Resistance training. I’ve been doing a lot of it lately. Is that an actual name for a style of training regimen? My version works like this: ride a cross bike all the time, heavy traction tires, with a bag full of whatever, and a set of sluggish hubs. Lately I’ve also topped it off with thicker than recommended chain lube in the winter. Fight through that and you’ve gotta be building strength, right?

Salty. Maybe this Yehuda Moon put it together for me, but don’t we have a lot of salt on our roads? My lips are not only dry, but they’re actually salty from them it seems. How’s that for the crops? My bike has seen better—less desiccated—days.

Today’s ride home however, was a champ-fest. Rocketing across and off the 2nd street bridge was exhilarating, just pushing it! Laying it down. Where was the competition? Apart from the slavish motorists, all in my head. This is my training, remember! The ride home had one further point of awesomeness to it. No hat, first time in a long time I’ve gotten to ride with nothing under my helmet! Is it happening? Probably too early, especially considering that flea-bag Phil, I’ll take Chuck’s forecast this year.

I’ve just been loaned a book. The Wonderful Ride, the “true journal of Mr. George T. Loher who in 1895 cycled from coast to coast on his Yellow Fellow Wheel”. Sounds pretty cool, might inspire me to take that first step to ride some god-awful distance this spring I’ve been thinking about. We’ll just have to see how Mr. Loher fares.

I love those little Campy part labels

My good buddy Drew over at On Your Left suggested a good idea to me that I am real excited about. I’ve sold the wheels the CAAD9 came with and was planning on, but reluctant to, buying a set of MAVIC Ksyriums. Good wheels to have, no doubt, but I’m a fan of hand-built wheels—preferably my own. There was also a financial issue buying a new set of wheels. Settling that debate was Drew’s suggestion of the brilliance of Campagnolo—or more accurately, he suggested trying a Fulcrum freehub body on my Campy rear hub. Enter the assumed Campagnolo part number 1011225. This will allow me to keep the wheels rolling I built for my recently demised Coppi. Centaur hubs on Aeroheads; thirty-two hole spectacularness!

Oh, and I’ve got a birthday coming up, was the AARP invitation I got in the mail the other day some kind of joke? WTF?

Originally uploaded by prestashrader

Awesome news here locally. Most here locally have already heard, but for those who haven’t: the Cyclocross World Championships will be held here in Louisville in 2013.

That’s cool news right? I’m happy to hear it, but must admit it seems like a slightly unlikely choice. What’s New England think of that decision? Or New Jersey and Oregon?

Hey, it’s still the here in the ‘States, right? First time it will not be in Europe What would top that for me personally, is if I was sent to Europe for the first time ever.

Originally uploaded by prestashrader

Last night I built my new * Cannondale CAAD9. Had a good time hanging out with Drew and a few Fat Tires (glad I live near a state that sells that fine beer; god forbid the state I live in allow it, right?) I took my time, it was just about hanging out to me, no rush putting it together really. I found out some of the minor limitations and inefficiencies of the workstand I’ve got at home, all things I suspected of course, but pragmatically discovered last night. It’s great for most repairs still though.

Creature of the night (15" exposure)

As far as the C-dale goes, I’m keeping it mostly stock at this point, but I have already come to the conclusion myself what most people already told me, and that is the brakes suck. Sometimes I like to come to my own opinions though: the brakes suck. And I haven’t even ridden them yet. I’ll see how they operate soon enough, however, it’ll be hard to clear my mind of the already subjective mushiness I feel in the calipers. But it’s all part of the process of what I said: forming my own opinion. Keeping it stock. The wheels have also been deemed “junk” from several third parties, I honestly don’t care for how they look on the bike, but they seem acceptable for the moment, I’ll ride them soon enough to really lay judgement—personally I like my hand-built wheels best.

It looks pretty sweet on the whole though; what’s not stock on it is the Thomson stem and seatpost. Many of you will know I’m not a fan of carbon, and that stock Cannondale seatpost was carbon—and heavy. The stem to match is really just necessary aesthetics and class. I was sorely tempted to run it with Force instead of Rival, but that upgrade at the moment is cost prohibitive for me. For what it’s worth, the tape isn’t stock; I can’t roll white tape, especially factory generic tape. White was replaced by fi’zi:k Microtex, color grey. Looks good I think, feels great too. Soft and suede-y. Beyond that, the saddle will likely not stay stock either, the Prologo Kappa Pas looks good, feels good, but I’ve learned to like another and am not sure I’m ready to test a new saddle line.

