Backup Bike

30 Tuesday Dec 2014

Tags

bicycle, bike, bike commute, Miyata, Sealant, Stan's, Stumpjumper Pro, tubeless, Whidbey Island

Sometimes life throws you a lemon. Don’t get me wrong – first world problem hit me today. I’m chilling on Whidbey Island for the week, and my wife and daughter went back to the mainland for a cat feeding, and shopping expedition (the cat stays home in Seattle). I wanted to ride to the local Ace Hardware to get a steelhead jig for shore fishing. I planned on doing the ride with my Toussaint, but when I went to get it from the garage, I found the front tire nearly empty. It appears that one of my rides to the beach brought it in contact with a shell shard that caused a slow leak.

Not Lemons…

These tires are in a tubeless config, but I haven’t added any sealant in about 8 months, and that seems to be too long (a friend refills every 6 months or so). I pulled the shard and spun the wheel a bit after pumping them back up, so we’ll see if it holds, but I’m doubtful. Lemons.

Needs more sealant

Did this stop my jaunt to Ace? Hell no. I just jumped on my backup bike! I have my old Stumpjumper Pro from 1991, and the tires had air. No fenders, but it is cold and clear with no water on the roads, so no worries. I was out and back in less than an hour, and even felt that old early ’90’s rigid mountain bike feeling sensing even some of the same smells I remember from riding my first real MTB. The brain is a weird organ.

I read a lot of folks talking about getting an “extra set of wheels” or a “different cockpit” for different kind of rides. In my experience, you can often pick up a whole bike to do what you want for the same price as the parts to rebuilt your existing frame into something else.

More time to see the barns!

Having another bike gives you more time to ride. There are less excuses needed. I read a great statistical analysis of Seattle commuters using the Fremont Bridge route. One of the points was a look at how rain affects commuting (spoiler – it does). If you had a backup bike, say like a “beater” that had fenders and tough tires, you would have less reason not to bike in the rain, right?

In my case, most all my bikes have fenders, but I find myself pulling my Miyata out for rain duty more often than my other, nicer bikes. It still rides like a dream, and looks great with the hammered Honjo fenders, but I don’t mind if it gets soaked, muddy, put away wet, etc…

2014 Redux

29 Monday Dec 2014

Posted by Brian Hanson in Cycling, Northwest, Randonneuring

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

100k, 200k, 650b, a. homer hilsen, acorn bags, ahh, bar tape, bicycle, bicycle commute, brevet, commute, compact double, compass, cyclemeter, Cycles Toussaint, cycling, cypres, diamond wrap, dynamo, dynamo lighting, Edelux, fenders, Gran Bois

An auspicious year for this family of horses, 2014 was pretty nice. There were a few epiphanies, and a lot of riding. I’m sitting around resting a nagging medial knee issue that has kept me off the bike for the past week or so. I’ve been wanting to get out and do one last permanent to finish off the 2014 season, but better judgement is telling me to wait until the knee feels normal. I know from past experience that the best way to heal is to go easy for a while.

While I didn’t do much more mileage this year, it was still a full year of riding with 3,111 miles (just over 5000 kms) so far. Last year I did just over 3000 miles, as well. I did most of my brevets early, with the organized rides over at the end of March. That month was also my first 500-mile month. I rode my first solo permanent in April, and did some Moab mountain biking over spring break. July brought the Entmoot, and as usual, a lower amount of riding as I seem to slow down in the summer months.

I picked it back up in September, and peaked in November with a late season 200k permanent around Whidbey Island. I am loving this island’s smooth hilly roads, and have a few more brevets and just general rides planned for the future. My average speed has not budged in the past 3 years, so I may work on my fitness in the new year and see if I can’t bump that up with some interval training. I am still hedging on the longer rides (over 300k) – I’m just not sure if I would enjoy them. The Entmoot ride was an eye opener this year, and I feel like unorganized rambles have a special attraction with exploration and time for photos and camping with friends being great short vacations. The planning and anxiety around an organized brevet sometimes feels like work.

As for the mechanical side, I am slowly gaining more perspective and opinions on what works for me. I really like the Cycles Toussaint experiment with low trail and plump 650b tires. Tubeless has worked out well, too. I appreciate the extra cush on the rides, and less worry about flatting. I still enjoy the Hilsen’s ride with the 32mm Compass tires, too – they are almost as compliant with significantly less air volume.

I’ve come to feel that the 42cm Noodles are the right cockpit for me over the long distance. I continue to enjoy the Selle Anatomica saddles, and Sidi shoes. I am not bothered by having 7 or 8 speed cassettes, and index and friction both work, but on the longer rides, I appreciate the simplicity of indexing. I have bar-end shifters on the Toussaint, and downtube shifters on the Hilsen, and both are set up indexed at this point.

I really enjoy the centerpull brakes on both bikes, but the post-mounted Dia-Compes on the Toussaint have amazing modulation and easy setup. I appreciate the simplicity of the older brake style. I think a great project would be to have centerpull braze-ons added to the Hilsen, perhaps with a low-trail fork, S&S couplers, and Compass Mafac copies added. Hmmm – perhaps when it’s ready for a re-paint, I can convert her over to 650b as well? Probably a silly experiment better addressed by a custom.

If I were to have a custom built at this point, it would be a titanium or ultra-light steel tubed, low trail 650b all-purpose bike. I really feel like this is a do-all, go anywhere bike. The Rivs would remain my country and camping bikes, and the Toussaint would be backup brevet and city porteur bike. It would be great to have a lugged Weigle, MAP, or Pereira. Maybe a Bantam? Still dreaming of good rides ahead…

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Late Season Permanent

29 Saturday Nov 2014

Tags

200k, a. homer hilsen, ahh, bicycle, bike, brevet, SIR, Whidbey Island

I saw the opportunity and took it. I’ve been meaning to try a ride around Washington State’s largest island since I’ve been coming up here in 2003.

My wife and I fell in love with Whidbey Island at some point, and we’ve had properties here twice in the last 11 years. Last week, I decided to take the holiday week off, and spend some time up here. Now “up here” is a mere 35.7 miles from “home” in Seattle, so I feel a little funny going up to the cabin, as we say in Minnesotan. This is less distance than a lot of folks commute to work every day!

When I was growing up, a trip to the “cabin” in northern Minnesota was a 4 hour trip one-way. It was always the last half hour past Brainerd that I really felt like we were getting out of dodge. Now it’s just a short drive north that takes a bit over an hour, and I’m in another world, my happy place. The ferry ride helps. Once you get off the boat, it’s sort of another planet from the urban/suburban bustle of Seattle. There are large tracts of forest, farmland, and a few small picturesque towns dotting the island. A lovely place, really, and it just feels sleepy and awesome!

Anyway, on to the ride. The last brevet I had done was a mean, rainy 300k at the end of March. A long, long time ago. Now I’ve been commuting plenty, and had several 50-80 mile weeks going, so I felt that stepping up to the 126 mile 200k was reasonable, and my fitness was still good. I also tried to ignore the little bird telling me that this ride had over 7500′ of climbing. I figured that this was just a few more hills than a more normal 200k.

//ridewithgps.com/trips/3818194/embed

I thought I would be well prepared. I brought both my rando bikes up with plans to ride the A. Homer Hilsen. I wanted to make sure the shimmy was gone, and the Swift bag worked well on a longer ride. I had most everything packed up and ready the night before, and got plenty of sleep knowing I had a big day in front of me. In the morning, I made eggs and coffee, and still managed to get down to the ferry dock around 8:15. I had set my start time for 8am, so I was already running late. After a few more minutes of figuring out where I could leave the car all day, I parked and was off at just past 8:30am.

Then I started climbing. The first hill off the ferry wasn’t too bad, but they seemed to just keep coming. I was happy I had a 34 big ring on the cassette, so I had extra granny help. Entering Langley – a small town with an artsy vibe, I wanted to stop at the local coffee shop, but I wasn’t ready for a break. I had packed a rain jacket, camera, phone, wallet, and a few food items in the Swift. I had my tool bag under the seat. I felt that I was packing light, but I did have 3 full water bottles. I wasn’t into the photo mode yet, but couldn’t help but take a snap of the local museum.

As I rode on towards Freeland, I wondered if I had too much. The weather was great, and my thin wool undershirt, SIR jersey (also wool), and reflecto vest were keeping me toasty. There were lots of eastern beach vistas on the high bluffs to keep me occupied, and there were about 3 cars that passed me in 10 miles. No traffic to speak of, which held true most of the day. The roads were also glorious! Smooth, fresh blacktop that looked to be laid in the past year or two. These islanders keep there roads up really well. That said, I started noticing the many squashed slugs, as well as some small orange salamanders. 1000 slug trails seemed an apt ride name.

I hit my first walking hill just after Freeland. Resort Rd. climbs back up to HWY 525, and at 10%, it was a bit much. It gave me a chance to stretch my legs. A nice walk in the woods, really – no traffic at all.

The first jaunt on the main island highway was a nice few miles downhill. I was doing 30 with the cars only going slightly faster. Greenbank is a tiny town at the thinnest part of the island, where if you stand on the field by Greenbank Farm (an old loganberry farm), you can see both Saratoga Passage to the east, and Admiralty Inlet to the west. Here, I stopped to photo what turned out to be 20 herons resting/hunting in the marsh below the farm. They all took off when I circled back to get a photo.

