Well, the year ended with a bit of a cycling whimper. Between a cold and rain and travel I barely hit half of plan for December, but no matter: I beat my annual goal pretty handily, so I’m happy.

Here are some nerdy charts that nobody other than me will be interested in:

First, mileage per month:

What this says to me is that in most months, I more or less hit what I was targeting. More more than less, and May and December are certainly outliers, but in general the amount of riding I did was about what I set out to do. So clearly for 2010 I need to set out to do more.

Here are the mileages for each individual ride I did:

Not too surprisingly, 19.8 mile rides — my commute along the most usual route I take — dominate. One 65, one 50, a few 40′s and 35′s. I’ve found that ~30 is a nice comfortable ride at this point, so I really need to start doing more 40-60 mile rides if I want to get any sort of exercise benefit out of cycling. Also, I really do enjoy the longer rides. They’re a fun way to spend the day.

So, on to goals for 2010. Here’s what I’m targeting:

• 3,000 overall miles. Following the same “add 1,000″ rule as last year, that seemed to work well enough. Although maybe I should be adding 1,000 miles to what I did this year. Hmm…
• Ride at least one century. Looking at calendars and schedules and just being realistitc, I think doing one of the various supported centuries (~100 mile rides) with Stephanie and maybe the Stan’s group is a more attainable goal than doing a 200km unsupported brevet.
• Ride at least one of the area’s well-known climbs. All the cool kids climb. I ride mostly on level ground. I’m really curious to see if I could handle GMR or Palomar or Crystal Lake or whatever. I certainly couldn’t today. This, I think, more than the other two is something I’ll have to work up to this year.

I’m pretty excited about cycling in 2010. There’s nothing quite like arbitrary goals to give you a good excuse to get out and ride ;)

Wow, a bit late on this one. Not a lot to say about November. The weather was great for commuting for most of the month. No horrible travesties at work that kept me off the bike. I got to do the Thanksgiving ride with the Stan’s crew (as well as Brad and Erich), and that was a ton of fun. Also, Fletcher was very excited to go out on a longer (a little over 40 miles) ride with me on a day off I had towards the end of the month, which was really pleasing. It wasn’t the longest ride he’s ever been on — he did a 50 mile ride during the summer — but it was probably the most challenging, as it wasn’t nearly as flat has the 50 mile ride. He did great and I had a wonderful time riding with him.

The year is winding down, and I’m already pretty well over goal. It was very, very helpful to have something concrete to work towards that didn’t necessarily involve riding to and from the office. I’ve also found that I really enjoy getting out for longer rides every now and again. Next year, I think I’d like to aim a little higher in terms of longer individual rides along with the annual mileage goal. (I’ll probably aim for 3,000 next year.)

To that end, I’ve been reading up on Randonneuring, which I think is pretty well described on the Randonneurs USA web site:

Randonneuring: Randonneuring is long-distance unsupported endurance cycling. This style of riding is non-competitive in nature, and self-sufficiency is paramount. When riders participate in randonneuring events, they are part of a long tradition that goes back to the beginning of the sport of cycling in France and Italy. Friendly camaraderie, not competition, is the hallmark of randonneuring.

From everything I’ve read, this fits in almost perfectly with my style of cycling. A bunch of folks on sport touring bikes set up more for comfort and reliability than for speed, carrying more tools than they’ll likely need, wearing more wool than spandex and riding more or less independently over long distances at a sustainable pace. Heck, to register with the US randonneuring authority, you have to fill out a paper form and mail it in go a guy who turns around and mails it to Paris. How cool is that? (In its own oddly anachronistic way.)

The local randonneuring group has a couple of 200k — which is pretty well the shortest these rides every are — “brevets” next year. That’s twice as far as I’ve ever ridden at one go, but it doesn’t sound entirely unattainable. And I have to train up for the Palm Springs ride with Stephanie and the Stan’s folk in Feburary, and that’s 80% of the distance anyway, so… who knows. Maybe I’ve figured out what my 2010 goals are ;)

October is the riding month that Stephanie and I had been planning for all year. We had signed up for the Livestrong challenge in Austin, planning to do the 90 mile route through Texas hill country. While we didn’t do the 90 — for various reasons that I’ll get in to soon enough — we made it to the ride, really enjoyed the event and had a great time in Texas. We’re almost certainly going to do it again next year, maybe in San Jose instead of Austin. Fletch wants to do the ride as well, which I think is pretty cool.

