Not much… but some. Bring it!

The Jones frameset arrived… and was as quickly as possible unpacked and assembled. Jenni came over to help, bring gifts from her recent trip to Portland to do a fitting and talk with Natalie Ramsland.

Noah was naturally underfoot as he loves helping, building, tools and pretty much anything of mine, so a shiny new bike is premo. Jenni rapidly included “hammer prevention” to her list of tasks, as Noah believes that the hammer is the tool of choice for virtually any situation. We tried to get him to only hammer the rubber tires, but a few spokes and frame bits got tapped. Fortunately he’s already learned not to hammer with all his strength when he’s not sure he’s allowed to be hammering at all… he comes by all this honestly as I grew up seeing the results of my hammering the dining room table (tiny little half moon divots in one corner) and sawing through the wicker arm of the living room chair. Apparently, I had tools that were more “real” than Noah’s plastic hammer, or little wood puzzle piece hammer. There are some things you can’t outrun.

The outcome of all this fun and assembly can be seen here, on top of my car. The picture is post facto as it was fairly dark when I set out. We had our own little “cranksgiving” festival as we said goodbye to Gerry, one of our favorite ride partners who’s headed south for a few months (to where he rides more miles than I do all year) while he participated in the Turkey Trot, a five mile race around the lake. We stood around talking, joking and generally goofing around, and still managed to mix 11 miles of riding in there. We even rode amongst the racers (race is relative term here), where we both realized some personal progress as riding up this one little steep behind walkers showed some strength and bike control. It wasn’t even hard… a few years ago I’m sure I couldn’t have done it at all.

As for the bike? It’s a great ride. Riding on the road it quietly minds its own business. The ride is refined and gentle. No doubt in part because of the Schwalbe Big Apples Jeff recommended for this purpose. Those are some serious balloon tires, but the frame supports the concept as well. The balance and geometry of the bike come alive when you have the slightest bit of “trail”. Hop a curb, absorb a pothole, do anything that asks anything of the frame it responds. It has that “cry of delight” that best bikes all seem to have. They all scream “Let’s go!” as you begin to ask something of them. I’ve never hopped curbs, swooped up and down little rises or ridden such a responsive bike in those circumstances. It’s effortless. I can’t wait to put some knobbies on and hit a real trail…

Jenni was on her road bike… and after negotiating the road apples left by the Clydsdales the mounted Sheriffs left behind (nothing like fresh, steaming, horse poop to remind one that the addition of cars to cities was driven by more than just advancing technology.) So we’re winding our way through the back of the race, and decide that this was one of our less ingenious ideas… and we bail through a back parking lot. The lots in this state park do not get a ton of care and so are very broken up. And while Jenni gingerly picked a line through the broken pavement I rolled with one hand on the bar, talking with her (all right, taunting would be more accurate) since the Jones, equipped as it with the fat tires, and Jeff’s build of the brakes with a combination of Nokon and stainless steel tube housing made for one finger/one hand control of the hill we were on.

But it was really before and after the ride that I learned the most about what this might be capable of… even in my hands. I parked in a lot that has a short rise just as you leave the north corner. I was impressed by how easily the bike climbed it on the way out, considering the tires are essentially slicks and the icy morning dew, but on the way back I let the bike have the drop and it was smooth and controlled and in that effortless manner it displays. Sure, I rode a rigid mountain bike for a long, long time. On the road and off. So there is a certain amount of “home coming” riding this bike. But there is a controlled, facile, manner that was exactly missing from the dually I built 2 years ago. It’s early days, and I have lot of learning to do, but I’m impressed with Jeff’s design, and am looking forward to it becoming an old friend. Jenni asked me what the “point” of this bike is for me. My answer is “adventure bike”. The adventure has begun.

In this picture we are already frozen, as we waited to take a picture of Gerry running by… the wind was blowing, there was no sun. Bah. Thus, my lame attempt at a smile.

Bring on the weapon of choice:: winter division

This morning became a fat tire festival as I put the Schwalbe Big Apples on the Gordo rims (that’s a 2.35 tire on a 35mm rim… yow!) It feels almost like snow bike territory.

I’ve been looking forward to trying out these low pressure boys for a while, and it looks like maybe by the weekend I’ll be able to make that happen.

On another set set of wheels (with smaller Mavic rims) went the Ritchey ExcaVaders… a nice 35c tire with, in my experience, a fairly aggressive tread (from a road riding perspective). I don’t expect to run these on the road, I have smoother rolling tires to do that with, but I’m thinking it going to be muddy and wet and that the trails might be fun with these again, so I’m breaking them out. We’ll see.

There’s an awful lot of conversation about tires width and design, rim width and design, but I’ve decided to go wide this year. I’m evan changing the width of the road rims I’ll be riding in the spring to a 23mm rim. I’m feeling like the shorter sidewall, flatter contact patch is working for me. As I’ve mentioned before I’ve been using tires as pneumatic suspension on my commuting bike, and I’ve grown fond of it. But it’s a different kind of riding. I’m curious to see what fat and tall Big Apples are like in more aggressive road riding. Will they feel slow? Will they take two blocks to crank up to speed but once there float and flow? Dunno. Yet. I’ll be trying them on a couple of bikes including the premier of the weapon of choice::winter division.

I feel like the weather is going to turn this week… and the road bike will go away for the winter, and the disc brakes and fat tires will rule until spring. Winter is not far away…

BTW, All these pictures are from the designer/builder, who is taking the time to bring the frame into the light, snap a few pictures, and email to them me… which I greatly appreciate. Thanks Jeff! So much frame, so little patience left at this point! Below, a bit of the fork, and a bit of the carbon fiber steerer tube…

Step, by step. Slowly it turns…

So it’s looking a lot like this (an AP photo by Jim Cole) around here these days. The days are bright with autumn sunshine, the air is crisp and clean. I can’t say enough about this time of year… except when I get up to ride at 5:30am. This morning it was 32 degrees F… also known as freezing. And a bit breezy. The problem is that after a few hours it can be significantly warmer out, and you need to figure the layers and compressibility, so that you might be able to shed something later, and stick in a pocket.

This morning I guessed wrong. And I payed the price. We had a nice route going, where there is this nice steady climb. Especially this time of year, it kicks my butt. But that’s what I’m out there for, so that was fine. Sure, Gerry felt the need to inquire of my plans for succession at the top of a long climb, but fear not. I’ve been there before, just not quite under dressed for the weather like today.

The kicker is when I dress too lightly and then climb, it costs me. First, I’m cold starting the climb. I feel weak and small. Then I warm up, and start to sweat. All fine until you reach the usually joyful downhill. Now it’s just freezes that sweat to your body, and makes you feel exceptionally cold. In more serious weather it’s a great way to get hypothermic. Today, it was just annoying, but made me cut my intended ride short. I did find a balance again when we took a short break and I stood in the sun for a few minutes. The rest, the sun, and then a nice pace brought me back to comfortable enough, but the ride had been long enough and uncomfortable enough that I didn’t feel like continuing. 24 uncomfortable miles. Here’s the thing. Despite all the whining and all about my screwing up a ride, it was a glorious fall day for ride. The light is amazing, the leaves are spectacular, the neighborhoods we ride through are well kept and quaint. The folks I ride with all the time always have interesting topics and trivia to discuss, and never seem to have an agenda about well, just about anything on the rides. Just one more layer… one more layer.

(Two other mistakes I made today… thinking it would be warmer since it was “an hour later”, and “I should be wide awake” since it was “an hour later”. Not so much on either count.)

A bunch of friends got together to ride on a glorious fall day. I met Gerry early to get in some additional miles, and as always, appreciate his experience and insight. Gerry, for all the teasing he takes is a remarkable athlete who has ridden well over 100,000 miles this decade. And that doesn’t begin to include his running or anything else. Fortunately for me Gerry is an early riser, and since I almost always have to ride early in the day, I can often catch up with him somewhere, and often he’s already been riding for a while. I’m not sure how far he had gone this morning before he met with me, but I had layered up and was ready. We spun out and had a nice pre ride spin, and caught up a bit. He’s been competing in a number of events and doing rather well.

Back at Piermont, I said hello to the guys, checked up on a couple of little things and then headed out with the group. A lovely bunch of folks, including one person who has been rehabbing for a while and is finally back on their bike, and in a related way I learned that someone who I’ve known for a while (just as smartest and lovely person as you could wish to meet, Hi Rita!) lives around the corner from me. I can’t begin to count how many times I must have ridden by her house.

Anyway, today was the perfect day for a rambling ride, enjoying the beautiful fall light, the leaves, and the crisp clean air. Add a great bunch of folks… and it’s magic.

I also completely ripped up two town line sprints after getting toasted by Jenni with the excuse that (wait for it…) I didn’t know we were competing until after she blew by me.

And below… one more piece of soon to be acquired winter gear… although I intend to get the 183 version for the front.

Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.
~George Eliot

I continue to prepare for the winter biking season. It can be very hard to get out 5:30am on a Sunday morning this time of year. It’s dark, it’s cold, and generally not pleasant. Worse, you know it’s going to be much warmer and brighter later… when I can’t usually ride because of other obligations. That leaves me with a mostly mental battle — like my ride yesterday started out at 36 degrees F. Still some actual preparation takes place… I changed wheels on my road bike to a stronger wheel with rubber that has a bit more tread to it on the corners. The strength comes in handy hopping over fallen branches etc. The next step is over to the truly fat road tires (which requires a change of bike — heh). Clothing got sorted and cleaned. Gloves have gone from fingerless, to light, to medium. We’ve quickly blown through arm and leg warmers in the early morning, that season has passed already for me. But all in all, it’s mostly getting ready for the freezing cold starts, and often colder feeling finishes. It’s also remembering to bring something to blow one’s nose with, and taking a moment now and again to do so. That makes cold weather riding far more comfortable for me.

Below, a new set of King cages, featherweight titanium bottle cages made from “left over” titanium tubing from the airline industry. Light, strong, and they don’t markup one’s bottles, and further, match the “weapon of choice::winter division” very nicely. Coming soonish now… one hopes.

Bittersweet October. The mellow, messy, leaf-kicking, perfect pause between the opposing miseries of summer and winter.
~Carol Bishop Hipps