I used to write a Blog fairly regularly, and I looked up the other day and noticed it had been three years since I last did a posting. Time seems to go by faster these days, but I’m going to try and do better about posting. I’ve done some good work on fitting various riders and helping them achieve their results; I’ve continued to develop several new products for myself along with some new helmets for Rudy Project.

When I last did a posting, I was racing triathlons a good bit and training a lot, since then I have torn both of my Rotator Cuffs and had surgeries on both, went through rehabs, and now I can’t swim at all. I do continue to eat well, so there is that but bike riding is painful on my shoulders but running seems to work ok.

Back in 1939, my father bought a new Packard automobile, and it has stayed with our family all these years. It had deteriorated pretty much the last few years he was with us, so I decided to restore the car. This turned into a much larger project than I had envisioned at the time but I can see that it might just get finished here in the next few months. Once I brought the car to Tyler I began the task, I have learned a lot of techniques on painting and wood graining, sanding and painting the body, sewing the interior, rebuilding the motor and all of the suspension, I have spent a lot of hours on this but it seems to help me relax some now that I can’t swim or bike very well.

 

I still occasionally travel to China/ Taiwan for business, but now I have developed a Skype office setup, and I get a whole lot of my work  done without having to make a 30-hour plane ride. This new computer technology seems to be catching on so I blame Al Gore for these issues, I’ll continue to learn and work on that. As we are speaking of computer technology, learning more about training with Power Meters has been interesting, learning more about how coaches use this [or don’t] is interesting and recognizing how much the “coaching business” has blown up in the last several years is very interesting to me. I’ve given a few talks at some conferences about coaching and the business of triathlon, the sport is changing, the racers, both age groupers and Pro’s are still fun to be with even when you are not able to race with them.

I’ll post again soon and get more specific on just all the fun I am having.

I Survived the End of The World

I waited to see if the end was really coming on Friday, I hated to waste all of this time typing and then have it go to waste. 

I have been traveling a lot over the last two months but one of my stops was in Italy. I was there working an a new project and I got to test in the Pinafarini wind tunnel on Torino. It was a very nice facility and everyone treated me extremely nice, we tested for two days and hopefully I learned some things.

   I was home for 4 days before I left to go to the Texas A&M tunnel for a day of testing, it was fun as usual.  The engineers at A&M have installed a new 3000 HP, variable speed motor and it has completely transformed the testing there.  It is whisper quiet now, literally when you are testing you can stand by the rider and just talk to them, no yelling, no hand signals, just have a conversation and get on with the test.  It was so great, it truly has made testing there a whole new experience. Oh and by the way, I was working on this Superman position for triathlon and it was interesting to see that it still works pretty good, rather damn good really. The only problem, other than needing a little core strength, is that  2cm of height can absolutely make or break this setup.  When it’s right it’s fast but if it’s off it is not worth trying, so if you want to try it, schedule some tunnel time and work on your core strength.

Many of you that read this Blog also do bike fittings from time to time.   Paul Swift from bikefit.com developed a nifty tool that makes changing out saddles and adjusting them a snap. He was kind enough to send me one to test out and I must say it has been great to have.  I built my own fit bike based on an old Serotta fit bike and adding the seat switcher to the bike was very easy. Now when doing a positioning on a rider, you are hesitant to start swapping saddles around, it takes a simple flick of a lever and it’s done. I’m really thinking about taking my fit bike to the wind tunnel on my next trip, I think it could speed up the rider positioning process a lot. By using the fit bike, you just work on rider position, you won’t be distracted by aero parts not being consistant. 

   Well I hope every one has a Merry Christmas and a Happy, Happy Holiday season, I’ll have more to write about real soon. 

Business in Kona

Ginger and I decided to go to Kona this year for the Ironman triathlon, it’s a week long event that takes a lot of energy from you, even as a spectator.  I had a lot of friends and sponsored athletes doing the race so I thought it would be fun to join in.  We took our bikes and did several good morning rides out on the Queen K.  
On Wednesday before the race  I went to the Annual Slowtwitch gathering and visited with many of the posters on the “forum” Lot’s of fun and I look to stay longer next year.  I met Chrissie Wellington there and she was visiting with everyboody, she is a great ambassador for the sport.

Then it was raceday, you could feel the excitement in the air, we bought sidewalk chalk and  made the road in front of our Condo as tacky as possible, lot’s of fun.

