Yankee Jims, the other way around!

Yankee Jims Bridge over the North Fork of the American River

 Got a day free to ride so I decided to do my Yankee Jims Loop which involves some decent gravel road riding. This year I did the loop opposite of my usual route, riding from Colfax to Foresthill via Yankee Jims rather than vise versa. It suprises me how the same ride changes simply by reversing direction, in this case, I'd say for the better! This also gave me a chance to try out my newest ride, a 650B Long Haul Trucker!

Heading down to the river from Colfax.

Being Spring, the colors are still fresh and vibrant. The hillsides are bright orange with the poppies, and there's a bit of purple popping out here and there as well. The poppy-covered hills in the picture above really caught my eye.

A nice suprise to see water!

Despite our low precipitation totals over the water year, the rains of February and early April have provided enough water to allow the creeks to flow quite nicely for this early season. The falls shown above were the first I encountered, a little ways up from the river, heading south towards Foresthill. I'm afraid they won't last for long though, so it's nice to see them!

Another Waterfall!

A little further up I encountered a second, smaller falls. Kind of hard to make out but it goes on for a way back into the woods.

As for the ride, I found I prefer this way as opposed to going to Colfax from Foresthill. The long gravel switchbacks you encounter going down to the river from the south are easier to climb than the are to descend. The descent from Colfax to the river is more even and there aren't a lot of switchbacks. The climb up the river is tedious but I easily made it with a the small gear of 30(front)/28(rear). 

Even for a warm Saturday, there wasn't a lot of traffic and just a few folks parked at the river.  Below are a few screen shots from my phone app, "Run the Map". I've discussed this app before and it continues to be a very useful little program. Of course, it doesn't cover up things like my pathetic average speed, but this is a tough ride, doing it within 6 hours seems honorable enough for me!

Here are the stats from my "Run the Map" app...

...and here's a look at the route.

Just a few words about the bike I used on this ride: I got a new bike(yes another new bike)! I sold my Surly Pacer and 700C LHT and bought a 26 inch LHT. For this ride, I tried fitting the 650B wheels from my Pacer conversion. It takes a little finagling to make it work, but once done, they work quite nicely! I was very happy with the bikes performance and the wheels and the (seemingly now out of favor)Col de la Vies were simply perfect for this ride! Of course, I'll do a proper blog entry on this bike soon.

The 650B LHT is actually a 26 inch Trucker slightly modified. (More in a later blog entry).

"Run the Map" Windows phone app for cycling.

 An example of the route tracking.

I don't like bicycle computers. In the old days you had to string wire all over your bike, they required set up and batteries and heaven help you if you wanted to change your wheels, or even your tires! Then you had to reprogram the thing to get what was at best, an approximation of the distance you were covering. They were also a distraction while riding. I once tried a wireless computer, it was very unreliable. Really, all I ever wanted was some sort of record of the distance covered. Speed was secondary to me. The Huret "Multido" was in my mind almost the perfect cyclometer...

Now however, we are in the wireless golden age! Wireless phones that is. My wife and I recently made the leap into the 2010's by going in with our sons on a wireless plan. My wife got my son's old LG and I found a new Nokia 521 Windows phone for a hundred bucks.

Well, the 521 is certainly not state of the art but it still offers a lot of handy features for an economy price! Since I'm a noob when it comes to smartphones, starting with a Windows phone posed no problem for me. I found it fairly intuitive. The phone is capable of voice commands, has a decent enough camera, (though no flash), and GPS. This last feature was actually what sold the phone to me. I was toying with the idea of getting an inexpensive Garmin GPS for riding, but now you can have all that with the Nokia, plus you'll get a camera, Wi-Fi portal, texting, hey you can even CALL somebody with it!

The only problem with Windows phones is that there are fewer apps available compared to the i-phone and android hordes. So, I had to search a bit to find an appropriate app. I tried "Map My Ride" but it clearly wasn't ready for use on my phone. "Run the Map", a weirdly similarly named app from MicroSoft, works rather nicely. It better, I suppose, considering who made it and my phone's operating system!

Starting point. Push start, then pause to stop. 

Run the Map is not solely a cycling app, of course, but can be used for running, walking/hiking as well. You select which mode you want by pushing the button on the start screen above which is displaying the cyclist. You push once to display a runner, again and it will show a cyclist, next a car(?), then a hiker. I'm not really sure what changes in each mode.

