Author Archives: Steve Tilford

Austin Texas, Home away from Home

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I graduated high school early and came down to Austin Texas to train. I lived in a small apartment with my friend, Dennis Scott, from Kansas City, and worked at Conan’s Pizza on 29th. That was over 30 years ago. There was then a big time lapse of coming to Austin. I did all my spring training in San Diego and the racing scene in Texas was sort of flat for a long time, so there wasn’t much of a reason to come down.

That was until 8 years ago, when in Kansas, we had real sucky February weather. There had been a ton of snow on the ground for over a week, so I decided to pack up and drive down to Texas to do the Walberg Road Race and Pace Bend. Catherine, Trudi, and Bromont came with me and we stayed in the La Quinta in Georgetown for $30 a night, including breakfast. I thought, man, for just $200 a week, you could hang here in the spring and train. I did pretty good there, finishing 3rd in Walberg and winning Pace Bend.

The next season, I called Barry Lee, the cycling czar of Austin, about coming down. He was promoting Pace Bend. He was super accommodating, saying he could set me up with housing at the Hotel San Jose for the week. I’d heard about the hotel and was super excited about staying there. But, Barry kept saying that he had some awesome host housing and kept saying I should really stay there. I told him that I wasn’t big on host housing, especially in the winter. I was worried, like all athletes, of getting sick from a kid at the house, or something else. I told Barry that the Hotel San Jose would be better, but Barry wouldn’t let it drop. Finally, I thought, Barry must be steering me right, so I said I’d stay at the host housing.

So, a group of us drove down to Austin and invaded Ann Riopel’s home. It nearly was an invasion. I don’t exactly remember how many guys came down with me, but I know it was at least 3 or 4 riders, plus Bromont and Trudi. That really seems like an eternity ago, but if I think of it just a little different, it seems like last year. Anyway, it was the start of a great friendship.

In the meantime, my good friend’s from Topeka, George and Diane McDiarmid, moved down to Austin from Topeka. Eventually, two of their children followed them and now all are “Texans”. So, I have two great places to stay and train here.

I’ve started coming down to Austin just about anytime I have any excuse at all. I don’t’ really need an excuse, it has an attraction of its own. The town has chanced dramatically over the 30 years. I t has grown like crazy. Still is. The traffic is the main negative, but if you’re riding a bike, that is something you can deal with. The training is pretty great. I normally ride west, which is the hilly side.

I kind of hate leaving Austin today, heading north. I am driving back up to Richardson to do a little tree trimming before heading home. I really need to buckle down and figure out a schedule for the next two months. It is starting to get down to crunch time for cyclo-x and I’m not sure where exactly I’m at.

This is Stanley, Ann’s dog. We are buddies.

The Hotel San Jose on South Congress, where the stars hang.

Bromont and Stanley hanging at Starbucks this morning.

Don and George watching a motorcycle DVD before the F1.

Fettle on a Bike

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I’ve never been too obsessive about position on a bike. I’ve had my position down for a long time and just tweek it a bit every once in a while as times change. It has to be this way because I switch between so many bikes on a weekly basis. Nowadays, I could be riding up to 4 different bikes in a week, with two cross bikes, a road bike and then a MTB bike. Historically, I can switch between them without a blink.

But recently, for some reason, my bikes don’t feel like they fit me correctly and I’ve been changing position nearly on a daily basis. I’m not doing a ton of adjustment, just a little. And it doesn’t seem to be helping. Yesterday, I moved my seat on the cross bike I’ve been riding forward a couple millimeters. It felt better, but the key is if it is better.

Like I stated originally, I honestly think exact saddle position and reach is not something that you need to go crazy over. I believe that there is enough fudge factor in your position that you have by movement forward and backward on your seat, that you’ll find the sweet spot for each condition naturally. I know a lot of you aren’t going to agree with me on that, but I’ve experienced enough to realize it is a fact.

I remember when I was riding for the Levis Team, Roy Knickman would come back from Europe every year, early in the Spring after getting his position set on his bikes. He’d then proceed to tell me I needed to chance my position. I would just give him carte blanche to do whatever he wanted to do. He’d raise my seat .5 centimeters, then shorten my stem the same. Whatever, I’d just get on the bike and race it. It was all good. Then, the next season, he’d do the same thing all over again.

A couple times in my career, I’ve had to make bike changes to bikes with completely different setups. Two times come to mind. First, is the Road World Championships in 1985. I broke a chain and got on a bike of a team mate, Tony Palmer, who road his saddle 5 or 6 centimeters higher than mine. It was so bad for the first 30 minutes, but eventually I got used to it. I had more problem getting used to my seat position, once I got my bike back an hour later. I initially thought that the mechanics had lowered my seat.

The second time was in Philidelphia at the US Pro Road Championships. I was riding an aluminum frame and it cracked on the down tube about 30 miles into a 156 mile road. I was there on my own, so had to use a Mavic support bike. They only had a 53 centimeter frame, with a MTB seatpost and a quick release. I got the seat adjusted right pretty quickly, but the reach was beyond short. Every time I stood for the first hour, I would wack my knees into the handlebars. Eventually after 5 more hours, the bike felt like it was mine. I finished in the field and sprinted pretty good.

I’ve been riding my seat at 81 centimeters (center of the bottom bracket to the top of the seat) for over 30 years. That is pretty much the only number I know on my position. I’m not sure how I got that number, but that is the number. I sometime have it a smidgen lower on my cross bikes, depending on the conditions. By that, a couple millimeters.

All this being said, I think that the feet position on the pedals is super important. Bad cleat adjustment can be the cause of lots of problems on a bike. I pretty much ride the pedal spindle exactly under the bone on the ball of my foot. But more important than the forward and back position of the cleat, is how much your heel is in or out. That is what dictates whether your legs go around unencumbered without putting any stress on your knees and hips.

I ride my heels in a lot. The heels of my shoes nearly scrap the chain stays. I think a great way to set this is to walk down a beach in the sand normally. Then go back and look and see how your feet connect to the ground. You could even draw a line in the sand and take a measurement of what angle your feet are at in relation to the direction you were moving.

The Q factor thing is a little more of a puzzle. I try to keep the spacing of my feet close to the same on all my bikes. That means riding my cleats a little further apart on my road bike than I naturally would and trying to get my feet as close together as possible on my MTB bikes. It seems to work best this way.

Anyway, I have no idea why I feel so out of sorts position-wise on my bike right now. It seems to get worse when I’ve been sitting in a car all day and when I get on my bike, it feels foreign. But, that is exactly what I’m going to be doing all day today, driving back to Topeka from Dallas.

Maybe I’ll take some measurements when I get home and see if I’m in the general ballpark of what I’ve done historically. Hopefully, soon, I’ll be pedaling normal again and not be thinking about it.

Eddy Merckx was a stickler for position, especially during towards the end of his career. I don’t know how many pictures I’ve seen of him adjusting his seat position on the fly.