It's been a while since I rode 50 miles. In fact, given the lack of snow this winter, it's been way too long.
Tom, Nate, and I rode out to Rockford today via the back roads of the Palouse: about half paved and half dirt.
It was damn cold. About 20F on the way out there and about 25F on the way home.
I pinched these pictures from Nate, who has a blog that requires permission to view.
I had two sort of interesting experiences on this ride.
The first was that I finally rode an Elephant CX bike for a few miles. This was Tom's bike. It fit eerily well and was set up with sensible components (by race bike standards) that are lighter than anything I run: nice wheels for light guys, carbon forks, 105 stuff.
I really enjoyed climbing and sprinting on it. I expected to like Glen's bikes, but I wasn't expecting to be this enamored with them. I need to ruminate more on this experience, and perhaps ride the bike some more to square it with my firmly-held religious beliefs on standard tubing and low trail.
The second experience, which fell out of riding the racey-Elephant, was a thought: the Ron Van Palouse is going to be f'ing rad. Which led to the question, "could I race a 50 mile dirt-roller "road" race?"
Which led to: how would the 747 like to be stripped of its fenders and shod with 30 mm Grand Bois Cerfs? How about putting my old n'er-used-by-me Ultrega brifters on there? Maybe a lighter wheelset?
What kind of heresy is this? What's happening to me? Maybe I'm just tired and rummy from a long, cold, hard ride?
Oops. Almost forgot
The new Pedals2People shop is open. Tomorrow (Saturday) we're open 11-6! Come down and rent a stand, hang out, buy some used stuff, say hi. 1802 E Sprague.
John. It's okay. You can be a "racer" and a "vintage curmudgeon" at the same time. After all, that's the entire point of my blog: to prove that the same person can, IN FACT, do both.
ReplyDeleteI make nerd out on Xtracycle and folding bikes.
And I race.
I swear by wool sweaters.
And I race.
So what?
go for it. with authority. i'm talking mavic carbone wheels, sew up models, and then the challenge paris roubaix sewup tires.
ReplyDeleteRJ: it's not so much the racing that gets me (well, mentally anyway -- phsycially, that's another story...) -- but the bike stuff that freaks me out. I'm not really into vintage; I just prefer stuff (standard steel tubing, steep geometry, low trail, DT shifters, etc) that's not produced by the big bike co's.
ReplyDeleteSo to be thinking about racey, brifter-y,OS tubing, high trail bikes is new and weird for me.
Rory: i rode my first pair of sew-ups the other night. About 50 feet. Wow. I thought my Grand Bois Cerfs were about the most comfortable narrow-ish (by BOB standards) tires a guy could ride. The sew-ups I rode were 23mm pumped to about 85psi. Amazing. My buddy has a good stock of sew ups and rims and the knowledge. So I'm going to investigate these further over the next few months.
John you already ride your vintage twitchy low-trail bikes like you were Lance show-boating on the Champs Elysées.
ReplyDeleteGet a mod geometry bike and you may never have to steer again!
I agree with RJ--you can have it both ways. It can be about the bike and not about the bike. Seems like a natural progression for you.
Just don't forget us Freds and curmudgeons. We're salt of the earth, man, fucking salt of the earth!