Epilogue..........

Well, it was a great two weeks. Lots of learning from a knowledgable and enthusiastic instruction team. The test was challenging and I passed. I received my UBI certification in the mail a few days after returning home.

Day 9 - Fit and build a bike

We started the day with discussions about the various aspects of bike fitting. Essentially, what it comes down to is comfort. If you don't enjoy riding the bike, you won't ride it. Adjustments in crank length, seat height, stem length, handlebar width, and rails position on the seatpost can help "dial in" an appropriately sized frame. Starting with the right frame is critical.

Today was also a complete bike rebuild. This is what used to be a bike

Essentially, we took the bike apart and started with a bare frame and lots of parts on the bench. We then repeated every procedure we did over the last 8 days on this complete bike rebuild. Surprisingly, it went pretty fast. The learning must have been retained. By day end we had the complete bike reassembled with cables changed, wheels trued, derailleurs installed and re-adjusted, and prepped for "customer delivery".

The partially finished bike with Victor, my bench partner for today.

Cranks and pedals installed and ready for final checks.
I've done this before on our own bikes at home, but I feel a lot more confident now and learned a few things that I need to do correctly! Lots of great stuff on bikes, and paying attention to maintenance and torques will pay off for a more reliable ride.
We wrap up tomorrow and I will be heading up to Portland for a Saturday trip home to Rochester.

Day 8- Shock rebuild, materials and metal cutting!

A full day of discussion and hands on. We had a long discussion on the many different brands and types of front shocks and how they have evolved over the years. Compression and damping materials and approaches are different and lots of options are available today. We then did a disassembly and fluid change (for dampening) on a shock. The parts look pretty simple, but adding 200cc of oil can be messy. Having the bike in a repair stand to rotate it helps because the shock must be inverted to drain and then put back upright to fill. The parts on the bench-

Our next topic was about the various materials used in bikes. Especially the properties which are important for performance characteristics and how they are applied for specific uses. The table shows the basis for our discussion. Bottom line? Titanium is the strongest, lightest, and yes---also the most expensive because of production and machining costs.

Now that we have established that titanium is out of the reach for most, we got to play with steel and CUTTING TOOLS!! YEAH!! Oil, chips, large massive levers and all the good stuff, but I digress. The learning was that the bottom bracket faces and head tube faces must be parallel so the respective bearing sets work correctly. So we had a chance to face the head tubes, and chase the threads in bottom brackets and reface the BB surfaces. This is incredibly important for external bearing BBs. Facing does not come into play for cartridge, but concentric threads drive side to non-drive side is important. Good stuff and hands on....the facing tool below and then in the bottom bracket shell ready to make chips!

And the same facing application with a similar tool inserted in the head tube and ready to face the tube.

The bottom bracket thread chasing tool set up and ready to go.

notice the pilot shaft which keeps both sides aligned and concentric during the operation. Cool!

Day 7 - More disc brakes and headsets

Back into the hydraulic fluid systems on Tuesday of week 2. We bled Hayes, Shimano and Avid systems to improve braking performance. This is a service which should be performed at least once annually on disc brakes, or more often if the bike is used in adverse conditions. Different manufacturers require specific procedures and unique fluid types, so not any standardization in disc brake systems.

We then spent the rest of the day on headsets. First a threaded headset complete disassembly inspection and reassembly. Then the same for a threadless headset - more common on both road and mountain bikes today. Although the bearing systems are not at all alike from brand to brand.
Pictured below is the threadless headset on the Felt bike and in pieces on the bench.

We spent two good days on the brake and headset systems, both very important for safety on the bike. Lots of details, torque settings, and differences to understand when servicing bikes.

We will spend time on suspension fork servicing next.

Day 6 - Brakes of all kinds....

Spent the day learning about brake systems. How the various components need to be matched together and how to identify appropriate type system for a specific use. Advantages of mechanical systems and brake pad compounds were reviewed before we got into disc systems.

And lots of hands on, changing out both cantilever and linear (V-brakes) systems. Learned that dual pivot calipers, like those on most road bikes, will need adjustment after some time to keep the pivots tight and brake application effective. A Shimano double pivot caliper brake assembly-

And now mounted on the front fork-

A linear (v- brake) dissassembled on the bench:

And properly mounted and adjusted on the bike:

Moving to disc systems we used cable type systems and hydraulic brakes in our bench work. Not too much different than automobile brakes, except the scale and adjustments are certainly much smaller!

And the rain returned to Ashland today...makes sitting in class easier after having a beautiful weekend to ride!

