I selected them for the relatively smooth center tread — which roll pretty well on both pavement and smooth gravel roads — and the knobby sides, which provide a little extra grip in corners and on loose surfaces.

I’ve been happy with the tires, and they served me well for about 2000 miles, with good performance and very few flats. But after that point, they flatted rather too often for my taste, and I resolved to see if I could find something perhaps with a Kevlar belt to protect against thorns (the cause of most of my flats).

My search led me to Serfas. It’s not one of the better-known names in tires, but I’d used a Serfas Barista on the back of my recumbent a couple years ago, and had been happy with the flat resistance, durability, and performance.

Turns out, Serfas has a tire very similar to the Double Fighters, called the “Vermin”.

The Vermin has basically the same tread pattern as the Double Fighter — semi-slick in the middle, knobs on the sides — but adds what the call a “Flat Protection System”, which “creates an armor-like shield between two distinct rubber casings for unrivaled puncture resistance.”

Sounds good.

The Vermin has front-specific and rear-specific versions (unlike the Double Fighters). The only difference seems to be extra ridges on the rear version, which makes it slightly heavier than the front, but both are still lighter than the Continentals (590/615 grams vs. 790 grams). They also cost a bit less than the Conti’s, which never hurts.

I’ve ordered and received the new tires, but haven’t mounted them up yet. I’m looking to get a few more miles out of the Continentals. Hopefully they’ll last long enough for me to save the Vermins for the Dirty Kanza.

Here are some photos, first of the Continental Double Fighter II and then the Serfas Vermin front and rear:

This is my rear tire (Continental Double Fighter II) after nearly 3000 miles. Not much left, and that crack looks troublesome…

The front tire (not pictured) has decent tread left, so for now, I’ve swapped the front tire to the rear wheel, and the rear to the front (adding a boot — an extra layer of old inner tube and duct tape — to the crack). I’ll see how long that lasts.

And here are the Serfas Vermin rear and front tires — side view.

Here are the Serfas Vermin front and rear tires — tread view.

That describes this week for me pretty well. Monday through Thursday were 12 to 14 hour days, and I was definitely feeling it by late Thursday: tired eyes, tired hands, kind of grumpy and short-tempered.

So on Friday, a long bike ride was the order of the day.

Online forecasts called for a high of 34 with cloudy skies. A local TV station called for a high of 42 with sunshine all day. They both called for light winds.

I headed out about 9am into lovely sunshine and a 31°F temperature. It was really pretty nice as I rolled south with the gentle breeze at my back. Turning west after about 20 miles, I felt the wind for the first time, but it wasn’t bad. Still nice and sunny.

By the time I’d turned north, the sun was gone, the wind seemed to pick up a bit, and I suddenly felt cold and damp.

I stopped for lunch after about 50 miles, feeling fairly good and strong, but the last leg of the ride would turn out to be a tough one for me. A headwind for the first few miles, then a crosswind (that felt a lot like a headwind) for the next 20. Just a few miles of tailwind.

I made it home for a total of 76 miles, at a 13.25 MPH pace. Better than last week’s 12.75 mile pace over 68 miles, but I didn’t feel nearly as strong at the end. In fact, I was pretty well wore out.

But more than just the fatigue, two things were really starting to bother me:

1. My neck and shoulders get really sore and tense on long rides. I had this problem last year as well, and the LBS suggested that I was riding for too long with my arms straight, that I needed to keep my arms bent, and let my back support my upper body more. I’ve tried to do this, and it does seem to help, but not enough.

   I’m thinking it’s one of three things:

   • Fitness: My back and abdominals are not strong enough to support me for long rides.
   • Technique: I’m not clear on how I should be riding. Hands on the bars? Hands on the hoods? Hands in the drops? I try to mix it up and use all hand positions, but my “default” position, the one I’m most comfortable in, is in the drops. Unfortunately, in that position my tendency to lock my arms is most pronounced.
   • Mechanical: Should I look at other handlebar designs? I’m just using the stock bar that came with the bike. Would a narrower or wider bar help? A “dirt drop” / “randoneuring” style bar with some flare or sweep? Is the bar too close or too far? Too much drop or too little? Lots of questions, but I’m not sure how to answer any of them, short of buying some different bars and giving them a shot.

   I’m not sure what my next step is. I’m considering getting a high-end professional bike fit. That might solve it, might not. I seem to be well-fit on the bike other than the shoulder issues…

2. My last two long rides, I’ve suffered from numbness in my right foot. It was worse this ride, and took an hour or so to get back to normal after I was done. Actually, I wasn’t sure if it was numbness or just cold toes, but now I’m sure it’s numbness. Left foot is fine, right is numb.

   I’m wearing Lake sandals (the same ones I’ve worn for years), a wool liner sock, a Serius Stormsock, then a heavier outer sock, then a Trek toe cover. I thought perhaps it was the toe covers I wear, they kind of add a lump underneath the ball of the foot. But why would it only bother me on one side? I don’t blame the sandals. I don’t blame the SPD pedals or cleats. This problem has only really shown up on my last two long rides.

   I’m a bit flummoxed by this. Maybe there’s a subtle cleat positioning difference between the left and right sides. But the cleats haven’t been moved since the middle of last year.

   Weird.

   I think for now I’m going to check the cleat positioning, and perhaps switch over to different shoes for my next long ride.

I need to figure these issues out, because either one is a serious roadblock to finishing longer rides. The shoulder issue is the more serious, I think, since it’s been a problem since almost the very beginning of my riding with this bike.

First stop, I suppose, is to check in with the LBS and see what they suggest.

It wasn’t a big day for photos, what with the dreary weather and my discomfort, but I did come up with one nice shot from early in the ride, before the sun gave out:

This is a shot of a nice fence-lined country lane in Miami County, Kansas.

I got out yesterday for a very short ride, just 4 miles. The snow was just too fresh, and the gravel roads hadn’t been plowed at all. It was slow going, with 2-3 inches of fresh fluff atop hard-packed ice/snow, it was extremely slippery. I never went down, the the back wheel was fishtailing constantly.

On the positive site, I was rather comfortable, even at 11°F with a 12 MPH wind. Toes were fine, fingers were cold, but manageable, and everything else — head, torso, arms, legs — were just fine, if not a little too warm in places.

But today I got out for another short ride (this time 8 miles!) and the roads were decent, but the comfort level wasn’t nearly the same, especially with the hands.

I’m trying a three-layer system, actually two of them:

• On my left hand, an UnderArmour ColdGear liner glove, a fluffy fleece glove 40 gram Thinsulate Berber Fleece), and a neoprene windblocker glove/mitten (a fingerless glove with a flip-down cover that turns it into a mitten).
• On my right hand, an UnderArmour ColdGear liner glove, a neoprene windblocker glove, and a fluffy fleece glove on top.

Three miles into the ride, and my fingertips are freezing. I stopped, and added a polypro glove liner over the ColdGear liner. That helped, but it was still cold. The mitten was marginally better than the glove, but not by enough to really matter.

Why such a big difference between the two days? The temperature wasn’t much difference (maybe 3-4 degrees colder), and the wind was about the same.

I think I need a larger outer wind-blocking glove to replace the tight neoprene glove, to hopefully provide a little more space for insulation.

So I guess that’s my next step.

Unless I say to heck with it and wait for a warming trend. Bah.

The LHT is not exactly a mountain bike, but it performed admirably on the trails at Dornwood Park and MacLennan Park in Topeka. These trails are more fast-and-flowy than technical, but there were still plenty of rocks and roots to challenge my limited mountain biking skills.

The main thing was that I didn’t fall. This was my first return to singletrack since my crash last December, and I definitely played it safe, keeping the speed in check and walking the bike whenever it got too sketchy. I still ended up riding a number of sections that were pretty scary, but I made it through unscathed.

I had the LHT set up with knobby mountain bike tires (which is the same thing I’ve been using on recent gravel road rides), and they gave me really secure traction on downhills, uphills, and corners.

The LHT’s drop bars actually worked quite well. I found them comfortable, and they provided great control under all conditions.

