A new toy!

My employer had a very good year, so everyone got a sizable Christmas bonus.  My family has been wanting to get a decent tandem for a while now, but the cost prohibited us from getting one. 

I found a late 70's Santana on Craigslist for $400.  I figured at that price, it was either stolen or there was something terribly wrong with it.  If you know anything about tandems, Santana is the top name in the tandem business.  Come to find out that the owner just didn't use it anymore, and didn't have any use for it, so he lowered the price to get ride of it ASAP.  Plus it doesn't have very many of the original components on it (which is just fine with me!)  It it older, but the components on it are quality.  Phil Woods 48 spoke hubs, Specialized chainrings with Campy cranks, Sachs (SRAM) freewheel and shifters.  The owner changed it around so it was more about comfort, with a strait bar, bar ends (which I don't like), grip shift and gel seats. 

When we tested it out, it surprisingly fit me and my daughter AND wife very well.  The frame had some paint chips and very light rust, but was in great shape for being 35+ years old.  All of the other components were dirty, but in great shape.  Needless to say it didn't take much of a test ride to make a decision. 

The initial test ride















After giving it a quick cleaning and small seat adjustments, my daughter and I took it on it's maiden voyage.  Not too far, just to my work and back. 

Needless to say we've got a lot of work to do to really take advantage of this machine.  For being 9 years old, my daughter caught on pretty quickly with all of the signals, communications, pedal positions, etc that is needed for riding a tandem.  We'll have this down in very little time.


This was a very well spent investment.

San Pasquel loop

A few years back I bought a book that details different cycling areas and trips all around the San Diego area.

This is a great book.  It's been around in various editions for a long time now.  It describes the rides in great detail, including pretty accurate maps and elevation information.  The text description of each ride is in good order as well.

I've used this book several times to plan out routes.  Sometimes I ride the routes exactly as describes, and other times I use this mainly for information about part of the routes to plan out my overall ride(s).


It's been a good investment and well worth the small price I paid. 

http://www.amazon.com/Cycling-San-Diego-Nelson-Copp/dp/0932653529/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1319946216&sr=8-1



Last night I decided to run a route that I noticed earlier, but have never gotten around to yet.  It circles around the San Pasquel area.  20 miles for the loop, 30 total including getting up there from where I live. 

I should have paid more attention to the elevation changes for this route befrehand.  There were some short, steep hills that I had some difficulty on.  But overall this was a very good route and very picturesque.  A few farms, a pine tree seller, and even a milk cow pasture was noticed.  There is also a battlefield memorial for the battle of San Pasquel  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Pasqual_Battlefield_State_Historic_Park

This site has a lot of pictures that are on the same route or very close to - http://www.miriameaglemon.com/Birding%20Pages/San%20Diego%20Birding%20Pages/By%20Site/Highland%20Valley%20Road.html since I didn't bring my camera with me on this ride. 

The graph below shows the quick changes in elevation that I experienced.

The first sharp drop was at Bandy Canyon Road.  It had a lot of switchbacks.  Not having traveled on this road before and taking sharp turns at a high speed, I rode on the brakes a lot.  Not until the switchbacks stops did I let go of the brakes. 

A great ride for certain.  I just didn't appreciate the sharp increase in elevations that made climbing difficult.  But I'll definitely hit this route again in the future.

Lake Hodges/Del Dios loop

I've always see the Del Dios highway on maps, and it looked like a good way to get around when I'm up North.  I was finally able to ride it last week.  As usual when I'm checking out new territory, it took me 1.5 times longer than it should have.  I also got a bit lost even though I had a map.  The street names on the map weren't the same as what they were in reality.

This weekend I decided to ride the same route, but in reverse.  Went much better this time around.  The fog was really thick at 6:30 in morning (which will only get worse as winter sets in) .  At some points I could only see about 50 feet in front of me.  So the beginning was slower than usual. 

The nice part of this route is going past Lake Hodges.  You can see the dam from the road on the West side.  The tail part I ended going past my work and riding the same route as I always do going to work.  I wanted to head down South a bit more and ride the 56 bike path.  But I was running late and had an appointment to get to. 

The route is fairly flat, with a few short climbs along the way.  Typically when I travel this far I'm completely wiped out afterwards.  But I actually felt really good afterwards.

