My Fifth "Cat Life". Never Give Up!

I used the word "incarnation" in my past writings as a descriptive of those times in my life when I stopped cycling for an extended period and then started up again.  The last time I used the phrase I said that I was in my 4th cycling incarnation.  Well, the actual definition of incarnation refers to a deity assuming flesh form and is a bit too religious for my current mind set.  So I will now refer to cat lives instead.  I am currently in my 5th cat life of cycling, something I did not foresee. 

If you read my previous blog of two years ago-see below- you will be left with the impression that, after two years of cancer treatments,  I was diminished in body, mind, and spirit, and resigned to unremarkable but still very enjoyable cycling.  What occurred after that blog post was a gradual improvement in my health which empowered my resiliency in steady increments. I didn't realize that it takes a long time to recover from cancer treatment, I'm talking not months but years.  But recover I did -up to the point where I decided to join a gym, something I've never done before.  So while I had been more or less cycling steadily the last few years and my lower body was fit enough, my upper body was languishing in mediocrity.  My health plan covers a gym membership, so I jumped into it.

I started in Feb. 2024 and visited the gym 2 or 3 times a week.  It was exciting, a whole new world of equipment and culture to immerse in.  Yes it was hard at first, I was weak. I was sore a lot.  But after 2 months I was feeling stronger, lifting slightly heavier light weights, and my self image improved.  I was feeling good and optimistic for the first time in a long time. 

Then... an accident happened that set me back to ZERO...

In late April I was riding my bike through a local park on a bike path alongside a large center island of shrubbery.  The next thing I knew I was staring at nothing but blue sky.  "Damn it blue sky!" was my first thought.  Other times in my past I had crashed or passed out and awoke to the blue sky scene, sometimes with clouds or trees, so I knew it meant bad things had happened.

I didn't know what the hell had happened, but I had crashed HARD.  I lay there on the pavement stunned.  I now believe I was unconscious for a few seconds.  I didn't try to get up, I lay there pondering my situation.  A man walked up to me and said "I'm so sorry, my dog ran into you".  He had two large yellow dogs, one on a leash, the other unleashed.  "I let my dog off leash to run after squirrels..."  The dog, a large 75lb Husky type, bounding out of the shrubbery, ran full speed into my front wheel.  I never saw it coming.  I landed on my right side, stretched out, contacting every part of my body from my right pinky toe to my knee, hip, elbow, shoulder, and head.  I suffered 4 fractured ribs and multiple contusions.  No head injuries I'm happy to say, and I retired that helmet for a new one. 

The evening of the fall I stiffened up so badly I needed a walker to get to the bathroom.  Everything seemed to hurt, especially my ribs.  My doctor said it would take 8-12 weeks to return to normal activities and to not do anything physical.  That time period was exceedingly difficult for me due to the not doing part.  I need to ride my bike, garden, work out at the gym, to feel normal.  To be sedentary, other than short walks, for two months was mental torture.  My delicate flower of a wife had to do all the lifting for me.   Also, knowing that my physical fitness I had previously achieved was going to evaporate was depressing.  During this period I celebrated having lived 7 decades on this planet.  Despite everything that has happened, I'm still here.  It could have been much worse.  I counted my blessings.

I'll add that a silver lining during my convalescence was that I turned to my guitar everyday and played for an hour or more.  At the end of three months I was playing much more naturally which made me smile.  Guitar has been a struggle for me for many years and I got over a big hump.   

Fast forward to July.  I started cycling again, and going back to the gym.  It was like starting all over, but ok, this time I knew what to do so it would be faster gains.  In August I bought a used e-bike from a friend, on impulse, as he offered me a great deal.  The e-bike is a 2010Trek city bike converted with a Swytch kit- a fun thing to obsess over technically, and I found myself riding it when I otherwise would not go out- such as the late afternoon when the headwinds start up in my town.  Hauling grocery loads are effortless now.  The experience is fun but not what I would call pleasurable.  The bike is heavy and barely rideable without the motor on. To motorize your bike is to remove its soul.  Soul is exchanged for power and effortless speed. The rider/bike connection is sedated.  Surprisingly, after a month or two of e-biking, I found myself craving the cycling soul experience only my road bikes can provide.  The e-bike will be for around town only. 

                             

So I turned to my three road machines once again and asked myself what I needed to do to make them more comfortable machines to spend time on.  Neck pain has been a limitation on longer rides so I shortened the handlebar reach and raised the height, which helps very much.  As I began riding longer distances, I added in more hills added to the mix.  I'm finding that my gym work has strengthened my neck and back lessening the discomfort of the classic road bike posture.  These mechanical and strength improvements have made a big difference. 

 Yesterday I took a 3.5 hr. ride that was about 28 miles with over 1600' of climbing and it was transcendent.   Yes, I'll admit that after the ride I was "done" for the day energy wise, and my neck ached a little, but the joy I felt riding my old hill routes more than exceeds the effort.  I felt like Flash again, albeit a slower version, but speed is the least of my goals.  Vintage guy on a vintage bike riding up a vintage hill at a stately pace, that's the new Flash. 

Taking a break atop the Berkeley hills overlooking a stunning view of the Bay Area on a crystal clear day, having gotten there under my own power, at my stage in life, despite the setbacks and formerly abandoned dreams, is priceless.  My bicycle is my time machine and while powering it feelings of joy, nostalgia, past glories and travails, the memories of rides, people, and places all blend and combine into a continuous moment of Oneness.  For it always was and forever shall be. That's the best that I can describe the feeling.  It's magical.  My fifth cat life. 

                          

I've avoided hill riding for 10 years because I told myself that I was simply no longer capable of doing it.  My mindset was informed by years of physical and mental hardships and I don't fault myself for thinking that.  

For a myriad of reasons, you too may feel like your best days are behind you, that you can't match what you used to be, that you work too hard, your responsibilities are to great, that you are too old, too debilitated or injured, and thus feel defeated and just give up.  My message is that you can reboot yourself into a new version of your cycling self that can still provide you the life enriching essence of soul and meaning so missing in today's 21st century life. Your body is amazingly resilient and can overcome many injuries and diseases if treated with respect and reverence.  Start slow and go easy, find the joy in it, and you too may surprise yourself. 

Ride On My Friends

Flash

                                                      

                                                                    

Drillium and Other Non-Weighty Matters

Continuing my series of informative parts talks, I now steer you towards the arcane art of lightening your bike parts by reducing their weight.  Essentially replacing mass with air.  The art became known as Drillium---a derivation of drill, as in electric drill, and the added suffix of an element, "ium".  Think Unobtanium, that rarest of denizens of the Periodic Table.  The difference is that Drillium is quite attainable, all one needs is a tool, a design, careful measurement, a steady hand, and a willingness to risk one's health by weakening key bike parts that are originally robust for a good reason.

Back in the day, metallurgy was for the most part fixed in steel frames and aluminum parts.  Titanium was very rare indeed, and carbon fiber, if even invented, was the stuff of military secrets and certainly not available to the world of velomen and women.  A typical good road bike of the time weighed about 25 lbs, and very expensive bikes were down around 21lbs.  An modern entry level bike these days is under that weight.  To get a very light bike back then the weight weenies had to turn to their drills.  Every time a drill bit bites into metal, metal is lost in shavings.  Remove enough shavings and grams, then ounces disappear, then even pounds.  But what is added, in my mind, is art.  A certain delicacy, a jewel-like quality is added that didn't exist before the drilling.  I just love the way it looks.  I'm fascinated by the obsession the craftsman pours into his holy parts.  Books have been written about it.

Book cover " As Light As Air" by John Derven

And check out this photo of Drillium in progress

I wouldn't want this to break off between my legs!

As technology has improved and new materials (alu alloys, titanium, and carbon fiber) utilized for both bikes and parts, things have gotten very light without the need for drilling.  So the art of Drillium becomes a thing of the past.  Or has it?

I sometimes find myself walking the back alleys of Ebay bike shops, and I found something there I just HAD to have.  Drillium headset spacers!  Produced by KCNC of Taiwan, here is a page to some of their other lightweight/blingy/ ultra cool items.

Ok, maybe not drilled out, but machined out, but still, hollow spaces filled with air describes Drillium to me.  So I ordered a set of these as a homage to the lost art.  They will make not a whit of difference in my bike's performance or weight, but rather they represent for me a bygone era, and they are just so cool!  I could have gotten carbon fiber spacers in red, but in my opinion they can't hold a candle to these 6061 alloy masterpieces.  Drillium exists as a commodity to us ordinary consumers.  How could I NOT get these?

Actual  scan of my new spacers.  Can't tell from this angle, but they are various heights: 15/10/5/2 mm sections.  They are wider overall than the OEM spacers, they have to be when you think about it, but this extra width imparts a very cool feature:  once installed, the hollow channels can be seen above and below the stem.  

 Kind of reminds me of this, don't you think?

This view shows the visually exposed channels

It all stacks up in the end

So my new hollowed out spacers are installed and I feel like I am taking a part of the Old World Velo out with me on every ride.  And as with all Drillium parts, I just hope to God they don't break.

Get On Your Bike and Ride!

Flash

Lemond To Lemon To Lemondazed

I got my new parts last week and set about to putting the Lemond drivetrain back together and enjoying some sweet hill climbing bliss.  I'm a pretty good bike mechanic.  I have an innate sense of how things go together.  Most of my ideas are feasible.  So sometimes I coast on my build resume and overlook the more subtle aspects of the project---little things that can make or break it.  Such was the case this week.  Let me share the process with you.

When I dismantled the 52 and 42 chainrings, the 42 was large enough to slip over the spider arms.  However, upon installing the 39 replacement ring, its smaller inner diameter was just a tad too tight to slip over the spider, so I had to remove the crankarm assembly.  The Lemond uses an ISIS type splined bottom bracket, which is similar to Shimano's Octalink, but they are not compatible.  Having the crank off made installation of the rings much easier anyway.

The first puzzlement was the alignment of the 39 ring as it had a ramp and pin system on the inside that was completely different than the Bontrager part it replaced.  I rotated the ring round and round and finally I figured out it made no difference, as the pins would catch the chain at some point anyway.  The 52 ring is finished much simpler so I just bolted that on.  Lastly I greased the spindle and bolted on the crank assembly.

Next I shortened the new hollowpin chain by 5 links to match the length of the old stretched chain.  Only AFTER I shortened it did it occur to me that the old chain is longer than it should be (because it's stretched, right?) , maybe by 1 link length overall.  Oh well, that would make the new chain 1 link longer than needed, no big deal (?).  I put the new chain on, lubed it with Boeshield lube, ran through some gear changes and patted myself on the back.  Job done!

The Next Day, riding to work.
My initial feeling about the 39 was justified, I can more easily climb moderate grades compared to the 42.  However, the shifting was not so great in the rear, noise, ker-thunks, and balky shifts.  The front derailler was rubbing on the chain in several positions.  I was riding up Park Blvd, adjusting the cable barrel, when I got a rear flat.  This is the 2nd ride up in a row on the Lemond I suffered a rear flat.  At this point I was not feeling the love for the bike, even though it was entirely not the bike's fault---it was society tossing its glass my way, and me, for not taking the time to do fine adjustments on the shifting.  While working on the tire, I noticed on the 52 chainring that it's outside chainstop peg, which is supposed to be positioned so that it stops the chain from jamming between the spider and arm, was like 150 degrees rotated on the crank and just sticking out naked in the air, not doing a thing.  DOH!!  I repaired the tire and noisily climbed to work, but it was not much fun.  I was beating on myself for turning my bike into a lemon.

It was then that I realized that part of the essence of a great ride is having your bike work flawlessly and quietly.  If I have to think about what's NOT right with my bike while I'm riding it, it taints the whole ride experience. But I wondered why the changes to the shifting?

First, I had put a new chain on old sprockets and chainrings.  There are going to be teeth meshing tolerances out of spec compared to new.  Audible proof of this that when pedalling on the 39, the system  purrs like a kitten, but on the 28, it has a ratcheting sound.
Secondly, I removed the crankarm assembly and reinstalled after greasing.  I think I was able to get it further onto the spline than before, and that put the chain a millimeter or two closer to the derailleur cage.

So I put the bike back up on the rack, popped a cold PBR (the hipster's choice), and set to adjusting the front and back shifting.  I won't go into too much detail, the rear is a matter of turning the barrel back and forth until things get as quiet as possible.  The front, that's a horse of a different feather, as you have 3 index stops plus 2 trim stops, 2 limit screws, side to side alignment, plus cable tautness. By no means do I feel that I have mastered the front triple derailleur.  For instance, the Shimano technical bulletin on this part states that the 2 trim settings are for the middle chainring.  On my bike, they only serve the small inner chainring, there is no trim when I select the 39.  All this is controlled by the shift lever, the various stops and trims.  The derailleur itself is a "dumb" slave device.  No way do I even want to attempt to get into the workings of a shift lever.  In this case it is what it is, it works so I'm happy.

Then I took the outer rings off and rotated the 52 so the chainstop peg was in the right place. I laughed at myself.  When I put that on it was truly a "no brainer".

So having made all the adjustments, I rode to work again today, and the difference is like night and day.  The bike shifts well again, its quieter, the chain does not rub, there is a sense of harmony to the ride, which, like I said earlier, is essential to the gestalt.

So now I can say I put the Lemon in Lemond, and when faced with that, made Lemondade.

Ride On and Be Safe Out There My Friends,

Flash