A Surprise from Taiwan; the Ducas "Bicycle/City Bike front Steel Carrier"

The Ducas rack even comes with a bag!

I've been toying with the idea of putting a "Rando" style front rack on my new Mercian lately. However, there was a problem, my Mercian came with cantilever brakes and the fork crown had no hole where one would insert a brake bolt on a conventional bike. I wanted to keep the installation clean, so I intended to install a rack using the cantilever brake mounting bolts to secure the arm, as in the Nitto M12 or Velo Orange Pass Hunter. Unfortunately, both of these require the hole in the crown, and I couldn't bring myself to drill the crown so I searched for a long time. The V/O Randonnneur rack has a metal tang that would work with the front fender bolt, but it requires brazed-on eyelets or worse, "P-clips" stuck on your fork. I finally found a rack that may work on Amazon, from a company on Taiwan, Ducas, who seem to be pretty new. They offered a cantilever mounted rack with a tang bent for fit on a brake bolt, but it looked like it could be modified to fit my bike. Best of all, the price was $21 shipped! I figured it was worth gambling on at that price!

 Ducas' shipping dept needs some help!

Ordering through Amazon was pretty routine, although Ducas does state on their page that it will take several weeks to be shipped. I didn't worry about it but apparently Amazon did as they threatened to cancel the order after a while since Ducas hadn't shipped in a timely manner.  A day or so after the Amazon note came Ducas' announcement that the item shipped! Anyway the rack arrived via Taiwan airmail in not so attractive packaging, (see photo above). Fortunately, the rack was not scratched! 

 The price of economy!

Well, the rack itself is not anywhere near Nitto or even V/O quality. It seems rather heavy, the quality of the welding is so-so, I've pictured the worst of them. They seem strong enough, just not very pretty.

 A view of the rear tang which I modified.

Despite these quality lapses, the rack is a decent example of this style rack at an uber-affordable price! The view above shows the tang that I would have to bend to work with my fork's configuration. It turned out to be a fairly simple job, I simply put the tang into my bench vise and pressed it flat. The metal bent pretty easily  and the finish was too badly marred, I did note a few small flakes of chrome were lost.

The not-so-perfect fit on the Mercian.

I then attempted to fit the rack to my new Mercian. As shown in the photo above, you can see the rack does not level out properly, and the vertical part rubs the brake cable. Definitely not optimal! This was after I had already bent the tang a couple of times to make it fit. I decided that maybe this was not the rack for this bike.

I thought that maybe this would be more appropriate on my Surly LHT, so I gave it a try...

Success!

By fitting the tang to the "Daruma" bolt which fixes the front fender to the bottom of the fork crown, the rack fit onto the LHT almost perfectly! (I think the quality level of this rack may be a little more in line with the Surly too).

My next project!

With my new Rando rack now fitted to the LHT, I can now begin planning my next project, converting my old Rivendell/Carradice "Boxy" handlebar bag to use on this rack. I will have to add a strap or two to the bottom of the bag, and one to the back in order to secure it to the rack. 

Stay tuned!

Update-07/13/2014-- I just checked on Amazon, the price for the Ducas as of 07/13/2014 is now $58!!  you can get a Nitto M12 currently  for around $65 shipped, so I don't think these guys are gonna sell a lot of these now!! Incidently, I finally got around to modifying the Rivendall/Carradice Boxy Bag, it's currently on my Mercian atop a Nitto M-12. More about that later...

Mercian with Nitto M12 and Carrradice Boxy Bag

The Loomis-Colfax-Iowa Hill-Foresthill loop.

At the Iowa Hill General Store

It's getting to be the time of year to put in some longer days in the saddle. I'm also preparing to climb Mt. Shasta, so I need to be in shape. The best type of riding for that preparation is climbing, and this ride has a lot of that! And this ride is a tough one, starting from my home in Loomis, following Placer Hills Road along I-80 through Auburn and Meadow Vista on into Colfax. That alone is a respectable ride, but for this trip, it's just a warmup. From Colfax, I turn onto Iowa Hill Road, down to the North Fork of the American. From that point you begin an amazing climb to the small village of Iowa Hill. Some references report grades of up to 15% this part of the climb. It is intense!

A quick descent from Colfax to the North Fork of the American River 

A brief rest stop before...

...the monster begins!

The picture above shows the start of the serious climbing from the American River. There are some very steep sections here, and the road becomes fairly narrow. From the rest stop where this picture was taken, I strapped my helmet to my saddle as I knew I wasn't going to be moving very fast for the next couple of hours, and I needed the ventilation! Fortunately, it wasn't very hot this day, and there was a reasonable amount of shade on this side of the canyon. sometimes bugs flying around your face can be annoying on this stretch, but there didn't seem to be too many this year. 

 One of many hairpins!

 Iowa Hill's general store is a good place for a break.

Iowa Hill is an interesting place. They just got phone service a couple of years ago. There is no electrical utilities here, just solar panels and generators. The general store has two ancient propane powered refridgerators, but those must be for special items like milk and beer, gatorade doesn't rate. It is in an ice cooler. The day of my ride, a Tuesday, there was no ice, so the Gatorade was around room temperature. It still tasted pretty good to me!

After Iowa hill, you still have a little work ahead of you! There is still a bit of climbing to Sugar Pine Reservior, including a stiff climb along the dam, and a more gradual climb all the way to Foresthill Road. It surprises me that it takes almost 2 hours, (1:50 to be exact), to ride from Iowa Hill to Foresthill Road! 

From that point you have a wonderful 10 mile descent to Foresthill, a really welcome break from the hours of climbing!

 It takes a surprisingly long time to reach Foresthill road.

Another break at Worton's in Foresthill to replenish fluids. 

At Foresthill I stopped at Worton's to buy some Gatorade, chocolate milk and water. It's nice to get off the bike for a few moments and take in the view. There was a really massive thunderstorm off to the East.

Pulled in at home just short of 8 1/2 hours, phew!

As the photo above shows, my final time including stops was almost 8 1/2 hours. It's a long day, but a really great ride. I don't have an exact distance figured out, but I estimate it's about 75 to 80 miles. 

I rode the new Mercian with a compact double gearing of 46/30, (V-O Gran Cru 50.4 BCD crank) in front and 11/28 in back, and this proved more than adequate, even for the grades I encountered on this ride. On the steep descent from Colfax to the American, the Tektro 720 brakes performed beautifully. I'm quite happy with the ergo's on this bike now, though  I do intend a few more tweaks.

I have been having pain in the balls of my feet on long rides, this time I removed my shoes and massaged my feet during my short beaks. This seems to have helped and I had no problems until near the end of the ride when I didn't take any breaks after Foresthill. I carried three bottles of water, one in the cage and the others stowed in my Pendle Saddlebag until needed. That way the water in them stayed cool. 

Foresthill, Yankee Jims, Colfax.

The finest view from a supermarket that I've ever seen!

I decided to take a day off to enjoy the beautiful Spring weather. What better way to appreciate the conditions than a bike ride? Today, I chose a rather challenging ride for me, a loop that would take me up to Foresthill, across the rough dirt of Yankee Jims road to Colfax, then return to Loomis via Placer Hills Road through Meadow Vista and Auburn.

 View from Old Forest Hill Road.

My route takes me through Auburn via Indian Hill road, then down and up Old Foresthill Road. I avoid the new road due to the endless seismic retrofit work which has been going on the massive Foresthill bridge for a couple of years now, with no end in sight! The lanes open are really too narrow for comfort. I made it up to Foresthill and stopped at Worton's market for a break and to enjoy the view. While there I met a couple of other older cyclists. One was riding an interesting Cervelo, he had a mountain rear derailleur on it which allowed him to use a 34 tooth cog in back. The bike was incredibly light, he said that with the small saddlebag, it weighed 16 lbs! The other impressive thing was the price! He said new ones were around $6,000! He got his used at half that! Wow, Shelly, I hope you appreciate how much money my retro tastes save us! After the break, I started down Yankee Jims Road. This starts with a brisk descent down a good road and eventually you come to the small hamlet of Yankee Jims. No services there. Shortly after that village, the road turns to gravel. This year, the road seems to be in pretty good condition. I believe Cal Fire had some work done during the terrible fire down there last year.

Yankee Jims Road; So far, so good.

At the junction of Yankee Jims and Shirttail Canyon. This is close to the point where the 2012 fire started that threatened Iowa Hill. Also a popular place for target practice evidently.

Plenty of water flowing now, here's a nice waterfall I hadn't noticed before. There's a nice pool at the bottom that would be great for soaking in!

The background is a little busy, but I thought this was a nice shot of the Mercian.

Typical conditions of the rougher stretches of this road. Still, 28c tires were fine.

At the bottom, you cross the North Fork of the American. Here's a look back at the bridge.

Nice panorama; I'm looking back while on the north side of the river now, heading to Colfax.

Road conditions on the north side of the river were better than the south side.

Here I am trying to show the hillside covering of lupine and poppies.

Here's a close-up!

At the start of the pavement, on the way to Colfax.

Back on pavement, I headed for Colfax. I didn't actually go into town, but took the overpass south of town, up to Placer Hills Road. After a short snack break, I headed back to Auburn through Meadow Vista. Climbing out of Meadow Vista I felt the first tingling of a cramp starting in my inner thighs. Gearing down helped and after I started descending they went away and I didn't have anymore trouble.

The bike performed well. The bolt fixing the front fender to the underneath of the fork crown loosened a bit at the start of the ride. I tightened it and it held for the rest of the ride but I will need thread lock for that. It handled the dirt very well, even with 28c tires, it was stable and tracked well. Shifting was very good and my missed shifts are becoming rarer. I feel very comfortable on the bike even after the almost 7 hours I spent on it today!

Once around Folsom Lake

View from the new Folsom Dam Road

Circling Folsom Lake is one of my favorite training rides. I regularly do this a few times each year. Normally, I'll ride this route in a clockwise direction. I was amused to read in several online ride descriptions of this route that this was considered a more dangerous direction, due to the long, curvy and narrow climb up to Cool on Highway 49! Well, it makes sense although I've not had any problems. At any rate, I decided to try the other direction just for fun. This would be a long run on my new Mercian, still getting the bike dialed in.

At Placer School, on Horseshoe Bar Rd.

So I started the ride going up Horseshoe Bar Road out of Loomis, eventually getting on Auburn-Folsom heading south to Folsom. There, I turned on the New Folsom Dam Road. This is a very nice road with 2 sets of bike trails! One is completely separated from the road, it is used by bikes and pedestrians. It seems to me that you could get blocked by the slow traffic. I always take the alternate, a bike trail on the shoulder of the main road. I'm surprised they offer two choices, but it's nice!

Going by the dam; you can see riders on the second bike trail.

Past the dam you navigate residential and semi rural roads to Salmon Falls Road. Salmon Falls is really the heart of this ride. A long undulating climb to Pilot hill. Very pretty, not too busy. A favorite for squids on hot motorcycles. The road surface in generally excellent. The ride was eneventful, I enjoyed it. The climb up 49 from the river did not seem much safer than the climb up to Cool, though. Maybe a few more turnouts. Traffic was heavier because it was later in the day, since it's near the end of the ride going in this direction. Here are a few more shots, no more commentary.

 Salmon Falls Bridge, not sure what caused that blur in the photo.

On Salmon Falls road.

 "The Boat", I've seen this boat on every ride I've taken around Folsom Lake!

 The chimney is all that remains of this old farmhouse.

Yours truly, photo courtesy of the nice folks I met taking a break at Safari Estates(below).

I've often admired this particular view of the Sierra Foothills.

On highway 49 past Cool, dropping to the confluence of the forks of the American River.

Mercian's test ride...Meadow Vista loop!

Made it to the sign!

I finally had a chance to take the Mercian out for a true ride. Up to now, I had been assembling the bike and only took it down the block for testing. The other day, I rode it around a few local roads for more testing. Finally this weekend I was able to stretch it's legs for a good 4 hour ride through the Sierra foothills. I took a ride from Loomis, through Auburn up Placer Hills Road beyond Meadow Vista to Dog Bar Road. From there, I dropped down to the Bear river, then took Magnolia Road back to highway 49 at Lake of the Pines. From there, you take the roller coaster hills to North Auburn, then back to Loomis via Taylor Road. It was about 4 hours of riding, close to 60 miles. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera, so I have to settle for these phone camera pictures.

Lunch break at Dog Bar Road.

You might notice in the photo above, that I switched saddles for this ride. I didn't want to ride for 4 hours in a saddle not yet broken in!

The Bear River at Dog Bar Road Bridge.

Passes the no hands stability test!

As you can tell from the pictures, it was a fine day for riding. A little breezy at times, but not too bad. The air a little cool at first, but it warmed nicely by the end of the ride. The bike performed quite well. The drivetrain worked fine, I was concerned about the front derailleur clearance, but there was no issue. I occasionally missed a shift in the back but that was my mistake, the price of not using an indexed system.

