ride with bob

No, not that "Ride with Bob."

Some of The Usual Suspects were in contact for a ride for yesterday, but I didn't go. I had a fever early in the morning of the previous day. The fever had passed, but I still had a headache at the time the arrangements were being made.

The next day I got up with no fever or headache and feeling great... but in these days, I decided to go for a COVID-19 test at a local doc-in-the-box. I didn't have to leave the car; the doctor took an exceptionally long probe, and inserted it an exceptionally long way up my nose... it was not the worst pain I've ever had, but I will be grateful for an excuse not to repeat the experience. I'll know in four or five days what the outcome was. (In view of the fact that I did almost 40 miles with 1600' of climb that day, and a longer and hillier one today, I suspect the result will be negative. Does that mean I'll need to have those nasal probes done again?)

Bob N couldn't do the Saturday ride either, so he asked if anybody was going out today. I was the only taker. We agreed to meet at the Six Mile/Blackwells Mills lot. When I got there, the lot entrance looked like this:

I guess they're serious about not wantin' people to park there.

Bob had a route of about 40 miles that had a bit more climb in it than I'd done the previous day. He's been along on a number of my rides, and lives in the area my rides go, and wanted to show me a few things, like where a road is due to go in that will make it easier to get to that Thomas Sweet I like to stop at. We cut across the lawn of the Montgomery Lower Middle School:

(Bob said it was about twenty yards; I think it was longer), where we found another of those town paths.

This one has one of those relative-distances-of-the-planets setups (not the relative sizes, though, as far as I could see; I suspect they'd be too small at this scale).

EVERYBODY was out today. We stopped in front of the closed Sourlands Cycles store for a quick snack, and waved to a number of riders who passed; we went up Greenwood to Rileyville Road, pulled off to find a quiet place to relieve ourselves, and were surprised to see a convention of visitors parked there; we rode for miles on Wertsville Road waving to everyone else riding for miles on Wertsville Road.

In 2015, I had a bad crash on Amwell Road (also see this, and this). I've avoided riding on Amwell since then (I don't even drive on it much). But Bob just led away onto Amwell Road... and I did fine. I owe him for a desensitization session.

From Amwell, we turned onto a cutoff that was never completed. It's a shame it doesn't go anywhere I want to go, because it looks like this:

... and Bob tells me there's rarely traffic on it. But it did get us much of the way back to Six Mile Run.

Once there, Bob was going to make it an 80-mile day, but with yesterday's ride (and climb) and this one, I decided I'd had enough, and went home to finish the chores and continue to practice for retirement. I hope to get good at it.

new gevenalle controls. nice.

I've had my eye on the shifting/braking system from Gevenalle for years (at least two), and, having finally gotten fed up with the shifting problems I've had with my SRAM Rival setup since my accident in 2015, I grimaced, swallowed hard, and clicked the “submit” button on my order for the group. The parts came a couple of weeks ago, and I set 'em up on the Yellow Maserati over the past few days (sheesh, I was in no shape to RIDE anywhere after that benighted century with the Hill Slugs).

I haven't done any long rides with 'em yet, just neighborhood test rides, but early indications are: I like 'em.

You'll see in the picture below: the handlebar controls are basically the levers from downtube or bar-end shifters mounted outboard of the brake levers (as opposed to the shifting levers being inside the brake levers on virtually every other brifter system, including Campagnolo, Microshift, Shimano, and SRAM). The brake levers are from Tektro (the branding is still on the hoods), and I suspect the levers are Shimano, re-branded with the Gevenalle name.

(That is NOT my bike. No camo-tape for me...)

The set is marketed for cyclocross. It's hard to shift from the drops (the lower part of a drop handlebar), but I'm led to understand there's little of that in 'cross racing. And, since there's a LOT of mud and abuse in 'cross racing, they're built with durability in mind. (In fact, the associated derailleurs are labeled BURD: Blatantly Upgraded/Re-branded Derailleurs, and they're beefed-up versions of, I think, Microshift derailleurs: the chain cage on the front derailleur, for example, is steel rather than aluminum.)

 What do I like?

