Good and bad cycling gear

I just received the cutest little Brompton case from Amazon. It's small enough that I can leave it on the Brompton when I fold it, but big enough to hold a few items. Plus it looks great. I really like it, and I'm looking forward to riding my Brompton next weekend.

I also came across this folding bicycle helmet which seems very sketchy to me. I don't know about you, but if there's even a one percent chance my helmet will fold up when I crash, it's not worth it. It's like that scene from Iron Man

2021 Five Rivers Staff Ride

Amber and I rode the Five Rivers 300k staff ride on Sat 13th. We started at 5am, a few hours after a major storm had left the area. It was 43F, dark, and calm. I had forgotten to bring my leg warmers but I had some light hiking pants and they worked. I kept them out of my chain with my reflective ankle bands.

About the only thing you need to know is that there is a protected bike lane on the left side of Green River Rd on the steep descent (about mile 5.5) that you should use. At the end of the lane the road splits three ways. You want to use the center split (keeping the construction fence on your left).

Up the middle

I like the new rules for running brevets in the pandemic and I hope we keep some of them. We skipped the official control and ate at The Crema in Seal Beach. As well as a lovely breakfast, we picked up some pastries for the next control which is a rather boring 7-Eleven. The pants came off here. I hope I didn't scare any locals when I dropped them.

Yum!

We were dismayed to find we had a gusty headwind as we headed inland to Duarte which slowed us down to about 14mph. Normally the onshore flow gives us a nice tailwind through this stretch. "Still," we thought, "we'll have a tailwind on the way back." 

There used to be a pizza store next door, but they moved.

At Duarte we ate our pastries and topped up our water bottles. When we headed to Long Beach we found we still had a headwind despite completely turning around. In reality it was a powerful crosswind which feels like a headwind in both directions. We were crawling along at 12mph most of the way to Long Beach :-( At least it wasn't raining!

After Long Beach we picked up a nice tailwind and scooted along to the Chronic Tacos in Belmont. There's a ton of places you can use for the control, but the cheese quesadillas here really hit the spot.

Cheese quesadillas, chips, salsa, and real coke

Moving on, still with a tailwind, we took the beach path through Huntington beach, which was very crowded in places. PCH would have been faster. We headed inland to Irvine, still with a tailwind, and got to the last control just before the sun set. We ate at the Ha-Long Vietnamese café and here was where Amber made a rare mistake. The coffee was very strong and Amber didn't eat much of her noodles. That came to haunt us later.

Chicken Pad-Thai, garlic noodles, Vietnamese coffee

As we rode away from Irvine the sun was setting and we still had a nice tailwind. This section has more climbing than any other section on this route. Amber's stomach started bothering her on the bike path as we were approaching Green River Rd. Tums didn't help. We assume it was the massive hit of caffeine without eating much food. We used the bike lane as we climbed Green River and I (for the first time ever) had to wait for Amber at the top. We probably averaged 5 mph over the last 10 miles.

We had about 100 miles of headwind and 60 miles of tailwind. Fortunately the tailwind was at the end and helped us up the hills. No rain except what was already on the road and thrown up by our tires. The temperature was between 43F and 75F. It was 50F at the end. No detours, and no road work. No guarantees for next week, though. That will be your adventure.

Because of the pandemic, we are relaxing the rules slightly.

• Just before you start riding, you must visit me in my room (I will post it on our Google group or you can call me), sign the waiver (I will provide the waiver) and get an official start time. You may do this any time between 5am and 6am. Please wear a mask.
• While riding you must hit the controls in order and get proof of passage. This can be a receipt, a timestamped photo, or a rwgps ride that I can look at once you have uploaded it.
• You must ride at least 188 miles - this is the official length of the route.
• When you finish, please take a photo of the hotel and text it to me with your name so I know you are done. This will be your official finish time. You need to finish within 20 hours of your start time.
• Within 48 hours of the end of the ride, please email me with either the url of your rwgps ride, copies of the photos, or scans of the receipts.

I will be driving on the course and available for SAG after about noon. There will be no SAG available before then.

Clip on drops for the Brompton

The last thing I have to fix on the Brompton is hand comfort. Even with the Ergon bar-ends the M bars just don't have enough hand positions to be comfortable for long rides. I also keep finding myself wishing for drops when there's a head-wind. I found these clip-on drop bars on Amazon that solve both these problems.

They are low-profile, ergonomic, clip-on drops for $24 a pair. They are not really compatible with the Ergon GP3 bar-ends so I drilled out the ends of the handlebar grips that originally came on the Brompton and slid them all the way onto a pair of S bars so that I had room to attach these drops. I could see replacing them with Ergon GP1 which would be an improvement over the original grips.

