Founded 1888

Tacoma Wheelmen's Bicycle Club N e w s l e t t e r January 2001

TWBC Salutes!

Another Great Riding Year

Tacoma Wheelmen have great accomplishments to boast! The following Wheelmen put in many hours of time into a sport that they truly enjoy and were recognized at the TWBC Banquet for their efforts in the sport of cycliing. A number of others received awards for being Ride Leaders and help keep the tradition of the Wheelmen and community of cyclists alive.

Mileage Awards: Bob Vogel, 1,445; Rich Walter, 1,184; Linda Walter, 1,217; Ray Fjetland, 1,331; Mike Doyle, 1,052; Jan Brame, 1,445; Dorian Smith, 1000+, Greg Torfin, 1000+, Cynthia Hammer, 1000+, Bill Newman, 41; Stan Sanders, 4, 663; Ralph Wessels 2,393; Joyce Clifford, 2,458; Anne Heller, 2, 047; Carol Davis, 4,201; Roz Davis 3,621; Peggy Fjetland, 2,000; Dan Austad, 2,024; Connie Reitzug, 4,007; Scott Kubiszewski, 2,369; Diane Koch, 2,652; Phyllis Lay, 5,742; Steve Lay, 5,782; Louis Boitano, 3,409; Carla Gramlich, 2,025 Steve Brown, 2,001; Mat Reitzug, 2,766; Bob Myrick, 7,390.

Commuting Awards: Mat Reitzug, 212; Richard Walter, 450; Ralph Wessels, 473; Bob Myrick, 569; Connie Reitzug, 816; Steve Brown 1,058; Carla Gramlich, 1,340; Anne Heller, 1,399; Michael Doyle, 1,600; Carol Davis, 1,627; Stan Sanders, 1,632; Louis Boitano, 1,921; Roz Davis, 4,449; Hank Gidings 2,861; Dan Austad 3,350; Phyllis Lay, 3,782; Steve Lay, 5,076.

Ride Leaders: Roz and Carol Davis, Connie and Mat Reitzug, Steve Brown, Carla Gramlich, Dorian Smith, Ralph Wessels, Anne Heller, Joyce Clifford, Cynthia Hammer, Louis Boitano, Bob Myrick, Peggy Fjetland, Diane Koch, Steve Lay, Phyllis Lay, Chuck Morrison, Joy Roelofsz, Robert Deehan, Ken Stagg, Bill Newman, Gary Moore, Mary Newcomb, Mike Romaine, Rich Walter, Janice Jensen, Linda Higgins, Anne Dahl, Barb Root.

Daffodil Classic

Be A Part Of The Success

One of the most popular organized bike rides in the Pacific Northwest and rated Washington’s best ride by Bicycling Magazine is right here in our own backyard. On April 22, the Tacoma Wheelmen will sponsor the 26th Daffodil Classic which will launch more than a thousand cyclists from downtown Orting.

Through the cooperation of Orting’s city officials and Wheelmen volunteers, this ride will help inaugurate the region’s bicycle season. Sometimes it’s cool and wet, sometimes the sun shines.

But every year the 20-mile, 50-mile, 70-mile and 100-mile routes take cyclists through beautiful rural country scenes backdropped with views of nearby Mount Rainier and the Cascade Range.

To put on this massive community event, the Tacoma Wheelmen enlist more than 60 volunteers. The club still needs coordinators and helpers for day-of-ride registration, sag support, rest stop support, food, course marking, parking helpers, and party-in-the-park helpers.

The Daffodil Classic is a major fund raiser for the Tacoma Wheelmen Bicycle Club. Volunteers are rewarded with: free ride registration, free t-shirt, and free all-you-can-eat pizza party. Also, lots of fun.

This year prices have been adjusted: Advanced (before April 11): registration is $15 for individuals and $35 for families (a maximum of two adults per family) and t-shirts are $12 — Day of ride registration is $18, families are $40 and t-shirts are $15. A registration form is available on the Wheelmen’s website at http://www.twbc .org/dafforms.htm.

This year the ride organizers decided to continue last year’s popular finish line strawberry shortcake party. Also from last year will be the free route (pre-registration only) on the 15-mile Rails-to-Trail bike pathway along the river.

