All the goodies. Bike, trainer, power meter, tires. Let's do this.
Motobecane Le Champion Something
This will be not so much a product review as a history lesson (surprise!) and long-term road test report. The Motobecane name goes back a long way in cycling. There was a time when French bikes were the thing. My first 10 speed was a Lapierre, picked up used in the early 70's, when I was 11 or 12. It came complete with Mafac brakes, Simplex derailleurs, and a "Tour de France" decal on the top tube. Though a thousand times nicer than the Schwinn Varsities, Sears Free Spirits, and Fleetwings ridden by my punkus domesticus contemporaries, the bike was really just a "bike boom" low-end import. But I rode the shit out of it. Later in the decade during my brief foray into high school, my 10th grade business teacher Mr. Law used to commute to South Easton from Cambridge, a rather impressive feat. One day I asked him what kind of bike he rode, and he said a Motobecane. This influenced me into thinking they must be decent bikes.
Fast forward another several years to 1984. I had not touched a bike since, well, the Lapierre fell apart, or was stolen; I really don't remember. Deciding I needed to get some aerobic exercise, I went bike shopping. The shop I ended up in carried three makes: Schwinn, Motobecane, and some new, super expensive bikes called Cannondales. I was on a budget, and the low end Schwinns did not seem so great. Heavy. But the Motobecane Nomade was priced at just $169. I bought one, a 25" frame. Yeah, I know. Turned out it was not such a great bike either, but it got me going and I worked my way up to about 30 miles at a stretch. One thing led to another and a few years later I upgraded to a racing bike, went to Wells Ave, and the rest is history...
Fast forward again for another twenty years, and it's 2006. I'd had only one foot in the sport while attending night school, and my 1994 Slim Chance was my primary ride, having not purchased a new bike in quite a while. Racing regularly again and finding 10-cog cluster were the current norm had me jonesing for a new bike. But my funds were limited. I'm all for supporting the local LBS, but at that time I did not have a shop sponsoring my club, and this new website called bikedirect.com had just appeared. This site had incredible prices on bikes with top-notch components. Most of them were Motobecanes. I thought this was strange, as French bikes hadn't been popular in US racing since the Peugot PX-10s of the late 80s. And the prices were so low, something smelled fishy. Researching revealed that the guy who owned the domain also owned a chain of around thirty bike shops in Texas. Motobecane had gone bankrupt a few years prior. This guy had bought the rights to use the name in the US from them at the liquidation. So now the "real" Motobecanes were marketed as "MBK" in Europe, and they even sponsored a ProTour team or two. But the bikesdirect.com Motobecanes had nothing to do with them. This guy had just figured the name had value in the US because old fucks like me still associated it with good bikes. Like so many other manufacturers, he was having bikes contract-built in Taiwan, and slapping the recognizable brand name on them. What was unique was that he was selling them direct to consumer over the internet as complete bikes, which was not common at that time. And he was spec'ing them with top-shelf components rather than no-name stuff.
The model I selected was this aluminum frame with carbon fork. It came with Ultegra 6600 10 speed shifters, Cane Creek brakes, FSA carbon compact crank, Ritchey cockpit, and American Classic AC 420 wheels shod with Vittoria tires. For $1295 delivered. Even at that time this was a rock bottom price. The wheels alone were around $700 on the internet. Despite having some reservations I took a chance and pulled the trigger. The bike came a week or so later, in a box just like bikes normally arrive at a bike shop. Everything was the way it was supposed to be. Incredible.
The wheels were nice and light but I was never comfortable on them. They felt flimsy so I traded them to a team mate for the cheap aluminum TT bike I still ride. He was psyched and thought I was out of my mind, but whatever. The rest of the stuff has held up well. The fit of this bike was strange, it is marked a 58 but the seat tube is 55 c-to-c and the top tube is short as well. Currently I have a 130mm -17 stem with a few spacers. I've changed that, the saddle, and swapped the annoying 2-bolt Ritchey post for a more manageable Thomson. I'm still running the FSA (FailStayAttached) crank. A lot of people seem to have issues with these. Mine is an ISIS BB, and I've been through a few of those. Some of them suck. As far as crankarms falling off goes, I've had no issues. The torque specification is quite high, way tighter than I ever cranked an Octalink or square taper, so I suspect the people having problems are simply undertightening.
