JQR’s secret city

I could ride anything, really. I'm sympathetic to a classic-looking design, just because I think the safety bicycle has proved itself as one of the all-time winning designs and a precursor to all kinds of other design innovations, from Marcel Breuer's chair to the Centre Pompidou. If the insides are on the outside, in some way it resembles a bicycle.
 
So I admit to being a little bemused by the constant susurrus over the question of what kind of bicycle to ride, or the source of a bicycle and its components, the caliber of questions that arise when bicycles are treated like any other consumer product, say, for instance, coffee beans. Check the comments for one example. Sure, there are plenty of ethical issues that bicycle acquisition lies tangent to, just as with any consumer product. I wouldn't buy one, cheap, from some skeevy-looking street person. I wouldn't buy one welded together by eight-year-old girls in China. But beyond those cautions lies a deeper stratum of decision-making, apparently, that ranges from slow, heavy, comfort bikes with fenders, chain covers, and dress guards, epitomized by the Dutch “granny” bike, to sleeker, lighter, more “aggressive” (read hunched-over) single-speeds and racing bikes. If the bike is too heavy, it's inconvenient for hill-climbing and longer distances; if it's too fast, it makes the rider too sweaty to function in other activities of daily living. Advocates of the comfort bike posit that Americans don't ride because they can't find those bikes in stores; advocates of the single-speed affirm that Americans don't ride because the bikes they can find are boat anchors that are too slow to enjoy riding.
 
I can rattle off to you my own recipe: mixte-frame, hard saddle, short cockpit, straight bar, three rings on the front gearset, wide, slick tires, fenders, a luggage rack, two locks and clipless pedals. That denotes the “helicopter,” my beloved commuting bike, which has gone through four different frames and at least three separate drivetrains. The “fixed-wing,” named in opposition to the helicopter, is the single-speed I rode in the secret city, viz. men's frame, hard saddle, drop bar, single-speed, no derailleur, freewheel, racing tires, toe clips, and pedal straps. After a week of riding the helicopter, coasting the fixed-wing down the hill by my house on a Saturday morning feels like being shot out of a cannon. The helicopter, though, can hold more baggage, and its wider tires and lower center of gravity simulate driving a tank, if you could envision an oatmeal-fueled Abrams.
 
As you've just noticed, dear reader, an experiential approach to describing a bicycle is far more rich and absorbing than a prescriptivist one. I find the prescriptivist arguments a little stifling and airless. Whatever bike you ride, the experience of riding it is completely and uniquely yours. What I'm sharing with you this week, however, is that the quality of the parts can make a big difference in the quality of that experience. I just invested in a new set of wheels for the helicopter, and tires to match, which all told should cost about $200, or far more than I spent on the current frame. This morning I rode down to the job site and it was approaching transcendence until I met the stop light ten blocks away from my destination. The new wheelsets have made the ride smoother and tighter. It still feels like a tank, but a tank that can ride the center of a mechanical-pencil-narrow line. The braking is firmer because the rims are new, and the fenders don't scrape the out-of-true wheels as they used to do. It makes quite a difference.
 
So, you can buy a bike at many different price points ($10 at a yard sale, $50 on an internet board, $150 at a department store, $250 at a bike shop) and get out riding, but eventually your pleasure in the experience will be compromised by the deterioration of your equipment. Replacing with better quality parts may appear quixotic, more expensive than replacing the whole bike, but two hundred bucks spent on wheelsets bolted to your original frame will boost the quality of your ride more than you might imagine.

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I know my current audience for bike-related news and tidbits is just
about zero, but bear with me here: last night while mounting a new
tire I blew out my old and broken-down wheel's rim. This has never
happened before to me. Pictures follow.

 More embarrassing perhaps was that I was on the phone at the time,
with a relative.

 Or is it more embarrassing that for the first time in five years (at
least) I have a bike-repair problem that has made the bike completely
unrideable? When I started riding, this would happen all the time, but
lately I've been able to ride to the shop for repairs, even the last
time the frame was cracked; I noticed the swaying motion and rode down
to the shop to mount the wheels and parts onto a new frame. So no loss
in ride time.

