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July 24 Mt SnowJuly 14 JowlingThis is a side of Dave that no one has ever seen...I present to you: Dave's jowling pose
June 19 NewsRace updates coming soon, check out new photos of the 24 Hours of Big Bear and the Appalachian Classic Race that took place in West Virginia..... May 19 AS/400At work I have been building an industry desk. I’m working with middle market manufacturers that have revenues between 50 and 200 million dollars per year. This size company can support the technology that I focus on and pay the fee that we charge for our services. I spend a lot of time looking for IBM AS/400 (iSeries) mini mainframe instillations running JD Edwards enterprise resource planning software or the programmer analysts that works on the systems. The AS/400 is or was the backbone for most manufacturers. Many companies are moving to network based data systems, but the 400 still holds a strong market share in the slower to change manufacturing environment. They are also popular in the insurance industry. The AS/400’s ability to crunch enormous amounts of data makes it perfect for referencing data points in a huge national directory for every transaction made. I spend a lot of time looking for clues that a company will have an AS/400. A clue may come in the form of a software package, style of programming code (RPG 3, 4, and COBOL) or industry. Clues like these lead to finding hiring managers and employees that have specific needs or the right professional background. From this point, I market candidates to the hiring managers with the intent of landing a job order. Adversely, I can recruit employees from the company to export to other companies. Moving employees from one company to another or marketing one exceptional employee to several companies is the name of the game. In doing this, it is hard to avoid learning all of the latest technology, news, and rumors within the market segment. All of the industry data comes in handy when convincing someone to make a major change in career paths. This is all the more important in a shrinking industry segment filled with an older population of programmers, more than 80% of which have 10+ years of experience. However, for as large a decision as this seems to be, I am regularly surprised at how freely people with great jobs jump in with both feet. My developing ability to create the perception of greener pastures is becoming an increasingly important skill. April 29 AMBC GreenbrierI raced at the Greenbrier Challenge in Maryland this weekend. It was a great race for me because it validated a lot of training that I have been doing. I have had a rough go in the last two races, but I am pretty sure now that my problems were out of my control. As everyone may know I was misdirected by an uniformed course martial at the Mountwood OMBC race two weeks ago. Gunnar Shogren and I ended up riding six extra miles. Surprisingly, we didn't finish last. This weekend at the Greenbrier Challenge was great. I started the race riding pretty hard and quickly got away from the rest of the semi pro pack. Within a couple of miles I began to reel in struggling pro riders. About 10 min into the race Chris Eatough who had been separated from the pro pack by a flat tire ended up behind me. We rode together for the next three laps taking turns pulling, admittedly he more than I. He is much better at passing lapped riders than I am. I'm just not verbal enough when I'm racing. At one point while pulling, I caught a slower pro rider and yelled "rider up" to which he replied "left or right". I couldn't think, so I said "I don't care". By this point I was practically on top of him, so I passed in the rough. Chris Eatough plans this out much better. At this point I should mention the true performer here, my bike. It rode so smoothly over the thousands of rocks that littered the trail. The combination that I have is amazing. The Manitou MRD Absolute was so smooth that I didn't think about it at any point during the race. It feels bottomless and steers with such precision that it requires no extra thought. In addition the Mongoose frame is so light and compliant that climbing on it seemed effortless. At about the middle of my last lap I had worked my way to 3rd in the pro class with a 3+ min lead on the next guy in the semi pro class. I wish that I could say that it continued to work out like this but it didn't. A broken spoke became tangled in my rear derailleur tearing it off the frame. On the spot I tried to break the chain hoping to shorten it and remove the rear derailleur but I couldn't make it happen. I ran the last three miles finishing in 11th place. Not what I had hoped for, but good enough to qualify for nationals. March 29 High WaterToday my girlfriend and I took a walk through the valley near my house to get a firsthand look at the high river, which had closed the roadway. A cop had been waiting in this area earlier when I rolled through on my bike. He yelled at me as though my intention was to ride through 100 yards of near freezing water. On our way past Big Met golf course, we heard a high pitched scream. The scream sounded like that of a bunch of twelve-year-old boys horsing around. It could have been someone in the water, but it wasn’t possible. The river isn’t the type to just carry someone away. For that, someone would have had to wade out ten to fifteen feet into the quick current. This time of year, that alone would have been crazy. The water is hardly above freezing. We heard the sound again at the top of the hill and it pulled us down. It was coming from an area close to the water’s edge. The yell came, “please help me”. This time it was coming from the water or the opposite bank. I couldn’t tell, but I was rushing toward it. I saw a figure in the water about twenty feet from the water’s edge, about four feet into the fast moving water. From my left came an officer. The same one from earlier, but he was looking too far up stream. I yelled to him, and saw over his shoulder to the Fairview Park fire engine and two other cop cars plowing through the water on the submerged roadway. I have heard on a number of memorable occasions that I am too quick to draw large conclusions from small amounts of data. Previously, this sense or logic had been relatively flawless. I had known from a few characteristics if someone was employable, violent, a user, or fishing for information. It occurred to me at that moment the system was flawed. My method of thinking through the situation left out an important factor. Hearing the scream at the top of the hill, it would have made sense for a young boy to get too close to the water’s edge in the absence of the officer. The area where the road meets the water is a perfect place to fool around, that’s why we had come. The water is just too slow. It is sitting on the road but it isn’t moving anywhere. I had jumped to a conclusion based on a story that my mind invented. Following my direction, a firefighter with a rope rushed into the water without tying off. The cop yelled at him but cut his effort short of getting wet. Before he could reach her, she let go of the tree she had been holding onto the entire time, but the fireman jumped and grabbed her at the last moment. Having not tied off he quickly became stuck in the current with the woman, but retained enough strength in the icy water to catch a line from shore. As he brought her toward shore, she struggled against him to let her go. She was in her late 40’s with a short hair cut and baggy shirt. Her pants had been torn way by the current. As she was carried away, he said that she had been trying to kill herself. It didn’t make sense, and now it makes sense that it didn’t make sense. Killing yourself is crazy. No sane person would have gotten himself or herself into that situation. Never the less, in that instant the X factor didn’t occur to me, and I jumped to the wrong conclusion. March 18 A top performerReviewing a bike like the Mongoose Meteore requires a baseline of knowledge. Sure, it is one hell of a ride for someone moving up from a department store bike, but how does it really compare and what should you look for. What is different about this bike when compared to other bikes in the upper price range? What has Mongoose learnt from more than thirty years in the biz? Moreover, after selling so many bikes through department stores like Dicks sports, do they still have what it takes to make a top performer?
