Football v/s Football

     With the World Cup going on there has been an upsurge in complaints that we(The US) do not call the game, known in the US as soccer, football. Usually followed by the comment that the rest of the world calls it football and a video featuring John Cleese.

 This comment is actually not true. In Italy, for example, it is called neither soccer or football. There it is calcio. In Australia, soccer is the more popular term and they use football primarily to refer to Australian rules football or rugby(union and league). In Burma is is called ball-pwe. This roughly translates as ball party, and who doesn't love a ball party?.
     So where does the word soccer come from? Was it created by a secret US cabal that hates the rest of the world and wants to do it our own way? No, because the cabal is busy with other stuff. Soccer is an English slang term for Association Football which in turn refers to the Football Association. The slang was taken from "association". First socca(1889), then socker(1891), finally soccer(1895). Soccer, a truly English term, could have easily become Ass.
     The Football Association was formed in 1863 in an attempt to formalize the rules of ball games played with your feet. At the time the English public schools(What would be private schools in the US) all had their own sets of rules. When schools played against one another, the rules set of each school would often be used for  half of the match(This could be where half time comes from). After several meetings there was a split between ball play not allowing use of the hands(association football) and play that allowed carrying(Rugby, which would later split in to union and league). Rugby was named for the school where the rules were set. Association football could have become Cambridge or Sheffield, where two of the most popular rulesets were developed.
     In the US we have a popular sport competing for the name football with association football.  This sport was first called gridiron football(also later American football). The name comes from the five yard markers on the field, making it look like...a grid iron(Gridiron is a great name). Some of the British sports had interesting rules, one of these rules allowed for a team to simply hold the ball and make no attempt to score(and remain undefeated). This made for some super boring matches. And here is the birth of downs. This rule change forced the team to attempt to make progress towards the goal. If they could not progress a set distance in a given number of downs, the other team got the ball. The yard markers made it easier to track progress.
     Some of the anti soccer, as a name, sentiment seems to be that American football is a modern sport. Problem is, that is not true. In the US, association football was played at the college level in the late 1860s, falling out of favor for rugby by the mid 1870s. American football, with the rule changes, from rugby, of scrimmage and downs/distance,  dates to 1880. Gridiron football became the dominant team sport in the US, with association football all but disappearing until the 1960s.
     Interesting note: The modern 32 panel spherical polyhedron, used in association football, only dates to the late sixties. It was used in World Cup for the first time in 1970.
 

Old School

     Football, competitive games played with a ball and feet, is a very old sport with a lot of divergence. There are mentions of football games in Roman texts dating to the 300 BC era. The Chinese football game cuju is described in a military manual from the third century BC.
     The great granddaddy of all European football was mob football. A medieval sport played between rival towns, the entire townships would play. The playing field were the fields between the two towns and the goal would be a prominent geographical feature in each town. These games were played during festivals, usually one of the big holidays such as the Shrovetide festival. There are mentions of ball games as early as the ninth century and the lord Mayor of London actually formally banned football in 1314(Apparently the crowds would get rowdy. Fortunately, that no longer happens.) Football would have over thirty bans, in England, in the next 300 years.
     We have the British public schools(again, these are what are considered private schools in the US) to thank for the origin of most of the organised team ball sports. In some respects even sports like base ball and basket ball came from these beginnings, as the schools were the first to organize team play and written rules. The public schools needed something  to keep their young gentleman fit. This was an era of very divided classes. The lower class worked twelve hour days, six days a week, they stayed pretty fit. The upper class sat around, went to parties, and lived off the fortunes created by their ancestors(Kind of like Paris Hilton). These crusty young men needed some regular exercise. In comes Richard Mulcaster, a student of Eton and later headmaster of several schools. He was the first to set down the ideas of sides and positions, referees and coaches in the book Vocabula(1633)
    The schools started setting the rules of play in the early 1800s, a key rule being offsides. Offsides meaning no player could advance between the ball and the goal, except the player controlling the ball. As the schools were often a distance apart most play was intramural, and the rule sets could vary widely between schools. This is where the real spread of game style starts to happen. You have foot/body games like what would become association football and more hand oriented sports like what would become rugby(and gridiron football)
     Two things happened around this time and really helped spread field sports. First the invention of the lawn mower, first patented in 1830. Prior to the lawn mower, fields were either cropped with a scythe or grazed by domestic animals(This caused a whole other set of field hazards).

Mower with operator

 These evolved from small one man pushed mowers, to two man push/pull units, to horse drawn units. Finally the pinnacle of steam(punk) technology, the Leyland Steam mower. A huge beast with a 40" cut, it required a skilled operator to properly cut the grass while not blowing up the boiler.

     Second, the Factory act of 1850. This limited working children to 12 hour days during the week and a seven hour day on Saturdays(Pretty crazy, huh). With this new massive amount of free time, the English lower class children could actually play.
     And here, in the 1850s, Clubs start to form for organized play outside of schools. The rules vary from club to club, converging and diverging. Various associations form, attempting to give the sports structure. At the time all players were strictly amateurs. Being payed to play, even getting payed for missed work was a big deal. This later caused a big split in rugby. "Accusations of Professionalism", it was called. No one I know could be faced with this awesome accusation in either its current or archaic meaning.
    Between 1850 and 1875 we would see Association, Rugby(League and Union), Australian Rules, Gridiron(American and Canadian), and Gaelic(or Irish) forms of football all become popular. Each with their own distinct set of rules and types of ball.

Australian Rules

Gaelic or Irish

Gridiron(American and Canadian)

Rugby League

Rugby Union

Association/Soccer

     Calling any of them football is correct and in the company that you would likely be talking about each sport, they would know what you meant. If you are at a bar watching World Cup, no one is going to think, "The Raiders", when you ask them to guess your favorite team. At a SuperBowl party no one will say "Beckham" to the query of who is that good looking football player.
     Truly, the biggest difference I can see between the sports is that association/soccer is the only sport where spontaneous injury is possible. Warning: Gratuitous ham acting

   

What is a digger?

 Before we talk about diggers, you may have noticed the name change. Another day in the bike shop was the name of my old blog. It came from the oft asked question, "What is going on"? I like it a lot. And a lot goes on in a bike shop besides selling and repairing bikes. Sometimes I want to talk about that stuff and that did not feel right under TheVeloShed( and I found another guy already using that name). Can you dig it?
     Right  around the corner from VeloShed Enterprises is the Kirby Derby and every year we talk about building a gravity racer for the Derby and every year we go for numerous bike rides instead. Well, thanks to the wonderful weather we have been having, this year gravity racing is a go-go. It also helps that we have our own little Dead Mans curve in the funness that is the section of House Creek trail between Meredith and Horton. A gravity racing test facility, right across the street.

     First thing you do, when you want to build up a rig, is go on the web and look at about a thousand pictures, hoping for a little inspiration. My initial plan was to build something fast with adjustable steering geometry for corner tuning, big disk brakes, smooth body work, deluxe interior. Then I saw this:

 

Out Law derby car made from a wheelbarrow.

 This was built by a guy that goes by Kenny P. on the H.A.M.B. forums. Scratch that high tech race rig. Lets build a rat rod! 

     First to put the word out for a wheelbarrow, Chuck is on a tight budget, don't you know. Then to dig around in the shed for some appropriate bicycle wheels(This is a bike blog, more or less). Finally off to work where I doodled frames and steering linkages until I got a response on a wheel barrow. Finally, I got the message. She was a little rusty(OK, really rusty) and in Hillsborough, but free is free. Thanks to Bob for that, and the project is underway. 

    

If you flip them on their back, they can't get away.

The second original plan, after tossing the original original plan was to paint this one up real nice, more a fifties look than a rat. But look at the patina on this tub. It is going to have to be rat all the way.
     Of course I had to continue looking at pics on the web for ideas and this led to looking at lots of diggers. What is a digger? It is a front engine dragster, the driver sits at the very back. They are also called slingshots and rails and had a reputation for grenading the clutch and chopping your legs off. This was the look I wanted. Also wheelbarrow,...digger, they go together.