First things first about the trip: a bunch of people helped us out with the event. Stan loaned us bike boxes for the trip, Erich and CLV loaned us their truck so we could get to and from the airport with our bikes, Randy and Karen put us up in their beautiful loft and loaned us a truck while we were in town, Jeni hung out with Fletch while Stephanie and I did the ride, she met us at the finish, drove us around all the day before the ride and put us up for the last night of our stay, and she, Jason, B., Jesse, Julie, Boris and Tanya schlepped out to the Salt Lick for lunch on Thursday. Add to that the big bunch of folks who donated their hard earned greenbacks to the LAF. We are truly overwhelmed by the generosity of our friends and family. You’re all the best. We’re lucky to know you.

Out trip started out way too early on a Friday morning. Throw everything in Erich and CLV’s truck, turn up the Elvis station on the XM, get almost to the freeway before we remember that we forgot Fletcher’s phone, drive home to discover that no, it’s in his pocket, hit the road again to LAX, check the bags have breakfast get on the plane fly to Denver have lunch and a beer fly to Austin and see this at the airport:

Which is pretty strong, greeting wise. Randy and Karen picked us up from there, showed us around town, helped us drop off our stuff and then took us out for dinner and beers. Stephanie and Fletch have met them just once before, and I think I’ve seen them maybe two or three times in the last ten years, but family really is family and we had a grand time hanging out with them. From there we went back to their place, they took off for their ranch, and we turned in for the evening.

The next day we had a nice walk around Austin. We went on the obligatory pilgrimage to Mellow Johnny’s bike shop, where Fletch got to see some of that Lance guy’s TDF jerseys.

We had a leisurely breakfast in town, walked around some more and then met up with Jeni for the drive out to lunch. Since her research trip in 2008, Stephanie has been telling us about the Salt Lick and its many wonders. It did not disappoint. Great food, great company, we got to see people we haven’t seen in years. Hard to ask for more than that.

From there, Jeni took us on a quick spin over to Dripping Springs where the ride would start the next day. Always handy to get the lay of the land, especially with a 7:45 start time. (We aren’t morning people.) After that we went back to Austin, had the obligatory pasta dinner, and turned in early. (Although we were serenaded by the good people of Austin re-enacting “Thriller” right outside of Randy and Karen’t window.)

We woke up obscenely early the next morning to make the start time. Dropped Fletch off with Jeni, raced over to Dripping Springs, parked the car, rode to the start line and holy crap this place is a zoo!

We were part of the Fat Cyclist team that won the fund raising competition — Fatty raised over $780,000 for the LAF this year — and were entitled to start at the very front of the ride, but since we were late, we just hung out at the back of the 90 mile group and rolled out with them.

Now, a ride like this isn’t something to take lightly, as clearly indicated by me doing the serious face before the start:

Stephanie also was taking things very, very ser… no, actually she was just having a good time.

And the obligatory couple shot:

We were really excited to do this ride together. It was a bit of an early anniversary celebration for us. (Our 3rd wedding anniversary was just three days away.) We don’t get a ton of time to go on long rides together, and whenever we do it’s a really good time.

The start of the ride was along highway 290, which the good people of Dripping Springs had kindly closed down a lane of for us. It was a bit of gridlock along that part, but it opened up soon enough.

When I originally looked at the ride — in particular the elevation profile — I thought that wow, it looks almost exactly like the rides we do out here. In terms of distance and elevation, it would be like riding from home to Rancho and back. Not a huge deal. What I failed to consider is that the Texas hill country has that name for a reason. While there are hills here, there are also flat stretches. Not so much in Texas. The other thing I failed to consider is that Stephanie has been training really hard for the last few months, so while we rode at about the same speed in the summer, she’s cruise along at about 5mph faster than I do now, especially on hills. (And as you’ll recall, there are only hills in that part of Texas.) So the ride was more… challenging than I expected it to be.

That said, we reached the first “power stop” together and one of the other riders was kind enough to take our picture.

The race organizers handed out “in honor of” and “in memory of” bibs for people to write dedications on. Stephanie’s, for example:

There were also “I am a Survivor” bibs worn by cancer survivors. They were pretty inspiring. Strong, in a “I’m not taking any shit off this disease” sort of a way. This was my favorite:

Ten miles or so down the road was the second “power stop,” which was kind of crazy because it happened right there on the road. This was the only poor logistical decision I saw the entire day, so that was cool.

A few miles after the second stop, things took a turn for the worse. Towards the top of a climb, my rear wheel stopped. Completely. Brakes were fine. Tire was fine. Stephanie touched the hub and it was burning hot. Not good. Funny thing is that, relative to the normal road rider, I was carrying every tool under the sun. I had spare tubes for both my and Stephanie’s bike. Spare spokes. I could tighten pretty much any part of either of our bikes that might come loose. (Including crank arms, which have come off on us during rides before.) I had more or less everything I needed to completely service a bike. But I wasn’t prepared for a wheel failing.

After fiddling with it for a bit, the hub cooled down and we decided to give it another go. That lasted maybe a quarter of a mile before the wheel made a horrible high-pitched noise and stopped spinning for good. One of the ride’s on-course bike mechanics stopped by and chatted with us for a bit. Eventually one of the SAG wagons picked me up and took me to the next power stop where there was a mechanic with a full set of tools.

Note the morbid onlookers. (The guy in the Mellow Johnny’s jersey had three spokes go out on a cattle grate, which ended his day.) After a few minutes he was able to get the cassette off the wheel, gave the never welcome pronouncement of “you’re screwed” and offered his condolences to my ride. “Shit happens” was the best that we could collectively come up with to explain why a wheel with less than 2,000 miles on it would just stop working.

The other two riders with day-ending mechanicals were anxious to get back to the start, so Stephanie and I had a brief talk, decided that she’d finish the ride and I’d get the bike to the car and meet her at the finish. I took the camera with me, so she doesn’t have any pictures of her ride, but she had a great time. At the next rest stop she met Philly Jen, the Team Fat Cyclist co-captain for the Philadelphia Livestrong Challenge. They rode the last 30 miles of the 65 mile course — because she spent so much time with me and my mechanically-challenged bike, Stephanie missed the cutoff for the 90 mile course — together and had a grand old time.

Here’s Stephanie coming down the home stretch to the finish:

One very cool thing at the finish is that Eldon Nelson, aka the Fat Cyclist, was waiting there to try to meet as many of the Team Fatty riders as he could. We’ve been following his blog for a while, and it was really cool to get to meet him in person. He runs a mean cycling team and does great work getting people motivated. We were proud to be even a small part of his great efforts.

We hung out at the finish for a while after that, then headed to Jeni’s place for dinner and to catch up. It rained that night, thunder and everything, which was a fun change of pace for us. We had one last Salt Lick meal in the Austin airport before we left, and the flight home the next day was wonderfully uneventful.

Oh, and Stan told me yesterday that the Surly is ready to roll again. I’ll probably pick it up this afternoon.

I have no idea what the state budget issues will do to this list, but as of September 19, 2009, this is what the California State Parks web site has to say about Hike & Bike camps.

It had to happen some month, and I would have bet at the beginning of the year that it would have been August. I missed goal this month. By less than six miles, too. Which is pretty dissapointing. Thing is, I was at 161 a week ago today. That pesky Station fire made riding somewhere between hazardous and stupid. So I didn’t.

That said, I’m still over 1,800 miles on the year. That’s a ride from my garage to the Gateway Arch in St. Louis. I’m pretty pleased by that. I’m definitely going to make it to Chicago (which is 2,000 miles from Monrovia) by the end of September.

I think I may revise my goal for the year. The Empire State Building is 2,775 miles from my house….

I know it’s still July, but I’m not riding tomorrow, so whatever.

August was the month that I worried about. It’s often damn hot for three or four weeks straight in August. I love riding, but I’m not commuting in that sort of heat. Anyway, August happened in July this year. For a couple of weeks the highs were over 100, plus I had some other nonsense going on — watching the Tour, which is just about the worst excuse I can think of for not riding a bike — and I ended up not commuting at all for three weeks.

That said, I still made goal, so I’m happy about that. Credit a ride with the good people from Stan’s, a run down to the Arcadia bike path with Stephanie and a Saturday in Ventura with her and Fletcher for actually getting some miles in. Fletch and I also did a couple of evening bike runs over to Sierra Madre for ice cream. It was pretty fun to do some different types of riding.

I’m not sure how we’re going to work it, as it’s more than likely to be hot, but Stephanie and I need to start getting some serious training miles in for the Livestrong ride in October. I feel like we could both do the metric century (65 mile) option today, but we really want to be fast enough to do the 90. (There’s no way that I could make it within the time limit.) It shouldn’t take that much work to get there, so here’s to hoping that the weather cooperates. (Clearly we need to start summering in Portland or Ghent or something like that.)

Slow going last month. I spent a little more than a week dealing with a cold and then a few days after that traveling. Add a few “hey, wear a tie” days at work to that, and I wind up barely making my goal.

That said, June definitely had its memorable riding momemts. Most notably, Fletcher’s scout troop finished up the cycling merit badge, including a 50 mile ride from Monrovia to Seal Beach. I’m really proud of how well he and the rest of the boys did with such a long ride. The farthest I ever rode as a kid was maybe 15 miles. The bike path down there was also really great. From our house, it’s about 40 pretty easy miles down to the beach — we had to circle around Monrovia for a while to stretch it out to 50. I’d like to do the down and back some time, just for grins.

July, likely as not, will be hot. I’m not looking forward to it. Stephanie and I already had a heated stupid cyclist moment this weekend, waiting until mid day to leave for a ride. Turns out that the middle of the day is a bad time to ride. Who knew! My hope is that it stays cool enough in the mornings for me to keep riding in to work. Otherwise, I’m glad that May worked out as well as it did, otherwise I’d have no chance of keeping up.

I rolled in to the REI-sponsored stop at the Allen gold line station at about 8:30. They said that they had talked to a lot of riders today.

Gift bags and free mechanical checkups were the order of the day. Also picture taking, it seems. I declined the checkup, but gladly accepted the gift bag.

Quite excited about the REI coupon — new helmet? wheel truing stand? — and the water bottle/patch kit/sun screen. We get out to Claremont often enough that I’ll definitely be able to use the Jax coupon. Those Clif bars look yummy as well. I’m not at all sure what to make of the TMZ-branded combination pen/bottle opener.

The Pasadena city hall pit stop looked pretty mellow from the street.

Inside, though, it was much more of a scene.

They seemed much more geared towards letting city and other very local employees know about alternative transit options. Metro and Fuller had tables set up. I think Pasadena Cyclery was holding a drawing for some sort of Gary Fisher city bike. I really wanted to hit the South Lake pit stop before it closed, though, so I grabbed the nice shopping bag they were offering and was on my way.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t find the South Lake stop. I rode up and down the street from Colorado to just south of California and back. Nothing. I guess it was getting on towards the end of the time they were to be there. Perhaps they packed up early?

Most disappointingly, this is what I saw when I got in today:

Oh well. I guess we won’t be getting those new bike racks after all. (We were running out of room pretty regularly last summer, and “there isn’t enough space” is a much more compelling argument than “these are crappy stands and they scratch up my down tube so I don’t want to use them.”)

Either way, though, a fun ride this morning. There were definitely more bike commuters than usual out on the road today, and it’s nice to see the city and local businesses help out cyclists. (Even if it is just marketing.)

April was a rough month, riding-wise. My commuter finally bit the dust, and I was without a bike for the better part of two weeks. After that we were out of town for spring break — we had a lovely trip to Monterey — during which I picked up an ugly head cold that kept me off the bike for another week. Good times.

Either way, and despite missing the troop ride, I was able to make it to within 1/10^th of a mile of my monthly goal. Which is pretty spooky if you think about it.

I’m set to get back on track in May. I finished the Bridgestone, and Stephanie bought me a new commuter bike. (More on that later on this week.) So even if I completely destroy one in the name of “fixing” it, I’ll still be able to ride to work.

My other big cycling acquisiting for April is a Road ID, also courtesy of my loving wife.

The general idea is that if I get hit by a bus and can’t account for myself, the EMT’s or whoever have a few people they can call to figure out who I am. Given that one of Stephanie’s riding buddies was in an accident and was only identifiable because of his Road ID — his bike was crushed under a bus and the EMT’s cut his jersey away (he came through everything just fine and is back on his bike again!) — it seems like a more than fine idea. (P.S.: Carter: if I get hit by a bus and they can’t get a hold of Stephanie, expect a call.)

