seanwillson.com

get your replay or tivo ready, oln has released their 2004 cycling schedule. of special note is the announcement of a behind the scenes documentary of lance armstrong and the usps team. it’s a 13 part documentary that details the road to the 2004 tour de france for lance and the posties. they’ll be following lance on commercial shoots, public appearances, wind tunnel testing, team training, scouting of courses, and more. it’ll be available in hdtv for those of you with really big tv sets. thanks to marc corbin for the heads up.

i was out on a short 13 mile ride early last week checking the distance and the time to ride from my house to the schaumburg train station. i’m obtaining a enclosed bike locker there that will allow me to commute to the train via bike and not leave it exposed to vandals. anyhow, i arrived at the station after 30 minutes and about 6.4 miles of light riding. as i turned to return home i felt my right pedal give a little and then sag. i lifted my foot off the pedal to look and the body of my less than 2 year old shimano dx pedal fell to the ground leaving the greasy axel on the crank arm. i was dumb struck … yet another problem with my bike, this was not my summer that’s for sure. i stopped, slid the pedal body on the axel and then rigged it so i could ride home. needless to say my left leg was extremely tired when i got back from doing 90% of the pedaling, but hey, it was a good workout.


obviously this forced me to buy some new pedals for my bike. i didn’t go with the clipless pedals i talked about before, i’m still planning on getting those in the spring. i wanted to stay with a platform pedal because i think it will give me the best support and strength for my size. i narrowed my choices down to the brooklyn machine works shin burgers, atomiclab aircorps, and the easton flatboy. i called all around the chicagoland area and was only able to get the flatboys at a local bike shop. i didn’t feel like waiting on an order so i went ahead and just bought em.


they are very slick looking pedals, all black, with laser etched lettering. they really gripped my feet well for the little time i rode on them yesterday. i’m looking forward to punishing them this weekend. ride on!

i rode my trainer for the first time this morning. i got up bright and early, still sore from the ride yesterday, and put in 35 minutes on the trainer. i like the ride a lot, it’s a solid workout. even with someone my size i was able to push myself pretty well. there were a few creaks, but honestly i think that’s just the metal on metal of the rear wheel skewer. i think even though you can lower it to the ground that with my front shock i may want to get a front riser for our front wheels. it feels like i’m riding downhill and puts a lot of stress on my hands and wrists. i think it would be darn near perfect on a road bike without front suspension. i’m looking forward to putting some serious riding in over the next few months.

amy, myself, brawnski, and rhapsody went for a 20 mile bike ride on the poplar creek trail today. i’d say that it’s amy and my favorite paved trail. it has a great combination of hills and flats, it could use a few more trees though, but otherwise it’s a great place to ride. after the first lap i was feeling pretty good but around the second lap i was starting to bonk on the climbs. i was forced to use lower gears and a higher cadence, which is fine, just zapped me even more. by the time we finished the second lap i felt better but definitely needed some carbo reloading. we decided to call it a day though and retired to the local jamba juice for our carb refresher.


for my first ride in a few weeks (due to no rear tire) i did pretty well. one of my goals for this year is to put in a 50 mile circuit of that trail. that would be a little under 6 laps as each lap is about 9.2 miles. i have to put in some serious training here soon to hit that goal.

i went out today and bought a new rear wheel for my bike. my other wheel is still in the shop, should have it back next week. i’m tired of not having my bike and thought it wouldn’t hurt to have a spare wheel around. i’m always breaking spokes so this will be a good alternate wheel to use in case something happens like this in the future.

after researching it for a while i decided to get a stationary trainer instead of my pedals and shoes. until i lose a bit of weight i think i’ll get the most use this season out of a good trainer for amy and my bike. our recumbent bike is annoying both of us (our arses fall asleep) and we both love to ride. given this and the fact that we can’t ride in the winter the obviously solution is to get a trainer for our bikes.


i looked around at different versions and after much deliberation i decided on the 1up cpr a-2000 bicycle trainer. it has a 100% lifetime parts warranty and if i’m not 100% satisfied with it they’ll replace it with a competitors product. this alone, along with their assurance that it can support my weight would have been enough. they also however have some amazing reviews from owners. i almost got tired of reading all of the rave reviews of their products. the other trainers i looked at varied this one in the quality of the construction and the type of resistance. the 1up trainer is a mechanical resistance trainer whereas a lot of the other trainers are fluid resistance. while fluid sounds cool there are tons of stories about people who had them that reported leakage within a few months and in some cases since it’s oil it destroys whatever it leaked upon. needless to say that isn’t something i felt like dealing with. the fact that the 1up has a resistance unit that i can make more difficult by adding more ball-bearings is key as well.


i placed the order this morning and they said i should have it by tomorrow (they’re only one state away). i’m pretty excited. this is my birthday gift from amy, thanks hun, i love you. now if my rear wheel was only ready. here are some pictures from various angles.

forever interested if i have my bike configured properly i have been in search of articles and tools to help me determine how my bike should be set up. do i have the right saddle height? am i the right distance from the handlebars? etc etc … here are a few of the tools that i’ve found recently to educate me.

• wrench science — web based configuration tool that will output all of the necessary measurements, very cool.
• how to fit your custom bike — an article on sizing.
• revisionist theory of bicycle sizing — yet another article on sizing.
• how to fit a bicycle — title says it all.
• frame sizing — sizing rivendell bikes, but other good info as well.
• cycle metrics — information on body measurement and lots of links.

not an exhaustive list but it helped me understand better what i need to look for and measure when making my next bike purchase. also important information for adjusting your current bikes configurations to fit your body type.