Photo Essay Of The First Moots RSL

Yes, it finally happened. The first-ever Moots RSL made for a customer and shipped to a shop was finished, boxed up and shipped to us here at AC.

We received it on Tuesday February 23rd and our simple first impressions are: It's incredibly light, it's super elegant, it's just like every other Moots we've ever sold, but better. More details as we assemble the bike and deliver it to the customer over the next few weeks (yes weeks...we're having a number of components custom painted and they are not finished just yet.)

For now here's a photo essay on the final steps of building and boxing our RSL compliments of our friends at Moots.



In the vice with its toe tag on, getting ready for the final few steps.


Fresh decals



The last and most satisfying step in the build process



The RSL even features a significantly lightened headtube badge.


The team at Moots were kind enough to include a signed poster with the RSL.


Not a bad idea after many hours of hard work giving birth to the RSL.

How To Tell If You’re As Fast As Pantani

Was in a meeting with some good friends that I work with the other day and we were obsessing about the weight of a new product they have coming out later in the year. It’s 4-ounces or a little over 100-grams lighter than the nearest competitor’s. So we started getting into how important 100-grams is. Well, if you’re a UCI Elite rider that faces a weight limitation on their bike of about 15-pounds, you need to look for weight savings elsewhere. In that context, the 100-grams is even more important than a typical no-holds-barred situation. Could we find a way to measure the difference we all wondered?

Turns out there are a bunch of ways and the conversation led us to start talking about the method that the now infamous Dr. Michele Ferrari developed for comparing the rate of ascent of any two riders regardless of when and where they were climbing.

Ferrari used this method, which he calls ‘Velocita Ascensionale Media (in English that’d roughly be Average Climbing Speed), to help Lance Armstrong in the 2000 Tour de France. According to an interview Armstong gave to Cyclingnews.com, "[Ferrari] can tell you how really fast we're riding, based on VAM….…Obviously it wasn't good to let Pantani go, but how fast was he really going? How long could he sustain that? And Ferrari would know the answers, because he is above all, in my opinion, a mathematician. A brilliant mathematician … with a ton of experience."

So, how does VAM work? Well, I was a philosophy major in college for the simple reason that I couldn’t pass chemistry (which seemed to be some kind of math), so I can’t explain the calculation, but someone was nice enough to post a Wikipedia article on VAM here.

It’s actually pretty interesting to compare your own VAM on different climbs that you do on a regular basis. You can also compare yourself on your favorite climb to someone like Pantani railing up Ventoux. Check out the Wikipedia article, I think you’ll figure it out.

Ferrari, whom you can pay to be your coach this very day, has also written extensively about VAM on his own site 53x12.com



Humor Me, Please…..
Interesting that we’re talking about Marco Pantani as not so many days ago, the world marked the sixth anniversary of his passing on February 14th, 2004.

If I’m remembering this correctly, I was at the Tour de France in 2000 and was sitting in the press room as the riders made their way up to Courchevel on the 15th stage that Armstrong mentions above. The pressroom was quite a long way from the finish line, so I was just going to run out and watch the riders come by and watch the finish on television (preferably with a cold beer in hand).

Pantani was on the attack and it seemed very sudden that he was coming close to where the race would come by the pressroom. There were televisions all over the press room and suddenly Pantani was passing production trailers and buildings in the town that we had seen. A bunch of us jumped out to see him pass. We had of course driven the course that morning and there were so many steep climbs to get to that location and, despite being in the town, the climb at that point was quite steep. All that made me think that Pantani would be in the saddle, just motoring. But he came by where we were standing, on what would be a right-hand bend for him, and he was out of the saddle and in the big ring. It was just mind blowing that someone could ride that far, over that many climbs, in the middle of a three week race and be in the big ring on that steep of a climb. Just phenomenal. Brilliant finale that day.

Clearly a lot of controversy and emotion around Pantani, but he had so much class as a rider. He was so insanely gifted. Too bad he couldn’t fulfill the promise.

The World's Best Lunch Ride?

The best view from the world's best one hour loop?



