Team Lope Tyre Clubbe » brake

Team Lope Junior Squad Project – Version 2.0

TRDL thom — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 20:32:02 +0000

So, when I first started planning the bike capable of carrying 2 kids plus groceries, it was between a Metrofiet, CETMA, and an Xtracycle Conversion. The CETMA was the most awesome, the Xtracycle the most reasonable. I settled on the Xtracycle. In Team Lope Junior Squad Project Version 1.0, I imagined building out of a mountain bike, specifically a 29er, giving me the option of breaking free and riding it if I wanted, in a conventional mountain biking scenario. I waffled a bit between the 29er and a 26" MTB standard, each offering advantages and disadvantages. Then, this past week, I started plotting the conversion of Rapscallion INTO the cargo bike. Sure, it’s a fixed gear, but why not? The Xtracycle has a derailleur mount, grab the extra parts needed, and run with it!

Over the last few days, though, I did more research. For one thing, I was really hot for using disc brakes on this project, for some added stopping power with that rear load on these hills, as I plan to ride said hills. Nay, I plan to RAHHHHDE them. That would require a fork with disc brake mounts, and a new front wheel. Plus disc brake system, front and rear. Next, I’d need a second brake and brake lever, both of which I have in the shop. Next, bigger tyres for stability, keeping within the size limitation of the Xtracycle Free Radical frame. Next, full drivetrain (front and rear deraiileurs, new rear wheel with cassette. So, basically, almost a full kit. Then, Lung advised I check rear dropout spacing, and sure enough, even with the 700c Free Radical kit, I’m 10-15mm short on the fixie frame.

Hm.

So I did some more research, went and did some field checks, and I think I have the new solution, Version 2.0, which is basically Version 1.0. I gave it a new version number because technically Version 1.5, the fixed conversion, slipped in there. I think I still like the 29er configuration. Little bit less maneuverable at low speeds, but much higher rolling speed per gear and easier over rough terrain. I spend all my time on road and fixed bikes anyway, so the 29er (the MTB industry can’t say 700c because, you know…) is a comfortable size for me. I tested the bike I was interested in today, and it felt VERY comfortable. I did the math: using a new bike was cheaper than a conversion. By a mile. I found the bike I was interested in, in my size, on sale, and test rode it. THis never happens to me, mind you, because I haven’t bought a built bike at a shop since what… 2000? Wow.

So, the new-old plan is thus:

Cannondale Trail SL 29er 4 in ‘Saffron’
Disc brakes, front suspension, 21 speeds, wide rims.

Xtracycle Free Radical Family Kit, with 2 seats, flight deck board and side panniers.
(I’ll get one seat first, the second in later summer)

And for tyres, switch out for sweet sweet Schwalbe Kodiak slicks.
I need the narrower tyre for the Xtracycle clearance, and I’m generally not planning single-track off-road rides with the kids and a bag full of eggs.

On track!

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Rapscallion Adjustment Progress

TRDL thom — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 17:14:04 +0000

Ive been slowly tweaking Rapscallion, my kid-and-cargo fixie hauler, to be a better balance between a reasonable ride with Zoe on it and a fun one when she’s not and the seat is removed. I had most recently put shortie arc bars on there, but it led to my face being against her cheek, which is not only a little uncomfortable but somewhat dodgy in terms of visibility unless I arched my back. So I got some sparrow knock-offs from Tam Bikes on New Years, along with the necessary 4-bolt stem upgrade for science and safety. The other day I actually installed the bars, reinstalled the brake lever and got the cable sorted, and did every other adjustment save for the grips, which I’m tired of having to destroy to remove just because I don’t have an air compressor (this brake lever is a one-bolt attachment so I have to get a grip off to remove the bars, even though I’m using a modern stem). I actually subsequently wrapped the bar ends in road tape for the test ride, but I’m now waiting on a different pair of grips that, for the first time around here, have hex bolt connections. Then we’ll see how the riding position has improved. I actually raised the stem height (by flipping it) from what it was before, to get more clearance in the cargo basket, so that necessitated raising the seat in the steerer stack, so we’ll see how much clearance I still have while riding.

That is all! Hopefully test ride tomorrow…

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beautiful bike : southsiders commuter

ironlung — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 21:51:29 +0000

THIS may be the most gorgeous bicycle i’ve ever seen in my life.

the southsiders are a euro motorcycle club with an incredible aesthetic, loads of class, and a love of bicycles as well. as such, they recently teamed up with some frame builders to develop their own bicycle.

now, i don’t believe this is, or is ever going to be, on sale to the public, but that doesn’t make it any less overpoweringly awesome. moreso, in fact.

the details are immaculate. the geometry is very reminsicent of turn-of-the century bicycles, and it’s a coaster brake single speed, so there are no cables whatsoever on it. the stem, cranks, chain guide, and 3-pronged axle wingnuts are all custom fabricated. and the most incredible detail of all, at least to me, is the integrated lighting. the handlebars have inset, front-facing white lights near the clamp area, and rear-facing red lights at the ends. and in the back, the single sickest cycling light setup i’ve ever seen — red lights integrated into THE SEAT STAYS.

click through for a whole bunch more photos, each more glorious than the one before.

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Team Lope Ride Report – You CAN Take it With You

TRDL thom — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 01:23:30 +0000

Yesterday I took a day trip for business down to Los Angeles to survey a building. That’s dawn patrol, up at 4am etc and home again by about 8pm. And yeah, I’m already up with the baby so that’s fine. But here’s the thing: normally on these, I bring my laptop and sketchbook, fly in, rent a convertible of some nature, get in and out of the job, and then hit a cafe and work on TRDL stuff until it’s time to get back to the airport. THIS time, I brought a bike.

You’ve seen Lung’s ride reports of his use of his coupler bike on the Vegas trip. We got our frames coupled, so to speak, at the same time, but my last two trips fell apart due to illness or injury (Vegas and Chicago) so I had yet to actually use Carpetbagger AS a travel bike. It was completely overkill for a day trip where I’d have at BEST 3 hours to ride. But it was a test of the process, and frankly, it was because I could.