Many of the traditions of past seasons will also greet riders before, after and during their journeys, including: the pre-ride pancake breakfast, the Lion’s Club hamburger BBQ and, mechanical support by Spoke and Sprocket.

Volunteers and potential volunteers are invited to the next planning meeting 7 p.m. Feb. 12 at the Audubon Society Building, 2917 Morrison Rd. W. in University Place (turn east on W. 27th from Bridgeport Way and then turn right on Morrison Rd.).

Events of 2001

Hello everyone! By now the banquet has come and gone and as one of the guest I can tell those of you who couldn’t make it how wonderful it was. Bob Myrick did an outstanding job once again. He will be modest and tell you he didn’t do anything. He simply delegated but isn’t that the very quality that makes a good director? He also did a great job as master of ceremonies.

Anne Heller, president, gave her “state of the union” address thanking all club members. I thanked the many volunteers for their “starring” roles in our various events while Carol Davis handed out awards for numerous accomplishments such as commuter and club mileage, ride leaders, over the bars, 2000 mile club, etc. Robert Deehan was this year’s recipient for the “famed” broken bike award as each year Bob hopes, along with the rest of us, he won’t have to give it away again. We were all grateful that Robert was able to attend and looking so well. Please take care Robert.

Steve and Phyllis Lay presented us with another beautiful slide show which took many of us down memory lane. Thanks to each and every one of you for all your wonderful accomplishments and hard work.

Our next event on the calendar is Bike Expo. This year it will be held on March 30,31st and April 1st at the new Exhibition Center near Safeco Field. Peggy Fjetland and Mike Romaine have so graciously offered to head this up once again. Peggy or Mike should be coming around soon with the sign up sheet to help man the booth. Please remember these are choice position and fill rather quickly so don’t procrastinate or you could be left out in the cold. Volunteers receive free admission to the show in exchange for a few marvelous hours of fun in the booth and our heartfelt thanks.

On the news front! We now have the Daffodil Coordinator for 2001. Her name is Jan Brame. She comes to us with a great deal of experience as she did it last year with Karen. We are very confident in her ability and the future success of the Daffodil Classic. Thank you Jan. The next Event mtg., Daf, PMC, HW Century is set for Feb.12th at the Audubon mtg. House on Morrison Rd. at 7pm.

We are still short a few good people to help coordinate the food and volunteer list. We appreciate all the help we can get to make your club events a great success. You can e mail bikerbabe@sprynet.com or leave a message on my home phone 761-3144 and I’ll pass your name on to the appropriate person(s). Once again thank you in advance for making your club the success that it is!

From the President's handlebars

Membership in the Club has many advantages: great rides, social activities like the recent banquet, access to bike boxes and bob trailers, discounts at local bike shops and the satisfaction of knowing the Club is an active participant in lobbying and legislative activities to make cycling safer and more enjoyable.

Another benefit is the support and friendship that develops on the road. A recent case in point. One Sunday morning I went on a 3A/B ride that was going from Sumner to Orting. The ride didn’t strictly adhere to truth in advertising laws; after all, the route included Victor Falls Road, a hill to rival both Daffodil Classic’s Tubbs Road and the hill on the PMC’s Fox Island route. However, it was an enjoyable ride with companionable people. The only drawback for me was that I had three flat tires.

Now flat tires are the bane of all cyclists. They always happen at the worst times or places or in the worst weather. On this particular day I should not have been on the ride at all because of plans to see a movie with a friend in the afternoon. The last thing I needed was even one flat tire to slow down the progress of the ride. Luckily for me, the other riders were both patient and helpful. Dave Parker took care of the first one and Bob Myrick took on the next.

Two miles from the finish my rear tire blew. Too exhausted from watching them change tires to go any farther, I asked Dave if he would ride back to his truck and come back for me. He graciously agreed and the day was saved. I had a full hour to drive home and get ready for the movie. The Wheelmen are a fantastic group of people.

Government report bob myrick

As a very minor stockholder, I, too, am very pleased. Thanks to Steve for taking the time to apply for the grant money and pursuing this matter.

