star-spangled sourlands ride

After a night of not much sleep (got up before 3am when it was clear that I was just getting more and more irritated about not being able to sleep), I went out today with eight others on Cheryl M's Star-Spangled Sourlands Ride. We were a group of varying abilities (and attitudes), and Cheryl threatened 50 miles with about 3000 feet of climb, but said that we'd have an opportunity to cut it to about 40 miles if we chose. There was a debate about whether we woudl go with the majority choice, or whether a minority with a pressing inability to complete the full ride might carry the day...

... so off we went. We went up Poor Farm ( a hill of some reputation) and turned onto Harbouton-Woodsville Road, with a terrible road surface; the places where the new surface had not stuck at all were actually a relief, and I, for one, rode the brakes on all the downhills on that road. I was glad to get off it when we turned*. Most of the roads after that had better surfaces (including Pennington-Rocky Hill, at the end, which I remember as up until a few weeks ago having a two-foot-wide rough spot for miles; it's newly-done now, though). Harbourton-Woodsville was also closed on the other side of 579, but the 20-feet-or-so of missing pavement, and the not-quite-waist-high barrier fence didn't keep us from getting through.

Humid day, and got hot later (although it was a visually beautiful ride). Some were saying the humidity was lower later in the day, but it didn't feel that way to me, perhaps because I was tired. Along the way, another rider appeared to have gotten something into his eye, which he couldn't get out. I stopped with him for a while, and when he was ready to go, the rest of our number were not to be found; we didn't catch them until the rest stop at Sergeantsville.

Also at Sergeantsville were perhaps a dozen-or-so riders training for the Anchor House ride, including Glen, who's come out with the Hill Slugs. I got the impression it was to be his first Anchor House ride, and I suggested he meet people and connect, which I did not do on my first one last summer. That lack, I think, made the experience less fun than it might have been.

Shortly after mile 30, Cheryl called for the delegation to consider the case of the shorter or longer ride, and we opted for the longer. It turned out we were mostly in better shape for the long ride than we had feared (although that one rider did have another eye problem later), and it turned out that the route was more like 45 miles than 50 -- but I didn't hear any complaints; I think we were ready to see the starting point when we got there. When we did, Cheryl brought out water which she'd left on ice in her care... and watermelon pieces! What a treat! I ate more watermelon than I have eaten any kind of fruit in years; Cheryl, my hat is off to you - watermelon was just the thing today!

Here's hoping for a better sleep tonight than I had. I'm hoping ot go on a ride tomorrow where I can push the pace a bit and show off what I can do. That way, I'll be in the mood to sweep at the All-Paces ride on Monday, if I'm called to do that.

*I seem to remember being told that the poor condition of Harbouton-Woodsville Road was due to the newly-placed surface being washed away during Hurricane Irene last summer, but some in the group thought the problem was newer than that.

wrench your bike

I think you should wrench on your bike.

I don't think you need to rebuild it, or work on touchy settings like derailleur limit screws (unless you think you're up to that). In fact, you may not want to work on it at all.

(I DO want to work on it. I built the Yellow Maserati from parts, I upgrade parts from time to time, I do all my own maintenance [except when I can't, like when the Anchor House ride demanded a mechanic's statement], and I break it down to parts once a year, and lube and rebuild everything. But nobody has to go that far; I imagine few people with whom I ride do anything like that much.)

I'm no engineer; I have a liberal arts degree from a college-seminary that's out of business, and a Masters Degree in Counseling. I shouldn't know which end of a wrench is the handle. But it's my contention that if you can learn to cook for yourself, or wire up your own entertainment center, you can wrench on your bike.