So the race was on, we cheered for all of our friends and athletes, a very good friend of ours, Mark Miller from Lafayette finally qualified for the race after 17 years so it was big fun having him run by.

Mark had brought his family and several friends so they all came to our place for the afternoon, he had a great day.

The race was a typical Kona day, it turned very windy and got hot, running through those Lava fields is something special and something I have no interest in doing.

Today we had our first ever half Ironman race here in Tyler, a local racer named Steve Ferris decided to put this on, this was a huge undertaking.  The race went very well, it was billed as the hardest Half in Texas and after talking to the competitors after the event I believe it lived up to the expectations.  I was one of the announcers and our local riders really turned out to do volunteer work , without these supporters we could not have had this race. We had one unexpected race volunteer that helped with the swim.

So in a few more days I’m on the road again, I’m going to California to work with some athletes, then going from there to Taiwan to start a few new product projects. I should get all of the traveling done just in time to get back for some Turkey.

Relearning my Blog

I was reminded that I have not posted in several months on my Blog so I sat down to catch up.  The first thing I realized was that the procedures had all changed and I needed to relearn how to post on my Blog.  So bare with me as I do this, I have several new things to show you.

  The first thing is that I had to relearn how to load a photo, I believe I have conquered this.  Some of you may remember that I bought a Chevy Volt when they first came out.  The Volt is an electric car, I have had it for two years and have driven it more than 30,000 miles so far.  I LOVE MY VOLT. For me it has been just awesome and my lifetime fuel mileage is 75.6 mpg’s so far.  It has been flawless and is a great car on the highway.  But on to better things.

We have outgrown our office space and have moved the seat business to a larger building.  I found a much larger space and decided to build myself a first class fitting area.  I haven’t had my own private area with a desk and all of my stuff put out where ever I wanted it for years, so now I have good area for doing some good studies.  Because I have been traveling so much I had to really cut back on my fitting schedules but I plan to again take appointments whenever I am in town.  The whole world of “fitting” has changed so much in just the last 3-4 years, now, most bike shops have a person on staff that has been to some type of school to learn about fitting. This has been a good thing for the consumer because you are less likely to get injured right off on the bike.  It has also changed the need for a base fit for new racers, now, I believe that you need to race for a couple of years and log a couple of thousand miles before you might need my services.  I’m still the very best at aerodynamics and solving injuries or finding that championship winning speed but if you just got a new bike and need to get your seat height checked, go to your local fitter and work with them.  These days everyone has a power meter and a coach it seems, these are all great training tools that should be looked into.  I have some new things that I am working on in that area.

  This past weekend Ginger and I went to a triathlon in Kerrville, Tx. it was a very well run event by Jack & Adams in Austin. We were there a day early so Ginger and I went to  Fredricksburg which is a big tourist town about 25 miles away.  As we wandered along the main street I saw a store that said 5 & Dime, I haven’t been in one of those in over 50 years [scary number] it was just like I remembered it being.  There were toy Army Men, Toy cars, loop weaving kits and not a computer game in sight.  It was such a crazy stroll down memory lane, I used to go to the Bayou by my house and catch little turtles and sell them to the local 5& dime for about 2 cents each, this place even had the little turtles!! but now they are plastic and cost 29 cents but still, it was so cool to see all of this stuff.

Well back to reality, next week we leave to got to Kona for the Ironman triathlon, I’ll post some pictures soon.  When I get back I have some wind tunnel time to burn up testing several new products and theories so that should be fun.  And yes, I will do better at posting  more regularly.

Volt

Sometimes Pressure is a Good Thing

I recently acquired a Tactilus pressure pad so I could further my research into building better, smarter seat designs.  The unit itself is just a thin pad of sensors that can be placed wherever you want to measure pressure.  The readouts can be seen in 2d, 3d, and a myriad of colors and settings.  It’s simple in concept, but digging into the units full capability will take some time.  I recently spent a day with a rider, Jeff Waskowiak,  just starting to play around with the unit and simply visually looking at various areas of pressure between different positions and seats.  I had a unit very similar to this one in the years past that I used to measure seat pressure, as well as foot/hand pressure.  It turns out you can learn a lot when you take the guessing game out of asking someone  about their seat comfort.  Asking, “How does it feel,” now turns into, “Well look at that” because now I can see again exactly how its feeling for the rider at an exact point on the seat.  The pressure points are mapped out into pressure zones and are associated with a specific color…for example, if there is red, that translates into a certain pressure zone being applied at that point on the mat…with light blue being the “lightest” pressure displayed.  I would say this is the adult version of the playstation…except this playstation costs quite a bit more 🙂