After selecting your mode you push the Start button to begin moving. You may hit pause anytime, then resume to continue. When your ride is finished, hit pause. To store the ride and it's stats, hit the + sign at the bottom of the screen. This starts a new ride! But before it begins, it will ask you if you want to save the previous one. (If you want to delete it, you check the box to delete, otherwise it's saved).

This app performs pretty well. It is important to put your phone into "sleep"(?) mode, in order that the buttons are not disturbed while it is running. On my Nokia, I tap the on/off button once lightly and the screen goes dark. The app continues to record in this mode. Tap the button again and you'll be back to your display. When I first tried this app I left the phone on. The phone then responds to every touch the screen gets when getting jostled around in your jersey pocket. This usually results in the app getting paused or worse! Pausing to do something else with your phone, like snapping a picture is no problem, just don't forget to "resume"!

 Here(above) is a screen shot showing the paused mode, ready to resume. If you want to save it, or delete it at this point, you'd hit the + sign on the bottom right of the screen and you will see...

...this screen. Check the box if you don't want the ride saved, then hit OK. Default option will save the ride.

Here are examples of the data you get from this app:

A nice graphic showing your route...

Your basic data, including distance, average and max. speed.

Interesting elevation profiles, but be aware that GPS elevation data is pretty near worthless.

There is a web site that you can upload your rides to if you want, and there if you buy the paid version you get some more bells and whistles, but I'm not really interested in all that. All in all, I am pretty satisfied with this app. The distance and speed is accurate enough for my use, and this is one cyclometer that can be moved from bike to bike with no effort whatsoever! Oh, and one of the best things about this app is its price; Yup, free....

Summing up the Mercian Project.

January, 2014; with a Brooks B-17 on a Campy Nouvo Record post and a Carradice Pendle attached, black tape on the bars.

It's been about a year since my King of Mercia arrived, all the assembly and testing and riding since has evolved the bike into my own. Now that I'm more or less done developing it, I thought I'd publish this final chapter to bring together what I've learned.

On it's first trip around Folsom Lake.

THE ORDERING PROCESS:

Mercian is a relatively small company, and they have made great efforts to make ordering a frame as easy as possible. Their online frame maker is a terrific tool, but it does not do everything. There are some missing features. I really wanted a bracket for a bottle type generator, but this wasn't shown. Also, an optional wider fork crown wasn't mentioned. This feature is fairly important with cantilever brakes, but I only found out by chance, reading about it on another fellow's description of his build. It was a little funny, during my communications with Mercian about this, I got the impression that it wasn't really needed, but when the frame arrived, I found it was spec'd on the worksheet! At any rate, there was no extra charge for the wider crown, and it appears that it really is needed allow the clearance the Tektro 720's need.

Many of these details have to be handled via email, and the folks at Mercian, (Grant in particular) were responsive to my questions. I decided not to go with the dynamo bracket, (they needed the dimensions of the generator which I hadn't even bought at the time), they also double checked that I hadn't requested eyelets on the top seatstay for a rear rack. I didn't (I probably should have, the arching bridge between the seatstays offers no horizontal hole for mounting a rear rack)!

That wide fork crown did present one challenge; It has no (brake bolt) hole in it. Of course, since it is intended for a cantilever brake then it isn't needed, however, it also makes mounting a rando style rack rather tricky. It also makes mounting a headlight impossible at the fork crown. I decided not to install a front rack at this time, and have not installed a light yet, but I may have to drill the crown some day to make things easier.

 January, 2013. Just out of the box.

One last twist came several months after I had taken delivery of the frame. I received a bill from a contractor for FedEx asking for a 10% tariff fee! I did some Internet searching and found that a frame imported to the U.S, worth over $600, does indeed require a tariff payment, but of 4%, not 10. I submitted a protest and eventually began an email exchange with a representative from the company, a nice fellow, who happened to be a cyclist! This was over six months ago now, and I have never heard anything else about this matter! I don't know if it was dropped or fell between the cracks or what, but just be aware that you will most likely receive some sort of charge for bringing a Mercian into the States. Remember to check current U.S. Tariff tables before paying!

(July, 2014 update: The tariff dispute was finally settled in my favor on July 22, 2014. Strangely, I got a bill from a collector before I got the FedEx letter about the settlement. The collector wanted an addition $7.38 in fees. I called FedEx and complained and they said I could pay them directly with no fees, which is what I did.)

Below are a few shots from some of my initial rides.

 On Yankee Jims Road to Colfax.

 Camp Far West Road.

