Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Bolt Upright

PhotobucketIn my quest to transform my Trek 820 from mediocre (at best) mountain bike into the Ultimate Bike Path Warrior, I made the great leap of swapping out he bars. Now, to some folks, the so called "leap" of swapping bars is akin the the "leap" rolling out of bed in the morning, but to me, it's kinda special. So I ordered a set of "Tourist" bars from Velo Orange. I did not want to ditch my trigger shifters in favor of something more "traditional" like thumb friction or bar end shifters and I am glad to report that they, as well as the 820's original grips fit right on the bars. The whole process was, for the most part, painless. I had to re-rout the cables a few times and, truth be told, making them a slight bit longer might not be the worst die that I ever had. I had to wait two day to get to take it for a ride. It was sort of a torture.

Now, if you follow my blog at all (and I know that you don't), you might remember that a couple of years ago I had in my stable, for a short time, and Olde Tyme English Threespeed. I didn't like it that much. Unlike in The City Proper, out in my neck of the woods, there are a LOT of hills. I found that the tried and true Sturmy Archer hub just wasn't what my Big Bottom needed to get around. I also remember, now, feeling as if I were perched up on high with the bikes riding position. As if I were gliding effortlessly amongst the Common Folk and that they should all look up at me with bent necks as I rode by. I remembered this because that's exactly the feeling that I got as I test rode the UBPW.

Now, I certainly expected a more upright riding position on the re-styled Trek. It only makes sense. What I did not expect was how much of a difference it would really make. It was very sit p and beg. A little too much so for my liking actually. I don't have the bars set level either. There is a fairly good angle at the grip end to make my hands fall more naturally onto the ends of the bars and around the controls.  I found myself choking-up on the bars some time and even sliding forward on my seat. I guess the weight distribution felt off, too centered on thereat of the cycle. I'm going to adjust the angle some more I think. Maybe move the seat forward a little, which seems counter intuitive to me: I brought the grips closer, the seat should move farther away, right? That's not how it feels when I'm riding it.

Another difference was that the Three Speed had a nice, sprung, leather Brooks Saddle. That would have been nice to have yesterday. Not imperative, and if the riding experience had not been so strikingly familiar, I might never have begun to pine for that seat. But pine away I did, like a dead parrot for the fjords.  Again, adjust before replace. Not afraid to do either. I have WAY more invested in this bike in terms of parts and labour that I do in the actually bike! I might be back in the V.O. catalogue before long.

There is a female cyclist who's blog I follow. She began her riding adventures on three-seep commuter type bikes. She rode to get to the store, get to work and began writing to share her experiences on it. As she began to get more into riding though, she began to bend forward over her bars. She got diamond frames and drop-bars and she began to write about how she was using different muscles and how it was effecting her riding. I had no idea that it would work so stunningly in the reverse mode! The lower third of my thigh muscles took it the hardest. Not all that bad, but I only went about four miles with no real climbing to show for it. Seriously: weather it was a natural by-product of the riding position or some sort of flashback the that poor outclassed three speed, riding around on theta bike with those bars did NOT make me want to go up hills with it. Not really an absurd fate since this bike's main function is to pull a 3 year old in a trailer along bike paths and go to the grocery store every now and then. Still, at least I should try a hill or something I guess. Now, here is the weird part. I felt like I wasn't going very fast at all. However, my GPS motored and computer generated average speed was actually higher than is normal for me. Sure, there were no climbs to drop it down but neither were there descents to raise it back up. EIther way, I would have thought that I would have had a lower number for an average.

The verdict? I liked it. I'm pretty sure that I will be keeping these well made and super comfy bars on my bike. The chrome looks a little silly coming out of the black stem, but other than that these bars are a win and a half. 

Monday, January 9, 2012

A little pissed.

I follow several bike blogs. Some are pretty amusing, some are very self-important and some are.....sad and pointless. Yet, all represent a different attitude and opinion about a pastime that I love, and wish I had more time for. Some times it's nice to live vicariously through others' rides. Some times they inspire me to get out there on my own no mater how cold it is or how tired I might be. The thing that burns me though, is that they ALL have subscribers! Some of them are making MONEY at writing bike blogs! Sa-weet! Now, I am by no means a shameless self-promoter. I imagine that you have to look really hard to find this blog, unless you are googling pictures of Raleigh Marathons. That's the number one source of traffic here. Perhaps I should write more about this bike and take more pictures and, in general, "pimp" it. Sadly, it has spent most of it's life in disrepair and disarray. I have so little time available to go ride by myself that the fully functional bikes that are NOT almost thirty years old and do NOT need any TLC get called into action and the Marathon sits on the sidelines.

As sad as it is, it is in much better shape than the Peugeot UO-8 project that is sitting in my basement! That bike started out as a perfectly rideable one-owner whip with a slight dent in the back wheel that made it brake funny. So, I decided that I was going to swap out the wheel and bars for aluminum. I had genuine Peugeot parts from a later decade, so I didn't feel too badly about the up-grades. The trouble was that the new wheel was a 6 speed and the old one was a 5. I never got the derailure to line up right an the project died. Pity. I would like again some day ahve a nice old road bike, and by nice I mean 531. I had one, another Peugeot, but it was too small for me (by a lot) so I sold it to a girl in Cambridge who, I realize now, only wanted it for a winter beater! Sigh.

So, any way, back to my original point: if you read any of my posts and enjoy the way that I write or the things that I write about please subscribe to it! Thank you for your support.

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Clipped!

Clipped-in that is! I went and did it. After almost three years of cycling I went out and got clipless pedals and real, honest to goodness, cycling shoes! I know! Right? Me!.

My personal Bike Guru, Derek, long ago sold me shoes that fit (tacky road shoes and clipless pedals. The thing about those shoes it that they require the rest of the outfit to not look totally rediculous and out of place. Also, they are NOT the type of shoes to be seen in when you crash as a learner. No one would look at those shoes on an unconscious rider lying in the street and think,

"That poor guy trying to learn clipless! He fell off his bike and got knocked out"!

No, they migh bring a response, or thought along the line of ,

"Nice Shoes Lance. Should have bought some bubble-wrap for your un-conscious ass instead of all that spandex".

So I had those shoes, and some clipless peddles that had NO grippy sides and they sat in a box. For a while. then, randomly, I got it in my head that I should at least try clipless peddles so, naturally, instead of using what I had, I went out and bought new gear! What I got was two-sided peddles: one clipless and the other "normal" so I could install them on my bike and have the option to ride either way as the situation or my mood dictated. Secondly, I bought some MTB cycling shoes. The kind with laces. The kind that don't look like clown slippers but like sneakers. Sneakers with reflective striping and the word SHIMANO on the side but close enough.

Next step, install the peddles. Easy as pie. So easy in fact that I am fairly convinced that I did something wrong and that they will fall off any time now. They haven't yet though, so I am off to a good start any way. So, I set out for a near-by field, using the normal, gripy side of the peddles.I was instructed, in no uncertain terms, that I should make sure that I was on grass and practice for hours clipping in and out of the clipless peddles as I would be falling over like a drunk at 3am Saturday morning every time I tried to start or stop my bike. I am impatient. I couldn't wait. I struggled to find the right, clippy, side of the peddles but after a few tentative stabs with my toes, snick! I was in! Now the other side. Snick. Excellent.

Well, as things turned out, I had to start and stop several times during the ride. I remembered to clip-out ever time that I had to stop and got a little smoother at snicking back in after I started. I think that mechanically, the getting IN part will be harder than the getting out part. I think functionally, after I stop constantly reminding myself to "clip out when I stop, clip out when I stop, clip out when I stop, clip out when I stop" I WILL indeed fall over. Oh well. Not yesterday.

I rode a around for about an hour. I checked out our local bike-path. It was in a little nicer shape than the last time I checked it out and less "bummy" for sure. As for the experience of riding clipless? Well, at first I was like, "big deal". BUT after a while I began to feel like it was more efficient and a few hours after I stopped riding I realized that muscles that do not normally ache after a ride ached. So, low danger, little perceived change in how I go about my business while I am riding and expands the list of muscles used to do the riding. I am, for the time being, going to call the clipless peddle a "Win".

Sunday, January 1, 2012

New Years Day: The Day of the Coyotte.

My wife was kind enough to allow me out of the house on a bicycle today. I was determined to NOT simply saddle up and burn myself ragged until I ran out of steam. No boring "loop" for me today. With that in mind I selected my Trek 820 as my steed-de-joure. There were other factors in the choice. I had her tuned up a bout a month ago but with the coming of the Crossbike, she had been quite neglected. Also, one of my "plans" had me riding the MTB trails at the local park. The MTB has no fenders though, and it was still a little gross on the streets, despite not raining at the time. Besides, I just really wanted to have some fun with that poor bike! Pull the kid? Yep. Grocery run? Sure. Trip to the bank or hardware store? Trek 820 please. Something fun? Something else!



So I got geared up, got my (way too heavy) backpack* on and fired her up. We head down hill which ment that we had to go back UP hill, and the hills in these parts are pretty steep.Well, to me they are. So there I am riding up-hill, down town, needing to take a left hand turn and am all out of breath and half dead. I check, I double check and whip out my best VC move and signal my left turn. Around the corner and up another damn hill! Really? I'm less than two miles away from home (an on my "way to the bank" rout that I have negotiated about 75000 times before) and I'm exhausted. I seriously thought about turning back, but did not. After all, my Teamates are counting on me right?

I rode around a little more and, based on a cut-through on a dirt trail and past experience, I decided to NOT try to tackle the 5 mile off-road loop on this bicycle on this day. Instead I went up over the highway and out into the countryside. It was there that I cam across this fellow. I stopped to look.




What is this? A wolf? A dog? I doubted both. I settled on Coyote. I watched it run around in the field hunting mice or whatever for a while. I took a few iPhotos of it, but nothing god. I was hoping that it would come closer so I could get a good shot. Well, suddenly it did. It locked on me and started "coming right for me" as they would say in that town in Colorado. It was then I saw the white paws and decided that it was probably a dog after all. Now I became concerned about it's well being. Alone out in a field next to the woods. So I called to it. THAT altered it's trajectory! It took a left turn and bolted. It was heading straight for a playground! Oh great. I was wishing that my iPhone was an iTwo-Twent Two right then as i quickly assigned the animal back into the "Coyote" slot and feared that it would eat a child. I hopped back on my trusty steed and charged, the long way around, after it. I found no sign of the animal and there were no children in sight (other than the one he dragged away into the woods to gnaw on as a snack, I'm sure.

I buggered out.

I kept riding over hill and dale. I saw happy streams and some big, shaggy moo-cows that iThought about taking pix of but they were far away and I was up to my Bag Limit for "little dots that might look like animals if developed correctly" shot for the day. I kept peddling. In all I made it ten miles. I almost got eaten by one wolf and almost run over by one SUV. I felt good about having gone out and got some miles on me on the first day of 2012. I'm glad that I didn't turn back after the first two hills!

Twisted Steel, it turns out, is not sexy at all.

I have a friend. I feel badly for him. He is what many would call clumsy. His affliction goes beyond that in real terms but for the purposes of this discussion it is a good enough term.

