JB's Bike Blog

2009 Bike Reviews Part 1

I just completed the next to last big ride — and certainly the longest ride — of my 2009 season. I have, as always, bought a few things this year to add to my bike collection.

Rivendell Quickbeam — this is a singlespeed bicycle from Rivendell Bicycle Works. It is set up for a 32/40 crankset, out-of-the-box an 18t cog in back that I supplemented with a 22t cog (I know I am a pansy to start anything new) that I changed to a 16t for the CNC ride. I love this bike. In the 8-9 weeks that I have had this bike 80% or more of my rides have been on this bike. The bike is very comfortable, handles well and is quick relatively speaking. The 650x38 Col de Vie tires eat up almost the worst pavement nicely. I don't think anything could have dealt well with the chip seal washboard that I encountered on CNC this year. I will probably swap these tires out next year but for now they suit the purposes of the bike (commuting, errands, under 30-mile rides) very nicely. If you are looking for a nice high–end singlespeed bike, you would be hard pressed to find a nicer bike.

Acorn Roll bag wins as the best new purchase this year! This small bag fits perfectly under a Brooks saddle and holds way more than your average seat bag. I got a tube, tire kit, tire irons, small tool, S&S coupler wrench, clean up rags, spare money, and a reserve energy gel into the bag with plenty of room to spare. When rolled up, it takes up very little space and seemed pretty light weight to me. According to the interwebs, I am at least five pounds overweight so I am not that worried about saving grams... It does take a few minutes longer than normal to get into the bag since you have to undo two somewhat stiff, at least to begin with, leather straps. It is not a simple zipper but it is not like you have to be Houdini to get in either. The bag looks great and gets lots of positive comments.

I own two of the bags; one in each color black and tan. My only regret is that one of the bags is tan and since the bag holds my tools, my hands are inevitably dirty when I am opening the bag and the bag shows the marks.

The hardest thing with Acorn bags is actually getting the bags. You have to monitor their website to see when the bags are online for sale and then within a week due to their excellence they are sold out until the next month. Be vigilant, it is very much worth it!

Acorn Rando bag was my latest purchase from the magicians at Acorn. This was to replace my Berthoud 22 front bag. There was absolutely nothing wrong with the Berthoud I just felt that it was too big for my needs. This bag is a medium sized front bag and sits about 1-inch lower when sitting on a Nitto front rack. However on the CNC ride, it held

• Left back pocket - Panasonic digital camera
• Right back pocket - iPhone and wallet
• front pocket - a toe strap actually but it could have held much much more if needed.
• right side slash pocket - sunscreen and lip balm
• left slash pocket - energy gels
• main pocket - one rain jacket, 2 cool weather riding pullovers, second tube with room to spare.

The bag mounts very easily to the Nitto rack with velcro straps and has somewhat unnecessary loops to attach to the handlebars to minimize side-to-side sway and does not involve the decaleur set up that the Berthoud did. Even without using the handlebar loops which I tucked into the side pockets, the bag sits solidly on the rack.

My biggest grip with the bag is that the map pocket on the top of the main pocket's cover does not easily hold half of a 8.5-inch by 11-inch piece of paper folded width-wise (2 8.5-inch x 5.5-inch sides). I had to fold the top and bottom to get the paper to sit flat in the pocket. Since most people just use Word's overly generous top margin in their maps, this is seldom been a problem yet.

CNC summary

Starting on 27 September, this year I rode across North Carolina for the second year on a row. My friend Kim and about 1200 other riders rode from Blowing Rock on the Blue Ridge Parkway on the border with Tennessee to Surf City at the Atlantic Ocean. The ride started with a bus trip from Surf City to Blowing Rock in a downpour all day long. It is a long bus ride but met the twins Tom and Toby from Raleigh who made the trip more pleasant. Great meal in Blowing Rock for dinner and best coffee of the trip in the morning on main street.

I rode the new Rivendell Quickbeam with a 16/18 cogs set in back and the standard 32/40 crankset in the front. The bike is set up as a singlespeed. I had a small Nitto rack in the front with a Acorn Rando bag mounted to it.

The first day was truly spectacular! I had the bike set up as a 32x18 to deal with the hills on the Parkway. The Parkway was absolutely unbelievable. I would highly recommend this route to anyone. Not hard to ride and the scenery is great. The middle part of the day was an 11-mile decent down Grandfather Mountain. Now that was fun. The day ended in Lenoir; a town woefully unprepared for 1200 hungry cyclists. Two of the three restaurants in town ran out of food. This was the worst food on the entire trip.

Day 2 was a tough day with constant short steep hills and ended in Statesville. Statesville is a nondescript town that is short on work but had a huge Baptist center we camped at. The locals had a nice downtown show but the local ice cream store closed at 6 with 1200 hungry cyclists.

Day 3 was a nice, fast relatively speaking day that ended in Thomasville — famous furniture town. We drank beers in the town square and then ate some horrible food served by the nicest ladies. I rode the day in 40/18 gearing.

Day 4 was 100-mile day and we had to make up our minds at mile 32. Awfully early to discern how you feel on a long ride. The 25+-mile century loop was a brutal section that was chip seal pavement that tractors had made into washboard for most of it. But the rest stop was in Sea Grove which is apparently pottery central in NC. Nice pottery if you like non-practical pottery. Personally, give me a nice coffee cup and I am a happy camper. I highly recommend the hot dogs with meat sauce at the rest stop. Unbelievably great duck au poivre for dinner at local restaurant. Stayed in the 40/18 gearing.

Day 5 was hard because my legs were tired from the century. If you had asked me this day what I thought of a week long tour on a singlespeed I would have had an unkind answer.

