You can quit searching the taverns, flophouses and obits — I’m still very much alive, despite the feddle gummint’s insistence on tinkering with The World’s Best Health Care System®. I just haven’t had much to say. Too busy riding the bike.
I actually managed to log 150 miles last week despite the weather, and I’m finally starting to feel vaguely like a cyclist again. On Wednesday, the DBR went to Old Town for more surgery — this time a Ritchey crankset with 172.5mm arms and 50/34 chainrings — and on Saturday I took it out for three hours and climbed every damn’ hill in town, some of ’em twice.
Weird how the little things can make a difference. I had always ridden 172.5mm cranks until I took up mountain biking. Longer levers were the fashion off road, so I stepped up to 175mm cranks on the MTB and stuck with them when I started racing cyclo-cross. Finally I went to 175s on the road bike, too, thinking, what the hell, I ride ’em on everything else.
But when I got the Jamis Supernova, it showed up sporting a compact crankset with 172.5mm arms. And y’know what? I kinda liked the feel. I’m not grinding along the single-track this time of year — I’m mostly riding the road, or some bike path, and it’s a whole lot easier to spin shorter cranks and smaller rings with bum knees and a big ass.
So chalk up another convert to the Church of the Compact Crank. Now if I could just find a shop that sold legs and lungs. …
Mad Blog Media 
Well glad you’re alive and back. But darn I was just loading up the bike trailer with ‘well stocked’ supplies for the search and possible rescue.
Hey, what cassette are you running with that 50×34?
Ben, it’s a nine-speed Shimano 12-25. I know a guy who runs a 12-27 but I didn’t want to get that dramatic. You know how the Irish love to suffer. I’ve got a couple different setups on the ’cross bikes, but most have either a 26- or 28-tooth bailout cog for the steep bits. It’s a whole ‘nuther deal when I’m hauling my big butt up some loose single-track on 700c wheels.
Thanks a friend and I are tackling some 10-20 kilometer climbs 5-9% this summer. She’s running a 50/34 compact and we’ll be slapping a 11-28 10spd cassette in place of the 12-25. Just trying to get an idea of what gearing works in the real world.
I’m lazy, it’s always a triple and in the mountains a 12-28 or 30 for me.
SRAM makes a 12-26 nine speed which is a good compromise to speed vs looking elderly. I prefer the 23-26 cog transition on the SRAM to the 23-25 on the Shimano. I still dig out the 12-27 Shimano for the off season.
With the compact crank, the 27 tooth works flawlessly on a Shimano extended range Ultegra but it grumps on an old 30t I have left over from my standard chainring days, even with the B screw all the way in. So I suspect the 28t will work fine. Likewise, with the compact setup, my Campy Chorus ten speed is maxed out on a 28 tooth cog, which is the low gear on my IRC cassette.
Still looking for that 11-28 or 12-28 nine speed cassette. Who sells them?
K, Shimano does a nine-speed 11-28 (LX/Deore and Alivio editions). BTI lists both in its online catalog, but they’re presently out of stock. Looks like SRAM does one, too, the PG-950, and it is in stock.
Thanks, Patrick. The HG80 is in stock.
http://www.bti-usa.com/public/category/CS/CSCS/SH/?page=2#
My carbon fiber wonder came with a FSA compact carbon crank w/ 170 arms and an 11-28 new Ultegra cassette. They work just right for my 30″ in-seamed stumps. I still can’t climb worth a shit, though. Must be something to do with hauling around the tonnage of a Lake Superior ore carrier. “Push away from the buffet,” as a certain Rhodes scholar comedian once said. Words of wisdom that I should heed – one of these days.
Boz, I feel your pain. I like to climb, but the Irish haven’t been out of the trees as long as the rest of youse, so maybe it’s just a genetic urge to get back into some tall oak where the Limeys can’t get at me.
Alas, I’m slower than a Deep South Republican with a gut full of sowbelly and bourbon trying to make sense of health-care legislation. But if someone would just park a pint of the black on the top of every climb I’d have a closet full of polka dots, I bet.
I think I mentioned this before, Khal, but at the risk of repeating myself, I think I’ll repeat myself: I recently had success getting an Ultegra 9s triple rear derailleur to work an XT 12-32 not by cranking the B screw in all the way but instead by removing the B screw and screwing it back in the other way, but only a little way. This way I gained the thickness of the screw head in addition to the length of the B screw. Worked great.
