After 4000 or so miles on the Cannondale it was time to take it in for some TLC at OYLC. New chain, new cassette and a lot of drivetrain cleaning. I got a wild hair while it was there to have the bars wrapped with fresh white Fizik tape and photographed while clean. They were happy to oblige and the glamor shot above is the result. I made it my desktop wallpaper and immediately fielded questions on Thursday’s business trip at both locations. Generally the questions shortly devolved into…”where are the pictures of your children?”

I switched to a more aggressive cassette in the rear moving to 12-23 vs. 12-25. I had three rides this week on the new setup and feel comfortable that the new gearing is perfectly acceptable. I think the reality of most climbs is that you just downshift until you are banging against the right STI shifter limit screw in sweet futility before you settle down and just climb it. This theory proved true and I didn’t really notice the difference on Spickert Knob or Dug Knob. The real difference surfaces on intermediate hills where I would normally just stand up and mash it out – the new setup makes it decidedly a bigger challenge.

This week also marked the full return of wool and embrocation. You know what really makes that embro sing?…a nice drizzle. I always remember stopping at some wretched c-store in the country with Mr. Wrench Webber as our legs slowly caught fire prior to taking back off. Between that and the post lunch ride/shower burn while I eat lunch and catch up on teh internet make it all worth it. I’m still using and enjoying Winston’s Hot and ready to try the Mad Alchemy custom blends now available at the aforementioned LBS. I love the intoxicating stink of the liniment left in the bathroom at work as I prepare to ride.

I’m set up for a nice 25 mile ride in the early afternoon tomorrow and things are looking good…

I shared a few beers with my cycling mentor today. As disparate as our riding is – it is always something to chat about riding and see that we are really after the same things overall.

I’ve been noticing that the best roads often have the word “creek” in them and can be easily ID’d on the googlemaps by the way they snake along pencil-thin waterways…

Of course the waterways are running pretty light right now…

The sleepy town of Westport, KY really has so much to offer in the way of lightly traveled roads that beg to be ridden. I climbed up and out the nasty little beast that is Rebel Ridge Dr. today…a first, but not the last.

I’m about to switch to a 12-23 from a 12-25…I wonder if it will be a mistake as the 25 maybe my special weapon? Hopefully I will just strengthen up to the challenge. I am nearing 4,000 on the CAAD9 and to say the chain is stretched might be an understatement. Lots of poor, unrequested shifting, not to mention awful chain slap on labored climbs.

I picked up a few goodies at the unfortunate demise of the Mountain Bike Depot. Although the majority of my meager business goes to OYLC it is sad to see the Depot not make it. The sadness on Joe’s face and manner was palpable. It was a bit of a drag. I did finally acquire the Smartwool arm warmers I have been looking for….and at a nice price.

That US 42 sure was head-wind strong from Westport to Goshen today…

Heading up north for work tomorrow via minivan bearing a bike, kit, and wool. Going to be looking to string together a little ride.

We planned an ambitious route today heading out to pick up Farnsley Knob (0.40 miles, avg. gradient – 15.7%!). Its been a year or so since I climbed it and I was ready to pay a visit. Coming out of N’albany was a little zany and after a few passes of the close nature I drifted into the shitty, unfinished shoulder on 111 as we made for Budd Road. No sooner than “gee, I’ll be lucky to not get a flat” ran through my head I heard the mighty escape of air and went flat on the rear tire. After getting to a nice shaded spot I pulled the rear tire off to find a blown out sidewall and 3/8″ hole in the tube…this baby was flat. Now we were only 3 miles into 25 so I had a decision to make. I said “hey man, you got a buck?” he says “I got a 20″, “That’ll do, lemme have it…you’ll get it back!”

