Man, Derailleurs Just Keep Getting Uglier

Yes, they do.  Mountain-bike derailleurs have been going that way for a while. But the latest generation of road components are doing everything to catch up. They've expanded, or swollen. Sprouted extra pivots. Transformed into complicated misshapen mechanical blobs.

Take a look at some of the newest road derailleurs:

The latest Dura Ace 9100. One website exclaims "Indulge in your love for impossibly crisp rear shifts." Oh, please. 

Newest generation Campagnolo Record 12-speed.

The SRAM Force. Looks like something out of Japanese Animé.

I suppose that part of the transformation is due to adding more cogs to the rear wheel (remember - we're up to 12 now), and the need to add more wrap capacity for the gear range that results. I assume the extra pivot that some have sprouted has something to do with keeping the upper pulley close to the cogs over such a wide range of gears. Maybe it does something to fight chain slap. Who knows?

Comparatively, derailleurs from the classic era look compact - maybe svelte. Somehow, maybe because of materials like carbon fiber and titanium, the bloated units of today don't seem to weigh much, if anything, more than the best of the past - but they sure look heavier.

Take a look at some of my favorite classics:

From my own collection - late '70s Campy Nuovo Record. No doubt that the modern version probably shifts better - but it can't hold a candle to the style of the vintage classic.

Early generation SunTour Cyclone - looked cool, and shifted about as well as anything made today.

Huret Jubilee - functional jewelry, and only weighed about 140 g. There was a long-cage version, too. (photo from ClassicRendezvous)

Shimano 600 "Arabesque" (with long cage) - worked nicely, and had some cool decorative details that existed for no reason other than to make it look special. (photo from VeloBase)

I suppose that some of the new derailleurs shift remarkably well over a tremendous range. These new designs give us racing derailleurs rivaling the range of the best touring derailleurs of the past. And yeah, maybe that's the thing that really matters. But damn, they're ugly.

Fathers Day 2018

As far as I'm concerned, there is no better way to spend Fathers Day than going for a bike ride with the RetroKids. It was a hot one today - with temps up near 90º - but that didn't stop us from getting out on the Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath for a ride and a picnic.

It wasn't that many years ago that I was towing them behind me on a tandem trail-a-bike, and a Burley trailer before that. Now they're on the edge of having outgrown these 24" wheeled bikes. Full-size adult bikes will be coming soon.

Having our lunch near a visitor center in the national park. This might be the only picture of me that has appeared in this blog. 

Retrogrouchy bike shot. Vintage Stumpjumper, circa 1983 - repainted several years ago in shocking green.

A well-loved Carradice Barley saddlebag, covered in Towpath badges. They used to offer a new badge for each year. I don't think they do that anymore.

A stop on the wooden boardwalk over a beaver marsh. The RetroKids always like to stop and look for turtles and blue herons.

The marsh was formed by beaver activity, but somehow we've never seen the beavers.

Ice cream sundaes with big piles of fresh fruit at Szalay's market in the heart of the national park.  An indispensable stop on any bike ride in the valley.

That's all for today - I hope all the fathers out there enjoyed their day as much as I did.

Look Ma' - No Seat Tube!

There's nothing on a bike that's more pointless than the seat-tube. Am I right? I mean, if bicycles have an equivalent to a vestigial organ, it's the seat-tube on a diamond frame. And that's why any time "innovators" and designers want to create a "futuristic" looking bicycle, the seat-tube is often one of the first things they ditch. Besides - it's called a "diamond" frame - not a "two-triangles" frame.

One of the most iconic bikes on point would have to be the Trek Y-Foil of 1998-1999. Remember these things?

The negative of "famous" is "infamous." Notice that they're not exactly opposites. In other words, famous but for all the wrong reasons. Like Churchill was Famous, but Hitler was Infamous. If the word "Iconic" worked the same way, would the Y-Foil be Iniconic? There must be some way to say "iconic for notorious reasons" in one word. But I'm digressing.

Oddly enough, Y-Foils still have some kind of cult following. And as if this weren't goofy enough, they made a mountain bike version, too. Fans of the bike claim that the Y-Foil went away after such a brief run because the design was not approved by the UCI. If that were true, why did the MTB version go away too? Can't people just admit it was a fugly bad idea?

One of the latest on this no-seat-tube trend comes from the German company Urwahn, which is currently seeking funding on Kickstarter for its "unique" commuter bike.

