What's New? Old Brakes

To get your bicycle to do what you want to do, have to listen to it--especially when it's telling you it likes, or doesn't like, something.

A corollary to that pearl of wisdom is this;  Just because something fits on a bike, that doesn't mean it will work well --for the bike or you.

So it was with linear=pull (a.k.a. "V")brakes on Vera.  I never could get them adjusted quite right.  They had lots of stopping power--as long as I pulled my brake levers all the way.  In other words, I experienced the "all or nothing " response some people experience with V brakes.  I couldn't decelerate with them; I could make only "on the dime" stops.

Also, I simply could not keep them centered, especially on the front.  Instead of standing vertically from the posts on which they were mounted, the brake arms stuck out at one- and eleven=o'clock angles.  That was more than an aesthetic concern:  It made the brakes difficult to adjust.

Finally, even when I unhooked the cable, it was difficult to remove the front wheel because the brakes and pads fit so closely.  The likely reason for that, and possibly the other problems I mentioned, is, I discovered, that V-brakes are designed to be used on frames and forks with the brake bosses spaced further apart than they are on Vera.  In fact, most older touring and cyclo-cross bikes, and road (or roadish) bikes made for cantilevers, have brake bosses that are more narrowly spaced than they are on mountain or post-1996 hybrid bikes.

I installed the V-brakes (Shimano Deore LXs) to replace the low-profile cantilevers that came with the bike.  Those brakes just seemed weak, at least compared to cantilevers I had back in the day.

So, guess what I did?  I found a cantilever brake like the ones we used back in the day:

I found these vintage 1985 Shimano Deore XT-MC70 brakes on eBay for a reasonable price.  While they protrude from the frame more than the other brakes, they have more power than the low-profile cantis--and better modulation than V-brakes.  I also found them surprisingly attractive on the bike.  

Of course, I changed the pads:  Even if they look OK, twenty-year-old pads have dried out at least somewhat.  Plus, Kool-Stop (Mathauser) salmon-colored pads are kinder to lightweight alloy rims than the old Shimanos.

(The current Tektro 720s seem to be patterned, at least to some degree, on these brakes).

One other benefit--at least from my point of view--of the cantilevers is that they allow me to use inverse (bar-end) brake levers like the ones I have on Helene.

I'll try to give a follow-up report on how these brakes work with Vera.  So far, everything seems good.

Smooth Sailing

On a hot day, one of the best ways to end a bike ride is with a boat ride.  That I did today on the Staten Island Ferry, after a ride on Helene that took me up the Bronx cliffs, across Manhattan, down the New Jersey Palisades into Hoboken, Jersey City and Bayonne, then, finally, over the bridge into Staten Island.


One of the nice things about riding on a hot day with low humidity, as I did today, is that the weather isn't nearly as oppressive as it is with high humidity.  On the other hand, if you're like me, you drink anything and everything in sight.  Still, I think I got to the Ferry less fatigued than these guys:

Helene is in front; the bikes behind her were ridden by the two recliners.  At least nobody can be accused of reading over this guy's shoulder!:

As befitting a high-class English lady with some French culture, Helene was her usual modest self:

With her, the ride was definitely smooth sailing:

Product Review: King Iris Water Bottle Cages

Each of my Mercians now has at least two Kings.


No, this isn't going to be a tell-all about the Royal Family.  And, this also isn't going to reveal something your Western Civ teacher never mentioned.


Each of my Mercians--Arielle, Helene, Tosca and Vera--now has a Chris King headset.  They really are much better than any other made.  I once had a King headset that I rode on three different bikes over a dozen years or so.  Yes, those headsets are expensive.  But, given that I get three to five years out of most loose-bearing headset, I think the King is worth the investment.


But this post isn't about those headsets.  Much has already been written about them, most of it laudatory, and I have little to add.  Instead, this review is going to be about the other Kings on my bikes:  the Iris water bottle cages.

The maker of King water bottle cages bears no relation to Chris King--at least in bloodlines.  (Can't get away from the Royal Family meme, can I?)  However, they share the same kind of excellent workmanship.  And, it wouldn't surprise me if the water bottle cages share the headsets' near-indestructibility.


King offers several styles of water bottle cage, including ones that look rather like the old Blackburn and TA cages.  The one I chose, the Iris. is something like the Velo Orange Moderniste and similar cages offered by other companies.


King's Iris cage, at first glance, is a bit chunkier than those. But there's a good reason:  It's made of tubular stainless steel, while the others are made of stainless steel rods or wires.  Actually, I liked the look of the King cages when I saw them, and liked them even better when I installed one on Vera.  And I liked them just as much after I installed, and used, them on my other Mercians.


All of King's cages are hand-made in Durango, Colorado.  The body is made of a continuous tube, which is welded to two small plates of the same material.  Those plates have holes drilled in them so you can mount the cage on any standard water-bottle braze-ons.


After nearly a year of using them, I have found Iris cages to be very solid, and to offer a firm grip on the bottle.  It might take slightly more effort to pull the bottle out than it does on other cages.  However, I think this is not a problem because the cage also eliminates the problem of rattling that I encountered with other cages since I started using stainless-steel water bottles.


King's Iris cages aren't super-light, at least not by today's standards.  At 48 grams, they weigh about what other similar cages weigh, and are heavier than carbon cages.  However, given how solid and nicely made these cages are, the weight is a small penalty, in my opinion.


And, given what I've said about these cages, I think that the  suggested retail price--about 17 USD--is quite reasonable.  You can find them for slightly less, as I did, especially if you buy more than one.

Mid-Life Cycling Mysteries

I've been cycling for a long time.  Well, at least, I've been riding for longer than most people, though the current shape of my body might belie that. Still, even after more than three decades of riding even when I had no logical reason for doing so, there are still some things I can't explain.


Here's one of them:  In spite of my advancing age and declining strength, my past few rides--whether commutes or pleasure rides--have been faster and smoother than I expected them to be.  Now, what I am saying is completely unscientific: I am saying them mainly on the basis of having finished the rides I took in less time than I anticipated, or than I would normally take to do them.  And this has happened without any effort on my part to make to make "better" (i.e., faster) time.


What's more, I have noticed this on riding three of my four bikes:  Arielle, Tosca and Vera.  I guess if I want to make a really valid claim, I have to take Helene out, too. (It's been a month or so since I've ridden her.  I can rationalize it this way:  For the rides on which I would have taken Helene, I rode Vera in order to fine-tune her.)  But if I were to ride her with the intention of testing this hypothesis, it would sort of invalidate what I'm saying, wouldn't  it?


On the other hand, there have been times in my life when I was in much better shape than I'm in now, yet the rides were slower and more arduous than the past few have been.  


Have you, dear readers, experienced anything like what I've described?  If so, can you account for it in some way?

A Preliminary Ride Report: Vera's Verities

Vera, the 1994 Miss Mercian I bought in July, has become my commuter.  So, I have ridden her for a pretty fair amount of time which, I believe, gives me a basis for making some preliminary observations and comparisons.

As I expected, Vera offers a very nimble but comfortable ride.  Still, I was surprised (pleasantly) to find that she cuts as much as twenty minutes off my previous time for the ten-mile (each way) commute I do three times a week.  That, when carrying a full load of books and papers, a strong lock and sometimes a change of shoes.

What I really wasn't expecting, though, is that the rear triangle is not as stiff, or as stable, as that of Helene, my other Miss Mercian.  Vera's twin lateral top tubes extend all the way back to the rear stays, near the points where they're brazed to the drop-outs. In theory, this is supposed to make for a stiffer rear end than that of a more traditional women's or mixte bike like Helene, on which there's a traditional top tube that ends at the seat tube.

It occcured to me even though Helene and Vera are about the same size and are similar kinds of bikes, their geometries might vary, however slightly.  Measurements I took the other day confirmed this hypothesis:  Vera's chainstay is seven millimeters longer (434 vs. 427) and its overall wheelbase spans 19 more millimeters (1031 vs. 1012).  For comparison, the chainstay and wheelbase measurements are 987 and 415 on Arielle, my Mercian Audax road bike, and 980 and 412 on Tosca, my Mercian fixed-gear bike.

Now, of course, some of the componentry is different on each bike.  Though I'm running 700x32 tires on both Helene and Vera, the tires on the latter bike are about 170 grams heavier.  Plus, the components are a bit heavier on Vera, which makes her a somewhat heavier bike overall.  But those factors should not account for the difference in ride that I noticed, while the differences in geometry should.

What I've noted about Vera should not be taken as a complaint.  She is an extremely pleasant bike to ride; even though my commutes are faster, I feel less beat up after pedaling  over streets that, in some places, resemble the Ho Chi Minh trail.  For that reason, I could see taking her on longer rides; however, on multi-day rides, I would probably want a dropped road-style bar like the Nitto Noodle.  And, just for fun, I might try riding Vera with the lighter tires I use on my other bikes to see just how fast she can be.  I don't envision her as my "speed" bike, but I am curious to see what she can do.

On the subject of handlebars: Vera now has a pair of flipped-over North Road-style bars.   I believe that it, rather than the design of the frame itself, is the reason why--perhaps paradoxically, given its longer wheelbase and (seemingly) longer fork rake--the front seemed twitchier at first.  I flipped the bars back to the position for which they were designed, and the steering more stable, though still more responsive than that of other bikes I've ridden with upright bars.  That is to say, it felt a bit more like Helene.

So far, I am very happy that I gave in to my impulse to buy Vera.  She is both the fastest and most elegant commuter I've had:  Nearly any time I ride her, she gets compliments.

I will probably write more about her ride qualities, and those of my other Mercians, in later posts.

One For Vera? Or Is It An Internal Matter?

I promise:  Vera will not end up looking like this:

However, she may end up with a fixed gear or a "flip-flop" hub.  Now that she's become my regular commuter, I'm really thinking about dispensing with the derailleur.  


Some of you will tell me to consider an internally-geared hub (IGH).  I am. However, I haven't had the best of luck with the ones I've had.  Hal, the Bicycle Habitat mechanic who's built any wheel I ride and haven't built myself (and who set up Arielle, Tosca and Helene) says the only IGH he likes is the Rohloff, which costs more than my first ten or so bikes.  


And, I'll admit that I like the elegant simplicity of fixed gears, and even single speed freewheels.  But don't worry:  If I go that route, or give in to an IGH, I won't do anything silly like cutting off the derailleur mounting "ear" on the rear dropout.  In fact, I don't want to cut, drill bend or otherwise mutilate the frame for any modification.

I'm Back: Say Hello To Vera

The semester has begun and, as you probably can imagine, I've been busy.  To those of you who expressed concern for my safety:  Thank you.  I was hardly affected at all by Hurricane/Tropical Storm Irene, save for the fact that I had to stay indoors and miss a few days of cycling.  

Vera

But, as you've seen from my last couple of posts, I've begun to commute on Miss Mercian II--who will henceforth be known as Vera.  I could get all literary and scholarly on you and say that I named her after some character in a Restoration play, or some such thing.  Truth is, I decided on the name after listening to Pink Floyd's "The Wall."  You know the song I'm referring to. 


I'll write about her ride after I spend some more time on her saddle.  Her wheels and tires, as well as much of her other componentry, are heavier than those on Helene, my other Miss Mercian mixte.  Plus, the geometry is a bit different.  Finally, I'm still tweaking a few things on Vera.


Speaking of which:  I'm going to install a set of centerpulls on Helene.  I've always felt that they were better for bikes with long clearances.  They fit better around fenders, for one thing.  Plus, on bikes with long reaches (more than about 60 mm), traditional sidepulls feel mushy, while dual-pivot brakes (like the Tektro 556s Helene now has) seem to have an "all or nothing" feel to them.  It may well have something to do with the levers (the Tektro inverse levers that are styled like the old Mafac bar-end levers)  I'm using with them.  They seem more suited for a centerpull or cantilever brake.  


On the front centerpull,  I'm going to install one of those little TA-style front racks (made by Dia Compe and purchased from Velo Orange).  I could use a small basket or rack bag--or, of course a handlebar bag.  Perhaps I could also strap my purse or handbag to it.


