The Lieb Report 1.0

Hopped on the retro-fresh Lieb bike today. Rode downtown, back out Sprague, climbed back to the house.

Good: Frame-good fit, smooth ride, handles well, excellent weight balance for stand-up climbing. Older high-end parts like this campy stuff really roll down the road nice. I think all the unsealed bearings must have a lot less cumulative drag. Michelin tires @ 85psi were about as nice as you could ask for. Front brake with Modolo sinterized pads...awesome. I wish the made these still. Rear brake with the old salmon colored pads...meh. Those are the most over-rated pads I've ever used. They always feel grabby, and have random bouts of squeal. Brooks pro saddle...pretty good. Feels too wide at the nose, but the sitz part was good.

Bad: Downtube friction shifters...Hate `em. Toe clips and straps...I can't believe we even used these, let alone using them for `cross and mountain bikes.

Oh, I really liked having my bottle cage on the bars. It's coffee approved. Overall, loved it. Maybe next time with clipless pedals.

Sew-ups

Glen taught me how to prep and glue tubular tires today during my lunch hour.

I'm no pro, but I think I could do it in a pinch.


He also found and old Vitus that's my size. He built it up with Shimano 600 8spd SIS. We're taking it for a spin tomorrow.


The Vitus is an aluminum frame with small diameter tubing (compared to contemporary aluminum frames)that is epoxied together on internal "lugs." I'm promised a whippy ride. Sweet.

I'll have a report after tomorrow's ride.

Light brightness

I know of at least 4 different bike lists that Alex posts to on a regular basis. I also know that Alex is really good at his "real" job (we sort of work together). And watching his blog, it's clear the guy gets a lot of other stuff done. There's also other non-bike related interests that Alex spends time pursuing (electronics, computer stuff, fish stuff, beer making, home projects, etc). It's not clear to me how he does all this. But some common Alex traits thread their way through all of these pursuits: honesty, curiosity, and creativity.

Anyway, that's the Alex backstory.

The following was taken from a thread on a bike list at work. Some guy posted the chart below and then below that is Alex's reply.

I found it particularly enlightening. Or should I say illuminating? (I've been watching too many Hitchcock intros).

Brand/Model	Price	Claimed Lumens	Measured Lux	$ per lux
Ayup 2010 bar V4 Adventure System (Full Review here)	$233	400	34	$6.85
Ayup 2010 helmet (Full Review here	$233	400	31	$7.52
Baja Designs Stryker	$298	700	52	$5.73
Exposure Toro (Full Review here)	$339	700	36	$9.42
Exposure Diablo (Full Review here)	$249	700	34	$7.32
Exposure MaxxD	$399	960	48	$8.31
HID Technologies Lumen8r Quad	$495	1000	6	$8.25
Lupine Tesla 4 (Full Review here)	$420	700	52	$8.08
Lupine Wilma 5	$459	920	66	$6.95
Lupine Betty	$1,019	1750	165	$6.1
Magicshine MJ-808 (Full Review here)	$85	90	37	$2.30
Niteflux Enduro 8 Single	$249	540
NiteFlux Max Extreme 2	$480	1350	70	$6.86
Niterider Pro 600	$499	600	46	$10.85
Niterider Pro 1200	$649	1200	82	$7.91
TrailLED Darkstar	$420	1200	81	$5.19

Says Alex:

This chart shows while Lumens are such a silly way to measure lighting.

Lux is the intensity of the light over an area. Lumens are the total intensity of the light. You can have something with very high lumens distributed over thousands of square meters and the light wouldn't be noticable at all (so the lux would be very low). The same number of lumens could be concentrated into in one square mm and probably burn a hole through something (the lux would be very very high).

The headlight that I use (a generator headlight called the IQ Cyo) is 60 Lux, but uses a LED that only puts out around 150 lumens (CREE XR-E). The lenses just do a good job of putting the light on the ground in front of the cyclist, and not wasting it lighting up trees that are over the road or trail. The MS has 6x the number of lumens, but puts less light onto the ground becuase the light is being distributed everywhere. A lot of that scattered light is going into the eyes of oncoming cyclists and driver's, blinding them.

Free Bike!

Not for you, silly...for me! The esteemed Dr. Copus(wife) had to work New Years day, so I was left to my own devices for the day. I made use of several of the roached frames in my rafters to build this "Pueguercordi" Thanks, local bike community! I made the bottom bracket really high so I can have the toe clips hanging down when I'm wearing my big dumb work shoes. I had fun, and I can make 2 or 3 more with the rest of the scraps...there's a N.I.B Ruby fork that needs a home...maybe a Ronde van Palouse bike in the works?

We're making progress...

The bicycle racer progress report:

Previously I laid out several priorities in the process of being a bike racer in 2010.

Priority 1) Weight Loss: so far this has been a total disaster. Okay, so I'll specialize in the "flat" races. Next priority...

Priority 2) Ride the bike: Check...not a problem here. With this sissy winter riding has been fairly pain free.

Priority 3) Cross Train: Check...there's snow in the mountains and I've been "alpine touring" which I guess is hiking up the mountain on skins and skiing down. This is a lot of work. The other day I wore my HRM during the climb. I happened to look down and see 180 bpm. During a bicycle race this heart rate usually tells me, "you're about to hit the wall, then get dropped by the pack and finish the race by yourself", but it actually felt fairly normal for skiing up a hill. I don't know what that means in terms of training, but at least I was in pain and that's good preparation for bicycle racing. Anyway, here's Tony Aleto and I at Mt Spokane last week, looking like a couple of mountaineers:





Priority 4) Have a training plan: Well...does downtown bar biking count as a plan? Because I've represented myself pretty well over the holidays.


Sarah on her way to "First Night"


Here we are training on New Years Eve downtown: Patty, Sarah and Pat

Close enough to the NALP for me.


T-8 weeks until the first Mason Lake Road Race.

Revenge of the Ice Patch [Take One]

No animals were harmed in the making of this motion picture.

Steep connection

As the Master Bike Plan was created, one connection that got in there was this little bit through Pioneer Park. The thinking behind this connection is that we have a south-bound route on Howard. The route stops at 7th without providing a nice way to get up that big cliff there across the street from The Roosevelt Apts. Hence the connection.


The City owns the park between 7th and Cliff Drive so a connection was added there. Clearly, the idea was to get the conceptual plan nailed down and figure out implementation later. I'm looking forward to seeing how that happens, though I suspect I'll not see a solution any time soon.


I remember hanging out in this park when I went to LC. We'd eat lunch there. Smoke there. Maybe drink too. There was a ton of overgrowth. It was pretty neat to creep around the trails back up in there and hang out at the deserted pool. Now it's all cleared and pretty and nice.

But mother-of-pearl, that's a steep set of stairs. Made harder to climb when covered with a layer of ice. And while wearing SPD cleats and lugging a turdy snow bike.


The view is worth the effort. Especially at night.