We pumped the tire up and cautiously took off. On the plus side it was one of my finest and I even managed to get the tire back in without looking and feeling like a rank amateur. I’m glad to say it held just fine although it made for nervous descents. Speaking of descending we came down Blunk Knob for the first time and despite thinking it would be the other way its a pretty shitty drop down. The pavement sucks, the turns are real tight with no banking, and no guardrails or anything in case you misjudge. Just too sketchy in the end to enjoy coming down. I’m leaving it on the climb preferred list only. That Farnsley Knob though? That’s a doozy…

Here is the final damage on the way to the scrap bin:

I have mis-matched tires now…oh – the horror!

I thought a lot on my ride today about a post from Mr. Smith about the ambiguity of rural signage. Specifically this passage:

…we consulted the map (again) to verify cue sheet directions with random map names that we certainly find in both KY and IN. Do other states have so many random road names that don’t correspond on map sources?

It reminded me of the trip I took in May and couldn’t seem to muster the time to post about here. I traveled to Murphy, NC for business and took advantage of its prime location to take a 60 mile and 100 mile excursion. The rides had a combined total of 21,000 feet of vertical climb and the century included the well known Brasstown Bald.

The reason I bring it up is that I managed 160 miles of navigating completely unfamiliar roads armed simply with cue sheets generated at Ride With GPS. Now Ride With GPS is a nice mapping site but to have zero navigation errors in this situation is practically unheard of. What do I attribute this to? Take a look at the normal road sign just out in the sticks:

Just look at all of the information on that sign:

Colloquial Name – Beaver Dam
State Road – 1331-B
That little arrow – many times I came upon crossroads that meet at funny angles etc. This was SO helpful

I have ridden fairly extensively in Kentucky and Indiana both and never encountered such fine signage. This is how it should be done.

Round, shallow-drop handlebars. The beauty of round is its infinite hand position possibilities, unlike the circumscribed limitations of ergonomic drops. And shallow? Who doesn’t want nearness to their levers and tops? For those who say “…but my wrists hit the bar when I sprint” I reply, “Move your wrists out of the way.” Show up to a ride with ergo bars and you’ll get a look here akin to wearing a Camelbak. Bars that flare out at the drops? You might as well arrive with clip-ons or try to take that phone call once we roll. When I’m king bars will be round, shallow, and never wider than 40cm and I think maybe we’ll start by refusing to sell anything else.

I love this type snottiness, elitism, or whatever you want to call it. It reminds me of one of my favorite quotes ever attributed to Stephen Metcalfe – “Because let’s face it, only one thing is more incorrigible than my snobbery, people, and that’s your indefensibly crappy taste in music.” I use it all the time, it works for so many things – beer, coffee, music, and bikes of course.

Since I bought the CAAD9 back in November I always thought the bars felt wide. I attributed it to being used to the Bianchi which I knew had narrow bars. When you buy a 60cm bike off the rack its just not gonna come with narrow bars. One day after a ride I took the liberty to measure my reach and surprisingly it was about 40cm on the nose. I checked my Azuki and it was too. After confirmation at the LBS of my unconventional measuring methods I made the arrangements to get new bars and finally got the switch on Saturday night. Mr. Prestavalve did the mounting and the taping so I can take no credit for the fine taping job.

Narrow Width – 40cm

Shallow Drop

Not to mention the sweet fi’zi:k microtex Bar Tape that is feels just perfect to hands that prefer to ride sans gloves.

How’s the ride? Perfect…like being home after 800 miles of “this doesn’t feel just quite right…”. I took a 20 mile lunch ride today with some flats and some climbs and like the new setup a lot. Tomorrow I’ll be left to just think about it though as work will prevent me from riding. I hope this weather holds for Thurs/Fri.

Notice in the description:

…this weekly cycling show dedicated to same day race coverage…

So this is how to promote coverage of a race that took place Feb 7-12? Same day? WTF?

While I am pleased to receive Versus as opposed to some of my friends it seems as though they could bust out some archival footage here and again as opposed to just Bull Riding and Fishing all the time. Just a brief foray in to the land of cycling blogs would find plenty of clamoring for the Spring Classics. How about some replays of the coverage from last year? Surely people would watch a Paris-Roubaix replay. Andy Schleck taking LBL…yep. So c’mon Versus…let’s step it up!

House Industries Script Black Jersey

This is one of the best worded product descriptions I have ever read. The most pointed observation is this sentence:

…even if you leave it hanging on that hook with your $300 Assos bibs that your significant other had specific instructions not to wash on the regular cycle lest they get thrown in the dryer and beaten to death by clothes of inferior pedigree…

What’s funny is the the amount of emphasis I have had to place on how I want my cycling clothes washed and more specifically dried. My clothes are mockingly referred to as “the precious”. My weekend routine always includes loads run on delicate and painstakingly hung out to dry so as not to beaten to death by clothes of inferior pedigree.

I set out for lunch today not feeling so hot. I rode hard yesterday for lunch coming in at an 18.5 average then commuted home and back this morning. I had the right clothes on but I was cold. And route-weary…I tried to piece something together before I left to no avail. I thought I’d run the “Marty route” and be done with it. It’s 21 miles, rather flat with some good speed areas and rollers. 4 miles into my mopey riding I thought…buck up! I was just today counting up my miles for the year to figure I had pulled past 3500 with two months to go. There is only one way to build the miles…ride ‘em.

With that I decided to change course at St Joe Road and go left instead of right. I knew there was a hill there and I was right. It led to Dug Knob which carries a 9% average over 0.65 miles and includes an 18% switchback zone. I find it always hardest to climb a hill the first time because you just don’t know what’s coming. This one kept giving and giving. I chased it with a beautiful run across Skyline leading to a drop down Moser Knob and back to work.

A great posting popped in on the Rapha blog today titled “Killing Me Softly” about a Continental ride in Nashville.

I really like this paragraph:

Assuming your bike fits, position is less about the ergonomic fit, but the rider’s fit or engagement in the world around them. The way pedaling and effort lead consciously, or unconsciously, to meditation. Without the noise of lists, missed calls, an ever growing inbox and responsibility—under self imposed but manageable duress, up the side of a mountain, legs firing, breath labored but in control, eyes focused ahead and around all at once, sense and perception heightened—things begin to sharpen. Life in these moments are simple, pure and clear; where you fit for that moment or those few hours becomes lucid.

It says so many things I think while riding alone through back country roads.

I’ve been thinking about bike racing a lot these last few days. I am going to give it a go in the spring and have very nerdily acquired this classic tome:

“Bicycle Road Racing – Complete Program for Training and Competition” by Edward Borysewicz

Here is a picture taken last week post ride when the conditions were Belgian at best, wet and full of road-grime:

Ride safe, ride lots…

We arrived to see the Men’s Cat 2/3 about to go off. Here we are at the start line…look at those Junior Cross fans!

Here they are coming out of a tight muddy turn that took many casualties:

In a barrier stretch…

And some other mud soaked part of the course…

I’m looking forward to heading out of town or December 6th to see some more.

But for real entertainment check out the description.

Next up is the recently unveiled Pave kit:

The Pave blog is one of my favorite reads these days. Told from the background of a former racer and DS it is generally insightful and easy to read. Plus he also writes and posts on Embrocation. There is a subtle screen of cobbles in the background that really gets it done in this kit.

These three t-shirts excel in taking the beautiful limits of screenprinting and getting everything out of it. These two from Gage & DeSoto:

Then this one from the affiliated cassette:

Not to mention almost anything from Twin Six….

Now to the realm of the attainable – As originally reported by Jimmy the gents at On Your Left Cycles have some new shirts to offer:

I have seen the shirt and will pick one up for sure when I retrieve my mended front wheel for the Bianchi.

Do you have any ideas for screen printed shirts? I happen to have the requisite equipment to print in my basement. I would love to get together with someone and make something cool. I am likely to print one of the Louisville Cycling logos I have developed soon:

Let me know what you think…