Catching Up

Just catching up on life lately. Seems like I've been either real busy, or maybe just real lazy.

Chad and I went to the Badgers game last Saturday. They lost, but the weather was nice. We have gone to games before when it's been raining, snowing, or maybe even worse. The sun was out for most of the game and it was a windy day but most of the wind didn't seem to make it into the stadium. We always have good seats in row 28, season tickets from my parents. And our section is right next to the student section so we don't miss out on any of their cheers with expletives, and they always seem to have a new one each year when we go.



After the game we rushed home to get the boys to take them to a pumpkin party at our CSA farm. We have bought a share of vegetables the last two years from Middlebury Hills. At the end of the season they have a day to go cut pumpkins out in the field, followed by a fire and warm soup. On arrival to pick up the kids, Zack was sick and couldn't go. Kevin didn't want to get pumpkins without Zack, so home we went.

Then it rained pretty much the whole week, at least it seemed like all week long. Chad even ran into snow on Friday driving to Minnesota. No snow at home, but plenty of rain and wind through the night.

Saturday morning we woke up to no more rain, and the sun peaking through. The roads were starting to dry, so Chad and I headed out for a run. It was not too bad running on the bike trail and we actually got so warm running that when we stopped for coffee and a snack at the coffee shop we ate outside. It must have been in the 40's and the chairs were still wet from the previous rain, but it felt good. We shared a wonderful piece of Linzer Torte.



Then Chad had a skull with walnut brain, and I had a blueberry cup.



We did cool off on the walk back home, but had our coffee with us to warm us from the inside out.

The Beater Build

Sometimes bike work is fun and rewarding I'd do it for a living if it paid better and then there is the other times. This last build I was asked to do left me frustrated and disappointed.

I was asked by a friend of Jenny from the fire department to build a mountain bike from two parts bikes and a bunch of leftover parts. I'd rebuilt his old road frame last year when Dan from Atkins recommended me. That build was easy compared to what I was facing this time.

The two frames

A pile of parts...could be scrap metal.

At first he wanted a single speed then after riding both my single speeds decided on a 1x7 setup. Once I had all the parts in the basement it was a strip and swap operation since the frame he wanted had the more abused parts. The headset needed to be cleaned and greased, the bottom bracket stayed after the left cup refused to break loose. Yeah I could have got it out but this was to be a economy build so no point in wasting labor time to swap in a marginally better one. Everything went together alright and a liberal application of PBlaster got the freewheel and rear derailleur moving again. The new chain seemed good but once out for a test ride it skipped in the two smallest cogs, a quick swap to the chain that had been running on the freewheeling had it running smoothly.

The crankset had minimal clearance at the chainstays but seemed fine, road crank on a mountain frame and bottom bracket. The only mountain crank I had seen was cracked and was awaiting a weld job by a mutual friend. This is the last shot I took before the fun was over.


When I called to have our friend come get the bike I thought I was done finally. So he shows up hops on and throws the chain off the crank by shifting four gears while cranking as hard as he can. It is instantly clear why the parts are all beat up. Next he has issue with the crankarm clearance at the chainstays. By this point I wanted the bike gone so I pulled the crank swapped pedals and the short chainring bolts so once welded the mountain crank would be all set. Twenty wasted minutes to gain a millimeter.

Maybe I'll get lucky and the next person who wants a bike built won't expect miracles.

Bicycle Gearing

How many gears does your bike really need ? This is a subject I've spent many hours thinking about and researching gear charts on the Internet. Yes sometimes I don't have much to think about and thinking about bike parts doesn't cost me anything... for a while anyway.

The stable of bikes at our house range from single to 30 gears. I like the singles for the drive train simplicity but not so much for hills. The real debate in my head is more about crank sets, single , double, triple, I've even seen quads.

I ride a triple 52/42/30 I have no interest in a double or a compact double. The standard double doesn't go low enough for hills with a standard cassette and the compacts spend too much time cross chained.

I spend a lot of time in the 42 which has lead to me the idea of pairing a single 42 or 44 with a mountain cassette, likely a 11/34. I find I frequently double shift the rear already with my 12/26 so the bigger gaps with the mountain cassette wouldn't bother me. A look at a gear inch calculator shows that a 44 tooth chain ring with a 11-34 cassette provides the same range as my triple missing the only highest and lowest gears.

So equipment wise I'm thinking a single ring crank, new mountain rear derailleur and cassette. I'd get to delete the front shifter and derailleur. I might go to a bar end shifter for the rear as well to make matching brake levers easier. This move would be for simplicity not weight savings, my bike builds tend towards durable over feather weight.

I'm not sure when or if this will get done but will update if it comes together.

Sheldon Brown's Gear Calculator this is where I compare setup options.

Fall Riding

So I went for a ride today since the weather is suppose to get worse all week, that isn't to say today was ideal unless cold is your thing. I ended up doing about 39 miles since my choice of layering wasn't working. I was warm but sweating from my not breathable enough jacket worn over a Pearl Izumi Kodiak Light jersey and a long sleeve base layer. I have yet to buy a long sleeve jersey that is comfortable below the mid fifties without at least a light base layer. I'll be jersey shopping for Christmas. I'd like to find one that would work down to the mid thirties without a jacket.

I didn't take the camera since there is almost no color to be seen yet out here. Instead I was concentrating on what gears I used. I'll have a separate post regarding just how many gears are really needed to get a useful range. For some great photos of cycling and a good read check out this blog: The Path Less Pedaled

All the cold weather has left little weekend activity to write about. So here is what we hope to get done yet this fall.

Jenny and I are doing the World Wide Festival of Races this weekend at some point, the 5k this year. We just got fliers in the mail for the Berbee Derby which we ran last year and will be again this Thanksgiving.

The Bombay Bicycle Club ride this Saturday ride was to be a family affair but the fore casted high of 45F will be too cold I'd guess. I'm holding out hope for one more kayak paddle to see some fall color.

I guess if all else fails we can go hiking until Tyrol Basin opens after Thanksgiving.

A Weekend Off

So last weekend our outdoor activity consisted of walking and tree trimming. Saturday we headed to the farmers market with some friends. The downtown area was crazy busy due to the football game starting at 11am. Once we got parked we headed around the square eating as we spotted both old standbys and new things to try. I as always ate cleanup, I chose nothing but get the ends of most everything. The only drawback to this is I get less of the good and more of the bad.

After our one lap we headed down State street to Fontana for BOGO Smartwool with a coupon about to expire, then to Yellow Jersey to look for tubeless mtb tires for a friend along with us. He struck out at Yellow Jersey but ordered them at Atkins on the way home. With shopping done we grabbed some lunch before walking back to the cars.

It didn't hit me until a block from the car but the boys had not complained at all about the walking. Zack is normally asking to be on my shoulders half way around the square. Maybe the 2 mile Gilda's Club run next month won't be a big deal.

Jenny and I squeezed in a 1.5 mile run later that night, hard after eating a big dinner at my mom's house.

Sunday's outdoor stuff was limited by afternoon storms. The boys played outside while Jenny and I did some overdue trimming on the landscaping. We caved before the boys when the rain started and spent the rest of the day inside. They ran around the yard in the rain claiming "we can take it, we are men!"

Looking at bigger plans for next weekend.

Riding the Military Ridge Trail

I can now say I've ridden the entire Military Ridge bike trail. I spent the last two Mondays riding first east to Madison then yesterday I went west to Dodgeville.

The trail going east starts with a 4 mile decent followed by a couple miles of trees leading to mostly open wetlands. As the trail reaches Verona trees again create a tunnel feeling. Leaving Verona the trail becomes paved and meets up with the Capital City trail and Madison's city trails.

I wanted to get downtown so I continued along the bike route paralleling Verona road until it joined the Southwest path. Once on the SW path it is a straight shot to the UW campus. I reached Monona Terrace and without any planned stop jumped onto the streets and turned for home. The trip home was a jumble of trails and roads ending back on the trail to climb the last 4 miles back to Mount Horeb.

Yesterday I hadn't planned to ride the trail again but the weather didn't give me any other options. With thick fog a road ride would have been unsafe. Since temps were mid 50s so I dressed in a long sleeve jersey, knickers and full finger gloves. Two bottles of water and 3 fig bars and I was off.

The trail westbound runs close to a 65mph 4 lane highway. This makes stretches of the trail noisy and not real scenic. When the trail gets away from the highway The trees form a tunnel with occasional views of the hills to the north. Additionally the trail passes by Blue Mounds and Governor Dodge state parks. I rode to the end of the trail at in Dodgeville before stopping at the DNR office to eat my snack and rinse the sand off my water bottles. The sun peeked out for a minute as I turned for home but the fog and clouds stayed for the rest of my ride. The bike needed a wash and chain lube at home. I was well covered in grit as well and will be looking at fenders to reduce the flying grit.

I'm sure trail rides will not become a frequent occurrence but having the option nearby is nice. Paved with more hills would be ideal, a couple hundred mile trail network and I might give up road rides.

Potosi

Well, last Saturday was the Potosi Brewery Ride that Chad and I signed up for a while ago. We saw the ride schedule last year but had other plans that prevented us from signing up. We planned then to do the ride this year and try the 100 mile course. It would be my first century. But this year things didn't quite work out as expected. My knee injury set me back this year and all the longer rides this year were on the tandem. I had a sore knee during the Wright Stuff a couple weeks ago, and the soreness continued last week. I didn't want my goal of completing a century this year end my season of riding and risk other sporting events yet to come this fall or winter. Chad and I rode the 100K course instead, and the course was changed due to road detours and ended up with more climbing than expected anyways.

We set out early in the morning to make it there on time to start. This was the only picture we took, and it didn't turn out well. Trust me the color of the rising sun on the horizon shining through the tandem mounted on the back of the Jeep was much more awesome in person. Not a whole lot going on in Potosi although it stretches on seemingly forever. The brewery is in a beautiful restored building on the edge of town. The course started uphill for a long ways, before leveling off with some great downhills. These downhills would become grinding uphills on the route back to the brewery. The course was well marked at each corner. We had riders with us for a while, but after the turn for the 100K, the roads were pretty empty until after the final rest stop where the courses converged again. I think I've been spoiled by the wonderful rest stops of the Wright Stuff, as I was a little disappointed with the selection of bagels, peanut butter, jelly, bananas and cookies at Potosi.

Chad and I were also disappointed in the meal at the end. The ride was advertised as something along the lines of good German food, good German beer, good German music. Well the meal was noodles with spaghetti sauce, green salad with Italian dressing and garlic bread. The kind of frozen sliced texas toast garlic bread I have cooked in the oven for the family. These slices were just warmed, not toasted. In fact Chad's garlic bread was cold. I guess I wouldn't really call any of the meal German. I sampled one of their beers, and Chad enjoyed a root beer. We left full, and right after eating. The music was too loud to have a conversation with anyone around. I appreciate the ride organization, and the course was well marked with support along the way. The staff from the Potosi Brewery were all very friendly.

We'll try for another century for me to complete next year. First thought I have is Door County, but the local Wright Stuff Century is a great ride too. This year we still want to do a ride with the kids, either Bombay or a supported ride if we can find one that is not cost prohibitive to register four people to do a sub 3o mile ride.