2014 Redux

29 Monday Dec 2014

Posted by Stonehog in Cycling, Northwest, Randonneuring

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…

Barlow Pass

13 Tuesday May 2014

Posted by Stonehog in Cycling

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Tags

a. homer hilsen, Barlow Pass, compass, cypres, fenders, Gran Bois, honjo, Hunqapillar, jack brown, rivendell, tires, toe overlap, VO, Zeppelins

After putting 38mm tires (Compass Barlow Pass) and new fenders (VO Zeppelins) on my Hilsen, and riding them for a month or so, I have the following observations.

They are cushy and ride well
They are light (I have the Extra Lights) and don’t slow my pace down
They increase stand over height by a half cm or so (it is noticeable)
The bike handles about the same
The tread is very grippy – I like the sure-footedness
There is now quite a bit of toe overlap, and I have bounced the fender several times during slow maneuvers
The difference between my 31mm Cypress and these 38mm Barlows is much less evident than jumping to a 42mm Hetre

I am slowly coming to the realization that I like smaller, fatter wheels on road bikes, but if I’m on a 700c, 33.3mm is the most I need. On both the Hunqapillar and my Hilsen the favorite tires for pure road riding have been either Gran Bois Cypres or Rivendell Jack Brown (Greens). Both combos make the bikes feel fast, agile, and just “right”. They also do a good enough job to absorb road bumps that I don’t feel beat up even after a long (200k/300k) ride. When I have a bigger tire (35mm+) on a 700c wheel, the bike feels a bit ponderous.

I really want to like the Barlows – but they are just not Hetres, and they aren’t feeling significantly better or more comfortable than the Cypres/JBs. I don’t know if the added volume makes the toe overlap worth the bother. I also like the hammered Honjo fenders I had on this bike. They added a touch of class…

Taillight Wiring

07 Monday Apr 2014

Posted by Stonehog in Cycling

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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

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.

Like new shoes…

21 Monday May 2012

Posted by Stonehog in Cycling

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Tags

fenders, Hunqapillar, new bike, rain, riding in rain, rivendell, scuffed shoes, sykes

I remember when I was a kid growing up in the Midwest, when someone got new sneakers, everyone would try to scuff them up. They would reach out a foot and try to scrape it against your new white shoes. At first you would resist, but I do recall feeling self-conscious about having bright, shiny shoes. They always looked better after a few weeks of running around.

Today was one of those scuffing days for the new bike. It was the first rainy commute ride for the Hunqapillar. It rained pretty hard all the way into work, but it was nice and warm, so I really enjoyed the pleasant washing. Everything gets mighty green when it rains, and the colors are much more vivid.

I got there and wiped off the grime, a bit, but definitely got to test out the fenders. These Sykes fenders are flat and don’t have any “wrap” around the tire. As such, they still do a good job of keeping the bike clean and most of the water off me. There is a bit more splash, but it wasn’t bad – I arrived with just “damp” shoes. Here are some pics I took on the way home. The ground was still wet, but it only misted a bit, so I stopped on the Ravenna ravine bridge and snapped a few pics of the fully baked final build.

On the Bridge

Fenders are lookin’ red

This is a big!! bag

Home and Vivid!

Rearview

Proper Useful Bicycle

All demons sorted on this one. Now it’s time to ride it ’til it looks used!

Harlequin Bar Tape

20 Sunday May 2012

Posted by Stonehog in Cycling

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

a. homer hilsen, bar, cotton, fenders, harlequin, Hunqapillar, rivendell, shellac, sykes, tape, twine, wrap

I’m starting to get the hang of doing the diamond pattern bar wrap. I think the key is just doing about 10 bars to practice. The last two went so well, I didn’t even have to look up the instructions (http://www.wastedlife.org/bike/harlequin/index.html). First time for everything. So… There were two bars to get done.

I recently replaced the B115s on my Hilsen with some 41cm Noodles. I wanted to give ’em a second chance, as I found I like a narrower road (drop) bar. I chose my standard green and yellow tape as it gives good contrast. Here’s a pic post wrap:

Clean cotton bar tape

I like the Nitto bar end accents! I rode the bar this way with no comfort issues for a 20 mile commute. Now onto the shellacking! Here’s the bar after three coats of amber. It should dull up a bit after being used/doused.

Post Shellac

OK – one down. Now on to the Hunqapillar. I did a bit of adjustment to the brakes to lower them a bit. It’s always a good idea to ride the bike for a few miles before you tape it. Especially when you do the coatings that will pretty much make your setup permanent for a while. I had adjusted the bar angle on a couple of my commutes last week to get it just right, and had to bring the brake levers down a bit to compensate. I wanted a similar them with the diamond pattern on the main flats, so I went with the red and yellow, and planned to use amber to darken up the red to get a similar color to the kidney bean red of the Hunqa.

Pattern Close-Up

You can just see the mahogany sykes fenders I put on this weekend. Like! I will do a write up on these in a future post after I ride them through a rain storm. Here are some more views of the moustache bars, also with three coats of the amber on ’em.

Showing the Whole Bar

I used red twine to wrap the tape ends on the inside of the bar. It was a good match for the tape, and is almost invisible. The harlequin pattern is started with a rolled edge that makes twine (or electrical tape) unnecessary on the bar end by the shifters. It’s very clean.

More Diamonds

Nice to have this wrapped up – now I can get on to riding the heck out of this beast. The big bag/basket, fenders, and double kickstand added a few pounds to this bike, but it’s ready for some serious off-road camping, and heavy commuting now. Can’t wait for the first S24O!!