Have your Phil

Café Vérité moving forward

Since the inception of this blog I have been taking my dream of a owning a café closer to reality. To create the café I invision will take a great deal of time, money and planning, not to mention an expansion of my collection. 

Many, many years ago I had the idea that I would like to own and run a small deli/ café.  I have always loved cooking, eating and the café culture.  After many a ride I would enjoy hanging out at the local coffee shop.  Saturday rides were frequently to a café several towns over, stop and have a treat, then return home.  In Europe I would also visit many a café during, before and after rides. I just plain like cafés.

My mom being the insightful woman she is, gifted me a plaque one birthday in hopes that in the future it would hang above my restaurant.  Well the restaurant was not to be but the café will and one day I hope to get a picture of her underneath that plaque.

 

At one time in my life the idea of the café had transcended to a romantic ideal of my retirement vehicle, but as time speeds along I have begun to believe that this is an idea I want to happen sooner than retirement.  No longer do I wish to delay and therefore deprive the world of my tasty coffee blends and sumptuous treats.  Nor do I wish to amass a collection of Time Trial equipment to be relegated to my garage and the visual inspection of the chosen few.  No,  with marriage comes changes in ones priorities and plans for the future.  My plan has now become to support my wife though her education and when we have decided on where we are settling down, then I will begin the process of opening the café.   

More Hooker woes

Recently posted to EBAY was a Hooker Elite.  As so few Hookers survive to the resale environment each that does eventually come up is often paired with an interesting story.  This particular offering was, according to the description, an actual Rebecca Twig bike.  While it was signed, the authenticity of this bike having been actually ridden by Rebecca is suspect. I would like some actual proof, pictures of her riding the bike, etc...  Pictures of Rebecca riding anything are difficult to find, but having the providence of an actual picture of her with the bike would have been an awesome item to add too the collection.

Of course timing is everything on EBAY and so another Hooker slips through my fingers as does the search.  For now I can at least add it too my on-line museum of posterity, but nothing is like owning the real thing.     

A quick history (Part 1)

January 19th 1984, en Cedom, Mexico, the Hour Record, previously held by the great champion Eddy Merckx is Broken by Francesco Moser.

2 great innovations:  introduction of the Funny bike. Training preparation using a Heart Rate Monitor. Some might be able to argue for clipless pedals as well but those were not unknown at the time, in fact they had been around since 1895 and track riders had been using the Cinelli M-71's for over 10 years.

Funny bike features: 

• Top tube slopes downward toward front of bike.
• Front wheel smaller than rear wheel
• handlebars take on bullhorn shape
• Wheels become solid discs (Rear, sometimes front)

                                     

 July 1989, Tour de France.  In the final time trial from Versailles to Paris American Greg Lemond out rides Frenchman Laurent Fignon and captures the maillot juane, winning the tour, avg speed 34 mph.

More innovations:  Aerodynamic handlebar extensions (tri-bars) are added to the center of the bull horns.  Aero helmet is used in combination with one piece skinsuit. Previous to this Aero Helmets, shoe covers, skinsuits and aerodynamic articles of clothing were sporadically used seperately but rarely in combination

 

  1990 bike, repainted version of 1989 bike.

French translation

   In previous posts I have been making reference to the time trial as course de verite.  Many of you more savvy time trialists and cycling aficionado's will try to correct me and say the French call the ITT (individual time trial) contre le montre.  This is true, the time trial is called contre le montre, which literally translates to "against the watch". Why, because that is what a time trial is, a race against the clock.  However when referencing the ITT as "the race of truth" the translation becomes Le course de Verite. 

Think of it this way, since the clock does not lie when you race against the clock you are racing the race of truth. 

Santé

    In the mid to late 80's Shimano was quickly taking over from Suntour as the dominant component manufacture.  Suntour had until this time been making the best rear derailleurs and components, and to this day are still highly sought after. Components lines like Superbe Pro were revolutionary, bringing about the designs still being used today in rear derailleurs, hubs, cranks, pedals and other components.   Shimano however was far better at seeing the long term changes coming in the cycling industry and alas Suntour fell into the pages of history. 

    In the mid 1980's shimano had 2 top tier groups Dura-Ace and Shimano 600 both of which are still around today.  in 1987 they introduced a new group that fit inbetween their already successful groups and launched Santé.  Here is an Excerpt from the 1987 Shimano Santé dealer sales manual. 

like everything else in the modern world, the sport of cycling is changing.

While racing cyclists have always defined the performance limits of the sport, more and more of todays recreational cyclists are discovering the joys of riding hard and fast on a quality bicycle.

Along with this trend is a growing awareness of the bicycle as an expression of a physically active and involved lifestyle thats concerned with quality, performance and style.

This is the reason for Santé.  

Santé offers serious cyclists the high level of quality and function thay have come to expect from Shimano. Plus a modern new component look that more accurately expresses the performance potential of today's bicycle.

This complete manual came courtesy of Equus Bicycle.

 

   

Santé was made for 2 years from 1987 to 1989 and was a group I fell in love with from the beginning.  Owning a white Battaglin Download phil_bat1.pdf at the time, I was drawn to the white pearl components that matched perfectly. Even though my Stephen Roche team Carrera bike was too become so in frame only, I wanted them so I got them. I was never able to own the complete group then as it was too expensive but I did have most of the parts.  Cranks with replaced round chainrings, Shift levers, brake levers and derailleurs.   

