An economical super compact road crank.

Shimano "RSX" triple road crank re-purposed into a wide-range compact double.

I'm still trying to find a lower priced compact double which will give me the ability to run a 46/28-30 tooth combination. I did buy a V.O. 50.4 mm "Rando" crank some time ago. While I do love the gearing it allows, it has proven quite finicky to install. The most successful installation is my latest, on my '82 Mercian Olympic which features fairly long chainstays, a 120mm, 5 speed rear wheel, and an old Campy Nouvo Record front derailleur. I couldn't make it work well on my new Mercian.

I also tried converting an old Shimano STX 94mm BCD MTB crank. This wasn't entirely successful because the shape of the inner face of the spider pushed the chainrings too far outboard.

I have been reading about Sugino's recent super compact cranks, the OX801d and OX601d. These double cranks feature a 74mm BCD and a 110 BCD chainring. This would provide the gearing I'm looking for in a more modern crankarm shape, allowing me to use a normal Front Derailleur and my 135mm 8 speed rear wheel. Unfortunately, these cranks are also staggeringly expensive! $490 for the 601!

Looking over the pictures of these cranks, it seems to me that you could build your own with an ordinary 110/74 triple crank. I have a couple lying around so I thought I'd try it.

My test subject was a Shimano RSX triple I bought from Nashbar years ago. This is a decent enough crank which had a ramped and pinned chainwheel on the outer side, the inboard granny gear was a simple, plain chainwheel.

A look at the inner side, the large ring was reversed to allow the chainwheel bolts to be recessed a bit.

 Basically, what you're doing here is removing the middle chainwheel and replacing it with the outer (46 tooth) one. You will need single wheel chainwheel nuts and bolts since you're now converting the 110mm ring into a single. You also need to have the chainwheel bolt nuts(?) recessed a bit or they could interfere with the chain.

Another view. One advantage with reversing the ring is that I can use the unworn side of the teeth!

Since this was an experiment I used the original outer ring. I had to reverse it to get the recesses on the correct side. This will mean the ramps will be negated but I'm not too worried about that since this will be a double and shifting shouldn't be much of an issue. I also had to remove the little pin which catches the chain in the event of an overshift. Sadly, this pin was not threaded into the ring, just a press fit so it can't be reused.

I had to install a longer bottom bracket in order to have the chainrings clear the chainstays. A 118mm Shimano UN55 did the trick. The bolts fixing the small chainring come fairly close to the chainstay, but they do clear it and a miss is as good as a mile!

A 118mm bottom bracket provided just enough clearance.

I had to adjust both the front and rear derailleurs for acceptable shifting. The front changer had to be lowered a few millimeters and the side to side movement adjusted for the longer BB spindle. The rear short-cage Tiagra can handle the 18 tooth difference in the front sprockets, but only after I adjusted the "B" screw, turning it all the way in to increase tension on the chain. Indexing was unaffected.

The one issue which remains is that the chain contacts the little pins on the reversed big ring when the chain is on the small ring and the 5 outer rear sprockets. It clears the pins fine in the 3 inboard positions, which will probably be the only ones I use with the granny anyway. At any rate, I'm not too concerned because I will eventually replace the large ring with an un-pinned and un-ramped one which should eliminate the problem. I expect there may be some interference in the outermost sprocket positions even then, but I would never use those combinations.

My initial test ride was a success! Shifting was good and the gearing is more to my liking. The 46 tooth outer ring gives me a nice selection of gears for almost 90% of my riding, (I use all 8 sprockets with the big ring), and the 28 tooth granny offers a "27-inch" low gear which is good enough even for touring loads. Shifting was reliable and quick.

A view of the drivetrain.

There have been some cranks offered which have the same idea: Rivendell offers a nice Sugino crank which is essentially a triple with a chain-guard in place of the outer ring for only $146. The only thing I don't like is the really low gearing offered: 40-26, for my road riding that would be too low, I prefer the 46-28 combo. Velo Orange offered a crank with close to that combination, (46/30) for their Polyvalent at one time, but I can no longer find that on their website.

