The Next Tour?

 World War II suspended the Tour de France and most other cycling and athletic-related events.  For one thing, many riders were called to fight for their countries.For another, had the events been held, riders' safety could not be ensured.

So I was surprised to learn that a race transversing one of the world's most war-torn countries last week.  One thing that makes the race all the more interesting is that it is being promoted as a counterpart to the Tour de France.  Burkina Faso was a colony of that country, called Upper Volta, until 1984.

Eighty cyclists are riding the race, some of them Europeans.  (They say they're not worried about safety because "the military are everywhere.") Perhaps most prominent among them is Paul Daumont, who also competed in this year's Olympics in Tokyo.  The good news is that, at 22, he still has a lot of riding ahead of him.  

But he admits that it hasn't been easy for him, or other cyclists from his country.  The country's cycling federation gave him a bike when he showed potential but, he says, you need a really good bike which few of his compatriots can afford.  Also, I imagine that his team and others in Africa simply don't have the budgets or facilities of their European counterparts.  

Daumont has already raced, not only in Japan, but in other countries like Switzerland.  It's fair to wonder whether he and other talented cyclists will follow their counterparts in football (soccer) to careers in Europe, where teams from the English Premier League to Serie A feature star players from Africa and other parts of the world. The French national team won the World Cup in 1998 and 2018 largely thanks to the efforts of their African and Middle Eastern players.

Two things Daumont and other African cyclists share with their football-playing counterparts are ambition and a willingness to work very, very hard.  So, perhaps, we might see Africans win the Tour, Giro and Vuelta sooner rather than later.

  

Laid Up

This morning I felt as if I'd been struck by a train.  Everything in my body ached, and I was as exhausted as if I hadn't slept at all.  So I didn't ride this afternoon, as I planned.  Instead, I spent much of today in bed. At least Marlee is happy:  She can curl up on me to her heart's delight.

Last night, I received my COVID booster.  I felt no ill effects after the first two doses, so I don't know why I feel the way I do.  It may have to do with another vaccination, for shingles, I received at the same time.

I've ingested my average annual consumption--two tablets--of Ibuprofen.  Perhaps I'll feel better tomorrow.

 

Park Tool Grants To Community Organizations

I am very happy that United Bicycle Institute and other organizations are offering scholarships and making other efforts to train women, transgenders and non-binary people to work in the bicycle industry.  While some might argue that such programs lead to low-paying dead-end jobs as bike shop employees, I think the training is valuable in other ways.  For one, some bike shop employees go on to open their own shops or work in other facets of the bicycle industry.  For another, I think training programs can help to raise the quality and consistency of services bike shops and companies offer.

Another benefit is one that training and volunteer programs of bicycle recycleries and co-ops also offer.  Knowing how to fix a bike, whether one's own or someone else's, makes for more self-sufficient cyclists.  That, I think, makes people more likely to use their bikes for more than twiddling around the park.  If you can at least fix a flat, you're less likely to worry about being late for work or school or getting stranded in an unfamiliar neighborhood or foreign country.  

Sometimes knowing how to fix a bike isn't enough, though.  Some people and communities don't have the tools necessary, whether because there isn't a shop in the neighborhood or because they don't have the money to spare for even a pair of tire levers.  Many low-wage workers. immigrants and unhoused people (who are sometimes the same people) are riding bikes that were purchased for very little, gifted to them or rescued from a dumpster or curbside.  

From Recycle-A-Bicycle

That is where Park Tool's Community Tool Grants come in.  Every year since 2015, Park has been giving grants that include tools and repair stands to nonprofit organizations and community groups.  The application period for 2022 grants is now open. In addition to ten grants that include bike-repair items, one organization will receive an additional $1000 grant to spend on tools and equipment.

Now I have one more reason to be happy that I have a number of Park tools in my box.

If A Bike Is Too Big And Nobody Is There To Ride It

Could it be that Mark Zuckerberg changed the name of Facebook to Meta because his goal is to rule the Meta-verse?

All right, that query isn't even serious enough to qualify as a rhetorical question.  Or is it?  There's a part of me that believes every multi-billionaire's ambition is to rule the world, whether physical or virtual.  After all, every billion you make isn't as satisfying as the previous billion--or your first.  

