I got my quiz work done for the week ahead of time, and had the chance to duck out for a few hours today for the Tour De Homewood, sponsored by the Greater Homewood Community Organization and promoted by the guys over at NBBB among others (great job & thanks to all those who helped organize!). It was a great little ride (around 24 miles for me including to and fro…) for a great cause. It was nice to get out of the cave for a few hours and this was the first time I’ve been on a bike for more than 15 minutes since the Seagull Century. I left the house with 3 layers, a hat, and gloves on. By the time I got there I had stuffed all the extra clothes I could in my topeak wedge and I was still burning up for most of the ride. Didn’t know it was going to feel like June out when I left the house… Glad I didn’t take a camera or I would’ve had to wear my jacket too. Anyway, it was a nice diversion, and now it’s back to work.
I had a few minutes this weekend to make some mech changes and dust off the 1×7 for the winter commute. Even though the old pads in the back had a little life left in them, I pulled out the Velo-Orange pads I got a few weeks ago and installed them. Squeak free is the way they sound which is nice. The installation went very easy since I didn’t toe them in. I swear I read somewhere on the VO site that you didn’t need to, but I can’t find it to link to now. No matter, they work and that’s what counts. Braking action seems a little softer than my old pads, but comparing the braking surface area of one to the other, the VO’s were about 25% smaller than my old ones. Only time will tell how they wear, how they work in the wet (missed the rain on Saturday), and how kind they are to the rims. My large size and start-stop city riding make me a perfect test candidate. For the 20 mile review I give them the thumbs up.
I’ll get around to all the other little tweaks later.
| Date | Long Haul Trucker | Blue 1×7 | Mtn. / Misc. miles | 09 Total |
| 9-30 | 3038.8 | 2033.9 | 72.5 | 1530.0 |
| 10-3 | 3048.7 | 2033.9 | 72.5 | 1539.9 |
| 10-10 | 3174.8 | 2033.9 | 72.5 | 1666.0 |
| 10-17 | 3194.1 | 2033.9 | 72.5 | 1685.3 |
| 10-24 | 3218.7 | 2033.9 | 72.5 | 1709.9 |
| 10-31 | 3242.4 | 2033.9 | 72.5 | 1733.6 |
My moratorium on looking at bikes and thinking about bike stuff came to an abrupt end. My wife asked me a little bit ago about what kinds of things I’d like for my Birthday and Christmas. Being a patriotic consumer, I know I SHOULD immediately have something to say to that, but there really isn’t much I want. Aside from a nice bottle of scotch to nurse for a year or 2 I really don’t have anything on my list.
This brings me to the only material thing on my horizon which I have to think about, and that’s the light racer-type bike that I promised myself when I pull weigh-in numbers under 200 for a month straight. Even my best projections put that goal a year or so off, but the wheels are turning, and I’m having many of the same internal debates I had years ago before I brought the Trucker.
I have to say right off the bat that my definition of ‘racer-light’ involves a steel frame, NOTHING carbon, wheels with 32 or greater spokes, a cassette with 9 or less cogs, fenders, and 28 tires or larger. I know this description would seem antithetic to ‘racer’ for most, but. 1) I crave durability and plan on riding any bike I buy from now until the day I die. 2) The 52 pounds I’ve lost so far, and the 75 I’ll have shed by the time I make this a reality count 1000 times more towards any land speed record I’ll ever break on a bike than the extra $4000 I could spend towards any ‘4 pound equipment diet’.
the LHT has been nearly perfect in every way. My only misgivings about going right out and buying a second frame for a rackless build with lighter wheels are,
- BB Drop – Out on the road for long miles I really like the stable feel, but on short runs in the city I lay down sparks with a pedal while cornering at least once a month. I have to think about turns with platforms the way I have to think about stoplights with clipless pedals.
- Predictability. 93% of the time it’s nice. The LHT handles like it’s on rails, but sometimes I wish for something that was just a ‘bit’ quicker – that had a little more liveliness to it. The best way I can describe it is when I commute on the Blue 1×7, I feel I can really ‘toss it around’ like my old bmx bike. By comparison, the Trucker feels like it’s there. Stable, dependable, and if I was going to upstate New York and back, that’s exactly how I’d like to feel all day, but it’s nice to get out for an aggressive ride now and then too. Full on road geometry with a 74+° headtube would probably be too much, but a little quicker would be nice.