Coffee ride to Medford

The cost justification for the road bike was based on getting the rental cost to less than $1 per mile. So today I took another ride with one of my hostel mates to Meford for a Starbucks coffee stop. We rode the Bear Creek Greenway which was much busier today with lots of families out enjoying the sunshine and gentle breeze.

Victor, on the Greenway ride.

Much less wind today which made the ride more pleasant and I think my legs felt better. Now the challenge will be to keep up the miles. Which will be difficult since I have another five days at UBI. Tomorrow is brakes of all kinds- caliper, V-brakes (linear pull), cantilever, and both hydraulic and mechanical disk systems. Anticipating what we have done thus far with all the other components, I know I will be spending lots of time at the bench adjusting all kinds of brakes. Applied learning is good.

The "guys" out to dinner at Caldera. Good burgers and recovery drinks.

We cooked a communal breakfast at the hostel today and went out to dinner tonite as a group with a couple of the other guys staying elsewhere in town. After the day's ride, the recovery drinks were good! And our California colleagues who went home for the weekend are both back so we are back at full complement at the Cycle Hostel and getting ready for the week.

SATURDAY! Miles for Mallorca.....

The day didn't look like it was going to be promising. Domestic necessities like laundry - yes- I'm living in the Cycle Hostel with 7 other guys, but class activities involving grease and lube and bike parts take a toll on the jeans and workshirt. During laundry it rained 3 separate times early morning and the bike ride wasn't looking good. So I took a drive up the mountain above town and things got worse. It was snowing up there! Strange, come down four blocks into town and the sun was shining. That's the weather in the Rogue Valley.

But, I need to get some miles under my legs for the Mallorca trip at the end of April. At noon I took off on my weekend ride, a Specialized Sequoia. I decided to ride the Bear Creek Greenway trail. It's completely paved and follows, what else?, Bear Creek north through Medford and ending in Central Point. About 19 miles of relatively flat path with mountains at your left and right. I'm sure there may have been some bear at some time, but I didn't see any. I did see other cyclists, lots of walkers, and a few kids on skateboards in Medford.

And all the while, the dark clouds stayed over the mountains and the sun shone on the greenway! Nice ride for the 44 miles I managed to accumulate. Legs felt good and will probably do some or all of it again on Sunday.

My ride and the trail start in Ashland:

Mountains all around the Rogue Valley.

I've found the motorists here very courteous to cyclists. Ashland has been recognized and is proud of it's status as a bike friendly community.

I hope to get out on the trail later today (Sunday) when the temps get out of the 30's. It's sunny and the prediction is for 55. The ride looks promising.

Day 5- Chain rings, derailleurs, cassettes, freewheels

We started the day with understanding the workings of rear and front derailleurs. As most of you know, the purpose of this simple mechanism is to "de-rail" the chain, thus moving it to the next ring (front) or cog in the rear. As I have also de-railed my chain completely off the front ring both inboard and outboard, I have not always seen this mechanism as "simple"! Our learning objective was to demystify the mounts and adjustments. The rear derailleur is simple as there is only one location with a single bolt to mount it. Now if the mounting location is damaged.........well, that's where derailleur hanger gauge and alignment tools are necessary. We used these tools to check our frames before reassembling.

Knowing the chain line dimension is important to correctly mount the front derailleur. We used our vernier calipers to determine the dimension on our frames. And, yes, in this picture the front derailleur is still off the bike.

The front derailleur mount is actually very simple dimensionally, but the adjustment is more complicated than the rear, because everything is done under cable tension (unlike the rear).

With some care, we got our adjustments completed on the road bikes and then proceeded to do exactly the same procedures on the mountain bikes at our benches.

Friday ended with a successful sign off of all the week's procedures. Every bench task is signed off by the instructors when correctly finished.

Off to Siskiyou Cycles to procure my weekend ride....

Day 4- Chains, Campy hubs and crank reassembly/installation

Well, maybe some of you are wondering why I would come to a place like this.....

OK, April fool! Don't know what the building above is all about- but it's the first thing you see when you turn into the parking lot. The NEW building is shown below and is quite modern with solar collectors on the roof. UBI generates about 60% of all electricity used at the Ashland site.

Today we reinstalled the Shimano two piece crankset we removed and disassembled on Wednesday.

I had already worked with this type of crank, since I have the exact same one on the touring bike I built last year at home. Here it is reinstalled on the bike in class.

Not to rub it in....but it was another 72 degree day with sunshine! Even the UBI staff was itching to get out early! Days like this is the reason I retired- so I could ride when the weather cooperated. But, I am willing to make these sacrifices for the learning. The view from the school looking out over the I-5 corridor and the sun on the mountains to the southeast.

