Not representative of final product.

One shoulder:

53×11/24×7

Other shoulder

Dirt

Front:

(bicycle pic)
Bike
Race
Ahead

Back:

OBRA logo
Race it like you stole it.

Yeah yeah. I know.

Oh so busy, so little time. I tell ya- membership is up year to date 10% on top of 12% growth last year? I am sooo glad that the big O-Dog aka Omer Kem is now working for us. Mindy Murray is also doing results for us. We had a meeting with Dan Houghton this afternoon and he’s very interested in running the neutral wheel program. Possibly looking at a timing chip system- looks like one company may be stomping out the bugs that we weren’t stoked about. We’ll see.

Lots of new stuff this year to make racing better here:

1 new truck (service area of Salem to Medford)
1 new trailer (service area of Bend)
Gobs of new signs and some new timing clocks will be ordered too.

Oh and here’s some notes for this weekend:

Wear both numbers or you may be relegated 1-5 places. No brainer.

If you win, use your head before saluting. We’d rather you not.

Don’t go over the centerline and attack.

Made the OBRA calendar into a google calendar.

HTML

http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=kenji73sugahara%40gmail.com&ctz=America/Los_Angeles

iCal

http://www.google.com/calendar/ical/kenji73sugahara%40gmail.com/public/basic.ics

XML

http://www.google.com/calendar/feeds/kenji73sugahara%40gmail.com/public/basic

With Cyclocross season winding down, I wanted to take a moment to talk about a misunderstood group of people: singlespeeders.

When I first decided to give Cross a try, I wanted to do singlespeed (or as I call it, one-gear). Galen Mittermann (Midtown Direct) asked, “Sal, why would you choose the hardest category?” At the time, I didn’t have a good answer. Now, I do.

‘Cause it’s awesome . . .

It takes a while to come to that conclusion, however. When you first start riding one-gear, you try to use it as an excuse or a handicap. You find yourself always in the wrong gear for every situation. You start thinking things like, “Oh, well, yeah, I could have ridden that run-up too, if I had gears.” You learn to hate B’s that come flying by you on straight-aways in their big rings. But, eventually the tide turns and you realize you are handi-capable.

This happened early for me. At my first Thrilla in Bend, Ryan Trebon lapped me halfway into the race. As he passed he said, “Come on Buddy!”

As I was about to yell back my excuse, I looked down at his freewheel, and I’ll be damned if he wasn’t a singlespeeder. Well shoot. By the time I figured out what to say, he was gone. He didn’t need any excuses, and didn’t have time to hear any from me.

As they say in British car racing, “Push on regardless.”

You learn to spin, you learn to mash, you learn to run and you learn to love the natural feel of it all. In talking to fellow one-gear riders, the one word that keeps getting repeated is, “simplicity”.

Maybe that’s why, as a group, we are thought of as “earthy”, riding unpainted frames with flat bars.

We may have some tattoos, and drink a little beer, but the truth is we are a bunch of hard-core bike racers that will stack up against anybody. So, the next time you see a singlespeeder racing in another category, give ‘em a shout. And the next time you see a hundred singlespeeders flying down the start straight, back up, cause it will be all knees and elbows. Oh, and the next time you buy a bike, make it a one-gear.

-Sal

All dates are tentative. Also- please be aware that Walla Walla is a WSBA/USAC race- it is in this calendar only for reference.

2010 Calendar

It’s nice to immediately bookend the Mountain Bike Season with something, well, else. What better activity than racing cars around in the prairies of Eastern Washington? Carl and I hastily departed Las Vegas at 6am (not soon enough) on Thursday morning in order to have time to take care of some last minute prep on the Rally Car and maybe, possibly, get a bit of rest before piling into the Dodge with Carl’s Dad for the seven hour drive from Bend to Pomeroy, Washington. We just barely got the car buttoned up at about 1am but were still on the road, Longboard Louie’s breakfast burritos in hand, by 11am on Friday. The plan was coming together…

