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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

Weights

16 Saturday Aug 2014

Posted by Stonehog in Cycling

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

a. homer hilsen, acorn bags, ahh, B17, bike weight, brooks, Cycles Toussaint, cycling, dynamo lighting, hilsen, Hunqapillar, nitto, rivendell, sackville, Selle Anatomica, Velo Routier


I recently weighed my bicycles to respond to a thread on the RBW list.  Folks were posting their Rivendell bike weight for some reason, even though everyone knows if you own a Riv, you don’t obsess over gram counting.  I had weighed my A. Homer Hilsen when I originally built it up, but before any fenders, racks, or bags were added.  It came out around 25 lbs, so I was interested in how much it weighed after accumulating various accessories over the past 5 years.

Original 25-pounder

The latest version of the bike is coming in about 4 pounds heavier.  Even with a lighter double crankset and bars, but fenders, bags, and dynamo lights/hub add up!  I think the bike is much more useful at 29 pounds, and it still feels pretty light to me.  Not feathery like a Ti or carbon bike, but plenty sprintable for my purposes.  It’s nice to have lights, toolkit, water spray protection, and carrying capacity when you need it, too.

BH-5.jpg

I knew the Hunqapillar was going to be a beast based on the thicker gauge tubeset, and all the extra rack and bag weight on this bike.  It is a touring/camping bike, so it’s nice to have the stability when I’m carrying camp gear.  All this adds up to another 10 pounds over the Hilsen.  It weighed in at 39 pounds in camp-ready mode with bag, basket, and tools loaded for bear.

BH-9.jpg

Ironically, this is not too far off a modern dual-suspension mountain bike.

BH-6.jpg

The Toussaint had to be weighed since the Rivendells were on the scale (a Nintendo Wii with Fit, BTW – I don’t own a scale).  This bike has a slightly heavier bag than the Hilsen, and 650B wheels, but otherwise it is set up with identical cockpit, hub, and crank configurations.  All in with tools, it came out 1 lb heavier at 30 pounds.

BH-8.jpg

OK – now back to not caring about weight, and just riding my bikes.  Having a great time, BTW…

Taillight Wiring

07 Monday Apr 2014

Posted by Stonehog in Cycling

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

a. homer hilsen, bicycle, bike, Cycles Toussaint, cycling, dynamo, dynamo lighting, dynamo taillight, fenders, hilsen, light wiring, rivendell, taillight, wiring


Since I haven’t sprung for a custom bike with wiring guides or internal cable routing, I’ve had to improvise on my taillight wiring schemes.  The first few times I just strung the wire along the down tube, chain stay, and up the fender stay to the light.  I fastened it with zip-ties.  This was fairly clean from the drive side view, but resulted in some zip-tie mess on the non-drive side.  The last few times I’ve wired up rear lights, I’ve managed to put them under the fenders, eliminating the mess from the down tube. The key has been aluminum tape and careful fender drilling.  Someday, I may get up the courage to drill into the fork or frame, but for now, I’ll play it safe.

https://flic.kr/p/mRi2Y6

BH-4.jpg

 

BH-5.jpg

 

BH-6.jpg

 

BH-7.jpg

 

BH-8.jpg

You can see the white bike in the background has a similar setup, but instead of routing the wire up the fork leg with zip-ties, I glued shrink tubing on the inside of the fork leg, and the inside of the front rack.  This is used to guide the wire without the use of tape.  Note – on the white bike, the electrical tape I’m using to fasten the wire to the down tube is starting to peel off a bit after a few hundred very wet miles.  It may be replaced soon.  That is one area that the zip-ties win – I haven’t had one come loose yet.  I’ve even taken to loosely tying the wire to the derailleur cable.  Only an issue when you change cables, and the small zip-ties are pretty unobtrusive.