Like so many others here, I recently capitulated to the ravages of my advancing age and adorned my “back up” road bike, a Gunnar Roadie, with an R700 50-34 compact crankset. Seems in a moment of weakness, and before I completely read the profile, I signed up for Bicycle Tour of Colorado. First day: 105ish miles with Slumgullion Pass somewhere in the middle. More of the same in the days that follow, including a little bump known locally as Wolf Creek Pass which, rumor has it, may also involve a bit of climbing. I suspect I’ll be using my 34-27. Either that or my most pathetic whine as I call for the broom wagon.
John, you are my new hero. I raced up and down Wolf Creek a couple of times during the old Pagosa Springs Stage Race, albeit without distinction. This was back in the day when a man climbed pretty much everything with a 39×21. I didn’t feel manly when the women started passing me. And the last time I did 105 miles I was behind the wheel of the Subie.
The only thing I dislike about my new compact setup is that abrupt drop from “big” ring to little. It feels like stepping off a curb into a pothole.
Speaking of which, I nearly enjoyed a Darwin Awards moment this afternoon. I watched with great anticipation as a helmetless, headphoned mountain biker roaring along a sidewalk narrowly missed T-boning a jaywalker jabbering on a cell phone. Good times.
John, you undoubtedly did explain that and I undoubtedly forgot that you did. I’m sorry about that. Its one of my ever-increasingly frequent “senior moments”.
I did manage to confuse the B screw on an XT derailleur with a little screw that holds the outer plate assembly together as I incorrectly tried to reverse that one. Upon removal, the entire derailleur came apart with springs and parts that I had never seen before suddenly revealing themselves. A considerable number of determined hours later, at about 2 a.m., I managed to reassemble the derailleur and it worked. By then I was even sober. I don’t recommend a repeat performance.
Patrick, you get used to that huge drop between the 50 and 34. Its weird though, even after getting used to it. It was once explained to me as feeling like you dropped the chain off the inner ring, and that’s not far off the mark.
K, I have all kinds of chainring combos around the DogHaus — 53/39, 52/42, 50/36, 48/38, 46/36, 46/34 and now this 50/34. I figure that if I keep my knees confused, they’ll stick around to see what’s next.
Wolf Creek Pass with a 39×21! I think about half way up the climb my tibia would suddenly erupt through my patella. I don’t think your knees are confused so much as traumatized.
Don’t count me as your hero yet, I haven’t done anything. Talk to me around June 27, after I’ve hauled my carcass back to Gunnison, to where the whole thing started, just in time for me to wonder why I ever left.
I got in around 36 miles today (59km) on the new compact set up, and whereas the “huge drop” didn’t bother me I did find that the gear I wanted always seemed to be right around a 34×12, and those cranks do not like be cross chained at all!
And Khal, I’ll have to find that screw you took out. I may have need to modify the rear dérailleurs of anyone who has enough breath in them to make a snarky comment while passing me on one of the many climbs of BTC. When I’m busy sucking on a climb I tend to lose my sense of humor. I lose my sense of humor frequently.
Patrick,
Speaking of Darwin, I was riding along a nice side-street (flat no elevation gain whatsoever) a week ago Saturday. Nice day…the sun was out. I was wearing a great purple, long-sleeve jersey (it was a bit cool). Anyway, I was riding along and noticed this person driving a silver PT Cruzer at a rather high rate of speed down an alleyway (westbound). I also observed a person driving southbound on the street I was on (I was headed northbound). It was at this point when I had one of those “Oh crap!!!!” moments when you wish you had a video camera mounted to the helmet.
Yep, these two geniuses tried desperately to occupy the same spot at the very same second just as I went cruising on by!
Bang! Crash! Crunch!!
The PT Cruzer came barreling out of the alleyway, not a care in the world (or a glance in the other direction) because I kept eye contact with the driver all of the way until *just* before the ‘bang!” They never even looked to their right. Of course, the southbound car never even tried to stop, honk or swerve. It was madness.
I would have stopped and rendered aid (as if any was needed) except that the look in the Cruzer driver’s eyes was one of “f*^king cyclists! I hate ’em” So I kept on going. I probably would have gone into a rage. And I am trying to keep that under check these days.
