2024 Wrap-up

Long Ravine Road on my Camp Far West ride.

 2024 was a fairly quiet year for me cycling wise. My total mileage was a hair over 4,500 miles, my best month was April, when I rode 604 miles. In May I rode my century, doing 108 miles on the 7th of that month. Other significant rides included an 84 mile jaunt to Colfax and Grass Valley in September and my 68 mile Camp Far West Gravel ride in April. Also in May, I went down to San Diego and was able to ride the Descanso-Cuyamaca-Mt. Laguna ride.  I didn't ride at all in June because I was on our European cruise, and a lot of August was lost due to camping, so 4,500 miles wasn't too bad. I did not get to do any bike camping, I hope to get something like that done this year!

Near Mt. Laguna, looking down at the Anza-Borrego Desert.

Equipment notes for 2024.

The seat tube failure on my '82 Mercian.

Gear-wise, the most notable change was the loss of my '82 Mercian fixed gear ride! The seat tube broke at the bottom bracket. I haven't tried to repair of replace the bike. To be honest, my knees actually have felt better since I stopped fixed gear riding so I don't know if I will build a new one. I also don't mind freeing up space in the garage to a more manageable  stable of 5 bikes!

Now all of our bikes fit on the garage wall!

Nitto M-12 fail!

Another change brought about by an equipment failure occurred when my Nitto M-12 front rack snapped at the fork crown! I hadn't even noticed that until I read something about those racks on the iBOB forum. I looked at mine and sure enough, it too had cracked! The rack was pretty secure even without that attachment point but I removed it anyway, along with my handlebar bag and I hung my Carradice Pendle back on the saddle. I have to say that the bike seemed to handle a little better without the front bag and there was no more noise from things bouncing around inside, so I also removed the handlebar bag from my Mercian Olympic and replaced it with my Zimbale saddlebag. Both of these bags a re a little bigger than I need in the summertime so I may be looking for a slightly smaller saddlebag soon.

My two saddlebags.

Another mod I did was to switch to 10 speed friction shifting. 10 speed cassettes and chains have been dropping in price and I've read that the friction shifting with then was at least as easy if not easier than 8 speed. I found some Black Friday deals on both 9 and 10 speed cassettes. I tried a 9 speed first but found it was not all that easy, but the 10 speed shifted fine! So I now have 10 speed cassettes on both of my Mercians for a longer term trial. I still have some adjustments to make; I get an occasional skip in the two largest cogs when really bearing down on the pedals. I think it may be a chain length and derailer "B" screw issue. We shall see.

I also went on a pedal buying rampage and installed Shimano PD-A520 SPD pedals on all of my road bikes and also found an NOS pair for a spare! I find these pedals are more comfortable than the standard MTB style SPD I have been using so I decided to stock up since, of course, they seem to be going away.

A sharp eyed reader may also notice that I am using a full size frame pump again. The Topeak Road Pump is getting hard to find now, but I have found that it is an excellent pump for high pressure road tires. That's something I had forgotten, having been using mini pumps for a while. But once I tried one of these on the road, I ordered two more! They're great!

So much for 2024, I'm looking forward to more adventures in 2025!

So long 2024!