• They're REALLY easy to work with. The derailleurs came with one instruction sheet that had the front installation instructions on one side, and the rear on the other. The controls came with no instructions at all, and even with my limited experience, I found I didn't need 'em.
• Everything is out in the open (more about this later). I had to adjust the angle of my handlebar, which meant I needed to change the front brake housing, and I could do that with minimal disassembly.
• Because the shift levers are outboard of the brake levers, there's some forgiveness in the brake adjustment. SRAM, for example, allows you to move the brake lever back a bit for riders with smaller hands. But with the shifter lever back there, the possibility exists of the shift lever hitting the handlebar before the brake engages. It's just not a problem with this setup. (Also, the Tektro levers engage with much less travel than my SRAM setup did.)
• It's easy to shift multiple gears at a time. On a recent covered bridge ride, I noticed that the covered bridges always seem to be at the bottom of a downhill, followed quickly by an uphill (well, it's a BRIDGE, dumbass; it's over a creek or something, and you don't find those at the TOP of the hill!). So go through the bridge, and downshift like crazy. Piece of cake on these guys.
• It may just be a factor of how new these guys are, but there aren't multiple levels of systems. All four of the manufacturers I mentioned in the third paragraph have “entry level”, “mid level”, and “high end” systems. Gevenalle has one system. And I got it, through a retailer, for less than $325.
• Front derailleur is friction shift; rear is friction/index selectable (you need a 4mm hex wrench to change). The indexed rear shifting, once set up, is as crisp as a new potato chip. Yummy.
• Because the rear is friction/index selectable, if I went crazy and wanted to run a nine-speed gearset on the rear (for example, if a ride were coming up and my normal ten-speed wheel was out-of-service), I could. I doubt I would, but flexibility is always a plus with me.
• I'll BET that, if I wanted to, that I could remove the levers and replace 'em. If the day came when my ten-speed cassette was no longer available, and only eleven-speeds were, I'll bet I could just change the lever and go.

One more thing I like: With the onset of the integrated brake/shift controls (I referred to 'em as “brifters” above), there's been a bit of a “black box” thing about bike controls; you really don't know what's going on in there. That's compounded by the electronic shifting systems. This setup is the complete opposite of that. Every part of this system is visible and easy to understand. You could show it to Leonardo da Vinci, and he'd say, “Oh, wow! Cool! Sure, I get it!” (or whatever the equivalent would be in Renaissance Italian).

What you won't like:

• Nobody else has 'em. (This is actually another reason I DO like 'em; I like bike-y weirdness.)
• No racers you've ever heard of use 'em.
• The shift cables are exposed, not “aero” under the tape, like most other systems.

Nonetheless, for a guy like me (old enough to collect Social Security, goes in for social riding rather than fast, does most of his own maintenance), they're just the ticket.

glad-i-did-it dumb century

Early last week, Laura OLPH sent around an email indicating she was considering a ride to Belmar for Saturday May 20... which, if she rides from home, is a century ride (100 miles). Now, I don't like to do centuries; my ideal long-distance ride is between 70 and 80 miles... but every now and then I like to do a 100-mile day, if for no other reason than to remember why don't like to do 100-mile days.

Besides, every now and then, a guy has to do something stupid and painful, just to remind himself that he's still alive.

Laura put in that she'd stop at Mercer East (for people who wanted a total of 86 miles) and at Etra (total: 69-or-so miles), but I was in for the whole thing. It would be the last ride on that SRAM shifter setup that hasn't worked right since the crash (I'd decided to rebuild with the Gevenalle setup).

So, despite lowering skies, I showed up at Laura's at something-to-eight and we departed for Mercer Park. There's a hill over the railroad on the way there; I had trepidations about doing it on the way back with 100 miles of tiredness in my legs (Laura reminded me that there's a longer hill closer to her home, and she's right). I could not get the GPS to go right, and neither could Laura get hers (I later found I'd downloaded the wrong file format; Laura's problems, OTOH, appear to arise from sheer cussedness on the part of her device).

We got to Mercer park to find the lot taken over by some organized footrace, and no riders. We proceeded to Etra, where we found Jack H, who'd ridden there after parking among the racers at Mercer Park, and Ricky G, who'd ridden from home, and who'd wind up doing his own first century (and looking pretty damn good at it; he made it look effortless). Off we went to Belmar, following Laura's uncooperative GPS, her cue sheet, and her faulty memory, into a headwind pretty much all the way (unusual; the prevailing wind is usually from the west-ish, but we had a northeast wind all day).