On Old Foresthill Road, overlooking the N Fork of the American River

Component choice and assembly has been mostly uneventful. I initially installed a Velo Orange Gran Cru 50.4 BCD double crank, but had several problems making it work. The distance between the large chainwheel and the crank arm is just too tight for clearance of a modern front derailleur, so I went with the more conventional compact double, which has ample clearance. The 110mm BCD of this crank limits the smallest chainwheel you can fit to 34. That is certainly adequate except for loaded touring. 

The Tiagra rear derailleur is utterly competent, and works well with the Sora 8 speed downtube shifters. I have also gone back to the Brooks B17, I find it to be the most comfortable for me. The Nitto Noodle handlebars are pretty comfortable, but I'm still a little put off by their looks. They may be replaced some day. Tanaka fenders were a bargain, and they are holding up well. 

As I mentioned in my initial post about the Mercian, this is my retirement gift, and now, my retirement looms. The purchase of this frame alone has been something of an adventure, now I'm looking forward to more adventures on the saddle!

July 2014: I finally drilled the fork crown and installed a Nitto M-12 front rack. This proved to be relatively easy to do. The Nitto rack is beautiful, much nicer than the Ducas I got a while back, and fits the Mercian nicely. Shown below with my modified Rivendell/Carradice Boxy handlebar bag, I also have a huge Ostrich F-106 Rando Bag to try out. Incidentally, despite the relatively high trail of 60.8, the bike's handling with this bag, (albeit with only about 5 lbs of load inside), seems good.

I can't stop messing with this bike! Here's it's latest configuration!

Here are links to previous blog posts describing my Mercian adventure!
Ordering the Mercian
The Mercian arrives
The Mercian's initial build
The Mercian is (almost)finished!


Bonne route!

New light; Busch & Muller Lumotec IQ2 Eyc N plus

The Lumotec Eyc on my Ascent commuter.

I had recently been forced to use a battery powered Sigma headlight in place of my Sanyo dynamo powered headlight. I couldn't mount the headlight at the brake bridge due to the tight clearances and the Shimano Ultegra brake's short bolt. The Sigma, while producing an adequate beam, has developed this unfortunate tendency to fail intermittently.  I really wanted to use my Dynamo again, so I searched for a solution. I decided to get the handlebar bracket from Busch & Muller. At $17, it wasn't cheap for a hunk of plastic, but I figured it was the easiest way to get the headlight mounted. And geez, since I'm already spending almost $25 (including shipping), why not check out the latest B&M technology, the Lumotec Eyc, (rhymes with bike). The spec's I read about this new light indicated it put out 50 lux of light vs. the 25 lux my Lyt did. (I have no idea what a lux is but it sounded good). 

Anyway, I ordered the bracket and the Eyc from Longleaf Bicycles. Tony does a great job, the package arrived in just a couple of day from the East Coast! He is very responsive, I highly recommend his shop if you need any lights.

The bracket installed.

Installation on the handlebars was pretty straightforward. One difference from the Lyt was that the wires for the dynamo were "hardwired" into the light; they were long enough for my install, but there wasn't a lot of spare length at all. On the Lyt, there are terminals for the inbound wires and you can use any length of wire desired. Two other leads hang out of the light for the taillight connection.

While this installation did work, I wasn't satisfied with it. I don't really care for handlebar mounted lights, I don't like the light sitting so high and I don't care for the cluttered appearance of the handlebars, so I started devising an alternative. I had a pair of Performance "Forte"short reach brakes in the parts box; these were made by Tecktro so they actually shared some components with the extra long reach cheapo Tecktros I had used on the Motobecane Jury. I swapped the long "nutted" brake bolt from the cheapo's for the short bolts on the Forte's and now had a short reach brake with the long nutted brake bolt. This gave me enough room to use the original light mount for the brake! (Had I thought of this before, I could have saved the money for the bracket, but then I probably wouldn't have bought the Eyc, either!)

Poor picture of the longer brake bolt and headlight bracket.

 So now I had a very nice headlight mounted at the fork crown of my commuter!

The switch is now a push button on the back of the light. This view also shows the taillight leads.

Impressions of the B&M Eyc:

My initial impression when opening the box was that this was a tiny, tiny light! It was also very light.
Even when mounted to the handlebars, the illumination from the Eyc was excellent. The area lit up is a tad bigger than the Lyt, and it seems to be a more uniform light. Also, the design of the lense is such that the size of the light viewed from the side and front seems large for the very tiny light that it is. The standlight feature remains. All in all, performance is not compromised at all by it's extraordinarily small size.