I also added a Satori 4cm riser for the handlebar which put it at a very good height for me. Here's how it looks with my new custom 3D printed Wahoo mount.

I printed my own Wahoo mount because all the Wahoo handlebar mounts I could find on Amazon project too far forward and strike the wheel when the bike is collapsed. Because these drops are compact and I turn them slightly up to get a good "brakehood" hand position, they don't take any more room than the M bars do when the bike is folded.

I rode a fifty mile ride on the new drops and I love them. I swear they are 50% more comfortable and 10% more efficient. I will never get to road bike efficiency because of the Brompton drive train and wheels but I am getting close in terms of air resistance.

Here's the new custom low-profile Wahoo handlebar mount. It attaches with a hoseclamp.

This is fun.

Edgar's first century

 Amber's boyfriend, Edgar, took a big step yesterday and rode his first century. We rode a modified Four Rivers that gave us 104 miles. A century ride really only needs two intermediate stops but, as this is a modified 200k and Edgar's first century, we made three civilized and relaxed stops.

First stop was The Crema, of course, which now has outdoor seating again. I had a ham and brie baguette and a Thai iced tea. Very civilized! Then we rode up to Montebello and ate at the Jack-in-the-Box there. I saw a poster on the window for a "Cluck Sandwich". They can't even commit to it being chicken? Plus it has "Mystery Sauce" - I absolutely do not want to eat this thing. There's a deluxe version that adds tomatoes and lettuce. It's going to take a lot more than that to make this edible.

So that's what Edgar ate at the halfway mark. I had a rice bowl and avoided the chicken. 

Anyone who has ever ridden any of my brevets knows the next section has a head wind at least for the last ten miles into Long Beach and today was no exception. Amber did a heroic pull into the wind and by the time we got to the marina we were ready to rest. We went to Chronic Tacos in Belmont and Amber and I split a cheese quesadilla. Edgar's stomach was bothering him but he ordered a chicken taco and a fish taco. Ouch!

The last 30 miles were a bit slower mainly because Edgar's stomach was bothering him and I got a flat. Funny thing - at the start of the ride I said to myself  "I really should replace my rear tire because it's looking very worn". I was right! I have no idea what caused the flat, but I will be replacing the tire today. It looks like I have about 5000 miles on it and that's when I find Gatorskins need to be replaced.

Congratulations to Edgar and I hope he feels better today.

Sam Woo ride

 The weather was lovely this weekend with cool temperatures and mild winds. Amber wanted to ride Sam Woo so we agreed to do that. Edgar wanted to come along which would make it his longest ride ever. We altered the route a little to use all of Bayside Drive starting at mile 17 which was a great decision.

We were very hungry by the time we got to The Brig in Dana Point, but we knew we would be at Sam Woo's in 25 miles, so we were restrained as we ordered. They have a large outdoor dining area so that went well.

We got to Sam Woo's before they ran out of dim sum, but we were too late for custard tarts :-( We should have ridden faster :-)

Thirty miles later and we were back at the cars. A great ride and congratulations to Edgar.

First 100k on the Brompton

My first real ride of 2021 was a 100k on the Brompton - it was actually 72 miles which makes it my longest Brompton ride yet. It's definitely harder riding the Brompton, even on the flat. I feel like I rode a century. While I was waiting for Amber I rode the Brompton on gravel which it handles very well, but I think the small wheels make hard work of gravel and dirt.

The main problems were my backside (which is to be expected given that I am riding on a partly broken in Brooks B17) and my hands (which is more of a problem). I wish I had more hand positions, but I can't think of anything I can do to improve comfort there.

I've been looking at stem mounts for my Wahoo and decided to design my own 3D model because I just can't find any online. I sent the first version off to my friend with the 3D printer. We'll see how well I did. It reminds me of a tiny radio telescope.

This is how it came out - perfect!

Bragging rights

Well, if you're reading this, you survived 2020. Congratulations.

For some reason the pandemic actually increased my miles ridden. Perhaps the time I didn't spend commuting to work was spent on my trainer. We have started to shift brevet dates back in the year so we're hoping we can run a full series in March and April. The events will still be two weeks apart so there's adequate recovery time.

For those of us hoping to complete a 1200k, it seems as if the organizers are being very flexible about prerequisites. If we can't complete an SR in 2021, that probably won't be a problem although it might make success more challenging.

It's a bit distressing to see an entire year's work reset to zero today. But if that's the cost for getting out of 2020, I'll pay it.