Fleas And Trees 200k Brevet March 14 2015

Recently I took part in a 200 kilometer Brevet bicycle ride. This was the Lonestar Randonneurs route known as "Fleas and Trees" from Canton TX to Gilmer TX and return. I did not arrive at the ride start in Canton as early as I planned. In fact I got there about 15 minutes before the ride started. That was not a good idea as I had to rush to get ready.

There seemed to be about  20 riders ready to leave on the ride from the Canton Wal-Mart parking lot. Most of the riders in fact all but three of us were riding the 400 k route. After a quick safety briefing and welcome from the ride organizers we were on our way. The group stayed together for the most part to the first town which was Mineola. This town was not a control but most folks stopped anyway for refreshment from one of the convenience stores. From there I fell in with a motivated group of about  10 riders who were really pushing the pace up and up. I stayed with them for about 20 miles. I could not keep riding at their pace so I fell back and rode my own speed. A few other riders caught up to me. I had to stop about 15 miles out of Gilmer, the turn around point on this out and back ride to use the restroom. At this point I must have been the last rider on the course. A visiting Japanese rider passed me on his way back about 8 miles outside of Gilmer.

I got to Gilmer and made it through the town to the gas station/ convenience store that was the turn around Control for the 200 k ride. I went inside and purchased a drink and a sandwich and had my card signed. I took a break and ate lunch here. Another rider decided to wait for me though she had been waiting at the control for some time. She stated that she did not want to ride back all the way by herself. I was thankful to have the company as we could work together on the ride back.

There are quite a few hills between Mineloa and Gilmer. In fact this ride really reminded me of some the the areas that I used to ride through in west Kentucky and in Tennesee with the Nashville Randonneuring group. It was just hill after hill up and down up and down. I actually enjoyed it though as most of my bicycle riding here in Texas during the last three years that I have lived here has been more flat and with head winds. And this was different. On the way back we stopped from time to time to take breaks. Neither my co-rider or I had done a ride of this distance for several years. Eventually we made it back to Mineola. We stopped for a few minutes and ate a snack and refilled our water bottles. From there it was a slog back through light rain to Canton 25 miles away or so. Eventually we made it to the finishing control which was a gas station at the corner of Hwy 243 and 19. The ride was completed just 4 minutes short of 10 hours. We were glad to be finished. That was not a fast time but I was satisfied with my ride and enjoyed it.

Here are a few photos I took along the way.

Gravelthon 2015

This past Saturday the 7th of March I took part in an interesting ride. This was the Gravelthon gravel ride along the Trinity river levies near down town Dallas. This took place in conjunction with the All Out Trinity festival on the Continental bridge park and the Margret Hunt Hill bridge. We had a bunch of rain, ice, and snow for the two weeks before this ride. As a result the projected course of the ride had to be changed a couple of times. At the last minute the original course which was to be a loop on both sides of the river was changed. This was due to construction equipment driving on the levy roads and tearing them up due to the wet conditions.

The ride started about 10:15 am. I was a few minutes late getting to the ride start. So the group had started before me. The ride was not a race. The promoter billed it as an exploration ride. The point was to get people out and riding on the levies. Eventually there is supposed to be a bicycle trail running all the way to Fort Worth from Dallas along the Trinity river. The ride started out on some new paved bike trails that run underneath the Continental bridge and along both sides of the river down in the bottoms. From there most riders were going up on top of the levy and riding along the top. That is what I did. I rode down to where Westmoreland road crosses the Trinity. There was a rest stop set up there.

 From there I crossed the river again back to the west side using the construction bridge that is right under the Westmoreland bridge. Several other riders went along with me. I rode several miles in the direction of Grand Prairie on top of the western levy. I then went down and rode back to Westmoreland on a gravel road in the river bottoms. From there I crossed back over and returned the way I rode out to the Continental Bridge. It was a fun ride. I think if it is held again and the weather cooperates It will turn out to be a good event. I enjoyed it.

Here is a photo taken of me by Jan McNeil Lee on the way out.

And my bike was very muddy after the ride.

Some Of My Bikes

It has been a long time since my last post.  I have not been riding as much in the last two years as before.  But I have made a few changes to my bicycles.  So here are a few photos.

Here are two photos of my Salso Cassarol.  I am running a SRAM I-Motion 9 speed internal hub gear on this bike.  I switched it to Albatross bars about a year ago.  I am enjoying the more upright position this gives me.

This is my Trek 800.  I rebuilt it into a great utility bike.  It had Titec H bars and now I have some vintage steel Schwinn cruiser handle bars on it.  Very comfortable.

This is my Fuji Espree fixed gear.  I have had it for 14 years now and just recently made some adjustments and swapped out the saddle to a more comfortable model.

This is my Kalkoff.  It was an early 70s' ten speed.  It is now a single speed and I use this often when I ride transit into or around Dallas.  It is a good bike but looks beat up.

 My mountain bike.  Seven gears on a Diamond Back Topanga frame.  Fun

Re-Locating Cantilever Brake Studs

Recently I started a project on my daughters bike.  She has a Trek MT 220 mtb with 24 inch wheels.  This bike is built like a tank.  It came with a cheap Suntour suspension fork.  It just seemed like this fork was a lot of extra weight (about 5 lbs) to haul around when she mainly rides around the back yard or on neighborhood streets.  Sometimes we ride on some of the various bicycle trails in the area also.

 I started looking on line for suspension corrected forks for 24 inch wheel cycles.  I did not find any.  So I looked through my collection of bicycle forks.  The axle to crown measurement of a cro-mo cyclocross fork that I had came close.  But in the end I decided to use the steel fork from my old Diamondback Topanga 26 inch wheel mountain bike that I used to have.  I had scrapped the frame but held on to the fork.  The axle to crown on this fork was a little short but the fork was much lighter than the cross fork. I may use the cross fork on another bike later.

  This DB fork has a one inch threaded steerer on it.  My daughters Trek has a 1 1/8 inch dia. head tube and came with a 1 1/8 inch threaded steerer on the suspension fork .  I remembered a friendly bike shop owner had once told me that some product was made that allowed you to install a one inch headset into a 1 1/8 inch head tube.  I couldn't remember what this was but after a little internet research  I came up with a set of shims that press into the 1 1/8 inch head tube then you press in the one inch head set cups and races.

 I ordered the shims and knew we were in business.  One major issue remained what to do about the front brakes.  The fork I was going to use had been for a 26 inch wheeled mountain bike from before the days of suspension forks.  I knew that I would have to move the cantilever brake mounting studs down lower on the fork blades in order to have the brakes work with a 24 inch wheel. I figured out how much to move them down.  It ended up being about 26mm lower that I needed to move them.  So I cut the studs off the fork being sure to measure the distance from the crown to the center of the studs before I did so.

  Then I welded them back on the fork blades at a distance from the fork crown 26mm further away than they had been mounted in the 26 inch wheel position.  I used a TIG welder to do this.  I also made a plate with holes in it to space the studs the proper distance apart and hold them in place while I welded them back on.

  Once I finished the fork I was able to install a one inch headset into the frame and installed the fork.  The bike is several pounds lighter now and also seems to handle a bit better.  With the suspension fork the bike seemed a little raked back like a chopper motorcycle.  The V brakes installed just fine and work well on the new fork.

Light Mounts From Brake Parts

I have been slowly putting my new Velo Orange Randoneur  bike together over the past year.   I have not been in a hurry to get it on the road because I have other good bicycles to ride and as a result I  have not been motivated to get this one going.  About a year ago I saw a picture somewhere on the net where a person had used a piece of a center pull brake to make a mount for a headlight that attached to the front rack on the bicycle.  I liked this idea.  I used one on the new bike using the backing plate from an old Dia Compe centerpull brake.  Recently Bike Tinker had a post about such light mounts.  You can read that post here:

   http://www.biketinker.com/2011/projects/brake-arm-light-mount-extension/ 

Here is a picture of my setup attached to a Velo Orange front rack.  I may move the light over to the left hand side of the rack.

Bday weekend rides

I had a couple of good rides this weekend.  Sat I did a ride with my bike club the Pennyrile area Cyclists.  Five of us went out on a 50 mile ride starting in Madisonville Ky.  We had some light rain for the first half of the ride or so.  Also had some head wind.  I ended up peeling off and heading for home a different way Getting about 64 miles in all.  Sun afternoon Brad, David H. and I rode one of our loops from Nortonville.  We had some light drizzle at times.  I rode my fixed gear bike for the first time in a while.  It was a blast to charge up the hills as hard as I could and then spin down fast on the other side.  We got in about 20 miles on this ride.

Birthday ride.

Today is my birthday so I thought I would celebrate it by going for a ride.  I rode from my house in Nortonville Ky to Princeton Ky .  I met the family there at a pizza resturaunt that we enjoy.  The ride basically followed US 62 the whole way.  Traffic was light today.  And the weather was beautiful.   Blue sky and puffy white clouds.  There are several good sized hills along this route.  And they were enjoyable to ride up and fly down.  The ride was about 30 miles.  My bike of choice for this ride was my Campy Denali.  I ended up having some front derailer shifting issues.  It did not like going into the big ring.  I will have to look at that and see what is going on.