How a little creative mechanics lets Matt Wilson ride with a broken wrist.
- By Matt Pacocha
- Published Apr. 23, 2008
J.J. Haedo isn’t the only rider toughing it out at this year’s Tour of Georgia.
Team Type 1’s Matt Wilson, too, has a broken wrist and is racing in a soft cast. While pain isn’t too much of a problem, the cast on his right hand and wrist doesn’t allow him enough freedom of movement to easily operate his right Double Tap shifter.
On Tuesday, he spent much of the stage using his left hand to operate his right shifter. He showed up at the start on Wednesday with a solution his mechanics rigged up in the evening. They added a 10-speed SRAM 900-series time-trial shifter to the left bar end so that he can use it as a bar end shifter. He still has to brake with his right hand, but the added shifter allows him to make both front and rear shifts from the left side with his good hand.
SRAM’s on-site technical staff, Paul Damato, offered to gut the Wilson’s right shifter to shave weight, but the Type 1 mechanics declined.
“It’s a short term problem,” said Chris Davidson, the Type 1 mechanic who filled us in. He explained that once Wilson heals up, the bike revert back to the way it was.
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“They haven’t been checking the bikes that closely here,” said Davidson. "We’re not against the spirit of the rules, he continued, and we believe there is a certain level of flexibility, efficiency and understanding when it comes to interpreting them. We’re on production stuff that consumers can buy, it’s not like we’re showing up with stuff that no other team can have, so we’ll make sure the bike’s not flagrantly lower, but he’s going to ride the 202s on Brasstown."" />
FILED UNDER: Bikes and Tech TAGS: Tour of Georgia
Matt Pacocha
Pacocha, the VeloNews test editor, started in the industry sweeping shop floors at 13. Since then he’s wrenched, raced mountain bikes on the national circuit for four years, worked at IMBA (International Mountain Bike Association) for two years, raced on the road in Belgium for six months, and served four years as the tech editor for VeloNews. And, of course, Pacocha is the staff's resident cyclocross fanatic.