MyOrangeBike

Good News, Bad News, Good News

noreply@blogger.com (John Edwards) — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 18:12:00 +0000

Man, this is a never ending process ...

The Good News ...
I got the Arundel stainless steel water bottle cages on the bike and they look pretty sharp if I do say so myself!

Carbon cages were not even an option on this bike!

The Bad News ...
While I was building up the bike, I went on a quest to replace the stem hardware, standard steel bolts, with non-corrosive alternatives. I looked briefly at titanium but didn't really like the look so I settled on stainless steel.

In my naiveté, I scoured the websites and forums for information and finally ordered some tapered socket cap M6 and M5 bolts from ProBolt USA for My Orange Bike.

Well, in my enthusiasm I overtightened one of the bolts and rounded the inside of the bolt head. Not the stem or the threads but the bolt head itself! Not good! I did use my trusty Sear Craftsman beam torque wrench so It wasn't like I was really hauling away at it. I was very surprised that I was able to round the inside of these bolts with ~10nm of torque.

The first thing I did was visit my local Ace Hardware and pickup a couple of socket cap stainless steel bolts and replace the tapered bolts

The Ritchey Logic Pro stem that is on the bike has a faceplate where the bolts sit in a bit of a well. This means that some of the standard methods of removal don't work very well like cutting a slot in the head and using a big ass screwdriver to remove the bolt.

I bought a backout kit and tried drilling a pilot hole to see if I could remove the bolt but the backout broke! I must have been off-center just a bit. Next up was J-B Weld and a sacrificial 4mm allen wrench. Cleaned the wound as best I could, mixed the steel reinforced epoxy, glued the allen wrench in the bolt, wait 24 hours, no cigar!

The only thing left to do is slightly destructive; cut through the bolt in the gap where the faceplate meets the body of the stem. This leaves me with an unusable stem.

The Good News ...
Guess I'll have to buy a new stem!

Mayor McOrange!

noreply@blogger.com (John Edwards) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 12:06:00 +0000

My sister-in-law has some wonderful and thoughtful pets. No doubt a consequence of the quality upbringing. Props to Mr. Ricky and Gwen! Anyway, my favorite is Mayor McCheese. The Mayor obviously likes me and knows what I like and need.

I got this iTunes song from out of the blue from Mayor McCheese. The Mayor told Gwen that I needed to have it and the Mayor was right. I was having a bad day and this just cheered me right up.

An now I've received the most awesomest gift that combines my favorite color (if you don't know this by now, then you obviously haven't been paying attention.) and my favorite activity cycling! I present to you the latest from Mayor McCheese:

Tumbler and highball glass

Close up of the tumbler

Close up of the highball glass

I can drink in style with these new additions. My first act is to toast the Mayor and bestow upon him the honorary sobriquet of Mayor McOrange!

Cheers!

Props to Bell

noreply@blogger.com (John Edwards) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 23:21:00 +0000

The maiden voyage of My Orange Bike was last Sunday. I noticed that my headset was a little loose so I had Sebastian at Spokes, Etc. check it out after the ride. Turns out that the top cap was binding on the stem and not applying enough pressure to preload the bearing. He added a black spacer and was able to get the bearing preloaded properly.

I still have a little bit of adjustment to do on the rear derailleur but that's really about all. Everything else wen without a hitch. Yea me (and Sebastian)!

While waiting for the headset to get squared away, I was having coffee and some bread when my hand slipped and hit the restraint system on my Bell Volt helmet. Broke that sucker in two places! I guess it was cold enough that the plastic was brittle enough to snap with little force.

As you can see from the photos, the system was easily removed from the helmet. I figured that Bell might have a replacement piece so I gave them a call on Monday and lo and behold the nice lady at Bell said she'd send me a free replacement piece. She told me that it should arrive in 7 to 10 business days.

That's a long time not to be riding. Almost 2 weeks! So I started searching around for a 2nd helmet. Being me, I spent entirely too much time looking for another helmet. I went to Performance to look at what they had and called a bunch of local shops to see what was in their inventory. I didn't want to spend too much but I do have my standards you know! Nothing local appealed to me.

The search then moved to online stores worldwide, mostly in Europe where I had good luck before. I figure that CEN safety certification, the EU safety standard, is just as good as Snell or CPSC. Plus there are some stylish lids to be had over there.

I bought my Catlike Whisper from a UK shop before they got certified here in the US. I was in luck! I'd liked the Met Stradivarius since I saw it a number of years ago. It tuns out that a site in the UK was selling this helmet for $110US + $13 shipping. I couldn't pass it up!

This helmet except in Glossy Black

Well, wouldn't you know it. I was working at home today and Mailman Mike left me a package during his normal rounds. It was the replacement restraint system from Bell. I will now have 2 nice helmets from which to choose for my ride.

Props to Bell for getting the part to me within the week.

My Orange Bike - Repainted

noreply@blogger.com (John Edwards) — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 10:38:00 +0000

The rebuild is finally done! I don't have a white garage door, heck I don't even have a garage, so an off-white wall will have to do.

