Alumite Nothing: My Bars Arrive, and Other Good News

The puzzle pieces begin their final alignment with the arrival of my Grand Bois Parallel "MARS" bars.

With terrifying haste, they travelled from Kyoto to my door in two days. (I ordered the chainring and cog from New York state almost a week ago, and no sign of them!) Grand Bois is a classy operation: they have their own cardboard boxes, for one thing. And these bars are good-looking, and have a very promising shape: lots of reach, a totally flat ramp, not a lot of drop, and a bit of a flare. Very important to me and the stylish Japanese, they are non-anodized (or, in the words of the Babelfish translation, "Alumite nothing"). I'm going to leave lots of shiny aluminum unwrapped in the centre to show this off. At 40cm, they are wide but not too wide — this is the narrowest available size. Witness their beauty:



The other good news is that: (a) I ordered five sets of NOS Reynolds 531 tubing today from Bicycle Classics. This is an "investment in myself"; I have now committed myself to building five frames. Soon I will begin laying out on here what their design will be. They'll be good. (b) I interviewed Mike Barry tonight for a couple of articles I'll be working on, and it was great. Lots to go over. More on these articles soon.

A Dangerous Trend; or, from GB to G.B.

Oh dear. I ordered another part for Niles today. (Another possible dangerous trend: is this just a shopping diary blog? I really need to finish up my work and do some riding...)

This time it was handlebars. This is one of those most awful of situations: something that aesthetically is absolutely perfect but functionally is not great. The GB bars are incredibly good looking and follow the curves of my logo, etc., but they just don't allow for all that many hand positions. Their almost complete lack of a ramp, for instance, is a problem.

So I've ordered some of the Grand Bois "Parallel MARS" bars (photo lifted from their site). They look almost exactly like the bars from my "example" bike, the Rene Herse winter training bike. The long, flat ramps should make that my "go to" spot, and push the hoods out a bit further for a more stretched-out position. The one concern is that they won't work particularly well with my aero levers. Well, they're staying regardless, so that's that. (Shipping was about $30 Canadian, which isn't great, but they're large and coming EMS. So it's not bad, either.)

I do have one pair of handlebars in my house that are even cooler than these Grand Bois ones, and I may as well mention them now. They are destined for my Velo Orange Randonneur, expected before next riding reason. They are (apparently) extremely rare black Philippe Professionel randonneur bars. The ramps are more curved than on the Grand Bois bars I just ordered and the reach not as long, but they're otherwise fairly similar. Black bars would look pretty bad with anything other than a black bike, but luckily mine will be black. It will also have lots of shiny stuff on it, so don't worry. (Yes, they will be getting orange cloth tape. Lots of it!)

I got these bars from Chris of Velo Orange, who I thank very much for them. I also thank him for linking to a photo of Niles on his recent post about a possible VO fixed gear bike. Niles is very proud of himself.

Small Changes

Yes, I'm restless by nature, and so things don't stay the same for very long. But we're getting to the point where things are so perfect that any change would be absurd.

First change: I received some Shimano PD-A520 pedals today. I hadn't intended to put them on Niles, but they were just so nice and shiny that I had to consider it. The fact that they have slightly more cornering clearance than the TA track pedals, and the upturned clips don't scratch on the ground pre-clip-in, also helped. I've never ridden a fixed gear with clipless pedals — perhaps the "mystical union" of bike and rider will be even more pronounced. I've been extremely busy with work lately, but I'll try to get out for a ride this weekend and see how I like them.

Naturally, I removed the Shimano logo from the side. I have nothing against them as a company, of course — take these fine pedals, for example. But with the exception of certain inherently beautiful logos, it's my policy to remove them if possible. The Shimano logo is quite plain, so off it went. It was very easy to remove: just some Simichrome vigorously rubbed. I've learned my lesson about calling such things too soon, but I'm pretty sure these pedals aren't anodized. In any case, they're shiny and beautiful. (And a very smart design, too — they place your foot low relative to the axle, and prevent "hot spots.")

Second change: gearing. The only fixed ratios I've ever ridden are 42x15 and 42x16. I like both, but for long rides 42x15 is beter. Motivated mostly by my aesthetic distaste for my chainring, though, I began to think I'd like something between the two gears. I also thought I might as well use larger rings for less friction and less chain tension (my rear hub has been wandering a bit), and also to make things look more "proportional" on my 62cm frame. So, to bring this tale to its conclusion, I got a new chainring and a new rear cog: 48x18. The rear cog is another Phil Wood (though a 1/8") and the front ring is a Spécialités TA. I think it will be a nice match to the rest of the bike. It's pictured on the right. (I lifted the photo from World Class Cycles, where I ordered all my stuff from. Their service is incredible and they have great prices.)