After we left Tech Inspection and Registration with a (for our roving gong-show) minimal amount of being made to feel like complete novices it appeared that the weekend of racing was starting off without a hitch. Our decision to check out the sticking right rear brake was made quite effectively on the short drive to the Pioneer Motel (a whole ‘nother set of issues) during which the car refused to coast and the brake got quite hot, to say the least… We had the right tools for the job though. Anything you could ever need was right in the back of the Dodge. We had a Leatherman, some scissors, vice grips, a hammer and the impact wrench. And the bucket o’ bolts. An hour later we’d used the hammer and concrete wall out front in all manner of ways and eventually removed the offending seized part. It was honed and buffed with the most rudimentary techniques, greased liberally and reinstalled. Success. Fortunately on our midnight test drive we realized that the Odometer was already calibrated and promptly went to bed, wondering how triple digit speeds through the praries with only a Route Book would work out in the morning…

Our first instruction in the morning with said Route Book (not to be confused with detailed Pace Notes, a Route Book basically tells you where to go and where not to crash into people’s barns) was clearly at the end of what we determined, by listening to the cars in front of us shift through five gears before braking, was a “Pavement Ends/90 Left”. Carl used the slightly uphill braking zone concerningly late (code for perfect) to haul us down from around 90mph and flick the Subaru into a beautiful third gear slide past the first of many homesteads. It was ON! The stage climbed through Geiger Gulch on flowing smooth gravel and eventually crested onto the winter wheat covered plateaus that characterize the majority of eastern Washington. Good sightlines made up for the lack of accurate notes and we posted a solid first stage time as told by the volunteer timekeepers who were getting dusted out by every car. Thanks, timekeepers…

The first few stages rolled along smoothly, getting our bearings and having surprisingly good time hauling ass through gulches and open fields. Initial fears of the speeds and unfamiliar terrain gave way to wide smiles at the end of each stage that Carl clearly drove very, very well. It wasn’t until stage four that we realized just how well Carl was driving though, the timekeepers handed us our card and said kind of excitedly, “nice work”. We inquired casually (not sure of protocol on this) as to just how “nice” our work was. They casually responded that our work was the “nicest” they’d seen as of yet. This meant quite a lot to us as the first car on the road was none other than Carl Jarvedall, a seasoned rally veteran who cut his teeth racing the Swedish Rally Series back in his home country. For those who aren’t familiar with the distribution rallying around the world, Scandinavia is the epicenter. Mr. Jardevall holds a variety of stage records around the northwest and pilots an absolutely immaculately prepared Mitsubishi Evo. When we saw him in Parc Expose in the morning we immediately were excited to see how close we could get to his times but never once considered besting them. Suddenly we had a race on our hands. Carl once again posted a faster time on the next running of Ball Grade Up, which happened to have a solid dose of down as well, allowing the all-out-attack skills of the formerly underpowered Wheels of Teal on downhills to shine through. The last two miles of that stage are the most impressive driving I’ve seen Carl put together to date, linking fifth-gear sweepers together over crests like it was a walk in the park. Stoked, and with smoking brakes, every time…

The day ended with back-to-back runnings of the Maxwell Hill stage around dusk. With Jardevall fifty seconds up we knew outright victory was unlikely but hoped to post another fast stage time or two. The cagey veteran had our number though, despite being within one m.p.h. of his speed approaching the spectator area there were some other places on the seven-mile stage that we were clearly slower, finishing ten seconds down on run #1. The second running demonstrated the value of early road position clearly as the Evo sped off into the sunset with no dust ahead and dying winds. We took off ten minutes later with fading light and hanging dust from the cars in front, losing a further twenty seconds to Jardevall in just one stage. Oh well, at least we had a little battle going for a few stages there. It was and exciting day and we were even more excited to eat a provided chilidog dinner and not work on the car with the wrong tools into the night.

Just to make sure we were still respecting our day job, Carl and I started Sunday out with a jog through town to check out our tracks from the day before. They were rad. And someone crashed. A quick brake bleed (they get hot with triple digit speeds) and we rolled the car into our new Parc Expo position, second on the road behind Jardevall. We were stoked to get to see his tracks and feel like we were really in the hunt for the win. Turns out Carl drives a bit, well, looser than the other Carl, we were consistently entering and exiting further outside, taking more liberties with the wide roads and adjusting the line on the fly. Decker was in his groove right off the bat, driving what we thought was a solid opening stage. Jardevall laid down some track that we’ll just call generous into a downhill junction, showing us just where not to go off the road, but somehow still beat us by ten seconds. Keeping us honest we supposed… The next stage was more of the same but we kept it much closer, only seven seconds over twice the distance. It wasn’t until stage two that we got the now-familiar look of approval from the timekeepers. The Breakdown stage is a great place for just that, the smooth flowing county roads were traded for a decommissioned, overgrown route through a narrow wash, which was crossed numerous times via car-breaking rocky ditches. No matter though, Carl just kept ‘er loose and took some even greater liberties with the line (and weeds) to post a time a solid ten seconds faster than the “too shiny” Evo of our competitors. Solid.

A nice mid-day service break, lunch, some weed removal and we were on our way out of town for the final three-stage loop of the weekend. First stage was a dead heat at 4:40, then Jardevall punched it again on New York Road to eke out another few seconds, leaving the gap at 23 seconds coming into the last running of Breakdown. We’d taken down some notes as to the roughness of the ditches and corners to be cut and reckoned a faster time was definitely possible, kind of like a busted in half car was possible. The spot-on Wild West Rally crew not only kept things on time all weekend, but actually let us start a couple minutes early on the final stage. We were more than ready. Carl continued earning his black-belt rally driver status, following my commands perfectly and taking a further 10 seconds off our first run of the stage. We allowed ourselves to consider the unlikely prospect of Jardevall having gotten slower somehow on the second running on the 18 mile transit back to service and the virtual finish line. Not surprisingly, the Swede got faster as well, but only matched our first time, we took the gap down to 16 seconds on the day. Not too shabby for a couple of bike racers learning the ropes in a conservatively (cheaply) prepped car. Jardevall, usually a quiet guy, was more and more stoked throughout the day to have someone challenging him and opened up to provide some valuable advice. His Co-Driver, Jason Grahn, did the same, in between talking shit about how we couldn’t hope to beat them… it’s this kind of camaraderie that makes racing cars in the dirt equally enjoyable to racing bikes in the same medium. Must be something about pavement that makes people take things too seriously. Or maybe it’s money…

In any case, it was a weekend of racing that exceeded even our loftiest expectations and got us fired up to learn more and get better at this intriguing new sport. Carl’s dad was even more stoked than usual, having gotten to go out to a few spectator areas to see just how well his son was driving that little white car with AC/CD on the hood.

We’ll be rocking around in the Mt Hood National Forest next weekend trying to get the same kind of cheers that people love to give a car that, upon first glance, appears to be a rolling tribute to who many consider the greatest rock band of all time…

Here’s a little video we found on the internet, after this quote from our friend Byron Garth we decided not to turn on the in-car camera… “If I had the camera running I would’ve stuffed it miles before I did…” (He rolled his freshly prepped new WRX on the same corner that claimed rally vet Paul Ecklund and fellow Impreza pilot Mike Goodwin)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vGq7GmsEpg

Team Rubicon-ORBEA
Norrene Godfrey
3014 L Street
Vancouver WA 98663
Tel: 503-806-2215

For Release: Immediate Release

TEAM RUBICON IN SEARCH FOR TITLE SPONSOR FOR UCI CONTINENTAL TEAM

Portland, Oregon –Team Rubicon-ORBEA, presently known as Land Rover-ORBEA; Benefiting the
Lance Armstrong Foundation, a first year UCI continental team, is in search of a title sponsor. Rubicon’s two-year partnership with Land Rover will end December 31st, 2009.

“For 2010 the team’s goals are to grow the young development team’s roster to 13 road riders and add three development track riders with a focus on the 2012 Olympics in London,” says Godfrey, the team’s co-owner and co-founder. “We are looking to grow the team slightly to help a few more young riders reach their dreams. While leading five-to-six charity rides throughout the US in 2010 and send even more cancer survivors to the LIVESTRONG Challenge events in Seattle, California, Philadelphia and Austin.”

In order to continue on with the team goals for 2010, Team Rubicon- ORBEA needs to come up with a title sponsor by November 5th.

“Securing a title sponsor by the UCI November 5th deadline will be tough, but not completely impossible, to meet,” said Godfrey. “If there is anything we have learned from working with the Lance Armstrong Foundation over the last nine years, it is that you never tell a cancer survivor they can’t. You build your support network and you ask for help when you need it. We are asking the global cycling community for help.”

“We have all been affected by the down turn in the economy, but we can never lose sight of the people in need and whatever we can do to help support Team Rubicon-ORBEA further in their pursuit, we simply must” –Celeste Moser, Schwalbe North America.

Team Rubicon-ORBEA was born when Godfrey, a competitive cyclist, lost her mother to cancer in the fall of 2001, after being diagnosed with lung cancer and given only 6 months to live. Although her Mother gave up on life after hearing the “c” word, Norrene was determined to not give up on her Mother. Norrene contacted a friend at Nike, who reached out to Lance Armstrong directly. Lance sent Norrene’s mother one of his race jerseys with the inscription, “Fight Mom -Lance Armstrong.”

That simple gesture of kindness encouraged Norrene’s mother to wage her own personal war on cancer; giving her the strength to fight and push through countless hours of chemotherapy treatments. Even though Norrene’s mother lost her battle, she lived longer than anyone ever expected; allowing her the chance to enjoy one last summer and watch Norrene get married. In order to repay Lance for his kindness and “pay it forward,” Godfrey dreamed of a cycling team that would ride in support of the Lance Armstrong Foundation and its fight against cancer.

In 2008, Team Rubicon-ORBEA partnered with carmaker Land Rover to create Land Rover-Orbea; Benefiting the Lance Armstrong Foundation. The team is built up of primary young development riders between the ages of 19–to-25 year olds from the US, New Zealand and Canada. When traveling to NRC races through-out the US, the young professional riders spend countless hours visiting children’s hospitals handing out LIVESTRONG wristbands and helping some extremely sick children have a moment of fun during long regiments of chemotherapy and other daily treatments.

However, the teams goodwill does not stop with hospital visits. The Land Rover- ORBEA team raises funds and awareness for the Lance Armstrong Foundation through leading charity rides in Philadelphia, Utah, Portland, and more, sending seven cancer survivors to the Seattle, Philadelphia and Austin LIVESTRONG Challenges and raising over $71,000 in donations for the Lance Armstrong Foundation.

“Norrene and David Godfrey [owner and co-founder] are the two most “neverdie” people Orbea has met,” said Justin Slarks, Director of Marketing ORBEA-USA. “The two of them are the glue that has held this team together since its creation and are the two who have put all of their personal time and energies into one of the best vehicles for stewardship out there. “Team Rubicon – Orbea is the one constant in our sponsorship program and hope that we can continue as the teams bicycle sponsor for years to come.

The team earned great acclaim in 2009 for its criterium stage win at Tour of Gila by Roman van Uden. Mike Northey followed that win up with winning the U23 New Zealand Criterium Championships and Dean Tracy won the US National Team Sprint Championships in Carson, California. The young Land Rover-ORBEA team also won the best young rider jersey at Nature Valley Grand Prix, the climber’s jersey along with the team overall GC at Tour of Delta. “For a first year professional development team, the results were great,” said Norrene, “What’s truly amazing about this team is what they do off the bike, when not racing, that has them winning the hearts of so many.”

“It was a pleasure to have Land Rover-ORBEA at our events this year”, said Nature Valley Grand Prix director David LaPorte. “Our goal is to grow the fan base of cycling fans and they did a great job of interacting with the people in our host communities and at our events. They are excellent ambassadors for the sport and for their sponsors. This is a great opportunity for any company who’s interested in engagement marketing.”

More information can be found on the team at www.landrover-ORBEA.com including a short video, complete team resume and more. Contact us direct at landrover-orbea@comcast.net or by phone at 503-806-2215 or 503-806-5305.

