Some more levity... <IFRAME height=281 src="//player.vimeo.com/video/67465768" frameBorder=0 width=500 allowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen></IFRAME>A Couples' Ride from Darcy Turenne on Vimeo.
I watched that with MrsK7... She laughed pretty hard. "Oh...that's me", referring to the guy several times. Good find.
Pittsburgh to DC trip: It was awesome. Everyone needs to do this some day. The first thing we did was classify this as a vacation, so we would be taking our time and enjoying the trip. The plan was pittsburgh to connellesville (60mi), to rockwood (43mi), to Cumberland (45mi), to Hancock (60mi), to harpers ferry (63mi), to a friends house in DC (70mi). We were going to take an off day in Harpers Ferry. We got lucky that the government opened back up that day, so we were able to see the exhibits. The "lower" milage days enabled us to take our time and explore and take many breaks off of the bike. Starting at about 8-9 am and finishing at 4-5pm. We stayed at bed and breakfasts every night. This allowed us to pack very light. I enjoyed the history on the C&O trail. The locks and lock houses are really interesting. We got really lucky with the weather. We kept just barely missing the rain storms and rolled through with pretty sunny skies. The changing leaves were awesome. Everything went very smoothly until our last day out of Harpers Ferry. We hit the trail early around 8 am. We had about 70 miles to go, 60 on the trail and another 10 to our friends house in DC. About 10 miles in (60 to go), disaster struck, Sally picked up a stick in her wheel that cleaned her derailleur off of her frame. Not only did the derailleur get trashed. The dropout got ripped apart, there was no place for the rear axle to sit in on the drive side. A few spokes in the rear wheel got bent up, knocking the wheel out of true. Lastly the rear rack was mounted to this part also. Ok, trying not to freak out or get pissed, because Sally was pretty hysterical at this point. First thing first, remove the trashed derailleur. Had to remove the rear rack. Then I get the rear wheel kinda set into place and held the parts in the paces they used to be. Next I clamped the rear skewer as tightly as possible. The pile of zip ties came out at this point. I zip tied the rear quick release forward in to the frame. Then I had to true the wheel up so that it would pass through the frame. After that, I had to zip tie the rear rack to the frame. Unsure if the wheel was even going to stay in the frame, I then setup the bike in to a single speed in a manageable gear. I told her that it was fixed but she would have to take it easy on it. No slamming into pot holes, no hard acceleration, and lastly, I had to strap all of her bags to my bike. So 60 miles left In the day: Sally has a bike that has one gear and the rear wheel is held on by zip ties and I have a bike that weighs 70 or 80 pounds. The first mile was pretty tense. I expected the wheel to come ripping out of the frame at any moment. As the miles ticked off, I got less stressed. The stress would lessen but remained until we crossed mile marker 10 on the C&O, at this point, I knew we were close enough that we could walk and easily find help. I could not believe it, but the zip ties held up the entire way, 60 miles of trail, bumps, roots and rocks. The chain would skip if she put too much pressure in the pedals but that was manageable. We are in DC now. Unbelievably, Sally had us rent some cruiser bikes and go do the bike tour with the National Park Rangers today. That was a lot of fun.
Last week, we had a two day holiday mid week. What better use of the disruption than a bike trip? <iframe height='405' width='590' frameborder='0' allowtransparency='true' scrolling='no' src='http://www.strava.com/activities/89412630/embed/0814130ea0b54a19c602b7a4e30d26ef696a7bb3'></iframe> Overnight stay at Uyo, then early start back to PH Or that was the plan but the weather juju had other ideas. Thunderstorm from 0410 till 0600. Made for a cool morning ride <iframe height='405' width='590' frameborder='0' allowtransparency='true' scrolling='no' src='http://www.strava.com/activities/89412621/embed/f5cec0e840ecdf5372b537d1437f65cf4a33ccd9'></iframe>
Some pics and stories from the trip Dr. Ferrari <table style="width:auto;"><tr><td><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/-Enb91eia2ny9MExVPL0JdMTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-o8vq33LMbgU/UmBPdJ0O3ZI/AAAAAAAALSY/GsGJJ7QNHu0/s640/DSC_0053.jpg" height="640" width="360" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right">From <a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/102094600529123038018/PHUyoReturnOct2013?authuser=0&feat=embedwebsite">PHUyoReturnOct2013</a></td></tr></table> Mix and match <table style="width:auto;"><tr><td><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/aZYdoPe6_kkzWdbHLmayFdMTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-1_wHZ-ES8Ik/UmBPnRC8WTI/AAAAAAAALSo/8otpaWhQ5Xg/s640/DSC_0059.jpg" height="640" width="360" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right">From <a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/102094600529123038018/PHUyoReturnOct2013?authuser=0&feat=embedwebsite">PHUyoReturnOct2013</a></td></tr></table> Tempted to jump in <table style="width:auto;"><tr><td><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/Na02oCsAJN2qnfndCghXstMTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-i8Kvrakcg6w/UmBOxqvvkeI/AAAAAAAALRo/dY7zgkZ0cH0/s400/DSC_0038.jpg" height="225" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right">From <a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/102094600529123038018/PHUyoReturnOct2013?authuser=0&feat=embedwebsite">PHUyoReturnOct2013</a></td></tr></table> More pics here https://picasaweb.google.com/102094600529123038018/PHUyoReturnOct2013#
We are finally home. Here is a better look at the broken frame. Here is the dropout with the zip ties that held the rear rack removed. I can't believe these zip ties held the wheel on the bike. Here it is with the wheel removed. No fixing that. Thinking about a specialized tricross or a All City macho man.
DCCX yesterday. 35th out of nearly 100 Legs felt like poo the entire time. ...but I'm not my buddy who rolled 2 tubulars, did 2 face plants, then flatted his backup wheel. :eek1 HE finished 72nd. Still managed to beat 11 people and the dozen or so DNFs M
Stout mileage! Love the pics. I've mentioned before how much I desire the simplicity of places like where you're at. I was watching a show on Mongolia, yesterday, and commented to her about the simplistic lifestyle so many of these people get to live. It's hard to explain to people who've never experienced it. Hard to believe only a stick caused that.
What do you guys know about Habanero Cycles? They offer Ti frames at ~$1K. I had one in my hands, yesterday, and seem pretty nice.
Habanero has been around for at least 12 years, which is a big plus. I had a Airborne Ti frame that cracked after a few years. Not long after I got the warranty replacement they stopped honoring their warranties. Based on the Airborne I would suggest a carbon frame. The Zeppelin I had was on the comfortable side of Ti but compared to a good CF frame it was both flexy and harsh riding. And heavy. For less than the price of the Hab you can get a PedalForce or one of a number of direct from China frames. I have one of each- a PF QS2 and a Deng Fu FM066SL. The QS2 is the flexiest of the CF frames I have (I also have a Cervelo R3SL) but is still stiffer than the Zepp was. I've raced it. The FM066SL is a stiff modern bike but the ride is still significantly better than the Zepp was, and it responds when I stand on the pedals. The advantage of PedalForce vs direct from China is that they stock and warranty stuff here in the US. They have been around for at least 6 years (that's how old my QS2 is). If you don't want a Chinese frame you'll need to look elsewhere as Hab makes their stuff in China. There's plenty of good stuff coming from China. The visible layup on my mostly unpainted FM066SL is significantly better than my 2006 Cervelo's was.
This is exactly what I was looking for. Figuring the price, I thought it might be Asian made. For Ti, I'm not interested. Thank you.
good luck finding any bicycle frames outside of niche makers like Rock Lobster, Waterford made in the USA anymore.
You are looking at close to a grand in materials alone when talking about a ti bike made here... Thoughts on where bikes are made and what it means: http://lovelybike.blogspot.com/2011/11/where-was-your-bicycle-made-and-does-it.html
It's a good blog, isn't it? I don't follow it as closely as I'd like. Sure, understandable to not trust what's made in China. I've known a few people from big bike companies to small that deal with the Asian bike makers. They all say you need to know the factory and keep tabs on them, otherwise they have the good ol' 'merican "git 'er done" attitude. I know next to nothing about Habanero, but I'm sure if you do some searching you'll find comments here and there about troubles or lack there of. I've heard sketchy things about Airborne from the get go, back in the late ninety's. I'm amazed it's still around. I'd be curious to see a Habanero in person. I've seen ti frames from some of the most respected small shops in the country that kind of scared me. But it's amazing how "poorly" a bike can be made that will last tens of thousands of miles.
Then don't buy a GT Edge, any Airborne, any LeMond, any... well, you get the idea. Stick to Serotta, Firefly, Indy Fab, et al and expect to pay thru the nose. The blanket statement that 'Asian manufacturers suck' isn't true any more. The Taiwanese are some of the best with the Chinese catching up in quality. They Chinese aren't there quite yet, but they're working hard. When pretty much ALL the major brands are having bikes made there, there's bound to be a steep learning/experience curve in action. Cleaned the Fuji (Asian-made carbon) after yesterday's cross race. Man! was that thing filthy! :eek1 I'm amazed that I can like a set of tires so well for JRA off-roading but dislike them intensely for racing. Racing Ralphs do real well for me off-road on the CX bike but I really, really don't like em for racing. I'm gonna have to pull em off the wheels they're on and get something else glued on. May just pull the tires off my mud wheels and call the 24mm carbon tubulars 'dual use' mud and slower course wheels. M
Do not buy a ti Serotta. They clean the tubes with paint thinner and use leather gloves. Their welds are totally washed out. Don't do it.