In the future, I will replace at the outer ring with a plain Sugino chainring that has no ramps or pins. Eventually, I will try to find a nice set of new arms to build a brand new crankset with this gearing.

Update: I have replaced this crank with a similarly modified Sugino Messenger: See: Another stab at a subcompact crank.

An S24O bike trip up Foresthill Divide Road.

The Mercian setup for an overnight trip using the Carradice Camper and Rivendell Boxy Handlebar bag.

Shelly was having an all-female dinner party the other day so I had to be out of the house for the evening. I thought, why not just be gone all night? I began planning a "Sub 24 Hour Overnight" campout, otherwise known as an S24O in Rivendell and bike tourist circles on the web now.

Thanks to California's drought, many roads are now open in the Higher Sierra Foothills and the weather forecast for the next 24 hours looked excellent so I decided to do it,

My goal was extreme light weight, so I came up with the bare minimum of equipment: A light sleeping bag, my lightweight 3/4 Thermarest self inflating pad, and in place of a tent, an REI "Bivy Sack", essentially a nylon sack your bag and pad slip into. It does have a mesh "window" so you can look at the stars if you like, or you can close it up to keep light rain or cold air out.

As for food, I wasn't going to cook; I planned to pick up an excellent deli sandwich at Worton's in Foresthill for dinner. Breakfast would be some cereal with dried milk. For entertainment I brought along my tablet for reading.

Had to stop at Worton's for a sandwich and the view.

 Temperatures were forecast to be mild with lows in the 40s so I didn't take a lot of clothes. Beside my riding gear consisting of a wicking "T", a short sleeved wool jersey, shorts, long tights and a windbreaker, I brought an extra pair of shorts, some light hiking pants, a longsleeved "technical" jersey and a buff for my head and wool gloves.

A deserted day-use area will serve nicely.

Everything fit comfortably into my Carradice Camper saddlebag and the Rivendell "Boxy" handlebar bag, I chose to ride my Mercian tourer despite it not having any low-low gears, it's compact crank still affords a 34 tooth small ring which when used with the 28 in the back managed to give me a satisfactory low gear.

Still, the slog up to Foresthill was a hard ride. I chose to take Highway 49 down to the Confluence, then Old Foresthill Road up to the "new one" in order to avoid traffic. After Foresthill there was no real traffic at all. I originally had hoped to ride to Robinson Flat, but, having started at almost 1 pm. I didn't reach Foresthill until 4. By 6 I was only as far as China Wall staging area. It was still bright so I decided to press on, thinking that if it got too dark, I could return and stay there as it had a toilet and some decent looking places for me to sleep.

I rode for another half hour and found a day use area, Mumford Bar Trailhead, that fit the bill. Although it had no water, (China Wall didn't either), it did have a toilet and was also deserted. It was getting late now, and there were patches of snow starting to appear in the shaded parts of the road, so I figured it was time to call it a day.

My commando camping kit consists of an REI Bivy sack, lightweight Slumberjack bag, and a 3/4 length Thermarest.

Not much work to do with this type of camping! I set up the bag in the Bivy and threw some pine boughs beneath for additional padding. (These were already fallen and lying all around). Then dinner and after brushing my teeth, I got into the sack. This was the first time I used the sack, it wasn't too hard to get used to. I did like having the mesh "window". Even so, I found that I liked to open it a bit for fresh air. Overall, fairly comfortable. That night I was able to enjoy the show, a bright moon lit up the sky.

A bright moonlit sky as seen from my bed!

 The next morning I packed up and rode off, wearing all of the clothes I had in the cool morning air! The ride home was uneventful, and took less than half the time the uphill climb of the day before!

Still some snow above the Sugar Pine Lake turnoff!

