Get Shorty

As I advance in years, I am starting to think about ways to keep my body from falling apart. For the most part I feel pretty good when I ride mountain bikes, but the gravel bike does cause me to experience some minor hip issues. I attribute this to the more acute hip angle in the aero position. One way to increase this angle is with shorter cranks.

Over the years I have read many articles and studies related to crank length and how it applies to ergonomics, power and efficiency. For the most part the takeaway for power is this: It doesn't matter much. Power output stays pretty uniform except on the far ends of the spectrum, like with 120mm or 210mm cranks. Any lack of leverage with shorter cranks is made up by higher cadence, and vice versa.

As for efficiency, it depends. Tadej Pogačar started using 165mm cranks this year with the intent to spin more and stay seated more when climbing. We do know seated climbing is more efficient because it utilizes far fewer muscle groups, requiring less fuel and oxygen. I think maybe it worked for him. At the very least it didn't hinder him. Still, I saw Tadej attack many times this year out of the saddle, so I think this simply proves that shorter isn't necessarily better or worse, just different.

That's all great, but the facet I am most interested in is the ergonomic side. To me it makes sense that decreasing the movement in the knee and hip joints with a shorter crank could be beneficial. This of course comes with a price—more crank revolutions. Given that I have produced millions and millions of pedal revolutions in my life, I don't think a few more per ride will hurt me, especially if each of those comes with less joint movement.

Cranks in 175mm length have been my standard since BMX days, and I never felt the need to change. In 2021 when I bought the Jones LWB, it showed up with 170mm cranks. Jeff Jones specs shorter cranks because he likes lower bottom brackets, so for him it wasn't an ergonomic choice. My first instinct was to immediately replace the cranks, but I decided to try them. I felt the length difference immediately, but after a few rides I forgot they were any shorter. The LWB is by far the bike I ride the most, so you could say that I have mostly converted to 170mm cranks.

When I built the Santa Cruz Hightower in 2023, I used 170mm cranks because that's what the complete build used. Long travel means the bottom bracket will be low. Even with 170s, I experienced a lot of rock strikes, so I dropped down to 165mm cranks. I pretty much hated them. Combined with the ridiculously steep seat tube angle, the short cranks made me feel like I was directly over the bottom bracket, the sensation not completely unlike riding a unicycle.

There are many calculations floating around out there to determine your optimum crank length based on height, inseam or tibia length. I have seen mine as short as 162 and as long as 177, but most calculations put me around 167mm.

Even though my first experience with 165s was not great, I was willing to try them on my gravel bike in the name of science. I replaced my Shimano Ultegra setup with SRAM Apex.

Before even riding the bike they looked stubby to the naked eye.

I have to say, I like the Dub interface more and more as I use it.

I raised my saddle exactly 10mm to compensate for the cranks and headed out for a ride.

Some people are not very sensitive to fit changes. Some are. I fall into the latter category. Aside from the huge reduction in crank length, which I think any cyclist would notice, I immediately felt the saddle height change. It really felt like the bars were dropped a couple inches, not only one measly centimeter. I could also feel the change in saddle setback. Again, this crank length change pushes the knee forward in relation to the pedal spindle a full centimeter. I resisted the urge to make any other changes except the saddle height until I ride the bike a few times.

The first ride was just OK. The cranks definitely feel short. Sitting in the saddle on the flats felt fine, but when I stood to get over small rises the power wasn't there. On sustained climbs, my normal cadence felt slow. I had to drop down a gear and spin more to feel like I was going the same speed. My saddle also felt a little low, but it's hard to tell if it really is. Perhaps the smaller pedaling circle only made it feel that way.

This was a big change and one ride will not provide all the answers. In fact, it was such a big change that I am a little sore today. I'll keep riding this new setup to see if shorter cranks are part of my future. If I don't stick with them, perhaps Tadej Pogačar will be interested in buying them.

Later.

Not the GOAT (Yet)

At this point, I think we can safely say Tadej Pogačar has entered the conversation as one of the greats. Today he completed yet another long solo breakaway to win his second consecutive world championship.

There are plenty of people who have already crowned him the GOAT, but that is crazy. Merckx racked up an astounding 525 wins, exactly five times as many as Pogačar's 105. This recency bias is pretty normal, though.

