Training Update

Still following the loose Morris/Cross-training plan. It seems to be a good fit for now. Early on, the cross-fit alone was fine for general body fitness but I think cycling prowess fades naturally with no cycling specific efforts.

For the time being, I workout 2x a week in the Crossfit gym and then hit the trainer 3 days, barring travel, etc. With the weather we've been having there is no thought of going outside, but as soon as the weather holds above 40 and not raining and the at least sweep up some of the gravel on the road I'll get in some outside time. It has been over 3 months I'd say since turning the pedals any more than 40mins at one time.

I'm not as gung ho on the intervals as years ago, so if a particular workout feels too much I'll just bag it and not go to super human lengths to push through it. The power numbers are encouraging. Even up a tad from the last few years. So I wonder if the X fit has done some real good in setting up the legs to go into the SMSP intervals. What is missing this year is absolutely no endurance riding. It's going to be sort of a reverse taper in that if I get any at all it will come after the intervals.

The other thing that is unchecked is planned rest blocks. In the Morris plan there are planned almost complete weeks off that occur about every 3 weeks. About 10 days after them I feel really great. But in the current plan, these rests occur more randomly due to work travel, family travel or other life events that disrupt the schedule. The fact is there is more worry from over doing it in this current plan. Because the X fit workouts are intense, and the intervals are intense, so there is a cumulative fatigue that builds up. Which is fine and good because that is why training works. But it's the rest where we get stronger.

What I've seen is cycles of ups/downs occurring. Where I'll go into a crossfit workout and it will feel easy but I'm setting PRs in times or weights. Other days will be the exact opposite, tired lethargic with poor performance. I'm not tracking what is going on but I imagine I'm matching my known patterns for peaking. Hard efforts, back to back to create an 'over-reaching' combined with about 8-11 days buffer and you get a peak. In The 8-11 days it doesn't really matter what I do either couch or working hard. It just seems that the body recovers and comes out the other side pretty well.

But now with the interval training combined with the 2x a week cross fit it will be interesting. It will be nice to ride outside again. I miss it.

Thoughts on hard shell-soft shell gore tex eVent and other musings

Snowboarding season is on. Time to obsess about gear related issues. Right now, my big obsession is on clothing. I've realized now that having the right gear, even if you pay a ton of money and only use it twice a year, is worth it. Because having wrong gear can just make life miserable. And when you travel several hours and pay out the wazoo you are going to get onto that slope for the mere principle of it. So you better have your system together otherwise it is going to make you hate it all.

My current thinking is that a good hardshell system combined with flexible layering is the way to go to accomodate varying range of conditions.

Here is a super Great article on layering.

Here' a good treatise on waterproof/water resistant fabrics

Proper gear encompasses wide definition. For me and snowboarding it includes good safety gear (wrist guards, kneepads, butt pad (you gotta not care what others people think, cause it looks lame, but I LOVE it. You sit in the hard snow alot and sit on cold lifts and fall on your but alot, so I love it. It gets sweaty some but so worth it to me)a helmet, Good wicking base layer, any old insulating layer and a good outer layer. Especially pants cause your in the snow a lot, mittens, and shell.

10 years ago I'd gotten the typical Gore Tex shell. You know the first generation that was super stiff when cold, didn't really breathe all that well, felt heavy, and lost its water beading quickly. I didn't like it all that much. It was so stiff it rubbed my chin raw, it was hard to move in. BUT, it was a hard shell: meaning windproof, waterproof, and tough as nails.

Part of it was that I didn't know how to take care of it the best, nor layer properly. See the key to waterproof style jackets that have 3 layers is that the DWR, or durable waterproof coating has to be in place.

The DWR is what gets the water and snow to bead on the jacket , then it rolls off. But if the DWR is rubbed off then the top layer will 'wet out' that means that the water soaks into the next layer. The fabric will look wet. It's typically NOT actually going through the other layers and leaking into the jacket But it does weigh down the fabric and enables the wind to start chilling you down very quickly.

The other part of the equation is the breatability. That means letting water vapor generated by exertion leave your body and the inside of the jacket. Without breatheability, like the sitution you have with those garbage back type jackets is that you get water moisture building up on the inside of the jacket and hence into your inner clothes. Which means getting and staying cold.

When DWR wears off, and small pores in the gore tex material get dirty, then the breathability starts to shut down and you get clammy and moisture builds up on the inside.

So it's a complex situation, because even though you are not running and sweating like cycling and sprinting you are working hard, so you are creating some moisture, So breathability is important, waterproofing is equally important. The other thing I'm learning is that the insulating layer is al so important from limitations it can place on movements. I'm always bending over to get into my bindings and if I've got so many layers it it's a pain, also too many layer restrict movements and fleece on fleece friction makes twisting and moving hard.

So I was hating my jacket when a lot of the issues I could have taken care of with some good care.
Such as:
1) washing the jacket with a good NON-detergent soap. like Atsko sport was. Then reapplying a DWR such as this one that I saw recommended for Gore Tex and eVent and other waterproof breathable fabrics.

Wash, then let air dry, then apply the waterproofing, let it dry, then stick it in the dryer for 1/2 hour to really activate it and open up the waterproofing. Does it work? Not sure, I'm doing right now on some gore tex pants and other gear.

A few years ago, the whole soft shell phenom was going big. Softshell is a hybrid combo of a hard shell with an light insulation layer. In traditional layering systems, you start with a light base layer designed to wick moisture away from your skin. This layer is not warm at all, it's sole purpose is to keep your skin from being clammy and damp which leads to getting cold quickly. Hence the reason why cotton is considered a killer when next to skin, because cotton does not wick and it once damp it stays damp.

The second layer is in insulation layer. Something designed to hold warmth in when underneath an outer shell. Fleece, wool, down, primaloft. all fall in this category. You can pick the thickness based on how cold it is. These then go under the 'hard shell' like the old gore tex I described above.

Soft shells hit the scene, where then integrated a water resistent/windproof outer layer (some of the real expensive ones were truly waterproof) and an insulating layer together into one unit. So it was thicker than a hard shell, and it felt nice to the bare skin because it had a fleece inner fabric and not just that slick inner material of a shell. The material felt cool, and it looked cool and was/is all the rage.

So I obsessed for days and days searching for the best deal/value in a softshell and ended up with an Outdoor Research soft shell. And was promptly disappointed with it.

Why? Because softshells for me only work in a very limited range of conditions. Dry for one, and not super cold. Sure you I layer with it just like I did with a hard shell, but some things bugged me. like I'd put a fleece top on then the jacket, but the inner fleece of the jacket has so much friction with the fleece top it's so hard to move.

The outer layer is water resistent. Meaning that it has a DWR on it, but when it fades, water does seap through. the DWR on it was terrible, it wetted out quickly. Where we are, in the mid atlantic/virginia, we have short runs and slow lifts. And snow makers. So you don't warm up on the way down. You freeze in the wind on the slwo way up, and you get snowed on with ice pellets from the snowmaker. They melt immediately and if your DWR isn't beading you'll get wet quickly. Once the material is wetted out I start slowly freezing my ass.

Don't get me wrong. Softshell is breakthrough, and I wear it a ton. It is windproof, and it works in milder not so wet conditions great. But to me it isn't versatile enough for what I need and adaptiple to changing conditions.

So NOW, I'm back to obsessing about going back to a hard shell. Hours of googling and I'm starting to come to some conclusions that I'll share here. My perspective and singular focus is to go for the best functionality and best gear at the lowest price. Hence bang for the buck and value is always my driving compass. Good gear costs. ALOT one must change their pain threshold in terms of cost. I'm ok with this from my years of cycling and also power tools, etc. While I'm ok with it, hell if Im going to pay $400 for a shell. Closeouts, used or non popular brands is where I lean.

also one must be careful of the fakes products on ebay. The North Face products are notorious for this to the point that there are forums dedicated just to this issue. I came across this Peak Performance line at ebay that is a rip off of a high end line out of Europe. They look so much like the real deal, maybe they are real that are grey market overruns.

There's so much info out there you just gotta read a lot and see where postings agree with each other to filter out the junk.
Here are some good ones
eVEnt and Gore tex
another gore vs eVent
forum posts

One confusion I have is between 2 layer and 3layer fabrics. My conclusion is 2 layer is lighter and designed for more aerobics like running cycling and isn't as durable, I'm going for a tougher 3 Layer fabric.

Another thing to keep in mind is that many of these articles are written from an alpine, mountaneering, or backcountry mindset. Meaning that these activities involve a higher exertion level and hence place a much higher premium on breathability. Back to mid atlantic resort snowboarding, and breathability isn't as much of an issue. In fact the eVent fabric mentioned below has been criticized a little in that it breathes too well, and trapped warm air can escape cooling you down, so you need to dress a little warmer. Than compared to pro shell. I don't know but it sort of makes sense. But breathability is still very important because wear a cheap rain jacket and you'll be clammy in short order.

Gore tex is like kleenex. They are the king of market share. The old school Gore tex is now called Gore Tex Performance Shell. They lightweight hiking style is called Gore Tex Pac lite, they came out with a new product that had better breathability, not a stiff, and was still tough and waterproof called Gore Tex XCR. XCR has been replaced with Pro Shell, which is the top of the pops in the Gore line.

eVent fabric is considered the biggest competition. Lowe alpine made an eVent a few years ago that you might find for sale. Backcountry's Stoic line is made from eVent. Seems to have some sizing issues in terms of being cut for layering. WildThings uses eVent and has good reputation.

There are also a myriad of gore tex want to be's that tend to be lower priced. EMS System III, TNF Hy-Vent, AquaStopint,Membrain, conduit, Toray makes a couple of Entrant like Entrant GII-XT ,Columbia's Omni-Tech Platinum ,dermizax (by Spyder), Repel storm used in Eddie Bauer's First Ascent line (which by the way went to Chapter 11 and you can find a $300 jacket for under $130. Some don't have the breathability of Gore Tex or eVent

Here is an older chart that I think someone at an Army cold weather research center made that compares breathability in terms of water vapor passage. Interestingly, it shows the Entrant GII-XT to be very good compared to eVent. What isn't shown here is the level of waterproofness. But again I caution that waterproofness is really only as good as the DWR and capability to bead the water on the surface and not allow the top layer to wet out.


Everyone has their #s something like 20,000/20,000 these are measures of waterproofness and breathability. But I think the fundamental issues hold true for any of them. The DWR must be in good condition for water to bead, and the pores of the breathable fabric must be clean to promote transfer of water vapor from inside to the outside.

Other things to consider are taped sealed seams, Which truly keep water completely out.

so I'm still looking, I only want to do this once so I'm leaning towards Gore Tex Pro shell, 3 layer eVent, or possibly the Eddie Bauer 1st Ascent on closeout

Some more good reading
Older breathability comparison chart

UK climbing article on eVent

First time on the trainer

Back it it. Well sort of. I've been crazy busy with school and work and family, and blogging has gone by the way side. I have missed it, and while I'm in the short time period before classes start up again, I figured I'd post a few updates.

For the past year, I've gotten out of formalized training for cycling. If you've been following the BLOG for a time, you know that I had utilized a great plan that fit within my busy life of family, jobs, and other commitments. It worked realy well, and on a realizable amount of time, I could ride well enough to have fun and be competitive.

However, the last years I had more added to my plate, and just couldn't deal, as my approach tends towards the obsessive compulsive end so racing went by the wayside. Recently, I started working out at a local Crossfit Gym Twice a week. And while the weathe was decent, I'd get out on the bike for some short rides once or twice a week. The cross fit is great. I get to the 6am class M/W which is really hard, but nice to get it out of the way, otherwise I know something would come up and it I'd miss.

The format works realy well with my needs and personality. 1/2 time we do with functional movements, and strength training. All core movements like squats, presses and full body olympic style movements. The second half is more aerobic/anaerobic workouts that include huge variety. Box jumps, pushups, pull ups, jumping rope, runnung, medicine balls, etc. Typically, combinations of set/reps with time on and time off. HIGH intensity.

I also like working out with the small group of people and the trainer. You get a morale boost from sharing misery with a touch of competitiveness. And every one there is empowering. Why, cause we are all just regular people. Moms, dads, jobs, normal genetics. Getting our asses out of bed and killing it. Regular people doing extraordinary things, like cleaning weight off the floor to overhead, or setting PRs on squat and working hard.

Riding had still be going relatively well, just 1hr rides here there. Getting by on good technique. This winter weather we've had has just killed any riding. I finally got pshyched enough to get back onto the trainer for the first time in over a year I'd say. Right into SmSp Morris intervals. I was actually excited and motivated to get on there.