A Beach of a Time

A crowded airport was the start to my overseas venture to Taiwan and The Philippines.  I needed to go to Taiwan to make some more progress on a few projects I’m working on, and the Philippines visit was all about the triathlon team Cobb Cycling sponsors, Team TBB, as they were having their yearly training camp here.  I just hoped I lucked out and got a seat with some extra recline if you know what I mean.  Getting to the airport was step a, and I was definitely going to be making my way to step zzzzz.zzzzz.zzzz.zzzzz within a few hours hopefully, to make the long plane flights more tolerable.   But let’s backtrack a second here.  before I went to the DFW airport, I dropped my porsche off to get a new rooftop put on it…you know, style it up a bit.  It never sits right in my stomach handing the keys to this car off to some guy I don’t know, but she needed a new hair-do 🙂  Hopefully when I got back from my trip, she’d be looking purdy!

One of my Team USA track athletes, Dotsie Bausch, sent me this photo a few days ago, while she was making an appearance at the BP MS 150 charity ride in Houston and Austin.  She was at the finish line cheering riders on when she spotted this man on a PLUS saddle.  Dotsie is a prime example of a quality athlete that works hard for both her goals in sport, and her sponsors.  Well done, and thank you Dotsie!

Ok so, I’m about to do something that will really give my age away, but here we go.  Ginger and I attended a Beach Boys concert yesterday, and had a great time.  I pulled out the appropriate garb, so as that I would potentially be mistaken for a real beach boy, and get ushered on the stage to sing a tune.  That definitely didn’t happen, but I wasn’t the only one in a Hawaiian shirt, that’s for sure 🙂

Congratulations to Team TBB members Caroline “XENA” Steffen and David Dellow, for two dominating wins at Koh Samui Triathlon, Thailand!

 

Snake Eggs

IF I was a barefoot runner, this would have been a bad day for me.  Feisty snakes and bare skin are not a good match.  A few weeks ago, Ginger and myself went to a local park to do a bit of trail running…only to be greeted by a nasty east texas copperhead snake.  Not exactly a friend I want to hang out with.  This little guy wasn’t too big, but if you are from Texas you understand that the BIG snake is just right around the corner watching you poke at its baby.

Easter is this weekend, and I got back into doing a little airbrushing on some easter eggs for my wife Ginger.  Airbrushing has always been a past-time of mine, and I’ll have some fun once in a while with it now.  These are hollow eggs shells I was painting up a bit, and you’ll see my finished masterpiece laying in a basket.

I wanted to send out a congratulations to a terrific pro triathlete that I spons0r, Caroline Steffen “XENA!”  She had a great victory at Ironman Melbourne a few weekends ago posting a very fast time.  Way to go XENA!  She may just take Kona this year folks.  Check out her team website, of which I am a proud sponsor, www.teamtbb.com for some cool photos and athlete profiles.

Carbon Fiber: The Quick How to Guide

I’ve been working on a carbon fiber project recently, and I wanted to share with all of you a few of the details about the whole processs of making a custom carbon fiber pieces.  It’s not too difficult, but does require some patience and work.

  This first photo shows the male and female molds I made in order to form my carbon pieces when pressed together.  The male mold (green) I made by milling out a pocket in a 2×4 board, filling with bondo, and laying my desired shape (in this case my hand) into the bondo till it was reasonably firm.  I then cut the hand imprint out of the 2.4 and covered it in green tape.

The female mold that’s under the green male mold was made by milling out another pocket in a block of wood, filling the pocket with bondo, and then pressing the male mold (green) into the female mold until the bondo was mostly firm.  Now that I have both the male and female molds finished, I can cut my carbon fiber fabric pieces to close to my desired shape, and then start the next process.

Here you can see one of the carbon fiber pieces I cut out that is laying on top of the male mold.  Carbon fiber fabric is just like any other fabric when you first hold it in your hand, but it’s potential once resin and hardener is applied is unique.  In this piece I used six layers of carbon fiber, so I needed six individual pieces cut out to lay on top of each other (4 are pictured).  The key when you cut these pieces is, with each layer you plan on laying down, make sure the carbon weave is running in a different direction than the previous piece.  As I cut these pieces, i basically had a center point that i rotated around as I cut each piece.  That ends up with six pieces, each with a different weave direction when laid on top of each other.