How would I know?  All right, I admit, I'm speculating.  (I don't mean that in the way a billionaire might.) But I would hazard to guess, to paraphrase someone who never should be quoted , that one billion dollars is a fortune, a hundred billion is a statistic. 

Anyway, I have to wonder what life is like in the metaverse? (Or is "life in the metaverse" an oxymoron?)  I mean, do people's bodies change when they enter the Meta-verse?  Specifically, I am now wondering how Maxima Chan Zuckerberg and her sister August were conceived.

Here is what led my mind down those dark metaphysical alleys:

I mean, if Mark Zuckerberg rides that bike (Does anybody ride in the Meta-verse?), what is the condition--or, indeed, what about the presence--of his, uh, apparatus?

But the real question--which follows from the title of this post--is:  Does bike fit matter in the Meta-verse?

Hues Of Exposure

 On the return leg of a North Shore ride, I saw the kind of blue, if a little darker, one normally doesn't see in the waters around New York City, except in postcards--or this:

We haven't had very many days of crystal-clear skies lately.  During the past few days, intervals of non-rain have punctuated downpours accompanied, at times, by wind gusts.  I couldn't keep a cap on when I was walking to the store; it's no wonder the branches can't keep their leaves

and their nudity seems even more stark against dark clouds.

Even the tall steel towers across the bay and river seem to need something to shield them against the impending winter, the way even a big, strong, young person needs a shawl, a cloak or something to cover his or her shoulders and frame against the coming cold. 

The Procession

 Happy Halloween!

From Jim's Bike Blog

Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes?

During the initial investigation, video surveillance was obtained depicting two males removing the bicycles and leaving the area.

That sentence could be part of a police report almost anywhere, about any two males (or females or non-binary people) in a depressingly familiar scenario.

But then there's the next sentence:

These actors were identified as Eric Campbell and Austin Craig, who are both employed as Police Officers with the Lower Township Police Department."

The report continues with the caveat that the charges are "merely accusations" and that "defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty."  Still, it's hard not to notice that the accused thieves are constables in a town adjacent to the seaside resort of Cape May, New Jersey's southernmost area.

Now, assuming that Campbell and Craig are indeed the "bad actors," it begs the question of "Why?"  Do Lower Township cops have too much time on their hands?"  (Charming as it is, calling the place "sleepy" makes it seem like Times Square. I know, I've been there.)  Are they so poorly-paid that they can't afford bikes?  Or did they become "bad actors" for the reason some other police officers go rogue:  because they could, because they figured their badges and shields would protect them from charges?

Marianne Martin Finally Gets Her Due--Somewhat

 It's one thing to call a baseball player "the Black Babe Ruth."  One player wore that moniker.  But some called "the Bambino" "the White* Josh Gibson."

Gibson died at age 35, three months before Jackie Robinson broke Major League Baseball's color barrier.*  Yet he wasn't enshrined in the sport's Hall of Fame until a quarter-century after his passing.

Five years ago,  Rogatien Vachon was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame--more than three decades after he played his last game in the National Hockey League.  When he retired, he was among the sport's top five or ten in several categories for his position.  He spent the bulk of his career with the Los Angeles Kings, where he became the franchise's first superstar. But, as great as he was, he was overshadowed by other goalies like Ken Dryden, who played for the dynastic Montreal Canadiens teams, and Ed Giacomin, who spent his career with the New York Rangers and Detroit Red Wings.

So why am I mentioning them on this blog?

Well, a parallel just played out in the world of cycling.  On 6 November, Marianne Martin will accept her induction to the US Bicycling Hall of Fame in Colorado Springs.  She actually was inducted last year but, due to the pandemic, her ceremony was postponed.  

Her enshrinement comes three decades after she retired from competition and nearly four after her most notable achievement on two wheels.  That her induction was so late in coming is also a sad commentary on the state of competitive cycling.

Marianne Martin and Laurent Fignon, winners of the women's and men's Tour de France, 1984

In 1984, she won the inaugural edition of the women's Tour de France.  The race, 18 days long, ran in tandem with  (though on shorter courses than, with the same climbs and peaks as) the men's version.  Six editions of the women's Tour were held, the last coming in 1989, the year Greg LeMond came back from a near-fatal hunting accident to win the men's Tour for the second time.

LeMond got his induction, well-deserved as it was, five years after his last race.  Martin's honor took a quarter-century longer to come her way.  Still, she doesn't express anger or resentment. "Half my friends don't even know that I was a cyclist.  It's not something I carry out in front of me," says Martin, who is a photographer.  While she says that cycling was something she did, not who she was, it's hard not to compare her post-cycling life and reputation with that of LeMond who, in turn, is less famous than the disgraced Lance Armstrong.

*--The only athletes I respect as much as human beings as I respect Jackie Robinson are Billie Jean King, Muhammad Ali, Colin Kaepernick and Simon Biles. That said, I will not refute (or confirm) the rumors that Jackie wasn't the first Black Major League Baseball player, as others--including Babe himself--were rumored to be Black.  Also, it wouldn't surprise me if some light-skinned Black players moved north (where all of the MLB teams were, and Jim Crow laws weren't) and passed themselves off as white.  

Employee Killed At Bicycle Company Headquarters

When it comes to hazardous occupations and workplace violence, the bicycle industry probably isn't the first that would come to most people's minds.  Even less likely to occur to some would be an employee killing another in a well-respected bike company's headquarters located in a town that is home to many young professionals who work in a nearby city.

But the scenario I've described seems to have played out in the headquarters of Jamis, in Northvale, New Jersey.  Yesterday morning, Northvale police responded to a call about an injured employee.  When they arrived, they found the body of 43-year-old Jeanette Willem, a 20-year employee.  

She had a head wound which, according to authorities, was caused by a blunt object.  They believe that warehouse employee Christian Giron inflicted that wound with a hammer. He was arrested and charged with murdering Ms. Willem, weapon possession and hindering his own apprehension.

In light of these developments, Jamis' headquarters will be closed until Monday, 1 November.

 

If You Can't Find It...

Some of you may already know what I'm about to say:  Some bikes and parts are really, really hard to find right now.

Those woes seem to have begun a month or two into the pandemic, when lockdowns shut down factories, warehouses and distribution centers, and disrupted supply routes.  In some places, even bike shops were shut because they weren't deemed "essential businesses."

Now, a year and a half in, the situation doesn't seemed to have improved.  I was able to do my most recent build only because Mercian built the frame (which the insurance settlement paid for) and I had most of the parts on hand.  

Mat Brett (Good name for a hero in a detective novel, isn't it?), on the British road.cc website, relays some of the recent woes of Matt Page, a  contributor on sibling site (We can't be sexist here, can we?) off.road.cc, in sourcing replacement pads for his Shimano disc brakes.  He's set up stock alerts, it seems, with every online retailer in England as well as the country's official Shimano distributor.  His alerts include notifications for, not only original equipment replacements for his model of brake, but any other compatible pads.  I'm not familiar with all of the disc models, but the situation he describes seems something like what you might encounter if you had to replace your Dura-Ace 9, 10 or 11-speed cassette or front derailleur and couldn't find, not only Dura Ace, but also Ultegra/600, 105, Tiagra, Sora or other Shimano road parts.

Page also encountered another problem. Here in the States, some people have managed to find stuff, sometimes via Amazon, from retailers in France, Germany, Spain and other European countries.  But some of those outfits won't ship to the UK.  Or, if they will, customers have to pay sometimes-hefty import duties now that the UK is not part of the EU.

Not long ago, Bicycle Habitat, one of my longtime go-to shops, started carrying Giant bicycles, I would guess, because they actually had bikes to ship to Habitat.  Many shops say they don't expect to have new stock, whether of bikes, parts or accessories, until some time next year, if at all.  That means that if the shop you patronize doesn't have the bike, helmet or shoes in your size, let alone the color you like, you have to wait or buy another model--if indeed that is available.  I would imagine this situation, like the one Page describes, is also further complicated in the UK because some companies, even those based in Asia, serve the UK through distributors in Continental Europe--which means, of course, import duties.

(Ironically, for a time earlier this year, all-leather Brooks saddles like the B17 and Professional were unavailable in England--where they're made--because after they're finished, they're sent to the parent company's distribution center in Italy.)

So, while I don't encourage hoarding, I think that if you don't have some spares of brake pads, chains, casettes, tires, tubes and other parts that normally wear, it might be a good idea to buy them--not to mention the bike you want, if you can find it!

Oh, and be aware of fake websites--like the one of a "Shimano Clearance Store"  Page encountered in his searches: