Racers

22 Friday Feb 2013

Tags

a. homer hilsen, ahh, brake shudder, Funky Monkey, Paul, Paul Racer, rivendell, Silver Sidepull

Paul Racer Brakes

I’ve been upgrading the Homer for the past 3 years as the time and money becomes available. I have always admired Paul products from a distance, and recently realized I had a Riv dividend that would pay for a set of Paul Racers. I finally got the time to install them, so I’m all set.

A couple of notes/thoughts. The new brakes don’t feel stronger to me than the original Silver sidepulls. There is more modulation with these, but I’m guessing it’s just related to cable stretch. There is more exposed cable on both front and back. Both the Silvers and these Racers have great breaking power, so no net gain/loss there. Perhaps better feel. I do like the looks of the Pauls slightly more, but the Silvers were no slouch in that category either.

Brake Hanger

The cable hanger was interesting, and one downside to the center-pull brakes. I didn’t have much room for a fork crown mount as I have a rack and brakes mounted already, so I used a drop hanger, also a Paul (Funky Monkey), mounted to the stem. It leaves more exposed cable, and I’ve heard from a few sources (here is a good one) that this may cause shudder as the brakes may grab the rim, the fork flexes back as the tire grabs the road, and the cable tightens, until the pad breaks free, and the process starts again.

Front Racer

The good news is that this doesn’t seem to impact me with these brakes. It seems to be more of an issue with canti brakes on bikes with flexy forks.

Racer’d Out

Time for some real riding to break them in…

These

Commuting Balance

12 Tuesday Feb 2013

Posted by Stonehog in Cycling

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

200k, bicycle, bike commute, randonneur

I’ve got both of my regular bikes dialed in pretty well now, and have been trading them off for commute duty. I am also thinking about the upcoming Rando season, and have been trying to get in an occasional longer ride in on the weekends. Timing with family duties has been tough, as always. I find that I need to commute to get my “bike on”, and when I try to save energy for the weekend rides by not commuting, I start to get pretty miserable fast. This must be a special condition built up over years of conversion to a bike commute, so when I don’t do it for a few days I start to go through withdrawal.

I’m not sure if others have this problem. I get the feeling that most Randonneurs are more of the weekend warrior type that have a hopelessly long commute and just ride on the weekend. I am quite sure that’s bunk, and there are folks all over the spectrum that have the rando kind of crazy. Anyway, I’ve been doing about 150-250 miles/month in commutes, and have gradually started to take a longer, less crowded route to work. I look at it as the “scenic route”, but also view it as “base miles” that I need to keep my fitness at to even attempt the longer rides. I know that by doing this, I’ll be able to finish a 200k if I bring enough food/water, but I certainly won’t be in the top 20% time-wise without more dedication.

Do I want to dedicate the time to that? Sure. Eventually. When my daughter wants to spend more time with her friends. When the house projects are back to the single digits. When work isn’t a primary focus for me? You can see where this is going. I think I’m a Randonneur like I’m a Fisherman. For me, it’s an outlet, and I want it to be enjoyable. That’s the plan…