All of this however is for nought, as the celebration that a inaugural ride on a spanking new bike is diminished in a sense when the roads are wet and the sky is dark with rain. It’s supposed to clear up though. I’m always a little saddened for a customer when they come to pick up their new bike on a rainy day. Is that silly? Perhaps. I know that I’m going to ride that new bike in the rain some day, and I’m alright with that, but it’s first ride should be bluebird. (Freshly paved streets is likely asking too much of course.) Clear skies and a comfortable temperature for a maiden voyage just seems like the way it should be. It’s only right for the bicycle gods to deliver a sudden 70˚ and dry afternoon.

* (Mileage on the Coppi’s computer: 1,093.7, for those unaware, the CAAD9 described above is a replacement for the Coppi’s demise.)

Today I got to work on some wheels. Really just installing new—brass—nipples. I started the job yesterday, and was surprised and hindered by the lack of this tool at the shop; today I brought mine from home. It really makes the job of inserting nipples a breeze. This dude’s wheel was built with alloy spoke nipples and from all the corrosion or whatever, they were cracking and causing all sorts of havoc. So much so that when I was deflating the tire to start replacing them, another one snapped in half. Brass yo!

Anyway, I’ve not been working on—or building—many wheels lately, much to my dismay, so it felt good to sort of go through the process of lacing and building a wheel. The last time I really worked on a wheel like this I was investigating why my neighbor’s rear wheel wouldn’t stay tensioned. From what I could tell it didn’t look like any spoke prep or thread locker was used in the original build—difficult to determine to be sure, but for all intents and purposes the spokes wouldn’t stay tense. So unbuild and rebuild, just to be sure, I thought I’d apply a little spoke thread locker to each spoke.

I had a small bottle of DT Spoke Freeze on hand. The directions on the bottle indicates the following:

Instructions for use: after truing the wheel, apply to the nipple drop by drop

Seems simple enough, albeit vague. A little clarification would help, because using the bottle provided the act of dripping it “drop by drop” makes a huge mess all over your rim, and whether or not the liquid actually penetrates into the threads of the spoke/nipple interface is quite unclear. I’ve attempted to use the stuff a couple of times, never really coming to trust it.

Working on my neighbor’s wheel, deciding to use some liquid resistance, I looked in my toolbox to discover no options except the aforementioned DT product. Well, I thought, I’ll unwind the wheel to it’s extreme lowest tension and drip the Spoke Freeze into the head of the nipple with one of the hypodermic needles I use for lubricating. Seemed like a clean and straight-forward idea. Pretty quick process too.

Not quick enough however. By the time I finished dripping, drop by drop, and began spinning the wrench to add tension to the spokes, the liquid in the nipples had gelled almost completely solid preventing the spokes to turn any further into the nipples. Wow, lesson learned. What would have been a half hour job at most just became a two hour job of incrementally chipping out  the solid red cement and slowly tensioning the spokes a quarter turn at a time. My sturdy dental pick won the tool of the day award for that job. Tediously, the wheel was eventually brought up to proper tension, true and round. My intention through the process was to just leave some as much residual thread locker as would prevent unwinding spokes but still allow tensioning. It worked, and last I checked, the wheel is still straight and tight.

Moral of the story: follow the directions, if you don’t understand them, follow them anyway. Kidding—maybe look up the instructions online for more in-depth instruction (PDF). To clarify, DT makes great spokes, tools, hubs and rims, I’m a big fan; their Spoke Freeze WORKS, but from here on out, I’m using straight up Loctite or at the least Wheelsmith’s Spoke Prep; I don’t have much experience using linseed oil, or without any thread prep. What’s been your experience with these types of de-tensioning fluids?

I’m getting a bicycle tomorrow* and suspect to be riding it this weekend. It’s a Cannondale CAAD9 4, it comes stock with Rival shifting and Cannondale’s BB30 bottom bracket standard (with SRAM Force cranks). I’m looking forward to it, especially the part of learning more about BB30: what it rides like, what it’s durability is like, what it’s maintenance is all about.

I don’t anticipate this standard will wipe away any opinions I have about good ol’ square tapers, but I do think it will surprise me for the positive. Checking out the several I’ve worked on at the shop the past few months has impressed me a bit already. Installation, while blunt and ungraceful, seems like a piece of cake. Extraction, equally so.

I’ll be happy if it spins even half as smooth and fast as the UN54 that’s been neglected and un-inspected for four + years in my fixie. And I’ll surely be happy if it spins faster than the outboards on the ‘cross bikes in this household. We shall soon see.

* or rather it’s shipping tomorrow.

Why do they do this? I like wrapping bars, like cleaning derailleur pulleys or building wheels, it’s one of my favorite things to work on a bike. But when bars are designed like this, it makes me wonder how far up these bars should be taped, does 3T want their logo and model name obscured? Am I missing something? I decided to tape just up to the 3T logo on the left side there, but the model name had to be left half showing on the right. Nice and clean.

How far up to wrap?

They’re not the only ones that do this either, but they come to mind most readily. For instance, these Ergonova Team bars also by 3T have this sharp-looking racing stripe going down the front face of the drops that is just going to get covered by tape. Why bother? Are there any pros out there riding non-taped bars? Is a bareback trend developing that I’m not aware of? Is this why clear, gummy handlebar tape has come around?

Another example of mildly odd bar design are these by FSA, the K-Force handlebar. The oversize bulge steps down abruptly, which is fine, but what’s odd in terms of wrapping, is the angle they chose the step down. It doesn’t meet the angle of the tape equally; it’s just weird. (These bars have cool racing stripes up the drops that also get covered by tape). Sometimes an aesthetic becomes invisible, sometimes it obstructs, either way I scratch my head wondering why.

However, it’s not a big deal really, just a minor curiosity for me. To be sure, the combination of bar and stem on this Cannondale, to me, are especially well-designed. The 3T cutout in the stem being highlighted by the white color band of the bars is particularly hot.

Nice reveal

The weather has changed for the better the previous two days. Compared to the bitterness we’ve had in this area the past several weeks, I really hope these 30˚+ temps stay around a little while longer. A stay from rain may be asking for too much, but I’d appreciate that too. (No such luck today). What do I know though, it’s not even spring yet.

See, I ride my bike to work every day. It’s my only mode of transportation here in Louisville; am I a commuter? I guess I am. I really don’t call myself that though; all the multitudes driving their cars to work everyday, do they call themselves commuters? My mode of transportation to work isn’t who I am. I commute to work by bike though, yes. I also run all my errands by bike, and I pretty much occupy my leisure time by bike. My work is bikes, sometimes even my sleep is bikes. Is it an obsession or a passion? Hard to say. Anyway, enough about me, back to this weather!

The past few weeks have been seeing temperatures in the ‘teens but a weather.com “feels like” between -1˚ and 6˚so when the mercury skyrockets to 28˚, 32˚, or like yesterday 36˚ the layers start to shed—and thankfully too!

Click the image to get the details of my laundry

Sometimes I justify not riding on the weekend when the weather is less than ideal because I ride everyday when the weather is less than ideal. Is that so “non-cyclist” of me? Am I  being a wuss? At any rate, people riding in inclement or uncomfortable weather has sprouted an enormous market for winter cycling apparel. I’ve been remiss to dive full on into that consumer cesspool. There is certainly an article of clothing that is made specifically for an individual weather system, pinpointed to the day and hour of its occurrence. But who’s got the wallet for that kind of pigeonholing?

As seen from the above photo, I’ve got a few essentials and a few items that swappable dependent on what it looks like outside my door, but for the most part, I’m wearing pretty consistent stuff. That Chrome hoodie has been a godsend. Is it space-age synthetic material to keep the wind, water off of me? No, it’s wool and does just the same. I don’t mind wearing it any other time either, I could just as comfortably be wearing it right now. Even though this one is green, what other piece of clothing do you have that makes you feel like a ninja? Wool socks, wool-like skull cap, wool glove liners. Wool!

For the most part, this isn’t a edict on the benefits of strict wool use; I really use a combination of materials. For instance those Chrome pants, they’re durable (over four years old), they’re comfortable (thicker in the rear-end), they dry quickly, and they’re synthetic. I’m also using other none wool bits. What’s my point?  None really I guess, it’s just me blathering on about what I wear in the cold, how I’m not necessarily an advertisement easily seen in Bicycling magazine (perhaps an ad for Chrome though, eh?). I hope I don’t have to put all this shit on very much more this year, I’ve got the process nailed down to a quick five minutes without over-heating, but still….

I like new parts on my bike. I like bike components in general. I get excited about them, I enjoy analyzing and figuring out how the manufacturer did things, why they did things, and if I agree either way. I do this, and feel this way, about even some of the smallest, insignificant, and non-tech heavy, inexpensive components. I’m no snob, I’m just a mechanic.

I’ve got a new lever on my ‘cross bike. It now matches (ergonomically) the right-side shift/brake lever. I’m stoked on it, I’m stoked on this mid-level bike. I think it should be deemed higher than mid-level, it probably is. There; I said it; therefore, it is. Why should I be stoked out on a new lever on my bike? Well, because it feels better, it feels right, and just looks right as well. The new bars are rad shit too! FSA Omegas. Shallow drop, because I don’t need to be all deep, nor do I need “ergo bars”. Their bends are garish, and honestly, they feel like they put my hands even further from the levers while in the drops. Shallow feels like my hands are right where they need to be in an aero position. Second choice is the classic curve bar, just like my Cinellis. The Ritchey WCS Classic is right up there too for modern bars. Good stuff.

Back to those levers. Now my ‘cross bike has ergonomically matching levers. I’ll admit, I thought I was all unique by putting a black Tektro left brake lever on my ‘cross bike to run it as a single ring set up. Found out soon enough I wasn’t the only one doing such a crazy stunt. I really just wanted to set the bike up with SRAM Force because a.) the shifter was an ‘09 model, b.) due to a. the shifter was inexpensive, and because of—the most important to me—c.) I wanted to experience and experiment with some different road components. Besides, what mechanic rides a stock bike, right? I already know what 105 rides like. But c.) is what I do, but not like how a lot of other folks do it. I wanted to learn more about what riding SRAM is like, what working with SRAM is like, and what durability, reliability, and sexiness with SRAM is like, but once I see all that, I don’t just toss it aside like a half eaten cookie. I learn the most about a product by developing a long-term relationship with it. I’m going to find out how that ‘09 shifter works a year or more from now instead of the cursory roll in the hay, the quick in-and-out, that some other mechanics may perform. Which wrench knows more in the end? I’m sure it’s debatable, everything is.

Learn I did, and like I did too. Actually, still learning and liking to this day. SRAM road is cool stuff. I’m pretty sold on it, but this isn’t a review on SRAM shifting, but rather a review on SRAM braking—sort of. Tektro lever out, SRAM 900 single speed brake lever in. The color match isn’t perfect, but the feel is, and honestly that’s infinitely more important. Were I so inclined, I evidently can install front shifting guts inside this brake lever and be able to shift a front derailleur. Were I so inclined—if I had a operable front derailleur. In fact, these single speed brake levers might even be a way to inexpensively replace a SRAM shifter that was crash damaged, i.e. not covered under warranty, i.e. wink wink. You should look into it.

Offering an ergonomically similar brake lever should be something Shimano might want to consider. Does the new Campy have shiftless brake levers available? I know they used to.

Now while I admitted earlier here about not liking ergo bend handlebars, this isn’t to say I think ergonomics are a bad, or unnecessary, thing. Au contraire! I think the big brands are finally figuring out the issues with ergonomics, sticking to the focus we’re discussing here: hands. Shimano and Campagnolo have both released fantastic new grips on their road levers this year past; SRAM, being fairly new, by default did so too. As far as I know, SRAM’s have a couple things the other big two don’t and that’s adjustability, with both the brake lever reach and the shifter lever reach—independent of each other. Thoughtfully executed, and exactly the kind of manufacturing and design feature I totally lose my rocks on.

As far as the actual braking action goes. Snap snap, just like a ‘cross bike should. Were they actually cabled to brakes that stopped on a dime, I wouldn’t doubt for an instant the levers would perform perfectly.

This has been my daily rider for quite a while now, hence the plethora of pictures of it on flickr.