An expensive 200k and a flat

 Amber and I test rode the inland loop of the Triple Loop 600k yesterday and it turned out to be quite expensive. To start with, Amber's truck looks like it needs a new clutch. The Serotta's brakes were very squeaky, which means I need to replace the brake pads. Might as well replace all four so that's $30+. I had the chain replaced recently and it's slipping which probably means I need a new cassette so that's another $70+. And we're barely out of the parking lot.

Caltrans has been busy (in a good way) but the bike path alongside La Palma is unchanged from a year ago. That means it's still 1/3 good bike path, 1/3 behind K-rail, and 1/3 bad bike path.

The first piece of good news is that they are putting a bike lane in on Green River hill at mile 6. It looks like they are still trying to figure out how to get two lanes of traffic and a bike lane, but they are working on it.

Two way bike lane on Green River hill

The next good news is that Caltrans has repaved Crestview at mile 19 which used to be horrendous...

Buttery smooth

... and installed a bike lane on North Dr/Arlington while also repaving it.

Arlington has a bike lane AND is repaved!

But wait, there's more. They have put a left turn lane in where you turn into Hidden Valley at mile 20, making this turn much safer.

Left turn from Arlington Ave into Hidden Valley

The G&M gas station at mile 40 had no sandwiches so we made do with lunchables and Gatorade which, considering there's 2000' of climbing in the next 20 miles, didn't seem like it would be enough but surprisingly it was.

I'm not thrilled with the route I take along Waterman at mile 40 and very unhappy with it on the way back. I see Willie's routes use Anderson instead so I might be doing the same.

One thing I like about the current route is that once you turn left at the top of San Mateo, it's straight for the next 13 miles so that cuts out several cues and makes it harder to go astray (theoretically).

When leaving Calimesa you have to cross an off-ramp of Interstate 10 which used to be dangerous because cross traffic didn't stop. There's a stop sign for them now which is great.

Stop sign on off ramp

We got to the half way mark in about six hours which was about what I expected. There's about 4000' of climbing in this section and we had a head wind most of the way. After a huge sub and more Gatorade we headed down San Timeteo.

With the descent and the tail wind we coasted for six miles. We could have coasted much further but there was a line of cars stopped for a train that had just passed. We managed to pass the train on the descent and crossed the tracks again before it got there. The current route uses Beaumont. I didn't realize this provides a third opportunity for trains to get in the way. This time we got stuck behind a looooong train and backtracked to San Timeteo. 

Stuck behind train

I think I'll alter the route to avoid Beaumont. We also took a look at the bike path that connects San Timeteo to Barton Rd but it's dirt so that's no good.

When the sun went down I showed Amber the conjunction between Jupiter and Saturn. That was pretty cool.

Climbing up Smith I hit some metal which sliced my tire open and flatted my front tire in about five seconds. We had no problems fixing the flat but that's a $40 tire and $5 inner tube I need to replace :-( 

I was going to add some video, but it includes strong language so I decided not to.

We finished, feeling good, in 10:37 which is fine by me.

Amber's Brompton half-century

Amber rode my Brompton with Edgar and I on The Crema ride despite Newsom's attempts to have the whole state sealed in Carbonite. It seems restaurants are selling food to go, but if the customers happen to eat it on the convenient tables set outside, who are they to argue?

The first problem we had is that Amber's spd cleats are so worn down they are getting trapped in the quick release spd pedals I bought. She had to stop alongside a fence and grab it so I could release the Velcro straps from her shoes and pull her feet out. Then I wrenched her shoes from the pedals with all my strength. Fortunately she had brought regular sneakers so she walked back to her truck and swapped shoes.

The next excitement was caused by her pedal falling off. It seems that either the recent service at REI or Amber's sneakers had caused the retaining ring to move, allowing the pedal to come off. I think I'll be double-checking the position of the retaining ring before each ride in future.

By the time we reached Seal Beach Amber said she was pretty comfortable with the handling although you can see from these videos which were take only five miles into the ride, she was doing fine much sooner.

The Crema was quiet so we got our food quickly and ate it on the benches outside. Amber and Edgar got crepes and I got the grilled cheese and caramelized onion sandwich.

The Crema had some good looking bread for sale so we both bought large loaves which barely fit into the medium Borough bag on the Brompton.

Two large loaves of bread and a jacket

The return trip was less eventful although we did see a pretty elf ride by while we were stopped for water.

Elf standing for the hill

I wonder why Bromptons don't have a quick release for the front wheel. I should look for one.

