Round Alexandria... Take 2

I'll call this the 'Alexandria Loop' for now... highlights include the option for a stop in Alexandria, a drive by at Port City Brewery, and the option for shopping/drinks/food in Shirlington... really a route you can plan a day around!

I think it came up briefly in a previous post... but can't find it just this second... that during the first shakedown of the new Burley Tandem I captained my Wife and I the wrong direction and ended up with a critical flat tire resulting in the need for a vehicular pickup... wah wah wah.  But early in January I sought to even the score with that route and this is the proof!

The feat mastered during this ride was making the connection between Holmes Run Trail and Four Mile Run Trail via Beauregard St.  There is a short but steep hill involved and while I did it very slowly and in my granny-ist of granny gears I did stay on the bike.  More importantly I completed the loop.  Lesson learned, know where I'm going before involving the tandem!

Holmes Run has a great highlight of going through this cool tunnel

The 650B'd Trek continues to impress.  I'm having a bit of a bike/gear identity crisis right now but the Trek has continued to post excellent rides every time I take her out.

I'm not doing enough b/w conversions... so here you go.  

Shutdown Solo Century

Government shutdown, gorgeous weather, a bike that was ready to ride, and I was open to a 'longer' ride....  that equals my first ever Century distance ride.  Significant not only due to the milestone of 100miles, but also becuase, as recorded on this blog, my previous distance best was less than 55miles.  As soon as the Government shutdown seeemed likely to hold up on Tues night I took about an hour to tweak some things on my Trek (the Atlantis is down with a BB issue).  New rear innertube, shifting cables tweaked, VO Front Wheel Stabilizer installed, and bar tape installed on the tops of my Noodle bars... she was looking good, poised and ready.

Wednesday morning came and to be honest I was not very motivated, I dallyed around the house, walking the dog and on the verge of throwing in the towel and focusing on house projects... then I got a note from my friend Wes wishing me a good ride and that was the last straw.  I set out without the commitment to do a Century, in fact my bar for success was to exceed my 50 mile previous best... but even as I rolled out of Alexandria I was arleady thinking that if my legs and mechanics were in good shape when I got out towards Herndon that I would reserve the right to go further...

I'm so happy to have successfully completed the ride yesterday, among the highlights was running into Mary of Chasing Mailboxes and #FridayCoffeeClub fame...  really awesome person who I got to share a couple miles with in and around Herndon on the way home.  I was in the neighbourhood of 70-75miles into my day and will say without an ounce of shame that I was not able to keep up with her despite the fact she was riding her gorgeous singlespeed, a Rivendell Moonbeam.  My day was about endurance and finishing, not time.

Another happy coincidence was stopping in at Best Buns in Shirlington on my way out and running into the Bike Arlington forums Wednesday Coffee Club... Cynthia, Dana, Mark? and others... awesome to have met you on the way and I'll have to check out that forum soon!

So many thoughts about the ride, spending 11 hours in an outing, with at least 9.5 of those directly in the saddle gave me plenty of time.  I really struggled badly with cramps in my hamstrings starting around mile 35.  After stopping mulitple times to stretch out and walk it out I ended up cycling through the cramps most of the way back, the pain was pretty intense at times but I gained confidence with each bout that I could muddle through.  Definitely need to work harder on staying hydrated.  I"m going to cut off the words here and go to the images, maybe a follow up post with lessons learned and gear notes will come to me later.

Pointed towards adventure...

The front basket with that elastic hook net is one of my all time favorite additions for any bike.  How do you like the tops only bartape?  That is the old tape off the Albatross cockpit on top of innertubes of course.

Wednesday Coffee Club at Best Buns

Golf course rest stop near Reston

A fantastic coffee shop bike shop in Herndon, I recomend the Espresso

A bike on the ground cannot fall...

Luck Quarry doesn't seem affected by Gov't shutdowns

At the Turn...  reaching Purceville was the biggest hurdel in my own head.  I was dissappointed to find Trail's End Bike Shop closed.

 

Carolina Bro's BBQ.... I ate a LOT of bbq on my way back... 

Can't say enough about how well the Trek did yesterday...

Victory Lap... home-Purcevill-home = 96 miles, so I added the Custis Trail/Mount Vernon Trail loop to tack on the extra 4 miles.  Just in time for sunset over the Monuments.

Centurion (note the dyno lights still hot! :))

Philly Ride-Around

Great loop around the schuylkill River Trail from a couple week's ago.  One of the Trek's last adventures with the inverted albatross bars!

State of the Trek

The Trek and I have had an amazing journey this year, she is barely recognizable from the initial drop bar, skinny tired, 6 speed steed that I picked up on Craigslist last December.  I've been trying to wait till I'm 'done' to post some more complete pictures but have decided to go ahead as the projects are really un-ending and at the same time she's really riding very well as is...  I haven't really named her, though I usually use 'Trek' to differentiate from the others, at the same time based on my inspirations for making these modificiations I've been musing over 'RIVEN-HERSE' to honor the Rivendell/Grant Peterson and Rene Herse/Jan Heine connections.  At the same time I could also go with SURLY-ORANGE to honor the Surly Bikes and Velo-Orange companies as they have both supplied parts and direction on the path to putting this bike together.

I've also made some progress in the 'provenance' (to steal a term from Waterford), I'm now settled on the 'fact' that she is a 1982 Trek 715... The initial 612/614 designation was blown up by the brazed on derailleur cable guides on the top of the bottom bracket.  So to make it a 715 the only missing feature are the Reynolds 531 stickers on the fork... maybe they came off at some point, or maybe this is an odd duck 612/4 with the extra braze ons. I'm not sure but from now on I'm going with 1982 Trek 715.

Regardless of what you call her here she is circa July 2013;

Beusage! - The Cockpit is dominated by the two-toned, Hokie-inspired Orange and Maroon bar tape... two coats of shellac and a very liberal coating of hand sweat especially towards the bar ends has changed the look significantly the more I've ridden.   The PDW cup holder is reasonably new as well, pretty cool but you can't put a paper cup in there an expect to have the lid keep your coffee in on all but the gentle-ist rides.  Works great with a sealed metal cup though.  You'll notice the baseket crumpled to the left, I'll fix it eventually but for now I'm leaving it as a constant reminder to keep my head up, pay attention, and NOT CRASH THE BIKE AGAIN!

 

The other huge addition is of course the Supernova Dyno-powered headlight...  this thing is just as awesome as I was hoping.  The installation isn't finalized as I need the rear fender on to accomplish my taillight mounting plan but I'll certainly be adding images once I'm done with that portion.

 

Extra Leger - The Grand Bois Hetre 42mm tires... like the supernova these puppies do not dissappoint. I can't compare them to the non- Extra Leger version unfortunately but am satisfied enough that I'm trying to see if the 29mm EL tires will fit on my Bianchi.  The tires make a humongous difference in the ride quality.  The Velocity Synergy 650B rims also deserve a shout as they have been flawless and held their true very well.

I've bragged on the VO prototype brakes before, but can't avoid a mention again.  Extremely effective brakes (too effective last wednesday!).  They continue to be very easy to adjust, very easy quick release to remove a wheel and just all around awesome.

Of course after Wednesday's mud clearance experience I can't help but point out the extremely narrow tolerance by which these 42mm beauties fit in the rear triangle.  I'm wondering now if would be feasible to have a frame-builder give me some 'clearance dimples'... like I've seen on other chainstays to make this a bit more comfortable...

Also worth mentioning here is the rear fender, or lack thereof...the problem is the chainstay bridge which has no hole drilled in it. My mechanic buddy Mark says I shoudl drill it and I'm close to following that advice but I just haven't built up the momentum to do so yet.

The semi-horizontal (or is it semi-vertical) dropouts have had their adjustment screws removed to push the rear wheel back as far as possible, thats the only way these Hetre tires fit.  The Shimano Deore XT RD has been flawless, easy to keep in adjustment and really invisible to me as the rider.  The sweet in line cable adjuster that my mechanic friend Mark installed is a bit out of focus but very clever.

The Brooks B67 came to me after I got a very kind gift card to Spokes Etc from a friend... I'd been considering it for a while.  I'd say after around 300 miles or so I'm not completely sold but am trending happier with it.  I've been stubbornly avoiding wearing my padded shorts, even on the recent 50 mile ride to really break it in and get a 'feel' for how I like it.  On the 50 miler from about 25m on I was distincltly aware of the spring column's if I sat to far back on the seat.  Also it squeeks like no bodies business.

Not much to say, but the topeak frame pump has worked splendedly, the stains on the headbadge are from coffee coming out of a paper cup in the PDW holder.  Nice lugs!

One of two original to the time of purchase, and most likely the last original part on the bike.  (the front derailleur is a Shimano LX but I think Suntour was the initial group on this bike as delivered by Trek)

The bottom line (actually the top tube)