Onward for details!

I’m using a S&S soft backpack for transport. You can use hardshell cases, with more protection, but this is a sweet setup because you can compress it and wear the bag. It’s all about the ride away, or to, the airport thing.

So up top, there’s Carpetbagger, my coupler bike. It’s a mid-gearing fixie (I think it’s 72) and a custom finish and graphic set by self. You’ve seen pics before. I’d SAY this is the virgin shot before it gets beat to shit in transit, but realistically, my Wee Z beat it to shit before I even had it finished, thanks to ‘I FIX it, daddee.’ moments. So it had a few frame dents and some paint chipping. First step, as seen in that pic, is pulling these hard sidewalls out of the bag and bracing them against all sides, velcroing them together to make a losse square. Actually more like the shape of a gold tooth cap. It doesn’t get square proper, but enough to frame the frame.

First, I layed this giant painting tarp up in there, used to fold and weave between major components. Great tip, among others, from One Lung. Here’s the front half of the coupler, dropped in first.

The tarp is folded over, then the rear wheel, cog down, fits in that void of the triangle. I put a top tube protector on one tube for science, since I didn’t bring any of my pipe insulation this time out. Other than that it’s just the tarp as protection. Remember that detail. Then rear triangle fits on top of the rear wheel.

Here’s the front wheel on top of the sandwich of tarp and parts and such below it. The backpack has rigidized panels where things make contact, such as the wheel axles.You don’t use other compression members in this situation. The saddle and seatpost fit into one of the extra spaces. I rolled up other parts like pedals and tools and such into microfiber towels and shirt rags and stuff, and put them here and there.

Here, possibly the most delicate part: placement of the handlebars. If using proper drops it’s even more of a hassle, threading them through the wheel, but I have Sparrows on this bike. But I still had to wrap it first, test the pressure on the spokes when you push on it, and wrap the brake caliper and stow that as well. I brought a ton of extra clothing and shoved them into all spaces and into the front and rear outer compartments, including a pair of Dickies and a long sleeve shirt and cardigan for the job site. Suave.

Boom! Packed! My first time, and from the point the first photo was taken, to the point the bag was zipped up, was about 45 minutes, including a call to Lung to check something and a few references to the S&S website (which actually has virtually no directions for the backpack.)

My cab came at 4:45 and I was off. When I checked the bag (Virgin America Main Cabin Select seating is a great deal: you get priority security line access, priority boarding, free food and drinks, and one checked bag.) the guy working the counter looked at it and lifted it and said ‘Hey, is this a bike?’

Now this is kind of a trick question. The whole point of this coupler system is to eliminate barriers to flying with the bike. If you bring an oversized bag, such as a bike box, it can run you up to $200 each way. If you bring a heavy bag, you get his with $50 fees each way. This system allows you to hand them a bag that is exactly within the 62" combined dimension for normal luggage (which you’d still pay for if you were in Main Cabin)… but also, there are ‘oversize’ cargo fees associated with BIKES. So, I merely said:

‘It’s actually a bag of bike parts’ Which is a true statement.

He laughed and said it was the coolest fucking thing he’d seen.

On the other side, a few delicious champagnes later, my baby rolled onto the carousel in LAX.
In one piece, so to speak. Well, point being, no crazy holes or ripped straps or zippers, and equally as nice, no obvious evidence of TSA searching, since that would lead to a) a mangled repacking job, and 2) confiscation of CO2 cartridges and probably all the tools. But I wouldn’t know for sure until I unpacked it. But no time! The plane was a bit delayed, and I had to basically haul ass in a taxi to Downtown LA, and would have to wait to see later. I wanted to ride FROM the airport, but I couldn’t risk being late.

Some girls I was talking to in SF found me at the taxi line, some designers heading to a big client meeting. ‘Hey, wait. Is there a BIKE in there?’ one said, mouth agape. I guess my helmet gave it away. You can see it in backpack mode, above. It’s heavy but manageable.

OK, so I didn’t want to break this down AT my project building for professional reasons, so I headed out into the fashion district (read ghetto downtown) to get over toa cafe I went to last time I visited this building, and do the build at the outdoor seating. But then I realized it was lunch hour. It would be packed. One of the fashion houses was upstairs. I finally decided, you know what, all the homeless and shifty hustlers have camped out on the street, I’m doing it. This marks the second time in 30 days I was doing bike assembly on a rough street.
That is how I ____O

The damage was minimal. A major gash on the downtube (so yeah, THATS the one to protect, since the shifting of the parcel obviously pushed the cog through the tarp into the frame) and a few other scratches. But that’s what this is for. Scars are sexy. Building it on the street was funny. Just like in Oakland, I got a lot of attention from streetfolk and otherwise sketchy folks that came to observe and yack at me, which kind of slows you down as you are watching your shit but at the same time, it’s cool that people are curious. Best part was a cholo painter crew walking past me when I was first unpacking, and then on their way back from the taco truck were like ‘Orale! What is that mang!’ I said it was a bike broken in half to travel with. ‘Its a fixie BRO!! TSCH!’ one said to another. ‘Ey, got that new Yanni cassette?’ Wait no, wrong story. ‘Ey, where can I get one?’ and I said ‘It’s custom. You’d have to be me.’ and they laughed and gave me a hand slap and they were off. Pretty good. Oh, also, no TSA tag.

I actually left a few of the rags in a nearby trash can, and even abandoned my Adidas. I have more, and it was a lot of weight I could shed, now that I was in my Vittorias. So someone scored some sweet Sammies.

My buddy Raul was stuck in a meeting, but I was able to hook up with my high school pal Christine, who works at KCRW and is into competitive roller derby ie. HOT. She’s in Culver City, so I basically made a beeline for her down Venice Blvd, because I didn’t want to dilly-dally. It was maybe a 20 minute reassembly and repacking, much faster, but I was still racing the clock now at 1:15pm or so with a 5:30pm flight meaning I’d need to be checked in at 4:45pm. So, this sent me down some nassssty business to get to where she lives, like the back side of Koreatown and the ‘Byzantine Latino Quarter’ and another section where the side streets are actually GATED. It was pretty awesome doing it by bike, though. I was rolling next to some rough types in cars and some dodgy types on the sidewalks, all that sort of thing: shopping carts in the street and such, and here I am on a white and chrome fixed gear with old timey bars and leather and elkhide, in proper Team Lope kit, with a big ass backpack on. Pretty rad. Got to Culver City in about 45 minutes, and here I am, waiting for her to come out.

Side note: remember that Kickstarter project about a rubber bracelet that you can wind your earbuds into? OK, how about skipping the bracelet altogether? Works GREAT.

I missed some great photo ops in my speed ride to her house, including a toothless guy in the lane in front of me projectile vomiting like the cartoons, where the total diameter of the vomit spray is exactly equal to the diameter of his mouth. Also, a 35mph street sign hanging upside down and with a bullet hole in it. Also some cool business offering transmission repair AND greymarket stereos. One thing I DID manage to capture, near her place, was a random display of motorcycle cops and what not going off. I thought it was some bad business, but she gleefully exclaimed ‘yay! Santa.’ and lo, it was. Only in LA.

We had lunch at a mexican place near her house. Al Pastor tacos and margaritas, yes.

The waiter was a rider so he was geeking out on the bike, and it was a nice mellow lunch.
When done, I checked the clock and it was about 3:15pm, so that put me into a bit of pressure, as I’d have to gear up and get on the road to LAX. Not too far as the crow flies, but we’re talking LA traffic. Sure I don’t get stuck in the traffic jams but I do have to wait for the megalights on these big boulevards, and also, lots of big vehicles i and out of the side businesses and freeway onramps etc so you have to be vigilant.

I wonder WHY in LA. To live and DIE in LA.

At 4:10pm, I rolled up into LAX and dismounted at my terminal. Tole you what, I’ve ridden in many sketchy traffic conditions of somewhat surreal natures, like critical mass and bad ballgame traffic and so on… but riding the lanes around the terminals at rush hour is a video game with ONE LIFE LEFT AND NO EFFING TOKENS. Exhilarating though. And no deaths or ticket punchings.

While I was breaking the bike down again to re-pack it, I had even more spectators than on the street. It started with an inquisitive airline guy, and then three homeland security cops came up, but not to give me trouble, just to oggle at the process. Two stewardesses (and I’ve been watching Pan Am so I got thirsty for a scotch at that point) and a few tourists. Again, I’m working fast as nails, but having to narrate and answer questions. Crazy. I thought girls in line at bars and coffee shops who grab at your sleeves or poke at your arms to see your ink were invasive, but these people are like lifting bike parts and checking out the couplers and so on. You have to laugh. Any time regular folks have a non-violent interest in a bike or a rider, I consider it a win.

The bag was unmolested on the return flight (visibly anyway I haven’t actually opened it yet) and I was home after dark, exhausted, sore from the heavy bag, but super charged for getting to take my bike with me and ride in yet another city.*

And of course, what cab did I take?

*Note I grew up in LA, and we rode up through the beach and Brentwood and Westwood on Aids Lifecycle, but I’m talking general transportation and exploration.

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Rapscallion Loses Some Reach

TRDL thom — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 18:19:11 +0000

I finally did something I’ve wanted to do for awhile now: I changed up the bars, and as a result, the riding position, of Rapscallion, my kid carrier cargo fixie. Until now it has had an upright riding position thanks to big moon bars I put on it to clear the kid seat. Over time, especially as Wee Z has gotten heavier and I carry increasing weight in the cargo basket, I’ve grown to dislike that riding position (I mean, I always have, but it grew to annoy me) so I set about the other night* to sort out how to get to a normal bar while still being able to use the kid carrier as a kid carrier**.

This took quite a bit of work. It involved not just the easy part, swapping bars for bars of like clamp dimension, adding new brake lever and restringing it. It also meant more of the rabbit warren of connections that is involved with a bike seat, cargo rack and front brake all slammed together. I did a lot of adjustments to get the kid seat in a place where I could clear Wee Z and still reach the bars. In doing so, threading the struts of the seat into the cargo basket risers themselves, I also found a way, by shifting the seat forward in this manner, to also clear for lowering it as well since I wouldn’t have the knee obstructions any longer, which meant that the top cap is no longer on top of the seat mount, but rather now the seat mount is under several spacers, which is even safer.

I chose some pretty short chopped down arc bars, for science, that once belonged to wrongbike. I may have to go with some wider arcs, since the way these were cut, even with all my adjustments I’m sort of riding with my head next to hers on one side or the other. But for now it’s working great! Kierin grips and all. She likes it too because I’m down by her face talking to her more.

Side note, while the red Jawbones were a fun brand-aware experiment, they were starting to annoy me, and not just because of the bold aesthetic: I was very distracted by seeing a rim of bright plastic red around the periphery. I’m someone who doesn’t like to see my glasses or sunglasses when I’m wearing them. It’s distracting. So, I’m going back to black. Thus ends this brand-aware dalliance!

*And with a toddler and a newborn, ‘the other night’ means a span of about seven shorter wrenching sessions over three days.

**Until I upgrade to an Xtracycle or scoop-hauler custom when the wee lad is ready to ride too.

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it’s cargo time

ironlung — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 04:25:25 +0000

so when my bike was stolen a couple weeks ago, there was one cool thing that came out of it and that was that it forced me to build up a frame that i’d been wanting to put together anyway. now, i had to build that frame up into a fixed road bike cause i had a metric century coming up that weekend, but the only thing it would take to convert it to the end goal of a fixed townie cargo bike was new handlebars. i had everything else, including the front rack.

well tonight on the way home, i took a chance on a new-ish bike shop in the neighborhood and lo and behold they had the EXACT bar i was looking for – a silver riser bar. and to make matters more awesome, it was only $26. yeah, so that happened.

to be fair, it wasn’t EXACTLY what i needed, as it had a 25.4mm clamp area and the stem on the bike is a 26.0mm stem. but i thought i had a shim, so it didn’t matter. oops, except i was wrong. but after searching the shop and not finding it, i just grabbed a can of beer from which to fabricate one. but check this, when i set to work on it, i discovered that my stem was actually perfectly capable of closing the 0.6mm difference and still clamping down perfectly securely. now, this may explode in my hands tomorrow on the way to work, but i’m counting on everything working out ok.

an hour later, boom. fixed townie cargo bike.
can’t wait to ride it.

