it’s funny, think that i’m “into” biking but man these guys are for real. there is a new indie film b.i.k.e. that is a documentary about these guys that call themselves “black label “. i should try to start a chapter here in loveland.
for the past couple of days i’ve been test riding my newly renovated bike. on wednesday i rode to work with the new ex-diamondback. i can’t really thing of a good name for my new bike so i’ll just call it that for now. speaking of naming the bike here are some alternatives:
albino [this could be offensive]
vanilla [this is actually a pretty stupid name, nevermind]
vanilla latte [yeah… that’s much better]
angel [i was going for a reincarnation theme]
tupac [did you see the photos?]
monro [i like this name]
whitey [i think i’d get my ass kicked with a name like that, or i can just add, “my other bike is black”]
lumination [where did that come from…. i think this coffee is doing something weird]
anyway, back to my story. i rode my new nameless bike to work on wednesday. this was the first time i actually rode it further than up and down my street. i was pretty excited. this was actually my second attempt at riding it to work, the first attempt failed miserably because i couldn’t get it into 5th gear. i didn’t know how to adjust the gears, back then… or now for that matter, but they now seem ok.
it’s kind of weird test riding a new bike. i have to be super sensitive to anything that is bothering me. there were a few things.
1. the seat was too low, now any of the components fault, the the dork that put it all together.
2. the handlebars were tilted wrong…. again not the handlebar’s fault.
3. the brake hoods were too far down, i felt like i was sliding forward on the bars the whole time. ideally i should have tilted the bars down more, and put the hoods way up so i could rest on them.
4. the hub doesn’t seem to free wheel for very long. all the gearing in the hub provides enough resistance to prevent it from spinning freely for very long. i think i could feel this as i was riding, but it might have been something else.
5. the shifter worked well, but every time i shifted i had to stop pedaling for a moment, or even back pedal to let the gears snap into place. this could be kind of a problem for some people, but my old bianchi uses friction shifters, and the best time to shift is before you need to. in general, i think that people shift too much. i’ve seen people shifting gears while in the middle of some pretty rocky technical sections. then i usually see these same people on the side of the trail pulling their chain out of the little area between the bottom bracket and chainring.
6. the breaks were too loose. actually i don’t know… they may have been too loose, but maybe it’s just not what i’m used to.
7. i don’t like the pedals. they are huge. i’m a little worried to take these things off road. also, i couldn’t fit my spd’s into the clips. i had to ride platform all the way. i think they are too heavy as well.
8. on most of the little hills, 5th gear was too hard and 4th was too easy. i should look into putting a bigger chain ring on the front. right now there is a 38T. when i was figuring out the gearing, i think that my gear calculator was using the SP5 cargo hub, instead of the one that i have. anyway with the small tires and the really long crank arms, i think the bike is a bit under geared.
good things?
1. well the bike is super light. i think i can ride this bike up anything.
2. i really like the metal frame. it’s so much more comfortable than my road bike.
3. the padded bar tape is wonderful.
4. i love they way my bike looks.
i really can’t comment on too many thing, because there were so many little bad things earlier that once i fix the above i will have better things to say about the rest.
by the way, i really need to put a speed odometer on this thing… i really feel like i’m not going that fast. maybe i’m not, but i just gotta know. does anyone want to go bike riding with me? i need a feel for how i compare to other bikes.
later
to fix my stupid multi-tool!
i hate these things… this was a pedros. the other side broke a few years ago, and now the other side fell apart this morning. after my 5th tool broke or fell apart… i finally started caring around a small alen set. works great! it’s flat has 90% of everything i need.
i was so excited about saturday that i woke up at 5:30am with out an alarm clock. i was planning to drive down to the railroad track in louisville to take some “promo” pictures of my new bike. louisville is quite a long way from my house, but i used to work there and i knew about some pretty neat graffiti that was painted on a train underpass. i spotted it one day when i was running on the tracks at lunch. i had always planned on coming back one day and taking pictures. i guess today was the day…. some two years later.
