Re: [RBW] The Cub House's Los Angeles Invitational Ride - May 18

2024-05-22 Thread Ted Durant

> On May 22, 2024, at 7:36 PM, P W  wrote:
> 
> Here’s the triple:

Thanks! I hope to give it a go next time I’m in LA.

Ted Durant
Milwaukee, WI USA

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[RBW] Re: Not that we need a reason.

2024-05-21 Thread Ted Durant
On Monday, May 20, 2024 at 9:45:27 AM UTC-5 Curtis wrote:

I found this interesting.  Please enjoy your day.

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2024/05/20/1251561467/biking-knee-pain-longevity-arthritis


Another "me-too" story here. I ran xc and track in junior high and was 
somewhat competitive. In 9th grade my knees started to hurt. I stopped 
running, started riding, and have never looked back. I'd tell my father 
about riding 600km and he'd ask, incredulously, "Don't your knees hurt?" 

Ted Durant
Milwaukee WI USA 

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Re: [RBW] Sam Hillbornes Go Live Tomorrow

2024-05-20 Thread Ted Durant
For those who are getting a Periwinkle Sam ... what color combos are you 
planning for your build?

I've ordered a purple Funky Monkey front cable hanger from Paul. Not sure 
it's going to be a good match. I have Phil Wood blue bottom bracket dust 
caps ... they'll probably match okay, not sure. The one that Riv built up 
for photos seems to be straight up gray-silver-black, and IMO it looks very 
nice. 

Ted Durant
Milwaukee WI USA

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Re: [RBW] The Cub House's Los Angeles Invitational Ride - May 18

2024-05-19 Thread Ted Durant
On May 19, 2024, at 7:29 PM, Neale S.  wrote:
> 
> I had a blast! Did the triple scoop and it was a beast, took me all day. The 
> aid station at the top of the single scoop was a mountaintop party. I saw 
> Armand and a few other Riv riders. Lots of other cool bikes, and plenty of 
> good vibes. 

Wow, I had no idea there were trails connecting Mt Wilson and Glendora. That 
looks like an amazing (ly difficult) ride!

Ted Durant
Milwaukee, WI USA

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[RBW] Re: TRP RRL vs Shimano Tiagra

2024-05-18 Thread Ted Durant
On Friday, May 17, 2024 at 7:58:26 PM UTC-5 atreya...@gmail.com wrote:

Folks, 
I like aesthetics of Shimano better than RRL . So folks who have used both? 
Is there a difference in performance and comfort , to make the upgrade 
worth it. Also looks like ramps on RRL are longer, does it add to the 
reach? . My priority is in the following order 1. Comfort 2. Braking 
performance 3. Asthetics 4. Price. 


I've used both of them extensively on brevets up to 600km. I no longer have 
the TRPs, but I have the Shimanos on several bikes, so I guess I've made my 
choice! I'm 5'6", 81cm PBH, and have mediumish skinny hands. I found the 
TRPs to be a combination of too wide and too long, though only marginally 
so. One thing to keep in mind with respect to reach is that the handlebar 
reach makes a difference, too. The reach on Noodle Bars is on the long 
side, especially compared to almost all current drop bars on the market. 
 So, the combination of Noodle Bars and TRPs makes for an especially long 
reach to the brakes. To me that can be a feature, not a bug ... it allows 
me to have the bar tops comfortably near and high and still have a nice 
low, flat position in the drops.

Aesthetically I very much prefer the Shimanos. I don't think I noticed any 
difference in brake feel, so I would guess the mechanical advantage is 
similar.

Given that your first priority is comfort, you're probably going to have to 
try them both. Given that price is your last priority, you'll have no 
problem selling the ones you don't want on this list :-)

Ted Durant
Milwaukee WI USA

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Re: [RBW] Northern Hemisphere Spring 2024 Photos

2024-05-18 Thread Ted Durant

> On May 18, 2024, at 9:24 AM, Eric Marth  wrote:
> 
> WLS — Connecticut has it goin' on! 

Yeah, between the Nutmeg rides and the Cub House rides, I’m a bit envious. I 
need to time my LA and New England visits a little better.

Ted Durant
Milwaukee WI USA

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Re: [RBW] TPU inner tubes - Anyone using them?

2024-05-17 Thread Ted Durant
> On May 16, 2024, at 11:52 PM, Harry Travis  wrote:
> 
> "I was much less impressed by the ride quality of the thicker TPU tubes. 
> Though they still weigh less than butyl tubes, they don’t have the same 
> buoyant feeling of the lighter weight models. They changed the feel of the 
> bike completely; it felt like I was riding on cheap tires—or garden 
> hoses—instead of the high end tires I was testing. "
> 
> Note that the heaviest tube he rode on weighed 110g and is for a 35-40mm 
> tire. But then he discerned inferior ride quality, too, from a 65g tube 
> compared to a 30z
> 

I also have some Foss tubes that I have used in 584-42 and 584-48 Rene Herse 
ultralight tires, and I have used Scwhalbe #13 (standard) and #14A (extra 
light) tubes in those same tires. None of them make the tires feel like garden 
hoses, IMO. I never had to patch a Foss tube, but I haven’t put huge miles on 
them. I had what I think is more than a normal amount flats with the extra 
light butyl tubes, but I wouldn’t say that’s a certainty because wet roads and 
old tires are the primary risk factors and I can’t say I’ve controlled for that.

I would rank order the tubes as you’d expect for “ride feel” -
RH TPU
Schwalbe extra light
Foss
Schwalbe standard

I don’t think there’s much difference in feel between Foss and Schwalbe 
standard tubes, and the difference between RH TPU and Schwalbe extra light is 
pretty small.

All just one man’s opinion.

Ted Durant
Milwaukee WI USA

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Re: [RBW] TPU inner tubes - Anyone using them?

2024-05-16 Thread Ted Durant
Final update from me. Rene Herse has been very good about it and is 
refunding me for the tubes that had the valve stem attachments fail.

Ted Durant
Milwaukee WI USA

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[RBW] Re: wtb: 26.8 seatpost, 120-130mm quill stem

2024-05-16 Thread Ted Durant
On Thursday, May 16, 2024 at 7:18:19 PM UTC-5 Tim Bantham wrote:

A new frame and fork from Riv usually includes a Kaloi seatpost. You might 
want to verify before buying unless your just looking for something 
fancier. 


Yes, your Sam will come with a Kalloy seatpost. The ones in the last batch 
were 300mm.

Ted Durant
Milwaukee WI USA

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Re: [RBW] Sam Hillbornes Go Live Tomorrow

2024-05-15 Thread Ted Durant

Done. 51cm Periwinkle for my 3rd Sam. If people think I'm being piggy I'll 
consider letting it go. 

Ted Durant
Milwaukee, WI USA

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Re: [RBW] Sam Hillbornes Go Live Tomorrow

2024-05-15 Thread Ted Durant
> On May 15, 2024, at 1:42 PM, Doug H.  wrote:
> 
> We are almost to 3:00 PM PST. Who is watching the clock and ready to buy a 
> Sam Hillborne?

This almost has the feel of a Bring A Trailer auction ….

Ted Durant
Milwaukee WI USA

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Re: [RBW] Northern Hemisphere Spring 2024 Photos

2024-05-15 Thread Ted Durant

> On May 15, 2024, at 10:04 AM, jamin orrall  wrote:
> 
> Keith, John, thank you for the compliments. Yes it is a custom color, I can't 
> take credit for it! It was formerly owned by another member of this list 
> named James, he had it repainted at Waterford (where the frame was made).  I 
> believe it is a 2014 model.  I love how it looks in the sun.  Always loved 
> Jimmy Carters riv! 
> 

It’s Waterford’s Copper Metallic. I had them paint my Bleriot with it. I 
referred to it as root beer with a creamy head. Possibly my favorite bike 
colorway ever. And, yes, it is mesmerizing in sunlight.


Ted Durant
Milwaukee, WI USA

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Re: [RBW] Sam Hillbornes Go Live Tomorrow

2024-05-14 Thread Ted Durant
> On May 14, 2024, at 9:04 PM, Mathias Steiner  
> wrote:
> 
> I'd love to hear informed opinions on the Sam. Does anybody use one on 
> brevets? 

I have two Sams from the last batch. Previously I have had a Bleriot, which is 
similar to the Sam. I rode the Bleriot on several very long rides, up to 600km, 
and never once wished I was on something different, with one exception. A 
couple of times I found that the steering geometry with a loaded handlebar bag 
was a handful on tight downhill corners. Interestingly, I have yet to 
experience a similar issue on the Sams, and I’ve done some pretty challenging 
downhill rides on them. Of course, I did auger in on one of those … a very 
tight switchback with some deep sand at the apex. I’m using 48mm (smooth) tires 
on my Sams, vs 42mm on the Bleriot, and I find the extra tire width to help in 
the twisties. Having knobbies might have helped prevent my crash, but also 
might not have. I think the main factor was operator error … pretty sure I was 
still grabbing some front brake too far into the corner.  

As I think of it, I have a pretty good comparison between the Bleriot and the 
Sam. I took each of them to Ireland, 5 years apart, and rode the same roads 
each time, including some steep climbs and winding descents. They felt very 
similar to each other, but I think the slightly bigger tires on the Sam gave me 
a bit more confident handling in the curves.

Anyway, I would not hesitate to grab one of my Sams for a brevet of any length, 
and I have a Waterford custom-made for riding brevets. 

Why 2 Sams? Because one lives at my older daughter’s house in Portland ME, and 
the other lives at my younger daughter’s house in LA. How much do I like them? 
Enough that I’m thinking about getting a 3rd to replace my custom BreadWinner 
G-Road, which replaced my Bleriot because I wanted room for bigger tires and it 
has a bit steeper head angle and lower trail. It also has a 3rd bottle mount 
under the downtube, which the Sam is lacking. I have 16 1/2 hours to decide on 
this one. 

Ted Durant
Milwaukee, WI USA


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Re: [RBW] TPU inner tubes - Anyone using them?

2024-05-14 Thread Ted Durant
Another update. Found my Riv Road (622x32) had an almost flat front tire 
this afternoon. Pulled the tube and found no holes but a very slow leak 
from the valve stem. Using my fingers to grip the stem, I was able to back 
off the core then re-tighten it. The leak was worse. So, I gripped the 
valve with pliers and again re-tightened the core. As I worried would 
happen, when I went to reinflate the tube to check for a leak, the tube had 
broken at the base of the stem. That tire is now inflated by old reliable 
Schwalbe no 16. Out of the six tubes I bought in that size, I'm down to 
three usable. I like having removable/replaceable cores, but they're kind 
of silly on tubes that have such a fragile connection to the valve.

The repair I made yesterday (Waterford ST-22, 622x32, rear wheel) didn't 
work. I pulled the tube again and checked for leaks in water, which I 
should have done yesterday. I'm not sure whether what I thought was a hole 
actually was, but I found a tiny hole in the same place relative to the 
valve stem, the other way around. The hole was so tiny that it was not at 
all visible - only could find it from the bubbles that came out of it under 
water. So, that one is patched and reinstalled. 

I've used Schwalbe superlight tubes on my Breadwinner (584x48) and had 
mostly good luck with them, though I did get a flat on that bike's maiden 
voyage. That was a special treat because it was my first experience with 
rims designed for going tubeless and I didn't know how hard it would be to 
get the beads off the shelves (and back on again). I'm going to experiment 
with superlight tubes on my Riv Road, where I think I'll benefit from them. 
Not sure I'll use them elsewhere.  

Ted Durant
Milwaukee WI USA

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Re: [RBW] Sam Hillbornes Go Live Tomorrow

2024-05-14 Thread Ted Durant
On Tuesday, May 14, 2024 at 9:36:27 AM UTC-5 drew.jo...@gmail.com wrote:

I would add that I love the very quiet update to the Sam. 

I like the option of running downtube shifters on the new models.


Those are some sharp eyes - thanks for pointing that out!  I like that 
option, too. Though if I get one (it would be my third Sam) I'd be moving 
over the components from my BreadWinner G-Road, which include SRAM brifters.

Ted Durant
Milwaukee WI USA

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Re: [RBW] Northern Hemisphere Spring 2024 Photos

2024-05-13 Thread Ted Durant

> On May 13, 2024, at 7:30 PM, Eric Marth  wrote:
> 
> An early racing green Rivendell, is this a Long Low? It's wearing 26x1.8" 
> Naches Pass tires. 

Looks like an All Rounder to me.

On the camera topic … most of my pictures are from my iPhone SEv2.  My recent 
photos of my blue Waterford ST-22 were taken with an Olympus OM-D E-5mkII with 
a Panasonic/Leica 20mm/f1.7 lens. Given than I usually have a handlebar bag, I 
really should just carry that camera all the time. It’s quite light and 
compact, and the 20mm lens is a gem. I have a fleece bag that it fits in, 
protecting it from bumps and scratches. I’ve thought about getting an Olympus 
PEN E body, which would be even more compact, but it hasn’t seemed worth it.

Ted Durant
Milwaukee WI USA

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Re: [RBW] TPU inner tubes - Anyone using them?

2024-05-13 Thread Ted Durant
Further update. The patch on my 584x48 has held nicely, though I haven't 
ridden it yet. Meanwhile, the rear tire on my ST-22 (622x32) turned up flat 
yesterday. I took the opportunity to take out my Riv Road (622x32) and 
enjoyed a very fast (for me) ride. This evening I pulled the tube from the 
ST-22 and found a tiny hole. Exactly like the 584x48, I found a tiny bit of 
wire in the outer tread but not apparently poking through the inner casing. 
I patched and replaced the tube without incident. Alcohol wipe and Park 
glueless (MacOS still wants that to be clueless) patch, applied with the 
tube inflated.

The fact that I've easily removed, patched, and reinstalled a couple of 
tubes strengthens my belief that the tubes that failed on installation were 
probably defective. It also gives me a bit more confidence in the tubes 
(and my ability to repair in the field) going forward. They sure feel good 
when riding.

No word from RH on whether they're going to refund/replace the tubes I 
returned to them.

Ted Durant
Milwaukee WI USA

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Re: [RBW] Northern Hemisphere Spring 2024 Photos

2024-05-13 Thread Ted Durant
> On May 13, 2024, at 5:34 PM, 'Eric Norris' via RBW Owners Bunch 
>  wrote:
> 
> I have too many cameras, but I’m partial to several for carrying on the bike: 
> Yashica T4, Olympus XA4, and Lomo LCA120. Pretty much any good compact 
> point-and-shoot makes a good cycling camera. 
> 
> The shot below of my Quickbeam was taken with a Leica ia from 1930 that was 
> recently added to my collection. A very simple camera that, despite being 
> almost a century old, is robust and compact enough to carry on the bike or in 
> a pocket.

The perfect set of cameras for a guy who rides a Quickbeam with those cranks 
and 3-speed hub :-)

Ted Durant
Milwaukee, WI USA

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Re: [RBW] TPU inner tubes - Anyone using them?

2024-05-11 Thread Ted Durant


> 
> On May 11, 2024, at 3:23 PM, Patrick Moore  wrote:
> 
> 'd love to use featherlight, more puncture-resistant TPUs in place of the 
> extralight butyls I now use (with sealant, of course, since this is the land 
> of goat heads; this for road tires;

I’d like to hear more about your experience using sealant in butyl tubes. I 
tried that briefly. It seemed to make the tubes use-once-and-throw-away, as 
once it deflated the sealant stuck together so much that the tube wouldn’t 
inflate again. 

Ted Durant
Milwaukee WI USA

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Re: [RBW] TPU inner tubes - Anyone using them?

2024-05-11 Thread Ted Durant
Update here. I went for a couple of rides, total of 100km, on my new 
584x48's. They certainly feel nice, and at that volume you really are 
dropping noticeable weight from each wheel. By the end of the second ride I 
was thinking the rear felt a little too cushy. A pinch test said there was 
still plenty of pressure. The next morning, though, the tire was completely 
flat. I removed the tube (quite easily, no issues), inflated it a bit, and 
it seemed to be holding air just fine. I thought that for sure I'd be able 
to see a hole in the clear tubing. I swept the inside of the tire and found 
nothing. So, mounted it back up (easy, no issues), inflated it carefully, 
and set the bike aside. A few hours later I checked and it had lost a lot 
of pressure. So, took it out again (easy, no issues), inflated it and 
started running it through a sink full of water. I finally found a very 
tiny leak. Checking the tire in that location I found a tiny bit of wire in 
the outer tread of the tire but couldn't feel it on the inside. Removed the 
wire, marked the leak location on the tube, wiped with alcohol (removing my 
mark in the process, of course), and after it dried put on a Park glueless 
(I like that my Mac autocorrected that to clueless) patch, praying I put it 
in the right location. I put on the patch with air in the tire, figuring 
it's best not to stretch the patch area too much. Installed again (easy, no 
issues), inflated, and set the bike aside. We'll see if the patch is 
successful. Even if it is, though, I think the "TPU tubes are less prone to 
flats" argument seems to be debunked. Which is too bad. I really want to 
like these, but the rationale is dwindling in my experience. 

Ted Durant
Milwaukee WI USA

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[RBW] Re: The Cub House's Los Angeles Invitational Ride - May 18

2024-05-10 Thread Ted Durant
On Thursday, May 9, 2024 at 7:28:41 PM UTC-5 kiziria...@gmail.com wrote:

This will be a fun weekend put on by the Cub House bicycle/plant shop in 
Pasadena, CA. 


I really wish I was going to be there. Take and post photos!

Ted Durant
Milwaukee WI USA 

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[RBW] Re: Snake-in-a-bike

2024-05-08 Thread Ted Durant
On Wednesday, May 8, 2024 at 3:05:40 PM UTC-5 Paul in Dallas wrote:

As I recall someone was touring in Indonesia and one morning was shocked to 
find this critter checking out their touring bike.


Yikes! 

My story is far less scary. My first time doing a S24O with Grant we rode 
up the paved side of Mt Diablo then headed down the back side on the trail. 
For some reason I was the first rider going down a dip then up a little 
rise, at the top of which was a rattlesnake sunning itself in the middle of 
the path. Luckily I had slowed down going up the rise and was able to stop 
in time. The others pulled up behind me; it regarded us for a bit then 
slithered away at a leisurely pace.

Ted Durant
Milwaukee WI USA 

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Re: [RBW] TPU inner tubes - Anyone using them?

2024-05-08 Thread Ted Durant

> On May 7, 2024, at 9:49 PM, Steve  wrote:
> 
> Ted,  in an attempt yo educate myself in installation of these tubes, may I 
> ask did your RH tubes come packaged with an 'O' ring on the stem?  If so, did 
> you install it inside or outside of the rim?  


O-ring is on the stem, right at the junction with the tube. I left it there.

Ted Durant
Milwaukee, WI USA

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Re: [RBW] TPU inner tubes - Anyone using them?

2024-05-07 Thread Ted Durant
Update on my experience. I continue to like the ones that successfully 
inflated on my 700x32 tires. Yesterday I took out that bike for the first 
time in a couple of weeks and the tires were quite soft. So, the tubes 
don't retain air as well as butyl, but it's not worse enough to be a 
problem. And I did a pretty hard ride and was pleased with how fast it 
ended up being.

I also ordered some 650x48 tubes, but RH sent me 700x48. By the time they 
responded to my inquiry they were sold out of the 650's. Fortunately the 
next batch arrived pretty quickly and they promptly sent them to me. I 
mounted those today and once again needed 3 tubes to get 2 wheels done. 
These ones felt sturdier than the 700c skinny ones, but maybe it was just 
the extra width. Installation went fine, but as I inflated it the valve 
stem got sucked up into the rim. Weird! Deflated, checked for any snagging, 
and tried again, same result. Repeat, same result. So I decided to remove 
the tube and see what was going on. The tube came right out of the tire, 
minus the valve stem which this time stayed firmly put in the rim, fully 
detached from the tube.

RH still hasn't responded to my inquiry about the two 700c tubes that 
failed, which I sent back with the mis-shipped tubes. After this one, at 3 
out 9 tubes failing, I am well put off by these. I certainly wouldn't carry 
one as a spare ... I'd have to carry at least three to feel confident that 
in crappy field conditions and dead tired I'd be able to successfully 
install one. I also think that doing a patch in the field would be a roll 
of the dice - no way to be sure you could get the tube out without tearing 
it. 

I'm very interested to hear the experience of others. Could be user error. 
But I have over 50 years of wrenching experience, including 2 summers in a 
bike shop, so if these are beyond my skill level, it's pretty hard to see 
how these would be useful to anyone but a competitive rider with a budget 
(or product sponsorship) and highly skilled support.

Ted Durant
Milwaukee WI USA

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[RBW] Re: One way to try out a road bike for the Road Curious

2024-05-02 Thread Ted Durant
On Wednesday, May 1, 2024 at 3:23:58 PM UTC-5 aeroperf wrote:

So I picked up an ’82 Team Fuji.  Got it for $150. 


OMG those gold UKAI rims are worth $150 apiece. Yes, LOVELY bike! (Full 
disclosure, I worked in a bike shop selling Fuji's in the late 70's, so I 
have a bias.)

Ted Durant
Milwaukee WI USA

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Re: [RBW] Re: Gearing Choices

2024-04-30 Thread Ted Durant
On Wednesday, April 3, 2024 at 12:16:23 PM UTC-5 Patrick Moore wrote:

Piaw: It's easy and, thanks to AliExpress, relatively cheap to build your 
own cassettes from loose parts


Thanks to some coaching from Patrick and Garth, I sourced from Ali Express 
the necessary cogs and spacers to build a 7-speed 11-13-16-19-23-28-34 
cassette. It looks pretty snazzy with the red spacers and silver cogs. It's 
not going to win any awards for light weight, but I mounted it to a 
standard 8-11 speed freehub (using an extra spacer and cog to fill the 
gap), and it shifts beautifully with a Cyclone GT rear derailer and Silver 
downtube shifters. I didn't get any ghost shifting, but I also 1) tightened 
the shifter a bit and 2) didn't stand on the pedals. I had 39 and 42 
chainrings in inventory, so I mounted those, as well. Ideally I'd have a 
4-tooth difference up front, but this is good enough to test the hypothesis.

I only did a quick neighborhood loop - flat, but with a fair amount of 
wind. My initial impression is that the steps are too small. Seems crazy, I 
know, but 10% steps feel small, and the ~20% steps in back feel only 
slightly too big. It feels amazing, though, to shift two cogs in back and 
get a huge change in effort. I played around with some alternatives, and I 
think 12.5% up front and 25% in back would be better for general riding 
(typical Wisconsin hills and wind, not trying to set Strava PRs). Any more 
than 6 cogs in back, though, and you'll be going to either a derailer 
dropper or a newfangled, ugly derailer with a big max cog clearance. If 
you're willing to go that route you can build a gearing setup with a 
massive range and perfectly even steps out of a 2x7.

Ted Durant
Milwaukee WI USA

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Re: [RBW] The 3x1 road bike. Anticipating some of your RoadUNO builds

2024-04-28 Thread Ted Durant

On Sunday, April 28, 2024 at 7:10:32 AM UTC-7 Ted Durant wrote:
>>  At 22t of required chain wrap, take your pick of any rear derailer

Bad Sunday morning math. 13 teeth of chain wrap. Even better

On Apr 28, 2024, at 9:36 AM, Bill Lindsay  wrote:
> The thing that keeps coming to mind is the classic 5-speed freewheel:  
> 14-17-20-24-28.  That has all the span we're talking about.  


And if you pair it with, say, a 42-46 combo up front you have an ideal 
half-step setup… and you start back down the rabbit hole 

:-) 

Ted Durant
Milwaukee, WI USA

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Re: [RBW] The 3x1 road bike. Anticipating some of your RoadUNO builds

2024-04-28 Thread Ted Durant
On Saturday, April 27, 2024 at 12:41:12 PM UTC-5 Patrick Moore wrote:

But I keep coming back to theoretical efficiencies: IIRC, the gearing 
effect of tooth jumps in back are more or less double what they are in 
front. So the question is, how to get just 2 or 3 big jumps in back without 
a IGH.


 Just build a 3-speed cassette and fill the rest of the space with spacers.

Bill's 46-36-24 is jumps of 25% (46-36) and 41% (36-24). An equivalent 25% 
jump in back would be 15-19 (24%), 16-21 (27%), 17-22 (26%), 18-23 (25%). 
An equivalent 41% jump in back would be 16-24 (41%), 17-25 (39%),  17-26 
(42%), 18-27 (41%), 19-28 (39%), 19-29 (42%), 20-30 (41%), 21-31 (39%), 
21-32 (42%),  ...

A very close equivalent to the 46-36-24 in front would be 15-19-28 in back. 
Pair that with a 44T chainring and you'd have 42-63-79 gear inches on 
700x32C tires. At 22t of required chain wrap, take your pick of any rear 
derailer. I would expect much crisper shifting with that setup than a 
wide-range triple up front. Combine it with a compatible index shifter and 
you'll have a nice 3-speed externally geared hub. 

If you were so inclined. 

Ted Durant
Milwaukee WI USA

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Re: [RBW] Rivendell Roadbike Curious

2024-04-23 Thread Ted Durant
> On Apr 23, 2024, at 4:22 PM, Corwin Zechar  wrote:
> 
> Nothing wrong with riding wider tires.
> 

+1. 

32mm are the skinniest I have now, on my Riv Road, Heron Road, and Waterford 
ST-22. I wouldn’t think twice about those tires on a group road ride, other 
than to think how fast and comfy they are.

Ted Durant
Milwaukee, WI USA

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Re: [RBW] Rivendell Roadbike Curious

2024-04-22 Thread Ted Durant

> On Apr 22, 2024, at 8:35 PM, Leah Peterson  wrote:
> 
> Him: I know how this ends. It ends with the Annual Bike Purchase of the Last 
> Bike I’ll Ever Need.
> 

Doesn’t he know about the n+1 theory of bicycles?

Ted Durant
Milwaukee, WI USA

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Re: [RBW] Rivendell Roadbike Curious

2024-04-22 Thread Ted Durant

> On Apr 22, 2024, at 8:26 PM, Leah Peterson  wrote:
> 
> Tony, I swooned. Actually swooned. Gorgeous, gorgeous.
> 
It’s even better in person.

> But it was the best ride. Did we have wind? Yes. But somehow it was great and 
> energizing and we just killed it. I had done an intense upper body lifting 
> session this morning and still it was great and not draining!
> 

Nice. Double sessions. 

> There were men I don’t know on the ride tonight, so of course I got comments. 
> One of them said, “I hope you never get a road bike.”

The old back handed compliment. Well, you might pick up a little speed if 
you’re at the front of the peloton going into the wind, but in the pack or 
downwind I suspect you’ll find you’re riding the same speed at about the same 
effort. I’m looking forward to the ride report where you say you felt good at 
the front of the pack, kept your head down, set the internal metronome, and 
ticked away the miles, and when you sat up you realized there was nobody behind 
you.


Ted Durant
Milwaukee, WI USA


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Re: [RBW] TPU inner tubes - Anyone using them?

2024-04-22 Thread Ted Durant
In the site instructions it says 10psi at a time. On the box it says 20.

I was nowhere near 10psi when they failed.

Ted Durant
Milwaukee, WI USA

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Re: [RBW] TPU inner tubes - Anyone using them?

2024-04-22 Thread Ted Durant
> On Apr 22, 2024, at 2:17 PM, Bill Lindsay  wrote:
> 
> Did you pay attention to the instructions on the box?  Particularly with 
> respect to their warning that you want to pump it up slowly so the material 
> has a chance to stretch?  I read that as a "no compressors" warning.  I 
> always use my floor pump anyway, because that's the gauge I trust.  I only 
> use my compressor to seat tubeless tires.  
> 

Silca floor pump. Started leaking on the 3rd or 4th stroke. And they don’t say 
to pump it up slowly, they say to inflate it 20psi at a time. I was nowhere 
near 20 psi.


Ted Durant
Milwaukee WI USA

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Re: [RBW] TPU inner tubes - Anyone using them?

2024-04-22 Thread Ted Durant
Yeah, I was going to call it that but thought people would consider me weird. 
;-)

Ted Durant
Milwaukee, WI USA

> On Apr 22, 2024, at 1:31 PM, Bill Lindsay  wrote:
> 
> That little ring on mine is not glued down.  It reminds me of a "Shakespeare 
> collar", properly called a ruff:
> 
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruff_(clothing)
> 
> Bill Lindsay
> El Cerrito, CA
> 
> 
> On Monday, April 22, 2024 at 11:28:06 AM UTC-7 Ted Durant wrote:
>>> On Apr 22, 2024, at 12:56 PM, Bill Lindsay > wrote:
>>> 
>>> I received three of the Rene Herse 584x45-68mm variant in the mail this 
>>> morning, and installed two on my custom Falconer without issue.  The third 
>>> will serve as a spare. 
>> 
>> Anyone else who has received RH TPU tubes … mine have a little round piece 
>> of plastic between the valve stem and the tube, like a cute little collar, 
>> that seems to be for reinforcement, but it’s not actually attached to the 
>> tube - it’s just floating there. If it was glued to the tube, it probably 
>> would have prevented the leak. Anybody else looked at their tubes - is that 
>> collar attached or flapping around?
>> 
>> 
>> Ted Durant
>> Milwaukee, WI USA
> 
> 
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Re: [RBW] TPU inner tubes - Anyone using them?

2024-04-22 Thread Ted Durant

> On Apr 22, 2024, at 12:56 PM, Bill Lindsay  wrote:
> 
> I received three of the Rene Herse 584x45-68mm variant in the mail this 
> morning, and installed two on my custom Falconer without issue.  The third 
> will serve as a spare. 

Anyone else who has received RH TPU tubes … mine have a little round piece of 
plastic between the valve stem and the tube, like a cute little collar, that 
seems to be for reinforcement, but it’s not actually attached to the tube - 
it’s just floating there. If it was glued to the tube, it probably would have 
prevented the leak. Anybody else looked at their tubes - is that collar 
attached or flapping around?


Ted Durant
Milwaukee, WI USA


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[RBW] Re: TPU inner tubes - Anyone using them?

2024-04-22 Thread Ted Durant
On Monday, April 22, 2024 at 7:02:25 AM UTC-5 lconley wrote:

FYI - The RH instructions say to inflate slowly and immediately deflate the 
tubes completely after the tire pops into position, then reinflate.


Well, I put them on my Riv Road today, was very careful with the 
installation, and had the same result. One of the tubes broke at the valve 
stem immediately on inflation in the tire. The rims are narrow Fir, and the 
tires are a pretty tight fit. I used levers to remove the tire but was able 
to reinstall without levers. New tires with only a few rides on them.

So, I've needed 6 tubes to get 4 tires going. That makes the economics a 
little harder to justify. It also makes carrying a new one as a spare a bit 
of Russian roulette.

Ted Durant
Milwaukee WI USA 

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Re: [RBW] Rivendell Roadbike Curious

2024-04-21 Thread Ted Durant


> On Apr 21, 2024, at 7:59 PM, RichS  wrote:
> 
> Leah, one more thought building on the Sam, Homer, Ram, etc. suggestions. The 
> periwinkle color samples Will showed in the Friday Riv newsletter strikes me 
> as a color that is right in your wheelhouse. I know one of the country bikes 
> is not at the top of your wanted list, but I believe you could build a 
> reasonably light (23-24lbs.?), zippy periwinkle Sam rolling on RH or 
> Continental 5000 32mm tires and you'd be at the front!
> 

FWIW, I am very happy with my 2 Sams as all-rounder road and trail bikes. I 
have them set up, position-wise, very much like my “road” bikes and with Noodle 
bars. I wouldn’t hesitate to take them on a group ride, though I probably 
wouldn’t try to hang with the 25mph club.  

One thing to be aware of as you compare options is that Grant likes shallow 
seat tube angles these days. That makes it a little trickier to compare the 
handlebar reach with other bikes. (Don’t get me started on the bike companies 
that are now publishing “effective seat tube angle”.) I decided to set up my 
Sams with a bit less reach than my other bikes, so the back of the handlebars 
is just beyond my fingertips, rather than an inch or two. I don’t think you 
need to go all the way down to 32mm tires to make it zippy. I have 48’s on mine 
and that might be overkill, but I bet 38’s would be super fast and agile. 
(Decreasing tire size reduces both pneumatic and geometric trail and it reduces 
rotational inertia, all of which makes a bike feel “zippier”.)

I saw the Periwinkle sample and am stupidly tempted to get a third Sam.

But I also understand the curiosity about a true road bike. My Heron and Riv 
Road and Waterford ST-22 have around 33,000 kms on them since 2017.

Ted Durant
Milwaukee WI USA

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[RBW] Re: TPU inner tubes - Anyone using them?

2024-04-21 Thread Ted Durant
On Sunday, April 21, 2024 at 6:00:27 PM UTC-5 four...@gmail.com wrote:

I'd be curious if you came off butyl or latex tubes prior? guess I'm just 
not that convinced the TPUs are worth the extra price over latex (at least 
the price of the RH versions)..


Great question, and one I'd intended to answer in my review, but then 
forgot. I've ridden all my RH 32mm tires with Schwalbe SV16 tubes (and 
occasionally another 28-32mm tube that's been pressed into emergency 
service). I have not used latex tubes in quite a while. I used them on my 
Riv Road with some skinny tires and had two pinch flats on one group ride. 
Haven't used them since. Soon I will try TPU on my Breadwinner, which is 
650x48B. They'll also go on my Heron (after it's back from the spa) and my 
Riv Road, both of which also ride on Stampede Pass tires. 

The big advantage of TPU over latex, in theory, is the air retention. I'll 
know how that's going in a couple of days.

IMO, the question is whether TPUs are worth the substantial price premium 
over butyl. I've just "invested" a pretty big chunk of money into TPU tubes 
for 4 bikes.  In terms of ride quality, my first impression is quite 
positive. TBD on the durability and flat-resistance.

Ted Durant
Milwaukee, WI USA

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Re: [RBW] Rivendell Roadbike Curious

2024-04-21 Thread Ted Durant
On Sunday, April 21, 2024 at 4:07:47 PM UTC-5 Bicycle Belle Ding Ding! 
wrote:

Ok, ok….I really will consider drop bars. But I do wonder…everyone says 
they offer so many hand positions; but I only see people with their hands 
on the hoods. Are riders really utilizing different hand positions? 

Great question. Racers and wannabe racers as I noted set up their bikes 
with a big drop from saddle to bars and a shorter horizontal reach to the 
bars. And they spend almost all their time on the hoods. I roam all over 
the bars. Today's 100km somewhat hilly, fairly windy ride was a great 
example. Heading out into the wind I spent a fair amount of time on the 
drops and hoods, but I was not riding at a hard effort (averaged around 
22kph going out). Getting into the hills was a lot more time on the tops 
and the hoods, with a few standing climbs, working harder on the hills that 
got up to 15%. Coming home with a tail wind was a fair amount of time on 
the top curves, not riding too hard, enjoying the tail wind motor assist 
(and the net down hill). 
 

Also, I saw a pic of an albastache with brake levers in the middle of the 
bar. Would this mimic the freedom of hand position changes a drop bar 
offers? 


My experience has been that's not a great alternative. The wrist angles 
tend to be weird.
 

I practiced tonight on my ride by grabbing the front of my Billie bars. It 
felt nice to be stretched out like that, but with no access to brakes or 
shifters from there I didn’t like to stay long. Unnerving.


Understood! That's one reason why some people set up drop bars with 
cyclocross-inspired interrupter brake levers under the tops. I never have 
felt the need for that on road rides. If my hands are on the tops, I'm 
probably not going fast enough to need an immediate stop. 

Ted Durant
Milwaukee, WI USA

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[RBW] Re: TPU inner tubes - Anyone using them?

2024-04-21 Thread Ted Durant
I just received a box of tubes that I ordered from Rene Herse, so here's my 
1-ride review.

Bike and rider weight is about 70kg/150lbs.

First impression ... they are crazy small and light. Clear plastic tubes 
with shiny metal valve stems and "Rene Herse blue" caps - nice touch! 
Unfolding them they seem fragile, especially the valve stem junction.

I ordered some 700x20-32 and 650x45-68. I installed the 700c tubes on my 
Waterford, which has 32mm Stampede Pass EL tires on DT TK-540 rims with 
Velox rim tape. The rear tire is fairly new and had a bit over 500km on it. 
It had been reinstalled a few times (March is a bad time for flats in WI!). 
The front tire is a year old, probably has 3-4000km on it. Both tires come 
off the rim and go back on without tire levers. The tubes are a tight fit 
on the rim and have to be stretched a bit to get around the rim. The tires 
popped right back on, and I inflated to 60 psi to seat the beads, then 
backed off to 45psi. On the second wheel the tube/stem interface 
immediately cracked and I had to grab a 3rd tube. I don't know if that was 
a bad tube or user error. No tire lever, but it's possible I didn't push 
the stem up into the tire enough to ensure the tube wasn't trapped by the 
bead. Given how fragile they feel, it seems it won't take much to cause 
that to happen.

First subjective observation - I can really feel the weight reduction 
handling the wheels. Noticeably less inertia around the perimeter.

First ride was 100km of road riding across the north side of Milwaukee 
(urban riding) through the western suburbs and exurbs to some rural roads 
around Holy Hill. At 900m of climbing, it's a pretty hilly ride but not 
crazy. Some of the road surfaces are beautiful, freshly paved goodness. 
Others are, well, lunar. I often take my Breadwinner out there for its 48mm 
tires. 

Immediate second subjective observation is that the tires sound different. 
There's a "whoosh whoosh" that sounds like nice tubulars. Third subjective 
observation is that the bumps feel and sound different, more "thwip thwhip" 
than "thump thump". Third subjective observation is that it FEELS like the 
tires return more energy from deflection, whether from bumps or, 
especially, when swerving suddenly to avoid an obstacle or making a quick 
acceleration. I have no idea if there really is less hysteresis loss, but 
it feels that way.

No flats today, but clear dry roads, even crossing the north side of the 
city, aren't usually an issue. 

So, I very much like the lightness and the feel of them, and the light blue 
stem caps are a nice touch that will look good on most of my bikes. I'm 
concerned about the fragility of the valve stem interface. No data or 
anecdotes, yet, on durability and ease of repair.

Ted Durant
Milwaukee WI USA

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Re: [RBW] Re: Rivendell Roadbike Curious

2024-04-21 Thread Ted Durant
On Sunday, April 21, 2024 at 1:12:20 PM UTC-5 Bicycle Belle Ding Ding! 
wrote:

I am, right now, leaning toward a Gallup bike but will keep reading and 
learning. And right now, I’m heading out to do Tabatas training. I had to 
look it up. Promises to be the most miserable 4 minutes of my day.

Wow, first we hear you are road bike curious, now you are doing tabata 
workouts. Leah is going super hard core on us.

My 2 cents worth ... "road bike", as opposed to what you currently ride and 
love, is first and foremost about riding position. FWIW, my recommendation 
is to skip past Albastache and Mustache and go straight to drop bars. Start 
with them relatively high and close, so when your hands are on the tops you 
feel like your back is relaxed and comfy. Bernard Hinault, I think, said 
you should feel like you're playing piano on the tops. You then have the 
curves on top, where your hands are a bit wider apart and slightly forward, 
and your back should still be comfy. Then you go forward to the brake 
hoods. Now you should feel like you're more forward than you would be on 
your current bikes. But, if you're riding at a hard enough effort (we're 
not talking super hard here), the force on the pedals should be carrying 
enough of your weight that you're not having to hold yourself up on your 
hands. Next you go below the brake hoods to the farthest forward part of 
the drops. This is the speedy aero position. You won't have a low, flat 
back here until you've lowered your stem/bars quite a bit. But you should 
have a flat back and you should be putting a fair amount of force into the 
pedals. Finally, there are the flat parts of the drops, with your hands 
back a bit closer to you, which are a "cruising" location for me (and right 
next to my bar end shifters), low enough to be efficient but not fully 
stretched out. I've recently read comments from "racers" that if you spend 
any amount of time down there your bars are too high. Well, my bars are 
certainly too high by their standards, but mine are set up for me to be 
comfortable in every spot. Very important: in EVERY position you should not 
be gripping the bar or brake hood tightly, you should have a very loose 
grip and not be bearing too much weight there. I typically am very slightly 
pulling up on the brake hoods or drops to counteract the pedaling force of 
the opposite leg. Also, you should ALWAYS have at least a slight bend in 
your elbows in every position. If you are locking your elbows something is 
wrong with the position and you're doing bad things to your wrist and 
shoulders and neck.

General rule of thumb for starting out, have the tops of the bars maybe an 
inch above saddle height or, if you're already pretty flexible in the heaps 
and low back, level with the saddle. Put the back of an elbow at the front 
of the saddle and stretch your finger tips toward the handlebars. They 
should just touch the back of the handlebars at the stem. Maybe a little 
closer if you're tight, a little farther if you're flexible. Somebody 
recommended Noodle bars, which I heartily endorse, as that's what I have on 
most of my bikes. I like them because 1) the curves are generous 2) there's 
a little rise in the top curve, making them very comfy in that area) and 3) 
there's a fair amount of reach and drop, so you have a good range of 
positions. That last part is key for me on long rides. Sometimes I'm riding 
hard and need the long and low positions. Sometimes I'm taking it easy and 
need the high and near positions. 

I won't opine much on "which bike", because once you figure out your fit 
criteria, any bike that allows you to have that position will work fine. I 
have my Sam Hillbornes set up almost identically to my custom Waterford ST 
and Rivendell Road, except on the Riv Road the handlebars are a bit farther 
away and lower. 

Ted Durant
Milwaukee WI USA

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[RBW] Re: Friction 9 V 10 speed

2024-04-16 Thread Ted Durant
On Monday, April 15, 2024 at 8:27:21 PM UTC-5 ber...@bernardduhon.com wrote:

Previous threads and literature suggests that the closer the cogs in 10 & 
11 speeds makes for better friction shifting.
 
What has been your experience? 


Like others, I have had mixed experience. A few observations -
1. On a very springy frame, derailer cables get yanked when you push hard 
on the pedals. I have a Terraferma that's so flexible even I can make it 
swing. I currently have some Cyclone derailers and Silver 1 shifters on 
that bike, with a 9-speed cassette, and there's no way I could tighten the 
shifters enough to keep it from ghost shifting if I do an out-of-the-saddle 
stoplight sprint. Other than that, it's a nice, smooth-shifting experience. 
It can be a little tricky to quiet the rear derailer when a cog is between 
clicks of the shifter. Which leads to ...
2. The reduction in derailer actuation (the ratio of derailer movement to 
cable movement) has been driven by the desire to have more cable movement 
per cog, to improve index shifting. The same effect can be felt with 
friction shifting, especially with shifters that use a micro-ratchet 
mechanism (like Silver). If the derailer requires only a small amount of 
cable movement to shift one cog, I find that the shifter can be between 
clicks, requiring one extra click then a slight shove forward. This gets 
pretty fiddly and would certainly be annoying if you're riding with the 
carbon folks or are oxygen deprived at 13k feet. Which leads to ...
3. The Simplex retrofriction bar-end shifters are absolutely perfect for 
shifting SRAM "exact actuation" (1.30 derailer actuation) derailers over 
10-11 speed cassettes. The 1.30 derailer actuation requires a fair amount 
of cable pull, and the Simplex bar-ends pull a lot of cable. Being 
retrofriction instead of ratchets, you never have the problem of being 
between clicks. Don't go putting Simplex retrofriction downtube levers on 
your bike and think you'll get the same experience, though. The downtube 
levers pull much less cable.

