France Part 2

So Marseillan is a pretty little town. Like any respectable European town, it has lots of little food markets, bakeries, fruit and veggie stands, butchers, fish markets, all the usual suspects. There's a town center that is basically the shopping area with little tourist shops, hair salons, cafes, and banks. So I got up and went to the grocery store with my sister Tara to stock up on cheese, wine, coffee, and whatever. We made some guesses as to the best cheap wines and were not disappointed. My method of picking bottles with cool labels seems to hold true. Suzy, however, made the best discovery in this department; It turns out that the region claims to have invented the Champagne method before Dom Perignon, who they also assert took/stole the idea back to Champagne to perfect it. So consequently you can get a bottle of bubbly there for about $3, that tastes more like a bottle of bubbly that cost $30 because they aren't in the Champagne region. Needless to say I came home with a dozen corks from these bottles to stick in the handlebars of various bicycles.

The first day, I pretty much just wandered around town for a bit and watched the Tour on tv, since I was waiting for my bike to show up from the airline. Being extremely jetlagged, this was just fine by me. I ended up getting my bike in the afternoon of the next day. The delivery guy only spoke French so if it were not for Tara, I would still not have my bike. He wouldn't bring it to the apartment, so he was trying to tell me I had to meet him at the town center. When he handed me the bag, it was apparent that it had been completely torn apart and repacked. The frame had a bunch of spots from getting ground around in transit, it looked like it was already an experienced world traveler. Nothing was damaged other than cosmetics, I had it back together and ready to ride in about 5 minutes. Took a quick spin around the block and everything was cool with the bike. Even in the short time pedaling around the block, I felt oddly safe on the street. Drivers there just know how to safely drive near bikes.

France Part 1

I am probably going to have to break this up into a few chunks as I think about my trip so here's part one. I'll start with packing the bike. My original plan had been to cut down a cardboard box to fit the smallest possible size I could cram it all into. I folded up the bike and took off the wheels. I just a rough measurement to see if it would go into a box that wouldn't be oversize according to the airline. It had to be LxHxW < 63 inches linear. I fit it into a box that totaled up to 62.5", sweet. However, the box itself was clunky as hell and I had definite visions of me not enjoying toting it around cars, buses, trains, and airports; all of which my trip would include. This limitation almost caused the Dahon to remain in the States. -Enter Shelagh's bag: She lent it to me upon hearing about my struggles with the box. It was a huge rectangular duffel bag. It fit right around the bike and contoured in to fit it into a much smaller overall size. Also it actually had straps and handles for carrying. I packed in clothes tied up in plastic bags for padding and put shoes over anything that was sticking out, like the hinge mechanism for the main hinge of the frame. The padding situation was enough to protect it from the usual handling, but would not stand up to a serious drop or crunch.

The flight over was pretty good. I got stuck in a window seat next to a pretty german college student and her yowling cat. When I say "yowling" I mean a yowl like wild animal in heat. Punctuated about every 45 minutes by it completely flipping out and causing it's bag to hop around on the floor and triggering another round of apologies from her. I didn't mind, if I were a cat, I'd raise hell too.

Upon arrival in Marseille, I learned that my bike was still in Paris. Yay. They took my address and said they would deliver it to me as soon as possible, and "Here is your free toilet kit." Off to the train.

Not understanding French made for some good traveling antics, first the bus lady yelled at me about my credit card, then I couldn't read my train ticket so I didn't know where to sit and people kept telling me to move cause I was in their seat. Arriving in Agde (2 1/2 hour train ride away), my sister Suzy and my Mom met me at the train station to drive back to Marseillan, which is where we were to be based. Food, wine, bed.

Vive Le Tour!

In a few short (long) hours I'm off to Le Tour. My bags are packed, I have my stage maps, a cheat sheet to say "I don't speak French", and the folder is ready to ride. I should be able to catch stages 11, 12, and 13. And then hopefully 14 and 15. I have learned that the town I'm getting of the Train at is the largest nudist center in Europe, so that'll be interesting, and the town I'm staying in is the home of Noilly Pratt vermouth, so cheers with the Martinis!

