Three Strikes, You're Out!

I can no longer hold my tongue about FSA's piece of sh*t cranksets. I've owned 4 FSA MegaExo style cranksets. Three of them have failed and the only reason I think the fourth has yet to fail is because it is babied on my sunny day bike.

Gossamer
I bought my first set of FSA cranks (Gossamer MegaExo) while working in the cycling industry. The non driveside arm used to loosen every 4th or 5th ride so I always had to be attentive. I finally ignored their recommended torque range and just tightened the snot out of them. That seemed to hold things together for a good season or two. Eventually though the torx wrench requiring bolt that helps to snug the non-driveside arm tight against the driveside arm spindle wore down to a round hole. Hey FSA, good idea to use
a. soft aluminum
b. a small hole with a less than standard torx fitting
After two years of use these cranks were removed and relegated to spare/emergency duty. As a side note, if you own FSA cranks, I would suggest having a spare or back up set handy because your cranks will inevitably fail. I recently re-installed the Gossamers when my FSA SLK cranks failed for good (see below). The loosening problem is back and the stripped tightening bolt is not helping things.

SLK
I bought these cranks when I built my sunny day rider. At the time, they were high end for my budget and they were fairly lust worthy (in my eyes at least) since they were new technology and carbon. On my maiden voyage, despite suspecting they may loosen (um, see above...) they stayed tight. I torqued them to factory spec after each of my first 3 or 4 rides and everything seemed good. On my 4th or 5th ride, I was about 20 miles from home when I noticed the non-driveside beginning to loosen. I didn't have an 8mm allen wrench (no stupid torx head needed on these) so I limped them home as best as I could. Ever since then the cranks have acted like powercranks with the non-driveside arm slipping forward and backward on the splined driveside spindle despite not being loose side to side. For a while I thought it was play in my pedals or the crank arm loosening again. It honestly took me most of the season to figure it out. Fortunately, about the same time that I figured it out I also be-friended a very nice FSA employee who got me the hook up on some K-Force cranks. The SLK's were initially shelved for a year and then shifted to the Gossamer bike when I got sick of the Gossamers loosening. Confused yet?

This winter, after a season of 'cross racing with the SLK cranks I finally called FSA to see what can be done. They were very familiar with my problem (because I am willing to bet it happens a lot) and have offered to replace the non-driveside crank arm. Apparently the aluminum insert on that arm is susceptible to greater wear (again, great thinking there) than the steel driveside spindle on which it is mounted. Thankfully I have those POS Gossamer cranks to use in the meantime. Oh, and yes, the Gossamers continue to loosen almost daily.

K-Force
Being the cream of the crop, I expected the K-Force cranks to work without issue. Since they were on my sunny day ride, I never really put them through any tough conditions but I still felt they were the most expensive and therefore the best. When I saw the super dooper close out deal from my FSA employed friend I jumped at the chance to get another set. They were to be used on my 'cross bike as it was reconfigured for a cross country adventure. The compact gearing allowed me to avoid the need for a triple ring and the bonus of being lightweight seemed like a great idea. Luckily they didn't fail until I was in the middle of f'in nowhere Indiana. I noticed some play in my pedal and thought it might be the cleat on my shoe. Nope. Maybe my pedal was unthreading. Nope. In fact, the pedal insert was coming unbonded from the crankarm. When I finally figured this out I called all the area shops to see if any of them might have a similar K-Force that I could purchase. Oh, did I mention I was in the middle of nowhere so I had very limited cell reception? When I finally got to Ft Wayne, IN I found my way to a shop that allowed me to take a new non-driveside arm from their inventory while my FSA friend sent them a warranty replacement. Honestly, if I didn't have that FSA friend, I probably would have been out some serious $. Then again, I never would have bought the K-Craps to begin with...
Thinking the worst was behind me, I continued on my journey. Within shouting distance of home (Hopkinton, MA) the other pedal insert came loose. FUCK! When I got home, I mailed the cranks back and requested a different model (SLK Light). Those went on ebay and I've been slowly working to eliminate all FSA cranks from my fleet.

Although some might say I am failing to accept blame, I think it is pretty clear when a company makes a shitty product. I've used dozens of other brands without ever having problems so I think it is fair to say, FSA CRANKS SUCK. Ask Ryan Kelly, he'd tell you the same thing.

Oh, but did you hear FSA is going to release a new 11 speed drivetrain? Yeah, remind me to rush out and buy that.

Hill Repeats?

Is it too early in the season to be doing hill repeats? I think not! After spending 3 days working in Billings, MT this week I headed to Vermont for a romantic Valentine's Day weekend with my wife...and her friends. It's ok, we actually had a lot of fun and it takes the pressure off when 2 other couples are around for Valentine's Day.

So yeah, hill repeats. Well on Saturday I spent almost 5 hours doing hill repeats. Up down up down. Needless to say, I was exhausted by the end of the day. Feeling the itch for one more, I dragged my wife up to the summit of Okemo Mountain. Ok, so maybe we didn't ride to the top, but we did hike the whole thing with snow shoes. We even made it to the old fire tower at the summit and took in the great views on a crystal clear day. The view was clear enough to pick out Mt Washington some 100(?) miles away. Nice.

what'd you do this weekend?

I got lots of emails about 4 hour rides scheduled for Sunday. Instead, I chose to leave town on Saturday afternoon (before the warmest day in months) and head to Grand Junction, CO where I have work obligations until Wednesday. So I've missed the warmest few days of 2009 in Boston.

Oh well, I got to do this(snowshoeing) on Sunday so I don't feel too bad.At 10,000+ ft, you can see pretty damn far.
Oh, my coworker flew in early too.
We tried to go to Rockslide Brewery on Main St to watch the Super Bowl but it was closed! Seriously, the brewery was closed on Super Bowl Sunday! I got to see this really clever sculpture though. Fitting since Grand Junction has lots of great mountain biking and is close to both Fruita and Moab.

roller update

My many loyal readers will be happy to know I have successfully completed 1.5 hours on the rollers without stopping. Although I do not possess the holy grail of training equipment, I do believe this training is making me stronger. Once I complete my goal of 2 hours on the rollers I have been told I can join some elite cyclists in the Boston area to apply my skills to actual outdoor riding.

Although I was hopeful of taking the giant step to outdoor riding this weekend I will instead be traveling to Grand Junction, CO to apply my indoor walking training to outdoor snow shoeing. Wish me luck because I have only successfully walked for 20 minutes indoors and I hope to complete 1.5 hours of snowshoeing...

roll another joint

I dread riding the trainer indoors. I seek every excuse not to and am willing to risk a lesser workout and frigid temperatures to ride outdoors. Thinking that riding rollers instead of a trainer would more closely mimic the outdoor cycling sensation, I recently purchased some inexpensive rollers (as recommended by Mr. Indoor Training). I ordered them over the phone on a Tuesday and they arrived on Thursday! Not bad for $104.
With no asembly required, I was able to rip open the box and start my balancing act in less than 5 minutes. At first I put the rollers near a desk so I could lean on the desk to help balance. I quickly realized I’d need a taller stable surface to prop myself against so I opted for a doorway instead. Using the doorway for support, I was able to ride for 15 minutes without wandering too much though I was definitely holding on for support.
I had read about others use thick tape to help “force” the wheels to stay within a limited range on the rollers so I gave this a try. At first it was useless. My wheels still wandered outside the range although I managed to avoid any serious disasters and never rode off the sides. I decided to add even more tape to build up a decent ridge and this helped. On day 2 I was able to ride for about 3-4 minutes without holding on to the door frame.
On day 3, I set the rollers next to my wife’s trainer and a tall storage dresser. To avoid boredom, my wife put on a DVD and I tried to keep myself focused on the tv because that helped keep me centered on the rollers. During our workout I managed 15-20 minutes of consecutive roller action without reaching for support.
On day 4, I popped in a DVD and took to the rollers by myself. I successfully spun for 50+ minutes and worked up quite a sweat. I even managed a couple of one handed reaches to the water bottle. So the roller thing is getting easier and it is definitely more enjoyable/challenging than a trainer. I’m actually looking forward to more roller workouts this winter. Crazy, I know.

better late than never

Oh yeah, I forgot that this blog was supposed to be about the places I travel. Well, earlier this week I found myself at the familiar Logan Terminal A waiting to board yet another Delta plane. After the big Sunday morning snow storm and hearing of my coworker's 5 hour flight delay and ultimate cancellation, I aborted the Sunday travel plan and rebooked for an early Monday departure. We were boarded and ready at 7:50 as scheduled but apparently Delta only employs one person to load bags for every plane on Mondays because we spent an hour waiting for the oversized carry on bags to be loaded. By the way, has anyone else noticed that the new fees for checked luggage has encouraged people to try to carry on absurdly large bags that inevitably have to be checked at the door and inevitably take extra time to load in the cargo area and inevitably delays the flight and inevitably causes missed connections, upset customers, and added work for the airline? So, is that stupid $25 fee really worth it Delta?
So the short story is that we were delayed 1.45 hours in Boston (despite boarding on time) so I missed my connection in Cincinnati. On the plus side, a former coworker was on the plane and he had a long layover too so after chatting for nearly 3 hours on the plane we continued catching up over lunch (at Chick Fil A of course!).
My flight to Kansas City was uneventful except that my coworker had already come and gone 2 hours earlier and he had the rental car so I had to wait for him to pick me up after the client meetings some 30 miles away. Fortunately I was only spending 24 hours in Kansas City so I didn't worry about seeing the sites in such a short time. We had lunch out by the Nascar race track and dinner at a brew pub. Never did get to see the cross nationals venue but from what I saw of the area, those of you who might have felt like you were missing something by not going...didn't (sorry Kyler). Pretty standard "anywhere USA" type of place. I'm sure I'll have another few trips there and I'll try to branch out to see more sites, but so far I'm not impressed.
My next two trips are to Grand Junction, CO and Billings, MT. Hopefully I can produce some more exciting reports.