Bottom line ... you have to match your friction levers to your derailer and 
cog count combo if you want a system that works without a lot of fiddling. 
Not that fiddling is bad, necessarily. But you also should feel free to 
decide that indexing is better for your style of riding.

Ted Durant
Milwaukee WI USA

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[RBW] Re: WTB - 9spd Dura Ace downtube shifters

2024-04-10 Thread Ted Durant
On Wednesday, April 10, 2024 at 2:48:19 PM UTC-5 Bill Lindsay wrote:

Also, you can get brand new 9sp bar cons from Rivendell at $140, and 
elsewhere for a few dollars less.  Some people run bar cons on their down 
tube shifter bosses, and they work fine.


 FYI, Grant tells me that he thinks Shimano has stopped making the 9sp 
bar-end shifters "after 25 or 26 years of making them". Get 'em while you 
can, and expect the price to get eye-watering. 

And, yes, you can run them on the down tube. Interesting bit of RBW history 
... I pointed this out to Grant a long time ago, and that the opposite was 
true, that downtube shifters could be mounted on Shimano bar-end pods. And 
thus were born the Silver 1 bar-end shifters.

Ted Durant
Milwaukee WI USA 

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Re: [RBW] Gearing Choices

2024-04-06 Thread Ted Durant
On Friday, April 5, 2024 at 7:44:35 PM UTC-5 george schick wrote:

I'm apparently of the same ilk as Bill.  I'm using a Shimano Crane RD 
(their predecessor to the Dura-Ace line) on a Fuji Finest of the same time 
period, very early 70's, and it looks just fine on there.


I’m working from a much more modern source of inspiration … my 1979 Fuji 
America.:-) 

Ted Durant
Milwaukee WI USA 

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Re: [RBW] Gearing Choices

2024-04-06 Thread Ted Durant
On Saturday, April 6, 2024 at 12:21:15 AM UTC-5 Luke Hendrickson wrote:

I run the gearing that I do (13-34 7s with 46-34-22 up front) solely 
because it allows me to run my Suntour XC three-pulley rd! Admittedly the 
45T chain wrap is nine above the stated 36T maximum but still :)

Bravo! That derailer gets no love from Disraeligears but it has a warm spot 
in my heart. Wacky, clever engineering.

Also, an update here … I added a pristine Cyclone GT to my collection. I 
decided to put the SunTours on my Breadwinner, which has an 11-speed setup, 
to see how they’d manage the required sweep. They don’t. One of the issues 
on that bike is that it’s a 140mm through-axle rear, and the first cog is a 
pretty long way from the face of the derailer hanger. I did a quick look at 
some other bikes, and it appears the derailer hanger-to-first cog distance 
varies by quite a bit.  That will definitely have an impact on whether an 
old derailer has enough sweep for a given setup.  

Ted Durant
Milwaukee WI USA

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Re: [RBW] Gearing Choices

2024-04-05 Thread Ted Durant
On Friday, April 5, 2024 at 3:17:24 AM UTC-5 divis...@gmail.com wrote:

As Snoopy said long ago: "Some of us prefer to sacrifice comfort for style".

I’m not comfortable riding a bike with an ugly derailer so I don’t have 
conflicting objectives.
:-)

Ted Durant
Milwaukee WI USA 

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Re: [RBW] Gearing Choices

2024-04-04 Thread Ted Durant
On Wednesday, April 3, 2024 at 9:54:49 PM UTC-5 Bill Lindsay wrote:

Even OLD is TBD?


Yes, but I don’t have any specific requirements there. I don’t expect 
chainring clearance or chain deflection issues to cause me to lean in a 
particular direction. However, availability of compatible  components will 
be a factor.

Ted Durant
Milwaukee WI USA

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Re: [RBW] Gearing Choices

2024-04-04 Thread Ted Durant
On Wednesday, April 3, 2024 at 4:29:06 PM UTC-5 Ted Durant wrote:

 I can confirm that a Vx GT and a Cyclone MkII GT will cover 9 -11 cog 
cassettes. In fact, a Cyclone MkII GT executes flawless index shifting on a 
9-speed 12-36 cassette using Shimano 10-speed bar end shifters.


After more experimentation I have to retract that. The Cyclone MkII GT 
covers 9, but 10 is just a bit too far. In theory it’s less than 1mm extra 
distance. In practice, it probably depends on the specific cassette and 
where that innermost cog lies relative to the face of the derailer hanger. 
 On a VO hub with a Shimano HG body, on my Terraferma, a Shimano 9-sp 12-36 
worked okay, but a Shimano 10-sp 12-28 requires just a bit more sweep.

And I had trouble getting a new Silver (1) shifter to hold its position 
during the test. Beeswax or Loctite might have helped.

Ted Durant
Milwaukee WI USA

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Re: [RBW] Re: [BOB] Re: Bump! ISO: 10-speed spacers. And question.

2024-04-03 Thread Ted Durant
On Wednesday, April 3, 2024 at 2:05:32 PM UTC-5 Garth wrote:

https://bike.bikegremlin.com/3573/bicycle-cassette-rear-chainrings-standards/#2.1.2

https://bike.bikegremlin.com/1232/bicycle-cassette-compatibility/


Jackpot! Thanks for sharing!
 

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Re: [RBW] Gearing Choices

2024-04-03 Thread Ted Durant

> On Apr 3, 2024, at 11:54 AM, Piaw Na  wrote:
> 
> I'm a big fan of half-step + granny for 7-speed rear cassettes and 
> freewheels. I think I even wrote an article about it for the Rivendell Reader 
> at one point (good luck digging it up!). What killed it for me was once 
> cassettes got to the point where constructing your cassette was no longer 
> supported or too much work, it was no longer practical.

I remember that, and probably could dig it up! And, yeah, you really have to 
build your own. 

> Those who live in places where 20+% grades are unusual or cannot be found 
> probably won't bother with my low gears.

This is super important and where “YMWCV”! I should have prefaced my entire 
treatise by making it clear that most of my riding is in SE Wisconsin on mostly 
paved roads and crushed limestone trails. The limestone trails are abandoned 
railroad beds, so rarely exceed 2% grade. We have only a few hills that 
approach 20% and they are quite short. Mostly it’s rollers that are 5%, 
occasionally 10%. The wind, on the other hand ….  

Riding in the LA area, especially trying to go up avg 10% dirt/rocky trails 
that go on for miles, my gearing needs are somewhat different. One of the 
thoughts I’m keeping in mind as I spec a new bike is flexibility … if I travel 
with this bike, will I be able to easily modify the 
gearing/tires/fenders/racks/lighting to match the intended conditions. But 
then, I also have a few different bikes, so ultimate flexibility might not be 
paramount :-)

> On Apr 3, 2024, at 12:33 PM, Bill Lindsay  wrote:
> 
> So, you have settled on what your gearing and derailleur choices will be?  If 
> yes, what exactly will they be?  What rear wheel OLD will you be using?  Will 
> it be a cassette rear hub or a freewheel?  How many cogs in back, what cogs?  
> If it's a contemporary 10 or 11speed cassette width, have you confirmed your 
> Suntour RD will sweep that horizontal distance?  What shifters will you use?  

All TBD, but I can confirm that a Vx GT and a Cyclone MkII GT will cover 9 -11 
cog cassettes. In fact, a Cyclone MkII GT executes flawless index shifting on a 
9-speed 12-36 cassette using Shimano 10-speed bar end shifters. I’ve posted 
elsewhere about this … SunTour derailers should index perfectly on a 
Shimano-SRAM n speed cassette with Shimano n-1 speed shifters, where 7<=n<=9. 
By “index perfectly” I mean that the horizontal derailer movement is exactly 
the right amount given the cable pull. An odd and interesting historical math 
artifact.

What is also important is related to that. SunTour derailers have a high 
actuation ratio, meaning lots of horizontal movement relative to cable pull. As 
a result, “normal” shift levers are able to move a SunTour derailer across 8-12 
cogs where other derailers would require a shift lever with more cable pull (a 
larger diameter drum around which the cable is wound). SRAM and newer Shimano 
derailers have much lower actuation ratios, driven (I hypothesize) by a desire 
to increase the amount of cable pull per shift and, consequently, increase the 
tolerance for imperfections in cable movement. Campagnolo, interestingly, 
_increased_ the actuation ratio slightly when they went from “old” 9 speed to 
“new” 9 speed and later. Always marching to their own beat, those Italians.

My choice of shifters will depend on several factors, including the gearing, 
the derailer, whether I feel indexing is important, and whether I want to deal 
with the additional complication of handlebar-mounted shifters on a bike that 
might get rinko’d. 

Ted Durant
Milwaukee, WI USA

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[RBW] Gearing Choices

2024-04-03 Thread Ted Durant
 that with 44/40 up front, and 
like me you ride 650x38b tires at 75-100rpm, you would have 18 distinct 
gears in a range from 49.5.kph to 7.6kph with an average step of 9.3% and a 
standard deviation of steps of 0.9%. Good luck building a 1x system with 
that range, step size, and consistency!  And, good luck finding a 9sp 
11-13-16-19-23-38-34-41-49 cassette! And, of course, if you want that setup 
you are forced to go with a butt-ugly modern derailer in back. The good 
news is you can use pretty much anything, including a stick, to shift up 
front!

That said, a large number of cogs in back can allow for something of a nice 
combination of half-step and crossover. Some people talk of a “1.5 step”, 
but I’ve evolved to a bit different way of thinking about it. In theory, 
because of the cubing effect of wind resistance as speed increases, you 
should want progressively smaller gear differences as the gears get taller 
for a consistent difference in pedaling effort. In practice, I find this is 
true, to some extent, but the more relevant factors are hills and wind. In 
a nutshell, sometimes I want bigger gaps, and sometimes I want smaller. 
What I DON’T want, is to have a big difference in gaps smack dab in the 
middle of where I usually ride. And, sure enough, on one of my bikes, I am 
usually right near where the cogs go 14-15-17. That’s gaps of 6.9% and 
12.5% right next to each other, and it’s a jarring difference. 

So my new, patent-pending approach, is to think of the rear cogs as 
essentially two ranges, close steps on the smaller half and larger steps on 
the larger half. If I’m in conditions where I want small steps, I stay on 
the smaller half; if I want larger steps, I stay on the larger half. In 
practice it’s very similar to a “half step plus granny” setup. It turns 
out, I have a bike that has an almost perfect example of this setup, and I 
have subconsciously been using it this way.

An important part of this setup is that you cannot use the typical mindset 
of “maximize the drop from the big ring to the small” in current 2x setups. 
If you do that, you will probably take the gearing too low for the small 
steps to be useful. On the setup I have that works well, I chose to make 
the chainring jump less jarring than my other bike. A 42/26 combo is a 
giant 48% change. If I don’t shift at least two gears in back in 
conjunction with a front change, my cadence has to change way beyond my 
comfort level. A 44/32, on the other hand, is 32% and far more manageable. 
I have that on a bike with 650x48b tires and 11-32 11sp in back. That 
cassette is 11-15 in 1-tooth increments, then 17-32 in relatively even 
steps. If I cross over from the 44x15 to the 32x12, I have 9 gears that 
have an average 7.9% step between them (sd 0.9%). Staying on the small ring 
I have 7 more gears at an average 12.6% gap (sd 1.3%). Additionally, I can 
ride in the large chainring in the 44x17 at 28.7kph or 44x19 at 25.7 kph, 
the heart of my usual speed, and have consistent 2-tooth changes either 
direction in back. Or, I can ride in the 32x13 at 27.3 or the 32x14 at 
25.3, with nice 1-tooth changes in either direction. The range total range 
is 9.6 to 51.0 kph for me. I’d want to get that down some if I was carrying 
a bunch of stuff off road in the mountains, but for riding around here 
that’s more than enough range.

Back to my dilemma … the large cog of 32 and total wrap of 33 teeth in that 
setup are easily managed by a SunTour Cyclone GT derailer from the late 
70’s. Be still my beating heart! No ugly modern derailer necessary! 

I still think a 2x7 half-step setup, with 18% gaps in the rear and 9% up 
front, is a killer setup for most road and gravel riding that doesn’t 
involve, say, more than 10% extended climbing grades. You’ll have to build 
your own cassette, though. A 2x11 or 2x12 two-range setup as I’ve describe 
above, though, is very practical and pretty widely available. 

Spreadsheet available upon request.

Ted Durant
Milwaukee WI USA

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Re: [RBW] Craigslist, etc 2024

2024-04-03 Thread Ted Durant
On Tuesday, April 2, 2024 at 12:59:04 PM UTC-5 Matthew Williams wrote:


Sam Hillborne F/F/HS/BB
51cm
1550
Livonia, MI
https://www.ebay.com/itm/176315208003

Oooh, it’s tempting to add a blue “Midwest Sam” to join my green “West 
Coast Sam” and silver “East Coast Sam”. Unfortunately I’ve maxed my 
basement bike storage and N+1 is no longer an option.

Ted Durant
Milwaukee WI USA 

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Re: [RBW] Re: [BOB] Re: Bump! ISO: 10-speed spacers. And question.

2024-04-03 Thread Ted Durant
FWIW, the center-center spacing for Shimano cogs is:

7sp 5.00
8sp 4.80
9sp 4.35
10sp 3.95
11sp Road 3.69
11sp MTB 3.90

Sorry, I don’t have 12 and 13. 

Cog + spacer widths need to add to those numbers. Theoretically you can use 
thinner cogs than spec with wider spacers, but you would run into trouble 
with chain fit using thicker cogs with thinner spacers. If somebody finds 
or assembles a complete table of cog and spacer thickness spec’s, that 
would be a significant contribution to humankind.

I’ll be posting on a related topic, soon.

Ted Durant
Milwaukee WI USA

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Re: [RBW] Re: I have questions

2024-03-22 Thread Ted Durant
On Friday, March 22, 2024 at 9:21:01 PM UTC-5 Joe Bernard wrote:

Seconded on RH knobbies. I have them in 42mm and they're alarmingly nice on 
pavement whilst leaving some margin when I hit dirt and gravel spots (which 
is most pavement rides around here). 


I’m not quite as smitten with the RH knobbies. I run 48mm tires on my 
Breadwinner G-Road, and I find the knobbies to be just buzzy enough on 
pavement to detract a bit from the ride. Of course, that’s compared to 
smooth tread ultralights. If I ever take the bike where I expect there to 
be more dirt riding, though, I’d definitely bring the knobbies.