The Constructor’s Design Challenge FRIDAY OCTOBER 2ND
A well-designed modern transportation bike is flexible, durable, able to portage reasonable loads with ease, and ready to accommodate the many small and large challenges of everyday riding. Transportation bikes should be sturdy and durable, yet nimble enough to provide all-around utility during a short trip or a longer haul.

Custom bike builders are problem-solvers. They’re able to craft integrated, highly individualized, and functional design solutions that larger production bikes can seldom accommodate. Hand built bikes are able to express beauty, utility, and individuality in equal measure.

The Design Challenge seeks to inspire builders to develop considered, integrated, and spectacular solutions for the everyday rider, as well as to educate the public about the quality, engineering ingenuity, and functionality of handbuilt bikes.

SPECIFICATIONS
• Judged by legitimately qualified judges familiar with bike fabrication and handling
• Points are awarded in 10 Design Consideration categories, weighted into 3 points groups
• Top 12 winners (and the 3 race winners) will display in the OM Bike Union for 5 weeks
• All entries will be on public display for 2 days during the Design Challenge and Race weekend
• Top winners will travel on in a display at the OBCA show and Cross Nationals in Bend, Oregon
• All participants will be featured in a coffee table book being produced around the event

DESIGN CHALLENGE CONSIDERATIONS
1.Truly sensational solution
A genuinely unique and innovative solution for transportation use. Amaze us.
2. Handling
The bike must handle equally well with and without load. Both options will be tested against turning and straight pedaling.
3. Integration
Design solutions should be integrated into a complete and harmonious whole, rather than a checklist of details.
4. Presentation and Execution
Fabrication refinement and final presentation are important indicators of skill and thoughtfulness. Extraordinary craftsmanship can be displayed equally well in the simplest brazing or the fanciest lug. Individual design solutions should build to a single visual and functional whole.
5. Overall response to the course and challenges
Entry bikes must take into consider all elements of the race course, the 10 design considerations and the overall challenges they present.
6. Load carrying
Bikes must accomodate and securely carry the rider’s award ceremony party attire, a provided 6-pack of beverage (in glass bottles), and a provided small container of party snacks.
7. Security
Bikes must be protected from theft while unattended. A smart, easy solution for securing the bike under different conditions is expected.
8. Portage
Bikes must accommodate being carried by its rider over a section of the course.
9. Utility
Bikes should accomodate the expected need for changing weather, lighting conditions, and visibility. We know that you know what this means.
10. Quality and Rattles
If elements are loose, rattling, or otherwise inoperable at the race finish, points will be deducted for each failure.

By Carl Decker

The first UCI Mountain Bike World Championships were held in Durango, CO in 1990. I was there. I was the 15-year-old on a Bridgestone bike with drop bars (just like Tomac), and a yellow “Team Decker” tee shirt. The kid who broke his brake cable on the start line after wearing it out practicing his “trials moves” in the parking lot the previous two days. The only solace in my ruined race was how cool I must have looked, wearing my peach/purple Hypercolor tee shirt and neon Bolle’ hat while hopping three or four times in a row on my (tenspeed looking) bicycle’s rear tire in that hotel parking lot on Friday afternoon.

This Saturday I was back in Durango again for another World Championships. Again Jackie Phelan, Ned Overend, and Greg Herbold were some of the 1000 people racing. Again I was wearing a cotton race kit, but this time was a little different. This time it was The Singlespeed World Championships.

So I was costumed as Ron Jeremy’s character in the (wildly un)popular movie Orgazmo. My friends, Tina and Lana were going to come as my sidekicks, Haruko and Natsuko, the @$$ &%^* Twins, but Tina ended up sick and Lana’s a good friend, so I was pretty much just standing at the start in my underwear. At least I had my eyebrows and mustache (ample, and all natural, ladies) covered in mascara to match my black wig. But without my sidekicks, I looked like a peeping tom.

My esteemed teammate, Kelli Emmett, however, picked up the slack in the costume department. “Captain Hotter” was a real crowd pleaser wherever she went, with her amazing Sexycop ™ uniform, complete with police baton/marital aid and lots of shiny bits. It was apparent she was not wearing a bulletproof vest. Lovely.

