Mandarin or Blue

I have a bit of a dilemma with regards to my bar tape.  Right now I have a nice San Marco Lorica (synthetic leather) blue finished off with some orange electrical tape I found at Home Depot.  The effect is quite nice if I do say so myself.

From the last picture, you can see the bar tape is showing signs of wear.

I'm partial to leather (don't ask) so I looked up Brooks bar tape.  Very interesting.  Brooks has a nice Royal Blue but they also have a color called Mandarin:

I just don't know if the Mandarin will be orange enough or if I should just stick with Royal Blue.  What do you think?  Please see my previous posts for color comparisons.

Repainted Frame In-Transit

My Orange Bike is on its way back to me after the repaint.  The good folks at Joes Bicycle Painting sent a handful of awesome pictures of the frame and fork.  Fantastic pint job!  Can't wait to get the frame in my grubby mitts!

Flames!

Nice detail!

HT, TT, DT Junction

Matching Fork!

Thanks to Ed Yoon, my friend and the guy who got me into cycling in a bigger way, for the recommending Joe's Bicycle Painting!

I've been cleaning parts, replacing worn items, and finishing up gluing some tubulars (I bought some Challenge tubular tires but the tread delaminated on me so no more; Vittoria's all the way).  Here's some of the parts going back on My Orange Bike:

Record Alloy Crankset
w/new Record BB

Record Titanium bits

New Cane Creek 110 Headset
and matching spacers

Tubies with new
Vittorio rubber

Ambrosio Nemesis rims

2006 Campy hubs

Thomson Seatpost & Brooks
(is there anything else?)

Let the drooling begin!

Maintenance

Since I had the Orange Wonder out for a respray, it was time to clean up and repair or replace any worn parts.

The first thing I noticed was that the headset was starting to get pitted.  The crown race was pitted in various places around its surface.  Unfortunately, I did not look closely at the bits that were pressed into the frame.  I'm guessing that if the races are showing signs of pitting, then other parts that interface with the same bearings are probably showing wear as well.

I have few options for a new headset.

The advantage here is that the aesthetic of the bike won't change any more than it already is.  The finish looks nice and it would match the understated elegance that is Campagnolo Record Alloy!

Chris King quality!  What more can be said.  The blue is darker and doesn't seem to be the right shade.  Only comes in Sotto Voce so it's quite subdued.

Top-of-the-Line Cane Creek offering.  The color is almost a perfect match for the decals!  110 year warranty and it's not as garish as the King headset.  Plus, I like the lizard.







I think I'll go with the Cane Creek.

I've been scrubbing away at the alloy parts that will be going back on My Orange Bike and it sur edo look purdy!  There are a few scratches on the parts but that's to be expected from the use I've gotten out of the bike.

I had installed some side-load bottle cages but, after pitching a couple of nice water bottles, I'll be going back to something a bit more standard like these King cages:

I had a pair of Tacx Tao cages but the little tab broke off the bottom.  They look nice however:

Cosmetic Surgery

I've been talking about it for a while now but I'm finally getting something done.  The orange bike has arrived at Joe's Bicycle Painting for a new paint job!  Joe's was recommended by a good friend who had his LeMond Tete de Course done by Joe in a tinted clear coat that matched my friend's M3 exactly!

Over the couple of years that I've had the frame, it's taken a beating from chain slap and an errant nail that just so happened to go completely through my tire sidewall and ended up scraping the insides of both chain stays and normal wear and tear.

There were a couple of times when the chain got jammed between the crank and the chain stays.  That left a nasty scratch!  I don't believe there was a clear coat applied to the frame nor did I put any sort of clear paint guards on.

I was able to snag a bike box from Spokes, Etc.  Fortunately, the Marcelo has really beefy chain stays and awesome hand-cut stainless steel rear dropouts!  Unfortunately, this combination means that the frame is wider than the box I got.  Surgery was in order!