Hilsen Lighting v 2.0

18 Tuesday Sep 2012

Posted by Stonehog in Cycling

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

a. homer hilsen, Biologic, dynamo, dynamo lighting, Edelux, randonneur, Reecharge


ProfileCockpitFrom aboveWiring SideWaiting for a dynoLighting under the rack
Chainring Light BracketReecharge MountedPanda?WiringWiring Route Joining at the forkCable Routing
Under the bottom bracketAnd upAnd up to the lightAt lightReecharge WiringFrom the top
Another View

Hilsen Lighting v 2.0, a set on Flickr.

In my quest for light and power perfection, I added a charging setup, as well as a new mount for my headlight on my rando bike. The plan is to power it all via dynamo hub…

Via Flickr:
I added the BioLogic Reecharge adapter, and set up the light to mount under the rack so as not to interfere with the platform. This was about the only place I could fit a mount on the Mark’s Rack keeping the light under the rack bed.

Building a Dynamo Wheel

28 Wednesday Dec 2011

Posted by Stonehog in Cycling

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

dynamo lighting, Edelux, New SON 28 Hub, proper tension, rivendell, sheldon brown wheelbuilding, son 28, wire routing


I decided to document a recent wheel build to try to capture my thoughts while going through the process.  Ever since I bought my Rivendell in 2009, I planned to add a dynamo lighting system to it.  I experimented with one last year on a “winter” bike, and decided it was awesome for a number of reasons.  It takes all the thought and worry out of riding at night.  You will have a light, and it will not gradually fade out like battery systems.  With the modern German lights made by Busch & Muller or Schmidt Maschinenbau, the beam pattern is wide, bright, and generally much more usable than what I was used to with the round, unfocused beams on the battery lights I have used.

New Hub

I have built a couple mountain bike 26″ wheels in the past, so I felt like I needed the practice.  The front wheel is just a 2-3 hour job for me at this point, and the hardest part is getting the wheel laced up correctly.  In the end, this went pretty well – I just sat down in my office with the parts and a few books (Jobst, and Zinn), as well as the Sheldon Brown wheelbuilding web site.  I had used beeswax on the spokes in the past, but this time I went with linseed oil as was recommended by my local bike shop.  I lined up the wheel, and got all the spokes laced up with 5 or 6 turns of the nipples.

New SON 28 Freshly Laced

At this point, it was on to the Park truing stand for tensioning and truing:

In Stand and Ready

I used a Park Tensiometer to bring the spokes to a proper tension, and found that plucking them for tone was a great way for me to get them consistent.  The rim I used, a Velocity Synergy, is the same as the back wheel from my prior set.  I found it to be simple to lace.  It was also quite true once the spokes were tensioned up.  I didn’t have to do too much fiddling with this rim to get it right.

All Unwrapped and Freshly Mounted

Next up: mounting the Edelux light on the front of my Platrack.  I decided to mount it front and center keeping the light low to give good relief to the road irregularities.  I’ve read that most dynamo lights are designed to be at fork crown height for optimal beam.

Edelux

Here are a few pictures of the mount and wiring:

Showing the Light Mount

From the Bottom Showing Rear Wiring

Front Cable Run Along Rack

Joining Fork

Looped Once at Bottom and Connected to Hub

Rear Light Wiring at Front

Joining Frame Along Brake Cable

Routing on to Seat Stay

Down Inside of Stay

Routed Under Fender

... and Out to the Rear Light

The trickiest part was finding a way to route the “too short” rear wiring in a way that would work.  I used Shoe Goo to glue the wiring under the lip of the fender.  It worked out just fine, but I would have rather had an extra foot of wire so I could route it along the downtube and chainstay.  Ultimately, this setup works really well, albeit with a bit less tire clearance in the back 🙂  The lights are on whenever I need them, and I don’t have to worry about batteries.  The beam on the Edelux is wonderful, and easily as bright as any of the other lights I’ve used (Planet Bike 2 watt, EOS, B & M IQ Cyo).  Happy rides!

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