Ragley Marley Intro

I've been meaning to try a modern mountain bike. Modern being long (long front center), low (low bottom bracket), and slack (slack head angle). I ended up with a Ragley Marley frame, courtesy of Chain Reaction Cycles, as a cheap way to try this. It's long (475mm reach/820mm front center), low-ish but not too low (45mm bb drop), and very slack (65.5 degree head angle). It's all modern with boost spacing and clearance for nearly full size B+ tires. Of course, I resolved to build this as cheaply as possible, so it's a parts bin special.

Tandem

I've been exploring new-to-me bike stuff lately, first with a small wheeled folder, and now with this:

It's a Trek T900 tandem, a recreational tandem from maybe a decade ago. I picked it up one Sunday morning from CL, and Henry and I parked and rode to his soccer tourney that day to avoid the horrible parking at the Hilliard Soccer Complex. This was a bit risky, since the brakes were mostly ineffective. Do tandems need good brakes? I did a quick brake job with my multi tool before the games started so we could ride back to the car, at least with a front brake.

Back home in our garage, I was ready to do some more work:

Fleet Update IX

I had intended this to be a series of posts, one for each bike, since I haven't written anything in some time. But after a month, that still isn't happening, so I'm back to my regular format when I need to hammer some bike stuff down.

As always, I'm listing my bikes from most to least favorite, at this moment:

1. Jones LWB

The photo above was taken during a very pleasant Friday off work to ride Chestnut Ridge (and get the title transferred on our new Pilot, but that's another story). It looks very much like my typical Jones build: 29+ knobbies, 11 speeds, Jones bend type bar (actually a Soma Osprey knock off). But a few weeks ago, it was quite different:

Urban S24O

My friend Charles invited me to a festival at a downtown metro park. The Scioto Fest was located in downtown Columbus, so we met at Antrim Park on Saturday afternoon and rode the bike path down. Initially, I was going to bring both boys with me. Henry backed out when he realized he would be too tired from his afternoon soccer game, and Sam backed out when prioritized sleeping in on Sunday morning. That was disappointing. Oddly, Kate now wants to come camping, but only if it doesn't involve biking any distance. This has me cruising Craigslist for tandems now. But I digress.

Because I had planned to carry the boys' camping gear, I had the trailer ready to go. I used it anyway, since it lets me pack sloppily, and isn't really noticeable until I turn uphill.

This was my first S24O with my Dahon, and I was entirely happy with it (except for the rubbing front brake I found later, which might explain why some of those hills felt steeper than they looked). Nonetheless, Charles and I quickly cruised a dozen miles south to set up camp at Scioto Audubon metro park:

New Bike: Old Trek

I found the urge to buy a big old Trek road bike, again, my third. My 612 was a nice, but old enough that it still had an oddball collection of braze ones (one bottle cage, no shifter bosses, lots of nutted fasteners). I did a 650B conversion with it, but the Pacenti rims were awful. My 510 that followed it had nicely thinned lugs, but the frame wasn't straight. Since I recently sold my Soma--it just didn't excite me--I've been without a road bike this summer. Unless you consider the Dahon, which I've been riding--and enjoying--during this time.

But I felt the urge for another big old Trek. Some CL trawling led me to this bike in Dayton:

It was cheap, but not local, but a trip to Dayton is a good excuse to go out to Cici's pizza, which means I had some company on this trip:

S24O With The Boys

After a summer of relentless rain, we finally had a nice forecast to head out for some camping. After selling my Burley Picolo earlier in the spring, this would be Sam's first trip riding his own bike (and only Henry's second trip). I was also trying to get the boys more self-sufficient, so I had them packing up their own gear for this trip. After some quick omelets for dinner on Saturday night, we headed out.

New Bike: Soma Wolverine

I've been in a fleet reduction phase lately. Again. Despite my longstanding appreciation of Rivendell's values, I can never seem to keep their bikes around very long. Both the Quickbeam and the Clem left the garage, rolled into one Soma Wolverine as an all-rounder:

This is the V3 frame, purchased a bit impulsively (after several months of hemming and hawing) when Soma had a 20% off sale, AND finally offered free shipping on their frames. The build didn't go as easily as the ordering, though.

Karate Monkey Drop Bar

I tried to make my KM into a townie, but it didn't take. It never does. It's meant to be a rigid, single speed mountain bike:

And because I was worried about seeing myself coming and going on the trail in this setup, I recently added my Thudbuster as well. Just to make it a bit different.