The only downside today was disassembling the wheelset I built up on Tuesday. UBI recycles all the materials which can't be used again in class. The rims and hubs are reused. Taking 32 spokes out of each wheel to recycle with the spoke nipples was a lot faster than the assembly and truing procedure!

If you check out the UBI website and click on photos of current class, you will see today's activities, including one of me. www.bikeschool.com

Tomorrow is Friday- one more day and the first week is a done deal. So is my laundry supply, so I know what I will be doing this weekend. Sunday looks good for a ride after church (50's and very small chance of rain). Hope to hook up with a road bike rental tomorrow after class.

A view of Ashland

Today was warm and sunny, so I took a walk up the hills on the east side of Ashland. There are some quaint houses once you get past the two or three blocks of commercial/entertainment district on that side of Main St.

Ashland hosts the longest season Shakespeare festival in the world, or so I've been told. There are theatres and workshops all over the place. Downtown Ashland is loaded ith antique shops and all kinds of boutiques selling art, pottery, books, etc. It's an "artsy" kind of town.

Here are some pics of the views and a few of the unique houses I saw on my walk today. It was great to get out and enjoy the sunshine. I can feel the vitamin D working already!

A sticker on a car parked in one of the residential areas...........

And this is wine country, as evidenced by this recycling box outside one of the homes!

If you feel the need for a rest (maybe it's the wine?), here's a spot someone has created on a corner for passerby to sit and contemplate the spring budding of the trees.

All for now, tomorrow it's crankets and derailleurs.

Spindles, Pedals, Cranks and Bottom Brackets

If you already know what these things are then you won't need to read the next few sentences. The spindle is the thing which connects the two arms which hold your pedals. It goes through the bottom bracket, which supports the spindle with bearings in the bike frame. The crank is the arm and gear assembly on the front of the bike and you move the chain around it to then move the rear wheel.

We took every variety of these apart today and also put them back into bikes, both mountain and road frames. Lots of special tools, grease and washing of hands! Also good practice. Not very exciting stuff, but all very necessary on your bike!

I'll try to upload some pics of Ashland later. It's almost 70 degrees outside and I'm gonna get some vitamin D.................

Day 2- building wheels

One of the mysteries of bike wheels was overcome today. Truing a wheel has always been a challenge I have avoided. Learned the factors affecting spoke length and we loaded both front and rear hubs which later became completed wheels.

By end of day, I had actually built these up into a pair of accurate and ready to ride wheels. Great instructors who led us through the process step by step. It took a lot of fear out the topic.

And.....the finished wheel set!

Day 1 building hubs

Today we learned about hubs and took apart (and successfully reassembled) 4 different hub types. There are 13 of us in the class, including two guys from Alaska, one from Missouri and one from North Carolina, but most are from the California/Oregon areas. The cone style hubs pictured were the first thing we did today and will be used for the wheels we will build tomorrow. We were promised that the wheel building process would be de-mystified, and that it is really a process oriented procedure (which should be good for me!)

The classroom is well equipped and we share a workbench with our partner in all the hands on procedures.

Ashland and home for two weeks

About a four hour drive to Ashland from Salem, Oregon.  I am only 15 miles from the California border, and actually had sunshine today!  But it only lasted a short time.  Lots of rain for this time of year.  Not sure I will get in many cycling miles while here for the next two weeks.  The drive through the Willamette valley was pretty and very green.  Lots of rain this winter here.  Here is a view of the approach to Ashland.

The Cycle Hostel will be my home for the next two weeks.

 

And a graphic showing the connection to cycling here in the downtown area. 

The Cycle Hostel offers accommodations exclusively for students at United Bicycle Institute (UBI).  http://www.bikeschool.com/  I'll meet the rest of the class as they arrive tomorrow.

Salem visit

Aspen, Sean & Liz, Dusty in front

Had a great visit with Liz, Sean, Aspen and Dusty in Salem and some delicious homemade clam chowder -thanks Liz!  It was nice to see some of our west coast family on the way out here.  Spent a day in Eugene, browsing the REI store and driving up towards the McKenzie pass, where Kathie rode with Womantours on her Northwest Loop adventure.

On the way to Ashland

Left Rochester very early this morning and arrived in Portland, Oregon on time.  Considering the snow dumping Rochester got yesterday- I'm glad to be out here where it's only occasionally raining. 

Will be staying with Kathie's sister & family in Salem until Saturday and then heading down to Ashland.  Hope to get some riding in before class starts on Monday.