No question that every cycling town has a good, one hour ride (as well as good two, three and four hour rides) and we’ve ridden them everywhere from Santa Monica to Boulder, Charlotte and New York. Still, we have yet to find a better one than our own 15-mile lunchtime loop from Mill Valley to Muir Beach and back.

The reason? It features two 15-ish minute climbs, a ride through millennia old redwood trees and past one of only 100 National Monuments in the United States, a peak at the Pacific Ocean and a road that skirts a picturesque organic farm known as the Green Gulch Farm Zen Center. It’s a ride the defines Northern California.

Truth is, it’s not one specific route, but rather a trip from Mill Valley, over a 1,200-foot ridge, down to the ocean and back again. There are a number of tweaks that you can make to this ride to give it a little extra length, more adventure or whatever you’re looking for.

Should you begin the Muir Beach loop from the shop, you’ll be treated to all of perhaps three-quarters of a mile of flat streets before the climbing begins. Whether you start the route via Molino Ave or through downtown Mill Valley and up through the tiny, winding backstreets that have served as a backdrop for any number of car commercials, you’ll need to dig in for a roughly a 12 to 15-minute climb.

Which route to take though? A simple rule of thumb for figuring that out is, if you’re feeling great then go up Molino (which begins with a leg breaking three or four minute section), if you're feeling less-than-great, wind your way up Throckmorton, to Cascade and to Marion which will spit you out on the main road up to the ridge (i.e. Molino/Edgewood). There’s actually a number of other options for getting up to the ridge, plenty of which involve nice patches of dirt or trails, but you really need to be riding with a local to figure those out.

As you wind your way up to the intersection with Panoramic Highway known as ‘Four Corners’ you’ll be fortunate enough to catch a glimpse or two of San Francisco to the south. As you crest this first climb and come to the Four Corners be very careful. Due to the number of tourists coming out to Muir Woods and the Stinson Beach and Bolinas locals speeding over the mountain, there’s any number of ways to become a hood ornament.

At the intersection, you can either head left on Panoramic Highway or straight down on Sequoia Valley Road. Personally, the straight down option on Sequoia Valley seems to work best. The descent is a little more thrilling than the other option and the climb out of Muir Beach on Shoreline Highway just seems to have a better rhythm than the climb up from Muir Woods—which is steep and irregular.

Assuming you head down Sequoia Valley, hang on for a fun and challenging 1.5-mile descent that literally ends at the entrance to our own National Monument, Muir Woods

Keep your eye out for tourists as you make the final left-hand switchback and head down Muir Woods road toward Muir Beach. Laying in the bottom of a deep valley, Muir Woods Road is almost always a few degrees cooler than the rest of the county and is often shrouded in fog—especially in the months of May, June, July and August. One of my favorite stretches of asphalt, this patch of tarmac road feels pretty untouched by civilization. Shocking considering the financial district of San Francisco is a mere 30-minute drive away.

Overlooking Muir Beach


At the end of Muir Woods Road, you’ll it the ‘T’ intersection with Route 1 or Shoreline Highway as it’s called between Muir Beach and Mill Valley. In the tiny hamlet of Muir Beach you’ll find fog and the Pelican Inn, a perfect reproduction of a 16th Century English Inn. Stopping for a pint at the Pelican is a great idea as long as you have a ride home. The place is so cozy and authentic that it’s just about impossible to have just one pint and it’s even less likely that you’ll want to hop back on your bike for the 15-minute climb home after a few.

A consistent climb on a nicely paved state highway out of Muir Beach takes you back to the ridge above Muir Woods. The climb is steady and well timed glimpses to your rear will give you a perfect view of the curved beach you’re riding away from. As this climb comes to its peak, you can make a left on Panoramic Highway, which will take you up to Four Corners or you can drop down Shoreline Highway which will take you into the Tam Valley section of Mill Valley. Either way you go, there’s lot’s of traffic on weekend days, but, thanks to the endless twists and bends in the road, the cars, buses and motorcycles are usually moving at a reasonable rate of speed—often slower than a good cyclist.

Be sure to take a last look before plunging back down toward the bay and where you started in Mill Valley between 45-minutes and an hour ago. Once finished, you can head downtown near the shop for a coffee at Peet’s, a gelato at CiCi or an Indian burrito at Punjabi.

