Bar Width and Handling

09 Saturday Jan 2016

Tags

albastache, albatross, bar width, bikepacking, cycling, ergonomics, handlebar, Hunqapillar, leverage, low-trail, nitto noodles, rivendell, steering

As a follow up to my post on trail, this is a related experiential review on the role of bar width and the interaction with trail. This may impact someone’s decision on whether high or low trail is right for them by basing it on one’s comfort with wide or narrow bars. It also may impact the decision based on what you will be using the bike for, and where you plan to do most of your riding.

Low trail is great with narrow bars

On my Vélo Routier, having narrow bars is comfortable, and I have no problem putting feedback into steering even at higher speeds. I currently use 42cm Noodles, and have plenty of control.

Higher trail is great with wider bars

Wide bars (48cm and wider) work very well on higher trail bikes. They give you the leverage you need to turn during even an “in the rails” higher speed maneuver.

The further away from your steering axis you have your hands, the more they will have input on steering – this is true for any bike and any amount of trail. To get a consistent steering input impact and feel, you should be able to compensate for higher trail with wider bars.

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This is why offroad motorcycles/bicycles have wide handlebars, and most city or road motorcycles/bikes tend to have narrow bars. Big generalization here, but I have definitely noticed this on several occasions. This is not really a discussion based on rider ergonomics and comfort, but a general handling conversation. If you are a rider that needs a wider or narrower bar, it may help to understand how that will impact handling based on what trail geometry your bike has.

Real World Example

In prep for my last adventure, I wanted drop bars due to the length and time I would be in the saddle. The Oregon Outback, at 360 miles and mostly dirt roads, would be an endurance test. I wanted the most hand positions possible, and had done long rides in drops with plenty of comfort. I used 44cm Noodles on my mid/high trail Hunqapillar with the thought that they would add a bit of leverage, but be very close to my “perfect” rando bar, the 42cm Noodle.

Reality was a bit different. While I was plenty comfortable with the bars, and had no hand numbness or pain, there were several times where I wished for more leverage. The amount of weight I had on the bike made these bars too narrow for the dirt trails. I had to put a lot more effort into keeping the bike tracking at low speeds and up hills. This was less noticeable when I was on nicely paved sections, but the dirt roads added difficulty.

On the fast downhills, the gyro effect tended to add to the effort required to steer. I was hit by an incredible wind gust at the very bottom of a 30+mph descent near the end of the ride, and I barely escaped launching off the side of the dirt road. If I hadn’t been near the middle of the road, it would have been grim – the bike tracked me all the way to the far edge before I got enough muscle into keeping on the road.

Lesson – I’m putting a wider bar on this bike. Likely either the new Choco bars from Rivendell, or the Albatross/stache bars I’ve used in the past. A nice Jones H-bar would be great, as well, providing even more leverage and plenty of hand positions.

44cm – a bit too narrow

55cm – just right

Posted by Brian Hanson | Filed under Cycling, Enduro Offroad, Northwest, Randonneuring

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A. Homer Hilsen 7-year Review

04 Monday Jan 2016

Tags

a. homer hilsen, ahh, bike, commute, cycling, harlequin wrap, nitto, porteur, randonneur, rivendell, Seattle

My first real thoughtful bike purchase was the Rivendell A. Homer Hilsen. Color – metallic copper – one of the web frame specials in 2009 shortly after I moved back to Seattle from a brief 18-month foray to my childhood home of Minnesota. I had been commuting on a ’96 Kona AA that I was pretty much done with. The aluminum frame never felt right – too stiff. I was ready for a real road bike after spending much of the prior 20 years on a mountain bike.

2nd Build – still a favorite

I did a lot of research, but after I found the Rivendell site, started reading Sheldon Brown and Grant Petersen’s opinions, and did some test rides on a local friend’s vast collection of Riv bikes, I was smitten. I recall going to the Seattle Bike Show in 2008 and walking around forlorn, seeing nothing attractive. At all.

At that point, I knew a couple things about myself:

Steel felt right. I grew up riding this material. My Raleigh Reliant, and Stumpjumper Pro (’91) were my benchmark rides.
I wasn’t planning to pick up racing. I am a recreational and practical cyclist.
Damn those lugged frames were pretty! They really hit a “homer” in terms of where my aesthetic sensibilities were concerned.
I wanted to build this bike myself from the frame up.

I started watching the Riv site and decided the copper Hilsen was the one. It was a 59cm frame, and although I would probably fit up to a 61cm, this was as big as I wanted to commit to.

After a few months of collecting the parts and tools needed to put this together, I took it for the first ride and was amazed at the effortless speed compared to my mountain bikes. At about the same time, I had also stumbled on the RBW owners bunch online community, which helped me navigate a first bike build, as well as sharing lots of good technical advice.

Here was a large community of like-minded folks generally oohing and aahing all the builds folks were doing. This tight-knit community is one known for being a polite and caring group, and I’m happy to count many of the folks there as friends.

Favorite Bike in Current Config

The Hilsen took me on my first 100k brevet, and then my 200k. Then my 300k. It helped me learn that I like the Selle Anatomica Titanico saddle best on anything over 100 miles. It showed me that clipless pedals were not necessary anymore.

