Discovery

So, as I wrote last, I've been riding my new bike. I rode it on Tuesday. I rode it on Wednesday. I rode it yesterday, and I rode it today.

On Tuesday I was uncomfortable. I thought, "This bike is slow and funny to sit on. Maybe I made a mistake. I wonder how much I can get for this thing now that it's built."

On Wednesday I made a couple adjustments and started to settle in. I began experimenting with skidding and steering up hills and generally seeing how I could throw the thing around. I enjoyed that.

On Thursday I really started to like the bike. It's definitely still a little uncomfortable. I think I need to swap the saddle out or put meat tenderizer on my taint or something. I might throw some straight bars on it. I'm going to fuck around some and see if I can get it all the way there.

And you know, this is all just bike shit. Things take time to settle.

It's nothing, but it's a discovery for me.

Form and Gear Ratios

When a pro cyclist says they're lacking form, what they mean is that they're not on top of their game. They're not riding well.

I am currently off form.

My legs hurt. I have no speed. The hills I once loved are now taunting me and calling me names. I'm just grinding it out.

I've also put my new bike on the road a fixed gear Surly Cross-Check. It's supposed to be my foul weather bike. It's fully-fendered. It's more mercifully geared than my "fast" bike, a Bianchi Pista. The Cross-Check is set up with a 44x17 gearing. The Pista is 48x16. The Cross-Check gearing produces 69.9 gear inches, or a pretty easy pedal with not much top end unless you can spin comfortably over a 120 cadence. The Pista on the other hand produces 81 gear inches, which is more of an entry level track set up, bigger top end, not at all meant for climbing.

On the road, there are even more differences. The Pista is fast, but it's hard to stop. It's very difficult to skid a 48x16 gearing, like the cool kids do on their bike videos, so this bike is set up with a brake. The Cross-Check is much, much easier to control. It's easier to get it rolling and easier to slow it down. It climbs well. It's just not all that fast, which is frustrating when you want (or need) to go fast.

I'm having trouble....no, that's not right...I'm taking time to adjust to the differences between the two bikes. And I have all these gut reactions like, I should go to a 44x15 on the Cross Check to make it faster, or I should stick a 17 on the back of the Pista to make it just a little easier to stop. The hardest part is resisting all these urges and riding each bike enough to understand the real differences and know whether or not any changes are necessary at all.

There are also pretty significant geometric differences between the two, so they fit me completely differently, and I'm wrestling with that too.

This is the process of "dialing in." It is long and filled with missteps, and yet it is, ultimately, part of the enjoyment of building and riding bikes.

Ponying up.

I went to my local bike shop yesterday. I spent about an hour talking to a guy there about stuff I was interested in for my new road bike. He had some really good suggestions. He seemed to "get" what I was looking for. Comfort, durability, performance, and a more classic look. We picked out some really great parts and did some calculations on what kind of crankset and cassette to get. Took an inseam measurement for cranks and measured my shoulders for bars. Dialed stuff in for me.

I really like the shop and I'm going to have them build the bike. I 1) don't know what I'm doing. 2) don't have the right tools 3) don't have the workspace and 4) don't have the time to build a bike right now. I want my bike built before spring and with my work schedule etc.. it's not going to happen. Plus these guys will do a great job. I won't be off riding and stuff will start falling off. I'll have confidence in my bike, which will be a nice feeling again.

So, I left the shop and they said they'd email me the price of everything. Component group, wheelset, and misc stuff. Later that day I got the mail. Ouch. They did give me a group discount... but still. I have reviewed everything on the list and have plugged in cheaper substitutions. Stuff that would work fine. But then I stopped. It's not what I want. I have spent a lot of time doing research and looking for parts that fit my philosophy for this bike. To compromise on the bike would betray that hard work. This is the bike that I laid out and planned. Every choice had a purpose. I'm not going to abandon that.

I'm giving the shop the green light to start gathering the parts and to start the build. Stay tuned.

Making Friends

It didn't take long before I found myself feeling sorta lonely on my rides. Not feelings very safe. Not feeling like I knew where I was going. Not being able to related my progress to others. So I did a Google search for cycling clubs in my area. I found one, saw they had a Saturday ride, and I went and showed up.

Everyone I met was very nice. The ride had about 40 people on it. People looked out for one another. I got to see some really good cyclists and see how they were doing it. At the end of the ride, I found out, I'm pretty good on a bike. I don't suck nearly as much as I thought I did. So I decided to do a second ride next week.

This ride had tons of nice people too. The same amount of people showed up. Some people looked out for one another. This ride was a nightmare. The leader just sorta took off. Didn't divide into groups. Didn't ask who was new. Didn't offer directions to new riders. I ended up hooking up with a couple who was riding with the club for the first time. Luckily the route we were on was one I was very familiar with, because before long I was in a group that was dropped from the main group.

I really wanted to ride fast. I really wanted to push myself. However, I was with people who I just met and they were nice and I didn't want to just take off on them. I roughly knew the route. They didn't. It didn't seem right to just go and race ahead. They were by far stronger riders than I am. Probably could climb all day if they wanted to, but I was faster. So I slowed it down and hung with them and guided them along the route when we came to turns. After all, this is why I wanted to be in a club in the first place. To ride with cool people.

The first ride I went on was fantastic. I felt very looked after and I learned a lot. The second ride I was sorta on my own and looking after others. Not really what I wanted, but maybe something I needed. I don't have a lot of cycling confidence, but here I was making others feel confident in where they were and that someone was looking out for them. My cycling performance wasn't a hinderance and didn't even really come into play. My cycling ability was 2nd nature and I think that's what I ultimately want.

The Unbearable Consequences of Winter

All is ice and slush, and the slush is impregnated with sand and salt. The roads, already little more than paved cart paths from Revolutionary times, have shrunk still further by the banks of snow pushed curbward by the plows.

It's a difficult time to ride.

And I've been off the bike too much in the last weeks, confined to train cars and bumpy bus seats. I've had my nose in books and magazines. I've walked from bus stop to office and shaken my head at the frozen mess and slowly withered inside.

So today I said, "FUCK IT!!" and rode my bike. It was 20 when I left the house. Once, trying to feather the pedals to avoid a squirrelly driver in front of me, the back wheel locked up. I felt like one of those fancy-dancy trick riders skidding with purpose. Then I rolled the cranks and set the wheel to spinning again. Slick.

Tonight I will run by the bike shop, purchase clips and straps and fenders and finish building my new wintertime cross bike. I can beat this slush. I can keep riding.

It's supposed to get up to 37 tomorrow. Practically spring.

In with the new.

For 2009 I bought road shoes. My old cycling shoes were an old pair of mountain bike shoes I had. Someone once told me to get rid of them as someone was going to make fun of me for wearing them on a road bike. However, in 5 years of using them, nobody ever did.

I had gone to pick up a bike stand that I had ordered and lo and behold 169 dollar road shoes were on sale for 99 bucks. They fit me well and had carbon fiber soles which doesn't mean too much to me, but I was excited to see if I could fee a difference now having a super stiff sole vs. the flexible mountain bike shoe. So I bought the shoes. I had a set of speedplay pedals that I had bought this summer and was excited to put these on my bike and use them with the new shoes.

I got home took, the pedals off the shelf then promptly lost them. I mean like they're gone. I've searched every where. I can't find them. I had moved the pedals, waited a day to install them and then they were gone. I have a sneaky suspicion I may have laid them with a bunch of boxes near the recycling pile and thrown them away. Oh and the garbage and recycling had been taken that morning. Ugh.

So I really wanted to go on a ride and I really wanted to use my new shoes. So I bought a pair of Shimano pedals. Now I could have kept looking, but this was 4 days ago and I still haven't found the pedals. So I'm glad about my purchase and I sorta like the larger surface that the Shimano's give me. I put on the pedals, put the cleats on the shoes, road up and down my street adjusting everything and went on a ride.

Things were real nice. The shoes were comfy. I felt I had more power when I was pedaling out of the saddle. Sweet. I then went on another ride a few days later. This one 18 miles. Still the shoes were comfy. Didn't feel if I had more power or not as the feel of my old mountain bike shoes was gone. I did really notice the feel of being aware of my pedal strokes and trying to be smooth. Very positive stuff.

Things not to do.

I cleaned my road bike. That is a thing to do. I cleaned all the road debris off. It was awful. I'm a shit pig with my bike. I cleaned one derailleur sprockets off and got like a tablespoon of grease and dirt. It was that bad. This bike cleaning was long over due.

My chain was a mess. I have read that some people say just wipe it off. Don't take if off unless you have to. Some people say take it off to clean it well. My chain was gross. I figured it was worse this dirty than it was to take it off. So I used my chain breaker and took it off. I was going to plop it into a soda bottle just like Da Robot does. Put in some citrus de-greaser and let it work it's magic. One problem. I didn't have a soda bottle. I had a glass mineral water bottle.

Guess what!? Getting a chain out of a bottle is damn hard. Hard enough where you think "Hey, I'll just break the bottle!" This is a bad idea. Don't do this. I did this. I took the bottle and held it over my recycling bin and hit it with a wrench. Glass everywhere. Like little shards of glass. Like all up and down my chain. This was perfect for use in a street fight, but not so much for cycling. Proceed to step 10. Wash each link individually to ensure all glass is gone. Little glass shards flying off your chain is a bad idea. It's an even worse idea when you have a little kid on the premises.

Wait! Don't stop reading! It gets better! I finally get the chain cleaned off. I put it back on the bike and use the chain breaker to drive the pin back in and presto! The chain is back on! Yeah! Oh Sweet Jesus, it's back on the bike wrong! I threaded it through the derailleur wrong. Ok. No problem just use the chain breaker and pop out another link. Don't get too cocky and drive the pin all the way out. Whoops.

Putting a pin back in through a chain link once it has come all the way out...this is almost impossible to do. Just throw the chain away at this point. It's a total nightmare. I zip-tied the chain in place to try to hold it still so I could drive the pin back in using a vice grip. I really couldn't think of any other way to do this. I don't have a vice or anything. I could have taken the chain off and then started the pin back in but it would have been the same thing as doing it with the chain on the bike.

After about half an hour, I got that pin sorta in. In enough that I could drive it back in with the chain breaker. Phew. I finally was able to put everything back together and get the shifting working smoothly, the brakes tight, and check the tightness of all my bolts. Everything seemed good.

I took off on a hour and 20 minute ride. It felt great. Especially after all that stress and toil. My chain seemed fine. The end.