Day 6 highlight was the rest stop on Warsaw NC in old mansion that the nicest ladies — not the same nicest ladies noted above — had prepared pimento cheese sandwiches on Wonder bread (yuck to the whole sandwich idea) and about 20 different homemade cookies. Only day that was not beautiful. Wehad about 30 minutes of rain which meant that I had to stay at rest stop and eat more cookies. Bad day for dinner but okay pizza.

Day 7 was fast straight ride that ended in a massage and then a great dinner followed by a dumpy hotel but it served the purpose.

Flickr site

Ride around Lake George/Perserverance

Last Thursday, I rode around Lake George New York via Glens Falls>Lake George Village>Bolton Landing>Hague>Ticonderoga>Whitehall>Fort Ann>Glens Falls. It was a great day, mid-80s temperature with some clouds and a light breeze. A perfect cycling day. The pictures from the day are here. The ride was 101 miles and I averaged 13.2 miles an hour.

While this is certainly not going to land me on "The Shack" team, I was impressed with myself because all of the bolts came out with the exception of one on my inner chainring causing it to be non-functional. For about five minutes, I was furious! I had had a local bike shop in Ellicott City do some work on the bike and now this happened. I was 40 miles from home and had no cellular service. I was about to make a collect phone call on a real, live pay phone when I got thinking about an article I had read in Road Bike Rider about how cell phones were causing people to give up on rides too easily. At the time, this article seemingly caused a shit storm on the site. I got to thinking — a rarity — about maybe I should just go forward and see how far I could go with just a 48/27-12 combination. I could not really get much further from home at that point.

Needless to say, there was some hills that certainly sucked to get up and over between Hague and Whitehall. I suffered several of them mightily but I got up all of them (and down the other side). I finished the ride after what could/should have been a major mechanical failure. I could go forward when part of me wanted to quit.

1 down 2 to go

Last week, I sold my Serotta that I bought in 1995. I have hardly ridden it in the last two years; I mostly ride the Rambouillet as that suits me more. I am also selling my Bianchi Pista and the Bridgestone MB-3. They are on Craigslist.
I am anxiously awaiting a Rivendell Quicksilver that should be here on Friday. I was looking for something to replace the three with one bike that covers most of those scenarios. I did not end up liking the Bianchi that much.

First bike ride of the year

I rode 18 miles on the Rambouillet and enjoyed it immensely. My riding the Pista during the week has definitely helped.

CETMA Rack

To preface my review, I search out makers of bike stuff that actually create whatever it is they sell right here in the USA. I have nothing against other countries products but if I can keep someone in the US employed in the bike related industry. I try to go in that direction. I have been slowly building up a utility bike around a Bridgestone MB-3 frame. I was in the market for a front rack to compliment my rear one and there was a glowing review of Lane's racks on Kevin Kelly's Cool Tools blog.

I purchased a CETMA Rack back in August 2008. I posted about the buying experience on my main blog. To say it was not a good experience would be an understatement.

Pros:

• The rack can really carry some stuff. I have carried grocery bags, books, a paper box from work. It did the job admirably.
• It was easy to assemble.

Cons:

The rack welds are not even close to uniform. There is solder blobbed on in spots and none in other spots. Aesthetics are a close second to functionality in my world.

Rack supports are Wald backet components. What you are purchasing literally is the rack itself. Wald is a fine company that sells under $50 racks that are great. But for $160, I am not expecting Wald components.

Three month build time with absolutely no response to several polite emails and about five phone calls. Once you get a hold of Lane, he seems like a great guy but it was very frustrating not knowing anything about what my status was.

Like I said under Pros, the rack serves the purpose that I purchased it for but if I had to do over again, I would have spent another $40 and purchased either a Velo-Orange rack or a Capricorn Cycles rack from Etsy. This will very likely end up on eBay before Spring hits.

Cycle North Carolina

I just completed Cycle North Carolina last week. This year's trip ran from Black Mountain to Oak Island with stops in Morganton, Lincolnton, Concord, Wingate, Laurel Hill, and White Lake. Highlights were:

• Route - this was a very well planned route. The markings were the best I have ever seen on a route. This was incredible.
• People - very friendly thousand people.
• Camp sites with the exception of Concord and Laurel Hill.

Lows were:

• Food - get the food plan if you plan to take this ride. Very few of the towns could support the amount of people looking for food and in more than a few cases, we were bused to other towns for food. Very, very inconvenient.
• Food stops - this ride poorly supports the riders food-wise on the road. During the first three days, we had food stops that literally had no food and twice had no water for 30+ minutes. In a ride that has been run for ten years, I would expect more.

I would recommend this ride with the caveat that you bring Clif Bars or something to eat when the food blows or runs out. Here is a link to the Flickr stream.

My Review of Teva Sunkosi Sandals - Men's

Originally submitted at REI

Equally at home in water or on the trail, Teva® Sunkosi shoes offer traction and quick-draining performance, a must for amphibious adventures!

Teva Sunkosi Sandals - Men's

Not recomended at all

By john the biker from Baltimore, MD on 10/7/2008

 

1out of 5

Gift: No

Pros: Lightweight, Dries Quickly

Cons: Wears Easily, Holds Odors

Best Uses: Everyday/Practical Use

Describe Yourself: Professional

I owned a pair of Teva sandals that lasted 5 years. They stunk (odor-wise) but lasted. These stink; I replaced the insole in August because I could not get the smell which was repulsive out of them. Now, the soles have worn through in less than six months.

The soles cannot be replaced. To say I am disappointed in the quality of these sandals is a major understatement.

(legalese)

Morganton nc

Black mountain

Town began closing up at 3pm. Bad food,decent beer, very bad service. Very pretty.