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Archives for November 2011

The Roundtail Bike

11.08.2011 by Ray Niekamp // 5 Comments

Nowadays, I find that comfort on my bike is the most important thing I can aspire to. Perhaps that’s because I’ve spent so much uncomfortable time in the saddle. (Oh, and speaking of saddles, that Forte I put on the bike a few weeks ago is working out nicely. Who’d a thunk?)

So when I came across this oddball design this week, I had to stop for a closer look. It’s called the Roundtail, and instead of having a diamond-shaped frame, it uses two circular rings in the rear. They’re supposed to dissipate road vibrations before they make it up to the rider’s derriere.

Inventor Lou Tortola and the Roundtail bike.

The Roundtail is the brainchild of Lou Tortola of Windsor, Ontario, Canada. He claims it absorbs 60 times more road vibrations than a standard double diamond frame. I don’t know anything about bike geometry, but if one can get past the bizarre look, I can see that there can be some relief in the design. Despite the rings, the frames are sized traditionally.

Here’s a YouTube video showing the Roundtail out on a ride.

The frame reportedly retails for $2,000. That’s just the frame, mind you. I’m not endorsing the Roundtail — I don’t know enough about it yet. But it will be interesting to see if the design takes off.

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Categories // Bikes Tags // Bikes

Shedding Layers (Or Not)

11.06.2011 by Ray Niekamp // 10 Comments

“Let’s ride,” said my wife on Saturday morning.

“You’re on,” I replied.

I checked the temperature. It was a chilly 42 degrees outside (5 Celsius). She confirmed it by walking into the backyard.

“Oh oh — we’re covering the legs today,” she said.

By the time I got on the bike, I was dressed in shorts, leg warmers, two pairs of socks, a base layer t-shirt, arm warmers, summer weight jersey, windbreaker with detachable sleeves, full-finger gloves. I felt just right in the driveway, as I waited for Pat to clip in. Feeling just right at the start of a ride is never good. You always want to feel a tad chilly. Your pedaling will warm you up.

But as we set off, a brisk wind from the southeast smacked us in the face. Maybe I dressed right after all, I mused. We headed out for a Mopac loop at Pat’s suggestion. The wind buffeted us on the way south, but when we turned west, it was helping. By the time I reached the top of the only decent hill on the route and stopped to wait for Pat, I was feeling warmth on my back and sweat on my brow.

She caught up to me, and I could see that she’d unzipped the zipper of her fleece jacket, although the neck gaiter was still in place. Pedaling up the hill after a week’s layoff from the bike bothered her more than the warming temperature.

I asked if she wanted to do a Veloway lap after Mopac.

“No, I’ve had enough,” she said. I told her I would ride awhile longer when we got to an intersection near the house.

I set out for Convict Hill. Usually when I do this ride on Saturday mornings, I hit Convict Hill first, then do a Mopac loop, then a Veloway loop. It all adds up to a nice 27-miler and is my usual Saturday morning ride.

As I approached the climb up Convict Hill, I noticed the runners on the local streets. Most of them were in shorts and t-shirts. A few wore long-sleeved t-shirts. No one was bundled up for the cold like I was. I did a quick assessment of my kit. I hadn’t removed any of it from the time we started. Now, I had close to 17 miles under my wheels, and I could feel the soaked base layer and jersey clinging to me. Time to shed the windbreaker, I thought to myself.

Problem was, the wind was still pretty brisk — between 12-15 mph. When it hit my sweat-soaked clothing, it had an immediate cooling effect. I didn’t like the idea of keeping the windbreaker on, but I was concerned that taking it off now would just invite chills later.

I rode up the hill. Isn’t it interesting how hills that you’re used to doing early in the ride become a lot harder after you’ve been riding for over an hour? I was winded at the top, and pulled to the curb to stop, drink some water, and tend to my kit.

Given the fact that the wind didn’t seem to be letting up in the least, I still didn’t want to give up the windbreaker. I unzipped part way to at least let some of the heat escape from my upper torso. I figured that would be enough. At a stoplight several minutes later, another cyclist made a left turn in front of me. He was wearing shorts and a short-sleeved jersey. With the gusty wind, I still felt cool. I wondered how he was doing.

Better than me, evidently. I added another four miles to the ride home (could have done it in just under two) to bring my total mileage to my usual Saturday morning 27. But when I got to the garage, I was spent. The sun was out now. The temperature was 68 degrees (20 Celsius). I was soaked through and through.

I’ve done goofy things like this before. I know that as cooler weather becomes the norm, I’ll be better prepared for it. I started out the day dressed for 42 — but what I hadn’t factored in was that it wouldn’t be 42 for long. Just getting rid of the windbreaker’s sleeves probably would have handled most of the situation — and I could have taken off the leg warmers later on. I just wish I didn’t have to re-learn this lesson every year.

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Categories // Cold weather Tags // clothing

Riding Longer

11.03.2011 by Ray Niekamp // 7 Comments

When I saw Don Blount’s post about his riding stats, it spurred me to look at my own. I knew I wasn’t putting in the miles this year to bring me to last year’s total of 4,000 plus — but I’m at about 3,100 for the year at this point, and I’m pleased with that.

The Bike Noob riding a century on the first day of the MS150, 2010.

What surprised me about my numbers, though, was the lack of long rides. The longest ride I have done this year was a metric century — 62 miles — and that was way back in March. My traditional long ride days with the club haven’t turned out to be that, because I ride with the B group, and we don’t go as far.

In fact, when I pored through the overly obsessive riding stats I keep, I found that I’ve done a whopping FIVE rides of over 40 miles this year. Just five. Disgraceful.

Why would I consider that disgraceful? Purely for personal reasons. I don’t really care if anyone else notices I’m not going long. But two things apply here: I like long rides, and I know they help me get better (better = improved endurance, which also means somewhat faster speeds on shorter rides).

I probably should have done something about it earlier. I even posted in mid-summer that I’m the King of the 25-Milers, and mused about the need to stretch out my rides back then. Never did.

And I’ll bet I know why I haven’t done the longer rides this year: a lack of goals. Another post from early in the year dissed the organized (or t-shirt) ride as something I didn’t need to do, because I could ride those routes on my own most any time I wanted. The trouble is, I wasn’t riding those routes on my own.

So, I’m setting a goal for 2012: More long rides. Wait — that’s not specific enough. How about: Two century rides, and four metric centuries. It’s likely I would have to target organized rides to force me to train for them. I can also see that another advantage of the organized rides is that they occur on a set date. That kind of targeted training has worked for me in the past. I could also target different group rides that I haven’t done yet. I’m a member of the Austin Cycling Association, for example, but rarely go on their rides — and they do between two and four every weekend. All of them have at least one distance of over 50 miles.

Again, I’m pretty happy with the total mileage I’ve done this year. But I just feel that my cycling has been missing something. Adding more long rides in the coming 12 months will fill the void. I hope.

 

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Categories // Rides Tags // distance, mileage

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