Three entries, merged
I ♥ my new cassette!
I had my new Shimano HG-70 13-23 cassette installed yesterday. It replaced the SRAM PG-830 11-30 that came on my bike. The new one isn’t nickel-plated like the old one, so it’s not as pretty and shiny, but boy, what a difference in riding!
The cassette, BTW, is the group of five to ten gears (also called cogs) on the rear wheel of a 10 to 30 speed bike. Mine’s an eight-speed cassette, which, with the triple chainrings on the cranks, yields 24-speeds total.
The original cassette was designed to give a wide range of gears to cover all possible needs. Working up from first, the cogs had 30, 26, 23, 20, 17, 15, 13, 11 teeth. I never used first (30 teeth) because I never climb trees with my bike. I just don’t have the legs to push eighth (11 teeth) for more than a few hundred yards at a time, and even than it was usually downhill or with a stiff tailwind. I used second (26 teeth) only to go really slow on the sidewalk in front of my building and rarely (very rarely) on a steep hill heading into the wind.
So I was using only five of the eight cogs. They were spaced three and two teeth apart and I was always wishing for something in between. It seemed like all the time one gear was too hard (fast) and the other too easy (slow). I wanted Goldilocks gears.
Now I have them.
The new cassette has cogs with 23, 21, 19, 17, 16, 15, 14, 13 teeth—exactly the same range as I used on the old one, but now I have eight choices instead of five. And that’s made a world of difference.
Headwinds are my nemesis. And Rochester, by virtue of similar terrain and also being on the shore of a Great Lake, is nearly as windy as The Windy City of Chicago. We may complain that we’re the second cloudiest town in the lower 48 after Seattle, but the winds are the more significant weather feature to a cyclist.
Over the past three months, I’d set a headwind limit for riding of about 20 mph recreationally, and 25 to 30 for commutes. Anything more just blew the fun right out of riding.
Yesterday, we had sustained winds of 20 mph with higher gusts. It was also warm and muggy. I would have blown off riding completely. Instead, I plotted a ride into the headwinds to see how well the strategy of Goldilocks gears would work.
A hour-and-a-half later, I stopped for a half-hour rest, after nearly 25 miles into the wind. I was in farm country out west of Manitou Rd on the Canalway, where I found a nice little picnic table in the shade, across the canal from a cornfield.
The last four or five miles were a chore because I was getting tired out, but I was amazed at how much easier the riding was overall. I managed to stay within my cadence comfort zone of 85 to 90 for a lot of the ride. Those times it dipped below that were simply due to habit, having forgotten that I had more gears to play with.
By the time I got home an did a victory lap, I’d logged 33.17 miles—my longest single ride ever, and on a day where I wouldn’t have ridden at all before.
This morning, winds were from the southwest at 28 with higher gusts. I plotted a 15 mile ride starting mainly south, then mainly west, and returning with the tailwind. I even had to race a thunderstorm home. Made it too! (Which was good because I hadn’t thought to take my blinkies with me.) And I did it all before breakfast. Hell, even before my second smoke!
It was my highest average speed (14.2) and average cadence (76) ever. (Note: Average cadence is strongly affected by coasting, when you still have forward motion, but zero cadence.) See this screenshot from my Bike Journal. Compare today’s ride to the YTD numbers at the bottom. The right gears make all the difference in the world.
Rest day
Thursdays seem to have become my rest day. Well, there’s chores, some work and stuff, but I’m referring to cycling. It’s not anything planned, I’ve just fallen into it as a routine. Rest days are important, even if I’m averaging only 11 miles a day.
It’s kind of a shame too, since the weather today, at least until a few minutes ago, was nice. Cool, dry, sunny. Now the afternoon thunderstorms are moving in and I’m hoping they’ll pass by because I have laundry drying on the fire escape.
This week I discovered that I actually like riding in the rain. It’s been warm enough that I can ride in the rain wearing shorts and a tee. Other times I’ve ridden in the rain, it’s been cool and I’ve had to wear raingear, not so much to keep dry, but to stay warm. It’s a bit of a bother, though, getting all suited up. That seems to reduce the pleasure factor. I haven’t minded riding in the rain before, but I haven’t downright enjoyed it.
The warm rains of this week negated all that. Monday and Tuesday I commuted in the rain and just loved it. It’s amazing how wet I don’t get. Except my feet. They seem to catch spray splashing up from the ground at the sides of the tire. Maybe if I rode slower… Nah!
Hang on. Have to bring the laundry in…
The bike is now doing service a laundry drying rack.
Anyway, with the fenders on, only my feet catch any road spray. As for the rest, yeah, I get wet, but far from soaking. I rode over 15 miles in the rain on Monday. Part of it on the trails—I use the Riverway to get to the hospital, and the Canalway to come crosstown to Winton. The rest was on the roads.
The trails were nice. Only one other rider and no walkers, joggers or dogs the whole way. As for the roads, I’m so glad I bought blinkies bright enough to be seen during the day. With my blinkies on, cars have given me extra room when they pass. And they don’t seem to crowd me at stoplights either. Of course, maybe they’re afraid this nutcase riding a bike in the rain without a raincoat. Something might rub off. Or they were waiting to watch me fall.
Tuesday the postman was walking by as I brought my bike down the fire escape. He said, “A little damp today, isn’t it?”
“I was thinking it’s a little extra muggy today,” I replied.
He laughed in the way that only those who deal with weather as a matter of course can.
Arriving at work both days my co-workers were shocked that I’d ridden. And that, within ten minutes of arriving, I was all dry and in dry clothes. I’d even dried my bike so that it didn’t drip all over the floor.
Three months with the bike
In June, I rode 25 of the 30 days. Of the days I didn’t ride, four were Thursday rest days, and the fifth was a Sunday that was just too hot and muggy to ride. On those 25 days, I averaged 10.98 miles per day. Some days were as few as three or four miles, and others as many as 30.
I never set foot (or ass) on a bus. I rode in cars twice. Once to Sam’s Club—a friend gave me a shopping spree for my birthday—and again, to and from the monthly staff luncheon at Presbytery. I’d have ridden to the restaurant, but my schedule got screwed-up that week and I had to work at Presbytery that day anyway.
All along, I’ve become a stronger and better rider. Improvements continue everywhere. Even simple stuff, like locking the bike in new and unfamiliar places used to be a bit of a challenge. That’s gone away. I’m better with removing and replacing the wheels. Still the only way I can wash it is to take off the seat and wheels, then stuff the rest into the shower stall.
My body has accepted what it took as some cruel form of torture as part of the norm. I’m seldom sore any more, even after personal record breaking rides. When I am, it’s minor and lasts for only hours, rather than nearly crippling and lasting for days. In fact, I begin to feel it when I don’t ride as hard or as far as I could. I’m thinking of using Wednesdays as training ride days in addition to Sundays. Whodathunk?
When I’m riding, I’m concentrating less on the mechanics or riding, and more on the ride itself. Similarly, I’m les consciously vigilant in traffic. Reading the road and the drivers is becoming more natural and sub-conscious. Although I’ve caught myself zoning-out on the way home from the work, especially on Tuesday nights.
I’ve become more flexible in my routing. Little construction projects that pop up are just another reason to try a different street. (Although I did go back through one manhole replacement site where I caught the the hunky flagman checking me out.) I found a differnt route to Presbytery that’s almost two miles shorter. I won’t use it routinely because I like my usual route through the park, but it’ll come in handy when I’m running late or in bad weather.
The neatest trick, is that I’ve learned how to trigger traffic lights. The ones with the metal detecting loops buried under the asphalt are easy to trigger with a bike, if you know how. That saves a lot of time waiting for a car to come along to trigger them for me. There are a couple where I ride that aren’t calibrated properly, but all the rest, bingo! They think I’m a car and change to green for me.
I haven’t figured out drafting yet. The couple of times I tried it, it just didn’t work out. Once, I tried drafting a horse truck. I’m not sure if it was because he accellerated too fast for me (must have been empty) or because I was too enthralled watching myself in the chrome rear doors, but I fell back after only a hundred feet or so.
This month I’ve ticked off my list of upgrades a bell (I love my Incredibell!) and a new cassette.
I’ve also replaced the Slime sealant tubes with Mr. Tuffy tire liners. The better strategy of flat prevention over puncture repair became evident last Monday when, walking past my bike in the back workroom, I saw a 3/16” triangular chunk of someone’s windsheild sticking out of my tire. I don’t know how many miles I rode with it there, but it certainly survived bouncing the rain off the bike on the sidewalk, and being pushed across the library carpet. I just pulled it out of the tire and threw it in the trash.
It’s my lowest cash-flow part of the year, so it’s going to be a while before I can replace the saddle. Disk brakes are still lurking out there as a possibility for winter, and maybe an additional set of lights for the dark winter months. And, of course, there’s the rack to store the bike in the living room.
Before winter I’ll also replace the pedals. These are slippery in the wet. My feet fly off them when I shift. I’m resistant to toe-clips or clipless pedals and shoes, because of all the red lights and stop signs on my commutes. For example, there are three stoplights between here and Park Ave alone—a distance of a half-mile. That’s a lot of clipping and unclipping! I’ve seen recommendations of using pedals for BMX bikes instead. The other benefit is that they allow you wear regular snow boots too.
Otherwise, I can’t think of anything else I want or need for this bike. I’m still thinking about an additional bike for next year. Trouble with that is that it’s slowly moving up the budget scale.
I was initially thinking about spending $700 or $800 on an entry-level road bike in the spring. I’ve come to realize, I already own an entry-level bike, so that’s not the best purchase decision. Since then, the “goal” bike has moved up the scale through $1,000 to $1,200 to $1,500 and is rapidly closing in on $2,000.
The increases have mainly been due to drivetrain components. I started at Shimano 105, then went to Shimano Ultegra and then to Campagnolo. The best price I’ve found on the Campy Record gruppo, is $1,428. And that’s just the drivetrain. No bike frame, wheels, tires, handlebars, pedals, saddle or anything else. Then there’s the new SRAM Force gruppo, which one guy has reported cost him over $1,800.
You can see how the parts list will close in on $3,000 before I’m done. And that’s before we even think about a carbon-fiber frame…
Oh shit. Now I have to go look at bike porn…
