Posted by: Peter | June 1, 2009

My Experiences in Buying a Custom Bicycle

Let’s start with what I needed; a multipurpose bike that would be comfortable on the short trip to work, longer century rides and local trails. Fenders and panniers are sometimes fitted on commuter models, so it would have been beneficial to have the mounting points for these in the unlikely event I needed them. As my inner serenity is often restored by riding through the steep hills that almost surround my little city I needed gearing to make these climbs enjoyable. However every climb has its decent and I didn’t feel the additional cost, maintenance and stopping power of disk brakes were necessary to stop me rocketing downhill on the return trip home. They can also interfere with the positioning of the panniers I probably wouldn’t use. The caliper brakes used in most road bikes work in dry conditions, but can be dangerously powerless when it rains and on frosty mornings when your fingers lose their strength in the cold. Cantilever brakes became the acceptable compromise solution.

You may not think so, but the stress of bumpy commuting can be severe. Ominous cracking sounds have sprung from my carbon framed Trek Madone with major pothole impacts and so more durable materials such as aluminum or thin tubed steel were preferred. The option of having broader tires for such rough conditions on the road and trails was also critical.

With all these criteria, I settled on buying a cyclocross bike. They tend to be metal framed road bikes with good cantilever brakes and the capacity to fit larger 700x32c knobby or slick tires for both light off road trails and street cruising. With cheaper components they are usually more affordable. I had a Trek 7.3 FX flat handled road bike that met most of the criteria, but I wanted something that would work for both commuting and really long rides. Your body stance on the FX is more upright and is excellent for commuting when you need maximum visibility, but for extended travel the body positioning with most of your weight in the rear can make you get sore after a few hours and that diminishes the fun too much.

I researched all the major brands and their models represented in my neighborhood which all had good reviews. This list included the Cannondale Cross XR, Bianchi Axis, Trek XO, Fuji Cross, Giant TCX, Lemond Poprad and the Specialized Tricross. They were all very similar in geometry and components for my criteria which were based more on functionality than form or weight. The disappointing thing was that it appears that the manufacturers focused on cyclocross frames in the mid range sizes as not all have models in the largest 60cm – 62cm sizes.

I admit that I don’t like visiting bike shops to buy bikes. It always get an intimidating feeling in which I suspect I’m going to end up getting something that I don’t want at a price I can’t afford. In my bikely wisdom “Beware of ego and money for they will conspire to deceive you.” So I usually leave the pride at the door and spend a lot of time trying to understand what I need and what they want me to buy. I have been generally disappointed with my bike purchases because I am tall and long limbed with the largest frames often being too small. This becomes apparent not in the store when the accommodating sales representative’s compliments and minute technical adjustments appeal to your gullibility. It happens when you ride. If you feel any stress at all on your knees or wrists beware as it could lead to pain later on. Never rush a bike purchase it will always be there next week.

In this cyclocross case, the wisdom of waiting really paid off. After visiting many stores, testing many models, extending many seat posts and talking about longer stems, I began to feel something was wrong. When the sales team says too many, “Ahhhhhs” and “Hmmms”, followed by “well that’s the biggest we’ve got” you know you need to start a different kind of hunt.

A frame that is a little too small may not be a factor for the casual rider but I ride 30-100 miles per week and I really didn’t want to have any regrets for my specific needs. My Madone has a comfortable ride. It is light and responsive, and very comfortable when my hands rest on the brake hoods in an upright body position. The situation changes when I have to ride with my hands in the handlebar drops as my wrists sometimes ache. Pressing the brakes can also be difficult and stability gets noticeably worse especially at high speeds of 35 Mph and above.

With a clear idea of what I did and did not want, I decided to visit a Giant bicycle dealer. This was done on purpose as they sell no really big frames at all and I wanted to find out what they do when customers needed something larger. They told me to try a custom frame. I must admit I had heard of people getting custom bicycles costing $3,000 to $5,000 made by local craftsmen and I thought it was extravagant, but I was curious and I strongly suspected that I needed something unique. I certainly wasn’t going to find a second hand bargain on Craigslist.