Blue accents of the bar tape and the Cane Creek 110 headset are perfect complements for the Orange frame.

I've ordered some blue leather bar tape with Orange stitching from HandleBra. I first saw this at the 2010 NAHBS in Richmond, VA

I'll post picks when I get the tape.

I had the decals added to the seat tube because I thought the decals on the down tube were going to be consumed by the flames. I didn't think the folks at Joe's Bicycle Painting were going to add both. Looks pretty good.

The saddle is broken in pretty good now. You can see where my ass is asymmetrical from the indentations in the saddle. Lol!

The decision to go back to the alloy Record gruppo for this build was the right one. It looks so much better to me than carbon fibre.

I'm looking for some stainless steel bottle cages to replace the side-loader I've got now.

I decided at the last minute to have to fork painted to match the frame. Right call! They even added Decals down the front it identify Dario Pegoretti as the frame maker.

Awesome!

I built these wheels up last year. Ambrosio Nemesis rims laced 3x to Campy Record hubs with Vittoria Corsa CX tires. They work well with the alloy gruppo.

Nice!

The one flaw in the ointment; the missing head badge! 8^(

The folks at Joe's claim that the head badge was not on the frame when they got it. I call BS on this. Unfortunately, the head badge is still missing. I'm working with Cycle by Kyle where I bought the frame on getting a replacement head badge.

As you can see, the saddle is just a bit too dark and doesn't quite match the blue accents on the other components. It not real important but if I run across something I may just pick it up. Color coordination isn't everything (did I just say that?!?).

Close up shot of the flames

Another close up shot of the flames

And now for the whole enchilada:

Mandarin or Blue

noreply@blogger.com (John Edwards) — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 21:47:00 +0000

I have a bit of a dilemma with regards to my bar tape. Right now I have a nice San Marco Lorica (synthetic leather) blue finished off with some orange electrical tape I found at Home Depot. The effect is quite nice if I do say so myself.

From the last picture, you can see the bar tape is showing signs of wear.

I'm partial to leather (don't ask) so I looked up Brooks bar tape. Very interesting. Brooks has a nice Royal Blue but they also have a color called Mandarin:

I just don't know if the Mandarin will be orange enough or if I should just stick with Royal Blue. What do you think? Please see my previous posts for color comparisons.

Repainted Frame In-Transit

noreply@blogger.com (John Edwards) — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 15:29:00 +0000

My Orange Bike is on its way back to me after the repaint. The good folks at Joes Bicycle Painting sent a handful of awesome pictures of the frame and fork. Fantastic pint job! Can't wait to get the frame in my grubby mitts!

Flames!

Nice detail!

HT, TT, DT Junction

Matching Fork!

Thanks to Ed Yoon, my friend and the guy who got me into cycling in a bigger way, for the recommending Joe's Bicycle Painting!

I've been cleaning parts, replacing worn items, and finishing up gluing some tubulars (I bought some Challenge tubular tires but the tread delaminated on me so no more; Vittoria's all the way). Here's some of the parts going back on My Orange Bike:


Record Alloy Crankset w/new Record BB

Record Titanium bits

New Cane Creek 110 Headset
and matching spacers

Tubies with new
Vittorio rubber

Ambrosio Nemesis rims

2006 Campy hubs

Thomson Seatpost & Brooks
(is there anything else?)

Let the drooling begin!

Maintenance

noreply@blogger.com (John Edwards) — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 09:38:00 +0000

Since I had the Orange Wonder out for a respray, it was time to clean up and repair or replace any worn parts.

The first thing I noticed was that the headset was starting to get pitted. The crown race was pitted in various places around its surface. Unfortunately, I did not look closely at the bits that were pressed into the frame. I'm guessing that if the races are showing signs of pitting, then other parts that interface with the same bearings are probably showing wear as well.

I have few options for a new headset.

The advantage here is that the aesthetic of the bike won't change any more than it already is. The finish looks nice and it would match the understated elegance that is Campagnolo Record Alloy!

Chris King quality! What more can be said. The blue is darker and doesn't seem to be the right shade. Only comes in Sotto Voce so it's quite subdued.

Top-of-the-Line Cane Creek offering. The color is almost a perfect match for the decals! 110 year warranty and it's not as garish as the King headset. Plus, I like the lizard.

I think I'll go with the Cane Creek.

I've been scrubbing away at the alloy parts that will be going back on My Orange Bike and it sur edo look purdy! There are a few scratches on the parts but that's to be expected from the use I've gotten out of the bike.

I had installed some side-load bottle cages but, after pitching a couple of nice water bottles, I'll be going back to something a bit more standard like these King cages:

I had a pair of Tacx Tao cages but the little tab broke off the bottom. They look nice however:

Cosmetic Surgery

noreply@blogger.com (John Edwards) — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 00:08:00 +0000

I've been talking about it for a while now but I'm finally getting something done. The orange bike has arrived at Joe's Bicycle Painting for a new paint job! Joe's was recommended by a good friend who had his LeMond Tete de Course done by Joe in a tinted clear coat that matched my friend's M3 exactly!