Ted Durant
Milwaukee WI USA 

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[RBW] Re: I have questions

2024-03-22 Thread Ted Durant
On Friday, March 22, 2024 at 6:55:19 PM UTC-5 Max S wrote:

A dyno hub puts out a nominal 3 Watts. If you ride it for an hour, that's 3 
watt-hours worth of electricity. Let's say it gets split between the light 
and your phone. If you ride continuously for 10 hours, that's about 30 
watt-hours. Let's say half is used to power the light, half to power the 
phone... 


I probably read the same long, nerdy article as Johnny A, and I think 
you’ll actually get less than half of that going to the phone (or whatever 
else you plugged in). That’s why I set up my system to be one or the other. 
 And, as Jason said, you actually can damage your phone because of the 
variable power output. I set up my system primarily so I can charge a power 
bank if needed … hopefully as I’m coasting down a nice long mountain 
descent  where I can convert all that potential energy into stored 
electrons. I also like the idea of being able to power the lights from the 
battery instead of the generator when I’m on a long climb. Every watt 
counts :-) But day in, day out, I like having the lights “always on” 
running off the generator.

Ted Durant
Milwaukee, WI USA

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[RBW] Re: I have questions

2024-03-22 Thread Ted Durant
On Tuesday, March 19, 2024 at 8:10:14 PM UTC-5 Bicycle Belle Ding Ding! 
wrote:

 Can 48 mm tires do a 15-17 mph road ride pace? 

Yes. I have Rene Herse 48mm tires on my Breadwinner G-Road, Gravel King 
(smooth) 48mm on West Coast Sam, and Ultradynamico 48mm tires on East Coast 
Sam, and 15-17mph is pretty much my normal pace on all of them. The Gravel 
Kings require only a bit more effort than the RH tires. The Ultradynamico 
tires require noticeably more effort, but it's not like they're boat 
anchors. I've done a couple of 20mph rides on the Breadwinner. My Rivendell 
Road recently went from 26 to 32mm (though they measure 29 on the skinny 
rims) tires. It's easier to ride at 20mph on that bike, but only marginally 
so. 
 

What are people using to charge phones on long rides away from home?

For my Breadwinner I spent a lot of time thinking about and designing a 
flexible generator-light-charging setup, and I'm very happy with the 
result. The coaxial wire from the hub ends in a quick-connector behind the 
fork crown. Normally my headlight (Supernova E3 pro 2) plugs into that, and 
the tail light plugs into the headlight. If I want to charge something, I 
have a Sinewave Revolution that can plug into the generator instead of the 
headlight. That leaves me without lights, but I also can plug the lights 
into a USB power source. Supernova says the lights won't run off a battery, 
but the 5v from the battery is more than enough. They aren't at their full 
brightness, but they are plenty bright for most conditions. I prefer having 
a headlight with a properly shaped beam (sorry, Beacon), and you can't 
really generate enough watts to run both a light and charge a phone, 
anyway. And besides, reasonably lightweight USB power sources are cheap and 
easy. The one I have is only a few ounces and can charge my phone 3x. And I 
can recharge it from my generator hub if I want. In fact, theoretically I 
can connect both the generator and the lights to the battery, and it will 
charge the battery as the battery is powering the lights. I haven't tested 
that to see if the generator makes enough power to run the lights and still 
add to the battery charge level.

Ted Durant
Milwaukee, WI USA

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[RBW] Re: Abomination? Riv Road "upgrades"

2024-03-20 Thread Ted Durant
On Monday, March 18, 2024 at 9:57:32 AM UTC-5 EGNolan wrote:

 Pairing the wheels with some on-sale Vittoria Corsa G2.0 in 32 width made 
the bike smoother than with 650b x 42 GravelKings and loads faster. Is it 
an abomination? Heresy? 


Well, my only personal feeling about Eric's bike is that the graphics on 
the rims are kinda loud. Love the Ritchey cranks, though!

I sold my Heron Touring bike to a friend, for whom it was a perfect fit. 
His brother-in-law, a hard-core road bike kinda guy, had a snazzy pair of 
"last year's" carbon fiber wheels that he gave to my friend for cheap. I 
was initially horrified by it and the cork pads he'd manage to find for the 
cantilever brakes, but he was happy and rode it a LOT, so that made me 
happy.

I have a lovely Campagnolo Daytona group on my Rivendell Road, with wheels 
built by Joe Young using shiny, light, skinny FIR rims. I just discovered 
that Rene Herse 32mm tires fit with room to spare, measuring 29mm on those 
skinny rims. I also found a NOS 13-26 cassette to replace the 12-23 that I 
had on there. Talk about an upgrade!  All of a sudden I like this bike a 
lot more.

Ted Durant
Milwaukee, WI USA 

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[RBW] Re: Smooth Post Brake Pads

2024-03-11 Thread Ted Durant
On Monday, March 11, 2024 at 12:46:15 PM UTC-5 Greg J wrote:

Bill and Ted,  can you explain what you mean by the Dia Compe 986 deforming 
or squishing when overtightened?  


I just did a bit of googling and realize the brakes I'm thinking of were 
980, not 986. Wish I still had them to take photos. On mine, working from 
memory, the washers that have the channels for holding the brake pad post 
and the brake pad posts themselves deformed, making fine adjustment 
impossible. The eyebolt openings may also have deformed.

Ted Durant
Milwaukee WI USA

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[RBW] Re: Smooth Post Brake Pads

2024-03-10 Thread Ted Durant
On Sunday, March 10, 2024 at 9:11:20 AM UTC-5 Bill Lindsay wrote:

...Smooth post cantilevers, in my view, raise the ceiling for a good 
mechanic.  I feel like the extra work required represents the mechanical 
"envelope" to get things perfect.  On these forums (RBW, IBOB, 650B) I've 
advised that the typical home-mechanic should probably not take on Rene 
Herse Cantilevers, it's too heavy a lift.  The second reason is that smooth 
post cantilevers give me more room to play with rim width.  In the hands of 
the right mechanic, I think smooth post cantilevers are preferable. 


Such a great, thoughtful response, Bill. I encourage everyone to read it 
through, even though I've kept just a small part of it here.

I had a laugh because Dia Compe 986 are exactly what I had in mind about 
impossible to readjust brakes. 20 year old me had them on both a Marukin 
Northstar and a Santana Elan. The Santana was especially challenging 
because Santana placed the mounts way too close together. They might have 
worked on a 5mm wide rim. The tandem was my wife's and my wedding gift to 
each other, and around our 30th anniversary I had Waterford do a full 
repaint and I replaced all the components with updated parts. Shimano CX-70 
brakes were a revelation and for the first time I had fully confident 
braking on the bike. Wished I had them on our honeymoon, camping in Vermont!

I hadn't thought much about rim width in writing my initial post, probably 
because I'd forgotten about the initial installation and choosing the right 
bolt/spacer combo on the CX-50s. But I don't think my mind is changed about 
the extent to which the Shimano CX system improves on smooth posts. On the 
contrary, the fact that I didn't have to think about that part of the setup 
when changing pads illustrates one of its advantages for me. Different 
length bolts and spacers would be compatible with the adapter I have in 
mind. Fortunately, having put 4 sets of CX brakes on bikes, I have a pretty 
good supply of spacers and bolts :-). I don't think the weight gain, if 
there is any, would be enough to change my mind.  

One thing that the CX and Rene Herse brakes have in common, that makes them 
such a pleasure (and so much easier) to work on, is the quality of the 
hardware. 

Ted Durant
Milwaukee, WI USA

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[RBW] Smooth Post Brake Pads

2024-03-09 Thread Ted Durant
Jumping off of Bill Lindsay's RoadeoRosa thread, where he commented on the 
varsity level work required to de-squeak his Rene Herse brakes

I love Jan and his stuff, but I think keeping the smooth post brake pads 
for his brakes is being a slave to the past. I've never liked any of the 
brakes I've had that used them. Hard to set up, impossible to adjust after 
tightening (any aluminum bits immediately deform, preventing further 
adjustment), limited replacement options. 

I just replaced the pads on the Shimano CX-50 cantilever brakes on East 
Coast Sam. I wanted cartridge holders for easy pad swapping, prompted by a 
white-knuckle descent of Connor Pass in Ireland on a very wet day. I put on 
105 holders with Kool Stop dual-compound pads, which I've loved on the 
Silver/Tektro long-reach side pulls I've had on various bikes. Setting them 
up took all of about 5 seconds on each side, and zero squeal out the gate. 
(Release the springs, do an initial install and slight tighten, then put a 
credit card between the trailing edge and the rim, squeeze the brake lever, 
loosen and re-tighten the pad, done. Don't forget to put the springs back 
on.)

All of which made me dream up an adapter that would allow for mounting a 
bolt-on pad on a brake that uses smooth post pads. I'm envisioning a bolt 
on one end, to attach to the brake arm, and a flat tab on the other, with a 
hole for the pad mounting bolt to pass through. The tab probably wants to 
be offset from the center axis of the bolt, to put the inner face closer to 
the inside edge of the brake arm. 

A bit of Googling came up with zilch. Anybody handy with machining 
stainless steel rod stock?

Ted Durant
Milwaukee WI USA

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Re: [RBW] Sit Bone Width and Saddles

2024-02-29 Thread Ted Durant

> On Feb 29, 2024, at 9:18 PM, Jay  wrote:
> 
>  Maybe it was because I wasn't wearing bibs that have just don't work for me. 
>  

That’s a very good possibility. I worked hard to find saddles that work well 
for me and, in the case of the leather saddles, worked hard to tune the fit. 
Anything more than a very thin pad in biking shorts ruins the ride for me. 

Ted Durant
Milwaukee, WI 53217


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Re: [RBW] Re: Sit Bone Width and Saddles

2024-02-29 Thread Ted Durant
On Feb 29, 2024, at 1:21 PM, Bill Lindsay  wrote:" It's 275mm wide,"That's probably the length, not the width.  :)Yup. Shouldn’t try to make rushed posts before getting on a plane. It’s 140mm wide BL in ECOn Thursday, February 29, 2024 at 8:39:54 AM UTC-8 Ted Durant wrote:On Wednesday, February 28, 2024 at 6:45:42 PM UTC-6 Jay wrote:I'll preface this by saying I know saddles are highly subjective, and what works for one may not work for you.  What I wanted to ask about is "general thinking".  Just wanting to confirm some thoughts I've had about this...Saddle  dimensions are much more complex than just width. It's not just where the sit-bones hit the saddle, but at what angle. How much of the saddle lies outside the sit-bones and how it's shaped are also very important. Also important are the cant of the rear and how much "scoop" there is in the transition from tail to front. And all of those things, as you note, have to be in the context of your back-hip angle as you ride.WTB saddles tend to be very flat across the back, with an abrupt falloff in cross-section. I was attracted to them by the cant and scoop, which are a key feature of most Brooks saddles, but the flatness didn't work for me. The Soma Ensho, which is made by Velo in Taiwan, is perfect for me. It's 275mm wide, but the back has a slightly rounded cross-section that falls off at an increasing rate. The amount of cant and scoop feel just right. I can only ride B-17's in a more upright position, and I have to be positioned a little forward on them. I also ride a Berthoud Aspin, which is a similar shape and width in cross-section but has a bit less cant and scoop.Ted DurantMilwaukee WI USA



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[RBW] Re: Sit Bone Width and Saddles

2024-02-29 Thread Ted Durant
On Wednesday, February 28, 2024 at 6:45:42 PM UTC-6 Jay wrote:

I'll preface this by saying I know saddles are highly subjective, and what 
works for one may not work for you.  What I wanted to ask about is "general 
thinking".  Just wanting to confirm some thoughts I've had about this...


Saddle  dimensions are much more complex than just width. It's not just 
where the sit-bones hit the saddle, but at what angle. How much of the 
saddle lies outside the sit-bones and how it's shaped are also very 
important. Also important are the cant of the rear and how much "scoop" 
there is in the transition from tail to front. And all of those things, as 
you note, have to be in the context of your back-hip angle as you ride.

WTB saddles tend to be very flat across the back, with an abrupt falloff in 
cross-section. I was attracted to them by the cant and scoop, which are a 
key feature of most Brooks saddles, but the flatness didn't work for me. 
The Soma Ensho, which is made by Velo in Taiwan, is perfect for me. It's 
275mm wide, but the back has a slightly rounded cross-section that falls 
off at an increasing rate. The amount of cant and scoop feel just right. I 
can only ride B-17's in a more upright position, and I have to be 
positioned a little forward on them. I also ride a Berthoud Aspin, which is 
a similar shape and width in cross-section but has a bit less cant and 
scoop.

Ted Durant
Milwaukee WI USA

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Re: [RBW] Los Angeles Riv Ride

2024-02-15 Thread Ted Durant
Ride With GPS route:
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/45602857

Ted Durant

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[RBW] Re: Intro post, pics of my RIvs, and a Homer fit question

2024-02-15 Thread Ted Durant
On Wednesday, February 7, 2024 at 1:20:53 PM UTC-8 eitanz...@gmail.com 
wrote:

That said, as beautiful as this bike is, I haven't been able to get 
comfortable on it. I am too stretched out. 


Yup, that is a beautiful bike! I know the feeling of being too stretched 
out, even as someone who is naturally quite flexible and likes to ride in a 
pretty low back position. My Sams are set up with a shorter reach than my 
other bikes and I have found I like it. Contrary to the others and to 
"conventional wisdom", I have not found saddle fore-aft position to be so 
critical that I have to nail it to the mm. I am comfortable and feel 
similarly powerful over a range of 15-20mm. My Sams have much shallower 
seat tube angles than my other bikes, and I have the saddles pushed forward 
a bit, but not a lot. Like a couple of other posters, I wouldn't hesitate 
to go to an 8 or even 7cm stem to get the reach that you like. I use my 
personal cubit to judge reach - put your elbow against the front of the 
saddle and see where your finger tips lie relative to the handlebars. Most 
my bikes have the bars about 20mm ahead of my fingers. On my Sams my 
fingers just touch the bars.

As others have pointed out, Noodle bars have a pretty good reach. In 
addition, the TRP brake lever hoods are looong. The combined effect is 
quite a bit of extra reach. I very much like having lots of reach and drop 
on the bars so my position varies a lot as I move my hands. But it does 
mean you need a shorter stem so the on-the-hoods position feels neutral.

Ted Durant

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Re: [RBW] Los Angeles Riv Ride

2024-02-15 Thread Ted Durant
On Wednesday, February 14, 2024 at 10:57:53 PM UTC-8 Tony Lockhart wrote:

Happy to see that this is all coming together. Seems like a 7:45 to 8:00 
roll out would be ideal, and the route possibilities above are prefect. 
Here's a screenshot of the map starting at Allez LA; folks driving in can 
find tons of parking on Meridian and Stradford.


