Leonard's Blog

Final Day

2009-06-13T09:39:00.000-07:00

(3 posts have been added, so you may have to start below)

Today I finished construction on my first frame.

The frame underwent through an incredible amount of heat, so tubes that used to be parallel may now be slightly deformed and need adjustment. Cutting Ti by hand proved to be extremely tiring, even with the high speed steel cutting blades.

First Head tube was reamed, and then faced. The head tube material is slightly thicker and longer than advertised, so some material must be taken out to allow the headset cups to fit. It must then be faced to provide 2 parallel surfaces.

Next BB was re-threaded, which proved to be the most difficult task of the day, as all the heat on the BB shell rendered it ovalized and in need of major torquing to run the reamer through the BB shell.

Next BB was faced:

Seat tube was then reamed for correct 27.2 mm seat tube. Hole was then cut through seat tube collar and set on bridgeport where vertical slit was cut to finish the seat tube collar area:

Tiny hole on the underside of BB shell was drilled. Usually it would hold the cable guide for cables routed under BB shell, but I'm drilling a small hole just to allow water to escape the frame.

Lastly, frame was aligned. Frame was installed on BB, and spacer was placed just touching the head tube. Long alignment tool was installed in head tube to exaggerate any differences. Alignment measurements were then taken at seat tube near BB, top of seat tube and then taken along top and bottom of head tube.

Ti is really too strong a material to really deform on the alignment table, so it's not really recommended as the strength of the frame is severely compromised in making a perfectly straight frame.

Jim sort of dismissed the importance of frame alignment. While most bike manufacturers would claim to be within 2 mm of frame alignment, the reality is most frames are usually way off of this claim. The mechanic's class used to test alignment on their own frames until guys with $6k Colnagos suddenly did not want to ride their bikes once they realized how off their frames were. While the frame is the chassis to which all components are attached to, most of those components (wheels, tires, cranks) are held to nowhere near the same quality standards of frames.

Jim's bike show here was off by .5 mm, which is really impressive and shows his mastery of his craft. My bike was about 4-5 mm off, but both the top of the seat tube and top of head tube were off the same amount to the frame. This means the head tube and seat tube are perfectly aligned to each other, but slightly misaligned to the BB shell to a very negligible amount.

I didnt have time to really clean the bike up before packing it up and shipping it off, so you'll have to check back later for photos of the finished frame.

Finishing a Ti frame is pretty simple, as it does not need to be painted. The order of finishing the frame is:

1. Bead blast frame very, very lightly to remove any oxygen contamination residue. Some people leave the frame in this condition, but scratches will show.

2. Scotch brite frame. Clean with acetone

3. Frames or part of frames can then be primed and painted if desired.

4. Decals are applied.

5. For a non painted Ti frame, lemon pledge or Armor all is all thats needed to keep the finish of Ti beautifully clean.

I hope you were able to maybe learn a little bit about framebuilding and gain an appreciation for what goes into making a bike. Perhaps more importantly, you've learned a little about frame geometry and can be a more informed consumer when looking to buy a new bike or frame.

I look forward to post photos of finished frame along with the built up bike!

Day 11- Brazeons

2009-06-11T21:45:00.000-07:00

Today all of the welding was completed, as I added the seatstay bridge and all of the brazeons.

First rear wheel spacing was again checked. Welding the seatstays brought the axle spacing to 127 mm. However, the seat stay bridge still needed to be welded on, so an axle of 137 mm was installed, bridge was mitered, and breather holes were drilled in the seatstays and bridge. Because I'm building a cross bike and not a road bike, I did not have to worry about the bridge being the exact dimensions for dual pivot road calipers. I gave myself plenty of clearance for a 35 mm wheel + extra mud clearance.

It would have actually been really nice to scotch-brite and acetone the entire frame after this step, as this is the "purest" the frame would ever look. If I was building a fixed gear bike with no brakes, I could have done this, but the reality is geared bikes that need brakes need all sorts of Braze- ons to host the various cables that make the bike shift and stop.

Holes were drilled for water bottle cages. You typically want to only add what you absolutely need, and while you'll never run water bottle cages on a cross course, I wanted the option of having two bottles for riding singletrack, or when I decide to take my cross bike on road rides.

Brazeons were then added and were welded to frame. All of the brazeons came with a little lip around them, which served as a filler material and made welding alot easier. Clamps were used to hold brazeons in place for tacking and welding.

Brazeon clamp for single cable stop:

Clamp on for downtube shifter cables:

My brazeons would be somewhat different than Jim's road bike. I would be routing my derailleur cables along the top of the bike, which would then require running single cable bosses down the seat tube (for the front derailleur) and 2 single cable bosses down the back of the seat tube:

I would start out with a fixture to attach my cantilever brakes.

Welded bosses:

Rear of frame with cantilever brake boss welded on:

Finished bike! (...sorta)

Tomorrow, final prep on the bike will be done, and frame will be checked for alignment.

Day 10- Seatstays

2009-06-10T21:33:00.000-07:00

Today Seatstays were constructed. Except for the finished seatstays, I only have photos from Jim's road bike example as I needed to move sort of quickly today, as I'm still behind.

Seatstays were measured for rough cut length. Seat stays were rough cut (rough cut on an angle for the seat tube intersection.

Chainstay to dropout length was mitered. Stays were then assembled in this jig and mitered at the measured angle. Tubes were set to touch ends in jig and were progressively mitered, checked on the bike and if it was still too long, jig was repositioned to bring in stays closer together and was re mitered until desired length was reached.

This was probably the most aggravating part of building the entire bike, and one of the hardest things to weld. Welding under the seatstays provided to be quite a challenge, as the extreme acute angle providing much welding grief.

Finished seatstays with wheel:

Day 9- Tuesday

2009-06-09T22:15:00.000-07:00

On a completely unrelated note, I saw this disturbing article on velonews today about their editor in chief succumbing to the so called "fixed" Mavic R-Sys wheel design:

http://www.velonews.com/article/93054/a-shattering-experience---a-post-recall-r-sys-wheel-failure

These were the wheels that initially came on my Super Six that I sold as instantly as I got the bike. Something about carbon spokes and collegiate racing just didn't seem to make sense to me. While I've always been a big Mavic fan and love my Kysrium SL's, carbon spokes just seem like a bad idea. Even after supposedly "fixing the problem" with carbon weave in different directions, looks like I made the right choice.

Today I designed and welded on the chainstays. While the bike looks mostly done, Jim said this marks the 50% point. While UBI claims no prior welding experience is necessary, I've found everyone who didnt have prior welding experience (including myself) is running about a day late of where Jim is at, which is alright as long as we don't fall any further behind. If I fall any further behind a day's teaching, Jim has said he'll have to hop in to help catch us up. While I wish they planned in just a little more time, I fully agree that I'd rather have a bike 90% done by me thats rideable, than an expensive wind chime that was completely done by me.

I drew out the chainstays last night in CAD, and moved them over to full scale hand drawing this morning (step by step instructions given in longer technical section).

Tube was oriented to provide maximal tire clearance (In my case to fit 35mm tires and a little mud in worst case scenario). Chainstays were then mitered by the dropouts with outside face facing up:

After mitered tube sides were prepped and tiny breather holes were drilled into the dropouts, chainstays were then situated in the jig and the outside measurement of the chainstays were taken at the point they would be welded to the BB. The jig was slid up and down until desire distance that was previously calculated was reached.

Tubes by dropouts were then tacked in jig, removed and then welded.

Chainstays were reinstalled in 132 mm axle and installed on the horizontal drill press, where the BB shell miter length- 1/1000th of mm was taken off to allow the miter to slightly wrap around the bottom of the miter. 132 mm axle is used as welding has a tendency to pull chainstays inward to desired 130 mm.

These tubes were then prepped, holes in the BB were drilled, and the entire frame was again tacked on the frame jig, this time along with the chainstays, where they were tacked. Frame was then removed from jig and chainstay welding was then completed.

The requisite "crotch shot":

At this point various tools were used to check for frame alignment. Amazingly, distance was found to be perfectly centered and at 130 mm. BOOYAH!

Another tool was used to measure the relation of the chainstays in relation to each other. It looks like this:

Initial reading showed right chainstay slightly above left chainstay, which would make wheel lean to the left.

Right chainstay was yanked down pretty hard, stretching it past its yield point. Thankfully, frame was just barely off. Many bike frames meet their death on the frame alignment table at bike companies where your bending tubes to within 15% of their breakage point. This is one obvious advantage of custom built frames where there is much greater precision.

All done:

Long Technical Section: Designing Chainstays

1. Draw Rear Axle Spacing. This distance will measure the distance from the inside of your dropouts. Find the midpoint of this line and draw a perpendicular line. Chainstay length is measured off of this vertical line. This measures center of BB to axle. I have temporarily used a chainstay length of 415 mm.

2. BB is drawn. We are using a BB diameter of 40 mm and a BB shell width of 68 mm. Back of BB edge to axle distance is calculated (415-20 mm= 395 mm). This will be your miter distance.

3. Wheel radius is calculated. 700 cc wheels= 622 mm diameter, so 311 mm radius + largest tire you imagine using (35 mm) for a grand total of 346 mm. Tire width is drawn in front of this line.

4. Dropout diameter were measured to be 40 mm. BB edge to chainstay needs to be 5-7 mm; I'll be going 6 mm. A second point is drawn both 19 mm to the left of that 6 mm point and 19 mm to the right of the dropout edge. These four points outline your chainstays.

5. If this was a road bike, the tire would be closer to the axle and the tire would be alot smaller. This would usually give you enough clearance, so then the inside angle would be taken and subtracted from 90 to get your miter angle for the chainstays to drop outs. However, as you can see, for my cross bike, straight stays will not provide the clearance. I can play with the Chainstay length by moving the BB shell closer and further away from the axle.

I can also choose to use slightly bent chainstays and after making this drawing full scale, I can lay the bent chainstays right over the drawing and position them to allow maximal tire clearance by leaving the second S curve right over the tire diameter. This leaves more than enough clearance (including mud accumulation), so I'm good to go.

Day 8- Frame welding begins...

2009-06-08T20:18:00.000-07:00

Today I welded the entire front triangle together.

First, BB and seatstay were prepped, BB was drilled for airhole, and was tacked using the BB failure jig and then finally welded:

BB/seatube and headtube were set up in set up frame jig. Downtube and top tube were tested for fit, and breather holes were marked out and drilled. Breather holes allow argon to flow throughout inside of entire frame. Tubes were reinstalled in jig, tacked and some welding was done. Since tacking was done off of the metal table, welding wire needed to be attached to steel part of jig (or frame) to keep the piece grounded. Tacks were initially applied on all obtuse angles, and then acute angles.

Frame was taken out of jig, and was then welded on the table. For each tiny weld made, I rotated from the four welds (Top tube/head tube Drive side to BB/seat tube non drive side, to Seat tube/ top tube drive side... etc) This helps keep the frame aligned and helps keep the frame from pulling itself apart and making it impossible to weld the other sides.

All of the welds weld a mitered tube to a thicker non mitered tube. The head tube, Bottom Bracket and seat tube collar make it alot easier to weld the two tubes together. The one exception to this rule is where the Down tube meets the seat tube, which butts two thin walled tubes together. You can see the results of applying the same welding force to that joint...yikes.

I've gotten alot better at patching holes, (and avoiding them in the first place), but after only making the hole bigger in my first attempt to patch it, I deferred to Jim's expertise in remedying the situation and filling it so I could finish the BB/seattube/downtube welding.

Seeing how most of the people new to welding did the exact same thing, I didn't feel too bad about it.

All better and finished:

Finished head tube:

The other side:

omg... finished front triangle:

While not finish prepped, I may have found a future worthy portfolio shot:

Already, I've got framebuilding groupies vying to help make my portfolio as attractive as possible:

Assos bib model, you can lend two hands...

Alright, enough "bike porn" of sexy welds for one day... check back tomorrow for chain stays.

Short Technical Section:

1. Tubing used for this Titanium frame is all single gauge 3/2.5 Titanium Tubing. Titanium is never found in its pure form in the environment. Instead, the metal must be extracted from other compounds, such as rutile ore and ilmenite. This extraction process is difficult and expensive, and is one of the reasons why titanium is so costly.

3/2.5 Ti means means there is 3% Aluminum and 2.5% Vanadium in the tubing with the remainder being Titanium. Filler wire is 6/4 Titanium (6% aluminum, 4% Vanadium, rest Titanium). 6/4 Ti is alot stiffer, so theoretically the welds are actually some of the strongest points on the bike. 6/4 Ti can not be used for frame tubing as it is only produced in sheet form, and would have to be welded along its seam after being rolled.

For more information about Titanium, see Seven Cycles site for some really good information about Ti-

http://www.sevencycles.com/buildingbike/techsupplement/ti.php

2. It took me some time, but I finally understand the concept behind welding (and helps begin explain Friday's fiasco)

A) The welding torch is angled along two orientations. It faces the direction your moving, with the filler coming from the opposite direction.

B) Welding a thinner, mitered tube to a thicker non-mitered tube, you want to focus the weld blast more on the thicker tube. This is done by angling the torch below 45 degrees rotated around the mitered tube's axis:

Alot of the skill involved with welding depends on maintain this angle as you rotate around the mitered joint. Just moving your hand in the direction of the weld leads you to aim the torch tangent to the mitered joint instead of rotating it around the mitered joint's axis.

If this diagram was real welding, you might aim the torch slightly towards yourself at the angle show, and flick your wrist upward as you traveled down the side of the tube.

It also helps to begin your welding "puddle" on the thicker surface and weld not directly on the joint but favoring the thicker, non mitered tube.

Also, keep your your tungsten tips sharp and free of Ti.

Day 6,7- Days Off

2009-06-06T06:05:00.000-07:00

Technically every day has been a day off, but I've actually discovered frame building to be alot more complicated than I ever imagined. Today I spent much of the day updating these blog posting.

I also wandered a bit about Ashland, which can only be described as a little slice of heaven on earth. Ashland is located near the California border.

Ashland is home to about 21,000 residents. By comparison, my hometown of Syosset has approximately the same population. However, the city has many cultural offerings that one would expect from a much larger city, and Ashland offers just about everything one would want from a major city.

Ashland is home to the Oregon Shakespeare festival, which presents presents 750-800 performances of eleven plays in three theaters from February through October each year. Three to five of those plays are Shakespeare plays. I attended Music Man on Sunday night, which was excellent, and have tickets for Don Quixote on Wednesday.

The OSF has led the economy to be primarily based on tourism and the service based industry, with over 100 restaurants, a movie theater, and several art galleries in town. A bartender told me that its actually become difficult finding a job in this town unless your in the service based or medical profession. Once a day I've tried eating at a place in town and the food has all been excellent. I was hoping to try a different brew every night I've been here, but have really started enjoying Caldera's Amber, which is actually brewed in Ashland.

The town is fiercely independent, and with the exception of the grocery store, (Safeway), every shop, restaurant and business in this town is independently owned. Attempts by major corportions to start in Ashland has been met with major resistance, and none survived for long.

The town was also very forward thinking in their creation of a 100 mile park in 1908 called Lithia Park, designed by John McLaren, the designer of San Francisco's Golden Gate Park.

People here are very liberal, so much that they think Seattle is a bunch of neo-conservative Nazis. My kind of town. They are also really big into conservation and recycling, but this does not surprise me for a state that features a tree on their license plate.

What a creative use of Christmas lights:

Similar to all of small town America I visited last summer, what I've found most interesting about Ashland is how nice and trusting the people have been.

Example #1- Just approaching a crosswalk will make people slow down to allow you to pass, instead of speeding up to gun you down

Example #2- I rented some movies at the local video store. When I asked if they needed to see some idea or for cc information, the owner replied- " Not needed- I trust that you'll bring it back." On top of that, the night drop off box was in fact a store window big enough for just about anyone not an elephant to crawl through.

Example #3- Actual sign outside of a store:

Overall, Ashland could be compared to a much cooler version of the town of Huntington (for those reading from Long Island), or a better comparison would be Flagstaff, Arizona (except Ashland is built in a valley, while Flagstaff is built on top of the mountain. I imagine its also pretty similar to Portland. Basically, Ashland could best be described as a more fuel efficient one of these:

Long Technical Section- No technical section, but realized I omitted speaking about our teacher, Jim Kish. Theres 7 students total, 2 "TA's" and Jim, all of whom are super helpful.

Its perhaps easiest to direct you to his website www.kishbike.com to get a sampling of his work.

Jim builds about 40-80 bikes a year, and has been featured in the NAHBS (North American Handmade Bicycle Show) Jim dismisses his talent as just experience, but every day I'm amazed by his craft. He's basically the Gabe Burkett or Jenny Hong of Ti. His welding hand always produces this smooth bead that always maintains the same diameter, consistency and lacks any sort of contamination.

On top of all that, he's been able to fill more than one hole or two I've put in the frame so far.

Just a few shots of his work:

Just when you think you've just put together a great weld, you just have to look over to his work table to see the road Bike that he's been building step by step as our class demonstration.

