Scenic Route

New parking at work

This year’s library budget included the restoration of bookmobile service, on a limited basis. Arnett Branch Library has the largest parking lot of any of the ten neighborhood branches, so the “WOWmobile” (Words On Wheels) will be based at Arnett.

“Before” pic of the corner in question.
 

The Bike Trac, bungeed to the Portland, and parked in its old parking spot.
 

The Bike Trac’s hook went around the Portland’s head tube and was secured with a bungee. The bungee at the seatpost was probably unnecessary because the track was snugged under the Tailrider’s load straps.
 

“After” pic of the Litespeed hangin’ out.
 

The snake will guard it while I work.
 

There are 16” between the wall and the safe. The Bike Trak’s center-line is 12” from the wall and 4” from the safe. My current commuting panniers just fit. If I follow through on my threat to upgrade to Ortleibs, I’ll have to remove the left one before hanging the bike. You’ll notice I already have to be sure the left pedal is forward.

It’s not necessarily policy, but it is a long-standing tradition that library staff get indoor bicycle parking. Sensitive to my needs, my boss offered me the entire darned basement.

I don’t mind stairs—I use them at home—but these have a fire door at the top with a self-slamming automatic closer. And the door swings the wrong way. I couldn’t see carrying a bike while wrestling with that door twice a day.

There had to be something better.

As they cleaned out literally decades of clutter from the server room (the photos from the 70s were a cool find, as were the library rules from the 40s or 50s) a new possibility revealed itself.

“Deb,” I said to my boss, “this corner does nothing but catch clutter. Do you have any plans for it?”

“No,” she replied, “but I’d sure like a way to keep it clear.”

Wheels turned, levers clicked. Grabbing my bike and standing it up on its back wheel, I rolled it into the space. “How about if I park my bike here? It’s out of the way and it will keep clutter from accumulating.”

“Hmmm…” pondered she.

“I hang my bikes like this at home in the living room on wall-mounted racks. I’d even be willing to buy one for here. And a boot tray to put on the floor underneath to catch the slush in the winter.”

“Okay!”

So two weeks ago I ordered the non-locking version of the Saris Bike Trac. I use the locking version at home so when I leave my bikes home alone, they’re still there when I return.

It came in last week and on Monday, I bungeed it to the Portland and took it to work. Tuesday morning, maintenance installed it. I now have my own, reserved, personal bike parking space for as long as I work at Arnett Branch.

Cycling co-workers at Monroe Branch face a similar problem. I’ll be suggesting this same solution to them.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

I also ordered another Locking Bike Trac for at home. Now I can hang three bikes in the living room and lock a fourth one to the radiator.

Blue, my fourth bike, is currently disassembled, so its frame sits on top of my desk’s hutch.

Saving old bikes from the dumpster

My landlord is on a similar cleaning spree. He’s hoping the Preservation Board will approve his plan to replace all 504 windows in the building. He’ll need a place to put them all when (and if) they’re delivered.

This week the landlord announced that all unclaimed stuff in the boiler room will be thrown out next week. The boiler room has been collecting cast-off bikes since the Clinton Administration. (One looks like it was manufactured during the Truman Administration.)

The bikes! I thought. He can’t throw out all those bikes!

I called the office in the morning. “Nancy, what’s Dave going to do with all the bikes in the boiler room?” I asked.

“I dunno. Throw them out, I guess. Why do you want them?”

“Nonono,” I replied. “I have a better idea.”

“Okay, I’m listening.”

“You know we share the back lot line with Asbury First Methodist Church, right?”

“Uh huh…”

“But did you know they have a bicycle ministry? They give bikes to people who need them for transportation but can’t afford to buy one, and they repair bikes for people who use them for transportation, but can’t afford repairs at a bike shop.”

“I didn’t know that,” she said. “I’m writing this down.”

One thing led to another, and after meeting with the landlord this morning, next Wednesday morning, (the bike ministry is open only on Wednesday mornings), I’ll be taking at least seven bikes around the fence, through the parking lot and to the bike ministry at Asbury First.

Rochester Bicycle Master Plan

Wednesday night I attended the first of the public meetings for the Rochester Bicycle Master Plan.

It was an open-house style presentation that included a large-scale map documenting existing conditions, a public survey form, and a smaller sized map where each attendee could mark the five miles they though most needed improvement.

It’s this last bit I thought was great. They gave you your own map and “five miles” of green tape. You could cut up the tape any way you liked and stick it to the map where you thought it would do the most good.

The survey asked about how much you cycle, where, and how you graded the city overall on cycling infrastructure. Then it asked about places that should be better than your overall grade, and those where you could get by with less than your overall grade. It concluded with a free comment area asking for general comments and facility needs.

If you missed the meeting, visit the web site, download the survey and map, fill out the form, mark in your five miles that most need improvement on your map, and fax or mail them to City Hall. The deadline is this coming Friday, September 3.

The final plan is to be presented at public meetings taking place in December, so this is a last chance for input.

More writing

At the meeting, I ran into a member of the Rochester Cycling Alliance. He’s pushing his own agenda. I have my own views on some of his ideas. He asked me to write them up and send them to him. So I spent the day today, and will likely continue over the next few days, doing just that.

One project in particular, the Bicycle Boulevards championed by the Upper Monroe Neighborhood Association, appeared to me at first glace to be misguided. Upon further study, I see a reasonable idea that was put together by recreational cyclists, that needs only to be refined a bit to fit the needs to transportational cyclists.

I commute through Upper Monroe, and one of their proposed bicycle boulevards goes right past where I used to live before moving here. I know the territory from the perspective of the transportational cyclist, so I’m using that experience to modify their plan.

Along the way, I’m discovering how their plans—with slight modifications—intersect with my commute in such a way that the beginnings of a criss-cross network of bicycle-friendly routes is established. The more I work in this, the more excited I become.

It’s very much the same as when I first saw the 590/Winton interchange plan, which subsequently, I’ve worked on with DOT. Construction on that project begins in the spring, and I can’t wait to ride through it when it’s finished in 2012.

So maybe there’s something to this bicycle boulevards thing after all. We’ll see.

The Rochester Bicycling Club runs four classes of regular rides, one of which is the Social Ride. These are relaxed, conversational pace—but still moving right along—with the emphasis on the social aspects of club riding. Usually including or followed by food.

This is the first one of the social rides I could make this season. It started at 6pm at Mendon Ponds Park and we rode the RBC map #19, Mendon-Honeoye Falls. It’s a nice little 20-miler through the hills of horse country in the southeast part of the county.

Given the earlier sunsets and the late ride, with tailgating afterward, I took the Portland for all its lights and reflectors. I guess I’ve been neglecting that bike a bit this year. It remains my favorite bike, but I haven’t had it out of the city all season. It was a nice reminder of how well that bike rolls along, and how comfortable it is on longer rides. And it still holds its own—lights, rack, fenders and all—in a peloton full of carbon wonderbikes.

Arriving at the park, it turns out another club was riding from the same starting point. I ended up signing their ride sheet too. I wonder if I get double miles for signing the two ride sheets?

There were several old friends on tonight’s ride, and several faces new to me too.

Note to Mark: Here are the links I suggested:

• Club Hypoxia
• Bicycle Colorado
• The book, Road Biking Colorado, The Statewide Guide, by Michael Seeberg
• BikeJournal.com

Twenty miles of conversation was hardly enough. With the sun setting over the Hundred Acre Pond, our group sat down for a little recovery feast.

We may have been out in horse country, but the park boasts a huge population of deer. Here are three of them.

The ride home was my first long ride after dark since we changed the clocks back in March. I continue to be impressed by the Schmidt Edelux supplemented by the pair of DiNottes. Other club members continue to be impressed by the DiNotte taillight, one even pulling alongside and shouting his approval from his car window.

It’s a rainy Sunday morning here in R-Town. I’ve already slept in, I don’t quite feel like breakfast yet, and it looks like it may dry off for the afternoon, so no sense in getting bikes dirty in the rain.

We’re about halfway through the three-seasons, and it’s been a while since I’ve updated, so here goes…

Why yes, I am a MAMIL

I’ve never fit easily into pigeonholes of stereotyping. I’ve always been kind of mix-and-match. This has extended to cycling where I’m neither fish nor fowl, neither utility cyclist nor roadie, but somewhere in between.

Helpfully, the BBC has come to my rescue with a delightfully written piece called Rise of the MAMILs, (Middle-Aged Men In Lycra).

While not as provocative as MILF, I’ll take it.

Speaking of Lycra…

We’re halfway through the three-seasons, and there are still plenty of sultry August days ahead, but online, other four-season cyclists—and wannabes—are already looking ahead to winter. They’re taking stock, and laying in new bikes, clothing and supplies.

I cavalierly thought all I had to do was to swap tires, fenders and cassettes on the Portland, and I was good to go. Then I thought about clothing.

My autumn/spring windfront tights are coming apart. My winter tights are beginning to show wear in the seat, and it looks like my autumn/spring booties (overshoes) may not make it through the season either.

I was introduced to Endura cycling wear a couple of years ago. I’ve found Endura stuff to be thoughtfully-designed, durable, and inexpensive—well, inexpensive as compared to other lines of cycling wear.

My local connection no longer carries the line, and I no longer do business with them either, so it was off to teh interwebs. Earlier this year I discovered the British firm, Ribble Cycles. Their prices are excellent, they always seem to have what I want, right in stock and if I order on the weekend, they ship on Monday and my purchases arrive on Friday—my day off.

Conveniently, Endura is also a British firm, and Ribble carries the complete line. After this week’s payday, I’ll be ordering new winter tights, new wind/waterproof tights, and new booties. I could also use new armwarmers, matching kneewarmers, new summerweight long-finger gloves (which I wear inside my winter gloves), another skullcap, and another balaclava.

But wait, there’s more

The sudden doubling of the bike population here has had me thinking about the roles each bike can or should play. During the three-seasons it’s settled out to this.

I use either the Portland or Yellow Bike on Mondays and Thursdays to haul the weeks’ worth of clothes, food and library books in on Monday, and haul home the laundry and more library books on Thursday. I decide between them based on the chance of rain.

On Tuesdays and Wednesdays, I use either Blue or the Litespeed (depending on which is put together at the time), unless the chance of rain is high enough that I take a fendered bike instead.

This has worked-out well. I get to ride each bike to work at some point every week. Although I’ve been caught in a shower with the fenderless Litespeed on one day, and in an absolute deluge on another day with Yellow Bike, which has only the “fenderettes” that came stock on the Portland.

And I still love the Portland, so I don’t mind riding it, even if it doesn’t rain.

In past winters, I’ve relied on the Portland, taking Yellow Bike out only on sunny day recreational rides. The winters where I had two wheelsets for the Portland—one with the snow tires and the other with the three-season tires—worked really well.

Last winter, I missed having the lighter three-seasons tires on the Portland on nicer days. But changing tires all the time is a pain, and a second set of $800 wheels isn’t in the cards this year, what with wheels and a whole groupset yet to buy so that Blue and the Litespeed are both completely assembled at all times.

And frankly, multiple bikes works just as well as multiple wheelsets, with the possible exception of lighting.

Lighting

Looking ahead to winter and Standard Time, this year lighting will play a larger role than it has in winters past. Before, I worked only two days a week past winter sunset. I worked a lot closer to home, so in a pinch I could scamper the couple of miles home with just the basics in lighting.

This year, I work four days a week where I’ll be riding home after dark, and two of those workdays end after the official sunset time beginning in September. Plus the commute is longer and goes through some high-traffic areas.

If I’m going to continue to ride multiple bikes to work from next month to when the snow flies, I need some more lights. I’ve liked the DiNotte 200L lights I bought several years ago, but my failing night vision has demanded more.

Last year the Portland’s dynamo hub and Schmidt Edelux headlight took care of that problem. But the dyno hub and lights are not easily switched from one bike to another, even before considering the different braking systems between the Portland and my other bikes.

Last year, the hot headlight setup became the MagicShine. It’s dirt cheap and allegedly four times brighter than my DiNottes. But I’m brand loyal and part of the reason I bought DiNottes in the first place was to get away from proprietary battery packs and chargers. The DiNottes use standard rechargeable AAs that I can get at WalMart.

But for any amount of light more than the DiNotte 200Ls put out, even in the DiNotte line, I’m back to proprietary battery packs and chargers. Sigh. What to do.

After much hemming and hawing, I’ve decided to get at least one MagicShine for the front of Yellow Bike and the Litespeed. I’ll be getting another DiNotte taillight for them, though. The MagicShine taillight runs off the same battery pack as their headlight, and I don’t want to run wiring on more bikes.

I’m seriously considering the DiNotte helmet light too. My commutes were pretty much straight runs before, now I zig-zag my way across the city and, coming home after a couple of evenings where we closed 9pm, I’ve thought about how much nicer it would be if I could get some light around corners. A helmet light is the only way to do that.

That leaves fenders (mudguards to you lot)

The Portland’s 45mm Planet Bike Cascadias have plenty of life left in them, and I’ve always put its three-season fenders—SKS P35s—on YellowBike for the winter. The Portland’s OEM fenderettes work well enough on Yellow Bike in the three-seasons, but the front one doesn’t fit on either Blue or the Litespeed.

Enter the Crud Roadracer. The Roadracer fenders came out a couple of years ago. Extremely thin, they’re designed to fit through short-reach brake calipers and mount on bikes that don’t have fender mounts.

And now I see, there’s the new for 2011 Roadracer Mk. 2, with even better coverage. I’ll put off this purchase a while to see if I can get the Mk. 2s, but even the originals will be fine for my intended usage.

I may still need to drop down to a 23mm front tire, too. Still, full fenders on a Ti road bike sounds like a lot more riding in the winter, so I’ll give them a try.

Then there’s Blue. Blue worked well at the tail of last winter wearing only the rear “fenderette”, so that’s what it’ll wear this year.

So this winter, I’ll have four road bikes, all with fenders, two also with racks, and plenty of lighting to switch around between them, along with all new winter cycling kit.

Utility cyclists would never be seen on a road bike, and roadies would never put fenders (or racks or lights) on their bikes. See? Neither utility cyclist nor roadie, neither fish nor fowl.

I guess MAMIL will have to do.

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.