Guess I should have registered for SSAP

Unbelievable what can happen with little forethought and less planning.  Granted, I didn't really plan this build to come out this way but all of a sudden a few parts became available and the plan just came together.  This bike came out great, in fact so good I may to have reconsider whether to sell it or not.  I won't be racing SSAP this year because I was out riding when registration was filling up fast thinking I wouldn't have a bike to ride.  Now I do but it's too late.  Oh well!  Instead, I signed up for the Foolish Classic.

Off Road Drops for the Bianchi San Jose

I probably mentioned this before but I wasn't jazzed about the drops that came on the Bianchi San Jose.  I prefer dirt drops because they are actually more ergonomic for your wrists.  With regular drops you have to turn your wrists out for riding in the hoods and down in the drops.  Similarly, like using a straight keyboard for a computer which is a known cause for carpal tunnel syndrome.  

These dirt drops are Pro Pulsion Alloy Gary-2 bars are flared 15 degrees outwards so riding in the hoods or down in the drops is a more natural hand position for your wrists and thus more comfortable.  I also have Salsa Woodchippers which I have had mounted on the Qball for the past couple of years when I was riding it as a Gravel Grinder, Monster Cross bike.  They have a 28 degree flare!  

The Cowbell 3 bars that I have on the Cross Check are there to stay, they have a 12 degree flare and at some point I am going to get ride of the bar end shifters and get Retroshifters and in fact I might even redo the whole drive train, and upgrade to a 10 speed and go crazy and get a triple in the front, or 180mm cranks.

Before I do the tape, the one thing that I agonize over is making sure the levers are exactly at the same height.  While riding the San Jose on the trainer after I put the Gary-2s on, I agonized over the left lever being a hair lower than the right.  I have tried measuring all sorts of different distances but nothing accurate because there is really no exact reference point either on the bars or the levers.  Putting the bike in the training, then laying a yard stick across the levers and putting a level on it works the best.

This BBC 'Shabbado' Black & Tan was a nice reward after spinning for an hour.  I didn't, however, feel like doing much after that.  I now have to wrap the bars.  I wasn't really a fan of the black tape but what came as a surprise was there was another layer of bar tape under that as well.  I was only able to successfully remove one side of the brown.  Got both sides of the black that I will recycle on some bike later down the road. After work, I stopped off at The Bicycle Center and agonized over what color to get.  I was thinking white but the guys talked me out of it.  I started fixating on Pink because it looks really good with Grey and could get me some Honey Attention but that is bold move that I am not sure I am ready for.  Blue looked OK but I already had that on the Cross Check, but yellow looks really good with the Grey frame, that in different lighting also looks blue.  In the end I went with ... (to be continued).

We have a Winner!

I usually don't sign up for online contests but when it's biking relating I always throw caution to the wind and go for it.   A couple of weeks ago, I checked out this FB page from Kitsbow that one of my mountain biking buddies "liked" and filled out their entry form for a Brooks saddle give-a-way and I won!  I have never won anything like this before and it couldn't have come at a better time because I have been looking for a new saddle for my Cross Check!  

 

I have had a love hate relationship with Brooks saddles having tried 3 or 4 different saddles over the last 10 years and never found that Goldilocks saddle!  The Fi'zi:k saddle was sweet but when I placed my fourth point of contact on the Brooks Cambium I almost came to tears!  It's like in The Last Samurai and Katsumto's last dying words are when he sees the falling Cherry Blossom petals before him:  "Perfect. They... are all... perfect..." 

This saddle is perfect!  I haven't even ridden on it yet but I can tell from just the first sit that it's going to be wonderful to ride.  It's so flexible and yet supportive, not too stiff (like the B-17) and not too squishy (like the B-66 or Racer), just right!  Once again, a big THANK YOU to Kitsbow!  I will definitely be buying some of their products in the near future and not because I won the saddle.  Check out their webiste:  Kitsbow -Mountain Bike Wear-.  They have some truly innovative cycling gear.

Kitsbow Longsleeve All Mountain Jersey

I like their Long Sleeve Mountain Jersey with the side pockets instead of back pockets because a majority of mountain bikers, including myself, wear a hydration pack and reaching into the back pocket with the pack back there is always a pain, but on the sides is perfect.  Also perfect for a phone or a camera.  Of course the perfect combination would be zippered side pockets and back pockets that would cover all disciplines such as cold weather roadies, singlespeed mountain bike racers, and Gravel Grinders!

Last Tango in Paris

The Qball rebuild has begun.  This will be final edition of the Qball and as it came into my world as a singlespeed mountain bike it shall also leave my world as a singlespeed mountain bike.  I am going to ride it for awhile and then sell it.  I thought of signing up for Singlespeed A-Palooza but the high fee was a turn off and I am still not sure, with my shoulder, if I really want to be training hard for a mountain bike race that could only make things worse for me.

I didn't feel like going out and playing in the snow after work so I decided to play in the garage instead.  To make matters more interesting I had to work with the car in the garage because the plow guy had not come yet.

I knew I was taking a chance with this fork have such a short steering tube, only 6.5 inches, and I have a remedy for short steering tubes and it's called the Avid SAAGO (Stiff as all Get Out) Stem.  I am not sure if they are made anymore but you can still find them on eBay for under a $100, but when they first came out they retailed upwards of $200!  Fortunately, however, my 110mm Race Face stem worked perfectly.

Then came the cranks.  I quickly found that my 32t chain rings were incompatible with the Shimano LX cranks that I was using before.  The 32 ring that fit was sold on the Kona but it turns out I had a 34t laying around that fit perfectly.  The only problem was the gearing.  I checked Sheldon "Gain Ratios" Brown and found that a 32:20 comes out to 44.2 inches, so the closest I could get was 34:21, which comes out to 44.7 inches but I couldn't find my 21t cog so I went with 34:22 which is 42.7 inches.  I wonder if I will notice the difference.  If anything it will be easier to pedal in the snow.

I thought I had another flat bar laying around but I couldn't find that either.  I have one off the Trek but it's really heavy.  I need to reach out to some of my bike building buddies and see if they have anything to trade for.  In the meantime, I pulled the risers of my Burley and put them on temporarily.  I am not sure I like them only because they are aesthetically pleasing to me.  Flat bars look better on a Single Speed. 

I did get the tires and wheels on.  The Schwable Racing Ralph is huge!  Fits perfectly with the Reba fork and makes it look like a snow bike.  Hope I can get it out before all the snow melts!

Sunday Southern Comfort

Today I was able to get out  before 10 AM, which is a lot better than past Sundays.  Temperature at the house said 34 degrees and coming off yesterday's miss in the clothing department, I think I got it right this time with a short sleeve and arm warmers underneath.  An insulating layer and a top layer and a riding jersey. 

I really like this route because it doesn't use a lot of major roads but it's still challenging.  I did, however, have one run in with a mentally challenged motorist who cut me off when I descending Scudder Hill.  I just new the woman in the car was going to cut me off so I anticipated that she probably couldn't see me because her windows were so dirty and slowed down just in case.  Sure enough, I am 20 yards away and she backs out into the middle of the street.  When I got a long side of her I gave her a piece of my mind and of course the look I got back from her was dumbstruck, with that look of "What did I do?"

If you are going to ride in the winter and it's above freezing fenders are a must have!  The warmer temperatures combined with snow melt made for really wet roads today that without the fenders I would have been skunk striped by the end of my ride.

One of the highlights of this route is riding from the start of Key Rock Road to the corner of where Poverty Hollow turns into North Street.  It's 6 mile straight run with some outstanding scenery along the way that parallels the Aspetuck River.  There is a little one lane bridge over the Aspetuck Chasm that I like to stop at to shoot bike porn.

The other cool section of this route is riding North Street and Sport Hill, both really long straight routes that go up and down and up again.  I think though that I will start riding all the way down Sport Hill and then come back on North Street.

And there is the other spot that is worth stopping at, Gurske Pond.  Today it was frozen solid.  The route from Hammertown Road back up to Rt 25 is another, direct route that I enjoy and done right you don't have to get out on Rt 25 and deal with the cars.

The Cross Check is such a dream to ride.  Maybe a little heavier than your standard road bike but the steel frame makes riding rough roads so much better.  I am on the fence whether to keep the fenders on the Cross Check or to put them on the San Jose.

Maybe because it's winter or the wet roads but I seldom see any other cyclists.  There is the singlespeeder, Dan, who I have now encountered twice, but he appears to be a hardcore rider and every once in a while I will encounter someone on Sport Hill or the Huntingtown Road stretch.  Today, I got a head nod from a dude in full Bethel kit that clearly wasn't a Fred but you would think on day such as this there would be a lot more people out.

Four miles into the ride, I thought I might have had one layer, too many on, when I got to the top of Mt Pleasant but then descending down Taunton Lake cooled me off right away and all notion of whether or I over dressed went out the window.  In fact, today's costume was perfect for the varying temperatures.   Midway through it got up to 50 degrees in the sun but towards then of the ride it clouded up and turned sharply colder.  So you never know.