Not only does this look-ma'-no-seat-tube bike represent the latest in futuristic design, but it's another bike billed as the "ultimate commuter" which might actually be OK if you work at home. Like most other "ultimate commuters" I've seen, it doesn't look like it would be comfortable or practical for any ride longer than a short hop down to the coffee shop. The website claims it can take full coverage fenders and a rack, but I'm just not seein' that.

Another relatively recent entry into the no-seat-tube club comes from AOI.Cycle:

With its laid back geometry, the AOI is like some kind of oxymoronic "future cruiser."

Cervelo has their P5X Triathlon bike, which I mentioned in this blog back in 2016:

The seat-tube-free design means there's more space for little cubbies and compartments for storing "hydration" formulas, goo packets, and maybe tools. But the real benefit is that it lets them brag that they're thumbing their noses at those ogres at the UCI and all their pesky regulations - which have never had an impact on triathlon bikes, or on most of the bikes made for non-professional-racing consumers for that matter. Remember what I said about the Y-Foil.

Here's a seat-tube-free design rendered in laminated wood from the German company Aceteam. It's also an e-bike.

Back in 2015 I called attention to the Viks Urban Cycle - an engineering-defying styling exercise from Estonia. Unlike many other styling exercises, however, you can actually buy the Viks. They have another version that looks almost the same except that it also foregoes seat stays. It's worth pointing out that the one-piece bars/fork make it impossible to make any adjustments for better fit or comfort - and apparently such frivolities as brakes are not really compatible with the design. Oh - you can get brakes, but according to the website: "All these are extras. Bike with extras is more complex to make, which in turn means extra fee. Don’t hesitate to ask us the prices."

Yep - the seat-tube's days are numbered. And good riddance, right? Just think how much those things are holding us back. Here's to the future!

Farmers Market Saturday

We had some unseasonably hot weather in the last week of May (up in the 90s and humid), but we just got a reprieve from that for our first Saturday of June. I got up this morning and found it cloudy and cooler - low 60s - and perfect for a ride to the farmers market.

Every Saturday from late spring, through the summer, and into the fall there is a really nice farmers market in the Cuyahoga Valley - in the heart of the national park. Getting there on a bike just feels right. One can take the Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath for much of the way if they wish, though there isn't a direct connector from the path to the meadow where the market is held, so at least a short hop on the valley road is required - not that that's a problem. Bicycles are a common sight on the valley road, so drivers more or less know to expect us.

My Specialized Expedition touring bike seemed like the right bike for the errand. If I'd had more cash on hand and plans to really load up with goods today, I would have put a pair of panniers on the front rack, too. But I was really only after one thing today. I took this picture at one of the train depots by the Cuyahoga Valley Railway which runs through the park and right past the farmers market.

The market not only features many tents with some of the best locally grown produce, meat, cheeses, and baked goods, but there's always live music and often some crafts as well. There's usually vendors cooking up things to eat, too (breakfast burritos are a favorite).

I went to the farmers market mainly for one thing today. And it turned out that lots of other people had the same plan. This tent easily had the longest line in the whole meadow.

There's what I came for - and what all those others were waiting in line for: the first strawberries of the season. Small in size, deep in color, and the most flavorful strawberries you'll ever find. My handlebar bag (Acorn boxy bag) holds two quart boxes perfectly. It's like they designed it for this exact purpose.

While I was at the market, I also got some fantastic bread - though lots of other items were looking very tempting. Then I made my way home. The roads and trail through much of the valley are currently in bloom with little tiny white flowers that give off a powerfully sweet smell. I've only recently come to learn that they are Mock Orange shrubs - and they are all over the valley. That really capped off a nice morning ride.

That's all for now - happy summer, folks.

Wrapping Up Another Year of Bike Commuting

I've reached the end of another school year and it's time for a look back to recap and assess my bike commuting numbers. Overall, this was a really successful year. I always start out the year by setting some goals - long-term, year-long, semester, and monthly goals - and this year I met or exceeded all of them, and managed to beat my personal records, too.

A foggy mid-May morning.

Back in August, I had thought reaching 100 days by the end of May would be a pretty good achievement for the year. If I was lucky and reached that goal a little early, then I'd set my sights on matching or beating my personal best of 111 days. Well, as it turned out, I reached 100 days by spring break at the end of March. I broke my record of 111 by mid-April. At the end of April, I calculated that I had a 75% bike-to-work average (down from a high of 90% at the end of November - but then, I always expected my average to fall during the winter, so 75% was still pretty terrific). At that point I made it my "final" goal for the year to keep my average at 75% or better through the end of school. Definitely "do-able" but not exactly a lock since I knew there were going to be several days in May when I'd have to drive to work whether I wanted to or not. With only a month left to go, there simply weren't enough days available to try to increase my average by more than a percentage point or two.

