First Tour of 2011

This is the moment I have been waiting and training for. All preparations are complete - bike, gear, route, time. I am almost ready to hit the road!

I plan on rolling from San Francisco to Los Angeles on PCH (Pacific Coast Highway) or Highway 1.

I have been studying "Bicycling the Pacific Coast" by Vicky Spring and Tom Kirkendall. This is how my itinerary looks so far:

1st day: From Montara to New Brighton State Beach 2nd - Vets Memorial Park 3rd - Kirk Creek campground 4th - San Simeon State Beach 5th - Oceano campground 6th - Gaviota sate park 7th - Carpenteria state beach 8th - Leo Carrillio state beach 9th - Home Stretch! I have been packing and there is the list of things I am taking: Clothes: Lycra recumbent pants Synthetic jersey Long sleeve jersey Keen cycling sandals Socks (for evening campsite use with sandals)

Long sleeve shirt for campsite

Pants for campsite

Hat

Bicycle HP Velotechnik Streetmachine GTe Arkel T52 panniers Fastback Double Century with 3L bladder Bicycle maintenance: Pump 2 spare tubes (different sizes) Patch kit Tire levers Multitool Kevlar spoke kit Chain links Dry lube (2oz) Camping & Food Tent Sleeping bag Silk liner Inflatable pad White gas stove with .5l bottle worth of fuel Lighter One pot with lid One lexan cup One spoon Swiss army knife Paracord (to dry wet clothes) Multi use liquid soap (dr bronner's) Tea bags Instant oatmeal First aid kit Liquid bandaid Band aids

Water supply solution for Streetmachine GTe

Years ago I traveled to Baja Mexico with Greet Tortoise bus. While we stopped at Cataviña to see the cave paintings, I chatted with a lonely bicycle tourist. I remember asking him what was the most difficult part of his trip. He thought for a second, then said - water. In Baja it was difficult to find drinking water.

Now I have been planning a trip through baja of my own. I have read Graham Mackintosh'es first book - Into a Desert Place: A 3000 Mile Walk around the Coast of Baja California. His trip takes him to the extreme - he goes way of the beaten path. Graham distills fresh water from the sea at a times, he is so hard core.

My plan is to stay on the paved road, Highway 1 most of the time. Riding in the morning and resting in the afternoons. My goal is 30-50 miles per day. I will camp. I will carry a emergency dry food rations, and about 6L of water.

Now about the water - instead of giant plastic jug I have been having nightmares about I have invested into two 3L Nalgene CXC bladders, and Terracycle FastBack Double Century hydration pack. According to Bicycle Touring 101 website there are truck stops/shacks every 50KM or so, so there are places to get food and water.

Blogging with a Kindle

With my SanFran to Santa Monica trip approaching I have been trying to figure out a solution for my blog. I tried my iPhone 3gs. It works but I would need data plan and a charging solution - after an ehaustive search I thought I had it all figured out.

Then I came across Kindle 3g.

Battery life - at least couple weeks with 3g, and no data plan required. I picked up a refurbished unit for $159 from amazon warehouse deals. So far I could not be happier - I am blogging over wifi right now. 

Tracking my rides with an iPhone

 I have been working out how to keep track of my riding using iPhone 3gs.

My favorite programs so far are Cyctastic and MotionX.

Cyctastic wants you to register for any kind of data sharing, but I am not keen about that. In standalone mode it gives you audible cues - I have it set up to tell me when I have ridden a mile and the speed I am going at. If I have the phone in my front pocket with speaker facing up, I can hear it pretty well.

MotionX is my new favorite. It has audible cues, and supports downloadable maps too. So if I am planning a trip, I can select maps for it and just go. It does not do turn by turn routing however. You need their "drive" version, which I have not evaluated yet.

For turn by turn I could use TomTom which has bicycle mode as a part of routing. However, that is good only for a quick trips - the drain on batteries is pretty high when using GPS. I can get about 3 hours of use in GPS mode, then the phone is useless.

Right now I am investigating external power packs and solar charging to make iPhone a viable tool for long distance navigation.

There is an example of MotionX generated report.

Jul 10, 2011 11:48 am

Name:		Track 004
Date:		Jul 10, 2011 11:48 am
Map: (valid until Jan 6, 2012)		View on Map
Distance:		16.2 miles
Elapsed Time:		1:23:00
Avg Speed:		11.7 mph
Max Speed:		27.2 mph
Avg Pace:		05' 07" per mile
Min Altitude:		112 ft
Max Altitude:		220 ft
Start Time:		2011-07-10T18:48:26Z
Start Location:
	Latitude:	34.005264º N
	Longitude:	118.489827º W
End Location:
	Latitude:	34.004753º N
	Longitude:	118.488990º W

Smaller Chainring Problems

I have received Surly stainless steel 34T 110mm.

Although on Surly website it proudly displays "made in Canada", my ring was clearly made in Taiwan. Globalization in action, I hoped to support our North American neighbors. Duped again, but I am at least glad it is not made in Chiñå.

All looked good, I replaced the old chainring with the new one.

Then the problems began - although I only rode the bike for less than 100 miles, the chain and new ring would not mesh and my chain would skip terribly.

Could the chain wear out that quickly? I doubt it. Is it designed for a different kind of chain? What went wrong?

I have put back the original 46T chain ring, and went for a ride.

Update 3-18-11 evening:

I have emailed my bicycle guru (and dealer extraordinaire) Zach Kaplan, here is his response:

Interesting about the Surly chainring being shown on their website as being made in Canada but the ring you received was made in Taiwan. I agree made in Taiwan is better than made in China but their website is deceptive to people like us who try to support North American manufacturing (in my case I'm also trying to support EU manufacturing). I would recommend you contact Surly to complain. AFAIK, Surly doesn't actually make anything, they are the high end brand name of Quality Bicycle Products, a major US wholesale bike parts distributor based in Minnesota. They probably made a running supplier change from a Canadian supplier to a Taiwanese supplier. I'm only aware of 2 manufacturers of aluminium chainrings in Canada, Blackspirehttp://www.blackspire.com/qs/category/83/5948/0/0 and Race Face and I recently read Race Face suddenly announced they are going out of business and liquidating all their assets. Perhaps QBP had been getting their rings made by Race Face and were having trouble getting them so switched to a Taiwanese supplier. 

I know Vuelta chainrings are made in the US. Vuelta USA is based in Southern California. http://www.vueltausa.com/components/chainrings.html

In any case the problem isn't with the chainring. The chain is hanging up near each bolt because the inner chainring guard was designed for a 46T chainring and is of the type that is directly mounted to the chainring and curves out from the base to provide chain clearance. A 34T chainring places the chain down low next to the part of the guard that is too close to clear the chain, thus preventing the chain from properly engaging with the chainring.

Several things you could do. For now you could remove the inner guard ring. That will completely eliminate the interference problem but the chain will fall off to the inside from time to time when hitting certain types of bumps. You could install thin chainring spacers to space the inner guard ring away from the chain. Very thin spacers won't require longer bolts but you may need thick enough spacers to require longer bolts. You could also go to a different type of inner guard ring which is flat like the outer guard ring but with this type you have to use thick spacers which will definitely require going to longer chainring bolts.

I am running a 40T Q-Ring on the same model crankset with same guard rings and it works fine. Due to its elliptical shape, the 40T Q-Ring is probably like a 37 or 38T ring on its short axis so that might be the lower limit of what will work without adding spacers or using a different guard. Feel free to post this reply on your blog.

-------------------------------------------------------------

Zach Kaplan Cycles

510-522-BENT (2368)

zach@zachkaplancycles.com

http://zachkaplancycles.com

Update: 3-19-11 morning:

I emailed Surly with complain about country of origin of the ring shown on their website and the ring sold, let's see how they deal with it.

Update: 3-21-11 afternoon:

This is the reply I got from Surly:

Agnius,

Our first batch of chainrings was made by a Canadian firm, but they could never quite get what we wanted done like we wanted it. We’ve had them made in Taiwan ever since then.

I’m sorry that you feel swindled. That was not our intent. We just have never changed the photo (we are changing it now.) Feel free to take your chainring back to the bikeshop where you purchased it. We’ll take it back from them no problem.

Thanks,

Eric Sovern

Surly Bikes

877-743-3191

esovern@surlybikes.com

Surly has also updated their website with a new image - it does not say "Made in Canada" anymore. That is more likely how my received ring looks.

Street Machine Diaries - seat adjustments & kickstand

Since I got my Street Machine couple weeks ago, I have been trying to figure out the "best" riding position.

I have been playing with seat length and the recline angle adjustments.

I had problems with my neck not being supported at first, and was tempted to purchase the headrest. However, today I was fine tuning the length adjustment on the seat, and came across the position which is reasonably comfortable, especially when the seat is in the about 75% reclined position. I will adjust the seat some more, but I am getting much closer to a comfortable ride. I need to find a point where the seat angle is curving my back in such a way were my head is up, comfortable and can turn side to side easily.

I experimented with laying the head back all the way, but that way you can not turn left and right and there is quite a bit of stress on the neck muscles.

I got the chainstay mounted kickstand, and I can not get it up when seated on the bike. Starting to ride is quite a bit of a balancing act. First, get the kickstand into "up" position. Then, while balancing the bike by left handlebar, straddle the bike around the boom, sit down, click in right cleat into the pedal and press off. I think if the bike was fully loaded for touring, I would be having balancing issues. I hope that the lowrider pannier rack mounted kickstand can be reached and flicked up with the foot AFTER sitting down. I could flick up the kickstand after sitting down on my Cannondale Bent, I didn't even think I could not do it on Street Machine.

How to select your chainring for a Street Machine GTe with Rohloff

After riding my HP Velotechnik Street Machine GTe I realized that I want lower gearing than stock.

My stock setup is 46T chainring and 16T sprocket on a Rohloff IGH.

Gears from 1-7 are quite noisy and feel "draggy". The noisiest is #7. My cruising gear on flats is somewhere between #7 & #8. Direct drive on Rohloff is #11. 

Ideally, #11 should be my main cruising gear.

First I went to Sheldon Brown's gear calculator and figured where I was at.

For 26 X 1.5 / 38-559 / MTB tire with 155 mm cranks

With Custom Sprocket(s) Cassette

With Rohloff 14-speed Speedhub Rear Hub

Low	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	High
19.9	22.6	25.7	29.2	33.2	37.8	42.9	48.8	55.3	63.0	71.5	81.2	92.4	104.9

So my cruising is done between 48.8 and 55.3 Gear Inches.

So this would be my "ideal" setup.

For 26 X 1.5 / 38-559 / MTB tire with 155 mm cranks

With Custom Sprocket(s) Cassette

With Rohloff 14-speed Speedhub Rear Hub

Low	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	11	-	-	High
13.5	15.3	17.4	19.7	22.4	25.5	29.0	32.9	37.4	42.5	48.3	54.8	62.4	70.8

If I would like to move my cruising to gear #11, I would need 33T chainring and 17T sprocket. But Rohloff insists on 38T chainring as the smallest with 16T cog, as going smaller would go beyond 2.4 ratio suggestion from Rohloff. What to do?

Doing more research I realized that Rohloff recommendations includes tandems and super fit riders who can really crank on their pedals. In recumbent situation I don't have jolts of force applied to the pedals (I can't stand on them, I am just "spinning").  There are articles that suggest you can go lower in gearing, but Rohloff will not honor the warranty.

So, if I decide to go with "unapproved" ratio on gearing, what are my options for chainrings and sprockets?

Standard sprocket from Rohloff is 16T. For lower gearing they have a 17T sprocket available.

17T sprocket costs $50-60 USD, then you need a chain whip ($10-30 USD) and special Rohloff tool to remove it ($53). 

What if I leave the sprocket at 16T, and just change the chainring?

T.A. Specialites does make a 33T chainring, but it is designed for inside of the shiftable cluster. It might work, but I don't want ramps for shifting on the chainring.

For 34T chainring, there are more choices. Again, I am avoiding rings with pins and ramps. You can have a Surly stainless steel chainring, or numerous aluminum ones. The hardest aluminum alloy is 7075-T6.

How does aluminum  compare against steel? Surly uses 304 steel. It is harder than 7075-T6 aluminum, but also it is heavier. As I am going for reliability, so weight is not that significant for one piece. I would go with Surly. Surly is also reversible -  just like the Rohloff sprocket.

For $30 I can get a Surly chainring and get much closer to the "ideal" range.

For 26 X 1.5 / 38-559 / MTB tire with 155 mm cranks

With Custom Sprocket(s) Cassette

With Rohloff 14-speed Speedhub Rear Hub

Low	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	11	-	-	High
14.7	16.7	19.0	21.6	24.5	27.9	31.7	36.0	40.9	46.6	52.8	60.0	68.3	77.5

Would this work? There is only one real way to find out.