That’s our favorite one hour ride. We know you’d love it and hope you’ll come to Mill Valley to check it out some day.

The Very First Moots RSL: Headed Our Way

While it's not exactly going to save lives or pull the country out of our economic malaise, we're excited to say that, before too long we expect to have our hands on the very first (non-demo) Moots Vamoots RSL to be shipped to a dealer.

We've been waiting since the Interbike show last September to take delivery and probably nobody except the owner of the world's most high performance titanium bike is more excited than we are to unpack what hopes to be the best titanium frame ever produced.

While the new RSL reaches into new ground for Moots, it does so in a way that is totally Moots. Everything about this new 1175-ish-gram frame says Moots: the crazy attention to detail, the beautiful and simple lines, achieving a low weight without harming ride quality, the clean finish and now iconic MOOTS decals.

OK. We're stoked. Here's a few (small) images that we posted to Twitter, but wanted to keep stored on the blog for everyone to see:



The RSL as it starts life in Moots' Colorado factory.



All of the internally butted Reynolds tubing for the RSL is custom drawn and is all lighter and larger in diameter than the tubing that came before it. The seat tube for example, is 9% larger in diameter and 15% lighter!



Moots have even relieved the headbadge for decreased weight. Hmmmm. Could make a good retrofit to an existing frame.



If there's any question whether the BB30 bottom bracket standard has taken the world by storm, it just got answered. When Moots goes to a press fit, oversized bottom bracket it's proven to be all of the things its proponents claim. Namely, it allows designers to create lighter and stiffer frames. Moots say the bottom bracket on the RSL is 35% stiffer and 5% lighter than that used on the SL.



Thanks in part to the BB30 bottom bracket shell, the stays on the RSL are said to be 22% larger and 9% lighter than those found on an SL.



The still unfinished, beauty shot. Can't wait to get 'er in and built. Lightest Moots ever? Sure, but we're also guessing it's the best riding.

Stay tuned for more details as we put it together.

Our Favorite Things: Assos Luftschutz Jacket

I had a whole post thought through on my most favorite bikes from the 1980’s and 1990’s and then I realized that I’ve been doing a lot of writing about the old days lately and it’s probably only interesting to me.

Instead, let’s talk about a product that a number of us here in the shop have been really excited about this winter—the Assos SJ.13 Luftschutz Jacket.

The feathery Luftschutz was hatched by the team in Lugano this fall. While it may look and feel like it, the Luftschutz is NOT waterproof and was not designed to be used in conditions more damp than a heavy fog. As I write this, I think back to the number of damp days this winter that I slipped the Luftschutz on for spin. For some reason, it’s tough to believe that it wouldn’t work in the rain and, yet, it really does not. So, please dispel yourself of that notion.

To that point, we’ve got to wonder why Assos doesn’t make the world’s best waterproof, breathable cycling jacket? Something on the level of the mega bomber Fugu Jak, but for wet weather? Perhaps because Assos only does what they want to do and nothing else. Little bit of inside baseball, but, like many companies in the bike industry, Assos isn’t governed by logic or a simple profit motive. It’s run by caprice and fueled by personal desire. So to expect a rational product offering from Switzerland is itself irrational. OK, we digress…..

The Luftschutz is actually the uber version of those unattractive and ineffective day-glo green jackets that you see herds of casual cyclists wearing. As such, it’s super thin, highly packable, crisply tailored, and puts a stop to a cool breeze with the efficiency of a good barrista during an 8:45AM rush.
Probably the most amazing aspect of the Luftschutz is its fit. No cycling jacket that I’ve ever laid my hands on fits so closely, yet doesn’t restrict movement.

Thanks to a snug, high collar and a thick placket tucked behind the zipper, the Luftschutz keeps cool air clear of your chest and throat. The cuffs are made from a silky material and fit so snugly around your wrist that there’s not much chance for air to slip into the sleeves, causing the entire jacket to bellow. On high speed descents, the Luftschutz stays stuck closely to your torso, flapping only slightly in the wind.

As with everything Assos, the Luftschutz costs more than similar items in the category. Yet, the fit and performance are simply off the charts in comparison to the typical day-glo windbreaker or even the ultra thin wind jackets from Pearl, Specialized and Castelli (which we’re betting are all made at the same factory in China).

So that’s the Luftschutz. We love it. You might too. Stop by and try one on if you’re in the neighborhood.

Before we part, we’d like to remind you that, Cadel may be wiry, but he’s tough.
Smackdown #1
Smackdown #2
Smackdown #3

In the past, we’ve found it best to sing a little song to keep his nerves placid. Cadel Song

Not So Super Secret Tubular Gluing Tips

Suppose it could be that doing it wrong can literally cost you your skin, but for some reason there’s a lot of hype and mystery surrounding the gluing on of tubular tires. Back before you could type a phrase into your man machine interface and see the collected wisdom of the world on any subject, tubular tire gluing methods were absolutely steeped in mystery and handed down one rider to the next. Now figuring most if it out is as simple as dialing in Google or (sadly) Bing.

See, lot’s of info out there on tubular gluing:
The Yellow Jersey
Jobst Brandt
Park Tool
Sprinter della Casa
Do It Yourself!
Even eBay has a guide to gluing on tubs

But, short of having a direct line into the mind of Julien Devries the definitive resource on methods and glue types comes in this multi-part dissertation ‘Tubular Tire Adhesion Performance’ from http://engr.ku.edu/~kuktl/ the University of Kansas. What must be the result of a lot of time to kill in the winter, this nine-part study is probably not required reading for anyone short of the think tank that’s trying to find Lance a few extra minutes for this year’s Tour.

Instead of going through a whole step-by-step, which you can find at the links above and elsewhere, it’s probably best to bullet point out some of the most useful information we’ve learned in the last 25 or so years that we’ve been gluing on tubs.

Here goes:

•Slow down: gluing on tires is the opposite of taping out an message on your Blackberry. Take some deep breaths and enjoy the process and focus on doing an incredible job. Taking the time to glue on a pair of tubular tires is as much a luxury as riding tires that you essentially can’t repair.

•Clear a runway: make sure you have plenty of time for the job at hand. For me it takes about 30 minutes to get set-up and get one coat of glue on two rims.

•Be sure you’re stretched your tires on a rim or unused wheel for at least a week. Inflate to 75psi or so while stretching the tire.

•When storing tubulars keep them in a dark, dry place and do not store them folded up.

•If you’re gluing up new rims, even carbon rims, step one has to be knocking off any dirt and oil that might be lurking about on the rim with something like acetone. If you are using carbon rims, be sure to check with the manufacturer before applying any chemicals to the surface of the hoop. One wrong move could cost you a few grand.

•Check the basetape of the tire you’re going to glue on. If it has a coat of clear, smooth latex or other on it, be sure to scrape it or rough it up off with a dull kitchen knife. Don’t use a razor knife for this step as you may cut the tire (that’s experience talkin’.)

•Unless you’re gluing up cross tires to carbon rims, don’t substitute ‘tubular tape’ for glue. While it can work miracles when used with glue for cross riding, our experience it’s not nearly as good as a few coats of Vittoria Mastik.

•Use very light coats of glue. Thick coats take longer to dry, weigh more and are less effective because they allow the tire to move a little more on the rim.

•Use a small paintbrush to apply the glue, not a sponge or your finger. While they don’t last more than a coat, it’s best to not go with the cheapest brush you can find. Cheap brushes shed bristles which find their way between your rim and tire. Not good.

•Use at least two coats of glue on the rim and one good one on the basetape of the tire. Don’t apply the glue to the tires until you’re already on your second coat of glue for the rim.

•Even if you’re using a rim that has previously had a tire glued to it, be sure to use two light coats of glue instead of just one.

•Allow the coats of glue on the rim to dry as long as possible, overnight is best. Be sure the wheel is in a warm and dry place--that will help the adhesive cure quickly and completely.

•When mounting the tire to the rim, start with the value and go very slowly. Check to make sure the valve stays straight in the valve hole as you pull the tire on.

•Both while mounting the tire and after it is completely on the rim, make sure that it is as straight as can be. Check this by watching the placement of the basetape in relation to the sidewall of the rim.

