New Bike

I'm down $225 after last week.  My boss decided he didn't like his road bike and wanted to unload it. He put it on craigslist, asking $270.  I have been riding a Fuji Finest from the dark ages, 1998, that I swear was formed out of plumbing pipe.  The venerable old bike weighed in at almost 24 pounds, about 1 pound less than my ancient Klein mountain bike.  Since it seemed like a good price, I expressed some interest.  He brought it to the office and I took it home for the weekend.  His parting words were, "I was thinking I would go as low as $225."

Once I got home, I tried riding it.  Wouldn't shift to the large chain ring, Rear derailleur pretty screwed up, but overall in pretty good shape.  I spent a couple hours cleaning and tuning, then took it out for a 20 mile ride one morning.  It's now a reasonable road bike, although not new by any means.

To give you an idea of its age, it has a square taper bottom bracket.  Makes it at least 10 years old, but still newer than my Fuji.  It is an aluminum frame and the total weight is probably 21 pounds.  I could have spent more for a lighter bike, or I could eat less and cut more weight than the 21 it weighs.

Road riding is really just a good way to improve mountain biking.

Hot Hot Hot

Yesterday 117F low 93.
This morning 93.  I got out to ride at 7:00, well after sunrise.  Temp 96, 102 by the time I finished at 8:30.  Damn.

Tandem Bike

Last weekend we visited Prescott AZ for our 41st anniversary. Had a great time except for one thing.
The motel we stayed at The Motor Lodge ( I highly recommend it) had bikes that visitors could use. Judy has long held the idea that a tandem bike would be pretty cool, so we borrowed one to go to breakfast at a cafe called "The Local" (again, I highly recommend it).

Now, I've been riding bikes since I was about 4 years old, and I am comfortable on mountain and road bikes, spent years commuting by bike, and have been avidly mountain biking for over 20 years. Nothing prepared me for the balancing issues of 60 lbs of bike, and about 350 lbs (mostly me) of human. Couple that with a slightly kinked front rim and two very different types of riders and it made for more excitement than I would have chosen.

We made it to the cafe in one piece, had a nice breakfast, then headed back toward the motel.  about a block from the cafe there is a downward sloping right curve that we started coasting down just as a dump truck entered the curve going the same way.  No we didn't crash, but rounding that curve, wobbling all over and afraid to hit the brake with that kinked rim, was a life passing before my eyes moment.  Until the truck finished going by I was muttering, "F&$% F&$% F&$% F&$% F&$%!!" Muttering might not be the most descriptive verb I could use, but I'll just go with it.  With Judy behind me on the bike and the noise of the truck, I don't thing she heard any of it, although I did explain later.

As far as I'm concerned, that was the last time I ever get on a tandem for any reason, Period.

It's been a while since my last post, mainly because its been the same-old same-old. There have been some new trails opened up in the Sonoran Preserve and a trailhead/parking lot at Apache Wash on Dove Valley Rd.  The trails are really nice and worth a ride.

Anyway, the Old Klein Pulse Race, now 18 years old has started having some trouble, phantom shifts, skipping chain, that sort of thing.  I was on the verge of using it as an excuse to get a new bike, but being the cheapskate that I am, I opted for parts.  First, I replaced the chain, hoping that would fix the skipping. It actually made it worse.  I swapped that out with an old use chain that was better than the old one I had been using.  That made the skipping a little better, but still not good.  Out of my old crap box, I found a SRAM 8 speed cassette that I used once and didn't like because of the gear spacing, 11x34 with huge jumps between 1, 2, and 3.  It cured the skipping, so that meant the old cassette was worn on the three largest gears where all the skipping happened.  On to Amazon where I ordered a new 8 speed cassette with the largest was a 30.  Since I hadn't solved the phantom shift, which was dropping off the middle to the small chainring too often to keep me happy, I also ordered two chainrings 22 and 32.  THe big chainring hasn't caused any problems, so it stays on the bike.

The chainrings arrived in 2 days and I swapped them out in a twenty minute frenzy.  Presto! No more phantom shifts.  The cassette arrived a few days later and now all the problems are solved and my new bike is still just a dream.

Speaking of new, I replaced the suspension fork about a year ago with a sort of cheap Rock Shok.  Its heavier than the old Judy XC, which only lasted 17 years, but works ok.  In the world of strong, light and cheap, pick two, I opt for strong and cheap.  If I want to go faster, I'll need to work on the light with diet and exercise rather than dollars.

I got to thinking about what is still original on my ancient bike, so here it is:
Frame
Stem
Brakes (V brakes, of course the pads have been replaced several times)
Brake levers
Front and rear derailleurs
Seat post

It used to be, when I started riding in Phoenix that people would say, "You need a new bike." that was 8 years ago.  Now I hear, "Wow, that's a classic!" Crazy Joe gave me the perfect response, "No, it's just old.  I'm the classic."

Earbuds

Recognize these things?  They are everywhere.  I was out on a road ride this morning, cutting through a park with a path that was at least 10 ft wide.  As I came up behind a young woman walking her dog, I slowed down, called out "On your left," and attempted to go around on her left side.  I was doing maybe 4 mph.  As I closed the gap between us, she and her dog both veered to the left, causing me to swing over to the dirt to avoid them.  She obviously didn't hear me when I called out.  When she did see me, she apologized.  No harm, no foul.

This same kind of thing happens on trail rides almost every time I ride.  I'm old, fat and slow, so I have never had or caused an accident.  It just amazes me that so many people can't just go out and enjoy nature without the constant noise (music, ebooks, podcasts) in their ears.

Good God people.  Leave the damn things at home.  Listen to the songbirds, greet people as they pass.  Pay attention to what's going on around you.

Rant over.

24 hours in the Old Pueblo

No, I'm not planning to ride a 24 hour race.

On Saturday afternoon, I and a couple of my riding buddies went to the course where the 24 hour race is held and rode it to see what its like. The course is a really enjoyable 16.3 mile which is mostly beautiful single track with a few areas of old jeep roads thrown in. Since we got confused a couple of times, we ended up riding 17 miles. It took us 2 hours to complete a lap, a truly un-competitive time.

Before we started, we talked a bit with a guy who is probably 75-80 years old. He had just finished a lap on a single speed in 1:25. His tale, if true, solidified my resolve not to enter the race.

The drive from Phoenix actually takes you south of the track quite a way, then north on a gravel/dirt road to the course area, about 2.5 hours from Phoenix. It seems like a round about way to get there, but that's what the directions say.

When we finished up and were ready to head back to Phoenix, a guy we know said his GPS said there was a short cut back to Hwy 79 that would cut a good 25 miles off the return trip. I had mapped directions on Google Earth the day before and it showed a route across the valley, but when I zoomed in and followed the directions given, there were areas where the line across didn't appear to actually follow a road. Anyway, it was the weekend, so what the hell. We followed the guy west for about 30 minutes while the road became a jeep trail, then a set of tire tracks, then a barbed wire fence with nothing but mesquite, prickly pear, and no gate. By the time we got back to the race course, it was already dark, but no problem backtracking.

In all, we spent almost 6 hours travelling to get in a 2 hour bike ride. It was a nice way to delay the chores I would have done at home.

Wheels

Back in October, I bought a Vuelta Zerolite wheelset and put them on my Klein hardtail (still my only mtn bike). I had some reservations because the hubs looked kind of cheap, the 24 spoke seemed a bit odd, and mounting the tires on the rims was easier than any I have ever done. After a few rides, I figured they'll probably be ok.

A few weeks ago, I was descending a long, fairly steep trail at Deem hills and flatted without hitting anything. When I pulled the tube, I found that the tube had separated right at the stem. I tried cutting a hole in a patch and sliding it over the stem in holes that it would seal up and hold everything in place. I held everything except air in place. Since I didn't have a spare tube, I shouldered the bike and walked back to the truck, about a 2 mile hike.

Back home, I blamed the problem on a faulty tube and replaced it. All seemed ok until last weekend. While descending the same hill I flatted on previously, I experienced the same thing. The new tube separated right at the stem. This time I had a spare and was able to continue the ride. Back home, I started puzzling this one and decided that the tube and tire must have been slipping around the rim. Never had evidence of that problem before in aout 55 years of cycling, so in typical troubleshooting procedure, I settled in on blaming the only thing I had changed before the problem started - the rims, which may have been slightly smaller in diameter than normal (I'll have to measure them and see if that's true), or maybe the painted aluminum surface was too slippery. Either way, the result sucked and I didn't want to fight it.

On Monday morning I ordered two new wheels from BlueSkyCycling.com. If you haven't figured it out yet, Old Fat & Slow is a cheapskate. My bike is 15 years old and still in service. In its life, I replaced the rims once, and the hubs were still the originals, until I bought the Vueltes. One great thing about classic bikes (read: old and obsolete) is the availability of obsolete parts that no one else wants. BlueSkyCycling.com had the perfect wheels at really good prices. So ordered a front wheel with Mavic 221 rim and Shimano LX hub, and a rear wheel with a Mavic 117 rim and Shimano XT hub. The cool part is, I ordered on Monday and received shipment on Thursday. I also ordered a Butt Holder (saddle) by WTB.

Yesterday I took off work a little to put it all together and get out for a ride with the buddies. The only thing I found wrong was the rear wheel was out of true by about 1 mm. That took a few tweaks with a spoke wrench and I was good to go.

On the trail, it was like riding a different bike. Over the years, my old wheelset must have gotten somewhat flexible. The Vuelta Zerolite wheelset didn't seem much different than the old wheels because they must be pretty flexible with only 24 spokes. The new wheels are much stiffer and the ride is dramatically different. The one thing that actually took some getting used to was the difference in steering. The stiffness of the wheels made steering response much tighter, with the result that I started out cutting to the inside of some twists and turns in the trail, and almost bounced off a large boulder that would have left a mark. After a few minutes, I was re-calibrated and it was all good.

The new butt holder, a WTB Pure V Race FR (don't know what that all means) was similar to my old one, but just enough different that its going to take some getting used to. It will probably be ok and just needs some breaking in. May be a few rides before I'm willing to spend more than a couple hours with my fat butt being held by that one.

The moral of this story is, don't buy the cheapest stuff you can get. Shop around a bit and find better components that can still be a bargain. And, take a look at BlueSkyCycling.com since they seem like a good business.