 |
| Last peppers of the year come off the plants |
 |
| Mutant Trinidad Moruga Scorpion peppers |
Saturday, November 10, 2018
Time of the season
A cold bastard of a front blew in from the American Middle West last night bringing with it a number of the usual seasonal associations: get a-rakin' Son, clear the gutters and do any pruning in preparation for snow, time to prepare for the annual deer hunt. But first I gotta bring in the chiles before a real freeze comes. The first real freeze looks likely to be next Wednesday, so I spent part of the morning harvesting.
This season's weather was odd; way wetter than usual. Consequently the selection of peppers is going to be different from previous years. Typically I would have a lot of long, slender, cayenne-type peppers, lots of little Bolivian Rainbow peppers and a bunch of Habaneros. The purple peppers came through, but there were very few Takanatsumes and only four, count 'em FOUR Habanero peppers.
What did produce well, for the first time ever, were some chiles that were sold as Trinidad Moruga Scorpions. They're not actually pure Morugas though; they were from seeds saved from the 2017 season and look more like Ghost peppers. They're certainly blisteringly hot, but they don't seem to be that much hotter than Habaneros. One chile will light up a chili con carne. Whatever the case, this year's picante sauce will be made from either Bolivian Rainbows, bastard Morugas or a blend of both.
Wednesday, October 3, 2018
Ground control to Major Tom...
If you follow this blog, and I doubt you do, you know that I have spent the past seven or so months building a new bike. The bike is a classically styled machine, and none of the computers I have in my vast parts bin looked right on it. Sure, I could go full L'Eroica, dispense with the computer, navigate by the stars and wear only wool cycling clothes from now on, but screw that. I started riding in an era when bicycles had computers and they are an integral component of my riding life. I set a number of distance goals each year, which is part of what motivates me to get up on a 35 degree Saturday morning and go for a ride. I'm not going to give that up just because I got a new retro looking bike. So what I wanted was to find something small and unobtrusive that wouldn't look completely stupid on the bike.
As with any purchasing decision of a bike computer these days, one of the first questions to come up is to GPS or not to GPS? I'm not a serious data weeny and have resisted going to GPS computers as several of my peers have over the years, mostly because they're so large and horrible looking. Yes, I want to collect data and know how many miles I've traveled so I can set goals and effectively use a cue sheet. But while I have thought it would be cool to have some of the nifty navigation features several of my friends have, I've been content to do some prep work (cue sheets) and I don't worry about getting lost because I always have Google Maps on my phone if I need to figure out where I am in a pinch.
I don't do Strava, or any social networking for that matter, so up until now there just hasn't been a compelling reason to get a fancy schmancy GPS bike computer. I don't much care about heart rate, cadence or power. I don't want to read my email or news or stock quotes while I ride. It would be neat to let the Managing Partner track my whereabouts so she can come pick up my corpse when it comes to that, and get turn-by-turn instructions by uploading predefined courses; but I've never had those features before, so up until now they haven't persuaded me to become satellite dependent.
Still, Garmin has a super tiny GPS model, the Edge 25, which I found very appealing. It checked all my boxes: small, relatively inexpensive and simple to operate. Some of the Cateye computers are as small, but the wireless units require a sensor on the fork. Have you seen these forks? I'm not about to ruin those lines by zip-tying a tumor on them. So after reading and watching several reviews, I decided to go ahead and get the Edge for the new bike figuring what they heck - it's smaller than the super integrated ANT+ computer I used on my recently deceased carbon fiber mid-life crisis bike, and I think it's even cheaper. So I pulled the trigger and put a Major Tom computer on my 1950s style bicycle.
And generally I'm pretty happy with it. But...
Before putting the Garmin on the new bike, I thought it would be fun to mount it on my beloved aluminum racing bike and compare the performance to the Planet Bike Protegé 9 computer, which I have used and loved for years. The Protegé 9 reported distance very close to that reported by my Bontrager Node2 and the Cateye Astrale that preceded that.
I have had several computers on my bikes over the years and they have all produced similar results. Whether wired or wireless, they've all calculated distance by sensing the rotation of the wheel and multiplying by the circumference. All have measured distance and speed pretty closely on a variety of courses. Until now. What I found is that the Garmin measures distance just about 4% shorter than every other computer I've had (or the Managing Partner has had) for the past 15 years or so. Or roughly 4 fewer miles per 100.
There is some grumbling on the Forums about the accuracy of GPS generally and the Edge 25 specifically. Most of the griping seems to come from mountain bikers, and I can see why. In general what I gather is that GPS "samples" location coordinates periodically and draws straight lines between the points. Note in the image below how each of the corners has been cut off because a coordinate was taken before entering the turn and then again only after the turn was complete. This shortens the overall distance traveled which would account for the disparity between GPS and an actual count of the number of wheel rotations. If this is a significant contributor to the disparity between "physical" calculation and GPS, winding routes would be particularly affected, explaining why mountain bikers are the most vociferous gripers.
Generally a 4% variance wouldn't be a big deal, really, since I'm riding for pleasure and not ego.
But in a 3,000 mile year, this disparity will cost me about 120 miles. Again, not an earth shattering loss, but still. That's 12 hours of my life, give or take. I
have yet to measure against cue sheets supplied by organized events to
see if this has an impact on my ability to navigate with them, though I've often seen disparities with cue sheets over the years. So even that won't be too big a disappointment. Hell, for all I know the Garmin is right and all my previous computers were over-reporting my distances. I'm not going to sweat it too much. I like the form factor and its core functions so I'll stick with it until something better comes along. And in my mind I'll tell myself after each ride that I actually went farther than the confounded machine says!
As with any purchasing decision of a bike computer these days, one of the first questions to come up is to GPS or not to GPS? I'm not a serious data weeny and have resisted going to GPS computers as several of my peers have over the years, mostly because they're so large and horrible looking. Yes, I want to collect data and know how many miles I've traveled so I can set goals and effectively use a cue sheet. But while I have thought it would be cool to have some of the nifty navigation features several of my friends have, I've been content to do some prep work (cue sheets) and I don't worry about getting lost because I always have Google Maps on my phone if I need to figure out where I am in a pinch.
 |
| Teeny, tiny Garmin Edge 25 |
Still, Garmin has a super tiny GPS model, the Edge 25, which I found very appealing. It checked all my boxes: small, relatively inexpensive and simple to operate. Some of the Cateye computers are as small, but the wireless units require a sensor on the fork. Have you seen these forks? I'm not about to ruin those lines by zip-tying a tumor on them. So after reading and watching several reviews, I decided to go ahead and get the Edge for the new bike figuring what they heck - it's smaller than the super integrated ANT+ computer I used on my recently deceased carbon fiber mid-life crisis bike, and I think it's even cheaper. So I pulled the trigger and put a Major Tom computer on my 1950s style bicycle.
And generally I'm pretty happy with it. But...
Before putting the Garmin on the new bike, I thought it would be fun to mount it on my beloved aluminum racing bike and compare the performance to the Planet Bike Protegé 9 computer, which I have used and loved for years. The Protegé 9 reported distance very close to that reported by my Bontrager Node2 and the Cateye Astrale that preceded that.
I have had several computers on my bikes over the years and they have all produced similar results. Whether wired or wireless, they've all calculated distance by sensing the rotation of the wheel and multiplying by the circumference. All have measured distance and speed pretty closely on a variety of courses. Until now. What I found is that the Garmin measures distance just about 4% shorter than every other computer I've had (or the Managing Partner has had) for the past 15 years or so. Or roughly 4 fewer miles per 100.
 |
| One of these things is not like the other |
 |
| Turn, turn, turn |
Saturday, September 22, 2018
Mile 2 of 8 (kilometers)
Today was the 25th running of the Kensington 8K Race! From all outward appearances, the event is a well organized run catering to the full array of runners from serious athletes hoping to win the race to youngsters in strollers. Fun for the whole family. The route threads its way through the delightful little town of Kensington, Maryland, requiring the closure of a section of Beach Drive, the primary road through Rock Creek Park. It's a major weekend cycling route in the area and though such closures are a minor inconvenience for cyclists, not to mention local drivers, I fully support letting the runners use this wonderful public asset for a few hours each year.
But what struck me this morning as I traversed the Beach Drive section of the route was the fact that the distance markers for the run are "MILE" markers. Come on, pick one. If it's an 8 Kilometer run, mark the route with kilometers. If you measure the route in miles, add another 3/10 mile and call it the Kensington 5 Mile Run, for crying out loud!
But what struck me this morning as I traversed the Beach Drive section of the route was the fact that the distance markers for the run are "MILE" markers. Come on, pick one. If it's an 8 Kilometer run, mark the route with kilometers. If you measure the route in miles, add another 3/10 mile and call it the Kensington 5 Mile Run, for crying out loud!
 |
| Mile marker 2 of the Kensington 8K run |
 |
| "Mile" markers on the 8K map |
Wednesday, June 20, 2018
Mishap mayhap
...or Ride Report - Cycles Toussaint VR 2 at 250 miles
 |
| Cycles Toussaint Vélo Routier V2. |
I passed the 250 mile mark on my new bike last weekend so I thought I'd provide an update on my experience with the Cycles Toussaint Vélo Routier version 2. Sad to say the ride ended in a car backing out of a blind driveway, smashing into me and ultimately leading to the arrival of no fewer than three ambulances, two police cars and the Managing Partner.
