Scenic Route

While this year is turning out to be a great year for me with bikes, it’s not such a great year with riding.

I’m just getting back the form and conditioning I had earlier this year. Shortly after returning from the GFLBT in June, I came down with some sort of cold/flu/mung-lung disease that took me out of commission for the better part of four weeks. I never take sick days. I took two, returned to work one day, then took another.

Before leaving for my annual vacation at my parents’ summer place in the Rideau Lakes region of southeastern Ontario (that’s Canada, eh?), I felt about how I did in March after a winter of rides no more than three or four miles each.

I had no power, no endurance, and no speed. And I was recording frighteningly high maximum heart rates.

Complicating that, I couldn’t quite get the Litespeed’s fit dialed in. Two days before leaving, I had a fitting with Andy at Park Ave Bike.

One discovery during the fitting was that I’ve been riding with my hips crooked on the saddle, sort of sidesaddle to the left. It may be the cause of chafing issues I’ve been having this year as well.

The fix we’re trying involved moving the cleats on my shoes. The goal is to correct my position rather than compensate for it. This one change altered my muscle usage. I could feel the change in the left IT band area and the right hip flexors. Of course, it also shifted the balance in my quads.

We adjusted other things too—moving the bars up and the saddle forward.

Riding home from the fitting I felt simultaneously better and worse. Better, in that my position was closer to that on Blue, my new reference standard. Worse in that the muscles I’d strengthened through the season were no longer the ones doing the bulk of the work.

I actually lost speed and power, but I knew that was a short-term loss working towards a long-term improvement.

I rode barely 150 miles in Canada this year, about half of what I ordinarily ride. Partly it was weather, but mostly is was that I had to rebuild in the middle of the season. So I used every ride as a training ride.

Arriving home last weekend, I still felt slow, weak and without endurance, but things were improving at a satisfactory rate. Then on Tuesday I set a new personal best time on the long loop (Clover St) home, riding Yellow Bike.

Oh, I’d transferred the bar-to-saddle measurements to Yellow Bike, moving its saddle nearly an inch forward. It now uses my legs in much the same way as both the Portland and the Litespeed.

Today on a morning ride on the Litespeed, (I’d forgotten how much I enjoyed my Saturday morning rides, but that’s another story.) I began to feel like I did in late May and early June. And despite the heat and high humidity, my heart rate was nearing my long-term normal range for that sort of ride. I still have a ways to go, but things are coming along nicely.

The Litespeed

Because of health issues I have only 230 miles on the Litespeed to date. About half of those were from before the fitting. I really felt uncomfortable and out of position on it. Things are much better now, but there’s still some fine-tuning to do. I think I want a longer stem.

Anyway, despite the passage of nearly six weeks since I build it up, I still consider it to be early days with it. I’m still discovering its personality, its likes and dislikes, and it remains unnamed.

Part of the problem too is that, especially after putting a longer stem on it, I really, really liked Blue. I felt at-one with that bike in ways I’ve never felt on any other bike.

Plus, given the legends surrounding mid-90s Lynskey-built Litespeeds, and the legends of titanium bikes in general, I was looking for an extraordinary experience.

So with the bar was set really high and the fit problems and health problems, the first few rides on the Litespeed were completely underwhelming. I reserved judgment, while at the same time longing for Blue.

The week in Canada, while it was low miles, revealed quite a bit about the Litespeed.

Our road to the cabin is a dirt, double-track affair, cut through the woods in the 1920s or 1930s. It’s four miles long and the one long straight stretch is only a quarter-mile. The Portland likes it a lot, but only when its wearing its cyclocross tires. Yellow Bike hates it with a passion.

I’ve always had my father ferry us to the boat/bike launch ramp at the end of the lake to start my road rides. After a quick half-mile out-and-back on the Litespeed, I felt that wouldn’t be necessary this year.

By the end of the week, I’d built enough confidence in the Litespeed, that I was nearly as fast on it in the dirt with 25mm road tires as I was on the Portland with 34mm cyclocross tires. In other words, it’s a very stable and predictable ride. Very little seems to upset it.

Out on the macadam, it feels settled, even over bumps and potholes. It maintains its line better than any of my other bikes. Cornering is a blast with it. It’s the first of my bikes where in the city, I can corner with it one-handed (while continuing to signal with my left). It’s that confidence-inspiring.

Transitions are interesting. I’m not quite sure how to characterize them. Where Blue seems to know where I want it go go, the Litespeed needs to be led. It’s not a bad thing, just different. When I lean from the hips to turn, I can feel the motion through the frame. The connectedness between the seat tube and head tube is palpable.

I’m beginning to see why for decades, parallel 73° head and seat tubes, and a level top tube, were the gold standard in road bikes. It feels incredible.

Ride quality isn’t quite the “Holy cow!” I expected of Ti. Part of it is a testament to the ride quality of my other bikes, and part of it is because I run my tires at lower pressures than is currently popular. (See PSI Rx and Tire Drop, both by Jan Heine.) I run my 25mm Continental Grand Prix 4-Season tires at 70 PSI in the front and 80 PSI in the rear.

My disclaimer here is that, unlike many roadies, I rely on my tires to add comfort to the ride rather than my frame. As a result, there’s less for the frame to do in ride comfort management.

Still, what the Litespeed does is wonderful. There’s a short, maybe 30 to 50-foot section, of the Canalway where the tree roots are bursting through the pavement with such abandon, that someone’s spray-painted “BUMPS!” on the pavement as a warning.

On this morning’s ride, I piloted the Litespeed through that section one-handed while drinking from my water bottle. Didn’t spill anything either.

Don’t get me wrong, the effect is subtle and understated. There’s no suspension effect. But it takes the edge off so well that it’s easy to maintain control and the bumps become insignificant.

However, another thing I found, while riding the dirt road, is that the Litespeed’s Time Carbon/Vectran fork, made in the the mid-90s, visibly flexes and shimmies side-to-side in certain conditions. I’m not sure if this is a problem or simply how this fork manages road shock.

The design of the Wound-Up fork on Yellow Bike, and the knock-off of it by Bontrager on the Portland, eliminates this issue. I didn’t notice it on Blue’s Easton fork, made in 2005, then again I never took it off pavement.

But it does make me want to experiment with moving the forks around between the bikes.

There are two other differences I’ve noticed on the Litespeed. First, the Litespeed doesn’t have the drivetrain “snap” that Blue does, or even Yellow Bike does (but to a lesser extent). I came to really like that snap when riding Blue and it’s one of the things I miss on the Litespeed.

Second, the bottom-bracket doesn’t seem quite as stiff as my other bikes. I can flex it enough under power that the chain rubs in the front derailleur with each half-revolution on the right side. This could be related to the lack of snap. It could also contribute to ride quality. I’m not making any judgments yet.

In summary, the Litespeed seems to be a very subtle and refined ride. It doesn’t seem like anything special until I really pay attention and think about it. As a result, it’s taking a while to tease out its secrets. My opinions are likely to change with additional saddle time. I’m looking forward to it.

Biking the Branches

Two years ago, the Rochester Public Library’s Assistant Director for Branches and its Finance Director took some City budget officials on a little tour they call Biking the Branches. The idea was to get the city guys out to the branch libraries to see where and how the taxpayer’s money was being spent. They toured all ten neighborhood branches by bike.

When they stopped at Winton Branch, where I was working at the time, I was pissed that I didn’t get to ride along.

Last year they didn’t do the ride. This year, I’ve been bugging both the Assistant Director and the Finance Director to do the ride again. They did, and I joined them. Even took a day off to do it.

Thursday morning we met at 9:30 at Central downtown. It was the best weather of the week. Sunny, light winds from the northwest and temps forecast in the 70s all day with little humidity.

Five of us rode, including a guy from the City budget office and woman in charge of budget in the Architectural office. Riding the Portland, I had far and away the nicest bike of the bunch, and it’s no surprise that I’m the most accomplished cyclist of the bunch.

Still, I had great fun. For me, it was a nice, all-day recovery ride, while the others really worked at it. I got to ride thorough parts of town I’ve never ridden in before, and I got to show the others some ways around that they’d never done before.We had a nice lunch portside at the Pelican’s Nest on River St.

The day’s numbers were nothing to write home about from my perspective—36 miles at 11.3 MPH average. But it was a reminder of exactly how challenging 36 miles is to the occasional cyclist, even when it takes all day and includes ten SAG stops plus lunch.

The naivete of my fellow riders was revealed at our third stop, Arnett Branch, where I work. Of the five of us, only three brought a lock, and I’m the only one who was locking up at every stop. On the way out the door, a kid grabbed and began riding off on the city budget guy’s bike, a borrowed Kona dual-squishy mountain bike.

This city budget guy is apparently quite a sprinter (or else he was really motivated) and caught the kid, pulling him from the bike by his shirt. The kid got up, brushed himself off, shrugged and walked away. After than, everyone locked their bikes.

It’s been a happy day of wrenching around here today.

I had plans: Laundry, library, groceries, Litespeed. The trip to the library and grocery store fell by the wayside when, just after starting the laundry, I pulled Blue Steel down off its hook and began to take it apart.

Everything went really well.. As I took parts off, I cleaned everything up and let them dry in the dish rack. Only one part gave me trouble—the left (non-drive side) crank arm. The self-extractor bulged, bent and cracked as I cranked the bolt out.

I took Blue across the street to Towner’s and they were able to get the crank arm off. The threads in the crank arm are kinda iffy, but it was agreed it would be fine to ride, just difficult to remove again, with the possibility of stripping out the threads completely.

That’s fine. I bought new self-extracting crank bolts so I could mount this one on the Litespeed, and I ordered a new crank arm which I’ll put back on Blue when I switch components back to it from the Litespeed in a month or two.

I left Blue at Towner’s to have a new headset installed. It felt okay all put together, but with the wheel and the bars off, it felt crunchy. I’m not surprised it needs a headset, since it’s the original that’s in there.

First photo of the Litespeed, built up with Blue Steel’s components
 

Blue Steel, wearing its components. They look a lot alike, don’t they?

By lunchtime, I had everything bolted on with only the cables remaining. I was able to re-use two, and I used two new ones.

Other than the two cables, only the FD, (where the Litespeed uses a braze-on and Blue uses a clamp-on), and the cyclometer pick-up/sending unit, (where the Litespeed gets the second-bike kit) didn’t come over from Blue. Everything else did, which explains why they look so much alike.

I put 1.28 miles on the Litespeed in the parking lot while doing some final tuning on the drivetrain and brakes. My first impression is that it rides a little harder than Blue, but it seems to have a little more snap in acceleration.

It’s going in for a bath now—there’s anti-seize everywhere—and after a shower for me and dinner, we’ll go out on a for-real shakedown ride after dinner.

Bonus: After several weeks of milling and other fussing about, they repaved East Ave into downtown yesterday. My favorite route to and from downtown has been restored. New bike, new pavement, I expect it’ll be grand.

This past weekend’s Great Finger Lakes Bicycle Tour was more enjoyable than any other I attended.

What makes it so are the people. BikeJournal people keep coming back after our Reunion there in 2007, there’s a bunch from the Rochester Bicycling Club who attend every year, people I’ve met there over the years, new people I met this year. This year, a whole crew from the BikeForums.net 50+ Forum came along at my invitation.

I’d have had a ball even if I’d never set wheel to pavement. But the riding was nice too.

Friday night’s ride to the Sugar Hill Fire Tower just keeps getting easier. That ride nearly killed me in 2007. In 2010 it was a nice little warm-up for the weekend, that perked up the appetite for dinner. The weather was perfect, and Blue Steel and I hooked up with some fast friends for the descent back into camp. After chasing him down, even our “rabbit” joined us for the plunge into the valley.

Saturday’s half-century was a delightful little ride between Seneca and Cayuga lakes. The figure-eight route had plenty of opportunity for “customizing” one’s ride. At least that’s what I called it when I missed a couple of turns. We’re on our own for lunch on the Saturday ride, and by delaying it to near the end, I had the best SAG stop ever at what I’ll forever call the Chicken Winnebago.

A rainy Sunday morning still make for a nice—if abbreviated—ride at Keuka Lake. One rider had a gadget phone that got the weather radar, and another rider is an actual meteorologist for AccuWeather.com. He called the break in the rains perfectly, and we got in 45 minutes out and 45 minutes back with only a sprinkle or two, before the skies opened again on the drive home.

Through the weekend, Blue Steel was the perfect mount. A steel-is-real ride coupled with stage race geometry made for a fast, comfortable ride all weekend. Its lightweight drivetrain more than made up for its tall, standard-double gearing.

Blue’s happy demeanor made the pleasant rides even more enjoyable. It didn’t mind poking along barely into the double-digits, it rode confidently through gravel, it had fun on the descents. Heck, even standing still it liked the attention. “Pretty bike.” A beat. “That’s a Schwinn?”

The weekend really let Blue’s racing DNA show through on both the climbs and the flats. The bike really feels good under power. The harder I crank it, the better it feels. It made climbs enjoyable—yes, enjoyable—even the long one at the end of the ride on Saturday.

One section of Saturday’s ride was mile-after-mile of fresh asphalt. Flat, smooth, arrow-straight to the horizon, I kicked Blue up into the big ring, stretched out in the drops and cranked. I didn’t care where the map said I should go, I followed that fresh blacktop to the end. It was pure joy.

While I’m not having second thoughts, it is a shame I’ll have to disassemble Blue this week in order to build-up the Litespeed.

I’m running late for work. More here on the 50+ Forum.

Tonight was the first night of a three-day race weekend here in R-Town. Full Moon Vista Bike & Sport and the Genesee Valley Cycling Club have teamed up for the Cycling Grand Prix.

Tonight’s criterium at Genesee Valley Park was on a course I’ve ridden and really like as a rider. It’s fast, curvy, and if it were any flatter they’d have to cover it in green felt.

I arrived in time for the start of the Men’s Pro/Cat 1/2/3 race, 50 laps around the half-mile course. Lap times were right around a minute for an average speed of around 30 MPH—very fast.

I like the course because you can get really, really close to the action.

 

 

Later, I had to move over to the lighter side of the course. Plus, the mosquitoes had found me back there in the woods.
 

Freight train’s a comin’…

 

Two man breakaway.
 

Big gap.
 

The peloton tries to close the gap.
 

In the end, the race was for third, fourth and fifth place. Here they come to the finish.

If you ever want to create a stir at your LBS, casually walk in carrying a Lynskey-built Litespeed frameset in your hand, like it was a lunchbox or something.

Now, I knew it was a nice frameset. And I knew the Lynskey-built ones are the desirable ones. And I figured it would be a conversation starter. What I didn’t expect is that it would also be a conversation stopper.

I walked in, said hi, and the place went silent.

The customers looked at me, the mechanics looked at me, the sales staff looked at me, the owner looked at me. Well, actually, they all looked at the frameset. So I set it down on the counter, for everyone to see.

I’m glad I had lunch before I walked over there. I was nearly an hour just dropping it off to have a bottom bracket installed, and order a quill adapter and a braze-on front derailleur.

Everyone in the place had to handle it—other customers included. The tapers in the tubing were examined closely, the bullet ends of the seatstays and chainstays were fondled, the welds lovingly traced.

The staff told stories of the old days when Ti was king. Which led to stories about some of the builders, including one who’s on my own shortlist of builders. The owner admitted once having owned one and assured me I’m in for a memorable ride.

After Blue and I return from GFLBT.

Almost a year after it came available,
months after beginning to toy with the idea,
weeks after I started making payments on it,
yesterday after the Ten Parks Tour, I made the final payment on the Litespeed, and the seller dropped it off.

The frame and fork
 

Headtube badge
 

Built and signed by one of the Lynskeys
 

Made in the USA
 

Time carbon fork.
 

Soon to be riding off into the sunset

As you may recall, N+1 is the mathematical formula for the correct number of bicycles to own, where N is the number of bicycles currently owned.

This one rates only one-half since it’s just the frameset—frame, fork and headset.

It’s a 1996 Litespeed Classic, made in the legendary days when the Lynskey family still owned the company. It’s classic road bike geometry rendered in TIG-welded, custom tapered and butted, 3AL/2.5V titanium tubing. The Time carbon fork was ne plus ultra in its day too.

This is all part of my ongoing lessons in road bike materials and construction. Where it leads, ultimately, is to a custom, hand-built frame. Or two. When that time comes I want it to be an informed decision.

As such, buying a bare frameset only fits perfectly into the strategy. There are many factors that affect a bike’s ride, handling and comfort. Wheels, tires, saddle and bars are all part of the package, each playing a rode in how the bike performs.

Both as an experiment and economically, it works for me. I don’t have to run right out and buy a build kit—groupset, wheels, tires, saddle, seatpost, bars and stem. I have another bike of similar vintage that’s already participating in this experiment—Blue Steel, my 1999 Schwinn Peloton.

Blue is also classic geometry and TIG-welded. Its numbers are nearly identical to the Litespeed’s, but it’s made of double-butted Reynolds 853 steel instead.

And all its parts will fit on the Litespeed. Heck, even Yellow Bike’s Wound Up fork can be swapped to it (or to Blue for that matter).

The plan for this year is to swap the build kit between Blue and the Litespeed for a month or so at a time. In this way, I can learn about the similarities and differences between the two bikes, while preserving my commuting fleet.

Over the winter I plan to acquire all the parts to build it out for itself. And I also plan to find a carbon fiber frame of similar geometry to add to the test. Yellow Bike is very close in its numbers to Blue and the Litespeed, so it’s filling the role of aluminum frame in this test.

I’ve promised Blue that we’d go to the GFLBT together this year. So parts swapping can’t begin for another couple of weeks. In the meanwhile, I’ll drop the Litespeed over at Towner’s to have them install a bottom bracket. I also have to hunt down a braze-on FD—Blue uses a clamp-on—and I’ll get the Litespeed its own quill stem converter so I don’t have to swap the quill between both bikes too.

So don’t expect a ride report for a few weeks.

Good thing we waited this morning. For a time, it looked like Bikerjohn and I would be the only riders. “Let’s give it another ten minutes,” I said. Good thing.

Two minutes later another rider pulled in. When I told him he was late, he told me the posted ride start time was 9:30. “I could’ve sworn I made it 9 o’clock,” I said. So we waited until 9:30. By then two more riders showed up, so we had a nice little group for the ride.

Road work ends, more road work ahead.
 

Refreshing lunch stop at Vic & Irv’s in Seabreeze.
 

Bikes at rest.
 

Lower Falls of the Genesee River.
 

Buttercups.
 

Middle falls, from the bike bridge over it.
 

In Lower Falls Park, the monoliths around the Seat of Forgetting and Remembering.
 

High Falls, downtown.
 

Bikerjohn, Veronica, Ben, and Dave.
 

Veronica, Ben, Dave, and yrs trly.

Clear as a bell blue skies, starting temp in the mid-60s, ending temp in the low-80s, and a nice little metric under our belts for each of us.

I forgot about my camera until two-thirds of the way through the ride. Even then, I was too busy enjoying myself to take many pics.

I like the Ten Parks Tour. I like the variety it has. Most other RBC rides are only on rural or suburban roads.

The Ten Parks Tour winds its way through dozens of quiet neighborhoods, suburban streets, and rural roads as it connects the ten parks. Then it’s up the river gorge and right through downtown for the big finish.

The entire flavor of the ride changes every few miles. It’s impossible to get bored on this ride.

I like it when others find this ride as interesting as I do. And today, everyone had a good ride, and learned all sorts of interesting new places to ride.

I pre-rode the route today and boy, am I glad I did. Not only did I get in my first Metric Century of the season, I discovered road construction, and lots of it.

Construction Detours for Ten Parks Tour, RBC Map #10, Sunday May 30, 9am

There are two areas of road construction on the Ten Parks Tour ride, RBC Map #10, scheduled for Sunday May 30 at 9am. The ride will go on as scheduled, but with the following detours.

Detour 1:

On page 3, “Lakeside”: Culver Road north of Ridge Road is a mess of milled pavement. Your ride leader suggests portions of RBC Map #191, “Seabreeze Special” as a detour. Please download and print your own copy of Map #191 for your convenience.

Right on Ridge Road,
Left on Kane Rd,
Left on Titus Ave,
Right on Woodland,
Left on Seneca,
Zig-zag right, left to cross Culver into the cemetery,
Right on the cemetery road,
Zig-zag left, right to Wisner, rejoining the Ten Parks Tour route.

Alternatively, for those wishing to join the ride leader for the optional lunch stop at Vic & Irv’s,

Right on Ridge Road,
Left on Kane Rd,
Left on Titus Ave,
Right on Woodland,
Follow map #191 to Vic & Irv’s.
Return on map #191 to the bike path,
Bike path to Lakeshore Blvd, rejoining the Ten Parks Tour route.

Detour 2:

On page 1, top section, “City Side”: East Avenue is milled on the bridge over the Inner Loop, and again from Alexander St to Culver Rd.

No suggested detour for the 100 feet over the Inner Loop. Ride slowly and carefully. The bridge expansion joints stick up a couple of inches, so watch out!

Instead of East Ave to Sibley Place to Park Ave:

Turn right on Alexander St,
Turn left on Park Ave, rejoining the Ten Parks Tour route.

Additional Construction:

Page 2, “County Side”: North Landing Rd from Penfield Rd to Blossom Rd was recently chip-sealed. As of Sunday May 23, it was already in pretty good shape, although it hadn’t yet had its final sweeping. No detour recommended.

Just over a year ago, Yellow Bike and I were hit by a car. We were northbound on Alexander, had the green, and were riding through the intersection of Monroe and Alexander.

As reported in yesterday’s Democrat and Chronicle and today on Channel 13, AARP issued a report that says Monroe and Alexander is the most dangerous intersection in Monroe County, when measured by accidents involving pedestrians and cyclists.

Huh. Who knew? I ride thorough that intersection a couple of times a month—more lately. With both East Avenue and University Avenue under construction, it’s the easiest route downtown. I never really think about it.

The AARP’s traffic survey was done in support of Complete Streets.

The streets of our cities and towns are an important part of the livability of our communities. They ought to be for everyone, whether young or old, motorist or bicyclist, walker or wheelchair user, bus rider or shopkeeper. But too many of our streets are designed only for speeding cars, or worse, creeping traffic jams.

I knew the League of American Cyclists and the New York Bicycling Coalition support Complete Streets, but even as a member of AARP, I was pleasantly surprised to see their support. One generally thinks only of Social Security and Medicare as hot buttons for AARP.

Read the AARP’s report on bicycling and pedestrian safety in five Upstate counties, Making New York a Complete Streets State. I support the report’s recommendation to pass “Complete Streets” legislation (S.5711-Dilan/A.8587-Gantt) currently pending in Albany. I hope you can too.

Until East Ave and University Ave are finished, Monroe Ave—and its intersection with Alexander St—remains my best route downtown.

Does your bike need repair? Come to a Free Bike Repair Clinic co-sponsored by the Arnett Block Association and R-Community Bikes.

This coming Saturday, May 22, 2–4pm in the parking lot at 350 Arnett Blvd (map), two doors down from where I work at the Arnett Branch Library.

Fifteen free rehabbed bikes and helmets will be raffled off to kids without bikes.