Travels with Dahon, and Sam

I've been riding my Dahon quite a bit this spring. It's actually my most ridden bicycle at this point. Besides it's easy "grab 'n go" nature, it's fun to toss it in the trunk for quick adventures. For instance, a few weekends ago, I was planning to drive Henry down to Dayton to stay overnight with his cousins. My first thought was to throw my Jones in the car to ride at MOMBA in Dayton after dropping Henry off, but the trails were too wet in this soggy spring. Instead, I tossed the Dahon in the trunk, and rode some rails-to-trails near Dayton.

I started at the Beavercreek trailhead at the 9/11 memorial:

Rivendell Quickbeam vs. Surly Cross Check vs. Black Mountain Cycles Monstercross

My typical road bike is a steel cyclocross bike. Fat tires, strong brakes, and provisions for some useful braze ones make these attractive all-rounders. Today's post covers only my longest serving 'crossy road bikes, I've also had a Soma DoubleCross, a Velo Orange Camargue, and others. But for today, let's focus on these three and see how they compare.

I'll start with subjective stuff

Looks
1. Quickbeam (64cm)

Fleet Update VIII

Here's the latest on my fleet, as (almost) always, most to least favorite at this moment in time:

1. Jones LWB

I haven't been riding my Jones too much lately. The trails are much too soggy this spring for any serious mountain biking, so it's just been the occasional jaunt around the neighborhood.

I am trying out my new Donut Sack bag that I picked up that Ohio swap meet back in March. It's locally sewn by a fellow in Westerville, and looks to be a nice size to carry my wallet, tools, etc and let me ditch the Camelback. My only issue so far is that I wish it had an internal pocket to protect my phone from the tools, etc. that are also in the bag. Maybe an old sock will do the trick.

2. Dahon Speed 7

This little guy has moved up my charts in a big way. I didn't like it all at first, but some new tires transformed it:

Vacation, with Dahon

For spring break, I took a break from driving up north to Michigan to turn around and drive south with the family. I borrowed a new Odyssey from work so we wouldn't rack up more miles on our aging Pilot. As Henry and I were loading up the van on Saturday morning, we both looked at my Dahon in the garage with the same thought.

"Dad, let's take it!" Henry said. He didn't have to twist my arm too hard. We nestled it in the rear cargo bin to smuggle it south:

Quickbeam Updates

When I got my recent Rivendell Quickbeam, I had a thought that I would keep it as received for a few months before I started futzing with it.

That lasted about two rides before I could no longer fight the urge to tinker.

Which brings us to today's build:

The fenders were the last touch, installed today for a drizzly ride, after I looked around the garage and realized I didn't have a single fendered bike. I also added my VO front rack as a simple way to mount the front fender. What's not simple is the rear fender: with the rear facing track ends on the QB, I can't install or remove the rear wheel without also unbolting the rear fender stays. Longer stays or plastic QR clips would be a better solution, but this is what I had on hand. So I just hope I don't get a rear flat, and I won't be flip flopping over to the freewheel side with any regularity.

The forward facing dropouts on my Surly and BMC were a lot easier to live with, even if they didn't have the ultimate adjustment range of the QB.

Dahon Enters the Fold

I've been travelling a lot with my latest work project, back and forth to Michigan every week since this past fall. Of course, this presented a reason for N+1, so I decided I needed to pick up a folding travel bike. I spent some happy time researching various wheels sizes and folding mechanisms, trying to find a cheap bike that would fit my 6'3" self. Finally, during a slow moment in the Super Bowl, I somewhat impulse ordered a used Dahon Speed 7 off ebay. It came packed up in this odd box:

Dawn of the Quickbeam Era

I've wanted a Rivendell Quickbeam pretty much since I first saw one maybe 15 years ago. I've filled the interim with a succession of cheaper replacements: my Cross Check, various vintage Treks, and lately my Black Mountain Monstercross. But here in the winter of discontent, I finally decided to take action. I put up a "WTB" ad on the Riv and iBOB lists, not expecting much response, but Howard from Virginia quickly responded with a 64cm for sale. Just my size. A deal was quickly made, my bike fund was even more underwater, and I finally had a Quickbeam in my garage.

Trek 830 Updated

I wasn't in love with the drop bar setup on my old Trek mountain bike, so spent a few lazy evenings converting it over to flat bars. I swapped the V brakes for cantis along the way, since I was out of flat bar V brake levers. So it went from this:

With a bit of weather change thrown in as well. The bars are an improvement in comfort:

Jones Gets Less Cheap

There was a rumor out there--which turned out to be true--that Shimano was changing their policies in 2019 to now allow European imports into the US so cheaply. That motivated me to line up an order from Chainreactioncycles with some new bits for my Jones: