Envy you your green, geo :-)
Here are my notes from my first rides of 2015:
These may not even qualify as “rides”, even when bundled together, so much as poking a seldom-exposed toe into the water after an impossibly long cold winter. Not quite “Back in the Saddle Again,”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gR4wEZDez7s, but one has to start somewhere, sometime, and a few days after the equinox seemed if anything overdue.
I wanted to check out a few tweaks made on my Raven, Osi, over the winter, but mostly, with the temp finally easing above freezing (if barely) I was looking forward to a ride near the river, and a chance to see any signs of spring approaching.
Wellll…the first ride on my Raven was little more than a short outing, just a few kms in all. March 25 was the first mild day in about four months, with softness in the air brought on a gentle wind from the southwest, but not surprisingly, I guess, there was precious little visual evidence of spring. Certainly nothing like the greenery of Scotland, or Ireland, or the Yorkshire Dales. Here’s the photographic record:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/y4vjhiuznfqat8x/AAAyIQlZ_2XdcadLpC5sfY8oa?dl=0This too will pass. (He said, defiantly.)
The Tweaks Report is positive, however:
1)
Wheels: I changed my rims over the winter, from Velocity Cliff Hangers to Mavic XM 719’s. The Velocity rims were sturdy and on the heavy side at nearly 600 gms each, with a deep V profile – probably more than I needed for the kind of touring I do. The Mavics are lighter (475 gms), with a flatter profile.
There are new Marathon Supremes (26 x 1.6) on the new rims as well, replacing those with sidewall damage and repairs from last summer. These are a known quantity, of course.
Everything felt lighter and more responsive – of course, the bike was unloaded – but even by comparison with my Eclipse derailleur (see below), Osi felt frisky.
2)
Small adjustments: repositioning the Rohloff shifter. I angled the Thorn T-bar backwards slightly, maybe 12 – 15 degrees, to let me get a “door-knob” grip on the shifter more readily. Repositioning that way, the shifter slides more easily into the natural angle of my right hand and wrist directed inwards from my elbow towards the centre of my torso. Not a big change, but it immediately felt less awkward. “Home ergonomics” at play.
3)
Small adjustments: more air for the ‘glider. When I dismantled and cleaned the Chainglider last fall, I noticed a little wear from friction on the inside of the plastic sheath enclosing the rear portion of the chainring. To counter that and free up the chainring, I decided to introduce a little more slop into the system (assuming one is allowed to do such things with high-quality plastic engineering, and then, to talk openly about it.) I eased a couple of the fixing tabs out of their slots, pried the inner and outer sides of the sheath slightly apart, and fixed the plot with several strips of plastic matte-black electricians’ tape. The result was an extra 3 mm +/- of play, both up and down and fore and aft -- the latter seemed to make the bigger difference. The extra slop made the ‘glider quieter when I spun the cranks with the bike on the stand, and effectively noiseless when on the road. I’ll keep an eye on everything as I do more distance more often, but first impressions are positive.
I followed up my ride last week with about 15 kms in an hour-plus this past Sunday afternoon, in the sunshine no less, around the Experimental Farm and along the canal. This, on my Eclipse derailleur bike, my Go (marginally) Faster bike. I wanted to check my new-last-fall Marathon Racers, and a clip-on Bibia mudflap from Dutch Bike Bits. The Racers rolled very well, although the 60-plus PSI was noticeably firmer and less comfortable than the similar pressure in my Raven’s 1.6 Supremes. The Bibia flap worked well, although the PlanetBike hybrid fenders don’t provide anything like the coverage of the VO alloy fenders on Osi. I'll have to do some more fiddling to bring the Eclipse brifter levers slightly higher, and hence more accessible when I’m riding on the hoods. Every time I ride the Eclipse, I’m reminded how much better the Raven fits me, and hence how much more comfortable it is—the Eclipse does not present big problems, just some not-quite-right settings to be sorted. The Raven’s fit and ride comprise the reference points.
More reports to some in due course. I’m getting some lightweight camping gear over the next 6 weeks, and hope to try that out on a 4-5-day ride through the Madawaska Highlands in late May. By then, there'll be greenery a-plenty, and I'm hoping that our very late spring will put the bugs back on their heels.
