BHS Sports Physical – Saturday, August 14, 2010 at Children’s Hospital,
9:00 – 11:00 am, first come, first served, in the Outpatient Center of
Children’s Hospital, across the street from the main Hospital at 747 52nd
Street, Oakland.
Team photo will be taken at 4:30pm on Tuesday at Live Oak Park. You must be wearing you Berkeley Team Kit in order to be in the picture.
Mobo
No practice today because of the weather. Stay dry and try get some type of endurance exercise in today if you can. Happy Mother’s Day!
Mobo
Time Trial this Thursday 5/6/10 for practice. Sunday’s ride on 5/9/10 will start at 9am, not 10am because it’s Mother’s Day. See you all at practice.
Mobo
Practice is cancelled due to the weather. If the weather lets up a little try to go for a ride with the proper rain gear or go to spin class at your local gym. See you all Thursday. Mobo
Practice is not going to be held today because of the off and on rain showers. Please go spin at a gym, your house, or ride in the rain if you have the proper rain gear. See you all Thursday if the weather is good. Mobo
Tech Talk: The Best Way to Power Wash Your Bike
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By Lennard Zinn
VeloNews
Dear Lennard,
After power washing my bike several times this winter to get the road muck off, I’ve developed creaks in a few places.
What’s the best way to clean and lube my bottom bracket, crank arms and seatpost? Do I need to take anything apart, or can I just spray lube on these places?
- Ben
Dear Ben,
Yes, repeated power washing can blow the lubricant out of bike components and leave them dry and squeaky. First, always make sure when power washing a bike that you don’t blast it into any bearings.
The best technique is to do as much spraying as possible in the plane of the bike, rather than from the side. So blast down from above, up from below (except not at the headset) and from the front and back. I understand that sometimes cleanliness requires some blasting from the side, and if it is just at the frame, no harm done. But blasting into jockey wheels, bottom brackets, pedals, and hub bearings is a bad idea.
Now, addressing your creaks associated with power washing, the first thing you should always do after washing a bike, whether with a power washer or a hose or bucket, is remove the seatpost and turn the bike upside down to let the water drain out of the seat tube. Do this after every ride in the rain as well.
It’s a good idea to have a hole in the bottom of your bottom bracket shell to drain it while upright as well. If your bike does not have one, consider drilling one as close as possible to the very bottom—generally right up against the plastic cable guide screwed into your shell. That answers your question about the seatpost as well; remove it, grease it, and re-insert it.
Often the creaking is the leather at the edge of the saddle shell rubbing on the saddle rail clamp when your weight brings the two into contact. When the leather dries out, this rubbing will result in creaking, so applying grease to the edge of the saddle shell there can fix your problem.
Obviously, after power washing, lube your chain every time (actually, do it after every ride) and jockey wheels after every few times. The chain is a place for the spray lube you mention; on other parts it will have a transient benefit at best. With cartridge-bearing jockey wheels, pry the dust cover off of the bearing with a razor blade and squeeze some grease in there before replacing the dust cover.
Creaking in the crank and bottom bracket area is often coming from around the bearings. With a threaded bottom bracket, unscrewing the cups, greasing the threads, and tightening them back in to full torque spec will often fix it; plumber’s tape on the threads of a persistent creaker might help too.
With a press-in bottom bracket, you may need to remove the cartridge bearings, put grease around them, and push them back in.
- Lennard
No practice today! Please go to a spin class or go running. See you all at practice on Tuesday. Mobo
Next up: Granite Bay Challenge!
UPDATED THURSDAY MARCH 18 WITH NEW COURSE MAP. LAST-MINUTE CHANGE TO CLOCKWISE!
This Sunday, March 21, 2010, we’ll race the second 2010 NorCal race at Folsom Lake State Recreation Area.
Returning riders rode at this site twice last year. NorCal organizers mixed it up in 2009 by changing some of the trails and reversing the direction for the second visit to Granite Bay.
For 2010 we’ll only be visiting this site once, and the race will be run clockwise. Here’s the course map, updated Thursday, March 18, 2010:
Thurs. March 18 update: corrected course, confirmed CLOCKWISE
There are no real extended climbs here, as you can see from the contour lines and elevation profile on the course map: you do more climbing on most of the BHS practice days. However, Granite Bay has loads of technical single track! Check out these shots from last year’s race courses at Granite Bay:
If you get the chance, this is a good course to pre-ride the day before the race. That way you can check out the trickier technical bits, watch how other riders approach them, and have several runs at them yourself to find your best line and hone your technique.
I’ll try to post pictures of this year’s course the night before the race, if possible. Pictures from last year’s course are available here:
http://traffic.its.berkeley.edu/20090314_granite/
http://traffic.its.berkeley.edu/20090425_bhs_mtb/
Get plenty of sleep, eat sensibly, don’t forget your number plate, helmet, or shoes, fix any mechanical problems NOW, clean your bike after Thursday’s practice, and lube your drivetrain. Sunday’s gonna be awesome!!
-Greg