Jon Watts - Two Wheel Tour

Tuesday night I had the privilege of hosting Jon Watts as he passed through Hartford on his tour.  Jon is a Quaker spoken word/lyrical hip-hop musician and now also a long distance cyclotouriste.  He left Richmond, VA in March and has been riding up the coast with his Xtracycle Radish, playing shows in the big cities as he goes.  He carries all the gear he needs with him, including his guitar, amp, laptop, and banner, in addition to all the camping gear he needs to be self supporting.  In short, he's not doing this halfway.  Icing on the cake is that he was not an experienced cyclotouriste, he just decided to do this and made it happen in a relatively brief time.  Well he's got some experience now.

I encountered him a while back on the Roots Radicals email list, a resource list for Xtracycle riders mostly.  We chatted a little about a route through Connecticut for him to take and it looked like he'd be passing right through here so I offered up some hot meals, a shower, and a bed.  Luckily for me he was coming into town on the later end of the day, so I was able to ride out to greet him and then ride in the last 10 miles together.  I was impressed.  Piled high with gear, 8 speeds, and platform pedals, and he still knocked out a really solid pace, with enough lungs to chat.  We unloaded his gear, pointed him to a hot bath followed by dinner and some more conversation.  Once he had recovered from the day, we took a look at his bike, since he mentioned a few mechanical complaints, despite having just paid for a complete tune-up 2 days previously in Brooklyn.  Shifting was all out of whack, kickstand was ready to fall off, and his rear disc brake pads had worn down enough to actually not work at all!  So we:

• Gave the frame a good wipedown
• Cleaned & lubed chain and cogs
• Cleaned & lubed derailleur
• Adjusted front and rear brake cables, deglazed pads, and snugged up the calipers
• Tuned the derailleur
• Tightened crank and chainring bolts
• Adjusted saddle position
• Adjusted lever and shifter positions for better ergonomics
• Aired up tires

In short, it was an awesome shop session.  When we finished around midnight, he said, "This is a happy bike!"  After plotting out the rest of his route to Boston it was definitely time to turn in.  In the morning, he was excited for the last 100 miles to go, so we saw him off, well fueled with pancakes and tea.  I was very much wishing I could trade in my day of work for a day of touring.

Here he is, about to depart for the last two days of riding:

It was really a blast to get to know him a bit.  Hopefully our paths will cross again.  This has thoroughly given me the itch for a tour again.

Why an LBS can rock your socks

I treated myself to some new SPD pedals for the Monocog 29er using some coupons online.  In removing the old cleats and attaching the new cleats that came with them, the threaded plate that the cleats screw into had corroded and the threaded section popped right off.  Major bummer, I really did not want to ride with my flats tonight.  I called Central Wheel, over in Farmington, to see if they had the part and they did.  20 minutes later I was back in the basement screwing my cleats into new plates, which they didn't even bother charging me for!  That kind of local, immediate service is something you can never ever get from the national chain catalogs, not to mention the occasional free nut or bolt.  So major thanks to Central Wheel, they saved my ride today.

I did it to myself, really

Tonight I went for a ride out on the Reservoir.  Feeling invincible after receiving my 5 pack of 29er tubes in the mail yesterday, I was going to be prepared when the inevitable flat were to eventually happen.  I got a late message that there was a group going out in the Rez, so if I was going to catch them I'd need to ride fast.  I tore into the trails like I meant it.  Eventually, around ¾ of the way around I caught up with them.  Except they had decided to ride counterclockwise and were actually headed the way I'd just come.  I was quite well warmed up and feeling good so I turned around and rode with them back the way I'd come, never having down the loop counterclockwise.  It was a neat ride, I like that way and I'm likely to hit it up again that way to mix things up a bit.  After clearing a rock ledge climb that's usually a drop, I heard the SSSSS that means your ride just got less fun.  But I was prepared!  I had my tube!  With no way to inflate it...  My pump had been stashed safely in my road bike bag and apparently my CO2 inflator had discharged in my bag at some point.  Even though I didn't know it, I definitely caused this flat, simply by not having my pump in my bag.  This is where the benefits of actually riding with people come in.  2 borrowed cartridges later, rolling away.  Much thanks to Bill.  Overall, it was a great ride for me about 1.5 times around the Rez since I doubled back, I'm feeling my lungs come back a bit and my legs have more to give than they did last week.  Looking forward to riding with the Black Sheep (and my pump) again tomorrow night

