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Thinking Rivendell

03.24.2011 by Ray Niekamp // 21 Comments

After a few years of riding, I have figured out some things about my tastes in biking.

I no longer lust after the high-end carbon fiber racing rigs. I’m not joining the Sunday morning ride to hammer hard for 60 miles. I’m not planning to ride for 40 miles without taking a break some where along the line.

But I still love to ride my bike.

I like to ride long. And I do enjoy more intense training, if I’m training with a goal in mind. For example, I try to work in a ride once a week that visits some of our neighborhood hills. These aren’t big hills, but after several repeats on them, they amount to a tough workout.

It appears there are others who share my interests — lots of others. We never hear about them because they’re not the kind who join clubs and do group rides. They just enjoy taking a turn on their bikes.

There’s a bike maker for them. It’s Rivendell bikes, of Walnut Creek, California in the San Francisco Bay area.

Rivendell is all about bikes that put the rider in a more relaxed, more upright riding position. Their A. Homer Hilsen model (Yes, they go in for odd model names, too) is perhaps their flagship bike, and embodies Rivendell’s idea of a good ride.

If it looks a little tall, it is — a 61 cm model.

Notice the handlebars on the Hilsen. They’re roughly even with the saddle, not a couple of inches below it. The steel bike has fenders (with mudflaps), a triple crankset, and a leather Brooks saddle. It can take tires as wide as 38 mm and still fit fenders, although many Hilsen owners probably run 32s.

Here’s part of Rivendell’s philosophy, as outlined on its website: “If you’re a mid-50s rider of moderate fitness, but ride fewer than 3,000 miles per year, and you want to ride longish and steepish hills, the standard road gearing you’ll find on virtually any stock road bike, is too high. Your big ring should be less than 50t, you middle ring should be 36t or 34t, and your small ring should be 24t or 26t. The biggest cog on your cassette should be at least 27t, and preferably 32t. For non-competitive riding, it’s hard to justify tires smaller than 28 mm.”

Yeah, baby. Give me a bike like that, and I’ll scoot right up all those steepish hills in this area. I won’t be nearly as fast as I can be on my current bike, which isn’t nearly as fast as some of my friends’ racing bikes — but I’ll be fast enough for me, and probably a lot more comfortable.

Grant Petersen, who heads Rivendell, has distinctive opinions about what makes a good bike. Poking around on the website will turn up a lot of Petersen gems, like these:

“Go for a one-hour ride underdressed sometime, because it’s good to be really cold on a bike every now and then.The reverse (overdressing in hot weather) is not necessary!

Never blame your bike or your health or anything else if you’re the last one up the hill or in to the rest stop.

If your brake hoods are black, wrap your bars with a different color tape, so it doesn’t look like a one-piece set-up.

Never let your chain squeak.”

It might seem that Rivendell is all about riding slow and easy. While that’s part of what it supports, it also likes a well-designed, comfortable, fast bike. So I suppose for some of us, it’s a matter of having your cake and eating it, too. Laid back — but fast — riding. Riding done for your own satisfaction, not anyone else’s.

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Categories // Bikes Tags // Bikes, steel

My Favorite Hand Position

03.22.2011 by Ray Niekamp // 5 Comments

I’m sure we’ve all had the experience of hands going numb on a ride. For some of us, it thankfully doesn’t happen much. For others, it occurs regularly. We keep going, and shake out our hands to get some feeling back into them. We can also check to make sure our hands are positioned to minimize pressure, by putting most of the weight on the heels, rather than the palms of the hands.

Or, we move our hands around on the bar. The nice thing about drop bars is that the rider can ride in a number of hand positions. I spend 80 percent or more of my time on the brake hoods, as I suspect most road riders do. I like to ride in the drops, not so much because I go faster that way, but because it’s a different position, and relieves pressure on the hands from their time on the hoods. And sometimes, I’ll grab the bar on the flat top part, especially going up hill.

But I’ve got another hand position that has become my favorite. I simply move my hands back from the brake hoods by an inch or two. That puts them over the bar just after it has curved forward from the flat part.

This position appeals to me because of one overriding factor: comfort. My hand is still able to grip in a handshake attitude. I can wrap my fingertips around the drops. It’s a lot like the hand position we used to take when riding those cruiser bikes we grew up with, where the handlebars curved toward the rear.

It also puts me more upright. That’s very welcome after being in the same bent-over position for awhile. I can relax a bit, sit back and look around.

Some handlebars are better adapted to this riding position than others. Randonneur-style bars, such as the Nitto Noodle, have relatively long “ramps” up to the brake hoods that give the rider a generous area to place the hands.

The Nitto Noodle bar.

For myself, I’ve found that making sure the “flats” or “ramps” that lead to the brake hoods are parallel with the ground means my hands on the flats will be a little more comfortable.

I’m still on the brake hoods 80 percent of the time, but when I need a break, I just back off an inch or two. If you haven’t tried it yet, it’s worth a shot. See if you agree.

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Categories // Equipment Tags // comfort, handlebars

Professional Drivers

03.20.2011 by Ray Niekamp // 3 Comments

Since beginning biking way back in 2007, I have had a healthy respect for trucks and buses. Not because they’re big and are a threat, but because they are driven by pros. Pros know the rules of the road, and they’re sharp enough to anticipate moves other drivers and cyclists might make.

During the road part of my Traffic Skills 101 course, we were negotiating the streets of downtown Austin. I had a left turn coming up, and I was keeping my bike as far to the right as practicable, just as a good cyclist is supposed to do. But I had to move left, and a big city bus was approaching from behind.

I signaled my left, started  to move in that direction, and low and behold, the bus let me through. We were able to flow smoothly with no disruption of traffic. I got to make my left turn, and he got to pull up to the corner at his next stop.

I’ve had other encounters with professional drivers that have only increased my confidence in them.

And then, Friday morning came.

Pat and I were out on a ride in the neighborhood. She usually goes 12-15 miles, and I’ll tack on another 10 or so after she heads home. This time, we were coming up to a major intersection of two four-lane divided streets. Some time ago, I taught Pat to leave the bike lane just before it ends, and “take the lane.” That way, right-turning cars have to turn behind her, rather than cut her off and trap her in the right turn lane.

She was quite a way behind me. She signaled, moved left to take the lane, and the light went yellow. She pedaled hard to get across the right turn lane and pull back into the bike lane at the stop. Then she heard it. A truck owned by a well-known food distributor decided he wasn’t going to stop at the light and gunned it to get through the yellow. So here she was — in a traffic lane, braking for the light, and a truck right behind her was speeding up. She dove for the bike lane early and just got out of the way of the truck.

I always wait for her at the top of a hill about a half-mile up the road. When she caught up to me, she was pretty rattled. But I congratulated her for handling it well, and she put the incident behind her.

Until the next morning.

This time, we were climbing a hill on State Highway 45. The bike lane — shoulder really — narrows and disappears as an intersection approaches. If you turn right, a fire station sits nearby. A fire truck coming up the hill didn’t give Pat any room. It stayed in its lane instead of moving left for her (the other lane was clear) and squeezed her into the gutter just before the right turn lane for the intersection.

Two days, two trucks. Pat’s not excited about riding in traffic right now. And my regard for professional drivers is not as high as it once was.

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Categories // Safety Tags // trucks

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