Posts Tagged ‘Conrad Stoltz’
For once the passenger won. An air travel story with a happy ending….
This story made my day…
I play a bit of guitar myself, (on a $100 cheapy, and “play” used loosely) but being a frequently frustrated traveler with a $8000 Specialized bike in a box, I can really relate to this story: (feel free to substitute “guitar” with “bicycle” in the youtube video)
A musician named Dave Carroll recently had difficulty with United Airlines. United apparently damaged his treasured Taylor guitar ($3500) during a flight. Dave spent over nine months trying to get United to pay for damages caused by baggage handlers to his custom Taylor guitar. During his final exchange with the United Customer Relations Manager, he stated that he was left with no choice other than to create a music video for You Tube, exposing their lack of cooperation. The manager responded, “Good luck with that one, pal.”
He posted the following retaliatory video on You Tube. The video has since received over 6.5 million hits. United Airlines contacted Carroll and attempted settlement in exchange for pulling the video. Naturally, his response was, “Good luck with that one, pal.”
Taylor Guitars sent Carroll two new custom guitars in appreciation for product recognition resulting from the video that has led to a sharp increase in orders.
Asian Games
Somehow a picture of me at the 2000 Sydney Olympics made onto the 2010 Asian Games banner. Quite an honour, considering I’m sharing the space with Eneko Llanos (swimming) and Michellie Jones ( cycling)
A lot of people dont know that I raced road tris for 2 decades before I dipped my hairy Cave toes into the murky XTERRA waters. During the early 90s I raced 6 seasons in France and South Africa. Then came the 2000 Olympics in Sydney- triathlons’ Olympic debut- where I broke away on the bike with Olivier Marceau and lead for quite a while.
In 2001 I started racing seriously in the USA and did my 1st XTERRA. 2001 was probably my best season on and off road. Here is a bit where I won the 2001 Chicago Mrs Ts Triathlon (ahead of Greg Bennett). Article and pics of Caveman in Speedo here.
Its interesting looking back to what we used to wear just a short few years ago. That short funny Speedo top in the Sydney photo was the very 1st generation Shark skin which is so controversial now. They fit so tight (and badly) it felt more like a “Sausage skin”.
Now with the new FINA rules, maybe we’ll make the full circle to speedos and tank tops…
Being a novice again. 2009 Wilseyville Hare Scramble
2009 Wilseyville Hare Scramble write up, pics and video here.
The entry form says AMA championship series, so maybe it was a big race? All I know is I was as green as it gets. The newness of this unfamiliar sport opened my eyes to what athletes new to triathlon and XTERRA experience. Nervous, excited, clueless, scared of the unknown, scared of being last, scared of the mass start, and yes, just plain scared.
I grew up riding a little Yamaha PW 80 on our farm in South Africa, later a YZ 100, but when I got really serious about triathlon, (age 15) I sold the dirt bike in order to fund this new triathlon passion thing. I always promised myself, “the day I retire from triathlon I’m buying a dirt bike.” After winning XTERRA Worlds in 07 I thought “screw that, its been 18 years, I cant wait anymore”, so bought a used Honda CRF450 in South Africa. Click for one of my fave blog posts. This summer I bought a new KTM 450 EXC in the US. (my 1st new motorized vehicle ever) Could someone please explain to me how a new top end dirt bike costs the same as a top end mountain bike? How does a huge, knobbly, 30 pound dirt bike rear tire cost the same as a 500g mountain bike tire?
Anyway, Wilseyville is in the scenic Sierra Nevada mountains. Yellow trees everywhere and beautiful country side made for an amazing course on private land. No pre riding allowed, which was quite intimidating.
The C and Ladies class was HUGE. I guess 350+ riders in 7 starts 1 min apart. Apparently in this sport I’m an old dude, (Vet plus) so I was in the 6th row. I thought the C class is the hack class, but I didnt see a single jean pant! Shiny pimped bikes, custom what what, new tires. – I was the only guy with indicators and a cute license plate. At least I could honk the horn to overtake. Mostly people on the ground, and a fat guy cramping.
The Off Season – fun toy time.
After 10 months of focused training where every session and equipment choice was geared towards winning XTERRAs, it is fun to to try some of the other bikes in the garage.
I’ve had this S-works Enduro for 2 years now, but until a few weeks ago, it had less than 5 hrs on it. Most of them my friend Mark DeJohn put on it.
Finally it was my turn to ride for no other reason than having fun. And trying fun bikes and toys!
I pimped my 27 lbs, 6′ travel carbon Specialized Enduro with one of my favourite Specialized products- the Command Post telescopic seat post with bar mounted lock out. A must for any trail bike. In fact, I use it on my XC bikes too- With the push of a lever I can lower my centre of gravity by 2 or 4 inches and rail corners, hit water bars at high speed or do steep drop offs which would usually send me cart wheeling over the bars. At 6ft3 with long legs and a short body, the steep down stuff used to be my Achilles’ heel.
Another product I have been trying are these Specialized Body Geometry grips. Usually these flared grips come on touring bikes, and I was a little apprehensive about putting them on a trail bike. My dad taught me never to judge a sausage by its skin, and was I wrong about these Winged Wonders as I call them now.
Before I go into why I like them, some background: A few days ago I did my first Hare Scramble dirt bike race. (I was 128th in the Sportsman Class C race. My lap times were almost 10 mins slower than the fast Class B riders! I rode 24min laps and they 16 mins a lap. At last, a sport I really suck at!) My KTM 450 and I were covered in mud and my hands were covered in blisters. The next 2 days I had to cut a tree and move a vast amount of dirt from our new homes’ back yard. Swinging the pick axe and wielding the shovel and chain saw put more blisters in the few places I didnt have blisters already. So when I went on this ride my hands were raw like 2 fillet steaks.
I rode Reno’s new Halo Trail. Its 2 hrs of low speed rocks and chop. This was my first ride with these grips and immediately I noticed:
– Comfort. The “wings” fit nicely in the palms of your hands, distributing the weight over a larger surface. I can see this being a great benefit during long rides and stage races. Or when your hands are covered in blisters…
–Control. This one I didnt expect at all. And is the main reason I’ll probably race these grips in 2010. Once I started rocking and rolling over rock jumps and through loose corners I was amazed at the increased amount of control I had on the bike. Not only does your palms have much more contact with the grip, but your fingers has amazing leverage underneath the bar. Very handy for lifting the back end of the bike like bunny hopping, jumping and cornering.
Word is the Specialized engineers are working on a light XC race version….
The perfect XTERRA bike. Specialized Epic S-works.
Photo by RichCruse.com.
My Specialized Epic S-works worked like a dream, and this course on Maui is infamously tough on equipment. A lot of work has gone into the preparation of the bike for this race in particular.
Here are a few highlights:
Specialized tires
Specialized has been amazingly helpful in helping me find a tire that is truly Caveman proof. Over the past year we have had 2 extensive tire testing camps. We tried numerous prototypes and found a casing that works exceptionally well. It weighs roughly 630g, rolls well at low pressures, the casing is cleverly assembled to make it supple, but most importantly it is very, very strong. In 8 months of testing I have had 2 flats: One at XTERRA Idaho where a 5 inch nail went through both sides and once when I rode over a broken bottle bottom. The tire will be called the GRID and will come in Fast Track LK, The Captain and some of the free ride tire tread patterns. Importantly, the GRID will also be available in 29″…
Because these sidewalls are so strong, you have to run really low pressure to provide a good, comfey ride. I rolled 23.5psi in the front and 27.5psi in the rear. (on “normal” courses I would go 23 and 26.5psi)
