Colorado vacation day 2

Before we started riding Amber, Sherry, and I went up to Glenwood Springs Adventure Park which involved a fancy ski lift up and down. There was a lot to do but we stuck with the cave tours which were pretty cool.

After the cave tours we ate at the Pullman Restaurant. It was phreeking amazing.

Amber and I rode from Glenwood Springs to Eagle in the afternoon. It's 38 miles with a fair bit of climbing, but once again things didn't go as planned.

Everything started off well and we rode on the bike path alongside the Colorado river. With all the rain we have had lately the river is running high and the rafters were having a good day. We had a strong tailwind and the climbing was no big deal.

Everything went well until we got about half way through the ride. First it started raining, then the road was closed and there was no way around. We had to wait for a bus but the bus driver was off somewhere getting food so we waited under the bridge that was closed to stay out of the rain. We didn't realize at the time, but we were being eaten alive by carnivorous mosquitoes. By the time the bus finally arrived we were weak from loss of blood.

It took another 30 minutes for the bus to get use around the closed bridge. No matter - we finished up the ride in plenty of time.

Colorado vacation day 1

I dropped Amber and Sherry off in Aspen so they could ride down 40 miles to Glenwood Springs. On paper it looked like a fun ride with 1800' of descending in 40 miles of class A bike path. However, Mother Nature had different ideas.

To start with there was about three miles of packed dirt instead of pavement in the first five miles. Fortunately my wife and daughter have bikes that are very capable on packed dirt. Unfortunately it started to rain - hard - very hard. I had driven the car back to Glenwood Springs and my cell phone had decided it didn't want to work today. So they got soaked and chilled and had to take shelter all while sending me frantic messages that they wanted to be picked up. I had no clue.

My plan was to drive to Glenwood Springs then ride up the path to meet them and ride back with them. I reckoned I would meet them within 20 miles as I was climbing and they were descending. I got 20 miles up the bike path and still hadn't seen them so I assumed they had gone past me when I went off the course for three minutes. I turned around and headed back to Glenwood Springs - assuming they would be at the hotel room when I got there.

Looking up the Glenwood Springs to Aspen bike path

When I got back they were not in the room so I started to get a bit worried. I used the motel room phone to caall them (long-distance even though they were only 5 miles away). Amber answered and told me they were only about three miles from the end. They had sheltered in the rain for so long they were still a couple of miles above me when I turned around.

I had a great ride with 38 miles and a little light rain. They had not had such a great time.

LA Wheelmen Grand Tour

Amber, Iria and I rode the LA Wheelmen Grand Tour on Saturday. We rode the lowland double century route because I was afraid it might get hot (we have had temps in the 90-100 range for two weeks). Amber and I used to ride this regularly but I got cold feet after the 2009 ride when Rod Armas was killed by a drunk driver during the ride.

We braved Friday night traffic to register in Malibu and as we got out of the car Shai Shprung walked past having just registered for the quad (400 miles). He rides a fixie so I'm assuming that's what he was going to ride the quad on!

Saturday morning and up at 4am (yikes) to start the ride at 5:30am. Three miles into the ride a bug the size of a cesna lodged itself in my throat. I couldn't breath, cough, or swallow so after a few seconds of struggling my stomach solved the problem by throwing up. First time that has ever happened. We made good time through to the second control near Moorpark where we ran into Greg, Ron, and Foster from the PCH Rando group. Ron was feeling rough from food poisoning so I told him about the bug which seemed to cheer him up a bit.

We all agreed to ride up the Ojai bike path from Ventura which is so much nicer than the proper route and is only 1/2 mile longer. After a long lunch in Ojai where we ran into Alan Tolkoff and Jeff Karotkin as well as Phil (whose second name I can never remember) we went back down the bike path but took a detour on Barnham so as to approach the (secret) control from the correct direction.

Turning north along the coast we had a powerful headwind. Thank goodness Foster, Greg, and Ron were with us to push through the wind. I'm sure we got to Rincon point 15 minutes earlier thanks to their efforts. The good news is that the overcast became even heavier and although it was humid, it was pleasantly cool.

Rincon Point - Ron, Greg, and Amber - Iria has her back to me.

While we were relaxing at Rincon Point we felt a few drops of rain and I could see the clouds upwind of us were precipitating so I rallied the group and we headed south to try to ride out from under the rain. We had a good tailwind and managed to get under dry clouds pretty quickly.

Elizabeth met us in Hueneme where the soup was as wonderful as usual and we hung around for a while then headed out for the last stretch with a diminishing tailwind. About ten miles from the end, where the hills start, the tailwind was replaced by a headwind. Curses! We couldn't stay with Foster on the rollers and the group ripped apart. Iria, Amber, and I regrouped and took the long way around on Malibu Road to the end of the ride to avoid that ugly left turn off of PCH. It adds distance and climbing but it's worth it.

We got back to the cars at 8:53pm for a total ride time of 15:13 which wasn't too bad. We had a moving average of 16.17 so our moving time was 12:20 which meant we were off the bikes for almost three hours. That's probably an hour more than we should have been. Oh well - we had fun.

A new training ride

I have decided to improve my climbing by riding up Keller Peak road once a week. The road is 5.5 miles long and climbs from 6000' to 7800' by the time it reaches Keller Peak fire lookout. It is well paved and only has a few cars (I was passed by four during the hour it took to climb it today). I set a base time of 58:31. Starting after 7pm seems to reduce the bug and the heat problems. In fact it was below 60F by the time I turned around and started descending.

It's a pretty steady climb averaging about 6% but it touches 20% in a few places. By the time I get back to the bottom my rims are pretty hot. I put all my lights on the for descent. That's a Luxos U at full power, a Cygolite 850, Cygolite 600, and a Night Rider 600. When I got into my car and started driving, my car headlights seemed really dim!

Let's hope I can bring those times down.

Lake Fire and Luxos U

I took delivery of a new B&M Luxos U generator light from Peter White on Wednesday so I wanted to do a test ride. The light came with the wrong size spade terminals for my SON 28 generator so I nipped out to Mac's Electronics in San Bernardino which is like a candy store for an old electronics hack like myself. Three dollars got me a bag of the correct spade terminals so I replaced the old ones and wired up the light.

We're in the middle of a heat wave so I decided to ride up Keller Peak road in the evening. The road starts at 6000' and climbs to 7800' in 5.5 miles. It's a great ride if you want short and intense and it's only a few miles from my house. I started at 6:30pm but, much to my surprise, I found myself at the top by 7:30. The top of Keller Peak has a fire lookout tower and I got a great view of the Lake Fire which is currently burning near Jenks Lake and has route 38 closed.

Lake Fire from Keller Peak fire lookout tower 6/18/2015

I killed some time eating a packet of Squinchers which I had bought but I wasn't impressed. They're supposed to be electrolyte energy chews but they only have 90 calories a pack and have a pathetic electrolyte profile (3% RDA sodium and 1% potassium). I won't be buying them again. I can get the same calories by opening my mouth while riding through a cloud of gnats. If only they could genetically engineer black cherry flavored gnats.

Talking of gnats; the bugs were a royal pain on the climb. I have found that if you can hold 7 mph most of the bugs can't keep up. As I was averaging 5.5 mph the little devils swarmed me. I have a mosquito net I use for hiking. I wonder how stupid I'd look if I wore it cycling. I wonder how much I care. My hand is covered in mozzie bites too so perhaps I just need to speed up.

So it wasn't very dark on the way down and I was only able to confirm that the daytime running light works and it charges my GPS system.

I still needed to test the new light in proper dark conditions so I worked late Friday night until 8pm when the temperature had dropped to a balmy 90F down the hill and went for a ride on the upper SART bike path. Several miles out I came across a snake that must have been upward of three feet long sunning itself on the other side of the path, as well as several large lizards at least 6" long. Cool.

It got truly dark around 8:30 and I could see the new light was pretty amazing. Compared to my old Lumotec IQ70 it is brighter and wider. It doesn't have such a smooth beam pattern but it throws a lot of light onto the road. The boost feature is nice too - it uses the capacious internal battery to throw an extra 20 lumen onto the road at the far end of the beam. It makes a difference.

