Author Archives: Steve Tilford

Shimano – Last day in California

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I went up to Shimano and visited Wayne Stetina and the gang up there. It is always super enjoyable catching up with Wayne. He’s a pretty smart guy that sometimes has a different perspective on subjects than me, which makes me think more about my perspective.

Anyway, as usual, I was drooling over the new stuff, which I don’t have. I rode Wayne’s bike which was equipped with a 11 speed Dura-Ace mechanical group. It was unreal. The shifting and braking power is substantially better than anything they’ve ever produced. By miles. You can pretty much shift with your little finger. It was so easy to shift, I originally thought I was riding electronic shifting. The front derailleur will shift from the small ring to the big under full pressure easily. The best thing about the whole thing, and the reason I think it all works so well, is that they have some new, super slick cables that really reduces the friction in both the brakes and derailleurs. That is going to be an easy upgrade for all groups, no matter what you’re riding. Wayne says he has close to 3K on the cables, and chain, and it worked incredibly well. Better than any new parts I’ve ever ridden. I didn’t manage to make it out of there with the new parts, but I got some shoes, wheels, super slick cables, and best of all, hopefully on a list that is going to get some of these parts, sooner, rather than later.

It is really amazing how much the technology of the components have improved the last few years. It really is a fun part of the sport, if you’re into the mechanical aspect.

I met up and rode with my friend, Greg Demgen yesterday. He’s the guy in the Nevada City photo below. I’ve known Greg since I was 14. He drove down to Lawrence Kansas, from LaCrosse, Wis, for nearly the first race I ever did, and beat up on me. So, it is getting close to 40 years of riding with Greg. Pretty cool. He’s doing good. He works for Squadra, custom cycling clothing, but is really a chauffeur for his son, Chris, who is an awesome baseball player and seems to practice more hours than I ride my bike a week. Anyway, it was nice catching up some.

So, I’m flying back to Kansas later this afternoon. I know it is just about the first day of summer, but it already came to Eastern Kansas. The temperatures have been in the upper 90’s all week and it doesn’t look like they are going to go down anytime soon. The Tour of Kansas City historically has super hot temperatures, so this will be the norm. I’m going to suffer like a dog.

Wayne isn't in the office that much. Even when he is, he's on the phone a bunch.

The new cranks might look a little unorthadox, but they make a ton of sense from an engineering perspective.

Wayne, after special ordering me some shoes. Not the best photo, but he is super light right now. Really skinny. I'm not sure how he does it being on the road so much.

The Shimano warehouse is huge and very impressive.

Here is Greg's saddle, an old Turbo. He stock piled them, realizing it was his favorite saddle of all time.


I was riding South along the coast highway and my friend, Brent Prenzlow, was riding North, pulled a u-turn and rode with me for awhile. He is wearing the winner’s jersey from the Waffle Ride/Race, from back in April.

Shitty Flight

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Yesterday I didn’t get out of California until nearly 6 pm. So it was going to be a late night already, but it got worse. There were a bunch of thunderstorms mulling around Eastern Kansas all night, so the last 30 minutes of the flight were pretty choppy. Coming in to land, it got much worse. Bad enough that I got motion sick during the landing. I didn’t like it at all. It takes a lot to get me motion sick on a plane. Guess that was the case. On top of it all, the flight was late, so by the time I got my bike and took the shuttle to the car it was nearly 1:45am.

It was raining like crazy for the 80 mile drive home. I decided to stop at a Waffle House to eat a waffle and get some hot tea, thinking it might calm my stomach. Plus, sitting out the storm for a little bit wasn’t a bad idea either. There were two guys and a girl that worked there, standing outside under a awning, smoking, watching the storm. No one was inside. I said hi as I walked in and they all followed. I told the all I needed was a waffle and hot tea.

One of the guys asks me about the my van and if it came diesel standard. I told him yes. We talked about the van for a little bit and then he went back and made the waffle. The three of them were talking about just lots of different stuff. They started about their hours and how none of them planned to work the next night, but all of them thought they might have to. Then it was about brothers and sisters. They had talked a little bit when the guy that was making the waffle says he has 6 brothers and 5 sisters. The other two didn’t really say anything about his comment. I was thinking, “Wow, how could you pass up a comment on that?”

Anyway, when I left, I asked the guy if he really had 11 siblings. He said yes. That is why he was so interested in the van. He said they all drove around in one, but a bigger one with 4 rows of long seats. I wished the 3 of them a good night and then thought most of the way back upon my 15 minutes at Waffle House. Those guys were working all night for 7 something an hour. The one guy grew up in a family of 14. I felt a lot better after eating. But I think I felt better because I got a stark reality check on what it is like to have a hard day/life. Their situation made my life seem enchanted. Even with the shitty landing.

I ate lunch at the Torrey Pines Glider Port yesterday.

Here's Sue at the Glider Port.

I finally made it to my favorite bakery, Thyme in the Ranch, at Rancho Santa Fe.

I got a cinimmon roll, which was great.

I love Waffle House waffles. Especially at 2:30 am in a thunderstorm.

On a sadder note, the artist Leroy Neiman died yesterday. He was most famous as the artist of the Olympic Games, even though he did much work for Playboy magazine. He was 91, so he lived a long, productive life.