Zorba's Ghost

A little(very little) bit of mock up. 20" skinnies in the front and 24" with 3" rubber in the rear.

 The tub is a little wide for this look and actually gets wider at the front (the front as I am building it). Need to narrow that baby up. Here is how that went:

Un-molested

Cut lines taped, the arrows are so you cut the correct side(Not that I have ever screwed that up)

All trimmed out

 

Bent and welded together, lip rolled.

    

There you have it. This took four inches out of the front and made it three inches narrower than the rear of the tub. The opening is pretty narrow but the look is just right. I also found, while welding the seam, that this is a little rustier than it first appeared. I was going to cut and fill the rusted out areas but there is not much to work with so some 1/2" plywood will be used for an inner base to take the load of the operator(idiot driving).

Idiot

Next time, assuming I can find something to carry 10 foot sections of pipe with, we will be laying out and welding up the frame

Testing the improvised presta adapter.

     By now everyone has seen the make shift presta adapter video on YouTube. If not Here it is. It looks like a good trick, but I needed to check it out and see how well it works.
     First is the obvious downside that you need to have a knife handy, or really strong teeth. It would be easier to leave an adaptor in your bikes seat bag. Another trick is to leave the adaptor on the valve stem in place of a cap.

I like to turn them up side down after I have inflated the tire, that way I know the valve has been screwed closed.
     On with the experiment. Using a box cutter I sliced thru the valve cap right where the knurling ends. The video is not real clear about how the remaining piece is installed. I tried installing it the normal direction.

This left the cap very loose and it was easy to screw it down to far and expose to much of the valve head(Like in the picture above) You could not use a air chuck with the valve protruding this much.
    Getting the cap level with the valve head allowed me to pump the tire with compressed air but there was a lot of leakage. It would be OK for the gas station quick fix.
     Next I tried installing the cap reversed. It was a little tougher to get started but that turned out to be fine because the seal between the cap and valve was much better.

Again you want to screw down the cap until the valve is just flush with the  top of the cap. Using an air chuck and compressor worked great, no leakage. Then I tried the real test, a hand pump. It worked! I as a little surprised that the seal was good enough but I was able to get around 100psi before the pump started having trouble gripping the cap and popped off. This is a solid work around if you need to get a presta tube up and only have a schrader chuck available.

Life time supply of presta adapters.

Balloon Car Gran Prix

     Some times you need to have a little fun. At the shop we decided a balloon car showdown was the way to go. The idea started when some balloon powered cars were spotted at the Porsche exhibit. They looked like fun but we all new more fun was to be  had in doing our own build off.
     The rules were simple. Each competitor would get a Pepsi can, bendy soda straw, sheet of construction paper, balloon, and a roll of tape. They could assemble the car in any fashion as long as only the supplied items were used. Prototyping was allowed and you could use as many materials as needed but only one of each in the final build.
     The winner would receive our coveted Specialized Christmas water bottle(Yes, they only sent one for the shop to share)

The builds were all kept secret until race night. Each build was unique.

Danielle

Brendan

Chuck

     The race rules were set at three runs with the greatest distance winning. The three run rule was immediately tossed out the window when all cars experienced technical problems. It was decided, on the spot, to mod and run until everyone passed out from repeatedly blowing up the balloons.
     After an hour and two nearly thirty foot runs, congratulations and awards were handed out.

 
     And the winners, Danielle with 1st, Brendan 2nd(by mere inches), and Chuck a distant third.

     Fun was had by all, it was better than team building and no one had to catch anyone.