The acquisition of the railroad right of way between McMillin and Puyallup has been held up due to several technicalities that Pierce County Parks thinks can be worked out. In the meantime, our enemy, Steve Albert, has erected steel gates on the bridge at McMillin and on the parcel he thinks he owns. We need a cutting torch party. One of our friends, Clive, was hit by a sixteen year old just north of this location on the highway. Clive suffered a broken collar bone, a really sore leg, and some facial road rash.

In the Lower Burnett area of the Foothills’ Trail, I was led on a field trip by Chuck Morrison to see the 150 foot span bridge project. This span is necessary to connect South Prairie to Buckley and Wilkeson. I will be leading a work party to this site in late April and May. We will be hacking a path thru the black berries towards Wilkeson. I also plan to work on the Carbonado to Mt. Rainier trail about this same time. We will be trying to locate a path from the ghost town of Melmont back downstream to a really nice trail along the river.

Both the Daffodil and PMC rides require several government permits. I will be working on the applications to Pierce County, Orting and the DOT. The PMC coordinator usually obtains a permit from the City of Gig Harbor and the parking lot owner at the start of the ride.

The Cushman Powerline trail is reported to be making some progress toward construction. The Pierce County Public Works Department is designing the project. A wetland on the corridor has been avoided due to Claudia Peters’ efforts. Claudia is the trail coordinator for Pierce County Parks and she negotiated a detour around the wetland. The Pierce Transit Park and Ride lot is being expanded and the trail is being incorporated into the parking lot.

Carla reported that progress is being made on the installation of the new bike lid lockers. She has arranged a work party to begin the installation. She also reported a bike lid at the Wheeler library was damaged by a car versus bike lid accident.

The DOT is still working on the design for the SR 16 trail. In a related matter, there will be public meetings about the week of January 22 wherein DOT will present its progress on the SR 167 freeway extension design thru Fife towards Puyallup. Watch the papers for an announcement. It is important that you go and lobby for an alternate trail proposal rather than just using the freeway shoulder for our bikes. It would be really nice to have a trail separated from the traffic. Some people have suggested that the Levy road be converted to one way traffic and the trail be located in the unused lane along the river

I sent a message to Al Tebaldi, Tacoma’s chief transportation engineer, regarding his progress on the City’s Puyallup levy trail and the Water Ditch trail in South Tacoma. As a result of our inquiry, the City discovered the Biological Assessment for the endangered salmon was completed some time ago and was sitting on some Federales’ desk gathering dust. His minion, Mike Delin, said the City will now proceed with the project. The Water Ditch trail has also been sitting due to the fact that the engineer working on it decided to transfer to the Sewer utility.

It was suggested that we try to meet with John Ladenburg regarding the new traffic safety law proposal being pushed by the BAW. We decided that a local attorney interested in bicycle matters should be contacted regarding presenting this proposal to John or the new Pierce County Prosecutor. It was decided that Richard Levansdowski would be suggested as a local attorney interested in bicycle matters.

The annual BAW bicycle lobby day will be held in Olympia on Thursday, February 22. If you are under employed or just interested, we will bus pool to Olympia by riding the 603X Intercity Transit bus. This bus leaves 10th and Commerce at 7:40am and the SR512 park and ride lot at 8:00am. The bus costs $2 each way and be advised that parking is really at a premium at the SR512 lot. Look for more details in this report or in the newsletter. It’s really interesting to go down to Olympia and listen to most of the representatives talk about themselves and their views. I always thought they were supposed to be representing their people’s interests, but that was long ago.

Our next meeting will be the first Tuesday in February. That will be Feb. 6 and the time will be 7pm at the Shakabrah restaurant on Sixth Avenue. Steve really, really hopes that you may wish to attend. Unlike your State legislator, we will actually listen to what you have to say.

Past pedaling anne heller Historical highlights of TWBC's 110 years

A History of Flat Tires

As mentioned in the “From the President’s Handlebars” column, flat tires are a curse for the cyclist. That has been the case since pneumatic tires came into use in the last part of the 19th century. The July 14, 1895 edition of the New York Times has a lengthy article titled “How to Mend Your Wheel.” At that time the word “wheel” didn’t just refer to the two circular things that rolled down the road, it referred to the entire mechanism that we call a bicycle.