•Inflate glued-on tires to about 120PSI

•Give them 24 hours to set-up before riding and 48-hours before racing. Yes, you can ride them right away with most kinds of glue, but it’s far from the best idea.

•If you don’t have the time, energy or money to deal with all of this, just ride clinchers! The reality of the technology these days is that clincher wheels feel pretty snappy on the road and an ‘open tubular’ is pretty similar in ride quality to a traditional tubular.


For next week we’ve got a great post cooking on a nearly fool-proof method for mounting your cleats on your riding shoes in exactly the correct position. Until then, enjoy a little taste of the Badger. The guy leads it out, let’s a guy come under him with about 150 meters to go and still wins going away. Chapeau indeed.

Puttin' The Funny In Funny Bike

Headed south of the border with Easton’s Tom Larter and Chuck T. last week to see the carbon factory in Tijuana. Incredible to see all the handwork that goes into making something seemingly as simple as a bicycle rim. Multi-part molds, pleated bladders, composite material that have been to Mars, variable nipple beds. Yes. All that.

At any rate, Tom, Chuck and I get to talking over dinner. Turns out that Chuck started racing way back in the 1970’s and was a mechanic with various National and Olympic teams back in the 80’s. He was there when Moreno Argentin whipped Charlie Mottet with a car antenna to win the ’86 Worlds in C Springs and has a memory for equipment like nobody. Need to know about High-E hubs? Saavedra hand rolled rims? Ishiwata aero tubing? Chuck not only knows the details, he probably has it stuffed in his garage.

At some point the subject got to the time back when Raleigh (Raleigh of Nottingham, England) was owned by Huffy and they sponsored the US National Cycling Teams. That started around 1982 or ’83. Coincidentally, that was about the time I moved to Dayton, Ohio to finish high school. Turns out the ‘Raleigh Tech Center’ where they created all the cutting-edge team bikes was located at Huffy’s headquarters in Dayton (actually Miamisburg if anyone is checking) and the local team was of course sponsored by Huffy/Raleigh. Being a penniless kid, I wanted to milk as much as I could from the local sponsor, so I’d go out and see Mike Melton, the guy running the Tech Center to beg for equipment. Mike would flow me English-built Raleigh frames (including a 753 cross frame that’s still hanging in my garage) and sell me Campy parts for next to nothing—I think it was $25 for a Super Record rear mech—and even loan me the first disc wheel that anyone had ever seen (it was said to be from Francesco Moser, was aluminum and weighed six pounds). Incredible hook-up for a hopeless junior racer.

On my visits Mike would show me the stuff he was working on and, being from South Carolina, he’d take the time to tell me hilarious stories about frames freezing and cracking in the cargo holds of airplanes and guys ripping custom handlebars apart. Great stuff. Not sure if anyone other than Chuck and I remember, but the bikes they were building at the Tech Center were mental. Even by today’s standards, the stuff was wildly cutting edge.

For the ’84 Games, they developed 24” wheeled pursuit bikes that weighed just over 10-pounds and had ultra-skinny, 5/8” headtubes, cut down front and rear hubs, 65-gram tires, 100-gram aero rims, aero spokes, totally custom titanium ‘clipless’ pedals. Stuff that people just hadn’t used at that point (well, except for the Cinelli M71 pedals that had been around since the 1970’s). Aero helmets with built-in radios? Everything was custom and insanely expensive.

That got my mind turning over. So, I looked around the internet and found a scan of a good article on the FirstFlight bikes site. As tough as it might be for people that recently started riding to belive, America was not the leader in bicycle technology or quality. Thanks to Melton and the guys that were working on that program (and the openness of the riders to try all this stuff), America went from not even being in the room to running the show in terms of bicycle tech. The Ohio-built bikes delivered at the LA Olympics with a haul of medals for the home team that has not ever been matched.