Not to worry - your devoted blogger is more or less fine. Yes, there's a deep gash in my right shin where it shattered the brake light's lens, along with some fairly impressive road rash on the pointy parts (that would be knees, elbows, hips and shoulders); and yes, the driver, a young woman piloting her mother's car on a brand new driver's license, got a ticket for it; and yes, the rear quarter panel of her car was pretty seriously scratched and dented where my somewhat less-than-svelte body plowed into it. But aside from a misaligned rear fender and some scraping of the shift levers, brake hoods and the rear skewer, the Vélo Routier seems to be just fine! I just bent the fender back into place, straightened up the brake hoods, and did a little delicate melting of the rubber on the hoods and levers with a lighter to get them back to smooth. Et voila! Back on the road.
Drive train
 |
| But does it have a sexy French handlebar bag? You bet it does. |
Handling
The handling still feels a bit odd to me, but I'm beginning to think it may be because the headset was too tight. After the crash I noticed some play in the head tube. I suspect it was already loose before the crash, but I hadn't noticed it. I can't imaging slamming into a car would unscrew the head set adjusting nut. It's a one inch threaded needle bearing headset, so I have been thinking it was supposed to be a bit stiff, but maybe Big Mig over at the local Bicycle Place just leaned on it a bit too hard when he installed it. In any case, after re-tightening the adjusting nut, I kept it a bit looser than it had been prior to the crash and that seems to have made the steering a bit more intuitive. I still feel that I have to pay more attention to keeping the bike in a straight line than on higher trail bikes, but I'm getting used to it. I'll keep fiddling with the headset and provide an update when I get over 500 miles.
Speed
As I've noted in a previous post, I am transitioning from racing bikes to this new (for me) type of bike. I think of it more as a traveling bike. Not a dedicated tourer, but useful enough to carry a day's supplies and comfortable enough to sit on for that whole day. I've been expecting to have to sacrifice speed, which isn't a real problem since birthdays have been having the same effect. I'm therefore a bit surprised that my riding buddies, who have been on my wheel for over a decade, are reporting that this bike has not made me any slower. I think they were hoping a heavier bike with wide tires would slow me down, and I certainly thought it would.
Though I know by the numbers that the bike definitely climbs more slowly and takes a bit longer to spin up to speed after stopping, the overall cumulative effect is not terribly significant. Speeds at distances stretching from 25 to 50 miles seem to be right in the same basic range they were on my carbon fiber racer. I guess it [speed] really isn't about the bike. To be fair, we are talking about recreational riding here, so this would not be true if I were "training" or racing. But for my day-to-day riding, moving to a slightly heavier steel bike has not cost me anything in terms of speed. I'll let you know how I feel after the next hilly century or multi-day sojourn.
A note on "planing"
I have always been a bit skeptical of Jan Heine's theory of planing. I don't deny that a bike can have such optimal flex characteristics that a rider's power input on the down stroke could be stored in the frame and returned to the bike's forward momentum like a watch spring. I'm sure it's possible. But I have a hard time believing that many bicycle manufacturers know how to predictably, intentionally craft such a bike. Or that such a bike would plane for every rider, under all sorts of different conditions. So I think saying "this bike planes" is kind of misleading. And I don't think Jan would disagree. Saying "this bike planes for me" might be more accurate or at least easier for me to accept. Until I see some very serious measurements, I'm going to remain skeptical.Still, even if planing is not an empirical, measurable fact, there are times when a bike and rider can feel synchronized, when riding can feel effortless. Having experienced it on both cheap and expensive production bikes, I tend to think of it merely as the confluence of bike characteristics along with rider fitness and emotional state. A good tail wind doesn't hurt either. I tend to think that almost any good bike, adjusted well, with a rider attuned to the nuances of its performance traits, can produce this sense of effortlessness.
Whatever the case may be, on my most recent rides, I have achieved this hallowed state on the Vélo Routier on several occasions. It has tended to come at times when I am relaxed and kind of zoning out, my mind wandering and my body not straining. Several times I've looked down at the computer and been really surprised at how fast I am going without undue exertion. I'm not a mechanical engineer, and my experiences are not being conducted under stringent laboratory conditions. It could be that I am experiencing tail winds occasionally or that the heavier bike maintains forward momentum longer or more smoothly than a lighter bike. It could be that I'm surprised that wide, supple tires aren't slowing me down as much as I think they should. Or I could just be fooling myself because I want to fall in love with my shiny new bike.
Whatever the reason, if asked, does the Vélo Routier plane? I would have to answer, in as much as I an not convinced of the concept and according to my experience, yes it does. At least for me.
I'll provide further updates as the miles pile on.
Thursday, May 24, 2018
Ride Report - Cycles Toussaint Vélo Routier v2
Read the entire story of the research, acquisition and assembly of my new Cycles Toussaint Vélo Routier v2.
I don't think I made it another 500 yards before the front derailleur cable slipped, leaving me with only the small chain ring. I stopped and made what I thought was a valiant attempt to snug the cable back up, but I just couldn't get it tight enough to pull the derailleur to the big ring. Now I don't know about you, but though I like a nice high cadence as much as the next guy, the prospect of spending four hours in the saddle trying to keep up with a buddy on a fly weight carbon fiber racing bike with only a 30 tooth chain ring has only limited appeal to me. I had the 11 tooth cog in the rear, but my buddy was turning over a 52 tooth ring, pulling 22 more inches of chain than me with every peddle stroke. My heart was beating like a hummingbird's as I tried to keep up something like 120 RPM just to maintain 15 mph on the flats. After about 16 miles of spinning my brains out, I bid my buddy adieu and headed back toward the Bartlecave for a little visit with my Park Tools 4th Hand.
After a couple of miles of plodding along at a somewhat leisurely pace, it occurred to me that although I couldn't get the cable tight with my feeble hands, I had a newly installed cable adjuster on the down tube that might provide the necessary leverage. And sure enough, a couple of turns of the adjuster and that derailleur popped right up on the big ring just like it's supposed to. Who woulda' thunk it? So though my buddy had rolled off into the distance, I'd still be able to get my ride in without having to go home and futz with the bike.
I'll take the opportunity here to point out that the front derailleur has caused me a fair bit of anxiety from the beginning, as it is a super tight fit with the crank arm. Even adjusted as well as I can, the derailleur makes contact with the crank arm on every revolution, so every time I shift up to the big ring I have to back the derailleur off a hair to keep the crank arm from scraping. Not a big deal, and I'm sure it will eventually become a natural action to just "trim" after each shift, but it hasn't yet become a habit. I seem not to be alone in this - my buddy Phillip Cowan notes in a comment to my previous post that he ultimately decided to do some creative derailleur cage bending to get it to work right.
Nevertheless, having more or less sorted out the front derailleur, it was time to do some riding, to get a feel for this new bike, to start to understand what, if anything, is different between a low trail 650b bike and the more common race-inspired bikes I have been used to riding. Uncertain about whether I would encounter any further technical challenges (I am pretty new to bike wrenching), I decided to stay close to home. So I plotted a course down Rock Creek, where I could test the bike over a variety of terrain. Unfortunately, I had forgotten that the park road is closed at the exact section of the road I was planning to use.
I have to caveat my impressions of the Vélo Routier v2 with the acknowledgement that in acquiring this bike I am making a serious conscious change in my expectations of what I want my bicycle to do. The last bike I bought was a Trek Madone, among the raciest of carbon fiber racing bikes available. I think it weighed under 16 pounds (without pedals or bottle cages). The Vélo Routier is steel and comes in around 28 pounds (with fenders, a rack, pedals and bottle cages, but without the Acorn handlebar bag which probably adds another couple of pounds). The VR has low trail geometry to accommodate a handlebar bag, fat tires and a friction drive train. Nearly everything about it is diametrically opposed to the Madone. Intentionally so. After years of riding impractical race bikes, I am getting to be more interested in being comfortable over long rides, able to carry the kinds of supplies that support such long rides and less concerned about not being passed by the shaved leg boys in their aero helmets. I now lean more toward Grant Petersen than the Velominati. I still like a little woo hoo when I ride, but it's not the main point anymore. So I'm open to taking a new direction, and I want to see if the low trail approach is it.
The other caveat I'll put out there is that a bicycle is a complex machine made up of a variety of different parts, many of which can have a profound effect on the performance of the bike. Is the ride less buzzy because the frame is steel or the angles are slack or because the tires are wide or because they have supple casings? Of course I have no alternative but to talk about the bike as a whole, but the particular attributes could come from any of a number of little choices I made along the way about components or configuration. My bike is made up mostly of the parts shipped with the DIY Kit, but as I have documented in these posts, I swapped out a few significant pieces here and there and had to modify some others to make them work. Your results may vary.
Handling
Low trail geometry is kind of the main point of this bike and I think it contributes significantly to my initial impressions, so I'll start there. The first thing I noticed was that the bike is super responsive to even subtle rider input. Low trail steering seems to be done more with the hands than with the hips, unlike mid and high trail bikes on which steering is done more with body lean. That's great because even at the apex of a turn I can adjust my line. But it also means that steering takes constant attention. In order to get the bike to track in a perfectly straight line, I have to keep my body, and especially my hands steady. Rocking my shoulders rocks the bike. Shifting my weight on the handlebars makes the bike weave slightly. Looking over my shoulder makes the bike drift off its line. It's a subtle but important characteristic that encourages me to try to ride with zen-like stillness.
My next impression, and this may have to do with the 38mm Pari-Moto tires -- their greater width, their grippy rubber, the file tread pattern, or their lower pressure -- is that the bike feels much more planted to the pavement than my skinny tired racing bikes (FYI, I generally favor 25mm Continental Gator Skin tires for most of my skinny tire riding). It feels like I could be scraping the bottom bracket bolts on the ground before the tires' traction gives out in a turn. And that planted feeling came on the first day of dry weather following a solid week of sometimes violent rain storms. There was plenty of water, mud and wet leaves on the ground.
The bike also descends with a surprisingly solid, dependable feel. I mean rock solid. This too may be attributable to the larger contact patch of the 38 mm tires. Or the bike's geometry - it has a bit longer wheelbase than my racing bikes. I'm not sure. Anyway, combine the solid, wobble-free descending with the ability to alter trajectory mid-course and you've got a really confidence-inspiring package.
Reach
There is another characteristic of the bike related to geometry that is worth commenting on and that is reach. While the effective top tube seems to be just about the same as my racing bikes (~530 mm) I thought the higher stem would give me a more upright riding position. But I find that I'm pretty stretched out when my hands are on the hoods. I suspect it has to do with the 70mm stem and Nitto Olympiad handlebars I swapped from my Fuji. But even that cockpit took out nearly 50mm or about 2 inches or forward reach from the stock stem and bars supplied with the DIY Kit. Modern race bikes tend to have very short reach and drop compared to "classic" bikes, so this may be just me getting used to a new cockpit. But I have the feeling I could go with an even shorter stem and a handlebar with less reach. Without brifters, I'll likely spend more time with my hands in other locations than the hoods, so this may not prove to be a problem at all. I'll give it some time and see how I get along with it before making a decision to try a new handlebar/stem setup.
Speed
Okay, it's probably 15+ pounds heavier than the bike(s) I'm used to riding. It has substantially heavier wheels that are bound to take longer to get rolling and they're smaller so each revolution is fewer inches of circumference, right? So it's going to be slower all around than a fly-weight carbon racer. It's not going to lunge off the line and each pedal stroke up a hill is not going to propel the bike forward like an eager steed desperate to be unleashed. That is a given. But the question in my mind is how much speed have I sacrificed in this transition?
The bike does feel a bit slow to get going and when it's up and rolling I never had the sense of flying along effortlessly; what Jan Heine would call "planing". But I'm a bit skeptical about the whole concept of planing anyway. The bike just feels like what it is: a wide tired steel bike. At the same time the Routier doesn't feel lifeless or overly plodding. It feels about the same as my '86 Fuji which weighs about the same, only the Routier has appreciably better gearing. Still, the Fuji "feels" faster with its slightly thinner 27 x 1 1/4 inch tires.
I wonder how much of my sense of speed is affected by other aspects of the bike's build. Certainly climbing is probably slower just because of the added weight, but on flat sections and descents I occasionally looked down at my computer and noticed that I was traveling much faster than I would have expected, pretty much in line with my other bikes. And my overall average speed, given the mechanical issue and unexpected detour, wasn't all that slow for me. Is the Vélo Routier really much slower than my racing bikes? Or does it just "feel" slower? Do I just associate the feeling of speed with the jarring ride quality of a super stiff skinny tire racing bike?
The jury's still out on this one. It'll probably take a while for me to come to terms with the exact trade off I've made moving to this bike. I do tend to ride the exact same courses repeatedly through the year, so I should ultimately be able to determine pretty well how much slower this bike is to my others. I'll provide an update after I've had time to accumulate more data.
Shifting
Okay, I'm just gonna say it. I'm diggin' the Microshift bar-ends. Having primarily used indexed integrated brake/shifters (brifters) and occasionally down tube levers (on the Fuji), making the switch to bar-end shifters was a shot in the dark. I have become frustrated with index shifting over the years, and I definitely wanted to move to friction shifting, but the placement of the levers at the end of the handlebars seemed strange and I wasn't sure I was going to like it. I even toyed with getting an adapter that would let me mount regular down tube shifters up on the stem like they used to do in the 70's. But lots of touring bikes come with bar-ends, so I figured I'd try them first. And for the moment I'm really glad I did. It hardly took any time at all to get used to them, though I still have to do a little more thinking than I did with brifters as I come up to stops. No worries though; I can already tell it'll come naturally before I know it. And the cable routing seems to work with my handlebar bag, so I am very pleased on the whole.
As for the gearing, that is another change I'm going to have to get used to. I'm used to either a Shimano 105 road triple chain ring (52-42-30) with an 11-27 9-speed cassette or a typical compact chain ring 50-34 with a slightly wider 11-30 10-speed cassette. The Vélo Routier's 46-30 seems a bit low on the top end, but the 11-36 cassette gives oh so much room to move around. I can do most of my shifting in the rear and only go down to the small chain ring when I'm actually climbing. Again, I'll have to change my habits a bit, but I think the system is a good one. That sub 1-1 ratio is a climber's dream. I may be going uphill slowly, but it would have to be one hell of a hill before I had to get off and walk. Kudos to Cycles Toussaint. Not withstanding the somewhat finicky adjustments necessary to get the front derailleur working correctly, I think they've made a really good choice of gearing here.
Brakes
There seems to be a lot of criticism of the Dia Compe 750 center pull brakes. I did find it impossible to make the stock straddle cable hangers work right, but acting on the advice of ace MondoBlahBlah commenter Phillip Cowan, I swapped them out for some Tektro hangers that let me adjust for what seems to be uneven spring tension, after which everything worked just fine. I also swapped the stock brake pads for some Kool-Stop dual compound pads. Jan Heine called the 750s "mushy" in his review of the bike but honestly I don't know what he's talking about. I think the braze-on mounted center pull brakes work every bit as well as the Shimano dual pivot brakes on my Treks (105 and Ultegra). Maybe Jan's beloved Mafac Raid brakes are altogether better than the Dia Compe brakes. Or maybe my Origin8 brake levers are exceptional. I don't know. But the 750s seem just fine to me so for the time being I'll be sticking with them.
Conclusion(s)
My feelings about this bike are sort of complex, so I'll try to break them down.
Is it a good bike? Is it worth the money? Yes. It is a really good, economical version of a very unusual type of bike (650b wheels on a low trail frame). It has all the right braze-ons, though I as I mentioned in a previous post, the frame pump braze-ons don't seem to fit any commercially available pump - a huge disappointment. The quality of the welding seems to be top-notch and the frame seems to be of very high quality. There will always be debate about the horizontal rear dropout; I find it a pain, but not a deal breaker, and I understand that it might help the bike appeal to the wider "single speed" audience, making it a more viable product.
How about the DIY Build Kit? That depends. I am not an experienced mechanic, and I don't have a well stocked parts bin for this type of bike. So for me the DIY kit was an easy way to make sure I got all the essential parts to start with. It was a relief not to have to source appropriate 650b wheels, a needle bearing headset, bottom bracket and drive train parts. For most people who are even tempted to buy a "kit" bike, I presume you have some mechanical aptitude or a desire to learn. In my case it was very much the latter, so the kit was comforting. If you have a pretty solid mechanical capability and the willingness to do some sourcing, I think you would probably be happier getting the frame and putting the build together yourself.
I ended up ditching the stem/handlebar because it didn't fit the handlebar bag/rack setup I wanted. Nothing wrong with the stock setup - that's on me. The kit originally came with just bar-top thumb shifters, but I wrote back to Cycles Toussaint and they happily supplied me with the desired bar end shifters I wanted. So, I ended up a happy customer on that score.
The fenders were a bit of a disappointment. The front fender isn't long enough to provide adequate coverage. With a mud flap it will be serviceable I think. It also wasn't drilled to attach to the threaded fitting on the bottom of the fork crown - it had a riveted tab for connection to the more conventional fork crown center bolt. Velo Orange's 45mm Hammered fenders would almost certainly offer better coverage and more appropriate attachment options. They may not allow for graceful upsizing to 42mm tires, but so what? They would do what they're supposed to do without having to be augmented, which is attach to the bike properly and keep my feet dry.
Now that I've been through the assembly process, if I had to do it again, I think I might be inclined to just buy the frame along with the individual parts I needed, i.e., headset, wheel set (I really like the wheels that came with the set, by the way - the Velo Orange equivalent would easily cost $200 more), and maybe the rear derailleur/cassette combo which is as wide a set of gears as you could want. The front derailleur is a bit of a pain, so I might look for alternatives there. If I had a deep parts bin or other bikes I could scavenge, I would probably take Jan Heine's advice and just build up the bike with spare parts.
