Team Bent Up Cycles Ride-n-Greet

Bent Up Cycles will be hosting a Ride-n-Greet for our RAAM Team on Saturday, June 5th. This is a great opportunity to come out and meet the team, do a social ride around the San Fernando Valley, and enjoy coffee and snacks at the shop afterwards. We look forward to seeing you there!

RAAM training and bikes unveiled

It's been awhile since I posted a training update. Overall, training has been going very well. I'm feeling stronger, the workouts continue to get harder...I am really pushing the envelope of personal fitness! This month, the workouts focus on increasing intensity for longer periods of time and maximizing the amount of time spent on the bike at the level of power that we will be using on RAAM (tempo pace). Willie has been doing some RAAM simulation training (30 minutes on, 30 minutes off, throughout the night for four hours, etc.) and we are all participating in the PCH Randos 200k brevet next Saturday.

We just had a fantastic team meeting where we went over menu items. You can't imagine how long it takes to decide what you are going to eat for six days, keeping the menu varied, satisfying and appropriate for long distance cycling. Our list was two pages long, and I'm sure we forgot something!

On another note, I frequently get asked "so, what are you riding on RAAM?" Over the next week or so, I will post a couple videos highlighting some of the bikes we will be riding. Here's the first one:



And the second on one:

Custom Musashi - better than Sushi?

We just finished building up our Musashi framekit with a full SRAM XX/Red drivetrain, American Classic wheels and a custom handlebar set up. We hope you enjoy!

Some fun new videos

We've just added some fun videos to our YouTube collection. Take a brief tour of the Catrike Musashi:



You can also check out the new Carbent HPV Raven Team:



And finally, we just built up this beautiful HP Velotechnik Scorpion FS for a customer who plans on doing some serious touring:

Walking and Bicycling to School - a National Epidemic is Ending?

As a member of the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition, I receive a weekly update on all things cycling and advocacy related in the LA County. The editor recently posted a link to an article on bicycling and walking to school. Apparently, walking and cycling to school have stabilized at an all time low of about 12%. This is absolutely amazing to me! In Los Angeles, most children live within a mile of school...why wouldn't they walk or ride their bikes? My daughter and I love walking/bicycling/scootering to school! But where are the other 88%? Oh yeah...I forgot...it's too dangerous...

Hear me out here. This morning, a group of walking parents congregated at the school gate to chat (as we usually do...one of the things you can't do in a car). We watched three cars blow right through the crosswalk as the crossing guard was standing in the middle of the street with children crossing to school! As if a crossing guard wearing a a reflective vest holding a STOP sign wasn't enough, there are three signs in each direction leading up to the cross walk signaling drivers that they are approaching a school zone and the speed limit is 25mph. And yet, they still just blow right through (and no, they were not on the cell phone). No wonder many parents don't feel safe walking/riding with their children.

LACBC hopes to address this type of concern by launching a Bicycle Ad Awareness Campaign. Their goal is "to help make drivers more aware of the growing number of bicyclists on our streets in order to create safer streets for all." Great! Are they the ones posting the white signs all over the city saying "Watch for cyclists" and "Share the road"? No, they will be posting ads in bus depot and public kiosks. So, how many drivers do you think are hanging out at the bus depot? Hmmmm.... While I can certainly get behind a cycling ad campaign to promote safety, I think they have mis-identified their audience. Unless I am missing some of the details here, I think they need to go back to the drawing board on this one... Me, I called the local police department and asked them to please station a police officer out in front of the school from 7:30 to 8am. Think of it as public safety and a great way of generating revenue for a cash-strapped city!

More RAAM coverage - introducing our Crew Chief!

In the world of staying fit and active, a lot of folks talk the talk, a few walk the walk and yet others - like 74-year old local resident Lee Mitchell - pedal the, uh, pedal.

Mitchell, an instructor in geology, geography and oceanography at Woodland Community College, has been cycling for nearly three decades but unlike most folks who pull a bicycle out of their garage or storage shed for a leisurely five-mile ride once a week, Mitchell has logged more than 100,000 miles on his bike and chalks much of his passion for distance up to his first Davis Double Century event in 1975.

Since that one event, Mitchell has participated in hundreds of rides including racing in three Race Across America (RAAM) events - an annual 3,000-mile, coast-to-coast race that draws endurance riders from around the globe - and crewing another twenty.

Alternating between racing on a team (setting records in each for age-category race times) and acting as a crew chief to other teams, Mitchell has become a well-known face to the RAAM athletes who compete each year and 2010 will be no different. Beginning June 12, Mitchell will be crew chief for Team Bent Up Cycles, an all-male, all recumbent bicycle team as the four-man team leaves Oceanside, CA.

Sponsored by Bent Up Cycles, the premier retailer and manufacturer of recumbent bicycles in the States, the team consists of three Californians - Dana Lieberman, owner of Bent Up Cycles, Willie Hunt and Jim Verheul - and Texan Kent Polk.

Few riders or crew chiefs know the Race Across America route, high points or challenges the way that Mitchell - nicknamed "Fuzzy" for his Santa Claus-like beard - does and he's got great stories to share. In fact, Mitchell is a fun, lively character who treats the idea of 3,000 miles in non-stop cycling the way he treats life - with a great, great sense of humor.

In the last three months, Lee has pulled the team together by providing much needed insight, cinched the logistics of building a 14-person crew, making sure racers have the appropriate equipment for the race, and ensuring that all of the little things, those things that many forget about until the day of the race, get done! For that reason, we felt it appropriate to feature him first in our series of crew and racers for Team Bent Up Cycles.

For more information about sponsoring our team, email us at bentupcycles@gmail.com, or purchase a supporter T-shirt at the Bent Up Cycles website.

Photos by Chuck Bramwell, James Burger

Cool idlers for our RAAM bikes from Terracycle!

Terracycles recently sent us pictures of custom idlers they are doing for our RAAM Carbent HPV bikes. Nothing like a little bling to make you faster! (note the external cabling was done special for Sandy's bike...normally we route the cables internally)

Training for RAAM - Nutrition

In the ultra-cycling community, there are endless conversations about nutrition. What works best varies from person to person and from situation to situation. But I want to take a different tack. I want to talk about nutrition off the bike.

For the last couple weeks, I haven't felt good on the bike. I've mentioned it to JV (my coach), citing difficulty completing workouts and difficulty staying in the higher power zones. About a week ago, JV suggested more protein. It didn't solve any problems. On the way back from my ride last Saturday, JV calls and confirms that my intuition was correct...my data shows that I am not making any progress.

Often, good training is about finding your limiters, and working around them. During that conversation, we found another limiter. Pure and simple, I'm not eating enough. As we came to this revelation, my first thought was "of course, I'm trying to lose weight." But, in addition to feeling awful on the bike, I wasn't really losing much weight! Basically, I was "starving" myself, and my body had shut down. I wasn't able to produce any power and my body was conserving everything it had to stay functional.

So, the solution was simple...go eat! I've doubled my caloric intake and feel MUCH better on and off the bike. I'm also nailing the workouts better. We will check out the numbers in another week to see if they back up my intuition.

So, why am I bringing this up? Sometimes the limiters to your training can be so obvious and in-your-face, that you completely miss them! How could I possibly think that consuming 2500 calories per day would be effective while training at a high intensity? It's obvious now, but for some reason, I just didn't see it!

So, as you continue to pursue your goals, athletic or otherwise, make sure to take the time to examine the obvious limiters. What's holding you back could be right in front of your nose!

Ride safe!

More Carbent frame pictures

Last week, you all saw the roll wrapped tube on the main frame of a Carbent HPV Raven. This week, I've taken some detailed pictures of a filament wound frameset. Enjoy!

Training for RAAM in more detail

I get quite a few queries on RAAM training, so I thought I would post a series on the training that I am doing, why I am doing it, and how we measure progress.

First, I use a Powertap hub. A Powertap hub has eight strain gauges inside to measure torque being applied to the hub from the cranks. The resulting output is displayed in watts. Similar to training with heart rate, I have a variety of wattage zones, and my training is geared to keep me in specific zones for various amounts of time. One key difference between heart rate and power, though, is that power is displayed immediately, in real time (1s delay), so you get immediate feedback regarding your performance. Heartrate tends to be a bit slow in responding to changes in your workout.

At the beginning of training, I did a power test to determine my "threshold" level of power. It came to about 230w. This is a level of power that I can hold for 30 minutes, up to even an hour, if necessary. All of my training levels are based on this number. When I am training at "threshold", I try to keep the wattage between 210 and 240. "Tempo" is between 175 and 210, and can be held for several hours at a time (with the correct fueling).

