Down Trails and shaded glens

I've been riding, just kind of low key instead of outright hyper on the bike culture-thing like I was last year.

Zwartehond, my Workcycles / Azor   Kruisframe/Pastoorfietsen has some updates, after correspondence and business with Henry Cutler.  Gone is the ridiculously heavy and complex Nexus 8.  Instead mounted is a SRAM automatix, a 2 speed hub that jumps from 100% direct drive to 131% or so, once the rear wheel is spinning around 11mph.  The Automatix also features a coaster brake, and is not particularly heavier or larger than the stock standard Shimano CB110 coaster hub.  Supposedly the Automatix is based on the older Fichtel and Sachs, and is generally designed to last forever.  I'm liking the simplicity.

The crank went down to 38T and I upped the rear sprocket to 23, so everything is nice and easy to pedal at in the 100%.  Front nexus rollerbrake is retained.  I added a Travel Agent to use more classy looking Velo-Orange levers.  Grips changed for coke-bottle. Crane bell added.

Gotta be about 10lbs lighter at least. Also removed the cafe-lock, as I don't operate in a particularly high crime area. I can use the cable, or U-lock or even still attach the cafe lock, depending on circumstance required.

I took the trail north for 40 miles last Sunday, to check my endurance. Of this only 1/3rd of the total 83 miles was paved.  Gravel, or even just grassed double-track got old pretty quickly.   Lots of food, lots of fluid.  My butt was sore, by the end of the ride, and I courted bonk at one point.  My Garmin GPS said I burnt 3311 calories.  Yow!

I originally intended on taking my new bike, a Virtue "Ortho" on Ragbrai, based on the assumption I'd lose lots of weight this summer, getting back down to a trim 135-140.   Yeah, didn't happen.  Still 190ish.  So Zwartehond it is, self-supported.  To increase cargo carrying, I purchased a Carradice Nelson Long Flap, and moved it to the aft position, moving the Carradice College up front.

This bridge could probably still carry a model-T, which was the car en vogue when it was built. Nowadays...

Carrying the bare minumums, Tent, Amana 6pt wool blanket, waxed chore coat, camera, film, tool kit, 2 pairs Wool knickers and Linen shirts, stockings. few toiletries, lights, a book and a sketch book, opinel, some soft canteens, powdered lemon, sugar, a good book, and whatever ad-hoc snacks I score en route.

'Was initially planning on doing the whole week of Ragbrai, but driving all the way out to Council Bluffs, and then suffering an 85 mile 4000ft climb day in the sun-blasted west prairie seems more like an exercise in masochism.   So I'm just going to pick it up in much closer Des Moines, and ride the remaining 4ish days.

 Hopefully I won't get completely zoned out, while being surrounded  in the sea of lyrca.

One of the things that bugs me about Ragbrai, is that the course hours are generally 6am to 6pm. 6am is fine-  but in July, in the midwest, it is essentially still light to 9:00pm and typically cooler in the evening.  Seems like they should be encouraging mid-day siestas and evening riding.  Oh-well.

ShadowPandas

Shadow Pandashot

As I was bicycling home today, I took particular note of my shadow-self, pedaling away in exaggerated perspective. As soon as I reached a particularly vacant section of cul-de-sac out came the camera.

Everything is 100% good with Zwartehond. The Ritchey liquid torque worked great, and the Brooks single rail seatpost clamp, flipped around and backwards allowed me to use the lovely sprung B.67 again. The classic style seatpost and clamp, allow for about a 40mm drop over the stock kalloy micro-adjust.  I spent Saturday morning going back and forth on the local crushed limestone trail, dialing everything in. I stayed off the big dutch-belgian beast until today, and when I climbed into the saddle this morning, it was like an old friend. Perfect fit, perfect reach.  As I commuted to work, the phrase
that came into my mind to describe my impression of the bike:  'The Big Easy'.

I rode the Felt Cafe3 quite a bit last week, and on Sunday as well, biking up the 12 miles from downtown in the 95F heat.  Not too bad.  This was the first time I had done this stretch of trail on the Felt, and it was suprising, just how swiftly the light Aluminum 3 speed took me. I stayed at least at 15mph. Zoom. Maybe I overdid it just a tad, as I had consumed a large lunch, as I ended up feeling slightly ill, even though I was hydrated. Ahwells.  Sometimes fast is good, sometimes it is good to take it easy.

Last Weekend Rides

Zwartehond and the wind turbine

I should probably get around to documenting these things when the weekend is still occuring.  Last weekend was enjoyable. My old-timey seatpost pillar and Brooks B.72 arrived, just in time to get Zwartehond out for a charity ride, most of the ways down to the end of the Cedar RiverHoover whatsit trail.  Zwartehond got quite a bit of attention, I also thought that the days of wine and roses were over, when the Nexus 8 hub started to act erratically. It just spun in third gear, and seemed to centrifugally clutch out of first into something like 6th.  At the turn-around control which happened to be a pub, I opened the chaincase and tried to remember anything relevant about the Nexus8 settings. Everything looked normal, but then, I had never read the service manual.  

As I departed, full of dread about having to bike with a failing gear system  20 something miles back to town and then home, I noticed the shifter-  the cable had bounced 3cm or so out of the adjusting barrel. I re-secured it, and everything started operating fine.  Seems like the shifter could be a little more durable. I should research if there are more austere metally ones- yes, that's right, I'm jealous of those old Sturmey Archer 3speed hub shifters.

Also, I really haven't been consuming alcohol much at all lately. So when I got to the control/Pub and had a pint and a half of Guiness, I expected to end up a little too buzzed to immediately return to bicycling. Nope. It bounced right off me.  I'm still not sure how that happened. Mind you, I'm still a neophyte when it comes to this cycling and drinking thing.  I'll confess, the fervent behavior of roadies and RAGBRAI clubs for alcohol is distressing to me.  I've had friends and family with drinking problems, and I guess I'm a little soured on it all. 

Lots and Lots of Bikes Actually!

I had a leisurely ride back to town, and had a little lunch at the Parlor City pub. Then a leisurely bike back north. I detoured to see if a biking enthusiast friend was at his house, but he was out. Ah well, just more miles. :)

Zwartehond Voyaguer

Zwartehond and I went a-travelling last Sunday. While my daily commute takes me to the west, and I have also gone east and north to a degree, I had not yet made a trip down the length of the Cedar River trail.  So I gathered my things, strapped my newly waxed pointer chore coat onto Zwartehond's Carradice bag, and struck out west-ward to get onto the trail.  The sky alternated between grey and threatening - with a few warning drops, and periods of soft sunlight.

Powerplant and Kruisframe

 I ended up not needing the chore-coat, but the trip was good, as it assisted with further airing and curing of the otter-wax applied the day before. It now has only the faintest of scent, before, it smelled strongly similar to pine-sol, like an entire bottle of pine-sol emptied onto the floor of a room. About like that.

I stopped at a Dairy Queen for a frozen confection, but the line inside was interminably long, and I grew nervous for Zwartehond- chained up outside and gathering a bit of a crowd- it seemed as one individual was ascertaining the resiliency of the fencing to which it was secured.  That had me return outside and huffily set forth onto the trail again.  Maybe I was just paranoid.

All was not lost, ice-cream wise- for a mile or so down the trail was a walk-up ice-cream place, one that had formerly been a Tastee-Freeze. So I did get my small chocolate dipped cone, feeling safe being 10 feet from Zwartehond with the cafe-lock deployed, and what seemed like a more amiable atmosphere.

Finishing my cone, I continued my sortie down the trail, listening to WIRE's Manscape, as the ugly industrial infrastructure side of Starch City sprawled wide across the flat stagnate waters of Cedar Lake. Eventually I rolled through the quiet weekend streets of downtown, and guided Zwartehond through alleys still familiar from my days of working in the city.  Lunch at a favorite cafe. I locked Zwartehond up outside- there was a squad of firefighters also dining at one of the outside tables. The big kruisframe gathered quite a few long glances from them as they left. An older couple stopped to look at the black beast as well, the gentleman particularly spending a minute or two looking it over.

Black Dog Big City

 There is not too much more to tell perhaps.  I took the same trail that I had ridden about a month before on the Felt Cafe3. Maybe going at a more leisurely pace, although the big bike gets going quite speedily.  Twenty miles down, Twenty miles and five back, as I stopped by a friend's house. Fourty-five miles even, in no great hurry and under six hours.  This is the equivalent to mileage to day seven of Ragbrai, which I hope to bike this summer. I probably won't do it on Zwartehond, but it is nice to know I can cover some distance on such a big bike.  Twenty more miles, or a hundred kilometers, with a morning start would've been no big challenge.

Kruisframe Impressions

Gracious, what a big enormous beast of a bike.  I feel like I’m perched on top of the world- because I pretty much am. I found myself at the same eye level as the drivers in  most pickup trucks and SUVs.  The steel frame combined with the big Schwalbe Marathon tyres, and the Brooks B67 minimizes road-discomfort, a good thing too, given the quality of the roads around here.

The Shimano Nexus 8 speed is interesting, it certainly has a lower bottom end than the Nexus 3, and that’s probably a good thing, given that hills are a bit more of a challenge.  It also has no freewheel noise.  I snuck up behind some of my coworkers who were on a stroll,  and gave them the bell at 3 feet.

There is a bit of plastic on it, in spots I dont like, and I’ll be working on replacing that with metal or leather, I’m trying to really make it more 1920s appropriate.
It feels like a comfortable assuredness, riding the bike. A certainty that as long as you keep leisurely spinning the pedals, it will take you to whatever destination you wish. I love it!  

I was skeptical about the Brooks B67, the first few rides were rough.  I spent several hours tweaking the positioning, and now it is pointed just right and pretty comfortable, even though the leather is as hard as a rock.  I ordered another Selle An Atomica Titanico -X anyways. I’ll see how it goes.  The bag on it is a Carradice College, ordered from VeloFred, I’ll do more of a review later perhaps. I can admit however that on Tuesday evening, I rode home with a rotissere chicken, cornbread muffins, a can of cranberry sauce, and a change of clothes.

I tossed a coin for which bike I would take to work today, and the Felt Cafe3 won. Getting back on it after 4 days of Kruisframing was an eye opener. How fast and agile and insubstantial it felt. How quickly I could accelerate. How bone-shakingly brutal the ride is. I went all over heck and back on it today, about 18 miles, and ended up having to tighten up the fenders- some of their bolts were loosening up from road vibration.  Need to get some blue loctite.  The Felt is a good bike, my gateway bike… and now I’m cyclo-addicted.

What next? well, one goal- if I manage to get back down to my ideal weight of sub 145lbs-  I’m going to reward myself with a Highwheel bike. Yes, just to be that obtuse. 

The nice freight delivery man spent several extra minutes trying to find my house, but then saw me waving at him from down the block.  He stopped by, and dropped off a big cardboard box.  I had to sign lots of paperwork.

What could be inside?

I painstakingly spent the next hour with my trusty opinel No5, clearing away cardboard and pallet-wrap- and this is what was inside!
Presenting ZwarteHond, my Azor-Workcycles Kruisfame. *Happy Sigh* Now I guess I’m just another Dutch bike blogger.