Over the couple of years that I've had the frame, it's taken a beating from chain slap and an errant nail that just so happened to go completely through my tire sidewall and ended up scraping the insides of both chain stays and normal wear and tear.

There were a couple of times when the chain got jammed between the crank and the chain stays. That left a nasty scratch! I don't believe there was a clear coat applied to the frame nor did I put any sort of clear paint guards on.

I was able to snag a bike box from Spokes, Etc. Fortunately, the Marcelo has really beefy chain stays and awesome hand-cut stainless steel rear dropouts! Unfortunately, this combination means that the frame is wider than the box I got. Surgery was in order!

Sharp blade -- Check!
Fiber tape -- Check!
Dense foam -- Check!
Two-part poxy -- Check!

<snip, snip, tape, tape, cut, cut, glue, glue>

Voila!

Custom bike box.

My Orange Frame nestled

snugly inside

Now to send this to on to Joe Vasquez! My first stop is my local post office. The box is light, 10lbs, but large and USPS says "$108 to ship", John says "No thanks. I'll try FedEx." It still costs me $76 to ship it but I saved over $32.

I want to have some fun with the frame so here is what I've asked Joe to do:

The down tube decals will be in the same color as the original except they will move to the seat tube and will read "DARIO" on one side and "PEGORETTI" on the other. The font will be the same.

So, what do you think? I still have time to change my mind but I must decide soon if any changes will be made!

I'm Too Fat For This Sport! - part 2

noreply@blogger.com (John Edwards) — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 23:58:00 +0000

It wasn't all climbing and skiing for me! When I got back my cycling schedule picked right back up ...

I had committed to do Strawberry Fields Forever on May 19th in Watsonville, CA with a bunch of TOSRV friends and The Wife's cousin from San Francisco, Alexander. We signed up for the 65 mile route and I figured I could do that with no problems! Riiight.

Our plan was to meet in SF airport, rent a big van for all of our bikes and gear, and head over to Watsonville, CA for some good eats and a bicycle assembly party. Mark rented a tandem that he rode with his son Gabe, Vivek brought his bike and we had our two bike boxes plus all of our gear.

Getting to the starting point of this big adventure was the biggest problem. The wife and I were flying Virgin America from D.C. directly to S.F. and scheduled to land late AM. Our flight was going along nicely and we were just north of Denver, CO. when an inconsiderate passenger had the nerve to get seriously ill! The pilots hooked a left and landed in Denver where the sick passenger deplaned (we heard some lame excuse about congestive heart failure).

This is where the fun begins. The flight was full and I guess the plane needed to be re-inspected prior to take-off. First off, Virgin America does not have a presence at Denver International Airport so we had to wait for Northwest to clear a gate. Second, no other airline that does have a presence there flys the same aircraft as Virgin America. The re-inspection had to be coordinated between Northwest ground crews and Virgin America remotely.

Suffice it to say that we were significantly delayed getting out of Denver.

While we were delayed, Mark & crew picked up van and drove to the bicycle shop to pick up their tandem. They also loaded up Vivek and his ride. After retrieving us from the airport we drove directly to Watsonville, CA.

The ride was very nice and well organized. I especially like to detour to a rest stop where Craig Calfee runs his shop. My other bike is a Luna Pro. Beautiful views of the Pacific ocean!

My least favorite part was the last ascent before the long descent back into Watsonville. It was brutal to my East Coast training regimen where short and steep is all we have. Oh, the pain! The descent however was worth it!

Back at home, I started preparing for Bike MS: Beyond the Beltway, a charity ride which supports multiple sclerosis research. The ride is listed as moderate, but 100 miles of rolling hills is difficult especially when followed by 50 miles the next day.

The scenery however is wonderful!

The roads go ...

on forever.

I wonder where this leads?

At a beautiful rest stop!

It is horse country.

During the Summer, I decided to build a PowerTap wheel and start training to improve my cycling. The idea of doing the Wintergreen Ascent TT came up at this time as a sort of carrot to work towards. So with that in mind Kirk at Velo Works drew up a training plan based on power.

I worked on intervals and continued to ride on the weekend shop rides out of Spokes, Etc. on Quaker Lane in Alexandria. My fitness level was improving to the point where my resting heart rate was ~46bpm. Every time I went to donate blood I had to get a waiver due to my low heart rate. This is good!

Anyways, this regimen carried me through to Fall and Winter. During this time period, the casual riders tend to fall off unless we get a rare nice warm weekend. Mostly, it's the hardmen of Belgian descent, riders so conditioned to the fierce conditions of the lowlands that our relatively mild Winters here are nothing more than an irritation. Were talking about people like Gordon and Toren. I bow before them!

By spring my waist was shrinking and my shirt size had gone down from XL to merely L.

So, I finally stepped onto the scale in Dr. Johnson's office I just about passed out when the nurse read the results ...

192 lbs

That's like 87 Kg, 13.7 stones!

Entirely too fat for this sport!