 My medium Borough bag for the Brompton arrived early and it really is a nice bag, although badly overpriced, even for Brompton gear. It's far less of a sail than the large bag, yet has many of the nice features.

Brompton medium Borough bag

I went for a bike ride on the upper SART on Thursday evening and couldn't believe the amount of motorized traffic on the bike path, all associated with the homeless encampments there. The homeless people are shamelessly driving cars and motorbikes up and down the bike path to get to and from their tents. There was one huge SUV parked on the trail while the driver's brother delivered drugs to one encampment.

I've been watching some youtube channels on cycling recently. There are several I can recommend.

Phil Gaiimon is a retired pro cyclist who now lives in Los Angeles.

Global Cycling Network (GCN) is like Top Gear for bicycles - well worth watching

Everyday Cycling has a lot of great Brompton info

I've been wanting to replace the M handlebars on my Brompton with the S style to provide more real estate but that involves replacing the stem and possibly the cables too which is quite an undertaking, especially as the stem replacement can only be done by a Brompton dealer. I came across a stem extension made in Japan that provides the same lift the the M bars do and it only costs $30 including shipping. It's called the SATORI by ABERHALLO. I would even consider replacing the tubing with something longer so I can mount lights on the ends.

For some reason black S handlebars on Amazon cost 50% more than silver but I shopped around and found Perennial Bicycles selling them for the same price. This is the same place I bought the Tern multi-tool from. I probably won't get them until next year, but I'm hoping to be able to put quick-release aerobars on which would really make my Brompton a long-distance bicycle.

Using aerobars on a 16" wheeled bicycle? That will take some practice.

Brompton Borough Bag

I came across a Brompton dealer in Los Angeles called Just Ride LA and found they have a large stock of Brompton bikes and accessories. I called them up and they have several Brompton Borough bags in stock. As I have the small one ordered from Amazon (although it probably won't get here until next year) I drove to Just Ride LA and purchased the large version. 

Then I drove to Anaheim to give it a try. Although it is a huge bag, big enough for touring, it is an absolute sail into a headwind. I can see using it until the smaller one arrives, then saving it for touring in the future.

I also got my Tern toolkit from Perennial Cycle which is a very slick toolkit that tucks up under the saddle. It has the 15mm wrench that the Brompton needs for getting pedals and wheels off. It's very well made full featured and only half the price of the Brompton toolkit. It even has a chain tool.

I also realized that REI had not adjusted the gears properly so when the readout said gear 1 I was actually in gear 2 and when it said gear 2 I was actually in gear 3. So I couldn't get into the lowest gear. I found a video about adjusting the gears on Youtube.com and it turns out to be very easy to adjust it correctly. All I had to do was to put it in gear 2 (according to the indicator), then adjust the screw barrel until only 1mm of the adjuster rod is visible.

I hope to ride the 68 mile route from Yorba Linda park and back soon on the Brompton. That will put me over the 100km distance.

New Brompton

So after about two years of research and careful consideration I decided to go ahead and buy a Brompton. Now, because of high demand, all those damn Brits have been buying them up and selling them on eBay at 50% markup.

50% markup PLUS shipping

I happened to check the REI website and saw they had M6L Black editions for sale. They were a bit pricey but they were really close to what I wanted so I ordered one and it arrived four days early - it was meant to be.

I've made a lot of upgrades and have quite a few more in mind.

On the first ride I had some back pain and it felt like the handle bars were too close to the saddle so I rotated them forward about 1.5" which really helped. I have a bag on order but Amazon is so backed up right now I'm having to use my Acorn trifold saddle bag and the handle bar bag from the Serotta until it arrives.

The folding platform pedal that comes with the bike wasn't going to cut it for me so I got some removable spd pedals from flatbike

The handle bar grips that come with the bike are no good for any kind of distance so I replaced them with Ergon gp3 grips which seem like a good compromise between comfort and size. I also mounted my Wahoo Elemnt and a Cygolite front light. I got the water bottle cage from my local bike store because Amazon took three weeks to ship the one I ordered. It has a rubber block and a big velcro strap and works well. I turn it to the side when the bike is folded.

I also replaced the awful saddle that came with it (this is to be expected) with a semi-broken-in Brooks B17. A huge improvement that will only get better.

Amber and I rode a flat 50 mile to The Crema today and although it's 5-10% more effort to ride than my Serotta, it did very well and I'm sure I can ride a 100k on it.

So what else can I upgrade? Well, once the bag is here I'm going to consider upgrading to a rack. Then I could add a rack bag and panniers.

Now I'd really like to add some clipon aerobars but there's no room on the M bar. However the stem from the H bars plus the straight S handle bars would be about the same height and would provide a lot more handle bar space.

When stuff breaks

 Before I start reminiscing about mechanical problems over the years, I want to link to this amazing post about an 88 year old man who recently became the oldest person to complete Lejog. Unlike Amber and I, he rough rode it instead of being catered too. That means he carried camping gear and all his own equipment. I'm so impressed.

I've had numerous mechanical problems occur during my rides - some I overcame, some overcame me.

I have had two front derailleur cables break. The first time I wrapped the cable around my top tube and cinched it tight to force the derailleur into the middle ring. This was a mistake because the tension put gouges into the top tube. The second time was on a 600k. I removed the broken cable and adjusted the set screw in the derailleur to push the chain onto the middle ring. A much better solution.

Once my rear derailleur fell apart. I lost the screw holding the lower jockey wheel and bits just went flying everywhere. I looked all over and could not find the lost screw. In the end I used my chain tool to shorten the chain and make my bike a single speed. It's really difficult to make a chain tight enough and the rear dropout on a non single speed bike doesn't allow you to add any tension so I ended up adding an extra link and then carefully moving the chain onto a larger sprocket by hand.

In San Clemente, climbing a hill, my chain broke. I'd just had it replaced and I could see the mechanic had not quite put the pin in all the way. Fortunately I carry a chain tool so I fixed it. Then I took it back to the shop and made them replace the chain for free, which they did because they're a good bike store.

More recently, I had a saddle bolt break during a ride. It's a Botranger adjustable saddle with forward and back bolts so the nose just shot up into the air. I'm lucky I didn't go down. I had no solution to that one but fortunately I was riding with Amber and she rode back and got her truck. I carry a spare bolt now.

I had a Vittoria Randonneur tire with a bad bead weld ruin one of my 600ks. The weld on the bead failed and the bead punctured my tire. Unfortunately it took three flats in 10 miles before I realized what was causing them. I had to ride 15 miles in the wrong direction on a flat tire to the nearest bike shop where I could buy a new tire. Unfortunately we were now three hours behind schedule and it was obvious we were not going to make the time limit so I abandoned. Those were the last Vittoria tires I ever bought.

I had a problem with a pedal that wouldn't stay in the crank arm. It kept coming lose no matter how hard I tightened it (yes, I had a pedal wrench with me!). I'd stand on the pedal wrench but the pedal was so loose five miles later that I could hand tighten it. It was a long ride home and I simply replaced the pedals.

Probably the worst was after I had major work done on the front end of my bike including new fork and stem. On the next ride I was turning a corner and the front brakes came off - the mechanic had not put the nut on the bolt that attaches them to the frame. I was unhurt and the brakes did not fall into the wheel. Imagine if I had been flying down hill and the brakes had gone into the spokes. That was the last time I ever went to that bike shop and I told the manager exactly what I thought of his mechanic.

The latest was a broken spoke last Friday evening. I carry a spoke wrench but I was unable to stop the wheel rubbing completely so I turned around and rode back to the car. Fortunately it was only five miles and I was able to get to my bike shop before they closed.

Brompton gear inches and speed range

No riding this weekend - a storm has come in with fog and wind, rain and snow. 

I was wondering if the six speed Brompton is worth the extra cost and complexity over the three speed so I found a web page that lists the gear inches of all the Brompton gearing options. It's at https://www.bikefolded.com/brompton-gear-inches/ Once you have the gear inches you can use the formula speed = gear inches x cadence /  336 to determine velocity. Let's suppose I keep my cadence between 50 and 80 rpm which is my efficient range.

Standard three speed gear inches are between 48" and 85". This gives me a velocity range of 7 mph to 20 mph. This is OK but a bit limited.

Standard six speed gear inches are between 33" and 100". This gives me a velocity range between 5 mph and 24 mph. This is very close to what I want.

My Serotta has a velocity range between 5 mph and 30 mph but I don't use the top end very much.

My conclusion is that the six speed is worth it.

One of the annoying things about taking bikes on Amtrak or a plane is the requirement to remove pedals and aerobars in order to box them. I just received some Flatbike removable pedals from Amazon. These pedals attach to the crankarms with one hand in just a couple of seconds with no tools and are removed just as easily.

I have some aerobars on order that do the same thing so I can remove a couple of the steps required to box up a bike. I just ordered my Brompton from REI - the M6L Black edition. I'll be using them on that. I see I can buy a rack for $170 on Amazon when I get serious about touring.