Alpina or Grand Cru?

I've decided that I'd like to relieve Arielle of the burden of a triple.  That burden includes extra weight, redundant gears  and shifting that, while precise enough, is tedious. 

So I want to install a so-called "compact" road road double.  Now I'm trying to choose between the Sugino Alpina and the Velo Orange Grand Cru.

My heart says "Alpina" because of its looks.  As I don't do retro for retro's sake, I couldn't care less that the Grand Cru mimics some visual elements of old Stronglight and other European cranksets from the 1960's amd '70's.  That's not to say that the Grand Cru is unattractive; I just prefer the looks of the Alpina.

On the other had, the Grand Cru has a significantly lower tread, or Q-factor, than the Alpina.  That will make it feel more like the Campagnolo and Stronglight cranks I rode in the old days.  I'm not so sure of whether they were more comofrtable than current cranks, or whether I am simply older and not in the shape I was during my racing days. 

Another consideration, for me, is that I've used Sugino products for a long time, while VO is only a few years old and the GC is a new product.  Then again, I've been happy with the VO in-house products I've used.  But those products have included, maninly, accessories like fenders and bells, not central drivetrain components like cranks.  Then again, Chris, the proprietor of VO, stands by what he sells and has always been friendly and helpful to me.

One last consideration is that, whatever I buy, I may swap the chainrings, as I have some 110 BCD 'rings  in different sizes.  So I would be buying mainly for the arms, and the Alpina can be had for a bit less than the Grand Cru.

Decisions, decisions. What do you, dear readers, think?

Marianela Gets Fixed Up

When I rebuilt Marianela, I'd given her an ability she hadn't used--until the other day, when I fixed her up.

All right...If you know the story of Marianela, you know she wasn't fixed up.  But my old orange bike was. 

You see, her new wheels have a "flip-flop" hub in the rear.  Until the other day, I'd ridden her with a single freewheel.  But I decided that if I go through a period--as I just did--of not having time to ride save for my commutes and errands, I at least want to derive as much benefit and pleasure as possible from them.  So I gave  la pobre Nela a fixed gear.

I've only been able to ride it twice.  The drivetrain is surprisingly smooth, especially given the fact that it consists of low-cost parts. 

Of course, the only thing crazier and holding a greater potential for disfigurement and premature death than riding a fixie with no brake on the streets is riding one without some sort of foot retention.  So off came the rubber pedals and on went these:

Talk about back to the future:  These pedals are among the first made specifically for mountain biking.  They date to about 1985 or earlier.  Note that they have very wide platforms, which are great for foot support and comfort.  But they're also terrible for cornering and ground clearance, which is probably one reason why they haven't been made in more than twenty years. 

Also note a feature lacking in today's mountain bike pedals:  provisions for toe clips and straps.  The ones I installed are probably almost as old as the pedals themselves altough, unlike the pedals, they had never been used. 

So tell me:  How many bikes have you seen with those pedals--and Velo Orange fenders and "Milan" handlebars?  Or fixed gears with cyclocross/winter tires?

Pas de Randonnee

Today's only the first day of winter, at least officially. And I already have a case of the midwinter blues.

This year, we've had colder and windier weather earlier in the season than in any recent year, at least as I recall. But that doesn't usually affect my mood.  It is nearing the end of the semester and, as I told my brother, this time is for college instructors as tax season is to accountants. That means some sleepless nights and little time for anything besides work.

So, naturally, I haven't had much time to ride.  In times past, that's really gotten me down.  Tammy and Eva both used to say that they could tell I'd gone too long (for me, at least) without riding when I got annoyed with everything they said and did.  Of course, I annoyed pretty easily in those days anyway, and perhaps I still do.  But there was no denying that a lack of time in the saddle led to all sorts of moodiness.

In recent years, I've had two fairly lengthy spells without cycling.  One, of course, followed my surgery.  The other came during my first year of living as Justine.

The obvious answer is that I had so wanted to undergo my transition and surgery that I was willing to give up, at least for a time, cycling.  Actually, I didn't stop riding altogether during that first year: I simply did much less, mostly because of circumstance but somewhat out of choice.   I was, for the first time in a very long time, turning into a social creature and was mostly enjoying it.  As it happened, the people around whom I was spending a lot of time weren't cyclists.   And I made no effort to "convert" them.

For about four months after my surgery, I simply couldn't ride.  In the beginning, I couldn't have even lifted any of my bikes, or much of anything weighing more than a  couple of books in a bookbag or knapsack.  Before the surgery, I knew that my recovery would be spent off the bike.  So, I guess, I was menatally ready for it.  

You might also say that my work at the college is an extenuating circumstance.  Indeed it is.  But in some weird way, even though the end of the semester is almost here, it still seems even further away than getting on my bike again seemed the day after my surgery.

I'm not the only one to get the no-biking blues.  Back in my racing days, a fellow racer told me he felt became really depressed when an injury kept him off his bike for a few months.  At one point, the doctor told him that he would never ride again.  At that point, he said, he seriously thought about killing himself.

Recently I did a Google search and found that he's not only still alive; he's still racing in the senior category.  (He's about three or four years older than I am.)  And he's an independent businessman.

Dear Readers, do you get depressed when you can't ride for extended periods of time?  

Trash Talkin'

One of the things I've learned, in cycling as in life, is that any container you carry will fill up.  The question is:  with what?


Given that there are far fewer trash receptacles on this city's streets than there were a few years ago, it makes sense that people will make do with whatever they find.  Sometimes, though, what they find is a bike with baskets on it.  


I very stupidly deleted a photo I was going to post with this.  In it, the side-by-side rear baskets that hung off each side of a bicycle's rear rack were completely filled with trash.  And I complained about finding a couple of White Castle cartons on the front basket of my LeTour!

And now I also know that New Yorkers aren't the worst offenders when it comes to "trashing" a parked bike.  The above photo was taken in Tokyo.
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In addition to White Castle cartons, I've found empty and half-empty beer bottles, boxes from Kotex and religious tracts in my basket.  I wonder pamphleteers were targeting me.


What are some things you've found in your bike basket, or on your rack or any other part of your bike, after leaving it parked on the street?

Hipsters Go Back To Their Futures

I must say:  The question never crossed my mind.  But I got the answer to it today.  Here it is:  What if there had been hipsters during the '80's?

Might they have ridden a "fixie" like the Schwinn in the middle of this photo?  


If they had, they might have borne the wrath of all the disdain I heaped upon that decade's young and annoying people:  the yuppies.  


Now, I've never been a yuppie or a hipster.  Couldn't have been either, even if I'd wanted to.  But I'll make a confession:  Back in those days, I wore a cycling jacket in a pink just like the one on that bike.  It was a rather nice jacket, actually.  


You know that anyone who ends a sentence with "actually" isn't wearing a jacket in a color like that!  Likewise, on the day I learned, in Sociology 101, that my family was "working class," I was no longer part of it.  Now, what that's got to do with hipster fixies and yuppies and a jacket I wore twenty years ago, I don't know.


All I know is that if I'm rambling the way I just did after seeing a tacky bike in a shop, I've spent too many hours reading way too many student papers.  Some of them were due months ago; I suppose I've been suffused with the "holiday spirit."  Plus, I don't want to deny any student whose "sob story" may actually be true.  I mean, what if some freshman's grandmother died for the fifth time this year?


If she did, she sure won't be riding that bike in the picture.  Me, I wouldn't be caught dead on it.  But you probably knew that already.