The wind was supposed to peak at about 11am. That was just about the time we got to the Manasquan reservoir,  with the wide-openness so we could really feel the wind.

I've been itching to use this next sentence since it happened yesterday: The rain started shortly after we recovered our route from getting lost the first time. Now, it really wasn't bad: we went only a few yards on the wrong road, and the rain was light and brief... but it really was too good of a story not to make something of it. (We did get lost again, and recovered; I think it was the playfulness of the ride gods who decided not to make us face a bridge out this time.)

We'd stopped at about 30 miles (for Laura and me). We got to the shore south of Belmar, and as we rode up, we came across riders on a local City-To-Shore MS ride; they turned off before we got to The Usual Belmar Stop.

Glorious day, wasn't it?

The usual stop:

The girls who came out and got on the bikes in the picture above didn't look like they were going 100 miles. They looked like they had better things to do.

Back we came, heading for the Dunkin Donuts in West Freehold. Laura says the worst part of a century ride is the part between 50 and 75 miles, and she's right. This was a slog; I was grateful at the break to download a few empty calories.

Then back. We didn't stop at Etra; Ricky had ridden in from home, and just broke off to finish his way. Just before Mercer East, where Jack was parked, he went ahead, Laura and I went down to the main park road, where (she pointed out) we were able to enjoy a tailwind on the way home (probably a first for me).

Remember that hill over the railroad? I was right; it was awful. But Laura's hill, close to her house, was pretty bad too; I was tired like only a 100-mile ride gets me tired. At the end, I said my goodbyes and got in the car to come home.

Y'wanna see how we did?

I was done... and I AM done; I don't think I'll do more 100-milers. Hence, I think I'll try to stick to no more than 80+mile days. (The pedant will say that, technically, 100 miles does fit the category of 80+ miles. To which I say: piffle.)

new rear wheel, quick ride

So I had a rear hub from a wheel build that didn't work out the way I'd hoped. And, although I always use butted spokes (usually Sapim Race; get 'em at that link and Brandon will definitely hook you up), I know Michael Johnson, award-winning wheelbuilder at Wheelfine Imports, says that straight-gauge spokes are his preference. I decided to build a wheel with straight-gauge spokes to see if I could tell the difference.

Oy. What a time I had with this build. First of all, the rim delivered was black, but I like silver (scratch a black rim, and the metal underneath shows through; scratch silver and it shows silver). Then, when I laced it up, I made every mistake in the book. Then the nipples that came with the order were aluminum alloy rather than plated brass; the aluminum is lighter, but more brittle.

The brittleness of the nipples became a problem, see, because I didn't measure the rim myself, but depended on the advertised measurement. Now, every time I've measured a rim, I've come up with a smaller diameter than the advertised diameter. Sure enough, when I started to build the wheel with the spoke sizes I got using the WheelPro spoke calculator, the drive-side spokes were far too long (there had been something smoky about the results, anyway); enough so that I began breaking nipples trying to tighten them up. I actually had to cut a couple of spokes out using bolt cutters.

So I ordered the shorter drive-side spokes and brass nipples, and wouldn't you know, the wheel built up just the way it was supposed to do. I put on a cassette (almost forgetting to include a spacer that comes with the cassette; I tell you, these wheels are hexed), and put 'em on the Yellow Maserati.

I took it out for a quick ride today (quick, because I didn't have much time before the sun went down, and quick because I averaged 18.4mph over the 14 miles), and I don't think I can tell the difference between these spokes and butted spokes. I probably don't have the power in my legs.

But I think I have a new project. I resuscitated the front hub from the wheel that died in my crash. I've never built a wheel with bladed spokes. It's a front with rim-braking, so the spokes will be the same on both sides. I doubt I'll see any improvement with the bladed spokes, but I'll have the experience of working with 'em. (You'll probably be able to hear the swearing in Burlington County.)

Hope youse have a good week. Check in and let me know how youse are doing.

secretary of state kerry breaks leg in crash

AP story reported on KOMO news:

GENEVA (AP) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry broke his leg in bike crash Sunday, apparently after hitting a curb, and scrapped the rest of a four-nation trip that included an international conference on combating the Islamic State group.

