Category: cycling

Today Brian () and I met up at Dodge Park to ride over to Metro Beach. We ended up riding to Metro Beach and back, then Brian headed back home and I rode into the Dodge Park, did an end to end ride of that, then back to my car for a drive home. I was fairly comfortable throughout most of the ride, but I did end up with a bit of sunburn on my arms and a head spotted with slight tan / burn from the vents in the helmet.

The final result, per my bike’s computer, is 41.29 Miles. This ride really wasn’t very difficult. The wind and gradual hills weren’t the most fun, and crossing Gratiot and Schoenherr feel risky, but it was quite nice overall. It’s also a completely different feeling from mountain biking, which seems to be more about huge bursts of output followed by nice rolling breaks as opposed to a few hours of relatively consistent pace.

Here is the KMZ: 24-May-2008_partial.kmz. Unfortunately the batteries in the GPS gave out about 1/4 of the way back from Metro Beach, so it’s only a partial plot. It still illustrates the route between the parks, though. The batteries had reflected 3/4 charge when I left the house, but clearly that didn’t represent how long they would last.

Next time I do this route I think I’ll just leave from home and go to Metro Beach and back. That should push it to a 50 mile ride.

I’m scheduled to go for a ride on paved trails today around 2pm, so yesterday I spent some time putting the Continental TravelContact 26 x 1.75″ tires back on my bike. While this isn’t normally too difficult, the combination of the steel wire in the bead, the rubber, and the anodized aluminum sometimes makes it a bit difficult to do. I’ve also run into problems with getting certain tires seated properly in the bead during inflation, which I’d normally solve by inflating the tire near the max, and rolling it with my hands or going for a short ride to work it into place.

Normally I was just able to muscle the tire over the rim or finesse it into the bead, but I wanted something easier. I’d read that applying things like soapy water or Schwable Easy Fit to the rim and tire make everything slide into place more easily, but I didn’t want to worry about mixing the soapy water correctly (and having to wash it off) or finding another product.

In the Seating the Tire portion of Sheldon Brown’s article on Flat Tires he mentions that he uses spray window cleaner for lubricating the bead. I grabbed my old bottle of Target’s blue glass cleaner, spritzed a bit in between the rim and the bead, and started inflating the tire. At around 25 psi I looked at the bead and noticed that part of the bead wasn’t in the rim properly. I kept inflating, and just below 55 psi (these tires are recommended for 55 psi with a maximum of 85 psi) I felt a little thump in the tire and it’d wholly seated itself, no manual coaxing required.

I also tried using some window / glass cleaner when fitting the tire over the rim and although the extra slipperyness was a bit of a hassle at times, it helped. Then after the wheel was put back together I just grabbed a cloth and wiped off the extra cleaner, using it to clean up the rim.

I’d definitely suggest that others give this a try if they need a bit of help seating a tire. Also, if you have an interest in bikes and haven’t given them a read yet, check out Sheldon Brown’s articles on tires and flat tires.

This is what happens when there is a thin layer of trail colored dirt covering the bottom of a downhill area, right in the area I need to turn at. Oops!

I was heading down a slight, maybe 20′ hill, which has a 90 degree right turn at the bottom, then immediately crosses a partially buried corrugated metal drain pipe. The center of the pipe is nicely covered and smooth to ride over, so I aim for this area. I’ve ridden down this a number of times in the past, but this time a portion of the bottom of the hill was very sandy, with a slight covering of dirt over it. As I was starting my turn on this the bike slid a bit, and I instead pointed at the mud just beyond the wholly exposed end of the drain pipe.

When the front wheel hit the mud it too slid, and I went falling / sliding on some mixed dirt and gravel. Thankfully I didn’t hit the drainpipe like the edge of my seat did, otherwise I might have a bit more than a skinned knee / shin. Thankfully it didn’t hurt at the time, and now it’s only a mild (but widespread) sting caused by a whole bunch of parallel scratches. And yes, that large clump at the top is a blood / dirt clot.

I’d also fallen two other times today causing other mild scratches, but these were because I was being dumb and trying to climb over ~5″ logs while going way too slow.

All in all, it was a nice ride today. and I headed off from my house, down 22 Mile to River Bends Park, back through the normal trail and a bunch of the (very narrow) single track, then up to Ryan, back to Shelby Road, down 21 Mile, through a subdivision, then back down 22 Mile to my house. Hopefully tomorrow I’ll get a bunch more riding in, and then maybe a Dodge Park to Metro Beach and back ride on Saturday morning.