The only problem I have with this light is the on/off switch. As pictured above, the switch is now a push button, covered with a weather-proof membrane. I have found this switch to be pretty inconvenient. It is difficult to press it correctly! This was even harder when the light was on the handlebar, as the bars blocked easy access to the button. It's easier to get to now, but it still takes a few attempts to hit the button just right! I wish the Eyc had the same simple toggle as the Lyt does.

Overall I am pleased with the Eyc. It will eventually be mounted to one of my road bikes for long tours, thanks to it's extremely light weight. At $73, it seems a very good value..

Commuter ready to go!

A new commuter(?), the Performance Ascent SS

The Performance "Ascent" SS road bike.

My last entry described the untimely demise of my commuter bike, the Motobecane Jury, due to a break in the bottom bracket. I wanted a new commuter frame quickly, ideally a lugged steel single speed (SS) road frame, with clearance for wide (28c or better) tires and fenders. Oh, and please make it under $300 please! Well, I couldn't find much. There were some TIG welded steel SS's around, but I figured they would probably share the same fate of my Surly Steamroller and Motobecane. I decided to settle for something ridiculously cheap, but which seemed to be well made, the Performance Bikes "Ascent" SS road frame. It's welded aluminum! Something really different for me, but I figured for the price ($90 minus 20% on sale), I could afford a short term gamble until something more attractive could be found.

I didn't expect too much for this price, but what you get is a decent enough frame. It has 2 water bottle cage mounts and steel inserts for the dropouts for the rear wheel, which is a nice feature for an aluminum frame. The paint is almost like a stain, a nice shade of red but none too thick. 

Rear dropout. Note the steel insert also note the ghastly looking welds.

The frame geometry is pretty conventional. The frame size goes by seat tube measurements from center to center, rather than center to top. Because of the fat aluminum tubes and the long extension of the seat post collar, this could lead one to think he/she got too big of a frame. However, the top tube is pretty short and standover clearance seems fine. I got the 58cm size and it is really close, (when you measure the seat tube to the top of the top tube), to 60cm, which is my size. Still, not a lot of seat post showing. This frame does not come with a seat post collar nor a fork, You must come up with your own. I found a nice looking steel fork at Nashbar, also on sale for $70, shipped. (Incidentally, the Ascent is the same frame as the Nashbar "Nekkid". The Nashbar frame comes in blue and was $10 more, if you prefer blue, go with them!) The steerer tube on the Nashbar fork was actually just the right length, I didn't have to cut anything off, what an easy installation!

Here's the Nashbar fork, pretty nice with the lugged crown and the chrome finish!

For the rest of the bike, I used some of what I had on the Jury, including the Sugino crank and the wheels. I thought the honey VO saddle looked better on the red bike, so I took that and the seatpost of my Mercian. I needed short reach brakes, so I put on the Campy Centaurs I had removed from my Pacer. I also used the 3-ttt handlebars from the Pacer and the 120mm VO stem worked out well. I installed a silver Crane Creek headset (1 1/8) to finish off the silver theme. It all went together very easily and I'm happy with the look. After assembling the bike I was fairly satisfied, but there are a few issues with this frame. Mainly, tight clearances. 

 Front end, with a 28c tire: You're not going to get a fender in there!

This bike has been designed for fast riding with narrow tires.I always use 28c tires at a minimum, so as you will see, this bike barely qualifies! The Nashbar fork is equally tight, as you can see above.

 Adequate room between the chainstay's anyway!

Thankfully, there is enough room between the chainstays for the 28c tire. That would have been a deal breaker.

 Rear tire clearance at the brake bridge.

Again, the rear brake allows a minimum amount of space with a 28c. Of course, with a fixed gear, the brake is optional, but even without it, there's not a lot of room. I won't be putting fenders one this bike. In general, this bike is going to be a compromise. I'm not investing a lot into it, it just has to hold up until something better comes along. There is still one issue I have to resolve to make this a useful commuter; the lighting has proven to be problematic. I can't mount my Lumotec Lyt at the brake because of clearance issues with the headset. I'll have to get some sort of new bracket to make it work. Meantime, I can use my Sigma Pro battery powered LED. It's still a pretty effective light.

The final setup was fairly straight-forward. I'm not thrilled where the rear axle ended up with my 46X18 gearing, I might experiment with different cog combinations to bring the rear wheel up a little in the dropout. I took the Ascent out for a ride through the low foothills and really did enjoy the ride! It is nice and responsive, yet not really twitchy. It felt better with no-hands on the bars than the Mercian did at first! Really nice and comfortable. There is no toe overlap with the front wheel either, something that was a problem with the Jury, (although that was mainly due to the fenders). So this should be a fun bike, just not a perfect commuter.

