New Shoes

It was time.

I bought my Sidi Dominators for the 2003 cyclocross season. That makes them older than my son, who is now taller than I am. They were a little small, the Velcro was failing and the left buckle was broken.

Jennifer bought the replacements last Christmas. Still, I wore the old ones mostly because they weren't quite dead yet and I REALLY hate setting up new shoes.

    

The new ones are Mega (wider) and a half size larger (44.5). My reservations about setting up the new shoes were well founded. What a pain. Hopefully I can get it sorted out.

Later.

Still Smoking

It's been two weeks since I have been on an outdoor bike ride.

Smoke

Pugs Update

Bottom bracket, cranks and pedals.

More drivetrain parts on the way.

Later.

California Wildfire Smokeout 2020 - Day Six

Believe it or not this is an improvement.

I rode on the trainer for the second day in a row today after not resorting to indoor riding for over a year. Last winter I was pretty good about getting outside regardless of how cold it was, and this summer the same in the heat. But there isn't much you can do when the outside air looks and smells like the inside of poker room.

Hopefully we get some relief soon, especially for the sake of the people whose homes and lives are still in jeopardy.

Later.

Break On Thru

After much consideration, I finally decided to go with a SRAM drivetrain for the new Pugsley. Unfortunately Shimano simply makes it too difficult because they don't participate in the fat bike market.

The first thing I purchased was an Eagle GX Dub crankset.

Unfortunately, I did not realize all my Shimano bottom bracket tools are not compatible with the Dub cups. To the Internet!

Tool ordered, but it won't be here for a few days. Oh well, I had one more thing I could do.

One of the things that drove me nuts about the old Pugsley was rear wheel removal. Getting the cassette past the derailleur with the horizontal dropouts was a nightmare that usually ended with greasy hands, a little blood and a lot of profanity.

The new frame alleviates this, but only if you use a thru axle. This allows the wheel to be dropped out vertically rather than horizontally.

Luckily my rear hub is a DT Swiss 350, which can be converted. The new end caps were simple to change out and I have a new appreciation for the modular design of DT Swiss hubs (although I am still a Shimano hub fan at heart).

So it was a short day in the shop, but I am ever so much closer to a running bike.

Later.

Honzo, We Hardly Knew You

The Honzo frame that sat in my office for a few years is gone. The purge continues.

Ultimately I just don't think it offered anything beyond what the other hardtails I'm riding do. And it was heavy as hell. And it only had one set of water bottle mounts. And it was kind of funny looking with the weird seat tube thing.

Later.

Status: It's Complicated

I kind of decided as I approach 53 years of age that I am likely no longer a single speeder. I haven't had the urge to explore the pain cave that is single speeding in a couple years now.

I had been holding on to my DT Swiss 240S wheels for a while just in case, but it was time to let them go. I put them on the Kona Unit and it sold pretty quickly.

It feels pretty weird. I have been riding a single speed since 2001 when I bought a Surly 1x1. Since then I have owned many different single speeds. I mean, my user name on a number of platforms is "SS29er." I guess I should change it now? Nah. I'll keep my options open just in case. SS29er lives on. For now.

Later.

SQlab 30X Bars

In my quest for the perfect handlebar for my imperfect wrist, I purchased a set of SQlab's 30X bars.

While I love pretty much everything about the Surly Sunrise bars, they are a bit extreme. The 30X comes in 40mm narrower and 38mm lower. Sweep comes in at one degree more.

I don't obsess about weight, BUT the 30X comes in at 335 grams, almost a full pound lighter than the Sunrise at an obese 778 grams. Also, the Thomson BMX stem feels like a hand grenade compared to a similar length MTB stem.

Anyway, I will probably put them on the Canfield to see how they feel.

Later.

Sunrise and Evolution

If I have learned anything over the past few months, it's that even after riding bikes my whole life there is always more to learn.

The human body can be both highly specialized and yet hugely adaptable if given a little time. I am a relatively fit cyclist, and I can hold my own against most people my age or even younger. Pit me against runners at a similar fitness level, and I would fail miserably. I simply don't use the same muscle groups or have the built up capillary infrastructure to deliver energy and oxygen to those running muscles.

When I first started riding the Jones, the position changed enough to where I struggled. I felt slow, and my first rides left my muscles feeling sore for about a week. New muscles were being utilized, and my body was trying to adapt. When it did adapt, I felt as fast and sometimes faster on the Jones.