Interlude - Wintergreen TT

noreply@blogger.com (John Edwards) — Sun, 08 May 2011 14:38:00 +0000

Yesterday was Wintergreen Ascent TT. The ride is pretty brutal but I finished, last in my class, but I finished and my time, 1:10:32. I now own the Lanterne Rouge for my age group! Marius, my riding buddy, finished 11th with a time of 0:48:34.

Marius and his machine

The scene at the start

Marius works at NIH and is a pretty smart guy. Anyway he did an analysis of the ride and broke it down into 2 parts; the warm up bits and the really hard part.

The warm up runs from the start to the Wintergreen Resort entrance and is just over 3 miles.

As you can see, the warm up starts with a nice gentle grade for 2 miles. Evilness starts here and the grade increases to over 10% for the last .5 mile. So, one should be sufficiently warmed up by the time the hard part starts!

My start time was 10:26 and Marius started a minute behind me. He passed me after about a mile (I've got almost 50 lbs on Marius) and I didn't see him again until the finish.

I arrived at the gate just trying to push the pedals. A guy was encouraging the riders on and he started cheering me on when I got distracted and fell over near a guard rail. I won't call it a crash cause I wasn't going very fast, sort of a slow motion list to the right. The guy was really nice and gave me a push when I got clipped in to get me started.

The hard part of the TT is just 3.4 miles of hell!

The average grade for this part of the route is 8.9% with a max grade of 17.9%. Ouch! I was already riding with a compact crankset but I was hurting through this part of the route and the 13-26 cassette just wasn't enough for my fat ass. If I do this ride again, I'll move to a 13-29 cassette and a mid-cage rear derailleur.

Wintergreen is an awesome event and I love the scenery. Someday I hope to hand over the Lanterne Rouge to someone who has suffered more on this ride.

I'm Too Fat For This Sport! - part 1

noreply@blogger.com (John Edwards) — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 09:23:00 +0000

I am now of an age where I must occasionally suffer the indignity of a rather invasive procedure. I'm speaking of a colonoscopy. I have scheduled this dreaded procedure for sometime after my Wintergreen ride. While I was doing the self-care bit, I scheduled a regular physical since I hadn't seen my PCP since 2009. I've been pretty active and have done quite a bit since my last visit so I wasn't expecting any surprises ....

In April of 2009 I stayed with my good friend Jean-Christian in France ... for a whole month! My sister Sarah had just graduated from pharmacy school at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charlesston, SC. and the wife and I gave Sarah a vacation in Paris as a graduation present. This trip was a combination of a long overdue vacation and playing tour guide to Srarh and Richard her husband.

What a vacation it was: touring Paris with my Sarah and Richard, climbing, skiing, climbing some more, just being in Paris, and who could forget the food!

Jean-Chri arranged, through a colleague, a small apartment for my sister's use in the Les Gobelins area of Paris. This is a beautiful, centrally located area of Paris with nice cafes and a great market. I spent a week with my sister while Jean-Chri finished up some work. After that, Sarah and Richard spent time by themselves in Paris and then headed home.

We did manage to kidnap Richard for a day of climbing in Fontainebleau, the premier bouldering site in the world! Sarah doesn't climb but she does shop so we left her to her own devices in Barbizon, a beautiful village in Fontainebleau.

Sarah is a very out-going sort and will make friends no matter where she is. Here she is with "un petit cadeau" from an unsuspecting shopkeeper in Barbizon.

Meanwhile, back in the forest, we ran into trouble and had to claim ignorance lest we be run out of Fontainebleau!

Caro, me and Richard

Jean-Chri, Caro, and Richard

Another good friend Cyril - Very strong!

After a week in Paris, we left Sarah and Richard and headed south for the Alps!

Road Trip!

Our first stop was Guillestre. Caro's father and step-mother have an apartment in Guillestre which sits right on the road that goes up to Col d'Izoard, a high mountain pass used in a number of Tour de France races. A trail leads up to a hill with great views of the surrounding mountains and the Queyras.

I'm not much of a skiier so we went to Risoul to get a measure of how I would fare.

It was typical spring skiing and the weather was fantastic! I did a couple of red pistes and one black piste. Jean-Chri is ever the optimist and declared that I was ready for more challenging skiing even after I managed to break a ski on the very first day!

My next challenge was randonneur skiing in the Queyras. This is kind of a mix between telemark and down hill skiing. The toe of the binding has 2 pins which fit into the toe of the boot which allows the heel to lift up when in telemark mode and also allows the skier to move up a slope with the aid of skins. The heel of the binding can also be rotated and the boot locked in place for down hill skiing.

We drove to a small village in the Queyras Valley to the base of a hill and prepared for our adventure. Skins were applied to the skis and our bindings set. My first lesson was an 800m, or 2625ft, ascent up the slope. It took a while to get the hang of using the skins but I finally succeeded.

We only saw 3 other skiers that day. Awesome!

By this time my shins were taking a beating and I needed a day off. Jean-Chri had arranged for a guide at La Grave, an extreme skiing mecca in Les Hautes Alpes, to belay him and another skiier across a dangerous col. Meanwhile, Caro would enjoy the one marked piste on the glacier (double black I believe) and I rode up the telepherique to the glacier, had a cup of coffee, took some pictures, and rode back down to enjoy the day in the town.