I now need to coat the female and male mold in turtle wax, so that after I press the carbon fiber into the male and female mold, the carbon fiber will not stick to the mold.

You can simply use your finger to coat each mold.  Just make sure you use a flat-blade screwdriver or something with a fine edge so that you can get wax down into any tight corners or edges that are inaccessible to you fingertips.

  Next, the resin needs to measured out and the hardener added to the resin.  This is simply a photo of my digital scale while I’m weighing out the resin correctly.

  Now comes the part that can get a little messy.  The resin needs to be brushed onto each carbon fiber piece very well.  The resin also needs to be pressed into the fabric extremely well, which can be accomplished by using a rubber brayer or household rolling pin.  The carbon fabric will want to stretch, so you constantly have to reshape each piece as you roll the resin into the fabric.  This resin was pretty fast drying, so I had to move quickly.  Each side needs to be coated well…wear gloves and get to it!

This next photo shows some of the resin filled carbon fiber pieces laying in the female mold.  There were 6 layers of fabric in all that I used in order to create a piece with the right stiffness I was going for.  Use your flat blade screwdriver again here to press the edges of the fabric down into the bottom edges of the female mold.  Basically, you  want to try to compress the fabric slightly into the mold before pressing the male mold into the female mold.  Don’t worry if it doesn’t look pretty right now, it will once it’s finished.

After you have laid all your desired pieces into your female mold, you can press your male mold into the female mold and then stick the whole contraption into a vice in order to generate some good pressure for about an hour of so in this case.  I also cut a few small channels into the female mold in order for the excess resin to drain out when I pressed the molds together.  These channels do not need to be big at all.  A channel the diameter of a small sewing needle is plenty.  Just make sure to evenly distribute your channels around the perimeter when you cut them.  You can see the resin dripping out of the mold channels I cut, and onto the blue paper towel.

Once you take the mold out of the vice, remove the male mold and let the carbon fiber air dry in the female mold for another hour or so.  It all depends on the drying time of your resin.  Some resin is fast drying, other types are very slow drying.  Each has it’s own unique use.  Once it’s all dry, pop your carbon fiber piece out, trim off any excess unwanted carbon shreds, and your finished.

Here is my finished carbon fiber piece that I will use for my experimental project.  I had originally completed this whole process using only 4 layers of carbon fiber, and after I took the piece out of the mold, it was not stiff enough, so I re-did the whole process this time using 6 pieces.

There’s Nothing Cars, Bikes, & BBQ Won’t Fix

Our local fairgrounds puts on a good car show every year that I always make a trip out to.  Just so happens this 68 Corvette caught my eye.  I think maybe I’m just a sucker for red, seeing as how my Chevy Volt is red too.  Corvette’s are always fun to drive, but I think I’ll stick to my Porsche to fill my need for speed though 🙂  Speaking of Corvette’s, I need to finish my Corvette project I have going on in my garage right now.  I always make trips out to the garage to finish it, but end up getting distracted and building something else.

I make many trips a year out to the Slowtwitch camps in California.  It’s always an interesting trip, with interesting people.  Mose are very eager to hear what I have to say as I always have been one to preach against conventional wisdom in my fitting technique.  This trip out to slowtwitch was one of the most memorable in that the weather went crazy on us.  At 12:30pm it was bright, sunny, and beautiful outside.  Then 2 hours later you find yourself freezing cold and iced in with 3″ of snow on the ground.  I’ve never seen weather change so fast.

I made a trip over Louisiana with my marketing manager Jeff Waskowiak, and Robbie Peltier recently.  They have come up with a whole new vision for Cobb Cycling which I am excited about. Be looking forward to some big changes at Cobb Cycling around June this year, as well as some new product designs.  Every trip to Louisiana for me always starts with a Lunch at Cobb’s BBQ. This restaurant was owned by my uncle Joe Cobb, who passed away around 2 years ago.  Sue Cobb now runs the place, and does a great job of putting smiles on customers faces.  If you ever find yourself in Shreveport, LA and in the mood for BBQ, give this place a visit.  You’ll see many photos of celebrities that enjoy eating there such as the Beach Boys, and Nicolas Cage.

Oh hey, checkout my new bike I have spent some time building up.  It doesn’t get any better than a good softride.  I bought this frame and pieced it together little by little.  I took it for it’s debut spin last night at the local trainer class.  She worked great!