Onward – I still had a long way to go. The next walking hill was Rhodena Rd. at about an 8% grade just before Parker. This one was a bummer, but it was in another pretty area.

I realize that all these hill pics look flat, but believe me, they went UP!!! Phew – made it to Coupeville on some nice twisty roads. This is a Washington’s second oldest town, founded in 1853 by a guy who evidently was the only person to have sailed through Deception Pass with wind power alone. X-Games circa a long f’ing time ago! Now I could nearly smell the halfway point.

The aptly named Madrona Way around inner Penn Cove offered great views of the mussel farming rigs. This was one of my favorite rides, with light traffic, nice curvy roads, and great views of the cove.

After a wake-me-up short ride on HWY 20 with lots of cars ripping by, I was back on the easy streets heading into Oak Harbor. I stopped to get a few pics, but I was starting to worry about time, as i was taking pics, and my legs were starting to get tired. I wasn’t quite halfway yet, and I knew I would be fighting a headwind going back south. The forecast was for 15-25 mph gusts, and I was quite tired from the climbing. I had no idea how much of the southerly route echoed the hills on the east side of the island. It was already 1:30, so I was 5 hrs into the ride, but not halfway yet. Hmmm…

After a few more hills, and some duck hunters on Dike Rd. I stopped for a bathroom break a mile from Deception Pass. This was technically past the halfway point, but I didn’t consider it that until I was at the top of the island. I had a reuben and some “power milk” and this picked me up. At the Pass, I watched a seal swimming around the kelp in the shallows. This is a beautiful spot with a high bridge over fast-moving bright green water famous for their whirlpools and standing waves during tidal surges.

This was the turnaround point.

Next stop was Ault Field after a jaunt down the highway again. This wasn’t too bad, but I was ready to get off the main road for a while.

The Navy evidently put their air station on Whidbey partly due to it being in the “rain shadow” of the Olympic Mts. I just figured it was due to the natural beauty – a great place to fly over if you ask me. Just past Joseph Whidbey State Park (closed) it was starting to get dark. There was a great big hill climb here, and halfway up, I noticed writing on the road, “Legs Up Shut” – ahhh, there have been cyclists before me on this! The infamous Jens Voight “shut up legs” quote. That was a major pick up for me, and got me to the top of another 400 foot hill.

I’m not going to lie to you. I thought about shortening this ride many times over the course of the 12 hrs on the bike. As I got closer to the end and realized I would make the 13.5hr 200k time limit, I knew I had to finish, but every time I went by one of the Island Transport stops on the highway, I thought hmmm…

I made a stop at the Keystone Ferry south of Coupeville for another bathroom break. A bit further south at South Whidbey State Park, I filled out my control card while standing in the dark entrance by the street. At this point, I found that I really liked Clif Shots gummy energy bar nuggets! Yum – there is nothing like junk when you are feeling tired. The tiny bits of rain were good at keeping me focused, but really it was just a long old slog back down to Clinton.

I had one more walk up Lancaster hill, but that was short-lived, and the last few miles were mostly a cruise along the summit of the hills of south Whidbey. The ride back down to the car was awesome! I had a bikers high for the rest of the night thinking about this great day in the saddle and everything I’d been able to see on the way. Pretty cool way to spend a day off.

Special thanks to a very special wife and daughter for giving up Dad on the day before turkey day!

Posted by Brian Hanson | Filed under Cycling, Randonneuring

≈ 7 Comments

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Shimmy Monster

25 Tuesday Nov 2014

Tags

a. homer hilsen, headshake, high trail, Hunqapillar, jack brown, low-trail, Rivende, shimmy, Toussaint

In my estimate, shimmy is something that is related to weight balance on the bike, frame/fork thickness/stiffness, and perhaps tires. Oh yeah – lets not forget velocity, either. If you enjoy stretching occasionally by riding no-handed, shimmy is a demon to be dealt with.

I’ve had some experience with shimmy on my A. Homer Hilsen, but it has been sporadic, and changing things like bar height, front and rear load, and tires seems to impact how bad it is. I leave out speed, as there’s no way I’m going to try to limit that.

Nope – she doesn’t shimmy

When I first built the bike, it had Noodles at around seat height, and I was using Jack Brown tires. No shimmy was present with this 25 lb configuration. I went through a few variations, and initially noticed that when I moved the bars higher, I seemed to get some shimmy. This usually kicked in riding no-handed above 15 mph. I generally kept the load up front on the bike, and this seemed to dampen the shaking, so I was fairly happy. However, with my recent foray into low trail (Cycles Toussaint – no shimmy ever, BTW), I was interested in moving the load back on the Hilsen so it matched the geometry of this higher trail bike. Or so I thought…

Perfectly good headset

It’s been said that a needle bearing headset can cure shimmy. I’ve never used one before, so I guess it was time to check this theory out. I overhauled the bike a month ago, and figured it was time to check the headset. Since it was out, I put in a Miche needle bearing headset, and at the same time added my former front rack to the back of the bike. It seemed like it needed a basket, so I put the medium Wald/Shopsack combo on it that worked so nicely in the past on the front of the bike.

