Lots of motion- no movement

These people are riding their bicycles on trainers at the Boise High track field. At first that seemed normal. I rode another block before the absurdity struck me. I had to turn around and snap a picture with my Droid.

I wondered if they were associated with the high school or with the YMCA ,which is across the street from the high school, or if they were not associated with either. Then I wondered if they were training for some event or if  riding trainers is what they do. My guess is they are triathletes, because some of the bikes had tell-tale aero bars on them, and after all they are at the track.. so they could run after their ride! They could even go over to the Y and swim, or had they done that already?

I wondered how long it took them to load their bikes in the car, dress in the proper gear, drive from West Boise, find a place to park, unload their bikes and set up their trainers. Then I started wondering why? That has to be pain in the rear end. At some point, just  exercising  becomes a chore and a stress inducer rather than a stress reliever. But then people have a need to belong to groups and to have something in which to believe. I guess that is a powerful driver.

No pressure!

I don’t know these people. I have nothing against them. One might say “well, at least they are riding bicycles”  I would say , this doesn’t qualify as riding bicycles. If riding a bicycle means a competition with everybody, including one’s self, I think that attitude is a net negative in terms of getting more people interested in riding bikes and using them in their everyday lives.

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Where does this go?

We packed the bikes into re-usable shipping boxes from Quality Bicycle Parts. Any bike shop can get these. They run about $80 and I have shipped mine six times now. It is getting a little ragged around the edges. but I think it still has another trip left in it.

We shipped the bikes FedEx to the Motel 6 in Odessa after calling there to make sure they would be able to keep them for us until we arrived.

After assembling the bikes in the motel room, we taped the boxes back together and sent them to our destination motel in Austin.

Andrew used the Ostrich brand front bag. A roomy bag with side pockets, it mounts low enough on a small Nitto front rack that the bike handling is not affected dramatically.

Ostrich bag, Nitto rack

On the rear he used the Ortlieb Back Roller panniers. Waterproof panniers with a roll top closure and a very secure, durable attachment system, which is also easy to use in attaching or removing the bags.

I think there is enough capacity with this setup to allow one to carry enough gear and food for any tour except those in the most remote locations. As long as there is a place to buy food and groceries within a couple days riding distance, and with good planning, a rider can be self sufficient and still have a relatively fast, decent handling machine for bike touring. More at biketouringnews dot com

Bottom brackets come with different spindle lengths. The appropriate length is a function of the bike frame and of the shape of the crankset. Basically, getting the crank chainrings and/or crank arms as close to the frame as possible will result in the best stance. There may be cases where, in order to achieve the best chainline the crankset needs to stand out a little from the frame.

With a little trial and error we figured a 108mm spindle length would work.

A steerer tube extends from the top of the fork crown, through the headset and headtube, a few spacers and the stem. We had to decide how high the handlebars were going to be relative to the saddle height, so we dry fit everything together, set the saddle, put on the wheels, placed the bike on the floor and added spacers to get the bars where we wanted them. A frame with a touring geometry might have a slightly upward sloping top tube and/or an extended head tube. This bike doesn’t, because it is a sport road geometry, so we won’t be able to get the bars as high as  the saddle without an awkward looking number of spacers. But for a  young and flexible rider who will use his bike for general riding too, the lower, more aggressive position should be fine.

The other challenge with this “sport road” frame was getting the fenders to work with the 32mm tires.  The rear fender was relatively easy, requiring just some minor crimping where the fender nestles  between the chainstays. The front fender was much tighter. The combination of  the fork blade widths and brake bolt location didn’t leave much room for error. But we got it to work.

The fenders with 32mm tires barely fit. A little more clearance would be good, but we wanted to maintain at least 32mm tire width.

 Here is the bike almost ready for it’s maiden voyage. Still waiting on the rear rack and saddlebags.

The main constraints we put on this project were, for the frame:

-frame clearance for minimum 700 x 32 tires with room for fenders.

-lugged steel frame construction. This was a personal preference and the subject of frame materials and construction is available from a plethora of on line sources and not worth going into here.

-brazed-on attachments for cargo racks.

and for the parts:

-triple front crankset for a wide range of gears

-road or drop handlebars with bar-end shifters

-standard spoke wheels laced in a 3 cross pattern

and for the bolt on accessories:

-a small top loading front rack supporting a handlebar bag

-rear rack with panniers

-dynamo front hub and headlight

The Stanyan lugged steel road sport frame from Soma Fabrications is what we landed on. Not exactly a dedicated touring bike geometry, but for light, fast touring it should work great.

If the frame is part of the skeleton, then the bottom bracket and the headset are like ligaments holding the bones together, or maybe more like tendons connecting muscle and bone. It just so happens that the products widely considered to be the best examples of both are made by American companies, Phil Wood for bottom brackets and Chris King for headsets. Peace of mind is worth the few extra dollars for these critical components .

Now, let’s put it together!