic for 40 years, so he might know something about th
subject
Comments?

Rubber fetish, goes down there in the evenings and rubs ...etc..

--
waxbytes

Its obvious this "GURU" pro mechanic with 40 years of experience hasn't
read the Bicycle FAQ:

What advantage is there in aging tubulars?
None!

Then again, Lance hasn't been known to have an exceptional number of flats
(even assuming Lance has actually been using this guy's tires). Maybe
there's something special in the vermin juices of this cellar.

Lance doesn't get flats... period. He's known for having rather exceptional
luck that way. But it's not because his tires are well-aged.

As to why Lance used aged tubulars, it has to do with absolute trust in your
mechanic. The relationship between racer and mechanic isn't typical, and
can't be defined in normal terms. The pro mechanic sells a particular brand
of snake oil, along with his mechanical expertise. He has to somehow
convince his client that nobody can better prepare a bike than he, that he's
the only person who can impart that magical something that can propel a bike
to victory.

I doubt any team mechanic ever put on his (and yes, as far as I know,
they're all male) resume that he's fluent in the FAQs regarding bicycle
maintenance & repair.

But much as I seek to undermine the mysticism surrounding the team mechanic,
I must also point out that there's a lot more to making a bike perform
exceptionally well than just knowing what screw to turn in which direction.
There are many competent mechanics who know *what* to do, but don't have a
great feel for how things interact... there's an inutitive feeling for what
it takes to make something work really well, and some people have it, some
don't. It's not something that can be taught. You can teach somebody how to
do something well, but many will just never develop a feel for wheel truing,
for example. They understand the mechanics, and can make a wheel reasonably
true, but the really great mechanic will spin the wheel a couple times, note
what's going on, and work a bit of magic on the spokes without even having
to look at reference points on the truing stand.

I imagine this is no different from work in any other field; there will be
those who have a natural talent for something, and others who do things by
the numbers (and get the job done, perfectly adequately, but not
exceptionally).

--Mike-- Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReactionBicycles.com

Mike Jacoubowsky wrote:
As to why Lance used aged tubulars, it has to do with absolute trust
in your mechanic. The relationship between racer and mechanic isn't
typical, and can't be defined in normal terms. The pro mechanic sells
a particular brand of snake oil, along with his mechanical expertise.
He has to somehow convince his client that nobody can better prepare
a bike than he, that he's the only person who can impart that magical
something that can propel a bike to victory.

I doubt any team mechanic ever put on his (and yes, as far as I know,
they're all male) resume that he's fluent in the FAQs regarding
bicycle maintenance & repair.

But much as I seek to undermine the mysticism surrounding the team
mechanic, I must also point out that there's a lot more to making a
bike perform exceptionally well than just knowing what screw to turn
in which direction. There are many competent mechanics who know
*what* to do, but don't have a great feel for how things interact...
there's an inutitive feeling for what it takes to make something work
really well, and some people have it, some don't. It's not something
that can be taught. You can teach somebody how to do something well,
but many will just never develop a feel for wheel truing, for
example. They understand the mechanics, and can make a wheel
reasonably true, but the really great mechanic will spin the wheel a
couple times, note what's going on, and work a bit of magic on the
spokes without even having to look at reference points on the truing
stand.
I imagine this is no different from work in any other field; there
will be those who have a natural talent for something, and others who
do things by the numbers (and get the job done, perfectly adequately,
but not exceptionally).

That was beautiful, man.

(Especially compared to those endless spoke tension fatigue stress relief
hanging/standing minutia threads!)

Bill "like, just rides a bike" S.

On Wed, 29 Jun 2005 05:05:12 GMT, "Bill Sornson"
wrote:

Mike Jacoubowsky wrote:
As to why Lance used aged tubulars, it has to do with absolute trust
in your mechanic. The relationship between racer and mechanic isn't
typical, and can't be defined in normal terms. The pro mechanic sells
a particular brand of snake oil, along with his mechanical expertise.
He has to somehow convince his client that nobody can better prepare
a bike than he, that he's the only person who can impart that magical
something that can propel a bike to victory.

I doubt any team mechanic ever put on his (and yes, as far as I know,
they're all male) resume that he's fluent in the FAQs regarding
bicycle maintenance & repair.

But much as I seek to undermine the mysticism surrounding the team
mechanic, I must also point out that there's a lot more to making a
bike perform exceptionally well than just knowing what screw to turn
in which direction. There are many competent mechanics who know
*what* to do, but don't have a great feel for how things interact...
there's an inutitive feeling for what it takes to make something work
really well, and some people have it, some don't. It's not something
that can be taught. You can teach somebody how to do something well,
but many will just never develop a feel for wheel truing, for
example. They understand the mechanics, and can make a wheel
reasonably true, but the really great mechanic will spin the wheel a
couple times, note what's going on, and work a bit of magic on the
spokes without even having to look at reference points on the truing
stand.
I imagine this is no different from work in any other field; there
will be those who have a natural talent for something, and others who
do things by the numbers (and get the job done, perfectly adequately,
but not exceptionally).

That was beautiful, man.

(Especially compared to those endless spoke tension fatigue stress relief
hanging/standing minutia threads!)

Bill "like, just rides a bike" S.

Dear Bill,

I think that it would have been better if the mechanic who
needed no truing stand or reference points had been blind
and named Von Herder, but I'm influenced by "The Adventure
of the Empty House":

http://www.citsoft.com/holmes/return/empty.house.txt

J. Watson, M.D.

wrote:
On Wed, 29 Jun 2005 05:05:12 GMT, "Bill Sornson"
wrote {of Mike's missive}:

That was beautiful, man.

(Especially compared to those endless spoke tension fatigue stress
relief hanging/standing minutia threads!)

Bill "like, just rides a bike" S.

Dear Bill,

I think that it would have been better if the mechanic who
needed no truing stand or reference points had been blind
and named Von Herder, but I'm influenced by "The Adventure
of the Empty House":

http://www.citsoft.com/holmes/return/empty.house.txt

J. Watson, M.D.

Dear Carl,

If Hammer didn't make a movie of it with Christopher Lee and Peter
Cushing -- along with a cadre of voluptuous vapiresses -- then what good was
it?

Impressionably Yours,

Drive-in Bill

http://www.fortunecity.com/lavendar/...39/hammer.html