I visited Bronson, the owner of Silva Cycles on Valentine’s day in the middle of a California downpour with my wife’s roses, delectable chocolate bonbons and a card whispering “I Love You” patiently waiting on the back seat. The workshop was one of many businesses hiding behind identical roll away shutters located in a u-shaped commercial building with its parking lot in the middle. He was there with an electrical crew fitting a huge circuit breaker for a fire breathing arc welding unit lurking in the corner. There were bike drawings everywhere, neatly rolled up or laid out on the few work benches. A wine rack or a honey comb must have been the inspiration for the architectural handiwork that housed hundreds of tubes. Bike frames hung from the roof. It was damp outside, but the small room was comfortably warm.

“Querido amigo” are words used to describe a friend of great importance, “pinche breaker” on the other hand signifies the wiring work must be delayed. Profound discussion followed in eloquent spanglish and eventually it was decided that the rain, Sunday supplier closing hours and of course, Cupid, would make the work drag until Monday. It was then my turn.

The explanation of my predicament spread a knowing smile across his face and each nod of understanding was reassuring. Of course I had to hear the sell job. His use of quality components, the light weight stealthily tapered tubing with walls that were thick at the end but not in the middle, the art and science of bike building, the benefits of lugged versus welded construction, the philosophical paradoxes of carbon, steel, titanium and aluminum and finally the computer system that would casually spit out the ideal dimensions making mere spreadsheets weep. The execution was admirably genuine, mutedly enthusiastic and done by a craftsman who clearly knew his trade.

I too was clear. Make it simple. Shimano 105 components, but I could splurge for the smoother shifting Ultegra. No fancy paint, lugs, handle bars, seat posts, or wheels. A steel frame would be heavier, cheaper and just fine. I needed a big fat mountain bike cassette in the back and a standard road bike triple crank up front so I could speed downhill and breathlessly recite poetry while riding up Mount Everest with enough energy left over at the top to do the “Macarena”. The wheels had to fit tires that would chuckle at potholes and make bent nails flee in terror. He had to do it all within the midrange road bike, top end cyclocross bike $2.0K to $2.5K price bracket. Simple? Yes, simple.

The ballet of getting a bicycle fitting is as intimate as going to a tailor to get measured for a suit, but at the same time more dangerous because most of the readings are made with spring loaded telescoping wooden sticks. Needless to say I shouldn’t have worried, none of them could pop out enough and I was especially thankful that the inseam tool was too short. He eventually gave up and began using string and a ruler instead. The computer was going to need a coronary bypass.

He measured the distance from my neck vertebrae to the center of my fist at the end of an outstretched arm, my inseam, the height of my collarbone from the ground, my shoe size, my height and my weight. I even had to rush home to pick up the Madone so that frame could be measured too. There were some more questions, and a few emails later in the evening I made a deposit through Paypal all in time for the candlelight dinner with the family.

Here is a good video about what I went through to reach this stage.



There was to be a three month wait. I figured four months would be more likely from this one man show, but he surprised me with the precision of his prediction. I ride a lot, but I really don’t tinker with my bike because I know the damage I can do, so the next set of questions had never crossed my mind before. What model cassette, stem, seat post, brakes, saddle and handle bars? In a very polite tone I would sort of say, “You choose, as long as it comes up under budget.” What color frame and bar tape? Now, that I could deal with.

The bike is no beauty, it is versatile and utilitarian as I was more concerned with fit and value versus cosmetics. It is heavier than the Madone, but my wrists don’t ache and I can do the “Macarena” any day.

I really don’t think a custom bike is required for the casual rider with average height and bodily proportions for whom mass produced frames are made. If there is a hole in the ego that needs filling or you genuinely like to tinker then it may be worthwhile. I can’t speak for mountain bikes as I am not active in that area, but I could easily imagine heavier road cyclists considering a cyclocross bike with larger 700x32c tires and its more forgiving gearing as a viable alternative to a carbon framed model. If you have unusually long or short arms or legs, and you have been disappointed with a number of past purchases then, based on my experience, a custom bike is the right thing.

I am proud to say that I am happy with my custom bicycle and that the bonbons were equally appreciated too.

If you have any comments, please let me know.

The priority given to information technology operations and the culture of the staff that supports it is often quite different when comparing companies which earn a majority of their income from the Internet and those that don’t. Here is what I have tended to notice.

From the day of their creation, web companies rely on IT as a key foundation to their business, usually with limited budgets. The IT employees tend to have range of skills and are more likely to embrace open source tools from the beginning, not always by choice, but by necessity. The external customer facing applications are usually internally developed and as a result internally created tools for monitoring and graphing is often the norm. Risks are taken to speed the deployment of new features and reduce costs.

In the more traditional enterprises, the approach is very different. The environments are more static and the applications are often packages developed by external parties to automate well known business processes. Maintenance is therefore done my vendors who promise stability. As a result, the IT operations staff tends to spend more time managing vendors and their contractors. This reduces the IT department’s scope of influence, their tolerance to risk and the range of technologies to which they have hands on exposure while simultaneously increasing their tendency to have more specialized skills.

These are two very different cultures. As web companies grow and the tolerance for lost service, planned or unscheduled, decreases, the need for a blended mindset increases.  The need for subsystems to function independently of one another also increases in order to reduce the risk of cascading or bottleneck types of failures.  The organizational challenge of deciding what the cultural blend should be still remains.  Not just overall, but also on a per-application and physical subsystem level and should be an ingredient in defining risk tolerance profiles especially when considering disaster recovery strategies.

Posted by: Peter | April 4, 2009

The Knowledge Trap

Fast growing technology organizations need to be constantly aware of the difficulties it places on their staff and their emotional well being. A common problem is the knowledge trap in which the persons who create a design, implement a project or develop a tool become the in house experts in that area. This is normal in many organizations, the difference with fast growing companies is that there is often insufficient time to complete the documentation, monitoring and hand off phases of the project. This leads to staff being overworked not just on current projects, but also on the ghosts of previous work.

At first this can be welcomed by the team members as their knowledge provides some degree of status, but as time goes by, the lack dispersed knowledge can lead to departmental frustrations and resentment. Key staff members soon don’t have time for lunch, vacations, or even sleep. They become trapped by their own success. Always be on the alert for statements which imply persons are not taking the initiative to understand a particular system that someone else developed. It is often a clear sign that documentation and cross-training needs to be immediately reviewed.

Innovative freedom leads to new and wonderful ways of doing in web site design and vision, but with tactical maintenance and support, discipline is freedom.

Posted by: Peter | March 27, 2009

The Death of the IT Operations Specialist

Over the past decade the increasing availability of reliable high speed globally connected networks and the decreasing cost of affordable computing power has had profound impact on IT operations that have facilitated the acceleration of a number of trends.

Traditional Outsourcing: In an effort to reduce costs, IT support and software development functions that don’t require face to face human interaction or physical contact with equipment are being outsourced to remote third parties who in turn need access to internal systems.

Web based software as a service (SaaS): Universal access to vendor managed standardized general administration software systems has reduced setup costs considerably. It has also made the price of expansion and support more linear and predictable. Forklift technology refreshes and major capital expenditures to add the ability to expand in future will be less likely to occur. There are many examples of this with any service that you can implement online such as retail banking, tax preparation, software purchase and downloading, contact management, and gaming falling into this category,

Virtualization:  In an effort to maximize utilization efficiencies and provisioning flexibility, the transparent sharing and movement of software locations, and the data paths it uses, has been facilitated by increasingly faster hardware and more capable support systems. Virtual circuits, virtual LANs and virtual operating systems are now commonplace.

Convergence: Speedier hardware and more adept software have also made it possible to create single devices with multiple discrete roles. Load balancers, firewalls and VPNs functionality that used to be separate now often reside on the same device. Both phone and storage systems now operate using shared network equipment and voicemail can be retrieved from your email system.

