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Bahn Mi Brevet

02 Wednesday Apr 2014

Posted by Stonehog in Cycling

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

300k, acorn bags, brevet, Cycles Toussaint, cycling, harlequin wrap, nitto, noodles, rando, randonneur, Seattle, Selle Anatomica, SIR


190 miles in a day is a long way to ride your bike!  I don’t know if I’ll ever get over that part of randonneuring.  It’s a simple fact that most people will look at you funny when you talk about doing this sort of thing.  I hate to say it, but I feel that way when folks talk to me about running 20+ miles.  I think “why would you want to abuse your body like that?”.  I am a serious hypocrite.

BH-1.jpg

This guy doesn’t look particularly abused, right?  He was in great spirits for the first 100k while I rode with him.  He was chatting with me and several other riders.  Jason really loves these rides for the social aspect, I’m sure, as do I.  We were riding side-by-side for 10s of miles in the rain and wind when drafting would have been the prudent thing to do, just chatting about bikes, trips, rides, work, etc…  We were having a great time even after we bombed down a brutal climb (500+ feet at 13%) only to realize we should have studied the queue sheet harder at the control up top. We had missed the turn and ended up climbing up Lorde Hill again with 3 bonus miles and an extra half hour on our day.

BH-4.jpg

At the first control, an espresso stand, I realized I had forgotten my wallet.  After a short moment of panic, I decided the prudent thing to do was continue.  I had a lot of drinkable food (Perpetuem, Tailwind) and knew that I would be able to stock up on some goodies at the lunch stop.  Calories were not going to be the problem.  If I didn’t have a major bike issue, it was simply a matter of getting the ride done.  It did feel a bit strange to not buy anything at the couple of controls where I had a cashier sign my brevet card.  I’m sure this is really just my own issue, right?

BH-6.jpg

This seat continues to rock.  I had no saddle soreness.  When you are pedaling for 15+ hours, that says something.  There is no way any of my other seats would have been this comfy. As for the other contact points – no issues there either other than wetness.  Even with “waterproof” gloves and booty covered shoes, both were soaked by mid ride.  I am especially amazed that my hands were not numb with only a thin glove, and cotton tape wrapped bars.  The diamonds really help with hand comfort!  😉  As for my knees, they ended up not tightening and bothering me on this ride.  I would like to chalk it up to the 100k, 200k, and hip abductor exercises I’ve been doing, but I’m sure the Aleve helped.

Luckily we had sun on Camano Island at the apex of the route.  Several hours of dry weather, even.  That made things much more tolerable – I almost dried out, even…

BH-9.jpg

Turkeys were out.  Also, hawks, rabbits, lots of worms on the road, and a couple crazed barking rural road dogs that surprised the heck out of me and 3 others riding nearby.  Luckily we were at enough speed to get past without incident.  I would expect that Darwin will take care of those guys before we pass by that way again.

BH-10.jpg

As I was pedaling out of Arlington and joining up on the Centennial trail for a really nice woods ride, it started pouring again, and didn’t really stop until I was back in Seattle.  I’ve got to work out a better way to see the queue sheet at night.  With this much moisture, it was wet (from having to change it in the rain), and was fogging up the plastic cover on my rando bag.  The tiny light was OK, but my odometer was off enough at that point that the math I had to do in my head was becoming a chore for my weary brain.  I ended up teaming up with Bill and Patrick for the ride back to Woodinville and the Burke Gilman.  At that point I knew the way back, so it was auto pilot.  At one point Bill came up behind me after a bit of a weave and asked if I was OK.  That was a good wake up!  Shortly thereafter we just about ran into this tree/bush that had blown down across the trail.

flic.kr/p/mB5uDF

That last encounter kept me awake for the last few miles home…

 

2014 – Escape from Seattle Brevet

16 Sunday Mar 2014

Posted by Stonehog in Cycling

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

200k, bicycle, bike, brevet, Cycles Toussaint, cycling, harlequin wrap, low-trail, nitto, noodles, rando, randonneur, Seattle, Selle Anatomica, SIR


BH-1.jpg

Yesterday was iffy.  I wasn’t going to do this ride if it was going to be starting out raining.  Luckily, most of the day stayed dry, so I went out and enjoyed it.  There were  99 folks signed up in the pre-registration, and I saw several folks there who hadn’t been on the list.  A 100+ turnout is huge (for me).  I started out slowly as my knees were sensitive after last week’s 100k.  This time I had a bit of soreness at the halfway point – nothing a bit of ibuprofen didn’t take care of.

BH-3.jpg

The bike functioned flawlessly, and I was comfortable to the end.  Great frame, saddle, pedals, tires, and fit.  I can’t wait to test this on a longer ride.