“The average convert of the present season is lamentably lacking in mechanical tact. Every day in the bicycle stores there are dozens of men, otherwise intelligent enough, who exhibit with regard to their cycles a helplessness and stupidity that are as shameful as they are amazing.”

Tires caused most of the difficulties on the road. “Punctures are the commonest form of injury to a wheel, and no amount of care can shield a rider from them. It is entirely a matter of individual luck what tires are punctured and how often.” One of the difficulties in changing a tire in 1895 was that often the tire and rim were glued together. Inside the tire were two tubes, one an outer “shoe” and the other the inflated tube.

Getting at the problem was difficult. The rim and the tire were separated and “the lacing on the under side of the outer tube was ripped open and the air sheath pulled out.” Once the puncture was repaired, care was taken to reassemble the tire without pinching the air sheath tube. Then, if the rider carried rim cement along, he could glue the tire “onto the rim again but unless he has plenty of time to let it set, the best way is to fasten the tire on temporarily with tire tape.”

Sometimes the hole in the tube was just too big to patch with a piece of rubber. In that case, desperate means were required. “The unfortunate may walk to the nearest railway station carrying his wheel (or call Dave Parker’s taxi service); he may ride on the flattened tire and ruin both tubes by cutting into them with the rim, or he may take off the tire and ride on the naked rim, ruining the latter, which is cheaper.

Better than either of these, perhaps, it will be to adopt some ingenious, though clumsy, makeshift. One rider in this dilemma puled out his inner tube, filled the shoe with sand and rode home that way. A better scheme was that of a Brooklynite, who after removing the air sheath, stuffed the outer tube with hay. It was not an ideal tire, but it enabled him to get home.”

Next month, I will give you some tips from the 1890’s on repairing broken spokes and bent frames.

Want Ads

FOR SALE Yakima Rooftop Rack (parts) 48” round bars (2) - $30 QTR-Towers (4) - $90 Q-clip #69 - $10 Q-clip #70 - $10 Q-Stretch Kit - $80. Used for one trip. Rich/Vickie Kim, 840-9103 or Idaho90 @yahoo.com. 12/00

FOR SALE 2 Vision VR 40 recumbents. $750 each obo. Both bikes are short wheelbase, above seat steering. Call Pat Donovan at 253-770-0871 for details, or pndonovan @worldnet.att.net

Ride With The Seattle Bicycle Club

The Seattle Bicycle Club has invited the Tacoma Wheelmen to put on joint rides. We will take turns hosting rides in each others’ territories. SBC has a very active membership with riders of all ages. A few of our board members met with Jim Mimes, the founder and their ride director to plan what our clubs can do together. Our first joint ride will be held on February 11, meeting at the Auburn Park & Ride off of Highway 18. Three ride codes (1, 2, and 3) are being offered with all of us meeting at the Black Diamond Bakery.

I hope many of you will come out to show our club’s strength and enthusiasm. This should be a first of a great partnership. We will make new friends, expand the cycling community, and learn great routes in new territories.

Spring and Summer Rides

Spring Break in California Wine Country; A one week trip the first week in April, leaving on Sunday, returning on Saturday. We will drive down in one long day. This will be an inn-based trip with day trips in Sonoma and Napa County. Call or e-mail Carol Davis, 857-5396, bicyclguy@aol.com

Ice Fields to Glaciers! A two week trip from August 3 -18. We will take the train to Jasper and bike to Glacier park, Montana, crossing the mountains a couple of times, taking the time to enjoy the sights and smell the wildflowers. We will have a SAG, and spend our nights camping or in hostels. The return trip home can be by train from Whitefish or plane from Kalispell. Call or e-mail Carol Davis, 857-5396, bicyclguy@aol.com

Bob Warfield's Around the World Bike Tour

Bali is a magnate for exotic-stuff freaks like me. Wish I could say I’ve seen all of it, but rain foreclosed much beyond the windshield at the top of Kintamani; did get to hike around Besakih Temple though, see Legong dance and feel acquainted with Ubud.

Ubud is a traffic blivot - you know, nine pounds of whatever in a four pound bag. And this is low season?

On two occasions my transport got jammed in a mini grid lock - puzzled into resolute interaction. In one, I got out and became cop to sort the tangle, offering Dharma regard to each cooperating party. In spite of it all, and ridiculous origins (like a couple of guys parking backwards in the middle of the street for a tea) no one loses their temper or shows irritation.

In the Kuta-Tuban area, about one click north of the “Denpasar” airdrome, I’m staying at Hotel Bali Prani. Small but deluxe, it looks to be a retirement egg for the guy who owns the local Holiday Inn (Kuta). That’s worth a peek, if ever, for the magnificent wood carvings on display in its lobby.

The manager here took my plea of penury to heart and got a deal for me in Ubud at Puri Bunga. It’s a little dated. Use of the marble ensconced Jacuzzi shower floods around the tub margins to put more water on the floor than down the drain; but hey...! King size bed, bar, two ACs and a view to die for. It’s one of those gems hanging over the lip of the fabled Ayung River, and usually sells for USD300/night - I think that includes breakfast. My price was less, 25US, but alas, flapjacks not included.

Today, I get to see whether I can handle the export drill - shipping contraband from paradise to the world. For the intrepid, I see an un-mined niche for such endeavor. Lots of schlock and gittchy-goo household accessories get loaded into containers bound for Euros or bucks. But the real quality stuff collects dust until some bank or hotel dedicates a new lobby.

The exquisite stuff needs help. It would be fun and far more interesting to lose your shirt doing that than chasing Pier One Imports, I think. And what a great excuse to repeat visits. Consider all the cleaver itineraries you could tie in to your expenses.

On to Chaing Mai.

Would love to stick my nose over the border into Myanmar, but doubt it’s feasible, much less advisable.

All take care. Enjoy your holiday and friends, family and the sweet afterglow of,.... what was that bike thing? Bob

Crazy to be sitting in a hotel room in Bali, getting the weather from Oklahoma City to Buffalo. Heading to Chaing Mai tomorrow via Singapore and Bangkok. Would like to stick my nose into Myanmar, but doubt there’s much chance. Pleased to hear Ahn Yang Su Khi released from “house arrest.” Courtesy of ASEAN pressure, I guess, but no evidence here.

This was my big shipping day; sending Bali loot to some customs broker in Seattle, I suspect. Indications are that it will arrive around 21 Jan (38 days).

Two weeks from home - give or take an International Dateline. I wonder if Rags will remember. Love, Bob PM (noon, GMT, 13 Dec)

Bike Tech: Gearing

One of the most fulfilling things about a bicycle, besides it’s elegant simplicity, is the fact that one can design their own gearing. For me, it’s been a constant refinement. The never ending quest for the perfect transmission. Not too high, just the right low and all you need in between.

I think that a good portion of the cycling world doesn’t know that we can customize our drives to accommodate our spin. We buy our bikes as a package, normally, and we live with it. Road bikes with high quality components are geared for neo-pros and racers. Campy has a “racing triple” crank. Only once have I actually heard of a “racer” using one and that was for a 21% grade in one mountain climb in the Tour of Spain.

In the “old” days (uh oh, here he goes) one could walk into a bike shop and find a peg board full of single cogs of all sizes. Just bust open the lock ring on the freewheel, spin it off and slide on the cogs of your choice. It’s not quite as easy these days. Once again, in the name of simplifying the manufacturing process, cassettes have replaced freewheels. The early type of cassettes were very much like freewheels, with individual cogs and spacers stacked onto a splined body.

Then, another “improvement” that made production cheaper, was to pin the cogs and spacers together in one piece. One could still replace cogs by punching out the pins. Today, the trend is now toward riveting the cogs to an aluminum spider, which shaves a few grams of weight. If you want to change your gearing, you have to buy the whole cassette and your choices are limited.

Most road bikes are equipped with “racing” cranks. A typical Shimano equipped bike has a 130mm bolt center crank while Campy uses 135mm. The smallest inner ring you can fit is a 39 tooth. Road bikes come stock with a 52 or 53 tooth big ring and a 42 or 39 tooth inner ring with a 12T X 24T or 26T cogset. I can’t speak for everyone, but I would say for riders like you and me, that ratio has a huge “big” gear and not a very knee friendly climbing ratio. The industry answer is to add a third ring to the crank. That helps, but there are other ways that I think work better.

