Those who are regular readers of my "Almost-daily Diary"
know that my Tuesday/Thursday morning rides are a no-matter-what type of
thing. In particular, that means they're as reliable, perhaps more so
than the postal service. Rain, sleet, snow, ice, wind... it's all been
there. Trouble is, that sort of stuff doesn't do wonders for your
bike! Chains don't shift well when they're dirty, brakes wear through
lightweight rims as the slurry of road grit and water acts like sandpaper,
bearings become waterlogged and rusted... the bike basically gets trashed.
Not a nice thing to let happen to your road bike! Sure, you can try to
clean it up after each ride, but that's only going to last until the next
rain hits.
The solution? Your "rain" bike. The bike that only gets used
when the going gets tough and, since even the best running gear begins to
work like a K-Mart special just a little ways into a nasty rain ride, you
don't worry so much about things not being in top-notch condition.
Most of us have an old bike lying around that can serve this purpose.
If you scroll towards the bottom of this page, you'll find my original Rain
Bike, the Red Sled. This was an old mountain bike converted for road
use, and worked sorta ok. But only sorta, because I could never get really
comfortable on it. Fact is, I've always had a difficult time getting
comfortable on any mountain bike. So I began my quest for a new
Rain Bike, thinking a CycloCross machine, like TREKs XO1, might do the
trick. In fact, I did modify one with road tires and a couple other
minor changes, and even checked it out with a couple of dry runs (literally)
on the bike path along the levees at the end of Whipple. I was all set
to bring it home when...
...the old Cinelli frameset, hanging from a hook in a dark corner of the
bike shop, caught my eye. My old racing frame from the early-70s.
But wouldn't it be a terrible thing to relegate such a grand old bike to
Rain Bike status? Perhaps. Or perhaps it's a far worse sin to
let it sit and rot, unridden, unappreciated, not serving the purpose it was
meant to. It's a bike, after all, and it's made to be ridden.
Even found many of the original parts, including mid-70s vintage Campagnolo
cranks & hubs, an Ideale 90IR leather saddle that fetches $300 on eBay these
days, and real, live, Nuovo Record front & rear derailleurs with Campagnolo
1014 downtube friction shift levers.
But why call it "The Iron Pig?" Because it's just not as much fun to
ride as my carbon TREK. It's five pounds heavier (for those who claim
that's no big deal... they're wrong!), not nearly as comfortable, and while
it's kinda fun having retro equipment, it doesn't take more than a few pedal
strokes before you're missing the convenience of STI shifting (where you
shift at the brake lever, instead of having to move your hands to the
downtube). But it is the bike I successfully raced on for five years,
and took me many places after that (including my first trip over Sonora
Pass). Back in the day, it was a class act. But now? I'm
spoiled rotten by my TREK 5900. --Mike--
04/24/03- THAT'S NOT COMING
INTO THE HOUSE/HARDLY EPIC No high winds, no
torrential driving rain, no one else on the road. Just me. Yes,
it was wet, yet, it was cold (39 degrees), raining heavily and mildly-windy
on Skyline. But epic? Once again the big storm fails to play
out. It's not a whole lot of fun taking five minutes to strip off all
the soaked clothing outside the front door and finding a place to stash the
bike so it can drain, but it's a whole lot better than the alternative!
Yep, "Death before Trainers" is still my motto. While not so much fun
preparing for and dealing with the aftermath of a ride, there's something
satisfying about being out there in the muck, in weather bad enough that
most of the cars aren't even out. Still, I'm surprised I didn't see a
single other cyclist out there. Well, it's been an hour since I got
home, guess the Iron Pig's finished draining by
now and can come into the house.
04/22/03- I'M 16 MILES FROM
HOME, GOT A FULL BOTTLE OF CYTOMAX, IT'S 38 DEGREES AND RAINING, AND I'M
WEARING SUNGLASSES. Apologies to the Blues Brothers, but
that's the way it is. I'm fairly confident now that I can make it rain. I go
out on a ride, it rains. I come back, it stops. This morning I leave
the house and it's a mess outside; rain off and on, dark and, as I climb, it
gets colder. 38 degrees at the top, and I'm thinking hey, this ain't so bad!
Until you descend. Around Woodside you see the sun start to make an
appearance here and there and, within a few miles from home, the world
suddenly becomes a very bright place with dry roads. Hate it when that
happens; as I've said before, it's as if you don't even get credit for being
stupid and riding in the muck because it's all nice and sunny at the end of
the ride. Anybody else with me this morning? Nope, just me. Only
spotted one other cyclist the entire time I was out there... a woman on a
silver Klein descending Kings. Sigh. Would be nice to think this was the
last ride of the season for the Iron Pig, but they're saying another messy
day for Thursday.
