August | 2013 | Steve Tilford

I drove over to Steamboat Springs from Silvethorne to give my cross bikes to Kent Eriksen to have rear disc mounts put on. I’m not sure I’m going to use disc brakes, but there isn’t a down side to having the option. Hanging with Kent and Katie is always super interesting and fun.

We didn’t get here until noon, went for a short ride, and then drove up to his house up above Steamboat. He’s been doing a million projects up here and I wanted to check them all out. The guy has so much energy and vision.

Last night I was thinking about bike frame materials and the advancements in weight reduction the last decade. Some of the things that have been done is simple amazing and really good for the sport. But I’m not sure that carbon fiber frames are one of the good things. The frames might be alright for the very top end of the sport, but for everyone else, they are a liability. When I was riding Trek frames, I went through a ton of them. Don’t get me wrong, they rode great and weighed next to nothing. But it seemed like just about everytime I even sneezed, I’d break one. If I fell and someone ran into me, or I ran into someone, they broke. And falling is part of bike racing. I hate it when I break a frame and I don’t pay for them. The “hate” of breaking a frame when you do pay for them is much, much more.

Bill Marshall, Mr. KCCX, posted something on Facebook about his Fuji carbon frame being broken by someone just knocking the bike over in a stand. Wow, I bet that happens way more than you’d imagine. How depressing would that be?

Anyway, titanium doesn’t have these issues. The frames aren’t 650 grams, but you can get one close to 1000 if you wanted. Titanium has really improved over the years and there are so many options of tubing that you can get really have a custom frame with exact characteristics. And with that you get a bike that is virtually indestructible. I’ve had a Moots YBB for 15 years. I’ve thrown that bike off of cliffs, ran into logs at 25 mph, snapped off shock forks, you name it, I’ve done it and it is perfect. One of my cross bikes I’ve ridden for close to 10 years. Show me a carbon cross bike that could be ridden that long. Impossible. When I get done racing, all my bikes are going to be only titanium. It is a great material for bicycle construction, withstands the elements, super strong and pretty light. And those is the reason I ride Kent Eriksen frames. Pretty simple.

Kent is building me a new road frame this week. I’m going to go to Park City, Utah today. I’m going to try riding MTB bikes with a bunch of friends from San Diego. I’m not sure MTB riding and my body are going to sync. Mainly my fractured ribs and screwed up thumb will be issues. I plan to see Eric Heiden’s wife, who is a hand surgeon in Park City too. My thumb is still pretty unusable and I have a couple other long term issues with the hand too.

I plan to come back through Steamboat in a few days. I’m not exactly positive what I am going to do for racing over Labor Day. Most likely I’m going to race a stage race in Steamboat Springs. But there is a MTB stage race in Grand Junction. Plus always the Gateway Cup criteriums in St. Louis. I need to race, so one of these will be what I’m doing.

Okay, I need to get into town and have Kent do a few measurements and then get driving. It’s only 300 miles to Park City, so it isn’t that far.

Picture loading is a little slow up here in the mountains, so here are just a couple.

My pile of cross bike pieces.

Kent’s house up in the Aspen trees.

I’m in sort of a rush, so have to make this short. I met up with Trudi last night in Park City which was great. Bromont was kind of funny when he got out of the car. He didn’t initially see Trudi, but saw a few of the gazillion other dogs that the San Diego crew had brought with them, so he kind of freaked out. Bromont is not really much of a dog person. Anyway, eventually he caught a wiff of Trudi and then it was all good. Trudi has just one day here before she has to take a BMC team car up to Alberta, Canada for the start of the Tour of Alberta which starts early next week. Cadel is flying over for that so everything has to be in order by Thursday.

I’m staying down in Park City and the West coast people are all staying in a huge house above Deer Valley. The house is unreal, but there are lots of everything, super crowded. I’m going to ride up there in a bit and see where they are planning to head.

I haven’t ridden a MTB since I crashed up in Cable Wisconsin in early July. I jacked up my thumb, which made shifting impossible. My thumb still isn’t great, plus I fractured 3 ribs that don’t feel good either. But, you have to start somewhere and this seems to be as good a time as any. Chequemegon is in just a couple weeks and I haven’t missed that race in 15 years.

The drive from Steamboat Springs to Park City on Highway 40 is unreal. If you haven’t done that drive, you need to put it on your bucket list. Super beautiful and remote.

Okay, need to get a move on. Here are some random photos of the last 24 hours.