Kerry was in stable condition and in good spirits as he prepared to return to Boston for further treatment with the doctor who previously operated on his hip, U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby said. He said X-rays at a Swiss hospital confirmed that Kerry fractured his right femur.

See? Could happen to any of us.

getting better

Almost a month after my crash (I can't bring myself to call it an accident), I wrote that I couldn't do pushups, which are (were?) part of my morning exercise routine. The pain from the injury to my wrists and hands, (from putting my arms out to break my fall) made them impossible.

Well, at this point, if I use a folded towel as a pad, I can do some pushups. But with six weeks of pushup idleness, I could only do about 3/4 of my prior number earlier this week, and, even now, I'm only up to about 7/8 of what used to be my regular total. The saying goes, "If you don't use it, you lose it." I had no idea that it went that quickly.

(I wouldn't mind losing these couple-of-pounds I've put on over the past few months, either.)

damp, thoughtful century

Laura OLPH had planned to do a ride Sunday, and emailed a few of us about doing a ride to Belmar - either 100 miles from near her place, or about 85 miles from Mercer Park, or about 67 miles from Etra Park. But Sunday is Mother's Day, and it's also the day that The Excellent Wife (TEW) and I get together with The Excellent In-Laws to celebrate my birthday (earlier this month) and my brother-in-law's birthday (the next day; for one day each year we are the same age). Others, of course, had similar commitments, so Laura decided to move her ride from tomorrow to today.

Well, of course I was in for that, especially to prove that I could do it after my crash a few weeks ago. Every now and then, I feel the need to do a 100-mile ride, partly to prove I have it in me, and partly to remind myself that my real favorite distance to ride is about 60-65 miles. The day was predicted cloudy, with only 20% chance of rain (if there were a soundtrack to this blog, music of impending doom would be playing now).

Snakehead Ed and I met Laura at the start. Snakehead's pur 700x28 tires on his road bike; there is BARELY enough clearance for them; the picture below doesn't do justice to the closeness:

The tire rubs on the drive-side chainstay.  We had a discussion about possible fixes; I think the best is to tighten the non-drive-side spokes about a half a jottle, but Ed's reluctant to take a spoke wrench to the wheel.

So we left the start and headed to Mercer Park, at which we picked up Marco:

... and then to Etra, where Jeff X was waiting.

We took off into the fog, which became a mist... and before long, the rain that wasn't predicted was falling. I did fine until the first stop, in (I guess) Jackson:

Even (or perhaps especially) in the grey light, the colors on Laura's bike, Kermit, were poppin'.

But when we started up again after the stop, I was chilled and could not get warm; I kept my gearing down and my cadence up all the way to Belmar to get some body heat going. Ed and I shared a cheese steak sandwich, which was a risk: I was half afraid it would return for another appearance... but I was a bit warmer after the stop.

The obligatory all-of-the-bikes shot:

On the way back, Laura and I got to talking about somebody with whom we've both had disagreements; I thought he'd trolled one of our blogs, but he's been a lot of help to people since, and, although I still find him hard to take, I must admit he's not been as troublesome. I've had to think about how I deal with people like that - for example, at what point is my avoiding that person appropriate, and when does it become self-serving and cranky. (One of the advantages of a long ride like this is that it's good for time and focus for such meditations.)

And then about mile 67 or so, I got a flat. Through my rain-covered glasses,, I couldn't see it at first, but Laura caught the sound, and soon it was unmistakeable. Where I stopped, there was some poison ivy. I was grateful to the rest of the ride, especially Marco, who helped me avoid the poison ivy and change the tire. I had two bad bouts with poison ivy by the time I was 26 or so, and I'd rather not repeat the pleasure.

Later, Jeff passed me going up a hill as if I were stopped. He'd been an olympic hopeful, and is stronger and faster than I; I started to chase, but finally decided not to. I'm not good at this, but TEW helps to remind me that there are always going to be people who are faster than I, and they won't always be younger.

