Le Mecanicien
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?
What, they don’t sell totally rad Adidas sandals in New Zealand? Only sheepskin loafers?
@frank
Gotta go with Brett on this. The Adidas stripes can make one’s ankles look fat. Me: beaten up Birks when working on the bike.
Yeah, sheepskin Adidas loafers, but worse still we have these abominations…
@Frank
I’m a little late to this posting party, but enjoyed your post.
My bike shop days of the ’80s included none of the Euro coolness you experienced.
My shop was the typical New Jersey shop of that era – though we did pretty well. Very cool people also, that I still keep in touch with 20+ years and 3000 miles later.
How do I get rid of the squeal in my cleats (Look Delta)?
What’s the best way to clean a chain?
@Nathan EdwardsFor the cleats try Pam spray cooking oil or the like and wipe off the excess.
@Rob
Pam? I’ll just get some kinda cooking oil… I’ll experiment…
After my Look pedals/cleats drove me crazy for two years, I finally managed to get rid of the squeaking by replacing them with Speedplay Zeros.
@david
Exactly! Fucking Look pedals, I regret the years I spent with Look pedals changing cleats, waxing, etc. when switching to Speedplay was heavenly. I have the X-series stainless and it’s all love.
@john No, that is so right it should be in the Lexicon. “Fucking Look pedals.” I don’t know how many times I’ve said that!
I’ve got a pair of those! Would never wear open toes sandals/shoes/whatever in a workshop though. (Bear in mind I should never be allowed in a workshop full stop, Bretto can back me up on this) Great for track, where you spend a whole day waiting to race, but don’t wanna clump around in your road shoes wrecking your cleats. Respect.
@minion
Yep, he’s right… should be kept away from workshops, small children and sheep.
@Rob
I eventually got round to trying this… pretty slippy
@david
With 3 bikes with Look Delta… I can’t afford the switch
@Rob @Nathan Edwards
why bother wasting cooking oil, might as well just use chain lube.
You see, that’s the mistake people make by buying LOOK pedals in the first place.
@Nathan Edwards, @Jarvis
I would imagine that veggie oil attracts less dirt, which is always the issue with cleats and oiling them. Cleats is the only thing I use synth lube for, for that exact reason.
@frank
oil is oil and give or take it’s going to attrack the same amount of dirt. What you need is a teflon stray.
attract
This is very very cool.
My LBS where I grew up was owner and run by a former PRO Continental mechanic. The problem was that he was seemingly bi-polar, some days a horrible grump, some days he’d talk a bit. He has these incredible frames he picked up along the way on the walls, including one of the original LOOK carbon framesets. Also has a bunch of cool posters, including a Race Across America one that he worked on. But, he’s usually so grumpy I can never pull any stories or information out of him. Damnit. He now caters to the suburban rider type with hybrids. He knows his stuff, but rarely shares it.
I want to move to wherever you guys with awesome LBS’s live.
And now my local LBS is moving 3/4 of the way to the other city, which already has a bunch of shops. Fuck. And I went in the other day to get a new concave washer for my brake pad – one corroded, though Al, and cracked off. The head mechanic’s suggestion: by a new set of pads/holders for $20. What? What kind of solution is that? I even know the dude for a few years and ride with him.
I called Kool Stop and they sent me a few, free of charge. That type of stuff pisses me off royally. Don’t search for a fix, just sell me something new. Don’t like it.
Any shop that is truly a good one has a lot of small bits and parts stuffed away in a bin or a box in the back or in the basement.
Oh, and good article, Frank!
@Ron
Yep: I lost a screw off the cleat of one of my speedplays and dropped into one my LBS’s (I like it less, but it has the benefit of being open on a Sunday) looking for a replacement. The guy wanted $5 for one measly screw. I know times are tight, and these guys need to make a living, but WTF? Needless to say, I waited a day and dropped into my preferred LBS, picked up a screw gratis from a box of leftovers, and bought my son a new Specialized Hard Rock a week later (without even looking at the other place).
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.
@frank
This was in 1997 when I last used it. Perhaps they’ve reformulated it a bit. I can’t say it wore off completely but I could tell that it was pretty bare after a few hours in the heavy soup. Most of the time it doesn’t rain that hard nor do I care to ride that long if it is raining that hard so it wouldn’t matter to me now.
@frank
The chain was clean for sure. Months of riding ~300 km/week in the rain, applying it daily there couldn’t have been any grease on it.
@frank
If you fully degrease a chain you will never get lube back inside the rollers, no matter what brand you choose.
@michael
They might have reformulated it, who knows. Be recently, I still had this problem you describe; if you don’t completely degrease it first, you’re always recontaminating the wax, so no matter how long you ride, it won’t ever clean out. Made the same mistake and had the same experience as you until I completely degreased it. But, to @Oli‘s point, the downside is the chain will never run as smooth without grease in it; the wax sits more on the surface and that’s why you find yourself reapplying it more than with other lubes.
But for a bike that’s really ridden a lot in the rain, it’s the best solution, but like I’ve said before, it’s not my preferred lube by any stretch. Dumond Tech!
@Oli, I don’t think you guys can get it over in NZ; one of these days I’ll ship you and Brett some of it; it’s really amazing stuff.
I remember a rep form Shimano saying that while you’re riding in the rain, water acts as a lube for the chain – you just need to make sure you clean and relube, especiall — Hey, wait a minute!
Nipple Lube Nipple Lube Nipple Lube Nipple Lube!
@Minion
I’ve noticed that water works well as a lube, but not so well if it stops raining during the same ride.
@frank
If memory serves me I degreased it twice when I first tried Clean Ride because after the first application it was clear that I didn’t get all the grease out. But this was going on 14 years ago now…
While on the topic what does everyone use for degreaser, if you use it?
@King Clydesdale
Pedro’s orange degreaser.
@King Clydesdale
Wipe the chain, Zep Citrus Degreaser, then light lube.
@Oli
This.
No degreaser for me, although I will very occasionally run the chain through the Park Chain cleaner thingy with water and a drop of detergent, followed by a good wiping/re-lubing with Dumonde Tech light (this is best for my dry SoCal conditions). And get a Pedro’s Chain Keeper so you can take the wheel off when you relube… Keeps the cassette from filling up with dirty grungy lube. Nipple lube.
@Frank
I watched that video of the Fizik bar wrapping. The mechanic was wrapping towards the rear of the bike on the top of the bar. I was always taught (I work part time at a shop) to wrap so that the tap is wrapping towards the front of the bike on the top of the bar to keep the tape from unraveling. How do you do it?
That logic is wrong – if you’re talking about from the perspective of sitting on the bike, it would be more likely to unwrap if wrapped to the front, as your wrists are going to flex down rather than up (if you can visualise what I mean…).
@Oli
I see it differently. Most of the pressure is directed forward as the force from your upper body being supported by your arms is pushing towards the front of the bike. Unless of course you are chewing on the handlebars.
I agree with Oli as I flex my wrists back like trying to pull the accelerator back on my motorcycle, this makes you go faster of course. I however wrap my bars the other way as to get them going backwards one has to do the loop around the brake lever and that takes up precious tape length and precious grams of extra tape on the bars. I should learn to use punctuation better.
@MrBigCog
That’s cool, I don’t mind if you see it wrong. I trust the Fizik guys over one dissenting bike shop, and it’s not as if it’s my idea alone – this is what I’ve been told by people far more experienced than I, plus if you study enough pictures you’ll see it’s how the pros do it most of the time. It’s not the resting on your bars that’s the main issue, it’s when you’re going hard and throttling on, as Michael says.
@michael
I do it that way but I don’t need to loop around the brake levers, I just use a small length to cover over the brake lever band.
Well of course after posting that I realize that you just have to start wrapping one way or the other to end one way or the other.
The generally accepted pro method is to start at the bottom winding from the outside in, then the tops end up naturally winding towards the rider.
The real trick is to wind it super fast but absolutely perfectly while drinking a cold coffee as the rider is trying to distract you by telling you the stage is about to roll out…
For mine, the tape will unwrap if I tape the bar.
Which is why someone else will always do it.
On the tape note, I have been riding my bike here in Singapore for only three weeks. My white bar take is already yellowing near the hoods. I think it’s the sheer volume of sweat put out here. It’s not that I’m going hard, mind you; you can get a good sweat up just tying your shoe laces here.
This cannot continue, so…
– Should I see a doctor as my sweat is obviously some vile shit not yet studied by man?
– Is this going to be problem as long as I live in the tropics and I should just switch to black or red tape (keep in mind, my bike has a white seat, bar and stem).
– Or… hmmn… I can’t think of a third option.
Taping a set of drops for the first time the other night, somehow I messed up the “figure-8” wrap around the brake hoods on one side and ended up with the tape-tail going over the top towards the front. Oddly, the hood wrap on that side was a lot cleaner than on the side done the right way.