Old School Cycling Fundamentals

Old cycling fundamental books are a good thing. This is from a series of books from Bicycling Magazine in 1985 called "Riding & Racing Techniques".

I've never seen this in any other "Fundamental" book. This is good to know this time of year.... There are more flats in the rain because water works as a lubricant to help any piece of glass you might have picked up to pass through your tire. I remember being taught this thumb wrap around technique back in the day and being told, this is the no.1 reason to wear gloves. Knowing this kind of brings a catch 22 to using fenders, because fender make it impossible to brush the rear tire.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The book also has no less than 8 pages dedicated to the fundamentals of pacelines. Another fundamental that people should know. When it's your turn at the front, it's not time to emulate Eddy Merckx and speed up the pace 3-5mph. It's called a "pace" line, not an interval line. I was talking about gloves right? Sorry a pet peeve of mine.

 

So What's New?

You never know what I'm going to post. What's new?

 

Who didn't like Jaws in MoonRaker? 

 

 

 

Ahhhh 1979, back when an "Millionaire Madman" could still afford a space station, and the idea of being a Billionaire was out of scope for a make believe story.

 

Sunday's Ride report

Some of you were wondering what happened to the ride Sunday.

http://nafdr.tumblr.com/

It got snowed out by 4" to 6" of snow

http://nafdr.tumblr.com/post/46081143441/nafdr-cancelled

 

Anyway while riding down Woods Chapel road I saw a restaurant called Las Playas.

If you lived in the Independence/Raytown/Kansas city area around 40 highway in the 70's and 80's then this probably doesn't ring a bell.

This is the original location off 40 highway. I never met anybody who didn't like it. I'm not sure what happened.

 

The Greek Revival mansion in which it used to occupy is recognized as the Thomson House.

Not this Thomson  (The old Thomson Elite...So choice!)

 

This Thomson. Hmmmmm "The Thomson family fled during the civil war". Any guesses as to why they might have fled during that time? Curious timing.

 

Need a consideration from a month ago?

http://curbdestroyer.blogspot.com/2013/02/the-road-to-another-105-miles.html

 

Were they Confederate sympathizers (they did have slaves), or was it because of General Order No. 11 (1863)?

 

Ewing's decree ordered the expulsion of all residents living in Jackson, Cass, and Bates counties, Missouri, and in that part of Vernon included in this district, except those living within one mile of the limits of Independence, Hickman's Mills, Pleasant Hill, and Harrisonville, and except those in that part of Kaw Township, Jackson County, north of Brush Creek and west of Big Blue, are hereby ordered to remove from their present places of residence.

 

The mansion now sits in Independence. It is north of Brush Creek, but is it West of Big Blue? Who knows how the lines were drawn just 150 years ago.

 

150 years ago it was a plantation with slaves. Now a little perspective. Do you think the Civil war was a long time ago? I'm about 50 years old and I don't feel like I've been around very long. 50 is 33% of 150. So it was 3 short 50 year life times ago.

 

A day before 85 Miles...maybe

It's a day before the Near April Fool's Death Ride. Am I ready for 85 miles? My preparation hasn't gone as planned, it's been more of a bunch of 20 -30 mile rides. I figure I can ride 30 miles 3 times...well survive it anyway.
It's supposed to snow 6" to 12" saturday night and sunday morning. This reminds me of the first Gents race that got snowed out. If I remember right it was 70 degrees the day before, snowed 4" on the day of the race, then it was 50 degrees the day after and by late afternoon all the snow had melted...crazy...Aprill Fools right?

Cassettes these days. Do you really need an 11 tooth cog? I find exchanging the 11, for another mid-range cog that I would actually use, the better choice.

Even back in the day of 6 and 7 speed freewheels the smallest cog I would use would be a 13. There has only been once I've been mildly uncomfortable with a 13. It was during a road race in Kansas, and we had a tailwind and the group was going about 45Mph. on a long stretch.

Odds are I'm going to be more annoyed switching back and forth between 16 to 18 because I don't have a 17, than 45Mph Kansas tailwinds.

But these are the days of 10 or 11 speed (20/22speed), not 6 or 7 (12/14speed). To be honest, I think instead of adding more in the back, they should add one in the front (38-45-53), and use a 7 speed in the back creating a 21 speed without the cross over issues, but as you know "Racers" will never bare the stigma of racing a triple. But they will exchange a 53 for a 50 if they call it "Compact". Ohh marketing, it makes my head hurt.

 

Finally Some Paint

After days, maybe even months of indecision about how and what to paint the frame with I decided just to paint the frame with spray paint. I was going to spend the money and get it powder coated but there are still somethings I still don't like about it. In otherwords I don't want this frame to showcase or be representitive of my work. I figure the $150+ dollars would be better spent on another tubeset.

 



I didn't build a fork. Mostly because I picked up this new Kesteral fork for $45 and I was done with it. It's hard to beat that.

The frame was primed and sanded with Rustoleum primer, then painted with Rustoleum  high performance, blue. The blue finish turned out to be more orange peel texture than gloss. The white is Krylon Gloss, it's turned out pretty well considering it's spray paint. Of the two Krylon has always turned out best.

On the scale of 1 to 10 I'm talking about 3 on the blue, and 5 on the white. Either way hardly anything to crow about, but this info is here none the less. I'll have some more detailed photos soon

Getting in Shape to Get in Shape

From doing nothing more than commuting the 16 miles back and forth to work (8 miles one way), I've found for a long distance ride I'm going to have to get in shape.It seems the rust is coming off pretty fast. I went out for 28 miles this morning and I felt pretty good, not fast.






I just rode to across the river and back. Last Sunday I pushing myself to get back, and that was only 20 miles. Maybe it was a bad day. The statistics are a lot better than 5 day ago.

Time: 1:57:14
Miles: 28
Mph: 14.3
Ave. HR: 141
Climb: 1257

Where's my fitness?

What a day for a ride. With the snow on the side of the road, it doesn't feel like a average 37 degree ride. Rather it's marbled with 32 degree winds gusting off of the snow. It's an experience. I mean you can ride the same stretch of road everyday and have a different experience depending on the weather and/or time of year.

The statistics look like this. Terrible.
Time: 1:21
Miles: 20
Mph: 14.7
Ave. HR: 145
Climb: 1063






As I say, "Welp, There you have it"! 21 days until I need to ride 85 miles in 6 to 6-1/2 hours at the Near April Fools Death Ride. Is it those extra 10Lbs. slowing me down? or is it just not riding enough. Gee if I rode more I probably wouldn't have those 10 extra Lbs. Doesn't really matter. I did the Mad Ride on about the same amount if I remember right, and it ended up being 105 miles. I probably won't have as a detailed report since this ride is out in the middle of nowhere. With these things it comes down to mind over matter. Speed is another issue.