Road Cycling Digest: A Fake Pro Cyclist, Bluetooth Internal-Hub Shifter, $800 CeramicSpeed Aero & More

 tldr: guys' a pure bean

 Such a crazy story. Was a great read.

 @fektor-b: Agree, dude is insane like the movie Catch me if you can.

 That guy is an extreme example but if I had a dollar for every random old guy roadie who "raced in Europe" back in the day, I could buy a Pinarello. I dunno what it is about cycling but it seems to attract those types who like to embellish their accomplishments.

 It's wild, but for me the takeaway is that he was deceptive his entire career, but only cyclists were courageous enough to call him out on it.

 @mtbmaniatv: Nick Clark is my new hero - They need a movie on this guy for sure!

 @SangamonTaylor: 'The older you get, the better you were'

 yeah, i usually stay away for long articles like that one, but it was really good read, a recommend.

 "In the later stages of his business career, Nick Clark was evidently a very busy, much-in-demand man. It must have been exhausting." So awesome.

 The story kept going and going. I thought it was going to end just on him lying about his cycling career and owning the bike shop. Then it goes into corporate world, military, even ties to Washington DC. He is the Bernie Madoff of cycling. They might make a movie of him. Lol.

 I totally want to hang out with Nick Clark. He sounds waaaaayyy more interesting than all my other boring cycling friends.

 The Legend of a Con-man: Nick Clark. Once a con-man always a con-man. Guys like that don't deserve any sympathy. That was a really lengthy read, but you get to understand what length these scum of the earth go to to suck people in and prey on the innocents.

I have to say, the internet is a tool for the naïve and the cons who post false/mis-leading info. You really need to do your research to with no prejudice or any subjective beliefs in order to get to the truth. It just pisses me off that there are so much bullshit out there.

 @racerfacer: Moral of this story: Don't piss off the leader boards on Strava, especially if you're riding an e-Bike claiming KOM!!!

 @tacklingdummy: " Leonardo DiCaprio on line one"

 Posers gonna pose

 @tommyriddle: ainters gonna aint

 @mtbmaniatv: he learned his trade manipulating stocks and didn't get 'caught' yet. His wife may she rest in peace, hopefully that was not another script.

 Totally fake person, probably with a lack of empathy. Sounds familiar, I worked 10 years for one of those pathological liar, but mine did it mostly for money.
He was the boss of a really small company (just 2 employees, me included), so he was also a bit of a friend.
When I understood the lie and put the pieces together, I realized he in fact started as a freelancer after finding a nice deal that would bring him 10K€/month (that's a lot here in France, about 3-4 times the average income), but he quickly realized, or even knew from the start that he didn't have the skills so he hired me and unbeknownst to me, for 10 years I did the work while being paid a third of what my work was worth.
All the while he would tell small lies, like "I thought we did a good year, but the accountant said otherwise", and using all tricks possible, like giving me yearly pay rise, just to minimize the possibility I ask for one that would be bigger than what he'd give, give me a big bonus in the early years so I'd think he's cool, then it would take a few years before I'd realize there wasn't such bonus anymore despite more ambitious work...
And being nice otherwise, not crushing me with a lot of work, he didn't even really want to expand his business (too lazy), just doing his best so I wouldn't cost him much and he could live off my back.
Like in the article, I was very naive, and after a while, accepting the truth is so tough that you're in some kind of denial. Some people raised my attention but I'd find him excuses, and it took me 2 years to accept the fact that things felt in fact wrong.
When I eventually asked for a well deserved pay rise, he was cornered, so the 5 y.o. kind of lie he told exposed who he was. Then it's 10 years of work and friendship that crumbled in a few seconds.
After I quit it took another 18 months to swallow it and move on, and the word "career" doesn't mean anything anymore.

 The story is a perfect synopsis of American business...the deeper you can bullshit, the farther you get in life.

 I thought the same thing. It sucked me right in.

 Such thorough journalism. I was entranced, and now so frightened of my own potential for deception.

 I think Nick's on here with those single downvotes.

 @Will-narayan: same exact experience with me only I lasted 18 months. Asked for the long promised pay rise and all of a sudden the business can't afford it. All down to a pathological liar or bender of the truth with dodgy deals on the side - paying himself in dividends instead of salary, having his wife on the payroll despite her not being a real emoyee. No thanks. Like you say career doesn't mean anything anymore when such fakeness takes people to the top.

 @Jamminator: There is that famous saying goes with your comment, "Fake it, till you make it." Lol.

 @CSharp: no kidding, stealing valor, misleading investors and crashing stocks has got nothing on the anger and tenacity of someone with a stolen Strava KOM

 @browner: yeah same here, he told me straight in the eyes that he was not paying himself a salary... he was playing on words cuz' like you he was paying himself annually with all the dividends. That a-hole was driving a Tesla Model S but could barely replace a company's computer screen the rest of the year...