Goin' camping

Last month my family went camping.  Unfortunately we don't do so as much as we would like.  I decided to take off early from work and ride the bike up to meet with my family.  It's at Dixon lake, which is only 15 miles up there.  The ride itself is mostly on the outer edge of Escondido.  Nothing difficult about this ride.  But there is a very steep 1/4 mile section just before getting into the park.  If you notice the red line on the map, it actually breaks for a bit.  That's because I had to walk it up for a while.  My Garmin said it was a 70% grade.  No way it was that much.  It was more around 20%, which is still too much for me for that distance.  Dixon lake is a great place to camp!

BLEH!

I decided to head out to Ramona again this morning.  It's a great challenge, hard to get lost on, and is close to home. Knowing that my legs were going to get over strained on this ride, I should have prepared for this ride better this morning.  I only has some water, a peach and an apple before heading out.  Well, I paid the price for my foolishness.  On the way back home, I could feel my calves starting to seize if I pushed it too hard.  I had plenty of electrolytes and water, just not enough nutrition to meet this kind of challenge. 

My average speed was about 1.5 mph slower than last time.  Which is a significant difference spread over a 40 mile course.  Although my max speed was the fastest it's ever been on this course (39.5 mph).

Then to make matters even worse, I got stung by a bee at the most inconvenient time.  I was starting my decent down the Poway grade (heading West), and then POW a big stinging hurt came over my inner right thigh.  Thankfully I was able to keep my cool and slow down quick enough with traffic passing by me with little shoulder on the side.  The bee was still attached, so I pulled it off.  Good thing I'm not allergic to bees, or I would have been in a world of hurt.  Good thing I only had about 5 miles left, because the pain interfered with my peddling.  The stinging still bothers me 12 hours after it happened. 

My body started to bonk the last two miles, but I made it home safely.  After taking a shower, I proceeded to take a nap.  I probably would have slept all day long if I didn't have so many things left to be done. 

Well, at least I can say that I did go out and ride today. 

To the coast and back

I live about 15 miles away from the Pacific ocean, so getting over to the beach is never a problem.  I suppose that it's become so commonplace for me, that I don't get over to the beaches unless I'm got company with me, and THEY want to go to the beach. 

This trip I broke the norm.  My original intention was to go North on the 101 (coastline) for about 10 miles and back.  About 50 miles total, which I'm comfortable with.  I decided to go 'sightseeing' a bit, so I only got in 35 miles.  Still not bad.  I ended up going from the South end of Del Mar to Torrey Pines beach, so I did get a bit of the coastline.

 Most of the trip was on the 56 bike trail. From where I live, this is the quickest way to head West.  Although I don't like how they designed the trail, as it has to cut across cross traffic that sometimes doesn't stop when they are supposed to. 

Most of the trip was straightforward, with a few inclines here and there.  But just before getting to there is a street named Del Mar Heights Road.  It's the only way to get to the coast from the 56 bike trail without having to 10 miles out of your way.  In a short 1/4 mile length, it takes care of all of the elevation change.  As shown on the chart above, it peaks to 28% grade.  Although I'm positive that's a false reading, with probably about 15% peak.  Still a lot to grinding in a short period. 

But it's worth it to get views like this one!

Creepy abandoned house along the 56 trail

 One of the small annoyances I have about the 56 bike trail is that is just abruptly ends just before the I5.  It should have just ended at the last major cross street. 

 Those that don't know this have to turn back around and backtrack for a while to find the closest exit point. 

Something interesting that I learned this trip -

Part of the trail has a parallel dirt running trail along it.  Someone made it their Eagle Scout project to put mile markers along that section so that paramedics can better find someone if needed.  You can read all about here - http://www.delmartimes.net/2010/12/20/carmel-valley-resident%E2%80%99s-eagle-scout-project-helps-make-cvrep-trail-safer/

This post was probably the handiest one.....

Stats about my new bike

I had forgotten to post this one for about a month.  Soon after I finished building up my new bike, I wanted to run the same course I did one month previous on my old steel bike.  The course was a fairly challenging one for me, going from Poway to Ramona and back.  Plenty of mountain hills to conquer.  I mainly wanted to see if the lighter weight would have any affect in the overall time and effort I put in.


The software that came with my Garmin (called 'training center') is a pretty decent piece of software.  It's what I use to create the charts that I've posted previously.  It also can send the GPS information it collected during a ride to Google Earth, which give me a pretty accurate map of the ride. 