Schrader time

     Everyone uses schrader valves. Yes, everyone. I know you are thinking you would never have a bike with schrader valves, you are presta all the way. But, your suspension shock and fork use them. Your car has them at all four corners, one for the fuel injection, and two on the AC system(Your home HVAC has them as well) There is even one on your water supply if you have a well.
     They are everywhere and with good reason. The schrader valve is a spring loaded poppet valve that makes it very easy to get a measured amount of gas in or out of a system. It was patented by August Schrader(most likely developed by his son George) in 1891.
     It would take another five years to develop the schrader valve cap. That's right, plastic cap, five years of R&D. Remember that next time you have trouble coming up with a plan of action.
     We have the schrader valve thanks to the bicycle. When August saw the popularity of pneumatic tires coming out of Europe he saw a need for a tire valve. Which is a little odd, because they already had a valve, other wise they would have been flat tires coming out of Europe. That valve was the presta. I have not found much on the history of the presta valve except that it seems to have been appropriated from the steam industry.
     The schrader valve has some advantages over the presta valve. They are serviceable, the core can be removed and cleaned or replaced(Some presta valves have a removable core). The valve is spring loaded and does not require pressure behind it to stay closed. Because the valve is spring loaded and the air chucks and gauges have a fitting the depresses the poppet, you can get a more accurate reading of pressure.
     A disadvantage is the hole required is slightly larger than for a presta valve. If you have a very narrow rim strength could be compromised. I feel this may have been an issue a hundred years ago when rims were made of wood or rolled from steel sheet. I have never seen a rim fail at the valve hole(Where it was not run over by a truck or tossed off a mountain side)
    You should use the valve cap. It took five years to develop, there must be some crazy technology in there somewhere. The practical reason is that it keeps crud out of the valve. If you have a little dirt in the top of the valve and then pump up the tire, some of that crud is going thru the valve and some of it might get trapped between the poppet and seat, creating a leak. You can remove the core and clean out this area but it is simpler to just keep it clean.
      The valve caps should be considered part of your suspension. The schrader valve is great for holding pressure but a rear shock at full compression can experience a spike over 3000psi. The beefy cap with its built in seal keeps that in the shock. If you lose a cap, stick a plastic one on to keep the valve clean, but replace that with a proper sealing cap as soon as possible.
     I am not going to go in to tire pressure here, that is a whole other post, but if you are concerned about your pressure, be sure to use a quality gauge(not a stick gauge). Digital gauges work best and are the most consistent, but a good dial gauge can give a decent reading. Be sure to use the same dial gauge each time so the readings will be consistent(There can be a big difference from gauge to gauge)

From my collection(of junk). Made in 1922, still works.

Pro tip, Cyanoacrylate

    

Crazy Glue, Super Glue, Quick Set, Super Bonder, Eastman 910. Cyanoacrylate is great stuff by any name. It was originally discovered when trying to develop a clear bombsite during World War II(1942). It stuck everything to everything else. Scientists at the time decided this was a useless feature and discarded it. Rediscovered in 1951 by two Eastman Kodak(There used to be this stuff called film. You would put it in a camera, take pictures with it, then pay some guy in a drugstore ten bucks to develop the film so you could see how terrible they were). These guys, Harry Coover and Fred Joyner, realized that people did, in fact, like to stick many things together. So in 1958(It took seven years?) Eastman started selling Eastman 910.
   Cyanoacrylate reacts, and sets, to the presence of water in the air(Pretty cool). That is why you need to put it on thin, so it can all react. This is also why a bottle of it becomes unusable about ten minutes after you open it. When applied to cotton, it can have an exothermic reaction producing enough heat to catch fire(Also pretty cool). Acetone will loosen cyanoacrylate as will a couple of other chemicals that sound like they may cause instant cancer.
     Cyanoacrylate is used for building models, fletching arrows, capturing latent fingerprints, and putting on fake fingernails. Guitarists use it to make their fingertips tougher. During the Vietnam war, a spray on version was used to close wounds and reduce bleeding until soldiers could be evacuated to a medical facility. It is used in place of stitches with reduced incidence of infection. It is used by college students to glue their sleeping room mates hand to his weiner, creating hilarity(Don't do this).
     In the shop, I use cyanoacrylate for a couple of things. Gluing little broken bits back together of course. And it works great if I slice open a finger or rip back a cuticle, just glue it closed and keep on working. Way better than a band-aid.
     But my favorite use for cyanoacrylate is gluing the wires of a cable end together. Sometimes after installing and cutting a cable you need to pull it back out. Getting it out is pretty easy, pushing a cut cable back thru the housing without it fraying can be tough. And some cables are pretty pricy, so you don't want to just replace them(And eat the cost) after trimming to soon. With the cyanoacrylate you can clean the cable end with solvent, apply the glue wait a few minutes and then easily remove and reinstall the cable. Even with a twisty routing the cable will stay un-frayed.
     You can also solder the cable end. This used to be a popular pro move and I still do it if someone wants me to. The problem I have found with soldering is that it makes the last half inch of the cable rigid. With modern routing, especially in frame, this can keep you from getting the cable back thru the housing and makes it near impossible to route thru a shifter.
     Go get a bottle of this magical stuff and glue a quarter to the floor in a high traffic area, it is good for hours of entertainment.
    