In baseball, players from more recent times are often celebrated as better than the old timers even if the numbers don't support it. I have heard baseball pundits say, "Ruth played against farmers and plumbers." Sure, the game was different in Ruth's time, which makes direct comparisons difficult, but he absolutely dominated his era and literally changed the way the game was played. In 1920, when Ruth hit 54 home runs, he was the first player in MLB history to reach THIRTY home runs. The next best player that year was George Sisler with only 19 home runs.

Many say Ruth couldn't hit in this era. Maybe. To be truthful, few players can hit in this era. Pitching has never been better. However, if you insist on making this comparison, you have to acknowledge that Ruth rolled out of bed, often hung over (or still drunk) from the night before, and still dominated. Because he could. Why live like a monk when you can eat and drink whatever you want, stay out all night, yet still be great?

In this era the expectations would require Ruth to be in the weight room, eating sensibly and making curfew. And I have little doubt given these modern requirements of the game, he would compete and perhaps even be a dominant force in this era.

Which brings us to the ridiculous notion that Merckx could not compete in this era. Similar views as with Ruth have been voiced: "Eddy raced against farmers and plumbers." Again, give him modern training and nutrition practices, and a carbon fiber super bike, and Eddy would be just fine. Those 525 wins didn't happen by accident.

Even though Pogačar just turned 27, he will never come close to matching Merckx's win total. I think even reaching 200 wins is a stretch. Because today you MUST live like a monk to compete with all the other monks. Eventually this will become too much for him, and I believe he will likely retire quite young.

When he does retire, and the dust settles, maybe we can return to this GOAT talk. For now I will simply appreciate Pogačar, and marvel at the beauty and audaciousness of his long attacks. Like many things in life, like my own individual cycling mortality, I will enjoy it now while it lasts.

Later.

Vibes

We experienced some coastal vibes on our ride yesterday. Every once in a while the marine layer finds its way deep into the Sacramento Valley in the summer. I did not hate the cool start to the morning.

It definitely made me yearn for the coast a bit. Maybe we should do that.

Later.

Fort Bragg

Jennifer and I ran up to Fort Bragg for a couple days to see her cousin's new(ish) brewery.

Patrick was the longtime brewmaster at North Coast Brewing (which is located right around the corner from Tall Guy) before opening his own brewery.

We had a nice visit with Patrick and took the grand tour. The beer was great and the location is one street removed from Highway 1 in a quaint part of town. I already want to go back.

We only went riding once, but this was by design. We both rode a lot leading up to this trip, so one mellow ride was just what the doctor ordered.

The trail along the ocean was only a couple turns from our hotel. Within a couple minutes we were riding along the water.

We reached the end of the trail to the north and turned back after a selfie.

The riding shares some obvious similarities with Monterey, but it was different enough that we slowed down and looked around a bit more.

After reaching the southern end of the trail, we headed into town. I was looking for a haul road I found on Google Earth that runs east out of town. After a few wrong turns, we found the somewhat hidden entrance.

The road follows the Noyo river upstream. It was paved until we hit the bridge.

After the bridge it turned to gravel and there wasn't much enthusiasm to continue. On our Jones bikes it would have been fun, but the mini velos were out of their element on the bumpy, rutted surface.

We turned around and headed back to our hotel. Normally we aren't satisfied with only 17 miles, but it was a perfect ride for this trip.

I broke out my little Canon PowerShot SX210 IS for this trip. Most of the pictures in this post were taken with it. This is a camera that has traveled the world with us for 15 years, but I think there are probably better options now.

When only carrying my iPhone, I often get frustrated when I can't zoom in on an animal or some other interesting subject.

The 14X optical zoom is nice for those situations, something you can't get with a smart phone. (The current iPhone 16 Pro still only offers 5X optical zoom.)

The compact size is great. It's smaller than my phone, but twice as thick. With that compact size comes a small sensor that only performs well when there is plenty of light.

The image stabilization works well for photos, but not for video as you can see below.

If you made it through that without getting motion sickness, congratulations.

Anyway, the TLDR version: Tall Guy has great beer, Fort Bragg is a cool place to visit, and the perfect camera does not exist.

Later.

Mini Biking

I "finished" building the Neutrino some weeks back, not long after finishing the condominium renovation in Tahoe. It isn't in its final form yet as evidenced by the uneven color scheme and a couple ancient parts, but close enough.

So far I have used it for errands and a couple rides, one around 20 miles and yesterday a flat 37 mile ride along the canal. This was a test of sorts because the ride around Cozumel is 40.5 miles with very little elevation change.

The bike itself passed with flying colors, albeit with a couple caveats with component choice. 