(BONUS : when i was rooting around for the notShim, i found brake levers for the road bike i’ve been building forever, and with the acquisition of a hand-me-down set of high-end road cranks from the one and only WR this afternoon, i think that bike’s only a few shifter cables away from finished. yeah. epic bike day.)

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Team Lope Ride Report: Gran Fondo Fireball

TRDL thom — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 21:50:14 +0000

Team Lope Ride Report: Gran Fondo Fireball

You know that trope in romantic comedies, where the protagonist suffers all manner of circumstantial and personal disasters before being lifted by a beautiful girl in the third act? Well, I had one of those. The 2011 Levi Leiphiemer King Ridge Gran Fondo was like that, but at the end, I saw my gorgeous daughter run up and squeeze my face, so I got the happy ending. And I’ll tell you in advance, there were no deaths, and my spirits were high throughout, so this is not a tale of woe. But read on, for the biggest logistical disaster in Team Lope history.

Preparation

As you may have read in earlier posts, about a week before the Gran Fondo, I made the decision to change road bike frames. My Look KG381 Team carbon frame, my pride and joy, was a size too big, now becoming a real issue with my back and pelvis injury to deal with. I decided to give up the ghost on the Look, hunted for a more suitably sized frame, lucked into a sweet NOS Cinelli Xperience from 2007, and set out to get it ready for the ride. I built up the majority of the bike earlier in the week late at night, then hit a snag due to needing new shifter cables and housings, and with time running out, I took it down to Tam Bikes for a re-string and deraiileur adjustment. As much as I wanted to do the build myself (my second time on a proper road bike) time was of the essence, as family obligations would prevent me from getting down to the shop again before the ride. This would give me a day to test ride it to work, make any tweaks, and I’d be ready. Or so I thought. Taking it in, the shop was slammed, but agreed to fit it in… by Friday at closing. This meant no test and tweak time, but at least I’d be ride-ready. My wifebot(tm) got one of her increasingly bad feelings about the ride. She encouraged abandoning it. But I had two other riders depending on me for a ride, and frankly, I had contingencies. Gran Fondo has some seriousness to it, no question: more arduous in some ways than the Tam Climbing Century in terms of gradients, and lots of intermediate climbs peppered through the course. But if I couldn’t get the bike done, I’d take the MASH. Looking at the ride profile, there were two sections where I’d have little hope of staying on the bike, even pre-back-injury, as the gradients were too steep and the climbs too long. But hell, I’d ride the thing fixed as I often do in these events, and where I needed to hoof it. I’d hoof it. I’d still get a great ride in. Meanwhile, adding to the bad mojo, Team Lope’s Muadib had a crash a few weeks ago, horfing his road bike to bits, and while he survuved unscatched, he was out of the Gran Fondo as a result. And Eric nearly got creamed on the way into Mill Valley on Friday as well. The near-misses and snags were mounting.

Build complete, 11:55pm the night before.

Friday afternoon, no word from the shop. Later in the day, I was informed a message was left for me on voicemail, and that the bike wouldn’t be completed. This was a bad time for my Google Voice account to have the ‘silent message’ error. No data. I didn’t know what was wrong, but since they weren’t going to be able to do it, my wifebot(tm) graciously shot over in the MINI with a sleeping Z, grabbed me, took me over to the shop so that I could get the bike, and see what my options were. The shop was slammed and they ran into some issues so the bike wasn’t going to happen. However, the only reason I had brought it in was that I ran out of shifter cable and housing at home and didn’t have any more time. So they gave me cable and housing pro bono and I figured what the hell, I’d give it a go! So now I was back where I left off on Wednesday night: my remaining tasks were to restring the brifters, string up the derailleurs, and adjust them. I’ve done this once before, on Villain, so I was ready to take it slow and get through it. I’ve confessed before that I find deraiileur adjustment maddening, with the two limit screws on each, the adjusters, etc. I just don’t have a good sequencing set-up. But I had at it. My comedy of errors, however, continued. First, the rear derailleur was missing the pinch bolt, which apparently must have dropped back at the LBS. I stole one off of my old Dura Ace rear and proceeded with only minimal workaround. Next,t he Jagwire cable housing I got from the shop? I couldn’t cut it cleanly. It splayed out into all the fiber fragments, thanks to my wire cutter being designed for electronics and not a nice sharp one for this application. I ended up recovering cable housings from, believe it or not, the torn-down groupo from the Vista 10-speed that became wrongbike! HA. So, that would have to do in a pinch. Thinner housings, easier to cut. Next problem: my SRAM 10-speed chain was too short. It used to be WAY too short when I first strung up Villain (The SRAM instructions describe stringing big ring to big ring, and adding a link; later readings of third party guides say they mean one outer set, one inner set, of links; so I was one link short) but on this build, I was using a compact 50 tooth chainring so I thought I’d be safe. I was going to avoid crossing into that big cog from the big ring (as you should anyway) and just keep that risk factor in mind. Next, I was out of black electrical tape. WHAT! You say? The fixed-rider’s best friend? But it’s true. I had one roll at the office, gave one roll to a rider in need a few months ago and Zoe ran off with another. Suddenly, I had none of the stuff, just in time to rewrap my bars. I ended up re-using the tape from before, which wasn’t pleasant but got it done. By 11:45pm I had the bike completed, and took it down the street for a test. I was having rubbing in the back and it took a few to figure it out: the skewer slipped out of one of the drops. I’m so used to track axles now that I forgot that if you don’t really wrench those skewers down, they can pull out from chain tension (!) and it did. What’s a little more lost frame paint? So, by midnight, I was upstairs, bike was done, and I was ready to get a few hours sleep before getting up for the early start. My derailleurs needed help but I was banking on some ride mechanical support for that. I’d at least be on the road. Wifebot(tm) was still unhappy about me going: my cough remained, suggesting illness, we had to rent a car so that I could bring myself and two riders with me up there, and all the portents of doom leading up to it gave her the concerns, especially as she is full term and I need to be avaialble in case the baby comes early. But I wanted to give it a shot. I like reaching a quitting point and instead, doing the opposite of quitting. In other words, not quitting. And anyway, had the road bike not come together, I’d bring the MASH and do it fixed anyway, and if I had to walk up the entire Coleman climb, I would. It’s the Team Lope way. If I can ride to LA on a fixed-gear, I have enough legs for this ride.

