A Leslie Wong Blog

When I bought my De Rosa frame in the early 80′s, I built it with Campagnolo Record and Super Record components. When the new C-Record group came out, I upgraded some of the components piecemeal – cranks, Delta brakes and derailleurs. I’ve been riding the same bike all these years and time has transformed it into a “classic,” according to a guy who rode up next to me.

I had the chain off the other day for its paraffin treatment and when I turned the cranks, I heard grinding. I pulled out my Campagnolo bottom bracket wrenches, removed the bottom bracket and saw that the grease had dried out and one of the cup races and one of the axle races had been scored. Deferred maintenance isn’t good.

Instead of buying 20 year-old NOS bottom bracket cups and an axle on eBay, I bought a modern, sealed bearing, Chorus bottom bracket. I just want it to work.

I took a close look at my 28 year old De Rosa, which I had been avoiding for years, and saw the corrosion, rust and scratches that have taken their toll. The chrome on the the drop-outs and the fork crown were now rust. The stainless steel hardware on the brakes and derailleurs had rust. The chrome on the quick release skewers sprouted rust. The braze-on top tube cable guides were rusty.

I disassembled the entire bike and cleaned every part with a wire brush and solvent. I even replaced the bearings in the freewheel. I used Mobil 1 Synthetic Grease in all the ball bearings, because that’s what I had. (Mobil 1 Synthetic Grease @ Amazon.com)

I’m not interested in a restoration, so re-chroming wasn’t an option. I just want to do preservation, so I can ride my bike. I used Eastwood Rust Encapsulator on the large areas of rust. It has been very effective in stopping rust on my Alfa Romeo. For the small parts, I’ve been using Boeshield for rust prevention. I don’t know yet how effectively Boeshield stops the rust (on the small steel parts) and the corrosion on the anodized aluminum – I live less than a mile from the Pacific Ocean.

New Bike Ribbon Professional tape on the bars makes my 25-year-old De Rosa seem a little newer; plus, it gives me a clean place to put my hands.

Somehow over the past 25 years, I’ve gone from riding a modern bicycle to vintage bike.

I bought my current De Rosa in the early 80′s, after I rear ended a Manhattan cab on Third Avenue and 50th Street with my first De Rosa. I must have just left Conrad’s Bike Shop and was a little too cocky following the cab. I went over the handlebars, landed on the trunk and slid off onto the pavement. There’s a small kink in the top tube and I always thought I’d send it to CyclArt for a tube replacement and paint job. That red frame is hanging in the garage.

This week, the rear axle broke in my freewheel Campagnolo Nuovo Record hub. It’s something that happens to me every couple of years, mainly because I weigh 17.8 stones.

The chrome on the quick release was full of rust and I thought it had rusted through the chrome like it has on the drop-outs. I used a fine wire wheel and was able to clean off most of the rust.

My local bike shop didn’t have a Campy axle, but they did have 10×26 141mm axle. I used a Dremel to cut off about 5mm and slotted the axle for the washers. Given the great quality of the Campagnolo components of 25 years ago, maybe the quick release will last another 25 years.

I passed an unlikely sight on my ride today through Pebble Beach on the 17-Mile Drive. A team of cyclists in yellow and azure jerseys passed me going south as I headed north. It’s not uncommon to see pro teams out on the road when the Sea Otter Classic is held, but that was last month.

It was Team Rwanda, Rwanda’s National Cycling Team. They were probably out on a training ride here because it’s close to the home of the Rwandan Team’s organizer (and first American competitor in the Tour de France), Jonathan Boyer. They must have just arrived here from the Tour of the Gila, in New Mexico.

They must be seeing a different world.

(CIA’s World Factbook on Rwanda)

VeloNews and other major media have stories on Jan Ullrich’s retirement from cycling today.

Ullrich is one of the great riders of cycling’s current era. He was frequently a threat to Lance Armstrong in many of Armstrong’s Tour de France victories. Ullrich won the TDF in 1997 and finished second five times to Armstrong.

Ullrich’s other major victories were a Gold medal at the 2000 Olympic Road Race, a Silver medal in the 2000 Olympic Time Trial, a victory at the 1997 Vuelta a Espana (Tour of Spain), two wins of the Tour de Suisse (Tour of Switzerland) and two (1999, 2001) UCI World Time Trial Championships.

