Went for my third Black Friday ride, west to the coast range and up
a logging and BLM road to the barbed wire fence at the Hillsboro city
watershed and back. 66 miles of pavement and probably 5 of good gravel
road. The striking part of this is how well my bike serves for this
ride, a '73 Raleigh Competition frame with a mishmash of parts. (Zero
attempt to be authentic or even period but some of the parts could go
back that far.)
Frame is small. 21" (59 cm is
my standard) Nitto Pearl 13 (140 in everybody else's book), traditional
Nitto bars. Triple: Sugino 110/74 with 52-42-26, SRAM 8-speed chain to
a modern Shimano 7-speed 14-28, SunTour AR front derailleur (roller
removed and replaced by a shorter bolt and small washers to narrow the
cage for quicker shifting onto the inner ring) and a SunTour GT rear (I
forget what). Power ratchet DTs. Tektro road levers and Mafac Racer
front, Schwinn approved (Weinmann?) rear with continuous housing.
Phil
hubs (bolted in front to get the width down for easy removal with a
very stiff Jahnn (sp) lowrider rack). Mavic Sport rims, 36 spoke laced
4X with light spokes. Good flapped fenders. Rear rack also. Today I
carried one pannier in back. 35c Pasela tires. Probably 55 psi on the
road, 40 on the gravel.
Today's ride was in rain most of the day, high 40s to 51, getting a real amount colder approaching and going up the gravel.
For
this ride, the bike is close to perfect. Oh, quite a few pounds less
would be nice. But on flattish, wet roads, weight matters little and
those flat Paselas roll just fine. On the gravel with softer tires, the
bike rules. (The flexy BB hardly matters when you cannot get out of
the saddle productively anyway.) Downhill it is a blast. That old bike
is completely confidence inspiring flying down stretches I could barely
see and where I had to choose my lines long before I had any info on
them.
Shifters nearer the bars would have been
nice a few times but still, this is the steadiest bike I have ever
ridden in that stuff when I do have to reach down. And that drive train
shifts really well. Today it seemed I was on. I only hit the Shimano
no-mans-land once (between cogs where the chain wanders back and forth,
always in a gear, but often shifting on its own.
Much
of the time, I hate that FW and the big spaces but on gravel, that FW
and the wide range in front work really well. And having the 26-28 was
also a blessing coming home, allowing me to go easy up a probably 300',
say12% hill to save a few miles. (I'm not in super shape and kept the
speeds down all day to keep this ride out of the epic category.)
It
didn't cross my mind until after I got back, but part of my climbing
issues today was another source of weight. My clothes. I was never
dripping wet or soggy under my rain jacket and tights but all of my
clothes were damp. The mittens and gloves under I wore on the ride out
were truly soggy. At the far point, I stashed them and put on dry
Showers Pass gloves. What a treat! Comfy hands all the way home. I
could have rung water out of those mittens when I got home. There was a
puddle n my pannier. Peeling those clothes off and taking a hot shower
- bliss! Warm, dry clothes more bliss. (Memo to self - stash dry
gloves for future rides.)
They call today
Black Friday. A month before solstice at 45 degrees N in the rain (for
the third year), no. It's Grey Friday. (Great day for my yellow rain
jacket, yellow Ortleib pannier and wide yellow Planet Bike fenders.
Felt like cars saw me all day - until I ran out of cars; part of the
reason for this ride!)
Ben