How To: Stoke Another Rider

We’ve been using our Monday posts as instructional, ‘How To’ kind of things and, since it's that time of year when everyone is getting their new gear together for the season, we thought we’d let you know how to help someone else get out on a bike. That pair of $6000 Lightweight wheels? A $12,000 Di2 outfitted Pinarello? A closet full of $350 Assos shorts? All things that are awesome and will definitely make your next ride faster and more fun. Still, if you’re able to peel just a little bit of that cash off to get someone that might not have nine bikes hanging in the garage out on two wheels, you’ll see how awesome it feels to make riding easier or possible for someone.
Here’s a few groups that we’re 100% behind and that directly result in more people riding:

High School Mountain Bike League
I was lucky enough to spend a few days with Easton’s Chuck T. at their factory in Mexico last week. Chuck started racing in the 70’s and talking with him really reminded me that, when we were kids you had to be a freak to want to race bikes. No normal kid would ever take up cycling. It’s no shocker that we were treated like freaks at school. Imagine having the nerve not to play a ball sport, to shave your legs, to pass up on pizza and chocolate treats because you were keeping an eye on your weight (OK, I never did that last one).

Luckily, being treated like a freak because you want to go for a three hour ride after school is not as much the case any longer. Especially here in Northern California where the NorCal High School Mountain Bike League has made cycling almost as cool and popular as basketball, football and baseball—well, I know for sure we’ve got lacrosse beat! So, the incredibly popular NorCal program is branching out across the country with the National Interscholastic Cycling Association (NICA) and the promise is that they’ll do the same thing they’ve done here elsewhere in the country.

If you’re in the SF Bay Area, you can come out to the first-ever NorCal Super Bowl fundraiser, the Dirt Bowl at Camp Tamarancho in Fairfax this Sunday (February 7th). If you can’t make it out, it’s pretty easy to donate to either the NorCal league or the new National High School Racing Organization through their websites.

Bikes In Africa
Both Mill Valley pro Scott Zwizanski and I have done trips to Africa to support bike related programs there. His was for SRAM’s World Bicycle Relief mine was for Bicycling Magazine’s Biketown. Sure it’s tough to round up the money and time to go to Africa to help first-hand, but there’s a ton of different ways to donate and many will directly result in a bike that will go to someone in an emerging economy that probably doesn’t have much more than the shoe leather express right now.

Kona bikes of Vancouver got involved in Africa through Bicycling Magazine’s Biketown program a number of years ago and they’ve developed their own African bike program that has gone way beyond what anyone ever imagined. Kona helps you help out in a number of easy ways: You can ride for the Kona Bongo Bongo team and raise money with every pedal stroke you take. Or, for every two $449 Africa Bikes sold, Kona will donate one bike to a person in need of basic transportation in Africa—so spend a little less than a grand on Africa bikes and you’ll be directly responsible for someone in Africa getting new wheels. You can buy also help to put some fuel on the African bike fire by buying a Kona basic needs T. Kona Africa Bike

You can also donate directly to Bicycling Magazine’s ongoing Biketown Africa program (which is run through the non-profit foundation of their parent company, Roadale Inc.). Bicycling has a full time staff member on the ground in Africa with the sole purpose of coordinating bikes and training for people in need. Their program in Botswana has helped home healthcare workers see as much as six times the number of people per-day that they were able to see by walking.

If you want to work with the one organization that has made the greatest number of bikes available in Africa, you can make a donation to World Bicycle Relief. Just $134 will put a sturdy, purpose-built bike on the ground in Africa. That’s about the price of a good tubular from Vittoria or Continental and it’s for a bike that will definitely have an effect on someone’s life. World Bicycle Relief is incredibly organized and, due to their size, able to leverage government resources that smaller groups simply can’t take advantage of. They’ve got a proven track record and they’re incredibly driven people. World Bicycle Relief

Trips For Kids
From what I can tell, Marin County’s TFK was the original non-profit aimed at getting kids on bikes. The organization goes all the way back to 1986 and, more than just getting at-risk kids on bikes, TFK also teaches kids how to work on bikes, takes them on trips and teaches them a range of other skills including computer learning.

Lot’s of ways to help Trips For Kids. You can donate gear to their Re-Cyclery bike thirft shop in San Rafael, donate time (they always need help with trips and after school programs) or give ‘em some cash.
Thanks for taking the time to listen, hopefully you can toss a little in the hat to get someone else on a bike this spring!