UPDATE: If you happen to want it, today’s KMZ is here: 22-May-2008.kmz. Unfortunately something somehow glitched and made it look as if one of the points on my route was at 19 Mile and Ryan, quite a ways from where I really was.
Oh, and the damage to the seat helps answer the possibly-selling-the-bike question. I think I’ll keep the bike and do what I can to work with it. My torso is longer than normal for someone with 30″ legs (I’m made weird, or something), and pedal reach is just fine, so I think (hope) that just a bit of tweaking will help things out. Maybe something like On-One’s Mary could help as well.

After doing a bunch of riding at Stony Creek with a group of seven others last night, I’m really thinking that my bike is a bit too big. Looking at the posture of others and feeling quite stretched out at times, I’m thinking that what I have just isn’t right for me.

So, what to do? I don’t think I can move the seat up much more and the stem is already pretty short (38.1mm), and one can’t really shorten a frame.

I’m thinking that I should probably sell the bike and either buy or build another one with a more appropriately sized frame. Seeing as I paid $797 for the bike after tax and it only has 400 miles on it and is well cared for, I’m thinking that $700 would be a fair price. I wonder if I could get that amount for it, and how it would / should be sold?

That also brings up the question of a replacement. I’m not sure if I’d want to get another built up bike, and if so where I should go? Seeing as the person at Fraser Bicycle and Fitness had fitted me to a 21″ frame, I’m not sure if I’d want to go back there either.

Looking at parts makes me think that something like a Surly Karate Monkey frame, fork with lockout, Avid BB7 mechanical disc brakes, and some Shimano Deore XT drivetrain parts would be nice. Wheels / tires could be sorted out a bit later, but might be a bit strange to work out being as the frame is designed for 29″ stuff.

I just don’t know what to do.

So, I have a 21″ bike frame. After trying out ‘s 19″ briefly around the parking lot here, I can’t help but think that my frame is a bit too large for me. It seems to fit and it’s not bad, but I almost think that it could be better.

Then again, I’m shaped kinda weird. I have relatively short legs for my long torso. Pants that I buy typically have a 30″ inseam (and they hang a bit), but I’m about 5’9″ – 5’10”.

Maybe my next bike should just be custom fitted / have a custom frame.

After all the riding around near my grandparents house and at Stony Creek a bunch of times this last week my bike had become pretty dirty. The area inside the rim around the spokes looked particularly bad. While it really wasn’t that bad compared to some I’ve seen photos of, the built up crap in the cassette and wheels and down tube (and everywhere else, it seems) had me wanting to wash it. So, I did. A bunch of time was spent with car wash soap in a bucket, brushes, some diluted degreaser, and a few rags to get the bike nicely clean. After concentrating on the frame and various other bits I gave the drivetrain itself a detailed cleaning.

After the rear cassette was shining brightly and the chain properly oiled I took the rear brake caliper bolts out one at a time and applied some Loctite Blue to hopefully hold them more solidly. I’d rather not have the problem I had last time, or the inverse, where my rear brakes would have simply stopped functioning. (Because of how the front calipers bolt on, this can’t really happen there.)

The rear frame was then put back on, and I was actually able to identify the source of the extra noise while riding over bumps. It seems that it wasn’t the bag / rack, but instead the place I had chosen to put my pump was rattling against the rack itself and had even worn a small hole in my bag. I repositioned the pump into the middle of the bag and wrapped the extra tools in two rags to both take up space and give me useful rags. A test ride around the neighborhood up and down some curbs (and managing to slightly bunny hop a few times) I didn’t hear anything more than chain slap, so I guess things must be better. (I do need to build a chainstay guard to eliminate this, but that can come later.)

If things go as planned, tomorrow and I will be heading out to Stony Creek for some nice riding, and Wednesday evening I’ll be participating in a regularly scheduled group ride in the same area.

On Saturday afternoon I took advantage of the unexpected lack of rain and headed out to Stony Creek to ride on the trails a bit more. While coming up over one of the hills I noticed a guy standing at the top of one of the hills taking some pictures. Later on, back near one of the high points on The Rollercoaster I saw him stopped, so I stopped to ask him about the pictures.

He’d said that he had been taking some, noted my email address, and said that he’d email me the photo. Later Saturday night I received the image above attached to a message from Eugene Mazur. It’s kinda neat to see a photo of yourself in motion, in context.

From what he said, Eugene is fairly new to mountain biking as well, so I mentioned the Wednesday Night Stony Ride which I’d recently been made aware of. Maybe he’ll head out there. It sounds like it would be fun to meet up with some people and ride around on the trails, so I’m going to try and make it this week. I’m also hoping to get out to the park and ride on Tuesday and Thursday with , so this could be a nice week of bike riding. I think tonight I’m going to wash my bike and give the drivetrain a good cleaning, because things are pretty dirty from the weekend of riding up at my grandparents house in very sandy soil and the few days out at Stony over the last week.

Just after starting to descend The Rollercoaster at Stony Creek (a windy, narrow, fun descent from the highest point in Macomb County) I applied my rear brake and started to hear a tremendous houl from my rear brake and found myself slowing very quickly. I was able to finish stopping with my front brake, just as someone behind me asked if I was all right, and what the sound was.

A quick check showed that the upper bolt on the bracket which connects the caliper to the frame itself had come off and that in squeezing the rotor the caliper had rotated forward and lodged itself against the disk, slightly stuck between the frame and the disc. Walking about 15′ back up the trail I found the screw, I was able to partially put it back in by hand. Because of the length of the tool I couldn’t fit it between the rear rack and screw head, but thankfully the person who had stopped had a much shorter wrench and I was able to tighten things back up. A quick readjustment of the brake and I was on my way, with the brake actually working better than it had previously.

I’m not really sure how the screw came out. It was tight the last time I checked it (a few weeks ago), and it had thread locking compound on it. I do wonder if the combination of the rear frame, the slightly ratting bag, and the rough trails contributed to the bolt loosening.

Today I headed back out to Stony Creek with the frame removed and with only a multi-tool and my keys. While I didn’t like riding without the ability to fix a flat, I accepted the risk of a five mile walk until I can sort out the CamelBak Question. Things went well, and it seemed like it was a generally a quicker ride with the lighter bike, except it seemed like I had a much harder time getting up some of the steeper / longer hills (generally in the two-track area) because I kept spinning the rear tire. Twice I just stopped part-way up and walked. It was a much quieter / pleasant ride, although I do think I’ll get (or fashion) a soft chainstay guard to cut down on the loud chainslap.

Now it’s time to shower, eat something, and poke a bit with Ivan’s P3. I received new firmware, but it still doesn’t seem to be working, so I’m going to write a little test software for the PICs and be sure they are working right.

To those of you who ride bikes and read this, I have a question about CamelBak bags.

See, I have a frame for the rear of my bike, and with its bag it’s great for touring type riding, but it has a couple deficiencies:

· It rattles a LOT on even small bumps.
· While it holds the normal bike stuff I’d want to bring (multitool, spare tube, pump, keys, wallet, cell phone, tire levers, Clif bar) it doesn’t hold my camera very well.

Yesterday I swung by REI and picked up an Aero Wedge Pack (Medium) for $26. It was really easy to fit to my bike, but with it I have nowhere to put my pump. I can fit a tube or patch kit, but not any method for reinflating things.

I’ve been hesitant to get a CamelBak because of the price, and because when outside in warm weather while wearing a backpack my back tends to get really, uncomfortably sweaty, to the point where it makes me hot a lot quicker than normal.

I’m just not sure what to do, and I’d love suggestions. I could keep the small Topeak bag, and carry a patch kit and CO2 inflator in it instead of a spare tube. The on-bike water (about 1.5L) is sufficient for most rides I’ve been on so far. I could return to Topeak bag and get a CamelBak and use it instead of the rear rack / bag full time, or at least until I need the rear stuff. Or I could deal with the really loud / bothersome rattling and lack of space.

If you would recommend a CamelBak for me, which model? The M.U.L.E. seems to be the most popular, but it’s also REALLY big. I don’t know if it’d be overkill. It’s $86 and REI, and returning the bag I purchased yesterday would offset $26 of that.

Something I’ll post about later, probably with a photo: While riding The Rollercoaster at Stony Creek yesterday my rear brake suddenly seize, accompanied by a loud howling sound. What had happened? Somehow the upper bolt on the rear disc brake mount had come out, causing the brake to pivot forward and the upper edge of the caliper to stop the bike as it ground against the edge of the disc.

I actually found the bolt a little ways back down the path, and it wasn’t too difficult to get it back in and get the brake readjusted. I did run into the problem the rear rack being in the way of the bolt, and my multitool wouldn’t fit in there. Thankfully someone who had stopped had a shorter one and I was able to tighten things up with that. What’s strange, though, is that this bolt was tight not too long ago, and it was Loctited.