MAY 1993 What do you guys do with these newsletters ? Is this some kind of cult ? With groupies hanging out for the next newsletter and getting stressed out because April is late, we can only conclude that punters are hanging out to find out how to GO OFF … Sorry it’s late. Lateness is really seventies, man. CU lateness. April never existed. This is the May newsletter. And it’s early. Because here at Cycle Services we say "Why put off to today, what you can do yesterday" TECH TIP SADDLES : There is such a proliferation of bizarre saddle angles that we feel compelled to draw attention to a basic principle of saddles… *** FLAT *** As in level, not sticking upwards or downwards. One of those things with a bubble floating in the middle may be useful to check this.Why ? 1. Greg Lemond says so2. Weight distributionA downwards sloping saddle puts extra weight on the wrists and arms, and forces weight onto the front wheel, making the bike heavy and sluggish.An upward saddle puts pressure on the groin (CU !) and leaves the front wheel too light, ready for front end washouts. Yes, it’s true that some people can’t handle having their seats flat, and always need it sloping down at the front. This is because they are physically deformed… But otherwise, if you can handle a flat saddle, then Greg Lemond and other notable famous punters, ALL agree that you should LEVEL OUT.
THE WORD FROM CUBA STREET Hot word action from Cycle Services:
RIDER PROFILE – This month’s SPECIAL: Two for the price of one, and they’re both zany wild men groovers….
HOT RACE ACTION NZMBA National Cross Country Finals – PALMERSTON NORTH This race was HOT. Even driving up was exciting, as we pulled off the steep, narrow gravel road up to the start, to let crazed HELLMAN Darryn Henderson past in his big grunty ute. Next thing we saw was wild sideways powerslides, and a trail of the most impressive four wheel skid marks since the Wellington waterfront the day after the Nissan 500.Lining up at the start with all the awesome riders going off, and right from the outset Team Cycle Service was in the hunt for publicity as we etched the new purple riding jerseys into the collective psyche of the mountain bike fraternity.Firstly Steve Butland set the standard with a wild cartwheel and spectacular crash right in the middle of the bunch, Then Dave Newbury overtook twenty riders into the first corner doing a manic crossed up motorcross slide, only to crash his brains out and go straight back to the tail end place.The weather was perfect, and the track was a beautifully tortuous figure eight that took in steep hill climbs, rolling four wheel drive tracks and grass, rough downhills, mud, river crossings, wild fast downhills, technical single track and gravel roads. What else is there ? (Apart from carrying, and who needs that ?) In the space of just minutes it was possible to go from a wrist busting adrenaline frenzy mega descent overtaking riders like a fighter plane dropping out of the sky to blitz unsuspecting slow things, and then switch to being all alone, lost in a silent single forest track, a paranoid search for tyre tracks (the arrow did point up here, didn’t it ?) So it went off, and I haven’t got a clue who came where, but everybody was racing hard, and after the Karapoti this may well be one of NZ’s most epic races. Sam McMurray and Yvette Southorn both rode strongly in the Expert classes, and the rest of us cruised around with all the other slow plebs in the Sports class. (As a new sideline to pass the time while cruising with the other Sport riders – if you’re sick of watching the grass grow – play count the over $5000 bikes. There’s enough titanium at the back end of the Sport grade to keep a NASA space shuttle going off..)
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