Ride Day

We drove over to Santa Rosa nice and early, with bagels and coffees and not much traffic, and parked about a mile away from the start at Finley Park, as the parking near to the event was limited and a problem with local businesses in previous years. We headed out on the bikes, and I left my vest and warmers in the car because it was already reasonable in temperature. Go ahead and keep a running tabulation in your head about all the things I’m mentioning that would backfire later. We’ve got last minute build, a used 10-speed chain with probably the 1000 miles on it already that these rinky-dink light chains are supposed to top out at (can you believe that? single speed chains and heavier gauge MTB chains, even 8/9 speed road chains, these can go forever… but 10 speed narrow chains with hollow pins? No), clothing layers left behind…

Systemic Failure

OK, so about a half mile from the camp, everyone’s ahead of me, and we’re waiting at the light. I decide that my bars are still a little low (SRAM brifters want to be higher on the drops, so I reseated them when I restrung the brifters, but they still needed a bit more height) and pulled my 3-head hex key out and made the adjustment. I was using a trusty Thomson X2 stem, a two bolt design. I adjusted while on the bike. Apparently, I’m told later, that was my mistake, because you can’t as easily judge the torque. I always thought torque bolts failed intentionally, such as we see in Oakleys and other precision mechanical fitment. I was very wrong. I heard a POP! and my bars dropped. I spun them up in that flipped-10-speed antlers style and noodled across the intersection by the freeway to get out of traffic, then assessed my problem. I thought, at that moment, that the bolt had broken inside the stem, at the top of the clamp plate. I figured my best bet was to nurse it to camp and see if I could steal a stem bold from somewhere else. That was some dodgy riding, basically riding upright, holding the bars up for brakes. Guh. At camp, I soon realized that the stem itself had failed, internally. I went ahead and checked in, and while the gang rolled to the massive start, I headed over to the festival grounds, where Trek had a tent and some other vendors were setting up. Trek had no stems, and neither did anyone else. I got a lot of knowing, pained looks. The dark side to the two bolt stem, I’ll tell you. Finally, a vendor, I think at BiCi, noted that another vendor’s table had a box of stems on it, though the vendor was missing. He said he’d vouch for me, and so we pulled the stock open, and found a stem for me, and threw it on there. The vendor showed up, was supportive and awesome and said to hit him up later for it, and just like that, I was back in it. Quick stop at the Trek tent for some derailleur adjustment: everything looked great. I was good to go!

Team Mechanical

The ride is staged, so faster riders head out first to get out from behind everyone, then the rest are staged based on approximate experience level, so that like riders are with like riders, etc.

Eric, Kristin, her brother Donovan, and his girlfriend Sally rounded out our little group, and while we were initially heading out thinking that the worst was behind us, we were soon confronted with a freakish number of problems. Eric had a flat. He didn’t have a pump or adapter that could fit his valve properly. Different riders had different skill levels so pacing was dynamic. I stopped and stretched at each rest stop. More mechanicals. Ultimately, one of us self-assigned the name Team Mechanical. I had no idea how accurate it would be. We were joking how we never used the mechanical tent, barely ever stopped at the rest stops, etc.

Eric, Kristen and me: Team Mechanical

Wellllll….. anyway, we had sent Don and Sally up the road and were going to catch up once Eric was done with his thing. We ended up doing a pretty reasonable pace line to get back there, and stopped at the last rest stop before the big climb of the day. This was along the water, and the wind was picking up. Dark clouds were forming. Everyone said previous years were boiling hot and so on, but I thought we benefitted from the storm front, keeping us cooler and so on. I was having a great time.

Last generally pristine shot of Rogue. There’s some under-seatpost-binder scraping, and that dropout scraping from the night before, but otherwise, this was the honeymoon shot

I want to mention, the build was AWESOME. This new Cinelli frame worked out perfectly. With my bars adjusted to bring the brifters where they needed to be, the shorter frame, seat adjustments… I felt so comfortable. I can’t even tell you what a relief it was for my back and pelvis.

Grabbed the wrong bibs this morning, so a tiny hole in the upper thigh seam was growing. I safety pinned it For the TEAM’s safety, mind you.

And I had it dialed in. Unlike my last ride, I did everything right: I got a bit more sleep (almost 5 hours), I hydrated and fed well (even after two weeks of carb and sugar detox) and was humming with energy, Even my cough and my athsma weren’t holding me back. So, we embarked on the next leg, the big bad everyone was stressing about.

The steepest point on the Coleman grade…

The Coleman climb is remarkable not for its length or it’s overall height (it’s about 3 miles long and about 1200 feet of the 4000 feet aggregate for the day) but for the gradient. In the first third of the climb you hit gradients floating between 12 – 15%, topping out at 16.9% at one point. Recall that this was the section that I felt would force me off the fixed-gear had I brought it. I ended up taking the first third at a good pace, then pulled off at a convenient section after the big gradient, stretched my back and relieving the stress on the pelvis, and then resumed again, for the first time in the history of this cassette I put on Villain when I converted to SRAM, dropped into my 27 cog and just ticked the climb away at a steady, slow pace. We got to the top without stopping and I was justifiably elated. The night before, I didn’t have a bike to ride, was sick, had a back injury and poor saddle time; and now I had just done the big climb of the day. I was stoked.

