This is a companion report to the detailed, dare I even say thurra, ride report Ironlung posted this morning. The Primavera event is probably one of my favorite charity rides in the area, largely based on what Lung pointed out in his write-up: excellently supported, beautiful views at the reservoir, and close enough to home to keep it from being a travel hassle. In previous years, I took a road bike, so my perspective was shaky as I planned for this year’s run on a fixed-gear. I remembered the Calaveras Wall but that was about it. Anyway, Lung and I basically rode a variation on what we took to LA in Lifecycle, and ride every day, basically: him on a Cinelli X MASH Bolt, me on a Cinelli X Mash [sceond gen]…we were set up a little differently from each other. He used drop bars, and I had bulls. Our gearing was a bit different too: he ran 44/16 for a 72 inchgear as his base, and 44/20 for the steep climbing sections, yielding something like 57 inchgear. I rode a deeper 48/17 (77 inchgear) with a 48/19 (67 inchgear) for climbs. Previously, neither of us had used bail-out gears on our bikes. We brought cogs on Lifecycle but never used em, and on all of our rides in Marin and the like, we muscled through climbs with what we had, and avoided the super-steep stuff altogether out of practicality (if one may use the term when discussing fixed-gear bikes in this context)… but here we were facing climbs that were part of a regular regional loop for roadies, and those climbs were spread out over a good distance, so attrition would also be a factor. As any cyclist can tell you, you can go all out and ride farther and longer than you thought possible… on one climb… but that’s it, you’re not going to recover. To sustain for a whole day you need to see the long picture. We knew this was going to be the most climbing we’d done fixed, and early in the riding season to boot, but we were all in.

It was also one of those rides where there were very few hitches. I got out of the house 15 minutes ahead of schedule, we arrived about 20 minutes ahead of our plan, and had no delays in check in. We ditched the start and got right on the road, didn’t dilly-dally at the rest stops, had great food throughout and at the end, and never needed SAG or field support. No llama drama. And Lung never had tripleCramps and my bike didn’t become, like a helicopter, a cluster of components traveling in unstable formation, which was all in all a nice change.

Yep, my gearing was too brutal to make it up the wall without stopping, but not for long.

It wasn’t devoid of challenges. I got two hours of sleep before the start, thanks to a sweltering heat wave. Team Lope vet Jeff Muadib Marks met us on the route, living thereon) and made it up Calaveras before suffering the SAME EXACT MECHANICAL that knocked me out of last year’s Gran Fondo, a rear derailleur shattering that I had never even HEARD of before.

Here’s Jeff examining his SAW III type deathtrap derailleur

Lung’s salt tablet deployment system was getting a little surly, and I dropped my chain on the rollers due to bearing race issues in my rear axle, though quickly resolved. There was some saddle soreness. I had suffered a pretty bad wrist wrenching on Mt Tam a few days prior that i was nursing at the start of this, which was at full bore inflammation by the end, so the final descent was very painful. BUT. It was the descent after the final climb, after a full effing day of climbing and riding so I was stoked. And like Lung said, it was great to burn your candle on a long day like that but walk away (literally) without injury or recovery issues, feeling like you could ride the next day. You never know, especially when pushing fixies on these things.

The Calaveras reservoir area was my favorite. Thanks to Jeff’s misfortune, we got to enjoy it longer than in previous years.

Anyway, it was a great ride. I will say that I wasn’t as well equipped as Lung, partly avoidable and partly not. For one thing, I chose to keep my 77 inchgear as my main drive, rather than gear back down to the 72 we both generally ride… had I switched back, I would have probably felt better as the day went on, because of the muscle work I was essentially wasting. I mean, it’s a compromise, right. Go to 72, spin more, ride slower. But at 77, ride faster and work harder, sooner. I needed to swap cogs sooner than Lung, and I was suffering more at the end of the day. My bail out gear was a 67, which was not enough. It was sure as hell better than the 77 but it was still too steep for these climbs, so while I DID successfully ride all the climbs on the route, I stopped a number of times to recover.

Interesting snake whip skids coming down to Rest Stop 3 at speed…

But man, we had a blast. Skidding all over the place, flying along those rollers, great conversations on the route and at the rest stops with wide-eyed riders that marveled out our general madness, and I can’t reiterate this enough: AWESOME ride support. Strawberries and pineapple and all sorts of carbs at every stop, fudgecicles, ICE for the water bottles, effing ROOSTERS for no reason, more SAG vehicles on the road than I can remember ever seeing, even when you consider the smaller scale of this event compared to the rider count of something like the Gran Findo or the Marin Century. It was just a great time all day, even when it wasn’t.

That’s the last of the unreasonable fixed-gear assaults on event rides for this year, as Marin Century and Gran Fondo both warrant road bike use (I mean, warrant it MORE) and we missed the Wine Country Century (and gave up on Solvang due to travel time)… but we’ll continue to ride our unreasonable fixed-gear bikes up unreasonable climbs in Marin and around the bay area year-round, so wave or holler if you see us…

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like many cyclists, i wear a cycling cap under my helmet to help manage sweat and sun. it’s a strictly functional thing and doesn’t really have any place outside the saddle, but that doesn’t mean that it can’t look cool. for instance, i wear this one currently, which of course is 3% more awesome than the rest because it reps SF, while WR has SEVERAL custom ones in fancy fabrics that look ultra sweet as.

well for some reason, i don’t know if it’s cause i come from a family of hunters or if it’s cause i grew up in redneck country or what, the ROTHERA REALTREE CAMO CYCLING CAP is seriously speaking to me right now. functionally, what makes this one different is that it’s water-repellant, which makes me want it very badly. but that camo is just too fucking cool.

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So the Primavera Century is coming up this weekend, and Lung and I are doing it fixed. At first, I was gung-ho without much attention tot he details only because:
a) we ride fixed everywhere, frequently climbing
2) we rode to LA without an issue
d) fackit

But I started thinking about the last few times I did this event… the Calaveras Road section has ‘the wall’ which is just one of three big climbs of the day… I remember this being an issue for many of the road riders, let alone a couple of dorks on fixies. I got through it, and the other climbs, using my usual double-ring road bike config, but in thinking about muscling up those on a fixed gear, three details emerged:
a) it’s one thing to muscle up a climb, as we often do. It’s another thing to blow that much anaerobic resource on a long day of riding, headwinds and heat and other climbs to follow
2) I recently upgeared to 76*
d) ohfack

Additionally, I haven’t overhauled Crook Type 3 pretty much since I built it up after ALC… and that’s far too long. I rotate through bikes (at one point, 8 of them) in my commute, so the more rigorous overhaul isn’t as necessary for me or as frequent anyway as it is for Lung, riding the same bike every day with few exceptions. And I’ve done several maintenance and corrections evenings, spot-overhauling parts of it. But the creaks int he bottom bracket were joined by some ping-pings recently, and my brake pads were stubs. So it was time to do it up.

I didn’t COMPLETELY overhaul it in the sense that I didn’t break it down to it’s complete extrusion photo level of strippage, but I did the primary stuff: complete drivetrain overhaul, brakes, all bolts and major adjustments. All I didn’t do is pull the 17 off, as I recently put it on, and I didn’t break down the headset.

I’m now whisper silent. I mean, I still have the minor chatter of chainline issues, but the bike itself is a ninja again (a green and white and elkhide and chainline-chattering ninja)… it hasn’t been this quiet since I built it. So smooth. And it’s of course all thanks to judicious applications of my best pal in the shop:

Ole Phil never lets me down…

As far as the Primavera goes, what I ended up electing to do is keep the 76 on the one side, and add a 19 cog on the other, which gets me to around 67. So the total rig is not as nimble as Lung’s 72/03 (or whatever that 21 gets him) but at least we both have a climbing gear to fall back on as needed, one way or another.

I rode the hills by my house a few times on the new cog to get cinched, per the usual routine, and rode in on it, which was sort of torturous, not unlike trying to spend much high-cadence saddle time on Rapscallion with it’s 20 cog (baby bikery) but I really wanted to give it some time to settle in. I will say it’s nimble to climb with it.

Excelsior!
*I’ve been saying it was 77 but I checked and it actually rounds to 76, my bad. 48/17

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This isn’t the first custom security bolt system for bikes but it is by far the most comprehensive I’ve seen. On the low end you have security skewers such as the ones Lung and I have used, which use a single triangle shaped key universally. Next up, a number of services that offer skewers and track bolts with custom key heads. But Inifinity3d by Atomic22 actually offers a complete system for your track, road or mountain bike. You sign up and get a custom, unique key hole shape. Then you select all the bolts you need, from stem cap to seat binder bolt to saddle clamp bolt to pedals, and so on. These aren’t cheap. It’s a UK business and to price it you need to make an order and it gets sorted based on your location (ie whether VAT is added) which is really a smokescreen for keeping the sticker shock down. But I mean, if you have an expensive ride and don’t want your sensitive shit stolen, it’s hard to put a price on that security.

For me, if I have expensive parts they may or may not be on an expensive bike, but either way, I’m not leaving that bike out to get stripped or stolen anyway. I lock all my rides for a short time under reasonably controlled environments, and beyond that, if there are questions about security I’ll bring my bike in. I’ll buy it a ticket. Glass of wine. Whatever it takes.

But anyway, there will be scenarios, among all possible scenarios, in which you have a bike of whatever overall quality, either super valuable or very inexpensive, but the issue becomes keeping a loss from happening, regardless of value (ie. you’re on a road trip through Bent Ankle, West Egypt, with nary a bike shop for hundreds of kilometers) and you need to lock your bike up and do work or explore or whatever your mission is, and you just need to have the comfort that no one can swipe your seat or whatever… in that scenario, these definitely have a place.

http://atomic22.com/

Bonus:

This is what the custom heads look like, close up and purty.

And this is how the key system works. You use a spanner or lockwrench with the key.

Found on the LSS forum.

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So coming off a short but annoying cold I could tell my asthma was doing it’s usual thing and packing the congestion in my lungs like hibernation of pestilence, so something needed to be done. Also, I was itching to get some exercise after my bday and post-bday debauchery. Also, I changed the gearing on Crook Type 3 to 76 and was hot to try it on my Loring climb Alternate Commute Route. So I did. On a frosty, windy morning.

The climb was going to be tough, just judging from GETTING to it, having ridden this bike this route so many times. It’s a modest wavy grade to get to where Loring starts, and by the time I did, I was noticing my legs burning from trying to maintain my customary cadence. Heading up, the main difference was the point at which I hopped out of the saddle, which was a few hundred feet sooner. Otherwise, my performance was the same: no stops, slow grinding mash, and relieved to get to the top. That said, I had a much longer recovery at the top. I actually circled a few times before descending the other side because I wanted to attempt a brake free Alternate Commute Route and the legs felt fatigued.

After that, the descent was a combination of short skids to control speed, back pedaling and a few long skids at the appropriate places. I got to work without using the break I mean brake, which was nice. My quads felt tight, though.

When I left in the evening, I was feeling some soreness in my legs in about three or four places. Ride home was cold and windy and I mashed to get home in time to relieve the nanny, so to speak, so that combined with all the skidding, added to the work being done and you know how it is with muscle fatigue: it’s not any one thing you did or even the combination of them, it’s what you did PAST the point where your muscles were cooked. Having been off the bike for several days and having not done that climb in about a week and a half were all enough to probably make my muscles complain, but adding the bigger gearing to it again was the last straw for me ole quads. So last night I was stiff as a board throughout, getting the baby and chasing cats and what have you, and this morning, more of the same. It was ‘stairs are difficult’ level soreness, not too bad but very noticeable. Enough that my daughter kept asking ‘whatchoo doo on your knee!’

Swim class with her this morning was perfect for it though, as I loosened up and flushed them out a bit, and then I rode in after and got more of the lactic acid moving around and I’m feeling pretty good.

Still, I digress. That was all the unexpected outcome of Loring on the bigger gear for the first time. The point was loosening up my chest, and I’m happy to report that I sounded like Doc Holliday for three hours after I got to work. Tuberculosis cough, I mean. Also quotes: ‘you’re a daisy if ya do!’

Great ride! I love feeling the fruits of my efforts, and knowing that five similar rides from now I won’t be feeling that soreness.

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We’re enjoying our last rain-free day here in the SF Bay area, prior to another full week of showers. Now, the fact that I had to drive in today would normally have given me the frustrations. However, in this instance, it does not. A week of rain means a week of rain riding. Which means SHENANIGANS. Skidding capability really changes everything.

Hopefully that isn’t going on my gravestone in a week’s time…

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The other day, when I was lamenting not getting to ride in the rain (who does that) I noted that I’d post about my ride kit for rain days. I have a base kit that goes with me every day (if all goes as according to plan) including tools, spare stuff, a compressed shopping bag/ backpack, an asthma inhaler for emergencies, and a Heat Bullet. But I also have special sub kits that are conditional. For example, a cold weather kit, certain toolkit adds depending on bike being used, and so on. One such conditional kit is my rain kit.

I keep the other kits bundled in parcels in another container but this one gets a bin of its own.
Within:

- Pair of old Vittoria 1975s (these are the ones that got me to LA and were recently retired as the heels are breaking down) which I use for rain conditions these days.

- Waterproof ankle booties

- Clear waterproof jacket (large enough to cover a backpack)

- Brooks saddle cover

- Helmet cover (a new edition)

I’ve used the rain jacket several times, but the saddle cover I’ve always been too lazy to use. Now that I’m riding in the rain on a regular basis though, I’m finally using it properly. To be fair, previously my rain rides were on the baby bike, Rapscallion, with the baby seat removed, and that has an old Brooks saddle beyond help, and no other leather goods on it. But now that I’m riding any and all bikes, I wanted to take better care of the gear. Of course, leather doesn’t dissolve in rain, as many an animal will confirm for you. But it does stretch and such, something less desirable for saddles and bar wrap. Ironically enough, I had TWO of these saddle protectors when I did ALC and didn’t bring them. Subsequently the bikes were wet a few mornings as they were racked in the open.

Here’s that rain helmet cover. I never had one of these before. I never saw the need. But then again, I never deliberately rode in the rain. Sure, I’ve been caught out in the rain on long rides before, and whatever, you get wet. But one annoying thing about vented bike helmets is that eventually that water gets through your cap and then you get really soaked, water down the face etc… especially when one has no hair. So, not for your typical light rain day, but for a day like today, when I left the house in pouring rain? It makes a world of difference.

Here’s one of those Brooks Saddle protectors. It has an elastic rim, and then a cinch in back, as well as a clever velcro strap that you can secure on a seat rail just in case.

The remaining component of my rain kit is the fold-down European fender. I love this thing.

I was behind schedule last night so I brought the bike up to the house and then remembered it was on the deck, around 11pm, so I pulled it in the house and gave it a wipe down. In the morning, it was a feature item for my daughter, who helped get her mother and brother awake through the repeated use of the bell. As is her wont.

Yesterday was a light rain day. Today was a POURING rain day. And I had a great ride in. Yesterday was wrongbike, as above, and today was Crook. Good stuff!

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I’m inspired to try hitting some of the steep streets in SF later this summer, to see what’s what. I’m never going to win any medals, being heavier and stockier than optimal for cycling, but once I’ve got some saddle time under my belt in summer, I think I want to try a few of these beasts. Road bike, of course. Lung has hit a few of the steep sections in Potrero on the Bolt successfully at a 72 inch gear or so, but these would require the tiniest gear available. On two ring road bikes, it still is pretty daunting… I have a 39/27 nominally available on Rogue, but I say nominally because I’m still having some shifting issues I want to sort out before this would happen.

Filbert is the one everybody talks about, right. The 31-32% grade, up the wrong way on a one-way. It’s in the books. You can read about one experience (or rather three attempts) here.

Side note: I noted on the Wiki for Filbert that an unofficial survey in 2010 determined that a section of Bradford at the south end of the city is 40% grade. So, we can always plan.

Of course, I tend to think of the climbing challenges in SF to be more about duration than total gradient alone. For example, witness some of the approaches to Telegraph or Russian Hill or even Potrero but from the BASE, going up 5 blocks? That’s what gives me the heart palpitations. It’s the real-world challenge. We don’t ride to a street and hit one block of it and then go celebrate, generally. We ride something brutal and then KEEP going to a destination.

Lung posted an infographic of tall climbs in major cities, including the one in his beloved Pittsburgh, so you know, this could be a long challenge if taken nationally.

Anyway, inspired!

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there’s a bunch of physical impact that cycling has on the body which may make you pull over and have to rest. muscle fatigue, elevated heart rate, and lack of oxygen are some. and while i’ve had to pull over for elevated heart rate before, it’s pretty rare. but there’s one thing that will drive me to the shoulder faster and more frequently than any other thing — SADDLE SORE. i don’t know if it’s because i’m a lean dude so my sit bones are closer to the surface, or if it’s because i just can’t find a saddle yet that’s right for my physical makeup, or even if it’s because i haven’t got the right cycling shorts, but seriously — 30 miles is about all i have in me when it comes to this dreadful pain. on the way up to sacramento, my ass was BATTERED, specifically because i was carrying a full pack on my back for 70 miles, which would have hurt even without the pack. and at the risk of revealing TMI, i also battle with the perenial pressure thing on saddles. i need the groove or i can’t … uh, perform. so needless to say, i’m perpetually looking for a saddle that works for me.

because your pelvis tilts side to side as you ride, the key to solving this is to find a saddle which gives under pressure. not one that’s squishy, in fact it needs to be pretty firm, but one that has some play. and that’s why one thing that works for many cyclists is leather saddles. leather has a lot of give and can be suspended like a hammock over a frame, allowing for your body’s movement to push down on one side without crushing the sitbone. this is why brooks has been so popular for so many years. but recently a saddle called the SELLE AN-ATOMICA was released which piqued my interest, because it was a combination of two things that brooks only offers separately. it’s a low-profile saddle (no tall sides) like the brooks swallow, but it has a split down the middle like the brooks imperial (which has tall sides). and the split is way longer than on the imperial. it was like the best of both worlds and i was very interested.

so at NAHBS, the selle an-atomica people were there and they had a bike on a trainer, where you could test the saddle, albeit riding in place. now remember that i was pretty battered down there from the ride up, and in fact, even the 10-block ride to the show was hurting me, both days. but i sat on this saddle and pedaled on the trainer for a while and i felt nothing but comfort. i could feel the saddle giving way to either side as i turned the cranks. rather than my right sitbone hurting when my right foot was down and my left sitbone hurting when my left foot was down, the saddle just tilted with me. as i pedaled, it moved with my pelvis. it was perfect. it was also $190. yeesh. the show special was no tax, which was nice, but i still hesitated.

since it’s a family-owned business (a husband, wife, and two sons) and the lady was there with one of the sons, i talked to her for a minute while i was testing it. i explained what my problems were, and she said that the family set out on this project because they wanted the sons to ride comfortably. she said that she’s never gotten a complaint, and that in fact, she’s gotten "most comfortable saddle ever" a number of times. she said that many people like me, who’d been looking for their entire cycling lives for a saddle that didn’t hurt, had thanked them for finally making one. i talked to the son who was there, who said very convincingly that after a few miles you don’t even know it’s there any more. but still, $190? then i remembered that i’m getting a fat bonus from work on this upcoming friday and thought fuck it and snapped up the black with gunmetal brads.

when i left the show, i swapped the saddle out there on the sidewalk and rode it back to my hotel. HOLY SHIT. the streets in sacramento aren’t as pitted and deadly as in SF, but there are plenty of opportunities to go over bumpity-bumps, and i took every one. it’s amazing, even with a sore ass, i felt nothing. not to mention i could still feel the saddle giving and moving with my body as i pedaled.

so needless to say i’m REALLY pleased at the first go. only a proper ride will tell and i’m still too sick to ride back to SF so i probably won’t have that opportunity till next weekend, but i intend to take it. and if it doesn’t work out, they’re totally cool about taking it back. they said i have 30 days and if i don’t like it, no questions asked. very awesome.

of course now i have to finally cave in and do that chain-wrapped-in-inner-tube thing to keep my fucking $190 saddle in my possession, but hey, whatever. i’ll make it work.

/// UPDATE \\\
i can finally say with confidence that this is the best saddle i’ve ever owned. i took it on the primavera metric century this past weekend, and experienced absolutely zero saddle sore. ordinarily, i’d have been feeling it around mile 30-40, and it’d have been becoming unbearable after mile 50-60. this saddle? nothing, after 63.5 miles.

i’m definitely going to get one for my road bike. cost is no longer an issue to me. in my opinion, this is the best saddle on the market, of those that i’ve tried. and i’ve tried bunches.

10/10 CLANKS!

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it’s been a long time since i’ve put a process log up on this bike (formerly called "bianchiWhite"), and in that time, i’ve gotten a lot done. in fact, i got everything done except for wrapping the bars and installing pedals and a chain. but i couldn’t really do much of that until i got to the big scary part. scary in that i’ve never done it before — mounting the tubular tyres.

as you may or may not remember/care, i’m trying to keep this bike MOSTLY vintage. it’s got a modern saddle on it, as well as a modern crankset (which will change to vintage one day), and modern hubs. but everything else is vintage or NOS. this is why i chose to go with tubular tyres. but tubulars, while much lighter and arguably stronger than typical road clinchers, require a lot of technique and madness to install. they have no inner tubes and they’re glued onto the rims, then held in place by the pressure you pump into them. the glue is pressure activated, so the higher the tyre pressure, the tighter they are.

anyway, it’s a fucking toxic affair, requiring latex gloves and a painter’s mask and messy glue and sandpaper and all manner of bullshit waiting around for shit to dry or not completely dry or whateverthefuck, but i got both tyres mounted over the weekend and it looks BALLER. over the next couple days i’ll string the chain and wrap the bars, then install pedals some time next week.

stoked!

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