I briefly became caught up in the low-trail Jan Heine camp, and picked up another rando bike (the Toussaint), but after all these years, the one bike I still enjoy the most is the A. Homer Hilsen. It is still as lovely as ever, and gaining beausage every year. It still gets more comments on my daily commute, rain or shine. After riding other bikes for several months, and then coming back to this one, it still feels “just right”. The ride is smooth, predictable, natural. I never feel like it has quirks, defects, or limitations that I’ve noticed on lesser bikes.

It has done brevets, snowy singletrack(!), loaded commutes, and just riding trips. Handled ’em all with aplomb. ’nuff said…

Posted by Brian Hanson | Filed under Cycling, Northwest, Randonneuring

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2015 and On

03 Sunday Jan 2016

Tags

cycling, goals, Oregon Outback, randonneur, ride stats

I took the year off randonneuring in 2015. Not one timed ride. No real reason other than I was not feeling “scheduled in” for most of the big rides. That said, most of my training was for the Oregon Outback ride. May also happened to be my all time mileage month.

Out back

Mileage is gradually becoming meaningless for me, and if it weren’t for a natural interest in stats, and smartphones making it easy to record rides, I would be perfectly happy guessing, or better yet not worrying about it. That said, I still lead a team at work for our local Ride Months in May and November. I guess it’s tough to give up old habits, and I like to encourage folks to get out and ride.

Stats for 2015:

Total Distance: ~2592 miles
- Best Month: May – 605 miles
- Least: December – 55 miles
Total Elevation Climbed: ~108,837 feet
Total Riding Time: ~8 days and 9 hrs (over 200 hrs)
Number of Rides: 201
Ave Speed: ~12.9 mph
Ave Ride Distance: 12.9 miles
Ave/Max Heart Rate: 145/184 bpm

The prior two years:

Total Distance: over 3000 miles
Total Riding Time: ~220 hrs

All in all, a bit of a down turn, but I plan to put in some rando time this year with a goal of eventually doing some of the longer distances, and at least hit a total of over 1000 miles of rando distance.

Posted by Brian Hanson | Filed under Cycling, Northwest, Randonneuring

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New Toussaints

23 Wednesday Dec 2015

Tags

bicycle, commute, cross, Cycles Toussaint, gravel, pavé, randoneurring, Velo Routier

Our northern buddies at Cycles Toussaint in Calgary have introduced a new Vélo Routier. I took one out for a spin to see how it compared to my v1 bike.

V2 Vélo Routier

My first impression was that it felt just like my Vélo Routier. I’m not sure that I would be able to tell the difference in a blind test. It felt planted and quick steering. Comfortable, not quirky. This was set up similar to my own bike, with a Selle Anatomica, Noodles, bar-end shifting, and Compass tires. This geometry just works for me. Nice bike, great brakes. They offer the v2 in 2 versions – one with braze-ons, and one without. I really like the braze-on centerpulls and the quirky seat-stay pump mount, so that would be my choice. The blue color is a nice change, too. One new quirk – there is a slotted rear axle mount now, to better accommodate IGH or fixed/single gear hubs. While this opens up the bike to more options, it may make bikes with fenders tougher to change out a flat on, but there are ways around the problem.

Toussaint Pavé

The next bike is a demo that is a new direction for Toussaint. I believe this is an all-round road/gravel, maybe even cross bike. It was set up racier than I would typically ride, but it was surprising in a number of ways. The tubing is all stainless steel, which gives it a fairly “ti” look. The downtube is quite oversized, as well, at 38.1mm. This seems overly stiff for my weight range, but can be offset with cushy tires. It is spec’d to take a 45mm fender, so I would assume you could put the Compass Barlow Pass tires on with no problems. It looks like a Clement MSO would fit fine for a bit more bite.

Toussaint used interesting plated fork and seat stay crowns. I like the classic low fork bend of the Routier more. To my eyes, it would be a great match for the double plate crown on this bike. The “banana” bend just looks odd to me. I assume it makes the disc attachment easier/stiffer, but if the bike could use a more classic bend here, it would be prettier.

Double Plate Crown

Disks make it a great utility rain bike. I found the bike to be quite like the Vélo Routier in feel – even with a bit more trail on the Pavé (45mm). It still felt quick steering, and was light and fun to ride. I was wondering how it would be with some front or rear load. I may see if I can get an extended trial to find out.

Seat Stays

After the ride, I am hopeful this bike would fall into a similar price range as the Vélo Routier – if you could get a bike built for the rainy NW commute, not have to worry about rust or wet brakes, and still maintain great geometry that would handle randonneuring or lightly loaded gravel adventure rides – nirvana, right there!

The Toussaint blog (with lots of good info on the tubing, geometry, etc…) is saying they hope to sell these for around $2000, so I guess the tubing makes a big difference, but we’ll see what happens if they do a production run. This is a cool, practical bike!

Posted by Brian Hanson | Filed under Cycling, Northwest

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…vrrrrrp – OK

16 Monday Nov 2015

Tags

a. homer hilsen, commute, Cycles Toussaint, cycling, hilsen, Hunqapillar, Oregon Outback, randonneur

Getting back on the blog. It’s been a long hiatus since my last post on June 11th?? Wow – I feel lazy. What’s been going on since May/June? I guess I’ve been low-key biking, working, and occasionally kayaking. No big bike trips this summer. The closest thing has been a brief bike around Amsterdam in October, but I’ve literally done zero rando events this year. Ironic as it was a PBP year. Well – there will be others. I’ve still got a few stories to get out, such as: