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Backpedaling – With a New Old Crankset

02.03.2011 by Ray Niekamp // 4 Comments

I put in considerably fewer miles in January than in the last few months of 2010, mainly because the weather was so uncooperative.  But even so, I did come to one major conclusion about my bike:

I have to change cranks again.

Regular readers might remember that my bike fitting in April showed that I needed shorter crank arms.  The ones I had were 175 mm, and the fitter recommended 172.5.  I was able to change over much sooner than I thought, because guest poster Don Blount had an older crankset that he had upgraded, and was nice enough to send it my way.  The difference 2.5 mm made in the pedal stroke was noticeable, and an improvement.

But then came New Year’s Day.  The left crank arm fell off during a ride.

I prepared myself after that.  I put an 8 mm Allen wrench into my seat bag, ready to tighten the pedal bolt if I ever needed to.  Unfortunately, just a few days later, I needed to.  I stopped during a ride just to check it, and sure enough, the same left crank arm jiggled a little.

I mentioned the problem to a bike mechanic, and he told me the crankset was shot, and needed to be replaced.  I didn’t really want to, and figured I could just tighten it as needed.

But I’ve needed to tighten it more often than I thought.  And it’s very unpredictable, too.  On a recent 30-mile ride, the bolt stayed tight, even after I’d traveled some grungy roads.  But on an easy Veloway ride of half that distance a few days later, I had to stop on the second lap to tighten it down.

So, I’m retrofitting.  I still have the original equipment crankset and bottom bracket, and I’ll just swap out one for the other.  That means I’ll be going back to 175 mm crank arms.  Well, I lived with them for more than two years, and they performed fine – just maybe not as optimally as shorter arms.  For the casual kind of riding I mostly do these days, I don’t think it will be a bad thing.  Except maybe, I’ll just have to be more careful about lifting the inside pedal on tight turns.

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Categories // Components Tags // components, cranksets

Getting Away By Bike

02.01.2011 by Ray Niekamp // 1 Comment

It’s the coldest weather I’ve experienced in the 10 years I’ve lived in Texas.  My former homes in the Midwest are snowed in by the biggest snowstorm of the year.  I’m not thinking much about biking in these circumstances.  But we can use the time away from our bikes to make plans.  And when doing that, it’s a good idea to dream big.

David Houghton dreams big.  His new website, Biciklo, is a guide to biking tours around the world.  The premise is simple.  Let’s say you want to go somewhere – maybe somewhere exotic – and while you’re there, you want to get in some riding.  You could make arrangements to rent a bike and get a map and explore on your own, or you can go on an organized biking tour, with experienced guides who know cool out-of-the-way places and who can look after the mundane details of the trip.

Lots of different companies compete in this field.  How can you compare them and figure out which is the best for you?  That’s what Biciklo does.  Log onto the website, www.biciklo.com, and click on a country you’d like to see by bike.  Let’s say Spain, just for kicks.  You want to go for a period of two to 10 days, and you want to do some road biking.

Descending on the Costa Brava.

Holy cow! I counted 112 different tours in Spain, offered by at least 30 different companies.  Once you get those returns, you can start culling them to find the kind of tour that fits your interest.  Some feature overnight accommodations in luxury hotels, other say overnights are “indoors.”  The tours are described as easy, moderate or challenging.  Prices are quoted in Euros, Pound sterling, or U.S. dollars, depending upon the company offering the tour.  Of course, there’s a link on each tour to the company that offers it, so you can get further details from their sites.

Most people keep a “bucket list” – list of things they want to do in their lifetimes.  Biciklo’s Houghton suggests keeping a “bike-it” list.  He hopes his site will help promote bicycle touring as a healthy, environmentally sustainable way to travel.

If you want a break from Old Man Winter, even vicariously, take a look at www.biciklo.com.

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Categories // Travel Tags // touring, Travel

These Shoes Cook! Bont ctt-three Review

01.30.2011 by Ray Niekamp // 9 Comments

Guest poster Don Blount’s search for the perfect bike shoe took him to the Antipodes – in a manner of speaking.  He likes what he found.

I had never heard of Bont. Ever.

Now the company is like my new best friend.

I began searching for new cycling shoes for a simple reason – my feet began to hurt after rides. The Cannondale RS3100 cycling shoes I had worn for two years were great for getting me into biking but I was riding harder, longer and farther. The results I was getting were not the same. I figured the shoes, which were actually free with the discount I received from Performance Bike when I bought my bike in 2008, had just run their useful life.

So I began looking for replacement kicks.

From a fit issue I needed a shoe with a wide toe box and a narrower heel. And I wanted something better fitting and stiffer than my outgoing shoes.

I looked off and on for a few months. I was off the road for two months because of injuries from a fall, so I was not in a hurry. I also took time to get over the sticker shock of upgraded shoes.

Then on a late Saturday night someone in my bike club’s e-mail group excitedly mentioned Bont and how the shoe was being made available in the United States. I had never heard of this 36-year-old Australian company that outfits Thor Hushovd and the Cervelo Test Team among others.

The Bont ctt-three

I settled on the ctt-three. The deal with a Bont shoe is that it has a “fully heat moldable carbon monocoque fiberglass chassis.” Seriously, pop these babies in the oven at low temperature for a bit, put them on, stand in them for a few minutes and they will mold to your feet. In other words, it becomes a custom fit shoe. They were perfect for someone with my shoe-fitting issues.

Chef Don.

I have ridden about 950 miles in the Bonts, I think they are great. They are much stiffer than my old shoes, yet lighter at 295 grams. They flex little and transfer power well. And I really like the look too.

The downside? They took some breaking because the entire shoe – sole and upper were much stiffer than my old shoes.

I purchased my pair online in October for $207, a price comparable to other shoes that interested me. Since then I have found them online for as low as $150, including shipping. This is considered the company’s entry-level model. The top of the line shoe in this category, the ctt-one is a fully carbon shoe that costs about twice as much. I did not have to spend nearly that much and am quite pleased with the Bont ctt-three.

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Categories // guest post, Review Tags // Blount, guest post, Review, shoes

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