Uh-oh, Motobecane Jury frame failure! (Do all TIG welded frames fail?)

Close up of the crack in the weld and tubes.

 I had an unpleasant suprise recently when I was working on My Jury commute bike. I had replaced the fenders because the rear stainless steel one had broken off at the brake bridge. After installing new fenders and reconnecting the tail light wiring I discovered a small line across the weld of the bottom bracket(above). Pushing down on the crankarm expanded the line! I got a cracked frame at the bottom bracket (hereafter refered to as the BB)!

An uncropped view to show the extent of downtube crack.

 In the picture above, you can see how the hairline crack traveled from the back of the BB and along the downtube, then it curves downward.

Another close up.

This final shot shows the crack at the BB again. The weird thing about this is that it is almost identical to the failure I had with my Surly Steamroller about 3 years ago! The failure was again at the BB and it also took an almost identical track across and then down the downtube!

I wonder if this is a common problem with fixed gear, TIG welded bikes? Or is it that the Surly and Motobecane are just too cheaply made to be good fixed gear platforms? I'm not really hard on my bikes, I'm 57 years old, weigh 175 lbs, and both of these bikes were used soley for a relatively flat commute of 26 miles a day, (round trip), but I don't ride every single work day. So, I really don't think I'm putting an unusual amount of stress on these frames. Now, I realize that the Jury is a bargain basement frame, so it is no huge shock that it failed after 3 years of use, but I thought the Surly was a better quality frame, maybe not...

I'd be interested to hear from anyone regarding this type of failure on a TIG frame, please feel free to comment!

On the plus side, this has given me the chance to shop for a new frame! I had to be thrifty though, so no exotic lugged steel custom job right now. I went bargain hunting, since my commute to work will only continue for about 7 more months, (then retirement!)!  I'm going with another welded frame, but this time something completely different. I found a Performance Bikes "Ascent" aluminum single speed road frame on sale for $89, then another 20% of for a Black Friday sales event! I also found a nice Chrome-moly fork from Nashbar to go with it.

I have never owned an aluminum road bike before, so this will be a fun experiment, and if it does crap out, it will be interesting to see if it does so faster than the TIG welded steel!

The Grass Valley Loop.

Really? Only 2400 feet?!

I was finally able to ride my Grass Valley "century" in September this year! My schedule just worked out that way this year, very late indeed. I'm looking forward to retiring next year so I can maintain a more efficient riding schedule! Well, there are advantages to doing this ride in the ninth month of the year, temperatures are starting to trend cooler, and the sun isn't quite so strong now. Indeed, because of a recent cold front passage, temperatures were downright cool at the start of the ride. Anyway, I got started around 8 a.m. and proceeded through Lincoln and Sheridan, then headed for Camp Far West...

Between Sheridan and Camp Far West.

The rice fields have been harvested and mowed down. Still, a nice view across the valley. Camp Far West Road was in normal condition. There was considerable washboard. Because we had had a little rain a couple of days before, there was practically no dust! That was nice. The washboard did induce the first mechanical issue of the ride...the front fender bolt under the fork crown loosened and the fender started to rattle a bit. I stopped and tightened it down. (Have to Loctite that bolt when I get home!)

At the junction of Camp Far West Road and Waldo Road.

Other than that it was smooth sailing, the Mercian behaved very well on the gravel. 

End of the dirt at Chuck Yeager Road. 3 hours into the ride at this point.

The only other mechanical problem I encountered on this ride was a flat while on Highway 20, just before Penn Valley. It took me a few minutes to dig out the thorn from the inside of the case-note to self-pack a small knife in the tool kit!

Indeed, the rest of the ride was pretty uneventful. I reached Grass Valley at 5 hours 23 minutes into the ride and stopped for a break at the Raley's there, buying some liquids and eating a sandwich I'd packed. No physical problems were encountered during the ride,  although I almost had a cramp climbing out of Meadow Vista, but avoided it by downshifting and sitting for a while.

In Auburn! (At 8 hours, 7 minutes).

Finally rolled into home at 8 hours and 49 minutes, a little slow for me, don't know why, have to try harder next year! 

The Mercian's looking pretty good after the ride.

Mechanically, the Mercian worked quite well. The handling was very good in the gravel, and as usual, its road manners were very nice. Other than the flat and the loosened front fender there were no problems. My major problem was with the saddle. I got a blister from it on the left side. Not sure if the problem is with the saddle or the shorts. The saddle doesn't feel bad initially and on short rides, so I'm not sure of the culprit here.