How about 7:45-8:00 arrival at Allez LA, 8:15 rollout. Then I suggest we do 
the route the other direction from my previous suggestion, going up around 
the Rose Bowl then across to Sierra Madre, stop for coffee/tea/pastries in 
Sierra Madre, then return via the Cub House which, if we are reasonably 
relaxed about the pace, should be open by the time we are there. If that 
works for people, I will post a RideWithGPS route.

Off topic, but anyone know if the Velo Retro rides are still happening? I 
remember coming across Chuck around 2008ish at Buster's Coffee shop in 
South Pas (currently called Jones Coffee Roasters). Super nice guy, and 
always on an amazing bike. In fact, seeing him ride in Birkenstocks 
resonated with me.


Indeed the ride is still happening, first Sunday of every month, though 
alas poor Chuck hasn't been able to ride a bike for a while. My last meet 
up with him was in fact at Jones Coffee Roasters. He still likes to hang 
out there. 

Ted Durant

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Re: [RBW] Los Angeles Riv Ride

2024-02-14 Thread Ted Durant

> On Feb 14, 2024, at 1:30 PM, Brian Cunningham 
>  wrote:
> 
> Funny you should mention Chuck's ride, Ted. I believe I met you a couple 
> years ago when you happened upon the ride and I was on my (now former, a 
> little too French fit) blue Rambouillet. The Sierra Madre loop I have 
> developed borrows somewhat from that ride but subtracts some turn and the 
> climb into Sierra Madre that I favor is longer and more gradual. 
> 

Ha! That was you! Yup, I was on the maiden voyage of a Space Horse that I’d 
bought for my “when I’m in LA” bike. Nice enough bike, but now that I have a 
Sam Hillborne here, the Space Horse isn’t getting much love.

Ted Durant
Milwaukee, WI USA


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Re: [RBW] Re: Los Angeles Riv Ride

2024-02-14 Thread Ted Durant
On Wednesday, February 14, 2024 at 12:37:13 PM UTC-8 Brian Cunningham wrote:

 If the plan is to meet up at Allez LA, and the plan is also to be strictly 
road, I enjoy riding east on York until it becomes Monterey Road in South 
Pas east of the 110, jogging north a block to the bike lane on El Centro, 
taking it 'til it ends, hanging a quick left and then immediate right on 
Mission, which gives you another bike lane and one that passes another 
Riv-friendly bike shop The Cub House. If you were to head back south to 
Monterey after that and head east you get the sort of smoothly paved roads 
that only a tiny and rich city like San Marino can manage. And then from 
there you can nearly get to Sierra Madre Blvd, which if you head north on, 
it will curve past Pasadena High and eventually lead you into Sierra Madre 
with a decent but gradual elevation change. Once you get to Sierra Madre 
you've got a good cafe stop at Syndicate. From my place in Glendale this is 
about a 34 mile round trip with about 1100 ft elevation gain but from Allez 
I'd guess closer to 25 miles. This is my default ride when I want to get 
some road miles in and the weather is mild enough that the coastal breezes 
are not a factor. 


I can confirm most of that, as I ride a similar loop frequently. Several of 
the roads are on Chuck Schmidt's monthly Velo Retro Rose Bowl ride. From 
Sierra Madre that ride comes back to the Rose Bowl via Paloma and Mountain. 
>From the Rose Bowl, you can head south on Arroyo (a lovely ride!) and pick 
up Monterey/York back to Allez LA. I just did a quick RWGPS check and that 
route, including one lap of the Rose Bowl, is 43km/27mi, with a bit less 
than 1000' of climbing, none of it especially steep.

In addition to Syndicate in Sierra Madre, there is excellent pizza and a 
cafe across the street from Cub House.
 
I may be time limited, as it's my last day here and I shouldn't abandon my 
family entirely. I can cut it short, though, and not do the full loop.

If the group wants some non-technical dirt there's always some Griffith 
Park fire roads we can do instead. Those turns I know better from visual 
memory than I could adequately describe here. 


I've only been there once, so can't help lay out a route. Anybody know the 
conditions of the roads after the rains?
 

If the group wants to experience the LA River Bike Path, please be aware 
that it is closed north of Los Feliz Blvd this month for some repairs. 


 I'm not so big a fan of the river bike paths, other than a way to get from 
one part of the city to another. No shade, not much scenery. And yesterday 
I got screwed by one of them being closed unexpectedly. Had to hop a fence 
to get out and avoid backtracking a few miles.

Ted Durant

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Re: [RBW] Re: Los Angeles Riv Ride

2024-02-10 Thread Ted Durant
aled in. Really love the handlebar setup, and will probably go that route once the Roaduno frames come out.On Wednesday, April 26, 2023 at 2:03:38 PM UTC-7 cycli...@gmail.com wrote:Griffith Park would be doable for me 20th or 27th. David Black & Tan SamThousand OaksOn Wednesday, April 26, 2023 at 11:54:53 AM UTC-7 dwyer...@gmail.com wrote:Hi all –– Atlantis rider in the Pomona Valley here. I could likely make the 20th or the 27th, with a preference for the 27th.Tony: I think that was my Atlantis you saw! I'd guess that was your parked orange Riv at the Palomares Adobe that I saw too. What a coincidence!The Mt. Hollywood route is definitely a climb but it has some great payoff! I usually just take a break or two on my way up.On Tuesday, April 25, 2023 at 9:00:35 PM UTC-7 Tony Lockhart wrote:I can make it on the 13th or 27th. Also, I teach for a living so the schedule's wide open during the summer.On Tuesday, April 25, 2023 at 10:21:18 AM UTC-7 Keith P. wrote:I am available on the 13th, but might be flexible on the 20thk.On Apr 25, 2023, at 9:35 AM, Brian Cunningham <thisisbria...@gmail.com> wrote:Of those 3 dates, I’m only available on the 27th, but my tricky schedule is not everyone else’s problem. I’ll join you if that ends up being the best date for all parties involved.Brian Sent from my iPhoneOn Apr 25, 2023, at 8:10 AM, Houston Wilson <hwi...@smprep.org> wrote:Yay, I'm loving hearing from y'all!1. Anyone have a preference for May 13th, 20th, or 27th?2. Regarding the route, it seems like most folks are out east, so Griffith seems like the best option. Ted D.--point taken about Griffith + Hollywood sign not being very chill. So, probably best to just stick to griffith, but if anyone wants to ride to the Hollywood sign after, I'd be super down! So, I'm thinking meet by the Greek and do a little loop up to Vista del Valle and around to the Observatory. This would be about 8 mi with ~1000 ft. of elevation. I don't ride in griffith a ton, so if anyone has route suggestions/food spots to hit up before/after...please share haha! On Tuesday, April 25, 2023 at 7:24:40 AM UTC-7 Bryan wrote:Hi! I might be able to make it, schedule permitting. Sounds fun!Bryan Edgar Valley VillageOn Monday, April 24, 2023 at 9:18:43 PM UTC-7 Tony Lockhart wrote:Count me in. I'm in South Pasadena (orange Hillborne bought in 2009). Haven't browsed this forum in a few years, but decided to check in because I wanted to go on a group ride. Oddly enough, I saw a parked Atlantis at the 626 Golden Streets event yesterday. Seems like the perfect time to meet up with some other folks, especially since some of the newer Rivs look drastically different.Cheers,TonyOn Monday, April 24, 2023 at 11:08:22 AM UTC-7 bunny...@gmail.com wrote:Hey all!I will be out of the country for about two weeks in MAY, but would love to join if I am in town. By no means should the scheduling be done around my availability.Cheers!BenOn Monday, April 24, 2023 at 10:34:17 AM UTC-7 Keith P. wrote:I remember Ben/bunnyadrian planning a local ride last year.Has he seen this yet?On Monday, April 24, 2023 at 10:17:19 AM UTC-7 Ted Durant wrote:On Sunday, April 23, 2023 at 4:40:12 PM UTC-5 Houston Wilson wrote:Depending on where most folks are located, I think it could be cool to do the Will Rogers inspiration loop in the Western Santa Monica's or a Griffith Park/Hollywood Sign moment. Regardless, it'd be a chill pace with a cafe stop or two thrown in. I don't think I'm going to make it out that way in May. In fact, my LA daughter is planning to come here for a week. I'll watch the thread with interest, though. As for the route ... I can't imagine Griffith Park/Hollywood Sign being a very "chill" ride - that's a lot of climbing! But it's beautiful and fun.Ted DurantMilwaukee, WI (and occasionally Alhambra, CA) 



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Re: [RBW] Why do some bikes just feel consistently faster?

2024-01-09 Thread Ted Durant

> On Jan 9, 2024, at 12:40 PM, Ron Mc  wrote:
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxxhoKVVCvg
> 
> I don't know how to embed this, or whether good will embed it, but the 
> youtube link is the mode shape that produces planing from the rear triangles. 
>  
> 

That appears to be two dimensional in the plane of the frame, which wouldn’t 
represent what Jan Heine has described as his planing hypothesis.

Ted Durant
Milwaukee WI USA

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[RBW] Re: Why do some bikes just feel consistently faster?

2024-01-08 Thread Ted Durant
On Monday, January 8, 2024 at 10:15:31 AM UTC-5 I wrote:

The Heron Road bikes have .1mm thinner top tube walls than down tube, and 
my prototype has extra heavy stays, so there you go.


A bit more on this, just for fun. I had Waterford build an ST-22 that is in 
many ways a duplicate of the Heron Road. However, it has a lighter top tube 
(.7/.4/.7 vs .8/.5/.8), a  lighter down tube (.65/.45/.65 vs .9/.6/.9), and 
lighter chain stays (30x17 oval tapering to 12.5mm, 0.8 wall, vs 22.2 round 
tapering to 12, probably 1.0 wall). I find the Heron to be a nicer ride. 
BUT, there are a couple of other critical differences. Both bikes use the 
Heron round blade fork crown, but the ST22 has slightly longer (bit more 
rake, bit more clearance) but stiffer (1.2mm vs 1.0mm wall at the tips) 
blades. In addition, the ST22 fork has beefy fork ends for the SON SL 
connectors, and a Schmidt SON hub. Also, the ST22 rides on DT TK540 rims, 
compared to Mavic MA2 on the Heron. Someday I'll put the Heron's wheels on 
the ST22 and see how that changes things; I expect it will change a lot.

Don't underestimate the importance of the fork to the feel and handling of 
a bike.

Ted Durant
Milwaukee WI USA

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[RBW] Re: Why do some bikes just feel consistently faster?

2024-01-08 Thread Ted Durant
Not to be overly contrarian, but ...

Planing is a terrible word for the phenomenon in question, which is when 
the flex characteristics of the bike are such that the energy stored in 
deformation (of the frame and all the attached parts) is efficiently 
returned to power the rear wheel during the lower power part of the 
pedaling cycle. When a boat planes, it rises out of the water, resulting in 
a large reduction in coefficient of drag. The equivalent on a bicycle would 
be the development of a vacuum around the bike and rider at a certain 
speed. That would be fun, but it's certainly not what's happening on earth. 
Ironically, there is a well-known and used term in Jan's back yard, for the 
exact phenomenon he is trying to describe. Rowers have long used the word 
"swing" to describe a shell and oars whose flex characteristics synchronize 
well with their strokes, allowing them to go faster for a given power 
output. Jan claims that bikes that "plane" magically increase a rider's 
power output, but the reality is that bikes that swing well waste less of 
the rider's  power. A better way to put it might be that such a bike puts 
more of the rider's power to the back wheel. 

The flex characteristics of the frame are important, of course, but the 
entire bicycle (and its rider) is a system of springs and in such a system 
the softer springs affect flex first, with the stiffer springs becoming 
more relevant as the forces increase. For most of us on this list, we don't 
spend a lot of time putting enough power into the pedals to get to the 
point where frame flexibility is significantly tested. At 57kg, I can tell 
you that I rarely put out that kind of power. I have a brevet bike made of 
.7/.4/.7 standard diameter tubing, and I can make that frame flex, but not 
for very long. That bike rides on 42mm tires at about 33 psi, and the tires 
are definitely the soft springs in that system.

I don't attribute aluminum, or stiffer frames in general, to an increased 
focus on cadence. Track cyclists have always been obsessed with cadence. 
With the introduction of multiple gear systems for road biking came the 
opportunity to develop notions of "ideal" cadence. Note that when Jan talks 
about frames "planing" for him, he almost always talks about it working for 
his preferred cadence. Stiff frames, in fact, reduce the importance of 
cadence, as they reduce the contribution of the frame to swing (for a given 
power input). For me, cadence is only important when going uphill or into a 
headwind. It is important because I need enough momentum in my feet to keep 
a steady speed. Without that momentum, I am repeatedly accelerating during 
the power phase and decelerating during the non-power phase. That is 
terribly inefficient. And that is why, as discussed in the recent thread on 
gearing, it is so important to have low gears in steep hills. Long before 
aluminum frames were a twinkle in Gary Klein's eyes, cyclists talked about 
"staying on top of a gear" when climbing. It meant to maintain a fast 
enough cadence that you were pedaling smoothly, maintaining a constant 
speed. Cyclists have also long talked about using smaller gears and a 
higher cadence to "work your heart, not your legs." 

So, I also don't have _the_ answer to why some bikes seem/feel/are faster 
than others. Many of my best Strava times on climbing segments and my best 
100km time are on my Heron prototype, which is a road frame but has the 
heavy rear stays from the touring frame. You can feel the weight of the 
stays (and the weight of the old SunTour freewheel) when you pick up the 
bike. Maybe it's just that I have so much invested in that bike that it 
inspires me to push a little harder. I tend to believe Jan's hypothesis 
that stiffness in the downtube and chainstays and flex in the top tube, 
relative to each other, help a bike swing in a way that returns energy to 
the rear wheel. Interestingly, old Reynolds tube sets were always spec'd 
that way, with thinner walls in the top tube than in the down tube. 
Somewhere along the way they switched to the Columbus standard, where top 
tube and down tube walls are the same. The Heron Road bikes have .1mm 
thinner top tube walls than down tube, and my prototype has extra heavy 
stays, so there you go.

Ted Durant
Milwaukee WI USA

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Re: [RBW] Los Angeles Riv Ride

2024-01-06 Thread Ted Durant
> On Jan 6, 2024, at 9:05 PM, Tony Lockhart  wrote:
> 
> Looks like we’re going to have a great turnout. Anybody good at mapping out 
> routes? 
> 
> There’s an event at The Rose Bowl on the 17th, but I’m sure there’ll be 
> parking near the Aquatic Center (for folks driving in). The Zoo/Autry lot 
> will have plenty of parking as well. Both locations are right off the 
> freeway. 


