Each of us remembers how they became a Velominatus. For me, it was at Grimpeur Wielersport, in Zevenaar, The Netherlands. Its the perfect place: a small shop, on a small street, in a small town, in a small country, run by a Giant of the Sport, Herman van Meegen. I haven’t been back in years, not since my mentor and original owner was forced to retire due to a nagging back injury.
Despite it’s diminutive appearance, inside this small shop existed a world vast beyond my wildest imagination. The owner spoke with the soft ‘G’ – typical of the Dutch dialect in the region. Former head mechanic at Helvetia – La Suisse, and later for Team 7-Eleven, he had previously wielded a wrench at the world’s major events including Le Tour before opening this shop. He knew everyone. Pros strolled into his shop on a regular basis. Imagine the awe of a thirteen-year-old Velominatus Novus as Erik Breukink wandered into the shop and dallied about for a bit.
But it was the tales and experience from many years on the Pro circuit that made those visits to special to me. He explained in detail the way Steve Bauer preferred to ride a smaller frame than his contemporaries or how Pascal Richard liked the tension of the spokes “just so” as he laced a set of wheels for my dad. He showed me how he filed out the holes in the hub flange to cradle the spokes better and reduce the chance of breaking one. He built wheels on a truing stand he built himself and to which he affixed a micrometer. He told me that a perfectly true wheel will never go out of true, not even on the cobbles. “Maar het moet werkelijk perfect zijn.” But it has to be absolutely perfect. Sounds like something you need a custom truing stand and micrometer for. (That bike is now something like 20 years old, and has never seen a spoke wrench; the wheels are still perfectly true.)
He was personal friends with Eddy Merckx and picked up a frame my dad had ordered after dinner with The Man at the factory in Belgium. A prototype Campagnolo saddle with titanium rails and air bladder that never made it to production somehow found its way atop my dad’s seat post. I can’t imagine how his insides churned as my dad insisted on having a set of Scott Drop-Ins installed on that bike. He never uttered a word about it, opting instead to teach me how to seamlessly splice two rolls of bar tape together to accommodate the long bars – a skill he picked up wrapping the bars of riders who wanted double-wrapped bars on the tops but not the drops at Paris-Roubaix. He taught me to cut my cables short and solder them before cutting for the perfect, sleek finishing touch. He taught me how to “feel” a bolt to get it just the right amount of tight – where it holds but the soft aluminum doesn’t strip. He taught me to trim soda cans and tuck them in between the bars and stem of a handlebar that persistently slips. But most importantly, he showed me the intricate beauty of our machines.
He also stocked a backpack called the “Body Bag” which I always felt could have used a more sensible name and whose marketers perhaps missed a nuance in the language.
Apart from his poor choice in backpacks, this was a man who understood the finer things about bicycles, and I’m grateful he took the time to teach me even a tiny little bit of what he knew.
So, I leave you today with this question: if you could ask a pro bike mechanic – perhaps even one on the ProTour circuit – one, single question, what would it be?
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I love the random article that pop up, that I have missed due to joining this peloton only recently. Bridging is always tough.
I do bike repairs, maitenance, and even a bit of coaching as our town is about 200km from the nearest LBS. So I have recently become the local guru. Not bragging or anything, the fact is only one other guy in town works on bikes and he is 80 and retiring this season. When I retire from my day job, I will be going "pro" and opening up a shop other than in my garage. Story over...
Over the past few days, I have been working on a number of bikes, but I have an old Fiori Napoli on the stand right now. Her owner described a love that nearly put me in to tears. So the bike has been lovingly restored, cleaned, and tuned as if it was the Mona Lisa. I brought myself to such a zen state, that working on department store "comfort" bikes just feels dirty now.
Can you explain how this is done Frank?
@frank
It's interesting beacuse I swear by WD-40 as well.
I always get disparaging remarks from various shop mechanics because they seem to think that it will ruin the drivetrain.
I'm not sure why exactly they think this would be the case.
My reasoning is this.
I prefer a 'dry' chain as it doesn't allow road grime and dust to stick to it like oil based lubes tend to. All it takes is a simple wipe and reapplication before each ride to keep the drivetrain sweet.
It does require that you clean the chain in shellite (white gas) every so often to make sure that all of the grime is extracted from between the pins and rollers.
It also assumes that you are riding where it's dry most of the time. If you do get caught out in the rain, you have to either run a proper lube or make sure you reapply the WD-40 as soon as you get back to displace the water.
Woo. Grey cog!
I'm honoured.
@Dan_R
Yeah I feel the same way. I'm always worried about bringing a thread back from the dead, but feel I should.
Personally I've been playing with the white lightning clean ride stuff. Wax based, and when applied to a clean chain it supposedly keeps it clean. So far it actually seems to do quite a good job. I'm sure there's a lot of people here that aren't big fans of anything but the good old fashioned stuff, but my clean stays much cleaner then it did with the pedro's I had before.
@King Clydesdale
I used to use it but got tired of having to lube the chain every night so it would be nice for the next day. Definitely clean, but barely makes it thorough a couple hours in the rain. Since I have a rain bike now, I suppose I could try it again on the good bike.
You don't want to strip that stuff out from within the rollers, or your chain life will be dramatically reduced! You should keep your chain clean by adding lube, wiping off the excess (and the grime) as you add the lube and then wiping it down when it starts to look dirty again. A chain should never be too clean or you add friction where it should be minimised...a dry chain is a bad thing.
Actually, forget I said anything. Please keep using WD40 - you're keeping bike shops in business.
Lots of folk think WD-40 is a lubricant but it's more of a cleaning agent. WD stands for Water Dispersent and it may be a popular myth but the 40 comes from it being the fortieth combination of ingredients the inventor of WD-40 tried.
At the moment I'm using TF2 and the technique @Oli recommends.
@MrBigCog
I haven't tried in ages, but what you want to do is trim the ends of the bar wrap into a very long triangle so they can overlap each other without causing bulk.
@King Clydesdale
Mate, a bit part of the reason we have the random posts there is so they come up and people can revive the conversation; don't ever feel like you shouldn't revive a thread. If no one else is interested in chatting about it, they won't join in. If they are interested, some great conversation will crop up. No worries.
@King Clydesdale, @michael
I use Dumond Tech on Bikes #1 and #2, and have gone back to Clean Ride for the rain bike. Every other kind of lube just ends up mucking up the drive train too much. It doesn't attract dirt as much and keeps water out, so it's well-suited to it. The trouble is, as michael points out, that you need to apply it regularly, though I've had no trouble with it wearing off during my rides.
It's imperative, though, that the chain is completely de-greased before making the first application of the stuff; if there's even a hint of oil in there, the wax won't adhere, leading to the problem @Oli points out. Michael, maybe that's why it was coming off in the rain?
I prefer oil-based lubes, but for rain, it works well.