A Tale of Two Rides

It was the worst of rides. It was the best of rides...

Saturday was the Camano Climb. Horrible weather. Of course, I didn't bring my rain gear since the weatherman called for a nice day.

As I left Seattle I drove headlong into a squall. After arriving at the ride start I sat and waited for a break in the downpour...but it didn't come. So I ventured out and got thoroughly soaked.

I flatted in the first 20 mins. The only thing good about my ride on Saturday was the realization that a 16 gram CO2 cartridge is perfect for the high pressure tires I have on my Jamis Eclipse.

I hit the point on the road where I had to choose between completing the ride or taking the shortcut back to the parking lot. I chose the cut off so I only got 25 or 30 miles in.

The worst thing about Saturday wasn't the fact that I couldn't feel my toes and that my socks were sponges. No, the worst thing was that my bike rack didn't hold my beloved Eclipse securely...so I got some nice rub marks on my frame. What a crappy day...

Sunday was quite different. The weatherman's coin toss of a forecast was correct. It was a nice day--no rain--even though it was a bit chilly at the start.

This ride was the May Day Metric. Lot's of fun. The field was so much smaller than the Cascade Bicycle Club rides. That fact has pros and cons. The pros are the feeling of solitude and being able to really lock into your own groove. The con (for me) is that there's nobody to follow. That's a problem because I tend to get lost. Which I did.

So while Sunday's ride wasn't perfect it was a lot of fun. I got 60 miles in and some real good climbs. I was spent at the end of it and that's what I wanted.

One thing I noticed is that the climbs that come later in the day are easier than the early ones. My body takes a long time to warm up but when it does I can go and go. I'm hopeful that I'll be able to rely on this fact/fiction to help me on the RAMROD (since I already know I'll be under-trained for that event).

Bike Buying Tips from bicycling.com

Bike Buying Tips:

This article is a great wrap-up of often asked questions. I love to make recommendations on what bike to buy! Here's an article that covers the basics.

However, the article doesn't contain my own personal axiom: if you're going to spend less than $500 on a bike you might as well take 5 $100 dollar bills and nail them to the wall in your garage. That's because you'll never ever ride a sub-$500 bike. Never ever.

You want a bike that shifts well and is light enough to be fun to ride. You really can't get that for under $500...at least not for a road bike. (Fixies and single speeds are exceptions, of course.)

2006 trek 1000

Voted "best bike under $1000" in Bicycling Magazine. It's a great entry level road bike.


The mix of Shimano Sora and Tiagra parts is what keeps the price down...but the drivetrain performance matches the price point.

team performance

I buy lots of bike stuff: parts and gear, etc. I shop at the local bike shops but mostly I get stuff online. Performance Bike is has a good deal where you get 10% back on your purchases. Since my sales tax in Seattle is 9.6% this basically covers what I have to pay the state.


Note to self: 997868806

single speed

My winter commuter is a 58cm Bianchi San Jose single speed. It's categorized as a cyclocross bike but mine is set up with full fenders and some lights.

The stock gearing is 42 x 16 which makes it a little challenging at times around Seattle. For my (very short) commute I want to try a larger gear so that I don't sweat while climbing the hill back home. So I put a 17 tooth freewheel on it to see if climbing is noticeably easier.

I've searched all over the web for a stock photo that shows the 2007 in the "Washed-up Blue" color that I have but no luck. So here's a stock photo of it in green.

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Here's a stock photo of the 2006 in Washed-up blue. I think the major difference between 06 and 07 was a change to the wheelset. The 07 comes with a flip flop rear hub. If you look close at the photos you can kinda see the difference.

track bike

Here's a stock photo of my track bike. It's a 59cm Cannondale Team Major Taylor. She's very light. I still need to post photos of mine as I've upgraded my saddle to a nice red Selle Italia and I've upgraded the bars, too.

shimano flightdeck

I've used the Shimano Flight Deck computer for a few years now. I like it because it has a clean installation (no wires), the controls are integrated into the STI shifters and it gives me (an estimate of) cadence without a second sensor on the chainstay.

The head unit can be used on multiple bikes but--of course--they all have to be Shimano-equipped. The only non-Shimano bike I have is my Bianchi San Jose singlespeed so I'm OK with this limitation.

Programming the thing is a pain. First, to hit the reset you need something REALLY LONG... I used the end of my Take A Look mirror to reset it.

You'll need to know the wheel size, the number of chainrings, the number of sprockets and the number of teeth for each. Get this data and write it down BEFORE you start because figuring it out while you're programming the head unit is not fun...

For posterity, my new Jamis Eclipse has a FSA 50/34 compact crank and a Shimano FH-6600 freehub. The sprockets are: 12T, 13T, 14T, 15T, 16T, 17T, 19T, 21T, 23T, 25T.

The first thing to program is the wheel size. The instructions say to inflate the tire, mark and measure a single rotation of the front wheel and track the measurement within 5mm. Right. Well, I'm an engineer and I wanted to be exact so I did as instructed so I fanagled a really long tape measeure and found the circumference was about 82.75 inches. Converting to metric that's 210.5 cm. Now I was ready to enter the data!!

Little did I know that the sub-display shows standard wheel sizes as you scroll through the settings. So save yourself some time and just scroll through until you find the settings that match the size printed on your tire's sidewall. Sheesh.

Entering the sprockets was also a bit confusing because the head unitl supports triple or double chainrings and from 7 to 10 sprockets. The trick is to enter "--" whenever you don't have a corresponding value.

The magnet that comes with the sensor kit is bulky and I want to replace it with something more compatible with a bladed spoke. Also, the transmitter unit is held on with a strap-thingy that kinda sucks. I'll probably replace it once I win the Megamillions Lotto and have copious free time on my hands.