BH-23.jpg

The amazing thing about a brevet – it seems like 10 miles out, you hardly see anyone anymore.  Folks spread out quickly at these distances.  There is a lot of time to catch up with old and new acquaintances, and meditate (as I did on the beautiful mossy green forested road along Lake Roesiger between Granite Falls and Monroe).

BH-10.jpg

BH-12.jpg

BH-18.jpg

BH-32.jpg

At the finish, there was chili and beer, and then a short 1 mile hop back to my home.

BH-38.jpg

Great day to be outdoors!

Full set of photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/stonehog/sets/72157642413443174/

Ride map: http://cyclemeter.com/51cfa6724f84c700/Cycle-20140315-0657?r=e

Initial Velo Routier Notes

03 Monday Mar 2014

Posted by Stonehog in Cycling

≈ 15 Comments

Tags

4130, a. homer hilsen, B&M Luxos, bar-end shifters, Berthoud, bike commute, Boxy Rando, Cycles Toussaint, cypres, double butted, Gran Bois, Hetre, low-trail, nitto, noodles, planing, randonneur, Rawland, rene herse, rivendell, rSogn, shimmy, SPD, Velo Routier


BH-1.jpg

I’ve been riding the Cycles Toussaint Velo Routier for a few days – have about 50 miles on it so far.  I wanted to collect my thoughts as this is a new geometry and tire size for me.  As for the rest of it, it’s very similar in size, weight, and materials (steel) to my A. Homer Hilsen.  I’ve used a nearly identical build for the bikes, as well.  Both have Nitto Noodle 41cm bars wrapped in cotton tape, both have the Rene Herse cranks, and both are within a few millimeters of dimension for fit.  the main difference is the wheel size, tires, and geometry with the Velo Routier being a “low trail” and the Hilsen a “mid-trail” ride.  OK – getting to the gut reaction first.

BH-4.jpg

BH-1.jpg

The Hetres really smooth out the ride on my rather bumpy commute.  Although I’m on bike trails most of the time, my commute has a number of rough spots with roots pushing up the pavement on the trail, as well as general poor road maintenance in other spots.  The Hetres feel smoother as you would expect.  They have more air volume, and I have them pumped to 40psi rear, 30psi front.  Comparing this to the Cypres tires on the Hilsen at 65psi rear and 45psi front, it should be more forgiving.

BH-3.jpg

The bike feels just as fast.  This is gut, so I will watch my commute stats over a longer timeframe.  The first few rides are inconclusive as I’ve been more tired than usual. The ride times between bikes are within a few minutes out of an hour commute home.

BH-2.jpg

I can really feel the handling differences in the low-trail – and it is not as disruptive as some of the lit I’ve read.  The closest analogy I’ve heard is that “you steer with your bars” on the low-trail bike, whereas  on the Rivendells, you “steer with your hips”.  This seems accurate to me.  I can ride this bike no-handed.  It’s not easier to do this than the Rivendell – if anything it is just slightly more apt to wander around, but this may just be my lack of experience on this type of geometry.  The interesting part is the feel with a front load.  It is much more planted with a bag and a few pounds up front.  It also wanders less when going slow, and of course there is much less issue with wheel flop when the bike is stationary.  The ride feel is subjectively better with this setup for me.  I really like having a front rando bag for longer rides.  I can do nearly everything I need to do with all the gear within easy reach.  This all said, I was doing fine with the Hilsen and the front rando.  I just feel that the Toussaint “feels” more planted with this setup while riding.

BH-5.jpg

As I said earlier, the Hilsen and Velo Routier are set up proportionally identical for my fit.  Both bikes feel like a good steel bike should.  Solid, compliant, light enough.  Both are also beautiful in their own way.  The Hilsen will win this battle, but the Toussaint is very nice looking in white with stainless Berthoud fenders and subtle red/yellow decals.

BH-3.jpg

I haven’t had any shimmy issues with either bike.  The Velo Routier tracked like a steam engine on a 30+ mph descent, and I rode shimmy-free no-handed from 15-25 mph.  This seems to be the sweet spot for shimmy.  I know the tubing on the Toussaint is double-butted 4130, with  .9/.6/.9 top, seat, and down tubes on my size “large” frame.  The smaller sizes are .8/.5/.8.  This is not the “ultra-light” planing grade tubing that Jan Heine tends to like, and some of the Rawland bikes are built to, but I’ve ridden an rSogn, and it felt as stiff as this frame.  Perhaps I need more sensitivity training.  In any case, it rides really well, and I feel totally comfortable on this bike.  A longer test ride is due, and luckily this is all set and ready for the upcoming brevet season starting next week!