The light I received is slightly different from the light I was expecting. The documentation has not been updated. The old light had a USB port directly in the handlebar switch but my light has a cable coming out of the switch with a floating USB port at the end. I do not like this change. I have aerobars so I can hide the extra cable but if I had regular handlebars I don't know what I would do with it. I'd much rather not have to deal with it at all. It adds nothing that I can see. If your USB cable doesn't reach to the switch buy a longer one. They're cheap and readily available.

Let's look at some of the features of this light.
Stand light: Thanks to the large internal capacitor the stand light is bright and long lasting
Daytime: There is a daytime running light with a flash option (that I haven't got to work yet)
Night time: The beam is bright (70 lumen) and wide and adjusts to push light forward as you speed up. There is a manual boost option to put an extra 20 lumen at the tip of the beam.
Sensor: There is a sensor that detects Day vs. Night and switches accordingly.
USB: There is a USB port that can charge your GPS or cell phone during the day if you are riding more than 15kph. You can charge while using your daytime running lights but not at night.
Beam: The beam is very wide and has a well defined upper edge where most of the light is put, especially if you are riding fast. It's not as clean as the Lumotec around the edge close to the bike.
Controls: There are controls on the back of the light and on the handlebar switch. There is a single button that has a long and a short press that do different things.
Feedback: The feedback on the handlebar switch consists of a red led that indicates USB charging, and a blue led that indicates boost mode. There is no indication that the light is actually on which would have been nice for the daytime running mode.
Hardware: The light came with a crown mount and is well constructed (it's German). There may be issues with water getting up underneath if you ride in the rain without fenders. There are more zip ties and cabling hardware than I know what to do with.
Documentation: The documentation is for the old version of the light and is poorly translated from the original German. However it is more than sufficient for the job.

New Permanent

I've been toying with an idea for a new permanent that is the upper loop of my Five Rivers 300k brevet. It starts in Seal Beach and heads up the San Gabriel Bike Path to Duarte where it turns around and heads down the Rio Hondo and Los Angeles River Trails to Long Beach. From Long Beach it uses the Long Beach Bike Path and three miles of surface roads to get back to Seal Beach.

The entire permanent has 77 miles of bike path and 4 miles of surface roads for a total of 81 miles and 1200' of climbing. It is a phenomenally fast 130km, especially in a group to counter the inevitable head winds on the way back. Iria, Amber, and I completed it on Saturday at an average speed of 16.85mph with a brutal headwind all the way back (no, we did not have a brutal tailwind on the way out).

I gathered up the paperwork and submitted it to Crista Borras of RUSA yesterday so hopefully we can ride it again in a month or so and get credit.

Riding Brevets in the Old Days

Although long, group rides became popular soon after the invention of the safety bicycle (distinct from the penny-farthing, bone-shaker, and earlier styles), the first Allure Libre events, with the exception of a solitary PBP like event in 1891, were not held until 1904 under the auspices of the newly formed ACP. As the vast majority of randonneuring in the USA is of the Allure Libre style, let's consider what it must have been like to try to ride one of those first French 200k brevets.

By 1903 Sturmey-Archer had started manufacturing internal three speed hub gears but they were probably not in wide use in 1904 so riders still used single speed with a freewheel to allow them to coast or a reversible wheel fixie with a different sized cog in each side so the rider could stop, reverse the wheel, and continue in a new gear - a far cry from the electronic shifters I am starting to see. Modern derailleurs would not be invented until the 1950's.

I note that American machinist Johnson patented and manufactured a two-speed internal hub gear in 1895 but it seems unlikely that French cyclists would use them.

Fortunately pneumatic tires were available by 1889, greatly reducing the weight and increasing the comfort of bicycles. As tires were previously made of solid rubber, you can imagine this brought great relief to cyclists of all denominations. Pumps were made of wood or steel and looked very much like frame pumps do today.



1904 Gentleman's Meteor Rover

Wheels were heavier and wider but you could take the 27" wheel off a 1904 bike and install it on a modern touring bike and ride it with no problems.

Take a look at the pedals on this bike. They are platform pedals with rubber grips. Toe clips existed at the time, in fact photographs of Tour de France racers from 1904 clearly show them. Below is a photograph of Maurice Garin - winner of the first Tour de France in 1904. You can plainly see his toe clips. Our modern so-called "clipless pedals" were invented by Look in 1984. So early randonneurs rode with platform pedals or, if they were wealthy, with toe clips.