1. Sharp blade -- Check!
2. Fiber tape -- Check!
3. Dense foam -- Check!
4. Two-part poxy -- Check!

  <snip, snip, tape, tape, cut, cut, glue, glue>

Voila!

Custom bike box.

My Orange Frame nestled

snugly inside

Now to send this to on to Joe Vasquez!  My first stop is my local post office.  The box is light, 10lbs, but large and USPS says "$108 to ship", John says "No thanks.  I'll try FedEx."  It still costs me $76 to ship it but I saved over $32.

I want to have some fun with the frame so here is what I've asked Joe to do:

The down tube decals will be in the same color as the original except they will move to the seat tube and will read "DARIO" on one side and "PEGORETTI" on the other.  The font will be the same.

So, what do you think?  I still have time to change my mind but I must decide soon if any changes will be made!

I'm Too Fat For This Sport! - part 2

It wasn't all climbing and skiing for me!  When I got back my cycling schedule picked right back up ...

I had committed to do Strawberry Fields Forever on May 19th in Watsonville, CA with a bunch of TOSRV friends and The Wife's cousin from San Francisco, Alexander.  We signed up for the 65 mile route and I figured I could do that with no problems!  Riiight.

Our plan was to meet in SF airport, rent a big van for all of our bikes and gear, and head over to Watsonville, CA for some good eats and a bicycle assembly party.  Mark rented a tandem that he rode with his son Gabe, Vivek brought his bike and we had our two bike boxes plus all of our gear.

Getting to the starting point of this big adventure was the biggest problem.  The wife and I were flying Virgin America from D.C. directly to S.F. and scheduled to land late AM.  Our flight was going along nicely and we were just north of Denver, CO. when an inconsiderate passenger had the nerve to get seriously ill!  The pilots hooked a left and landed in Denver where the sick passenger deplaned (we heard some lame excuse about congestive heart failure).

This is where the fun begins.  The flight was full and I guess the plane needed to be re-inspected prior to take-off.  First off, Virgin America does not have a presence at Denver International Airport so we had to wait for Northwest to clear a gate.  Second, no other airline that does have a presence there flys the same aircraft as Virgin America.  The re-inspection had to be coordinated between Northwest ground crews and Virgin America remotely.

Suffice it to say that we were significantly delayed getting out of Denver.

While we were delayed, Mark & crew picked up van and drove to the bicycle shop to pick up their tandem.  They also loaded up Vivek and his ride.  After retrieving us from the airport we drove directly to Watsonville, CA.

The ride was very nice and well organized.  I especially like to detour to a rest stop where Craig Calfee runs his shop.  My other bike is a Luna Pro.  Beautiful views of the Pacific ocean!

My least favorite part was the last ascent before the long descent back into Watsonville.  It was brutal to my East Coast training regimen where short and steep is all we have.  Oh, the pain!  The descent however was worth it!

Back at home, I started preparing for Bike MS: Beyond the Beltway, a charity ride which supports multiple sclerosis research.  The ride is listed as moderate, but 100 miles of rolling hills is difficult especially when followed by 50 miles the next day.

The scenery however is wonderful!

 The roads go ...

on forever.

I wonder where this leads?

At a beautiful rest stop!

It is horse country.

During the Summer, I decided to build a PowerTap wheel and start training to improve my cycling.  The idea of doing the Wintergreen Ascent TT came up at this time as a sort of carrot to work towards.  So with that in mind Kirk at Velo Works drew up a training plan based on power.

I worked on intervals and continued to ride on the weekend shop rides out of Spokes, Etc. on Quaker Lane in Alexandria.  My fitness level was improving to the point where my resting heart rate was ~46bpm.  Every time I went to donate blood I had to get a waiver due to my low heart rate.  This is good!

