Topstone Test Ride to OEC

Ann & I didn’t get to do much riding in January 2024 due to winter returning to Southern New England and us spending time together in Killington. We finally got back out for a ride, our fourth cycling date, on the Larkin Trail in the early part of February and she finally got to test out her new Topstone. 

New Year, New Bike!

Ann and I went over to First Stop to do a little shopping on New Year's Day.  The place is amazing. They have just about everything you need to enjoy the outdoors in Vermont.  We started looking at Gravel Bikes and we found this Cannondale Topstone on sale so she bought it. What better way to start the New Year with a new bike!

Price Drop!

Following up on my She cleans up good but buyer beware post from a month ago, the bike I sold to the Hartford Bike Flipper has dropped the price to  $1,200! It's a 7 year old bike with 21,000 miles on it. Of course any would be buyer isn't going to know that and neither does the seller because he never asked me.  I know bikes are still scarce right now but who would pay that much for aluminum 10 speed?

A Sunset stroll with Fat Amy

Initially, the Newtown Lunartics were going to make a late morning spin to Ovens of France (aka OOF), however by 10 AM it was still 15 degrees out and everyone, including myself bailed. After our midday guests took off I hopped on Fat Amy and headed down to the Pond Brook Boat Ramp.  I headed up the connector trail and instead of taking the blue trail to the Mulikin Trail, I decided to try my snowshoe trail.

The snowshoe trail is more of a bushwhack that uses some old trails that I found between the blue trail and the Poly Brody Forest Road.  One of the trails is probably an old skidder path, it comes from where the Mulikin Trail turns east and runs past the Flight Simulator, a natural rock ramp that makes a four foot drop.  I lost the path a few times but eventually made my way down to the blue trail.  It wasn't pretty.

I then jumped on the Mulikin and was enjoying the trail up until it turns east off the old cart road and begins it's fall line ascent.  That section of the trail tends to get muddy during the spring thaw and it appears some mountain bikers didn't really consider what happens when it warms up because it was pretty rutted out. I wish people would stay off this part of the trail when it gets warm.

After the Mulikin, I jumped straight into the Unmarked and Unsanctioned Trail and was surprised at how smooth the trail was and how it seems to be getting better and better every time I ride it.  It still needs a few tweaks here and there, and a major reroute to by pass a wet area.

By the time I hit the Brew Crew Roller it was dark enough to warrant turning on the light.  The rustling off in the woods further motivated me to do so, too.

I finished off the Gussy and took the Reach Around to the Jeep Trail and then out to Sanford Road.  By this point the Garmin 705 said I had gone 4 miles and it was already on low battery.  I guess the battery has finally gone out on it.  I think I want to get a 520 and use my 800 as a back up.  Before I do that though, I think I going to have the 705 refurbished unless it's too expensive and just get the 520.  Instead of just riding home, I cut back through the forest on the Poly Brody and finished the ride down the Mulikin and out the connector to Pond Brook.

Cannondale Cujo 1: I stand corrected, it's a Midfat Bike

My Facebook Friends (reminds me of the Prejudice Commercials on Sunday mornings back in the 1970s) pointed out that what I am riding is a MID FAT bike and not a FAT BIKE.  Well, EXCUSE MEEEEeeee! I don't care if there is a difference, it still has fatter tires and therefore it's a fat bike for all I care. Semantics aside, this was the first Saturday in three months that I wasn't skinning up and telemark skiing down Windham Mountain in the Catskills because my son was still recovering from the flu. So I took Fat Amy across the river to play Where's Waldo.

It must have been somewhere between 15 and 20 degrees when I started out and probably colder with the wind.  Wearing my Lake MXZ303 boots, blaze orange Columbia hunting jacket, and lobster gloves I couldn't fee the cold.  In fact, mid ride I had to open my jacket because I was getting pretty hot.  

I think it's been almost two years since I last rode here and a lot has changed.  All the new trails on the north side of park are finished, there are new features, including a nice boardwalk with some up and overs in the middle of it that reminded me of the Moose Alley trail at Kingdom Trails, and some nice bridges.  I rode down to the lake and then started climbing up the main Waldo Trail.

The one thing that I noticed off the bat is when I get up to speed and turning through corners, Fat Amy turns like my old 29" mountain bikes which always had a tendency to swing out wider.

For the most part, the trails at Waldo were frozen but there were still some frost heaves that I crunched through.  On today's ride I remembered to unlock the fork and the ride was totally plush.  In fact, I would just point the bike on a line through a rock garden and just blaze through it.  A 29er tire never felt like this.  Looking forward to more rides in the near future.

Cannondale Cujo 1: It's 10 PM, do you know where your children are?

From the first time I saw a fat bike on a Route 66 bike race series almost 10 years ago, I have always wanted a fat bike but couldn't justify getting one because I don't want further competition of my wintry activities.  However, in a 1 to 3 inch snowfall, I will still ride my mountain bike and having a wider tire makes a lot of sense.

With the introduction of the 27+ wheel size or what we came to learn after the post 29" craze, 650b wheel rim, a whole new market of making fat bikes a lot more feasible for year round riding came to being.  Rolling a 3 inch tire at 20 to 30 psi not only will give you an extra grippy tire, but just enough cushion to make the ride a little smoother.

I decided to thin my herd by selling the Spot and Surly and depending upon the proceeds from those two sales purchase a Mid Fat bike.  Originally, I was targeting a Bad Habit but that was just too far out of my price range so I spent some time with Shawn at the Bicycle Center to get his opinion on what I should get and he recommended the Cannondale Cujo 1.  It comes as a 1x11 with a Rockshox air fork and a decent component group, Hayes disc brakes and Sram XG rear derailleur.  Since it comes tubeless ready I had Shawn make the conversion.

After adding pedals and a carbon seatpost, removing the reflectors and adding my Brooks saddle it was 9:30 PM and figured, lets throw some lights on and go for a test ride.

Headed out to Upper Paugussett for the basic loop which consists of riding up the Poly Brody Forest Road to the Upper Gussy trail head and then down the Upper Gussy and then out on Jeep road to Sanford Road.  It was really windy earlier that day there were a few blow downs here and there but no trail blockages, that is until I came upon this one right after the Snowtober Reroute.

I took this opportunity to get a good side view shot of the Cujo when I discovered that I left the wheel reflectors on the bike - DOH!  

Further down the trail I found more blow downs but nothing really impeding the trail until that is one at this stream crossing.  A tree came down parallel to the trail but knocked a sapling down perpendicular to the trail.  Fortunately, the root structure came up with it and it was easy to move out of the way.

First ride impressions:

The 1x11 gearing is perfect for trail riding.  I never felt like there wasn't enough gear for any of the climbs and on the descents and flats I was able to keep up a good pace with what I had.  

I might have ridden the Gussy with the fork locked out but with the lower tire pressure I never felt like I needed more squish.  In fact, I blasted through the rock gardens like they weren't even there.

I am still getting used to the cornering.  It's like riding a 29er tire only the tread is stuck to the trail like a gastropod on a leaf.  

I can't wait to ride more!

Stolen Cannondale Fat Bike: Danbury, CT

Cannondale Fat CAAD 1

stolen on Christmas Eve in Danbury, CT 

If you have any information please contact the Danbury Police Department.

Cannondale Slate: History Repeats Itself

I finally saw a Cannondale Slate at the Tour de Roxbury and I have to say that it is indeed a fine looking bike.  I didn't have a chance to sit on it or take it for a spin but I wish I had.

This one had SRAM Gearing with an 11:42 cassette and a single chain ring upfront with 42 teeth. With Surly Gnards and that type of gearing, not only is this bike ready for dirt roads but it could also tackle quite a bit of singletrack as well. With the front lockable lefty fork, bombing dirt road descents must be smooth like butter!

This isn't the first time that Cannondale has had cyclocross styled bike with suspension up front. My very own 1999 Cannondale XS800 also had a little squish, too. Funny, how history repeats itself. 

Another Vintage Cannondale Casey Handlebar Bag

A couple of weeks ago, a reader contacted me saying that he had some cycling bags and other accessories laying around the house that came from his brother that he didn't have need of and wanted to know if I would like to have them.  Not one to say no to free stuff, I said sure.  We got to talking about cycling and it turns out that Cliff and his family used tour all over the country on their bikes and he shaded with me a wealth of knowledge about touring and cycling.

The box I received from Cliff, contained a Vintage Cannondale Casey handlebar bag, another Vintage handlebar bag made by Ventoura, a front rack from Veta and a very interesting bottle cage from Minoura which was labeled as a Pet Bottle Cage. Basically, it's a bottle cage made for holding soda bottles that are at least a liter.  However, what drew my attention the most was the red Casey handlebar bag because I thought it would look really good on the Bianchi and go with Banjo Brothers waterproof pannier.

The Casey only came with one strap and I thought about using the straps from the Ventoura but then I thought that a bungee cord would work better because I need a hook that will will grab onto the end of the fork because I don't have another eyelet to use.  It worked great!  However, I still might cannibalize the straps from my yellow Vintage Cannondale Casey handlebar bag because I know they work with my setup.

I really like how the two red bags compliment one another on the bike.  The yellow bag with the yellow bar tape never really worked for me but up until the other day I didn't really have any other options.  