New personal record: 132 days.

So as of today, I have ridden to work 132 days for a bike-to-work average of 76.3%. At just over 28 miles per day, that works out to about 3722 miles, and I estimate that I've probably saved approximately 123 gallons of gas in that time.

Over the course of the past year, my best individual month was September when I rode 95% of the time. I only drove my car one day that whole month. The worst month, not surprisingly, was January - but even in that dead-of-winter month I still managed to average about 46% - or a little better than 2 days per week.

Since I started biking to work on a more or less "year round" basis 6 years ago, I have always had the long-term goal of commuting at least 50% by bike. There were a couple of years where I fell short of that, but by the end of last year I had managed to get my long-term average up to 50% (50.5 to be exact). With the personal record breaking numbers I pulled this year, my 6-year average is up to 54.7%. That works out to 16,300 miles that I did not put on my car.

Climbing a hill under bright sunshine with a shadowy
 riding companion on day 132.

I remember a couple of years ago thinking 111 days was going to be pretty hard to beat. Even last year, when we had the mildest winter I could ever recall, I "only" made it to 108. I have no idea if I can beat 132 - or if I can, how long it might take. Time will tell.

Type II Fun: The kind of fun that's only fun afterwards.

In all the years I'd been biking to work, the Greek goddess Pneumos (don't bother googling her) always seemed to have my back and I never punctured a tire. Well, even goddesses must sleep in occasionally because one frosty 20-degree morning in December I got my first flat tire while commuting to work. It was still dark outside, and I was on a hillside on an unlit back road about 5 miles from work. I feared I might not have time to repair it, and I dreaded the thought of even trying to do it in the dark on a 20-degree morning in December.

I got out my cell phone and tried calling work. At worst, I thought I should let them know I might be late and we'd need someone to cover my first class. At best, I hoped maybe somebody with a pickup or SUV might be able to come bail me out. Unfortunately I couldn't reach anyone. I was going to have to change a tire. In the dark. On a 20-degree morning in December.

The road I was on had no streetlights whatsoever, but about 100 yards ahead I saw a driveway with a little lantern light at the end of it. I hobbled on over to take advantage of what little light it could give me. Then I had to take off my nice, thick, warm gloves and set to work prying off the tire and changing the inner tube. Before putting in the new tube, like any experienced rider/mechanic knows, I checked the tire to make sure that whatever punctured it wasn't still poking through. I couldn't trust sight, so I ran my bare (but cold-numbed) fingers all through the inside of the tire and couldn't find anything. I put it all back together, pumped it up and I was off. Though I managed to change the tire in impressively fast time, I figured I only had about 15 minutes to get to work on time - so it became an all-out time trial to beat the bell.

I did make it - but noticed in the last half mile or so that my back tire was getting a little soft again. Obviously, despite my check, whatever punctured it was still in there. It held up well enough to get me to work though, and I walked in as the bells were ringing. No time for coffee. No time to change clothes. I taught my first class of the day in biking clothes. Sweaty biking clothes. I later spent my lunch break patching not one, but two inner tubes. You see, I always pack one spare tube plus a patch kit in case of the dreaded double-flat. This was one of those times when that bit of anal retentive overkill paid off. By the way, it took a lot of effort, but I eventually discovered that I had a tiny little shard of glass stuck deep in the tire - invisible to the eye and impossible to feel - but with each revolution of the wheel it would poke out from its hiding place for a moment then hide itself away again, eventually working its way through my tube. Sheesh.

Okay - on second thought - that story doesn't even qualify as Type II fun. Well, maybe the frantic race to beat the clock qualifies. The rest of it just sucked.

A Tour of the Cave

Regular readers know well that I'm a full-time teacher, and right now I'm wrapping up my 25th year on the job. The last 14 have been spent in the same classroom, which has been dubbed "The Cave" - partly because it is tucked into a weird nook in the building's lower level where my window looks out at a brick wall so we get no natural light - and partly because it is decked out like the "man cave" that I would have in my house if I was the kind of person who could have such a thing in his home.

With the summer break just a week away, I'm getting ready to start taking some things down to be packed away, and the real treasures will be taken home. Before dismantling everything, I snapped some pictures that readers might enjoy seeing. Not surprisingly (or maybe it would be surprising?) many things in the room reflect the same interests that are covered in this blog.

Ready for a tour?

As you enter the room, the first thing on the left side wall is this pretty red Mercian Strada Speciale. This bike was featured here in The Retrogrouch back in 2014. If you look at the wall above and behind the bike, you'll see vintage cycling posters (well, reproductions, actually) for Cycles Liberator, Cleveland, and Klein ("It could change your priorities").

Just a little farther down on the same wall, there is my green and red Mercian 753, featured here on the blog in 2017. Parked down below it is my non-retrogrouchy commuter bike, which I won't describe here (it serves its purpose well, but visually it's an abomination). On the wall behind the Mercian, you can see a '70s vintage Bell Biker helmet and a poster for the movie Breaking Away.

On the back wall is my coppertone '73 Mercian Superlight, featured on the blog way back in 2013. Hanging on the wall behind the bike is a poster of Eddy Merckx breaking the Hour Record (the poster was from Windsor Cycles, which was a sponsor of Merckx's effort and stuck their name onto his specially built Colnago - which reportedly pissed off Ernesto immensely). Yes, there is an old refrigerator door hanging on the wall too. We use it as a bulletin board. Look closely, and you might see an old leather hairnet helmet.

This is the only wall that doesn't have a bike on it. But there are more vintage posters - for Fernand Clement bicycles, Peugeot, and Clement tires (that black and white Clement poster is a classic - like something out of a Felini film). Below those is a poster for Eroica California, and a reproduction of the poster for the magazine Two Wheel Trip, featured in the blog back in 2014.

Up in the front corner of the room, above the cabinets and my desk, are a 1970 Schwinn Orange Krate, and a 1980s Mercian Professional track bike, featured here back in 2016. Sharp-eyed viewers will spot a poster for Cycles Titania, and if you're really sharp, you might see an old neon sign for Raleigh Cycles.

On this white board, I keep a tally of all the days that I ride to work. As of today, I'm up to 130 - a personal record. My previous best had been 111. With 130, I'm guaranteed to finish the school year with at least a 75% bike-to-work average.

Coming full circle around, and back to the door, there is this sign that used to hang in an old bike shop that I frequented as a bike-obsessed teenager. Al's Bike Shop closed some time about 20 years ago, but I got the old sign and a bunch of tools before the remainder of the shop was auctioned off.

There is obviously a lot of stuff on the walls and around the room. Posters and the like will just continue to hang where they are, while small items get dusted and boxed up for the summer. All the bikes will be taken home where they can be ridden. It's worth mentioning that the bikes that hang on the walls in my classroom sometimes change -- I'll occasionally swap out one bike from my collection for another to keep things fresh. But I enjoy having the bikes up where I can see them throughout the year, even if they aren't being ridden regularly during the school year.

Hope you enjoyed the tour!

Michigan Steelhead Ride II - Riding the Spine

Some readers might recall last Spring I took part in an early season vintage bike ride in Michigan, dubbed the Steelhead Ride (after the steelhead trout). This past weekend my friend Jim T., who organized the ride last year, had a "sequel" ride of sorts that followed the White Pine trail in Western Michigan - a trail some of the locals call "The Spine." I was happy to have the opportunity to make the trip from Akron to Grand Rapids so I could join in the fun again.

The White Pine Trail is a converted Rail-to-Trail that runs over 90 miles north and south through Western Michigan - from Grand Rapids to Cadillac. Though the majority of the trail is paved, there are sections of it that are dirt and gravel, and a little bit of a challenge on skinny road tires. Riders were encouraged to choose their bikes and tires accordingly. The route was chosen so that we'd get a full metric century - 62 miles - though in the end, most of us finished up with around 64 miles.

Having about a 5-hour drive from Akron to Western Michigan, Jim was kind enough to let me stay at his home for the weekend. The hospitality was excellent. I left right from work on Friday and arrived around 8 pm, where I found his wife, Maureen, had a bowl of spicy chili and a beer waiting for me. That was a great welcome.

Although Thursday and Friday had seen a lot of rain and strong winds, Saturday morning we got up to find ideal riding weather. Whoever had suggested moving the ride from April to the first weekend of May made a good call. We had brilliant sunshine throughout the day, with temperatures starting out around 60 in the morning, and ending up in the high 70s by the afternoon.

