Scenic Route

All three of the weather forecasts I use screwed up today. They all predicted rain this afternoon. Instead the clouds parted and blew away, the sun warned everything up and the winds slowed down just a bit.

I waited for rush-hour traffic to clear, then geared up, carried Yellow Bike downstairs and rode off into the sunset.

I can’t believe how mechanically smooth this bike is. I could be pedaling in thin air for all I feel through my feet. The bottom bracket is like pudding. Or maybe whipped cream. There’s just no resistance, vibration or roughness when turning the cranks. Nor can I feel the chain or the gears, until I shift. It makes me wonder what’s wrong with Bike. Are its components that much cheesier?

Also, I’m very pleased with the longer cranks. Five millimeters of crank length (ten if you count by the diameter) doesn’t sound like much, but it’s a world of difference. I don’t feel like I’m taking baby steps. It makes me wonder if I should have gone to 177.5mm or 180mm instead. And contrary to popular myth, the longer cranks made no difference whatsoever in my typical cadence. I was between 95 and 100 RPM for most of the ride tonight.

The ride is very different from Bike. Yellow Bike is not necessarily smoother over the bumps, but since it’s so much lighter, there’s less inertia, so it doesn’t pound over them. That makes it feel much, much different.

It’s going to take my body a while to adjust to the ride position. With the bars so much further down and forward (a full two inches as compared to Bike), there’s a lot more weight on my hands. This feels much nicer on my butt, and once those upper body muscles get used to supporting me, I don’t think there’ll be a problem.

In fact, after the 21 miles I rode tonight, I think the fit is nearly perfect. I raised the saddle a centimeter or so at around mile 15, and that seemed to take care of my knees. Otherwise, I don’t seem to need to stretch or scrunch for anything. Everything is just right there where it ought to be.

I rode most to the time on the hoods. I spent maybe three miles on the tops and about a half-mile in the drops. It all seemed okay. I’m super pleased. And relieved. I was worried that it wouldn’t be right and that since I can’t adjust the front end, I’d be stuck with a fit that was horribly wrong. Instead, it feels just right.

The only thing I might possibly change are the bars. I think I’d like a flatter transition from the bars to the hoods, to take some of the pressure off the base of my thumbs at the joint. But that may be an issue of acclimation.

Handling is a dream. I barely have to think and the bike just goes there. Yet its straight line stability is like it’s on rails. It’s completely unperturbed going straight. It feels like neither a hurricane nor a rottwiler could knock it off course. But at the same time, it’s quick to dodge pebbles, sticks and broken glass. I barely have to move my eyeballs and it shifts to one side then back around the obstacle.

Cornering is equally stable and graceful. Again, it seems like all I have to do is move my eyes or my neck, and the bike carves a line by itself, right to where I want to be. It’s spooky. And amazing. And wonderfully just right.

After a year on Bike, I’m still not as smooth as I was on the first real ride on Yellow Bike. While I’m certain the frame geometry plays a part, I’m thinking that since Yellow Bike fits me that much better, that that might be part of it too. A third component is that the narrower bars (by a full 10 inches) and that I’ve tightened the headset (increasing resistance to turning the bars) have damped-out all the twitchiness inherent with my body motion.

In case you’ve forgotten, I’m twitchy. It will never be said of me that I have anything remotely resembling fluidity of motion. I twitch, over-react, over-compensate, and finally correct. Bike seems to amplify all that to an alarming degree. I have to really work to make my steering smooth on Bike. If my concentration shifts to something else, like my breathing, or cadence, or, Oh look! Something shiney! Then all is lost.

The reduced leverage of Yellow Bike’s narrower bars and the increased resistance I’ve dialed into the headset seem to make a world of difference. After that comes fit, and I think the frame geometry comes in third. Not sure, but that’s how it seems after tonight’s ride.

There are thorns amongst the roses, however. First, there’s the cyclometer. You’ll notice I’m not quoting any figures here, except for distance, which is a known over the route I rode tonight. I’ve done it so many times I can tell you where mile markers should go.

Anyway, the cyclometer doesn’t seem to work when I’m riding. It works fine if I lift the wheel off the ground and spin it by hand. It works fine if I stand next to the bike and roll the wheel back and forth. But if I get on the bike and start riding, within 100–200 feet, the thing reads zero. I’m baffled.

Second thing that happened, is I fell. Well, not exactly fell, but I tipped over at a stop. Yes, it’s fairly common—almost a rite of passage—for new clipless users. And initially, I attributed it to that. Until it very nearly happened a second time. I was a little more aware that time and it was because my foot was stuck in the pedal.

Apparently, on the left pedal, one side of the double-sided pedal is tighter than the other. It takes a conscious effort to unclip. Once I figure out which side it is, it’ll be easy to fix. It’s just figuring out which side.

Meanwhile, just as my right knee and elbow are healed from the rottweiler, I now have scrapes and scratches on my left knee and elbow. Fortunately, the blood from my knee only dribbled halfway down my leg, and didn’t drip on my shoe. The bike has scratches on the left pedal and on the left brifter (BRake/shIFT levER) . Which is fine, I guess. It makes me feel less bad about the scratch I put in the left brifter when I installed it.

On the subject of shifting, more often than I care to admit, I hit the lever to upshift when I intended to downshift. Time and experience should fix that. Still, it was a bit frustrating.

In any event, I’m looking forward to commuting on Yellow Bike for the next three days. Tomorrow and Saturday I play to take the long way to work. On Sunday, which is forecast to be the first stunningly gorgeous day of the year, I’m hoping for a 40–60 miler.

The ride

As for tonight’s ride, well, I got approval from a neighbor who’s never talked to me before. He couldn’t believe the bike is a 2000 model. Even after I explained it’s a completely new drivetrain, he still thinks the frame looks great. I didn’t mention that I paid only $100 for the bike.

Roadies wave when you’re on a road bike. That was very weird.

When I crossed the bike bridge over the river, another guy caught up with me. We talked for a few hundred yards before I turned right on the Canalway and he went straight to the Greenway. He was commuting, I think. Had one pannier and a trunk bag on and wasn’t in bike clothes.

As we parted he asked, “Where you goin’?”

Heading off into the sunset, “Nowhere”, I replied.

I saw the first two woodchucks and the first bunny of the season.

The bushes along the canal are starting to bud out. Soon there will be leaves.

I nearly jumped off the bike when I heard a gunshot as I cycled through U of R. Fortunately, it was only the starter’s pistol at the track meet.

And now, it’s bedtime.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 18th, 2007 at 10:47 pm EST and is filed under Bike, Project: Yellow Bike. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.