I'd ridden aluminum road bikes before when I rode for a Cannondale shop. Those were the earlier "3.0" frames with the cantilevered dropouts. They all had alignment problems and I never liked them so much, but I won races on them. Asking around, I was told the "Motobecane" f/f was made by Kinesis and was the same as the then-current Fuji. I don't know if this is true, but the frame rides pretty well and has held up for five years. The fork has always felt a little bouncy to me, but I've noticed that on other bikes as well (my Madone being an exception) so maybe fork splay is just my pet peeve. Truth be told, realizing this thing was five years old inspired me to write this post. Got to wonder whether racing a five year old aluminum bike with a carbon FSA crank is a good idea anymore? Though it has never been my only bike, and thus the mileage on it probably equates to only three full seasons or so, the thing has been around.
I would certainly buy this bike again. Bikesdirect.com is still in business, but having established themselves as legitimate, their offerings are not quite the value they once were. People used to buy the bikes, especially the Dura-Ace ones, just to strip the parts. You used to be able to scoop up an entire bike for the internet price of just a group. That does not seem to be the case anymore. The prices are higher, and the parts pics are generally not as rich. When they are, the bikes disappear. It's also a shame that most production aluminum bikes have been relegated to the lower end of the market. I realize that Taiwanese carbon bikes are pretty damn good, representing quite a value, but to me there's something about a nicely welded aluminum sculpture too. They make good race bikes, especially for criteriums, which is where I use mine. I don't want to worry about wrecking my $2500 carbon frame in a silly pileup. Not that those don't happen in road races, but in a flat crit I don't need the tiny advantages my lighter carbon bike provides either.
What you were expecting me to take the pic with some awesome peak power number on the display? I continue to disappoint... #winning
CycleOps PowerTap Pro+
Almost two years ago I broke down and bought a power meter. For several years I'd poo-poo'd them, mostly because the power zealots I knew were pretty obnoxious when extolling the virtues of this revolutionary new way to regulate ones training. Lots of my fellow racers bought powermeters, THEN got off their asses and started a focused training program, maybe improved a tiny bit, then wouldn't shut up about how anyone training without one was wasting their time. When you pay $1000 for something that shits the bed every other ride (causing you to insist the entire group stop at the side of the freezing cold road while you fiddled with the wire and cursed repeatedly about how the entire ride was a complete waste if you couldn't record your power data) then you have to convince yourself it was a good investment.
I like training data as much as the next person, but I also think I recognize what equipment is truly important. Unless you have all the money you need to outfit yourself with the best stuff then you need to make choices. I must have heard two dozen people tell me you "had" to buy a PM, and that it was much more important than something like say, deep dish wheels. To which I call bullshit. The deep wheels will make you faster whether you train or not. Racing without them is a handicap. But you can train effectively without a power meter. Honest. It was done for decades...
However, time marched on, and eventually PowerTap evolved, losing its wires first, and getting a more reliable (according to the ad copy) wireless transmission mode later. The price stayed about the same, which is the current smart strategy in the electronics biz. Adding features and making improvements with a steady price protects your margins (see APPL for details). The Pro+ version of the hub in the picture retails for around $875 on the internet. A princely sum no doubt, but with quality hubs such as a Dura-Ace or DT240 now going for close to $400, the premium for power sensing ain't that bad anymore. That is not to say the build quality of this thing matches those. Honestly I don't know. This model has a 12 mm alloy axle and an aluminum cog carrier as upgrades from the much heavier Elite+, which saves you around a hundred bucks over the Pro+. The SL+ and SLC+ cost hundreds more. Those have carried a 15 mm alloy axle all along, and a slightly lighter hub shell. Not sure if the cassette carrier on those is titanium or not, but for the price difference it should be. More on that in a minute. The most expensive version comes with ceramic bearings. Recent ad copy says the Pro+ now has a 15mm axle too. I've read advice that said to stay away from the earlier Pro+ due to the 12mm alloy axle (which matches the diameter of the steel Elite+), but I've had no issues with mine. But for sure you have to wonder why the high end product had the larger design. Looking at CycleOps webpage now, I don't see any announcement about the reason for the change to the Pro+, but the price has increased a bit. So if you're buying one of these this year, make a note as there's still stock of the older ones out there.