Downhill From There

Over the top, Eric and Kristen were already descending and Donovan and Sally were now with me. Sally went on ahead, I think, and as I was descending, I rolled through the cassette to get into the smaller cogs and then flipped the big ring from the small to big. However, my shifting in the back wasn’t happening. In retrospect, I was going too fast, and didn’t wait to confirm that I was down to the saller cogs before shifting in front. I did it too close together and basically ended up doing the precisely WRONG thing for this build: I let the big ring in back (which hadn’t let go) line up with the big ring in front, and the derailleur locked up. I rolled backward on the cranks and tried to get back into the small ring, but by then it was too late: the rear mech blew up, sending it into the cassette and my rear spokes, the chain jammed up against the hub, and I was locked up in back. I can honestly tell you that all the fixed gear riding I do saved my ass. I was out of the saddle, hitting the front brake, and powerslid down to a stop in a lazy, jagged whip of rubber. I got out of the pedals and pulled off the road and was frankly just thankful i didn’t go down. Donovan came up and was eyeballing the mess behind me with a look that was like a cross between horror and queasiness. There was nothing to be done. I was out. I pulled the shattered derailleur pully cage out from being entwined in my cassette and it cut my fingers. The whole thing was just destroyed. A CHP moto cop rolled up and said that he’d get SAG support out for me, and then returned and said they would be here in about 10-15 minutes. So, I told Donovan to go on ahead and catch up with the others. They were going to catch a ride with him anyway, so I just figured I’d sag to the end, hop in the MINI, and jet home to my family. Off he went, and I hunkered down to wait as the wind whipped up and the temperature began to drop. Eventually another rides came walking down the hill with a Lightspeed and a broken chain. He had been waiting for SAG for an hour already. This wasn’t looking good.

Shot of the mangled derailleur hanger

I mean, this was pretty insane

The derailleur was wedged up into the cassette, and the hanger was up into the spokes. Amazing I didn’t go down. Wheel locked up. Longest skid-stop for my personal best, ha.

Eventually a fire volunteer rolled up in a big pick-up and agreed to take us back… but I mean BACK. Down the big climb, to the previous coastal rest stop. But hey, a ride’s a ride! And I was still riding out my euphoria about not crashing.

First ride back… literally, unfortunately.

At the rest stop, the wind was blowing and it was sprinkling. The word was that the SAG vehicles hadn’t been there in forever, and were not likely to be there. So, rather than sit on my ass, I thought, you know what, time for plan B. An awesome mechanic from Norcal Bike Sport, August, tore my rear derailleur ‘flower’ off and re pinned my chain shorter and we fashioned a single speed out of it. To hell with it. I’d ride as a single!

Derailleur and cables stripped away, ready to go single-speed.

The other guy got a chain fix and we were ready to head out, each with a crew farther along the course, sticking together out of convenience. He advocated taking an alternate route on the map. The ‘gravel route’ was designed to give riders an alternative to the Coleman grade. My concern was that it was unsupported, and it was gravel. Who knew what would happen, or how long my jury-rigged single would hold up. I didn’t want to be off the reservation. So he took off for that alternate route, and I headed along the coast and back to the big climb. I didn’t know it at the time, but while I was on the way back to the mechanical tent that second time, Levi Leipheimer had passed with his crew.

Chain Reaction

Here’s the new Single version of Rogue’s build… for a moment, anyway

PANG! There went the chain, just as I was getting started. So, I turned around, nursed the bike back to the previous rest stop, and returned to the mechanic who was sort of wide-eyed that I was back again. We shortened the chain further, now in a slightly easier gear (so bad on the flats) but not as easy as was needed on Coleman. I asked if he thought I’d make it. He shrugged and said he thought it was better than waiting at the rest stop for the SAGS that weren’t coming. So off I went for a third try. I got to the climb, hit it at a good pace, and was being pretty careful: I couldn’t stand out of the saddle, lest I stress the chain too much. And all the way up it was sort of the familiar refrain from Aids Lifecycle, as riders would double-take at the lack of derailleur. I was actually craving the MASH frame at this point. I don’t like single speed. I want the mechanical advantage of the fixed drivetrain. All my instincts were telling me to jump out of the saddle and bomb the hill as I would fixed, but I kept it steady. And I made it to about 50m from the top. PANG! There went the chain again. Now the link was twisted and two links back were open. I was done.

Second ride, this time to the next rest stop, ha

While I was at the top, I was trying to decide what to do, but I knew, either way, it was just going to be a matter of holding out until SAG support would eventually come. I was back in signal range for awhile so I texted Lung that I was out of the event and had a good story for him. I sent him blown derailleur flower pr0n. I thought I’d be hopefully getting home later that day and making up for my lateness with wifebot(tm)… but it was getting ugly, weather wise. Eventually a camera crew offered to give me a ride, which was awesome, so I put Rogue into the back of a truck for the second time in one day and hopped in. No crash, got a ride in, no worries! However, they elected to drop me off at the next rest stop a few miles up. I guess they were planning and picking someone else up before heading to base camp, so I took the ride for what it was and hopped out, joining a motley crew of injured riders at this water-only stop: a guy under a space blanket heaving from exhaustion and electrolyte overloading, and a woman who had cramped up. Guess what? It was a 4 hour wait.

The remains, alongside the medical tent. Lots of admirers of the frame (and the wreckage) though.

I mean, it was laughable. We could hear the radio going off: SAG vehicles were being rerouted BACKWARDS rather than coming forward and collecting to the end and back out again, as they should be. The rain was coming in from the coast, and there were crashes. More people were abandoning and the SAGs were picking them up on the side of the road. Even before all this, we passed four different accidents with ambulances etc. So it was an ugly day for riders down. We ended up hearing that three people were airlifted to hospitals, and it was getting worse. CRAZY! The woman took a space blanket, but I went without since I was otherwise doing OK. I just tucked into a ball and fed off of my energy gels and mini cliff bars. It sounds pathetic but it really wasn’t. I had signal so I texted my family. I even went to Amazon and ordered a replacement derailleur and chain. Ha. Oh, and Ethan Suplee, from My Name is Ed and Willfred, who we’ve written about previously on Team Lope, rolled through and looked great.

Ethan Suplee kicking ass.

