Winter Cycling

20 Saturday Jan 2018

Tags

bicycle, bike, cycling, kona, MTB, schwalbe, Seattle, Trillium Reserve, Whidbey Island

In an attempt to get out for a quick ride today, I chose the MTB. I found reasonable trails even in the winter in the Trillium Park on Whidbey Island. I headed up the eastern edge on mostly damp leafy single track until I reached the access road on the north end. After the climb, the real fun starts. There were a few trees down that I had to stop and hop for, but it was a good flow, nevertheless.

On the downhill nearing my favorite twisty section, I ran into a hiker who warned me that it was “wet up ahead”. I soon ran into a pond where the trail should have been. Being at least a foot deep with no way around, I abandoned and headed home.

The Kona was impressive as always. After a nice wash and oil, it’s ready for the next adventure.

Posted by Stonehog | Filed under Cycling

≈ Leave a comment

Image

Trail Riding

06 Wednesday Jan 2016

Tags

a. homer hilsen, bicycle, bike, commute, Cycles Toussaint, cycling, front bag, low-trail, randonneur, rivendell, Seattle, Velo Routier

I want to go into a bit more detail on what I’ve found in experimenting with a more traditional low-trail bike like the Vélo Routier, and compare it to the mid trail Rivendell A. Homer Hilsen from my last post. I have these bikes set up nearly the same. Both use 42cm Noodles, Compass cranks, and VP pedals (not shown), and Selle Anatomica Titanico saddles.

As the side view shows, the main difference is the fork rake and head tube and seat tube angles giving the bikes a slightly different geometry. The Toussaint has slightly steeper angles, and more rake giving it trail around 30mm, whereas the Hilsen is more relaxed with trail around 55-60mm. Yes, the Vélo is 650b and the Hilsen is 700c, but both bikes use light, supple Compass tires (tubeless even). The tire volume has a definite impact on the ride, but it doesn’t really relate to how the trail aspect affects the feel of the bike, at least not in the detail I’ll get into here.

Steering Curves

You can definitely tell the difference in the feel that the geometry creates when doing tight turns on the bike.

I’ll start with a spot in my commute that “pushes” technique a bit. There is a railroad crossing on my daily ride where I perform a fairly tight “S” turn that has fences on either side to keep me honest. The Hilsen requires more thought and body lean. The Vélo Routier requires less body, and steers the curves easier. This is the case no matter the load on the bikes for the most part.

On the other hand, when I put the Hilsen into a curve, it tracks it. When I put the Vélo Routier in, it will still respond to inputs. This can be good or bad. I would say that on the Routier, I have to stay on top of steering all the time, whereas on the Hilsen, I have to be a little more planned up front, but when committed, it requires less concentration from me.

Front Weighted Loads

The Routier is much less concerned if there is weight in the front. The bike doesn’t wag from side to side (wheel flop) when there is significant load, and when I park it with the front bag, it doesn’t sway over to the side. The times I’ve actually found this to be nice is when I’m parking the bike, and when I’m carrying a 10+ pound load (which is actually very rare for me).

My typical rando load is probably at most 5 pounds in my front bag with a layer, extra gloves, and food. This is easily handled with little problem on the Hilsen when similarly front bag equipped.

Tracking

The Hilsen always wants to go straight at speed – there is more gyro stabilization effect with this geometry. This helps when you want to be minimal in steering input. Examples: curves, laziness, riding no-handed. The Routier goes where your hands move it to. This isn’t great if you are tired or distracted. I’ve had a few more close calls on the Routier nearly going on a temporary off-road excursion. This has been at normal riding pace: 12-17 mph. I really noticed this “ultra responsive” steering at the end of a 300k when I was tired, and couldn’t seem to keep the bike going in a straight line without undue effort. I remember thinking to myself that the low trail was supposed to be “easier”, but in this case, under fatigue, it was actually the opposite. This is also a complaint generally fielded against higher trail bikes – that they tend to wander when climbing at slow speeds.

I’ve heard that wind gusts can really upset a higher trail bike, but I haven’t experienced that yet. Gusts tend to bother me on either bike, but not uncontrollably so.

UPDATE: a comment left by a reader asked about high speed descent handling between the bikes. I have noticed very little differences here – when moving at speeds over 20mph, both bikes feel stable.