First, the map.  I started to ascend on Scripts Poway Parkway to the 67. It has a smoother grade than Poway road.  Then into Ramona to the stage building.  I came back down on Poway road instead to save some time.  Poway road is much more scenic than SPParkway.  Although I was descending down so fast that I wasn't able to enjoy the scenery as I should have been.

Comparing the pace -

The purple line is the 'older' time.  Supposing that my fitness level stayed pretty much the same both trips, my pace was better on the new bike.  I did notice there wasn't as much road vibration, thanks to the carbon fork.  I might have been able to do even better, but I still wasn't too used to the bike and didn't know all of it's nuances. 


So just simply based off of this one set of data, I can tell that this new bike outperforms my old one.  Good investment.

Memorial ride for a guy I never knew

A few weeks ago I was taking the long way to work, and I noticed a ghost bike along the way.  Which kinda freaked me out - I've only seen one other ghost bike around my area of town (which is a GOOD thing).  I stopped and read a poster of what happened.

 Checked out the memorial website and it looked like a freak accident that just happened to take the life of this guy.

There was a memorial ride this morning in his memory.  At first I thought 'no, I didn't even know this guy at all, so what good would riding this do for me?'.   But I thought otherwise and it seemed that if I did know this guy, I would have liked him.  There were a couple hundred people that rode, which was a LOT more than what I was anticipating.  Obviously this guy was well liked.


The route itself was a decent 10.5 mile jaunt.  Had some 6-8% grade hills, so it wasn't too easy.  I was happy that I was passing some people up while climbing up hills that were half my size. 

It's alive!

Finally was able to build up the bike that was suppose to be my Father's day gift.  Only about one month behind.  To recap a previous post, I got the Nashbar touring frame - for the money, it was impossible to beat.  It's also larger than my current frame, so it should fit me better.  The fork that I was waiting for finally came in.  It's has carbon fiber legs with an aluminum post.  It can also accept a disc brake if desired.  For a few bucks more, it seemed like a good upgrade.  I'll just be running cantilever brake on it for now, with the possibility of a front disc brake in the future.  I'll be using a lot of the parts off my current bike for this project, because I wanted to keep the cost down, and most of the parts are still in great shape.

This post's intention is to give a basic overview of the building process.  I don't get into great detail about this, as I found it uneeded and might put most people to sleep.  But if you do have a particular question about something I did, I'll be happy to give a fuller explanation and answer any questions.  Most of these procedures are from my own experience.  Which many ideas came about through the awesome Sheldon Brown website.  It's a great online bible of everything bicycles. 
  

First thing's first.  I had to strip off a lot of the part on my current bike.  Not having cleaned it in a while, it needed a good bath -

It's been much dirtier, but this was bad enough.  It was mostly the old grease that had gathered a lot of dirt.  I also needed to change the brake pads, as they were worn down beyond what they should have been anyways.

A word about how I cleaned the parts.  I've used a lot of different types of cleaners, and I've found gasoline to work the best.  Unless I invested in a automotive parts cleaner bin, gas just works great with very little scrubbing and hassle.  I setup a fan in the garage to make sure any of the fumes didn't hang around.  I also wore gloves so none of the gas would absorb into my skin.  Some folks will balk at this method, and I'll give them their dues.  But I also don't like goofing around with other cleaners that don't work as good or at all. 

Also, for my bike(s) I've used a few different types of grease.  I've noticed no difference between the really expensive types found at bike shops and the cheaper types.  As long as it has lithium, it'll work good on a bike.  For the most part, the expensive types are great for high-speed applications, while a bicycle will get nowhere near the speed needed to take advantage of it.  This 'White Lithium Grease' I found at  Home Depot for just a couple of bucks, and it's lasted for a long time now.

About the tools I used.  I bought a basic bicycle tool kit from Harbor Freight a few years ago.  They no longer sell it, but Performance Bike sell essencially the same set.  I've seen it on sale on occassion for around $50.  It contains most of the tools that I use, and I've only had to buy a few others for special use.  I didn't like the crank puller that came with it, so I bought the far superior Park Tool puller instead. 

  

While taking the cranks off, I striped out part of the drive crank.  I've been using this set for some time now, so I'll probably be replacing it in a year.  But it's work good for now.  For being a 'cheaper' crankset, it sure has lasted a lot longer than expected.  It's a TrueVativ triple 52-42-32 crankset.  Some people may not like triple cranksets, but this IS going on a touring bike, and I like having options.   

 I'm sure that I'll use this frame again sometime in the future.  But for now, it's going to be hanging on the wall unused for a while. 

