FOCUS.

Focus Izalco Team Replica. Complete with all Sram Force and DT Swiss Wheels for $3k. Size L. Pictured with special PT Carbon Tubulars.


LIGHT BB30 Cranks and K-edge style chain protector, a must for people riding bb30 cranks.

1x Heads in on the DS for Stiffer, more even spoke tension.

Dropouts are pretty good.







Details on PT Wheelset.

Front 778 grams
Rear 1235 grams

PT Wheelset weight without Tires, 1413 GRAMS.

Awesome Wheel Deal

Want some sweet wheels for cheap?

30mm deep, 460 gram rims= $40ea
Blue 20, 24h
Red 20, 28h
Gold 20, 24, 28h
Silver 20 ,24, 28h
Black 16, 18, 20, 28, 32h

27mm deep, 430 gram rims, $36
Red 20, 24 ,28, 32h
Gold 20, 24 ,28, 32h
Black 32h



20/24 or 24/28 c-4 hubset. $180.

cx-ray spokes $100
sapim db round thin spokes. $50

Alloy self locking nipples. $15


Get a sub 1500 gram wheelset for racing, for $320!
Get a blow your mind fast aero wheelset for less than $400!

I'm thinking red or gold 27mm rims with 20/24 hubs will be the fastest all day wheels, 1375 grams!


Buy any of these wheelsets, or any carbon wheelsets, and I'll give you 40% off tires.

Tires.

I WANT THESE! You should too.

PRO Wheels

This PRO has some carbon fiber wheels for you, they are $1299. Why not buy them from me for $700-$800.

50mm deep carbon tubulars, 20/24 spoke count, c-4 hubs. less than 1140 grams. $800
Same as above but clinchers, $850
20mm deep 925 gram tubular wheelset, same as above, $700.
38mm deep tubular 1100 gram wheelset, like the PRO Wheels pictures, $700.

All built well by hand with sapim cx-ray spokes and self locking nipples.

Racing History and Racing future.

Still no goals for this year yet. I'm hoping to get my mtn. bike out on the trails in the next 2 weeks, have some fun, we'll see.
I haven't been riding much, by the end of the day I think I end up with almost 1 hour of riding, its hard riding, but not nearly enough. It would be nice to get 1 hour in the morning and 1 hour at night with 1/2 hour thrown in during lunch. That would at least sustain some fitness. Right now I feel like I'm just getting slower when I haven't even got fast this year yet.

I remember when I was like this, it was probably 3 years ago. I road my bike probably 18 miles every day, just to work and back when I started teaching high school.

Then I started working at Epic. It was a job I really enjoyed. Over the summer I gained some fitness working there, I would ride 15 miles to work, drink clif recover, work 4 hours or so, then 20 miles home, drink a pitcher of BLVD. pale ale and that was it. Doing that ever day for a few months got me fit. Keep in mind I was always late and pedaling as hard as I could with lots of hills.


Then in the fall I started teaching again and still worked up north on the weekends and 2 nights a week. My mileage went from 200 miles/week to 250 a week. I didn't race much this year, maybe 4 cx races, but I was getting faster.


The fitness I gained from doing this much mileage over 6 months was very good. My body's tolerance for pain was very good and I could ride as hard as I wanted.


Then I started a new bike store, worked alot more, road a lot less, and lost lots of fitness. When cx season came around, I raced every weekend, thanks to my friend Marcus who was driving to all the races and gave me a ride. I got fast again racing cx, it made me love racing again. My mileage was still pretty good, I'd ride 25 miles commuting, and 3 days a week I would spend another 25 riding down to build frames.

I'm not sure if riding an extra 25 miles only to spend all night building frames was good for fitness, but it was fun. Ricky and I built frames for over a year, but once I had a kid, and he got married, it kind of got old. Not sure how, but it is a ton of work. I think we spent over 350 hours between us to build 8 frames. Very good frames, but getting paid $1/hour to work hard all night sucks. We had our heads down working, drinking coffee at 11 at night cutting away on steel and I would get home to my pregnant sleeping wife to pass out only to wake up 3 hours later to get to work. It sucked in a way, but it was probably the most useful I have ever been in my life. I worked/road 20 hours a day it seemed like, it was awesome.

I raced a lot this year, it was 2009, my last year of teaching as well. I figured it was way cheaper to keep a baby at work and not pay an employee than to pay for day care, go to teach high school, and pay for employees, so teaching stopped.

Looking back, teaching was the hardest part of my life, both mental and physical, I can't believe I got paid so little to do so much. It didn't suck, but now that I am not teaching, I think it did.