 @Will-narayan: wow was your boss my boss haha - this one time he miscalculated our bonuses as he didn't factor that his dividends took away 60% of the profit he was to share amongst us. Safe to say $6k bonuses became $900 lol!

 @Will-narayan: @browner I used to think you guys when I was working for a construction/real estate development company. It was a small company of only five workers and the owner/boss. I was young and inexperienced and thought that the owner/boss was making all this money and we were doing all the work and not getting paid much. I used to think the owner/boss didn't do anything until I tried a project of my own and realized how inexperienced and naive I was. The company I was working for, the owner/boss brilliantly figured out how to do things that nobody else was doing and find opportunity where nobody else was able. This was a few decades ago, but still to this day, I don't know how he was able to do so many things to make those opportunities/projects happen, how to fund them, and how to get through all the red tape.

So, have you ever thought that perhaps the owner/boss was able to seize opportunities and do innovative things that nobody else was doing? or Have you ever thought how to learn the business and look for opportunity to go out on your own to start your own business? Right now, I see that a lot in the mountain bike industry. People who worked for bigger companies for several/many years that became experts in the business/industry and went out on their own to create their own companies.

 @tacklingdummy: you trolling?

 @tacklingdummy: As I said, that PoS signed one single good deal (by bullshitting a bit) then hired me to do the work. That deal was the backbone of the company for 10 years (about 40 to 75% of the turnover depending on the year, and the sole reason the company didn't fold during the 2008 crisis). All he did afterward was to pretend he was a boss while making up for the money he had to give me.
He resigned from this deal a few months after I left cuz' he couldn't do it by himself and focused on keeping on manipulating by former workmate.

I'm not saying all bosses are a-holes, but I also don't concur with the idea that a boss should take most of the company's gains just cuz he took a risk or whatever.
A freelancer ? Yeah, sure, by definition a freelancer is doing all the work by himself.
But a boss ? If he hires employees it intrinsically means he can't do everything himself, so the turnover should be distributed fairly, not "you guys get crap pay and I take all the rest".

 @Will-narayan: Have you managed or run a business of your own before? Not only there is a ton of risk, there are a ton of overhead costs that most people do not understand or know about. 9/10 start-up businesses fail. Owners/bosses have way, way, more responsibilities and duties than employees. I know several people that tried their own businesses but failed and said after it was easier to just work for someone. Just show to work, and go home after you are done. They didn't have generate new sales, new contracts, new deals, or do all the management duties associated with businesses.. If you think it is so easy being a business owner and they just get to keep all the money for doing nothing, you should go into business for yourself already.

 @browner: You can think what you want. People who understand it, may have better chance to go onto bigger and better things.

 @tacklingdummy: yeah difference is I am operations manager so I ran the business in a practical sense. Hence I hired a couple of business administrators created a training guide for them and left. As you say on to bigger and better things but just without being a patronising arse about it on the internet

 @tacklingdummy: You can put down your bosses defense banner :p.
I know it's hard, but I also know this SoB took no risks. It was a particular setup in a luxury sector where he had the advantages of a freelancer (big pay, not much taxes, self organisation), without the drawbacks (short and long term uncertainty), cuz' the job was well paid and on a long term forcast (hell, he got +10 grands every month for 10 years) he paid back the initial investment in a few months.
Well yeah, he took one risk : Commit to a job he didn't have the skills to do by lure of money. So he FAILED the sole risk he took and had to hire me to do it, then lived off my back for 10 years.

He was NOT a boss. He was a fraud, a fake freelancer disguised as a boss to hide his failure.
His lack of skills forced him to employ me. And instead of being humbled and sharing the profit fairly, and build a solid business with such a deal as a backbone, he was silently resentfull cuz' he consequently had to pay lot of taxes. Hiring me just postponed him buying a huge sedan.

As I said I'm not anti boss, I'm anti SoB who live off of others.
Cuz' while I don't run a business, when a business owner spends about as much in his car monthly than his employees have to live, I don't care what the risks are, this in a a*shole.

 @browner: @Will-narayan Good for you being an operations manager. Just owning a business is totally different. There tons more risk, costs, responsibilities, knowledge, experience, etc., that are involved with owning a business that people don't know about until you step out on that ledge. So, what people may think some small businesses owners are greedy, may not be the case. Many small business run a lot thinner than you think. I just think that if you guys think that business owners are the only ones that reap all the rewards, then start your own business to see.

Some of the best advice given to me by my dad was to try to be my own boss. I just repeated it to you guys. If you take as negative, so be it. Think what you want.

 @tacklingdummy: What you dont seem to understand is, we're not talking about small business owners - we're talking about some specific examples of literally fraudulent individuals... much like the original post above. You're acting like we're tarring all business owners with the same brush in your patronising way because you tried and failed to be one - literally no clue

 @browner: Relax.