Appliances: The need to understand the intricacies of many applications is being diminished as vendors create purpose built server systems with preconfigured software with web interfaces. Firewall, load balancer, wireless, authentication, intrusion detection, mail delivery, and administration systems are often available on platforms built on this model.

Cloud Computing: Internally created strategic, customized software is being migrated to vendor facilities where automated provisioning and virtualization is used to manage the servers on which it runs. Many small businesses use cloud service providers such as Google, Amazon, and Rackspace to lower their operational costs by outsourcing virtualization to them.

RFP-lite speed sourcing: The internet provides instant transparency into market and competitor developments. IT organizations will be expected to find solutions to a new competitive landscape without the luxury of developing detailed requirements documentation, clearly defined vendor specifications or selection criteria. This involves preselecting a few competing Tier 1 providers to create working prototypes based on high level requirements defined in an eventual contract with only key terms and conditions. Time consuming supporting details are refined afterwards in supporting contracts. This creates two tiers of bureaucracy, one swift, the other more measured and comprehensive.

Not only do we have a rapidly changing environment, but we also have rapidly changing technology necessitating a redefinition of the staffing roles of everyone in the IT operations function. The impact initially felt by entry level support staff in corporate IT is now affecting more senior staff in both corporate and web operations.

Valued IT operations staff will be those who are flexible in their roles, generous in their knowledge transfer, aware of new technologies, able to proactively evaluate their impact to the business, confident in making sound business cases for their deployment and capable of implementations in a timely manner. They will increasingly become integration engineers with an understanding of strategic architectural principles. The days of the pure network, security, or systems administration engineer are over. Expect networking, telephony and security functions to start becoming sub-disciplines of systems administration as the application support teams take increasing control of the data path both on premises and in outsourced SaaS and cloud environments. The stakeholders with whom they interact will also change to include a wide variety of third parties. As interpersonal interaction increases so will the need to hire staff with good people skills will become a key ingredient for success.

Don’t think that the IT generalist will kill the IT specialist. Instead we will see the rise of multi-disciplinary specialists with long term planning and project management talents in the guise of the generalist. It will be a hybrid skill set merging the curricula of community colleges, IT certification programs and under graduate MIS degrees. Expect active corporate involvement in the same way we see it in traditional engineering and software development disciplines to meet this need.

If we fail to modify the way we use our people and processes in the pursuit of exploiting new technology then we will fail.

Server farms are often made up of pools of resources, and with virtualization, the one-to-many relationship between physical and virtual capacity makes server resource allocation and capacity planning  trickier than ever. Here are some simple guidelines to consider.

  1. Define business processes groups and the sub-system applications required to make them function. Typical application sub-system groups would include categorizations such as web servers, application servers, databases, administrative support, monitoring, email, and file serving.
  2. Create standardized: Virtual machine profiles that include not just guest operating system parameters and packages but also the applications required for each supported sub-system or groups of subsystems the operating system will support. Host server profiles defined to meet the requirements of anticipated combinations of virtual machine profiles. Storage types and sizing profiles to meet the expected demands of the applications to be deployed.
  3. Map the profiles to your business needs while developing critical resource thresholds that define both tolerable transient and longer term performance values. Use this exercise to define capacity replenishment triggers at which point new resources should be added. Always keep in mind the possibility of alternative mitigation strategies such as improved application efficiencies, reducing unnecessary traffic, and shutting down unused guest operating systems.
  4. Periodically monitor your resource demand, including current, peak, and forecasted values to evaluate whether your trigger criteria have been met. This should be done for both host systems and their guest operating systems. Accommodate acquisition and deployment lead times in your capacity plan so that solutions can be deployed before the overall performance of the virtual server farm becomes affected. Schedule these reviews to minimize the risk of unexpected surprises.

There are many challenges to deploying virtual systems. Using these few simple steps as a guide you should be able to create the foundation for a comprehensive policy.

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