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The Chris Davidson diary
Chris Davidson is a former mechanic for Bontrager Racing Service, now in the service of Shimano Multi-Service.
His diary entries give us a look inside the pits and an insight into the mind of a mechanic.
NORBA Series Race #1, Big Bear, California, USA, May 17-18, 2003
The first two days at Big Bear
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Greetings from the opening race of the 2003 NORBA series. This year I am going to be working for Shimano Multi-Service, providing tech support at the western NORBA races. This is the first event that reunites the team from the 24hours of Moab from last fall; the chief, Matt Eames, and Foye, both from Shimano, with the assistance from Chan and myself, both coming from Salt Lake City. Matt runs a great operation, providing the most knowledgeable service in the tech area. Also in the Shimano tech area this weekend are three engineers from Shimano's parent company in Japan; here taking a closer look at the performance of the new XTR out in the field.
First up this morning was a detailed look at the Trek team bikes. The engineers were looking at the tolerances on the brakes and taking detailed notes that are going back to the homeland, hence they were impossible for us to understand. We also gave the once-over to some of the men's team hardtail bikes; they had chosen to remove the small chainring for the Big Bear course as most of the climbing here is not that steep, more power climbing, the XC course here starts at over 7000 feet and tops out over 8000 feet.
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There was no competition today, just riders pre-riding the courses. Plenty of the bikes we saw today had been dropped on the mountain cross or downhill tracks and needed a derailleur hanger alignment or some shifting help. The courses are dry and dusty today and the Motorex wet lube seemed to be the best call. Matt had the trailer stocked with all the small things that make the day go smoothly. Plenty of people were pushing new race equipment to the limits today; the ambulance flew past our tech area three times this afternoon.
Despite all this, we had a moderate day as far as volume in our tech area. With the changes NORBA has made to the racing schedule this year, we are expecting heavy traffic for the next three days, especially Saturday with all XC races scheduled. Today was a good day to locate all those small fixes and get ready for the stream of high traffic starting tomorrow. We start work tomorrow at 8:00am and judging by the number of people we had to turn away after we shut down tonight, there will be a line outside the tent when we open.
Big bear Day Two
Day two at Bear Big brought another awesome sunny day to the top of the San Bernadino Mountains, with racing commencing today, and the pit area has reached maximum density. There was a short line out front of the Shimano trailer when we went to work at 8:00am. The local organizing group has placed the Shimano tech area at the entrance to the tech area, which leads to high traffic. We have four work stands set up inside our enclosure and an area for customers to try out the new XTR on some bikes on trainers. Our leader Matt designated today as "Johnny Cash" day, and we all wore black.
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A lot of people are confused about what we are at the races to do; we are not here to sell parts or hand out t-shirts, we are here to provide service and support for Shimano products. The most frequent question I hear is, "why don't you guys sell your parts here at the races?" Well, we don't want to undermine our local dealers, who can benefit from a big race like a NORBA NCS. We mainly help tune drive-trains, lube chains, fix brakes and provide advice and experienced answers to equipment problems; we make people happy.
Today racing was XC and Downhill with Mountain Cross qualifying. Number 1 problem today was bent derailleur hangers. Crashes out on the courses claimed about 25 rear derailleurs today. Number 2 on the list was brake issues with hydraulic systems. Hydraulic brakes have made a big impact on the DH and XC racing, but they are an area that is troublesome for the home mechanic. Experience is the best teacher with hydraulics, that and plenty of mineral oil. I think that we had over 5 gallons to start the weekend and we have been going through it very fast. The Magura tech area is right across from ours and they are busy all day as well.
Tomorrow is the Pro XC race, and we finished some tuning on some Trek, Rocky Mountain, Kona and Fisher team bikes today as well as helping out over 150 racers from the other classes. The big question in the pit area revolves around the changes in the NORBA races this year; the number of races, lack of prize money, etc. The tech area is as full as ever, as vendors fight for their share of the punters disposable income. From the turnout of the lower categories, the sport looks very healthy. However, the verdict on the pro category for 2003 is still to unfold.
On the tech horizon, the Saint group for freeride/downhill will debut this summer, and the new resin disc brake pads for XTR have also been getting great feedback. The Shimano engineers here from Japan will take the recent observations back to the homeland for further refinements.
Tomorrow will be the busiest day here yet.
Thanks for reading
Chris Davidson