 @tacklingdummy: get better

 @tacklingdummy: What Browner said.

Someone gave me another advice :
There are 3 kinds of boss :
-The good ones : Work hard, hire skilled people, pay everyone well, wants to develop the business, maybe even has more meaning than just making money
-The SoB : Just want to live of the back of their employees and buy expensive cars and stuff (when you get hired there you quickly understand you won't stay long). They don't even hide it, cuz' if you leave someone else will take your place.
-And the worst : The same SoB as previously, but that pretend to be good ones

Guess which one was my boss ?

 @browner: My comments were to be helpful, but you didn't take it that way which if fine, but perhaps take your own advice and not get overly defensive. I'm not your boss.

 @Will-narayan: I'm not your boss.

 @tacklingdummy: that's fine of you want to spend time writing comments on here. But you need to look patronising up in the dictionary. I thought to was pretty cool I found someone with a similar experience on pb and we ran with it. But you and your old father time advice added nothing. 7/5 would do it again.

 @browner: Sorry, for my horrible advice.

 @tacklingdummy: at least your owning your terrible advice, that's the first step to running your own successful business!

 @browner: Yeah, telling people to start their own business and be their own boss after becoming experts in the field is just bad advice. People should only work for other companies. I don't know what I was thinking. Thanks for educating me.

 @tacklingdummy: Your really learning now! If you keep this up you might get a raise. Now did you get round to working out what patronising means? its pronounced pat-ron-ising too not pate-ron-ising - how cool

 @browner: Your comments are more condescending. You should really be looking in the mirror when you call someone patronizing.

 @tacklingdummy: yeah buddy that's the joke

 @browner: Exactly. Lmao.

 @tacklingdummy: when running your own business online be sure to troll minor message boards. That's the Californian way. Land of the free

 @browner: Yeah great advice. I don't own anything, unemployed, no experience, and not hirable. Can you hire me since you are an operations manager?

 @tacklingdummy: Your finally understanding the ways things are. Maybe one day you will get your stuff together. Stop recycling your dad's tired advice and start grafting. You too could one day learn to use long words online! or even better, not use them.

 @tacklingdummy: let me guess republican?

 @SangamonTaylor: ski industry is the same, everyone raced World Cup or made their respective national team.

 @Will-narayan: getting the 10K€/month deal is the toughest part, hopefully you learned and got yourself a similar deal on your own.

 Oops, always best to read what you're cutting and pasting PB team

 the line that pissed me off the most is when he tried to insult someone by saying they "look like a mountain biker". how dare he.

 @cuban-b: it is a very common roadie insult.

 Haha.

 Amazing how many people can't see my 10,000 pound van on the road.

 My theory is simply that Nick Clark rode with his women's team because generally he could appear faster than them and maintain the facade, at least on training runs. But Sarah was faster than Nick Clark. She began to run a pace he could not maintain so he brought her down a notch under the guise of 'comraderie' or some other crap.

 @SunsPSD: Yup. Also helped him avoid direct ego-battles with other males who would be more likely to dig deeper and take him down. Everything was strategic and thought out. Crocodile tears at every point. The only thing that probably prevented him from being more dangerous was his cowardice. He specifically surrounded himself with perceived "lesser-thans" that he could bully through deception. A sociopath with more courage may have been tempted to challenge bigger game, and then things could have got bloody.

 @SunsPSD: sounds like the Charlie zelenoff of road cycling

 Quit your job. Four kids should bring in enough income to support you while you train.

 @exastronaut: brilliant.

I can move to snowshoe resort in west virgina! Lots of coal mines nearby for the kids to work.

 That's exactly what the article's about? If you can't train at all then you can't train at all.

 That is kinda the point if the article. How to do "time crunched cycling".

Or, stop making excuses. My GF is a single mom of 4 and still manages to train for ultra's. Also going to school full time. Working part time.

 @hamncheez: Oh, you were thinking they would get jobs? I suppose that could work too.

I'm more of a 'take the lump sum up front' kind of guy. I guess you're more of the 'take the annuity' type.

 @exastronaut: If you hold, the equity increases

 4 kids. Man you couldn’t pull out a parking space.

 @Struggleteam: Our parents had 4 kids. Our grandparents had 8 kids. Having and enjoying your offspring has been the norm for 99% of humanity up until the last 20 years it would seem. I'd like to have more, if we can.

 @hamncheez: I will stick with zero kids.

 @JSTootell: Hey, to each their own.

However, just like I'll evangelize if I've seen a good movie, I'd say mentoring the younger generation, whether its your own kids or just youth in your community, is 100% worth it. Riding bikes is fun, but watching and helping the next generation discover the joy of outdoor recreation is even better. I bet if you conducted a scientific study, measuring heart rate, taking blood samples to see serotonin/dopamine release, etc, you'd find most people get more enjoyment out of helping youth succeed at this kind of stuff over doing it just yourself.

 @hamncheez: just a bad joke man. to each there own.

 Why not? It's starting to get a bit ridiculous. That fork even looks like a 90's fork when suspension just entered the mtb world. Next thing you know the industry start adding 56 cm straight bars to gravel bikes and things have become full circle.

 I think if there's a need there's a market for it.
Owning a gravel and a XC bike, I can say that if they evolve to get closer in "gadgets" they might loose some of the simplicity appeal of it - that I enjoy.
But hey. That also happen with the debate on hardtail vs full suspension dropper post XC bikes.
I guess these folks want the different handlebar grab options, performance and geo similar to road, but a little bit more comfort on the front (it can tear your back apart) - they do really big stints.

 I'm only gonna buy it if there's ground breaking elastomer technology in there.

 a year from now they will add a gravel specific flat handlebar and then finally discover that XC bikes exist

 I get that gravel is actually fun and distinct from modern trail mountain biking. But I also get that in the 90s, mountain biking was actually lots of gravel riding (some might say mostly gravel riding- thats what it was for me with little dedicated single track).

If I built up a gravel bike today, I'd just get an XC frame for $380 from here, and build it up with gravel components www.aliexpress.com/item/1005002982566507.html

OR, to be cooler/more adventurous, get a carbon XC full suspension frame from the 2003-2006 era and throw curlies + gravel wheels on there. Gravel wheels + tires should fit 26" frames/forks. Ideally, to maximise cool, get a scalpel with its flex stays.

 I'm totally ok with having the option of a suspended gravel bike. Heck, I'm ok with having the option for a suspending road bike. Lol. Roads in my area are not well maintained.

 When I raced TT, stuff like this made a difference. When I bought covers for my shoes (slip on booties that smoothed everything out by covering them), I literally gained time overall. When you race TT, every little thing you can smooth out does, in fact, make you faster.

Facts man, sorry.

 @jmhills: And over the course of 112 miles before running a marathon, everything counts.

 @JSTootell: Exactly. Less effort, even the smallest of amounts, means energy reserved for later on. For me, I just did stand alone TT races so there was no next stage. I was just trying to beat the clock.

 @jmhills: didn't say it was ineffective, just said it was ugly :p

 @slippynicky: You also said it was clickbait, which is basically calling it ineffective.

 hambini is a clown

 @Kimura: yes, a very talented and knowledgeful clown. Fun to watch his vids and full of interesting stuff

 hambini might be right and even a master in his field - yet this doesn't give him (or anyone else) the right to behave the way he does. he just disqualifies himself by being such a douche.

 @nullzwo: only a few butthurt dudes can't handle hambini. if you can't handle it, don't watch it.

 @Kimura: quite sure he would agree since he calls himself out for it often. But he takes the engineering part seriously which is all I care about.

 @singlespeedman: beside the fact he is a great engineer, it's just unprofessional. but i see how his whole channel would be kinda boring without him raging over some bottom brackets.

 @singlespeedman: and all the bike companies he skewers

 I can't believe anybody actually believes Hambini is a good engineer, truly amazes me. He is 100% just an @$$hat. But I know I'll get voted down for that, so I'll pose the question: which is the biggest snake oil company in cycling, Ceramicspeed or Kogel?

 @GeorgeHayduke: sick bicycles i guess.

or sciu. i'm undecided actually.

 @GeorgeHayduke: How exactly do you see either of those companies as selling snake oil? You might not put any value in the products they sell but they absolutely do what they claim they do... Being overpriced and offering a level of marginal gains that no one who isn't a paid pro needs doesn't make something "snake oil"

 @GeorgeHayduke: Really? You can’t understand?

People think he’s a good engineer because the engineering on his channel is both highly competent and well explained. When investigating an issue he thoroughly measures all relevant dimensions to identify true root cause. Then he circles back to explain what the true requirement is by referencing either existing standards or engineering fundamentals. Finally he explains how to correct the issue in a way that makes perfect sense given the background in the previous two steps. All explained in a way that any technically minded viewer can learn the fundamentals of how to approach the topic and allows them to make better decisions about their future buying decisions.

If you can’t see past vulgarity or personal distaste to recognize engineering fundamentals then maybe you should refrain from commenting on someone’s engineering skills? There’s plenty to criticize about Hambini, but the technical information he provides is solid and a massive positive for the cycling community.

 @GeorgeHayduke: if you're going to call Hambini "100% just an @$$hat" I would be interested to hear why you think that and what your expertise in engineering is that allows you to make such claim.

 @Blackhat: spot on. I honestly think the vulgarity is part of the appeal lol