i had to park in a high tech industrial area and jump over a barbed wire fence, just to get on the tracks. i could have got to it by entering a half mile down at the car crossing, but i decided on this. so i had to walk out to the underpass [btw, i don’t know if this is an under or over pass]. i tripped on some barbed wire while i was carrying my bike camera and bike stand. it wire kind of dug into my shin and i started bleeding a little… but i pressed on. i drove all the way out here, blood or no blood i’m taking some stupid pictures. so blood it was.
as i got there i was looking for all the graffiti that used to be there…but i couldn’t find any of it. all i saw were some discolorations on the wall where some vandals covered the art with a color that was similar to the background of the overpass. somebody should be taking care of our culture a little better, and let the artwork live!
here is a picture from the shoot
as you can see i didn’t have much to work with. a few more of the pictures can be seen on the “Bike Renovation” page, on this blog.
i finished the shoot blood an all, and i thought that i had enough time to test ride my bike, up flagstaff. i drove all the way to boulder and parked at the base and started getting ready. as it turned out i wasn’t really ready to ride a bike. i had no where to keep the tire tool because i was wearing one of my too cool pocketless jerseys, and my shoes would just not fit in the pedals. besides i didn’t have wrenches for the non-quick-release rear hub, no alan tools, and not even a tube. i wasn’t about to wear my soft bottom skateboard shoes either.
so i called off the test ride….for now. i just happened to drive by performance bike shop and noticed tht they were opened…hmm maybe i can pick up a few items. i was planning on buying some shoes from them anyway…. and i could use another multi-tool… and some tubes… 117 dollars later i was set for my “test ride”
this time i decided to try out hall ranch. this is after all, where i test out most of my new equipment. i still didn’t have cone wrenches for the hub, but i shouldn’t need to take off the wheel, because i was planning on patching a flat anyway. i still didn’t have a place to carry all my stuff so i had to use my messenger bag… pretty cool [sarcasm] to be mountain biking with a messenger bag. i parked out in lyons, which is a couple of miles from the trail head, so i could ride a little road.
the bike was great. i was flying up the up the road like it was flat. i guess it’s been so long since i’ve had low enough gears that it seemed pretty trivial. my new bike is pretty heavy at least heavier that you’d think, mostly because of the hub. there are still a few heavy spots like the bb, seat tube skewer, pedals, and the gear shifter. everything else is as light as it can be. i really should get new pedals, but these will do for now. the frame itself is not very light it is cromo. actually it is very nice to be riding a metal framed bike again. as i pedal i could see it twisting and flexing. this all helps in the comfort of the bike… not so much efficiency.
bottom line i would say that the road test was inconclusive [because it was too short], but promising.
as i got to the trail head i just continued on without stopping to do anything. i slipped it into 2nd gear and just crawled up my first hill. it was so cool to be climbing without effort. i think this bike has two granny gears. i think the first gear has a pedal to wheel ratio of .667. the next gear is something like .75… middle gear is about what my single speed is, and the next two higher gears are pretty heavy.
i just zipped up the first part with no effort at all… not even sweating. however when i got to the first technical section, or as we people who ride hall ranch like to call it, “the technical section”, things got a little on edge. i was afraid to really push down on the cranks because i think this hub is going to fail, and i don’t want it to fail right now… i haven’t even finished my test ride. i couldn’t clean the very first section, and i felt pretty lame. the next section i was going to go for it. i stood up on the cranks and pounded then as i went over some rocks. as i did that, felt the pedals slip. oh no here it comes, the end of my hub. anyway, i looked down and saw my chain was loose.
as it turned out the wheel was not tightened properly, and the chain pulled the wheel out of the wheel slots.
this caused the tire to almost rub on the other side.
i couldn’t ride the bike any longer, since i didn’t have the wrench. as i was sitting there looking over the situation, two mountain bikers passed by and asked it i was ok… “do you have any wrenches” i asked. nope, ain’t got no wrench. then one of them noticed that my bike was kind of weird. he asked about my internal hub, an i gave him my feedback. i couldn’t tell if he was impressed or amused.
on the down hills i could coast, and luckily there was enough downhill to not make me want to kill myself. i was a litle embarrassed because i was walking my weird bike…. all show no go i thought :(
so test ride was over… the mountain portion looked somewhat promising as well. i think i will have to change my pedaling to fit the geared hub. i can’t pound on the cranks like i do for the ss.