This week, I am doing two intense, shorter workouts during the week. These entail 40 minutes at threshold and 30 minutes at easy (just below tempo). The best way to do threshold workouts is on a hill - I use Sepulveda Blvd. Since it is almost 11 minutes to the top, I do the climb four times. I then scurry over to work, keeping the wattage between 130 and 170.

Between these workouts, I commute at easy level. This does not imply that I am taking it easy. I still need to maintain 130-170w.

On Saturday, I will do a longer, three hour tempo ride (two hours at tempo, one hour easy). Tempo gets really hard if you aren't managing your nutrition well. I've found that I don't get enough protein, so this week I am consuming more and observing the effects.

Stay tuned for more...

Cross Country and beyond for a great cause!

A good friend of ours forwarded the link for this Crazy Guy on a Bike journal. Ken and Jen are doing a 7000 mile tour on their trikes to increase awareness of organ donation, among other things. Enjoy their journey!

More Carbent pics

Detail Pictures of the Carbent HPV Raven

We frequently get requests for detailed pictures of the Carbent HPV framesets. We finally had one in that I was able to attack with the camera prior to being built. This bike is being built for Tim Woudenberg, and will be ridden in solo RAAM this year!

New videos on our YouTube channel

We were having trouble uploading some of our larger videos onto this site, so we created a YouTube channel for your enjoyment!

So, how do you train for RAAM?

I get asked this question a lot...how do you train for 4-person Race Across America? Here is a brief glimpse into a week of training. Note, this schedule allows me to balance family and work with training while giving me some good, intense workouts:

Jim (JV), one of our racers, has me and Willie on training programs using Powertaps. My current threshold level is about 230w, and all of my training is based around this number. To give you an idea of what a typical week looks like, I will do threshold training on Monday...warm up and then spend 30-35 minutes at threshold, usually climbing Trash Truck Hill over by Griffith Park. This road climbs about 900 feet over 4ish miles, and is good for about a 25 minute run at threshold. Warm up and cool down make for a 1.5 hour workout with some good intensity. Tuesday is easy riding to and from work.

Wednesday is a tempo day - a bit lower intensity than threshold, but longer duration. I have a great 30 mile commute into work along Foothill that gives me up to an hour of tempo work on rolling terrain with minimal traffic and lights. Thursday and Friday are more light, recovery days.

Saturday is my 2-3 hour ride, generally doing an hour or more at tempo plus some threshold work. If I'm riding with a group, I don't spend a lot of time watching the exact numbers. If riding solo, I will try to do the workout in one stretch....this Saturday is two hours of tempo, so I will probably do 8-9 loops around Balboa Park. While not very interesting, there are few lights and the terrain doesn't vary much - perfect for tempo work!

Sunday I am off the bike.

Next week is a rest week, and then who know what JV has in store for me! Basically, I assume it will get more intense and no distance riding, per se. 3-4 hours tops.

Catrike video - How it all began!

I remember the first Catrike I rode. I was still working out of the garage and a customer wanted to trade in his Speed for something else. I thought, "Great! This will give me an opportunity to test ride one!" I remember bombing down La Tuna Canyon at about 40 mph...the trike was stable and fast! Given my only other trike experience was with a Terratrike 3.3, this experience was a revelation. I immediately got in touch with Paulo (at that time, it was just Paulo) and started selling Catrikes. Now, as one of the largest Catrike dealers in the country, we are continually amazed at the innovation, spirit and enthusiasm we see every time we call the Catrike factory. Paulo, Lynn, Mark, Chaim, and the rest of the gang...thank you for some wonderful trikes!





And speaking of innovation, Catrike is now moving into the two-wheeled recumbent world. Check out this teaser video...we are expecting our first Musashi on February 22nd.

More Quest Videos

The Quest has arrived

Our Quest showed up this afternoon, and we just had to get some video of this beautiful velomobile! More review information to come after a few longer test rides. Enjoy!

New Bacchetta Bikes for 2010

New Bacchetta Bikes for 2010

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The Best Nutritional Article I've Read In Awhile

We get the Hammer Nutrition magazine every quarter or so. It's generally crammed with lots of good information about ultra-event nutrition, training, and even some good stories. The most recent issue had a great article on sugar consumption. At least I didn't drink 35.5 gallons of soda this year! Check it out!