2010 sucked for racing, I didn't ride much, except to haul my baby around on my touring bike. It was like weight training, but I didn't do enough of it. I didn't race much either, not much at all really, some local stuff, and Tulsa. I got beat alot.

This year for 2011, my goal was to race alot, ride alot, and hopefully get fast so when CX comes around, I will kill people. I am not going very good so far.

Thats the point of this writing. Trying to motivate myself to do this. Do what? I don't know yet. I guess get faster without killing my life. My life is shifting more towards family, which is good. It sucks though because the more I ride, the more I feel I'm pushing family away. I can't wait till it warms up, and I can put Benon on my bike to ride around. This summer the plan is for me to have Benon all day at the 18th st. store, it should be a good time. When the new baby comes in August, I'll keep him(its a boy) down here too.



So here's races that I might do. If I feel good and can travel, I will. Iowa is doubtful, but is fun so I'm not taking it off the list. Joe Martin I physically can't do, plus the wife graduates, which is exciting. I was on a late night ride and was asked if I had any hobbies other than bikes, the answer was no. Then I was asked what my wife did for fun. I didn't have an answer. She really is just a badass, who works super hard at anything she does. Right now it is being a dentist, it has been this way for 11 years. She will finally have her degree May 7th. Its pretty exciting. Spending all this time focusing on one goal, working as hard as you can, getting all A's all the time, exceeding everyones expectations over and over takes more energy than I can ever imagine. I'm sure if I focused this hard on one of the things I am into,racing, wheelbuilding, framebuilding, managing 2 bike shops, being a dad/husband, owning 2 bike stores, I would be very good, eventually. Right now I feel inadequate. The first thing I would have to cut would be racing.





May
1 Joe Sheehan RR
5-8 Joe Martin
14 Tour de grove
15 Alley GP in STLOUIS
21 Lincoln crit
22 Lincoln Crit
27iowa
28iowa
29iowa
30 Iowa
June
3-5 Wichita crits
4-5 O'fallon crits
10-12 Tulsa Tough
18 Rolla Crit
19 Hellbender RR
24kc
25kc
26kc
July
1-3 Tour of Lawrence
17 Shawnee Mission Mtn. bike race
August
13 Landahl 3/6 hour mtn. race
27 Sedalia Crit
28 Warrensburg Crit
September
2-5 Gateway

PERRYROUBAIX

Hard race. Not a lot of wind, but it seemed that everyone showed up with good legs but me. From the start we were hauling, straight down to the dirt, then on the dirt attacks just go, and go, and never stop. After a lap I got a flat, I was going through a corner and a rock flew up from a rider in front of me and landed right as I rolled over it, at a perfect angle and it took the tire.

No wheel truck, waited a bit and finally got a rear wheel, they were helping someone with a flat while I was stranded. I punched for the rest of the dirt. Luckily the wheel truck didn't pass me, maybe being polite not to dust me or something, but it was lucky, since I flatted my front right before the road. Got another wheel.

No I'm riding the wheels I've been riding all winter, bomb proof rs80 shimano carbon clinchers, seriously bomb proof.

gatorskin 25c with ruffy tuffy rear, pave 24 in the front.

New Wheel.(click)

I kill myself for 20 miles and finally catch the group. I had probably lost 3 minutes or so. I didn't have much left after chasing. A lap or two later someone attacked, 3 guys went with him, and I either was being lazy, or just not thinking, so I was in no mans land with 1 other rider.

Thank you to INATUB. They were there handing out good water to drink. Go there sometime and eat some good food.



The course was pretty fun, I will definitely want to race this again.


Brian L. won the 5 race while Andy W. won the 4 race.

Tubeless Road.

Almost out of Gatorskins, 3 more left. I think I will be riding intensives on Sunday. A big friend of mine rides them hard and there isn't even a scratch on them. Started building some 1300 gram stan's wheels with dura ace hubs for the big race.

Here's the setup.

18/24 sapim cx-ray silver spokes(2x rear, radial front)

14mm alloy self locking sapim silver nipples

355 gram stan's alpha road tubeless rims.

Dura Ace 7900 Road Racing Hubs!

If you are interested in buying these wheels with tires after the race, the cost is $650. Hubs alone usually cost $400, rims cost $200, spokes $150, Tires $80 ea. Plus tape, valves, nipples, build, its a good deal.


Measurement on the intensives mounted to the stan's is about 23.5mm even though they claim 700x25. This is the width on a 20mm wide rim. Weight is 320 grams.

Weight on the 700x25 gatorskin tires are 245, but when you add the rim tape, and tube you get another 120 or so. You actually save a few grams with the intesive tire and 15-20 grams of caffelatex.

After I build the wheels, I put the stan's tape on the rim. Then I mount the brand new intensive tire with a tube. When mounting, don't use tire levers, you don't want to break the bead on the tubeless tires, thats what makes them cost so much and keeps them on the rim without a tube.

2 reasons to do this.

1. With the air pumped up to 100, you get the tape that you just installed pressed firmly against the rim so it sticks.

2. The tire comes folded when it is brand new, lots of kinks in it. This works in the bead a little and helps the rubber learn to go where it needs to.




After waiting 12 hours or so I take out the tube, install a removable valve core from stan's, put a bunch of soap suds all over the tire bead on both sides, then mount tire and air up.


I NEVER AIR TUBELESS TIRES FOR ROAD PAST 100PSI, THERE'S NO NEED!

With a 240lb. man on the bike, there is the same rolling resistance in a 90psi tubeless tire as you would see in a 125psi tubed tire.



If you do it right, you should be able to air that tire up with a floor pump. Once you get it to 100, it should be good. You should hear some cracks, thats the sound of the bead popping in place.


Once you know the tire airs up, just take out the air, add some sealant, air back up, good to ride!




People riding tubeless now a days are sold, they love it, they never flat, and the ride is great.

Zinn says this HERE. "Besides providing a very nice ride with good grip and lower rolling resistance due to the ability to run lower pressures without fear of pinch flats, road tubeless tires have completely eliminated flat tires for me. I simply do not get flats anymore on my road bikes, and I’m a big guy."




I love racing deep carbon tubular rims, but if I can't, I'll be riding tubeless if I can help it. Sometimes I'm riding a customers old gatorskin with a ruffy tuffy, because I don't know any better and don't want to pay all the money, but I can guarantee you its worth it.



Don't want to pay $650 for a racing tubeless wheelset? How about these 3 options for tubeless wheels.

Used Ultegra 6700 tubeless Wheelset, was $650, now $325.
New A23 32h black spokes/nipples to 105 black hub. $250. Heavey but strong.
New A23 28h, revolution db spokes, c-4 hub, 1400 gram training wheelset for $400!



I raced the fusion tubeless tires 2 years ago, ran 80psi all through crit season, they were magic, but expensive. I'd probably go with the intensives if I were looking at a tubeless tire for racing and training, they are really fast and really strong.


Sneak preview of mud tires for cx.

Training

I've been trying to get out for an hour or so at least 2 times during the week after Benon goes to bed. With very little time to train this time of year I am mostly riding hard the whole time. If you are someone who can only get out for an hour or so you should be riding pretty hard. I usually ride about 75% of my max for 15 minutes, then do some all out 100% 25 second sprint intervals. Usually I am at about 87% for the first 18 seconds, then when it hurts so bad you want to stop I put my head down and try and make myself throw up by pedaling way harder than I think I can. I road for an hour last night and when I was done I was pretty tired and sore.

Got home, drank a recovery drink, and stretched. Thats it.

I definitely won't be winning any 85 mile road races any time soon, but I should be able to do ok in crits.


I've got really good roads around me to train on, lots of flat stuff at the bottom of the hill with little lights and lots of lanes, and if I feel like climbing, then I can always go up Eaton, Cambridge, or Roanoke.



Back to sprinting, I suck at it. I think I'm getting better though and worse case I can use that speed for attacks or not getting dropped. With sprinting, you want to be doing it at speed. Don't jump from 18 mph and expect to hit 35mph. Instead find a place that will launch you. Maybe down a hill onto a flat doing 38mph, and when you reach the flat, you try to maintain that 38mph for a while.


I road fizik r3 shoes last night. They are really good. The fit kind of weird when you are just standing there, but on the bike they are perfect. Super secure with good heel security, high arch, and wide toe box. Very, very stiff carbon.


I have some good easton wheels to sell, lots of carbon, and some $700 900gram tubulars if you are interested, tax time is almost here.


Might be riding the intensives from hutchinson on sunday, we'll see, Gatorskins are good too, they come in today, but if they sell out, I'll be riding intensives.

Roubaix Tires.

PERRY ROUBAIX, a week from Paris Roubaix, start the countdown!

OK, so if you don't want to pay me $200 for a pair of 700x27 or 700x25 FMB SKY Tubulars, here are some options.

All these tires listed make great training tires, dirt road tires, and have long term durability for years so don't think that your spending 80 bucks on some tires you'll never use again.


MY first choice,

Continental 700x25 Duraskin Folding Gatorskin. $38 each. Light at around 250
grams, these suckers will not tear or rip, I will be using them.


2nd Choice.