This was a nice little adventure, just about the right distance. I encourage you to try an overnight trip once in a while, just to shake things up!

February jaunt to Yankee Jims.

Todd arriving at the Yankee Jims Road Bridge over the North Fork of the American.

Unusually mild weather this February has allowed for a fair amount of riding in NoCal this year. Riding buddy Todd and I decided to have a go at a longer ride, we initially planned to ride around Folsom but changed our minds while en route and decided to head up to Colfax, ride across the North Fork of the American river, then get up to Foresthill.

At an old mining tunnel next to the bridge.

Thanks to the fine weather this year, we were able to finish the ride fairly comfortably, if somewhat slowly.

Enjoy the falls while they last!

 I've probably posted this before, but these pretty falls are a little way up from the river, heading to Yankee Jims and Foresthill. After the long climb to Foresthill, we stopped at Worton's and had a sandwich, then back to Loomis. This is a hard ride, 70 hilly miles, but we enjoyed pretty optimal conditions. Even so, it took almost 7 hours of riding! Well, I didn't say I was fast! What a great ride, the few miles of gravel give the ride a nice flavor of adventure!

Here is a screenshot of the route, as recorded by Run the Map.

Adjustments to the old Mercian.

The old Mercian with mudguards and a revised drivetrain.

The winter lull in riding has beset me. The cool, wet weather and a recent hip injury have restricted my riding so I've been tinkering with the bikes more than riding them. One project is to add fenders to my 1982 Mercian. One of the blogs I have followed is the Veteran Cycle Club, which unfortunately has been inactive for over a year. However, in their archive is an entry describing some minor modifications to the SKS Longboard fenders that caught my imagination. Here's the link to that blog entry. The aim is to make them similar to the old Bluemel fenders of yore, which would be very fitting for my old Mercian. It seemed like a neat project. Also, it seems that the beige longboards are on sale now, I got a pair delivered for around $40 from Outside Outfitters.

The front fender, cut down.

Compared to the classic Bluemels, the Longboards are too long. (Of course, the whole idea of the longboards is to have a longer fender. If you want shorter one, go with their standard road fenders!) However, the longboards do have one feature that the standard SKS fender doesn't; it is available in a lovely cream color! Following the description on the VCC page, I trimmed down the Longboards, first trimming the back of the rear fender, using the finished edge of the removed piece as a template for cutting down the leading edge of the front. I did not replace the rear mudflap, I don't find those necessary, but, unlike the VCC bike, I did retain the small black plastic piece on the leading edge of the front fender. I just thought it gave a cleaner look to the front fender.

A couple of view of the rear fender installation at the bottom bracket bridge.

I had to do a little cutting for the rear fender to fit between the two chainstays at the bottom bracket bridge. Also, the Mercian did not have a hole in this bridge and I didn't want to drill one, so I used a "P"-clamp to secure the fender to the bridge. Nice and clean, but there is no lateral movement, I hope this does not prove to be a problem when changing a wheel.

The final result is a nice retro look with the cream fenders nicely complimenting the golden hued green flamboyant finish. It really looks very British!

My next project was to revise the drivetrain. I had been using classic Campy Nouvo Record derailleurs and shifters but I was not satisfied with their performance. I replaced the shifters with a NOS set of SunTour "Power Ratchet" down-tube shifters. Many years ago stem mounted versions of these had been standard equipment on the first "real" road bike I had ever owned, a Nishiki Olympic 12. I had remembered that the action of these levers was very pleasant, though the stem mount eventually led to their demise. I found a nice set of these in clamp-on downtube style on EBay for $35 shipped, so I snapped them up.

Couldn't call it an upgrade, but these really are nice levers!!

Next, I swapped out the NR rear derailleur for a Sachs "Quarts" model from the 90s. This unit is a much better shifter that the quaint, old Campy.  Finally, I put my Velo Orange New Rando 50.4 BCD crank on the bike. I've finally found the right combination of frame geometry and front derailleur clearance, (using the Campy NR front), that permits this crank to perform to its potential. The secret is the narrow 5 speed spacing in the back, relatively long chainstays and the narrow front derailleur cage.