As mountain bikers our genesis and evolution is a complex one. While the origin is often traced back to guys riding old clunkers, the guys who started making the first purpose-built frames had road racing backgrounds. So it's no mystery that the early mountain bikes looked a lot like road bikes. Compare my 1987 Fisher to my LeMond below it:

Short, horizontal top tubes, short head tubes and similar angles. We were forced to use ridiculously long stems to compensate, which made early mountain bikes endo machines. We endured these horrible bikes for quite some time because we didn't know any better.

Eventually someone broke the mold and sloped a top tube. Head tubes lengthened. Top tubes lengthened. Stems shortened. Head tube angles relaxed. The world rejoiced.

Which brings me to my recent experiments, which are all being performed in an effort to relieve some stress on my bad wrist and neck. I never intended for the Surly Sunrise bars to go on a conventional mountain bike. They simply looked cool and I thought they might be fun on my 26-inch travel bike. They sat unused for years.

Pain has a funny way of motivating you, though, especially when you are experiencing that discomfort doing something you love. The success of the Jones has opened my eyes to the "might as well try it" school of thought. I eyed the bars collecting dust in the corner of my office and thought, why not? Even if they are wider, taller and have more sweep than any riser bar I have ever used, why not?

On the first couple test rides around my home, they felt strange but not bad. The cockpit was shorter and much taller, and that alone may have been a deal breaker had the Jones not already prepared me for it. The 15 degree bend was a noticeable improvement, enough to relieve some pressure on my wrist but still feel like a riser bar. They were uncomfortably wide, though.

I used them for a real mountain bike ride today for the first time—23 miles on rolling terrain, mostly singletrack. When I rolled away from the car I actually didn't notice the bars at all. I adapted.



On the trail they were great. The entire ride was so much fun. I was really hauling ass down some descents, probably getting in over my head a couple times. But those big bars just made me feel invincible.

Climbing is certainly more upright, but not altogether horrible. On the few occasions when I felt like going fast I simply bent my elbows a bit and attained a more familiar climbing position. But you can also sit up and take a look around if you want, an option you don't have with a low-rise bar.

In the end my takeaway is this: There are a lot of ways to skin that cat. Striving to be more comfortable doesn't necessarily mean giving up speed and handling. In this case, handling and downhill speed actually improved.

So experiment, try different things, keep an open mind (which hasn't always been the case for me) and have fun.

Later.

The Sun Also Rises

I rode the Salsa with the newly installed Surly Sunrise bars today and it was fantastic. I haven't had so much fun riding in a while.

The bars felt too wide (820mm) and way too tall (83mm), but somehow they just worked.

There are a couple rocky downhills on my local ride and I hit them hard. I really felt like I was flying.

The downside there is climbing feels a bit odd being up so high, but after a while I didn't care anymore. Going fast downhill sometimes outweighs going slow uphill.

Ultimately what I was testing was the 15-degree bend, and that was a success. It wouldn't seem like an extra five degrees would make much difference, but it did. My wrist was pretty happy and I didn't feel like handling was affected at all.

Ultimately something similar but not as wide or tall will probably be my landing spot.

Later.

Hello Moto

I bought these Surly Sunrise bars a while back for my travel bike, almost as a joke, but never got around to taking the bike out of the travel box to install them. I thought maybe they would be good to experiment with since they have a 15 degree bend. The 83mm rise is pretty extreme, though, and probably a bit much.

In the driveway, the riding position feels a bit short and high. The five extra degrees of backsweep is a noticeable improvement over the Deity bars, though. I am anxious to get on the trail to see how they perform.

Later.

Bar None

I rode my Salsa Timberjack this evening for the first time since building the Jones almost four months ago. The main reason for this was because I stole the rear wheel for the Jones build. I finally got around to building a new wheel for the Jones, so the Timberjack was once again intact and ready to ride.

When I hopped on the bike it felt awful. After using the Jones bars with a 45 degree bend, a normal riser bar feels terrible. I immediately felt some tension on the outside of my left (bad) wrist. The bike also felt very long and stretched out.

Up until recently my favorite bar was the Deity CZ38. It's 760mm wide with a 38mm rise and a fairly generous 9.5 degree bend for a riser bar. As I rolled down the driveway, the sensation was that the bars were on backwards. It literally felt like my hands were pointing forward. This never totally went away for the entire ride.

