Last Friday, the 24th, was a brilliant sunny late October day, with afternoon temps in the mid-teens. By this time of year, such days are rare jewels, so I decided to take my ti-framed Eclipse ('Shadow', by name) for a canter into the Gatineau hills across the river. Osi, my Raven, was still being tidied up after several airport transitions in our return to Canada, and in any case, I wanted to check adjustment of the rear derailleur of the Eclipse.
My usual ride into the Gatineau takes me to Champlain Lookout, a 3-hour (+/-) there-and-back ride of about 58 kms. The lookout sits atop the Lusk Escarpment, a steep rocky ridge in West Québec running N-S, parallel to the Ottawa River. The scarp is the eastern edge of a fault in the earth’s plates, and the lookout is named for the Champlain Sea, the great inland sea which covered the Great Lakes Basin after the last ice age retreated some 8,000 years ago. (Odd that a French explorer’s name attaches to the sea, since the only folk around in those days were First Nations…) The scarp is only about 300 m high, but on a clear day you have a wonderful view across the farmland below, the big river, and into the rolling hills of the Ottawa Valley on the Ontario side.
My late-October ride came about 2 weeks after the peak of the autumn foliage, so my photos show only an echo of the earlier colours. But then, most of the trees beside the road up to Champlain are deciduous, so the afternoon sun slants through the branches unhindered, and the woods have a wonderful open feel about them. There's a big stopover point for waterfowl on the river just south of the escarpment, so that sometimes, we see and hear the geese flying south on such days; the combined effect can be magical.
There are half-a-dozen photos at the link below, with some brief captions:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/kccy3dk0iobkoak/AAAcTOeVTYwklMJ8h75s-1r5a?dl=0
Hard to imagine that in less than two months, we’ll probably be skiing along these roads; and then again, in a little more than five months, the cyclists of spring will be rolling over them again.
My three hours on the Eclipse reminded me of the Raven’s virtues. The lighter bike (just under 30 lbs as you see it, sans pannier) is more responsive, as one would expect, and climbs more easily. But, the Raven is soooo much more comfortable. This is partly because my Brooks saddle is thoroughly broken in after three seasons, while my Spa Cycles Nidd on the Eclipse is still quite stiff, with only about 150 kms on it. But other factors are at work as well. The Raven's rando bars (50 cms at the flared ends) are just two cms wider than those on the Eclipse, but feel much more spacious. The bars are also mounted about 15-20 mm higher than the nose of the saddle, rather than on the same plane, so that I am slightly more upright when riding on the hoods; in turn, the drops are more accessible and comfortable, hence used more frequently. Lastly, the Raven runs wider tires at softer pressures (Marathon Supremes, 26 x 1.6, instead of the 700c x 32 Vittoria Randonneur Pro’s.) The Raven’s V-brakes also make braking much easier—it's not that the centre-pull canti’s on the Eclipse are a problem, they simply require more effort, more often. And then there’s the derailleur. I hadn’t ridden the Eclipse for nearly 3 months, and seemed to be forever searching for the right gear – I’m spoiled by the Rohloff, I think, as I find it much easier to maintain a comfortable cadence on the Raven. And, I still have some fiddling to do to get a secure shift into the lowest gears. (Tout ça change… That job can wait ‘til winter.)
Love the ride up to the lookout, and--who knows?--we might have a few more opportunities before the snows come.