Despite all the trouble and the couple of disappointments along the way, I am extremely happy with this bike. It's still very much in the break-in phase, and I continue to wrestle with the derailleurs, but everything else has come together as well as might be expected. It's a special bike at a very modest price. I sincerely hope the Cycles Toussaint guys can make a go of it, though this is obviously a passion project for them, and I imagine it will be tough to make any money on such a niche product. I wish them luck and sincerely hope they succeed. After I've had more time in the saddle, I'll do a longer term review.
Recommendation
For the record, my hopefully constructive suggestions for Version 3 would be as follows:
 |
| Cycles Toussaint Vélo Routier V2. |
The Ride
After the now months long process of researching, buying and assembling a new bike, my "new" Cycles Toussaint Vélo Routier v2 is ready to ride. Despite projected temperatures in the high 80's accompanied by soul crushing humidity last Sunday, I set out on a planned 50 mile ride, more or less my normal weekend ride. After a 4 mile scamper up to the Forest Glen Metro station, I met up with one of my close riding buddies and we set off toward Olney, Maryland.I don't think I made it another 500 yards before the front derailleur cable slipped, leaving me with only the small chain ring. I stopped and made what I thought was a valiant attempt to snug the cable back up, but I just couldn't get it tight enough to pull the derailleur to the big ring. Now I don't know about you, but though I like a nice high cadence as much as the next guy, the prospect of spending four hours in the saddle trying to keep up with a buddy on a fly weight carbon fiber racing bike with only a 30 tooth chain ring has only limited appeal to me. I had the 11 tooth cog in the rear, but my buddy was turning over a 52 tooth ring, pulling 22 more inches of chain than me with every peddle stroke. My heart was beating like a hummingbird's as I tried to keep up something like 120 RPM just to maintain 15 mph on the flats. After about 16 miles of spinning my brains out, I bid my buddy adieu and headed back toward the Bartlecave for a little visit with my Park Tools 4th Hand.
After a couple of miles of plodding along at a somewhat leisurely pace, it occurred to me that although I couldn't get the cable tight with my feeble hands, I had a newly installed cable adjuster on the down tube that might provide the necessary leverage. And sure enough, a couple of turns of the adjuster and that derailleur popped right up on the big ring just like it's supposed to. Who woulda' thunk it? So though my buddy had rolled off into the distance, I'd still be able to get my ride in without having to go home and futz with the bike.
I'll take the opportunity here to point out that the front derailleur has caused me a fair bit of anxiety from the beginning, as it is a super tight fit with the crank arm. Even adjusted as well as I can, the derailleur makes contact with the crank arm on every revolution, so every time I shift up to the big ring I have to back the derailleur off a hair to keep the crank arm from scraping. Not a big deal, and I'm sure it will eventually become a natural action to just "trim" after each shift, but it hasn't yet become a habit. I seem not to be alone in this - my buddy Phillip Cowan notes in a comment to my previous post that he ultimately decided to do some creative derailleur cage bending to get it to work right.
Nevertheless, having more or less sorted out the front derailleur, it was time to do some riding, to get a feel for this new bike, to start to understand what, if anything, is different between a low trail 650b bike and the more common race-inspired bikes I have been used to riding. Uncertain about whether I would encounter any further technical challenges (I am pretty new to bike wrenching), I decided to stay close to home. So I plotted a course down Rock Creek, where I could test the bike over a variety of terrain. Unfortunately, I had forgotten that the park road is closed at the exact section of the road I was planning to use.
Not to worry. Though no Magellan, I know the roads around there fairly well and would just make a detour through Takoma Park over to Sligo Creek to make a nice loop with plenty of climbing and descending to give the Routier a thorough workout. Though I got a bit lost, I eventually had a lovely, if sweaty, meander through the hilly streets of Takoma Park, up the lovely, cool Sligo Creek valley and then back home via upper Rock Creek. According to the Garmin it was 51.01 miles in 4 hours exactly with an elevation gain of 1,813 feet. With an average moving speed of 13 mph, it was a bit slower than my normal, but remember I was working with a very small gear for the first third of the ride. Altogether it gave me a nice introduction to the Vélo Routier.
First Impressions
The other caveat I'll put out there is that a bicycle is a complex machine made up of a variety of different parts, many of which can have a profound effect on the performance of the bike. Is the ride less buzzy because the frame is steel or the angles are slack or because the tires are wide or because they have supple casings? Of course I have no alternative but to talk about the bike as a whole, but the particular attributes could come from any of a number of little choices I made along the way about components or configuration. My bike is made up mostly of the parts shipped with the DIY Kit, but as I have documented in these posts, I swapped out a few significant pieces here and there and had to modify some others to make them work. Your results may vary.
Handling
Low trail geometry is kind of the main point of this bike and I think it contributes significantly to my initial impressions, so I'll start there. The first thing I noticed was that the bike is super responsive to even subtle rider input. Low trail steering seems to be done more with the hands than with the hips, unlike mid and high trail bikes on which steering is done more with body lean. That's great because even at the apex of a turn I can adjust my line. But it also means that steering takes constant attention. In order to get the bike to track in a perfectly straight line, I have to keep my body, and especially my hands steady. Rocking my shoulders rocks the bike. Shifting my weight on the handlebars makes the bike weave slightly. Looking over my shoulder makes the bike drift off its line. It's a subtle but important characteristic that encourages me to try to ride with zen-like stillness.
My next impression, and this may have to do with the 38mm Pari-Moto tires -- their greater width, their grippy rubber, the file tread pattern, or their lower pressure -- is that the bike feels much more planted to the pavement than my skinny tired racing bikes (FYI, I generally favor 25mm Continental Gator Skin tires for most of my skinny tire riding). It feels like I could be scraping the bottom bracket bolts on the ground before the tires' traction gives out in a turn. And that planted feeling came on the first day of dry weather following a solid week of sometimes violent rain storms. There was plenty of water, mud and wet leaves on the ground.
The bike also descends with a surprisingly solid, dependable feel. I mean rock solid. This too may be attributable to the larger contact patch of the 38 mm tires. Or the bike's geometry - it has a bit longer wheelbase than my racing bikes. I'm not sure. Anyway, combine the solid, wobble-free descending with the ability to alter trajectory mid-course and you've got a really confidence-inspiring package.
Reach
There is another characteristic of the bike related to geometry that is worth commenting on and that is reach. While the effective top tube seems to be just about the same as my racing bikes (~530 mm) I thought the higher stem would give me a more upright riding position. But I find that I'm pretty stretched out when my hands are on the hoods. I suspect it has to do with the 70mm stem and Nitto Olympiad handlebars I swapped from my Fuji. But even that cockpit took out nearly 50mm or about 2 inches or forward reach from the stock stem and bars supplied with the DIY Kit. Modern race bikes tend to have very short reach and drop compared to "classic" bikes, so this may be just me getting used to a new cockpit. But I have the feeling I could go with an even shorter stem and a handlebar with less reach. Without brifters, I'll likely spend more time with my hands in other locations than the hoods, so this may not prove to be a problem at all. I'll give it some time and see how I get along with it before making a decision to try a new handlebar/stem setup.
Speed
Okay, it's probably 15+ pounds heavier than the bike(s) I'm used to riding. It has substantially heavier wheels that are bound to take longer to get rolling and they're smaller so each revolution is fewer inches of circumference, right? So it's going to be slower all around than a fly-weight carbon racer. It's not going to lunge off the line and each pedal stroke up a hill is not going to propel the bike forward like an eager steed desperate to be unleashed. That is a given. But the question in my mind is how much speed have I sacrificed in this transition?
The bike does feel a bit slow to get going and when it's up and rolling I never had the sense of flying along effortlessly; what Jan Heine would call "planing". But I'm a bit skeptical about the whole concept of planing anyway. The bike just feels like what it is: a wide tired steel bike. At the same time the Routier doesn't feel lifeless or overly plodding. It feels about the same as my '86 Fuji which weighs about the same, only the Routier has appreciably better gearing. Still, the Fuji "feels" faster with its slightly thinner 27 x 1 1/4 inch tires.
I wonder how much of my sense of speed is affected by other aspects of the bike's build. Certainly climbing is probably slower just because of the added weight, but on flat sections and descents I occasionally looked down at my computer and noticed that I was traveling much faster than I would have expected, pretty much in line with my other bikes. And my overall average speed, given the mechanical issue and unexpected detour, wasn't all that slow for me. Is the Vélo Routier really much slower than my racing bikes? Or does it just "feel" slower? Do I just associate the feeling of speed with the jarring ride quality of a super stiff skinny tire racing bike?
The jury's still out on this one. It'll probably take a while for me to come to terms with the exact trade off I've made moving to this bike. I do tend to ride the exact same courses repeatedly through the year, so I should ultimately be able to determine pretty well how much slower this bike is to my others. I'll provide an update after I've had time to accumulate more data.
Shifting
Okay, I'm just gonna say it. I'm diggin' the Microshift bar-ends. Having primarily used indexed integrated brake/shifters (brifters) and occasionally down tube levers (on the Fuji), making the switch to bar-end shifters was a shot in the dark. I have become frustrated with index shifting over the years, and I definitely wanted to move to friction shifting, but the placement of the levers at the end of the handlebars seemed strange and I wasn't sure I was going to like it. I even toyed with getting an adapter that would let me mount regular down tube shifters up on the stem like they used to do in the 70's. But lots of touring bikes come with bar-ends, so I figured I'd try them first. And for the moment I'm really glad I did. It hardly took any time at all to get used to them, though I still have to do a little more thinking than I did with brifters as I come up to stops. No worries though; I can already tell it'll come naturally before I know it. And the cable routing seems to work with my handlebar bag, so I am very pleased on the whole.
As for the gearing, that is another change I'm going to have to get used to. I'm used to either a Shimano 105 road triple chain ring (52-42-30) with an 11-27 9-speed cassette or a typical compact chain ring 50-34 with a slightly wider 11-30 10-speed cassette. The Vélo Routier's 46-30 seems a bit low on the top end, but the 11-36 cassette gives oh so much room to move around. I can do most of my shifting in the rear and only go down to the small chain ring when I'm actually climbing. Again, I'll have to change my habits a bit, but I think the system is a good one. That sub 1-1 ratio is a climber's dream. I may be going uphill slowly, but it would have to be one hell of a hill before I had to get off and walk. Kudos to Cycles Toussaint. Not withstanding the somewhat finicky adjustments necessary to get the front derailleur working correctly, I think they've made a really good choice of gearing here.
Brakes
There seems to be a lot of criticism of the Dia Compe 750 center pull brakes. I did find it impossible to make the stock straddle cable hangers work right, but acting on the advice of ace MondoBlahBlah commenter Phillip Cowan, I swapped them out for some Tektro hangers that let me adjust for what seems to be uneven spring tension, after which everything worked just fine. I also swapped the stock brake pads for some Kool-Stop dual compound pads. Jan Heine called the 750s "mushy" in his review of the bike but honestly I don't know what he's talking about. I think the braze-on mounted center pull brakes work every bit as well as the Shimano dual pivot brakes on my Treks (105 and Ultegra). Maybe Jan's beloved Mafac Raid brakes are altogether better than the Dia Compe brakes. Or maybe my Origin8 brake levers are exceptional. I don't know. But the 750s seem just fine to me so for the time being I'll be sticking with them.
Conclusion(s)
My feelings about this bike are sort of complex, so I'll try to break them down.
Is it a good bike? Is it worth the money? Yes. It is a really good, economical version of a very unusual type of bike (650b wheels on a low trail frame). It has all the right braze-ons, though I as I mentioned in a previous post, the frame pump braze-ons don't seem to fit any commercially available pump - a huge disappointment. The quality of the welding seems to be top-notch and the frame seems to be of very high quality. There will always be debate about the horizontal rear dropout; I find it a pain, but not a deal breaker, and I understand that it might help the bike appeal to the wider "single speed" audience, making it a more viable product.
How about the DIY Build Kit? That depends. I am not an experienced mechanic, and I don't have a well stocked parts bin for this type of bike. So for me the DIY kit was an easy way to make sure I got all the essential parts to start with. It was a relief not to have to source appropriate 650b wheels, a needle bearing headset, bottom bracket and drive train parts. For most people who are even tempted to buy a "kit" bike, I presume you have some mechanical aptitude or a desire to learn. In my case it was very much the latter, so the kit was comforting. If you have a pretty solid mechanical capability and the willingness to do some sourcing, I think you would probably be happier getting the frame and putting the build together yourself.
I ended up ditching the stem/handlebar because it didn't fit the handlebar bag/rack setup I wanted. Nothing wrong with the stock setup - that's on me. The kit originally came with just bar-top thumb shifters, but I wrote back to Cycles Toussaint and they happily supplied me with the desired bar end shifters I wanted. So, I ended up a happy customer on that score.
The fenders were a bit of a disappointment. The front fender isn't long enough to provide adequate coverage. With a mud flap it will be serviceable I think. It also wasn't drilled to attach to the threaded fitting on the bottom of the fork crown - it had a riveted tab for connection to the more conventional fork crown center bolt. Velo Orange's 45mm Hammered fenders would almost certainly offer better coverage and more appropriate attachment options. They may not allow for graceful upsizing to 42mm tires, but so what? They would do what they're supposed to do without having to be augmented, which is attach to the bike properly and keep my feet dry.
Now that I've been through the assembly process, if I had to do it again, I think I might be inclined to just buy the frame along with the individual parts I needed, i.e., headset, wheel set (I really like the wheels that came with the set, by the way - the Velo Orange equivalent would easily cost $200 more), and maybe the rear derailleur/cassette combo which is as wide a set of gears as you could want. The front derailleur is a bit of a pain, so I might look for alternatives there. If I had a deep parts bin or other bikes I could scavenge, I would probably take Jan Heine's advice and just build up the bike with spare parts.
Despite all the trouble and the couple of disappointments along the way, I am extremely happy with this bike. It's still very much in the break-in phase, and I continue to wrestle with the derailleurs, but everything else has come together as well as might be expected. It's a special bike at a very modest price. I sincerely hope the Cycles Toussaint guys can make a go of it, though this is obviously a passion project for them, and I imagine it will be tough to make any money on such a niche product. I wish them luck and sincerely hope they succeed. After I've had more time in the saddle, I'll do a longer term review.
Recommendation
For the record, my hopefully constructive suggestions for Version 3 would be as follows:
- Provide barrel adjusters with the brake levers. Mine came without them which rendered the levers useless. I had a set of serviceable levers in my parts bin so I didn't bother reaching out to Cycles Toussaint about it. I'm sure they would have made good. Not including them with the kit just looks like an oversight in quality control.
- Make sure the pump braze-ons, even on the small frames, fit the Zefal Lapize. If they don't fit the most popular version of that style pump, take 'em off.
- Offer better fenders. Make sure the fronts are long enough and that they are drilled properly to fit on your frames, i.e., the threaded fitting on the bottom of the fork crown and the seat stay bridge. Though I made them work with my trusty drill, neither was right out of the box.
- Offer the horizontal dropout as an optional, not standard feature (I know, I know, production volume limitations).
Saturday, May 19, 2018
Details
Read the entire story of the research, acquisition and assembly of my new Cycles Toussaint Velo Routier v2.
Okay, so I know in my last post I insinuated that the next post would have a ride review. I lied. Well, not entirely. I did take the Velo Routier on her maiden voyage, but it was somewhat short lived. I did get in just over 20 miles, but despite a bunch of fiddling around, I couldn't get the brakes to stop rubbing. I'd get them situated, but then each time I would brake they would get off center and drag a bit. As Phillip Cowan noted in a comment to my last post:
He's talking about these doohickeys (photos left and right). I stayed with the stock straddle cables and will see if I can make them work. Manufacturing a "knarp" may be easy for Phillip, but I haven't touched a lathe since high school. If the stock wires don't work, I'll look for something ready made that might fit the bill, or you know, buy a lathe. At a minimum, the "cable screws" should make it so the brake pads on both sides contact the brakes at the same time and reset properly when released. That will be an improvement over the current, BB stacking situation.
The derailleurs still need some adjustment. I haven't yet gotten the rear to get up on the 36 tooth cog, and the front occasionally jumps to the outside of the big ring. But both amount to little more than fine tuning, and much of the adjustment might be done while riding.
I should now be ready to actually ride the thing. After a long, cool wet week, Sunday looks like it may bring some fair weather so I hope to get out on a 50 miler. I'll take the Allen wrenches and hope to get back with some initial impressions.
By the way, did I mention that I got some aluminum Presta valve caps? I couldn't resist. It was just the thing to play off the braided cable housing and those fenders. A bike like this invites just this sort of vanity. Maybe I'm a romantic but I think a bike like this has a sensuous quality. The way it looks is important. Its lines and colors and various accents invite you to admire it beyond just the function it provides. In truth the Velo Routier does not have the heart stopping aesthetics of a classic French randonneur or a vintage Italian racer, but there is a loveliness to its form derived from its geometry. It has timeless proportions that deserve to be appreciated and accentuated by this type of minor accessory.
In fact, I also have installed a solid brass Crane Suzu bell. I could have used the lighter weight silver bell that came with the bike, which admittedly would look great with all the other silver bling, but the Crane sounds infinitely better. Where most bike bells emit a timid, short lived "ding" the Crane's tone sustains like a musical instrument. My bike not only looks great; it sounds great! Now if I can just make it smell like lavender...
Finally, inspired by Evan's Madonna del Ghisallo medallion, I have mounted a medallion featuring the seal of the Commonwealth of Virginia to the top tube. Made for walking sticks, it fits perfectly around the tube and the color works perfectly with the frame. A little bending to the perfect shape and then a thin layer of silicone glue and voilà! Instant personalization. This is my bike. There are many like it, but this one is mine. Astute observers will note that I live in Maryland, but I am originally from the Old Dominion and am nothing if not a loyal son. Sic Semper Tyrannis!
Okay, join us for our next episode in which I actually spend some time riding the bike and give you my initial impressions. Stay tuned.
Okay, so I know in my last post I insinuated that the next post would have a ride review. I lied. Well, not entirely. I did take the Velo Routier on her maiden voyage, but it was somewhat short lived. I did get in just over 20 miles, but despite a bunch of fiddling around, I couldn't get the brakes to stop rubbing. I'd get them situated, but then each time I would brake they would get off center and drag a bit. As Phillip Cowan noted in a comment to my last post:
The stock Dia-Compe straddle cable is hopeless. It's too short and too stiff to allow the yoke to find center. You'll be crazier than a BB stacker before you get the brake arms to pull evenly. I replaced them with CNC'd ones from Tektro. They have set screws so you can slide the yoke towards the tight shoe and lock it down to force the arms to equalise. They also come with nice long replacement straddle cables that are much more flexible and allow you to set the draw at a more acute angle. They only have a knarp at one end so I had to make ones for the other end in the lathe altho I think you can buy them ready made.BB stacker. That cracked me up.
 |
| Stock Dia Compe straddle hangers |
 |
| Tektro Cable Straddle Hanger |
 |
| Metal valve caps? Of course! Can't have too much shiny silver stuff. |
I should now be ready to actually ride the thing. After a long, cool wet week, Sunday looks like it may bring some fair weather so I hope to get out on a 50 miler. I'll take the Allen wrenches and hope to get back with some initial impressions.
By the way, did I mention that I got some aluminum Presta valve caps? I couldn't resist. It was just the thing to play off the braided cable housing and those fenders. A bike like this invites just this sort of vanity. Maybe I'm a romantic but I think a bike like this has a sensuous quality. The way it looks is important. Its lines and colors and various accents invite you to admire it beyond just the function it provides. In truth the Velo Routier does not have the heart stopping aesthetics of a classic French randonneur or a vintage Italian racer, but there is a loveliness to its form derived from its geometry. It has timeless proportions that deserve to be appreciated and accentuated by this type of minor accessory.
Finally, inspired by Evan's Madonna del Ghisallo medallion, I have mounted a medallion featuring the seal of the Commonwealth of Virginia to the top tube. Made for walking sticks, it fits perfectly around the tube and the color works perfectly with the frame. A little bending to the perfect shape and then a thin layer of silicone glue and voilà! Instant personalization. This is my bike. There are many like it, but this one is mine. Astute observers will note that I live in Maryland, but I am originally from the Old Dominion and am nothing if not a loyal son. Sic Semper Tyrannis!
Okay, join us for our next episode in which I actually spend some time riding the bike and give you my initial impressions. Stay tuned.
Sunday, April 29, 2018
All together now
Previously on MondoBlahBlah... or...
Read the entire story of the research, acquisition and assembly of my new Cycles Toussaint Velo Routier v2.
When last we met, I had assembled a lot of my new Cycles Toussaint Velo Routier 2.0. I had help installing the headset and bottom bracket from Big Mig at the local Bicycle Place. Of course I just jammed the seat post in and hung a saddle on it. I got the cassette and crank set on the frame along with the derailleurs. I got the stem and handlebar worked out. I got the front rack, fenders and brakes all attached with reasonably satisfactory results. Nothing left to do but attend to the final details of connecting all the moving parts and actually making the thing work.
So at last the build is more or less complete and the bike is rideable. I haven't yet had the chance to ride it, and I still have some tinkering to do to get the brakes and front derailleur fine-tuned, but the build is essentially complete. What follows are some observations about the bits and pieces of Cycles Toussaint's DIY build kit.
I'm also not too happy about the way the "Pro Force" levers look. They're pretty clearly modern Shimano knock-offs and look a bit chunky on the bike. I suspect I'll leave them for a while as I get used to the bike and swap them out for something more aesthetically pleasing (like the Origin8 Classique Sport model) later on.
After having installed the Origin8 levers, I figured out what was wrong with the stock Dia Compe levers. They were missing brake lever ferrules which act as a "stop" for the cable housing as it comes out of the lever, producing the tension the cable needs to pull against the brakes. Without them, the brake levers just don't work. Looking at every picture I can find on the internet, I see that every image of the "stock" Velo Routier features nifty looking barrel adjusters where the cable exits the lever housing - I think they were these: https://velo-orange.com/collections/brake-parts/products/dia-compe-cable-adjuster-for-gc202-and-dc204-levers. But no such thing came with the DIY kit, rendering the brakes useless or forcing me to seek out these exotic little parts.
This is just one of the "small parts" irritations with the DIY kit. Cycles Toussaint eventually provided me a handful of shifter cable ferrules and some cable end crimps, but they didn't come with the package - I had to ask for them when I whined about the shifters. I know, niggling details, but the site does say, "We package and ship a complete frame set and build kit to your home (only exclusion is seat and pedals.)" There seems to be some room for interpretation of the word "complete".
The front derailleur went on without a hitch, but the tolerances were super tight. When the chain gets clear of the derailleur, the crank arm rubs it on each revolution. When I back the derailleur off so the crank arm doesn't rub, but chain grinds against the inside of the derailleur. And every so often the chain gets thrown off the big ring to the outside. I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with the parts. I think I just have to do more fiddling with them to get them set up just right.
Matching the shifters and front derailleur, the bike comes with a MicroSHIFT rear derailleur and cassette. On the surface it seems like a nicely integrated 2 x 10 drive train with a nice wide gear range. And mostly that's correct. But the rear derailleur (see photo below) doesn't match the big cog cassette (36 teeth). Basically, it just doesn't shift to the lowest gear. Not a huge deal. A 30T x 34T low gear is still plenty low. And 9 speeds in the rear s more than anyone should need. But still - tempt me with a 10 speed / 36T and then give me a 9 speed / 34T, and I'm bound to feel a little cheated. Again. No biggie. Just seems a bit "close, but no cigar."
So despite all the really positive aspects of this bike, not the least of which is that it exists at all, there is a really glaring issue I have with it, and that concerns what might be among the most inconsequential details; the pump pegs. One of the truly coolest, quirkiest details on the Velo Routier's frame, the thing that most explicitly pays homage to the constructeurs whose work inspired its design is the dedicated pegs for a frame pump on the left seat stay. Not that single bump on the head tube that some "retro" bikes have, but serious, elegant top and bottom pegs for a classic "pencil" pump. When I saw them I just flipped out - that's a sign of just how seriously these guys at Cycles Toussaint are taking the design of this bike, I thought. What a shame then when I find that they will never fulfill their purpose because there's no such thing as a pump that fits the pegs.
It's not that there are no pumps designed to fit such pegs. In fact Zefal makes a really attractive one, the Classic Lapize. But it doesn't fit. It measures 375 mm or 14.8 inches. The distance between the pegs is 14 5/16 inches or about 363.54 mm. I could conceivably squeeze in a small HPX pump, but it looks like stupid and the connection points just aren't right. It's designed to fit in the spaces of the frame, not between pump pegs. So I'll probably carry a mini-pump in the handlebar bag or use a full size frame pump under the top tube and ride with an empty space between the pump pegs, a forever aspirational void, an unfulfilled longing for elegance and purpose. Pity.
Well, okay, enough with the build. The real question is, how does this low trail 650b bike ride? Stay tuned faithful reader, for my initial review in the next post.
Read the entire story of the research, acquisition and assembly of my new Cycles Toussaint Velo Routier v2.
When last we met, I had assembled a lot of my new Cycles Toussaint Velo Routier 2.0. I had help installing the headset and bottom bracket from Big Mig at the local Bicycle Place. Of course I just jammed the seat post in and hung a saddle on it. I got the cassette and crank set on the frame along with the derailleurs. I got the stem and handlebar worked out. I got the front rack, fenders and brakes all attached with reasonably satisfactory results. Nothing left to do but attend to the final details of connecting all the moving parts and actually making the thing work.
 |
| Ta da! |
Shifters
Alright, let's hear it for the good guys. After I pointed out to my buddy Angus that bar-top "thumb" shifters just don't belong on a road bike, he sent me a completely new set of MicroSHIFT bar-end shifters. And really nice shifters they seem to be, right down to the red anodized accents that reinforce the red in the Cycles Toussaint logo. Thanks very much to Cycles Toussaint. And I note that one of my readers, phillip Cowan noted in the comments that CT sent him both styles with his order. I'm totally going to take credit for that.
Brake Levers
I tried using the supplied Dia Compe brake levers, but I couldn't get them to work right. After futzing with them for a while I gave up and put on a pair of Origin8 Pro Force aero levers I bought a couple of years ago with the Fuji in mind. They went on fine, though there's no barrel adjuster; I tried and tried, but I couldn't figure out how to gracefully insert an "in-line" adjuster in the set-up, so the rear brake has no adjuster, which will probably drive me crazy eventually.I'm also not too happy about the way the "Pro Force" levers look. They're pretty clearly modern Shimano knock-offs and look a bit chunky on the bike. I suspect I'll leave them for a while as I get used to the bike and swap them out for something more aesthetically pleasing (like the Origin8 Classique Sport model) later on.
 |
| See the little thingy on top of the lever? Barrel Adjuster - the kit didn't come with them. |
This is just one of the "small parts" irritations with the DIY kit. Cycles Toussaint eventually provided me a handful of shifter cable ferrules and some cable end crimps, but they didn't come with the package - I had to ask for them when I whined about the shifters. I know, niggling details, but the site does say, "We package and ship a complete frame set and build kit to your home (only exclusion is seat and pedals.)" There seems to be some room for interpretation of the word "complete".
