Tulsa Tough News!

This arrived today!

Announcing New Support Programs for 2009!

Tulsa Tough has introduced three new support programs for 2009. We're sponsoring tour riders, other tour ride events, and clubs. That's right! We want to support you and we want you to help us spread the word about Tulsa Tough. Get the details here.

Ride Registration Now Open

Ride registration is now open for all distances from the 100 mile Deuce Challenge to the 8 mile Townie ride. Tulsa Tough has fun for the whole family. Details on the kids program will be announced soon - registration is not yet open for the kids bike program or races.

Speaking of races, Tulsa Tough is part of USA Cycling's National Race Calendar, meaning the top Pro teams in the US will be right here fighting it out on our high speed, spectator friendly courses. So enjoy your ride and make plans for great evening entertainment.

Why wait? Make plans and register now.

Of course, I clicked on the links. The Kid's Challenge hasn't been finalized, but there's this exciting bit of news - sponsorship - for non-racers, clubs, and events:

Tulsa Tough has introduced three innovative new programs for 2009. Our goal is simple, we want you to spread the word about Tulsa Tough and our great tour rides. So whether you are a first year local club member, RAGBRAI die harder, or event director we want your help. Of course, we'll do our part. Apply now, we'll be announcing our sponsorships on or before March 15, 2009. Application deadline is March 13th for all support programs.

Supported Events

Funding is tight for everyone but we need more great touring events! What to do? We're looking for ten great tours to support with $500 each. We'll list your event on our website and we'll probably attend. We want you to list us on your website, let us put a flyer in your registration packet and tell your participants about Tulsa Tough.

Apply here.

Supported Clubs

We're looking for a few, okay 10, cycling clubs. Here's the deal.

Tulsa Tough commits to the following:
TT makes a $250 contribution to your club (up to 10 clubs)
TT recognizes your club as a Supporting Club on our website
TT provides a link to your club on our website
TT provides t-shirts to your sag driver(s)
TT provides gas money for your sag driver(s)
TT provides lunch & snacks for your sag driver(s)

Each club commits to the following
Club provides link to TT on your website
Club provides TT with contacts for your club members and permission to e-mail them (we're not spammers)
Club provides one central contact person as coordinator for our TT Club program
Club provides one manned sag vehicle for our tours on Saturday and one on Sunday
Club's sag volunteers commit to attend TT training meeting(s)

If you're interested, apply now.

Supported Tour Riders

Do you like to travel and ride your bike with diverse groups of people? Do you talk a lot? Is the only thing keeping you from attending the next tour ride your number of vacation days? We want to help support that habit.

We are seeking 8 tour riders (get lost racers) who plan to participate in prominent cycling tour events. We'll give you a Tulsa Tough jersey and $250 for event entry fees, etc. We want you to write about your experiences so we can publish them to our website, we want you to interact with others at the event and tell them about us, we want you to be yourself take pics and have fun. We even have helmet cams if you're the video blogging type.

Sound good? Apply now

Tulsa Tough Kids Challenge: the bike build

This is only a small portion of the bikes we assembled. All three hundred were assembled in a little under four hours. I was one tired puppy when we finished!



Local cycling personality and perpetual office-seeker Paul Tay, with Chuck Davis, owner of Oklahoma Velo Sports, and Gary Parker.

Nice bike, eh?

(CycleDog photo. See Flickr for the full set.)

Ren asked for thoughts about yesterday's bike building event.

When I got home from work, I spent some frantic minutes putting my toolbox together. Right before an event like this something always goes missing. Last night, it was the Y tool. Someone who looks a lot like me manages to misplace tools with depressing frequency.

I asked Jordan to come along. He wanted to borrow the car and go to church. Since I was using it, he couldn't. But he readily agreed to help out with building bikes. As it turned out, I glad he did.

We arrived at the warehouse in a pouring rain, hustled inside, and set up the work stand. Within a few minutes, we began assembling a multi-speed Trek mountain bike. I cut away the zip ties, rubber bands, and paper wrapping while Jordan removed small parts from the box and got the front wheel ready. A spot of grease went onto the seat post and it went into the frame, then the whole assembly went up into the stand. Jordan installed the pedals with a long 15mm combination wrench. I installed the handlebar and adjusted the front brake. I checked the derailleurs and the rear brake, and then the bike went down onto the floor. We tightened the pedals firmly and inflated the tires. Jordan rode the bike over to the storage area, then returned with another unassembled one.

That was the sequence we followed during the four hours it took to assemble 300 bikes.

Jordan said we did eight bikes but I didn't keep count. These Treks arrived in good condition. That is, there's little to do other than put them together and adjust the front brake after the cable is installed. I adjusted just one rear derailleur and encountered one bike with a brake problem I couldn't fix with the tools available. It had a burr inside one of its cable ferrules that caused the brake to stick. A few passes with a needle file would have fixed it, but my needle files were safely tucked away in my tool box at work.

Richard Hall arrived and set up his work station next to mine. We shared some tools. I had to show him a couple of antiques out of my tool box – an ancient Campagnolo T wrench and an equally ancient Campy 'peanut butter' wrench. He got a kick from the sticker on the back that says, “One wrench to rule them all and in the darkness bind them.” The funny thing is – whenever I slide that 15mm box end over my finger, I become invisible. What's up with that?

There was one minor annoyance when another mechanic began working just a few feet behind me, leaving little space for Jordan and I to work without bumping into him. Now, the warehouse is roughly 100,000 square feet. There's no reason to set up in close proximity to another person, particularly when that person is using a utility knife (as Jordan was) for opening boxes. Every now and then, I threw something over my shoulder. Yeah, it was wrong, but...