Mountain Bike: Its early origins

(Originally published in the August 26 to Sept. 1, 2012 issue of the Baguio Chronicle ---

a weekly newspaper based in Baguio City, Philippines ---

by Sly L. Quintos, Associate Editor.)

ALTHOUGH most of the credit to the beginnings of mountain bikes is given to a northern California group that was around in the ‘70s, people have been riding bikes off-road for nearly as long as bikes have been around.

One of the earliest references you can find was a group of black soldiers in the 1890s. 

Known as the 25th Infantry U.S. Army Bicycle Corps stationed at Fort Missoula, Montana and set out in 1896 until 1897 across the country on their single-speed bikes that were modified for long distance travel with supplies over rough terrain. They weighed about 70lbs-120lbs when loaded.

Lt. James A. Moss led the company of black soldiers on several obstacle intensive test runs of the iron two-wheeled alternative to horses for transportation. Their two greatest trips of note were a nearly 800 mile round trip ride from Missoula to Yellowstone and a 1,900 mile one-way trip to St Louis, Missouri and returning to Missoula by train. 

The 25th Infantry gained fame and was nicknamed the Buffalo Soldiers who were probably in better shape than most of us are today.

Another well-known group of “mountain bike pioneers” was the Velo Cross Club Parisian (France) in the early 1950s that developed a bicycling sport that was similar to modern mountain biking. 

This group of cyclists was customizing their 650-B bikes with some remarkable modifications for their time. They had handlebar shifters, fat tires, and even some suspension.

650B is an old tire size designation for what is known today as 584mm ETRO --- a currently obscure size, at least in North America, that has been used in the past on some of the finest bicycles. The 584mm sits nicely between the standard road bike wheel size --- the 622mm ETRO (i.e. 700c) --- and the standard 559mm ETRO (i.e. 26”) for off road bikes.  The tires currently available in the U.S. range from about 30mm wide to 38mm wide, though there are other sizes available in Europe.

Just several years later, in 1955 in the UK, the Rough Stuff Fellowship or RSF was formed by cyclists who focused on off-road and hard terrain biking. Bikes then were a world away from their modern-day counterparts. Steel frames, no suspension, no disk or V-brakes. The RSF promotes responsible access to the countryside. It has a Code of Practice which members are asked to adhere to. 

Further credit goes to a guy named John Finley Scott who modified his bike “The Woodsie” in 1953 for fun rides in the outdoors. He too had shifting gears, fat tires, flat handlebars etc.

Although all of these sources sound much like mountain bikes, nothing really ever developed from their efforts.

Most of the credit for the success of the modern day mountain bike goes to a group of riders from Marin County, California who were developing their own versions of mountain bikes in the 1970's. They even had their own races that they liked to call the Repack Downhill. The name Repack came from when they always had to repack their rear hubs/brakes after burning them out on the way down.

Although they weren't the first to put big tires, flat handlebars, cantilever brakes, or even derailleurs, on a bike built for the mountains, they did spawn all of mountain biking as we know it today. From a few of these pioneers came the marketing, innovations and technologies that tipped mountain biking into the mainstream.

To most, names like Joe Breeze, Otis Guy, Gary Fisher, and Tom Ritchey don't mean much, but those of us who know the industry, these guys are the ones who built it. Mike Sinyard who joined in just a little later should also get quite a bit of credit for bringing the first real mass produced mountain bikes to the market.

From there, it's just been one innovation after another for nearly 30 years.

While the general layout of mountain bikes such as flat handlebars, derailleurs, big tires, and powerful brakes, has not changed, a lot of the details of mountain bikes have evolved over the years in ways that have altered the sport immensely.

Probably the biggest changes that have influenced the user experience in mountain biking have been with the introduction of front and rear suspension.

Suspension forks (front suspension) were introduced in the late 80's and our hands have been happy ever since. Suspension forks have proven to not only increase control but make a much more comfortable ride, and are now included on nearly every modern mountain bike.

