See the original on YouTube.
Carbon fiber has a far better reputation than it did when I was building the titanium Yellow Maserati, but I still avoid it (link goes to the site at Busted Carbon, although I doubt any carbon-fiber fans will click on it). It turns out that Francis Cade, who's far from a retrogrouch like me, posted a video with expert opinion on parts that should not be carbon fiber.
I'm stickin' to my opinion: I don't ride no plastic bikes.
On a recent ride, several of the Insane Bike Posse were discussing how many bikes we had. The range was pretty wide: one rider has, I think, nine (Edit: I've been informed the number is five). I was the low end; I have two: the Krakow Monster, my gravel/monstercross bike, with two-inch-wide tires, built on a heavy steel Surly Cross Check frame; and the Yellow Maserati, my titanium road bike.
Knowing about my love for mechanic work, and for the beautiful lugged-steel frames, my co-riders found this hard to believe, but it’s true: I don’t have any other bikes. (We’re not counting the road bike and the hybrid that my wife has; I don’t ride those.) So the next question was about my parts collection.
I thought I had about seven wheels that were not attached to bikes (I just checked; there are actually nine, and two rims that haven't been built up into wheels yet), along with:
None of this includes the tubes, cable, and housing that I keep for my mechanic business.
The sense of the meeting was that these do not count as an additional bike, because there’s no frame to hang them on. But it did provide a way to start this post, which has been percolating for a long time (as you'll be able to tell by its inordinate length).
I’m friends with a rider who has a collection of bikes, mostly steel-framed, all Italian, all beautiful. They are lovely machines. I could probably afford a bike like that, but, given the limited space I have, I’m going to forgo owning one.
Other riders maintain their bikes, or collections, to have the lightest bikes, or the latest-and-greatest components (these are not always the same as the lightest!), or what the winningest pros ride. Or to have bikes for every different kind of riding they do, or ever might consider doing.
Those aren’t my interests. My bikes, and the parts I’ve collected, are really about bikes that are affordable – about a balance between cost and performance.
The titanium frame I got is a brand you’ve probably never heard of (the decals were ugly and started to wear off, so I removed ‘em). My first road bike was an aluminum Giant with a carbon-fiber fork. The fork got a scratch, and, in those days, carbon fiber had a reputation for “catastrophic failure”: breaking suddenly (often without warning), possibly causing injury to the rider. (The website at "busted carbon" hasn't been updated in more than a decade, but it was scary at the time...)
I replaced the fork with a steel fork…
...and then decided I could build up a bike myself, starting with the components from the aluminum bike, and swapping out the parts bit by bit until I had the bike I wanted. I found the titanium frame for less than $1000, with geometry and measurements I could deal with (I knew a lot less about bike frame geometry than I do now; I was lucky that the frame worked out for me as well as it did) (and the frame is still available for about $1400; some of the older model are still at the original price).
The groupset I used was a SRAM Rival set, on which I got a great price. After a few years, the shifting started getting dodgy, and I replaced it with the Gevenalle set I have now, which places modified downtube-lever shifters outside the brake levers. They’re light and inexpensive, and they also change to friction-shifting mode, which I’ve been using for a few years (and they have a few other advantages, about which I’ll happily bend your ear if you give me the slightest provocation).
I’ve also tried the Sensah Empire 2x11 groupset, a mechanical groupset from a Chinese manufacturer, which I’ll put on my wife’s bike the next time her shifters need adjusting.
All of these groupsets are reasonably-priced, and they all work well. Now I see that even lower-end components for the big groupset manufacturers are going to electronic shifting. I think this will raise the entry price for bicycling… and I hate that.
All those parts I listed above? They’re mostly things I’ve tried (like the Sensah Empire set), or things I have in stock in case replacement parts for the bikes I currently have become unavailable. (My favorite saddle was a Specialized Body Geometry that the stopped making. I wore out two of ‘em, and only replaced the last one when I fell in love with the Selle Anatomica’s that I have on both bikes now. And since manufacturers either go out of business, or change models, I have a spare Selle Anatomica saddle in the box. I hate it that bike stuff just disappears.)
I’ve got no interest in upgrading to disk brakes, or electronic shifting, because I don’t want to have to buy the new frame to hang them on, and I don’t think they’ll make me a better rider. To me, they are additional expense, without improvement for the kind of riding I do.
I’ve been on more than one ride on which electronic shifting has failed due to batteries not being charged. I enjoy complaining about that, but that’s not a real reason to avoid electronic shifting. After all, I’ve also been on rides where mechanical shifters have had problems – for example, when cables have parted. My real objection to electronic shifting is the additional cost, without (as far as I can see) substantial additional benefit.
And I really have no interest in a carbon-fiber frame. I’ve been in discussion with someone who crashed on one, and who is considering having it sent for x-ray to see if there’s unseen damage that may cause one of those catastrophic failures to which I alluded earlier. I had a pretty bad crash in 2015 on the titanium bike. There’s a dimple in one side of the top tube that’s the only remnant of that mishap; I expect that the only reason I’ll have to get rid of this bike is when I’m physically unable to get a leg over it. I’ve worked on a number of other carbon-fiber frames: two of them have wear at the chainstays as if the tire had worn off the paint layer and was cutting into the plastic that holds the carbon fibers in place. Tapping with a coin does not show weakness on those frames, but I’ve not seen anything similar on metal frames. And I’ve seen what appears to be clearcoat and paint flaking off an older carbon frame. On a metal frame, this is just cosmetic damage. Are we sure that’s the case with carbon fiber?
When I bought my titanium frame, the seller said my grandchildren would ride it. He was unaware of my childless condition, but the case is still made.
It helps, too, that I like doing the bike mechanics. I don’t do that just to keep the bikes affordable (not with the amount of money I have invested in bike tools, truing stand, bike stand, various and sundry chemicals…), but it does mean I can do things for myself in order not to have to buy new much of the time.
I wrote a post some time ago about continuing to ride a bike you love. If you have beautiful bikes, and love to ride them… I hope you ride them forever and are very happy with them. If you love the latest-and-greatest gadgetry, or the stuff that the most successful pro’s use, and you have the financial wherewithal to support those habits (and let’s face it: among the people with whom I ride, many do!), then enjoy them.
But I think cycling should be available and enjoyable to people who are not wealthy (as I am not wealthy). My bikes and equipment will be affordable, based on my interest, abilities, and cashflow.
I hope there continues to be a place for them.
Edit 1/1/23: I just found (again) a post I wrote eleven years ago on more-or-less the same topic; at the time I called it "bicycle cheapskate".
I had initially thought to donate it to the New Brunswick Bike Exchange, but it's too nice. The shifters appear to be in fine working order. That saddle is a Selle Italia with titanium rails.
It needs some cleanup and TLC, but it's lovely. The tires need to be replaced, and I may not use the chain that came in the bag... but also included was a bottom bracket and a set of downtube cable stops.
I'm gonna wait until The Excellent Wife (TEW) sees this post... and then I might start looking for a frame to hang this stuff on. It's geared way too high for this old man (I'll never climb a hill on a 53x39, 11x23), but it might be just the thing for a slow, elegant, flat ride.
There is NO WAY I'm giving this up.
The more I look at this bike, the angrier I get.
The Excellent Wife (TEW) brought this home from work as a donation to the New Brunswick Bike Exchange. It was in the hatch of her Prius, with the front wheel removed, and I remember thinking, "This wheel is remarkably heavy...". When I removed the bike itself, it was ALSO remarkably heavy; heavy like a mild steel department-store bike. As I replaced the front wheel, I wondered why: after all, the frame was aluminum...
Let's start with the wheels:
See that deep-section, supposedly-aerodynamic rim? It's made of aluminum. Aero rims are made of carbon, because to make an aero rim of aluminum, so much material has to be used to make the shape stable and safe, that the supposed benefits of the aero shape are swamped by the huge weight gain due to the extra aluminum. This wheel appears to be pretending to be something it is not.
Wait, what's going on with that cabling? Is it possible that this bike was sent to the purchaser with the cables disconnected, in the expectation that they would have to do it? Apparently, yes; the donor said they knew they were in over their head. And anybody who knew anything about bikes would point out just what was wrong with this bike as they worked on it. Read on.
Wait; what's up with that awful front cabling? And why does the bar wrap stop so far out from the stem in the center?
Oh, I see. It's because the manufacturer has stuck shifters meant for flat bars on this drop-bar bike. There's no good hand position from which you can get to both the brakes and the shifters. And the shifters are right where you would want to put your hands when you're riding on the tops.
The frame welds are unobtrusive. Of course they are; they're not very good, but they don't have to be. There's no evidence that the aluminum tubes are butted or thin. In fact, given the weight of the bike, I'll bet the tubes are thicker than aluminum conduit, and could have been welded by a tyro in his first week of trade school.
But wait: what about all that fancy machining around the cap and the headset? Yeah, don't worry about that. It looks good now, but the machining isn't polished. It will oxidize to a dull grey as soon as the bike sees a little weather.
A quick web search shows that this bike is available for around $150-260 (why such a large range?). For that price, go get yourself something used that works better. This POS is a shonde.
So despite the impending visit of Henri, the storm (that's now supposed to come tomorrow), Laura OLPH led nine of us Freewheelers on a ride into the Sourlands. Shed built into the route a place where we could loop back, but when we got to the appointed spot in Ringoes. the weather predictions still said we could make it back before the rains arrived, so we did the whole fifty-one miles with about 2700' of climb.
But the ride was not without incident. As he was loading up his bike, Tom noted the rear tire was flat (at home, the valve had come shooting out when he removed the pump head after inflating it), so he needed to replace the tube.
The rest of us gathered and waited to start.
At the intersection of Mt Airy-Harbourtown & Rocktown-Lambertville, we had to wait for Tom. He complained that his wheel had gone out of true, and it became clear why; he'd broken a spoke. Here's some meatball mechanic trying to get the wheel to spin enough so he could get to a shop to have it seen to:
Many thanks to the excellent Martin Griff for these pics. (He's ten times the photographer I'll ever be, but I still hate the way I look.)
We got Tom fixed up enough for him to get back to Wheelfine to get the wheel repaired (it now sports a single silver-colored spoke), and from there he went home.
We went on to Sergeantsville. (Heddy B and I had an altercation with some bees in the driveway alongside the store, but we could not find a hive that they might have been protecting.)
Peter R was rockin' the excellent socks, above. I'm going back to my pictures-of-socks collection.
That, above, is Bob N's new Cannondale, which he got after discovering that his tire had been grinding at the chainstay and the carbon-and-epoxy matrix was much the worse for wear. The new bike had an annoying click, and after some really wild theories ("Maybe it's the internal brake fluid line tapping against the inside of the frame." I'm really proud of that one; I think I showed real imagination), now he thinks it's the saddle mount.
Freewheelers have bad luck with saddle mounts. Near the end, Laura found that her saddle was loose, and it turned out that one of the bolts on her two-bolt saddle post mount had worked out and disappeared, as had the threaded barrel it goes into. She limped home with the rest of us... and she ALSO went to Wheelfine, where Michael ginned up a solution for her, with sparks and Loctite.
I don't carry Loctite in my bag. Nor do I have an angle grinder.
But Heddy B gave me an idea for what to do after retirement (which is planned in 89 days, as I write this): maybe I'll do all the mechanical stuff on Freewheeler bikes that they can no longer count on their bike shops to do!
The Excellent Wife (TEW) and I took off this week; so went up to Buffalo to see my mother. Her memory's unreliable these days; she doesn't always remember that she's got a brother Jim AND a son Jim; while she usually remembers that I'm married, she hasn't remembered Regina's name in months; she keeps complaining that my sister is angry and won't call, despite the sister's daily phone contact.
My relationship with my parents was complicated, We went, I'll admit, because TEW felt sorry for my mother (more so than I felt). TEW brought an album from our wedding, and they had a happy time going through it.
We also dropped in on my sister and her husband (or, more properly, met them at dinner, along with my brother-in-law's brother and his wife, and another couple who are friends of theirs). We were invited to a birthday party for the other couple the next night. TEW couldn't think of a graceful way to get out, so we went... but that was weird. (On the other hand, they really were most welcoming.)
That was Saturday and Sunday. On Monday, we drove back home, stopped for a few minutes to swap bags (we had pre-packed separate bags for this part of the trip) and loaded up the bikes, and headed for Cape May.
We rode bikes every day, using a route adapted from Tom H's Road Biking NJ book. You can see the route I set up here, and our rides for Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. (We added miles - some not reported here - and shortened, as we needed).
TEW loves being at the water anywhere, and I like Cape May particularly; it attracts geezers (as opposed to the youngsters at Seaside or the families at Point Pleasant, although there are some of both), and I love the Victoriana; there's a Renaissance-fair feeling to it - not authentic, but fun, nonetheless.
WE stayed at an AirBNB.
We also walked through the Nature Conservancy bird sanctuary on Sunset Boulevard.
And, of course, we ate good seafood, and almost enough Ben & Jerry's. And I finally got some Cape May fudge. I'm glad I did, but I won't have to do that again.
Although it's probably the most popular start place for Princeton Freewheeler club rides (both for number of rides that start there, and number of riders... it appears some riders won't start from anywhere else), I can't remember the last time I went on a ride that left from Cranbury Village Park. But I didn't have another offer today, and there are people who ride from there I'd like to see, and I should meet some of the new people in the club.
So I signed up late to do Dave H's ride. I knew from chattin' with him that when his ride gets big, Jackie F takes the fast group off the front. I had a bad experience on one of Jeff Harmon's rides a couple years ago; his B-rated ride took off at a pace that was well out of range, and I just couldn't keep up, so I opted out of the fast group. I didn't want to have to do that today.
Dave had a crowd to start.
Above, Rick W's B+ fast boys. Below, Rick.
I like that one, above, of Eddie H. (We had a discussion about gear, clothing, and shifters on the ride. We're on opposite sides on the topic of the benefits of friction shifting. If you're going to have a disagreement with somebody, that's a good one, because it sure doesn't mean much.)
We rolled out on this route.
At Roy's (which now has toilets available! Yay!):
While we were there, new-member Chris complained that his rear wheel didn't look right... and I should say it didn't; he had two broken spokes, and it was way out of true, to the point he had a fairly substantial brake rub. He had been keeping up with us anyway. When he gets his wheel fixed, he's gonna be a monster.
We got his brake open so the wheel would turn freely, but still, it was clear he was hanging back because he didn't trust it (and I can relate to that; every time I've had to change a tube on a ride, I've been convinced that the new tube would also puncture... even though it hasn't happened to me in almost twenty years, and only rarely to anyone else I've been on a ride with in the intervening decades). The fast folks took off the front, and we lost sight of 'em (one of the frequent complaints about rides that leave from Cranbury Village Park, and part of the reason some members won't ride from there). But we in the back of the ride got to the park in good order.
Thanks for the lead, Dave, and good to see all the folks. I need to show up in Cranbury more frequently.
