Spanking Stories

Cross Season is begonnen!

Sat, 24 Sep 2011 09:43:00-0700

The original founders of Bailey had a strong showing the opening week of cross season with 3 UCI races in 5 days. Finishing on the lead lap with Bart Wellens and the likes of Team Fidea and Rabobank surprised us. Behrens was the top Socal finisher at CrossVegas - finally cashing some checks for all that suffering we did with our cross focused training this year. Behrens doing his part to fund the Monocogue frames..

Sram R2C Troubleshooting

Sun, 19 Dec 2010 16:47:00-0700

Like any other self-respecting engineer, I tore into my R2C shifters without reading the instructions. After springs and parts were all found, I read to find that you are NOT to remove the assembly bolt. After some web-searching, it seems that no one has a schematic for the internals and SRAM expects you to return it (void of warranty mind you). Here is how you get it back together. Image 1 is the pile of parts. Note that my coil spring was broken (only one bent finger at the end - some pliers fixed that). The other images is how it is supposed to look. The two red arrows are to show that the rotary compression spring (coil spring) needs to be compressed until you can get the bent tabs over the retaining feature on the shifter body. The plate has a long portion that sits down between the two tabs to provide the spring force to "return to center".

Latest project

Tue, 20 Apr 2010 21:14:00-0700

The wounds of the long cross season are healed and what better a way to re-open them than with a new ride? We also have some surprises coming for this cross season -stay tuned.

The 22nd and 28th fastest guys in the world in the 35-39 age group who paid the money to get there

Wed, 27 Jan 2010 16:45:00-0700

The big race was finally here. Not really that big though. Almost average for a SoCal race actually, but it did cost spectators 3.5 Euros to get into the park--so we were happy to have 3.5 Clinkspoors to cheer us on and help with any language issues (which there weren't for the most part). The Bailey Boys, Bart, and his son Rene--Stybar's biggest fan. Pretty much business as usual as a typical travel race. We got there early enough to scope out some of the lines and see how they were developing in the sand. Registration was no problem and very efficient. Bart had hooked us up with trainers so we could warm up; this time we actually got going with our warm up on schedule, a solid hour before our race. We warmed up for 45 minutes, changed into our outfits and headed to the start area. We were a bit tentative, and thus, a bit early. We were hot warming up, but it was 2 or 3 °C and we had a solid 15-20 minutes until our start, which comes out to about 18 minutes metric. The callup is completely random except for any previous year's champion; was called up pretty far back, and Bailey in the row behind me--I don't know about fifth row, but the Euros totally pack in so we were completely crammed and elbowing while standing at the line. So by this time we were freezing, and I could not feel my hands for three or four laps. I had a good start and clip-in, but otherwise it was total chaos. We were both dismounting before we even hit the first sand section--the section that we were clearing the entire stretch in practice. But here, for the both of us, was our key mistake for the entire race: once we hit the hard packed sand at the water's edge, we both tried remounting and riding; but basically, everyone else is as well, and going slow; so you're just waiting in line to go slow. In hindsight I should have simply jogged casually through the deep sand--we would have ran past 10+ guys. Had we sprinted . . . Bailey through the sand: After the chaos of the entire first lap, Bailey and I were pretty close to each other for the first half of the race. About half way, we hit the long road section with two or three other guys and Bailey got a gap off the front of this group. I rolled up next to them to show that I was wearing the same kit, so they'd better get to pulling my ass up this road. Bailey started catching guys, and I eventually rode off from the chasers. In the end Bailey was 22nd and I came in 28th. Neither of us really fired full on and found the course a bit tight and single-tracky without too much in the way of speed sections. The grooves and the sand were definitely a blast; and our 45 minute race required enough power through the various sand sections to make us sore the next day. Now, after four-and-a-half months, the season was finally over, Godverdomme. When your season ends in Belgium, at least our season, you celebrate with mousel en frieten. With the rest or our Belgie family, we packed up Mr. Clinckspoor's Buick and headed to Overmeer, er somewhere, and we each these gigantic bowls of mussels, mine steamed with white wine--and of course all-you-can-eat frites. After mussels, Bart took us to Den . . . Den . . . Den Scrambled Eggs (I can't spell the name) for a nightcap. Then it was finally dessert time--to the Frituur! I had curry catsup, Bailey had Samari Sauce, and Bart did "pickles", which seems to be pickles in an orange colored mayonnaise. Dessert:

2009 Season is on!

Sat, 03 Oct 2009 09:34:00-0700

We are now in our 3rd week of racing with a solid start to the season. The bikes are really getting attention and we have representation in most parts of the country. Interbike went well and despite some fouled up results, the founders were both in the top half of the results in the stacked Elite field at CrossVegas.