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i love watching this. as i was listening to this video, i couldn’t help but notice that one of the commentators sounds a lot like al troutwig [pretty sure it is]. this guy has been covering the tour for over 20 years! they must pay him to act like a newbie these days so phil paul and bob all seem like experts. come to think of it i remember watching the tour de france as kid and john tesh, was one of the commentators. maybe i’m wrong and the guy i hear in the video is actually john…. hmm. does anyone know?
well this bike renovation is not going very well. for one, everything is taking a lot longer than i planned. my wheels turned out to be the bottle neck. i can do anything until they come in. i can’t do the breaks, because the rim needs to be in. also i can’t put the break levers on till i get the shifters… and the shifters are supposed to get here with the wheels.
the hubs rims and assembly was ordered over one month ago. the lame shop where i ordered it from seemed to order the parts in serial. once they ordered the hub, and the hub came in… then i found out about not having the shifter…. so they ordered the shifter. then once that all came in they decided to order the rim then the rim became back ordered… i don’t really think that they did it like that, but from my point of view that how i found out about everything. finally last week, i sent some really angry emails to them, and asked if they had any other rims in stock. they actually had a much better rim in stock, that they would sell me for a reduced price. anyway i jumped on it and they finished the wheel and the next day it got shipped. now that the wheels are in the ups tracking system, i’ve been watching it. usually ups takes three to four days… it’s been 6 days. there was a weekend in there but still. and now today is delivery day and the package has not even checked into colorado yet. i know it’s going to be late, and damaged or lost…. crap.
the next item on the list is my thomson seat post. i ordered a beautiful post from some bike shop in san diego. right off the bat i got an e-mail telling me they were going to be late [not back ordered…just late]. so i called up and had them send the brake cables i also ordered from them so i wouldn’t delay the project. i can build the bike without a seat post, but the brakes are a little more key. they sent the cables express usmail for 9 dollars. it was just a small padded envelope! they could have put some stamps on it and sent it for 75 cents. and it would have gotten here in 3 days… which is how long it took. so a couple of weeks later i get an e-mail telling me it’s back ordered. i called them again and tried to change my order because maybe my seat post length was the problem. the guy told me to just hang tight for a couple of days. i hung on for almost two weeks. finally yesterday i called and they still had no eta. i canceled the order and found a bike shop on ebay that had one for about the same price. i haven’t gotten the “your item ordered yet” but they sounded like they had this thing in stock. we’ll see though…
the last item on my waiting list are some cyclocross tires. these things are so cool. i wasn’t even going to put knobbies on my bike, because i was planning to ride it on my commute first. so i am in no real hurry to get these, but i’d like to put them on my bike before i get it all dirty. i called them the day that i ordered, because i wanted to add something. the lady was glad i called because wanted to tell me that her shipment was stuck in us customs… and it would be there for 7-10 days. oh well… two days later i get an e-mail from them telling me that my items have been ordered and will be shipped via fedex. i never got an e-mail from fedex or a shipping number… so i think they just ment that they looked at my order.
finally, i am really pissed off this morning. i just found out that i deleted my bike renovation post about how to install the headset. i am really irritated about that. it took me almost longer to write about installing the headset than it did to actually install it.
later
right as i left the visitor center feeling all tough, i looked out at the road and this is what i saw.
very steep uphill, no shoulder, and it started raining again really hard and the wind was just out of control. i had forgotten that the visitor center is not the highest point on the road. it was some 400 feet higher just east of me [the direction i was heading] . it wasn’t just 400 feet, it was climb 200 feet, drop 200 feet, climb…etc.
i actually didn’t mind the climbs too much, because it was keeping me warm. on every descent, i had a very hard time of it. there was no shoulder and the traffic was coming on strong. i couldn’t keep a straight line because of the wind gusts. i finally just had to dismount my bike and walk down hill. i was getting colder by the minute… really cold. the wind and rain were both getting more intense. because i was walking i was getting no where. it was so depressing, after every climb i would look over the bend and only see more descent followed by more climbing. each next climb seemed higher than the previous. at this point i was really worried the something was going to happen to me. i couldn’t stop shivering, and my hands were getting too numb to do anything. one weird thing was that my hands could not do anything, but squeeze the brakes.
at one point i had to wait for a construction traffic light and there was no protection from the wind and rain. i had to sit there in front of all these car, pretending like i was ok. i thought my uncontrollable violent shivering might have given me away… but it didn’t. when the signal waiting was over the traffic guard told me to go first. i went ahead and tried sprinting across, so i wouldn’t hold back the drivers. i was “sprinting” into a direct headwind with rain/ice pounding my face and glasses. i couldn’t see anything but a blur of the other construction signal. right after i got to the other side i pulled over and tried to rest, while the traffic passed me by.
i little while after i stopped i found a place to hide from the wind. here is a picture looking down.
this is what i looked like at that moment.
more of trail ridge looking down.
this road seemed to never have any relief. the only thing that kept me going, was the fact that i could live to tell about it. when i finally got to tree line, things didn’t get too much better. the road is completely shady and the rain seems to be going strong. i could not warm up.
i was very happy when i got to the top. i ran into a few people that had seen me riding up. they were pretty impressed with my accomplishment… and so was it. i asked one of them if they could take this picture, so i could have something to show for my pain.
i was pretty happy… “mission accomplished!” i put on my new hat, and pulled my jacket sleeves over my hands/gloves and headed out of the parking lot. it was going to be an easy cruse down trail ridge road…. or so i thought.
there is the visitor center. it finally stopped raining hard.
i don’t know how many miles i’ve been in the saddle so far but i do know that i have 2 miles to go.
right now i can hear the thunder all around me. it’s almost every thirty seconds apart. remember those beautiful peaks in my last post? well they are echoing the thunder all around me. every time lightning strikes the sound circles 360 degrees around me. it’s quite disturbing.
can you see the visitor center? it won’t be long now before i get to tree line. it’s raining really good right now. in the picture just below, you can see a white minivan. nothing special, just i thought it was inspiring to see someone actually at the end.
the rain turned to hail, and it’s not feeling very good. i guess the good part is that i am not getting wet :) the lightning kind of stopped and i am starting to see tree line. i was going to stop and wait under a tree till the lightning stopped, but since it stopped i can keep going.
i got about a half mile into tree line and the thunder and lightning started! now i’m scared no where to hide… crap! i pulled over to the side of the road near the embankment hoping to get a little shelter from the lightning. there was no where to really sit down unless i felt like sitting on tundra… which i didn’t. so there i was standing over my bike in a ditch next to the road [sorry no picture].
one couple passed by and the guy asked if everything was alright dude… yeah i’m fine. while i was there i thought that i would get some food. remember it’s pouring rain at this point. i pull out my burrito from this morning and carefully remove the soggy paper that it’s wrapped in. this is not easy, because it is very fragile and breaking into very small pieces. i manage to pull it back about an inch or so and take a bite. not sure if i got all the paper off. so i don’t want to hold the burrito in the rain while i am chewing, so i bit off as much as i can before i get to the start of the paper.
ok, so do you have a good picture: it’s raining/hailing very hard, there is lightning every thirty to forty seconds, i am standing in a ditch over my bike, eating a cold taco bell burrito… with my mouth full. at this point some lady drives by and asks if i’m ok. i can’t speak, because my mouth is so full… i don’t know what my face looks like at this point, but i just nodded my head. i probably looked really sick at this point, she had this kind of scared look on her face. she said, “are you sure?”….”i have a bike rack in the back…” i really wanted a ride but, i was so close. i thanked her for the offer, but turned her down. i wonder if she even understood what i said, my mouth was so full. by the way that cold burrito was so good, i can’t believe how much better it was that the one i ate down in estes.
it felt like the lightning slowed down a bit, so i packed up and continued my quest.