One volunteer finally went off shift, and was able to take the vomiting guy, who was all gray and dead looking, down the hill (I heard her cry to the medics that he waspuking all over her Nissan though) and at another point, the woman I was sitting with got ahold of her husband, who tried to come get us (he had room for my bike, and they would take me to my car, even. Stoked!) Unfortunately, he was stuck behind the same traffic blocks that had closed the roads to everyone else, thanks to the healthy CHP support. After awhile it was raining on us. I got a text from wifebot(tm) showing young Zoe in a rickshaw in SF, saying I could use one of those right now. Truer words! Anyway, 4 hours later, a SAG vehicle rolled up. And behind them? a SRAM neutral car.

SRAM Steps Up

Finally, a SAG showed up, 4 hours later

I loaded my bike on the Sag van rack, and they said they had to wait for more calls before heading out. So I walked over and showed the tech driving it my derailleur flower, just because it was pretty crazy and he admitted it was one of the worst he’d seen. And then wham, he offered me a new one! I tole him I considered it pilot error, not defect. But he thanked me for being a SRAM customer, and suddenly I had a new derailleur.

SRAM to the rescue. This guy rocked

THAT is what I call another in a string of pretty amazing services on this ride, from the CHP support, to the amazing road crews, to the mechanics, to now this rad SRAM replacement. I was pretty delighted. And yes, I canceled the Amazon order in the van.

We ended up driving back along the route to collect more riders, and eventually were up to 6 riders in the van, before heading out to base camp. We rolled in a6 6:10pm, a good 6 hours after my second chain blow up.

I made it across the finish so my sensor could be read. I CARRIED the bike. The girls swooned. Trust me.

Over at the festival grounds, they just closed the beer tent at 6pm, so a lot of stragglers still coming in were fired up about the beer being gone, as it was presumably their carrots for getting home. However, I was driving anyway.

There were about 9 or 10 different food offerings at the festival, and riders each had a meal voucher. I chose, of course, the taco truck with the fit girl waiting in front of it.

Beer tent, closed 10 minutes prior. MAN people were steamed about that

I grabbed a delicious burrito, then headed out to walk the mile back to the car. Then I saw my original SAG van driver out front. I asked if she was heading my way, and she volunteered to drive me to the MINI! I was really thankful for this. It had been a long day. So I was in my car at 7pm. I got through Santa Rosa traffic and down to Mill Valley in a record 40 minutes (don’t ask don’t tell) and stepped in the door to give my daughter a bath at about 14 hours to the minute after I left that morning. CRAZY!

Oh it was delicious.

Now, I know this sounds like a tale of woe. But I felt pretty good about the ride!
Dig it:

- Incredible CHP support, with road closures and plenty of traffic blocks
- Volunteer support and crews that nearly rival Aids Lifecycle
- Great time riding with Eric, Kristen and Donovan, who I haven’t ridden with since spring I think, on a China Camp run where I was fixed and they were on road bikes, so this time I got to prove I actually HAD a road bike.
- Met Sally, Donovan’s girlfriend, a London import who was refreshing and generally awesome
- Got an extra ride in while wifebot(tm) was full-term. If you don’t have kids, you won’t understand how precious this was. I’m in the last three weeks before the baby is due, and that means staying close to home and scrambling with preparations and such.
- Went from having an ill-fitting carbon Look that hurt my pelvis to a PERFECTLY dialed in aluminum Cinelli and haven’t felt that comfortable on a road bike in years
- Pulled off a complete bike build in a few after-hours sessions after the toddler was sleeping
- dialed in my hydration, nutrition, and stretching and had pretty much no physical issues on the bike; no cramps, no athsma issues of concern, and in general, felt like I had much more saddle time under me than I had
- Got to drive a Fiat 500, the car I rented for wifebot(tm) to take Zoe to baby gym and her other stuff for the day
- Got a sweet, sweet carne asada burrito
- Replacement derailleur from SRAM
- All the damage was manageable so I’m on the road to repair very quickly: new chain coming, ordered a replacement derailleur hanger for the Cinelli thanks to the amazing website: www.derailleurhanger.com
- Fresh air and new ride routes
-Always reassuring when vendors, mechanics and staff go above and beyond, when we generally face selfish and hard people on our day to day ride experiences.
- Most important: I didn’t crash. I kept the bike up, never went down, and other than a minor strain in my left IT band, I’m in tip-top shape! Got to hold my daughter at the end of the day, so all was good!

Side note: one additional bonus was the use of that Cinelli. Not only is it gorgeous and did it elicit a number of comments from people having never seen it before, but guess what: I’m pretty sure I stayed off the ground because of it. The gouges in my rear triangle? Had this been my carbon Look I think i would have lost the triangle, wrecking the frame at minimum, going down far more likely. It was the first thing the SRAM tech asked about. Most blown derailleurs trash the frame when they fly up into the stays. I have cosmetic damage only. I don’t even think I lost a spoke. How awesome is THAT!

All in all, despite the calamities, it was a great day I say.

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Bike Build Process Log- Rogue: Framed!

TRDL thom — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 20:19:12 +0000

Readers and fellow riders will recall my obsession with the 2003 Look racing frame, the KG381. I coveted it at the time. I got it’s skinny cousin used in 2006, and gave it away to a thief with a Bic pen. I got a consumer line KG381 Jalabert Edition, which I rode for about 3 years, and then scored a KG381 Team spare frame from the Tour, and after building it up as a fixed-gear for awhile, I finally converted THAT frame into my road bike, and sold off the Jaja.

Well, the Team frame was always big for me. I had the seatpost slammed, I had the stem low and small, and the seat forward on the rails as much as possible. It was doable, but after my pelvis and back injury, I’ve come to find the Look to difficult to ride comfortably. I can RIDE it, but I don’t LIKE riding it. The bigness haunted me, even being only modestly too large. But as I’ve come to find, fitment becomes even more important once you’re injured. Thus, I poured a sip out of my coffee for ole Villain, and started the hunt for something new.