2010 Cyclocross Frames finished production.

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 17:05:00-0700

Here they are - should be fully inspected and ready for delivery by mid-July.

Welcome CX Magazine Readers!

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 13:34:00-0700

We're proud to see our Miniluv reviewed in our favorite source of all things cyclocross, Cyclocross Magazine. So grab the latest issue and give it a read! While you're here, take a look around. We offer a lot of good stuff, including a new family of carbon wheelsets. And stay tuned, because we've got even more cross-tastic components on the way.

National Championships

Sat, 10 Jan 2009 15:25:00-0700

Team Bailey finished off the season with some impressive results at nationals in Kansas City. Founders John Behrens and John Bailey finished 5th and 9th in the Masters 35-39 race while Mark Noble finished 2nd in the 45-49 group! For the elite race, the temps dropped into the teens but Behrens and Bailey toughed it out to finish 48th and 67th after snapping his chain. Cyclocross magazine took some time to do a review of the Miniluv so expect to see a write-up in the near future.

09 O'Brien

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 06:32:00-0700

The alloy front triangle O'Brien has finally completed production. Same exact geometry as the Miniluv full carbon lugged frame except the front triangle is alloy. Here is a sneak peak:

Congrats Proia!

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 06:31:00-0700

Mark Proia of Portland, Oregon won the final race of the Cross Crusade series and secured 2nd overall in the series. This was his first win of the year. He was in a lead group of 4 riders and made an spectacular effort opting to run instead of ride the muck that lead up to the finish. Congrats and great job!

09 Road Frame

Fri, 07 Nov 2008 18:38:00-0700

Here is a spy shot of our new 09 road frame. We are offering wholesale pricing for pre-orders received this week or next. Delivery scheduled for January. Features include: Sub 950gr weight Asymmetric 1.5"x1.125" headset Internal top tube cable routing

Velo News

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 20:30:00-0700

An unexpected little gem in this month's Velo News. Co-founder John Behrens fighting his way up after a start-line crash to a solid 39th place finish at the UCI CrossVegas race.

Cross Season

Sat, 01 Nov 2008 16:09:00-0700

We haven't completely fallen off the planet - but the cross season has taken a real chunk of bandwidth out of our busy schedules. Unfortunately, yours-truly busted up his shoulder last week so now I have more time to ramble on the blog. The new frames are really working out great this season. We daily get emails from happy customers raving about the handling of their new baby - THAT is why we do this. We have some alloy front triangle (O'Brien) frames in production right now - here is a teaser:

CrashVegas

Sun, 28 Sep 2008 22:42:00-0700

A few of us hit the road for Interbike and the UCI Cross race in Vegas. Some celebrity chaser showed up to race that made the whole thing even more chaotic. His name is slipping me at the moment, but he won the tour 7 times and is supposedly making a go for 8 after coming out of retirement. We were caught in a pileup 2 seconds after the gun went off so most of the race was us chasing to salvage anything of a finish. Chasing the pack that is lead by the top pros in the US is kinda like that terrier chasing the car down the road. It was a fun race and even with the mishap, we still faired pretty well...at least better than Berhens' carbon wheel with a hole in it from either my pedal or someone stomping on it. Behrens finished 39th and I finished 51st. Lana was representing in the Women's pro event and even though she is just coming back from her offseason, she still squeezed out a 26th place finish.

08/09 Carbon Cross Frame and SILK wheels

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 22:26:00-0700

It has been a lot of training miles since our last post - anxiously awaiting our 08/09 cross season products. Here are a few photos of the carbon frame "Miniluv" and our cross specific carbon wheels developed by our builder. These Silk wheels are comparable to the Easton aero wheels except that they have external spoke nipples for those cross mishaps that require truing - not to mention the gold blinged out spokes (gold grill sold separately). Why anyone would design wheels that require you to remove the tubular to true them is beyond me. We will debute these beauties at the UCI race in Vegas Sept. 24th.