Kelli and I had a pretty good idea of the course from our former Soigneur and SSWC09 host, Elke Brutsaert. The most recent reports cautioned us of a 4-5 minute hike-a-bike. Earlier reports had warned of a 45 minute hike-a-bike, so either the climb was shortened, or the earlier reporter had gout. Either way, a 40-minute reduction in walking was good news. This climb led to 20 minutes of a crushingly rocky cliff edge trail that would have been fun on a Reign or other 6” travel wonderbike. This was followed by a descent, into the finish area, where you were sent out onto the 2nd half of the course. Here a climb stair-stepped it’s way up Horse Gulch, and eventually turned into a 3-4 (or was it 34?) minute hike to the top of a tight, smooth and fun descent back to the finish. Things seen at the top of the climb: a shrine to Racers Past, neutral fresh cooked bacon and whiskey feeds, and the largest living rattlesnake I have ever seen.

With such a formidable course, everyone was keen to run a lower gear to be competitive. That is, everyone but me, Danny Pate, and his teammate Mike Freeman from the Garmin/Chipotle ProTour team, who knew we had the power to turn over the big meat. I chose 35/16 gearing. Danny had about the same. Heavy hitters, us. Kelli wanted to gear down, but we talked her into keeping what she had. “If you’re gonna have to hike-a-bike, you might as well have a big gear on your bike, right?” This was a refrain I used at least 7 times on Thursday and Friday.

Race day dawned warm and sunny. After a pleasant drive to the venue in our borrowed Miata, or Man-yata (thanks, Elke’s roommate!), we were greeted by a throng of singlespeeders perhaps larger than any the world has ever seen. The neutral roll-out through town was massive and excited. The official starter, Jerry Action, sounded the shotgun/airhorn at the bottom of the climb to the college, and we were off. As the pointy end of the race turned into the first switchback, some dude in a black kit with yellow shoes attacked like crazy, in his drop bars and ripping across the road to the left gutter to make sure nobody caught his draft. Two minutes later he had a 150 meter lead and was in front of the film car. A few minutes after that I attacked to catch and pass him and take the lead on the flat pavement. This would be the last time of the day that I would appreciate my gear selection.

Once on the ridge, I was passed by local, Travis Brown and “Rad” Ross Schnell on their fully suspended, properly geared bicycles. It was nice to follow their lines, as this allowed me to go a little faster on the tricky rock-ridge trail. For 15 or 20 seconds, I could totally see those guys. Then they disappeared. Bummer.

Going into the “easy” second half of the course, I was in 3rd place, and felt that I might be able to bridge the gap to the leaders. Kelli and I had sneaked onto the course at 1am the night before and hidden some 1 liter bottles of Coke near a tree. Just the kind of shot-in-the-arm that I needed to get back in the mix.

With a Coke in my belly (and mustache and crotch and ear—it was a hot and fizzy 1 Liter), I attacked the next climb with great gusto. The tricky part was the stair-step uphill, which had not very flat steps and vertical bits that were, well, nearly vertical. I was quivering like a dog shitting a pinecone. At times, I was nearly holding my breath I was pushing so hard to get the pedals to turn.

At the top of the hike-a-bike climb, I saw Ross (resplendent in full length arm/leg skinsuit) for the last time. He’d go on to win a medium-sized tattoo. I ended up humping my bike to 3rd place. Kelli turned her big gear (hey, sorry ‘bout that) to 3rd as well. No tatoos for Team Giant, but had there been an omnium including Pub dwelling and costume planning, I think we’d have been contenders. Big gears and all.

At the bar that night, Danny Pate and I were swapping stories and I realized it was he that attacked at the first climb like he was going for a TDF stage win. The black kit with yellow shoes was actually a penguin costume, so I didn’t recognize him. And when I passed him, he thought “that dude in the TT helmet and wife-beater is going pretty good”. He and Mike called me filthy things for advising them to keep their tall gearing. And then Danny bought me a Black Butte Porter.

The Durango Crew did a bang-up job hosting the biggest SS Worlds ever. Kudos to them. SSWC10 is in New Zealand next year. Bring your Velcro gloves.

Hilarious. Click on the HD button if it’s not loading for you.