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!

Follow this topic in the R3 Forum here!

Related posts:

1. Team Lope Bike Bio [Retired]: gangstaLean(tm)
2. lungWish #333 – the xtracycle
3. Whither the Longbike

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.

Follow this topic in the R3 Forum here!

Related posts:

1. Team Lope Ride Report: The Napa Ride Weekend of Destiny 07
2. Team Lope Ride Report: The Napa Ride Weekend of Destiny 09
3. Team Lope Ride Report – You CAN Take it With You

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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1. Bike Build Process Log- Rogue: Reincarnated!
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So awhile ago I noted that I set out to do a bike rebuild for my loving wifebot(tm). She has a Bianchi road bike but also wanted something old school, upright, more mellow to ride around on our future family rides. So I found this amazing catch at Re-Cyclery in San Rafael. It’s some townie from the Southeast Asian market, complete with inexplicable wheelguard detailing, amazing pie platery, and pushrod brakes. I love it.

So a few weeks back, I took a break from a deadline and tuned it up enough for a size check. My wifebot(tm) is 5′-1" and has shorter legs so often even small women’s bikes don’t fit. So, I got it sorted for her, complete with brakes and gearing adjusted, air in the tyres etc and it worked great. She’s excited. Unfortunately she won’t be on it until next summer, with the baby coming and all. But it’ll be ready for her.

I did end up, at least for the test, pulling Redcoat’s front wheel. The wheel looks OK on Jaunty, but it had no tube and the rubber was a bit cracked, so since I didn’t have any spare balloon tyre tubes, i just did a wheel swap for the time being.

Anyway, it’s excellent. I love those pushrods (Thatswhatshesaid)

More to come…

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1. Bike Build Process Log: wrongBike – Build Completion Day
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3. Bike Build Process Log- Rapscallion: The Hanging

So yesterday was another meeting in the city, after which I had a delicious lunch with wifebot(tm) at Bocadillos, our local favorite, and then pulled Carpetbagger, my coupler travel bike, out of the MINI and rode back to the office in Marin thereon. And it was a great ride day: the cold, foggy, wind-whipped SF weather broke on the far side of the bridge and it was sunny and reasonable the rest of the way to the office.

However, I had a few problems. On Bay, on a steep uphill, a contractor truck took his lane wide and squeezed me off the road as the parked cars and him left about 3mm for me to ride in, forcing me to dismount and walk the last 10 feet or so, which was frustrating. But hey, whatever, he probably didn’t see me. The bridge remains a mess, as pedestrian and bike traffic for both directions are sequestered to the east side of the bridge, overloading it and causing serious safety problems. Again, though, no big deal, got through it.

But on the way down? At the last descending section of Alexander, shortly before entering Sausalito, I had an altercation. Tourist busses and various vehicles stop suddenly on that descent, just like they do in SF and in Sausalito. They don’t look for bikes, they don’t pull off the road, they just STOP. This forces bikes and cars to go around them. In the case of cars, it’s technically not even legal to pass them. But anyway, there’s usually room to do so one way or another, assuming everyone avoided getting collected on their bumper and no tourists on Blazing Saddles rental bikes weren’t thrown overboard. But at the bottom of that section, as we enter Sausalito proper, the crown of the road that had acted like a bike lane? Gone. So you’re just in traffic, like normal, but on a steep drop. So, a pickup in front of me pulled to a complete stop at an intersection that has no stop sign. He was over to the right, so I thought he was dropping someone off or picking someone up. No big deal, I just slowed, and then went around him on his left. Just as he suddenly jerked left to male a left turn. No signal. No warning.

We did not collide but my wheel was right to his driver’s door. There we were, complete stop, no deaths, and he leans out his window in a rage and says ‘you cant do that!!!!’ so i said ‘you can’t stop in the middle of the road! I was going around you!’ he said ‘I was turning, you can’t just go wherever you want!’ so I said ‘Consult your Owner’s Manual for the turn signals asshole!’ and then rolled forward. He lurched forward more, blocking me. ‘You’re the asshole!’ so I watched as he was rolling into opposing traffic that slammed on their brakes. ‘You’re about to have an accident, dick. Good work!’ and then as he started cursing, I regained my composure and just waved him down. ‘just go. JUST GO.’ and fortunately, he did. And so did I.

