your daily bicycle log

40-mile ride on Saturday in Sussex taking in a couple of savage climbs (the Devil's Dyke and The Bostal nr. Steyning) up the South Downs.

i love my iro, but...

http://www.trekbikes.com/us/en/bikes/urban/soho/soho/

trek made my belt drive 8spd dream a reality. now it just needs drop bars.

i like it. OTM re: drop bars.

definitely buying the 2009 raleigh one way tho

btw im not a drop bar absolutist. for routes less than 6 or 7 mile each way or with heavy traffic id go flats. something to keep my head up and stance compact.

yah the one way is a fantastic combo of aesthetic and practical speccing imo. its like the anti lankstawanksta.

I had to do the best emergency stop of my life to avoid a car who turned across me this morning, but I smacked his rear end so hard with my left hand as he went past that the big muscle at the bottom of my thumb is all swollen and sore. Grr.

Meanwhile, surprising good news for American cycle commuters.

had a lovely country ride on saturday near andover, involving pubs with barrels on the wall with proper mugs with handles for beer and everything. Still overestimating how much distance my girlfriend will put up with. 20 miles is a short ride for me. Not that she is particularly unfit she can kick my arse at running, which I hate, just still unused to biking distance.

Was given some rapha cycling plus fours for my birthday and a rapha overjacket. I am deliriously please but will have gone from a scruff whose last cycle jersey was second hand and £3 on eBay to the sort of ponce who cycles around in matching black rapha gear all in one go.

holy crap, the rubber chain on that trek.

how do you change a flat w/belt drive???

Look at the way the drop out is arranged, the whole thing comes apart.

holy crap, the rubber carbon-composite chain on that trek

the coffee mug replacing water bottle is kinda lol

http://trekroad.typepad.com/trekroad/2008/09/travis-brown-be.html

i think what i really meant was how do you change the belt itself

Afrom what I can see you unscrew the two bolts holding the drop out on slide the wheel forward to rerlease the tension, unscrew the bolts further and the rear triangle will come apart and you can slide the belt out.

ah so.

gotta say pretty much every CX bike I've seen with a belt drive has been pure sex

http://www.carbondrivesystems.com/images/install_big.jpg

thats how spot does it i believe

Open rear triangle (methods vary by manufacturer.)

two days ago, it just poured on me at 52 degrees for 45 minutes.
yesterday it poured on me at 45 degrees.

today, i look west to the mountains, and it is, once again, a black/gray wall of pure malevolence. the forecast said only a 5% chance of rain this morning.

the rongness

Visiting my parents for a few days - have got my old racer back on the road and tried out the new chainset/block (as suggested on the nerdy gear ratios thread I started). Have bought a new saddle as well as the old one seemed to be rotting away. I don't like the side pull brakes on it, so maybe I'll replace them as well, but I'm getting conscious of the amount of money I'm spending on this.

I'm thinking of maybe, maybe, maybe trying to get back into racing again so I've decided to test myself over ten miles and see if it's actually a good idea or not. If I can get under 30 minutes then that's respectable enough (to probably come last in a time trial, but without being an embarrassing distance behind the second last!). So I've been out on a hilly 10-mile circuit the last couple of days: 34.17 on Saturday and 32.25 today (in the rain and wind). That includes a climb of 100m, so it would probably be a bit better on the flat.

82 miles in new paltz yesterday. beautiful, but some brutal climbs. forgot my baselayer, which sucks, considering i sweat like a maniac.

here is the most of the ride i did, did not do this full 114 mile route.

http://www.rapha.cc/continental/index.php?page=495

more stuff here:

http://www.christopherchaput.com/blog/

first truly sub freezing commute this morning, it was beautiful. and now there's space to be found on the bike rack.

Out bright and early this morning to have a go on a frosty but flatter 10-mile circuit and shaved it down to 31.12.

What are all your strategies for sub-zero commuting, I'm going to have to beef up my warm bike wear for Pittsburgh and I'm not sure what to get?

base layer. insulating layer. wind-proof outer shell layer.

i like the wind proof hat that craft makes. shoe covers for your toes. proper gloves.

do you wear tights or normal people clothes?

tights but generally under shorts so as not to terrify the women folk.

is subzero F or C? cause subzero F is impressive.

if yr wearing "riding clothes," cutty otm.

i wanna warmer jacket for subfreezing commutes, so i can ditch wearing a separate thermal jersey. since i wear street clothes, putting the longsleeve thermal on is sort of a pia--it's snug if wear my dress shirt, and it pulls up the sleeves uncomfortably.

suggestions?

sub-zero C

Even if Pittsburgh gets sub-zero F I shan't be riding in it.

yeah after i typed that i felt kinda dumb since you said pittsburgh and i can guess it doesn't get below 0 F very often.

is this the dorkiest boulder bro gear ever, or actually the answer to my search?

http://img262.imageshack.us/my.php?image=insulatourqq8.jpg

hmm img i summon you.

http://img262.imageshack.us/my.php?image=insulatourqq8.jpg

last try. if it doesn't work, its this.

http://img112.imageshack.us/my.php?image=insulatourfg0.jpg

that looks ok to me, a bit shiny wetlook but I could live with it.

We need a WDYLL in your gear thread.

ew, i do NOT like that quilted look. have you looked at craft's jackets?

i have looked at craft stuff and see some good impermeable stuff, and some nice "form fitting" thermal stuff, but im looking for loose fitting stuff that has a shell exterior and thermal liner. and i want the shell to include the back (not a windproof-front, fleecey back).

maybe i should be looking at non-cycling gear, but i use rear pocket, and it can't be too loose fitting.

(some site had that pi jacket and wrote "we see this as ideal for just hanging at the coffee shop etc" = pls kill me

hunt3r look at light-weight "alpine" shells. not ski jackets, but gear designed for your fast-and-light mountaineers. a lot of them come with integrated thermal liner (v. layering) and are intended to be super-breathable

thanks. you read my mind-- at lunch i bought an rei one jacket. if it had reflectivity and a back pocket it would be ideal (i think). its slim fitting but not form fitting, longer sleeves (essential esp. for me), one layer. its purported to be stretchy, windproof, water resistant.

i can return it if i see something better.

this in black

(or uh, yknow, maybe just cooler than rei wear)

gbx do you have any specific softshell recommendations? do you use one? technical wear stopped for me in about 2000, and these seem to have become prominent since i left the market.

i tried the rei one today, even though it was warmer outside than i normally would use it (about 43 deg). it breathes very well, fits ok (still a little big in trunk), but its just so...so much jacket. i dont expect it to be truly packable, but its a bit of a monster. and not light.

no way rei is pretty good these days. i want this for xmas

http://www.rei.com/product/770843

xp whoah timing

so, w/r/t softshells. i went out of the tech wear market in 98 (no joke...still have a marmot alpinist shell that will never die, but is mad overbuilt) UNTIL this last spring, when I got this:

http://mountainhardwear.com/Product.aspx?top=1426&cat=1465&prod=2330

slim cut, slightly drop-sear WITH a back pocket and little reflective bits. only 120, and perfect for brisk/winter cardio. if i layer it with lighweight capilene top under mid-weight fleece sweater it's mad warm. it's why i want to get that REI shell: light-weight and packable and only needs to come out when the shit really gets real

drop-sear = drop-seat

then i i've got a GoLite belay parka ("the parachute") that's slightly oversize (to fit over everything else) for stupid MN cold. it's a little *too* big for just wearing, but i don't really give a fuck. i'm warmer than you, judging non-parka wearer

these guys make great stuff: http://www.wildthingsgear.com/

no frills all business

i like the look of mountain hardware stuff, and fancy i could do with a soft shell. found a great soft-shell evangelism piece via wikipedia: http://www.psychovertical.com/?thebestsoftshell

(for 'shelled micro-pile' jackets in particular)

holy fucking fuck that pic on the homepage of wildthings

soft-shell evangelism awesome.

yah seriously, dude, i hope they're bivying there for long

er, NOT

Visiting REI was like going to church.

I like that REI jacket you posted it would make a fitting replacement to my now 12 year old spray-way technical gore tex whjich is still good windproofing for skiing and the like but terribly un-waterproof.