My bike was making a rubbing sound....

.... but it went away.

     What a great photo. Imagine how long this took. The conditions would have to be ideal. No lube, a little bit of dirt to provide some abrasive, a broken shift cable, a limit screw just enough out of adjustment that the chain did not just drop to the small ring(Think about that. The low screw was tight enough to keep the chain off the small ring but slack enough for it to rub constantly), a very tolerant rider that could handle the constant racket without checking to see what it was.
     I am not putting this up to give the guy, that brought the bike in(For another issue), a hard time. No person is an expert on every subject, and the bike still moved when pedaled, and that was all it needed to do.
     This is really an issue of gradual change. We all experience change but sometimes it sneaks up on us(Where the hell did all that grey hair come from? Wait, where the hell did all that hair go?) If your bike has a mechanical brake system, think about change, then go check them. They can stand to be adjusted, can't they? The braking material comes off so slowly that we don't notice the lever coming in further and further. Then suddenly they don't work at all. That is how we look at any kind of failure, it happened suddenly. When really it has been in the process of happening for weeks, months or years. Happens with drivetrains to. It seems like one day it is working fine and then the next it is skipping and jumping. What really happens is, from the first pedal stroke, all of those bits are rubbing against one another and wearing out. Then after thousands of miles, one tooth on one cog is worn to the point it no longer can place the chain. Suddenly your bike skips. And I know you are thinking that there are a bunch of teeth to take the load, but almost all the load is taken by one tooth and roller on each gear. On a new drive train it will be the tooth at the top of each gear on the loaded side(More about this another time)
     When a frame fails suddenly, it is usually the result of months of propagation. You might have a flaw from manufacturing. That flaw could be a poor end cut on a tube or impurity in the steel.
     Some of you remember  the spoke fiasco of the mid 2000s, where hundreds of wheels just failed(suddenly), sometimes on brand new bikes sitting in the showroom. This was caused by impurity in the stainless steel spokes. The stainless had a mix of slag and ferrous steel in it and every spot of impurity was a stress riser. The spokes worked fine as long as you left them in a box, but as soon as you laced them in a wheel and put tension on them, a crack would propagate from the impurity and suddenly taco'd wheel.
     You can have a failure from a dent caused in a crash you barely remember(Meaning the kind of crash that was no big deal, not the kind where you are knocked out)

Ignore the crack and look at the dent. It does not look to bad, just a soft smoosh.(The customer hit a tree and managed to whack the bottom of the down tube against it.) This eventually went nearly all the way around the tube. That comes back to the sudden failure. The accident happened about two months before the bike came in. But it suddenly broke.

     This is the inside of that same tube. You can see that what looked like a soft dent, created a spider web radiating in three directions. That was the failure, it just took a while for it to get big enough to notice(and I had to cut the frame apart).
     Next time something just...breaks, think back thru the time line. Look for those cues to wear and fatigue. That is how you learn to spot problems before they turn your ride in to a hike.