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Archives for June 2014

Just Didn’t Have It

06.29.2014 by Ray Niekamp // 1 Comment

Saturday, I had a good neighborhood ride after coming back from a week’s layoff. A trip to the local bike shop took care of my spoke problem, and the bike is rolling smoothly again. I even set a new PR on a Strava segment. In short, I was looking forward to our Sunday club ride.

I had put out a call on our club’s Yahoo board for B riders to come on out. We haven’t been getting any B’s lately — just me and Maggie — and we were looking for company. So I was pleased to see Brian when I got to Starbucks. Brian has been working in Mexico for the last six months — he does something managerial with oil rigs — so he hasn’t been able to ride with us. We did get a new B rider, Joe, who had ridden with us two weeks ago and realized that to keep up, he needed to get clipless pedals and shoes with cleats. But the rest of the group of eight were A riders, who didn’t want to get up early for the new 7:30 start time the A’s now use.

Eight riders — three of them named Joe.

I felt okay as we left Starbucks, but after only about three miles, I could tell this wouldn’t be my day. I felt blah. I couldn’t keep up with the group on the small hills through a nearby community. Maggie wasn’t doing well, either.

Tired_Cyclist.png“My son woke up at 3 a.m. with a nightmare,” she said. “I never did get back to sleep.”

In my case, I went to bed too late, and had trouble falling asleep. It appeared we both got less than five hours. On top of that, our house was out of both eggs and oatmeal, so my breakfast wasn’t as hearty as I’d like.

By the time we reached the turnoff for the zoo, only three of us were left — the others were out of sight. Jim stayed with us, because even though he’s an A rider, he hasn’t ridden with us much lately. He’d also never been on this route.

“I just don’t have it this morning,” said Maggie, as we struggled up the grade out of the valley near the zoo. But when we got to an intersection where we could have turned back, she insisted we keep going.

I got a second wind of sorts, and we made good time through the middle section of the ride. But then the hills came again. A longish one along a busy six-lane road is still showing the effects of a chip seal job that had been done some years ago. The road surface is pretty good, but bikes don’t tamp down the chip seal on shoulders very well. It was rough.

I knew I was in trouble when Maggie passed me and easily pulled away on the hill. She doesn’t do that often. I pedaled through the rolling section after the hill in one gear lower than usual, not able to catch Maggie. I wasn’t having much fun.

At a stoplight, both Maggie and Jim turned right and stopped. I caught up to them.

“Why did you turn here?” I asked. “Aren’t you going on to Travis Country?” (A nice residential area another mile or two ahead that is a regular part of this route.)

“Well…” Maggie started.

“Listen,” I said. “I just don’t have it today. I’m all for heading straight back now.”

A smile lit up her face. She hadn’t wanted to be the one to cut the ride short, but she was happy to go along when I did.

The last three miles home were into a stiff headwind. On a hill where I have clocked 35 mph in the past, I couldn’t nudge it above 27. Even then, we were in danger of being knocked off our bikes by sudden crosswinds. At the next light, Maggie said she wouldn’t go back to Starbucks with us, but would continue straight on to her house.

When I got home, my bike computer registered only 22 miles — well short of our typical Sunday ride distances. I was wiped out. After a shower, I couldn’t wait to flop in front of the TV and watch some World Cup action (Go Holland!). Didn’t I say something just last week about needing to do a better job of sleeping? Another resolution discarded. But I can’t keep turning in these sub-par performances. I resolve again to sleep better — we’ll see if this one holds any better than my other resolutions.

 

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Categories // Rides Tags // tired

Tone Deaf

06.26.2014 by Ray Niekamp // 7 Comments

A few days ago, I posted about a ride I took that tired me out much quicker than it should have. I thought it was because I had had too little sleep the night before. Wrong-o.

The next morning, as I rolled the bike out of the garage to put it in my car for a trip to the bike shop, I noticed the rear wheel was binding a bit. At one point in its rotation, a definite drag could be felt. I examined the brake, and saw that the right side of the rear brake rubbed the wheel at that spot. Ah ha! With that drag on the wheel, it was no wonder I was tired trying to keep up.

Later, I rolled the bike into the bike shop. “I need a new chain,” I told one of the mechanics. “And this brake is binding a little.”

“Let me see that,” said the owner of the shop, as he came out from behind the service counter. He took the bike and put it up on a stand.

“Yep, you’ve got a broken spoke,” he said.

“What?” I exclaimed. I went back to the service area.

“Yeah, here, and here — and here’s a third one,” he said. “That caused the brake problem.”

I told him about the ride.

“Well, one spoke breaks, and that puts extra tension on the others, and they can fail, too,” he said.

I told him I’d pick the bike up later in the week.

“Want me to give the drive train a good cleaning, too?” he asked. “This bike has been…uh…well used.”

Thanks. I told him to go ahead, and stewed in my car the rest of the way home. Thinking back to the ride, I remembered one spot in particular. We had slowed to look at some birds along the road, when I heard an odd sound — like a ping — come from the rear wheel. I thought it was odd, and it was a sound I’d never heard before. But I didn’t think anything of it, and we resumed our ride.

Trouble was, at that point we were still about 15 miles from home. And we still had some rollers to ride, as well as two good-sized hills.

Despite my tiredness, I managed to keep up most of the way home, until the last mile when Maggie pulled well ahead of me. I must really be tired, I thought.

Stupid me. That ping I heard was the first spoke letting go. I didn’t do anything about it, because I wasn’t curious enough to check on where such an odd sound could come from in the bike. I wonder how many spokes had broken by the time we took our rest stop with eight miles to go. I wonder how long it would have taken for the whole wheel to collapse.

Oh, and I have to give my bike a good cleaning, too.

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Categories // Maintenance Tags // spokes, wheels

Steel is Real

06.24.2014 by Ray Niekamp // Leave a Comment

Occasionally, I’ll see a bike, and just drool over it. Guest poster Don Blount, however, is a man of action. When he wants a new bike, he gets one. And in his case, it’s a custom frame. I’m drooling again.

BlountOnBikingI have been busy with work, family and things that usually take our time and attention. But I still made time to ride my bike. That is, my new bike.

Click to enlarge.
Click to enlarge.

It is a custom, hand-built, steel frame Tallerico bike designed and built by Jon Tallerico of Lodi, California.

And I love it.

It is a wine color with some pearl. So depending on the lighting it can look burgundy, brown, purple and even black.

Here is what strikes me about the bike:

1) It looks small.

The bike has a sloping top tube that allows me to straddle the bike. The long head tube is sort of a Tallerico signature seen in a number of his bikes. Combined, it makes the bike look small to my eye.

2) The bike is beyond comfortable.

The effective top tube length of the new bike is 54 cm, which is the same as my old bike. But the new bike is built around me with what feels like a shorter cockpit area. So my arms can dangle comfortably without me feeling stretched out. The steel frame is stiff but dampening, providing a firm ride but one that is not too stiff. In short, it is comfortable.

And a comfortable bike makes it easy to spend time on the bike.

I have more than 110 hours on this bike since getting it in mid-February. That adds up to more than 1,800 miles (2,900 kilometers) and 46,000 feet (14,000 meters) of climbing. That includes a metric century, two centuries and a double metric. I can literally, and I have, sat on the bike all day without issue.

The bike is nimble, meaning it is fast, responsive and climbs well. The more I ride it, the more I understand what it can do and the more I enjoy riding it.

For those who like specs: most of the components were swapped from my previous bike, a Scattante CFR Comp. And most of those had I upgraded over the past few years.

Moved to the new bike were: Ritchey carbon bars, Selle Italia Gel Flow saddle, Shimano Ultegra brakes and compact crankset, Ritchey pedals, Shimano 105 shifters, Forte stem, Williams 30X wheels.

New are an FSA carbon seatpost, Bontrager carbon water bottle cages (impractical but a splurge), slightly used Shimano Dura-Ace 7800 front and rear derailleur (more on this in another post), Shimano Ultegra quick release skewers and of course, cables and wires.

The bike also has a carbon Enve front fork and Chris King headset.

Quite frankly, I had no interest in getting a new bike as it was not in my budget or my wish list at the time. A custom-built bike costs about $2,500-$3,000. But when Jon approached me with the idea of building me a bike, he presented an offer that I heartily accepted.

And I am glad he did.

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Categories // Bikes Tags // custom bikes

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