This one has been reliable. I don't use it in the rain if I can help it, but I've had no problems. The 2.4 ghz ANT+ setup works great. I purchased mine as a complete setup from wheelbuilder.com. It came with the CycleOps Cervo 2.4 Pro computer unit. I spec'd a DT 465 rim and 32 Sapim CX Ray spokes. Normally I build my own wheels, but I went the purchase route for a few reasons. I'd never done something large-flange like a powertap, and I really wanted to have the CX Ray spokes, but did not know where to get them and get the length correct. They are expensive. More importantly, wheelbuilder.com sells custom-cut disc covers. Ordering the whole schebang together and having them do all the work just made sense. I specified 3x lacing and brass nipples (huh-huh) because the few wheel failures I've had with my own wheels were mostly due to alloy nipples cracking.
As you can see, the powertap has 9700 km on it. The wheel is still perfect. Not surprising, as it's a pretty burly rim with 32 spokes. I'm not sure why they did it identical instead of mirror-image, but I suspect it's either because of the large flange or for dishing reaasons. They are a quality shop and the wheels are laced by hand, that much I know. I would buy from them again. The wheel cover is pretty nice, heavy but it does the job. If I had it to do over again though I would have spec'd a heavier aero rim. I've seen their covers with Zipp wheels before and the cover mates up flush against the rim. With the DT 465 they needed to leave a small gap to avoid the braking track. If I'd gone with the heavier aero 565 it would be better I suspect. And there is obviously no need to spend $45 extra for aero spokes when the cover is in place. But this would be my one and only PowerTap wheel, so I opted for versatility.
That's the downside. This wheel is still not something I want to race on. It's too heavy and slow, even with the fancy spokes. I use it for TT's with the cover and some of my training, but I've only used it in a few crits, and maybe never in a road race with hills. As a bonus pain in the ass, my TT bike is a 9 speed. So to swap I have to remove the cassette, and install or remove the cover. Which in itself is not a huge chore. But the alloy freehub body is pretty soft, and the cassettes tend to gouge their way into the splines. You have to pry the thing off and then clean it up with a file. Which is the big reason this thing only has 9700k on it, which represents maybe 30-40% of my road miles since I've owned it. But it works well, especially the speedometer. Very nice to have no sensors on the bike, as the hub is totally self-contained. Which makes switching it from bike to bike very easy. And a reason why I need to get all 9 speed out of my life. The built in HRM is not that great. The strap is not as reliable as a Polar, and does not work with a Polar either. So sometimes I wear both. I still like the Polar software and its calendar view of your training. I have six years of continuous data for both running and riding and I'm not ready to give that up.
Bringing us to software. The power zealots all rave about WKO+. I have never used it. For one, I have bought a shitload of commercial software in the past, and probably only ended up using about 10% of it enough to justify what I paid. And I sure as shit don't want to pay for updates. And that crap is windows only. So no way am I buying it. The PowerAgent software that comes with the PowerTap is java and slow as shit, but it is fine for analyzing a single ride. There is no calendar view though. And no "performance manager" type of thing that uses "TSS" and all the other WKO+ crap. But the open source program GoldenCheetah has all of that, runs on all major computing platforms, and is supported by an excellent team. The project is very active and constantly improved. So if you want that performance manager stuff, this is what you should use.