Those little dots are people!

La Meije!

We packed up our belongings and headed into Haute-Savoie, to visit with friends and do a little more skiing before heading back to Paris and Font. We stayed with friends at La Recorbaz, a small village just south of Annecy.

We reached our destination in the late afternoon and, after unpacking, were treated to my favorite meal, cassolet!

Yummy!

The skiing plan fell into place during the evening. In the morning we went to La Clusaz for some more skiing. I must say that the resorts in France are just huge compared to the ones I've seen in the U.S. Our hosts, Matthieu, Emmanuelle, and Jules accompanied us and had a great time. Jules is fearless and will be a very good skier when he gets older, just like his father!

Jules and Emmanuelle

A rest day was in order the following day so we all drove into Annecy for a day of sightseeing and just relaxing. Annecy is called the Venice of the North because it sits at the outlet of Lake Annecy and much of the old town is surrounded by water.

Caro & Emmanuelle

One more day of skiing awaited us ... Chamonix and Les Grands Montets!!! 3200m and double black is the only way off the glacier to the snow slopes. This was a fantastic way to end the skiing portion of the trip.

Perfect weather ... at the top!

Jean-Chri ready to go

I was sad to leave the south but time marches on and we needed to get back to Paris.

We did manage a couple more physical accomplishments before I left Paris. The biggest was that I finally sent La Marie-Rose, the first 6a in Font. Here is a previous attempt by me followed by a better shot of another climber.

Cyril spotting me

Anonymous climber at the crux

After conquering La Marie-Rose I almost flashed a 7a, L'Ange Naif Droite but it was not to be so now I have a project when I go back to Paris to visit my good friends Jean-Chri & Caro and now, their daughter Alice!

I spent the last few days walking around Paris. I visited Serge Gainsboug's grave site at Montparnasse Cemetery and left a metro ticket and, on May 1st, Labor Day, I marched with my friend from Montparnasse to Bastille in the annual labor protest.

What a vacation! Non-stop!

to be continued ...

100% Orange

noreply@blogger.com (John Edwards) — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 09:04:00 +0000

Yikes! Only got 3 weeks until the Wintergreen TT. The intensity is mounting in my training regimen. I did hill repeats earlier this week and today was threshold intervals on a busy street, during rush hour no less. This is really the only flat spot with enough room to ride for 5 minutes straight at threshold. Surprisingly, the drivers were pretty good to me.

Hill repeats again this weekend ... sigh. I'm supposed to do another hill climb this weekend but I'm tired of driving out to Skyline Drive just to find a hill long enough to get the time. MacArthur Blvd is 1 mile long but the grade is a little less than North Morgan. Maybe I just just relax and do the shop ride.

My teammate on Team Results, Marius, is riding Wintergreen with me. We both want to pre-ride the route but our schedules don't mesh until a week before the event! Not much time but it's all we've got. Marius climbs like a goat so I don't really expect to see much of him on the except when he passes me!

My cycling friend Mark is in Paris France on vacation and he's been sending pictures back that show just how much of an insidious influence Orange has had on him. He just can't get it out of his mind! When he should be paying attention to the City of Lights, he's thinking Orange:

On a humorous more note ...

I have a Brooks Imperial prototype on my Calfee and a dark blue Brooks Swift on my Orange Bike. These are comfortable, all day saddles and I wouldn't trade them for anything. That being said, there is no way in Hell I'm riding without cycling shorts:

Freshjive Moving Pictures - Bicycle Seat from freshjive on Vimeo.

The tune is kinda catchy, huh? Otherwise this is just plain wrong! Lol!

I Didn't Die

noreply@blogger.com (John Edwards) — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 02:50:00 +0000

The re-christening voyage of my Orange Bike went very well indeed! The weather was great! Sunny and warmer than the last time but there was still ice and snow near the top of the first climb (note to self - take a small point-and-shoot with you, or at least don't forget your cell phone). Josh and Marius came along with Josh driving his truck this time. Marius met us at the front gate to the park.

Josh arrived before 7:30 and we just tossed the bikes in the back of the truck since Josh doesn't have a bike rack. The lack of a secure rack was offset by the sound system in his truck. Simply put, awesome!! Unfortunately, I've got persistent tinnitus, or ringing in my ears, that is pretty loud plus I think I'm losing my hearing anyway so some of it was lost on me (getting old sucks!). The music selection was fantastic with everything from Pink to Coltrane to classical. I was a little disappointed that Josh had no Frank Zappa!

The biggest change to the Orange Bike (I think I need a name for my bike. What do you think?) was the crankset change, 53/39 to 50/34, and swapping tubulars for clinchers. I'm new to tubulars and I was worried about the tires staying on the rim after my first failed attempt to glue them. The gluing was inconsistent and I could pull the tire away from the rim with little effort so I ripped the tire off the rim and reread and watched at least three different methods for gluing tubulars and even asked Bill over at the shop about gluing technique unitl I settled on a method that seemed to be reasonably safe; 3 thin coats of glue on the rim and 2 coats on the tire.