Short list as of October 09…
Velo-Orange Randonneur Frame – They’re not even out yet, so not much to write.
Rivendell Bicycle Works “Rodeo” – I know this smacks of snobbery at its finest, but if you are going to go through the trouble of designing and building a lugged frame, give it a gorgeous contrasting paint scheme, and put a $2000 price tag on it, why in the name of all things sacred would you choose to christen it with a title that evokes images of 1950’s westerns and twirling carnival rides? To me, this feels like the sort of ‘who cares’ anti-marketingese that Surly is known best for, and frankly, I’ve grown more fond of their scrawly logo than I think I could ever be to look down and see the word ‘Rodeo’ between my legs. Although I really love the looks of many of their other frames, a glance at the geometry charts and they’re all skewing a little too close to the CS length and BB drop formula that my Trucker is known for. the Quickbeam would be a nice option, but they’re on their way out.
Soma Stanyan – Black with contrasting polished lugs. NICE. I know nothing of the ride.
Salsa Casseroll and single – lots to like, but I just get a little turned off by straight forks. It’s an aesthetic choice. Nothing personal.
Which brings me full circle back to Surly. Good old dependable beautiful Surly (careful if you are sensitive to visual overstimulation, they just redesigned their site and it’s got bacon, donuts, and crazy stuff strewn all over it now)
Surly Pacer – Strong contender, but they’re taking away the silver frames! TOO SOON! I need another year!
Surly Crosscheck – It feels strange, but of all the bikes above, and any other for that matter, I keep coming back to this one as the most logical choice.
- There is a ton of overlap in the frame designs, head tube and seat tube angles are the same. With a liberally cut steerer on the fork I could get the bars high enough to enjoy long rides well into my senior years (Slightly lower than the trucker with its long head tube, not ‘double stem’ high). Essentially, aside from the higher BB and shorter rear triangle it’s the same ride. I tried reading through the Surly Owners group forums for comparison information between the 2 frames and the ride, but cross conversation and erroneous advice made it frustrating to say the least.
- The dropouts are semi-horizontal, so If I wanted to lace up a single speed wheel I could experiment there with minimal investment. That’s nice since I’d never want to own a DEDICATED single bike again. An IG hub would be an option for a build too.
- Next on the list of likes is tires. Very few other non-Riv bikes let you run ‘near 29′er’ size rubber. I do miss the Schwalbe Marathon Crosses and aiming for rocky dirt roads a little bit since I pulled them off last summer.
- Last but not least, it makes sense because it takes 135 wheels, canti brakes and all the stuff that I’ve already got in parts bins sitting around the basement, so if I did get it, it wouldn’t be the ‘little prince’ of my bike collection that needs all kinds of fancy parts to operate. While we’re fairly stress free financially right now, if we were ever really strapped for cash, it’d be nice to know I could keep it running with some duct tape, zip ties, and a pair of the clearance sale brake pads that I stockpiled for the 1×7 5 years ago.
- I could lock it up at the grocery store without developing an ulcer worrying about it while I run in for a loaf of bread. (didn’t I already say last but not least?)
- Oh, and If I don’t like the colors they’re sporting when they do their next production run (beef gravy brown?), there’s still a good chance that they’ll keep their black in the mix. I can live with black.
- I can make it look like (click to go to respective owners galleries)
this.
this.
this,
or this.
Drawbacks – Unless I take a hair dryer to all the decals I’ll suffer from a horrible case of aging hipster fashion disease sometime in the next 5 years.
I had a bit of curiosity about the feel of a lugged frame over a tig welded frame until I had a conversation around mile 80 at the Seagull Century. I bumped into a Riv owner (who also turned out to be a long haul trucker owner too), and during our conversation I asked him how much of a difference he felt between the ride of the two bikes. His words were that the comparison was nearly all aesthetic. What a beautiful look it is to admire, but when it comes down to it, I’m more of a slave to function than than form. Know thyself.