Maurice Garin and his toe clips

The frames in 1904 were made of  steel tubing or sometimes bamboo, but the tubing and components were much heavier than even today's cro-moly bikes, with total bicycle weights in excess of 50lbs being common before adding bags.

Talking of bags - they haven't really changed all that much. The invention of Velcro and reflective tape have improved things somewhat. Carradice, a major manufacturer of today's randonneur's bags wasn't founded until 1932, and Gilles Berthoud were not around back then either but the duck canvas and leather that they use today were widely used in 1904 so the bags would have looked very familiar to us.

Saddles have changed as much as you want them to. In the photo of the Meteor Rover above you can see the saddle is a Brooks B73 which is still made over 100 years later. The owner of this bike was obviously a serious tourer. With a saddle like this, who needs a fancy carbon or titanium frame?

One last thing to look at on our 1904 bicycle photo is the front brakes. There are no cables - it's a solid pull rod that pulls the whole brake mechanism upwards and pushes the brake pads against the underside of the rim. The rear brakes had a similar mechanism running alongside the top tube. There is a lever mechanism just above the brakes that magnifies your leverage but you still had to squeeze the brake levers really hard to get any stopping power. Imagine that with road numbed hands.

Veeder odometer circa 1895

Early randonneurs had no computer to tell them how far they had traveled. When I was a lad I had a mechanical device that attached to the front fork that had a five spoke wheel that got moved forward 1/5 of a turn by a pin in the spokes and gave me some indication of my distance traveled, although even with young eyes it was hard to read and impossible at night. This device actually existed in a similar form prior to 1904 so many of the first randonneurs may have owned one. GPS? We have it so easy!

Take a look at the carbide lamp below. Although battery lights were available for bicycles in 1904 they were weak and didn't last long. If you had to do much night riding you would attach one of these lamps to the front of your bicycle (take a look at the standard lamp mount on the front of the Meteor Rover above).

"Carbide lamp on a bicycle". Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

This lamp works by placing calcium carbide in the lower chamber and dripping water onto it from the upper chamber. This released acetylene gas (C2H2) through a jet which was then ignited and burned with a bright white flame. I'll take a Li-ion battery and a 5 Watt LED thank you very much! Tail lights, which have lower power requirements could be battery driven even in 1904.

I was surprised to discover that bottle dynamos (they aren't technically dynamos because they deliver AC whereas a dynamo uses a comutator to deliver DC) existed in 1904. In fact there is a German patent for one dated 1886. It's quite possible that some randonneurs would have used one of these instead of the carbide lamp. Can you imagine riding in the rain, hoping your stash of calcium carbide wouldn't get wet and explode?

In actual fact lights would not have been a big problem for the first randonneurs because their target was to ride 200k in daylight so extended night riding would not become a staple of randonneuring for several more years. However it was a requirement for the first Tour de France riders in the same year.

As for nutrition they would have home made bonk bars for which there were many recipes. Most included nuts, fruit, rice, and some kind of binding agent like treacle. One requirement was that they didn't make you handlebar tape sticky. There would be water in the bottles, or maybe some cordial or watered down beer.

Lycra gel-padded cycling shorts - not until the 1970's by Tony Maier.
Gel padded handle bar tape and gloves - Nope. Even cork tape wasn't invented until 1987.
Aerobars - 1984 Jim Eliot.

So those riders had heavy, single-gear steel bikes with Brooks saddles and canvas bags similar to ours. They might have toe-clips, leather shoes, cotton or leather handlebar tape, shorts, and gloves. Their jerseys would be cotton or wool and they probably didn't wear helmets. They navigated with a map, compass and an odometer accurate to perhaps 5%. If they rode at night they might have had weak electric lights or a highly combustible acetylene light. And all the men had mustaches, and some of the women.

One advantage they had was that the surge in the popularity of cycling towards the end of the 19th century meant that many previously gravel roads had been metalled (paved). That, and the absence of large numbers of cars meant this would have been a wonderful time to be a cyclist.

While researching this blog I found a wonderful resource for those interested in old bicycle history at http://www.oldbike.eu/museum/. It's poorly organized and antiquated but full of old treasures.