BH-7.jpg

Other comments on the build?  I had no problems getting the build done – there were no flukey gonzo issues like misalignments, or gummed up threads.  The hanger was straight, the fenders were already mounted, as were the brakes.  I ended up tightening up the fender alignment to match up the Hetres as it originally had 38mm Somas on it, but that was the biggest time suck.  I honestly had the thing built in a few hours, and I was taking my time.  It helped that I had a cockpit set up from a previous build – nice not to have to wrap the bars.  One note – I originally had SPD pedals, but put VP flats on it for the beginning of the season.  I want to try these on longer rides to see if I have a knee issue that bothered me last year with the clipless pedals.  I also migrated the 9-speed cassette and downtube shifters back to an 8-speed setup with bar-end shifters.  Oh, I also put the B&M Luxos dyno light on this bike for the season.

BH-10.jpg

One more item I forgot to add – I was very worried about what kind of front rack to use.  The center-pull Dia Compe 750 brakes leave very little room and the normal rando-standard Nitto Mini rack wouldn’t work.  Luckily, Cycles Toussaint has this figured out.  They have a special rack made just for this bike.  I exchanged emails (actually, blog comments) with Evan at Cycles Toussaint, and ordered it after I got the frame.   It arrived a few days later just in time for my build.  It fit perfectly with rear mounts that fit to the fork crown mounting screws.  The rack holds my Tall Boxy Rando bag from Acorn at just the right height – the top even with my bars.  Super happy with this.  It is also possible to saw the rear arms off, bend the lower support arms, and mount the rack to the fender at two points if you want a lower platform and a more “constructeur” touch as Evan did with his personal bike.

BH-7.jpg

Now it’s time to put some miles on this guy (and try not to forget my other bikes in the process).

Drop Some Wisdom

17 Sunday Mar 2013

Posted by Stonehog in Cycling

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

200k, cork tape, cotton bar tape, drop bars, hand comfort, nitto, Nitto B-115, nitto noodles, noodles, Olympiade, populaire, porteur, randonneur, ride comfort, rivendell, VO


When I started riding road bikes again around 2009, I read a lot of opinion on the “internets”, and a few things were spoken of as gospel.  One of these was:

  • Drop bars, in particular Noodle bars are great for long term comfort (Discussion Thread from ’09)

I’m a dedicated experimenter/tweaker when it comes to building and riding bikes.  I had been on road bikes with drop bars for a short period of my life from about 1983-1991, but mainly as a part-time commuter.  I never raced, and only did one 2-day 150 mile ride in high school.

My old road bike – Raleigh Reliant

When I moved to Seattle in 1991, I rode a friend’s mountain bike down some fire  trails in Whistler, BC, and was totally smitten.  From then until 2009, I had various mountain bikes with flat bars.  When I bought my first Rivendell, I tried 46cm Noodles, but found them uncomfortable.  Specifically, when I was in the drops, they felt really deep/extreme, and my forearms hit the tops disconcertingly.  There was something off.

Cupcake and Homer with 46cm Noodles

I found VO Porteur bars to be a better fit for me initially, as they had a nice stretched-out thin position on the flat fronts, and I could also get very upright on the swept back part of the bars.  I went through a few iterations with these bars until I started riding in longer Randonneur events.  On one Populaire, I developed a bit of numbness in one hand at the 50-mile mark, even with soft cork tape.  I was definitely the only rider using upright bars of any kind, and most of  the folks were using drop bars of some sort.

Porteur with Cork and Cotton

I decided that I would have to try some drops for the longer 200k ride I had planned.  I had an older pair of Nitto B-115 Olympiade bars from the 80s, and the width was a tiny 39cm (compared to the 46cm).  I set these guys up, and found them comfortable on my commute (7-12 miles each way). I also found that my forearms didn’t hit the tops of the bars when I was in the drops.  The next test was the Bellingham 200k.

Olympiades

At the end of the event, I had no hand discomfort, and felt that the bars were close to ideal.  They just needed more width, and a bit of curve back like the old noodles had on the tops.  This led me back to the beginning (almost) and the Noodle style I started out with.  I went with the next bigger size of Noodles and have not gone back to uprights.

Sometimes it is best to listen to the wisdom/opinion of experienced riders in the first place.  At least cheaper…

Faves! Nitto Noodle 42cm with SRAM S500 Levers

SaddleSack Pair

02 Sunday Dec 2012

Posted by Stonehog in Cycling

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

a. homer hilsen, bicycle, bike, bike commute, commute, commuter, cycling, hilsen, homer, Hunqapillar, noodles, rivendell, sackville, saddlesack, Seattle


SaddleSack Small and MediumHomer and Hunqa - 42 Noodles

SaddleSack Pair, a set on Flickr.

The Rivendell Sackville line of saddle bags is the nicest bags I’ve come across. Well built, and great looking aesthetically. They also hold a tone of gear. I keep tools in both of these bags, but have room for a small iPad or laptop, a change of clothes, and in the larger Medium bag, I have hauled that plus a growler of beer with room to spare.

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