A Rash of Cross Bikes

Lately we've had a little surge of interest in cyclocross bikes. The local clientèle suddenly woke up to the versatility of 'cross bikes and a few riders have scraped up the coin to get them.

Try as I might to promote interest in the ultra-versatile Surly Cross Check, I admit that not every rider needs that level of adaptability. So I don't mind that the latest three cyclocross bikes off our assembly line have been Fujis. The riders who are getting them won't notice the limitations of VD and brifters. They're used to those features. If you never push against a wall you don't see, you can believe it isn't there. If it doesn't matter to you, does it matter at all?

'Cross bikes are cool. When people buy interesting bikes it puts the fun back in the job. I can imagine these riders taking their varied adventure rides.

Since the collapse of the mountain bike boom at the end of the last century, cycling has broken up into subcultures. Some riders maintain bikes to participate in more than one. Others have their one favorite. The cyclocross category provides many good examples of an "all-around" road bike for the one-bike rider who likes faster surfaces and a light-footed steed. It doesn't need to be paved, but it should be well-defined. Many places have paved and unpaved public roads that would be boring on a mountain bike but offer great opportunities for transportation and exploration on a rugged road bike.

Ink

Some people are really put off by tattoos.

Body art and flesh-installed jewelry do make a bold statement. I always wonder how it will all look in twenty or thirty years.

For myself, I have never found an image I liked well enough to have permanently applied to my skin. This isn't just a bumper sticker.

I'm sure someone's done this, but how about having cooking and serving instructions written somewhere?

Boiled, broiled, baked or fried?

You could end up with a whole cookbook.

Last Will and Testament

I'm thinking of getting a tattoo that would say, "In the event of an accident, please take all usable organs and then compost the rest. My wife gets first dibs on my kidneys, but the rest is up for grabs." This would go on my abdomen, as this is unlikey to get hashed up in the most likely fatal motor vehicle-bicycle crash scenarios.

The thing is, I'm not totally sure about the distribution of things. Wife gets the kidneys, that's certain, unless her brother needs one, too. They can sort that out. But maybe I'd like the useless leftovers turned into cat food instead of compost. I like little kitties. The main thing is to recycle.

Not that I'm in any hurry. Plan A is to crawl off into a vast wilderness when I'm really old and know for certain that I'm through having fun. Of course with the Arctic melting down, large trackless wildernesses will be hard to maintain. There will be oil derricks all over everything. In that case, maybe I'll just set myself on fire and stumble into an oil pumping station. Talk about the last laugh! Watching those petro-slaves scatter in all directions as a flaming senior citizen does the Frankenstein walk into their flammable facility...

As I said, NO HURRY. But it's good to have plans. And in the event I get shortstopped by some catastrophe, remember the organ thing. Don't go pissing away money on some ridiculous funeral, or wasting land on graves and monuments.

In 1979-80, I said I wanted to be left to rot on the roadside if I happened to go down as road kill. Make the motoring public look upon their handiwork for as long as it took me to rot fully away. Of course I was told this was unsanitary and illegal. No one would do it for me. But the organ donation/compost/cat food thing shouldn't be a problem.

I keep forgetting to register as an official donor. Maybe this blog will serve as notice. I find it hard to get too seriously organized about my own demise. Too busy living. Anyway, you kidney recipients know who you are. Just don't get grabby.

Morning Fog and 40s

As the earth gives up its heat to the longer, cooler nights, fog forms in the low areas. A body of water provides even more moisture for the atmosphere.

I have to escape from the Pine River valley every morning. In the middle of summer it may only be pleasantly cool, but right now the first three miles of the ride to work have been shrouded in murk. A please-don't-kill-me-yellow vest seems like a good idea, unless the morning is cold enough for me to wear the nicer yellow Sugoi Stealth windbreaker.

Days are short enough and my commute is long enough for me to bring lights for the ride home. On a clear evening I don't really need them unless I stay late at work, but each day the sun sets a little earlier, while home gets no closer. And a few clouds can bring dusk even more quickly.

I warm up more slowly in the mornings and ride more deliberately in dusk, so the trip takes a little longer at both ends of the day. It's all part of the natural arc of the commuting season.

Threat Level: Sunny

Recent reports of cycling accidents remind us that autumn brings low sun angles and greater glare to make good drivers untrustworthy and bad drivers worse.

I can't say for sure whether glare really played a role in an accident reported by a cycling blogger in Halifax, Nova Scotia, but the driver said it did, and it may actually have. Likewise I do not know whether it was a factor in a more recent accident causing life-threatening injuries to a cyclist in Massachusetts. That rider is still in a medically-induced coma.

Usually when a cyclist gets hit really hard, it is because the driver pulled a full-speed maneuver without seeing him, or was gunning for him. Wishing to assume better motives for people, what might make a driver aim for a cyclist as if the cyclist was not there?

Consider the less obvious factors when scanning for dangers as you ride. A driver with the sun behind them may still be blinded by glare reflected from the rear-view mirrors or from some other object. A cyclist is small and often has to operate outside the tunnel-vision field that a rushing motorist sees. Shine a bright light in that motorist's eyes and the situation just got even worse.

Cyclists are not usually hit by cars overtaking. The nastiest accidents happen when a motor vehicle turns across the path of the cyclist. Vehicles approaching from the opposite direction present the greatest threat because they may believe they can easily beat the cyclist, and they probably want to get across the oncoming lane as quickly as possible anyway. Motorists typically underestimate the speed of a cyclist. If for any reason they don't even see the rider, they can turn at the worst possible time.

A comment on the Halifax blog mentioned that "drivers all seemed to be in a hurry that day." That brings up The Autumn Madness. As summer turns to fall, the motoring public does seem to get a little pushy and aggressive. Maybe the diminishing light stimulates a sense of urgency similar to what makes the squirrels scurry so furiously in search of nuts and seeds to stuff into hollow trees and bury in caches against future cold and desolation. Whatever the reason, it makes motorists impatient. Cyclists are the losers.

We deal with enough at the best of times to maintain our claim to a little strip of the roadway. Make the extra effort to be more vigilant now. Drivers won't do it for you. Most of them think they'd prefer it if you weren't there at all. They can't imagine each cyclist as another motorist, clogging the lanes and competing for parking spaces. If they see us at all, it is only as something in their way.

It's About the Bike

David Clay said... I know this is bad form to hijack a comment on old topic, but I had a question about converting a 70s vintage Raleigh Grand Prix to fixed gear. I came across your post earlier in the year on this topic. What kind of hub do you recommend for this (am I correct that the spacing is 120mm?) Also, what do you recommend for a SS crank? Were you able to change out the cranks only, or did you have to change out the entire BB?

No worries, David, changes of subject move conversations forward.

In the 1970s, when frame spacing was 120, available hubs were as well. Using a road hub and a BB lock ring, a mechanic could affix a cog to the wheel the Raleigh originally had. I've mentioned before that one might flip the axle around and re-dish the wheel to provide a straighter chain line, but I rode my early versions before I knew that trick.

A current track hub, one- or two-sided, will have 120mm spacing. You may choose, as I do, to put in a quick-release axle. That complicates things ever so slightly, because you have to obtain or modify a q/r axle to work in 120 spacing.

Old steel frames are very accommodating. A 120 stretches easily to 126. Many 120 frames made that transition accidentally. With a bit more care one could probably even sprawl it out to 130, but that's not necessary for single speeds.

The very first Raleigh GP fixie I rode may well have had the original cottered crank. A chain doesn't care if the chainrings are narrow, only if they are too wide. Running an eighth-inch chain you could use anything.

Later fixed gears I built used various cotterless cranks I had lying around. A road crank offers the choice of mounting chain rings in the inner or outer position to further adjust chain line. With Surly's Dingle Cog you can run two chain rings to give two gears to match the Dingle's two cogs. They recommend a 9-speed chain, but if you're not shoving it through a front derailleur it shouldn't perish too quickly.

I prefer to use a two-sided hub with one cog on each side, and continue to use chunky eighth-inch chains.

Road cranks with 130 bolt circles give you the full range of chain ring sizes from 38 to ungodly big. Single speed cranks may have 110, 135 or 144 bolt circles. Take note of the bolt circle on whatever you choose. Remember that no component choice has to be permanent.

I don't recall now whether the BB shell of the old Grand Prix was an odd width by current standards. My 1978 Super Course takes a 68mm Shimano BB-UN 52 (which is now a UN 54). I have an old Dura Ace or pre-Ultegra 600 crank on there at the moment. Cotterless cranks give you the best chance of finding replacement rings, unless you happen to get something weird like an old Stronglight or Miche.

Square tapered BB axles open up the largest selection of salvaged cranks. You don't have to use a sealed cartridge unit, but they're widely available, cheap and basically maintenance free until they completely croak.

Hope this helps. Have fun out there!

Mitt and Helmets

It only occurred to me quite recently that Mitt's inclination to bike without a helmet may stem from fear of The Dukakis Effect. Everyone looks like an idiot in an oversized helmet. A political candidate can't afford to be photographed looking like an idiot. Notice that in Romney's ad centering on his athletic vitality, he's running. Running is a more macho activity than cycling and avoids the helmet question entirely.

Maybe those of you who aren't in early-primary states haven't seen Mitt's ads yet. You'll get your chance.

The dork factor still plagues bike helmet wearers. I may use one, but I will be the first to admit that no one looks punk or tough or cool with a salad bowl on their head. One customer complained that the pointy back end of the average helmet "made him look like a woodpecker." It also seems like tremendous overkill when running short errands. But accidents are by nature unpredictable. Your odds may improve in some ways if you are not exposed to a situation for as long, but the other risk factors still apply. Gravity is as strong. Other road users are as unpredictable.

I miss the care-free days of cotton caps in summer and woolen beanies in winter. I still have my cool-looking Italian wool winter hat. And I don't miss the hot, heavy, clunky-looking Bell Biker. I switched to the somewhat more acceptable (but probably less effective) Brancale for the last couple of years of my licensed "career." In 1988, Tim Blumenthal called it a "Fred Hat." Soon after that I was sucked back into the bike business and could start buying more up-to-date brain covers.

I used the Brancale for whitewater and climbing. Climbing and paddling helmets accept the dork factor without putting up even a token resistance.

Those who would lead this land of the free end up being some of the least free. They have to worry at all times what the public will think of them, regardless of whether it is fair. The rest of us can look like whatever kind of idiot we choose.