Rear suspension (also introduced in the late 80's), like suspension forks, has also proven to keep riders under control in more situations. The rider comfort level is greatly improved with rear suspension as well. There are numerous different types of rear suspensions and rear suspension linkages that perform at different levels.

Disk brakes were introduced in the early 90's and have also made quite a difference when it comes to performance enhancing innovations. Disks are more reliable in more situations and have nearly limitless power when compared to some of the older cantilever style brakes that they replace.

Other innovations have come in materials and manufacturing that have resulted in increased performance, part life, and significant weight reduction. Some of the biggest advancements have been in frame materials such as carbon fiber and advanced Aluminum alloys. Other advancements such as indexed shifting, the threadless headset, and better bottom brackets, have made bikes easier to work on and longer lasting.

P

The mountain bikes of today are much faster, lighter, reliable, and way more expensive than the bikes of the past.

The typical modern day mountain bike has 4, 5, or 6 inches of travel in both the front and rear. The weight of a full suspension cross country race bike can easily be as low as 22 pounds with no compromise. Downhill race bikes may have as much as 10 inches of travel and can take 30 foot drops.

Our bikes and the parts on them are engineered to perform flawlessly and will last much longer than anything we had even 10 years ago.

There will be plenty of advancements in suspension and materials in the future, but what will probably make the biggest difference to us will be a replacement of the front and rear derailleur and maybe even the chain.*

Who can stop Go? About Road Rage

(Originally published in the August 19 to 25, 2012 issue of the Baguio Chronicle ---

a weekly newspaper based in Baguio City, Philippines ---

by Sly L. Quintos, Associate Editor.)

A WAVE of condemnation by netizens has spread like a wildfire on social media networks after a Metro Manila motorist was caught on video assaulting a traffic enforcer who called the motorist’s attention for a wrong turn at the corner of Capitol Hills Drive and Tandang Sora in Quezon City.

Robert “Blair” Carabuena, a resourcing supervisor at cigarette maker Philip Morris Fortune Tobacco Corp. (PMFTC), was caught on video by TV5network producers while mauling a Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) traffic enforcer identified as Saturnino Fabros. 

“I don't want to imagine what could've happened if this Blair Carabuena had a gun in his car,” Jong D.G. tweeted. Twitter user Kristine said: "One of the reasons why Pinas is not improving is because of some people who think highly of themselves."

“We may have a lot of things against the government but it does not warrant us to act like arrogant douche bags," Vincent Benjamin said via Twitter while Pau Rosales tweeted: “They (MMDA officers) work rain or shine to make sure our traffic situation is somehow bearable, must we abuse them? They are also humans.”

ON July 2, 1991, 25-year-old Eldon Maguan, a De La Salle University engineering student, was driving his car down a one-way street in San Juan and nearly collided with Rolito Go's vehicle, which was traveling the wrong way. The businessman got off his car and shot Maguan who died a few days later.

Go was convicted in 1993 of murder in absentia after he escaped from the Rizal Provincial Jail a few days before the sentencing. Go was finally caught in 1996 in Pampanga and then served his life imprisonment sentence at the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa. Early this year, Go was transferred from the prison's maximum security facility to the minimum security area, allowing him to walk around the facility without security escorts.

Just this week, the Department of Justice said Go “has gone missing and may have been kidnapped”. Justice Secretary Leila De Lima confirmed that Go has been unaccounted for at the New Bilibid Prisons (NBP) since 11:30 p.m. of August 14 during the inmates’ head count.

The assault of Carabuena on Farbos and the killing of Maguan by Go are cases of aggressive or angry behavior by a driver of an automobile or other motor vehicles known as ROAD RAGE.

Road rage is a serious threat to public safety. As an extreme case of aggressive driving, it can be unsafe, thereby threatening other motorists as well as pedestrians. Some transportation experts claim that traffic congestion may be considered as a contributing factor to driver frustration subsequently leading to road rage. It includes rude gestures, verbal insults, deliberately driving in an unsafe or threatening manner, or making threats, leading to verbal altercations, physical assaults, and collisions which result in injuries and even deaths.