 Earlier in the weekend I had swapped out the front wheel for a new
one; the old wheel had been visibly worn down around the outside of
the rim where the brakes land. I hadn't noticed it so much on the rear
wheel, but I guess that one was about ready to go as well. The tire
had a large rent on the side, which had caused a puncture over the
weekend. Yesterday morning I had mitigated that problem by putting a
boot into the tire (nice piece of thick cotton fabric) to keep the
tube from exploding out the hole in the tire. It was OK except for a
rattle where the extra-fat part, with the boot, scraped the fender on
every revolution.

 The only saving grace is that of all possible days to take transit to
work, today is perhaps the best possible one; the Michael Jackson
memorial events will occlude my favorite parking spot during the day
today (Tuesday). Last week I was able to move my bike just before
folks started filing into the corral that included the parking meter
where I'd locked up the pony. Some lowlife, however, stole my bungee
cord from off the luggage rack at the second-choice parking spot.

   

Click here to download:

Bwanggg_Compressed_air_and_fre.zip (63 KB)

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The bike has kept me sane these last six months, so I have mixed
emotions about packing it up and sending it home, away from the secret
city. I'd hope to have other sources of sanity when I get home, but
what am I going to do in the in-between time?
 
Friday night I broke down in a sudden fit of clarity and made a list,
with "clean bike" and "pack bike" down for Saturday and "mail bike"
for Sunday. The greatest accomplishments always wind down with a
whimper, yes? In this case, it was a frustrating 500-meter ride back
from the rec center to the tent. The rear wheel needs a little
attention: there's a bump in the tire from the last time I put air in
it. it's the kind of thing that makes a good fitness ride frustrating:
going bump-bump-bump down the road.
 
So last night I cleaned the whole vehicle, prying the clods of dirt
out of the bottom of the front fork, and reaching in with the old
toothbrush to wipe off the hubs. Then I packed it back into the box in
which it arrived, and I must have done it right because the axles push
into the exact same holes on the same sides of the box as they did
previously. Bamse and Peg went in as well, in the little box with the
tire gauge and 15 mm box wrench.
 
And this morning I took the box and a chair down to the post office to
mail it home. For some reason, it couldn't go 'Priority,' so it ended
up costing $62 to mail, but the important thing is that it's going
home at all, and with any luck I'll get there before it does.

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For my visual learners out there, here's a slideshow about
Presta-valve tubes. They come in differing stem lengths, and I usually
end up with many tubes on hand, all of the wrong length. Not an
insuperable obstacle, however; watch the slides for details.

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Another brisk morning, although it's been getting slightly warmer.
Since I moved to the tent, I've been on the asleep at 10:30, up at six schedule that
everyone inside more or less shares. That plus the cold I'm shaking
off has kept me off the piste in the mornings. Instead I get up, wash
up, dress, clean off the bike's brake pads (I used to check the tire
inflation too, but with the short valve stem of the current rear tube, it's a little more difficult to use the
gauge), and ride the 400 meters distance to breakfast, then over here
to the internet cafe to catch up on whatever emails I've received
during the night.
 
I finished Jack Vance's "To Live Forever" last night and was dumbfounded by how
good it was. I'll write more about it later.

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I fixed another rear-wheel flat this afternoon. This one was a
good-sized tear right by the valve, forcing the issue of whether to
patch the tube or to replace it. So I duped my buddy Tom into helping
me with the chain tension by first listening to him tell me about his
Ancient Order of Hibernians chapter and then telling him about this cylinder recording of Edward Meeker singing 'The A.O.H's. [sic] of the U.S.A.' from 1915.
 
It was a little tricky because the new tube had a shorter valve stem
than the punctured tube, and its business end was just peeking out of
the tube, not far enough to attach the pump. So I remembered a trick
I'd used before and pulled out the Schraeder adapter, which was able
to screw onto the end of the valve and allow me to fill the tube with
air anyway.
 
The funny thing is that I spent the rest of the afternoon wondering if
there was some kind of bad mojo that had caused my flat. I keep having
to remind myself, "There's plenty of air in the tube. I could hit a
shard of glass or a staple any time. I had enough air in there for a
week, so it's not like there was some kind of slow leak. It's a tear
in the tube and there's nothing I can do about it."

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I'm just back from this morning's run and can gladly report that it
was just about the same as yesterday's run: same number of calories,
same time, same distance. The one change is that I was a little faster
toward the end today and (conversely) slower in the beginning. My
guess, however, is that it's better to speed up toward the end
(reverse split) rather than lag, so I'm pleased by that.
 
Yesterday's bike ride was again a model of consistency, although I
changed my song to "In These Shoes?" by Kirsty MacColl, the
one gem from her otherwise disappointing Tropical Brainstorm
album, from the other day's "Metronomic Underground."
No me gusta caminar/no puedo andar por caballo, sings Kirsty's
backup chorus, and there I go, andar por bicicleta.
 
It was quite warm and pleasant out yesterday, and even though the wind
was kind of brisk, it was from the south, so it didn't bother me as
much. I knew I would have a good lap when with my torso tucked down
and pacing myself briskly along the open spot just parallel to the
runway I looked down and saw that I was working at 82% max heart rate.
I did the whole 7-mile lap in less than 22 minutes, or a 19 mph pace,
which was enough to bring the average for both laps up to a whisker
over 18 mph.
 
Today's bike picture is from Antwerp. I like the plastic leaves on the
fender stays, personally.

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I can't wait to ride the helicopter (pictured here) again. I miss the
smoother ride of the wider tires and the wide variety of gears to
choose from. Of course, dragging all the locks and chains around is a
pain, but worth it for the mobility. Soon enough, my pony!
 

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Jose gave me a hand with the chain tension this afternoon. I was
hoping to do it this morning, but I couldn't find my 15mm box wrench.
So I went down to the garage area and borrowed one of the mechanics'
wrenches. As I had the bike turned over, Jose says, "Let's do this
old-school," and goes to fetch a broomstick. After I loosen the wheel,
he wedges the broomstick between the bottom bracket and the rear
wheel, between the chain stays, so that it is both pushing the wheel
toward the rear and holding it in place. All that was left was to
tighten the axle nuts gently with the box end of the wrench,
alternating sides so the wheel doesn't get locked off-center.
 
Of course, some buttinsky walks over and warns us that if we push the
wheel back too far, it won't turn. Huh? Then he comments unfavorably
on my 700x23 tires, suggesting that they are a poor choice for riding on dirt.
I looked him in the eye, then gestured to the expansive pavement.
 
I rode back to the lodging sweetly, with the new tighter tension. I
had been a little worried that the chain would start to leap off the
sprockets like it had back about six weeks ago, right before I
tightened the tension last. No ride this afternoon, however, no
interest on my part in a rematch with Boreas. I went
running this morning in the light of the full moon before dawn and I
actually felt pretty energetic, and it even seemed as if the wind had
let up a bit.

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Finally, I am not alone! Guess who caught up to me today? Another
single-speed rider! I've been here at Secret City for seven months and
this guy is riding the first vitesse unique I've seen besides
my own. His is blue, with some kind of circle-R nameplate, and rainbow
accent striping around the tubes. But it's definitely a single-speed
frame, with the dropouts facing the rear to help maintain proper chain
tension. I was circling around in the non-customary direction
(clockwise) today, having just passed the detention facility, and he
came along from behind, then I caught up to him.
 
We started to hammer along past the same marines who were running in groups as last week, while I hung on
his wheel, then as we approached the taxiway I told him I would pull
from there. So I got in front and we went along past the new chapel
and the fire station. At the Barrels, the junction with Perimeter Rd,
he went left, back down the hill, and I went right, around for another
loop. I saw him again a half-hour later going in the other direction.
 
I said only three things to him ("I'll pull from the taxiway on" /
"I'm going around for another loop" / "Okay.") but there's something
about seeing someone with the same kind of bike that makes me feel as
if I have a secret friend in the secret city. Someone else came to the
same conclusion I did about how much easier it would be to maintain
the fixed-wing down here, and how the absence of gears would be
compensated for by the absence of hills, and made the same choice I
did! I am vindicated! I'm a trendsetter!
 
Of course, the next chapter of the story is that it was a real doozy
of a ride. I broke the 7-mile-loop record I set and wrote about last
week, doing the circuit in 21' 19", and I was so energized the whole
way through that I did the full 28 miles in less than 1:33, or faster
than 18 mph. I guess considering this morning's run it's been a pretty good fitness day all around.
Now it's six p.m. and time for dinner.

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