Back when most frames were metal, I would have said that removing and replacing your seat tube was the most basic exercise. But in these days of carbon frames, bolt torques (how tight to twist the wrench) are unforgiving. Nonetheless. this is still a good exercise for a newbie wrench, if you've got a metal frame & seatpost:

• Wrap masking tape (or any kind of tape you have that you'll be able to remove later) around your seatpost just above where it goes into the seat tube on the frame; this way you'll know the height later.
• Loosen the bolt that holds the seatpost in. It's probably an Allen bolt, one with a hexagonal hole in the top into which a hexagonal wrench is inserted. It's usually an M5 (5mm) Allen wrench, and there's sure to be one on that multi-tool you almost certainly got as part of the "new rider package" that went along with your first bike (you know: the one with the pump, the ugly jersey, and the water bottle from the bike shop).
• Pull out the seatpost, with the saddle attached (the saddle adjustment is touchy; frequently it adjusts in all three dimensions on a single bolt from underneath - often also an M5 bolt. Don't mess with that bolt for now. Unless you want to.). The seatpost will probably have a thin layer of grease or other slithery compound on it. If it doesn't (and you have a metal frame and seatpost), your bike builder didn't love you; find a new one.  (If you have a carbon frame, or a carbon seatpost, or both, the tube may even have a layer of sticky something-or-other on it. Carbon fiber needs help that mere tighten-the-bolt physics can't supply without risking cracking the matrix - the plastic-y stuff that the carbon fibers are held in.)
• If you have a metal frame/metal seatpost, you can replace the grease on the seatpost (if there wasn't any, put some on; even some hand cream will work in a pinch).
• Put the seatpost back in the seat tube of the frame. Hold it at the level of the tape you put on before, and make sure the saddle is straight towards the handlebars (unless you know that you like it adjusted to one side or the other; I like 4° left). Tighten up the bolt.

There. You've just done some wrenching on your bike. You can do a lot of good work with not much more than that multi-tool and a pair of pliers.

A quick word on the direction of tightening bolts: Almost everywhere on Earth, the rule for tightening a bolt is "righty tighty, left loosey"; twist to the right to tighten, to the left to loosen. Two caveats:

• If you're reaching around the bottom of something, so you can't see the bolt, and it's facing up and in towards you... which way do you turn it? In this instance, I like to use a different rule: Clockwise brings the nut or bolt away from you. It may be tighter or looser: it doesn't matter. For most wrenches, clockwise = away...
• ...except for a small number of specialty items: old fittings on gas grills used to be one (now largely replaced). But two of the specialty items are on your bike. One is the left pedal, where it goes into the crank - that thread is backwards, so turning the wrench clockwise loosens the pedal. For both pedals, the rule is: Loosen towards the BACK of the bike.
• The other specialty item on your bike is the bottom bracket, to which the cranks are attached. In this case, usually, the RIGHT (drive) side is backwards-threaded, except when it's not. So, most of the time, the rule for the bottom bracket is: Loosen towards the FRONT of the bike.

But don't worry about that until you're ready to change your pedals or cranks.

Dave C forwarded this to me. No, it's not a car...



... it's a quad-cycle, for side-by-side pedalers. See the article from Gizmag.

I think it's also a sign that you have too much money (like we used to say about cocaine).

i want a project

I want a bike-related project. I'm thinking of wrapping the bars with white cork tape, then wrapping the ends with twine, and shellacking the whole thing, like some restorers of older bikes do (see this page from Rivendell Bikes, or the pictures on this page).

Or this guy, who mixes bike maintenance with cocktails. Not a good choice for me, but I can see where it would have its attractions:



But I'm not sold on that. The problem is that the Yellow Maserati is about where I want it, mechanically, so anything I'd do would be cosmetic... and I just did the cables in October, so re-doing the whole handlebar (like with the Velo Orange Grand Cru Course Bar) would be a bit of a waste, until the fall.

Any ideas?

one thing i don't like about sweeping on group rides

... is that some riders think I'm riding in the back because I can't do any better.

Another thing is that most of the folks I sweep aren't exactly thrilled to see me, probably because my presence is a reminder that they're at the back of the group.

