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2014 Redux

29 Monday Dec 2014

Posted by Stonehog 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.

Cycle Distance Stats-MonthlyWhile 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.

cycling speed and distance aveI 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.

BH-2.jpg

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.

BH-8.jpg

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…

48.009537 -122.525983

Making an Old Skool Compact Double

09 Thursday Feb 2012

Posted by Stonehog in Cycling

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Tags

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

Cranks and Crankstas

18 Wednesday May 2011

Posted by Stonehog in Cycling

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Tags

compact double, crank, down-tube shifters, DuraAce, LX, nitto, porteur, rivendell, Sugino, wipperman


I am doing some changes on the Hilsen at a most inopportune time of the year – Bike to Work Month.

I had picked up a compact double Sugino crank in 170mm instead of my usual 175mm.  As long as I can remember, I’ve always ridden 175s, and lately my psyche was telling me that my legs were extending up too far and it would help my knees to go with a shorter crank.

It seems like internet-lore is very inconsistent on the “proper” length of cranks, although there is a lot of pseudo science about it.  I decided to do my normal “test it myself” routine.  I left the Tange bottom bracket that came on the bike, and simply swapped the crank out.  The old crank was a triple 24-36-46, and the new one is 34-48.  I also changed out the chain and cassette as it was quite gunked up.  I got a Wipperman 808 that I love – best connector link I’ve used – super simple.  I slapped on my older SRAM 8-speed 12-30.

The DuraAce 7800GS I have used since the bike was new has never had a warm spot in my heart, and I had been reading good things about the LX derailers.  I picked up one cheap on e-bay, and set it up, as well.

Since I was in a changing mood, I also swapped my Porteur bars and bar-end shifters for Nitto Randonneur bars and down-tube shifters.  I always liked having the clean simplicity of this shifting setup, and it’s been windy lately, so I wanted to get more aero.

Phew – lots of change in the middle of a high-mileage month.  I’ll give a more detailed report on how this is working out later this week.

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