In the US, more than 300 reported cases of road rage yearly have ended with serious injuries or even fatalities. According to a six-year AAA Foundation study that examined police records nationally, there were 1,200 road rage incidents per year.

As early as 1997, therapists in the US have been working to certify road rage as a medical condition. Road rage is already an official mental disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. According to an article published by the Associated Press in 2006, “the behaviors typically associated with road rage are the result of intermittent explosive disorder.” This previously-published conclusion was drawn from surveys of some 9,200 adults in the US between 2001 and 2003 and was funded by the National Institute of Mental Health.

A 2007 study of the largest US metropolitan areas concluded that the cities with the least courteous drivers (most road rage) are Miami, Phoenix, New York, Los Angeles and Boston. In 2009, New York, Dallas/Fort Worth, Detroit, Atlanta and Minneapolis/St. Paul were rated as the top five “Road Rage Capitals” of the United States.

Sadly, there are still no comprehensive road rage statistics in the Philippines. We can only cite some.

On November 18, 2009, 27-year-old Renato Victor Ebarle Jr.’s vehicle had nearly collided with another SUV driven by a foreign-looking man on Santolan Road, Quezon City. The man reportedly blocked Ebarle’s path, stepped out of his blue Honda CRV, with the diplomatic plate number 20903, and shot Ebarle --- the son of an undersecretary for the Office of the Presidential Chief of Staff --- three times at close range through the car's windshield before escaping. The suspect’s SUV was later traced to Stephen Pollard, a British economist at the Asian Development Bank.

Police later identified the alleged killer as American Jason Ivler, 27, son of Pollard’s wife Marlene Aguilar (Freddie Aguilar’s sister) from a previous marriage.

Another motorist, Manolito Cuya, 47, said that the night before Ebarle was killed, Ivler pointed a gun at him in New Manila, Quezon City after he blew his horn at Ivler’s vehicle on Hemady Street in Quezon City, saying: "Masuwerte ka may kasama kang mga bata. Pero pag nakita kita uli, papatayin na kita (You're lucky you have children with you. If I see you again, I'll kill you)." Cuya was with his wife, sister-in-law, daughter, and niece at the time.

Police raided three houses in Quezon City in November but failed to find Ivler. A manhunt was launched for the “armed and dangerous” American, with P1 million offered to anyone who could provide information leading to his arrest. Ivler’s name was also included in the International Police Organization’s ‘red notice’ list, which meant he could be arrested abroad and deported to the Philippines.

On Nov. 27, Ivler’s mother went to the National Bureau of Investigation and claimed that the allegations against her son came about after she wrote a book ‘that denounces America and its killing machine’. Aguilar also said she had no information on the whereabouts of her son, whom she described as ‘a highly trained soldier’ from the US Special Operations command who had been sent to ‘risky’ missions in Iraq. He received an ‘honorable discharge in October 2008.

On December 23, a Quezon City judge issued an arrest warrant, without bail, for Ivler. In the same month, Aguilar told police she had received an e-mail from Ivler saying he was in Hawaii (where he finished AB Psychology at the Hawaii Pacific University) and that her son would not surrender without a fight. 

On 18 January 2010, Jason was arrested by agents of the National Bureau of Investigation or NBI in his mother's home in, Quezon City. Two NBI operatives were wounded after Jason instigated a brief shootout. Jason sustained gunshot wounds in his right shoulder and in his abdomen that cut through his spleen and large intestines.

Ivler also figured in a 2004 vehicular accident on the C-5 Ortigas flyover that killed Nestor Ponce, then presidential adviser for resettlement, and injured Ponce’s wife and another passenger. For the 2004 incident, Ivler was charged in a Pasig City court with reckless imprudence resulting in homicide and slight physical injuries. He pleaded guilty to the lighter crime and was sentenced to public censure. He asked the court to quash the more serious charges, claiming double jeopardy, but his motion was denied. Ivler’s petition for review is pending at the Supreme Court.