Anyways, this regimen carried me through to Fall and Winter.  During this time period, the casual riders tend to fall off unless we get a rare nice warm weekend.  Mostly, it's the hardmen of Belgian descent, riders so conditioned to the fierce conditions of the lowlands that our relatively mild Winters here are nothing more than an irritation.  Were talking about people like Gordon and Toren.  I bow before them!

By spring my waist was shrinking and my shirt size had gone down from XL to merely L.

So, I finally stepped onto the scale in Dr. Johnson's office I just about passed out when the nurse read the results ...

192 lbs

That's like 87 Kg, 13.7 stones!

Entirely too fat for this sport!

Interlude - Wintergreen TT

Yesterday was Wintergreen Ascent TT.  The ride is pretty brutal but I finished, last in my class, but I finished and my time, 1:10:32.  I now own the Lanterne Rouge for my age group!  Marius, my riding buddy, finished 11th with a time of 0:48:34.

Marius and his machine

The scene at the start

Marius works at NIH and is a pretty smart guy.  Anyway he did an analysis of the ride and broke it down into 2 parts; the warm up bits and the really hard part.

The warm up runs from the start to the Wintergreen Resort entrance and is just over 3 miles.

 
As you can see, the warm up starts with a nice gentle grade for 2 miles.  Evilness starts here and the grade increases to over 10% for the last .5 mile.  So, one should be sufficiently warmed up by the time the hard part starts!

My start time was 10:26 and Marius started a minute behind me.  He passed me after about a mile (I've got almost 50 lbs on Marius) and I didn't see him again until the finish.

I arrived at the gate just trying to push the pedals.  A guy was encouraging the riders on and he started cheering me on when I got distracted and fell over near a guard rail.  I won't call it a crash cause I wasn't going very fast, sort of a slow motion list to the right.  The guy was really nice and gave me a push when I got clipped in to get me started.

The hard part of the TT is just 3.4 miles of hell!



The average grade for this part of the route is 8.9% with a max grade of 17.9%.  Ouch!  I was already riding with a compact crankset but I was hurting through this part of the route and the 13-26 cassette just wasn't enough for my fat ass.  If I do this ride again, I'll move to a 13-29 cassette and a mid-cage rear derailleur.

Wintergreen is an awesome event and I love the scenery.  Someday I hope to hand over the Lanterne Rouge to someone who has suffered more on this ride.

I'm Too Fat For This Sport! - part 1

I am now of an age where I must occasionally suffer the indignity of a rather invasive procedure.  I'm speaking of a  colonoscopy.  I have scheduled this dreaded procedure for sometime after my Wintergreen ride.  While I was doing the self-care bit, I scheduled a regular physical since I hadn't seen my PCP since 2009.  I've been pretty active and have done quite a bit since my last visit so I wasn't expecting any surprises ....

In April of 2009 I stayed with my good friend Jean-Christian in France ... for a whole month!  My sister Sarah had just graduated from pharmacy school at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charlesston, SC. and the wife and I gave Sarah a vacation in Paris as a graduation present.  This trip was a combination of a long overdue vacation and playing tour guide to Srarh and Richard her husband.

What a vacation it was: touring Paris with my Sarah and Richard, climbing, skiing, climbing some more, just being in Paris, and who could forget the food!

Jean-Chri arranged, through a colleague, a small apartment for my sister's use in the Les Gobelins area of Paris.  This is a beautiful, centrally located area of Paris with nice cafes and a great market.  I spent a week with my sister while Jean-Chri finished up some work.  After that, Sarah and Richard spent time by themselves in Paris and then headed home.

We did manage to kidnap Richard for a day of climbing in Fontainebleau, the premier bouldering site in the world!  Sarah doesn't climb but she does shop so we left her to her own devices in Barbizon, a beautiful village in Fontainebleau.

Sarah is a very out-going sort and will make friends no matter where she is.  Here she is with "un petit cadeau" from an unsuspecting shopkeeper in Barbizon.

Meanwhile, back in the forest, we ran into trouble and had to claim ignorance lest we be run out of Fontainebleau!