Now this guy, friend-x, wanted a road bike. He's a tall fellow and does not have a lot of liquid capital. Ok, he doesn't have any capital tied up in stocks and bonds either. He is just kind of broke. So, whereas he is poor, tall and a Friend of Mine and whereas I had a nice 61cm Peugeot frame (from AFTER they converted to "normal" sizes and threadings) it was resolved that I would make a gift of this frame and various bits to make about 75% of a bicycle to Friend-X. It was so done. He took the bike and a hundred and seventy five bucks to the campus bike shop and emerged with a fully functional, rideable price of Vintage Steel. It is at this EXACT point that things take a turn for the worse. He adjusted the fork-holders on his Thule roof racks, put the bike up and drove home. He went for a ride right then, even though it was cold and dark and rainy. He loved it even if it was just for a short ride. He ws hooked on his "roadbike". I was pleased.

Naturally, at the first chance that I got for us to take advantage of our flexible schedules and unseasonably warm weather, I invited him to go for a ride. We were to meet at a local sub shop and go from there. I arrived later than Friend-X. As I pulled into the parking lot I saw him standing nest to the car futzing with the bike. She look good up there. She looked tall and elegant and sexy. She was ready to go. She was whole! Turns out that she was bent!

Yep. Somehow, the left forkleg had come loose from the clam, wedging the left leg in the holder. The weight of the bike waggling back and forth for the whole ride bent the drop out. A lot. I don't know how it didn't snap! So ended our bike ride and began our quest to get the thing fixed! Naturally we tried the LBS. Closed on Wednesday. That was OK because they kinda suck any way. Now what? Well, when my MTB broke the chain I brought i t to the Bicycle Shop of Topsfield. They did a great job fixing it and impressed me in general as a rider's shop. I called them up and they agreed to drop every thing and see about fixing this up for us. Hum, we might be able to salvage a ride before dark yet...

So, we drove over. It not a short drive. Cost about $7 in fuel. We walked in and the man working there take a look at it. "It's bad", he tells us. Not to worry. He has a guy who works for him who is a machinist. That guy will be in tomorrow and they can have it fixed up for less than twenty bucks. Friend-X says "Humm". He thanks them for their time and collects his bent-ass bicycle and we leave. My blood presure spiked just a little
bit. As we walked to the car I inquiered why we were not getting his fork fixed. I was going to pay for it at that point! he ruined my bike, my gift and my fun! I wanted that bike fixed almost as much as if it had been my own (still). That was, surpprizingly, NOT the reason! He wanted to bring it to a bike shop closer to his house. Now, I can understand this. It makes sense. Of course THIS shop was about 8 miles from his house. Not that far, but the closer one was, well, closer. Or at least it used to be.

Once upon a time there was a bike shop. It had an address and a phone number on the internet. The address was plugged into the GPS and off we went. We tried to call. I was told "There was something wrong with their phone". Ah, the power of pure hope! As we drove on, the "we" manning the phone turned to "I" and  when "I" tried to call "I" discovered that the problem with the bike shop's phone was that it was "disconnected". The bike shop that was closer, the bike shop that was better, was a figment of Friend-X's imagination. I had one more trick up my sleeve.

Some say he was born on a bicycle being peddled through the south of France. Some say that his internals are all bike gears except for his tongue. All I know is that he is called Ed. Ed runs Cycle Re-Cycle in Haverhill. He does two things very well: he talks and he fixed bicycles. It was to him that I brought my goofy friend and his twisted fork. When we got there the sign said Open but the locked door said "Closed". The 'shop" is a windowless barn next to the house. There was no way to check inside other than calling so call I did. He was in the house. For less than a minuet Quick as a wink he was out in the yard talking to us. He was on his way out. He had no space to leave it. Could we bring it back tomorrow? "Oh sure" said I. "where are you going"? I asked. Well, that question led to more and more talking and next thing e knew he had us in the shop and was using some sort of Magical Wizard Tool to make every thing alright on my buddy's fork. Five Bucks.

 We never got our ride in that day, and haven't gotten the chance to go since. Never the less we had an adventure and I got to spend the afternoon with a good, if slightly clumsy, friend. X.