His top tube/ seat tube weld:

My Top tube/seat tube weld (same side):

Thankfully, the other side looks alot better:

Hopefully I'll be able to get a couple of close-up shots to be used in my portfolio...

Day 5- Friday

2009-06-05T12:47:00.000-07:00

Short Summary-

Today was just not my day. I burned myself twice, electrocuted myself, failed my bottom bracket failure test, and had a horrible day welding. Sometimes you take two steps back after taking one step forward, and today was definitely that day.

I wasnt allowed to start tacking my front triangle until I had finished a gruelon weld and done the bottom bracket failure test. The gruelon joint was welding three identically shaped tube into an equilateral triangle. My welding skills were way off from the beginning, as I oscillated between welds that were too cold and other welds that burned straight through the mitered tubing.

Gruelon in jig-

After finishing the complete gruelon weld, I discovered that I forgot to drill purge holes through the 3 tubes, so there was massive contamination on the inside of every weld.

Again already frustrated with the day, and probably wishing to rush through things to get to actual framebuilding, I somewhat hurriedly rush welded through the BB failure test.

BB failure test in jig:

Basically the BB failure test consisted of sticking a large lead pipe into the mitered seat tube and pushing down as hard as possible. Positive failure meant the tube failing right in front of the weld, while failure failure meant the tube failing at the weld.

Epic fail...

The good news was how much force was needed to actually break this thing, which uses inferior tubing to the stuff we are welding with. Even failing the test, it was somewhat of a confidence booster that the welding made these unconnected tubes very, very strong.

BB Test #2 (had to use the same BB shell, which u can see on the other side):

This time success!

Today I also found out I was not selected in the New York City Marathon lottery. I'm still not sure if this is good news or bad news. I might still run Philly or the Marine Corp Marathon depending on Katie's schedule.

Other good news is I placed my gear order in today. We're able to buy parts at a nicely reduced price. Id like to be able to build up this cross bike as soon as I can once I get home, so this will definitely help.

To finish the frame, I've also settled on Easton's EC90x fork. Weight is 450g (same as Edge, Alpha Q CX 20, and Ritchey), and has a nice aesthetic I've always liked. New for 2009 is an integrated threaded tube nut that threads into steerer tube.

Chris King seems to be the gold standard around here, so needing a headset, Black Chris King headset it is:

I've finally decided to make the leap to SRAM for this bike. Im still happy I went with 7900 for my road bike, but SRAM seems to offer more of what I'd like in cross components. SRAM's lowest offering still weighs less than Ultegra and offers most of Red's technology with zero loss shifting, internally routed cables and a crisp, responsive shifting mechanism. The price is also right, and the black finish is really nice.

I bought a component package with the Rival that not only includes the standard groupset, but basically every other part to make the bike work. It basically comes with a Ritchey Comp handlebars, seatpost, stem, Fulcrum 7 racing wheels, and a Selle Italia seat. I'll probably swap the Ritchey Comp stuff for the Ritchey pro components already on my existing Cross bike.

Im looking to finish the bike up with a Fizik Arione saddle, and plan on using my Neuvation Aero 4 wheels, which again offer performance at a bargain (plus I still have a year of no fault wheel insurance to use up).

I also used the opportunity to buy 2 torque wrenches to finish out my tool collection, so I could work on my super six without worrying about over torquing parts (as I have a tendency to do with just about everything).

Long Technical Section- Frame Materials

Lots of people have asked why build a Ti cross bike? I've ridden steel, aluminum and just recently upgraded to a carbon frame, all offering their own benefits and inherent problems.

Steel:

From the time of the p-far, steel bikes were the frame material of choice. Especially if weight is not a consideration, steel provides a beautiful ride quality. Steel is ideal for commuting bikes, touring bikes, or any other bike where durability is of chief concern. There's a reason why steel bikes from the 60's are still around in large quantities. They weigh more than all of the other frame materials, but for the "steel is real" crowd, it's still the frame material of choice.

My 1986 or 1988? Schwinn Prelude is steel Tenax SLX tubing, and while it weighs alot, it offer a real comfortable ride quality, although I'm sure the relaxed geometry and 28 mm tires I have on there doesn't hurt either.

Aluminum:

While many will argue the origin of Aluminum, I'll say that it was Alan (AL uminum AN odized), an Italian frame company that first started popularizing Aluminum as a frame material in 1972. In general, its alot lighter than steel, alot stiffer, and alot more economical. Most bikes in the $500- $1500 is made from aluminum. Tubing is alot thinner than steel, and as a result, tube diameter increased. Aluminum gets alot of its strength from this tube diameter, so dropping an aluminum bike against a lightpost, or other fixed object will often result in a dented tube that severly compromises the strength ability of the frame material. However, plenty of people race on slightly dinged up framesets, and like any alloy frameset (and unlike carbon), it will not catastrophically fail. Companies like Cannondale popularized aluminum in producing a frameset that still weighs less than many carbon framesets. (Typical Optimo Cannondale CAAD 7, 8 or 9 framesets weigh approx 1300 grams).

My first road bike, a 2006 Cannondale CAAD 7 frameset, was made of aluminum. While Cannondale may have been known as Crack-and-fail back in the 80's while they were perfecting their craft, few can argue with their year's or research and field testing in creating one heck of an aluminum frameset. Its heavy enough to feel the bike underneath you, so it "feels" more stable through cornering, and is a terrific economic option for a racing frameset. I will say I'm not sure it was the best choice for a cross country expedition.

Carbon:

Alan also credits themselves for the first carbon fiber bike in 1976. Greg Lemond was one of the first to see carbon fiber's potential and was one of the first to ride carbon fiber in competition.

Well crafted carbon frames will be the lightest frames available, hands down. Their ability to be shaped into different shapes and beefed up in places needed the most such as the Bottom Bracket also allow it to be the stiffest.

Carbon has the ability to eat up alot of road chatter better than most frame materials; however, if you hit a big bump, you'll actually feel it even more. This is because while carbon has a very high tensile modulus of elasticity, its compressive modulus of elasticity is MUCH lower. I was never a huge believer that carbon could be that much better than aluminum, but having finally made the switch, I can say there is a huge difference.

Unfortunately, carbon doesn't crack... it catastrophically fails. One mishap on a carbon frame and it's likely finished. Im still not sure how, but during the Yale race weekend we discovered cracks on my seatstays and seat tube after the circuit race, even though I never crashed on my carbon bike.

Seeing how most bikes are made from aluminum and carbon these days, I wonder how many of those bikes we'll be seeing 30 or 40 years from now.

Ti:

Ti came out during the early 90's as an alternative that would split the difference between steel and aluminum in weight, ride quality and stiffness. While lighter than steel, Ti frames will never weigh less or be stiffer than carbon or aluminum, yet can cost more than both of them. However, they offer better road damping, do not lose their ride quality like aluminum over time, and are more durable than steel that can rust. Most people looking for a Ti bike are looking for a lifetime time that is a well crafted object and performs just as admirably. Ti has never really gone mass market and has remained the domain of the individual frame builder or smaller bike companies. Unlike other frame materials, Ti does not need to be painted, and already being a beautiful material, is often left in its bare state.

I'll admit that I think carbon has already cemented itself as the frame material of choice for road cycling. However, cross is different. While you would be right in saying carrying a bike at the end of a cross race can be downright exhausting, I've found body fatigue to be a larger factor for feeling tired than having a lighter bike. I value a slightly more comfortable ride than the stiffness that my aluminum cross bike provided.

There's still something romantically traditional about cross racing that differs little from when the sport first began. While deep section tubulars are a new thing, most of the other equipment remains, down to the wide angle cantilever brakes. Cyclocross is still a niche sport within a largely niche sport in America. Most cross racers are passionate about cycling, own several bikes, and are more knowledgeable than the average cyclist. They want a bike that rides well and don't just believe everything they are spoon fed by the bicycle manufacturers. People want frames that show the highest level of detail, quality and hand built craftsmanship.

If you think this covers everything about frame material, Sheldon Brown would say not so fast:

definitely worth a read through:

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/frame-materials.html

Crappy carbon bikes don't ride as a nice aluminum frameset. There are different grades of material

Day 4

2009-06-04T16:43:00.000-07:00

Short Summary-

Today I cut and mitered all of my tubes for the actual bike. The days of practice welding is coming to a close as we begin welding our actual bike.

Frame geometry, frame material, tube diameter and tube thickness all play a role in how the bike handles. For our bikes we'll be using grade A Haynes Titanium Tubing. All tubing has a set of numbers printed on it (i.e. 1.25 x .030 on the top tube). This means it is a tube 31.8 mm in diameter (taken from the outside) that is .030 thick.

Tubing for this bike:

Top tube: 1.25 x .030

Seat tube: 1.25 x .035

Down Tube: 1.375 x .038

Head tube: 1.5 x .087

Tubing was rough cut using a lathe.

Before any mitering was done, I made my very first weld that will be on my bike by welding the seat collar to the seat tube. This seat collar is used to accept the seat post, which is usually 27.2 mm instead of the seat tube dimensions of 31.8 mm.

Seat tube thickness:

Collar thickness:

Welded piece (raw):

Cleaned up just a little... weld barely even exists.

Tubes were then mitered using a vertical milling machine. Circular drill bits of the tube being mitered to were cut to give correct seat tube dimensions.

closeup...

Down tube with mitered cuts for seatube and bottom bracket-

All tubes mitered and prepped and ready for welding tomorrow:

Long Technical Section- How to design your dream bike...

As promised, today I'll walk you through designing the front triangle of the bicycle- ill try to lead you step through step.

Please refer to yesterday's post for recommended values and an understanding of why choose certain angles over others.

If you don't want to go through these steps, but still want to fool around with frame geometry, one thing you can do is use BIKECAD- a free program that allows you to play with different configurations of angles and tube lengths to get a rough idea of your frame design.

It is available at:

http://www.bikeforest.com/CAD/bcad.php

1. Draw horizontal line to serve as horizontal wheel axis line. From that line draw your Bottom Bracket (BB) drop distance. I have chosen a BB drop of 68mm. The BB diameter is 40mm, which is also drawn.

2. From BB center, draw another horizontal line perpendicular to your wheel axis. Draw your seat tube angle from the center of the Bottom Bracket (BB). I have chosen a seat tube angle of 73.5, as its the same geometry of both Cannondale road bicycles that I enjoy and will provide a fairly aggressive geometry.

3. Seat Tube Diameter for this bike is 31.8mm, which we shall refer to as 32mm. Using a compass to draw 2 16 mm circles allows you to offset center line to tube dimensions. If you have CAD, you can just use the offset tool. Tentative Seat tube center line is drawn from inseam measurements. I will use 550 mm for now.

3. From top of top tube center line, draw effective top tube length, which is determined by reach. I will be designing around an effective top tube of 550 mm. Although I know my top tube diameter (also 32 mm), I will not draw this in yet, as we are only measuring "effective" top tube length.

4. Head tube angle is drawn from end of effective top tube centerline. I followed Jim's advice and used the same 73.5 angle as my seat tube. Higher head tube angles will quicken steering and will decrease the trail, which will offer more stability at lower speeds. However, it does this at the expense of shock absorption and will also decrease the wheelbase, which will increase the likelihood of toe overlap. In retrospect, I probably would have chosen a smaller angle.

5. Fork rake- fork rake length is determined by the fork you are using. Default cyclocross rake is 45mm, but its better to know what fork you will be using beforehand. I have chosen to use Easton's EC90x that has the same 45mm rake. A 45 mm line perpendicular to the head tube angle is drawn and slid up and down along the head tube line until its end intersects the wheel axis line.

Heres a closeup at 6x magnification: (Intersection of horizontal center wheel axis and rake line is your front wheel axis)

6. Length of fork is then drawn in. I couldn't find the length of the easton fork online, so I went with the default 400 m length. 400m line is drawn from front wheel axis and is again rotated until is intersects the head tube angle line again. A line perpendicular to the head tube angle is drawn. Headtube is 38 mm in diameter, so line should be 19 mm to either side.

7. Lower headstack height is drawn in. Because I know I will be using a Chris King headset, the offset is 13.7 mm. For integrated headsets, you do not need to do this step, but it needs to be accounted in height of head tube. (again at 6x magnification)

8. Head tube length is drawn in, again parallel to head tube angle (duh). I have chosen 120 mm, which is my best guess of the existing head tube lengths minus the height of the integrated headsets (13 mm lower headstack + 13 mm upper headstack). If you are looking for added comfort, you would usually add to the head tube length for a more upright geometry. For every mm added to the head tube, an equivalent distance should be subtracted from the seat tube. For instance, if I added 20 mm to the head tube (effectively giving me the "virtual" headtube of a 57 cm frame), I would subtract 20 mm from the seat tube for a distance of 53 mm.

9. Bottom of Down Tube clearance on the headtube should be between 10-20mm. Im using 11 mm. Down tube diameter being used is 35 mm, so circle of diameter of 35 mm should be drawn in BB shell. Line tangent from bottom of down tube diameter in BB is drawn to down tube clearance. Lower line is then offset 35 mm.

For mountain bikes, this number should be larger to account for the large crown forks used. Because many head tubes on mountain bikes are very small, and fork crowns are very large, they use curved down tubes.

10. Top of Top Tube clearance is drawn in. Ranges are from 10-12mm, so again I will be going with 11 mm. Angle of top tube really depends on aesthetic taste and stand-over height desired.

Stand-over height is usually calculated 250 mm from the seat tube, or halfway just to be on the safe side. Even with a traditional geometry of a level top tube, I have enough stand-over height, so top tube is drawn in (my inseam without shoes is 850 mm, so im within the safe 20-30 mm range. Notice that top tube does not need to be drawn on center of effective top tube length. Top tube diameter can be 32 or 30 mm. Since not much stiffness is derived from the top tube, frame builders will often use 30 mm, as this is an easy place to drop some weight off the frame.

When it comes to designing frames, you are allowed to pick 2 of the 3: head tube length, top tube length or seat tube length.

11. Lastly, distance of TT at seat tube clearance is drawn in with a range of 20-30 mm. Ill be using 25 mm. You now have the front triangle of your bike drawn in.

Ill cover drawing the rear triangle in in a later post...

Day 3- Wednesday

2009-06-03T09:43:00.000-07:00

Short Summary-

Today involved more welding practice, finishing the lecture on frame geometry and creating our full scale frame drawing. From this frame drawing, dimensions were taken, and machining dimensions for tomorrow were taken.

I'm building a cyclocross frame, which look most similar to road bikes, but have several key differences from road bikes.

Longer chainstays to account for Tires- Cyclocross frames require clearance for slightly fatter tires and the mud accumulation from the courses. Road tires are typically 21-28mm in width (with the most widely accepted size 23mm), while cyclocross tires run from 30-35mm and have some type of tread. Unlike road tires that are typically pumped up to 120 psi, cyclocross tires are run at much lower pressures for greater traction, typically 35psi for clincher tires. In cyclocross, tire selection and tire pressure are extremely important and largely determined by course conditions which differ greatly in cross.

Traditional geometries with top tube cable routing for carrying Cross Bike- Cyclocross involves riding over all types of course conditions, including (but not limited to), road, gravel, sand, grass, and mud pits. Cross races are filled with technical sections that are either faster to run with the bike, or made impossible to ride over and force dismounting and carrying the bike, such as barriers. Compact frame geometries with sloping top tubes are less commonly seen in cyclocross than they in road bicycles due to the need to easily carry the bicycle on the shoulder. Top tube routed derailleur cables are also used to help combat mud and make carrying the bike easier.

Higher Bottom Brackets and a more upright geometry-

Cyclocross bikes typically have a more upright geometry than road bikes that are more concerned with the aerodynamic benefit of being as low as possible. A more upright geometry is more beneficial for slower speeds and for the technical handling that cyclocross demands. Bottom brackets are sometimes raised off the ground to aid in clearance over rough ground.

Cyclocross Forks

Cyclocross Forks typically have more rake (fork offset) than traditional road frames. (see longer section for explanation of rake and trail). More rake causes slower steering, longer wheelbase, less stability at high speeds but very stable at lower speeds, more shock absorption. Cyclocross forks are also mounted with cantilever brake bosses with cantilever or V-brakes as discussed in Day 1's post. Unfortunately, the UCI (the governing body of cycling) has banned the use of disc brakes in cyclocross, which are superior to the more traditional brake options available. While disc brakes are now allowed for non-UCI events (which is basically all racing most people would be doing, bike companies emulate the professionals instead of catering to the public, which is a shame.

Frame geometries typically vary very little, as over 100 years of frame building has established a range of values that work for almost everyone. Commercially available bikes will fit almost everyone except for really short and really tall riders, with some small adjustments made. The other exception I will make is for women, who proportionately have longer legs and shorter torso's than men, for whom frame geometry is based on.

However, small changes in frame geometry make a difference. Switching the seat tube angle 2 degrees from 73 to 75 degrees will have an enormous difference on the feel and handling of the bike, and will alter the rest of the frame dimensions and angles.

What handles well for one person may handle horribly for an identically sized individual. Changes that make a bike more responsive may be twitchier to others just as changes that make the bike more stable for some may make the bike sluggish for others. More aggressive handling is usually made at the expense of rider comfort. While essential to professionals, such geometry is usually not as important as a bike that rides well to the average rider/ racer. Some bike companies acknowledge this difference by offering frames that are generally sold to the public and frames used by the professionals.

Ultimately, designing a frame is about tradeoffs and finding the desired balance of several attributes. While I love cyclocross and cross bikes in general, I was never floored by my Scott cross bike. The bike has a slight compact geometry, routes shifting cables along the downtube, runs compact (34/48) instead of true cross gearing (36/48) and for me has toe overlap, which is annoying when constantly remounting in a cross race. I've also always been between a 54 and 56cm bike (or between M and M/L), so I look forward to designing a bike with a desired 550mm top tube.

Addendum 1- For those joining Penn Cycling and thinking about using a cross bike to race Cross and road cycling....

Having a cross bike and a road bike, I can definitely say there is a difference in the frame geometry and how the bikes handles. Other than changing tires, the biggest difference between road bikes and cross bikes are geometry, gearing and braking. You will typically want more difficult and more diverse gearing for road racing (although plenty of people successfully race on compact gearing all the time.) The more important difference is braking, as cyclocross brakes just don't work as well as dual caliper brakes found on road bikes, which becomes a problem in a group of riders who are all braking at one rate as you brake at another. Easy solution is to use V brakes with travel agents, which I've seen done very successfully.

If your going to only buy one bike and want to focus on road, buy a road bike, as while a cross bike will allow you to do both road and mountain biking, it wont allow you to do them as well as the bikes designed for that specific purpose. If you already own a mountain bike, you can use that for cross, and for some courses, mountain bikes are probably better equipped for the course conditions than cross bikes.

However if you want to in fact focus on cyclocross, or are more cross focused with the interest of riding with road riders and the occasional road race, then a cross bike could serve that purpose.

L o n g Technical Section - Commonly used frame dimensions and their implications of ride quality (Tomorrow I show you how to use these frame dimensions in designing your own custom geometry).

1. Rim Bead Seat Diameter

26" wheel= 559 mm

24" wheel= 507 mm

20" wheel= 406 mm

29" wheel= 406 mm

650B wheel (between 26" and 29" wheel= 584 mm

27" wheel (old road bike size)= 630 mm

700c wheel (road tire)= 622 mm (not 700, 700cc has no numerical importance)

650c wheel (tiny frame wheels)= 571 mm

Rim beat seat diameter is the diameter of the wheel- the rim bead depth where clinchers sit.

2. Tire profile (larger range values used)

MTB= 50mm

Road= 25mm

Cross/ Touring= 35mm

This is the distance from the outside edge of the tire to the bead seat diameter line (usually the center of the rim).

3. Wheel diameter

Wheel diameter= (Tire profile x 2) + Rim Bead Seat Diameter

Wheel diameter is an outside measurement of the wheel in mm with a fully inflated tired.

4. Bottom Bracket Drop- y distance from center of wheel axis to center of bottom bracket

Mtn Bike:

Range: 0-45 mm, Most Common: 25-35 mm, Most used: 30 mm

Road Bike:

Range: 50-75 mm, Most common: 65-75 mm, Most used: 70 mm

Cross:

Most used= 60 mm

Height of tires will already bring BB height up further than road bikes.

Less drop means a higher and stiffer bottom bracket and shorter chain stays, with more cornering clearance but less stability, good for racing bikes. More drop means a softer ride but less efficient torque transmission and longer chain stays , more stability, but less cornering and tire clearance, good for touring bikes.

5. Seat tube angle- acute angle from seat tube to horizontal line of wheel axis

26" MTB:

Range: 72-74, Most Used: 73

700C Road Bike:

Range: 72-76, Most Used: 73

A shallow angle (72) means a softer ride, with more weight over the rear wheel, but more difficult to spin with a high cadence, suitable for long femured riders and touring bikes. A steeper angle (74-75) produces a stiffer ride, with more weight distribution over the front wheel. It is easier to spin with a high cadence, which is why its used for racing or tri bikes.

Notes:

1) 1 degree equals approximately 20 mm horizontally

2) Steepening the seat tube angle is used to minimize toe clip overlap

3) Seat Tube angle assumes bike with setback. You need to use fewer degrees for Thompson seatposts that have No setback.

6. Seat Tube Length

Seat tube length is derived from your inseam measurement taken from the pelvic arch in your groin to the ground.

Seat tube length for road bikes= insteam x .65

Seat tube length for MTN bikes= inseam x .56

Seat tube length can also be calculated by

Seat tube= (Inseam x 1.09) - (Seat Height + Crank Length - Pedal Offset)

7. Top Tube Length

Top tube length is determined by adding arm length (point at which your shoulder rotates to base of wrist) and torso length (shoulder height- inseam measurement)

8. Head Tube Angle

26" Mountain Bike:

Range: 70-72, Most Used: 71

700 C Road Bike:

Range: 72-74

Most Used: 73-74

As the head tube gets steeper, steering quickens but at the expense of shock absorption. Most MTB's use 70-71 with more aggressive MTB's using 71 to 72. Touring and cross bikes generally use a slacker 72 to 73 angle while road racing and sport bikes use 73-74 degree head tube angle.

9. Rake (Fork Offset)= ranges from 35-50 for both MTN and road bikes)

Fork offset is the distance from centerline of fork to the intersection of the imaginary line of the head tube angle extended to the intersection of the horizontal line of the center wheel axis.

Less rake causes quicker steering, shorter wheelbase, less stability at low speeds but more stability at high speeds, less shock absorption, suitable for racing bikes. More rake causes slower steering, longer wheelbase, less stability at high speeds but very stable at lower speeds, more shock absorption, suitable for touring bikes.

10. Trail

MTB: Range 60-80 mm, Most Used: 65-75 mm

Road Bike: Range: 50-70 mm, Most Used: 55-60 mm

More Trail causes a tendency toward more stability at higher speeds. Less trail causes a tendency toward more stability at lower speeds. Trail is affected by both head tube angle and rake.

11. Chainstay Length

26" MTB: Range 420-435mm

700C Road Bike: 405- 425mm

Shorter chainstays mean stiffer bottom bracket, less tire and fender clearance, less shock absorption but more torsionally efficient. Longer chainstays mean more shock absorption, more tire and fender clearance, more heel/ pannier clearance but less torsionally efficient, suitable for touring bikes.

12. Front tire clearance- amount of clearance between tire and bridge and/or fork crown. Higher numbers represent room for fender clearance.

26" MTB: Range: 20-30 mm

700C Road Bike: 10-20mm

13. Bridge/ Crown Brake Reach- Applicable to road bikes only whose caliper brake mounts are centered over the wheel

Road/Short: Range 39-49mm, Default: 44mm

Standard/ Long: Range 47-57mm, Default: 53mm

14. Lower Headset Stack

Both Road and MTB: Range: 12-14 mm, Default: 13 mm

Chris King Headsets are 13.7mm

15. Fork Height

Use specific fork specs from manufacturer, or use commonly used values

Default mountain: 40 mm rake, 450 mm height

Default road: 43 mm, 370 mm

Default cyclocross: 45 mm, 400 mm

Default touring: 50 mm, 400 mm

Day 2

2009-06-02T22:08:00.000-07:00

Short summary-

Today the first half of the morning was spent on a demonstration of a Gruelon weld, followed by a long lecture on frame geometry. The rest of the day was spent prepping and practice welding T joints. Later in the day I went for a run around the town of Ashland, and spent the evening trying to figure out final bicycle design that was to be drawn tomorrow.

To create a T joint, pre-mitered tubes were first deburred using various files and other tools. A hole in the non-mitered tube was then drilled to allow the flow of argon between tubes. Tubes were then prepped ("sanded" with scotch-brite, than cleaned with acetone to give that shiny Ti finish and eliminate contaminates). Tubes were then set in a small jig, and were "tacked" on both sides which held the tubes in place without the jig. Jig was removed and tubes were welded in small 1 inch increments.

My first T joint:

My second T joint-

Third T joint- (done Wednesday)

Fourth T joint- (done Thursday)

Its no Moots, but its getting closer to looking like those Ti weld bike porn shots...

You'll have to read further in the Long Technical Section to understand what's at work here...

Tomorrow I'll cover bicycle geometry

Long Technical Section- Welding Ti

To build my cyclocross frame, I will be using Gas Tungsten Arc Welding (GTAW), also commonly referred to as Tungsten inert gas (TIG) welding. TIG welding produces an electric arc maintained between a nonconsumable tunsten electrode and the part to be welded. The head affected zone, the molten metal and the tungsten electrode are all shielded from atmospheric contamination by a blacket of inert gas fed through the TIG welder's torch. For titanium and steel you weld with Direct Current (DC), which produces energy that is conducted across the arc through a column of highly ionized gas and metal vapors known as plasma. For aluminum frame construction they use Alternating Current. TIG torches for our frame construction will reach up to 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit, and the Titanium will reharden into a solid state at around 800 degrees Fahrenheit.

Lugged frame construction (used in steel bikes) involves brazing together two steel tubes that are joined by either brass or silver filler metal. The lug greatly increases the strength of the joint by distributing the molten filler material over a larger surface area via capillary action.

TIG welding differs from lugged frame construction in that the tubes are heated to the point that they melt and bond together. Sometimes filler wire of the same material is used to increase the size of the molten pool of liquid to form the joint. It is more complicated than lugged frame construction, as theres nowhere to hide mistakes, and the welding action itself is on display for all to see. It doesnt take much to burn a hole straight through the Titanium and takes a real artist to create a beautiful looking weld.

Beautiful welds are not any stronger than the ugly ones we have been making. However, 2 things do strongly matter when considering the strength of a welded joint. The biggest one is contamination. Anything other than molten Ti in your weld is creating weakness, so every effort is made to eliminate everything around the weld. Tubes are carefully scotch- brited and cleaned with acetone before welding to remove dirt and oils on the tube service. During the weld and for a few seconds after, argon gas is focused around the weld in the cone shaped torch to create a virtual no oxygen/CO2/nitrogen environment that could contaminate the weld. Coloration on a weld shows the infiltration of oxygen and other atmospheric gases as the weld cools down below temperatures of 800.

(Photo: my first T joint, with a nice chunk melted away from the mitered tube, contamination of all different levels just about everywhere, and an inconsistent weld that sometimes runs hot, sometimes too cold all around...yikes)

Not only are you conscious of atmospheric gases outside the weld, but consideration for inside the tubing must also be taken into consideration. An argon gas line (called purge) are inserted into the inside of the bicycle frame to purge oxygen from the inside of the frame, which could also cause contamination.

(Quick digression- Tungsten tips are used for welding because they have the highest melting point temperature among the common metals. Argon gas is used because it is a noble gas, so it doesn't like to react with anything, and is relatively safe).

The other consideration with welding is welding temperature. Welding too hot can easily burn a hole through the tubing and can weaken the surrounding joint. Welding too cold is even more dangerous, as it may not fully melt the Ti tubes and creates a weak joint that is characterized by filler material that seems to bead.

The welding is set to a pulsing mode that concentrates large amounts of heat and energy for a short period of time that is immediately followed by a low current that allows the material to cool while still maintaining the electric arc. Moving your welding torch evenly across a weld creates a nice even look, while moving your hand more incrementally to the beat of the welder creates the appearance of a stack of coins. The differences are mostly cosmetic and the appearance of the weld can be modified by playing with how much time per second is spent at high energy, and how much cooling time is given.

So your playing with 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit torches, needing to hold the torch millimeters away from the material in order to minimize contamination, and a half second is the difference between burning through the tubeset and a cold weld. Now imagine doing all of this in the near complete darkness of a welder's helmet. Because welding is done in such bright light, special visors must be worn that bring everything except the weld into complete darkness. Its difficult to set filler material along two tubes when you can't even see them.

(Picture: Andy, a student in my class welding a Gruelon joint)

As you can probably imagine, it takes a real artist to create a beautiful weld that is also safe.

For more information Wikipedia actually has a pretty accurate article covering TIG welding

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_tungsten_arc_welding

blog update- UBI

2009-06-01T22:06:00.000-07:00

Lots of people have been asking me to write about my experiences at UBI, so I am reincarnating my blog to entertain those who actually have jobs and are looking to pass some time.

I figure everyday I will provide a short update along with a longer technical section that people can choose to totally skip or actually learn something from.

Day 1- Monday June 1

Having just returned from an amazing cruise with Kaitlin, I woke up at 4am this morning to catch a 7am flight to SF, wait 5.5 hrs in the SF airport before catching a flight to Medford, OR, and then taking a taxi to the quaint little town of Ashland, OR. The SF airport was actually the most enjoyable airport I've ever been in, with some of the best airport food I've ever eaten, and plenty of interesting distractions like exhibits from the children's science center and a Bay area hall of fame. I find the idea really interesting and think architects designing airports could not just make airports more enjoyable with their forms and environmental systems, but by planning other things in the airport to make traveling by plane a little more enjoyable.

I arrived at UBI at the end of the day, having missed most of the first day. Thankfully the teacher was able to set me up with a welder and filled me in with the day's teachings and even got in a little welding practice.

Long, technical part- Lesson on Cantilever Brakes

So I've come to UBI to build a Ti cross bike, and of course I've been obsessing on what components this bike will don. My personal impression of cross brakes is they havent changed much from the Mafac brakes of the 1970's, and most of them are ugly and don't function all that well.

There are 3 types of cross brakes to choose from, which I will go into detail now:

Linear pull brakes- (V brakes seen on older style mountain bikes before disc brakes were around).

Linear pull brakes have a very high mechanical advantage, meaning the end of the brake arm moves a long way in relation to the brake pad, which makes the brake pad contact the rim with a lot of force. Typical linear pull brake levers have low mechanical advantage, needing to pull a lot of cable while not generating a lot of force. However, STI shifters have a high Mechanical advantage, so one would ideally pair a high MA lever with a medium or low MA brake. Linear pull brakes require a bridge to compensate for a road lever’s high mechanical advantage. There are several options out there, but Problem Solvers Travel Agents increase the amount of cable pulled by a road lever.

Low profile cantilever

These brakes offer good stopping power and simple setup, but their rim clearance is low, which can lead to problems if the course includes mud. The most popular example is Avid’s Shorty series, but Shimano, Cane Creek, Tektro also have options. They are some of the most economically priced brakes on the market.

Wide profile cantilever

Popularized by the pro’s racing in the European circuit and in need of mud clearance. Common models are Paul’s, SRP, Spooky, and Empella. Wide profile cantilever brakes split the difference between Linear pull brakes and Low profile cantilever. They offer 2 to 3 times the pad travel of linear pull or low profile cantilever. When properly set up, their mechanical advantage actually increases as they travel through their arc. Lastly, they are also the lighest option available for cyclocross brakes. Drawbacks include difficulty with setup, and are not as powerful as low profile cantilver brakes.

In summation, you give up power to gain pad clearance. I think with a growing cyclocross market in the US, one day one of the component companies will develop a true cross groupset complete with STI shifters that have a smaller mechanical advantage that allows for linear pull brakes. Seeing how my existing Scott Cross bike has wide profile cantilever brakes that I'm not too fond of, I'm considering using a linear pull brake with an adaptor for the mostly dry courses seen in the Northeast compared to Northern Europe.

8/6- Ash Fork to Kingman

2008-08-06T20:10:00.000-07:00

Today I biked 112 miles from Ash Fork to Kingman, another stop along historic Route 66. 112 miles would mark the cycling leg of an Ironman, and also happens to be the most I've ever biked in a day. In many ways, today was the reverse of our day into Pietown in that we spent most of the day descending, as we finally came off of the Colorado Plateau, but very similar in that it featured a very strong headwind that made you doubt our 2,000 foot elevation loss for the day. The elevation loss was definatley echoed by the increase in temperatures, as today got hotter as the day wore on and as we lost elevation, reaching 95 by second lunch.

After arriving at our host location, Kyle and I sought some donation magic, and secured ourselves some free pizza at Pizza Hut after stocking up with some last minute stuff at the local bike shop, we were able to make it back to our host right before both a lightning storm and a dust storm hit Kingman.

For those planning on visiting me in Santa Barbara, I also found out that our big group dinner will occur on our arrival into SB on the 14th, meaning that I will be free on the 15th for any family that might show up.

Tomorrow we are biking another century into Vegas...

8/5- Grand Canyon to Ash Fork

2008-08-05T13:53:00.000-07:00

Attention: Blog updated from Portales all the way up to Pietown, NM and then skipped ahead to Grand CAnyon and Today

Today we finally left the Colorado Plateau and spent most of the day retracing our steps from the Grand Canyon. Todays ride was mostly pleasant on some of Arizona's best roads we've encountered, and beside's getting a flat bringing my total to 8 for the trip, today's ride was otherwise enjoyable. Seven of the last ten miles was a 6% downhill.

While I've enjoyed our somewhat circuitous route through the Southwest because it has allowed us to see many interesting sights, and as much as I'm looking forward to Vegas, part of me wishes we kept our first objective of biking cross country in higher priority, as we could have probably been in Santa Barbara by now, if not close. As much as I've enjoyed this trip and the amazing experiences that it has afforded me, I feel as if I'm ready to return home at this point to deal with the life I've left behind these past eight weeks.

8/4- GRAND CANYON- DAY OFF!

2008-08-04T21:56:00.000-07:00

8/4- Grand Canyon- DAY OFF!
Having been convinced that hiking from the rim to the river and back in a day was a foolish idea, I slept in late today (and by late I mean 6:30am), and spent the morning hiking the steep but shorter 3 mile round trip to Cedar Point, which featured over 1,000 feet of elevation change. Having hiked to Cedar Point, I felt that had I woken up at twilight and carried the proper amount of water and food I would have been able to hike rim to river and back in a day, although not in the con

Hiking Grand Canyon was insanely entertaining, and in the future I would like to spend several days hiking in one of the world’s most beautiful natural areas.

After returning from our scenic view of the canyon, I enjoyed a large meal of Huevos Rancheros followed shortly by a cheeseburger special before taking a lengthy nap. We spent the rest of the afternoon mostly taking it easy and wound up at the campsite right before a strong storm rolled through. The night was spent telling stories and toasting shmores around the campfire, and heading to sleep for our next leg of the trip which would put us in Vegas in three biking days...

7/28- Soccorro to Pie Town

2008-07-28T21:33:00.000-07:00

Today’s ride was easily the most challenging of the trip. While I have made certain days difficult by self created challenges, finishing today’s ride was a challenge in itself, and left me with a huge sense of accomplishment.

The roads were decent, and the weather and temperatures were absolutely perfect for the entire ride, but the route visited the highest altitudes for the trip, featured a constant climb for 95 miles, and featured the strongest headwind we’ve encountered on this whole trip.

The ride could best be split up into four parts. The day started off with me riding with Sophie and Lindsay as we climbed over 2,000 feet climbing in the first 10 miles of the trip. It may have been the altitude, or the lack of sleep, or lingering effects of sickness, but I felt truly awful the first 35 miles of the ride as my stomach turned over several times. I struggled to keep my stomach in check, and mentally this had to be the toughest this trip has been since the mountains of PA.

After a lunch where I forced myself to eat, I found myself feeling slightly better and rode alone until I caught up to Lindsey. We rode together, surrounded by mountain ranges in the distance on every side of us as we rode in this barren flat that continued to slowly rise as wind pelted us with all of her fury. We rode until we reached the VLA (Very Large Array) that one of the world’s premier astronomical radio observatories consisting of 27 radio antennas in a Y shaped configuration that give the resolution of an antenna 22 miles across.

I spent the afternoon biking alone, fighting the strong head winds and my own mental battles, slowly watching the odometer increase. It seemed at time thats regardless of how hard I biked, I could not break the 9 mph barrier.... not fun. After feeling really good about my biking progress yesterday, today was definately a humbling experience, losing the battle to mother nature's fury.

I reached second lunch, a general store/diner in the middle of nowhere, and ordered another one of my usual large meals, a chili cheeseburger and fries, and homemade apple pie ala mode. This large display of food was made even larger when the waitress messed up my order and brought a plate of chili cheese fries by mistake. This did not prove to bea problem, as all the food quickly disappeared. I think as much as people on this trip enjoy eating, I think they enjoy watching the "spectacle" of me eating even more interesting. (I think anyone who has seen me eat knows exactly what I'm talking about).

Kyle and I left second lunch hoping to escape getting picked up by the van, as it was already close to 4pm after having already been up since 3:30 AM. We rode hard and were able to gain some semblence of speed as we continued our climb, aided by the presence of large trees that began popping up at our altitude. Looking behind us, we saw we were being hotly pursued by Jose and Jane, who looked to catch up to us. After what felt like a day of injustices, I determined they would not catch me and took off, continually putting on more distance on my two pursuers until I reached the Continental Divide Sign only two miles away from our host when I started my cool down, happy with the time gap I not only maintained but increased.

Pietown, NM was home to a total population of 60 people, and felt more like a hippie commune than an actual town. The people were all older and were incredibly nice and hospitable, and of course served lots and lots of delicious PIE!

Speaking to the locals, we learned of the interesting history of Pietown. Pietown started as a rest stop along the transcontinental highway, back in the day when cars needed to take breaks at the top of large climbs and dirt roads (although the dirt highway still remains). The founder of the town started out by buying cookies from the nearby second lunch stop, and sold them to weary travelers at the top of this climb. One day, the baker of the local town asked why he was buying so many cookies, and upon finding out he was making a profit on his cookies, refused to sell him any more cookies. Well this guy didn't know how to make cookies, but knew how to bake pies, and Pietown was born. It almost sounded like a tall tale, but this story sounded as good as any in explaining why there was a place called Pietown in the middle of nowhere, NM.

7/27- Corizozo to Socorro

2008-07-27T21:22:00.000-07:00

Today I did not intend on going hard, but once I got started, I found myself pounding the pedals. Maybe it was the excitement of having internet this morning and being able to talk to Robert in China, maybe it was being inspired by Carlos Sastre’s impressive time trial yesterday to hold onto the maillot jaune, maybe it was my frustration with Kyle R.’s punishment, but I hit the first climb flying. Today’s ride featured two large climbs, the first one lasting 6 miles, and the second one lasting 11 miles and climbing over 3,000 feet. The beginning of the day continued to feature the rain and fog that had started since yesterday. The surrounding scenery (what could be seen in this dense fog), featured broken up black igneous rock spread over this fertile volcanic countryside. As much as pictures would be completely unable to describe the surrealness and beauty of this scenery, I even did stop to take a few pictures.

As much time I had spent to take photos and chat with a few riders, I enjoyed the solitude of riding alone in this beautiful scenery as I climbed at my own pace. Unlike yesterday, there was no tailwind to be found, and we would be fighting a familiar friend all day. I kept at a constant pace up the second mountain when I spotted a second rider in the distance, who could have been none other than Jose.

I know he saw me as well, as he was carefully monitoring my progress as I inched my way closer to his position. (I might take this time to say that while no official race had been declared, I have a pretty good idea of when Jose is slow pedaling, or when he was taking a day off, and he was doing neither). (I’ll also put in the disclaimer right now that I still know Jose to be a stronger rider than me in pretty much every facet of cycling, which only shows me how much I have to improve if I want to rock out Men’s Category B next year). With about 5 m separating us, and realizing he was caught, he pulled off and gruffly announced that I should ride ahead as he wanted to ride alone. That was a good thing, because that made two of us.

Pedalling ahead, I continued to put on distance, finally reaching the summit of the second climb and began the long 15 mile descent to lunch (the rest of the day was all one long downhill). I’ve always prided myself on my ability to lay down the hammer on slight downhills, which was a skill that was practiced at the RPM computrainer classes we did at Breakaway and displayed at the Penn State Road Race this year.

I just missed averaging 20 mph over 40 miles, reaching the lunch truck in 2 hours and 7 minutes. It would be 29 minutes before Jose would roll by and about 110 minutes before the next rider would come through.

I know this sounds foolish when I’ve biked 5 hrs and averaging about 80 miles every day for the past 7 weeks, but I’ve had a legitimate fear of not knowing how much I’ve improved these past weeks, a very similar fear I had before the Rutgers Season Opener this year. Unlike the school year where I had a consistent training plan that had me work on different skills and relied on periodization, my “training” on this trip has been limited to the Eddy Merck training program of “ride lots”. I’ve tried to use this trip as more than a giant training trip, especially after learning my lesson after riding hard every day to Pittsburgh. I’ve stuck to my plan of talking to other riders and being social, while seeing everything our route has to offer and taking breaks to explore things and take photos.

After taking a 3 hour lunch break and updating my journal and playing lots of Queen, I took the rest of the day easy, and spent alot of it taking photos of other riders. A few shots are below:

Speaking of today’s route, we were within 12 miles of the first nuclear bomb tests that were conducted in the deserts. I know there is nothing out here, and the tests were held in the desert further south, but the landscape was truly breathtaking and it seems like a shame to pick this place.

7/26- Roswell to Corrizozo

2008-07-26T20:47:00.000-07:00

Before recounting the activities of the day, I think it important to wish Katie a very happy second anniversary. I know there lay many challenges ahead of us, but so far things have worked out pretty well.

So today started on a down note for two reasons. Sophie wound up back in the ER still sick, while I woke up sick myself in the morning and felt fairly nauseous. I made the decision to take it easy while trying to cover the 90 miles in as little time as possible. .

Today was supposed to be one of the hardest days of the trip, but thankfully fortune was on our side. While the majority of the day was spent climbing, our group made it to first lunch in record time aided by a tailwind that was caused by a tropical storm in the gulf. After fighting through 20 mph+ headwinds on several days leading up to today, today was almost too easy, even given my state of health.

I spent the day biking with Kyle on the highway, and we set a good pace all day. We biked through Lincoln County, home of Billy the Kid and one of the most dangerous roads in America, according to President Clevland. While Lincoln County might have been in a state of anarchy in its hey day, I doubt it could compare to present day Philadelphia at times.

We also biked through the national forest where Smokey the Bear was rescued and made into a national celebrity. We took our own lunch break in the town of Capitan, homeplace of Smokey the Bear, and stopped at a diner to get out of the rain which began coming down in buckets. Still feeling ill and having eaten nothing since the night before, I forced myself to put down some food before continuing on.

The large elevation change and unsuspected rain left both of us freezing, and I was glad to see that the van caught up to us after our lunch break where I was able to retreive my arm warmers and rain jacket from the van. As a "grizzled" ECCC veteran, I was content with the arm warmers and while cold, realized Kyle needed my rain jacket even more.

After a few more miles of climbing, still in pouring rain, we encountered our best descent of the trip: 15 miles of downhill. Without even pedalling, our speed never dipped below 40 mph for the first couple of miles and it was a truly remarkable sensation being able to bike at the speed of cars for an extended period of time. It was also interesting to note how quickly things became hot again as soon as we lost part of the elevation we gained.

After reaching our destination, I took a lengthy nap which seemed to eliminate most of the sickness I was feeling. Having found my usual ravenous appetite, alot of our group sought dinner at one of the only two fine dining establishments in town, Elises, which gave us five free dinners. (They also agreed to boil water to make pasta for our group, as we forgot to buy propane for the camp stoves, and there was nothing in town.) Leader Kyle found most of our food, finding food donations from the two gas stations in town.

The day ended on somewhat of a down note, when one of our riders found himself in the van the next day for what was seen as unsafe riding behavior. I know the group leaders did not single him out as he felt, and I feel fortunate that I am just a rider on this trip that is not faced with making decisions that follow bike and build policy, even if they are unpopular regulations.

7/25- Roswell- DAY OFF!

2008-07-25T20:40:00.000-07:00

Today was exactly the kind of relaxed day off I was in the mood for. After sleeping in to 7AM!, I left with a group of people and took public transit to Dennys, where another group of riders had organized breakfast for 15. After an awesome breakfast of eggs, pancakes, and hash browns, we walked across the street to a Hastings, where I was able to buy another pair of headphones that I had lost in Yukon, along with a copy of American Flyers for trip viewing, as it’s easily my favorite cycling movie.

Breakfast was soon followed by lunch, where Kyle and I had worked our donation magic into getting free Applebees. After another free steak, I was having quite the good day.

Unfortunately, the day would not end well for everyone, as our group was heading for the UFO museum on the bus and were at the entrance when Sophie felt violently sick and nauseous. I agreed to take her to the ER that was close to the Denny’s/Hastings that we were at before. I spent the rest of the afternoon there with her, where she was given an IV for dehydration.

After finally being released after taking an IV bag of saline for dehydration, Kyle picked us up and I managed to put down a large amount of food at Sonic, and then later at the Italian restaurant where Sophie ate. Besides just being hungry, I also wanted to put down as much food as possible in case I happened to catch the bug that was preying on our group.

7/24- Portales to Roswell

2008-07-24T20:38:00.000-07:00

Today I may have outdid yesterday’s plentiful bounty of food. I wound up ridding a century ride seeking “donation magic” as we rode into Roswell, and I did not disappoint. I rode with Kyle, Big and Little Magidas, Sophie, and we had a lot of fun riding in together, although Sophie started fading badly later in the day. After we rode into Roswell, we were able to negotiate Dinner for 10 from KFC, 4 pizzas from Cicis, 2 pizzas from Peter Pan Pizza, Dinner at Chilis for 6, lunch at Applebees for 10 the next day, free ice cream from DQ, and $11 of donations.
Since we negotiated this cornucopia of food, the four of us, along with Charlotte and K-Po got to eat an amazing dinner at Chilis free of charge. As great as getting fed at the host locations every night, it was truly awesome to all be wearing normal clothing and enjoying margaritas, steak, and cheesecake with a small group of friends instead of feeling like you were fending for yourself.

7/23- Hereford, TX to Portales, NM- BIKE AND BARTER

2008-07-23T16:07:00.000-07:00

Today was the coup d'etat of food donations, the grand daddy of them all. For a while, I've been one of the few to pull in massive food donations for the group, and I had always been left with getting 3 seemingly impossible things- free Sonic (supposedly only corporate and not franchised), free Chinese food (assuming a cultural and language barrier), and finally free gas for the van. Well today I pulled off the first two.
We woke up this morning and found out there would be no dinner at our host this evening in Portales, although we would have actual beds to sleep in at Eastern New Mexico College. I was told to work my "negotiating magic" by some, my bullshit sweet talking by others. The challenge for massive amounts of free food was on.

The first score of the day came in the form of Sonic, where me and Sofie both got free cheeseburgers and fries. Although I wasn't really hungry at 8:25 AM, it was the best cheeseburger I've ever eaten as I basked in the glow of victory and fatty foods.

The next score would not come until after crossing the border into New Mexico, where I secured more free subway for the group at the gas station/food mart place the van was at. Subway at this point has been somewhat easy to secure, but today may have topped all previous subway victories as I fed the entire group (which I havent been able to do since IN), and was able to get foot long sandwiches instead of 6 inch subs. Thats right, thats 31 feet of free sandwiches.

Right before leaving the town of Clovis that we were biking through, I saw challenge #2 (chinese food) present itself, and feeling quite lucky at this point, Sofie, Kyle R, Lindsey and I somehow communicated we needed free food for our group. Although not the best haul of the day, we got 5 pints of fried rice/ chicken chunks that made a tasty snack when the group got back.

Reaching Portales with still no dinner for our group, our fearsome foursome scored 12 pizzas from pizza hut, and then Sofie and I continued our food rampage by securing $20 of free ice cream from DQ. We also picked up a $20 donation along the way.

Total tally for the day:
2 cheeseburgers
2 fries
31 feet of subs
3 meat pizzas
3 vegetable pizzas
6 cheese pizzas
1 DQ ice cream cake
5 pints of chinese food
and a partridge in a pear tree (no not really, but it started sounding like it)

The ride itself was a relatively flat 75 miles and ride conditions were pretty nice as it never got too hot or windy. In addition we encountered some of the nicer roads weve seen in Texas (road quality has been pretty horrible the past few days and really gave the body quite a beating). It is very interesting to me how much the road quality can change between different counties, and every new county we pass through brings new surprises.

I'm a little sad I have been away from the action of Le Tour, as I heard the last 3 days in the Alps have been quite interesting as the main GC contenders sorts itself out.

90 miler tomorrow before a rest day in Roswell!

7/22- Amarillo, TX to Hereford, TX

2008-07-22T16:32:00.000-07:00

Today I made an easy 50 mile day into a challenging 80 mile one. Heres how...

On a relatively flat day in Texas, I took a 20 mile detour with Kyle and most of the group to Palo Duro Canyon, the second largest canyon in the US (we'll be visiting the grand canyon in a few weeks).

We rode to the scenic outlook post where I witnessed some of the most beautiful natural wonders I've seen on this trip. For miles all one could see was carved out layers of sedimentary rocks that had been carved out by the flow of water for thousands of years.

After taking some time to take in what we were seeing, I heard there was a road down to the canyon floor that featured grades up to 20% and Kyle and I decided to take on this road.

While the 14% grade into Johnstown was certainly the most terrifying of this trip, this road was a close second with 7 switchback turns down the face of this canyon. I fully enjoyed taking the turns as fast as possible, and after reaching the bottom, Kyle and I decided we needed to tell others and repeat this awesome experience.

The climb back was somewhat enjoyable, and after convincing others to come with us, we went down a second time. Having seen the course for the first time, I had a pretty good feel for it, and took the turns even more aggressively at higher speeds. I really enjoyed being able to rip through these tight turns and decided at this point I would attempt this a third time, as I figured if i climbed fast enough I might be able to get to the top for the third time by the time the last person got there.

I took the hill up at race pace, and had my heart rate at probably the highest its been on this trip, reaching 194 bpm max. I do think this trip has significantly improved my climbing ability as well as my endurance, as I feel faster on climbs than I ever have before...I guess I'll have to leave it to the fall or even next spring when races start to know how far I've progressed.

Reaching the top, I took a short breather before barrelling down for attempt #3. This time I hit speeds up to 49.8 mph, which was pretty exhilerating. I know some people do hill repeats for fun, but I did canyon repeats today.

The rest of the day was somewhat tiring, although I did manage to draft the trailer twice, albeit for a short time.

Today definately goes down as one of my favorite ride experiences I've had so far.

7/21- Amarillo Build Day

2008-07-21T20:34:00.000-07:00

Today we had our 7th build day. We painted the interior and exterior of this house for a Somalian family that had 14 children. This habitat house had a fairly large footprint, with 6 bedrooms, although there wasn't much else in the house other than bedrooms, bathrooms and a kitchen. As many people were excited to get their hands dirty and paint, I spent a large portion of the day putting up the painter's tape so that our group's overzealousness at times was not counterproductive.
We also saw another Habitat house that was waiting for final inspection before move in. I have to admit that I was pretty disappointed in the floor plans of the building, which included a kitchen that opened up into another space, as there seemed to be alot of useless dead space in the kitchen enclosure, while cramping room in the living room/eating room/ whatever they would turn this into. The bedroom layout was also peculiar for its window placement and installation of a cable box, as there wasn't a good place anywhere in this master bedroom to stick even a full size bed. I'm not one to get snobbish about design decisions, but I saw these major overlooks as being really dumb and poorly thought out. ("dumbest thing I ever saw")

7/16- Tulsa to Chandler

2008-07-16T14:50:00.000-07:00

(Today I had limited internet access at the local public library in Chandler...I won't have time to upload all of my journal entries, but I decided to start most currently and work backwards from there... I will load more photos and more entries at next available stop...it includes st louis, cracking my helmet, bike shops, riding on 20 miles of gravel, a build day in springfield, my aggravation with the group and certain people, and practicing mitch klipper economics by obtaining large harvests of food and paying nothing for it)

Today we rode a relatively flat 70 miles in beautiful biking weather (sun, relatively cooler conditions with a nice light wind). After helping Hillary fix a flat in under 10 minutes, I spent the rest of the day riding with Sophie and the pastor of Bethany Lutheran who rode with us until lunchtime. Lunch was fantastic today as I enjoyed the leftover brisket from yesterday's Habitat build. Today's route was all along historic route 66.

7/15- Tulsa Build Day

2008-07-15T14:57:00.000-07:00

Today we had our 5th build day In Tulsa. We worked on installing the soffits and building the back shed for a habitat site. Local newspeople were there and many photos of us in action where taken (we would find out tomorrow that we were featured on the first page of the Tulsa World).

Lunch consisted of some of the best bbq food I've ever eaten, and I stuffed myself with four brisket and bbq sauce sandwiches. I also tried an oklahoma delicacy called goober that tasted very similar to uncooked cheesecake.

After showering at the local Y, we went to another church for dinner, and afterwards I spent time filling out leader evaluations.

7/14- Vinita to Tulsa

2008-07-14T15:05:00.000-07:00

Today we visited the other city I researched for this trip, Tulsa, the second largest city in Oklahoma, home of the Tulsa race riot, and a city known as the Buckle of the Bible belt. Today was another short biking day (only 60+ miles!), sunny, and relatively flat riding on historic Route 66. I got a late start to the ride day after helping Kristi with some chain problems and spent the majority of the day riding at a good clip with Sophie who also hung back to help. Right before lunch we caught up with Amol, and he sealed the deal on securing group burritos from Taco Tico.

After holding a steady 19mph with Sophie post lunch, we arrived in Tulsa shortly afterwards. After going for a 20 minute jog with a few riders in preparation for the local triathalon when I return, we showered at a local Y and enjoyed one of the best prepared dinners at the church we were staying at.

Today also marks the halfway point of our trip geographically, and there is only a month until I return to normal life.

7/13- Joplin to Vinita

2008-07-13T15:08:00.000-07:00

Today we rode to Vinita, Oklahoma, home of the world's largest McDonalds and birthplace of Dr. Phil. I rode my second sweep day of the trip with Hillary, who was very entertaining. Riding weather was beautiful and sunny, and while temperatures were hot, they were not oppressive and relatively dry. In short, today could not have been a better sweep day.

We rode from Missouri into Kansas for 12 miles and then into Oklahoma. Unfortunately since we were taking local country roads there were no state signs for either one.

I spent the better part of the day practicing riding without hands and chatting it up with Hillary. Before lunch the group found a river that we all swam in, which continued the otherwise pleasant mood everyone seemed to be in.

Right before lunch I made the day exponentially better by negotiating my way at some local chicken place to donate to the group fried chicken for the group, mashed potatoes, mac n cheese, baked beans and biscuits and gravy. Since the van was located only a mile away, I created makeshift mussette bags for this abundance of food by employing what I learned in Bicycling magazine and tyed a plastic bag to each arm of the bag loaded with food and then tying these two arms together creating a way to carry the food to where the rest of the group was. (picture of my gluttony and pride in my hunter-gatherer status to be uploaded soon)

After arriving into Vinita and showering, we loaded up the van and visited the world's largest McDonalds. (It stratled the highway interstate). I decided to celebrate this by ordering the largest mcdonalds meal, and put down a Big Mac with fries and a coke.

I also presented my affordable housing curriculum project tonight

7/1- Yellowsprings to Rushville

2008-07-01T16:32:00.000-07:00

Today we rode our second century, passed into Indiana AND passed over 1,000 miles for the trip.

I spend the majority of the day riding with Kyle R and Jose (amongst others) as we rode aggressively towards the state line sign. This time I was ready to use my Garmin to its full advantage in figuring out when to launch my sprint. Unfortunately, while the state line was defined by a road that ran right along the state sign, the state line sign started at the beginning of the second road that bisected it (To simplify this visually, I had to make a left from road 1 onto state boundary road 2 and then turn right at road 3 200 feet later. While beating Jose to the end of road one only to frantically look for a sign, he dived through the turn and took a narrow victory to the state sign.

After waiting for Kyle and then Jane and her father, we started again, when me and Kyle instinctively realized that today would be our chance to slap Jose’s ass and accrue 25 points to our contest (everyone else is worth 1 point, but since Jose is usually riding hours ahead of everyone, he is worth 25 points). We went for the doubletap, (for which we were successful), but in Kyle’s excitement he rode a little too fast and wound up in my back wheel and took a nice spill on the road. I was alrite, but he broke his helmet, cut through his chamois, and had some nice road rash to show for it.

After the excitement of the day, I rode with Kyle into town for the rest of the day, and were the first to get in, where we were met with great hospitality by our hosts. We also learned that Kyle was not the only one to take a spill for the day, as two of our riders had crashed after encountering a pothole and crashing, which required a trip to the ER. After getting a ride to the hospital, we waited for our two riders until they were released, and thankfully they were both okay for the most part.

The dinner that night was some of the best food we have had, and breakfast the following morning was by far the best food we've had so far. Rushville has been one of my favorite host locations so far as our hosts have had the perfect mix of great food, air conditioning and well wishes. (Also of special interest was the awesome inspirational non-denominational prayer the pastor gave us in the morning)

6/30- Columbus to Yellowsprings- Bike AND Build

2008-06-30T21:28:00.000-07:00

Today we biked AND built.

We biked (in the rain) the six miles to the build site, which was located in the greater Columbus area. We were divided into teams and were split between 9 Habitat homes that were all in various stages of completion. I worked with Kyle, Jorge, Lynn, and Jane’s father Keith in one home. I worked on installing window sills, window trim, and installing baseboards around the home. In the process I got my first experience with a nail gun and circular saws, and also used a miter saw in cutting the boards to size. Our supervising contractor’s name was Dan, a huge mass of a man who was built like Hulk Hogan and had been doing construction longer than I had been born.

The ride in the afternoon was mostly uneventful, and other than some more rain in the afternoon, the ride was pleasant and the skies soon cleared up.

Some other highlights of the day included one of the church members offering to take us out for ice cream, which was awesome.

6/29- Newcomerstown, OH to Columbus, OH

2008-06-29T20:24:00.000-07:00

Today it rained INSANELY HARD...3 separate times. Skies looked friendly in the morning, and I enjoyed playing catchup, eventually passing the first group as group leader Skip held steady to my back wheel. He quickly tired though, and we spent the rest of the morning riding at a conversationalist pace and chatting up a storm.

Skip decided to refill his water bottles at a gas station on the other side of the highway to leave more water in the coolers for those riders behind us, and after taking the off exit to get there, the skies began rapidly becoming dark and ominous. Lightning and more torrential rain ensued, which left me very fortunte to be hiding in a gas station and not out on the road. While we ride in the rain, we get the heck outa the way when its lighting outside, as it makes riding quite unsafe. After calling as many riders as possible to direct them to safety, we enjoyed some gas station food for lunch before hearing from riders who had ridden ahead that the skies were in deed clearing up. After waiting 10 more minutes, we decided to ride on.

Apparently this quick dry spell was only the eye of the storm, as just before we hit the lunch truck, it began pouring. Words can not describe how hard it rained at this point, as I can not even begin to describe how hard it was raining. It looked like, and felt like the rain you get during a hurricane, except perhaps with more rain. The rain droplets actually hurt as they pelted your skin, and visibility was limited to only a few feet in front of you.

I've ridden and raced in plenty of heavy rain storms, but I don't think I've ever come close to anything like this before. The Philly crit this year, the Men's A crit race in Philly in 2006, the hill hell ride I did with Adrian freshmen year where I puked on a bike can come close, practically every JV football game I played in 10th grade (with Elmont and Uniondale especially coming ot mind) could come close to estimating this level of rain, but nothing could match the intensity of this moment.

This was a moment that I had to embrace as being totally epic and one to remember. It was at this moment that I realized that even the worst day biking still easily beats the best day at work. I whooped and hollared my way through the rain as I passed riders, losing my voice again after having just finally starting to get it back after the chant of the day out of Johnstown.

About 20 minutes later, the rain slowed down, and eventually completely cleared up. The sun came out, the clouds disappeared, and unless you saw our group drenched and our shoes squishing on every downstroke of our pedals, you would have never known it rained.

Perhaps now is a good time to apologize for not taking more pictures on this trip, but at the same time following it up with the excuse of rain. It has rained more on this trip than I think I have ever encountered in three weeks, even for early spring, and this is rain that would destroy my camera instantly had it been taken out its protective map case bag that I keep in my jersey. During the rainstorm, we passed this giant building that looked like a picnic basket, but alas, no photos.

After riding in mostly pancake flat conditions for the majority of the day, we suddenly encountered an extremely short steep hill that was similar to "The Wall" in Manyunk, and left my back tire spinning and losing traction as I stood up to climb it. This was followed by mostly rolling hills that involved effort climbing.

At the end of this hilly road, a rider in the group discovered he had flatted. I volunteered to stay back with him as the front group rolled forward, and after unsucessfully patching his first tube, and then finally installing a new one, we headed on. After meeting up with a second group of riders, I decided to take a short break at a local Wendy's to refill my bottles and rest my knee which was aching by this point. I've noticed that the tendonitis tends to flare up after standing in one place for too long, so I'm going to try to spend time idling around on it, especially standing.

Another thing I've noticed is the wind picks up greatly around 1pm, and that riding into a strong headwind on a pancake flat road can be just as slow as climbing an 8% grade for 10 miles.I now understand why most tours leave from the west coast, as the midwest wind can severely aide/hamper ones efforts.

After my break I found myself on the road alone, when I noticed storm clouds assembling right in front of Columbus. With less than 10 miles to go, I figured I would do my best to beat this second storm. With my bum knee relegated to a dull aching pain as I churned it out in my big ring, I raced for our destination with the intention of beating the rain, but luck would have otherwise. The rain beganst anew, as I pedaled through, having pedaled passed a large suburban strip center and right after the on ramp for Clevland when suddenly I heard a large SHHHHHH from my tires.

Damn.

This would be flat #3 on this trip, and the third related to running over debris I could not see during blinding rain. It's also been the third large gash I've left in my rear tire, so at least I've made my flats count. It was sitting on the side of the road in this pouring storm situated about 2 miles away from any form of shelter that I first realized I had lent my tube out earlier in the day to someone who needed it. It was at this point that left me somewhat distressed, majorly edgy (I'm almost glad I had to deal with this alone), and in need of some quick ingenuity.

I might mention that at no point did I consider calling the van for backup, and it would have done no use anyways, as it was at least 2 hours away picking other riders up. On the trip we have something that some riders refer to as the "Effy" Club, which can be summed up as "Every F***ing Inch." Regardless of what gets thrown our way (knee pains, mechanicals, etc) its a source of personal pride to ride every inch of this journey. I don't really have an opinion on people who take off days, or who ride in the van, as this is their business and not mine, but the Effy Club is a personal goal to strive for that keeps you up when things aren't going your way.

I used my emergency shot blocks snack food on me that I carry for emergencies and used chewed up bits of shot block to help fill the hole in my tube that was then followed by glue and a patch (I used shotblocks as the glue was not setting on its own in the rain, and needed some assistance. I also used some more chewed up shot blocks to fill the gash in the tire, and backed it up with some of the wrapper to create a tire patch. Swearing like a sailor and still in a foul mood, I was able to install the tube, and proceed riding all the way until the church. I was so close at this point that had my craftiness not worked, I probably would have walked with the bike instead.

Meeting us at the church was Jane Wolcott's parents, who are awesome people (and apparently readers of my blog as well...who actually knew anyone read this thing!). Having calmed down and in an exceptionally good mood feeling lucky for just being able to ride in, I felt even luckier when one rider, Amol, was able to secure showers for us at the Ohio State Gym, which was lucky as our host only had one shower with bad water pressure.

After dinner prepared by the church (Mexican Food!! Hooray!! As much as I love Italian, diversity is the spice of life, and all of the food was quickly devoured with no leftovers. It was pretty late at this point, and after a group leader meeting, decided that our scheduled laundry day would be postponed a day.

This was totally unacceptable to me, who is a big fan of cleanliness. Handwashing our jerseys every day is alright, but shorts need a good washing or else health issues could prevail. It was at this point that as a late sleeper, I volunteered to do laundry with anyone else who would volunteer so that we could have clean clothes in the morning.

Finding several other volunteers, we went to the laundromat to find that it had closed. We had to go to 2 more laundromats before we found one that was open, and it wasn't until 11:45 after this exhausting day that I got to go to bed.

Not looking to the 5:30 wakeup tomorrow, but sometimes you just gotta bite the bullet and just run with it....

6/28- Steubenville, OH to Newcomerstown, OH

2008-06-28T19:52:00.000-07:00

“Two muffins are sitting in an oven. The first muffin says to the second muffin, “Man its hot in here” The second muffin says “OMG, a talking muffin”- Sofie Turrell

We resumed normal bike duties today, biking a full day before coming to Newcomerstown, OH.

Some of the highlights of the day:

- I rode with the front group most of the day, enjoying mostly rolling hills (AND MORE RAIN...HOORAY!!!)

- Kyle and I played the ass slapping game during the morning, singing the Jaws tune and laughing our heads off. The game, which started in Pittsburgh, involves using your right hand to tap a riders left butt cheek that you are passing. There are many strategies to this game ( whose rules are much more complex then are worth writing of) which includes 1) starting later in the morning so the opportunity to pass more people arises, 2) stopping to chalk routes which creates the same opportunity within a smaller group of riders, 3) riding close to the yellow line which prohibits riders from getting near you, 4) calling car back to get riders riding together to single up, etc... Everyone's butt is worth 1 point, with Jose being the exception as he is worth 25 points. He has promised anyone who gets him to be in a "world of unpleasantries". Kyle and I are not phased.

- Right after passing a statue of a giant giraffe, we met two MIT students biking across country for the fun of it on mountain bikes, although they were closer to their destination than we were, as they were biking from LA to Boston.

- Ohio has ALOT of corn...acres, and acres and acres corn

- That night we participated in the town parade which celebrated Cy Young, who was born in Newcomerstown on this day. We met the local state senator and won $20 in the parade for the best dressed bikes, which sounded like a donation to me.

- The church also had set up a movie for us at night, and I got to watch Semi-Pro with Will Farrell, which I thought was really funny.

6/27- Pittsburgh to Steubensville

2008-06-27T20:49:00.000-07:00

Today we biked from Pittsburgh to Steubensville, OH. Along the way we biked through West Virginia, bringing the total number of states we have biked through to 6 (Massachussetts, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio)

The day started off in typical fashion, with rain, and no sun to be seen. It's incredibly strange to be receiving this much rain, as we are biking from east to west, so we are apparently running into successful weather front after weather front that brings more rain every time. While I'm one to enjoy riding in the rain, this is actually becoming quite bothersome, as it means it becomes essential to clean ones bike every day, and it means spending 10 hours a day in a wet shammy, which after doing this for two weeks is somewhat of a health concern. This rain was also annoying because it was slow and steady versus the torrential downpour that I've become used to, and that made cycling almost a surreal environment.

West Virginia and Ohio mark the start of states I have had little to no experience with, which very much excites me. Originially slated as a 100+ mile day, the trip leaders moved around the schedule before the trip started to give us an "easy" day before normal mileage would pick up again (the extra mileage would be picked up biking and building the same day in Columbus, OH)

Today was a relatively short day, with substancial climbing, especially leaving the city of Pittsburgh. I was extremely thankful for the shorter day, as my back and knees were in considerable pain throughout the day, and I'm not sure I would have finished the day had it been a century day.

Riding into Ohio involved taking one of 3 dangerous highways over bridges, so we called for a police escort for the front group of riders who arrived to a prearranged checkpoint. Riding in a police escort was awesome to say the least, like riding in a presidential convey (just without the president and stretch limos part)

We stayed at the Methodist church in Steubenville, which was incredibly kind to us, although it featured one of the hottest nights in a non air conditioned spaces that I can remember to date.

Other noticeable things about the day was webchatting with my family and Katie, who were sharing a Shabbat dinner together. Seeing all of their faces made me a little homesick for probably the first time on this trip.

Today was also the first day that I've noticed the beating that my bike has taken so far. It has practically rained every day so far this trip, which is not great for the bike. Rain is the bike's enemy, as it causes all of the working components on the bike to rust and pick up road grime, which further grinds down the components. The bike has also taken a beating from my little spill, getting stacked next to other bikes all the time, breaks on the road, and just normal wear and tear from riding almost 1,000 miles at this point

6/26- PITTSBURGH- DAY OFF!!!!

2008-06-26T18:26:00.000-07:00

Today we had an off day in Pittsburgh, and boy did I need it. After two weeks of some of the hilliest and hardest riding I have ever done with no rest days, my body was reeling for rest. I woke up with my lower trapezius muscles screaming in pain, and after getting breakfast at the diner across the street, I hobbled back to the church where I tried a do-over of the morning and went back to sleep. A few more hours later, I re-awoke feeling slightly better, but still extremely sore.

After getting my wash done, I received letters from our second mail drop. The Ingber family, Dave Miller and my grandparents had all sent me letters/postcards which I was extremely appreciative of. Thank you all for your well wishes.

I spent the afternoon at the Carnegie Science Center with Lindsey, Allie, and Kyle, who have quickly become some of my best friends on this trip. We saw an Imax movie about the Alps, which made the climbing we did in western PA sound tame compared to the one mile verticle cliff found on the Eiger, the Alp's tallest and most treacherous climb.

We also saw the aquariums on the third floor that made me miss my goldfish, my goldfish, and crew very much, and a huge train set on the second floor that reinacted the Pittsburgh area in the 1850-1920 time period. We met a retired gentleman who gave us a whole tour of the entire train table, and even took us in the back room where he showed us "The Little Engines who couldn't". He also gave us a small donation for the cause, which was really nice.

The night was spent biking to Andrew Werner, who is still being architortured this summer at CMU, as he takes business classes for his minor. After biking to his place, we went out to dinner at Panera's in Squirrel Hill, which brought me back to my days in CMU precollege, where taking the 58U or 61C to the Waterfront or Giant Eagle seemed liked a really far distance. I was getting set to bike back when torrential rain and thunderstorms ruined such plans, so Andrew drove me back to the church.

Having climbed substancially the last few days, I figure I'd leave you off with this quote from former Tour Rider Jonathan Vaughters, now race diretor of Garmin/ Chipotle-

"That brings me to the key question, again: Why do people want to climb? Climbing, at its very core, is just a simple and hearty battle against gravity. The basic law of nature that oppressively pins us to the earth seems to be the one we feel the greatest need to fight against. Perhaps, then, this is why we are always trying to climb? Whenever we climb, we are proving that we can take on a force greater than ourselves. We’re pushing against something that holds us down. It’s the fight for freedom, freedom from the oppressive laws of nature as laid down by that rather aristocratically named gentleman, Sir Isaac Newton. We all know humans have a long and volatile history with the pursuit of freedom. Climbing is just a facet of this same fascination with being free.

With this noble and never-ending battle between gravity and the human race permanently underway, it would only be logical that when the greatest invention known to man, the bicycle, came into existence, the first thing we would want to do with this mechanical marvel would be try to climb hills with it. "

The full article on climbing, which I highly recommend can be found at http://theclimb.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/06/ready-to-edit-and-post-expert-advice-from-jonathan-vaughters/index.html

6/25- Johnstown to Pittsburgh

2008-06-25T06:26:00.000-07:00

"Chuck Norris doesn't read books. He stares them down until he gets the information he wants."

Total distance- 79.3 miles
Total Time- 5 hrs 30 min
Average Pace- 4:08/ mi
Average Speed- 14.5 mph
Max Speed- 46.3 mph
Avg Heart Rate- 112 bpm
Max Heart Rate- 171 bpm
Total climbing- 5173 feet climbing

Today was a relatively relaxing day, with the exception of the route we took, which for the most part was highly trafficked roads. After two hard days of riding, I was content riding with the front group for the majority of the day and we kept the pace deliberately slow and took frequent breaks. However, it was a muggy day, and the route to Pittsburgh was pretty hilly, so despite our best efforts it still wound up being a difficult day.

After arriving in Pittsburgh, I did some celebratory laps around Roberto Clemente Bridge and the 7th Ave Bridge, where I raced in a Criterium on Easter Sunday earlier this spring. I am pretty familiar with Pittsburgh having spent a summer here doing a "pre-college" architecture program at Carnegie Mellon, and was excited to spend time in the city again.

Pittsburgh also symbolized finishing what is supposedly the hardest leg of this trip, as we have biked through the Berkshires, the Poconos, the Adirondacks, and the mountains and hills of western PA all in the last two weeks. I went out with many people from the group to PNC Park, where we went to a local bar and celebrated finishing this difficult leg of our journey.

6/24- State College to Johnston, PA

2008-06-24T19:30:00.000-07:00

"Chuck Norris can win a game of Connect Four in three moves"

Total distance- 76.5 miles
Total time- 5 hrs 7 minutes
Average pace- 4:01/ mi
Average speed- 14.9 mph
Max speed- 45.6 mph
Average heart rate- 131 bpm
Max heart rate- 184 bpm
Total climbing- 5845 feet!!

Today was quite easily one of the most difficult, yet enjoyable days of the trip. Today was an exhausting day for me after the punishing pace I set with Jose yesterday. The route featured 5,500 feet of climbing over 80 miles and featured a large 2,000 foot climb that averaged 8% grade for the majority of it. This climb is one of the two large climbs used in the Tour de Toona held every year. I started the day by riding with Clay and Chris, the former and current presidents of Penn State Cycling who hosted us last night our hosts from Penn State, for the first ten miles, and then chased the lead group of riders before lunch. I took a substancial lunch break giving people at least a half hour to ride at their own pace before chasing again.

At the top of the first large climb, I rode through a field of wind turbines that were spread throughout the mountain chain and harvesting the energy of the wind to produce energy. Having never been so close to one before, I was amazed at the scale of these massive rotating fins that cut through the air with a large whooshing noise.

The final descent was a nerve wracking 14% downhill grade that featured lots of hairpin turns. I took my descending skills to new levels by only lightly feathering the brakes twice during the entire descent (until the bottom), which was terrifying to say the least. I was actually quite surprised I didn't break the 50 mph barrier, although the strong head wind may have had a part to do with it.

Johnstown, PA is situated in the river valley between the mountains of western PA. It is perhaps best known for the "Great Flood" of May 31st, 1889 that occurred after the South Fork Dam collapsed 14 milesupstream that flooded the city and led to the deaths of 2,209 people as a result of the flood and subsequent fires that raged through the debris. The city definately appeared depressed, and a quick Google search showed that in the 2003 US Census Data showed that Johnstown was the least likely city in the US to attract newcomers.

We stayed at the YWCA where we enjoyed another great meal of pasta and meatballs. Later that night, one of the group leaders Kyle also showed me how to use De Lorme Topo today, which they use to determine our route every day. I'm very interested in the capabilities of this program in creating new routes for riding in Philadelphia.

I am very much looking forward to the needed break in Pittsburgh, and after two days of hard riding, plan to take tomorrow as easily as one could for riding in Western PA.

6/23- Berwick to State College

2008-06-23T19:05:00.000-07:00

"Penn State Cycling- We got bigger cogs than you" - cycling sticker quotes

Today could have been called Bike Hard with a Vengeance. After riding at the speed of slow yesterday, today I rode hard with Jose all day. We didn't stop for either lunch break and rode fairly hard the entire day, powering through the flats at 27 mph and taking every hill at tempo pace. Today's ride featured mostly rolling hills, with a long gradual sustained climb that lasted about 6 miles and covered over 1,000 feet of elevation change before switching to rolling hills before rolling into State College.

Total distance- 93.7 miles
Total time- 5 hrs, 20 min
Average pace- 3:25/mi
Average Speed- 17.6 mph
Average heart rate- 133 bpm
Max Heart Rate- 171 bpm
Total climbing- 4232 feet

Jose is an extremely strong rider, and surprisingly strong at climbing given his larger build. For almost the entire day, I stayed tightly on his rear wheel, reaping the aerodynamic benefits of drifting. We rode 99.4 miles into State College (my garmin kicked out for a while which explains the distance differences, and yes, we were .6 miles from completing a century and didn't care enough to go the extra difference to claim riding a century)

We stayed at Clay Chiles' house, the former president of Penn State Cycling, and the coolest racer in the ECCC. Clay is one of my favorite people to see every weekend in the spring, as he is a consummate teammate, a confident and experienced racer who isnt afraid to take pulls at the front, and one of the nicest guys I know. I was sad to see his back yard no longer held a mini bike race course, but was happy to meet his girl friend, who was extremely nice.

We arrived at Clay's house around 2:30, which would have been much earlier had neither of us gotten a flat, or Jose not gotten repeated calls from a newspaper reporter looking to do a story on Bike and Build. Still we we arrived several hours before the next group of riders and decided to ride into town where I consumed some delicious Sticky Buns at "The Diner", a local delicacy, and consumed a Qdoba Burrito, in a freaky flashback way to the Penn State Criterium race held this year.

The knee and cleat issues were fine, but apparently I did not do as good a job as I thought I had on shifting, and was forced to use the tension adjusters on the cables to adjust my bike on the go. I actually took my first crash today, when a lapse in timing led to me crossing wheels with Jose and taking a small spill that left me fine but my bar tape a little scratched up.

6/22- Mount Pocono to Berwick

2008-06-22T18:08:00.000-07:00

Total Distance- 57 miles
Total Ride Time- 4hrs, 30 minutes
Average Pace- 4:44 /mi
Avg Speed- 12.7
Average Heart Rate- 113bpm- The largely accepted convention for exercise is anything above 120 bpm
Max Heart Rate- 175 bpm
Total climbing- 3145 feet

Today we rode from Mount Pocono to Berwick. The route was fairly short (51 miles), with a few medium climbs and some nice descents. Today was my first day riding sweep, whose job it is to stay behind the last rider. After the freedom of riding at my own pace the last few days, today was painfully slow. Katie may still not realize how happy I was to see her yesterday, as just thinking of her visit kept me sane for the majority of the day. She also left with me with an anklet bracelet with little eyes on it to keep me safe, which was another nice reminder of her visit.

This terrible, no good, horrible day started off the same as every other: substancial rain coming down in buckets. However, today would be different, as in the downpour I ran over something substancial that left me with my first flat, my first of the trip. A day after losing the beard off, I would lose the tire flat standoff contest as well.

I tried keeping my frustration and edginess down to a minimum, as I continued to have knee and foot hotspot pain all day, which I believe came from continued cleat issues. The day progressed slowly but at 4:15 pm, almost 9 hrs after leaving in the morning, we arrived at our host destination.

After cleaning my bike, showering and eating, I was rewarded for my day's efforts, when Jose gave a clinic on derailleur shifting and how to fix them. While extremely informative, I was still a little unsure on fixing my own bike. I have always been scared of trying ot fix my road bike, as I have usually had things dialed in perfectly, so I purposely screwed up the shifting on my own bike so that I was forced to teach myself limit screws and cable tensioning. Finally, many hours later I found myself able to fix front and rear derailleur issues on my bike. This is quite exciting for me, as this is a valuable skill that I can now use on my own bike or for Penn Cycling members.

I will say I have a lot more respect for the riders who come in later every day, as they are spending alot of time in the summer heat and spending a lot more time in sweaty shammys. Many of them are riding just as hard as I am for their own skill level, except they are our there for several more hours working their hardest, which makes their efforts that much more commendable.

6/21- Port Jervis to Mount Pocono- SURPRISE!!!

2008-06-21T19:22:00.000-07:00

"I hate Chuck Norris. He's not that tough" -Katie

Today started out as one of the worst days of the trip, and definately wound up the best. I woke up exhausted after not sleeping enough (again!), to find out 2/3 screws on my cleats to my cycling shoes were completely stripped, causing the annoying moving cleat problem that has sporadically popped up during the trip. Thankfully when we were in Pittsfield at the old school bike shop, I took several bolts instead of just one; however, these bolts were already packed in the bag in the trailer. I was able to dig my bag out and fix the shoe problem.

By the time I had done this, the group had rolled out, and had already locked up the church that still had my bike inside it. Without any keys, I had to jump a fence, a wall and crawl through a window to get into the church and get my stuff.

Lastly, my knee has been somewhat bothersome the past few days, and I've been experiencing hot spots in my shoes which has been extremly painful. Once I got moving and found myself in a rhythmn though, the knee stopped hurting as much, and I've dealt with the foot issue by moving my cleat back.

Ride Details
Total distance- 60.51 miles
Total ride time- 3 hrs, 47 minutes
Average speed= 15.9 mph
Max speed= 40.3 mph
Total calories= 3917 calories
Avg heart rate= 133bpm

The ride, which was mostly flat until hitting a monster climb at the end, started to get much better at lunch time, when Kyle, Skip, and I were able to get the local Subway to donate 31 six inch subs of any sandwich we wanted for the group to eat at lunch.

However, it wasn't until after the massive climb and arriving at the church we were staying at that night that the best surprise of the day presented itself: Katie! After tricking me into believing she had to babysit today and would be unable to come visit me on the one weekend day that was close enough, she had called the main office to find out where we were staying, and called Jose to find out as much route information as possible. On the way up the monster climb, Katie had left several neon signs waiting for me, which was so thoughtful and well thought out. I found her waiting in the parking lot for me, with razor and shaving cream in hand.

Needless to say, I am officially out of the beard off contest. Aftering showering up, we drove to the nearby city of Stradsburg where we walked the town and had dinner together before coming back and hanging out with the group before Katie had to leave.

I know that Katie knew I was surprised and really happy to see her, but I don't know she knew how happy I was to see her. I still feel like a million bucks a couple hours later, and several people have commented on how I seem to have a noticeable extra spring in my step. Seeing Katie after not seeing her for two weeks reminded me of how special a girlfriend I have, and how lucky I am to have her.

6/20- Poughkeepsie to Port Jervis

2008-06-20T17:27:00.000-07:00

"Chuck Norris tears cure cancer. It’s too bad, because Chuck Norris doesn’t cry"

Today we rode from Poughkeepsie to Port Jervis. Except for a few wrong turns due to faulty cue sheets, we spent a rather uneventful day biking the 57 miles to Port Jervis. Whil e there was a good chance of rain, and overcast skies, the weather held out and was probably one of the hottest days weve had so far. I spent today biking with as many groups as possible again, trying to be social. I would spend time in the back, talk, then try to catch up to the next group up the road. This became increasingly difficult as i made my way to the front, as the faster cyclists were obviously at the front, making the time differences between each group getting progressively larger.

random stuff-

Yesterday we spent the day at our second build day, where we moved bricks almost all day. I spent a considerable amount of time at night fixing bikes, which has apparently become another unoffocial role on the trip. I'm really happy that people are willing to trust me with their bikes, and my own repair skills have vastly improved, but some nights I'm really exhausted and just want to sleep.

I was elected chore captain of our group, which was a nice honor to get from my peers.

The beard off contest has become increasingly annoying, as I'm feeling quite scruffy and have to fight the urge to shave several times a day. I want to last to at least State College, and maybe even to Pittsburgh. I feel like I look like Curious George as my facial hair is as long as my hair at this point.

I developed a sty in my eye during the last couple weeks at studio, and it still has not left, even with repeated hot towels being applied to it. I think it wants to come along for the ride to Santa Barbara, so I've named it Stan the Sty.

I don't know what I weighed before the trip, but I weighed in at 182 today, so if anything I've GAINED weight on this trip so far. Since I don't think I've over eaten at all, I hope this is regaining muscle mass back after a long layoff.

Tomorrow's ride to Mt Pocono features two state line sprints (NJ and PA), and a massive climb at the end...since I will be riding sweep the day after, I'm looking to take tomorrow hard.

Mail Drop... because there may be more to life than PB & J

2008-06-19T06:08:00.000-07:00

So I forgot to tell everyone the mail drop information if they wish to send me mail along the way.

The next 2 mail drops are in Pittsburgh on 6/26 and Bloomington, IN on 7/3

For Pittsburgh- Packages/letters should be sent to
Bike and Build
Attn: Leonard Klipper
General Delivery
700 Grant Street
Pittsburgh, PA 15219

and for Bloomington-

Bike and Build
Attn: Leonard Klipper
General Delivery
206 E 4th St
Bloomington, IN 47408

6/18- Pittsfield to Poughkeepsie

2008-06-18T19:59:00.000-07:00

"Chuck Norris is the reason Waldo is hiding"

Today we crossed our first state sign, crossing into NY shortly after leaving in the morning. Unlike normal group rides where people usually sprint for town lines, our trip only bothers sprinting for state lines (well at least some of us anyway), which I think is pretty sweet. Jose easily took the sprint as he was able to make the early jump by using his Garmin 705 to tell him where the state line was. I would say that was cheating, but since I had the same information available to me (although I didn't know it), I can't really cry foul.

Total distance= 78.6 miles

Total riding time= 5 hrs 10 min

Average speed= 15.2

Average heart rate= 121 bpm

max speed= 41.8 mph

Total calories burned= 4555 calories

Today's ride was somewhat of a blast from the past. We biked past Bard College, where I had the ECCC President's meeting this fall to figure out the race calendar. We also biked into Vasser where we went for easterns 2 years ago.

After the excitement of the state sprint which was at mile 9, I kep the rest of the day fairly easy, and instead focused on riding with as many different groups as possible. While the mileage was more then we've done to date, the 80 miles passed by quickly, as there was mostly rolling hills that amounted to little over 3700 feet of climbing. However, what made the day challenging was the large number of people, myself included, were more then a little beat up after the climbing of the past two days. I never thought I'd be looking forward to getting off the bike so much for a build day tomorrow.

The ride consisted of only one major climb that I can remember now that I did several times to encourage various groups of riders to get up the climb. We wound up having to take a dirt road for about two miles in NY that included a pretty steep downhill (this is where the cyclocross skills came in handy, as I was ableto makepeoplealittle less jittery going down by coaching them to shake out their arms and keep their weight over the back wheel, etc..) The weather was mostly pleasant until we had more torrential rain for about 10 minutes in the afternoon. As much as I enjoy riding in the rain, the rain is starting to get annoying, as I've had to clean my bike and drivetrain every day except once so far this summer.

We are staying at the Oakwood School in Poughkeepsie, where I'll have a bed one of the two nights we're here. We were given money by Vassar (Chris Webber's alma matter) to buy food, so we bought Chinese food to break up the monotony of Italian pasta dinners. We were also able to get laundry done, and I was able to avoid having my chore group have to go to a laundromat.

I spoke to Katie today for a good amount of time today, which was really nice, because it's usualy pretty difficult to find any private time in our travelling circus of 32. While I'm definately having a blast here, I'm definately missing her. She seems to be doing extremely well with her new job (she has her own assistant!), although I imagine they are expecting a lot from her to give her all of these benefits. Unfortunately, she isnt able to visit on Saturday, so I'll most likely be seeing her when I return. The one benefit of this is the beard off can continue (we've slightly changed the rules so that its not how well we grow in the beard in, but who can last the longest).

We've also had other unofficial contests, such as last rider standing to go without a flat. I'm one of the few in the group to not get a flat yet (I'm fully planning on making it to Santa Barbara without a single flat). For those in the group who have had a flat (or several), some are counting how many they get.

6/17- Amherst to Pittsfield

2008-06-17T19:41:00.000-07:00

“Today's climbs are the result of Chuck Norris descending somewhere else”

Today was some of the hardest riding I've ever done. Exhausted from the previous two days of hard riding, I was hurting a little bit today, but apparently not enough to go head to head with Dave Miller, Jane Wolcott, and Jose the "Soul-Train of Pain" Soltren. It was another extremely hilly ride, with another 4,000 feet of climbing in 51 miles and grades reaching up to 17%. The ride today might have better been a collegiate road race instead of touring ride on a sixty two day bike trip. Although there was supposed to be thunderstorms, the weather actually held up quite nicely, and we enjoyed some of the best weather of the trip so far with moderate temperatures and mostly sunny skies.

I think had I been fresh, today still would have been very difficult, as the climbs were long sustained efforts that took alot of perseverance. The ride also featured some fantastic descending that we were able to take at the 45-50 mile range.

I've been utterly amazed and inspired by the rest of the group so far. While I was a little nervous about the group at orientation, people have been unbelievably positive. What they might lack in physical strength they have more than made up for in heart and determination the last few days. There has been no complaining about the difficulty of the terrain or the constant rain we've faced every day, but rather upbeat attitudes all around.

We stayed at the YMCA in Pittsfield, where we found showers and open access to their pool. We ate dinner nearby at a meal provided by one of our group leader's former scout master.

6/16 Fitchburg to Amherst

2008-06-16T19:09:00.000-07:00

Today featured some real intense climbing for 50 miles. There was the threat of heavy lightening storms all day, so ratherthen taking an easy day, I went all out in an effort to beat the rain. I managed to beat the storms that wound up not occuring until much later, but wound up soaked again in some heavy torrential downpours shortly after lunch.

Total distance= 51.7 miles
total time= 3hrs 16 minutes
Average pace= 3:48 mile
Average speed= 15.8 mph
Max speed 42.7 mph
Total calories= 3422

Today featured over 4,000 feet of climbing, although thankfully the last 5 miles were all downhill. I had fun attacking our first day in the Berkshires, riding tempo/race pace up every steep hill we encountered.

We arrived in Amherst, where we stayed at the UMASS Hillel, showered at the local UMASS gym and ate a meal at a bike and build alums house.

Some interesting sights/stories from today:

Everyone has named their bike in the past week and I've renamed my bike Chuck Norris instead of its former name of "race bike", because its orange and it kicks ass.

I had an amazing slice of pizza in the town of Amherst at Antonios- Mariachi pizza which consisted of guacamole, black beans, lettuce, tomato, sour cream, cheese

We were supposed to stop for lunch at this town about halfway. The "town", if you can call it that, consisted of a church, post office and some sort of store, although there was not a single person out midday on a monday, which was extremely creepy. It actually reminded me of
the story from the Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury.

I was able to pick up a pair of gloves at the local bike shop in Amherst, along with a washer for my cleat that hopefully will get me to Pittsfield, since one of my bolts and washers fell off today.

6/15- Andover to Fitchburg

2008-06-15T19:29:00.000-07:00

Before the official ride report, I think it's important to wish my dad a happy father's day. Without his hard work and dedication to our family, I would not be fortunate enough to be enjoying the benefits of this trip.

Total distance (on my garmin, not on the whole time)= 40.6 miles
Total time 2:36:48
Average speed- 15.5mph
Max Speed- 33.6 mph
Total Calories- 2796

Today we rode 45 rainy miles from Andover to Fitchburg. By the time we were on the road in the early morning, it was not only raining, but pouring. Thankfully the group was in pretty good spirits and we had a really good time riding on some beautiful suburban/country roads that also featured the first climbing weve encountered.

I happen to love riding in the rain, as I think it reminds me of collegiate cycling (especially the Philly crits in 2006 and 2008), so I was uber excited to be on the road. It's very liberating to ride regardless of what mother nature has thrown our way, rather then staying indoors.

The weather made me ride a lot faster then I might have otherwise, as by midday the weather had cleared up and by then we were just cold and wet. We reached our host destination of a Unitarian Universalist church by 2pm, but had to wait several hours before the van arrived, so I took the time to clean my bike and show other people how to do likewise, and participated in another one of our group leader sophie's eight minute ab sessions (Although advertised as "the best eight minutes of your life", I would argue otherwise)

I am on laundry crew this week, so after showering we collected everyones dirty laundry and went to the local laundromat so that we all have clean clothes for the next 3 days. Hooray for clean clothes!

On a totally unrelated note, the Garmin 705 is again paying major dividends not only for its amazing routing and mapping information (today I was able to reroute the group when one of the roads we were supposed to take was in fact a dirt road), but also for its announcement that in 2009, it will work with the Saris Powertap.

Tomorrow features 51 miles of hilly climbing to Amherst with more heavy rain likely....

6/12- First Build Day

2008-06-14T14:30:00.000-07:00

Today was our first build day. After having a scrumptious breakfast provided by the Webbers we were driven out to the build site in Lawrence, MA. The site most of us worked on featured 3 houses, two of which were double residences. Last year, they had previously been nearing completion on one of the houses and close to finishing the others when a fire burned down the entire nearby area, and the family who had put in 500 sweat equity hours and had already ended their previous lease had to then scramble to find housing.

Construction began anew this may on all 3 houses. One group worked on assembling the framework and constructing the rafters of one house that had already had a fully built two stories, while my group worked on framing and lifting walls today. I spent a good portion of the day nailing studs and then plywood to those finished stud walls. By the end of the day we had put up the long side and the back walls of the house, while the other group had nearly completed installing the roof rafters.

The volunteers we worked with were all really nice and extremely informative. Mike was a computer consultant who became involved with Habitat ten years ago when his wife was sick of him watching college football on Saturday and professional football on Sunday. (He still watches professional football, but only sometimes watches college ball now). Arthur was a retired CPA who joined Habitat to keep busy and to support the affordable housing cause. Tony worked in I-Banking and was the on the board of directors for Habitat for Humanity of Miramack Valley.

There were many interesting things I learned today about the building site. Its one thing to see a built house without sheet rock, but quite another to see how things are constructed part by part. Perhaps the thing that surprised me the most was how uneven the building material was. In architecture, we are used to planing any wood we use until it is level and straight. Today we somehow took 2x4s that bowed every which way and made them square and level, which seemed to be an art in itself.

Pictures of raising a wall

1st real day

2008-06-13T13:58:00.000-07:00

Today was the first day of our trip. After another awesome breakfast prepared by the church, (I really think our group is starting to get spoiled), we traveled about 20 miles from Revere to Andover, home of Chris Webber, the former program director who was killed 15 months ago crossing (walking, not riding) the street in NYC.

We first traveled the few blocks to the beach in Revere, where we participated in the ceremonial wheel dipping ceremony in the Atlantic Ocean. We then rode the first 10 miles or so in neutral groups of 8. After a while we were let loose and allowed to ride at our own speed, which was a very welcome feeling after feeling somewhat trapped these first few days.

Today we will be staying at a private Middle school, and eating at the Webber's home for dinner. After arriving at Pike Middle School, I headed into town to pick up a few things from cvs, and find a post office to mail a father's day card.

The Garmin 705 that my parents bought for me is turning out to be an awesome piece of equipment that will serve me well this summer. Every morning I am able to wirelessly receive the route from Jose's Garmin, and am able to get turn by turn directions as well as a highlighted map that lets me know when upcoming turns are coming up. Perhaps the best advantage of the new Garmin is its ability to get me back to the host location after riding into town to look around as I did today.

As a totally unrelated note, the males in the group have started an unofficial mustaccio bashio and beard-off simultaneously (our excuses for not wanting to shave). In a few days my facial hair may be as long as the hair on my head which will be interesting to say the least.

Tomorrow features our first build day and I'm looking forward to physically aiding the affordable housing crisis.

random thoughts from days 1 and 2

2008-06-11T19:36:00.000-07:00

some of these thoughts have been brewing in my head for the last week or so, others are more informative of my trip so far.

1. Hair-
So after getting to orientation an hour early on Tuesday, I was told to do something for an hour, so me and Katie went to Salem to see a reinactment of the Salem Witch Trials. Afterwards, she wanted to get a cup of coffee, and I used the opportunity to get a serious haircut. As Katie said when she first saw me, "I leave you alone for 5 minutes, and this is what you do?" The haircut is definately a little severe, but most of the day its under my helmet or a hat anyways, so its actually helped me stay much cooler in the non airconditioned church we have been staying at for orientation. In addition, I also shaved my legs (very silky and smooth), also to keep me cooler in my process of reacclimating to heat 24-7.

2. Bike Accidents-
in the last couple of days, several of my friends from Philly have been involved in bike accidents involving other automobiles. Some of them, like Brenton Schwartz, wound up "lucky", and wound up with only a broken bike. Others, like Tyler Bauer, wound up physically hurt (I haven't heard any new updates, but I know he broke his hip in 4 places and is probably done with racing for the summer). Charlie from Temple was hit earlier this spring, along with a guy on the Penn Team. Either someone really hates Temple Cycling, or people just really need to start paying better attention to cyclists around them.

3. Bike deals-
www.Chainlove.com
check it out, one item offered at a time for insanely discounted prices until it sells out

4. Team Type I- A teammate at Penn is racing across America on an eight man squad for the second year in a row as part of RAAM. Last year, his team finished in 5 days, 15 hours

4. Orientation- The better part of the past 2 days have been spent doing orientation type stuff
It's been boring getting through alot of this stuff, and I'm quite surprised that for alot of people this is new information to them. Something that is particularly frustrating to me is that some people give wrong information, regarding bike maintenance and repair, which leads to bad habits. Othertimes people give more information than people want to hear or can handle at that moment, which is equally as unproductive.

5. Shakedown ride- Today we went for a dress rehersal of our first 20 mile ride to Andover tomorrow. Rode along the shore in the beautiful town of rever for a nice 15 mile spin. Tomorrow will also be a neutral day meaning we go slow, but after that I'm free to ride whatever speed I wish, which will thankfully be faster than the 10 mph average speed we set today.

6. Generosity- I'm beginning to realize how big a deal this ride is to many people. So far we've been treated to some excellent meals complements of the church that has graciously hosted us, and after the group leaders gave their presentation today, you could see how important this trip meant to one of the pastors and his wife. The wife told us how what we were doing was what was right in America today, which was few and far between everything else going on the world at this moment.

I also got to spend time today after everything with one member of our group who has all of $10 to her name for the entire trip, yet felt the need to come out on Bike and Build and help others. This incredible invidual has been self supported her entire life, putting herself through school and clearly working extremely hard between her four jobs and being a full time student. She wanted to do this trip after hearing about it because as she said " I may have ten dollars, but there are many people who have even less than me, so I guess I should consider myself lucky and look to help out." This kind of talk really makes you think of how fortunate I've been my entire life, where I havent had to worry about my next meal, or where I'd be sleeping the next night.

I'd love to write more, but theres an 11pm curfew that I'm running periously close to breaking, so I must be headed off to bed (the fact that I'm an architect major, and never get sleep apparently carries no weight here, as they are pretty stringent on the rules.) I'm not quite done, but Ill finish up tomorrow and write about tomorrow's adventures, if I get internet access that is.

Thank you donors

2008-06-10T17:00:00.000-07:00

Before I leave on my trip, I am in gratitude to many people who helped me make this trip possible. First I would like to thank all my donors who helped me go on this trip, and more importantly helped fight housing poverty in the US.
If you have not already gotten a thank you note or call from me yet, Ill be getting to you shortly (this only applies to a few of you whose numbers I've had trouble getting)

I would like to thank:
John Lucier
Mohammed Almaraj
Daniel Simola
Stephanie Yee
Sarah Strauss
Al Feraro
Mr. & Mrs. Richard and Roberta Feinstein
Jeremy Brochin
Holly Martin
Ms. Mary Ellen Keating
Gabriel Oppenheim
Michael Fass
Len Riggio
Rabbi Adler
Max Roberts
Michael Rosen
Mr. & Mrs. Larry & Elyse Ingber
Mr. & Mrs. Tracie Deason
Rick & Tina Caruso
Swedler Family
Herb Simon
Shaber Family
Marc & Suzanne Winkleman
Eric Bowles
Fachler Family
Bishop Harris
Beth Alizzi
Mr. Lawrence Zilavy
Lucas Hartman
Irene Miller
Mr. & Mrs. Robert Schnur
Gregory Meisel
Peter Farago

Together we raised over $17,000! towards the affordable housing crising in America.

Next I would like to thank my parents for financially supporting me this summer as I chase one of my lifelong dreams of biking cross country. I would also like to thank my brothers and Katie who are supporting me even at the cost of losing the one time a year where we get to hang out alot.

End of Work, Train Game

2008-06-06T19:19:00.000-07:00

Today was my last day of working at GreenbergFarrow until August. While I’ll hold off talking about my full summer experience there until after I’ve finished my stint when I return from bike and build, I thought I would speak of matters much more trivial and exciting.

There were many observations that I made in my month sampling of the real world.
1) I have a lot more respect for my dad, and for all working people, who wake up early, commute to work, work a full day doing something that’s probably not a whole lot exciting, commute home, to only then have to deal with all of the responsibilities of home before going to sleep because you have to repeat the same deal tomorrow. Regardless of how exciting your job is, or what you make, work is tough and mentally demanding, plain and simple. Every time I sample the working world, I’m reminded of how fortunate I am to still be a student with lots of freedom and few responsibilities. It’s difficult to be as grateful to your parents as one should be until you actually experience the working world.
2) I’ve realized that in the working world, groundbreaking ideas and enlightening days are far and few between. I’ve realized life is better broken down into the small moral victories of the everyday. There were many ways to take the mundane everyday, and create excitement in that time. A sampling of my favorite games I would play…

a) Train game-
The LIRR features a row of 2 seats on one side, 3 seats on the other side of the aisle. About 75% of the aisle of 3 will feature a third person in the middle, where about 90% of the aisle of the 2 will feature both people. I would leave the office at 5:30 for a 5:46 train which usually left me with the option of
1) taking the aisle seat in the row of 3 and play the odds of having my own space surrounded by the aisle and the extra middle seat at the risk of an overweight burly man sweating profusely squeezing into the middle seat or
2) picking the person I would spend the next hour sitting next to which cut off the chance factor, and left you with a little more space then if you were part of the 3

Usually I would go for the aisle seat of 3, for no other reason then the suspense of continuing this game. Now came the tough part. If 80% of the seats are going to be filled with a 3rd middle person, how do you maximize your odds of being one of the lucky few? Usually, if you have to pick a middle seat, you look for at least 1 if not both people to be preferably thin, and/or female, mainly because both groups took considerably less space than overweight men. Not that anyone is going to describe me as lanky, but my smaller size only further hurt my odds of being in that 20%. There were several strategies I would play, some in combinations with another, in my attempts to create a personal space for the next hour.
Strategy I: I would try to take up as much space with my smaller body as possible, further filling up space by leaving my chrome messenger bag in the middle seat.
Strategy II: Electronics- I might try to take out my laptop and headphones and begin blogging as soon as I get on the train so that I already have large electronics already out, so people don’t want to deal with the hassle of me having to awkwardly get up with all my stuff so they can squeeze in.
Strategy III: cell phones- nobody likes sitting next to that blabbermouth on the train, so it didn’t hurt to place a strategic phone call and try talking loudy
Strategy IV: Rarely used, but sometimes Id pretend to already be sleeping, as it was easier to sit with someone else than to have to bother waking me up.

There were other strategies as well, such as taking one of the two seats on one end of the train that did not feature a window, which could potentially shield you from other sitters.

You may think this is totally ridiculous, and I’ll admit there is no empirical evidence that suggests that any of what I’ve described has helped at all, but it certainly keeps things more exciting then had I just viewed this hour experience as an hour that I can never get back from my life.

b) Elevator game- there are 3 elevators that are in my office building, and there is no indication of where each one is on every floor. This simple game played on the way to work, on the way to lunch, on the way back from lunch, and on the way home involves guessing which elevator is the one to pick you up.

c) Ketchup game- guessing the number of individual wrapped ketchup packets that would be included with my burger special

There are many more games that I play every day, that makes the everyday exciting. These small victories may be as simple as finding a new, quicker route to take to work once I leave Penn Station, or finding a cheaper lunch deal than the Korean deli you tried yesterday. As the hustling accapella group on my subway today said, do things everyday that bring you up, not down.

goldfish

2008-06-04T21:12:00.000-07:00

it seems like there is so much to do with so little time!

by the time I've gotten home from work, I've had little time to relax, as I've either been preparing for the trip, or trying to spend time with the people I'm going to miss the most.

Yesterday I went to visit my Uncle Johnny (UJ), Aunt Laura, cousin Marissa and have "visitation rights" with my fish. Since my parents neither wanted the responsibility of keeping my goldfish alive, nor did they wish to have a 20 gallon, let alone a 55 gallon fish tank in the house, my uncle who is a skilled acquarist himself, gladly and graciously agreed to take care of my goldfish for the summer.

My 3 goldfish, Emerill, Dewey and Elie along with Matt Emerick's fish Bettamax and my uncle's goldfish and fellow tank buddy Jumbo are all comfortably living in a 55 gallon aquarium in my uncle's basement. I can hardly wait for the day where I'll be able to move the tank to my own place, as it is truly a sight to behold.

bike preperation

2008-06-04T20:35:00.000-07:00

so ive been working to get my gear and bike up to my standards for this trip.

First- the bike.

I will be taking my 2005 Cannondale Caad 7 on the trip. The original picture of the bike shown above shows a picture of what the bike looked like when I bought it. The only thing remaining off the original bike is the frame and fork, as everything else has been crashed, broken, upgraded, worn out or replaced for other reasons. To make a long story short, the 9 speed 105 components were replaced with 10 speed ultegra this winter, the wheels were swapped out for my cyclocross wheelset and i switched the saddle to a white arione saddle to match my white handlebar tape. While not exact, this photo of me racing at Columbia this year is pretty close to my bike and build setup. The biggest difference will be having 2 rear mounted cages, tri bars, and Katie's front light.

I finally was able to pick up both my bike and katie's bike from Bike Junkie yesterday, where they replaced my chain, replaced my bent derailleur hanger and cleaned, fine tuned the shifting, adjusted the brakes, and a multitude of other things that will make the bike run smooth for 4,000 miles. I also was able to have my ksyrium sl front wheel trued, as it turns out I broke a spoke- riding my SL's in the woods will not be a mistake I make again, especially once they come off the mp3 plan insurance.

Stuff that I've ordered online has also started coming in, along with stuff I've picked up from the shop. I've loaded up on spare tubes, an extra chain, assos chamois cream, continental gatorskin tires, powerbars in every flavor. My sleeping bag came in, along with my masterlock bike cuffs which i may or may not take with me. The biggest news came today with the arrival of my garmin edge 705, which has several upgrades over my "old" edge 305. The biggest advantages worth bragging about are having fully routed gps maps for my entire cross country route, and the ability to wirelessly communicate with power meters which im looking to pick up when i return.

Much new bike shwag to play with!

serious bike accident

2008-06-03T20:26:00.000-07:00

so the big news that has been circulating on all of the collegiate listservs im on has been about the big bike crash in mexico that involved an intoxicated driver that fell asleep driving and plowed into a large group of bikers participating in a bike race.

The graphic photo above shows the carnage that unfolded.

This kind of crap really pisses me off as a cyclist...

It definately makes you think twice about the inherent dangers of a cross country bike trip, as with all of my experience and extra caution I could still get screwed over just because someone's not paying attention. While overexaggerated, I know the Yale Habitat ride closed due to too many people getting hurt by being hit by cars. Hopefully our group has better luck.

ride report and bike maintenance

2008-06-01T17:05:00.000-07:00

Today i rode with my brother Alan both on the road and in the trails. We started off with a couple laps on the road before switching to the trails. Alan is getting really good at mountain biking, as he kept having to wait up for me whenever we hit a technical section. It wasn't until we did the easier green trails in Stillwell that are flat and mostly dirt trails free of obstacles that I was able to put some distance on him.
I learned that my Mavic Kysrium SL's are not the best 'cross wheelset, (at least not for singletrack trail riding), as i hit something that caused the front wheel to go out of true, and the bike did not track corners well at all for the rest of the afternoon. This has only further reinforced my belief that my mavic cxp 33 wheelset is the best one to take on Bike and Builde, as they can take alot of abuse.

After emerging from the woods with our dirty machines, it was time to clean them. Here I witnessed Alan performing the cardinal sin of bike maintenance, which was taking a hose to clean off the bike. NEVER CLEAN A BIKE WITH A GARDEN HOSE. Bikes in general don't like getting wet, but shooting water at certain area's of the bike like bearings and headsets, shortens the life of the bike and components by many years. Mechanics on the protour may use powerwashers to clean the entire team's bikes for those nasty European classic races in the spring, but they wind up replacing bottom brackets every two weeks, which are not in most people's budgets.
You clean a bike to prolong the life of components, not to shorten them.
To clean a bike, all you need is an old tshirt and maybe a little soapy water for hard to clean areas. Nothing short of meticulous hand cleaning keeps the bike in as good shape. (Ocassionally I'll hit the frame up with proline bike cleaner to give it some shine) I take pride in the fact my bikes are always clean and well maintained, as they run smoother and look a whole lot nicer.

cyclecross

2008-05-29T09:58:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I decided to go for a ride after work. Since my road bike is at the shop getting tuned up for bike and build, i was left with my 'cross bike. Given the limited amount of time (approx 1hr) before sunset, I decided to take my cyclocross bike in the woods behind my house for some singletrack action.
I thought this would be a good idea because
1. I was interested in trying out my Mavic Kysrium SL's as 'cross wheels (I'm using my cyclocross wheelset for bike and build because they use normal spokes and have a high spoke count, and I actually want the weight penalty of a heavier wheelset)
2. Theres not alot of riding that can be done in an hour and considered a good workout, unless I was doing high intensity intervals. An hour in the trails (at least for me) is a much more challenging ride.
3. I bought what has amounted to another expensive toy this past November as part of the Upenn Team deal (in the hopes of racing 'cross next fall) and had taken my cross bike out all of five or six times for the entire year. I wanted to see what this thing could handle, and what I could handle, as I've never spent any time mountain biking, even though I have one of the best trails directly behind my house.

I had a lot of fun sloshing through puddles, running up hills, and having one of those great moments where you just feel like its just you, your bike and the path in front of you. In many instances, it is those moments you feel the most detached from the rest of the world that you feel the most connected to it.

As much of a spiritual experience this ride became, (today may have been the first time where I really enjoyed riding off-road), I can still say it was probably a bad idea.
1. apparently my kysrium SL's are not as bomb proof as I thought, and I sent the front one out of true-- this only further reinforces my belief that my original cross set was the right choice for bike and build.
2. Stillwell is one of the most overused trails in the county, and as a result has become a bike shop's best friend as alot of the dirt has been replaced by sand and traction is tricky at best.
3. my lack of experience led me to fall over and crash several times and I slightly twisted my ankle- this is not what I should be doing before leaving for a 9 week bike trip that I will never have opportunity to do again if I dont do it this summer. Other than a few scrapes and bruises, thankfully I was alrite and I can say that falling on dirt is alot softer and safer than crashing on pavement and speeds are much slower.
4. With nightfall fast approaching, I wound up getting quite lost and only by pure luck wound up making it out of the woods before it became dark.
5. Cleaning a 'cross bike is a royal pain, and I did a half-ass job at best.

Although this ride gets chalked up in the bad idea column (i've been doing that plenty lately it seems), I still was glad to have done it, as its the first time this summer I've gotten in a ride after work.

powercranks

2008-05-23T05:36:00.000-07:00

My powercranks finally arrived today! I was able to pick up a used pair in the adjustable length style on ebay, and was able to get the model 5 which is a lot less prone to breaking.

What are powercranks you ask? Most bicycle cranks are connected to each other, so that one crank turns the other crank. It's the standard setup that everyone knows and loves. PowerCranks replace that lovely connection with a one way clutch, making the cranks independent. Have you ever tried riding a bicycle with only one foot clipped in? It's hard. Well, riding with PowerCranks is like doing the one-footed drill, with both feet at the same time, all the time. For more information and videos of these interesting tools of torture, check out http://www.powercranks.com/

They are definately heavier and bulkier than i expected for such expensive cranks. I'm planning on putting these on my cannondale r700 (my bike and build bike) after this summer trip and the Tobay triathalon the week after bike and build ends. I've had a mixed bag of opinions on them so far. Our group leader Jose swears by them, and said hes seen marked improvement in his performance because of them. Doug, my LBS owner, says they are a waste of time and money. With time we'll see

Six13- Alan receives his new bike

2008-05-21T20:28:00.001-07:00

So for Robert's high school graduation, I wanted to do something really nice, and offered to buy him a bike up to $1000. After steering him away from the "fitness bike" genre, I bought him a 2007 Rocky Mountain solo 30, a Canadian made aluminum bike with carbon fork and seatstays and 10 speed 105. Rocky Mountain has a solid reputation in the mountain biking industry, and supposedly made nice road bikes as well. (I hear the biggest knock on RM bikes are their frames are a little on the heavier side, but I'd trade ride feel for a little extra weight any day of the week.)

I won't say that Robert has ridden it a ton, but for those few rides we went on together, it made all those hours working at Greenbergfarrow worth it. Hopefully next year takes the bike up to Yale, regardless of how little space he claims to have in his dorm, and maybe he'll even find the adrenaline rush and camaderie of racing in the ECCC. Even if he never races, he'll always have a solid bike to zip around on, and hopefully he finds at least half the benefits that I've gotten as a result of biking.

So how does this relate to Alan, who just finished 10th grade? Alan has always been the most athletic in the family, (by far I might add), and has always shown interest in biking. Even though he has seemed to be more interested in mountain biking, as this is what his friends do, I know he's been interested in road biking as well, which would play into his strengths as a track and xc star.

I'm still not quite sure how he pulled this off, but somehow he convinced me to extend the same 1k road bike high school graduation gift to him...two years early! In reality though, it made sense to me, as he'll get much more use out of it now, as well as he has a better chance of really getting into the sport if he starts now. In addition, all of the bike and build discounts that we were getting served as really good leverage on getting a good bike at a decent price.

After originally deciding he wanted a specialized allez elite in the gerolsteiner color, I was able make him see the light, and eventually he came around to seeing the 2008 Cannondale Six13 5 in black. I'm not knocking the specialed allez elite as a beginner road bike, for all those bike and builders reading this blog, as itll work fine, but for a little more, the six13 5 is in a league of its own (and happens to be the winner of Bicycling Magazine's Best Enthusiast Road Bike, so you dont have to take my word for it.)

The bike is equipped with 105 10 speed drivetrain, ultegra brakes, mavic aksium wheels, and cannondale's carbon tubes, aluminum lugged bike, which 3 years ago was their top of the line frameset raced by the pros. Alan's new bike is actually alot nicer than my Cannondale caad7 when i bought it, which is nice, as it will be hard for Alan to outgrow the bike anytime soon.

Another happy cutomer at Bike Junkie ( http://www.bikejunkie.com/ ) If you live on LI, you'll never find a better bike shop out there.

Katie's Graduation

2008-05-20T20:15:00.001-07:00

I was at Katie’s Graduation this week. It felt like only yesterday that I was the freshmen boy who lived down the hall from the girls of 907. It’s really hard to believe that next year I’ll be done with college as well, and forced to deal with the real world, or escape to grad school for 2-3 more years of academia.

I went up with Katie’s full family and had a great time. While I was extremely proud of Katie, part of me was understandably sad as well, as graduation marked the passing of a chapter of our lives where we got to spend the better part of every day with each other. While I have no doubt that we’ll work things out next year and in the future, I’ll miss her constant companionship and friendship next year.

I don’t think I’ve seen Katie so happy in a really long time. Maybe it had to do with being done with all the roommate nonsense she put up with all year, (read: never live with all girls..it’s a disaster waiting to happen), or maybe it had to do with landing her dream job for a year before medical school, or perhaps the second semester in a row where she has rocked in the grades department. Whatever the case might be, I can only hope to be so happy at the end of my four years at Penn.

I have very much enjoyed my time at Penn. I’ve gotten to meet some really fantastic people and have felt I’ve grown in all facets of my life- It’s probably the closest I’ve ever been to having a well rounded life.

I also think my love of Penn has been closely related to by infatuation with the city of Philadelphia. Yes, the city of Brotherly Love where more than a person a day is murdered, the city where there are only 2 subway lines, the city that hasn’t won a sports title in 40 years, and a city whose schools are some of the worst in the nation. For all of its problems, Philadelphia has a lot more going for it than people give it credit.
1st- cost. In Philadelphia, I can get 3 eggs with cheese on a hoagie for $1.75- in NYC 2 eggs & cheese on a roll will cost you at least $2.50. Nice apartments in Philadelphia can be found for less than $800 while its hard to find anything in NYC for under $1,000.
2nd- Philadelphia is built at a more human scale than NYC. I often feel swallowed up in the machine organism of the city- both the sheer size and scale of the city is overpowering at times.
3rd- Climate- Philadelphia is typically 5 degrees warmer than NYC, which is sometimes the difference between riding outside and riding my trainer
Lastly- while both my LBS and Katie are originally from Long Island, it wasnt until Philly that i discovered Katie or biking, two of the best things to ever happen to me.

riding on Long Island

2008-05-15T19:30:00.000-07:00

LI is one of the best places to ride- there are plenty of good routes to choose from although its difficult to find long sustained hills
http://www.bicyclelongisland.org/index.htm
this site has links to all the bike clubs on long island- unlike philadelphia which is primarily a race town full of uscf cat 3/4s, long island is mostly club riders and there are many more rides geared towards peole of all abilities.

ive ridden with the massapequa bike club before, as well as the huntington bike club in the past- both are goodhttp://www.bicyclelongisland.org/libcfram.htm here are many good cue sheets to chose from