Maiden voyage
Got the thing together and took it out for a maiden voyage. Almost didn’t make it back in one piece, but we’ll save that for later.
Spent a few hours last night putting it together and trying to get everything adjusted. I can say right now that I do not like V-brakes. They’re next to impossible to get adjusted. I didn’t have anywhere near this trouble on the linear pulls on my Rockhopper. Don’t know what the difference is, but these were tough and I’m still not entirely satisfied with it. They’re very squishy. Good stopping power, but they have a spongy feel.
I also not sure the wheels are all that true, so I’ll have to take them over to Broadway to make sure. That might have been part of the trouble with the brakes. I don’t think they’re badly out, but enough to make the brakes temperamental.
What a sweet ride! I’d kind of forgotten what a steel bike feels like. My road bike is mostly alumnium with some carbon, the MTB is all aluminum, and I think my cargo bike is cast iron. Very nice indeed. This bike frame is a bit bigger than my road bike and I feel like I’m in an SUV, I’m up so high. This is a 54 cm and my road bike is a 49 cm, but the road bike is a compact frame, so I’m not sure how that equates. This one fits really well, though, for the most part. I think a 53 would probably be perfect.
See if the new header rolls by:
Nearly got doored. Closest call I’ve had in a long time. Some fuck parked four or five feet from the curb and flung his door open without even a look. I normally travel four or five feet from the parked cars for exactly this reason, but when you park in the middle of the lane, what am I supposed to do? We had words.
Rode with Knox and the ride ended in a spitting rain, but I didn’t get too wet. Felt really good for the whole ride, but it was longer than I’d planned. Knox, buddy, we’re going to have to get your speed up.
February 23rd, 2006 at 9:41 pm
I know, I keep telling Knox!
Heard about your close call with the door. Scary stuff. Glad you’re fine.
Still up for riding sometime… when it gets warmer
February 23rd, 2006 at 9:41 pm
Funny you should mention my speed. I was just whinning to Vic about this earlier and saying that I’ve been touring and eating and touring with a big heavy bike for too long…that I’ve forgotten that I should um, go faster!
I have to say when we got home I chatted with my pal, with whom I’ll be riding my first brevet and warned him that I was feeling exhausted and FAST going 14 mph. Holy hell. I should easily be going 20… we only have 13.5 hours to do it and at the rate I’m going…
It is bad. It really is.
February 24th, 2006 at 12:36 pm
Well, things always get faster with warmer weather. But brevets have a minimum speed of 10 mph, I think, except that they count elapsed time, not riding time. So that includes all breaks and stops. If you take a half hour lunch, you’re going 0mph for 30 minutes. That really drags down the time.
February 24th, 2006 at 1:20 pm
Obviously we don’t get to stop.
And you know, it will be about 48 degrees and raining. I guess I should try to do some sprint riding a bit to get that speed back to “normal”.
February 24th, 2006 at 1:31 pm
Whaaa??? How can you be in Seattle and not stop for coffee?