Commuting

I find no real difference other than the amount of weight you want to carry. And, this only matters if you really want to carry a lot of weight in the front. I tend to hate on rear rack and pannier combos as I don’t like the tail wagging the bike feel, and the dirt on the panniers from road spray. Front bags are awesome for keeping your stuff accessible and clean. I don’t typically carry a lot of weight on my commute. I keep heavy clothes in the office, and only occasionally bring an iPad or MacBook on the commute. I will sometimes pick up beer, or other heavy items on the ride home, however, but either bike manages this for a few miles with no real problems.

Balance/CoG

Now here is something I’ve noticed more as I ride the Toussaint, and this is more obvious when I try to ride no-handed. I feel like my center of gravity is higher on the low-trail bike. It sort of feels like I’m sitting up higher and closer to the bars – more of an “on top” feeling rather than an “in the bike” feeling. I would just attribute this to the sharper seat tube angle – not even something that necessarily contributes to the trail number, but is part of the geometry difference.

Summary

Different trails for different folks with different needs. If you are a long-distance or endurance rider who carries a good load, is alert even after hours in the saddle (think 12+ hours), and you like to have a very precise feel for control on steering movements – go with a low trail ride. If you are regularly carrying large loads, and want them to stay clean and dry, go low trail. If you don’t mind carrying load in the back – it doesn’t really matter then.

If you like to ride long distances but want to be able to do lots of restful no-handed riding, and you like to zone out a bit more – go with a mid-trail bike. If you are a commuter and want a bike that doesn’t flop over and pull the bike down when you have stuff in the front basket/bag, get a low trail bike.

If you like to ride big tires with fenders, or have bigger feet, and hate toe-overlap, you may find you will have less on a low-trail bike as the fork is raked out more. Another consideration.

I find both of these bikes to be great brevet bikes. They are also great commuters. I would give the nod slightly to my Hilsen based on my riding style, preferences, and loaded weight characteristics. Someday, I’ll have to “pull a Chen” and “get another Hilsen” that is modified to low trail and then do a test, but that sounds like a lot of work. I’m moving out of my tweaking phase. My real recommendation is to get two bikes, one low and one mid/high, and find out what you prefer. Nobody can really just tell you – it helps to experience it yourself.

Posted by Stonehog | Filed under Cycling, Randonneuring

≈ 10 Comments

Image

A. Homer Hilsen 7-year Review

04 Monday Jan 2016

Tags

a. homer hilsen, ahh, bike, commute, cycling, harlequin wrap, nitto, porteur, randonneur, rivendell, Seattle

My first real thoughtful bike purchase was the Rivendell A. Homer Hilsen. Color – metallic copper – one of the web frame specials in 2009 shortly after I moved back to Seattle from a brief 18-month foray to my childhood home of Minnesota. I had been commuting on a ’96 Kona AA that I was pretty much done with. The aluminum frame never felt right – too stiff. I was ready for a real road bike after spending much of the prior 20 years on a mountain bike.

2nd Build – still a favorite

I did a lot of research, but after I found the Rivendell site, started reading Sheldon Brown and Grant Petersen’s opinions, and did some test rides on a local friend’s vast collection of Riv bikes, I was smitten. I recall going to the Seattle Bike Show in 2008 and walking around forlorn, seeing nothing attractive. At all.

At that point, I knew a couple things about myself:

Steel felt right. I grew up riding this material. My Raleigh Reliant, and Stumpjumper Pro (’91) were my benchmark rides.
I wasn’t planning to pick up racing. I am a recreational and practical cyclist.
Damn those lugged frames were pretty! They really hit a “homer” in terms of where my aesthetic sensibilities were concerned.
I wanted to build this bike myself from the frame up.

I started watching the Riv site and decided the copper Hilsen was the one. It was a 59cm frame, and although I would probably fit up to a 61cm, this was as big as I wanted to commit to.

After a few months of collecting the parts and tools needed to put this together, I took it for the first ride and was amazed at the effortless speed compared to my mountain bikes. At about the same time, I had also stumbled on the RBW owners bunch online community, which helped me navigate a first bike build, as well as sharing lots of good technical advice.

Here was a large community of like-minded folks generally oohing and aahing all the builds folks were doing. This tight-knit community is one known for being a polite and caring group, and I’m happy to count many of the folks there as friends.

Favorite Bike in Current Config

The Hilsen took me on my first 100k brevet, and then my 200k. Then my 300k. It helped me learn that I like the Selle Anatomica Titanico saddle best on anything over 100 miles. It showed me that clipless pedals were not necessary anymore.

I briefly became caught up in the low-trail Jan Heine camp, and picked up another rando bike (the Toussaint), but after all these years, the one bike I still enjoy the most is the A. Homer Hilsen. It is still as lovely as ever, and gaining beausage every year. It still gets more comments on my daily commute, rain or shine. After riding other bikes for several months, and then coming back to this one, it still feels “just right”. The ride is smooth, predictable, natural. I never feel like it has quirks, defects, or limitations that I’ve noticed on lesser bikes.

It has done brevets, snowy singletrack(!), loaded commutes, and just riding trips. Handled ’em all with aplomb. ’nuff said…

Posted by Stonehog | Filed under Cycling, Northwest, Randonneuring

≈ 15 Comments

Entmoot

20 Sunday Jul 2014

Posted by Stonehog in Cycling

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

20th Annual, basket, bicycle, brooks, cycling, entmoot, Grant Petersen, harlequin, harlequin wrap, Hunqapillar, rivendell, sackville, Seattle

Last week, I left Seattle for a 4-day trek down the coast to the Bay area for a special ride with folks from Rivendell and the RBW Owners Bunch .

I left on Thursday around 3:30pm, and after some initial slow traffic out of Seattle, hit Portland around 7:30pm to pick up some guys from last year’s Seattle/Portland Riv Rumble.

I also met the infamous Coconut Bill and Hugh Smitham from SoCal! Both were up in Portlandia scoping out a future. Hugh grabbed a ride with us on his return south, so we had a full truck of bikes and bike nerds!

Around 2:30am we ran out of steam just south of Shasta (northern California) and pulled into a rest stop to… well… rest?

We unrolled the bedrolls and slept under a tree until I felt some rain drops around 5am and sounded the alarm. A quick pack up in the cloudburst revived us enough to make it all the way down to Rivendell World Headquarters by around 10am. It was Aaron’s first time to HQ, so he rode every bike model they had (OK, Andy and I rode a few, as well). Vince was great in accommodating us making us some tasty espresso, and helping with the bike fitting.

This is where we parted ways with Hugh, who was going to meet up with some pals at Samuel P Taylor State Park on Friday night. Andy, Aaron, and I had other plans, however. We had to ditch the truck (Thanks Tommy!) in San Leandro, and BART back to Walnut Creek for a special ride with Tommy, Manny and friends up to Shell Ridge for a bit of guerilla camping under the stars. This was a serious blast, and actually an inaugural S24O for me and my Hunqapillar. I finally got to load ‘er up and ride up some hills!

Manny (Manuel Acosta) is an active list member who is known for his photography of the local Rivendell riding grounds around the bay area (Shell Ridge, Mt. Diablo, China Camp), and his amazing adventures on his summers off with pals (he is a teacher). He certainly lived up to his reputation – a natural ride leader with boundless energy and enthusiasm. He welcomed all of us like old friends, and took us on some amazing trails in Shell Ridge, an area a mile away from Rivendell HQ. His Sam Hillborne is an amazing testament to hard use and beausage (beautiful usage), as well. He’s done everything from camping/touring to mountain bike racing to 300k brevets on this thing. Talk about versatility!

We camped out on a flat hilltop in the wind-burned dry grass.

A few of us followed Manny and the locals for some mountain biking around the area, and I found out how much fun a fully rigid bike is on these trails. Even with a large basket on front, and a big back bag! Tire note – the Clement MSOs ripped it! No issues with traction or flats all weekend – and plenty of sharp objects and dusty washouts were traversed. The Albastache bars were spot on for this sort of riding, as well.

At this point, I was pretty popped, so sleep came quickly. We had a great breeze, and a few folks stayed up chatting into the night, but the SEA/PDX crew crashed hard.

The next morning we had some coffee and a few dry bits of food, and headed back down to the BART station to rendezvous with folks in San Francisco for ride up to China Camp, the official site of the Entmoot. Here we loaded up on some breaky and hardy bits to bring camping, and also met the next level of the list contingent. Lots of amazing people came together for this ride. All sizes and shapes! Manny (5’er) rode Amit’s (6’7″?) Bombadil, and there was much laughing.

After the full assembly and some photos, we headed off to cross the Golden Gate, and rode north through Sausalito, Larkspur, and San Rafael, before arriving at our destination. This was a fun ride – easy, low-key, and allowed us to really see the north bay area. Lots of bikes, and all were met with Manny ringing his bell, and Amit ringing and waving! This caught on to the whole group. We definitely looked a bit out of place from the lycra crowd, but everyone was friendly.

At China Camp, we found five folks from Rivendell, including Grant Petersen himself, as well as Rich Lesnik (wheelbuilder) joining us for the overnight. We got ourselves unpacked and situated, and just walked around talking and meeting all the great folks we had gotten to know only through their list posts. It’s really amazing how cool this group of folks is in person!

I was lined up to do a demo of harlequin bar wrapping with some bars that Joe Bunik brought along, but I had to try to catch Manny and his cohorts, who had taken off on another mountain biking trek in the hills surrounding China Camp. This riding really reminded me of the trails in Seattle, only much, much dryer! I never did catch them, but I passed a couple guys climbing the ridge in full gear on dual suspension bikes. I’m sure they were surprised by my helmetless, sandle-wearing, basket/bagged Hunqa thundering by them up the ridge. After dusting up my legs, I returned to camp and had some dinner, meeting more folks in the process, including Hugh who had returned from the other state park. I had some great chats with Grant P about his new HAR racks and bags, and Rich Lesnick who had started his career at Boeing in Seattle. Then it was time for the bar wrapping session with Joe.

This was interrupted (hope you got the bars done, Joe!) by an amazing raffle that the Riv folks held for the Entmooters. We all got a patch commemorating the event, and several of us were lucky enough to win some cool gear including soaps, bags, and even a hatchet! I came out of it with a reflective triangle for the Hunq.

We had to hit the trail early the next morning so as to make the 9am ferry out of Larkspur. I was up pretty early, so brewed up a few shots of coffee on the Trangia. Great stove, BTW. Roger checked out my Seattle beans and compared the roast to his home-roasted batches. Wow – coffee and bike geekery is a common thread here.

I got a couple of last goodbyes and photos with the folks that made this all happen.

After some rejuvenating beverages, we headed on out for a fine morning ride back to the ferry and civilization. S48O complete!

The ride back up to Portlandia and Seattle was fairly uneventful, although more could be written about this adventure as it involved cleanup and lunch bought by Tommy’s dad when we returned to the truck, a three-hour last stop at Bike, Book, and Hatchet, and a search for a good liquor store where I could find some nice Islays, and other strange drinks for Aaron (??). We had a beautiful sunset on the way past Shasta – it always seems to be a picturesque place when I go through this part of the country.

We made it to within 90 miles before I became bleary-eyed and had to stop at another rest stop for some shut-eye. Up to Andy’s early and a goodbye breakfast at Bertie-Lou’s (um, yum!). Great trip! I really can see this becoming an annual trek.

Photos from the Entmoot

Backdrop: in 1994, Grant Petersen left Bridgestone when they folded their US bicycle operation, and started a small mail-order bicycle business that he named after a backpack company and elf city of literary fame. The business slowly grew with like-minded cyclists who feel steel, leather, lugs, and Grant’s relaxed geometry exemplifies a quality ride. As the internet became popular around the same timeframe, a newsgroup was formed and dedicated to discussions of Rivendell bikes and ethics. This branched out of the original iBOB list (Bridgestone Owners Bunch) that had quite a following. RBW was born, and has blossomed into 2000+ users. It’s a real community of like-minded, friendly folks from around the world.

Zoo Hill Permanent

14 Monday Apr 2014

Posted by Stonehog in Cycling

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

100k, brevet, permanent, Seattle, Toussaint, zoo hill

I rode my first permanent today. Did the 100k solo, and it couldn’t have been a nicer day. A permanent is different from an organized brevet in that it is an approved route that can be ridden on your own time of choosing. There are permanents that span from 100k to 1000k. Some are well known brevet routes.

It was interesting in that there were three controls where I bought snacks to collect receipts. Generally during a brevet, the store cashier signs and records the time on the brevet card. This was all solo with no real interactions.

Two of the controls were questions about the spot in focus. I took photos of these just in case. Not a bad experience, overall. I felt pretty good, the bike was flawless, and the weather was glorious. The ride took just over 5 hours, and I added 21 miles in transport to the start and from the finish.

Zoo Hill itself was intense. It climbs 1000 feet in a mile or so. There were amazing views, and the descent was smooth and fast. My favorite part of the ride was May Valley Road. New blacktop on a sweeping fast flat farm valley. Very picturesque!