Putting on the crown race gave me some troubles.  I used a pipe that slipped over the steerer tube and drove it down while using a hammer on the top part of the pipe.  For some reason, the race was too tight, as it wouldn't seat down all the way no matter what I tried.  So I had to break out the Dremel tool to ream out just a very small part of the inside of the race.  That did the trick.  Also I knicked the paint on accident, which was easy to cover with some touch-up paint. 

 Bottom bracked installed with no problems.  It's an old school Shimano JIS square tapered type.  Sealed bearing mean no goofing around with maintanance.  I've had this one for three years with absolutely no problems. 

 Cranks and peddles went on with no problems.

Don't be stingy with the grease on the headsets!

Fork installed with no problem.  Notice the silver cable hanger that's essential for cantilever brakes.  I hadn't added the appropriate spacers or cut the tube to length.  Cutting the tube was the last thing I did on this project.

Brake posts installed with new pads.  With canti brakes, you have to 'toe in' the pads to make sure they don't squeel when being applied.  Using a zip tie (not pictured) attached temporarily around on the rear of the pad makes the job very easy.  Canti style brakes have to be the hardest ones to adjust and install correctly.  It's no wonder side pull and rotor style brakes have become so popular. 

Saddle and seatpost installed loosely for now.  This will have to be adjusted many times the first few times I ride to get the best position.  The saddle is a Brooks B17.  Some people just despise these leather saddles, but I'm glad I bought this one.  It's been a great, comfortable saddle (once I broke in the leather).

And now it's on to the wheels.  Overhauling the hubs is fairly strait-forward.  Pull all of the parts out, clean them up really good, and install them back in with a generous amount of grease.  These hubs (older Shimano Dura-Ace) have loose ball bearings, so I had to be careful in making sure I didn't lose any of them through the process.  Putting them back in was easy with a small magnet. 

Did a great job on cleaning the cassette.  I'm running an eight speed setup because I don't want to buy another set of brifters, due to their expense.  Besides, I can still find parts easily enough for eight speed items.  The old chain was 'stretched' just a slight bit, so I decided to just replace it.  I bought two extras a while back when they went on sale at REI.

This is the only complaint I have about this frame.  They drilled the seattube water bottle cage bosses in the worst possible position.  The front derailure clamp had to be positioned right over the bottom hole of the cage bosses.  I suppose anyone running a 52 tooth crank would come across this problem.  I had to bend the bottle cage a bit and secured the bottom part with a few zip ties.  I hated Myguyvering this bike in this way, but I didn't want to purchase a smaller crank just to get around this problem. 

Now onto installing the cables.  I didn't have an old set of cables to compare lengths, so I had to take the extra time to measure all of the cables to the bike.  As far as cutting the cables, I found a cut off wheel on my trustly dremel works best.  Unless I had a proper cutting tool and a grinder could I have done the same quality job, which I don't and can't justify purchasing. 

A good, cheap trick that I learned a few years back.  Since most of the time my hands rest on the outer front curve of the handlebars, I wrapped up a length of old tube (cut in half) around that curve on either side.  It provides a good cushion for the longer rides so my hand don't get numb as quickly.

And now onto the brakes. I'm using what's called a 4th hand tool to keep the cable in place while making adjustments and tightening bolts down.  I have no idea where the 3rd hand went, if there ever was one.  This is one of the better and most used tools that I've purchased.  It makes later brake adjustments a quick job and easier than using pliers to hold the cable.  It works just as well on derailure cables.  Costs about $25, and worth every penny!

After several test rides, I finally settled on using eight spacers under the stem. This set the handlebars about one inch under the saddle, which is my preference. I left two spacers on the top of the stem, in case I need to adjust the handlebar hieght  in the future. I didn't have to cut off much of the steerer tube!

Adjusting the derailures is simple to understand how to, but takes a while to dial things in just right.  Once you've got it set, you typically won't have to readjust for a while.

Star-fangled nut is installed and ready to go.

All built up and ready to go!

This bike weighes ~23 pounds, while my old bike was ~27.6 pounds.  I took it out on a 10 mile ride, and I could immediately tell the difference between this and my old frame.  I'm sure it's mostly because of the carbon fiber fork.  I had to stop several times along the run to make adjustments to the handlebar angle and seat height/position.  I plan on taking it out on a true test soon, which means a 40-50 miles jaunt.  So far, I've been very satified with this build and anticpate using this for many many years.