As for the platform itself, the mini velo with 20-inch wheels is really just a bike. Your brain adjusts pretty quickly to the twitchy steering, and this is coming from someone who regularly rides what might be the longest and most stable bike around in the Jones LWB (long wheel base). Once that hurdle is out of the way, you simply ride. It's just a bike.

Considering my main ride, the aforementioned Jones LWB, is a steel behemoth with three-inch knobby tires, the Neutrino is downright fast. In fact, towards the end of the ride yesterday I held off a guy on a road bike for a couple miles until he out-geared me on a downhill. The 42x11 high gear combined with 20-inch wheels simply isn't made for racing speeds. I spun madly while he pulled away.

In many situations the Neutrino would be far superior to the 26-inch travel bike it is likely replacing. The only time it would be inferior is when the pavement ends. I would be pretty comfortable on anything but the roughest gravel roads, but I know Jennifer would not. The instability of the little wheels would definitely make her uncomfortable.

One interesting aspect to the mini velo is how well it climbs. Well, once you figure out how to do it right. It climbs fine in the saddle, but really excels when you stand. When I first tried standing it felt horrible and sketchy, but I quickly figured out that you really need to saw the bike back and forth like a BMX bike. When you do that it feels very natural, but maybe that's because I spent many years on a BMX bike. The other thing I noticed is you don't need to shift for hills. Simply stand up and start cranking, and the little wheels rocket right up the incline. This makes me believe it would perform very well as a single speed, which would be great for traveling.

Back in the day, the WTB SST saddle was my favorite. 

This one dates back to 2003 when I built my Santa Cruz Blur.

Perhaps in 22 years the foam has hardened up or something, but I found it very uncomfortable on our 37-mile ride yesterday.

The only other component of note is Steve Potts Siskiyou handlebar.

I thought it would be very similar to the Jones bar, but it really isn't. It's a couple inches wider, yet the grip section is much shorter, meaning a "regular" grip is in order. Part of the Jones appeal is the ability to use long (205mm) grips, which allow you to move your hands around. The sweep is 30 degrees to the Jones 45, and I prefer the greater sweep of the Jones. Also, I feel a little naked without my bag in the middle of my Jones bars.

The upside is I really dig the cow horns. It may seem dumb to have an "aero" position on a mini velo, but I appreciated it while riding into a stiff headwind. I use a similar position with the Jones bars, but these are better. I will miss that particular aspect of these bars should I change them out.

Later today we are heading up to Fort Bragg and taking the Neutrinos. We don't plan to do any serious riding, but it will still be a good test.

Later.

Truckin'

Today I needed to return my dad's bike to him in Incline Village. I installed some taller handlebars, which also required new cables to accommodate the height difference. Like all of us, my dad wants his handlebars higher as the years go by. After a quick tune-up, it was ready to go.

Jenn and I figured it was a good opportunity to ride on the bike trails in Truckee that we drove by so, so many times while we were working on the condo in Incline.

After dropping off the bike and visiting, we drove back to Truckee. By the time we started riding at 12:30 it was 84 degrees. It was hot in the sun, but the wind helped.

Truckee has a fairly substantial trail system. We started at the parking lot on 267 (red marker) and rode towards Truckee, eventually meeting the Truckee River and riding along it up to the Union Mills neighborhood. 

Towards the end is a steep climb with great views.

At the terminus, benches are provided for you to rest.

We then backtracked down the hill and along the river.

We made our way back and rode past the truck towards Northstar. We had set a two-hour time limit for the ride because of dinner commitments, so we turned around before reaching ski area. All told we rode 19.94 miles. It was a pleasant ride and certainly a lot less crowded than our Folsom trails. We will go back at some point.

Later.

The Shore

After finishing a big real estate project, we often find ourselves drawn to the sea. Off to Monterey.

We rode at home on Monday morning and left around noon. By 4:30 we were checked in, unloaded and sipping a beer at Fieldwork. Good stuff.

After beers we ate at a place called Alejandro's on Alvarado Street. We walked right by this place for years and never tried it, and that was a mistake. The food was excellent. We started with the ahi ceviche (ceviche de atún), which was fantastic. The chips come with four sauces, all of which were great. I had the mole enchiladas while Jennifer had a vegetarian chile relleno (chile en nogada). Both were terrific. Highly recommended.

The next day we rode south along 17 Mile Drive. At 54 degrees, the weather dipped a bit below refreshingly cool into grab-a-jacket territory. The June Gloom is real.