So it goes. I don't sweep rides for the sake of the other riders, anyway; I do it for myself - to quiet my own demons. But hearing the folks who were riding off the front apologizing for pushing the pace on me, when I could easily have kept up with 'em, does rankle. Some.

bicycle weekend stuff

Almost 110 miles this weekend! And I am, as one of my Brit-born co-riders would put it, knackered.

Saturday, Laura OLPH celebrated her birthday with a 50 48 44 43-mile ride on the flats, starting from her house and headin' mostly west. Prior to the ride, she had coffee and bagels (and if I'd known, I would have gotten there earlier and made more of a pre-ride pig of myself than I did... although my weight's been creepin' up, and I'm going to have to adjust my food plan again). Sixteen of us; most planned to stay for the post-ride birthday cookout. We sixteen were a motley crew who have never all ridden together, and there was a bit of disorder and a variety of riding styles, which caused some consternation, but it appeared that we were all on speakin' terms again by the time we were packing up the bikes and either heading home or heading for the appetizers.

We learned on the ride that the DOT website does not have up-to-the-minute info on Turnpike crossing closings. We tried to cross at Perrineville road, and passed at least two "Road Closed" signs, but, since it wasn't on the website as closed (and since we can cross on bikes places where the cars might not go), we soldiered on in the hope that we'd get over. But the crossing looked constructed upon, and when John D went up to investigate, he came back saying, "Two words... Evel Knievel." So we went back around and crossed the Turnpike on Old York Rd (and weren't we a big crowd to be rippin' down Old York on bicycles!). Then the long way to Woody's in Allentown for a break... but there was so much good stuff waitin' back at Laura's that I wasn't really interested in Woody's.

So back to Laura's by about the quickest way (and crossing Route 1 at Franklin Corner is only slightly terrifying; much less so than most of the crossing further up), where a few of the riders went right home, and missed great food, loud & silly talk, and a friendly end to a great ride on a pretty day.

Sunday, Joe M took us on a ride from Hightstown to Belmar. Another pretty day. A bit of a headwind on the way out to let us know we were earning our way! My first ride to Belmar was a century with Don S, so I was surprised to discover how short the direct ride was. The same eleven finished that started, although the group split toward the end, with two of the faster riders going off the front (I stayed among the riders in the cheap seats to make sure there waere no crises). The route back was different from the route out; I thought I might recognize some of the roads on the way back, and was mildly concerned when I didn't (is my road-dyslexia really that bad?), so I was glad to see on the map that we didn't go back the same way.

Belmar appears to be one of the less "Jersey Shore" destinations on the Jersey Shore (not as strong in the flavor as Seaside Heights, although moreso that Point Pleasant, IMHO), but there was enough of the shore theater to make it worth the stop: colorful motorcycles and their (possibly more colorful) riders; beachgoers showing perhaps more skin that the coolish beach day would suggest; young folks trying to look bored and uninterested while at the same time trying to see who noticed them; and bicycles and riders: the eleven of us in lycra, as well as beach cruisers, BMXers, mountain bikes, hybrids, and the wonderful motley mixes that seem to spring fully-fashioned, rust and all, out of the backyards of shore houses.

66 miles. That made it a 109-mile weekend for me; a lot of riding for this early in the season. It made getting on the rowing machine this morning feel like stepping into an iron maiden. Oh, well. Back to work today. Rain is expected all week; I'm glad I got the rides in that I did this weekend.

tax-the-rich video that TED suppresses - or not

This is a video that either was or was not suppressed by the famous TED talks



I found it on Disinfo.Com. And I seem to remember that Jennings had some thoughts on taxing the rich, too.

to the bat-cycle

The Bat-Cycle!

My favorite part is that the so-called "b-tch seat" looks like it's actually been used.

From Oddman.Ca, of course.

other opinions on the el capitain ride

They're worthy of a separate post. Go check out Laura "OLPH's" ride report and Tom Hammell's epic retelling of the Saturday, ridiculously hilly, who-would-ever-want-to-do-this El Capitan ride.

mother's day ride

The Excellent Wife (TEW) has been riding a bit, so we agreed to do one together this morning before heading off to the in-laws for Mother's Day. I dusted off the city bike (slide down to the bottom of the post to see it), got out the mirror and the helmet, and otherwise went in my civilian clothes; TEW was in bike garb, which she finds more comfortable than civvies (and apparently not silly enough to avoid!). We did almost 14 miles in a bit over an hour, at a pace that she set, stopping when she wanted to. The most important thing, for me, about this ride, was that she appeared to have fun, and makes noises like she wants to do it again; one of my pet fears was that I'd allow my inner pain-in-the-@&& ride coach to come out and scare her off biking with me forever. And that ride was just about as much as I wanted to do today after beatin' myself up on the "El Capitain" yesterday.

On the way back, she was struggling up a hill; we talked about shifting down to an easier gear, and she tried it. Her chain fell off the inner chainring, and, although we got it back on, it was clear her bike needed some adjustment. She thinks she brought the bike back to the shop for the initial set-in adjustment; if she did, I'm not impressed: the front-derailleur low-gear limit screw was way off, as was the height and orientation of the front derailleur and the rear derailleur tension (it would not shift onto the granny gear at all). It's working now, after some attention with two pliers, a screwdriver, a #5 Allen wrench, and a hammer (don't ask).

After that, we called my mother, who apparently is fitting in at the senior residence to which she's moved; she's found some friends and is getting the gossip on who's who and what's what, and she's turned down the volume on the nagging that we come up and visit. Soon, we'll be off to the in-laws for turkey (and who else do you know who roasts a turkey in May? God bless my mother-in-law) and discussion about the absent relatives, and food to take home for a few days. Here's hoping for decent weather on Wednesday so I can ride with the Old Guys.

Life, as I seem to remember saying before, is good.

el capitain ride with tom h

From Tom's initial blog post about this ride:

Every time I talk to Chris about hills he tells me if you want to do some real hills you have to do my El Camino ride. I hear this for years so to try and shut Chris up (yea, I know, not going to happen) I decided to do the ride and see how hilly it really is.

At last week's ride, Tom asked if I'd be interested in this: he promised about 50 miles, with about 5,000 feet of climb.Well, the "about 50 miles" thing was OK; we came in at 51.9. The elevation seems to be a matter of some dispute. John D said his GPS showed 5072 feet; Jane C said hers showed about 4800; my Garmin page for the ride shows 4354 feet of climb (but the Garmin page always seems low to me), and the RideWithGPS page shows 6719 feet (and RideWithGPS is always the highest reporter; I suspect they may overdo the heights, although some riders swear they are the most accurate). I'm willing to go with 5000 feet.

It's a lot of climbing in 50 miles. If you look at the elevations, you'll see that the only sustained flat is about six miles near the end, when we were going through the Great Swamp. The sheer amount of hills affected our perceptions; we'd be pedaling in fairly tall gears on grades that would be substantial on Hill Slug rides (and grades that would be terrifying on rides out of Cranbury or Etra), because we kept finding ourselves on 13-15% grades. On the last hill, between about miles 48.5-49.5, John D said his inclinometer registered about a 21% grade. I'm willing to believe him; I had to lean forward to try to keep my front wheel on the road; it kept rising with each pedal stroke.

Tom had promised hills, but not like these:

According to my map the tougher ones are in the 7 to 8 percent grade range which only a little worst than Lindbergh in the Sourlands. Of course these climbs are a little longer than the ones in the Sourlands and this ride will not have many flat spots...

Yeah, well, he got those last parts right!