02/25/03- THE IRON PIG RIDES AGAIN! Which
really isn't anything to get too excited about; it means the roads were wet this morning so I rode
the old steel Cinelli on our regular Tues/Thurs
ride. Wet but not raining, so it surprised me that almost nobody else
was out on the road today, just myself and Kevin. Started up Kings kinda slow, with my rear wheel slipping out every time I hit a tar
stripe (think I got one and a half rotations on one and almost ate it!), and
about two minutes into the climb my left thumb hung perilously over the stop
switch on my computer, ready to erase any evidence of what was sure to be a
34 minute ride up the hill. But I just couldn't do it. And when
I was still under 10 minutes at the park entrance, I started to
think that perhaps all is not lost, maybe, just maybe, it would be possible
to get the Iron Pig up the hill in under 30 minutes.
Kevin was definitely feeling better than me today, with his heartrate sitting at 150 while I was struggling to keep up (no fancy computer on the
Iron Pig, but I'd guess it was around 160-162). He rode off the front
just past the halfway point, but not too far off the front, never out of
sight. The time to the archery range (final steep hairpin under the powerlines) was 25:45; if I'm riding really fast, it's exactly four minutes
from there to the top. Today I wasn't riding fast, but definitely
riding determined... after all, it was on this same bike, maybe 28 years
ago, that I climbed Kings in 21:15. What to do. Give up because
your muscles can't take anymore, or find a way to make it happen? You
go for it, of course. Those quads have just been sittin' there, not
doing any real work, so you push them for all you've got, making it to the
top in 29:58. Wow, talk about posers. I just spent two
paragraphs describing a relatively-slow ride as if it were some
record-breaking event. So does my thumb now hover over the delete key,
erasing this embarrassing drivel, or the send key, putting it on the
website? If you're reading this, you know the answer!
12/31/02- THE IRON PIG RIDES AGAIN!I should be nicer to my old Cinelli. Heck, I should be nicer sometimes
to my 5900! But ride we must and, given the forecast for this morning
and the wild winds & rain last night, it most definitely seemed like a ride
for the rain bike. Actually, I ended up rather severely over-dressing,
as it only lightly rained on us a couple times, but the roads were a mess.
Todd & Kevin showed up, each doing their part to remind me that it's not the
bike, it's not the rider, it's a combination of the two sometimes that holds
you back. What, blame things on the bike? Why not? With
downtube shifting you find yourself often in a less-than-desirable gear and
it's quite the hassle to change compared to STI. Plus my rain bike's
low gear is a 42/24 which is low enough for King's Mtn, but, for me, just
barely. It's just not so fun when you're in your lowest gear for most
of the climb. And then you're thinking hey, that gear used to be
plenty low enough! However, that thought necessarily includes a
flashback to climbing the hill in 21 minutes as well.
12/29/02- SQUEEZED IN A QUICK RIDE UP OLD LA HONDA
today, but had to ride my rain bike (the old Cinelli) because I've got the
OCLV at the shop, getting it cleaned up a bit for Wednesday's New Year's Day
assault on Mt. Hamilton.
Not a terribly fast ride up the hill at 24.58, but hey, I time from right
where you turn onto Old LaHonda, not at the bridge like everybody else.
That 100 feet must be worth a least a couple minutes! Almost skipped
riding, since I had a few other things I had to get done, but the holidays
haven't been too kind to me, as I noticed I was using a different notch on
the belt.
And saw a great movie tonight too... the second Lord of the Rings
installment. Long, yes, but great story telling (even to someone who
hasn't read the books, like me!). So much more interesting than the
last two Star Wars movies, where you found yourself paying more attention to
the special effects than the story or characters.
12/10/02-
MISTREATMENT OR RESPECT?In a perverse sort of way I look
forward to riding in the rain, simply because I'm out there while everybody
else decided to be rational and sleep in for a couple hours (OK, a few
actually use trainers while watching a stage of the TDF on TV, but how can
that compare to the excitement of sliding around in the rain?). I did
see one other guy out there, doing intervals up King's Mtn Road.
But, thankfully, Ueyn didn't show up. Why thankfully? Because he
casually mentioned yesterday that he'd just gotten a time up Old LaHonda in
the 19 minute range.
But the question about mistreatment or
respect is all about the bike. When it rains I leave the 5900 at home
and take out my 1973 Cinelli. Not the most fun thing to ride, since it
doesn't have indexed shifting, it's not nearly as comfortable as my 5900,
and only has one brake that works really well. Still, it's kinda fun
being retro once in a while, and it's not like you can avoid it being a
yucky ride, so why not?
But what did my poor old racing bike do to
deserve such a fate (only being brought out for nasty weather and special
old-farts events)? Nothing really, I only have fond old memories of
it. But isn't it better that it gets used now and then, even if in the
rain, rather than rusting away under the house?
01/29/02- IF YOU THOUGHTPARKING was sometimes a problem at our Redwood City
store (with the construction next door), look at the lengths the guy in
the truck (left photo) went to! These photos are from my ride up
King's Mtn this morning. Curiously, I was the only one who showed
up. Not even any tire tracks from other bikes in the snow and ice.
Rather fun at the top, watching cars have to turn around because they
couldn't negotiate the ice at the Kings/Skyline intersection. How I
got through it I don't know, but it was one of those few times I was
actually thankful for sand on the road!
01/22/02-
LAST RIDE
this
morning for the old Cinelli, at least for a little while. Since it was
built as a rain bike, and there's no rain in sight (except for the weekend,
when I probably won't have a chance to ride anyway), it's going to get hung
up until the wet stuff hits the ground. Sure, it's been kinda fun
these past three trips up King's Mtn, seeing what a classic steel frame
feels like again, experiencing the wonders of brakes that don't work well
and downtube shifters that discourage shifting unless absolutely necessary,
but I sure miss the OCLV. I did need to give the old bike a good test
under decent conditions though.
This morning's ride particulars? Clear skies,
rather cold (34 degrees on Skyline), a few patches of ice, and one other
rider, Scotty, who we used to see about a year ago. Nice guy, but
too thin so he can climb very well, despite a back issue. Still in
slug territory myself, at 30:50 up the hill. Yuck. I'd like
to pretend I was taking it easy....
01/19/02-
22.5 POUNDS? I WAS HOPING FOR MORE!
Brought my rain bike, the Cinelli, down to the shop to have it weighed
today. I figured, the way it felt going up the hills, that it must
weigh a ton. Well, it's a good five pounds heavier than my OCLV, but I
was hoping for so much more (to give me an excuse for those slow climbing
times on it...)
Very busy day today at both stores... people are really
coming out of the woodwork and buying bikes. Partly due to last
week's 49er playoff elimination, so people are thinking there's nothing
better to do than ride a bike on the weekend. You think I'm going to
argue with that logic? And now we'll pick up the Raider crowd to,
but only due to some really terrible officiating at the end. I don't
care if the officials called it right according to the rules. If
that's what the rules call for, then they've got to be changed. A
fumble is a fumble!
01/17/02-
WARMER but still slow. Took
out the resurrected 1973 Cinelli up King's Mtn for the second time this
week. You know what? New bikes are way better than old bikes.
Anybody who waxes romantically about the wonderful bikes of yesteryear
doesn't know what he/she's talking about! We'll get a story about the
new old bike up soon. In the meantime, be thankful that you can buy a
bike with brakes that stop, gears that shift, and frames that won't rattle
out your fillings.
01/15/02-
YEP. IT WAS COLD.How cold?
Certainly not epic cold, but the entire distance on Skyline, until the last
half mile, stayed at exactly 32 degrees. Also learned that bikes have
improved since the 70s. A lot. More on that later.
01/15/02-
A WHOLE WEEK? Where did the time
go. Maybe it went to some warmer climate? But this morning's
ride will be different not because of the weather, but rather the bike.
I've finished resurrecting my 1973 Cinelli, complete with old-school Campy
Nuovo Record cranks & derailleurs. The brakes have suffered a major
upgrade, since, as nice as it would be to have "authentic" old stuff, well,
the old stuff brakes just didn't work worth beans. So the front
caliper has been replaced with a long-reach Shimano RX100 dual-pivot, the
rear remains a marginally-functional Modolo Speedy (but who needs a rear
brake anyway?) and the levers are a set of old aero Shimano levers that were
lying around the shop. This bike is so retro it doesn't even have a
computer mounted to it... yet!
Le Luge Rouge (The Red
Sled)
Otherwise known as my "rain bike"
Now officially in retirement, replaced by the Iron Pig
It's 7:05am, and you've just woken up to the steady sound of
rain outside your window. Your regular
Tuesday/Thursday-morning ride up King's Mtn Road is a
rain-out. After all, the roads are a mess, and you just
cleaned up your TREK OCLV road bike the day before.
That's why you need something like this...The Red Sled
(or Le Luge Rouge for those wishing a bit more culture!).
Doesn't everybody have one of these, lying around in the basement
someplace? That ancient pre-suspension mountain bike, in
this case with biopace-type chainrings (remember those?),
top-mounted shift levers and old-style cantilever brakes that make
you wonder how you ever stopped that thing?