I’m sure the sloppy sample collection and the inconsistent scientific testing procedures done in the name of “fairness” by the World Anti-Doping Agency and their regional organizations in professional cycling have had an affect on Ullrich’s decision.

Having unproven accusations of doping have negatively affected the careers of many other athletes in cycling (and other sports), e.g. Floyd Landis, the current 2006 Tour de France title holder.

(Photo courtesy www.janullrich.de)

The second annual Amgen Tour of California started in San Francisco yesterday with the prologue running from the Ferry Building to Coit Tower.

Unfortunately, last year’s winner and 2006 Tour de France champion, Floyd Landis, will not be riding in this year’s Tour (both), but you can follow the teams in the peloton virtually, in real time, thanks to CSC’s Omnilocation and Google Earth.

Seven riders, plus the lead vehicle and broom wagon will carry a small GPS tracker. Using dynamic mapping developed by CSC, cycling fans to track racers and the peloton using Google Earth. This is a link to the Google Earth tracker and this is a link at CSC’s web site using Google maps.

I rode my bike in Manhattan for the 25 years that I lived there and I still have the scars. The first year I lived there, I got knocked off by a Checker cab in Central Park. It seemed like the driver deliberately swerved into me.

Another time, riding home from Conrad’s Bike Shop, I got a little cocky and rear ended a cab on 3rd Avenue. I went over the bars and landed on the trunk, embarrassed but unhurt. My De Rosa‘s wheelbase was shortened by a few millimeters and there’s now a very small kink in the top tube.

Fred Conrad, a photographer for the New York Times, did a series of somber photographs “Ghost Bikes” (requires registration), that are memorials to bicyclists who have died in collisions with cars and trucks on New York streets.

I remember going up Alpe d’Huez in the 1991 Tour de France. I was working for ABC. I took a couple of trains from Paris to Albi. Because the roads were closed, I had to lug my cameras and bag about a mile from the train station to the finish line of the stage where all the team and media trailers were parked. The producers got me a car to take me to the hotel. All I remember about the drive was the driver making like it was a rally car, drifting around the switchbacks that ended up at an alpine hotel.

I went down to eat dinner by myself, and one of the producers, Katherine Love, was kind enough to come over and sit with me to tell me the plan. I was going to ride (in a car with a French driver and navigator) with the ABC camera guy.

The weather at the start of the Gap to Alp d’Huez stage bright and sunny. Our plan was to stop at a great place to get a shot of the peloton, and then try to stick to the backstreets and get ahead of the peloton. This involved a lot of high speed driving through very small towns while the driver and navigator consulted a Michelin map trying to find open roads that were parallel to the stage. I’ll readily admit that there were more than a handful of times that I was scared. Driving through these tiny towns at breakneck speed wasn’t exactly a calm experience. If someone popped out from behind a wall, they would have been instantly splattered on the front of our car like an innocent deer.

All the high speed driving must have taken a toll on our car, because it broke. That left the cameraman and I to find our own way to the finish. Our driver flagged down a carload of Gendarmerie Nationale and they gave a ride to the base of the climb to Alpe d’Huez. I can confirm that those French sirens really sound like they do in the movies because we were whizzing along with sirens and flashing lights in a real Peugeot 404 station wagon. Thinking about it now, it seems unlikely that it would have been a 404 but I distinctly remember it because Emily had one.

When the Gendarmerie dropped us off, the cameraman quickly hitched a ride with another camera car that had no room for me. The Gendarmerie recognized my plight and just in time, flagged the “voiture balai” – the broom wagon – the last vehicle in the peloton that picks up riders that drop out of the race. That was my ride to the top of the Alp d’Huez. I moved to the rear (it-s really just a 20 or so passenger van) past a couple of riders that were already sitting in the front. Even though we were far behind the peloton we still had to trail behind the last riders, so it was slow progress to the top.

The crowds were just like on TV, packing both sides of the road four or five deep. With no restraints holding fans back, they would run, wave, push and scream encouragement just inches from the riders. Due to the size of the van, the crowd had to quickly back away from the center of the road. It was like an icebreaker except we were breaking through a sea of people.

When I stopped at the Lone Cypress to adjust the seat on my bike, a couple pulling away in their car asked me if I was OK. I just said “Thanks.”