S H I M M Y Y Y Y Y Y . . . . .

Shimmy Monster

Wow – I took this in to work with perhaps 5 lbs of gear in the back, and the shimmy was so bad, it even shimmied with my hands on the bar several times. I experimented with holding my weight forward while I released my hands. This worked at first, but as I moved back to a more upright position, it released the shaking, shifting frame shimmy.

Hmmm – needle bearing not an answer here. After my ride home, I removed the basket/rack combo, and put my front handlebar bag back on. I tied off the tools in my roll bag under the seat. This cured the beast.

No more shakes

Solution for my bike – weight needs to go up front with only a bit of weight allowed under the seat. No weight out back or I get the shakes. It is interesting that my Hunqapillar has never shaken its wooly head. I generally carry weight on the front, however, and this bike has a long top tube that stretches me out putting the weight more forward. It also has beefy, stiff tubes that, like the Toussaint, seem to repel shimmy monsters.

I’ve read of several other light, road Rivendells having a similar tendency, so I will chalk this up to balancing weight properly for the bicycle. If you have shimmy, hopefully this will give you some things to mess around with.

Posted by Brian Hanson | Filed under Cycling

≈ 2 Comments

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Pronto

15 Wednesday Oct 2014

Tags

bike commute, bike share, commute, Pronto, Pronto bike share, Seattle bike share

I tried out our new bike share service in Seattle. It’s called Pronto, and has dropped a fair amount of bikes – 500 at 50 stations throughout the downtown, Capitol Hill, and U-District areas. I noticed a station that’s about 2 miles from my home on my commute home last night, so after getting a ride in this morning, I opted to try Pronto for the commute home. My expectations were that it would be a better substitute for a crowded bus ride home.

I purchased a 24-hr pass with a key for ten-bucks at the kiosk a couple blocks from my office. I didn’t need to “rent” a helmet as I brought mine with. After inserting the key in a station and waiting for something to happen, I thought my key was broken. I tried another bike, and it unlocked right away. I forgot my foolproof way to raise the seat to the proper height (seat in armpit raised until outstretched middle finger is at center of crank), so I ended up raising it a few times in the first few minutes.

Starting up the new 2nd Ave bike lane, I weaved my way through the city taking the “flat” way home via south Lake Union, riding through the parking lots along the lakefront. After crossing the Fremont bridge, I continued on the Burke Gilman trail along the north lakefront, and rode through the UW campus before dropping the bike off at the UD-01 station at Blakely and 24th. Ironically, the first station I tried to lock my bike back into didn’t work, so I docked it in another one which accepted it immediately. Some gremlins to work out?

My initial observations:

The bike is small, so it would work really well for someone in the lower 5′ range. I had to boost up my seat quite a bit to avoid the bent-knees, low power pedal stroke. The bars felt really close, so I felt like I was riding a kid’s bike compared to what I’m used to. That said, I generally ride a big bike in a fairly stretched out position, so most folks would feel that it is sized just fine.
The bike is solid and sturdy, but not too heavy.
It has a 7 speed range, and shifts are fast and solid. Shifting to a lower gear is sudden, and I popped my foot off the pedal several times getting used to the shifting. In the highest gear, I was traveling about 15-17mph on flats with normal cadence. Not a speedster, but not bad. I never used the lowest gears.
It is really stiff, and the tires are of the sturdy type – great for folks up to 300lbs, at least.
Fenders work – could use a flap, but adequate and appreciated for the few puddles I went through.
Lights! Didn’t really need to use them, but great that they are there.
It has a skirt/kilt guard for the ladies and Scots!
There is a small bungie and rack for a small bag or case. I just carried my musette. No problems if you have a bit of luggage.
The seat was not great for someone of my size – too squishy, smallish, and angled for folks that are smaller.
The cost structure is not yet ideal for someone who needs the bike for more than ½ hour. Buying the day pass gave me unlimited rides up to 30-minutes, but anything over 30 minutes adds charges. My 45 minute ride cost me an additional 2 bucks.

All gripes aside – these bikes are great for the casual tourist, or someone who wants to take the long way home like me on occasion. I would also use this to get to a lunch spot that may be a bit too far for a walk. Pretty nice to have an easy option to “rent a bike” and there are stations all over the place. I could also see someone stuck on foot choosing this as a faster option. It took me from downtown to the UW in about 45 minutes.