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.

A cold ride!

 I rode from Yorba Linda park to Seal Beach and back starting at sunset (6pm) so I didn't have the sun in my eyes. It was already cool - around 65F and there was almost no wind. Here's a frame grab from my GoPro.

I recently bought an air horn from Amazon which I held in my hand as I rode along the Huntington Beach trail. Although the trail was much less busy than usual, possibly because it was cold, I still used it a few times. Take a look at this video. You can see a small child run onto the trail in front of me and stop. When I gave her a blast of the air horn she moved very quickly. The giggle you can hear at the end of the clip is her sister :-) It's pretty funny.

The temperature dropped to about 61F so I had to put my jacket on! I had poutine at Bistro St. Germain in Seal Beach. It was very good to sit outside eating amazing poutine and listening to live music. In fact there was a lot of live music at several restaurants as I rode along the beach path and also one of the worst stand-up comics I've ever heard.

As I returned the fog came in and made it feel even colder. I found out how much fog it takes to stop my Sigma 1609 working. It's this much.

My Wahoo ELEMNT was unaffected. Four miles inland, I left the fog behind me and had a lovely ride back to my car. Total time for 70 miles was 5:10.

Back Bay with Amber tomorrow and, hopefully, a test ride of the third loop of the Triple Loop up to Banning next weekend.

2021 600k second loop dry run

Ever since this pandemic hit bicycle sales have been through the roof. You can't buy a Brompton right now for love nor money. If you look for them on ebay you see used models are selling for more than their new price. The 1UP bike rack site is back ordered on everything right now. I spoke to a cyclist in Seal Beach on my ride last weekend and she said she couldn't find a decent new bike so she had to buy a used one. All this is a good thing - we may find a bumper crop of new riders next year and anything that raises bicycle awareness is a good thing for us. However the bike paths are busier than I've ever seen them. Like difficult-to-pass busy.

Amber and I did a test ride of the Southern loop of next year's 600k, but starting from Yorba Linda park and, while we're comfortable with the route, we did find a couple of things we want to change and some missing cues. We found the bridge on the coastal path through San Clemente has been repaired but decided to make official route through San Clemente the signed bike route both ways. Riders will still be able to opt for PCH or the coastal path if they want.

The turn-around is a boring, empty, dirt lot. I had hoped it would be a bit more interesting. I might drop some water here and a sign for an info control. There isn't even anything distinctive enough to use as a photo control. The view is nice though, but most riders will be here in the dark.

We had headwind coming back up the coast from the turn-around so it was good to head inland at Dana Point because once we got away from the coast the headwind died down. The wind was getting stronger as the day progressed so we had a strong headwind as we rode from Irvine back to Newport Beach. Once we turned inland we had a powerful tailwind all the way to the end of the ride. That was pretty awesome. We finished in 10:12 which was fine because we could have easily taken 30 minutes off our time by not eating at the Brig in Dana Point.

On the way home I got stuck behind an odd driver. The traffic had slowed down for a while, then sped back up again. This driver was still driving at the slowed down speed, doing 50mph in the fast lane, even though he had 1/4 mile of open road in front of him. I've done the same thing myself, but not for so long. I bet a psychologist could explain it.

Amber and I will ride the third loop in a couple of weeks on a Sunday to see if there's an excessive amount of motorized traffic on the upper SART.

I just finished validating Kerin's May 1st 400k - called the Simi Valley Four Fingers. It has about 9000' of climbing which is about average for a 400k. I think it will be an enjoyable ride.

1Up bike rack and super fast 200k

 Last weekend I was driving to the start of a ride when I got rear-ended on the freeway. My 1Up bike rack took all the damage and ended up with a slightly bent hitch bar which can be replaced for $65. My beloved bicycle was undamaged. Those 1Up bike racks are built like tanks! I can't recommend them highly enough.

This weekend I decided to try a new strategy for brevet riding. I rode the Four Rivers brevet using Perpetuem and Endurolytes and stopping as infrequently as possible. Using this technique I was able to reduce the first and third stops to five minutes to grab water and mix in powder. I kept the second stop as short as possible and finished with a total time of 8:47 for a flat 200k. Although I never lacked for power and I didn't have cramping problems despite it reaching 88F, this is not the most enjoyable way to ride a 200k. I was also completely spent at the end and could not have ridden another 100k.

I think if Amber and I were riding together using this technique, we could have finished in 9 hours feeling strong. It's worth thinking about this for next year's 600k.