Still, what's not to like riding along this scenery?

Later we went to the grocery store. Next to the store was this:

I haven't eaten at a Carl's Jr. in years, and I don't thing anyone will be eating at this one for a while. Burned to a crisp.

The next day we decided to head inland seeking sunshine. As we rode north along the coast, conditions were cool and overcast.

As we climbed into Fort Ord, the blue sky was teasingly close.

Eventually we climbed above the marine layer and it was glorious.

I had a new route mapped out, but we ran into some road closures due to the Army and BLM preparing for prescribed burns. Although it wasn't in the original plan, we climbed up to Laguna Seca once again. Jennifer handled it no problem.

The views from up top are great.

Then we descended back down into the gloom. All told we rode just short of 30 miles with over 2000 feet of climbing.

The next day we rode north to the end of the trail and back, a nice 25-mile ride. We did not see the sun even once. Nothing about the ride really inspired me to take a photo.

That night marked the return of Peter B's, a mainstay of our Monterey dining and beer experience for many years. The restaurant had been closed for four months during a $2 million renovation.

The restaurant itself looked great. The booths and walls were removed from the main dining area leaving it brighter and open.

Unfortunately that's where the improvements ended. The beer menu lacked anything I was really interested in, so I had a Legend of Laguna IPA, the only beer that's always on the menu. It typically falls somewhere between great and awful. (I was far more excited about my new Cal Poly shirt than the beer.)

I rarely complain about my food. I have a discerning palette, and appreciate great food, but I also realize I am not "great food rich." If you frequent breweries, you should be pleasantly surprised by great cuisine, but expect mediocrity. Still, a restaurant promoting an all-new menu should perform.

They did not.

Again, I am not a complaint person. However, they left a comment card with the bill, so I let them have it. I believe "bland, boring and uninspired" was part of my review.

Today we opted not to ride in favor of getting a jump on Friday traffic. Still, we hit a major slowdown on Highway 101 because of construction that cost us an extra 45 minutes of drive time.

Another nice getaway in the books, and some lessons learned: Try new things and be adventurous.

Later.

The Doors

One of the renovation tasks we decided to tackle ourselves was the kitchen cabinets. Replacing cabinets is a very expensive proposition, and it requires a permit. We decided to "reface" the old cabinets instead. Here's the before picture from our old rental company.

Pretty hideous, right?

The first order of business was to remove the doors and drawers, patch the holes, and let our professional painters do their thing.

Going from dingy white to gray was an immediate improvement.

Then it was time to make a door prototype. I watched a few videos about making "budget shaker doors" and decided to use 1/2" maple plywood with a 1/4" maple border. While it came out OK, it didn't have the quality I was looking for.

I also needed to replace the drawers. The old ones were a little small for the cabinets, so I built the scrap wood prototype a little wider so there wouldn't be as much slop and play.

On the next trip to Tahoe we checked the fit and everything was perfect.

Time to go into production.

I watched a few more videos and decided to make true shaker cabinets. We would go the MDF route because it's inexpensive, easy to work with, and the doors would be painted anyway.

I took all my measurements and performed the calculations to build everything.

I purchased the components to build a fairly professional table router setup. It was expensive, but very much worth it.

This allows you to route all the rails and styles with precision.

Unfortunately my trusty old Craftsman table saw bit the dust during this project.

It was replaced with this DeWalt portable unit that turned out to be so vastly superior that I should have bought one years ago.

Assembly went pretty quickly and soon we had a bunch of doors and drawer fronts.

Each one had to be painstakingly sanded to smooth out the seams and round all the sharp corners.

Then it was off to paint, a task that Jennifer handled. She learned quickly and did a great job.

She pre-sprayed all the drawer parts so when I tacked them together, they were mostly painted.

Everything went up pretty easily and lined up well.

I made one calculation mistake thinking I would use 1.5 inch overlay hinges everywhere. It turned out that a few doors needed 3/4" hinges. No big deal, I was able to cut down the offending doors and replace one rail without too much effort.

Installing the drawer fronts was easily the most difficult part. Getting them level and lined up with both each other and the cabinet doors proved tricky.

All that was left was installing the black hardware. It was a piece of cake with the jig I bought.

In the end we were pretty happy with the finished product.

Were they perfect? No. But we learned a lot and next time we will edge much closer to the perfection we always seek with home improvement projects.

Later.