It takes a clinic to build a village.

JGMCX clinic. spotted- 2007 Bianchi Roger, possibly the first production SS cx disc bike in the US?

The beginning of August was kicked off with the Jonathan Gantz Memorial Cyclocross Clinic, located in lower York County, Pennsylvania. 

About 50 local and some far, cyclocross fans, racers, and those curious about the sport assembled at Spring Valley Park to start brushing up on their 'cross skills; hear some wisdom get dropped by Wes and Jake of the Haymarket bike race team and reconnect with cycling friends who only pop their head out of the ground this time of the year. 

Food and refreshments were provided by the York Area Mountain Bike Association so a big thanks goes out to them and Sean Durgin who manned the griddle, serving up pancakes to the attending cyclists.  Sean, or Skip as he's better know as in the area, and I go way back to 1990. He was a classmate back then and took me mountain biking for the first time.  Or at least he was on a mountain bike and I was still riding a bmx bike, but not for long.  That summer I traded my old road bike for a mountain bike and shredded the trails at Rocky Ridge all that summer. 

Clinics are popping up all over the US and what cyclists are understanding is that cultivating a cycling community is important to the health and growth of local cycling. And if you can attract junior cyclocross riders as well, that's the future of the sport right there!  Hosting a clinic with your local bike club will create new friendships, introduce recreational riders to area racers and hopefully breakdown any elitist-preconceived notions the weekend riders might have against those who pin on a number every weekend.  That being said, out of all the bike racers I know, the mountain bike and CX racers are the nicest, most approachable people in my directory.  That's an observation, not a criticism. 

Sean Mealey of Keystone Velo Racing did most of the organizing for this second year event which meant the full cx course would be a blast to ride. The drills we worked on covered the basic dismount, remount, dismount to stair run-up, starts/sprints, and then the team relay. A little bit of chasing each other, over cooking a few turns, and taking random dirt naps keep everyone laughing and enjoying themselves.

Big thanks again to Mealey and KVR, YAMBA, Nuts About Granola, Haymarket Bicycle Shop and Broken Spoke Photography who captured this fine day with the best lens in the county! 

I can't wait for next year!

Bianchi Bicycles Oltre Vaconsoleil frame review.

This is my second season riding an Oltre. Last year I had a stock Oltre frameset and this year decided to get the Vacansoleil livery edition. 61cm for my tall self.

The big thing I noticed about the Oltre last season was it's ability to rail a corner 10% beyond your comfort level, make mid-cornering steering changes and the bike remains stable until you exit the corner. Also, the steer dynamics are such that very little input at the handlebars is required to steer the bike. [Ed note: don't attempt to rail a corner at 'Oltre speeds' when you're on a Impulso back up bike on the last lap of a crit. It will get ugly and you might lose some skin.]

This was obvious to me at the end of last summer when I pulled the parts off the Oltre and installed the build group onto my Cavaria cyclocross frame. On my first shake down ride of the cx bike, I just about over-cooked a  corner because I was trying to steer it like in was on the Oltre... little steering effort. Wrong! Next corner, pretty much the same thing. And this time I realized that I was actually pulling on the inside-turn, of the handlebar to initiate the turn. Yes, the Oltre is that sensitive you can lightly steer it one handed. 

When you introduce a slacker head tube angle like the one you'll find on a cyclocross bike or one of the C2C bikes, you will need to use pressure from both sides of the handlebars to steer and push the bars through the corner and hold it there or the bike will try to 'stand up' through the corner. 

Second note. Last year's Oltre with the same part kit, minus the SL-K crank of this year, included a SRAM Red crank. When I built up the one in the photo below, ran the same winter wheels, tires, everything the same as 2012 except the FSA crank and brakes. This season, out of the saddle efforts were met with the rear wheel flexing and rubbing each side of the brake pads with every pedal stop over a climb. Yes the brakes are now FSA but their gap to the rim is the same. The spoke tension of the winter wheel is where it needs to be as well. 

So the question looming here is... 
-Is the SL-K crank is stiffer than the Red crank? Thus twisting the frame more due to the reduced flex at the arms? The Red crank was a 177.5mm length, the SL-K is 175mm. 
-Is the Vaconsoleil edition frame a bit stiffer in the bottom end of the frame? I need to dig a bit further for an answer when I see Angelo at Interbike.

So the summer rolls on and I'm still humbled by how amazing this bike rides; fast and quick, velvety steering, steer it with your hips thanks to the aero seat post's lateral stiffness or chase down the group

to the township line signs. You won't be disappointed! 

Here are some photos of the final build on the Oltre. I hope you enjoy them!

Final weight without accessories- 61cm.

Building up the cyclocross bike for another season.

It's about that time.

Time to pull up the cx frame from the basement, wash it, wax it and start hanging some bits on the frame. 

Now all that's left is a build kit for the season. 

From bike sharrows to shoofly pie.

It took a rainy day after Memorial Day to realize that I had a handful of photos that never made their way into a post over here. 

Last month, the owners of Proteus Bicycles in College Park, MD decided to play hookie on a sunny Friday and drive up to the land of shoofly pie and Amish buggies in order to test ride the latest Bianchi Infinito bikes. Laurie and Jeff have been super busy the past two seasons since taking on ownership of the shop; so given a chance to get away to ride some new bikes, I didn't have to ask twice.

Jeff rode the Ultegra Di2 Infinito. Quite the anomaly from his daily commuter. He is very active in the DC commuting world and you can follow along with Jeff at his Greenbelt Patch blog.... here!  We traveled pretty much the same route I did with the Bikenetic guys, earlier that month.

 Laurie, rode the 50cm Infinito Ultegra and was pretty excited by the speed and fluidity of the bike. Her daily rider is a Bianchi Zurigo which got the ball rolling for her love of the brand. She bought it back when Jill and Yo owned the bike shop. Such a great customer-to-owner story that she and Jeff share. 

A self portrait of Laurie and me. Next time out, Jeff swears he's bringing his Go-Pro camera to document the beauty of the Lancaster farm lands. I think he just wants to copy the design of the scooters he saw the Amish running around on that day. Ha!

Never the less, you guys are always welcomed up here!

Better than that new car smell. @bianchibicycles #semprepro

New Sempre Pro at Cycles Bikyle. First on the block for PA/MD/VA territory, getting picked up today by a very excited rider.

A : See Details(Google Map)

#mockorangebikes @bianchibicycles demo

Demo time with the Sempre Pro and Infinito bikes!

A : See Details(Google Map)

Bianchi Impulso hop up parts kit.

The first crit of the year is this weekend and for the first time ever, I'm rushing to put together something that resembles a competitive bike. A handful of parts from the 'cross bike, another handful from last year's Oltre. 

I've resigned to the fact that I'll never run a stock, out of the box bike unless it's a town/market bike for getting groceries. That being said, I started the transformation this week of a stock Impulso 105 bike.

There are so many places you can get away with middle grade parts on your bike. Two places I never skimp, tires and the chain.

Dura-Ace 10 speed with a Connex quick link. Light, smooth and soon to be covered with a splash of Chain-L lube.

Something old, something new from the basement. I swapped the carbon/alu stock fork from the Impulso which uses a 45mm rake and installed this guy; full carbon 43mm rake, from back in the day... (`the bike fit in that link...geez things have changed since 2005.) Added branding on the inside of the fork legs courtesy of PG-13 Graphics.

More of the build up to come...