Here's the Rear wheel sans tire:

Closeup of the hub and counter-weight

I haven't finished the front wheel so I'm using an ebay find until I'm done. I did the glue thing on the rear wheel but I'm contemplating Tufo Tubular tape:

I don't race so I think the tape will be fine.

The tubies stayed glued to the rims, even on the screaming descent down Skyline Drive back to the front gate so the glue job appears ok. I did however miss the 53/12 combination on the ride down.

I do like the way the tubulars ride! More supple than the Conti GP4000s that I normally ride. I just have to see how they hold up on the road around here. I've been lucky that I haven't had many flats at all on my rides and I know I'm not the most careful rider out there.

I get another chance to ride the Orange Bike tomorrow on a Paris-Roubaix tribute ride, Ronde van Aarlandria:

My good buddy, Kirk at Velo Works, stitched this ride together from all of the climbs in the area. It will be tough going with all of the climbs:

I got a great bit of encouragement from the guy that built my frame:

It was unexpected but absolutely made my day! Cool beans! I'll post results on the Ronde van Aarlandria later in the week!

Training!

noreply@blogger.com (John Edwards) — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 01:28:00 +0000

My Pergoretti Marcelo is almost done! I changed out the regular 53/39 cransket and square taper bottom bracket for a Campy Centaur Ultra Torque compact double for my upcoming Wintergreen Time Trial and MS150 ride. Since I had the bottom bracket out, I decided to re-cable and clean everything else. Today I received the small torque wrench in the mail today so now I can finish installing all of the small bits. She's a beauty and here she is in all her glory:

Just in case you can't read the small print:

I'm going to put tubular wheels on her. I snagged a couple of classic Ambrosio Nemesis rims and laced them to a set of older style Campy Record hubs (you can see the rear hub in the last pic above ... gorgeous IMHO). I plan to take her out to Skyline Drive this weekend.

This is the first time riding sewups or tubulars and I had a time gluing the tires on. It's not as hard as some have made it out to be but I think next time I'll use the glue tape. I think I got the tires on reasonably straight. I'll find out this weekend on the Skyline Drive descent!

I have one more wheel to build then I'm done with that for a while! I took a wheel building class with Bill Mould through Spokes, Etc. that was excellent. Bill now has a DVD, Master Wheelbuilding, that is great. It fills in the holes with exotic lacing patterns, spoke tension, etc. I've had a lot of fun building the wheels and I find that I prefer the aesthetics of Ambrosio rims and older Campy Record hubs.

I've been in training for my upcoming events and yesterday and today were good days for me. Yesterday was an endurance day:

20 min warm up
12 min Z2
5 x (1 min Z3, 1 min Z2)
5 min Z2, 100RPM cadence
5 min Z3, 70RPM
5 min Z2, 95RPM
5 min Z3, 75RPM
5 min Z2, 90RPM
5 min Z3, 80RPM
5 min Z2 85RPM
10 min Z2 w/10sec surge/min
10 min Z3
10 min Z1

Today was threshold work

20 min warm up
4 x (5 min just above threshold, 1 min rest between interval)
20 min cool down

Thomas Bailey at Velo Works put the plan together for me and I feel very good right now about my progress. I just need to remember "don't go out too fast". I blew up early and often last year and had a terrible time.

Oooh! Best of all, this week the rest of the Rapha kit arrived! We'll be sporting these on the MS ride:

I'm working on getting some ride specific graphics added and will post pics after that's done. The quality of these items is amazing! There are a lot of details that have been looked after and make these well worth the cost.

Well, it's late and I'm off to bed. I'll let you know how Skyline Drive goes this weekend. They got 3.5" of snow last night but the weather is supposed to be sunny with highs in the mid 50s!

Into the Orange

noreply@blogger.com (John Edwards) — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 23:41:00 +0000

In 2004, the wifey and I went back to Columbus, OH to reprise our marriage ride on Tour of the Scioto River Valley (TOSRV). TOSRV is a great, well organized, 2-day, back-to-back century ride (a little more if you stop for breaskfast on the first day), on Mother's Day weekend, from Columbus, OH down to Portsmouth, KY and back.

We got married in 1992 on the second day of the ride at Mead Park in Chillicothe, OH. As luck would have it, the wind was blowing away from the park thereby saving the 6000 wedding guests (ok, so maybe there were 6000 riders not wedding guests) from the sulphurous fumes that emanate from a paper plant. Unfortunately, the news crew got the wrong day and came on Saturday (really!) so we had no press covering the event!

My new sister-in-law, Gwen, attached balloons to our bikes after the ceremony and Becky and I headed out for the last 50 miles back into Columbus. That was a pretty long ride as I recall. Staying in the park too long had allowed our muscles to stiffen right up. We made it back ok, a bit later than we'd have liked, but satisfied ... and married!