When I looked in to how much they cost, I was shocked to see a huge difference between the UK prices and the US prices. The Guv’nor, for example: GBP795 (USD1167) in jolly old, and USD1795 here in the states through Gold Country Cyclery. (And nobody else seems to carry them.) That’s more than a 50% markup. I can’t imagine that shipping cost makes up all of that. Maybe there are onerous import duties on British bicycles? Who knows.

Either way: amazing looking bikes.

Here’s the original, for compare/contract purposes:

A quick note regarding the name: Riv sells decal sets for old bikes made new. There’s lots of resurrection and phoenix motifs in them. Here’s a closeup:

And the seat tube decal:

I quite like them.

For the final push of getting it from assembled to “no really: ready to ride”, I had some help from Ken down at Stan’s Monrovia Bicycles with the bar tape. I wasn’t sure how to wrap the end of the bars such that the shifters would still fit in (turns out that you just don’t tuck the tape in to the bars), was impatient, and knew that Ken help me put a bullet in the project.

The blue tape is, I think, an extra-nice touch. Thanks, Ken!

The other thing I’m rather happy about is finally getting to use the saddle that Stephanie gave me for our anniversary last year.

Overall, I’m just really, really happy with the way the bike turned out, and I’ll probably do another sooner or later. (Definitely not until I get the garage cleaned out and tools organized such that I can avoid taking over the entire garage. No really: cars go there. It’s true.)

Building up a bike from parts — especially an old bike — was a really educational experience. I got to learn all about the difference between 27-inch and 700c wheels, and between recessed brake caliper mountings v. nutted mountings, and which parts screw in left-handed, which parts really, really need grease before you install them. Etc. It was a lot of fun, but I think I’d do a few things differently next time. (In particular, I’d not paint it until I was 100% sure that all the components fit. Trying to MacGyver in brakes on a freshly-painted frame is more angsty than I’m down for.)

I was able to take it for a short ride this afternoon. You know, shake down the components, make sure it’s adjusted correctly, etc. The seat is angled a little far forward, and I’m going to have to make a new shim (the first one is too thin) for the seat post. Also, I really don’t need a 52t chainring. I’ll never use it. So probably I’ll swap it out for the 42t “small” chain ring and put a 34t or something on as well. (I know that I forfeit any roadie kred by doing this. Oh well. I can still hang out with the touring crowd.)

Without question I would be remiss if I did not thank the people who helped me out with this project:

• New Belgium, for the best seat-post shim stock on earth
• Rivendell Bicycle Works, for a gang of parts and inspiration
• Sheldon Brown, for an endless stream of maintenance and repair tips
• Stan’s, for more parts, advice and making Monrovia a cool town to ride in
• My parents and in-laws for helping me avoid tragic technical errors along the way
• Fletcher, for being a shop hand without comparison
• Stephanie, for limitless inspiration, creative consultation, support and that just-right amount of ass kicking to get me to finish the damn thing. I love you!

Well, I’m a quarter of the way through the year and about a third of the way to my goal. Pretty pleasing.

I rode much, much less than I wanted to during March. (I had to go out for a ride on the last night of the month just to crack 200.) There were the (for me) pretty standard mechanical difficulties. I say “standard” and “for me” because I still haven’t gotten over the whole “tinkering with the commuter” thing. This would be tantamount to deciding on Sunday evening to put a puffer on the Civic that you take to work every day. Needless to say, it ends up with the bike in more pieces than it would ideally be on a lot of mornings. There was also a certain amount of work angst that lead to either late nights or martinis, both of which make riding in the morning pretty unappealing. That seems to be clearing up, though, so no more excuses.

Well, except for the whole “while attempting to fix my bike, I’ve pretty well destroyed it” part. A few weeks ago I broke a pedal. In replacing it, I broke the crank arm it was attached to. In replacing that I ruined my bottom bracket. Got a new one in place there, and now the replacement crankset — which, admittedly, is very very cheap — is warped beyond recognition and hitting the chainstay with each and every revolution. So, yeah.

I’m damn, damn close on the Bridgestone restoration I’ve been working on since last year. The frame is out at the powedercoat shop right now and should be done by tomorrow. When I get that back, I’m pretty sure I have all the parts I need to put together a really nice weekend bike, so I can ride that while the commuter is dead. All there is to it is assembling a bike from parts. Which I’ve never done before. But I have a copy of Zinn and Sheldon‘s always there on the internets. What could go wrong?

The riding highlight of the month was, without question, a bike camping trip with Fletcher’s scout troop. Glenn Trail Camp is an amazing place to camp. It’s ~6.5 miles up a road where only handicapped fishermen can drive. The camp is huge, usually empty, (on account of having to bike there, which most people for whatever reason won’t do) and immaculate. After we got to camp, the boys did another quick five mile ride up and down the trail (for a requirement for the cycling merit badge) and Stephanie and I got to tool around without our bikes loaded, which was wonderfully relaxing.

I’m really interested in doing some more bike camping. You can get away from civilization quickly, and camping just with your own group in the middle of nowhere is infinitely better than camping next to 30 people’s parked cars. Anybody interested in joining me?

February worked out pretty well in the bike department. Even counting a nine day stretch when I only rode once — for which my excuse of “it was raining” is super weak considering that I went to the trouble to put fenders on my bike — I rode in to work more often than not. I even got a few longer weekend rides in: one about 18 miles around the neighborhood, another 26 to and from the arroyo/Rose Bowl where Stephanie and Fletcher were taking an archery class and the USMC marching band was playing. (The band was very cool. The silent drilling group was impressive, but I guess not my thing.)

The SGV continues to be a wonderful place to ride. Cars are, for the most part, cooperative. The weather, absent the rain, has been perfect. Also, thank god for casual dress codes at work.

One thing I’ve definitely learned is that not a lot of people around here go out for weekend fun rides with fenders and a rack trunk. Clearly what I need is a Serotta with SRAM Red, a Sella San Marco, and a pair of Zipp 808′s. Otherwise I’ll never be cool. (Or broke.)

In riding news that doesn’t involve me going very, very slowly to and from work, I went out to see the penultimate stage of the Tour of California last weekend. The stage in to Pasadena has ended with a crit around the Rose Bowl for at least the last two years. I had an odd day with some weird schedule constraints, so I drove out to see it. The pictures of the race are on Flickr. Here are some of my favorites:

I didn’t get there early enough for a spot by the finish, so I settled for a corner on the bottom of a hill. There was a pretty good crowd there, including a gaggle of MTB’ers.

Astana — race leader Levi Leipheimer’s team (also that Armstrong guy) — was pushing the pace of the main peleton all day. It was impressive that they were able to keep the pack behind them so effectively.

George Hincape was in the break. He won this stage in last year’s race. I was really rooting for him to win this year’s, but he got edged out at the very end.

I was able to get a shot with both Armstrong (first in this shot, with the yellow helmet) and Leipheimer (third, in the yellow jersey) in it. Also (I think) Christian Vande Velde just entering the frame on the left and <insert name of Astana domestique here> up by Lance.

The race organizers said that 2,000,000 people came out to see the race in person. (Counting all eight days, I imagine.) They said that it was the best attended sporting event in California history, which I find to be a somewhat dubious claim on account of we had the Olympics not too long ago. Either way, the little crowd at my corner was certainly enthusiastic.

There was one drawback, though. I never really felt like riding on the weekend or just around town or whatever, because it “wouldn’t count” in some odd, self-imposed way. This is a crying shame, considering both that I live in Southern California where the whether is perfect for cycling 99 days out of 100 and that cycling just for the fun of it is damn fun.

For 2009, I’ve set a similar goal but without the silly “It has to be going to/from work” provision. I’d like to ride at least 2,000 miles before the end of the year. That’s still not a crazy amount of riding — I’d hit that if I just rode to work twice a week — but it’s still a pretty good amount for me, and it’s realistic even if I have to take a few weeks off for whatever reason.

Here’s where I’m at so far:

January Miles: 212.66
Percentage of monthly goal: 128%
Percentage of annual goal: 11%

Of note is that there was almost a week where I was completely out of commission due to a ruined wheel. Something that will probably help me a lot is getting on the ball as far as maintenance is concerned. (Also finishing the Bridgestone so I’ll have something else to ride the next time I do something horrible to my commuter.)

Along similar lines, Stephanie and I have signed up to do the Livestrong Challenge ride in Austin this October. Briefly, this is a charity ride put on by the Lance Armstrong Foundation to raise money for cancer research, screening and survivor programs. We’re signed up to do the 90 mile ride, which is more than either of us have ever ridden at a go. It should be fun working up to that.

Shameless plug: as with any charity sort of ride, there’s a fund raising component. If you like what the LAF does and want to support their efforts by way of sponsoring us on this ride, you can donate via the interwebs. Here’s a link to my donation page, and here’s Stephanie’s.

It just snapped while I was getting started in to an intersection. I can still pedal the bike, but there’s a lot of give to it now, and I’m not entirely sure how hard I can push on it before it breaks further, which may make the last two blocks of my ride home (which is the only part that’s up-hill in a meaningful way) interesting.

The funny part is that on Sunday when I got my wheel back from the shop, I thought for a bit about putting the 20-year-old, aluminum (and completely bomb-proof) platforms that I took off the Bridgestone on to my bike. I guess I’ll be getting to that tonight.

There were a few surprises, both good and bad, in terms of the condition of the bike. The frame and fork are much more rust free than I was expecting. There’s the standard rubbing on one side of the bike where it was most likely leaned up against a wall and spots on each of the chain stays next to the bottom bracket shell, but other than that they’re in really good condition. I have more hope that I’ll be able to make it look good without repainting it — which will save the decals, braggably — but I’m not quite to confidence on that front yet. We’ll see. (If I do have to repaint it, what color should I make it? Stephanie suggested racing green, which I think would work well. Maybe have the fork chromed?)

The freewheel and cogs look like they’re going to be more trouble to restore than to just replace. I’m also leaning that way for the wheels, in part just so I can move to 700c’s and have more readily available parts. If I can find the time, I’d definitely like to build the wheels myself, if only so I can get 36/40 spoke wheels instead of the 32/32 that seem to be most readily available. (I wonder how dumb it would be to try to go to 650B and get real touring wheels?)

The bottom bracket, headset and both derailers (Sheldon Brown 4evah) look to be in really good shape. Maybe I’ll replace the bearings in the headset and BB, but they can almost certainly all stay around. (In the case of the rear derailler, if I can find a six-speed cassette.) The crank arms and chain rings are without question good to go. They just need to be cleaned up a bit.

The brakes are probably a pair of pads and some new grease away from being perfectly good, but there’s a pair of Tektro side-pulls that I really have my eye on. (Although if the existing ones are wide enough to take a 700×30-32 tire, maybe I’ll stick with them.) The handlebars are much, much too small for me. Perfect excuse to get a fancy Nitto Noodle bar.

I’m going to start in on cleaning off some of the components and getting the rust off the frame within the next week. (Thanksgiving day while the turkey smokes will be perfect for this.) I’ll try to take pictures as I get the individual components cleaned up.

Aside from the whisper-quiet ride, the lighter and longer-lasting carbon-fiber composite belts won’t rust, can’t be cut, won’t stretch or slip and won’t leave grease marks around your ankles. A guard over the belt-drive and the construction of the system makes getting your pants stuck an unlikely scenario, Bjorling said.

My Sawzall begs to differ.

Note: I think belt drives are very, very cool. I’d be very interesting in setting my bike up with a belt and an internal hub.

Unfortunately, I have a bad habit of working on my bike after work, and the muse to wrench often strikes after particularly trying days. This leads to calamity more frequently than I’d like. This was definitely the case with the fender installation.

My first attempt was actually at the end of a very pleasant Sunday and got the front fender on without difficulty. Unfortunately I was a little overzealous with the rear fender, broke one of the little plastic guards that goes on the end of the v-brace and snapped a spoke on the wheel.

I have no spare spokes, nor do I know how to properly true a wheel — this has to change. I wonder if the bike kitchen still does wheelbuilding classes? — so I imposed upon my gracious wife to take it down to Stan’s and have it fixed.

After that was done I put the rack back on, rode it to work, had One Of Those Days, got home and decided that it would be a dandy idea to give the fenders another go. Not five seconds passed before I snapped one of the bolts holding the rack on — it was also to hold the fenders on! — right off the bike.

My best efforts to extract it with a locking wrench weren’t that hot. In fact they made the situation worse, breaking off what little was left of the bolt.

I consulted some friends and my dad and decided to invest in a left-hand drill bit to try to either drill the damn thing out or turn it out. A trip to Osh, one 5/64^th” bit, one 7/64^th” bit and twenty minutes with a drill later and I had a 7/64^th” hole through the still very immobile bolt.

My next attempt involved a trip to the Home Depot and the purchase of an Alden Pro Grabit damaged screw extractor. It’s basically a left-handed screw built on to a drill bit. It’s also not at all designed to take bolts out of bike frames: it lasted maybe half a second before it broke right the damn off.

It’s still wedged in the frame of my bike. I imagine that it will take an act of God to remove it.

At this point I was done with the whole thing. To hell with the fenders. I live in Southern California where it never rains. Off to REI for one of those dumb looking racks that just attaches to the seat post.

Unfortunate — or fortunately, depending on how you look at things — the dumb looking racks are way more popular than the old school racks that need 10,000 mount points and braze-ons and what have you, so they start about $50. Which was just enough to make me look around a bit more and discover a $5 pair of Delta Rack Mount Clamps.

These things are awesome. They hook on to the seat stay or the chain stay and let you pretend like your frame has all the mounts you need. It also lets you forget that you destroyed the perfectly good rack mounts that you already had. Anyway, about ten minutes after I got home I had both rack and fender attached.

(Pause for a moment and bask in the majesty of my high-tech bike work stand)

So now I can ride to work with my stuff, and I can avoid getting water sprayed all over me if it ever rains. Braggable. Here’s a closeup of the fully awesome Delta clamps.

Perhaps the best thing about getting the rear fender on is that I got to use my awesome reflecty tape. The night commuting is still sort of unnerving for me, so any chance I can get to be visible is appreciated.

So there you have it. cp: 1, broken bolt: 0. Also, there will from here on out be a house rule against screwing anything in to the frame of a bike without grease.

My current plan is:

• Disassemble the whole thing
• Throw out all the wear and tear items — tires, tubes, cables, housings, chains, tape, etc.
• Figure out what I have to do to the frame. I’d like to keep the original paint, but if there’s too much surface rust I may have to sand it down and repaint it. (Which sounds like an adventure in and of itself.)
• Clean the drivetrain parts — derailers, crankset, cogs, etc. — and see what all needs to be replaced. Hopefully as little as possible.
• I’m probably going to replace the current 27″ wheels with 700c wheels, just for practical purposes. (Tire/tube availability, mainly.) There’s enough play in the brakes that this doesn’t seem like a big deal.
• I’d really like to put a new stem and handlebars on it, along with new brake levers and some bar-end shifters. We’ll see how that works, budget-wise, though.
• Stephanie got me a nice saddle that would look quite lovely on this sort of a bike. Especially along with some shellacked cork bar tape.
• Reassemble and ride in to the sunset.

After I took these pictures I tried to raise the saddle up a bit to ride it around before I start working on it. Unfortunately the bolt that holds the seat post in place decided to give up the ghost, so it’s officially a non-functional project bike now.

I’d really like to be done with this before next summer. Not quite sure how ambitious that is, given my almost complete lack of free time. I’ll try to post pictures as things progress.

Bike guru Dave Moulton suggests that Critical Mass simply needs to end:

The problem with Critical Mass is that it has no organization; it is a spontaneous form of protest. The danger is, with no one responsible for the behavior of individuals, violence can become just as spontaneous.

If no one is responsible, then everyone is responsible. It is time to protest against Critical Mass, to urge people not to participate. The idea has run its course and is no longer valid. It is no longer cool to be a part of a lawless mob that disrupts the normal way of life, pisses people off, and worst of all perpetrates violence.

And Seattlest calls for Critical Mass to follow the same rules that they ask cars to follow:

So, what should happen to Critical Mass? It needs to stop being used as a way to intentionally piss off the drivers in this city by flaunting the laws. (This also goes for you individual riders who routinely blow through red lights, cut down sidewalks, and jump curbs.) CM needs to become an organized ride with an announced route that respects the traffic laws to which we, as bike riders, are legally beholden. If it is safer to keep the entire ride together in one column rather than breaking it up when a light turns red in its midst (it is), then permits need to be applied for and vehicular traffic diverted. If bikes are traffic too (a core reason for many CM riders to take part in it, including this one), then it’s time we start acting like it.

Critical Mass does injustice to cyclists. It angers the drivers that we cyclists count on to keep their multiple-ton cars under careful control. That’s not smart. Let’s not do it. I’d be happy with either Dave’s plan or the Seattlest plan. Either way.