Fall Century

I've ridden the past CRW centuries with DP and TT, until the Spring one this year which I rode alone. After learning that DP's injury was going to keep him out of this ride too, I was delighted to learn that my colleague CP was riding, and was interested in riding together. CP was one of our Deerfield crew, and is one of the few year-round bike commuters I work with. Later on he mentioned he had a friend who would join us.

As I looked forward to the event, one of my favorite rides of the year, there was a time or two when intimidation started to gnaw at me. CP has been training for triathlon, and is much younger than me. His friend is from his racing club. I have never raced and wouldn't consider it. To me, racers are another species, eager to wrestle each other for a fraction of a second, pushing each other to achievements ever further from the reach of us mortals. Would a bike commuter like me keep up across 104 hilly miles?

I did the usual hasty bike prep the day before the ride, even working in a quick wash of the frame. Then I packed everything into the car and was heading inside for the night when I remembered I wanted to check the chainring bolts, because the chain seemed to have a mote of wobble in the middle ring while riding. The sun was down, but by the car's roof light I found one bolt dead loose, and the majority not tight enough. The last one I tightened produced a snap sound, when the lip of the outer piece sheared off. These were aluminum bolts I'd "upgraded" to in the spring, to save some weight compared with the steel ones supplied by Shimano. I'd always feared aluminum bolts, and the shear was exactly where I'd feared they would break, at a sharp inside corner which makes an ideal stress riser. The only reason I trusted them is because the new Shimano cranks use aluminum, even the MTB (XT) ones. I replaced the failed one with an old steel one, and the rest will be changed out soon.

The morning of the ride was colder than forecast, 39 degrees and the first time I saw our thermometer under 40 since spring. I packed some extra clothing and headed out, passing beautiful sea smoke rising from the rivers along the way.

Right after I parked, I realized I'd left my cellphone at home. If my plan was to ride alone, I'd have gone back home to get it, then start late. Instead I redoubled my commitment to stay with CP. While the riders assembled and waited for the start, a pair of hot air balloons flew low over us, pointed out by CP. I can't imagine a more impressive send-off.

We met up with CP's friend, P, and chatted with some of their friends before the start. Then, much later than scheduled, the ride organizer gave us some advice and updates, including, 'There is a bunch of new asphalt on this route. The rest is potholes.' At the end, he staggered our start by first asking the folks who thought they'd ride it at 18MPH to go, then he worked down. Our group had been grumbling about waiting in the cold, so we went in that first wave, though we had no specific pace plan.

Around mile 30, a lot of us missed a turn, which degraded into dozens of cyclists debating which way we should go, while scouts ran both directions looking for the arrows painted on the street. I asked a man walking his dog, but when his name for the street we stood upon disagreed with my GPS, I decided he wasn't helpful. Later, someone who really knew both the roads there and the route spoke up and she led us back toward the start. We found that the turn we missed was earlier than we'd imagined, and later I realized that the dog walker was essentially right.

The kickoff speech had mentioned a short 15% climb, which is steeper than anything near my commute. In the 2 previous times I rode this route, I did not realize it had anything this steep, though I vividly recalled the two long climbs after the first water stop. Writing this with hindsight, my guess is the 15% was part of a rolling section near mile 30-40. Here I fell back behind CP and P, and started to wonder whether I'd catch up. But then I found CP stopped to take off his jacket, then P had stopped to retrieve a water bottle. We were together again!

Not long after that, I was toward the front as we started a long, shallow descent. This is about my favorite kind of riding, because it feels most like flying. I wound up at the front, then started to recognize the area. We were dropping into the Souhegan River valley, and riding along the river. I stayed in front and pulled, partly for the joy of it and partly for the contrast with my first time here. Back then, my first century ride ever (2004), I'd fallen behind my friends. This stretch has few intersections because of the river, so there were no CRW arrows to confirm I was on the right path. I'd started imagining I was lost and alone in NH. But this time I knew the water stop would be roughly the next right turn, and I was able to confidently pull till we arrived there (mile 52).

My preference at water stops is to minimize the stay, otherwise I need to warm up again. But these are social rides and P and CP knew lots of the other riders at the stop. I joined a group where a rider was saying she'd just had a 100 mile race a couple weeks ago. I was thinking, 'that's a dedicated cyclist,' when she clarified it was a running race! She made the cutoff at 30 hours (no sleep) and she reported it wasn't so bad, as long as you don't mind the beat-up feeling from all the blisters and such. I'd never even heard of an event like that - where do these people come from?

In my experience, CRW rides are happy to travel closed roads, so it didn't bother me when we ignored two different marked detours. But even I hit the brakes as we approached the sign reading "bridge closed", and saw the wall of chain link across what had become a cliff with a river running far below. Another rider found a pedestrian bridge not far away, and we rode across.

I really felt the cumulative effort in the last part of the ride. On a climb, I fell to the back of the group, and started to drop off. Then CP came back to give me a pull - and it was a good one, since he's tall and wore a water pack, so I enjoyed a big wind pocket. With his strength, we were soon near the front, and after a nice rest, I took a pull on a descent. But then the cycle repeated, as the next climb dropped me to the back again. Just as I felt I was getting dropped, we arrived at a stop at an intersection, allowing me to catch up. Mysteriously, I found myself in the lead across the intersection, until a climb. This repeated a couple more times, surprising me each time. I felt like I was putting out constant power - the little bit I could manage at that point in the ride. Were the others speeding up for the climbs and then resting on the descents?

In the end we made really good time overall. In fact, my average was half a mile per hour faster than my previous rides over this route - quite a lot in the bike world.

Overall, this was a great ride and a wonderful way to both end the summer and begin autumn.

(post script: 4 days later, my legs are starting to feel recovered.)

Chamois Creams

Chamois creams are handy for controlling chafing, irritation caused by skin rubbing against skin. They can also be used for hot spots between the skin and pants, and are named for this.

(Historically, real leather chamois was used as a pad between the skin and clothing over the saddle. Chamois creams helped keep that leather soft and flexible, while also protecting the rider's skin. An old quick remedy for chafing on the road is a banana peel, which may account for some of the enduring fondness of cyclists for bananas.)

For years I've used the Assos product, and it served me well. Unfortunately, it was recently changed, and I don't like the new version much at all. The old stuff, shown on the left above, was light tan in color and came in a jar with red on the label. It felt just right and was made of natural ingredients. The new version, shown in the center, is light blue and comes in a black and white jar. It's mostly synthetic chemicals by my reading of the label, and isn't as nice. I've also read on the net (for what that's worth) that the new version isn't as good at preventing saddle sores, which comes down to antimicrobial properties. Like the old version, the new one is expensive and found only in bike shops.

While net surfing on the topic, I saw one comment that a couple folks were using Noxema as a chamois cream, and strongly preferred it over the new Assos. I tried it and I'm now in that camp. As with anything affecting your body, try it on a short, non-critical ride first. But after it served me well on Deerfield, I feel comfortable recommending it. It's also around 1/5th the price and available in grocery stores.

I use it at the top crease at the front of my inner thighs, where pedalling can otherwise cause friction.

(If this all sounds like an over-share, this post is partly in response to my quest for advice years ago. I worked up the courage to ask a bike shop staffer I'd spent hours with, and with whom I'd formed a good working relationship. He just mumbled something about checking my saddle adjustment and changed the subject. I hope this post can help someone.)

Blur LT Lower Pivot

I'm a big fan of Santa Cruz engineering. In fact, I think there are several examples of objectively better design than many of their competitors. But I have found an element of this design which makes me worry - though it has not actually failed in any way.

This frame has a bottom linkage which drops down toward the ground when the rear end is not heavily loaded. This means rocks and logs can hit it, and they do. There's a grease port (fitting) for re-greasing the bearings, and it's effectively a hook shape and smacks hard into those rocks. The swingarm is also vulnerable there. I've only ridden it through rock gardens a couple times, and it's already looking a bit rough there. The 'net has several posters who claim no one has actually damaged the grease port, but my luck tends toward things breaking if I think they can.

The top picture is my second attempt to protect this area. (The bike is upside-down.) The bottom pic is au naturel. I've started an email thread with Santa Cruz, including these pics, asking them to address this and to offer a protective plate. (I'm glad I don't have a carbon swingarm.)

Deerfield 100k

The beautiful scenery of the Connecticut River Valley, dirt roads and friends - all the ingredients for a memorable bike ride. This year's Deerfield Dirt Road Randonee was a blast.

We had eight riders in my group, mostly from work, and we brought a wide range of bikes to the event.



I carried four water bottles, a new record. The fourth rode in my jersey pocket.


DB brought a classic mountain bike.


CP had a homebrew semi-cross bike with a special "wide-range" double crank based on mountain bike gearing.


DH brought classic European cycling style and his wife's hybrid bike. Thanks for the French and Italian cafe music for the drive to the start!


GC modified his full-suspension hard-core mountain bike for the day.

The 100km ride starts at 9AM, which makes logistics easy but means the sun is high for the whole thing. After arriving early, we waited for almost an hour in the farm field we parked in. The forecast was for a high of 90, and I wished we could have started early.

The first dirt road climb was a shock to most of us. Riders from another group, just ahead of us, slipped their road race tires in the loose gravel and switched to walking, leaving us an obstacle course of people and bikes to try to ride through. On the other hand, we riders got a bit spread out along the trail, and we never got blocked like that again.


We spent some time on roads, along farmland and rolling hills. The terrain in the picture above made me think of giant fingers lying on the ground. We all knew we'd be riding up those hills soon.

GC, our only rider on a full suspension, had the most amazing joie de vivre of the ride. He flew by me on a loose gravel descent that made nearly everyone nervous and caused a couple crashes. In fact he bombed down every descent I saw, and even wheelied up a chunk of a switchback! If I could imagine going this distance on my MTB, I'd consider trying it - GC made it look fun.

At lunch, next to a covered bridge, we ate baked potatoes and drank what we could. PF trained me long ago to bring my "cytomix" (a blend of Cytomax and a little protein powder). Others drank what was offered at the stop, (grape?) Kool-aid. We thought Gatorade was going to be available, and a couple of our group decided to home-brew the stuff by mixing Kool-aid with the table salt set out for the potatoes. Another rider, unknown to our group, snapped a picture of us here. (I'm standing between the two yellow shirts with sunglasses on my hair while most of the rest of the group is sitting along the river nearby.)


After lunch we rode a delightful flat dirt road along a small river to let the food settle a little, then veered up into the hardest climb of the day. The top part of the hill was the worst: although the dirt transitioned to pavement, the tree cover we had enjoyed suddenly evaporated and we felt the 90 degree sun-baked heat in the utterly windless low-gear grind. But just over the crest, all was well again as we had the view shown in the topmost photo above, and a water stop with fresh produce from the farm there.



SM, above, on a 29er rigid MTB, led us a lot of the time and knew the course perfectly. I'm afraid I over-relied on his guidance, and predictably I noticed this only when I found myself alone and unsure of my location and cue sheet position.

Over the after-ride dinner, the topic of next year's ride was never far from thought. At one point I got into a rant about how I'd like to try the 112mi ride sometime, and it won't get any easier. 'If I could ride it, even just once, it would be the kind of accomplishment that would go on my tombstone!' GC added, 'maybe the same day.' That gave me my biggest laugh of the weekend.

One definition of a good ride is it leaves you inspired for next year's ride. Deerfield was a great success this way, with all of our group discussing route options, bike upgrades and nutrition for next time, starting midway through this ride.

SM took some video and compiled it into a taste of the ride. The video was shot with a hand-held Flip, and I'm impressed he could keep it as steady as he did. Thanks, SM!

For those of us dreaming of the full ride (maybe it's just me?!), a nice blog of the 112mi ride this year was posted by another rider. Sounds inspiring, but also very intimidating!

Honestly, my most ambitious idea is to ride the 112mi route until the lunch stop shared by both routes, then switch to the 65mile route, making a 93mi version. Still, that's probably not sensible unless I can train way better next year. But it would be nice to be on the road starting in the nice cool (and dark) air of the 6AM start the 112-milers get...

Deerfield Rig

Deerfield is Saturday! A long hilly dirt road ride requires pretty big changes from the road rides I'm familiar with. I'm starting with the Independent Fabrication I've been using as my summer/long-distance bike for years now. It's the Club Racer model, which is designed to accept full fenders, and it does that by using "long reach" brakes, and having good clearance in the frame and fork.

The seatstay gap is 35mm, the limit on tire size. I'm a big fan of Vittoria tires, so for the dirt roads I picked their cyclocross tire, nominally 32mm wide but which measures 30.5mm on my rims. This size perfectly fits, with a little gap for dirt. (This would not work well in mud, and cyclocross bikes have much better clearances for this, but it should suffice here.)

Low gears are important for the hills, including the power loss of loose gravel slipping under the wheels. I favor low gears anyway, to keep my cadence high, so I setup my lowest chainring set, 26 / 42/ 52. But I swapped my 12-27 road cassette for a mountain bike 11-34 cassette to get a really low climbing gear. To do this I had to swap the rear derailleur to a MTB version, including one of the "brifterizer" hacks I build to connect my 10 speed Campy shifters to 9 speed shimano cassettes. The shifting is noisier, benefitting from more nudging than I normally need, but the range is great. (In test rides I found I need to remain seated on a steep loose climb or the wheel will slip - so I'm missing a skill and need extra-low gears to compensate.)

No rear derailleur I know of will handle the full range of gearing described above, so I locked out the large chainring. (The derailleur's bottom pulley moves back and forth as one shifts to take up the slack in the chain for the selected gears. I have a "long-cage" derailleur, able to handle the widest range, but even it has a limit.)

Water is another challenge. While there will be water stops, the organizers are recommending hydropacks so the riders can carry enough water between. I can't imagine wearing that hot thing for a long ride, so my plan is to carry 4 bottles, with 3 on the frame and one in my jersey.

This ride will rely on cue sheets more than any other ride I've ridden. So I added a handlebar bag as a cue sheet holder, but it's a classic touring accessory and I may find I like it.

Excellent Local Bike Shop

In the run up to the Deerfield randonee, my biggest ride of the year, I've been trying to get the bike set up properly and well tested. So I was alarmed to find last night, three days before the ride, that my saddle has cracked. This means not only finding a saddle fast, but I won't have an opportunity to verify the new one is installed properly, with all the fine adjustments critical for comfort on a long ride.

Let's back up a bit over two years to the start of this story. I bought a Specialized Toupe from CycleLoft in Burlington. They have a more liberal return policy than the other shops I know about (which is to say they accept a new-condition return). Around a year later, I found the saddle had cracked, with the effect of making it softer - a very bad thing on long rides. I bought a replacement right away, then later came back with the bad one. They refunded my purchase price on the original one, and said if I'd brought in the bad one, they would have just swapped it for a new one. By this time I believe I was talking to the owner, but I'm not sure. I went on to describe what I see as a design flaw in the saddle, and he mostly agreed, but also said the saddle is designed for people lighter than me. (There's no weight limit on the saddle packaging.) I parted asking whether my new one would hold up, and he said 'worst case you bring it back and get a new one each year. It's an ideal situation'. For me, ideal would be a reliable saddle, but I guess this isn't too bad.

Now return to today. Saddle in hand, I start with a random salesperson who tells me the saddle is more than a year old (so past warranty) and anyway they don't have a match in stock. (Well, they do have white, but I don't like that look. The same out-of-stock issue happened last time and I shifted to a slightly different model.) I didn't argue, but I did ask questions and wound up chatting again with the owner (I think). The three of us searched the store again for the matching saddle which their computer says they have, without luck. Then the owner says they can order the right saddle and in the mean time, he has a Toupe on his own bike which I can borrow! As he was taking apart his bike in front of me in a daze I actually said out loud, "this is like the shirt off your own back". He was saying he wanted a white one on his bike anyway, but I was so amazed that I didn't quite follow how this all works from his point of view.

Bottom line, I'm all set for Deerfield, and in a week or two they'll send me an email* to come pick up my new saddle for free. Where they could have said 'out of warranty; out of luck.' I'm a fan!

Other CycleLoft goodies: 10% off if you're a member of any bike club, and they'll put it in their computer and it becomes automatic forever. Friendly and skilled mechanics (unlike that other bike shop I go to). And my friend DP says they just did a great job servicing his Campagnolo brifter shift discs - work few bike shops will attempt - and they did it for far less than an online shop in CT that I'd figured I'd use when it came time for mine to get serviced.

* email itself is amazing because even this year I've had trouble finding a bike shop that will do email.

Bumblebee

The new bike is finally together. Unfortunately I haven't really ridden it yet as a stomach bug knocked me out just as our two months of drizzle came to an end. Any day now...

The yellow frame with black parts has become my signature, as well as my favorite of the frame colors. Where I associate the colors with friendly pollinators, A sees Pittsburgh sports teams (Go Steelers, Penguins, etc!) and MF sees the Boston Bruins. I think I'm missing a gene.

(This bike uses one of those new-fangled external bearing bottom brackets. I just don't like it, though it should suffice. I wouldn't put one on a road bike. Next time: ISIS or Octalink.)