However.

I felt really bad about it. Now look, DO have the legal right to go around him. I am allowed to share the lane in the vehicle code. We actually all have that right, but only motorcycles and bicycles can do it practically. Passing on the left is not allowed. However, we were on a single lane road and I did not ‘pass’ in the sense that the vehicle code defines passing as a lane change, which I did not make. Now, in normal traffic, I do not pass on the left of a car, merely because unlike the right, there’s virtually no chance of me being seen. Cars turning right generally have to look right when doing so, so they MAY see you in time, and anyway, that’s where they expect you to be, if at all. Cars turning left are looking straight ahead. So, I would never defend my placement in that incident as being the safe or desirable place to be in a traffic condition. That said, he was stopped. No signal. To the right. Then slammed left, no signal. So. He DID break the law, and I didn’t.

But what bothered me was that every time we have an altercation with a driver, the impact is felt on bicyclists at an exponential rate. That driver tears off pissed at cyclists. not me. CYCLISTS. Add that to every other reasonable (safe distance behind bikes, bikes forced to take the lane as allowed for safety) and unreasonable (roadies two or three ride in the road blocking traffic) bike encounter that frustrates that driver and it’s a pressure cooker. Many cyclists, sometimes me included, ride around grumbling with a grudge against drivers, as we have learned from our day to day experiences. Totally unfair, majority of the drivers being attentive and reasonable people, using compassion and good judgment. But we don’t have much ability to cause harm to drivers. When drivers go off half-cocked and have a grudge against cyclists, the road rage thing percolates until we have aggressive driving threatening riders, violence towards bikes, and worse.

I hated that I got into it with him. I wanted to be able to go back and find that guy and say ‘look, we shouldn’t have lost our heads back there. You thought I was in the wrong, I thought you were, but big picture, no deaths. I’m sorry I yelled at you, and I’m sorry I startled you being on that side.’ even though very likely he’d never understand that hos own driving behavior led to that encounter. I just didn’t like the fact that he drove off thinking I was just another asshole cyclists tearing down that hill, shooting around him, and then yelling at him for daring to make a turn. I would have loved to have been able to actually TALK to him about what happened, and at the very least apologize for losing my cool. Neither of us were even yelling, it was all verbal.

But I rode to work stewing about letting myself stoop to the level of conflict that other people engage in regularly on the road. I did none of us any favors.

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even though i tend to be an old-school guy who prefers friction shifters to indexed, or a fixed drivetrain to a multi-gear drivetrain in general, i have to say, THIS is fucking sick to me.

the toyota prius project concept bike is a collaboration between toyota and parlee cycles, in which several forward-thinking concepts were developed and executed. dig the front brakes integrated in the rear of the fork. the cyclist stat readout integrated into the stem. lots of really cool shit, but the crowning achievement is without a doubt the thought-activated wireless shifting integrated into the helmet. an array of sensors placed at various points on the cyclist’s head pick up the places where thoughts of shifting take place, and viola! you shift with your fucking MIND.

the most comprehensive overview is at prolly (first link above), but you can go to the project’s dedicated SITE for more if you like.

amazing.

also, beautiful…

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So here’s an interesting problem: using old stock centerpull brakes on a modern track frame with a 1 1/8" threadless steerer. Usually these brakes are on older bikes with 1" threaded steerers. You use a cable hanger that mounts within the threaded headset assembly, and it keeps the brake cable taut between the hanger and the brake’s transverse cable (and the coathanger clip, as I call them, being a knave). What happens when you don’t use a hanger? Well, on side-pull modern brakes, with reasonably short cable lengths and minimal bends, you get OK braking. On centerpulls, you get precisely zero braking, since you can’t set up the vertical cable position without a hanger. There are some products on the market to alleviate this, such as a Problem Solvers hanger that acts like a headset spacer with a fluted tube coming off of it. There are a few others, but none have much grace to their designs… they’re really intended for cross, and that’s all modern equipment and generally not glamorous (if you’re doing it right, you shouldn’t even be able to SEE this hanger under all the mud).

But I was doing some browsing around and came across a reference on a cyclocross blog about a field mod someone did where they clipped a rod under their stem clamp, in order to gain the clearance they needed for their application. I was inspired, and actually pretty thrilled, because I LOVE old timey hangers that use a thumb lever, and I had two from the Vista ten-speed that eventually begat Wrongbike (the front using one of the hangers)… the rear hanger was as you would expect, a small notched ring intended to fit within the seat binder bolt assembly. Say it in an old-timey style, with enthusiasms: "it just… might… WORK!"

So I went down there late last night, dug around, found the hanger, and in a moment of great synchronicity, installed it under one of the stem bolts. See, this was awesome because I specifically got a funky stem that has a removable bar clamp despite being pretty classic in shape. So, that gave me a bolt to use. From there, it was fine tuning the clamp, stringing the brake and so on.

It works! At least so far. Sure, I could have just used a fine side-pull brake and alleviated this problem, and if all else fails, I will… but I like the stopping power of centerpull, which even the Mechanic in the Sky Sheldon Brown conceded was better when calibrated than a sidepull. So hey.

Anyway, much ado about a very minor detail, but hey, thinking outside of the box on frankenbuilds goes a long way, I says. And it’s interesting…

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Rest in piece

So I’ve been remiss in reporting on this, but I’ve been doing major surgery to Ye Blacke Death, my funky baby porter slash cargo bike. It was a great build, comprised of an old Mixte frame powdercoated matte black, with lots of old and new stock, a frankendrivetrain, custom chunky wheels by Joe’s shop, 718c in Brooklyn, custom handmade wood fenders, a front portage rack, and a Bobike stem-mounted baby seat. The only problem: the same thing that plagued the original owner of this frame, it’s a little too small. So, add to that the upright riding position for a baby carrier, and the fixed gear drivetrain? My knees were feeling it. I can’t afford that, not just for those rides, but all my other riding. So, I was forced to retire Ye Blacke Death.

RIP Ye Blacke Death. Long live Rapscallion*!

So the new project involves converting a modern track frame into my new baby carrier. I had an Origin8 El Pasado available, which was once Ghostal’s frame. I initially wanted to use it as a test model just to see if I could make the angles work (the bobike baby seat requires a tall stem in order to give you knee clearance, so the riding position is important, the size of the frame, the stem height, etc) and discovered, at least it seems so anyway, that I could make it work, with a seat adapter and some other changes. So, based on that initial test, I decided to continue with the Ghostal frame, build a rideable prototype, and if THAT stands the test of a field expedition, then I could get it repainted and boom.

So today’s report id all about the gap. Specifically fork clearance.

Here’s an example of the great fork clearance of older ten speed frames designed to use centerpull caliper brakes. Spacious! I didn’t even KNOW how good I had it. This is a shot of Wrongbike’s fork but if you look at that pic of Ye Blacke Death up top, you’ll see that I shoehorned a fender, a portage rack, centerpulls AND 38c knobby tyres. There’s a whole thread on that tangle elsewhere. Suffice to say, I’m glad I tested the wheels on the new frame because…

Yep. That’s a tight gap. The El Pasado frame was and is awesome for many reasons, not the least of which being the very versatility that allows for this project, so unusual in an entry level track bike frame. Not only does it have all the braze-ons and eyelets for racks and such, but the fork is wide enough to accommodate big commuter tyres. However, check that gap: it’s like 2mm-3mm. So, this means a change in vision: I had planned to bring everything over from YBD onto this build, but those fenders aren’t happening. That’s OK though, because Wrongbike’s rebuild (and eventually a new name will be required) is veering more old timey than it has been in recent years, and it will take those fenders just fine.

So, basically at this point Wrongbike, Ye Blacke Death and Ghostal are all blown apart and Ye Olde Shoppe looks like a bomb hit it. For now!

*As you may have noticed, I name my bike builds after old-timey villains. Villain, Crook, Redcoat, Carpetbagger, etc. The name Rapscallion is a good one for my baby carrier: evil in one definition, but playfully mischievous in another. Appropriate for a toddler delivery system. Of course, my wifebot certainly never appreciated the baby bike being called Ye Blacke Death. Heh.

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1. Bike Build Process Log: Rapscallion – Live Load Test Ride
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i have had a tumultuous relationship with spoke cards over the years. when i first moved to SF in 91 (and actually even before, when i’d spend my summer vacation from school living here with my dad), i noticed a VERY few couriers on bikes with one speed, no brakes, and a bunch of weird postcards stuck into the spokes of their wheels. i figured out the bikes right away, but the cards always eluded me. eventually i found out that they were markings of participation in alleycat races — underground, messenger-only, often track-bike-specific, often DRUNKEN, city races.

smash cut forward to the initial hipsterification of the track bike phenomenon. the neon triSpoke days (and what horrible days they were). as soon as the kids started emulating the couriers, they started making their own spoke cards, too. their cards didn’t mean that they’d participated in anything other than the wholesale hijacking of a sub-sub-culture’s secret language. their cards were … whatever they were, postcards their fucking parents sent them from paris or whatever, who gives a fuck. the cards lost all meaning immediately. the couriers stopped using them ENTIRELY. it was their own way of further identifying the posers (beyond all the obvious ways).

fast forward a bit to today. spoke cards have finally settled back into a normal place in the zeitgeist. some couriers use them again, now back in their rightful place as alleycat participation identifiers. some of us regulars use them, sometimes as our own alleycat identifiers, sometimes as decoration, but never overdone anymore. some organizations even use them now, such as the SFBC’s bike-to-work-day accident checklist spokecard (which is AWESOME), or chrome bags’ critical mass participation sale card. they’ve finally made it past their uncomfortable middleground.

so i finally felt comfortable going for it. over all these years, i’ve used TWO spoke cards, each on separate days, one for the entire day (the aforementioned SFBC BTWD spoke card), and one for a few hours (the also-aforementioned chrome bags’ CM participation sale card). but this one is gonna stay for the duration (however long that is). it’s my hell’s angels san francisco chapter support sticker spoke card. i purchase small gifts from the frisco HA every year in order to support their organization, and the small gifts you’re able to do so with always say something about "support," which, according to the angels, gives you the right to wear/use them because you’ve given money, you’re showing your support, and you’re in no way claiming to BE an angel. so i bought a grip of stickers and stuck two of them back-to-back to make this spoke card.

win!

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Re-Cycle is a Northern California used bike shop that accepts donated bikes and accessories, refurbishes or cleans them up, and then sells them for a charity program. I mean, right off the bat, you want to buy as much as you can there, right? Even if you weren’t a bike build enthusiast.

Oh, but I am!

Onward: I have been wanting to get out to Re-Cycle for about a year, ever since I learned about it, but only now had the opportunity to take a long lunch and shoot over. I like to multitask my errands, and had a bike part craigslist pick-up in SR same day, so. The goal was: look for suitable track or trackable frames for couplng, and look for potential raw projects for a gift bike for my loving wifebot(tm).

I was unsuccessful on the frame hunt. I saw several great project frames, including two road frames fromt he 70s that had long horizontal or diagonal drops (perfect for track conversion) but both were 58cm and I’m 56cm and I’ve learned, through my Looks, that it’s frustrating when you adapt to a frame too big or too small. So I walked from those.

However, there were finds:

1. Sweet 3T Stem! This was my favorite stem mfr other than Thomson. Of course, in both cases, it’s because we’re talking matte black stems with white block letters, but also because the 3T, like the Thomson X4, is a 2-bolt bar clamp, AND, there’s the name thing. You know I dork out and like Thomson parts for the name. And of course, same same, 3 T ? HA. Anyway, this was a great find, because it’s the right length, and it can be used on Villain, where my other black Thomson X4 currently lives, allowing me to swap the X4 over to the new MASH build to keep things all Thomson over there. Perfect! Also? $22.

2. Sweet Elmo Hobby Horse: We’ve been looking forward to getting a hobby horse for Wee Z, though she’s still too short for it. We wanted to get a wooden one. They are very expensive. Oh, and she’s obsessed with Elmo, of course. BOOM! With fully-lowerable seat. Price? $30 negotiated down form $50.

3. And here’s the sweetest. I found an incredibly cool project bike for wifebot(tm). It’s a mixte from the southeast-asian market. It has rod brakes. It has pie plates. It is Guaranteed World Finest Bicycle Precision Mechanism! I’m stoked. If she ends up hatin it, you know this will be mine.

I"m just loving this place as a resource. One weekend, Lung and I are going to take a drive over and spend THE DAY. I think, if we were crafty, we could actually BUILD a frankebike and ride it out.

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