We kept going. We went by Etra, to drop off Jeff, and then by Mercer Park, before which Marco went off. And then I started feeling shaky. I'd been eating and drinking at the stops, but it felt like a sugar drop; I had the tremor that I associate wit that (although I almost always have some level of benign essential tremor these days). I had the last of a bag of maple jelly beans, which I had gotten from Cheryl M because they were too sweet for her. I have the sweet tooth of a four-year-old; I tried to eat 'em while I was riding, but I just couldn't. I found a stretch of road where I would be visible, pulled over, and finished 'em off. By the time Laura and Ed came back to me, I was ready to go.

There's some dispute about the results. My Garmin showed 101.6 miles, but Laura had about 104. Also, my average in the device, at 15.7, was almost a mile per hour lower than hers. As an experiment, I uploaded my results to both the Garmin site and to RideWithGPS. As you can see, the average on RideWithGPS corresponds with Laura's... but (as is often the case with that site) the elevation data is much higher than the Garmin site (I've heard that complaint from other riders). I've decided I'm going with the speed from the RideWithGPS site (since it's similar to Laura's), and the elevation on the Garmin site.

And for tomorrow, I'll be cleaning the road grime off my bike, my glasses, my bottles...

not me

Although there is a certain resonance, the guy in the background of this .gif is not me.

He's far too young, for one thing.

From today's Oddman.

still no pushups

In other news, I still wasn't able to do pushups this morning, as a result of my crash.

This is already old.

2015 princeton freewheelers spring fling

The Excellent Wife (TEW) and I decided that, for my first real ride after my crash, we'd go to the Princeton Freewheeler bike club Spring Fling and do a ride together. She had thought to do the C ride, but found it was to be a towpath ride instead of a road ride, and didn't think she wanted to try to keep a C pace on the towpath on a less-than-ideal hybrid (and she was right to think so; a report from a person who had done part of that ride confirmed her suspicion about the pace). So we decided to do the D+ ride to be led by Max F.

The spring fling is an all-paces-ride event, so we get to see people whom we seldom see, or seldom see together, so I made a point of getting pictures; I'll post a few here, but you'll really want to see my 2015 Spring Fling Album to get all of them. (Even that won't be all; I edited out the ones with the worst yawning-faces and whatnot.)

We started off with five: Max, TEW and I, and Donna and Kathy. We went up the Canal Road from the Kingston Masonic Lodge where the event started, but we were only a few miles along when Max noticed that his rear derailleur was stuck on the big gear. It seemed to be a problem in the shifter, which I could not fix on the road (or maybe at all). We were at a stop, and Max decided to ride ahead; we could catch up. We turned the curve where Suydam connects with Canal, and saw Max fall over. I didn't see any injury and Max didn't complain of any, but he decided to go back and gave the list to me to lead the rest of the ride. Shortly thereafter, Kathy remembers she'd left her lock under Max's car, and went to find him.

TEW, Donna, and I continued. We went up Canal, into Millstone, and over to Colonial Park, then (because this was NOW a Plain Jim ride), we went back by exactly the same route we'd gone up. When we got back, we saw Kathy, who said Max was OK, but he'd left (probably to take his bike to be serviced).

So TEW and I sat down to lunch and saw some old friends, and met some new people. I was sorry to see some folks (Joe M, John P) not riding. But we had a good lunch... and when the awards were to be given out, I was all for sneaking away, but TEW bade me stay. It turned out I won an award for leading the most D rides for 2014 (which only proved that there weren't many!

Some pics below as a teaser...

... but check out the rest on the 2015 Spring Fling Album.

new brunswick ciclovia april 2015

Yesterday was the first of three 2015 Ciclovia days in New Brunswick, at which the cisty closes a route of several streest to cars, so that they can be used for bikes, skating, and who knows what. As for the past several, I went with tools to assist at a bike maintenance and repair station for the New Brunswick Bike Exchange, a project of PRAB. PRAB supports us partly by allowing us to use their van to transport stuff to the site (at the Ciclovia, the streets are closed, and I'd never get those stands and pumps in on my bike!).

PRAB also set up a site at the Ciclovia, and PRAB staffer Cuqui runs an all-day party, with music, toy giveaways, and who knows what else; they were on the other side of the van (with the speakers pointing away; still, sometimes conversation was difficult!).

