Orny's Cycling Journal

It might violate the image I’ve cultivated, but there was a time before Ornoth was a cyclist. Let’s set the wayback machine to the previous millennium…

In the late ’90s, I had a two-mile commute across the Charles River from my home near Fenway to work in Kendall Square. Having learned that taking the train took 45 minutes and the bus took 35, I decided to try getting to work using an old Fuji road bike from college, which had somehow followed me through five moves.

During my ensuing commutes, I discovered the freedom and efficiency of navigating the city by bike. I cut my commute in half, got a free workout, and enjoyed the relaxation that comes from a morning or evening ride along the riverside. That is, until I sheared a pedal bolt in half.

By then I was riding regularly enough to realize that replacing that old Fuji would serve me better than trying to repair it. So I ordered a Mongoose hybrid from L.L. Bean, which worked well until it was stolen.

By that point I was really enjoying riding, and thinking about doing a long charity ride; I was committed. After some looking around, I picked up a new blue and white 2000 Devinci Monaco hybrid from a bike shop in Newburyport.

The next year I would put 3,400 miles on that bike and ride it through my first two-day, 192-mile Pan-Mass Challenge charity ride. In fact, it was my companion through my first five PMC rides, gifting me with 16,797 miles of joy and beauty.

On a practical level, that bike supported my transition from an occasional two-mile commuter to a committed endurance rider. It helped me become a serious cyclist, and to learn what equipment would best suit me. So five years later, with the Devinci showing some signs of wear, I did the research and graduated to my first real road bike.

The Devinci saw occasional use when my road bike was in the shop, and served as a commuter during the icy and snowy winter months. But for the most part it sat forgotten and unused in my back room for the next eight years.

For four of those years, the item “Ditch the Devinci” lingered somewhere on my to-do list. And this afternoon… its time had come.

I wiped the dust off the saddle, filled the tires with air, checked out the rusty mechanicals, and saddled up for its last ride: four miles down the Southwest Corridor bike path to the headquarters of Bikes Not Bombs, a charity that takes old bikes and does what they can to refurbish them and move them on to appreciative owners in underdeveloped nations in Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean.

Despite the Devinci’s thousands of miles and years of wear and neglect, BNB accepted it enthusiastically. I signed the paperwork and walked back to the nearest train station, leaving a huge piece of my cycling history behind.

But it would be really remarkable if—after so many years—the Devinci could serve someone who needs it far more than I do. If anything, my final ride convinced me that its steel frame could still cover plenty of miles if given a good dose of mechanical care. After all, the tires still remarkably held air, the gears shifted, and the brakes worked.

However, after coming home, my back room feels awfully empty now. Although it was mostly just taking up space and collecting dust for seven years, the Devinci was also maintaining an emotional link to my early years as a cyclist, when I was learning so much, and first captivated by the beauty, utility, camaraderie, and sheer joy of riding.

Oof.

Yesterday I had to bike to two different places: leaving work in Stoneham/Woburn a bit early, I had to pick something up at a store in Burlington, then ride down to Cambridge for an evening activity.

Yesterday’s forecast: 30% change of an afternoon thunderstorm, with up to a tenth of an inch of rain possible. A pretty good storm rolled through during the day, but things cleared up a bit… Until I left for Burlington. At that point, 17% of the fresh water on planet Earth landed in Middlesex county. I was soaked to the bone within 30 seconds, and from there on, additional soaking just didn’t matter. The National Weather Service was off by considerably more than an order of magnitude.

Anyplace where the road was flat, the water accumulated in four inch deep pools that spanned the entire road surface. Cars on the other side of the street threw up 15 foot roostertails that hit me in the face and chest like a water canon. Some roads only had one passable lane, and cops stood by and signaled road closures.

Where there was a hill, the water poured down it like a mountain river. Every side street and driveway had a tributary torrent that poured out of it to join the rapids that flowed down the breadth of the roadway. I pedaled upstream like a salmon. Perhaps that cliche about fish needing bicycles isn’t as far-fetched as it sounds.

My front tire, of course, threw a lot of water up onto me, and by the time I reached Cambridge I was completely encrusted with road dirt and grime. Every few kilometers I had to take a swig of Gatorade and spit it out in order to wash the gravel out of my mouth.

Fortunately, it wasn’t cold, or that afternoon’s 15 mile ride would have been a recipe for hypothermia.

The bike—my old hybrid, of course—didn’t fare any better. By the end of the ride, constant horrible gravel-on-metal noises were coming from my bottom bracket.

You’d think all that would be a formula for misery, and the first few minutes were annoying. But after a certain point, it was just something to do, and an experience that was, in a strange way, superlative. It certainly was memorable, and perhaps an interesting enough story to make it worth sharing with you.

Big weekend for cycling, even if I didn’t do any long rides as such…

First, Saturday night was a party for all the Quad Cycles riders who participated in the Mass Red Ribbon Ride and the Pan-Mass Challenge. Graciously hosted by Jeff Ichikawa at his loft, it featured a barbecue and good conversation with Bobby Mac and a dozen or more riders. And we also got to see lots of photos taken during the two rides, some of which will appear shortly on my cycling photos page.

We also had a viewing of the three hundred photos that Joseph Santos took during a Quad Cycles training ride on August 19th. Joseph has a sweet Nikon D70 DSLR isn’t afraid of using it, and so the photos page will also be graced with one or two of his shots soon, as well. The updates are coming fast now!

The photo you see at right, however, came from the official Pan-Mass Challenge photographers. It’s the first close-up shot they’ve taken of me in my five years of participating in the event, but it was really worth the wait. You can click on the photo for bigness, or you can just head on over to my newly-revised cycling page, where it’s the featured element. Verra snazzay, I must say!

You can also get to my 2005 PMC ride report from there, although I didn’t tell you that! The writeup is complete, but I’m still adding and arranging the photos that go with it before I announce it to the public. So feel free to check it out, but come back again later to see the additional photos I’ll be adding!

But wait! There’s more!

I was in the bike shops this weekend, and one of the things I did was finally replace my five year old Shimano cycling sandals. They’ve served me very well—about 12,000 miles worth!—but they’re getting a bit stinky, rusty, and worn, so I picked up replacements, which I’ve actually been looking for since before the PMC. They’re almost identical to my old pair, but I’m having a bit of difficulty with the new cleats, which are being obstinate about clicking in and out. That’s okay, though; they’ll work their kinks out soon enough.

In addition, last week I thought about the list of big-ticket items I’ve been jonesing after since getting a steady income: a new laptop, digital camera, GPS, bike, iPod, cell phone, CD player, speakers… You get the picture. When I thought about it, something became obvious: I can buy any of those things during the winter except for the bike. Bikes you have to go test ride, and you can’t get a decent test ride in January, so…

This weekend I started out test riding the two bikes I’ve had my eyes on. I’ve long wanted a light, fast road bike that also had a more relaxed fit and more supple ride than a racing bike. Racing bikes are twitchy, skittish, rough, and not even remotely ergonomic. I found two bikes that made a good compromise between speed and smoothness, climbing ability and all-day comfort. And this weekend I tried them out.

I tried them both out at two different dealers. I did a 9-mile loop around the crater-strewn roads of Belmont that include Park Street hill via Spring Street on Saturday, and a 12-mile loop in town that included Summit Ave today. Both were good tests of the bikes’ ability to deal with flats, wind, climbing, insanely rough roads, urban traffic, descents, and so forth. I put each bike through about 21 miles and nearly two hours of riding.

Months ago, I was pretty sold on the Specialized Roubaix. It’s really the first bike of its kind, that intentionally tries to produce a softer ride and more relaxed position within a bike that still can cook. But in the weeks leading up to my test ride, I discovered the new Cannondale Synapse, which has received great write-ups that make it sound as compliant as the Roubaix. It also is a much prettier bike. But the more I rode them, the more I was sold on the Roubaix.

The Synapse Ultegra isn’t a bad bike, and I might well choose it in the absence of the Roubaix. It was definitely more responsive and faster off the line and in sprints than the Roubaix, but it also transmitted more road noise to the rider. As I say, it’s a beautiful looking bike, but ultimately looks are secondary to comfort and fit, and neither shop I went to could provide me with a test bike any larger than a 56cm frame, which is kinda like putting me on one of those tiny bicycles you see clowns perform on. The final negative is that the wheelbase was so short that in a turn the front tire could hit my toes as I pedal, which is something I really want to avoid.

The Roubaix Comp Double, on the other hand, rode a bit like an Oldsmobile. It was plush and absorbed road shock, almost to the point of having a bit of boaty bounce as you ride along a straight, smooth road. It sure didn’t want to sprint or shoot off the line, but once it was spun up, it felt like it just wanted to keep going. The seat was far superior, but the clearcoat carbon finish is a bit ugly. The position is much more upright, and I tested the 58cm model. There was plenty of clearance between my toes and the front wheel when cornering, and the Roubaix had a little display of what gear you’re in on the shifter-cable, a nice design feature that the Synapse lacked.

So I’m very much leaning toward the Roubaix right now. Of course, I have to let Rustem at Quad Cycles have a crack at me, but I really don’t think he carries a bike that’ll knock the Roubaix off the top of my list. And I’m out of town next weekend (on a trip you’ll no doubt hear more about), so it’ll be a couple weeks before I jump, anyways. I might also wait a few weeks to see what Specialized says about the Roubaix for 2006.

But even if I can’t jump just yet, it’s nice to have some time to think the decision over, and it definitely was a blast trying out some new, happy wheels.

So this week marks the fourth anniversary of my purchase of the Devinci Monaco that has been my faithful ride. When I first got it, I was someone who was basically sedentary but inline skated or biked to work every so often, but I aspired to maybe do a long bike tour or something. With the new bike, I commuted a lot more, even through the harshness of winter, and began training for my first Pan-Mass. The Monaco served that purpose well.

However, today I’m a very different rider. I’ve become an athlete, riding over 200 miles per week and mixing it up in pacelines and sprints on regular club rides. I’ll soon be signing up for my fifth PMC, which now seems less of a challenge, and today’s dream goals include riding the world-class Mount Washington Hill Climb and early-season brevets of 300 to 600k. For those purposes, my steel, straight-bar hybrid is like an anchor. It’s heavy, getting decrepit with age, and has all the aerodynamic attributes of a dumpster.

I’ve been looking at new bikes for more than three years, and there are plenty of fine rides to choose from. Finding the money has really been the only thing holding me back. But one of these days I’ll take the plunge, and the benefit to my riding should be pretty immediate.

But on this anniversary, I should note what I’ve accomplished to date. There have been only ten weeks when I haven’t ridden: seven due to sickness or injury, and one each due to mechanicals, travel, and weather, but I haven’t missed a single week in the past two years. In four years I’ve put 12,267 miles on that bike, with this year’s total being a record 3,800 miles. My annual average is 3,015 miles, which is about 8.4 miles every single day. I’ve spent 855 hours on the bike, which amounts to over 35 minutes every day. I’ve done four PMC rides, one century and three metric doubles (124 miles), and raised over $12,000 for cancer research. In all, I think it’s a pretty impressive set of accomplishments.

However, as I said, the Devinci has been showing signs of age lately. Last year I replaced my rear wheel because my spokes kept breaking or loosening up on me. That worked for a while, but I’m once again having problems. However, this year I tried a new tactic: Loctite! I used a mild adhesive that is designed to hold nuts in place so that they aren’t loosened by vibration. A couple weeks ago, I identified the three non-drive side spokes that were giving me trouble and sealed them down. You’d think that’d be the end of that!

Well, no. While those spokes held fine, suddenly about four other spokes went loose to compensate, including some on the drive side! So now I’m at a loss for what to do. Is there something about the way I ride that just tears up rear wheels? Dunno, but at least I have the winter to figure it out.

Yesterday’s ride featured another unfortunate sign of aging equipment, too. At one of our rest stops I left my bike in a French stand, and a gust of wind came by and knocked it over. Not a big deal, except that my helmet was on the handlebars and the styrofoam body of the helmet cracked straight through in three places! I have been planning on replacing it anyways, but I really didn’t need another expense right now. I’ll continue using it through this winter, because it’s still functional and I’m rough on helmets during the winter anyways, but come spring I’ll have to replace it with something more stylish.

So overall it’s been a good year, although it’s about time to buy a new road bike and admit that the Devinci has become a beater suitable only for commuting and winter riding. Still, as a $925 bike with more than 12,000 miles on the odo, its 7.5 cents/mile is darned near unbeatable value, even for a bicycle!

On my old bike it took me 2 years to bike 1000 miles. When I bought my new bike, my first 1000 miles took only 5 months. My next 1000 took just 3 months. Today I broke 3000 miles on the new bike, cycling 1000 more miles in an all-time record of just seven weeks!

This week's big news is that I broke 2000 miles since getting my new bike in October. On my previous bike, it took me 24 months to bike 1000 miles; it took me 5 months to ride my first 1000 miles on the new bike (in the winter, no less!); and it's taken just over 3 months to ride my second 1000! And with the PMC ride a month away, who knows what ludicrously short amount of time it'll take to trip the 3000 mile counter!

In other news, I exceeded my previous records for miles and hours in the saddle for the second week in a row. Repair class this week was on lubrication. And my second week of fundraising was nearly as successful as the first, and my total now is up to $835, but that's still not even halfway to my minimum, so help me out if you can by donating money on my eGift page.

Brought my new bike home! 50 mile ride out to Framingham and back.