Last week The Red Sled was nothing more than something taking
up space in the garage. It had been years since it was last
ridden, but Tuesday morning it was pretty messy outside, and
instead of not riding, I thought, hey, why don't I take out the
old klunker? So I haul it upstairs, inflate the tires,
switch the Time road pedals over from my 5500 road bike to the Red
Sled, and toss whatever spare tubes & tools I could find into
the pack on the rear rack. Something you don't need to carry
on modern bikes is a big crescent wrench, but you'll notice this
thing's got axle nuts, not quick releases! Total
weight? Around 37 pounds!
So, 15 minutes later than I'd normally start out (which isn't
that bad for a spur-of-the-moment thing!) I head out the door and
up over Jefferson towards Canada Road. Just as I'm heading
over the top, I notice the rear end's getting a bit wobbly, and I
look back to see the tire going all over the place. So I
stop to see what's going on, and, as I watch, the casing of the
rear tire is snapping apart, thread by thread by thread.
The perils of riding on an at-least-10-year-old tire! So, I
head back home...but instead of calling it a day, I steal a tire
from my wife's mountain bike and in a short while I'm back out on
the road again. Despite a horribly uncomfortable handlebar
position (gotta work on that!) I'm having a really good
time. Part of it is the shoes...strapping on my road shoes
makes all the difference in the world. That really solid,
familiar interface to the bike just feels great! Sure,
you're in "mule mode" and won't be setting any speed
records, but you're out there on a bike (and you're probably the only
person out there on a bike!).
For
this first run I looped up through the back side of Huddart Park,
connected to King's Mtn 1/3 of the way up and rode back
down. I was running pretty late, so I couldn't do the full
run to the top (and besides, I wasn't even sure that was possible
at this point!). But it was enough to reacquaint myself with
the beauty of the local mountains, creeks and roads as the rain
washes over them and rolls noisily down the various creeks, with
little mini-waterfalls everywhere you look. All in all a very
successful first run.
Well, the following Tuesday (3/7/00) was actually a pretty nice
day so I rode my 5500...all 18.5 pounds of it...painfully trying
to keep up with local triathlete Kevin Keenan. It was what
Kevin calls a "high gravity day" and my time was around
29:30. Nothing to write home about, but hey, at least it was
under 30 minutes (Kevin could have probably climbed at 26:30 if I
wasn't there holding him back).
But this morning (Thursday, 3/9/00) was another story.
The rain...temps in the low 40s...and nobody in my house thinking
I was really going to ride my bike. And most often I
wouldn't have in the past, but that was
before Le Luge Rouge!
Now
outfitted with a new pair of tires (Avocet 1.9 inch semi-slicks)
and a fresh coat of chain oil, The Red Sled was ready for its
first full-length test.
In weather that varied from bursts of
sunshine to heavy squalls, I approached the base of King's
Mountain Road. No computer on this bike (yet), and I
considered not timing myself on the climb...but why not?
Wouldn't it be interesting to see how the various timing points
compared? (And besides, anyone who has ridden with me knows
that I'm compulsive about timing myself on that climb).
Given that this bike weighs almost exactly twice what my 5500
does, I figured it might take 45 minutes, maybe even longer, to
get to the top. Imagine my surprise when the Huddart Park
entrance, which is 1/3 of the way up, was about 12 minutes, just
two or three minutes slower than normal! The final time to
the top was 36:30, well under my expectations.
As for the ride back down the hill,
there's no substitute for big, near-treadless tires!
So if you've got an old bike gathering dust,
consider tossing whatever pedal system you're used to on it, check
out (and replace if needed) the tires, and go have some fun in the
rain! Of course, use some common sense and stay off of
heavily-trafficked roads and make sure you're as visible as
possible (bright clothing and flashing front & rear lights).
Specs for Le Luge Rouge: 1983
TREK 830 steel mountain bike, Sunshine sealed-bearing axle nutted
hubs, 14 gauge zinc-plated (ugly!) spokes, Avocet 1.9 cross
tires, Sugino Cycloid (biopace type) cranks, etc. Pedals are
a pair of worn-out Time equippe pro that I recently replaced on my
road bike. A real clunker (aside from the pedals) by today's
standards!
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But, thankfully, Ueyn didn't show up. Why thankfully? Because he
casually mentioned yesterday that he'd just gotten a time up Old LaHonda in
the 19 minute range.
For
this first run I looped up through the back side of Huddart Park,
connected to King's Mtn 1/3 of the way up and rode back
down. I was running pretty late, so I couldn't do the full
run to the top (and besides, I wasn't even sure that was possible
at this point!). But it was enough to reacquaint myself with
the beauty of the local mountains, creeks and roads as the rain
washes over them and rolls noisily down the various creeks, with
little mini-waterfalls everywhere you look. All in all a very
successful first run.
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