Shifting was something of a problem, though. The bar-end shifters were just too difficult to reach on short notice. On terrain with lots of ups and downs, a good deal of shifting is required, and the bar-ends are pretty obviously not the right choice for this type of riding.

The brakes, which I’ve been somewhat unhappy with on road rides, actually worked just fine on singletrack. They’re a little wearying for long descents, but I found them adequate.

All in all, the Long Haul Trucker was a pleasant surprise — it worked better than I expected, and as well as I could have hoped. It’s obviously no match for a real mountain bike — the lack of suspension is especially missed — but it did work.

I wouldn’t want to use this bike on a purely singletrack tour, but it could certainly handle a tour that includes short sections of singletrack or rough roads.

The LHT at Dornwood Park in Topeka, KS, within the crumbling ruins of an old dairy barn.

This was the first time I’d ridden dual mountain bike tires on the Long Haul Trucker (previous rides had used an old worn-down Specialized MTB tire on the front, and the stock WTB Slickasaurus on the back).

With the new tread and more aggressive knobs, the ride was rather buzzy on hardpack and asphalt — I could both feel and hear the tires on a smooth surface — but felt great on normal gravel roads. At one point I even took the bike a bit off-road, venturing down a state park access road that was muddy in places, and soft in others, and the tires worked very well there (as you’d expect).

They also worked well for out-of-the-saddle climbing on gravel — a situation where the Slickasaurus would tend to spin out, but where the MTB tires dug in and just kept climbing.

Some pictures from the ride, a 40-mile, mostly-gravel route down to Hillsdale Lake, on a pleasant February day with temperatures into the mid-60′s:

In all that time, I never once took a good look at the helmet I’d been wearing the day of the wreck. It appeared intact, and felt solid.

But yesterday, as I was preparing for a ride, I noticed something wasn’t right.

The helmet was misshapen on the right side. On closer inspection, I found that the helmet was cracked. And embedded within the crack was a small stick, a half-inch-long chunk of wood about the diameter of a #2 pencil.

Thinking back on the accident, I don’t even remember wanging my head, and there were no abrasions, no bruising, and no pain.

Yet I’d hit my head hard enough to lodge this twig into the helmet — and keep it stuck in there through sometime like 27 hours of riding since then.

So for all who prefer to ride without a helmet, take a look at this. If I hadn’t been wearing a helmet during this relatively minor and low-speed accident, that stick could have been lodged in my head. And instead of a cracked helmet, I could have had a cracked skull.

A broken head is a lot more hassle to deal with than a broken helmet.

The helmet: A fairly low-end Bell Aquila. Nothing fancy, but it certainly worked.

I still can’t believe it took me so long to notice the crack. Jeez, that was dumb…

• Though I’d read some poor reviews of the WTB Slickasaurus tires, they haven’t been a problem so far. No flats, and they seem to roll reasonably fast with no handling problems. I’ve ridden them on both pavement and gravel (though I had to let some air out of the tires on gravel to soften the ride a bit).

• The WTB SST saddle has likewise been trouble-free. Reasonably comfortable, no saddle sores, no numb bits. Granted, my longest ride is still only 30 miles, but so far so good.

• I’m not terribly happy with the Tektro Oryx cantilever brakes. Yes, they work, but I really have to squeeze the levers hard to get much braking power. I was going down a steep, curvy, and muddy gravel road the other day, and had to ride the brakes all the way down, and if I’d had to really stop — and not just slow down — I’m not sure if I could have. I was squeezing the brakes really firmly as it was, and it was rather wearying. Not sure what the answer here is — get used to it?

• No mechanical issues at all, other than some normal stretching in the rear derailleur cable, which I’ve been able to fix with the barrel adjusters.

• The drop handlebars have taken some getting used to. Coming from a flat bar, they just felt weird at first. That feeling has faded as I’ve become acclimated to them, and they’re starting to feel more natural.

• I may want to add some extra padding to a few key points on the handlebars, though. Even with padded gloves (plus another layer of fleece gloves over the top) I’ve felt the need for some extra cush. Mostly this occurs in two locations — when my hands are in the drops, with my weight near the shifters, and on the hoods, when my weight is on my palms right at the curve of the bars. The problem has improved a bit over time, so this may just be another incidence of acclimation…

• The bar-end shifters have also taken some getting used to, but I think I’m going to be happy with them. They shift cleanly smoothly, and are easy to access. I like the friction shift on the front derailleur, which lets me tweak out chain rub at the extremes of the cassette.

• Frame sizing seems good. I rode with a guy who’s very knowledgeable about these things, and he said the bike fit me well, that I appeared comfortable, with good form, and good power. That’s encouraging.

• I swapped the frame bag for a rack trunk. Since I had the rear rack installed anyway, the trunk was only 5 oz. heavier than the frame bag, and it can hold a lot more, plus allows me to get rid of the fanny pack I was using for my phone and camera. I mounted my safety triangle reflector on the rear of the trunk, which worked out great — it’s in an optimal position, and doesn’t interfere too much with opening and closing the bag. The bag is an older REI Basic Rack Trunk that I picked up last year off eBay.

• I still want to add fenders. I hate getting snow melt and gravel road mud splattered all over the frame and my legs. Still not sure which fenders I want yet. 60mm width or 45mm? Planet Bike or SKS? Silver or black?

• Speed — I don’t feel particularly fast on this bike. It rolls well on the flats, but I don’t think it climbs particularly well. How much of that is the bike, and how much of that is my still recovering fitness from having ridden very little for a month? Still too early to really say for sure…

I’m looking forward to riding more, and giving another report, perhaps at 500 miles or so.

• Rear Rack: The rear rack is a Planet Bike Eco Rack, a basic but functional rack that came with my EZ-Sport. There are fancier and more rugged racks, but this should do for now. In fact, I’m not even sure I’ll be keeping it on the bike. For local rides, it’s not really needed, and it just adds weight (about 1.25 pounds).

• Pedals: I swiped the Shimano PD-M520 pedals off the mountain bike (and prior to that they’d been on the recumbents). At some point I’ll probably have to break down and get a new pair, but these still seem to work perfectly, so why change?

• Cyclocomputer: The E3 F11c Cycle Computer w/Cadence is something I picked up on super-special at Nashbar. It seems pretty decent, though it’s bigger and less elegant than the Cateye Strada I have on the Django. Getting it installed on the bike however, took an embarrassingly long time. I had no trouble setting up the cadence sensor, but the hangup was the speed sensor. Being able to fit fat tires, the distance between the chainstay and the spokes on the rear wheel is quite large, and I had a tough time finding a way to shim the speed sensor out far enough to reach the spoke magnet. Eventually, I cannibalized part of an old handlebar mirror mount, and figured out a way to mount the sensor on the end of that. It’s not particularly elegant, but it works, and seems solid. I’m still not entirely happy with the wire routing, but the computer is at least working reliably now.

• Frame Bag: The Frame Pack bag is another Nashbar special, but I’m rather happy with the way this worked out. In a nice little bit of serendipity, my Blackburn Mountain Air pump from the mountain bike fit perfectly in the long side of the frame bag, with ample room for a tube, multi-tool, and various other small items.

  However, the frame bag does have two significant problems. One, it covers up one of the bottle cage mounts, and two, it’s in the way if I ever try to load the bike onto a car rack. I don’t plan on doing that for awhile, so it’s no big deal, but eventually this will become an issue. At that time, I can either just take the bag on and off each time I put it on the rack, or just switch back to a seat bag. The bottle mount may ultimately be the bigger issue, as the third bottle may be needed for long remote rides.

• Bottle Cages: These are just a couple cages I had lying around. Nothing special.

The only other additions I’m planning to make at some point are a pair of fenders and possibly a front rack. Still looking at options for those items.

Here’s a picture from today’s ride, a short jaunt to Gardner Lake and back. This picture was taken at one of the picnic shelters.

I’m still getting a feel for the bike, and haven’t really put any serious miles on it yet, but so far so good. I’ll report more as I figure things out.

I got this on January 3rd, and have had it out for two rides so far, a 9-mile gravel grind on its maiden voyage, and a 17-mile paved ride today. On the ride today, I intended to get a good picture, but the sun disappeared as soon as I hit the road, and this was the best I could come up with. If it wasn’t for the guardrail, the bike would almost disappear into the brown grass and leafless trees.

I’ve been thinking about this bike for quite a while, at least since late summer. Here were my selection parameters:

• A bike I could ride on both paved roads and gravel roads
• A bike I could ride on weekly club rides
• A bike I could ride on longer events of 100+ miles
• A bike I could ride with on cross-state tours
• A bike I could ride on self-supported tours
• I didn’t want to spend more than about $1000 (hopefully less)

The mountain bike I’ve been riding hard for the last six months handled all of that, to greater or lesser extents, but it really wasn’t the right tool for the job, and for some of the tasks, such as the cross-state tours and long single-day events, it was particularly ill-suited.

Looking at different types of bikes, I could dismiss some immediately. Recumbents were out because they didn’t handle gravel roads well. Pure road bikes were out because they didn’t handle gravel or loaded touring.

I seriously considered a cyclocross bike. It would be light and fast, well-suited for club rides. It could handle gravel with ease. It could handle light touring. I could get a basic model for just under $1K. I could even use ir for racing, if I wanted. But it wasn’t really the right bike for extended tours or loaded tours.

One bike that piqued my interest was the Salsa Fargo. It could handle the loaded touring, it could handle gravel and even some pretty rough singletrack, it would be great for long single-day events. It had disc brakes.

However, it wasn’t available (as a complete bike) until February. It used 29″ wheels (which meant having to stock another size of wheels, tires, and tubes). It was a brand new design (i.e. not heavily field-tested). It was $2000.

So I ended up with the Surly Long Haul Trucker, a touring bike that could take skinny tires for reasonably fast local rides and supported touring, or could take fat tires for gravel and dirt roads. It could handle a heavy load for self-supported touring. It has been field-tested for at least a half-dozen years, with nearly unanimous positive reviews. It used 26″ wheels (in my frame size). It listed for $1100.

On the downside, it used cantilever brakes — OK, but not as solid as disc or V-brakes. It was heavy — about 26-27 pounds stock. And while it could take fat tires and handle gravel and perhaps even some easy singletrack, it is primarily a road bike.

On the balance, the positives far outweighed the negatives, and the decision was made.

At that point, the main issue was frame sizing. Not having ridden a road bike since I was a teenager (and that just a department store 10-speed), I had no clue what size I needed. People of similar height rode everything from 50cm to 56cm frames, and every brand of bike seemed to measure their frames differently, so that a 54cm from one company wasn’t the same as a 54cm from another company. And even worse, I no longer knew what felt right.

In the end, I was fortunate to find two Long Haul Truckers in stock locally — a 50cm in Kansas City, and a 54cm in Lawrence, and both shops were kind enough to let me test-ride them and ask a few questions. Both sizes felt foreign to one degree or another. But I got the impression that the 50cm was too small, and the 54cm too big, so that gave me the answer right there: 52cm frame.

I placed the order with my most local of shops, Bike America in Olathe, on my birthday, just before the end of the year. Thanks to Kevin and, especially, Mark, for getting me a great deal.

Not having any particular preferences on specific components, I went with the Long Haul Trucker “complete”. My understanding is that most of Surly’s component choices are pretty decent, and should serve me well until I learn more about my road bike likes and dislikes.

That’s enough for now. I’ll discuss the particulars of the bike, and what I’ve added so far, in the next post…

I stayed close to home, heading up the road a couple miles to Lone Elm Park, where I hit the gravel and grass trails for a few loops. With the temperature just under freezing, the roads were clear but wet, and the gravel trails were mostly clear, though the wooden bridges were snow-covered, and there were a few water puddles on the trail. The grass trails, however, were pretty well snowed in, and it was slow riding breaking trail through the fresh snow and 3-inch tall grass.

In all, I did 2.5 loops — two complete loops including both gravel and grass, each about 1.4 miles long, and one gravel-only loop of about 0.7 miles.

That and riding roads there-and-back got me about 8.5 miles. That was enough.

Clothing-wise, I’m still trying to work it out. Today, the problem was my feet. With a base layer cotton sock, a Seirus stormsock, and wool sock, in my Shimano MTB shoes, I ended up with cold toes. I’m thinking the stormsock (a windproof, water resistant layer) should have gone on the outer layer, providing more airspace within. The other problem is that my shoes are really too tight with all the sock layers, further limiting the insulating airspace.

Other than that, the Amfib tights were great on the legs, wool + polypro + rain jacket was actually too warm on the torso, and liner glove + fleece glove was great on the hands.

The other problem was glasses — I was using a fleece neck gaitor, which works fine keeping the neck and face comfy, but warm air rises and fogs the glasses. Never did really work that out, other than the lower the gaiter below my mouth.

Finally, my camera crapped out on me, or I’d have some nice photos. That thing is eating batteries like candy. Time for a new one, I suppose.

I bought a pair of Chiba on eBay. Haven’t ridden with them yet, so I can’t comment on their ride qualities, but they have one feature that just kicks butt.

Between the first and second fingers, and between the third and fourth fingers, there’s a little fabric loop. This bit of material doesn’t seem to get in the way, and doesn’t restrict finger movement at all, but it makes it very easy to take the gloves off.

Most short-fingered cycling gloves are kind of a pain to take off. You either have to turn the glove inside out, or individually scootch each finger through the glove.

No more! Just pull in the little loops, and the glove comes right off! Quick and easy.

OK, you still have to scootch the thumb, but at least the fingers are easy!

Yah, I am easily impressed…

First, I wanted to check out the new rain jacket I bought (a Specialized Deflect Jacket). This seemed to work fine, though with warm temperatures and heavy humidity, I think I was nearly as wet inside the jacket as I was outside. The jacket didn’t feel terribly breathable, but I’m not sure this was a valid test case. It did seem to do a fine job of keeping rain out, however.

Second, in anticipation of riding the century on wet roads, I’d purchased a set of fenders. The Planet Bike Freddy Fenders aren’t full fenders, but are of the clip-on variety. They don’t fit terribly well on the mountain bike — the rear fender’s clip, in particular, interferes with my front derailleur cable — but I eventually got them installed. And despite a bit of interference on the front fender during tight turns, they worked great.

Third, I rigged a helmet mount for my Planet Bike Superflash. This blinky light comes with a seatpost mount and a built-in clip mount, but no obvious way to mount it to a handlebar. Normally, I run this on my seatpost, but I was concerned that its visibility would be blocked by the read fender and expanded seat bag. Plus, higher is better, I think. So I came up with a simple solution, using just a tie-wrap and a hunk of old inner tube. Basically, the tie-wrap connects the inner tube (which acts as a fat rubber band) to the helmet’s internal webbing, and the light’s clip is inserted into the inner tube. I’m not sure how well I explained that, but it seems to work very well, allowing me to position the Superflash securely onto the helmet, yet still allowing for some adjustability.

The ride itself was just a quick 23-mile loop. The rain, as I left, was light but steady. Later on, it stopped entirely (and the sun even came out of the clouds for a few moments), before resuming just before I returned home. A few minutes thereafter, the rain started pouring down.

The title of this post, and the photo (which is not mine, as I neglected to bring my camera), refers to what I saw when I crossed a low spot on a lightly-traveled road — crawdads walking across the paved road. As I stopped and rolled near them, they’d rear up onto their tails, raising their claws toward me in a defensive posture. The little buggers are so ugly they’re kind of cute, and the claw-waving “salute” behavior is really funny, especially when they lose their balance and topple over on their backs.

I’ve been on a bit of an eBay kick lately (a dangerous thing!), and most of the items alluded to in the title relate directly to that:

• The “something old” is a pair of Lake MX220 mountain bike shoes I bought off of eBay. They’re in fine shape for used shoes, and as a bonus, they came with SPD cleats (albeit Ritchey, rather than Shimano, brand). I paid $22 plus shipping, which seems like a good deal given that they ran about $120 new. These are a size 43, which Lake says correspond to 9 to 9.5 in US sizing. I normally wear a 9.5 in shoes, sometimes a 10. These seem to fit me plenty tight. Too tight? That’s what I was trying to find out.

• The “some things new” are two other eBay scores: a new saddle and a new long-sleeve jersey.

  The Saddle is a WTB Pure V, which WTB classifies as a “performance” saddle. The one I’ve been using for several months is a WTB Speed V, which falls into the “recreational” category. I’ve been rather satisfied with the Speed V, but it’s developed two small tears — one on the bottom of the saddle, and the other on the tail end. The one on the rear, which it’s not serious yet, will eventually become worse and worse. So my $25 (plus shipping) purchase of a new saddle was preemptive. That, and I wanted to see what the differences between the Speed and the Pure were…

  The jersey is a Louis Garneau Roadster 3, which retails for $80, and which I got for $11.50 (plus shipping) — a steal! It’s a brand new jersey, and it seems to fit me fine. Here’s the manufacturer’s description: “This ripstop finish fabric has amazing moisture transfer properties and provides breathability with a soft brushed back for comfort and warmth. 9″/23 cm zip for good ventilation, elastics at wrists and hem.” This is my first “real” long-sleeve cycling jersey.

• The “something broken” is my cyclocomputer, a Cateye Cordless 7. It’s been on the fritz for the last few rides, and today it worked sporatically for a mile or so, then stopped working entirely.

• The “something blue” is the Louis Garneau Roadster 3 jersey, of course.

OK, so how did everything perform on this little test flight?

It was a cool morning, in the upper 50′s, and the jersey did OK. It definitely didn’t do much to block the wind, but on this morning that was fine; with lower temps and/or more wind, that might be a problem. The jersey did fit well, and it seemed to with moisture very well.

The shoes were fine as well. They were kind of tough to get on, but I don’t know, maybe that’s normal for cycling shoes. They were easy to walk in, but they did feel a bit small — I could feel the little toes pinched slightly. On the bike, this wasn’t a problem, and once clipped in, I really didn’t notice them at all. They just kind of disappeared, which is a good thing, and I felt like I had a very solid connection to the pedals. Clipping in was a little difficult, as was clipping out. This is with Shimano PD-M520 pedals. This may have had to do with the pedals being old and the cleats being new, or with the pedals and cleats being different brands. Who knows, but I’ll need to keep an eye on this.

The Pure V saddle felt noticeably firmer than the Speed V, but it wasn’t uncomfortable, at least at that short distance. I’ll definitely need to give this some more time, and some longer rides, before I can render a verdict on it.

So everything was basically fine, but I won’t know for sure on the shoes or saddle until I’ve put in the miles and the hours to give them a thorough testing. Time will tell!

As for the cyclocomputer, I don’t think it’s actually broken; I suspect it just needs new batteries…

Still, I couldn’t quite persuade myself to drop $100+ on a bike-specific lighting system.

Browsing the selection at my local Wal-Mart (yah, big spender), I came across some Coleman flashlights and headlamps. I don’t expect that these are bleeding-edge state-of-the-art lights, but they looked pretty solid, and weren’t too pricey.

I bought a Coleman 3AAA LED Headlamp for about $25, thinking that it could replace the anemic Energizer headlamp I had been using.

The Coleman light uses three AAA batteries (it comes with Alkaline cells, but I bought some rechargeables as well) contained within a cylindrical plastic case about the size and shape of an old 35mm film cannister, with LEDs on one side, the battery compartment on the other, and a rotating mode selector switch on one end. The case snaps onto a plastic holder with elastic headband.

The lamp uses three LEDs, a white CREE Xlamp XR-E LED for the main light, and two 5mm red LEDs for “enhanced night vision”. I’m not sure if the red LEDs are worth much, but the white LED is very bright. The packaging lists it as 105 lumens, with a throw of 58 meters. The Coleman web site lists the brightness as 55 lumens. Not sure why the discrepancy, or which one is correct, but regardless, it’s darn bright, at least compared to my old lights.