Caro, me and Richard

Jean-Chri, Caro, and Richard

Another good friend Cyril - Very strong!

After a week in Paris, we left Sarah and Richard and headed south for the Alps!

Road Trip!

Our first stop was Guillestre.  Caro's father and step-mother have an apartment in Guillestre which sits right on the road that goes up to Col d'Izoard, a high mountain pass used in a number of Tour de France races.  A trail leads up to a hill with great views of the surrounding mountains and the Queyras.

I'm not much of a skiier so we went to Risoul to get a measure of how I would fare.

It was typical spring skiing and the weather was fantastic!  I did a couple of red pistes and one black piste.  Jean-Chri is ever the optimist and declared that I was ready for more challenging skiing even after I managed to break a ski on the very first day!

My next challenge was randonneur skiing in the Queyras.  This is kind of a mix between telemark and down hill skiing.  The toe of the binding has 2 pins which fit into the toe of the boot which allows the heel to lift up when in telemark mode and also allows the skier to move up a slope with the aid of skins.  The heel of the binding can also be rotated and the boot locked in place for down hill skiing.

We drove to a small village in the Queyras Valley to the base of a hill and prepared for our adventure.  Skins were applied to the skis and our bindings set.  My first lesson was an 800m, or 2625ft, ascent up the slope.  It took a while to get the hang of using the skins but I finally succeeded.

We only saw 3 other skiers that day.  Awesome!

By this time my shins were taking a beating and I needed a day off.  Jean-Chri had arranged for a guide at La Grave, an extreme skiing mecca in Les Hautes Alpes, to belay him and another skiier across a dangerous col.  Meanwhile, Caro would enjoy the one marked piste on the glacier (double black I believe) and I rode up the telepherique to the glacier, had a cup of coffee, took some pictures, and rode back down to enjoy the day in the town.

Those little dots are people!

La Meije!

We packed up our belongings and headed into Haute-Savoie, to visit with friends and do a little more skiing before heading back to Paris and Font.  We stayed with friends at La Recorbaz, a small village just south of Annecy.

We reached our destination in the late afternoon and, after unpacking, were treated to my favorite meal, cassolet!

Yummy!

The skiing plan fell into place during the evening.  In the morning we went to La Clusaz for some more skiing.  I must say that the resorts in France are just huge compared to the ones I've seen in the U.S.  Our hosts, Matthieu, Emmanuelle, and Jules accompanied us and had a great time.  Jules is fearless and will be a very good skier when he gets older, just like his father!

Jules and Emmanuelle

A rest day was in order the following day so we all drove into Annecy for a day of sightseeing and just relaxing.  Annecy is called the Venice of the North because it sits at the outlet of Lake Annecy and much of the old town is surrounded by water.

Caro & Emmanuelle

One more day of skiing awaited us ... Chamonix and Les Grands Montets!!!  3200m and double black is the only way off the glacier to the snow slopes.  This was a fantastic way to end the skiing portion of the trip.

Perfect weather ... at the top!

Jean-Chri ready to go

I was sad to leave the south but time marches on and we needed to get back to Paris.

We did manage a couple more physical accomplishments before I left Paris.  The biggest was that I finally sent La Marie-Rose, the first 6a in Font.  Here is a previous attempt by me followed by a better shot of another climber.

Cyril spotting me

 

Anonymous climber at the crux

After conquering La Marie-Rose I almost flashed a 7a, L'Ange Naif Droite but it was not to be so now I have a project when I go back to Paris to visit my good friends Jean-Chri & Caro and now, their daughter Alice!

I spent the last few days walking around Paris.  I visited Serge Gainsboug's grave site at Montparnasse Cemetery and left a metro ticket and, on May 1st, Labor Day, I marched with my friend from Montparnasse to Bastille in the annual labor protest.

What a vacation!  Non-stop!



to be continued ...