The concept is pretty cool. If you don't know how it works and want to, there is plenty of information on the web if you take the time to understand it. But I don't really use it. I would rather have a more spiffy calendar view anyway. That's not the main reason I'm not a believer though. My indifference to the whole TSS thing is because it wouldn't do to much for me. For it to have a ton of value, I think you'd need to use the powermeter and save the data nearly for 100% of your training, for a long period of time. If you have significant "training stress" coming from activities other than bicycle riding, then you'd have to find a way to deal with that too. (BTW, this is a good article. Ignore the source.) Since I don't use mine all the time, and I ride CX, and run, and I do other shit like beat up tires with a sledgehammer, "CTL" and "ATL" don't do me much good. And seriously, do you need a computer to measure your ATL? I can see where this might be pretty useful for a pro who rides 25 hours a week and doesn't do much else, but I just walk up the stairs to visit my friends who work on the third floor. Tells me what I need to know.
So what do I find the power meter useful for? 1) pacing in TTs and long intervals. Yes it is true. It helps for sure. I learned about going out too hard and how it whacks your perceived effort by doing running races. You suffer like a dog and perceive max effort as you go slower and slower each mile. Bike TTs are not different. Funny thing is that years ago I think I naturally held back more in the early stages of long TTs, and did well as a result. Somewhere along the line I started trying too hard. The power meter will show you that even though the first minute or two feels SO EASY, you're pushing 450 watts and will be petering out in another few minutes. Same thing for doing 30 minute cruise intervals, though I generally manage to pace those pretty effectively on my own. 2) Putting a number on your sprint efforts. Definitely nice to have. It's just hard to tell how good a set of sprints is otherwise, as there are so many variables that affect speed, etc. 3) Measuring energy consumption. I went PRO with this, going to the lab, getting my energy expenditure measured via RER and all that, and correlating it to both my power output and my HR. FWIW, I've found that if you setup a Polar with your body weight correct and you VO2 max correct, the energy expenditure values it gives are generally within 10-20% of what you get from the PowerTap. The variability being the way your HR acts depending on fatigue, caffeine, etc. The more intense the effort, the closer the two track (Polar's OwnCal method does not work at super low intensity like walking). OK, I'm bored with this now. Moving on...
Wheelbuilder.com laced the spokes identical rather than mirror-image. I'm not sure why, but it's held up just fine.
Kurt Kinetic Rock and Roll Trainer
It's big, it's bad, it's quiet, it's been discontinued.
Last but not least (ok, maybe least, I'm tired of this and I need to ride) the Kurt Kinetic Rock and Roll trainer. In short, this is a great trainer. The entire bike assembly is rubber-mounted, allowing the bike to rock back and forth. It still sits up straight, but when you stand the bike is not fixed, so you can rock it properly against your pedaling moving. In other words, the bike rocks under you and you stay in one place. I still see riders who have trouble with this. Too many riders think they have to sit down all the time, and only stand when they are in trouble. Standing is a good way to use different muscles, and you should practice it. I wonder if some people don't pay attention when they watch pros race on TV. Those guys stand all a lot. I still see some people standing with their bikes not rocking, while their bodies oscillate back and forth over the bike. WRONG! Of course, on any trainer but this one, if you stand then that is what you have to do. So this is way superior. And it has to reduce stress on the bike, as it has some "give" to the stresses you're applying.
The resistance unit is smooth and quiet. With these tires, it takes about 200 watts for me to maintain just 25 kph. But if I slow down the power falls off nicely, so you can ride very easy if you want to. Doing seated intervals is no problem. There is plenty of resistance with standard road gearing. More than enough. For standing, like most trainers, there is not going to be enough resistance to hold back your very best sprint quite the same as on the road during the jump phase, even in a 52x11. But it's better than most, and in a big gear I can stand and not spin out if I'm pretending to climb tempo up a steep hill. Downsides to this trainer are its huge footprint, non-portability, and high cost. This one is an early model too, so if you have 180 cranks and a size 47 shoe, you're going to hit the clamp with your heel. With 175's and 43.5 shoes I can hit it if I try. Kurt offered to replace the whole thing when I notified them of this, but I passed as it is not really an issue for me. But beware if you're looking at one of these on the used market. The newer green models have a different clamp which should be fine for Bigfoots.
That is all for now. Thanks for continuing to visit my mostly dormant and always boring, un-proofread blog. Come again.