Campagnolo Keychains

As some of you may recall, I recently turned some Nuovo Record shift levers into downtube cable stops for Briggs, one of my bikes. This left me with two decapitated shift levers, which I immediately thought of turning into keychains. And so I have. I drilled holes and filed off the ends, and there we have it: in my opinion, the coolest keychain imaginable. (Accuse me of heresy if you will, but I was also recycling!)

In other news, I have a cool idea for a front rack for Niles. I face the usual problems of finding space and equipment to fabricate this rack. But my ride last Monday showed me how nice he is to ride on longish rides, so it might be worth it. (This would require a new front fender, unfortunately. It's a long-term project.)

Also, my search for lights is progressing well. An acquaintance is travelling to France soon and will look for a headlight there for me. And a local CR member has the taillight below for sale. Do you think it will look right? I think it might.

A Reversal of Roles

Last night I gave a slideshow at the "No Click Club" — a meeting of vintage bicycle enthusiasts that takes place monthly at the Mariposa shop. I brought Niles in for a show and tell and illustrated his creation through photos (all shown here first, of course!)

This put me in an odd position: telling Mike Barry about how to make bicycle frames! He was a very gracious listener, however, and naturally fielded any questions I couldn't handle myself. It was certainly one of the nicer experiences I've had when Mike congratulated me on what he regarded as a nice bike.

There are no bikes I like more than Mariposas. Having a look at the beautiful frames and incredible racks ("carriers" to Mike!) on the Mariposas in the shop reinforced this yet again. The next thing I'd like to learn to do is to make racks and stems. (The photo above is lifted directly from the Mariposa website, which is worth many looks, though Mariposas are no longer being made.)

(Mike doesn't know of any suitably pretty lights for Niles, unfortunately. So that search goes on.)

Oakville to Acton: Niles's First Big Test

Yesterday, buoyed by excellent weather reports, by sightings of fall leaves, and by my burning desire to ride my new bike, I set off at 8.30am to the Exhibition GO station to catch the train to Oakville. From there I headed north on my favourite ride, a circa 110km loop up and through the Escarpment to Acton, and then home down quiet country roads.

It was a wonderful ride. My greatest concerns going in were, in order: uphills and downhills. I figured my 42x15 fixed gear wouldn't get me up the steepest climbs, and worried the steepest downhills would tear my knees off. As it happened, I did have to walk Niles up one steep hill and parts of the two big climbs. But my knees remained intact, and all that spinning didn't even bother me much. My legs, prone to ITB problems are sore achilles tendons, felt perfect after the ride. Otherwise, his gear was perfect, allowing me to spin comfortably along flats and to get out the saddle and speed over rolling terrain. To give some indication of whether Niles was well matched to the terrain, I finished the ride half an hour faster than I ever have before, despite the on-foot climbs.

The things I was most looking forward to were the falling leaves and, well, riding Niles. As for the leaves, I'll (ahem!) leave that to the photos to describe, and note that walking up those two hills gave me a nice opportunity to slow down and take them in. As for Niles, he is definitely my favourite bike: he holds his line perfectly, allows me to react quickly and change my course, is smooth and comfortable, looks very nice, and keeps the mud and dirt off of me.

And now some photos:

Niles patiently awaits our train at Exhibition.

Just out of Oakville, we turn down Lower Baseline and notice this sign. I hope the construction relates to the awful bridge.

While crossing said awful bridge, the view was not so bad!

And here is the new bridge they've built. This will make next year's riding much nicer.

Climbing away from the bridge; one of the manageable climbs, and a beautiful one.

The Escarpment in the distance...

My first big climb. I made it about to the shadows before I had to get off and walk.

The Escarpment from which I had just descended.

... And the next Escarpment climb. I made it this far (almost to the top) before having to get off. Looking back.

Nassagaweya Esquesing Townline — the Grand Bois 28s made this gravel feel pretty smooth, but I couldn't help wonder what the 42s would have felt like...

At my destination.

The Tim Horton's had a lineup all the way to the parking lot. So we settled for chocolate milk and chips from a convenience store and ate here, in front of the Sen Sen Chinese restaurant.

A self portrait at speed, as I arrived back in Oakville, with 40 minutes to kill before my train arrived.

Tomorrow's Ride

Plans for a group ride to Creemore have fallen through, but I'm going to take Niles on my favourite ride tomorrow: from the Oakville GO station to Acton and back (route courtesy Randonneurs Ontario). I'm a bit apprehensive about all the climbing and descending that this route involves (twice up and twice down the Escarpment), but: (a) it's such a nice route, especially with the leaves turning colour; and, (b) there is just no way I would ride any of my other bikes in this honeymoon phase. And [(c)] Niles needs a really complete test-ride, and [(d)] I am curious to see if it's possible to climb really steep, long ascents in my 42x15. If not, I'll walk him up; and if descending is too frighteningly fast, I'll ride the brakes.

I have been eating heartily in preparation for this trip. Turkey will be fuelling my endeavour.