When he was 22, Jason was charged with homicide due to reckless imprudence when, in August 2004, he reportedly lost control of his Toyota Land Cruiser and crashed to an Isuzu Trooper. This resulted in the death of Nestor Ponce Jr. who was President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s adviser for resettlement. Jason posted bail and allegedly attempted to flee to Malaysia by boat but was arrested in Zamboanga City. He was considered a fugitive after failing to appear in the homicide case hearings that are still pending in a Pasig City court.

Early this year, Bureau of Customs Commissioner Paulino Elevado (and his companion Florencio Bato) mauled a 20-year old student during a traffic altercation along the South Luzon Express Way. Elevado then shot at the student’s vehicle as he drove off in his P5-million Porsche. Security cameras on SLEx caught the incident.

On June 21, 2009, a traffic altercation turned into a deadly family feud, leaving six people dead. The trouble started at a traffic jam on the Nueño Avenue in Imus, Cavite as Sowaib Salie repeatedly honked his vehicle's horns at the car in front driven by Raul Bautista. A confrontation erupted when both motorists arrived at the public market. Bautista then left the scene only to come back later with reinforcement in tow. A brief firefight left six people dead, including Bautista, his two sons and the family driver, and Salie and his fellow trader Mahmod Sultan.

In 1998, Feliber Andres family's All Saints’ Day eve pilgrimage to the Loyola Memorial Park in Marikina took a ghastly turn when their vehicle nearly collided with the one driven by Inocencio Gonzalez. Noel Andres tailed Gonzalez’ vehicle first before he cut his path which resulted in a confrontation between the two motorists. In the heat of the argument, Gonzalez pulled out a gun and shot at the Andres’ vehicle, hitting Andres and his pregnant wife, their two-year old son, and their nephew. Feliber did not survive the attack but the doctors were able to save her baby. The son and the nephew were discharged from the hospital a few days later. Gonzalez was found guilty of murder and two counts of frustrated murder in 1999. The Supreme Court then modified the 2001 trial court's decision, finding him guilty of homicide.

On January 10, 2003, Jay Llamas was traversing the northbound lane of Taft Avenue when his Toyota Corolla was bumped by a motorcycle as they neared the Buendia intersection. Llamas and the unnamed motorcycle driver got into a heated argument which ended when the suspect drew a gun and shot Llamas at close range three times--twice in the head and once in the body. The suspect then hailed a parked tricycle and fled the scene. The case remains unsolved to this date.

On October 2, 2007, Edgardo Canizares was traveling with a passenger along Gen. Roxas Street near the corner of Shaw Boulevard when his Nissan Cefiro almost hit the car of Manuel Hernandez Jr., a Pasig City Hall legal officer and nephew of a Sandiganbayan Justice. Hernandez was reportedly driving against the flow of traffic, prompting an angry Canizares to get out of his car and insult Hernandez. Hernandez pulled out a gun and shot Canizares four times and his passenger, twice. Homicide charges were filed against Hernandez but he was freed after posting an P80,000 bail.*

Riding between raindrops

(Originally published in the August 12 to 18, 2012 issue of the Baguio Chronicle ---

a weekly newspaper based in Baguio City, Philippines ---

by Sly L. Quintos, Associate Editor.)

RIDING under the rain or in an inclement weather is a discipline by itself.

For the cyclist, visibility is a necessity of life, like food and water. Bright clothing and equipment is the cyclist’s first line of defense. Chose the brightest ones you can stand. Think in terms of drivers who are road-weary, timid and inattentive, often with wet or dirty windshields. Wear anything that attracts attention such as reflector vests. Even if you have the best lighting systems, many motorists won’t see you. If you have to ride in an inclement weather or if you are caught in it, be aware that you are virtually invisible.

Wet weather impairs traction, braking and visibility, both for the cyclist and for the other vehicles sharing the road. The risk of an accident is dramatically increased in wet conditions. Under wet conditions, the stopping power of your brakes (as well as the brakes of the other vehicles on the road) is dramatically reduced and your tires don’t grip nearly as well. This makes it harder to control speed and easier to lose control. To make sure that you can slow down or stop safely in wet conditions, ride more slowly and apply your brakes more gradually than you would under normal, dry conditions. Remember that you have to squeeze much harder to slow down or stop when your rims are wet. 

The ideal clothing for cycling on a rainy weather is yet to be perfected though they have dramatically improved through the years. The trouble with rainwear for active sports is that any clothing that covers your body and is waterproof traps your perspiration. If the air and rain outside are cool, chilling the clothing, then the moisture evaporating from your skin even though you are not sweating condenses on the inside surface of the raingear like a dew, soaking you from the inside.

Since it is impossible to make a suit that sheds the rain from outside and completely eliminates condensation and perspiration problems, any cycling raingear is bound to be a compromise.

Riding into the rain creates additional problem because rain will pour through any ventilation openings in the front of your protective gear. Even if your bike is equipped with fenders and mud guards to minimize splash from your own wheels, you are likely to catch a lot of spray from cars, generally mixed with mud.

Many cyclists simply ignore the problem, choosing to get wet if it starts to rain. If you are not wearing a protective gear and if the weather is cold, you can lose a lot of body heat, draining your energy reserves and badly chilling the body. If you are cycling in prolonged rain, you may be a lot more comfortable if you can keep the amount of mud and precipitation hitting you to a minimum.

One type of rain garment is the cyclist’s cape which covers the upper body and hooks over the thumbs or handlebars to form a “rolling tent”. One problem though is that it obscures your vision of the road directly beneath you, distorting your perceptions and reactions. In order for the cape to be of any use at all, fenders may be used to cut the spray from below and rain pants may be necessary. But the cape increases wind resistance, flaps badly when riding fast, and acts like a sail to carry you in the direction of the wind whenever there is a gust or a passing truck thereby posing a severe hazard.

A rain suit is another alternative. While it covers most of your body and creates less wind resistance, it increases condensation problems and the trapping of sweat. 

The traditional hood used on parkas for mountaineering and backpacking should not be worn while cycling because it is difficult to take a quick glace over your shoulder while wearing one. The hood continues to face straight ahead while your head turns inside and all you can see are the inside seams of the parkas instead of the car bearing down on you from the rear.

First used in 1969 as an alternative to fabric coatings, a film called Gore-Tex® is sandwiched in between a lightweight nylon fabric and an inner material, usually a light, non-woven mesh. The film, made of a material similar to Teflon®, has billions of pores so small that liquid water droplets cannot pass through in most circumstances, but molecules of water vapor can. The material is thus waterproofed but allows water vapor evaporated from the skin to pass through so that condensation and perspiration build-up are far less that with conventional coated nylon. 

Gore-Tex® is a great improvement over the other materials. But it is expensive and requires greater care since dirt can act as a wetting agent, reducing the surface tension of water droplets and allowing them to leak through the pores. Fairly frequent washing is therefore necessary. And whether a raingear made of Gore-Tex® is worth the considerable additional cost depends on your budget.

Until then and have a safe ride all the time. Put on that cycling helmet each time you get on your bike. Remember: YOU CAN BEAT THE EGG WITHOUT BREAKING THE SHELL.* 

Individual Time Trials

(Originally published in the August 5 to 11, 2012 issue of the Baguio Chronicle ---

a weekly newspaper based in Baguio City, Philippines ---

by Sly L. Quintos, Associate Editor.)

GREAT Britain's Bradley Wiggins became his country's most successful Olympian ever this week after winning gold at the men's Olympic time trial at Hampton Court Palace, London. Wiggins finished ahead of time trial world champion Tony Martin (Germany) and Chris Froome (Great Britain) to secure the seventh Olympic medal of his career and fourth gold.

The 2012 Tour de France winner Wiggins, who is unbeaten in any full time trials since this year, won by a margin of 42 seconds amid jubilant scenes in London, capping a dream year for the 32-year-old. Defending champion Fabian Cancellara (Switzerland) was not in his best form and could not contend with the leaders.

Earlier on, Cadel Evans, one of Australia's main medal hopes in the men's road cycling time-trial, has been forced to withdraw “due to fatigue”. The winner of last year's Tour de France, Evans has had a tough month and struggled with a virus in the last week of the Tour de France but took part in the Olympic road race finishing 79th.