The discomfort from the bars aside, I had a good time. There is no doubt that bashing down a descent with 120mm of travel is a nice change from the rigid Jones. I just need to make some cockpit adjustments so the transition from bike to bike isn't so severe. I don't want Jones bars on my hardtail, but perhaps something with a bend in the high teens will offer the performance and comfort I need.

Later.

Long Term Review - Jones SWB

I guess if you ride a bike enough to wear out a tire and a set of grips, it's time for a review.

I have been riding the Jones almost exclusively for over three months, and for the most part it's been everything I wanted for my everyday bike.

Almost all my rides originate from home, and I utilize my terrible narrow roads, gravel roads, smooth trails and some rocky singletrack. For this purpose the Jones has been pretty good. The upright position and 45-degree bars have virtually eliminated the neck and wrist pain I was experiencing with my other bikes.

This comfortable upright posture may not look like a "performance" position, but once I adapted to it I felt as fast or faster when climbing and almost as fast descending. When climbing, it's really just a matter of moving your hands forward a bit on the long grips, bending your elbows, and letting 'er rip. It's not much different from the classic XC racing position.

Descending so far is a bit different. With the bars so high, and the hands so far back, I don't feel I can attack a technical downhill like I can on a traditional bike. Maybe someday I will get there, but I feel a certain detachment from the bike when picking my way down a rocky trail. Your hands are SO high.

Conversely, on smoother high-speed singletrack the bike is an absolute blast. Too often you hear people say some bike feels like it's on rails, but I don't know any other way to describe it. And there's a good reason for it to handle this way.

While this bike is considered by Jones to be "short wheel base," the chainstays are quite long. Even with the EBB set at 9 o'clock (from the driveside), they come in at 450mm—pretty long by today's standards.

That chainstay length, combined with the low bottom bracket, can be felt when trying to loft the front wheel over obstacles. It doesn't come up as easily as you would think with the bars so high.

Speaking of the bottom bracket, it's low. Really low. Lower than anything I have ever owned before. I have never had an issue with pedal strikes in 36 years of mountain biking, but this bike is giving me fits when trying to ride the occasional rock garden. Granted, Jones specs 170mm cranks, which I refuse to use. I have been running 175s since my BMX days and I am not about to change now. People say you can't tell, but I can. Heck, I can tell if my saddle position changes by a couple millimeters.

Also, until recently I was running smallish 2.8 inch tires that actually came in at about 2.65 inches. Since moving to true 3.0 tires the bottom bracket is noticeably higher. Still, I think the pedal clearance aspect of the bike makes it unreliable as a "true" mountain bike.

The upside of the chainstay/BB combination is super sticky cornering. At high speed this thing just rails corners. It's amazing.

By the numbers, the top tube is relatively short at 23 inches, but when you factor in the bent seat tube and setback post Jones recommends, the reach is actually much longer. It works.

The fork is certainly fun to look at, not so fun to install, and performs just fine. For something so shockingly light, it's actually quite stiff with all the triangulation. If it weren't for the flotation of the plus tires, it would probably be too stiff for me in the dirt. But that same stiffness equates to great handling. You don't really realize how much your rigid fork deflects until you ride one that doesn't. On my Kona and Krampus, you can rub the front disc rotor pretty easily when climbing out of the saddle. I think it would be damn near impossible to do that with the truss fork. The thru axle and 150mm hub also contribute to the stiffness. When you really lean this thing into a corner it does not move.

Now some things I don't like: The water bottle placement is stupid. Two bottles on the down tube was something we were stuck with for a while in the '80s, and I was glad when it went away. Getting either bottle out is a hassle. There was plenty of room on the seat tube to use more traditional bottle placement. Not sure why Jones went that direction.

There are only two derailleur cable guides on the top tube, which leads to some occasional rattling. Every other bike I own has three for good reason. Noises drive me nuts. Using zip ties instead of the plastic clips helped a little.

I am not a big fan of the rear brake mounted on the chainstay. I know, I know, "It's stiffer that way." Well, it's also a pain to get to when installing, setting up or adjusting. Just put the damn brake on the seatstay so I can use my tri-wrench like I can on every other bike.

In the end, the bike has done what I wanted it to. I am more comfortable and putting less stress on my body because I simply believe the position is better. It's made me re-think riding altogether. If I am riding solo, I am no longer bothered by how slow a plus tire is on the road. If my ride takes 10 extra minutes, who cares? I'm not racing anymore. It's just for fun, and being comfortable and pain-free is pretty nice. Hopefully it helps extend my riding for another few decades.

Later.

Movie Time

Bicicleta Gorda Anaranjada

I starting building up the new Pugsley this morning. Unlike the old one, this one actually looks like a mountain bike.

Compared to my old medium Pugs, this new large frame has a shorter seat tube, longer top tube and longer head tube—all good things.

The handlebars are just a placeholder for now. I haven't decided what to use, but it may well be another pair of Jones bars.

The rear end takes either a 135mm QR (currently, with Surly adapter washers) or 142mm thru axle. I am happy to have a DT Swiss 350 hub in back so I can easily convert it to a 142mm thru axle with new end caps. This will make wheel removal much easier, which has historically been a huge hassle on Surly bikes with newer Shimano derailleurs.

Speaking of Shimano, I have not decided how to approach the drivetrain. I have an XT 11-speed setup ready to go, but an 11-42 is lacking gear range for a fat bike. You can put a tiny chainring on the front to compensate, but then obviously lose some high end. This bike will eventually have another wheelset built for it so I can use it on vacation like I did with the old Pugs. A 32-tooth chainring is the smallest I want. So maybe Sram Eagle is the way to go.

Later.

New Pugs

I just ordered a new Pugs frame. As I mentioned before, I kept the offset fat wheels and tires from the old one, so it won't take much to build up. I bought it for 25% off, which is nice.

The new model addresses the issues I didn't like about the old one. I moved up to a size large from the previous medium (they shortened seat tube lengths), so I will feel much less cramped. Should be fun.

Later.

Thinning

The Pugs is gone.

I probably hadn't used it in fat bike mode since Roger and I rode on the beach in Monterey, and that was Christmas of 2017. I enjoy riding a fat bike in certain situations, but this particular bike wasn't my favorite. The geometry is weird and outdated.

I substituted a bunch of parts I wanted to be rid of, so there wasn't anything on the bike I was in love with—narrow bars, long stem, 10-speed drivetrain, torn seat, creaky seatpost, heavy tires, really old brakes.

I kept the most expensive part of the bike, the 26x4 wheels and tires, so there is still the possibility that I build a new bike. I am looking at the new Pugsley numbers in an effort to determine if they corrected the things I hated about the old one.

Later.

Spacing Out

The purchase of the Jones created a situation where there was one more bike in the garage than hooks to hang them on. I sold the Casseroll and the world is back in sync again.

I had actually been trying to sell the Salsa since last August, long before purchasing the Jones even entered my mind.

I bought the Casseroll new in 2009 as a single speed on clearance for $550. I unloaded all the parts on eBay for about $250 and felt pretty good about it.

The only original parts left when I sold the bike were the frame, fork and brakes. It was built with mostly Dura Ace 9-speed parts originating in the last century. I sold it for $550. It was a good bike, but I saw an opportunity to unload an aged parts set and clear some needed space. The current gravel bike also made it redundant.

Later.

Dirt Bag

In olden times I carried everything I needed for a ride (spare tube, tools, food) in the back pockets of my jersey. These days I wear mountain bike clothing which is generally pocket free, so I use various bags.

My favorite up to this point has been a "gas tank" type of bag. Unfortunately, the Jones truss fork design puts a pinch bolt right at a bag attachment point. It works, but that bolt grinding back and forth as you turn would make short work of the bag.

I picked up this Surly bag which fits in the loop of the Jones bar.

We'll see how it works.

Later.

Finished

I finally finished the bike. Like with any build, there are always things you overlook—a disc brake adapter, cable housing, 32 mm seat clamp—and have to order.

For the most part everything went smoothly. Time to ride.

Later.

Coming Along

As the few parts I needed finally started to trickle in, like the 150 mm spaced front wheel, I began the Jones build process.

Still a lot to do, especially since I am scavenging parts from a few different bikes to complete it.

Later.

Time Away

We spent the better part of five days in Monterey this week doing the usual: riding, relaxing, eating good food and having a few beers.

I'll let the pictures tell the story.

Later.

Jonesing