I can't wait to start working on the Ventoura bag next.  I will be putting in a call to Wolfpit Iron works to have another handlebar bracket made and I will have to get serious about the light mount I want to put on the Surly, so I can start doing some night gravel grinder rides. 

Vintage Cannondale Casey Handlebar Bag

1982 Cannondale Catalog found at VintageCannondale.com

I won an eBay auction for a Vintage Cannondale (B017) Casey Handlebar bag.  I have been looking for one for quite some time.  Found a few on Craigslist but the sellers never got back to me and I had been trolling eBay for a couple of months and made a few bids only to some of the auctions exceed the amount I was willing to pay.

This yellow one popped up one day in early February and it was perfect for the Bianchi so I put in my max bid of $32.00 and crossed my fingers.  As you can see I ended up paying $31.00 and if you adjust the original amount for this bag for inflation since 1982, it would cost $48 so I actually saved money, from a purchasing stand point.  However, when I got the item the first thing I realized is that the bag's support frame isn't going to fit on a modern stem and 31.8mm handlebars.  DOH!

 

 My first thought was to go out and see if I could find some sort of thin metal bar and bend a bracket using pliers and my vice but I never got that far because I stopped in at the Bicycle Center and asked Shawn if he knew any metal workers figuring he might have had to use one in the past to have a metal frame welded.  Shawn recommended that I call this guy Austin who lives in Bridgewater and owns a company called Wolfpit Iron.

 

After explaining to Austin what I wanted to do and sent Austin a bunch of pictures.  As you can see in the top left picture the original frame is about an inch and a half and a modern stem is almost two inches wide where it clamps onto the bar.  The other issue I wanted to accommodate is where my GPS is mounted.  I asked Austin if he elongate the bracket from where it leaves the bars to connecting with the bag so I could keep my GPS mount on the bars as such.  He got back to me with a price and I said go for it.

I met Austin for coffee about week later and dropped off the original bracket on a stem with bars so that he had something to model off of.  He sent me this picture of the new bracket while epoxy coating was still drying.

I picked up the bracket the following week and had a do a little bending in my vice.  Initially it stat at about a 45 degree angle off the stem but after a few bending sessions I got it perfect!

It sits far enough away from the bars so that it doesn't conflict with my Garmin!  I took the bike out for a test right and I couldn't even tell it was there.

It was raining but I headed down to the lake for a quick test ride and I couldn't believe how nice the new bag is.  Couldn't tell it was there.  The Sefas Vida tires are really rocking on this bike.

I Can't Believe it's Autumn

It's getting harder and harder to find time on the weekends to ride.  All the kids are tied up with their fall sports and activities now and while my wife and I play chauffeur and rooting section.  Saturday, I was still able to get out on the Cannondale for quick Fall Foliage ride around town.  I found a better plastic bottle for my vintage Cannondale seatbag that gives it much more volume. 

Cannondale Performance Softshell

One of my biggest challenges for me road riding is knowing how to dress for varying conditions.  Mountain biking is pretty much a no brainer because no matter what you put on you are going to sweating like pig at the end of the ride anyway.  Bike commuting is just as easy, just dress like a Fred!  However, with road riding, I don't want to look like a Fred, I don't want to under dress and freeze on the downhills, or over dress and sweat on the climbs and freeze on the downhills because I am so sweaty.

When I picked up the Synapse last month I asked Shawn (The Bicycle Center) what would he recommend as a winter cycling jacket and he sold me this Cannondale Performance Softshell Jacket that I wore for Sunday's ride and O-M-G!  This jacket is awesome!  I never got too hot, nor too cold.  I am not sure I would call this a drawback but it only has two rear pockets but it makes up with a small breast pocket, perfect for a cell phone, iPhone, or digital media player.  There are two zippered hand warming pockets that can also be used for snacks and then there are two internal pockets as well.

My new whip

All my mountain biker buddies say I have gone over to the dark side of cycling with purchase of this bike.  I think I was already there with all the riding that I did last year on the Cannondale XS800 but I think this bike makes it official!  I have gone roadie!

This will be my third Cannondale but as I really start this new chapter in my cycling history, this bike is my first real road ride since I bought that Univega 10 speed when I was in High School.  I have always loved Cannondale Bikes and I am so pleased with this purchase.  

When I first saw it at The Bicycle Center I was shocked at how good it looked and by that I mean the blue accents on color scheme are really eye catchy!  I never thought it would look this good but in my head I was thinking when ordering it that anything but black will be great.

It's not SRAM and it's not carbon, both of which are way out of my price range and I am not the slightest bit disappointed because it still has a great components. 

Well, it some carbon on it by way of the fork

I love the internal cable routing and the white bar tape

Even my Garmin Edge matches the color scheme