Category: Rides

Load Testing

Today was another fantastic day to be out on the bike gathering the groceries for the week

ide blue skies to the east with the fog looming just offshore behind me.  THe high sweeping clouds made the blue skies pop, this one made me think of the swallows that will be heading back south pretty soon.

Enough day dreaming, and time for the business end of the trip.  Two stops totaling, 1 gal milk, 1 gallon Tangerine Juice, 3 quarts yogurt, boxes of cereal and crackers, more juice, bananas, and some how squeezing the camera gear back in the bags.  One trick I use is to take the bags of stuff out of the boxes, getting every little bit I can out of the hauling capacity.

Fully loaded with over 30 lbs of stuff I decided to head uphill to push the bike and myself a bit.  The handling climbing up was very precise, not slow speed wobbles all over the road, even mashing a 36/30 low gear.  The views were fantastic once above the fog, the bank looming just off the beach, with the channel islands poking out the top miles away.  This shot diving into one of my favorite turns captured it best.

 

New Sunday Standard

Adding a twist to the regular Sunday ride we have been heading over to the playground as a family before keep on riding to the market.

Then it is time for me to keep on keepin on for the next 10 miles to get the veggies.  Today was another incredible day to be outside.

This area of southern California  is really is a wonderful place to ride and call home.

While setting up for some pictures came across one of my pet peeves.  I will never fully understand why changing a tube is so intense that you throw the dead tube off on the side of the road. 

I usually pick them up, take them home and patch them.  While a free tube is a nice bonus, they are usually 23mm tubes, and do not see much use in my stable.  have a few ideas on how to curb this kind of waste, but implementation is going to be a bit of a process.

 

Double Ride Day

After taking the Roadeo out in the morning yesterday, I headed out in the afternoon on the Trek to get some groceries.  I opted that way as I knew that the load was going to be a bit bulky, diapers.  By the time all stops were made I had about 40 lbs of juice, milk, food and god knows what loaded on the front.  Even with a bit of sloppiness in the panniers the handling was fine.  Actually better than fine with stop and go traffic, slogging up hills into a 15 mp headwind and bombing down the other side.

Most bikes I have owned would handle like crap with that much up front, or anywhere for that matter.  My xtracycle setup does ok with loads like that, but just ok, and is a bit more like a clunky old station wagon.  The Trek with the 650b conversion is cushy, but sporty.  The handling is a bit light with nothing at all up front, but a 5lb u-lock in a bag fixes that.  With loads weighing in between the lock and, well yesterday’s 40 lbs, the handling is still smooth through fast turns, holds a line grinding up hills and no wobble or drift at slow speeds.

For those not familiar with the geometric trail of the front end, the subject can be daunting.  For those interested in the physics of the whole thing, Wikipedia has a decent article. The subject has spurred religion/politic like arguments on the web forum over the recent years.  I remained fairly neutral until this.  Previously I had only ridden the low trail bikes I had built up for my wife, both handled great with a basket, but were way too small for me.  This project bike has really opened up my eyes.  I still love my Roadeo, just differently, and keep the load in the back.  I prefer having the stuff up front, as long as the bike is designed to handle the load, it makes it much easier to keep an eye on the load.