where da money at?

This past summer/fall I tried to help a friend launch a new road racing team comprised of amateur (cat 2-4) racers focused on racing in the northeast. Since I wasn’t working, I didn’t mind lending some time to the effort but I have to admit I was not very optimistic. I’d never really done the math to calculate how much money or product would be needed for a team of 10-12 people. Once I did, it was pretty easy to see that success was highly unlikely. To make a long story short, we failed to gather any monetary support after almost 4 months of trying and although cycling companies were willing to offer “team” deals or even free products we decided not to continue our efforts.

I was reminded of this quest for sponsorship when I read a few cyclingnews.com articles recently. The first one was the review of Lance’s specially painted race bike that he’ll be using for his return to competitive road racing this month. The next article was an interview with the male and female mtb ultra distance series (NUE) winners who are both losing their sponsorship from Trek/Volkswagen and may not compete in 2009 as a result. It immediately struck me that huge dollars are being spent to paint and ship Lance’s frame (they supposedly closed their custom paint shop for a week in order to work only on this frame) while other racers are being completely cut from the payroll. Initially I thought it was unfair that these two very successful mtb racers were essentially being put out to pasture while seemingly excessive amounts of money were being thrown at an already-established superstar. Then I realized that the factors that make it highly unlikely for a group of Boston based amateurs to raise money for their new road team are also making it harder for the professionals to keep their existing money.

ROI, or return on investment. Truth be told, there is not much ROI for Trek and Volkswagon when it comes to their mtb team. Heck, Trek will probably generate more Fuel sales as a result of Lance’s mtb racing this fall than it will as a result of Jeff and Cheryl’s NUE series victories. In the same way, sponsoring 10-12 “guys” who race in New England is not likely to yield a high ROI, no matter how little money a sponsor puts forward.

Bringing more to the table. To be appealing to a potential sponsor, groups, or individuals will need to deliver outside of cycling. Let’s face it, our “community” is not that big, even in the athletic world, so being able to reach a broad audience beyond cyclists will be a key to securing dollars. Lance has used cycling as a spring board to reach millions of people who could care less about racing but are able to relate and support his Livestrong program because their lives were affected in some way by cancer. Those people are more likely to buy a Trek bicycle or Oakley sunglasses or Nike running apparel (remember that silly marathon stage he went through?) if they want to “be like Lance.”

Smell the coffee. Lots of people point to the tough times as a generic reason for why athletic sponsorship is decreasing. Underneath that excuse is the added reality that many companies are waking up and realizing they need to make smart (i.e. safe) marketing investments with their limited pool of funds and so the areas in which they will/did spend money are being more heavily scrutinized. It will be interesting to see whether or not companies continue to act this way when the economy turns around and travel and leisure spending goes back up. In the meantime, unfortunately it looks like fewer and fewer athletes will be able to subsidize (or make a living at) their sport without a j-o-b.

no battenkill roubaix

Last year I missed out on the registration because frankly I wasn't ready to commit to the event so far in advance and it sold out quicker than I expected. This year I have a conflict that will keep me far away from central NY on April 18th. I was initially disappointed about missing the Battenkill Roubaix yet again in 2009. It remains on my short list of must-do events before I retire and move west. But I am extremely excited about the other adventure I will be part of instead.

Last summer I got to see a great deal of the United States from the seat of my bicycle. This spring I am going to see amazing sites at 4000m of elevation from the comfort of my hiking shoes. Even if it rains the whole time, I know it will be a scenic adventure with great company in the form of my wife, sister-in-law, and brother-in-law.


When I arrive in Cuzco and start acclimating to the high altitude I'll probably be gasping for breath with almost as much frequency as my friends who are trying desperately to maintain contact with the leaders of their respective peletons. Maybe next year I'll be with you guys. In 2009 I'll be far far away.