Mishap mayhap

...or Ride Report - Cycles Toussaint VR 2 at 250 miles

Cycles Toussaint Vélo Routier V2.

Read the entire story of the research, acquisition and assembly of my new 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.

Sure, but who cares? What you want, beloved Reader, is to know how this low trail, 650b bike with awesome braze-on center-pull brakes and MicroShift bar-end shifters feels after having ridden it for 250 miles over the course of a month, including rides from twenty five to fifty miles each. Okay, here goes...

Drive train

But does it have a sexy French handlebar bag? You bet it does. 

I think I have finally gotten the front derailleur adjusted and anyway I've learned that I really don't use it that much, given the tremendous range the bike has in the back (36 teeth). I would say 90% of the time I'm riding it like a "1x10". Only on grades above about 10% or those that come late in a long ride am I reaching for the 30 tooth front chain ring. That's really nice. The trade-off is that the big ring (46 teeth) doesn't give me quite the top descending/cruising gear I'm used to (50 - 52 teeth). But I'm getting used to that and don't really miss it much. The more I ride this drive train, the happier I am with it.

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.