As we sat in downtown Columbus after the ride, a guy rode up to us. He was a wedding "guest" and had seen us get married during the ride. He reached into his jersey and held up a small vial of sand. The guy was apparently in the Army and participated in Desert Storm. He brought the sand back as a good luck token. And then he handed us the vial as a wedding gift wishing us as much luck as he'd had while carrying it.

Anyways, back to the reunion tour ....

Riding in May in Ohio can be surprising. The first year I rode TOSRV, it was wet and cold. I had never been so glad to get something dry on than on that first day. Brrrrrrrr! I had to pry my hands from the bars at the lunch stop they were so cold and stiff. Another year it was hot for May and we had tailwind that matched our speed. It was like riding in your own little sauna; I was sweating like a pig. The weather was pretty good on this trip.

Becky and I drove to Columbus on Friday with both bikes and all of our gear in our Ford Explorer. Everything was going great as we're heading west on I68 in Western Maryland until we hit Garrett County. I guess the police were doing some fund raising because as I topped the rise I see a state trooper pointing his radar gun at me!!!! The speed limit is 65MPH out that way and I'm doing 70 so I figure I might be able to slide by.

Not a chance! I got pulled over. I figured I'd just be supporting the local law enforcement agency with a small donation via the ticket. The officer asked for my license and registration and then he tells me that he caught me doing 90MPH. I was stunned ... absolutely stunned. After I close my mouth, I tell the officer that I didn't think the Explorer could do 90 (I also had a small wheel alignment issue which caused a serious shimmy above 75 so I always kept it below that). As this is going on, Becky is quietly trying to get me to just shut up. I heed her advice, accept the ticket, and we go on our merry way.

[aside: The whole ticket incident was weird. I thought that anything 20MPH or more was automatically reckless driving. The ticket I got was for simple speeding. I ended up paying the $350 fine for the ticket because it just wasn't worth the time and effort it would have taken to fight the ticket.]

We have a good sized group of friends and acquaintances associated with this ride. My connection to this group is through a friend and former co-worker, Ed (we worked on a government IT contract in the late 80's). People came in from NYC, San Francisco, and D.C. (that would be us). Some drove from different parts of Ohio. One friend, a non-rider, lives in Columbus with his family.

The idea was for all of us to have dinner on Friday night and catch each other up with our lives, ride the ride, and then reconvene for dinner on Sunday night before we scattered to the four winds.

We picked up our ride packages and headed over to a friend's house to decide on dinner plans. We settled on a Chinese restaurant nearby and had a great time getting re-introduced to each other. Then it was off to an early bedtime in hopes of getting enough sleep for the ride.

Here are Ed, Mark & sons picking up ride registration

Don modeling state-of-the-art rainwear

Ready to take off!

Mark & sons

Portsmouth, KY - Half the ride is done!

It was great riding with the group and especially riding behind the tandem with the tag-along, nice draft! We all had a nice time and an even better get together after the ride.

Why am I telling you all of this? Because all of the stuff above and my riding prior to 2007 is preorangehistoric. The stuff that follows is a testimonial conversion Into the Orange.

Fast forward to 2009 and another organized ride with a smaller subset of the same friends. This time the ride is in Santa Cruz, CA, Strawberry Fields Forever. This is a one day ride with 3 route choice, English and Metric centuries and a shorter route. The scenery is great with breath-taking views down to Half Moon Bay.

One of the guys in the group, Mark, lives down in Bowling Green and brought both his sons along for the 2004 TOSRV ride. This ride Mark can only bring one son with him and they rent a tandem in SF.

The idea is that we'd all meet in SF early in the afternoon and drive down to Santa Cruz the day before the ride (This was before flying with your bike required a 2nd mortgage!). Our flight got delayed in transit by a very inconsiderate passenger who decided to have a coronary which required a detour into Denver so he could see a doctor.

Becky and I arrived in SF 8 hours later than planned. Life is good and we bundled ourselves and our 2 bikes into the rental van which already has the rented tandem strapped in along with a boatload of gear. We make one last stop to pick up a new group member, Becky's cousin Alex, and we're off to Santa Cruz!

The trip to Santa Cruz was a little slow since we got a later start but we made it in a reasonable amount of time. After we checked in to our hotel, we assembled our bikes (a bunch of others riders were checked into the same hotel as us) and then headed into town for dinner. We found a good Mexican restaurant and chowed down!

In the morning, we get everything packed into the van, check out and Mark takes the van over to the ride starting point. The rest of us mount our bikes and ride over.

It's sunny and a little cool; perfect riding weather!out to the starting point. I'm riding my Orange Pegoretti, feeling the wind in my hair and I overflowing with Orange! I just exude it. The others noticed this and a deep philosophical discussion ensued about getting in touch with ones inner orange.

We had a nice ride but, being from the East Coast, I am overwhelmed by the amount of climbing that had to be done. I admit that I had to stop a time or two. However, the last descent back into Santa Cruz was absolutely fantastic!

Back to the present and where all of this ties back together ...

I got a message from Mark on FaceBook the other day:

"John, back when we rode on the west coast with Ed and Viviek, I decided I should fix this old beater tandem for errand running. I decided to paint it orange after we were joking about getting in touch with ones inner orange." - Mark

Mark's son Sam with the orange tandem

I wasn't joking! And now the orange has rubbed off on Mark and will subsequently pass to this children!