There is a "casualty" in all of this.  Yes, you guessed it:  Marianela.  She went to a good home this week.  A woman who's my height and whose legs are the same length as mine is going to ride it to graduate school, which she is starting this week.  I realized that if I had simply given away or donated Marianela, she could have ended up with someone who was too short for her, or simply wouldn't have appreciated her.  By the same token, I didn't expect to get much money by selling her, and I didn't.  I asked for a low price in my Craig's List ad, and after the woman and I talked, I lowered that price and threw in a few "extras." 


I sold the bike with the Gyes Parkside saddle.  I wasn't going to part with the Brooks saddles on my Mercians, all of which are somewhat to significantly narrower than the Gyes.  And I had only one other saddle:  some cheap, hard and narrow no-name nylon thing with thin padding, which I know Marianela's new owner wouldn't have liked.  


I felt good about the transaction:  Marianela and her new rider are right for each other, I think.  And I think Vera will make my commutes more fun.

Pondering Marianela's Fate

I'm still debating what to do with Marianela.  I don't think selling her will bring enough money to make it worthwhile.  I suppose I still could donate her, which might be a halfway noble thing to do.  


But even that doesn't seem feasible, in a way. When I donated the Bridgestone Mountain Bike, at least it was a bike that its intended recipient--an immigrant who's working in construction, landscaping, restaurants or wherever else they need cheap labor--would be happy to get.  It's in a fairly common size, albeit a little bigger than the mountain bikes I used to ride.  And, not having suspension but having good, basic components, it makes a a good transport bike and is not overly complicated or esoteric.

However, mixte frames of any quality are hard to come by in Marianela's size.  My two Mercian mixtes are both custom frames--one (Helene) built for me and the other (Miss Mercian II) built for Pete, from whom I bought it.  Just as most clothing manufacturers still seem to think that women don't need inseams of more than 30 inches, bike makers seem to think either that there aren't any women over 5'6" or that those of us who are taller are just men with a couple of different parts.


So, the fact that it's a tall mixte is almost, by itself, reason to keep Marianela, even if Miss Mercian II becomes my commuter.  I could keep Marianela locked up outside, so the limited space in my apartment wouldn't be an issue.  And, as I mentioned earlier, I think that there will still be times when she'll come in handy.

If I keep her, though, I might get a pair of plastic fenders to replace the ones I took from her.  They wouldn't be as pretty as the fenders (Velo Orange Zeppelins) I had on the bike, but they might be more practical for a bike that's going to be parked on the streets and not well cared-for.  


I would definitely need to replace the seat, though.  Right now, she has the one that came with Miss Mercian II.  That seat is one I wouldn't ride in any case, and it's entirely unsuited for upright bars.  I suppose I could buy a Brooks B-67 or something similar for MMII and return the Gyes to Marianela.  But the Gyes is pretty well broken-in and I don't want to take the time to break in another saddle.  Besides, something cheap, and possibly made of synthetic materials, just might make more sense on a bike I'm going to leave on the streets.  

Girls, Bikes And The City

On my way home from my "Hasidim and Hipster Fixies" ride, I met and chatted with another woman on a bike.   She's been living in Brooklyn for a while and wants to find some new rides.  And Bruce has told me that I make a good tourguide. So, we exchanged e-mail addresses and today we went for a ride along the Brooklyn and Queens waterfronts, across the RFK Bridge into Randall's Island and alongside the East River in Manhattan. 


Helene was definitely "up" for this one.  She's wanted to have a girl's night, or day, out in the city!

One of the wonderful things about introducing someone to places you know well is that you discover new things in and about them.  We ventured into a part of Greenpoint I hadn't visited in a while, where we found a workshop of some kind:

Look at her, and look at the second statue from the left.  Of course, I had to get into the act:

I guess I'm not quite the performer she is.  Then again, I may not have had the right role.  Last week, in the midst of the sleep deprivation nearly all instructors experience at during the last days of a semester, one of my colleagues said I was looking a bit like Pierre de Wissant as he appeared in Rodin's Les Bourgeois de Calais.  

Anyway, I enjoyed the ride and the company of my new riding companion.  After we parted, Helene insisted that we stop here:

I mean, she has a point:  I have three Mercians (including her) with paint finish number 57:  a purple that turns green when you look at it from certain angles.  So now I need a house to go with them.  Hmm...If my book sells....

Shifting Gear

If you've been following this blog for the past couple of weeks or so, you may have noticed some ever-so-subtle changes to my bikes.  I have documented how Arielle traded a triple crankset for a Sugino Alpina double. Well, I've also installed an Alpina double, albeit with different chainrings, on Helene.


And you may also see that I have Carradice Barley bags on all three of my Mercians. (Tosca, as well as Arielle and Helene.)  I think I may just leave them on the bikes, as it will make it easier to carry my camera, notebook and an extra layer of clothing, if I need it.  I can also pick up some goodie or another in a bakery or flea market en route!  So, the Bike Burritos I had been using are inside the pockets of the Barleys.  I liked the way the Burritos looked on the bikes, but they also serve nicely to keep my tools and tubes organized and separate from whatever else I put in my bags.


Finally, there is this change I made on Helene:

I purchased a pair of shifter pods from Velo Orange. They function in the same way as the ones Paul Components makes.  However, VO's cost a good bit less and fit a wider variety of handlebars.  The VO Porteur bars on this bike are of the same diameter as road bike bars. (Most flat and upright bars are the same diameter as mountain bike bars, which are of a smaller diameter.)  


The problem with Paul's--and many other thumb shifter mounts--is that they will fit one type of bar of the other.  But the ones made for road-bike bars will fit only on the "sleeve" of the bar, which is the section nearest the stem clamp.  That "sleeve" is a wider diameter than the "body" of the handlebar. 


Of course, one probably could put a shim or tape underneath  a Paul clamp.  But who wants to do that after spending 75 dollars for the pod?


The VO pod has a hinged clamp instead of the solid clamp found on the Paul pods.  That, of course, allows for greater adjustability.  Plus, VO supplies the pods with some nicely-machined aluminum shims.  And, for those of you who care, the VO pods are silver, while Paul's are black. 


The pods are made to be used with Dia Compe Silver downtube shifters, which is what I had been using before I bought the pods.  I happen to like the lever very much, so I was happy to keep it.  I was able to mount the shifters so that I could reach them as I was holding the straight part of the bar, which is where the brake levers are located.  As I have them mounted, I can actuate the brakes with two fingers and the shifter with one.


As much as I like the position,  I'm still getting used to the shifting.  A basic rule of thumb is:  The longer your cable, the slower, less precise and less crisp your shifting.  That is one reason why you just about need either a ratchet mechanism (like those on the Silver levers, or the old Sun Tours), a retro-friction mechanism (as used on the Simplex "teardrop" levers) or an indexed mechanism (as found on Ergo and STI levers) if you're using a handlebar-mounted shifter. 


I think that I should be accustomed to this setup fairly soon.  After all, I once had a bike with Sun Tour shifters that mounted on top of the bars.  After a while, I found the shifting just as predictable, if not as quick, as on my bike with downtube shifters.


And, oh, yeah, the bright pink Cinelli tape. Turns out, the gray tape I had on the bars wasn't long enough once I installed the new shifters.  

Hasidim and Hipster Fixies

Today I took one of those "no destination" rides.  Helene and I just sort of wandered from one place to another, doing about 30 or 35 miles in total without getting more than a few miles from my apartment.  Such is an enjoyable way--for me, anyway--to spend a warm, humid afternoon after waking up late.  


Along the way, I stopped in an Old Navy store. (They didn't stop me from bringing my bike in.)  I was looking for at least one nautical-stripe T-shirt.  For the longest time, I wore one that I bought in France. You've probably seen them:  the kind worn by Breton fishermen and Marseille dock workers and, for a long time, by sailors in the French Navy.  They are white, with horizontal navy stripes.  For a long time, it was the only white article of clothing I owned.  


I also used to have a wool sweater that was the inverse of the T-shirt:  navy with cream stripes.  It was one of those sweaters with buttons on the left shoulder.  I actually wore it on many a cold-weather ride, as the wool was of a very nice grade and tightly woven, and the sweater was of just the right weight and thickness for a variety of conditions.


There are imitations of them available in this country.  For all I know, they're not even being made in France anymore.  In any event, as I expected, Old Navy didn't have the originals.  But they didn't have any imitations, either.  On the other hand, I found interesting tank top with a tied back in a kind of "fade" from blue to green to purple.  And the green and purple just happen to be the shades, more or less, of Helene as well as Arielle and Tosca, my other Mercians.  So of course I couldn't pass it up.  One of these days, I'll post a picture in which I wear it--and, of course, I'm riding one of my Mercians.


I also rode to someplace I haven't been in quite a while.  It's one of the neighborhoods in which I spent my childhood:  Borough Park, in Brooklyn.  This is the church in which I was an altar server:

And, diagonally across the street is the school I attended. Here is a section of it:

They are the Holy Spirit parish and school.  Between them, I saw this:

Even if I hadn't seen that, I would have been surprised that the school, and even the church, were still open.  Even though the temperature rose to just above 90F, all of the females I saw on the streets were wearing thick hosiery (some with seams running down the rear) and long skirts, while all of the males were wearing even longer coats.  If they noticed me, I can only imagine what they might have been thinking.  For one thing, I was alone and riding a better bicycle than most of them even know exists. Plus, I was the only one riding a bike who was more than about ten years old.   And I was wearing a short (by their standards, anyway) denim skirt and a tank top.


I know, from an earlier experience, that the Hasidim don't like to be photographed. Of course, I respect that.  But at the same time, I wasn't about to ask any of them to take a photo of me with my bike!


You've seen Hasidim if you've been Williamsburg, another Brooklyn neighborhood. (In fact, shuttle buses run between the two neighborhoods.)  What's ironic is that they're in the hipster-fixie capitol of the universe. That makes for some very interesting visual contrasts.  One is between the black of the males' coats and hats and the females' skirts, and the day-glo or neon colors of the bikes rolling down the Kent Avenue bike lane or parked in front of the book and music stores, "retro" boutiques and self-consciously funky coffee shops and restaurants of Bedford Avenue.  The other contrast, of course, is between the presence of hipsters and their fixed-gear bikes in Williamsburg and the absence of same in Borough Park.


If I could have found a way to photograph what I've just described while respecting the wishes of the Hasidim, I would have done so.  All I can do is hope that I've described it enough for you to visualize, at least somewhat.

Three Ladies

On the day of Oprah's last show, it seems somehow fitting to write about "women's," "ladies'", "girls'" or "female" bikes. 


Yesterday morning, on my way to work, I had the feeling I was going to see something interesting.  And I did, only four blocks from my apartment:

Do I sense some jealousy from Marianela?  Just look at the way she's standing there and looking at this cute young thing.  Well, all right, she's not so young.  Even if the style and rust didn't tell me so, I know this bike has to be about 40 years old, possibly even older.  Then again, they say "forty is the new twenty."  


But I know the bike has to be forty, or even older, because of its style.  When was the last time you saw top and frame tubes that looked like these?

The top tube is really a pair of twin parallel tubes, as one finds on a mixte frame. But it has that long, sinuous curve found on the old Schwinn "Hollywood" and other "girls'" bikes from the 1960's and earlier.


Another give-away to the bike's age is the color:  a kind of metallic blue-green that was popular during the early and mid-1960's, at least on kids' bikes.


It was also a color Rollfast used on many of its bikes throughout its history.  In a previous post, I wrote about this brand, which was made right next to the site of the former World Trade Center.


Today I had a day off because none of my classes had exams.  And it was like an early summer day, at least weather-wise.  So, in spite of waking up late and doing laundry, among other things, I was able to spend a couple of hours with Helene:

I think she wanted to show off her new accessories more than anything.  Now she has a Carradice Barley.  What girl doesn't like a new bag?  

Plus, she has pink Cinelli cork tape.  I had to replace the tape I'd originally installed after I mounted the shift levers on the Velo Orange handlebar pods.  

Even when she's showing off, she's still a proper lady.  And she's an even better one when I ride with her!

Rainy Day Projects

It's supposed to rain on and off today.  I suppose I could play chicken with the rain again.  However, I somehow feel that I wouldn't be so lucky in daring the weather as I was in chancing it.  Actually, I wasn't even chancing it:  I just had enough dumb luck to be able to ride between rainfalls.

If it does rain, I'll probably do some bike work I'd been planning.  Maybe I'll even build the wheels I had planned for Marianela.  I'm not using any fancy components on it, save for the DT spokes.  (They're going to connect Sun CR-18 rims to IRO hubs which look like they're made by Formula.) But I think that, and the care I'll take in building it, will make it a better wheel than some of the stuff they sell on e-Bay.  

What else?  When I swap the wheels, I'm going to put street tires on it rather than the cyclo-cross tires I've been riding.  They still look good, so I'll save them for next winter.

I also just got a pair of shifter pods from Velo Orange.  Those aren't for Marianela, though; they're for Helene.  I was going to get a pair of Paul Thumbies.  But I found out that the road version works only on the part of the bar that bulges near the clamp.  And the mountain version would be too narrow to fit on the grip area of the Velo Orange Porteurs that Helene has.  The VO pods are made to fit either road or mountain bars, and they'll work with the Dia Compe Silver shift levers that are on the bike.  And I just happen to have a pair of cable guides I saved from the last set of Ergo levers I used.

Now...Which do I do first?  Of course Helene is more fun to work with (not to mention ride); Marianela is my "beast."  But Marianela's rear wheel popped a spoke a couple of weeks ago.  That's usually a sign that a wheel needs to be rebuilt or replaced.  Then again, no spokes have broken since.  I find that on dying wheels, spokes tend to break pretty frequently.

Plus, it's been quite a while since I built a pair of wheels.  I used to do it in one of the shops in which I worked, and I've built a few wheels for myself.  But since I haven't done it in a while, I wonder whether my skills have deteriorated?  I know how to do it; I just wonder whether i've lost the "touch" I might have (or merely imagined) I had.

Oh well.  This is probably one of those decisions I should make after I've made (and eaten!) a crepe or two.

To Do: Build New Rear Wheel

A dreary, rainy, chilly day. Amazing, how spoiled one can get after a couple of nice days.  But it's officially spring. And  we had a "Super Full Moon" the other night.  No wonder my late night-early morning ride didn't seem so dark!


Tomorrow it's supposed to clear up.  I'll ride to work and, hopefully, for a bit after that. 


I'm going to build a new rear wheel for the rear of Marianela.  A couple of spokes have broken on the one I have.  I think it had to do with the build quality of the wheel.  So I'm going to build with another flip-flop hub (Formula sealed bearing under the IRO brand.) and a Sun CR-18 rim.  Normally, I prefer Mavic rims, and that's what Arielle, Tosca and Helene have.  But Mavic doesn't seem to be making anything in the 27 inch diameter these days, and I don't want to take chances with used rims. The alternatives are Weinmann (which I used to like, but seem to get mixed reviews these days), Alex and a couple of "mystery" brands.


I know, 700 C is the standard diameter.  That's what all of my Mavic rims are.  But Marianela came with 27" wheels, and the rear brake is a long-reach centerpull with its pads about as far down as they'll go.  I really don't want to get a longer brake, as all that seem available are BMX-type brakes, which wouldn't work well on the bike or with the levers I'm using.  Plus, in spite of its length, the rear brake is powerful.  That has to do with the long straddle cable which wraps around the lug that joins the stays to the top tube.


The wheel will probably cost more than the bike did.  But I figure that it's still cheaper than buying a new hybrid or low-end road bike.  I've done that before, and within a year I end up replacing all of the parts.  Plus, for a heavier bike, I like the way Marianela rides.  

Changes Made; Another Contemplated

I've switched Helene's levers to the inverse type.  That meant giving up my bar-end shifter, which I didn't like on the Porteur bar anyway.  Now the bike has downtube shifters.  Yes, shifters:  plural.  That's because I also have two chainrings rather than one on the front.  Since I'm not going to install a chainguard, I decided I may as well use a front derailleur.


I'll post some photos.  Now I'm contemplating one more change, for Arielle and Tosca as well as Helene.  So far, the cut-out Terry saddles have been good for relieving pressure around my one-year-old organs.  But they're a bit cushy. And the edges of the cut-outs rub me the wrong way.  (I mean that literally!) I'm tempted to try a Brooks Imperial.  I just wonder whether the cutouts would be the right size and shape--and whether having to break in a leather saddle would be hard on that part of my body.  I've had leather saddles before, but I broke them in under different circumstances!

Helene's First Changes

I've done a few rides on Helene.  Actually, they felt more like gliding:  The frame is nearly as responsive as Arielle and Tosca, my other two Mercians, but  is also comfortable without feeling too cushy.  


However, there are two small changes I need to make.  The Guidonnet (Contraty to popular rumor, they're not what Snooki would ride--if indeed she cycled.) brake levers and the bar-end shifters aren't quite to my liking.  


The brake levers actually don't allow me to use the Porteur bars in the way I'd hoped.  The clamp doesn't allow for the use of the forward part of the bar--at least, not for someone with hands like mine.  And, the swept-back part of the bar I like is in a nether-world between the brake and shift levers:  I can reach neither easily.  And, finally, using the bar-end shifters has turned out to be more awkward than I anticipated.


Please understand that I am not making judgments on the quality or design of the Guidonnet levers or the bar-end shifter (an old Sun Tour ratcheted Bar-Con).  They simply aren't suitable for the way the bike is configured or the way I fit and ride it.


So, I've just ordered a pair of Silver Tektro inverse levers from Velo Orange.  I have a feeling those will work better for me, and will still fit in with Helene's aesthetic.  And, since they won't allow for the use of a bar-end shifter, I'm going to try a down-tube shifter.  Reaching it from the porteur bar doesn't seem like it would be much more difficult than accessing Arielle's downtube shifters from the "hooks" on her drop bars.  I really would like to avoid using a shifter mounted on top of the handlebar (a "thumb" shifter) because, it seems, they would rob me of one or two hand positions that I like.


Well, there's one thing I've learned:  When you get to a certain age and make changes, some things fit differently (if they still fit!) .  But when you have, essentially, the sort of ride--or life--these minor changes are like little adventures and learning experiences.  

Riding Through Forms Of Light

Ah, Helene really is a romantic after all:

What started out as a late-afternoon/early-evening ride turned into a moonlight cruise by Sheepshead Bay.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Brooklyn (no, Park Slope and North Williamsburg don't count), Sheepshead Bay is an inlet of the sea at the southern end of the borough.  On one side of it are the eponymous neighborhood, a part of which ended up in the above photo.  On the side from which I took the photo is a neighborhood called Manhattan Beach.  The Bay itself is named after a fish that, if I recall correctly, was native only to the bay.


Anyway...the ride down there was one of the more interesting local rides I've done.   Actually, it wasn't so much a ride as it was a light show.

I took this photo looking down a side street from Lee Avenue in one of the non-hipster areas of Williamsburg.  Lee Avenue is probably about as close to a stetl as one can find in this country in 2010.

Many of the stores, like this one, don't have signs in English.  And, I happened to be pedaling down this street on the first full day of Rosh Hashanna,  just as when Hasidic families were leaving shul and walking to their homes, or those of extended family members.  


Although the sky was overcast, the light seemed, well, light.  Perhaps it had to do with the colors of those clouds:  more blue than gray.  That made them seem more like waves in the sea than bearers of storms.  


Somehow, in my imagination, I always imagine preternaturally clear Prussian blue skies of la belle epoque giving way to graying inter-war skies and, finally, to those ominous iron gray curtains of clouds that preceded the long night that settled over the old stetls.


Now, before I start to sound like a really bad cross between Alexandr Solzhenitsyn (Only in Russia after the Berlin Wall fell could he have been chosen to host a talk show!)  and Elie Weisel (whom I both like and respect as a writer and person), I'm going to get back to the topic at hand:  riding, and what and where the ride brings me.

I feel as if riding these last couple of days has been about following light (if not The Light, whatever that is) as it radiates from some unexpected sources.  As thick as the clouds have been, they did not seem heavy and have never threatened rain.  And they have allowed at least a reflection of the hour's light

Or, more precisely, where the light has led me: