I have a friend who is borderline OCD. He’ll sometimes wash his hands dozens of times a day, doesn’t like sticky stuff, cats drive him to antihistamine hell and there is a place for everything, with everything in its place. This can be annoying, not only for those around him, but especially for himself. It’s not a great place to be.
The upside is his bikes are always meticulously maintained, fully Rule compliant, or they are in a state of tear-down having last week’s grease freshened up and each ball bearing individually polished. He’s gotten it under control quite admirably these days, and while a chip in the duco of his beautiful steel frame will still understandably piss him off, there’s not the slightest hint of sending it back to Italy to be re-sprayed by the 78 year old artisan who originally painted it, who inconveniently happened to retire in 1984. But you can rest assured the touch-up job he’ll do himself is of paintshop standard.
But I’ve never seen him muck around with his seatpost height. Not once it’s set, anyway.
This poses the question: did The Prophet have OCD? To this observer it seems so, if numerous viewings of Le Course En Tete and A Sunday in Hell are any reliable indicator. The guy was constantly fiddling with his seatpost height. His mechanic must’ve been ready to throw his hands in the air proclaiming “Merde, Eddy! I’ve measured it three times already! Why do you not trust me?”
It seemed to matter little to Eddy that poor Charly had adhered to the numbers scribbled on the lid of his toolbox, taken the slide rule and spirit level to every possible surface and angle, and used his impeccable line of sight to position the saddle just right, exactly where it was requested to be. “How’s that Eddy?” “Is perfect.” “Then why are you borrowing a spanner from RDV’s team car? Hmmm?”
If he wasn’t adjusting his saddle, he was adjusting his stem. If he wasn’t adjusting his stem, he was squirting water from his bidon onto his brakes. If he wasn’t doing that, he was simply laying down the law. The law of The Prophet.
Obsessive? Yes. Compulsive? For sure. Did it affect his ability to waste all comers? Not likely.
[dmalbum path=”/velominati.com/content/Photo Galleries/brettok@velominati.com/merckx terryn/”/]
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View Comments
@Ron
Good point. Stay positive. I try and do that as much as possible, but sometimes it just eats me up inside. I do have a couple of stories about times when I didn't quite let it go. Might as well tell them here...
When I was about fifteen, I weighed 135 lbs, and just about the only thing I could do well outside of schoolwork was ride a bike. On one summer day, as I was just about to pull into my driveway at the end of my ride, a bright yellow Mustang with a loud exhaust passed me so close that his rear view mirror clipped my ungloved hand as I gripped my hoods. I was extremely lucky to have stayed upright. There was a stop sign just a couple of hundred feet up the road, with a couple of cars ahead of him. I don't know what came over me, but I sprinted up to him, and when a caught him, I unclipped my left shoe, and as hard as I could, left a Look-cleat-shaped dent in his rear quarter panel. He peeled out and I never saw him again.
I hope someone made coffee.
I'm always measuring and checking my saddle height. Even with a ring of black tape or a small Sharpie mark on the seat pin to make sure it hasn't slipped...
@gravity bob
Haha, x2.
As someone who suffered a back injury that has never one minute allowed me to ride the way I did before, I can say....
Eddy was fooling himself.
I would no more screw with my saddle height than I would eat a Clif bar with the wrapper on it. It is not your leg that has the problem. It is your back. Why not work on the reach? I found after the accident that I was only comfortable on bikes with a less than 2 inch saddle/bars drop. So that means that I ride frames that are "technically" too large for my 32 inch inseam. My Merckx MXL is a 62. My Scapin (yes one of the Kawasaki green ELOS frames) is a 63. The guy at the LBS says I should be riding a 58. I did break down and get a 60 for my cross/winter frame. But that is only because I got a smoking deal on a handmade frame.(Ves Mandaric. Anyone else know that name but me?)
I have to admit, I have not ridden a lot in the past few years. A second incident caused me to have another round of issue with my back. But I am working on getting back on the beast and getting some of the 136 kilos off. (I was a svelt 6'4" 235# at the first injury. Doesn't that put how a back injury can kill ya into perspective.) And I will be doing that riding with the same seat hight on all 3 bikes because I know what works. Consistency.
Cool post Brett and the captions to the photo's had me giggling like my 4yr old son after a handful of jellybeans.
@Calmante
Recently as my buddy and I got back into town a guy behind us started honking his horn at as. In the UK the law of the road is that you give a cyclist the same room as if they were a car when passing and that cyclists have as much right to be on the road as everyone else. There were some islands that were gonna stop him passing safely so I moved out to the middle of the lane to make this point maybe holding him up for five to ten seconds. I looked over as he passed and he was poking his temple to suggest it was me who was crazy, I didn't have time to check his wife's expression but his daughter was poking her temple just like daddy. We didn't think it was a good example to be setting. We had been riding in single file about half a metre from the kerb (second position) but we are perfectly within our rights to ride in the middle of the lane (first position).
I have to say though that just about all of the cars on the roads around here are very respectful of cyclists, I always give a wave of thanks if they wait till it's safe to pass.
@harminator
Solid gold!
@brett
A good and interesting wee piece. I'm sensitive to my seat being straight, can't imagine getting it right in a race which adds more awesomeness to Merckx's awesomeness.
Somedays i'll keep raising my seat over and over. its like i've got I got a fever. And the only prescription.. is more seatpost.