These are just incomplete scribbles, so feel free to comment and tell me I’m FoS and really want a Madone with Campy 11. It’s totally subject to change with the whims of the market too. NONE of it helps me with my original conundrum, because I can’t very well ask the wife to buy me a pair of Paul Brakes or a wheel for x-mas until I have an idea what I might be bolting them down to. I know, what awful problems to have. Maybe I’ll roll in to a bike store a year from now after I reach my goal and fall in love with something on the spot, but I really doubt it. My tastes have become WAYYY to specialized to groove on practically any complete bike out there now.
Well, now I can go back to not thinking about it again. I just had to spend a little bit of time on a rainy day and dump my thoughts out so I could go back to math, eating right, exercising, riding and all the other stuff I have (and want) to keep at.
Well I visit on the early days of the week after my Sat/Sun hi-sodium and occasionally alcohol fueled diet, but I’ve been in the high 210’s on Friday for a month straight. Been at least 6 years since I’ve been able to say that and probably much-much longer. Celebrated just like I promised myself 6 months ago with a little order to Velo-Orange. Their new Squeal-Free Brake pads and a Croissant bag. Nothing installed yet, so I can’t review, but it all looks very nice. Looking forward to having a very small amount of free time in the weeks to come. After the Seagull Century 2 weeks ago, and the wedding I was in last weekend, I’ve been working NONSTOP on class stuff. Ask me something about graphing polynomials or inverse functions. Another 2 weeks of 80% effort and I should be back on track.
Came out of work this afternoon and got a little pick-me-up when a passerby complimented me on my bike as I was leaving. I chat for a little bit about putting over 3200 miles on it, riding to work, and the fringe benefits (enjoying ones commute, losing 40 pounds in 2 years, and free parking).
This came to me in an email I’ve been getting from the Baltimore Metropolitan council after signing up for the bike to work day back in May. Anyone else hear of this?
Sunday Streets in Roland Park – Sunday, October 25
Baltimore’s first Cyclovia event will be Sunday, October 25 from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Roland Park. A Cyclovia is a Spanish term meaning “bike path” and has been used in Latin America to refer to events that temporarily close a street to cars for use by bicyclists and pedestrians. Sponsored by the Roland Park Civic League, Roland Avenue will be transformed into a temporary park between Cold Spring Ln and Northern Pkwy. E-mail mike.mcquestion@gmail.com for info or to volunteer.
Here’s the quick write up since I have to get back to quadratic functions and models. Good ride, rainy on and off… Main differences between this year and <last year> were the rain, and the extra 2000+ people. Most everything else was the same down to the insanely good mile 84 apple pie and rock-hard vanilla ice cream. I was up at 4:07 in the morning to get there and still got stuck in traffic parking for half an hour. Next year I’ll probably stay over the night before. 100 miles and being awake for 20 hours straight makes for a long day. I still had fun. Click on any of the photos for bigger.
Mile 23 rest stop port-o-pot line from hell…
I lugged my big camera along to get a nice hi-res picture of the farmhouse I shot last year, but they planted corn in the field instead of soybean so it looked completely different. It was cloudy and not really good for pictures anyway. For the most part, the camera was just along for the ride with my spare shirt, sunscreen and sandwich. I had intended on packing lighter for this ride after the CWC, but then I remembered all the people in 2008 and decided a little self sufficiency might be a good thing. It worked out to my advantage, and I only had to sit in one 20 minute line for sickeningly sweet ‘All-Sport’ energy drink at mile 64. I don’t know if it’s supposed to be that sweet, or they just mixed it wrong, but I got cavities just looking at it…
Mile 84 rest stop pond with permanent residents…
Answer Key and typical Trucker shot…
Craziest cool thing I saw all day was a custom recumbent tandem where the stoker sat facing backwards. I can’t imagine what it would be like to pedal backwards for 100 miles. Kind of like riding in the back of an ’80’s station wagon. I was moving so I didn’t have the camera out.
Awesome bike for any kid who wants a better view of the ride…
Last year my computer times were 101.43miles/14.5average/26.2max. This year the numbers were 99.95miles/15.6average/26max. The weather was cruddier this year, and it felt like there were headwinds and tailwinds from multiple directions, as opposed to the steady wind from the coastline in ‘08. I averaged 1 mile an hour better, and aside from ducking behind a few riders here and there for a draft I think I earned it. I ate and drank at the right times. That helped me keep my energy up. I didn’t train as hard as last summer but I was carrying 16 pounds less of me.
After the ride John and Jennie let me crash at their place since I was too lazy to book the Holiday Inn before they sold out. Just like last year we had a big dinner, a beer, a little hanging out, and I was passed out on their couch with big x’s over my eyes. What a day!
I feel like I’ve all but disappeared from the known universe. 20+ hours a week at my desk at home on top of work is a little overkill, but that’s what it’s shaking out to be as I plow through the syllabus in my pre-calculus course. I’m really looking forward to the Seagull Century next week. I was out for a little today, but not riding. We visited the parents in PA. Thank God for commuting or the layer of dust on my bikes would be 1/4″ thick by now.
| Date | Long Haul Trucker | Blue 1×7 | Mtn. / Misc. miles | 09 Total |
| 8-31 | 2772.8 | 2000.2 | 72.5 | 1230.3 |
| 9-5 | 2879.5 | 2000.2 | 72.5 | 1337.0 |
| 9-19 | 2979.7 | 2033.9 | 72.5 | 1470.9 |
| 9-26 | 3023.6 | 2033.9 | 72.5 | 1514.8 |
| 9-30 | 3038.8 | 2033.9 | 72.5 | 1530.0 |
meh weekend
Published September 20, 2009 Bikes , General , is it friday yet , train-o-rama 5 CommentsThis weekend was in large part chopped into tiny bite sized pieces by social engagements that were planted strategically in the middle of the afternoon. Of course the weather was fantastic, so the sun taunted me from outside the banquet halls where I was stuck while the world was pedaling by.
I tried to break out for a 20 or 30 mile ride (my figure 8 with a loop around Druid Hill Park or someplace else to tack on a few miles.), but I ended up cutting it short after I had a mini-accident right outside of Robert E. Lee park. I went to hop one of the little speed bumps littering the road, got distracted for the blink of an eye and came down cockeyed on the right pedal. The crank spun back around and it was “burger-time” for my right shin. Grip King pedals are grippy, and most grippy metal things are also sharp. That wouldn’t have bothered me too much because I already have permanent scars 1/16″ deep on that leg, but when I missed the pedal, my backside came down on the horn of my favorite Brooks Saddle bending the rails down in the front by about 2/3″. To add insult to injury, I didn’t pack my multi-tool or phone for the first time in 100 rides, so I had no way of fixing it or contacting anyone. Having my saddle all tweaked and out of place made me go slow, and for the most part just want to go home and try to fix it. My 30 mile ride turned 14 in a second.
Back at home, I made some french-press and observed the damage for a few minutes. Using a 1/4″ socket ‘breaker-bar’ wrapped in an old tube for grip, I leveraged it back into place. I had to re-adjust the tension, but I think it should be ok with a little more tweaking. Normal riding pulls UP on the front saddle rails as best I can tell from putting downward pressure on the back with my hand while off the bike. I HOPE that the rails don’t sag, because…
- The leather top is perfect for me right now after 3500 miles,
- I easily saw myself using that saddle on some bike for the rest of my life at the rate I was adjusting the tension.
- My basement parts collection is littered with plastic saddles that I suffered through before I found Brooks, and just the thought of putting one of them back into circulation makes my backside ache.
By the time I got all that figured out it was time for the social function du jour so no ‘pick-up’ ride to squeak in the extra miles. I needed it too. All I did this weekend was eat, and nothing was even that good. It’s a first, but I’m asking “Is it Friday yet?” and it isn’t even Monday 
On a good (but also stressful) note, I start my online pre-calc coursework tomorrow. Not sure what to expect, but I guess I’ll find out.