Wicked uphills suggest wicked downhills, and there were those, too. I didn't break 40mph on this ride, but came close with my top speed of 37.3. And while two of the downhills were "let 'er rip", on the others I had to ride the brake, either because of traffic, road surface, poor visibility, or other reasons. My front brake pads are noticeably more worn than they were last night, and I had to adjust the tightness to get the "grab" I like.

Hills, on a beautiful day like today, also suggest great vistas. I didn't do pictures, but Tom & Laura did, and I'll steal theirs link to theirs when I see them. (You'll also want to read their posts: Laura and the rest of us were making up lyrics to the Wheels on the Bus song, and Tom, no doubt, will want to write some words in his defense about this demanding ride! I'll provide links when I get 'em.)

Seven of us went: Tom (of course), John D and Jane C, Ron S, Laura OLPH, Chris (to make sure we did it right - and he added a hill, with a switchback, that turned out to be fun), and your correspondent.

Tomorrow, I plan to do about 14 miles with The Excellent Wife, at a pace she will set. As I write this, I'm so worn out, I'm afraid I might not be able to keep up!

Addendum 5/13/12: Laura OLPH has her post up, and it's way better than this one, complete with pictures, profanity, and lyrics. Go check it out (new tab, of course).

book review: just ride

Grant Petersen is the guiding light behind Rivendell Bikes. The term “retro-grouch", for a rider who only likes old bicycle technology, was probably coined for him. His book, Just Ride, has just been published.

Petersen makes the argument (one that has to be made), that most bikes sold today aren't suited to the kind(s) of riding most people do. He says that most bikes sold today are either racers or are modified from racers, and that the bikes, and their related equipment, are keeping more people from riding more often.

He says in the introduction:

In real life, I'm not as mean (or judgmental) as I sound in this book…

… and then goes on to sound as judgmental (if not as mean) as he says he's not.

Petersen wants bikes with upright postures, with carrying capacity, and with fenders, and he spends a lot of ink explaining why other bikes are just bad. He implies that a single bike can do everything, but I have two arguments about this: first, the bikes from Rivendell are not cheap, and I suspect that most of them are sold to people who also have other bikes. Second, he himself has written (in Rivendell Reader 42, p. 6 [Rivendell Reader is/was a publication about matters bicyclistic sent out by Rivendell on an unpredictable basis; many of the chapters of the book apparently first saw light as articles in the Reader]) that he expects many riders will have several bikes:

How many bikes?
seven is good. a beater, a bomber, a single-speed, a touring bike, a lightish road bike, a do-all racked and bagged bike, a mixte, a loaner, and a work in progress. seven? Make it nine.

Petersen also comes down hard on helmets, charity rides, special riding clothing (especially shoe/pedal systems, although the research he quotes appears to be 40 years old), and he espouses what must be minority opinions (although he may be right) on lights, nutrition, and riding safety topics, including Critical Mass Rides.

Nonetheless, this is a good read for the non-competitive rider. Once you get past the notion that Petersen seems to think that everybody should ride the way he wants to, you can see that part of what he's arguing for is less competitive riding, and more fun riding (and no Hill Slug could argue with that!). He comes out in favor of short rides (even a few minutes), bike camping (one of his particular joys is the “sub-24-hour-overnighter", or s24o), and allowing riders who have no interest in improving technique to be allowed not to worry about technique.

In his writing, both in the book and online, he seems to argue that riders who ride for speed or distance are wrong, and that we should give that up and ride for fun at low speeds. I suspect, though, that the real effect of this book (if it has one) will be to help riders of one type to accept riders of all the other types, and maybe even for us to try other rides and bikes. I, for example, have never ridden trail, and have little interest, and I don't ride my city bike enough. I also have been a bit overbearing on The Excellent Wife's technique, and have had to give that up. Perhaps this book will spread a bit of velo-tolerance: I, for one, could use it.

Good book, cheap. Quick read. After you're done with it, you might change your riding style, or you may know even better what you like about the way you ride. I suggest you check it out.