With a baby on the way, and a need to not screw myself over financially any more than I already have, I knew I was working backwards on technology. I wasn’t going to find a carbon frame I liked to replace the carbon frame I loved. But riding aluminum (Crook) over long distances, including to LA, taught me that I could deal with the road vibration when properly insulated. So that helped: it would be lighter steel, or aluminum. Looking around, I couldn’t shake my disinterest in almost everything out there. No cash for a custom frame. I narrowed it down to Cinelli. I wasn’t a fan of their graphics these days on the road bikes (all sorts of lines and grids like 80s Tron merchandising) but started looking backwards in the line, at new old stock and used frames. After a few days of hunting, I stumbled upon a small shop in Oregon that was sitting on a few Cinelli frames they got as a closeout from a Canadian distributor. Few, as in one S, one L, and one XL. Unused, still packed up, never built up. And for a SONG. So, best part: these were 2008s, when Cinelli offered generally monochrome schemes on some of the bikes. And in nuclear trigger red/orange! So, I snatched it up. The unboxing pic is above.

You know, I had a lot of misgivings about giving up the Look. I loved the matte black carbon and minimal decals. I loved the exclusivity of it. But I have to tell you, I’m adapting JUST fine to this new frame. It’s like… magma!

I have the Levi Leipheimer King Ridge Gran Fondo this Saturday, so the race is on to have it built up and road tested by then. I snuck in last night and started the process. I got as far as headset, cockpit (complete), front and rear strung brakes, and wheels. I’m waiting on some used SRAM Red cranks I ordered, to play nicer with my derailleur, and then I’ll do the drivetrain. It’s admittedly easier to build up a road bike when you’re stripping a road bike you only built up a year ago. Everything’s in great shape. I had to change the brake cable routing (the Cinelli isn’t internal routing like the Look) and a few other things, but so far so good. The blurry picture above shows the current state of it: orange and black.

I had a few scares: for one, when I was trying to pull the front Dura Ace brake caliper off of Villain the nut was bound up, and in muscling it, I felt the brake explode in my hand and heard something ping across the shop. I have a rock floor. Losing small parts is the bane of my work down there. Anyway, all was not lost: the spring had come loose from the calipers and the plastic sheath for it was what had tried to escape. And miraculously, after about 20 minutes with a head-mounted light, I found it, and fixed the brake.

Also, when I brought the frame into the shop from the car, I was mollified to discover paint scraped away all over the seat post receiver. I couldn’t believe it. Did I grind it against something? Was it effed up and I didn’t notice it in the unboxing? I was conjuring various electrical tape based fixes, when I found the cause: the seatpost collar, which I had been missing, was on the floor in the car, and the paint scrape was from the collar clamping onto the frame, and being pulled off somehow in my loading/unloading of the MINI. Found it as I was loading Z up for a return trip to the office to search the box for seat clamps. HA!

Anyway, build in process, but I’m pretty pleased about the Phoenix-style rebirth of sweet-as happening here.

PS New bike name, influenced by the bright orange/red color: ROGUE

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Bike Build Process Log- Wrongbike: Racked!

TRDL thom — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 23:40:17 +0000

So, while I thought the clusterfack of Rapscallion’s front end was tough (the original baby bike/cargo Mixte) I was really in for a treat with the new iteration of Wrongbike, which is being converted to a more old timey stance from the conventional tarcke bike conversion set-up it has had to date. I needed to thread the VO Porteur rack into the mix, along with the woodys fenders, the center-pull brake, etc and somehow do this all with two hands. While the former project’s Gamoh rack was a tough nut to squeeze up in there, the porteur was even worse. This rack is designed to basically stabilize a handlebar bag, so it’s very small. It attaches at the forks mid-way, using clips, unlike most larger racks that use the front wheelstay mounts, and then has a tange that has been pre-drilled with holes and is intended to be bent into place and cut down, depending on your scheme.

It was an interesting geometric problem. I had to pull everything off and determined the only way this would work would be to thread it behind the front brake, but in front of the head tube/ fork, rather than in the fork’s hollow center, or behind it. It was the only chance of fitting. I didn’t want to cut the tange down, so that it might have a future adaptive purpose. I actually went out and bought the table vice I always wanted but never had, just to bend the effing tange. Even then, it was hard to get a very tight arc on it. So, from there, after several dimensional take-offs, a new problem: the centerpull brake’s bolt was too long to allow the brake to slip in between the rack and the tange such as needed to complete the sandwich. I tried about 30 different ways, and was feeling very stoned (though sober) about it, before I decided to take the brute force approach, and bend the hell out of the tange: flatter to slip the brake calipers into place, then bend the tange up again once that composite was done, and somehow, just barely, I got it to work. From there, I was able to reassemble, and damn, it worked!

These are the first public shots of the new build, which is nearly complete. I took it on a commute trip for a test ride and found some stuff that needs revising, involving the fenders and the cranks lengths (scary toe catch on even modest turns) but overall, it’s amazing how the yellow/orange wrongrobot-colored frame works so nicely in an old timey get-up.

Keep in mind, also, that I’m doing these projects these days in little chunks, as I ave a toddler, a very pregnant wife, and lots of moonlighting work, to manage. So it is always fun to hop right in, and stymying to hop back out just as fast, shelving it for another day.

So, why the tiny porteur rack? Stay tuned. There’s more to come…

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Best Response to Bike Mockery Ever

TRDL thom — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 17:46:43 +0000

I was thinking the other day about how amusing it is to be told that something is wrong with my bike, component or clothing choices when I’m out on the road. Sure, back in the day when I was exclusively a kitted up roadie type, I didn’t hear much of that, but even then, the guys with the more expensive bikes just blew me off most likely. But sometimes I’m told (and who thinks their opinion of same is of interest to me?) my brake lever is on the wrong side (no offense, Lope Mates, I’m not talking about you) or it’s my normal clothes mixed with racing helmet, or it’s fixed drivetrain on a cargo bike baby carrier… Anyway, I pay little mind to such things, and more often than not, I think they bear the signs of jealousy, or envy at the least, that I am comfortable crossing the streams…

So, this comic appeared in my Tumblr, and I thought I’d share. Cracked me up.
http://comfort-eagle.com/post/9908075038

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