I've changed out much of the drivetrain for better performance.

I been taking short rides with this bike and have been very pleased with the performance. I'm looking forward to longer rides in the new year.

The bikes of the Camino de Santiago

My wife and I recently walked the Camino de Santiago, an (almost) 500 mile trek from St. Jean Pied de Port in southwestern France across the Pyrenees foothills and across northern Spain to Santiago de Compostela near the northwest coast. While the majority of "peregrinos" (pilgrims), walk this old pilgrimage trail, there are lots of cyclists making the trek now, too. To qualify for the compostela certificate in Santiago, you must either have walked the last 100 kilometers, or have ridden the last 200K. I intended to take a lot of pictures of bikes I encountered on the Way, but frankly, the majority were almost identical! I only saw a couple of touring bikes, they looked like Surly LHT's from the distance I saw them. I couldn't get a decent picture of those. Generally, the typical "Camino Bike" was an MTB, either hardtail or full suspension. I also saw a few hybrids. 

Pretty typical rig.

Another.

Much of the Camino is dirt and a lot is rocky and rough. Bicycles are directed to other routes along some stretches which are just too rough for a loaded bike to pass, especially with pedestrians sharing the path. Frankly, I felt that there were a lot of stretches where I encountered bikes that I felt it would be better not to have them there at all! There was often a paved road along side which the riders could have easily taken. Most riders were courteous and many used bells, which should be mandatory for the Camino. But you had a few knuckleheads who swept up behind you with no warning and zoomed by. I was relieved there was no accidents, but there were a few near misses.

Good reason to use an MTB(or the closest paved road).

700C Hybrid style.

Most if not all bikes I saw were equipped with panniers and a fair amount of gear. The great thing about the Camino is that you will have access to really cheap accommodations, so the sleeping gear can be reduced to a sleeping bag! Food is pretty cheap too, so I wouldn't bother with cooking gear, either, (you can use cooking gear at the albergues, too, if you want to cook.) I think you might be able to go the minimalist route and use a Carradice Camper and handlebar bag.

Walking the Camino can be a life altering experience, but to be honest, cycling it would be, to me, just another, albeit interesting, bike tour.

This year's century ride.

The track of my ride from "Run The Map" phone app.

After a hectic early summer I have finally gotten to my century ride! Inspired by the success of the reverse path of my Yankee Jims rides, I decided to reverse direction of my usual route to Grass Valley, going through Auburn and Meadow Vista, then following Dog Bar Road up to Grass Valley.

On Dog Bar Road.

This turned out to be a good choice. The climb up to Grass Valley took place during the cool morning hours, and Dog Bar Road seems to take on a completely different character going from south to north! I was in Grass Valley early enough that I didn't feel any need to stop for food. I did eat half of a PBJ sandwich I was carrying and drank a little.

Next was the descent on highway 20. Going the other direction, this is a challenging, long effort to get into Grass Valley. But going this way, it's a sweet descent with an occasional bump. I left Hwy 20 at the Smartsville turnoff. At this point I made a significant deviation from my old century route, instead of turning on Waldo road and riding gravel to Camp Far West, I stayed on Smartsville Road and proceeded to the valley.

On Smartsville Road, heading down into the valley.

This is a wonderful road. It's very open and you can see a long way. (This is a very good spot to ride a motorcycle...fast!!). Thankfully, there was no strong winds, I could see that being a problem some days.

This road eventually took into the eastern fringe of Linda, then I took some wonderful country roads to Highway 65 just above Wheatland. There I made my only supply purchase of the day at a gas station food mart, some cold water and a Frappacinno.

From Wheatland it was a familiar route to Sheridan, then Dowd road to Nicolaus road and into Lincoln, then 193 to Sierra college and then up and over the hill back to Loomis.

Basic ride stats.

All in all I was very happy with this ride. I definitely prefer this route over my old way. I also noticed that the old way was probably not really 100 miles! But with the long gravel stretch at Camp Far West probably made up for that shorter distance. I felt pretty good after this ride. Even my bottom was in good shape, thanks to the Sugoi Evolution bib shorts I recently bought, and a slight change in saddle position, (I raised the nose of the B-17 just a tad.)

Here's a shot of the Mercian post-ride.

Fiddling with my bikes' set up and post retirement thoughts.

My LHT on Yankee Jims Road with 26 inch wheels and the Ostrich handlebar bag.

 Since I've retired at the end of July, I've been surprised how little time I seem to have. Well, a lot of it is going to preparation for our trip to Spain and walking the Camino de Santiago this Fall. Lots of walking and planning for extended travel abroad.

Still, I have been getting a satisfactory amount of riding in, plus I've been doing some work on the bikes as well. I've been interested in running handlebar bags "Rando" style. To that end I installed small front racks on both my Surly LHT and my Mercian. For a bag, I purchased an Ostrich F-106, a really big bag from Bike Touring News. I've never purchased from these guys before, but I was very pleased with the fast service. The bag is pretty nice, but I did modify it slightly to work for me. First, I used a Velo Orange Decaleur, and relocated the leather strap holder to the back, planning to strap the bag to the "tombstone" of the front rack. This wasn't really satisfactory, so I used a technique I found on the internet, Peter Weigle's "anti-decaleur" method which uses two "R" clips on the rack which are bolted to the bottom of the bag. (See the bad picture of this installation on the Mercian at the end of this post.) However, rather than being an anti decaleur, i use this method to supplement the decaleur!

This method of attaching the handlebar bag seems very stable. I rode the LHT down Yankee Jims washboard and it held beautifully. Handling with the handlebar bag also feels pretty good, maybe a tad slower reacting, but certainly not unstable at all.

Also on this ride, I used the 26 inch wheels with Continental City Tour tires. I bought these 1.75 tires because I felt my Schwalbe Big Bens were just to big at 2.2 inches. Turns out that these tires aren't all that much skinnier! Anyway, they also ride pretty well, and I don't seem to have the problem with tire clearance with these.

As I said, I also added a rando front rack and handlebar bag to the Mercian:

Current set up for long range cruising. Notice how nicely the Boxy bag matches the V.O. Crescent bag. That's purely coincidental!

Installing the Nitto M12 required a 1/4 inch hole on the fork crown which took me a year to do. In the end it wasn't a big deal, and the Nitto rack is really a thing of beauty. For the bag I used an old Rivendell Boxy Bag. Back in the day, Rivendell actually got Carradice to produce this cotton duck bag. They also had Nitto produce a clamp-on handle bar rack resulting in a pretty lousy system to run a handlebar bag! It worked, but took up handlebar space and held the bag too high, and the clamp could loosen and slip. Since I had this bag, it seemed like a good idea to try to make it work with a rando style front rack.

Original configuration was strapped to the M-12.

 Initially, I planned to strap it down to the rack at two points. while this worked, it was kind of a pain to set up and didn't hold the bag super-tight. So I decided to use the "anti-decaleur" system once again, and, along with the V.O. decaleur, a rock-steady system was born!

Velo Orange Decaleur pinned to the Boxy Bag. You can just see the leather patch behind the tombstone which I initially installed for a strap.

Bad picture of the "R" clip holding the bag on the rack.

This is such an easy installation, all you need is a couple of 3/8 inch clips, you can get a pair of steel ones at Home Depot for less than $1.50), a few washers and nuts and bolts. I recommend a "button"head-type bolt, (M5 or M6) and a nylock nut to fasten it securely. The one downside to this installation is that you don't really have a quick-release system for your bag.