Bwaaahahahahaha!

noreply@blogger.com (John Edwards) — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 23:24:00 +0000

I Had a fantastic ride today on Skyline Drive from the Front Royal entrance with Marius and Josh! The weather was perfect if a little cool at the start. Only 30 miles but with 3500' of elevation gain.

As I said, it was kinda cold at the start, right around 40F but with very little wind (a change from the norm around here of late)! I was comfortable in my styling Rapha + Paul Smith Merino Jersey (go ahead and call me a shill but this stuff just works!), a light wind jacket, a pair of bib shorts, and gloves.

[aside - I know it's not orange but the orange bike is in the shop getting prepped for Wintergreen and my MS150 ride among other things. Compact crankset, new cables, wheels (tubulars), and new tape.] The jersey matches my purple bike pretty well don't you think?

Marius weighs like nothing so he demolished Josh and me on the climbs. The first 6 miles of the ride are just one long uphill to 2100' at around 5%. I was able to get into a good groove and controlled my HR so I didn't blow up. Climbing felt good!

The descents were another matter entirely! They were awesome, especially the last 6 miles. Hoooo weeeeee! Josh and I crushed Marius with our superior weight going downhill!!!

I Like Orange

noreply@blogger.com (John Edwards) — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 01:10:00 +0000

Orange is my favorite color. I have orange tee-shirts, socks, baseball and cycling caps, dog (well she's kinda orange, ginger she might be called), and of course an orange bike.

I've had other orange bikes. My first foray into the orange vibe was with a 2007 Orbea Orca:

I had been riding a 2003 Fuji Team. It was a nice bike, Ultegra equipped aluminum frame with a CF fork. However, the urge to upgrade into the orange overwhelmed me early on in 2007 and I ordered the orange Orca frame set you see above. It was a complete frame redesign for the Orca and it came with a bold new color scheme.

The frame set arrived in mid-February 2007 and at first I was excited. The frame was plenty stiff and super light. I built it up the bike with 2003 Campy Record that I stripped from a LeMond Tete de Course. The ride was nice but something wasn't quite right.

I thought about my situation for a while and it finally hit me that, not only was the ride a little dead to me, but the bike also just wasn't orange enough. I mean, think of orange and what do you come up with? I think of Creamsicles (mmmm!), my dog Squid (she's such a sweet old girl), and who could forget Molteni (and Eddy Merckx):

Now that's orange!

I now had to have an orange bike and it had to be made out of steel!!! At this very moment in time, the stars aligned and Bicycling Magazine ran a profile piece on Dario Pegoretti. That was all it took. I had to have a Pegoretti made orange steel frame.

I drove 3 hours and got sized by Kyle at Cycles by Kyle. My wife and I took the Imron paint samples outside and studied the orange samples carefully and settled on just the right shade of orange. Under the advice from Kyle, I left the paint scheme and decal placement up to Dario. The frame was ordered on 4/28/2007.

I did not know at that time that Dario had been diagnosed with cancer and was undergoing chemo-therapy. Production slowed to a crawl ... tick, tick, tick ... My frame finally arrived 4/2/2008; almost 1 year after the order was placed:

At first I was disappointed with the paint job. I think I was expecting a wild Pegoretti paint job. The more I thought on it the better I liked the paint scheme and decal selection and placement. It was perfect! Now to build it up with a proper Italian gruppo. I used the 2003 Campy Record group from the Orca and sold that frame set on eBay.

I now have a styling orange bike that rides like a dream and looks even better!

MS Rides

noreply@blogger.com (John Edwards) — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 06:44:00 +0000

Ever since I was diagnosed with MS in 2006, I have ridden in at least one MS ride a year. I'm selfish, it's in my own interest to raise money to help find a cure for this disease. These events raise a lot of money and most of it actually goes to research (you can find out more at the National MS Society).

I had ridden for other teams in the past; I rode with Lockheed Martin one year, they sponsor various teams across the country, and I rode on a friends team for a couple of years. Last year, my friends team collapsed and I found myself riding for a team with only one member, me.

Enough!

I formed my own team this year with members coming from riders I recruited from my LBS, Spokes, Etc. in Alexandria, VA. Team Results is a pretty diverse group in background, profession, and, to a lesser extent, age. But we all have one thing in common and that is a passion for cycling. I set my team goal pretty high so we're going to have to hustle to make it but it can be achieved.

The donation link is to your right so please stop by and support our cause!

Team Results would not exist without the generous support of our sponsors, Results Computing and Rapha. So thanks for the support!

It's early and I'm losing sleep. 'Nite all.

Welcome!

noreply@blogger.com (John Edwards) — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 13:37:00 +0000

MyOrangeBike is now under construction. I hope to keep you entertained and informed on issues ranging from my bikes, I have an orange Pegoretti Marcelo and a purple Calfee Luna Pro, bike gear, and how my Multiple Sclerosis affect it all.

Stay tuned for updates.