Cycling

For some irrational reason (fun), I stripped the derailleurs and back brake and stuff off of my bike, and got a wheel with a track hub. I also replaced the bottom bracket and cranks, which were totally shot anyway. So now I have only one gear, I can't coast, and my legs are sore in weird places from using my legs as brakes. And I can almost do a track stand (which is possible on a normal bike if you are on an incline), except for my pesky lack of balance (which is improving).

There are a bunch of supposed benefits to riding fixed, but the most important is fun. If I get stronger, that's good too. This Sheldon Brown guy has lots of good info on all things bike related, and even helped me out on Usenet by telling me what tool I would need to remove the bottom bracket bearing cups (very old non-standard Shimano stuff).

So far I've ridden only two fixed trips, but we plan on going to Sydney tomorrow, so that will give me a chance to really get a feel for it.

There are photos from out little trip downtown available. This was the first time I ever took pictures from on the bike. It was set on the wrong mode though, and we had more than the usual number of rejects. Gallery generated with Ryan's Cornice mod, but the plain jane template is my own. Cornice mod is cool.

We went around to the local bike shops and got Tamara on a few bikes today. She tried out a Cannondale touring bike and some hybrid. She descided that she would prefer the drops (ram horn handle bars) to a flat one and that a proper touring bike would be better than a hybrid. Only one shop actually had bikes built in her size; another shop is putting one they had in stock together for her to try out.

My bike needs a new bottom bracket and cranks. There was a bit of play between the bottom bracket axle and the left crank, which is what I think used to cause it to "clunk" on occasion. When I got the clipless pedals they exacerbated the problem and the crank actually started walking off the shaft. So there's been more play in it since. I can't decide if I should fix it, which would be at least $100, or just get a new one alltogether. You know, one for which parts can actually be found, without having to replace huge chunk of the component group. I should see how much rust there is in the frame. Might as well chuck it if the frame is going to rust out from under me in a year. It wouldn't be bad to replace it. The top tube is a little bit too long for me anyway.

Some one was wondering where I got the term "brevet", which I also misspelled as "bivet" in my last post. The cycling use kind of lines up with the dictionary definition. From the Randonneurs USA site, I stole this definition:

brevet (bruh vay) - Literally, the word means "certificate", "patent", or "diploma" in French. In "randonneuring", it means two things: certification of having successfully done a randonné, --indicated by a small numbered sticker placed on a completed brevet card --, as well as, by extension the long-distance event itself (at least 200 kilometers in length). Completing a successful brevet means one's ride has been certified and registered in France, and the rider's name is added to the roll of honor, going all the way back to 1921. These challenging rides can also entitle the rider to enter longer events such as Paris-Brest-Paris or Boston-Montréal-Boston. As used in the "randonneuring" world, the terms brevet and randonnée are often interchangeable, but in common cycling usage, a randonnée might be considered to be less structured or formal than a brevet.

My recent 80 km excursion got me thinking that it would be fun to do longer and longer trips. It would be nice to see some more of the Island and do some camping, and then we can use that camping stuff Stephen gave us! So I started googling around for stuff, and it turns out there is a whole branch of cycling called Randonneur cycling, which is basically marathon or endurance cycling. Various clubs hold events called brevets (say "brev-eh", not "brev-et", you dirty anglophone!) which basically consist of getting to various checkpoints within a specific time span. It's not usually considered a competative sport; more a of personal best kind of thing. The sport's big event isParis-Brest-Paris, a 1200 km trek in 90 hours (some do it in as little as 45) held in France every four years.

I mentioned doing an Island end-to-end to Tamara and she suprised me by saying that she would be up for that. She doesn't enjoy our 13 km jaunts on the Goose to downtown, but that probably due in large part to the fact that her bike sucks. So we are going to look at getting her a touring bike sooner or later.

Touring is sort of the black sheep of the cycling world; everbody want to mountain bike or road race. I've been trying to find out want is really needed for a touring bike; some things are obvious: rack mounts, triple chain rings and approriate gears for hills, fenders. Others not so much: long wheel base for more relaxed turning, softer tires for a better ride. I finally found a decent article about touring, or rather about it's death. But there are a few hints about what to look for in a touring bike.

Of course we can't just do a 1000 km trek with no training; I'd like to do some of the shorter brevets, and Tamara needs some long rides too. We would also not do the end-to-end as a brevet; we'd do something like a 100 km per day. Five days up, five days back, lots of sight seeing.

I expected to sleep in this morning, since it's been a long week, but I got up at seven and couldn't get back to sleep. Tamara made waffles, and I looked outside and decided to go for a short ride, you know, on impulse.

Two hours and 40 km later, I'm calling Tamara from Sooke: "I know I said I'd only be an hour, but my ride got a little out of hand."

80km isn't bad for practically the first ride of the season. I have to start taking more water and food with me though. I had to buy water and a powerbar in Sooke, and then Subway in Langford. Waffles and coffee can only carry me so far.