-o0o-

AN individual time trial or ITT is a type of bicycle race in which a cyclist race alone against the clock. ITT's are also referred to as ‘the race of truth’, as winning depends only on each rider's strength and endurance and not on help provided by team-mates and others riding ahead and creating a slipstream.

Starting times are at equal intervals, usually one or two minutes apart. The starting sequence is usually based on the finishing times in preceding races (or preceding stages in the case of a multi-stage race) with the highest ranked cyclist starting last. Starting later gives the racer the advantage of knowing what time they need to beat (and also makes the event more interesting to spectators). The rider with the fastest time is declared the winner.

Unlike in the road race which requires team tactics, slipstreaming and carefully-timed bursts of power, time trial a competitor race alone. Any help between riders is forbidden. Competitors are not permitted to draft (or ride in the slipstream) behind each other.

Bicycle construction is limited by regulations by the Union Cycliste Internationale or UCI (International Cycling Union in English) based in Switzerland. The UCI also issues racing licenses to riders and enforces disciplinary rules such as in matters of doping. The UCI also manages the classification of races and the points ranking system in various cycling disciplines for both men and women, amateur and professional. 

Current UCI regulations say that the bicycle must be accessible to all participants. It must be marketed (i.e. available for sale on the market) or marketable (i.e. available for sale directly from the manufacturer, by subscription or through an alternative distribution network). Prototypes and the use of equipment specially designed for a particular athlete, event or performance is prohibited. “Special design” means a bicycle with a technical added value when compared with other equipment. It must be designed and constructed to the highest professional standards in accordance with official quality and safety criteria in a manner that respects the UCI’s Technical Regulations, allowing the rider to adopt, without difficulty or risk, the required positions (support points, tip of saddle behind bottom bracket, position of hands on the handlebars, overall rider position).

At the professional level, time trials (TTs) are frequently accompanied by motorcycles, some carrying video equipment or race officials, and riders may be followed by a team car carrying coaches and spare parts. But the cyclists are not permitted to draft behind the vehicles. Race regulations typically dictate a minimum distance behind the cyclist which the car must maintain and a minimum gap that must exist between two cyclists before the car may enter that gap.

The aerodynamic profile of rider and bicycle has a huge impact on the outcome of the race. Components are designed to be as aerodynamic as possible as most of the rider's effort goes into overcoming aerodynamic drag. The rider's position makes the greatest difference and most use the now-standard tuck position, using tri-bars to allow the rider to position their arms in-line with the wind and allow their back to sit as low and flat as possible, reducing frontal area and improving air flow around the body. 

The riders wear one-piece suits that are even tighter than ordinary cycling gear and the absence of creases and flaps in the fabric reduce aerodynamic drag and the elongated fin on the back of the helmet acts as a fairing to smooth airflow.

The bikes themselves are similarly advanced. Time trial bikes often have handlebars lower than normal road racing bikes to facilitate aerodynamics. The handlebars are long and narrow and stick out in front of the bike like cow horns, forcing a rider to lean far forward with elbows tucked beneath them and a very straight, flat back. This is the most aerodynamic position allowed by the rules but it keeps the rider’s hands away from the brakes and means that they steer with their bodies for all but the tightest corners.

The tubes making up the bike have a variety of oval, square and wing-shaped profiles depending on where the air is expected to hit them. The riders will often opt for a disc wheel on the back rather than an ordinary-spoke bicycle wheel because a single smoothly spinning disc creates less drag than eighteen spokes individually beating the air. Truly daring riders occasionally opt for front and rear disc wheels for added aerodynamic performance, but these make the bike almost uncontrollable if they’re hit by a side wind and few riders will risk it.

The saddle is sometimes moved forward relative to the handlebars and bottom bracket to allow the hips a more natural angle of motion, improving performance (for UCI-sanctioned events, the saddle must be a certain distance behind a vertical line drawn through the centre of the bottom bracket).*