New Bars, New Wrap

13 Monday Feb 2012

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a. homer hilsen, B115, Bar Wrap, dirt drop, drop bars, harlequin, nitto, noodles, Olympiade, randonneur, rivendell, Simichrome

I’m starting to do randonneuring this year, and had some hand numbness with the Porteur bars on my last Populaire 100k. While I could probably tweak the angle a bit and suck it up, I sense that I may be in the minority with these bars on the longer rides, and there may be logic behind everyone else using drops. That said, I’ve had my problems with drops in the past, having tried 46cm Nitto Noodles, and 45cm Nitto Randonneurs with little love.

Old setup with Nitto Noodles and Dirt Drop

As I have a bit of bike ADD, I had an old Nitto bar that came off my mom’s 80’s Soma (old Japanese brand, not new San Fran brand) road bike. I cleaned them up with a bit of the Simichrome, and they looked so nice, I just had to try them. They are significantly thinner than the other drops, at 39cm.

Nitto B115 Olympiade from the 1980's

I did a bit of comparing the feel of these bars with the Randonneurs I still had on hand, and I liked the way they felt. Hard to describe, but smaller, better fit with my smallish hands, and shorter reach. The drop is similar, but without the flare out. I figured I had to try it out on a longer ride. I am partial to traditional stems, but I knew that one of the issues I have had with drops is the lack of a “sit up” position. This made a short stem critical. As these bars are 25.4mm centers, my Nitto Periscopa stem gave me both a short reach, and sufficient rise to get a 2cm positive height above my saddle without looking like I have 8 feet of stem. It definitely still looks a bit odd, but less so than my past experiment with Noodles on a 10cm Dirt Drop stem.

Bars on Periscopa stem

I also wanted a more subtle wrap that would still match my saddle, have the harlequin diamond pattern I love, but not stand out. The copper and silver on this bike already makes it look a bit on the showy side, so a nice green was what I was aiming for. I used blue and green Newbaums cloth tape with two coats of amber shellac. This matches the seat well, and should come out a bit over time as the shellac wears off.

Harlequin blue/green diamonds barely visible on top

A few long rides scheduled over the next few weeks will tell me if this is the setup for the year. My 17 mile round trip commute test passed the bars with flying colors. I love the narrower feel that makes me seem a bit more aerodynamic. I also like the upright fit of the bar height, but the deep drop lets me get into the power zone when I need to push. I had to lock up the brakes as I was following someone who had to do a quick stop on a downhill when a car pulled out in front of her. Did this easily from the hoods. It gave me tons of trust in the Suntour Superbe and Silver Sidepull with salmon pads I’ve been using. Who says old stuff doesn’t perform? Idjits…

New Rando Setup

Making an Old Skool Compact Double

09 Thursday Feb 2012

Posted by Brian Hanson in Cycling

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94BCD, bolt circle, bolt circle diameter, chainring, circle diameter, compact double, gear inches, Sheldon Brown, Shimano, shimano xt, Suntour, suntour xc, tread, XC Pro

I like to minimize my front derailleur throw to two chainrings, and with modern cassettes like the Shimano HG61 12-36t, you don’t need a triple anymore unless your are really slogging up 20% grades or running a hundred pound cargo/touring bike. I don’t find myself in these situations, and my knees are still fairly stable. As such, I wanted to try a double that was lower than the XD2 crank I was using. Since it only had one bolt circle diameter (110BCD), this resulted in a minimum chainring of 33t. Here’s a handy chart from the venerable Sheldon Brown pages. This was a bit too much for the really steep hills. I want something that is more “granny” for the Seattle pitches I find myself climbing on the daily commute.

First things first. I had two older cranks – a Suntour XC Pro 175mm from my old Stumpjumper Pro circa 1992. This has 94 and 56 Bold Circle Diameter options. The 56 is fairly hard to find these days (Peter White sells them), and there are really 20-24t rings for this. That’s a bit too small. However, with 94 BCD, I can go down to 29t. This was one option. I also have an ’88 Shimano XT 175mm Crankset that sports 110/74 BCD. This would allow a small ring down to 24 on the inside ring.

ye olde cranke

Because I’m partial to the XC Pro (it was my first and favorite mtb), and I would be able to use the outside ring bolts for both rings, I opted for this setup. My current bottom bracket is a 107mm SKB, and it results in a fairly narrow tread. By putting my rings on the outer bolt, it results in a better chain line for this setup.