Panaracer Pasela Tour Guard Folding. $30 each. 260 grams. The 700x28mm measures 25 and the 700x32 measures 28mm. Maybe other stores do it differently but thats how they are here at volker. These are super strong tires, light, and have good traction if you want traction.




Hutchinson Intensive Tubeless. 700x25. I know a few guys riding these around tubeless, they rave all the time. Not super light, around 320 grams, but most of that weight is so they don't break and you can run tubeless, which will save you 70-110 grams right there. I wouldn't ride these higher than 100psi if you do run tubeless. Tubeless Version costs $50 each. Non tubeless version weighs around 265 and costs $40 each.



Panaracer tires are in stock, contis will be here wednesday. If you'd like to buy the intensives from me, email me before 1pm on monday and I will have them in your hands Wednesday afternoon. volkerbicycles at gmail.com

News

Free online Peloton Magazine. I got one for christmas, the first issue, it was ok, but the newest one is really good, read it!

NEW RACE. 6/24-26.



Got a bunch of CrudCatchers in. Roadracer2 full coverage fenders that will fit on any road bike with 23mm tires. I'm using 24mm tires and they work fine, with my xenith, even with 405mm chainstays and 35mm seat tube. Please buy them from me for $35! I popped mine on this morning in 5 minutes.


Also, come buy any mad alchemy embrocation for $15/jar.

Want tubular wheels, email me.


Friend is selling this. Its in perfect condition.


Also, help build the roanoke trails.
click here. Building every saturday at 9am. "If you have loppers or handsaws or work gloves come and get a good workout in."

BAZAAR

BAZAAR Road Race. Not sure what to say about it. I've done it the last 3 years, not sure why. Its fun in a super weird way. This time was no exception, 93 degrees and 38mph wind with 45mph gusts. I new we wouldn't see too much wind from the sides(crosswinds) so I glued up some 90mm wheels my friend is planning on buying from me. 12/16 spokes, ceramic bearings, 90mm depth. I will argue till I die that these are the fastest wheels out there. 1440 grams! You kidding me?



We get to the old church 40 minutes before the start, rush to get registered, I have Brian pin my number( he does it upside down)...

Next I put my shoes on super tight, then put black shoe covers on.



Race starts and we are going 15 miles straight into a 40mph wind. We are moving about 12mph and there are a few people moving up, going faster, I get up there, everyone pulls through and when I get up there no one comes by, everyone still behind me, I see Bill from tradewind behind me so I punch it a little, straight into the wind. 30 seconds later we have a 20 second gap and Bill was the only one with me. After another minute Bill "realizes" we had a gap and decided to start working with me.


We maintained a gap of about 30 seconds for a while. My feet started burning. Shoes were too tight and black shoe covers were making them really hot.

We dug in and when we reached a small crosswind section I punched it and we put another 25 seconds into the field. At this point Bob from Monster attacks the field and we are coming close to the turnaround. When we make the turnaround we have a crazy tailwind and immediately jump to 40mph. We see Bob coming about 40 seconds back and the field 25 behind him.



Bill and I kill it for the next 10 miles. I start hurting too much. My groin gets pulled, my feet feel like they are falling apart, and I run out of water....all 56ozs of it. At this point Bob catches us and attacks, he's got a 56t q ring while Bill and I were pushing 53/11.


Bill stays with Bob while I start being a girl about everything. I try taking off my shoe cover to undo my straps on my shoes, end up riding onto the shoulder into gravel and stop. loosen my shoe and start going again. I see I still have a 2 minute gap so I get back up to speed and cruise until the last turnaround.


Bob loses Bill on one of the downhill sections with his big chainring.

I make the turnaround and a group of 3 catch me with 10miles to go back into the headwind.

We work a while and one guy doesn't, so I kind of stop working. Keep in mind there are 40mph headwinds and we are going 13mph.


At the sprint I get 2nd, the guy who never worked beat me by 3 inches. I was in way to big of gear.


Ended up 4th overall.



I'm glad I raced.


I was going to race Herman this weekend, but my mainman Kent broke his collarbone at hillsboro, so I am staying home. I am not ready for an 80mile road race yet. I may never be, but I will be ready for some 35 mile crits soon.

First Friday

Great time at theSBG last night. Having a great live band outside and free Tallgrass helps.

I'm gluing up some ec90 90mm tt aero wheels for tomorrow's bazaar race. Should be fast wheels for it. They weigh only 1440 grams and are crazy aero. With the 28mph ssw winds they should work out great! A fast friend is buying them, but since he can't pay me for a few weeks, I will use them for Bazaar and Herman. Corsa 320tpi 21mm tires, still my favorite tire, even though those fmb compeitions 22s are a close 2nd.

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