Part 1
How do you even know what a good bike is when you see one? What makes one bike better than another. First, I don’t care about cranks, shifters, post, derailleurs, bar, stem, cassette, or peddles. What makes a bike perform is the frame, fork, and wheels. I hesitate to even add wheels to the list of variables because having light wheels at this price point is a given. Everything else just falls in line once these decisions solidify.
On its own, the frame is simple, but we are going to ask a lot of it. It must be just strong enough to last under the weight of “the” rider. There is no need for an overly built frame if your goal is to race cross-country. At this point extra frame weight amounts to sloppy production, poor engineering, or the company being overly cautious. The frame must also contain a blend of handling characteristics that will make it safer, more fun, or quirky to ride.
Precise handling characteristics come from frame geometry. Quick handling often comes from a tall bottom bracket and short chain stays. However, quick handling can also come from a shorter overall wheelbase and steeper head angles. A bike that has a long wheelbase with a tall bottom bracket and short chain stays is one that will require more body movements to control. A tall bottom bracket will raise the riders roll center. This puts more of an emphasis on the rider’s body movements. A low bottom bracket height with a shorter overall wheelbase, often accompanied by a longer rear triangle will tend to put the rider at the whim of the machine. This will cause the rider to steer through a difficult section rather than lean or twist.
The frame must also be compliant. Someone could argue that a flex free aluminum frame would pay dividends at the end of a race by transferring power more accurately from the rider to the ground, but that argument no longer carries any weight. In the 90’s is was true that dulling the ride of a bike by making the frame more compliant and often heavier was poor choice compared to a ridged rival. Today, lightweight frames that dampen vibration while remaining lively are a far better choice for racing. There is also evidence that a forgiving frame will last longer than its ridged counter part by more effectively dealing with stress.
To come in part 2, suspension forks and practical application March 16 New bikeI just took the first ride on my new Mongoose Meteore. The bike isn’t quite ready for a full test, but I couldn’t wait. Still missing are the wheels and front derailleur that should be here by the 17th. On my first ride, I noticed that it is quite a bit different from the GF Ziggurat. It is still difficult to gauge the bike as a whole because I’m getting it dialed in. However, I noticed the smoothness of the fork. The Manitou MRD is smoother and stiffer than any Fox fork I have tried. It’s simple dampening valve is very light and superbly effective. I noticed something that will require a second look. The platform-dampening valve makes an audible sound when it breaks through.
More to come March 09 DespairIt could just be the cabin fever, but the news of Burger King taking Mozzarella sticks off the menu has hit me hard. I find it ironic that Burger King would have an advertising campaign called the “Whopper Freak-out”, wherein a hidden camera catches customers freaking out to news that the sandwich has been removed from the menu, only to do it for real. This is real. The Mozzarella sticks are gone, and the employees don’t know when they will be back, if ever. Everyone is really shaken up. On Thursday, when I pulled into the drive-through my eyes scanned the dollar menu not finding them. The menu showed no signs of tampering; it was as if they never existed. I asked, “Do you still have Mozzarella sticks”? No, I heard in return. “We no longer carry them”. You know, I hadn’t considered how much I loved the King’s Mozzarella sticks until they were gone. Being able to get them at any time of the day is something that I have come to count on. It’s hard to put a price on that kind of convenience. Now comes the hard part, moving on. I am sure that someone else sells them. Maybe they will not be as cheap or as easy to get, but someone will have them. Just as you become comfortable with something, they take it from you. If they were not still selling the Whopper, I probably would not go back. March 01 A new sponsor
I have a new sponsor, and its name is MANITOU. This season I will be doing two long-term tests. The first will be the Manitou Minute MRD Absolute. The fork is new fork is all new in 2008. It still has 100mm of travel, but now it weighs 3.2 lbs. It has the weight of a SID with the stiffness of a Fox. The second long term shock test that I will be doing is the R7 MRD Absolute. It too is all new for 2008 and comes in 80mm or 100mm of travel. The difference is the shock weighs 2.76 lbs. It shares the same internal configuration as the Minute but uses 28mm upper tubes instead of 32mm and a smaller oil bath to shed the weight. This fork weighs barely a pound more than the lightest rigid fork and has the plushness of a Minute.
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