   With the seriousness of Le Café Vérité taking shape I have been once again focusing on my collections and the Santé group was high on my priority list.  Here are some pictures of my current collection, I am working on the acquisition of 2-3 of each component so that I may have a boxed group as well as mounted group on a bike as yet to be determined. 

Momma's got a brand new blog

   For a couple of years now I have received suggestions that I should be blogging.  As a regular speaker all across the western united states on topics of training, race preparation, and endurance athletics, it would seem only natural to have a place to house my knowledge outside these  venues.  A singular location allowing access to my accumulated wisdom, and hopefully a place to offer answers to questions related to training, racing and the like when I am unavailable. 

  Early this Month I began this blog as a place to house my various projects and to get the "feel" of blogging as it were.  In September I will begin offering the training specific content so often requested at http://www.hypercatracing.blogspot.com.  Within hours of my first post I was excited as I am sure many of you were, so I naturally had to relay this excitement to my mother.  She was of course supportive and quickly reviewing my spelling and grammar with gusto, uh oh.  A bit of discussion was had soon after and within a week my mothers new blog appeared, hmm...  Well my only answer is too quote the Godfather of Soul, "Come here mama and dig this crazy scene.".  Her musings and sporadic ramblings can be yours at http://shirleymom26.blogspot.com. 

  I have quickly become fascinated by blogs, amazing how fast that happened.  The singularly unique exercise of placing prose and thought into cyberspace for an unknown audience is both exhilarating and a bit scary.  As a few of our current politicians might call it, "the Internets", is an interesting place and I am looking forward to this new journey, I am even more excited that I get to take it with my mom, my wife, and all of you. 

The Quest

As described I am a self diagnosed time trial junkie.  perhaps it was the many times I was dropped on my head as a wee child, or maybe my singular obsession with the whooshing sound of disc wheels being accelerated, the perfect white noise, but more likely it is simply because I grew up in the Greg Lemond era. I thought that "funny" bike of his was the coolest looking bike ever and I wanted one for myself, and maybe someday crush my very own French teammate.

Putting a side the fact that I was never a great time trialist myself has not stopped me in my quest to own a collection of TT "funny" bikes and create my own little museum dedicated to the "Race of Truth".  My first TT funny bike was a Land Shark, built near my home in Southern California.  It had an awesomely 80s paint job. pink and green splatter over white, complete with matching Bianchi celeste green rear disc. The bike was actually labeled Park Pre, team sponsorship thing, but it was all land Shark long before they moved up to Oregon.

In the 90's came my series of beam bikes to mate with my custom Orbit TT bike from Jolly old England.  Followed for a brief stint with my owning of the Holy Grail of TT bikes, A black Hooker Elite.  My one biggest regret was selling off this Black Beauty in 2000.  As time goes on I will be chronicling my newest additions to Le Musée pour la Course de Vérité as well as my current residents and any previous additions that are sadly no longer in situ.  Some day my Black beauty you will come back home to me...

In future posts I plan to upload pictures as I find them, many sadly are not available, but some I will be able to archive here.   

Thanks coach...

My formidable years of High School ended in 1987 with my graduation.  Many of the memories of that time, so seemingly important to remember then, have now faded into the obscurity of time.  I remember bits and pieces and the occasional perusal of the yearbooks bring back glimpses and flashbacks but hardly anything I would call a solid memory.  I do remember certain friends and I remember some key "Phil" shaping events, maybe not exactly as they happened but I am sure close enough.  Interesting that such a pivotal time in ones life as "the high school years" can so easily fade into history, and now seems just another 3 years in my life.  Don't get me wrong high school did provide me with quite a lot, my development as an athlete, introductions into relationships, Algebra and French, and of course my chance to work with Coach Gordon Stewart. 

Gordy was a good size guy, Ex-football player if memory serves and probably one of the best Cross Country coaches I have ever worked with.  Gordy wasn't a runner, but he had a way of helping us understand ourselves, our potential, and pushed us to succeed.  he was always there and available, He answered our questions, devised devious workouts and challenged us to be the best runners we could be.  I was lucky to be surrounded by a team of other great runners and through Coach Stewart's guidance I was able to achieve some pretty good results and was encouraged to explore my running talent. 

To this day I find myself still using his catch phrase,"Rub some dirt in it.".  This was coaches answer to anything that involved quiting.  Fall down on the track and skin your knee during practice, "rub some dirt in it".  Feel like quitting on Hill repeat 3 of 10, "Rub some dirt in it." At the time I didn't understand what his crazy phrase meant, but I always completed the workout. 

Years Later after a few running injuries to the left hamstring I was encouraged to develop my cycling.  As I developed my cycling and the workouts became longer and harder, I started to hear that voice again, "Rub some dirt in it." Long seemingly endless climbs with my quads screaming to stop, the voice would chant, "rub some dirt in it." and I would keep going.  In races the voice would come, in training the voice would come.  "Rub some dirt in it.", "Rub some dirt in it.", " Rub some dirt in it.".  Every time the way became tough or I felt like quitting there was Gordan's catch phrase, pushing me, offering me that singular piece of advice I needed just at that moment.  That is the mark of a great coach, the ability to inspire within ourselves the best of ourselves. Rubbing dirt in it has become a corner stone of my "Phil" osophy and so it is with great pride I pass this phrase on too you.  May it serve you as well as it has me.  Now stop reading, Rub some dirt in it and get back out there.