Just doing 2 days a week crossfit and then nothing else wasn't cutting it. The intervals, at least the first two days of them went relatively well. Power was ok, not like it was years ago, but doable And the high intensity of the crossfit has helped with just general tolerance of the uncomfortable feeling associated with high intensity of short intervals.

So for now my plan is to continue with crossfit 2x a week, then fill in a few days with my old training plan from Morris and just follow it checking one day at a time. What I've removed from the equation is the endurace phase that included a few 3-4 hour low intensity rides, and I've removed the entire Morris Strength training.

The xfit does a lot of the stength training part, but the Morris one was specific to cycling and periodized specifically to tie into the rest of the training program for racing in spring.

As soon as this freeze leaves us I'd like to get outside on the bike provided my toes can handle it.

seized pivot pin in Azure

Tried to take off my shock today on the Azure. Tapping with a punch did not remove the front pivot pin. I was wailing on it and not even a budge.

after some searching I found the solution on mtbr using a vice and some sockets to press it out. It worked finally, with some liquid wrench but I am still amazed at how much force I had to use to get the pin to move. Big vice, plus a cheater bar on the lever.

Check out this post with some pics/links I did a mtbr:

Crossfit

Ok,
Jumping on to the crossfit wagon for a little while.


My riding is going well, about two days of high intensity then every now and then some good hard rides. But haven't been lifting and my body is just collapsing. Core/upperbody.

I tried to get to the university gym to do some dead lifts, upperbody, but could just never put it together. Decided to change around my whole schedule and go to a 6am crossfit class 2x a week. I've made it to a consultation and one class so far. Got my neighbor to go with me to motivate me.

All I can say is it's hard. And it will be good. The intensity is so hard it's like sprinting on the bike for 20 mins. Just like there is no way I can train by myself as hard as I race, there is no way I'd ever train like this without others around and the trainer yelling.

I like it for a # of reasons.
1) i don't have to think, just go and do what they tell you
2) it's all functional movements and requires complex movements that utilize several muscle groups which requires timing and neurological development. Just like mountain biking
3) it's done in an hour or less
4) it's high intensity (puke intensity)
5) there is camraderie (misery loves company) and light competition.

It's hard, there is potential for carnage/injury and puking. We'll see how long I last, and how long my schedule of getting up at 5:30am lasts and whether I can get to sleep early enough regularly. Especially with classes starting up again.

Dirty Dawg write up

Very late, but still a good story

Race writeup Dirty Dawg.

The Dirty Dawg mountain bike race occurred several weeks ago. This is a local race held up on top of Mountain Lake resort made possible by the great people at East Coasters and the Mountain Lake Conservancy as well as the Hotel. Kirby, a transplant from the soul capital of agro mountain biking has been promoting some local grass roots events.

The last few years, I’ve cut back a lot on my racing to concentrate on other major focuses such as going back to school part time, work and my family. However, last year I did this race and had a great great time. I had been and still am training to a certain extent with enough fitness to be able to ride hard and have fun for at least a certain length of time. The weather was working out and family activities didn’t conflict with the race and was excited to go up.
The last few years I’ve really missed racing and missed all the energy around the events as well as the minutiae associated with training, dialing in the bike, prepping the bike, planning, obsessing, etc. With so much energy going into school and work I’ve sometimes felt a little lost unsure if the path is the right path. Doing a few races here and there help significantly to re ground me and energize me in general. Every ride reminds me how much I love mountain biking, but races remind me how much I love racing. It’s certainly not solely about the competitiveness, though there is enough there to get me to do stupid things like trying to pass when there is no reason and no good place to pass. While I’ve no doubt that with good training there is potential to do well; It is more about be able to push myself and put it on the line so to speak. There’s a simplicity and purity in racing and it’s just a nice social group as well.

In years past I’d obsess about the race for weeks prior, this time very little energy at all was expended prior to the day before. As we’ll see the lack of technical rigor placed on bike prep finally came around and got me.

The butterflies started to flitter starting the day before. Which is a good thing. Butterflies, mean that your body is getting itself ready. I’d be way more worried if I wasn’t nervous. I’d been going over last year’s course in my mind mapping out nutritional strategy and pacing strategy as well as identifying places to go hard or hold back. It was a decently hard course last year, but imaging my surprise when they said it was a Completely different course than last year.

As the traced the course out on the map my stomach began to knot up. It was similar to a course ran many years ago. That was a bad bad race for me as I recall. This year 2 big loops included the technical Moonstomper course twice as well as a long climb up towards the start/finish. It also included a walk down the stairway to hell which is the kind of rock staircase that is featured on the cover of Bike Magazine with Hans Rey trialsin his way down it.

This course does not have any major big climbs like Dragon’s Back or Douthat, and it doesn’t have super big tech ridgelines like Massanutten or D’back. But after finishing this course, I’d wager that it is one of the most body punishing courses around. The ubiquitous buried rocks, loose shale, roots, steep power climbs, and steep chattery downhills takes a toll on the body. I had short travel full suspension and could not fathom a hardtail for 2 laps.

Part of my problem was diminished technical skill and a lower speed threshold than ideal. That means that the speed at which I was comfortable downhilling was a lot lower than I’d wish. This also means that the slower you go the more you absorb trail shock. It’s counterintuitive, but the faster the go the more you float over trail features. And 9 times out of ten you’ll crash less the faster you go. It’s when you hit the rock/root going slower that your front wheel is more likely to deflect and turn. Hitting the rocks at slower speeds induces more shock.

It also means that I brake more, which really transfers the shock to the body; hitting the rocks while braking is like running into small square curbs all day. The grass was taller this year, and was hiding some rocks. Mentally, this scared me and I went slower which made me hit the rocks harder which wore me down. Ideally, you gotta let it go a little which means that even if you hit them your chances of getting through are better when going faster.

This kind of terrain requires power and lots of it. There’s very little opportunity to just spin up something. And forget about standing up and lightly dancing on the pedals like an angel of the mountains as seen at the Tour day france. The buried rocks, loose rocks, roots, grass, big rocks, little rocks, sissy rocks, rocks with angry eyes on them, etc makes that impossible.

I’ve been doing my riding primarily on the road and on smooth trail. I found that some of the climbs here required a gear higher. It’s similar to the situation where you put a pure roady on single track. They spin like mad and bounce all over the place. I recall an article by John Tomac about using a one to two gears higher than you would on the road on singletrack in order to give yourself something to push against. It was just hard to get into a rhythm.

Nutritional preparation:
I used to start eating the full carbs several days out. For the past few years, I’ve followed an eating strategy outlined in Performance Cycling and echoed in …… X# of grams/kg body weight. With the goal of being done 4 hours prior. Some contend that this influx of carbs is too much and enables too much water weight gain. I contend that it works very well for me. But it is also very hard to do.
The number just doesn’t do justice to exactly how much food this is. There’s no way for me to accomplish this without liquid supplementation (link to ensure). I haven’t been doing mega rides or races lately so haven’t rebuilt tolerance for this type of eating. I almost hurled this time. Right afterwards I go comatose and crawl in bed for a little while. I eat NOTHING more except drinking water until the start.
From the start on I sip on Gatorade out of the camelback, and if longer than 2.5hrs I eat something else.

But listen to me now believe me later. This eating plan has made a huge difference in my racing. It gets me through 2.5hrs w/o bonking if I’ve eaten enough. Planning on adding some fat like turkey bacon to the mix too.
I also hit the sport legs (link), and timed them to perfection. Call it a crutch or a secret weapon, placebo or whatnot, but I’ve suffered lock up leg cramps in races forever and this is the only thing that has ever worked for me. Maybe with better training I’d not cramp, but going into a race with so little miles under my legs made me need them that much more. They take about 50mins-1hr to kick in after swallowing. (note then stick in your throat so take with lots of water.)
5 on the start line, 5 at 50mins, 5 at 1:40. Typically I’d not take the 3rd dose but I ended up extending my stay at the resort and needed that extra.
The start was off the horse barn. Onto some sweet single track with a little bit of rocks. I got behind some guys and the adrenalin was flowing and just had to try to pass. I hit a low hanging branch and my helmet visor almost came off and was flopping around. Worthless waste of energy as we just ended up popping out on a fire road climb that provided plenty of room for passing.

I’ve got my self all turn around with regards to the course by this time, as we went opposite of last year and hit toejammer going the opposite direction. It’s actually much easier to ride this direction. But no less hard when under race conditions. I walked a bit, and rode more than expected. Also ended up jamming the front wheel into a crevice and doing a flip but luckily did not land any bones onto any rocks.
Climbing out after the downhill was really brutal. We got ourselves back over towards the golf course road and I was riding pretty well keep near some other riders. After going back into the trees I was on the brakes hard, as I know that there is this dip at the end of the downhill that just eats people and spits them out. I practically crawled through it at walking speed. This guy was standing next to it and I’d thought he’d just got a flat as he said “looks like my race is over” Turns out just seconds before he’d supermanned it over the bars and landed about 15 feet from his bike. His wheel was tacoed. We’ll revisit him later in the story as he’d performed the wack-a rim move against and tree and got back into it.

I was cruising along feeling pretty good and climbing back up to the start when my rear freebody spun out. It was toasted again. In a way, I was relieved a little. I could walk to the finish and say that I gave it a good old try and was riding pretty well. And I wouldn’t have to go through the real pain and face the potential of failure. Sure a little disappointed but not as much as you’d think.

Walking all alone till near the finish and I saw CB from East Coasters. He offered me his rear disc wheel and I said what the heck, but his tire was too wide to fit into my frame so I said no problem, we tried. Then I saw Scott from work and he said try my wheel. So I did and it worked. And off I went. No shifting problems, no braking problems. Now for the fun. I figured I was going to be out there for ½-1hr past when my food stores would take me.

It was definitely a hard slog, and so lonely. I contend that one doesn’t know true loneliness until they are on a forested singletrack with no one in sight/sound in front or behind. One time I hit the golf course fire road where you have extended line of sight visibility for ½ a mile and I didn’t see a soul. Finally I came upon a guy crawling. I mean I was going slow and he was virtually standing still. Hey man, you gotta gel or anything. I handed him my ancient save for a rainy day gel from the bottom of my camelback. But I told him that if it came down to the finish line that he’d have to let me win. This was the same guy that had tacoed his wheel earlier.

Finally made it home to the finish. Quite glad that I endured to the end, and this race will be remembered long after any of the other few that I actually won or did well in. The promoters were kind enough to go deep in to the expert ranks for prizes and lo and behold, but what was waiting for me on the prize table? A rear wheel.

Trials and tribulations of a home mechanic

I'm always working on my bikes. By choice mostly, by necessity others. Lately it's been messing around between hardtail and dually, rear wheel rebuilding, hubs, moving disc brakes, overhauling forks...

I overhauled my Black 80 SPV fork on the hardtail, and put it back on and had that well known SPV top out klunk. My modus operandi is that if I can do it wrong I will, and then will not give up until I've found out what is wrong and fix it or totally destroy it in the process.

Took the whole thing apart again to find the SPV damper was not screwed together properly. I redid it and put it back together and it seems to be working decently now. Hardtail is set up as a 9 speed right now. Mullet with V brakes in the rear and disc in the front.

This was the first disc tab that BREW had ever put on about 12 years ago. It wasn't done completey correct as it is way to far inboard. My first foray into discs was with the early Hayes and even after we modified the disc brake adaptor, I did not enjoy them and on that bike had only used Vs in the back. With the new bike I never had the need/desire to revist this issue but lately while on the kick to revitalize the hardtail I took a good look at the disc tab again. First I had to file the inside to get the actual disc to clear but it was still too far inboard at the top. Brought it to the Bike Barn the resident framebuilder on staff cut into it with the facing tool.

He stopped partway because it was so far inboard that he it was going to start cutting into seatstay and not the tab. It's getting closer, but I think I'll grind off some of the inside of the disc adapter. Now need to build up another rear wheel. But the rear V is working pretty well actually, so not in too much of a hurry.

Dually is slightly better, but this is fun. Plus it's good body punishing training when you can't ride off road a lot.

Weight weenie plans on the HT
-Laser Disc lite rear wheel with stans Olympic rim
-Some light weight front hub with stans Olympic
-tubeless with rim strip if the Stans valve doesn't work (which it hasn't for me in the past)
-Thomson masterpiece post
-WTB Laser V Ti saddle
-XTR pedals
-Ceramic bearings for the Real Ti Square taper BB

May or may not go back to 3 on the front. Need a XO grip shifter and Front Der too.

Rookie move

I put on a longer stem and new bar on the hardtail and was going to do a test ride. However, I'd forgotten to tighten the stem down onto the steerer bar. Doh. Thankfully I didn't crack my head on my own driveway. I imagine several children would comment on why Mr. Amanna wasn't wearing a helmet when he crashed.