Our group gathered and headed out from Jim's house, which is just a few miles of road riding from the trail. The ride took us through the quaint and picturesque little town of Rockford, which has numerous shops, restaurants, and watering holes. It was a bustling place, and we saw a lot of groups such as wedding parties taking pictures by the riverside and its waterfall. We also passed through a few sleepy little villages, including Howard City where we stopped for lunch.

That looks like Gordy V. (on the right) and Marc I. on one of the paved stretches of the path. There's somebody behind Marc, but I can't tell who it is (unless Marc has a third arm I hadn't noticed before).

Tim, Steve, and Jason P. (from front to back)

Nice picture of the group on the trail. Tim Potter is apparently way better at taking pictures while riding than I am. (thanks, Tim)

Sand Lake is a sleepy little town. I understand they have a pretty nice 4th of July festival, though.

Howard City is dead quiet on a Saturday afternoon. I was standing in the middle of the main intersection when I took this. I didn't have to hurry.

After lunch in Howard City. The Pizza Cafe had good sandwiches and a friendly waitress. Not another soul entered the place the whole time we were there. The pizza place and the bowling alley across the street were the only places that were open. (photo from Tim Potter - or more accurately from the gregarious Harley rider we met there in town who used Tim's phone)

That's Skip M., Tim, and Mark A. (from left to right) on the gravel. 

And Marc on his Hunqapillar, and ride organizer Jim on his green Colnago.

Unfortunately I didn't get great pictures of all the bikes on the ride (sorry - I hope nobody feels slighted), but here are a few pics that came out pretty good.

Skip had this '60s vintage Peugeot PX-10 in the classic white/black (photo from Tim Potter).

Gordy brought this P G Wells - a framebuilder I'm not familiar with, but I believe he was a custom builder in Michigan (photo from Tim Potter).

Jason had this '80s vintage Miyata. Its red paint absolutely gleamed in the sun. He had some cool drillium chainrings on it, too.

Steve brought this great old Pogliaghi. We were all admiring the metallic orange paint with yellow accents.

Tim had this Louison Bobet which he had converted over to 650b. The burnt orange paint with cream panel and bands, and fantastic pinstriping made this one another favorite on the ride. This really got me thinking I need to find a nice old French bike and do something similar.

Marc (of the Simply Cycle blog) brought his Rivendell Hunqapillar. With those tires, Marc was probably thinking "Gravel? What gravel"?

I chose to ride my green and white Mercian with the barber pole paint scheme. If there had been any threat of rain, I might have taken my Rivendell because it's equipped with fenders. Given that there would be sections of gravel, I installed the fattest tires I could fit into the Mercian. It turns out that the frame was only built to accommodate 25mm tires, though it can handle 28 without any trouble. I decided even 28mm wasn't going to be enough. On a whim, I took some 32mm Paselas off another bike just to see if they'd fit. They did. I had no more than 1/8 inch on either side of the rear tire between the chainstays, and less than that under the rear brake. I also had no more than 1/8 inch of clearance under the front brake. All in all, had there been mud, it could have been a problem - but with the trail dry under full sunshine, it worked out fine. On the gravel sections I felt great and the tire volume really kept the vibration to a minimum.

Somehow, this was the only picture I got of my own bike.

Can't get any tighter fitting than that.

We encountered this little guy towards the end of our ride. He'd been riding with his parents, then when our group approached, he took off like a solo breakaway. His little bike probably only had 12" wheels, but he was making the most of them.

The White Pine trail is quite flat for most of its length, but I think Jim knows that I come from an area known for more hills (I've said repeatedly that it isn't a proper ride without a good hill climb) - so I think it was at least partly on my account that he worked at least one solid hill into the ride. In the last few miles of the route, there was a pretty steep road that crossed the trail. Some opted to skip the hill, but about half gave it a shot. We rode down to the bottom, then turned around to take it to the top. I'm guessing it was at least 15% grade in the steeper sections. Made me feel right at home.

We got back to Jim's late that afternoon where a big pot of sloppy joes, potato salad, watermelon, and beer were waiting for us - once again, courtesy of Maureen. It was a great way to end the ride. The gang hung out for a while afterwards with most of the conversation being bike related, with occasional dips into the serious (like solemn rides of silence) and occasionally to the absurd (like unconventional wart removal methods).

Although 5 hours is a long way to drive for a bike ride, it was great to get together with friends and make some new ones. All told, it was an excellent weekend visit. Jim's already giving thought to hosting a ride for next year with another route. If I have a suggestion, it might be to explore some of the (many) dirt and gravel roads that seem to abound in the mitten state.