Last Summer, while on a cycling tour, I met a woman that was riding a Trek carbon frame with a triple crank. When we rode together she noticed I had lighter spinning gears with my double crank then she had with a “Racing Triple”. She had 24 gears and still did not have as low a climbing gear as I had with only 2 rings in the front ( I have this aversion to triple cranks). A triple crank shifts poorly to the granny ring, under load. The distance between the crank arms (Q factor) is so wide, I feel like I’m on a horse and it’s really hard to get a decent chain line to the rear cogs.

What I currently have on my every day commuting ride is what I call my “just say no to triples” gearing. My crank is a Suntour Superbe Pro, 110mm bolt pattern, narrow, low “Q” triple, with the inner most ring removed. My spindle (crank axel) is 108 mm, which makes a nice, compact pedal spread (Q factor). I can go as big as 52 teeth on the big ring and as small as 34 teeth for the inner ring. I have the “old style” friction shifters, like you had on your first 10 speed, no clicking.

That gives me total control of my component choices. I can use a Sachs derailleur with Suntour shifters and a Shimano cassette (which just happens to be what I have on my bike). All of those components are compatible because I don’t worry about whether they will index. I started out with a 7 sp. rear with 135mm hub spacing (mountain bike style). I tried an 8 sp. and I’ve settled on a 9 sp. Because I use friction shifting, I was able to experiment with many different gear combinations and only had to change my cassette. Most friction shifters will handle 5,6,7,8, or 9 speeds.

If you are not happy with the gearing you have or you’re interested in customizing your drive train, the first step is to know what you have now. Gear ratios are measured in “gear inches”.

Divide the number of teeth on the front ring by the number of teeth on the rear cog and multiply that number by 27. As an example, if your smallest cog is 12T and your big ring is 52T, divide 52 by 12, which comes to 4.3 and multiply that by 27, which gives you a 117 inch gear. A simpler way is to find a copy of a gear chart. Most bike shops can make you a copy or if you e-mail me I can dig one up for you. I would suggest you lay out a table in a sort of graphical form. I usually label the top with my chain ring sizes and label down the left margin with my rear cog sizes in ascending order. Then, just fill in the value for every cog/ring combination and there your have it, your transmission.

Next, start at either the lowest or highest number and draw a line connecting each corresponding value, low to high or high to low. Then, subtract the one value from the next to get the difference in gear inches between each shift. Now you will have a picture of your shifting pattern and the steps in between. Even if you never intend on changing your gearing, I would like to suggest you try this. It’s very informative and you may be surprised at the gaps you have in your shifting pattern. Remember, the 2 extreme cog/ring combinations, biggest to biggest and smallest to smallest are considered unusable gears, so those don’t count on your gear chart.

Virtually all road bikes today have what is called cross-over gearing. It would take quite a bit of space to explain all the types of gearing philosophies, such as alpine, half-step, etc. Let me just say that cross-over is what racers use because there are no double shifts. In other words, you don’t have to shift both front and rear to obtain the next gear in the sequence. Since we all want to race our bikes (according to Bicycling Magazine) that’s what the industry provides us with.

Unfortunately, cross-over gearing usually has big gaps in the middle range. I believe that is one reason why 9 speed clusters were introduced. The more gears, the narrower the gap, at least with cross-over gearing.

The set up I am currently using works very well for me and I would bet that it would suit most cyclists. I have a 46X34 crank and an 11X34 rear. That combination gives me a 112 inch high gear and a 27 inch low gear, quite a spread for a double crank. 112 inches is plenty for a high gear. I can still spin down hills at 34 mph. The 27 inch low gear gets my 200 pound butt up 7% grades with about an 80 rpm cadence.

A general guide line is that a gear over 110 inches is useless, unless you’re a sprinter, and if you carry any load on your bike, 30 inches or less is a good climbing ratio. There are many factors to consider when choosing the right high and the right low gear. How much weight do you carry (including yourself) and what’s a good spin for the health of your knees. I like to have one more gear then what I really need for hills.

You may not use it more then 20% of the time, but you’re very glad it’s there. So, count your teeth, bust out your slide rule (do they still make ‘em) and make a gear chart. Any questions you have concerning gear ratios, component limitations, etc., write me, I’ll be glad to assist.

Eddy (eddyj@galaxy-7.net)