There may be hope for roadies yet

Figuring that the Reservoir could stand people taking it easy on the trails yesterday but knowing that they wouldn't, I went out for a road ride.  This was actually the first time I've gone for a road ride here, I've basically been mountain biking most of the time.  I figured I could make a nice loop by taking a route around the Reservoir.  After wrapping fresh bar tape (oh baby, nothing like fresh tape), I headed out.  I took roads I was generally familiar with going clockwise around the loop to start, but about half the ride would be pure exploration, and should have been around 12 quick miles.  About ¼ of the way around, I came to an intersection at the top of a brutal little hill where I really didn't know which way I should go, so I stopped for a moment to get my bearings.  While I was orienting myself, another cyclist came up the hill and slowed to say hi, which is the first unusual bit.  We started chatting and I asked which way I should got for a loop around the reservoir and he said that he was actually rising the same loop but he took different roads cause the loop I was intending to do ends up being not a good set of roads for riding.  Then he offered to show me around!  Never once in riding a road bike, have I actually met another cyclist who stopped to chat, then offered to ride together without having any sense of my pace.  I hate to say it, but roadies tend to come off as elitist jerks.  It's typically the mountain biking world where people are known for being more social and open to interacting with strangers while riding.

So as we set off together, I tried to make it clear that I didn't want to slow him down, since I had ridden hard on Friday afternoon, and was generally out of form, and he seemed to take that.  It ended up being a gorgeous ride.  I saw a bunch of places I haven't been yet like a little airfield for RC planes, a river that may be paddlable, and the parking areas for Penwood state forest, which I haven't been mountain biking in yet but want too.  I hung on as best I could, he was definitely a quicker rider than me but I was mostly able to hang with him till the base of a spanker of a hill that goes up and over the same ridge running through the Rez.  He actually took a break to let me catch up near the top, which was really nice, since I still had no clue where I was.  Eventually, we diverged to head home in different directions, all in all it was a sweet ride.  A few more miles than I was looking for and I'm a little tight today (Happy Easter!), but it was good to push it a little and it was really nice to have someone show me around.

The Inevitable Ride After Not Riding

Every year at some point, I end up traveling for work, not working out, and then getting sick. In February I went up to Maine to work at our HQ for a few weeks, then traveled to Houston and London. Because of the weather up in Maine, riding was out. I did get to build up my Xtracycle though. The build came all from the bin, except the FreeRadical itself and a new chainring:

• Trek Cruiser Classic aluminum frame 
• Nashbar Chromoly cyclocross fork 
• Xtracycle FreeRadical 
• 700c Touring wheel (front, not as pictured) 
• 26" MTB 7spd wheel (rear) 
• Linear pull rim brakes (front and rear) 
• Titec Jones H-Bar 
• Brooks B-17 saddle 
• 32t Surly chainring 
• 7speed 11-30 cassette 
• Shimano Exage Mountain rear derailleur (controlled with a Shimano friction thumb shifter) 
• 175mm cranks (2 different crank arms) 

After a trip to Bath Cycle and Ski for some small parts, I cobbled her together on Saturday afternoon. I still have some tweaking to do, like actually getting it it's own wheelset for disc brakes, but it's pedal-able right now. With the super long chain there's a fair bit of slack in the system, when I backpedal the chain drops down onto the chainstay before taking up the slack. I'm going to have to do something about that for sure, hopefully the derailleur pulleys just need to be lubricated. For the drivetrain, 32 teeth in front by 11-30 teeth in back will give me a very serviceable low end of 27.5 gear inches up to about 75 gear inches. That should be plenty in both directions for hauling a load. The long wheelbase definitely feels different when riding. I haven't done any real road riding yet, but turning feels very strange. I'm looking forward to giving it it's first real road test. The next thing I've got to figure out is how to modify my roof rack to carry the thing back down to Connecticut, alas it is still in Maine. Given it's parts make up, I have decided to call it: The Xtra-CycloTouringMountain69erCruiser 

Fast forward two months to now and I've just gotten over a nasty cold that has left me with a diminished lung capacity and set me back a ways in terms of general fitness. I've been running a few times, but I haven't put a leg over a bike since January other than test riding the The Xtra-CycloTouringMountain69erCruiser. Yesterday afternoon we closed up shop early so I hit the trails at the West Hartford Rez. There are still some very messy parts but the ridgeline is pretty sweet. After not riding for a couple months, of course my lungs were burning and my legs questioned the benefits of the initial climb up the ridge. By the time I got up to the top, I had a pretty good idea of just how much cardio fitness I've lost. It took a good break at the top to get some air back and then had a really nice ride along the ridge. I was surprised how many people were up there. I guess it's Spring fever for everyone.

So this ride was a good reality check, and now it's time to get those legs back. I think I'll stay out of the woods today since everybody and their brother is going to be out there, I haven't done much road riding down here yet, so I think I might go explore a loop that I can do some hill climbs on for another dose of suffering.