WE probably attended to well over 100 bikes over the course of the day. Many, of course, just need tires inflated, but some need tubes changed; many needed simple adjustments, but I was able to fix several broken or missing brakes, and even was able to cut and re-route a brake cable on one youngster's BMX. They're mostly "toy-store bikes", with components that don't match well (and some of them have never been adjusted), and my contention is that if I can get those things to go, working on higher-end bikes, where the standards all match, is a piece of cake.

I rode in from home. Below is the new Krakow Monster, loaded up with a tool box and a blue bag I wear on my back (those are my morning bagels in the brown bag):

Below, Cuqui, settin' up to rock the neighborhood.

Wen Shu, below, was a volunteer from Rutgers. He was marvelously helpful; I'm still recovering from my crash, and he was great about helping to get bikes on the stands, bending to fill tires, and stuff. It wasn't glamorous work, and he did it in good humor.

Fellow volunteers Dan Brooks, left, and Thomas Hillman, rear, with Wen Shu. I haven't seen these guys in a while.

Customers!

The young women in the green vests were high-school students who were also volunteers. They were great, especially with the little kids.

Below, Annie, in the pink sweatshirt, came along with Thomas. I didn't get to talk to her much.

It's a tiring day, but I love to do it. The folks are always so grateful (except when they're not!), and I get to play with bikes for a day. I'm starting to get good at it, too; I may have to go pro!

on bicycles and friends

After my crash, as word got around to people with whom I ride, I got many wishes for speedy recovery, messages of support, and signs of sympathy. I was touched by the depth of feeling in many of them, and more than a little surprised by seeing who sent them. It appears more people have been concerned about me than I thought.

I know, though, that if I disappear from these people's lives -- for example, if I never get on a bike again, if I never see them on rides or at shared activities -- I will fade from their consciousness. I may not disappear entirely, but I won't have the presence that I do now. And as new riders come around whom I have not met, Plain Jim won't be part of the memory that all of these people share together.

It's not incumbent on others to remember me, or to reach out and be friends with me. Nor, do I think, is it my place to artificially insert myself into situations where I would not naturally be: for example, if I could no longer ride for some reason, it would be wrong for me to continue to show up at ride starts and PFW occasions to see people with whom I used to ride.

I would, of course, still like to see these people; one of the reasons I ride is to satisfy social needs. I choose to ride with the people with whom I ride because I like them, and because we go at a pace at which we can converse. (If you go back over past "Member Focus" articles in the PFW newsletter, you'll see that a number of them have tried rides at a faster pace than they liked, and have gone back to slower-paced rides for reasons similar to the ones I mentioned. And the chosen pace depends on the individual rider; there does not seem to be a pace where there is a cutoff: "Below this pace, chat; at this pace or faster, shut up and pedal".)

I'm going to look for ways to be in contact with my riding friends when I can't ride. I expect I'll be on the bike again in a month or less. But if I have another crash, or (perhaps) over another wet and snowy winter, I may suggest meeting for non-bike activities. If you have bike-y friends with whom you want to stay in touch, you may want to think about this, too.

(It's not enough to do this blog, or to email. There is some evidence that people benefit from in-person contact in a way that they don't from simple texts or email [those articles is not the one I was looking for, but they are the best I could find as I'm writing this].)

So, I hope to see you around... whether I'm riding or walking.

dratted luck

In other news, upon further investigation, I find that the front brake on the Yellow Maserati was bent in the crash. I've got a replacement on order.

The front rim was bent, of course, so I got a new one. During a bout of insomnia last night, I disassembled the bent wheel, and discovered the hub has a grind, and I can't open the hub to get to the bearings. So a new hub (and spokes, since the new hub is a different size from the old) is also on order. I had hoped to spend part of this weekend building a new wheel, but no such luck; instead, it's back to waiting for package delivery again.

New helmet, new tights, new outer jersey, new brake, new hub and rim. And I might need a new left control.

If I do, I might go with these from Gevenalle:

Gevenalle CX and Shimano STI comparison. from Gevenalle on Vimeo.


I like the fact that you can shift multiple gears at a time in either direction... and I like the bike-y weirdness of it. Plus, the whole group is under $325.

But I still can't do pushups yet, and I needed help getting the bikes onto the stands at the class I'm teaching at the New Brunswick Bike Exchange. I'm feeling old and weak. (We had to turn away two at the class last night; it was oversubscribed. If the current crop of students likes it, I'll do it again; I'll let youse know.)