I can make the 17th, but it’s my last day that visit, and I would prefer to 
keep some time for my family. I will be in San Gabriel, so would prefer to ride 
in the San Gabriel valley vicinity.  I’ve had a few good rides in Cherry 
Canyon. The Cub House is a fun and funky bike shop in San Marino, near South 
Pasadena. They do builds for Rivendell, and it’s where West Coast Sam came to 
life. There is a fantastic pizza place across the street. Street parking seems 
to be generally available in the area, though I always bike there from my 
daughter’s place. The road ride to Cherry Canyon from there is nice, going 
across South Pas then up Arroyo to the Rose Bowl, then up into the hills along 
the amazing houses of Berkshire Ave. I tend to return back down Lida, past the 
ArtCenter College of Design. Lots and lots of up and down.

Just one option, but I could also get over to the Griffith Park area, and I’d 
always love to find new routes. I’ve also ridden some around Griffith Park and 
loved it.

Ted Durant
Milwaukee, WI USA


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[RBW] Re: ROADINI in South Pasadena

2024-01-02 Thread Ted Durant
On Monday, January 1, 2024 at 11:38:19 PM UTC-6 Tony Lockhart wrote:

@Ted - Glad you'll be in town soon. Hoping you can carve out some time for 
a group ride. You mentioned that your daughter has a Riv, right?

I have a Sam Hillborne in her garage. And a Space Horse (which could be for 
sale if anyone is interested). She has a Trek 310 (Reynolds 531 main 
tubes!).

Looking forward to hopefully seeing a few people there.

Ted Durant 
Milwaukee WI USA

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[RBW] Re: ROADINI in South Pasadena

2024-01-01 Thread Ted Durant
On Sunday, December 31, 2023 at 5:21:42 PM UTC-6 Neale S. wrote:

 from Glassell Park, hope to see you out there. Sounds like we need 
another L.A. Riv Ride soon.


I will be in San Gabriel 2/11-2/17 and my West Coast Sam would enjoy 
meeting some relatives.

Ted Durant
Milwaukee WI USA 

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Re: [RBW] "Grant hates toe clips."

2023-12-25 Thread Ted Durant

> On Dec 25, 2023, at 4:41 PM, Bernard Duhon  wrote:
> 
> 
> Less leg extension, so lower your saddle, there is more toe overlap and 
> finally slightly different muscles are used.  

I found the same. I lowered my saddle height both for slightly less shoe+pedal 
stack height and for foot positioning. 


Ted Durant
Milwaukee, WI USA

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Re: [RBW] "Grant hates toe clips."

2023-12-25 Thread Ted Durant
On Monday, December 25, 2023 at 2:02:38 PM UTC-6 Patrick Moore wrote:

If I ever build a dedicated shopping bike I think I'll try no-retention 
again, but this time without pinned pedals; it was the pins that annoyed me 
when I tried platforms a couple of years ago because they were always 
holding the shoe (and I bought a nice pair of platform cycling shoes) in 
the wrong places and made it hard to shift the soles to the right places. 


That's one of the reasons I love the Clem pedals ... plastic bodies, no 
pins, but the grip with the sneakers I wear is quite good.

One of the things I took away from the Pino setup was the importance of 
matching shoes and pedals together. Even with cleat and binding systems, 
some shoes work better than others with a given system. Crank Brothers got 
pretty smart about that, creating a system of shims and spacers to optimize 
the fit. Binding-less pedals also have to be matched with compatible shoes. 
I've experienced a similar issue as Patrick, where the pins on a pedal 
don't line up nicely with the bottom of a shoe, and spent the whole ride 
trying to find a comfortable foot placement.

Ted Durant
Milwaukee WI USA 

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[RBW] Re: "Grant hates toe clips."

2023-12-25 Thread Ted Durant
On Sunday, December 24, 2023 at 7:44:43 PM UTC-6 Patrick Moore wrote:

But I'm curious how many on this RBW list like and use retention and how 
many don't; and of the former, how many use toe clips and how many use 
clipless systems -- and what kind.


I started riding bikes in 1968. In 1978 I got my first pair of Detto Pietro 
shoes. I've been through cleats, Avocets, SPD, MKS Mapstage, Time ATAC, Egg 
Beater, and now I almost exclusively ride in sneakers (Lems) on flat pedals 
(mostly Riv's Clem pedals). The most efficient "directly attached to the 
rear wheel" system I ever felt was a pair of Delrin cleats that Pino 
Morroni machined for Grant. They snapped perfectly into Campy NR pedals, 
and you didn't even need a strap unless you really pulled straight up on 
them. All the systems that "float" were absolutely terrible for me. My 
heels would rotate to the float limits, creating a large amount of 
rotational strain on my knees. I found Egg Beaters with zero float cleats 
to be the best for my needs, and I still have them on my Riv Road, which is 
set up for fast group riding.  Also, like Wesley, my wife and I find 
cleated pedals to be very important on the tandem - no more feet flying off 
the pedals at inopportune moments. I liked having cleated pedals and shoes 
for the short downtown part of my commute, where I would often need to 
accelerate hard to keep up with the traffic flow.  Since I retired I 
haven't had a single time when I've been clipless (meaning no binding 
system at all!) that I have wished for something holding my feet to the 
pedals. On the contrary, I am finding that my feet, ankles, knees, and hips 
are much, much happier, especially on long rides. I love being able to 
shift my feet forward and back, sometimes on the ball, sometimes the arch, 
depending on the terrain and the level of effort.

My father-in-law started doing some more recreational biking in his 
retirement. The shop that sold him a new bike insisted he needed toe clips 
and straps. At an intersection with some sand on the pavement (April in 
Wisconsin!) he used his front brake and went down. In trying to pull his 
foot from the pedal he very badly tore up the ligaments in his knee. 
Needless to say, when he got back on the bike the next year, I had tossed 
the clips and straps.

Ted Durant
Milwaukee WI USA

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Re: [RBW] Re: 90-year-old cyclist: remarkable video

2023-12-23 Thread Ted Durant
My fondest wish is to be that guy in 30 years. We share the same birthday, 
so it's a start!

Guys I rode with in college did a semester in Pau. They came back with 
stories of riding with a local club into the Pyrenees. They described the 
riders as "old mountain goats who tore off our legs and lungs." My friends 
were hard core xc skiers in college, and they had a hard time keeping up 
with old French guys.

Side note - that "route profile" at the bottom of the YouTube video is a 
histogram showing the relative amount of viewing time of each segment ... 
sort of a "popularity" measure of the segments. I like Andy's suggestion, 
though, that it's a metaphor for a person's life. Plenty of ups and downs. 

My cycling goals that I set for 2023 were "Ride a lot. Enjoy it all." I 
didn't quite get to "a lot", but I can say I enjoyed it all.

Lovely film!

Ted Durant
Milwaukee WI USA

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[RBW] Re: Studs for Winter Riding?

2023-12-05 Thread Ted Durant
On Sunday, December 3, 2023 at 7:34:32 PM UTC-6 John Rinker wrote:

Do any of you fine folks with more experience in such matters than me have 
any recommendations for studded tires for my Hunq?


As Andy said, winter conditions are like craft cocktails! And, as a result, 
what works in some conditions might be terrible in others. For me, those 
conditions regularly varied between my morning ride to work and my evening 
ride home. Others have covered the broad range, but I will add one point. I 
found that 2.1" Marathon tires were deadly in slush. They had just enough 
float that at any speed above walking pace the front would float up off the 
underlying pavement or ice/snow pack, and the traction then would match the 
mythical frictionless surface of physics.  With all the salt that is used 
on roads here, temps can be pretty well below freezing and we still have 
mostly slush, so I found that skinnier tires worked much better. 
Unfortunately, that means that when dealing with frozen ruts, there's a lot 
more bone shaking going on. Nokian W106 (700x35) on my Quickbeam were the 
best combo I ever used for commuting in Milwaukee.

Ted Durant
Milwaukee WI USA

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Re: [RBW] A Homer Hill build....

2023-11-27 Thread Ted Durant

> On Nov 27, 2023, at 8:55 AM, Eric Daume  wrote:
> 
> IMO redundant gears are more of a conceptual or theoretical concern than a 
> real issue. If you’re setting up a triple, you really end up with:
> 
> - a middle ring for the majority of your riding 
> - a small ring for big hills, use it with the biggest cogs in back
> - a big ring for downhills or otherwise going fast. Use it with your medium 
> and small cogs and back. 
> 

Perfectly described. 

Sarah, given that you have said you pretty much live in your 34t, this sounds 
like it fits your use case well. There’s a slight learning curve to getting 
comfortable shifting a triple, but with the right combo of chainrings and front 
derailer, it should work reliably. Grant has written a good description of how 
to get reliable shifts, but it presumes the mechanical things are set up 
correctly. Also, if you are going up a really steep hill, you might not have a 
half revolution worth of momentum. 

Imagine the circular pedal path as the face of a clock, and shift at 
4:30. That’s half of your success.

When your shifting foot is at 6:00, stop muscling the pedal entirely. 
Let it drift to 12:00. Call this ‘floating,’ 
and it’s the other half of success.

As you float that pedal to 12:00, you also have to float the other side 
pedal to 6:00. The point is to eliminate 
power for half of a pedal revolution to de-tension the chain and give 
the shift time to take. When you 
honest-to-goodness float the pedal after the shift for, it takes just 
half a stroke. If you apply power even though 
you're not supposed to, the shift goes to hell, you lose your momentum, 
you fail.


Ted Durant
Milwaukee, WI USA

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[RBW] Re: A Homer Hill build....

2023-11-26 Thread Ted Durant
On Sunday, November 26, 2023 at 12:34:51 PM UTC-6 Jason Fuller wrote:

I would echo that triples are pretty nice - not only do you get more range, 
but the 10-tooth jumps in the front are a lot less 'disruptive' if you know 
what I mean. I find the smaller chainring jump means that when I hit the 
base of a hill I can often just drop a chainring and leave the rear alone, 
and it is a natural gear reduction .. whereas on the wide-low double, you 
would be spinning like crazy if you tried the same thing


Excellent point, and one that launches me into bike nerd mode... apologies 
in advance if this is too much.

The "standard" chainring gap became 16 teeth when "compact double" 50x34 
combos became all the rage. That's a 39% jump, the way I measure it 
(Ln(50/34)), or about 2.5 times the 15.4% jump from 18 to 21 in back. Now, 
if you keep that 16 tooth gap but go down to 40x24, that's a ginormous 51% 
jump, which is 3.3x the 18-21 jump. I have a 42x26 on my Waterford ST-22, 
and it's definitely jarring to drop to the small ring when you hit a hill, 
requiring a bit of advance planning to shift a cog harder in the rear, 
first. I spent plenty of time riding half-step gearing, so I'm facile with 
double-shifting, but after a couple hundred kms I'm too tired for that. For 
my Breadwinner G-Road I went with 44x32, which is a gentle 32% jump. It 
means there's more overlap in the gearing, or to put it another way, I'm 
not maximizing the total range of the system, but I very much prefer to 
make that trade-off. At 41%, the 14-tooth gap on the Silver 42x28's on my 
Sams is pretty much the outer limit for me. The Wide-Low (38x24) is a 46% 
jump which is pretty high.

Ted Durant
Milwaukee, WI USA


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[RBW] Re: A Homer Hill build....

2023-11-26 Thread Ted Durant
On Sunday, November 26, 2023 at 9:25:01 AM UTC-6 sarahlik...@gmail.com 
wrote:

You always need a Hilly Bike... Do it!

A list full of enablers :-)
 

I had an injury (shoulder) last year and had what I would call total 
fitness depletion so I have been building back up from what feels like 
zero. 

I'm very sympathetic to that.  I've had a bunch of weird stuff happen over 
the last few years, including a drug that started killing my red blood 
cells, so I have felt like I've had to restart the engine a few times. That 
might be one reason why my bikes are all set up the same way ... trying to 
stick with what works in terms of positioning, while I get the other things 
going.
 

 So while I figure that out I'm open to seeing what a lighter built up bike 
can do. 

Far be it for me not to be the enabler of buying another Riv, but have you 
considered stripping down one of your existing bikes and trying some nice, 
light tires? In my experience, tires make by far and away the biggest 
difference to how a bike feels, and if you've dialed in a good riding 
position, you could start there (and maybe a wider range set of gears in 
back). Removing a rear rack can also remove some stiffness from the rear of 
the bike, but I don't know how many people would feel that difference, 
especially on a bike that's already fairly stout and on cushy tires.

with exception to the guy who led the first beginner ride I went on, looked 
at my bike and stated, "I hope I can ride slow enough..." 


Hoo boy, just the kind of person you want leading a group ride...  one of 
the reasons I stopped going on group rides.

Ted Durant
Milwaukee, WI USA

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[RBW] Re: A Homer Hill build....

2023-11-26 Thread Ted Durant
On Sunday, November 26, 2023 at 8:35:43 AM UTC-6 sarahlik...@gmail.com 
wrote:

 I'm just trying to be more conscious about throwing racks and bags and 
accidentally building every bike into a touring bike


This made me laugh ... yeah, my bikes all look pretty much the same, except 
for the Riv Road with the Campy Daytona group. But, that only looks 
different because it doesn't have a handlebar bag LOL.

I keep thinking I should mix it up, but I gave a Cheviot an honest try (at 
least 5 different handlebars, including a Noodle!) and never liked it. 
After crashing my West Coast Sam coming off Mt Lukens a few weeks ago, I've 
been wondering if I need a Hillibike for that kind of riding :-) 

Ted Durant
Milwaukee, WI USA

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[RBW] Re: A Homer Hill build....

2023-11-26 Thread Ted Durant
On Saturday, November 25, 2023 at 8:27:06 AM UTC-6 sarahlik...@gmail.com 
wrote:

 so of course I decided to buy A Homer that I would like to build up 
specifically for rides with lots of hills! (To clarify, I am totally happy 
to take my time getting up hills on my Platypus which I have set up with 
racks and bags, fenders... but I like to ride with other people which are 
usually people with traditional road bikes with all the carbon fiber 
things). 


I'd want to hear more about what you mean by "lots of hills" and the kind 
of riders (not just their gear) you are with. You mention in a follow up 
riding up Mt. Diablo, for example. So, that to me says "sustained paved 
climbing at a mostly moderate but sometimes steep grade", unless you went 
to the top, in which case I'd add "sometimes wicked steep". I'd also want 
to hear more about your fitness level or, maybe more specifically, the 
speed at which you and your riding pals like to climb.

I'm a lightweight, not especially strong rider but I like to push myself 
going up hills. I don't often find I need easier than a 1:1 gear; if I do, 
I'm off road on some VERY steep stuff. I don't worry too much about how big 
my biggest gear is, although riding with a good group can mean wanting some 
bigger gears. My general statement is that I'd rather be coasting down a 
hill than walking up it. I've been very happy with the 42x28 Silver cranks 
on my two Sams, with 32 or 34 tooth big cogs in back. I've been surprised 
at how many hills on which I've actually been able to stay on the 42. On 
the other hand,  I have a Rivendell Road with a classic 53x39, 13-26 setup 
for the rare fast group ride. I did a super hilly group century on that 
bike ... it was a fast result, but it had a lot of out-of-saddle grinding 
time.

I am a dedicated handlebar bag user and don't generally carry more gear 
than can fit in one, even for very long rides. Also, I am a big fan of 
Noodle Bars. I have some back issues (a couple of compression fractures) 
but I'm still pretty flexible and find that putting the tops of the bars 
level with the saddle and not too far away gives me the best combination of 
power (what little I have), several riding positions, and long-distance 
comfort.

Ted Durant
Milwaukee, WI USA

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Re: [RBW] Northern Hemisphere Fall / Autumn Riding Photos 2023

2023-11-19 Thread Ted Durant

On Sunday, November 19, 2023 at 2:04:53 PM UTC-6 SallyG wrote:

Thanksgiving Holiday Traffic!


Hah, that's great! I also had a few turkeys cross in front of me on my ride 
today. I rang my bell at them but they paid zero attention.

Ted Durant
Milwaukee WI USA 

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[RBW] Re: Gus ride shaming

2023-11-14 Thread Ted Durant
On Friday, November 10, 2023 at 8:17:49 PM UTC-6 rmro...@gmail.com wrote:

They asked " was that you that passed us on a cruiser bike?" 


Hah. Reminds me of the time I passed somebody on the trail, riding my Riv 
ATB, and they said "nice cyclocross bike". Yeah, except 26x2" tires aren't 
legal in cyclocross...

Ted Durant
Milwaukee, WI USA 

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[RBW] Re: Hillborne fork on a Heron?

2023-11-09 Thread Ted Durant
On Wednesday, November 8, 2023 at 2:22:21 PM UTC-6 h...@chrisdedinsky.com 
wrote:

This week I was commuting home from work on my Heron. I got a flat on my 
Challenge Strada Bianca 36 tires and on a whim—certainly inspired by the 
recent 'Rondini' episode of Ron's bikes YouTube episode—decided to stuff in 
a pair of much too large 700x42 Hurricane Ridge tires to enjoy until the 
snow falls. 


Yeah, the 40mm internal width of the original Heron fork crown puts an 
unfortunate limit on tire size. For my ST-22 I requested that fork crown 
because I wanted the round blades, as I was essentially trying to make a 
Heron Road with a bit more clearance and fork rake. I have 45mm fenders and 
32mm tires on that bike, and the clearances are pretty tight. On the 
Touring frame we added more vertical clearance, and that gets you only so 
much additional horizontal clearance.   

When looking at swapping forks, pay close attention to the distance from 
the axle to the top of the bearing seat. If that is significantly different 
from the original, you'll change the head tube angle and therefore the 
steering geometry. Also, of course, the amount of fork rake will affect 
steering. I have the all the original Heron shop drawings, but they're in 
storage. Let me know if you want any specific dimensions.

Ted Durant

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Re: [RBW] Bluelug brass bits in stock

2023-10-30 Thread Ted Durant
On Friday, October 27, 2023 at 1:13:04 PM UTC-7 Hash wrote:


The plastic rings pop right off the bolts. The brass ones are then 
installed with a spanner. I use a park tool spa-2.

 
I wasn't able to fit the Silver crank bolts into the brass caps, but it's 
possible my brass caps are from White Industries, not from Blue Lug.

Ted Durant
Milwaukee, WI USA

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Re: [RBW] Re: Northern Hemisphere Fall / Autumn Riding Photos 2023

2023-10-27 Thread Ted Durant
Back in LA for a week, and the locals tell me it's lovely fall weather 
here. It was in the 90's last week, and this morning was in the upper 50's 
and cloudy. The clouds cleared out some as the morning warmed up. West 
Coast Sam waited patiently and rewarded me with a lovely ride up and down 
Cherry Canyon Motorway, with some bonus time in the hills above the Rose 
Bowl.

[image: IMG_1688.jpeg]

Ted Durant
Alhambra, CA USA

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Re: [RBW] Re: "A Steamy Lug Affair" by Grant Petersen

2023-10-05 Thread Ted Durant
Grant wrote, "I think we're at the point in bicycle history where lugged 
frames will either undergo a renaissance or face extinction..."

It's nice to be on the other side of almost 25 years later and see which 
way it went!

Ted Durant
Milwaukee, WI USA

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[RBW] Tree Sap

2023-09-30 Thread Ted Durant
On Saturday, September 30, 2023 at 8:11:43 AM UTC-5 Bill Lindsay wrote:


What about tree sap?  Have you ever ridden over tree sap?  


Funny you should ask that. East Coast Sam lives in Portland, ME, and 
recently I was surprised by a very sticky water bottle. At first I thought 
it was just some of my liquid fuel, but it turned out to be pine sap. There 
was sap all over the underside of the bike and even on my tail light. 

My son-in-law had just been to a car wash where they recommended liquid 
Purell hand sanitizer for removing sap from his car. I used it on the bike 
and. it was amazing - melted the sap like magic. 

Ted Durant
Milwaukee WI USA 

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Re: [RBW] Re: Style on the bike

2023-09-29 Thread Ted Durant
On Friday, September 29, 2023 at 5:13:02 PM UTC-5 Bicycle Belle Ding Ding! 
wrote: 

I love that jersey and your shades. 

Oops, missed the shades ... should have to do this fashion mag style ...
Glasses by Tifosi Optics. 
(I love Tifosi ... relatively inexpensive, durable, and reader lenses for 
the interchangeable style I like.)

Tell me why Bombas and not Smartwool. I’ve never tried Bombas - should I?

Smartwools never wore well, and would shrink up and the tightness in the 
forefoot aggravated my bunionettes. I also spent time in Darn Tough socks 
... better than Smartwool, but Bombas are softer, looser knit, and the 
forefoot stays reasonably loose. Lately I've also been trying and liking 
Injinji socks with separate toes,  which are really good for keeping my 
forefoot from being overly constricted.

Ted Durant
Milwaukee WI USA

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Re: [RBW] Re: Style on the bike

2023-09-29 Thread Ted Durant
On Thursday, September 28, 2023 at 12:51:32 PM UTC-5 Bicycle Belle Ding 
Ding! wrote:

It’s time for more style on the bike posts! It’s truly autumn now. What are 
you wearing, fellow Rivsters? 


 Well, this was taken 11 years ago, but I'm sure I'll be wearing the same 
thing soon. Lycra shorts from Aerotech, Rivendell LS wool jersey. Socks 
these days are mostly from Bombas, not Smartwool. Shoes aren't shown ... 
for that bike, my Rivendell Road (Joe built/Joe painted), I still go with 
bindings, so shoes would be Lake MX-1. This photo was taken on an unusually 
warm Thanksgiving Day. In lower temps I'd probably wear my MUSA or Rene 
Herse knickers over the lycra shorts. The Riv Road doesn't have a handlebar 
bag so a jersey with rear pockets is usually needed. On a big with a 
handlebar bag I would just wear a Smartwool lightweight half-zip if it's 
not too cold. 

Sunny and upper 70's here this week ... I'll still be wearing SS polo 
shirts or LS seersucker.

Ted Durant
Milwaukee WI USA

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[RBW] Aging cyclists (was upright bars and geometry)

2023-09-13 Thread Ted Durant
On Wednesday, September 13, 2023 at 8:41:29 AM UTC-4 rmro...@gmail.com 
wrote:

Garth, of course nothing you say here is wrong, it’s simply not the same 
for everyone. And I know you know that. I am a 68 year old lifetime 
cyclist. I’ve been through many drop bar bikes and though my last one 
(Custom Richard Sachs) was easily the best, I was never truly comfortable.


This is a timely topic for me. I'm about to turn 61 and, until last spring, 
I thought I had dialed in my perfect bike fit. Doing a fair amount of yoga 
starting in my 40's really helped my flexibility and core strength, so I 
ride with a pretty low, flat back. I use pretty deep drop bars (mostly 
Noodles), set the tops a bit below the saddle, and spend a lot of time on 
the drops. My personal cubit is how I check seat-bar distance, and the 
backs of my handlebar tops at the stem have always been 2-4cm ahead of my 
fingertips.

When I was spec'ing out my new Sam, I spent a long time on stem length and 
finally decided to go shorter. This is also relevant to the previous 
thread, as the Sam has a much slacker seat tube angle than my other bikes, 
making it a bit more challenging to translate fit from the other bikes.  On 
the Sam, the bars are just a few mm ahead of my fingers. I was worried this 
would be too cramped, so it was a bit of a revelation when I found it was 
comfortable and still allowed plenty of breathing space. Thinking about it, 
I realized that it was logical that my seat-bar distance would need to 
shrink a bit. I have pretty severe osteoporosis and a couple of compressed 
vertebrae, so my torso length is shorter than it was 5 years ago. 

So, yeah, everybody ages differently, but we all age and need to be aware 
of how our bodies are changing and how that impacts position and fit on the 
bike. 

Ted Durant
Milwaukee, WI USA

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[RBW] Re: upright bars: how does shorter or longer stem affect steering?

2023-09-11 Thread Ted Durant
On Sunday, September 10, 2023 at 4:59:17 PM UTC-4 eddietheflay wrote:

 My current bike has Billie bars installed on a very tall adjustable stem. 
Effective top tube on this bike is 59.5cm. Reach to both the rear portion 
at the grips and front portion at the curves seems quite comfortable. But 
when steering from the grips things seem really twitchy. Wondering if a 
shorter top-tubed bike with a longer stem would make things more steady?


My experience with a Quickbeam was similar - upright bars (Albatross) and 
using the ends of the bars made for a very quick, "twitchy", light steering 
feel. I attribute this to two factors. The first, and IMO more important 
one, is that my position on the bike was far more upright, resulting in 
much less weight on the front wheel. The second is that my hands were much 
farther from the steering axis.

So, if a shorter top-tube and longer stem results in a) your position being 
the same, and b) moving your hands closer to the steering axis (which it 
would if on your current setup your hands at the ends of the bar are behind 
the steering axis) then I'd expect a slight reduction in twitchiness. I'd 
expect it to be maybe imperceptible, though, because the change in hand 
distance to steering axis will be tiny, as the bigger factor in that regard 
is the handlebar width.

Hand distance from the steering axis does two things. First, it gives more 
leverage, so less effort is required to put an equal amount of force into 
turning the fork or (what's really important) changing the angle of the 
bike relative to the ground (or resisting other forces trying to change the 
angle to the ground). Second, the flip side of that, for a given amount of 
fork rotation (or body/bike/ground angle changes) your hands have to move a 
greater distance. It's worth noting, only because some things I've seen 
written seem confused on this issue, that if you change the stem length and 
also change the bars, such that your hands wind up in the same place 
relative to the steering axis, you will have zero change on steering feel. 
You can put a 1000mm stem on there and super long backward reaching bars 
and your leverage won't have changed. The amount of flex in that system 
will likely have changed though, and that could impact "feel" in other ways.

Ted Durant
Milwaukee WI USA

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Re: [RBW] Babies on bikes

2023-09-02 Thread Ted Durant
On Saturday, September 2, 2023 at 11:25:37 AM UTC-5 campyo...@me.com wrote:

 2) wait until their neck muscles were strong enough to support both their 
head and the helmet. 

Well, we had our kids in a car seat (strapped into the Burley trailer) 
until they were truly strong enough to sit up, meaning they were toddlers 
at that point. So, in the car seat, they had plenty of head support and 
didn't seem to mind the helmet we had for them.

Ted Durant
Milwaukee, WI USA

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[RBW] Re: Babies on bikes

2023-09-02 Thread Ted Durant
On Friday, September 1, 2023 at 9:58:35 PM UTC-5 Kushan wrote:

Looking for wisdom and advice from the Riv community on riding bikes with 
babies on them. At what age did you start? What seats, trailers, etc did 
you use? Where did you ride? 


Mind you, this is 30+ years old ... we put our daughters in their car seats 
in our Burley trailer to start, about 1 year old. Got hit by a car once, 
luckily a very slow motion event, 90+ year old making a left turn from a 
4-way stop pushed us into the curb. Nobody hurt, and I felt pretty good 
about the overall safety of the setup, but of course a higher speed 
incident would have been much different. We also used a rear rack mounted 
seat, but I never liked that setup; terrible balance and a much bigger 
distance to fall if the bike goes over. We rode lots of places around 
Milwaukee, using the bike path as much as possible, quieter public streets 
elsewhere. 

The trailer lasted well into childhood for our two daughters. Most 
important thing was that every ride had to be about the food. We still have 
it and are hoping our grandchildren will ride in it soon.

Ted Durant
Milwaukee, WI USA

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[RBW] Re: Cycling shoes for wide feet?

2023-08-28 Thread Ted Durant
On Monday, August 28, 2023 at 8:08:28 PM UTC-5 Kurt Henry wrote:

 The first is a pair of 45 Lakes alongside a pair of size 11 Lems  Primal 
Zen (?).  Lems widest last (which these are) has a HUGE toe box, so keep 
that in mind.

I love my Primal Zen shoes. They're my main biking shoes these days. 

Ted Durant
Milwaukee WI 53217

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[RBW] Re: Riv Rider Recipes

2023-08-24 Thread Ted Durant
On Monday, August 21, 2023 at 9:41:11 AM UTC-5 coco...@gmail.com wrote:

2) I'd love to compile a collection of favorite recipes! What do you make 
for yourselves/your families? What's your favorite sandwich you bring on 
your bike rides? Any bike tour go-to's?


 choco-date-hazel-coco bombs:
Dates
Hazelnuts (roasted, salted if you like)
Dark chocolate morsels
Coconut flour

Use equal measures (by weight) of chocolate, dates, and hazelnuts. In a 
food processor, start with the dates (be sure there are no pits!). When 
they're well chopped, add the hazelnuts and blend until you have a fairly 
moist ball. You want to release a bit of the oil from the hazelnuts, but 
not completely into a butter. Then add the chocolate and run it just long 
enough to blend in. It will be getting pretty warm at this point and you 
don't want to overheat the chocolate. Scoop out and form balls, whatever 
size you like, but I aim for something a bit smaller than a golf ball. Roll 
the ball in coconut flour  and set aside to cool and harden. 

They stay remarkably solid even in a warm handlebar bag, but if you put 
them in a pocket you'll probably have a mess.

Ted Durant
Milwaukee WI USA

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