The size and shape of the light worked out well with my helmet (a Bell Aquila). I was able to mount the lamp just under the visor, with the lamp’s headband stretched around the back of the helmet. This, by itself, was fairly secure, but I added a rubber band (made out of an old inner tube) to make the connection between the lamp and visor even more secure. Time will tell, but it looks pretty solid.

The weight of the lamp is noticeable, but not too objectionable. If it gets to be too much, I can unclip the lamp from it’s holder, leaving only the holder and headband in place.

One minor complaint: The rotatable mode switch is kind of hard to operate with the light tucked up under the helmet visor. Given that I shouldn’t have to be making many on-the-fly adjustments, it should be fine.

So how’s it work?

I haven’t ridden with it yet, but in some quick tests, I’m rather impressed. Walking outside on a dark night, the beam carries a good distance, and the beam is fairly tight.

The following photos were taken in a semi-dark garage, at a distance of about 10 feet:

The left photo shows the Energizer headlamp on the left and the Coleman headlamp on the right. No contest.

The right photo shows the Cateye HL-EL300 on the left and the Coleman headlamp on the right. Closer, but the Coleman’s beam is clearly brighter and more focused.

I haven’t taken photos to prove it, but at longer distances the differences are even more stark.

Now to give the new light a go in real-world conditions…

Coming from a recumbent, and with a history of Repetitive Strain Injury, hand comfort was a major concern with an upright bike. Going into this little experiment, I didn’t really know how my hands would respond. There was a distinct possibility that putting weight on my hands would cause my RSI symptoms to re-emerge, and I’d be unable to ride the bike at all, or would have to limit my rides to short distances.

Thankfully, that hasn’t proven to be the case. I’ve been able to ride pretty much as long as I’ve wanted, and the hands haven’t been a big issue.

However, they haven’t been perfect, either. I definitely experienced some numbness and discomfort, but changing hand positions frequently, as well as stretching, helped a lot.

However, at some point I added some Dimension long bar ends to give myself extra hand positions. This has worked out fairly well. At one point I mounted the bar ends “backwards” — pointing back towards me, and angling away from me. This was kind of nice, as it let me sit really upright, with very little pressure on my hands. However, this made the bike really wide, and looked pretty goofy.

I eventually switched the bar ends back to a more normal position, though I have them rotated somewhat further forward than is typical, nearly parallel to the ground. This allows me a sort of “drop” position, where I can lean farther forward, which is more aerodynamic, and it also feels like I can generate more power in this position. I typically use it on flats and when climbing long hills.

So, at this point, I’m fairly happy with my handlebar setup. The bar ends give me quite a few hand positions, and the leaning-forward position feels more efficient.

Still, I’m considering making some changes.

Sette Ergo 2 Grips

One, I’m considering using “ergo” grips. I have some on order from PricePoint (the Sette Ergo 2 Grips). I’m thinking that spreading the pressure points across more surface area would be better than the round grips I’m currently using. Plus, these are far cheaper than the name-brand “Ergon” grips, and I’m a sucker for a deal. However, I don’t know how well these will work with the bar ends, or if they’ll even work at all. I’m a bit dubious, but time will tell…

Origin8 Space Bar

Two, I’m thinking about some alternate handlebars. The Origin8 “Space Bar” looks promising. I think the more swept-back bar would make for more natural hand positions, and as I understand it, the bar should work with my existing controls. Don’t know how it’d play with the bar-ends, though.

The Origin8 “Gary Bar” is another possibility. This actually is a drop bar, but with the drops “spread out” rather than completely vertical. Looks kinds weird, but has garnered decent reviews. I think I’d have to change my shifting components, though, which I’m loathe to do.

Titec H-Bar

Another intriguing design is the Titec H-Bar. This funky-looking bar offers both sweep and bar-end-like extensions on the front, proving lots of hand positions. It’s a little more expensive than the other two options, and I’m not sure how my controls would mount.

For now, I’m probably going to stick with what I have, but I find the alternate bars rather compelling, so may have to give them a try someday, just to find out what they’re all about…