Who cares about looking elderly, it’s getting to the top of the climb without coughing up your lungs that counts! Here in It’ly I run (and set up our rental bikes) with 34-29 as a low gear and let me tell you, it gets used. Funny thing, I can’t tell the difference between 170, 172.5 or 175 cranks, I have one or more bikes with each size and can’t tell you without looking at the tiny numbers which length any given one is.
Well, James, all I can say is that its fine that two morons are temporarily grounded rather than putting us in harm’s way.
Larry, funny you should mention looking elderly. I don’t care about looking elderly as long as I don’t feel elderly.
Speaking of premature aging. The following advice about shoveling snow was sent to the workforce here in the Bomb Factory with comments from the Vice chair of the Department of Physical Therapy at the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia: ” Some people simply should ditch shoveling duties. Wainwright recommends that men and women over the age of 45, especially those who are not physically active or have a history of a heart condition, let someone else do the shoveling. “The heart is a muscle just like any other muscle in your body and when it gets strained, it shuts down because it can’t handle the increased load,” Wainwright said. “Older adults who aren’t active tax their cardiovascular system when they start to shovel and this often results in heart attacks.”
Ok, so first off, I think we all should encourage Dick Cheney to shovel snow, intensely and often. From what I can tell, Lucifer is getting impatient waiting for Dick to claim his space in Hades. But it is sad to see we are becoming a nation of invalids where by the age of 45, we are being warned not to shovel our driveway.
Like Patrick, its been over a decade since I saw that many candles on my cake. But I can still shovel out the driveway, and chase after younger riders on the Jemez climb (7-8% grade over 4 miles topping at 9000 feet). We can give up on health care in this country if a 45 year old can’t shovel the friggin’ driveway. These politicians need to stop whining about universal health care and get these lunatic PT Cruiser drivers off the friggin’ streets so the rest of us can ride our bikes without one eye constantly on the lookout for the Grim Reaper. More physical activity should lead to fewer health problems like Type II diabetes, cardiovascular impairment, obesity, and other premature causes of morbidity, all of which cost lots.
Rant over.
Khal,
Well said (another decade plus of candles here too). I’ll happily lug some of my fine midwestern show over to Dick’s place for him to shovel. Hell, I’ll even loan him my best shovel and he can keep it as a gift for the Devil.
John, here is an exploded drawing of the derailleur.
Click to access EV-RD-M761-2551_v1_m56577569830609154.pdf
The screw in question is shown as part of assembly #9. In the little closeup box in the upper right corner labeled “SGS” there is a #9 and on one end of the line there is the little allen headed vertical screw that threads through the bottom of the derailleur body and engages in a machined slot running around the derailleur shaft. That’s the little baby, and all those inner parts are what I was staring at in disbelief that night.
Gov Ritter wipes out: http://ow.ly/16HwBt
Be careful out there OG!
When you find he shop selling upgrade legs and lungs let me know.
Ouch. I overlapped wheels during a fast training ride back in Honolulu and ended up with a broken collarbone, tacoed wheel, bent fork, and several teammates crashing out as well in a massive cluster-crash. I think we kept our sponsor bike shop busy all that week rebuilding front wheels.
The funny part, in retrospect, was that my soon to be wife was teaching that day at her college and half her students didn’t show up for class. One came in late and said “sorry to be late, but the townbound Kal Highway is blocked because the EMTs are scraping this bicyclist up off the road. Then her phone rang…
Get well soon, Gov. Ritter, and keep the rubber side down in the future.
When I used to manage the bike shop we’d tell clients we sold everything BUT the legs (and lungs) as those you have to provide yourself. That’s what makes cycling a great sport to me as unlike, say motorcycle racing, you can’t really buy speed, despite what the bike makers would have you believe. I skipped the snow shoveling this year by escaping to Italy but when in Iowa it’s my winter upper-body workout and I sort of enjoy it. I start slow and taper off just like when cycling but I encourage Dick C. to start fast and sprint to the finish — it’ll be a better world without him on Faux News — though we can’t watch that here– HEE HEE!
Hope the Gubner (not to be confused with the Gubna, the new Imperial Pale Ale from Oskar Blues) is on the mend sooner rather than later.