The new old compact double

As you can see, I’ve left the inner ring empty:

Empty Inner

In using a 32t chainring with my new cassette’s 36t big ring, I have a 24 gear inch setup for the low end. This goes up to 103.5 gear inches for my 46t-12t big chainring small sprocket combo. That’s as wide as most triples these days, and allows me plenty of gearing for most anything I’m riding.

The close up

Snow Kona

30 Monday Jan 2012

Posted by Brian Hanson in Cycling

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aa, kona, screws, snow, winter studs

Snow Kona, a set on Flickr.

I got a good snow ride in this year. We don’t get snow often in Seattle, but every few years, there is enough to accumulate. For these precious moments, I keep this bike around. It’s an older (’96?) Kona AA hardtail. The tires are Hutchinson mtbs with machine screws in every few knobbies at about a 45 degree angle. They don’t contact much when I’m bolt upright, but in a turn, then really dig in. Talk about riding on rails – more like riding on nails. Fun stuff. The only problem I have is the drops are too low for comfort. Ah – a tweakable moment…

Dad – you bike too much!

30 Monday Jan 2012

Posted by Brian Hanson in Cycling

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ahh, bonk, Camano, MAP, populaire, rivendell

January Populaire, a set on Flickr.

This was my first “bonk” ride. I was out of gas at about the 58 mile mark. Nearly had it finished, and just bonked hard. That night, my daughter told me “Dad – you bike too much!”. I had to agree (regrettably). I resolved to commute a bit less, and bus more. I want to get more miles on the longer rides, and need to save my energy.

In hindsight, I took a month off cycling, and then the week before, had done 4 solid days of commuting. I was tired.

I then met up with a rider from Bremerton with a beautiful Mitch Pryor (MAP) Rando project bike. We ended up talking through most of the ride, and I was forgetting to eat much or drink water until over halfway through. I started to suffer at 30 miles, and had a granola bar and a handful of trail mix. I’m pretty certain I became dehydrated by the end of the ride. I was a bit dizzy, and had no energy left. I had to stop to eat on the 45 minute drive back to keep from dozing off.

Live and learn.

Otherwise, it was a beautiful ride around Camano Island. There were 80 folks that pre-registered, and it looked like we had at least 50 show up. Lots of variations of machines. Everything from custom MAP randos, to titanium Davidsons. Tandems, carbo/alums, and everything in between. I did the ride in a bit over 5 hrs. My AHH rode flawlessly. I had no discomfort, and the drivetrain was nice and quiet. I had put new cranks on with a lower 32t small ring, and was glad I did based on the hills we went up.

I’m looking forward to a real 200k. Now I know that I need constant food/water to make this work…

Reservoir Tour – Maple Leaf Undergrounding Project

07 Saturday Jan 2012

Posted by Brian Hanson in Northwest

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construction, Maple Leaf, reservoir, Seattle, tour, underground, views

Reservoir Tour – Maple Leaf Undergrounding Project, a set on Flickr.

Not bike related, but my family went on a cool underground reservoir tour today. The Maple Leaf Reservoir, built in 1910, was for years one of the few remaining open reservoirs in a major city. After 911, our Mayor at the time proposed covering these reservoirs for the dual benefits of securing the water supply, and creating new park space.

We have been living with the noise and dirt of a major construction project since we moved into our house last December. The current construction project started in September 2009, and is estimated to be completed and handed off to Seattle Parks on April 2012. It cost the city around $49 million, and creates a new 16 acre park land that will have stunning views of Seattle, Mt. Rainier, Lake Washington, and both the Cascade and Olympic mountain ranges.

Besides the amazing size of this “water tank” system with its 768 columns, 25-35 foot ceilings, and 30,000 cubic yards of concrete, the echo inside one of the tanks lasts over 30 seconds long! During the tour inside the tank, there was a constant drone of echo that never went away.