The bike's ride is very good. The handling is quick, more like a racing bike than a touring bike. This is typical of Mercians.  Their geometry is decidedly sporty. This is a classified as a touring frame, but it's wheelbase measures 103.5cm,(40.75"), compare this to the Surly LHT with a wheelbase of 108cm,(42"). Added to this is a relatively short top tube. The result is a quick handling bike, I would say more a "Sportive" type geometry than a "Campuer"; I call it an English Randonneuse.  If you really want a Mercian tourer, better ask them for more chainstay and more top tube! Incidentally, I did notice a little toe clip overhang, also the result of the short top tube I suppose.

Riding the bike, I recalled the reason I like Mercians. Towards the end of the day, coming to Auburn on HWY 49 from the north, I was down in the drops and I felt perfectly comfortable. There is something in this geometry that puts my body in the right position. This, too, may be a result of the short (56cm) top tube.

The gearing consists of the Velo Orange Gran Cru 50.4 BCD crank, with 46/30 chainwheels, and a 11-28 cassette in the back. This gives me a very wide gear spread while still permitting a short cage rear derailleur, (in this case the Shimano Tiagra). I feel this range will be sufficient to tackle Iowa Hill if need be. I'll give it a try sometime soon I hope! The shifters are the Dia Compe ENE friction. These have a very light feel to them, lighter that the Rivendell "Silver" levers. I thought that the internals were identical between those two levers, but I can certainly feel a difference. 

Braking is certainly not a concern with this bike, the Tektro CR720 provide excellent stopping power. Probably overkill for this bike, but I also chose cantilevers for the generous clearance they provide for fender installation. The "Cane Creek" levers work very well with these brakes, and they are quite comfortable. Their quick release feature is also helpful.

All in all, I'm pretty pleased with the bike, but I want more time to get used to it's ride. I'll have at least one more journal entry about this bike and the whole process of obtaining it. 

The Mercian's initial build

The Merc with most part installed, but not connected.

Both the wife and I are laying low due to colds, so I thought I'd post a couple of shots of the Mercian with most of the parts installed, but not yet connected. I've done an initial cut of the steerer tube, you can see I left a couple of centimeters on just in case. In the photo's the handlebars are set to saddle height. That's what I'm shooting for, but I will most likely keep the extra length if I decide it doesn't look too weird. The black cloth tape on the top tube is there to prevent the handlebars from smacking into the tube and marring the paint.

Profile shot!

Here's a list of the installed components:

- Tom Ritchey seatpost.

- Velo Orange Model 6 Saddle in honey.

- VO threadless stem with shim, 120mm.

- Cinelli Giro d'Italia handlebars, 40cm

- Cane Creek SCR-5 brake levers, (re-badged Tektros)

- Cane Creek S-2 threadless headset, 1"

- Dia Compe ENE shift levers

- Tektro CR-720 Cantilever Brakes front and rear, polished silver

- Shimana Tiagra 4600 rear derailleur

- Shimano RX100 front derailleur 

- VO Gran Cru crankset, 46/30 (50.4 BCD)

- VO bottom bracket, (122mm)

- Shimano SPD pedals, PD-M520

- Wheelset: Shimano Tiagra 4600 hubs, (rear re-spaced to 135mm), rim Sun CR18, polished

silver, Wheelsmith 14g stainless spokes. (36 rear, 32 front).

- Panaracer Pasela Tour Guard tires, 700X28c
- Tanaka Polished alloy fenders, 45mm*

Assembly and part selection notes:

Most everything has installed fairly easily so far. One thing with the ENE shift levers is that the lever stops seem to position the levers at a slightly "raised" position. Not sure if I can live with that.

I thought that the 122mm bottom bracket was going to be too wide, but it turns out to be just about perfect clearance for the chainstays. Update!! Turns out I had some chain clearance issues, had to go to 127mm!

I also thought a 120mm stem might have too long, but my initial calculations proved correct, the 120 puts the bars at the right spot.

I chose a NOS RX100 front derailleur to avoid using the shim needed in today's selection of FD's. Seems like nothing else has changed in FD design in recent years!

Ritchey "Classic" seatpost seems pretty nice. Very light, I thought I was getting a single bolt SP when I ordered this, then was excited to realize it was a "two bolt" design. Then I was not so excited to find that the two bolts are positioned side by side, not fore and aft as in, say the Campy NR of old. Still, it seems like a pretty nice post, I'll keep it!

I'm happy with the frame size this time. 60cm seems right for me. I'm experimenting with handlebar height and it will be a while before I have that nailed down. When I do, I may cut more of the steerer.

*A quick update- I was able to install my Tanaka Alloy fenders today. This will probably merit a separate posting someday as it is an interesting process! 

With the Tanaka 45mm Alloys fenders