Chain
I only mention the chain because Cycles Toussaint sent three, count 'em, three of them. At an MSRP of $36 each, I consider that quite generous. It may be a while before I need a new one. And without prompting, Angus threw in a "master link" when he sent the replacement shifters. Very thoughtful, as it makes it a whole lot easier to install the chain.Front Derailleur / Crankset
Rear Derailleur / Cassette
Various and Sundry
Pump Pegs |
| A useless appendage - pump peg forever to remain empty. |
It's not that there are no pumps designed to fit such pegs. In fact Zefal makes a really attractive one, the Classic Lapize. But it doesn't fit. It measures 375 mm or 14.8 inches. The distance between the pegs is 14 5/16 inches or about 363.54 mm. I could conceivably squeeze in a small HPX pump, but it looks like stupid and the connection points just aren't right. It's designed to fit in the spaces of the frame, not between pump pegs. So I'll probably carry a mini-pump in the handlebar bag or use a full size frame pump under the top tube and ride with an empty space between the pump pegs, a forever aspirational void, an unfulfilled longing for elegance and purpose. Pity.
Well, okay, enough with the build. The real question is, how does this low trail 650b bike ride? Stay tuned faithful reader, for my initial review in the next post.
Monday, April 2, 2018
The Front End
Previously on MondoBlahBlah... or...
Read the entire story of the research, acquisition and assembly of my new Cycles Toussaint Velo Routier v2.
So now the frame and fork I bought is assembled into a frame set. It's easy enough to hang some wheels on it, stem and handlebars, put on the brakes, jam the seat post into the frame and put a saddle on it. Now it's starting to look like a bike. This is the first time I'm able to actually straddle it and make sure it's going to fit. It looks like the fit is perfect - like a proper bike with a proper diamond frame. Not a compact "modern" bike with a meter of seat post and a "slammed" stem, but a beautifully proportioned bike with the handlebars right around the same height as the saddle. Visually graceful, with classic lines and elegant curves. Will it feel as great as it looks? We'll have to wait until the build is complete to find out, but I generally find that what looks right tends to be right. Time will tell.
The Front Rack
No way around it - low trail rando-style bikes are supposed to have delightful handlebar bags sitting on little racks attached to the forks. That's practically the whole point. Cycles Toussaint doesn't include a front rack with the DIY build kit, which is just as well, since I'm not crazy about the rack they designed for this bike anyway. And besides, like just about everything else on these bikes, each rider is likely to have their own preference anyway. I know I do.
When I set up my '86 Fuji, I installed a nifty little rack that Dia Compe designed to bolt onto its 610 Center-pull brakes. It is an ingenious design and in concert with a solid decaleur that stabilizes the load and distributes the bag's weight appropriately, it would probably work really well. Unfortunately I never quite got around to installing a decaleur, so the bag's weight tended to lean forward on the rack which ultimately caused the mounting tabs to snap. D'oh!
So for the Velo Routier I have decided to go with what seems to be the easiest solution to a solid, stable handlebar bag solution - Velo Orange's Randonneur Front Rack with Integrated Decaleur. The integrated decaleur means I don't have to figure out how to mount a separate decaleur on the bike. I don't have to worry about getting the height and depth right. I don't have to decide whether to use a stem mounted unit or a headset mounted unit. If the rack fits the bag and it fits the bike, I should be good to go. At least that's the idea...
Handlebars and Stem
The Velo Routier DIY kit comes with a pre-assembled 100mm Kalloy stem mounted to a deep drop, round bend handlebar on which Dia Compe brake levers have already been attached. The stem was not going to work because of its proximity to the decaleur/bag. I thought from the beginning that I might want a shorter stem, just to make the riding position more upright, but I figured I'd try what came with the bike before switching. But after placing the front rack in place, I could see that the decaleur would be too close to the handlebars.
Because I am short, the bike's headtube is kind of short, and the 8 inch tall Acorn Boxy Rando handlebar bag comes right up to the bar height or even a bit above it. With the long stem I think it would crowd my fingers. So I've swapped the stem and handlebars for the 70mm Nitto "Young" stem and classic Nitto B114 "Olympiad" handlebar which have about 10mm less drop than the Kalloy bars and about 50mm less total reach. Hopefully the shorter stem and reach of this setup won't be detrimental to the handling of the bike - did Angus and Evan choose the 100mm stem because it's the optimal size for this bike? - I doubt it, since all sizes of the frame come with the same length stem.
I was initially going to just swap out the 100mm Kalloy stem for the Fuji's shorter 70mm Nitto stem and keep the Kalloy handlebars but it turns out that contrary to the Cycles Toussaint website, the handlebars need a 26mm clamp, while the Nitto is a 25.4mm. Though annoying, it's understandable - most new handlebars are 26mm. So I ended up moving both the stem and bars. The fit is pretty good around the handlebar bag, but the bars are too narrow for me at 40cm. To get where I think I want to be, I may have to go with an entirely new setup with a new stem and bar, but for now I'm going to leave it with the Fuji setup and see if I can live with it.
Fenders
What, you might fairly ask, do handlebars have to do with fenders? Well, everything in the front seems to be interconnected in some way. The fenders are ideally attached to the rack which adds additional support for each. And the brakes have to have sufficient clearance to clear the rack strut. So the fender's connected to the rack strut, the rack strut's connected to the decaleur, the decaleur's aligned with the handlebar and stem and the brakes straddle the rack strut. None of this is all that hard, it's just that to get it all right means doing things in the right order and it requires me to have about four hands to hold everything in the right place while the final, essential bolt is tightened. But I've done this part before with the Fuji, so it was just a matter of putting aside a couple of hours to tweak the positions of everything. The key was getting the rack strut bent to the correct position so it wouldn't interfere with the brakes and would attach gracefully to the rack and fender using a single bolt. It's handy to have a bench vise for that bending, but you could do it with some solid pliers or even just leaning on it on the edge of a table.
You may notice that the front fender tab is mounted to the front of the crown's brake bolt. I had initially thought it would mount to the rear of side of the crown, but it somehow just didn't fit right that way. It was impossible to get a proper fender line when it was connected there. When I moved the tab to the front of the crown, everything lined right up. Not a huge deal, really, but as a result of that placement, the bottom of the fender lines up just above the axle of the crank set. I'm just going to go out on a limb and guess this arrangement will lead to some pretty damp tootsies on that first wet ride. I probably better just think in terms of getting some mud guards right away and I should probably get the long ones.
For those of you who have never installed a set of fenders like this before, here's a pretty good video explaining it. The only thing I will say is that I prefer a slightly more refined finish so I wouldn't use the bolt cutters - I would used a sharpie, hacksaw and file to get the fender struts to the right length and smooth them out so the aren't jagged and sharp. Of course having said that, I'm happy to report that the struts that came with the Cycles Toussaint DIY build kit didn't require cutting at all. I think if the rear dropout was vertical it could have been a bit crowded, but with the semi-horizontal dropout there's plenty of room for the slight excess length of the strut.
Brakes
Astute readers may have noticed that I have swapped out the stock Dia Compe brake pads for some Kool-Stop brake shoes and dual compound pads. Hopefully that will add some grip to brakes that are routinely described as "mushy". If the Dia Compe 750s just can't do the job, I'll swap them out for a pair of 1974 Mafac Racers from a friend's old college bike. Jan Heine raves about the similar Mafac Raids as if they are the best brakes ever made. We'll see.
Alright, sure, so now I've got a bunch of components bolted to a bike frame. So what? Can I ride it? No. I still have to install the brake levers, the shifters, put a chain on it, run some cables and figure out how to adjust it all. Only then will it be a bike. I'm still waiting to see if my buddy Angus is really going to send me an alternative to the thumb shifters the bike shipped with, but I'm eager to get this baby on the road, so I may not be able to wait. It looks so much like a bike, it seems a shame to just have it sitting there on the stand in the garage. Spring is in the air and a young man's fancy turns to thoughts of asphalt! Come on man, let's get this show on the road.
So join us for our next exciting episode of Mondo Blah Blah when I install the drive train and hopefully complete the build.
Read the entire story of the research, acquisition and assembly of my new Cycles Toussaint Velo Routier v2.
 |
| Hey, that looks kind of like a bike |
The Cockpit
I haven't run the cables yet since I'm still waiting to see what my buddy Angus has in store for me after I nagged him about the inappropriateness of bar-top thumb shifters on a classic road bike. Also, before I complete the drive train, there are a few things up at the front of the bike that I want to work out, since they are central to the entire concept of the 650b Randonneur style bike and they are all interconnected; the front rack, the stem and bars and the front fender.The Front Rack
No way around it - low trail rando-style bikes are supposed to have delightful handlebar bags sitting on little racks attached to the forks. That's practically the whole point. Cycles Toussaint doesn't include a front rack with the DIY build kit, which is just as well, since I'm not crazy about the rack they designed for this bike anyway. And besides, like just about everything else on these bikes, each rider is likely to have their own preference anyway. I know I do.
 |
| The Velo Orange Rando Rack w/ integrated decaleur |
When I set up my '86 Fuji, I installed a nifty little rack that Dia Compe designed to bolt onto its 610 Center-pull brakes. It is an ingenious design and in concert with a solid decaleur that stabilizes the load and distributes the bag's weight appropriately, it would probably work really well. Unfortunately I never quite got around to installing a decaleur, so the bag's weight tended to lean forward on the rack which ultimately caused the mounting tabs to snap. D'oh!
So for the Velo Routier I have decided to go with what seems to be the easiest solution to a solid, stable handlebar bag solution - Velo Orange's Randonneur Front Rack with Integrated Decaleur. The integrated decaleur means I don't have to figure out how to mount a separate decaleur on the bike. I don't have to worry about getting the height and depth right. I don't have to decide whether to use a stem mounted unit or a headset mounted unit. If the rack fits the bag and it fits the bike, I should be good to go. At least that's the idea...
Handlebars and Stem
 |
| Pre-fab cockpit from Cycles Toussaint |
 |
| Nitto Young Stem / Olympiad Handlebar |
I was initially going to just swap out the 100mm Kalloy stem for the Fuji's shorter 70mm Nitto stem and keep the Kalloy handlebars but it turns out that contrary to the Cycles Toussaint website, the handlebars need a 26mm clamp, while the Nitto is a 25.4mm. Though annoying, it's understandable - most new handlebars are 26mm. So I ended up moving both the stem and bars. The fit is pretty good around the handlebar bag, but the bars are too narrow for me at 40cm. To get where I think I want to be, I may have to go with an entirely new setup with a new stem and bar, but for now I'm going to leave it with the Fuji setup and see if I can live with it.
Fenders
 |
| Yep, starting to look like a bike. |
For those of you who have never installed a set of fenders like this before, here's a pretty good video explaining it. The only thing I will say is that I prefer a slightly more refined finish so I wouldn't use the bolt cutters - I would used a sharpie, hacksaw and file to get the fender struts to the right length and smooth them out so the aren't jagged and sharp. Of course having said that, I'm happy to report that the struts that came with the Cycles Toussaint DIY build kit didn't require cutting at all. I think if the rear dropout was vertical it could have been a bit crowded, but with the semi-horizontal dropout there's plenty of room for the slight excess length of the strut.
Brakes
 |
| Cool-Stop brake pads on Dia-Compe 750s |
Alright, sure, so now I've got a bunch of components bolted to a bike frame. So what? Can I ride it? No. I still have to install the brake levers, the shifters, put a chain on it, run some cables and figure out how to adjust it all. Only then will it be a bike. I'm still waiting to see if my buddy Angus is really going to send me an alternative to the thumb shifters the bike shipped with, but I'm eager to get this baby on the road, so I may not be able to wait. It looks so much like a bike, it seems a shame to just have it sitting there on the stand in the garage. Spring is in the air and a young man's fancy turns to thoughts of asphalt! Come on man, let's get this show on the road.
So join us for our next exciting episode of Mondo Blah Blah when I install the drive train and hopefully complete the build.
Wednesday, March 21, 2018
From Frame to Frameset
Previously on MondoBlahBlah... or...
Read the entire story of the research, acquisition and assembly of my new Cycles Toussaint Velo Routier v2.
The frame has been bought, the boxes opened, the parts examined. At this point there's nothing to do but put it all together and see if it's a bike. This is likely to take me a while, as I've never done it before and I don't have all the appropriate tools. I want to do as much of it as I can myself, but I'm not too proud to ask for help from my friendly neighborhood bike shop. The next few posts will cover the ins and outs of my efforts to assemble my brand new bike.
Frame Protector
First things first. The Velo Routier is a steel frame and as we all know, steel rusts. So before I started hanging components on the frame, I gave it a good spray with some Progold Steel Frame Protector. Progold is one of the two widely available aerosol products that make it easy to apply a protective layer inside a steel bicycle frame, the other being J.P. Weigle's Frame Saver. Eco-minded artisans may want to use boiled linseed oil to achieve the same effect. More power to you.
A word of warning about the Progold. As noted in the comments on Amazon.com, the little straw that fits into the spray nozzle doesn't fit very well, and sure enough, on my first good spray into the hole in the fork crown, it went flying into the fork, never to be seen again. I spent a little time at a futile attempt to get the straw to come back out the hole I shot it into, but that activity is akin to psychological torture, so I gave up pretty quickly. I just grabbed a straw from the nearest can of WD-40 and was back to the races. Hopefully only you and I, dear reader, will ever know that there is a little plastic straw in the right fork leg of my Velo Routier.
Speaking of frame protection, I plan to put one of those clear plastic stickers on the chainstay to protect the paint from inadvertent chain slap, but that can wait until later in the build. Depending on where the cables end up, I'll probably also add some Jagwire cable protectors, but again, that can wait.
Headset
Okay, as a newbie, the installation of the headset was the part of the build causing me the most anxiety. I only had to watch one or two videos like this (https://youtu.be/lUy_tpAi0Xk) to convince me that this is the procedure best handled by a professional. Yes there are plenty of videos out there showing you that you can do it using nothing more than a hammer, some pvc tubing, a threaded rod and a couple of bolts, but still. The idea of bashing the fork crown race on my brand spanking new bike with a hammer gave me pause. So I begin my build report with the confession that I took my newly unboxed frame and fork over to Big Mig at the local Bicycle Place and had him install the headset for me. Within minutes he had transformed my frame and fork into a "frameset".
Bottom bracket
There are many people on the interweb who insist that before a bottom bracket can be installed on a new-from-the-factory frame, the bottom bracket shell must be "faced" and "chased" which basically means scraping any excess paint from the "face" of the shell and reaming the threads so everything is nice and smooth and even. I asked my pal Angus at Cycles Toussaint if this was necessary and he said they hadn't been doing it with the bikes they have been assembling. He did, however advise me to clean the BB threads well "like a baby's bottom." While I was at the Bicycle Place I asked Big Mig for a second opinion and he concurred, further clarifying that with cartridge bottom brackets such as the one shipped with the Velo Routier DIY kit, there's no need. Other types of bottom brackets are apparently touchier.
Anyway, since I was asking him about it, Big Mig just went ahead and slapped the cartridge in while we chatted about it. A slathering of grease, a twist of the wrench and before I knew it, he was done. So, now the forks are attached to the frame and the crankset is installed. And what a pretty crankset it is. Honestly, though Rene Herse cranks are obviously a bit lovelier with their loopy spiders, and Velo Orange cranksets have fluted arms and their cool etched logo (and don't even get me started waxing poetic about the Drillium!!!), the Velo Routier's smooth, spare shape is just the kind of shiny silver stuff you want on a bike like this. The form truly follows the function and the simplicity of the shapes with their mirror finish just really appeals to me. Sure, I'm also a fan of the old Shimano 600 Arabesque shifters and fancy lugs, but on a TIG welded frame, simple is better.
Next up ... the Cockpit!!!
Read the entire story of the research, acquisition and assembly of my new Cycles Toussaint Velo Routier v2.
The frame has been bought, the boxes opened, the parts examined. At this point there's nothing to do but put it all together and see if it's a bike. This is likely to take me a while, as I've never done it before and I don't have all the appropriate tools. I want to do as much of it as I can myself, but I'm not too proud to ask for help from my friendly neighborhood bike shop. The next few posts will cover the ins and outs of my efforts to assemble my brand new bike.
Frame Protector
First things first. The Velo Routier is a steel frame and as we all know, steel rusts. So before I started hanging components on the frame, I gave it a good spray with some Progold Steel Frame Protector. Progold is one of the two widely available aerosol products that make it easy to apply a protective layer inside a steel bicycle frame, the other being J.P. Weigle's Frame Saver. Eco-minded artisans may want to use boiled linseed oil to achieve the same effect. More power to you.
 |
| Progold straw injection site |
Speaking of frame protection, I plan to put one of those clear plastic stickers on the chainstay to protect the paint from inadvertent chain slap, but that can wait until later in the build. Depending on where the cables end up, I'll probably also add some Jagwire cable protectors, but again, that can wait.
Headset
Okay, as a newbie, the installation of the headset was the part of the build causing me the most anxiety. I only had to watch one or two videos like this (https://youtu.be/lUy_tpAi0Xk) to convince me that this is the procedure best handled by a professional. Yes there are plenty of videos out there showing you that you can do it using nothing more than a hammer, some pvc tubing, a threaded rod and a couple of bolts, but still. The idea of bashing the fork crown race on my brand spanking new bike with a hammer gave me pause. So I begin my build report with the confession that I took my newly unboxed frame and fork over to Big Mig at the local Bicycle Place and had him install the headset for me. Within minutes he had transformed my frame and fork into a "frameset".
Bottom bracket
There are many people on the interweb who insist that before a bottom bracket can be installed on a new-from-the-factory frame, the bottom bracket shell must be "faced" and "chased" which basically means scraping any excess paint from the "face" of the shell and reaming the threads so everything is nice and smooth and even. I asked my pal Angus at Cycles Toussaint if this was necessary and he said they hadn't been doing it with the bikes they have been assembling. He did, however advise me to clean the BB threads well "like a baby's bottom." While I was at the Bicycle Place I asked Big Mig for a second opinion and he concurred, further clarifying that with cartridge bottom brackets such as the one shipped with the Velo Routier DIY kit, there's no need. Other types of bottom brackets are apparently touchier.
 |
| Shiny silver stuff - The Velo Routier's Crankset |
Next up ... the Cockpit!!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)