Here's how the folder shaped up with the modifications:


The mag wheels are supposedly "indestructible" (within reason obviously) it helps that they are cheap too! The cork grips are beaucoup comfy, I changed out the brake levers and added a rear bmx brake. Gone are the rack and fenders, I swapped the saddle to a TT saddle and the rear wheel has a freewheel rather than a coaster brake. I also swapped out the chain to a SRAM PC-1, 1/8" chain to go with the 1/8" freewheel on the rear. I swapped the folding plastic pedals first for spds, but then back out to some big ol' platform pedals to support normal shoes and reduce the number of footwear I have to take. It rides ok, it certainly isn't my road bike,
but it ships for free and will give me some good stories I'm sure. I took the water bottle cage back off the handlebars for packing reasons and I'm going to leave it off. I bought a daypack that I will likely ride with that has a pocket for a bottle.

In other top news, my bikes will have a place of their own to live again when I get back, I'm moving in to a room in a house owned by a musician in town here. It's pretty sweet digs and I'm very psyched about it. Walking or riding distance to damn near everything I need.

Looking silly.

I took the folder out for its first serious ride. I did a 10 mile loop on it for a shakedown. I found that it is not at all squirrelly like I feared it might be. It is however, definitely not designed for a large rider. The handlebars are way too close, so it takes all the power out of the positioning. The seatpost is definitely not quite long enough, and the handlebars could benefit from an offset stem, rather than simple being a T off the top of the stem. The coaster brake has got to go, it's very snug, and the slightest backpedal will engage it enough to drag. I am starting to think that this bike might not be very fixed-gear friendly because of how low the BB is so I fear that pedal strike could become a major issue. I need to do more evaluating on this though. Wouldn't be the end of the world if I just made it a SS freewheel, becasue I could just pick up a stock bmx wheelset for that rather than having a custom fixed wheel built up. I probably looked rather silly in my serious bike duds riding around on the folder. I borrowed the SPD pedals from the pirate bike, and put the Velo TT saddle on it too. It is fairly comfortable with this set up, geometry aside. I would like to change the grips to something a little larger, probably cork. I need to get out for a longer ride to see just how long I can crank this thing for.

I also got back a new helmet from Giro to replace the one I just bought. The Pneumo was defective out of the box. I had bought an 06 model and they sent me a shiny new 07 model which is very cool. It's as comfy as the last one, and fits more securely thanks to the not defective Roc-Loc mechanism. I love this helmet.

More new toys and some heavy news.

Since my last post a few things have been confirmed for me. Specifically, I'm getting divorced. I had never intended to use this blog for stupid whining but I guess that's where I've gone and I realize that some people will learn about this for the first time here, sorry about that, I don't really feel much like telling it over and over to everyone. This has actually caused me to ride less because my life is all over the place. I've had to move and consequently the bikes have been moving all over the place, and I just haven't had have time lately. Couple that with general emotional difficulties and I just haven't felt like riding. Tomorrow though, I get back in the saddle. Which saddle is still in question.

Another thing that has been confirmed is my trip to France to see Le Tour. I'm flying out the 14th of July and will be returning on the 28th. I should get to see the stages through Provence, and as it gets into the foothills of the Pyrenees. I am very excited about this.

To further this endeavor, I have finally broken down and ordered up a folding bike. It's a Dahon Boardwalk S1 as seen to the left. It currently weighs 30 pounds. My goal is to get it as light as possible. Saddle, pedals, crankset, and wheels will be swapped. The rear coaster brake wheel will be replaced with a fixed/fixed gear wheel for gearing flexibility. I am considering using a Surly Dingle Cog for two gears on one side and Dos Eno freewheel on the other for four total options. Though I may simply go double fixed for simplicity. I need to see how it rides for distance before I bother messing too much with it. If I can't go long on it I have some serious figuring to do for getting around France. Fenders, racks, chainguard and reflectors will all be gone of course. The handlebar will likely be treated to some cork grips and a replacement brake lever. I essentially bought this thing to have the frame as a platform to start from.

In other good news I have lost another pound. I am down to 181lbs with my target at 175lbs. I am starting to feel better about this because, coming from 190lbs (with a temporary spike up to 195lbs) I now have less to lose than I have lost so far. Feeling a little less like Jan and more like Lance (ha, yeah right). The remaining 6 is all abs, so biking is fairly powerless to help, situps and running it is.

Finally, I traded my truck in for a Jeep Wrangler. It is piles of fun. Has a hard top withe sunroof, new stereo, new speakers, new soft top, and some of the fun exterior stuff like grill guards and tail guards. Still trying to figure out how to get bikes on it. Nate (bro-in-law) gave me 4 Thule Velo-vice trays that I will likely mount up on an over-roof cage rack. Trying to figure out how to make some half doors for it. Possibly out of wood, fiberglass or maybe, just maybe some carbon fiber. Best of all, she gets the same mileage as my truck, but is approximately 10,000 times more fun to drive and designed from the ground of for fun toys.

New Toys, Old Toys

The wind has seemed to quiet down some finally. Riding at lunch has been much more pleasurable. The other day I had a stark reminder why breakfast is important though. On our lunch ride we went out on the longer loop we found, and I realized I had not eaten yet that day. Not cool, that ride did not feel good. Eat breakfast, people!

I finally got around to installing a new BB in the Bridgestone. That dials my chainline in nicely on the single front ring to be evenly in the middle of the rear 7 speed gear cluster. The original BB predated cartridge BBs and that bike has thousands upon thousand of miles on it. The bearing retainers were just pieces floating around inside the cups. I'll probably overhaul that BB for another bike. So after putting a flat bar back on it, I'll be ready to go trail riding again. Haven't been for years, but I miss off-road. I'll be hitting the trails up at Moosehead this weekend.

The new toys are a longsleeve merino jersey that I can't wait to ride with, and a Park PCS-1 workstand. This came from PricePoint.com for $120, thanks Jim! It's a very solid stand, we borrowed one from Brian to build Jim's bike in, so I knew what I was getting when I picked it, extremely solid, easy to use, good clamp. It also came with a free Crank Bros 10 multi tool. It's a little bulkier than some of the more foldable models, but it makes up for that in being really solid. Out of the box I didn't need the instructions to put it together, it's incredibly simple. Only two bolts to fasten the lower legs to the Y-joint.

Jeremy asked me what cheap tires I would recommend to get a mountain bike back on the street. Instantly, I thought of the Kenda K-Rad 26x1.95s. I had these on my Bridgestone for all of last year as a mostly road single speed, and I just gave one of them to Tim at work who is now riding with it on the front of his Gary Fisher. The tires roll easily for street, but have enough of a low tread for grass and hard pack trails/dirt roads to get a grip. The checkerboard pattern looks good on a mountain bike and doesn't make much noise on pavement. I even rode these in 3" of snow in January, they did OK, but it was a little on the slippy side. To seal the deal, they are only $10 each from Nashbar. I only took them off the bike to put more aggressive trail/mud tires on.

Wind in the spokes

It has been a windy month. Plenty warm enough for riding, but very generally windy. I've almost been blown of the road a few times though. It's now warm enough to ride to work every day but with that weird early spring temperature differential between 7:00am and a couple hours later. Most mornings I need tights, jacket, hat, gloves, and in the after noon I need none of that. So I've been looking like a camel on my way home lately with my jersey pockets stuffed full.

Today I basically have to go for a very long ride; The century date we've (Jim and I) been talking about is next weekend, but I'm not sure if that's going to work out for a number of reasons.

Now that the weather is a little more conducive to pictures, I got out the whole stable (well, except for the new guy) for some pictures. Here they are:

Nashbar Road bike, built 2006 (aka: Woof):


Dad's [now mine] Schwinn Suburban (1972):


I've been very excited to add Dad's bike to my collection. My earliest memories involve being carried in a backpack while atop this bike. We used to go for a bike ride almost every day when I was tiny. We would ride out to Dairy Queen for ice cream, and up to the powerlines to pick blueberries. I would invariably fall asleep during the rides with the wind in my face. This was a bike that had 10 whole gears. When I was old enough for my own BMX bike, I was amazed that you could have all those levers and gears and you could go so fast. The mechs on this bike are all very old, and weigh a ton. I have begun the process of tearing it down to make a single speed conversion out of it. I will likely be buying some new wheels for this bike soon. Probably track wheels so I can ride it fixed as well. I bought new rubber for it right away, only to find that yes, these are the old Schwinn proprietary rims that don't hold a conventional tire bead. 90 psi- BANG! Off like a shotgun.

Raleigh R-300 (1997) Touring bike:


Hawthorne Fixed-Gear (aka: Dump Bike):


Trek Cruiser Classic (frame 2006) Fixed-Gear (aka: Pirate Bike):


Bridgestone BB-1 mountain bike (1992):


Not pictured are a couple crappy old frames that are hanging in the corner, a Schwinn Varsity, and a gas pipe Shogun. Also just yesterday I picked up a dept store ten speed with a decent looking lugged steel frame, fenders, and 26" wheels. That may be destined for a bizarre FG conversion.