Cycling

[fluffybunny]

Hey Cuda,

Got the bike and some of the necessities for riding it last week, turned out to be a better deal than I expected as the guy reduced the price while I was trying to get the time to meet him.

Rode it for the first time with a group of friends this last Wednesday, ~20 miles. Takes a lot of getting used to, especially gear management on hills.

I am pretty confident I bought the right size as nothing outside of normal hurt afterwards, and all the subjective advice I heard about “you need a road bike” was absolutely correct. It’s a MUCH better platform for long rides than the 7.2 FX.

Thanks again for your help.

[orionid]

We also bought bikes yesterday. I got a hybrid that I think is technically a woman’s frame, but I don;t care because it had the fit, balance, and angles that I liked best (except for the, ummm, wide seat). Kestrana got a cruiser. Her’s is getting repainted on my next day off.

Mine

Hers (except on hers, the body is white with pink floral print and pink fenders, chain guard, and bull gear). We’re going to make the guard and fenders a pastel metal flake green or pastel metal flake blue. Mine can stay gunmetal.

Now we can go shoot all the abandoned properties around here without having a bright red jeep or large ford truck in the driveway.

[Barracuda]

orionid, that’s not a woman’s frame. Bicycle manufactures started producing slated top-tube bikes about 10-15 years ago as a way to be able to produce fewer different sizes to fit riders. Looks like a solid little hybrid for the price, though in time you may find that the wide seat and suspension seat post pose more problems than solutions. Easily fixed though.

My new bike frame is to be delivered by FedEx tomorrow. Tonight I cleared off the work bench in the “Man Cave / Bike Cave” room and put out all of the components and organized and located all the tools I’ll need to get the bike assembled. Spending the morning working on the lawn and/or in Lightroom processing an evening’s worth of sunset photos I shot earlier this week till the frame arrives. Then I’m going to put on some music in the bike room and savor the process of building up the bike.

Don’t ask how nice of a body & lens would be the equivalent $$$ as what I’ve put into this thing. I’ll just say it’s more than a 5DmkII body and then some nice glass.

[orionid]

yeah, the saddle seat is going to go first. my ass doesnt curve that way.

[Barracuda]

It’s arrived. After a year’s wait, and the longest morning and afternoon in a long time, FedEx arrived with my new frame around 4:30 today.

more photos: https://picasaweb.google.com/102637182371352471338/KirkFrameworks?authkey=Gv1sRgCLWc7KC1uILNaQ#

While waiting for my frame, I did some planting in the front yard, then brought out the camera with the old Nikon 135mm attached:

[fluffybunny]

Cuda,

Since I only have the shallowest of cycle knowledge I can only comment on what I see, but it looks awesome.
I do have experience in fabrication and know that achieving the aesthetic he went after was quite difficult, especially for what appears to be a small shop.
I’m curious if the joinery is all his work, welded from tubing or how he otherwise crafted things like these:
DSC_5283.jpg and IMG_1946.jpg

“Well, you have a sweet bike. And you’re really good at hooking up with chicks. Plus you’re like the only guy at school who has a mustache.”

[Barracuda]

Each Kirk Frameworks is hand built, one at a time, by Dave Kirk. He either does lugged (as my bike is) or filet brazed. He uses lugs by several different makers, but all of his JKS series bikes (like my bike is) uses llewellyn lugs. Dave shapes and customizes these lugs to his aesthetic, and yes, it’s not easy to get that sharp of a lug line nor sharp of a point on the lug. Each tube is hand mitered for fit before the lugs are brazed. Dave also hand bends each of the Terraplane rear seat stays (the tube that runs from the rear wheel up to the seat post) for each specific bike he is building, tuned to the rider’s size and needs. Fairly sure he bends the fork blades himself on his own built tooling as well. Add it all up, it’s one finely crafted machine, who’s looks are only superseded by the performance. All of that, of course, doesn’t come cheap. But it’s a cost that I was willing to spend after 7 years of riding and not planning on stopping any time soon. I’ll take this over any wonder-light carbon mass produced machine built by the big names in bikes.

[Barracuda]

All dressed up and ready to go.

[Barracuda]

fluffybunny – let’s see this new ride of yours.

Working on my on-the-move photography skillz.

[fluffybunny]

fluffybunny – let’s see this new ride of yours. Working on my on-the-move photography skillz.

That looks like a nice place to ride,.. smooth and no cars. I was still processing this week’s entries @ 1600 before I left for work so I’m a little strapped for time but I’ll get some up soon.

[fluffybunny]

fluffybunny – let’s see this new ride of yours.

Finally got a moment to breath.

The tie wraps are still uncut as I am working out the bugs as I go.
Its got a few nicks but I think pretty good shape. The guy advertised it as a “2010 Trek Pilot 2.1” but I’m pretty sure it’s a 2009 that sat in the shop until he bought it in 2010.

Bigger:
http://img836.imageshack.us/img836/8683/mg4367large.jpg

[Barracuda]

I was just thinking “wonder if Fluffy’s posted a picture of his bike yet”. Looks like a good rig once you get the zip ties cut down. I can’t quite tell from the angle of the bars, but looks like they may be rotated too far down right now. Looks like the ends of the bars are pointed slightly upward, normally they are either parallel with the ground, or even slightly pointed downward to give the best comfort in the drops. But ultimately, it’s what ever is comfortable for the rider, I don’t have much experience with shimano’s STI shifters to give you any recommendations on the angle that gives the best comfort for the hands. What’s attached to the stem, GPS of some sort?

Overall, looks like you’ve got yourself a solid bike that’ll provide plenty of good miles of service without beating you up.

Dave Kirk emailed me the studio photos of my bike that he took before boxing it up and shipping it to me. Really shows off the colors better than the photos I’ve taken so far:

[fluffybunny]

Man that guy’s attention to detail is exquisite!

I am definitely on a voyage of discovery with respect to fine tuning. I think I got the saddle right after a change there. It came with a race seat that killed me after two hours. I rode in the pictured one for 4-5 hours last weekend and didn’t feel anything afterwards.

The bars and stem are another thing. The two hour ride was ok, but the longer one killed my elbows. Had trouble “unlocking” them after (rode mostly on the hoods). Does this maybe mean the saddle is too far back or the stem is too long? Should there be some angle in my elbows normally?

That’s my Garmin PN-60. Goes with me hiking and now cycling. A lot of the guys I ride with use their phones and Endomondo, but I prefer to leave my phone strictly as a comm device and safely in the (waterproof) saddle bag.

[Barracuda]

re: elbows, never lock your arms when riding. Your elbows provide a lot of shock absorption for your upper body. Ideally, your upper arms should be parallel with the fork blades/head tube, forearms at a flatter angle. I think if you rotate those bars upwards some, till the end of the drop section is flat with the ground, you’ll be happier.

This is a more typical setup:

though may be a tad bit too far in the other direction. The important part is that your elbows and wrists are in comfortable fairly relaxed positions.

As far as the seat goes, as long as your comfortable, that’s all that matters. I know a lot of guys who won’t trade their piece of stretched leather for the newest wonder saddle of any shape for the world, etc. I start having problems with more padded saddles starting to chafe/rub in uncomfortable ways far sooner than the sit bones start complaining these days, but it takes a fairly regularly cycling routine to get to that point. Though, if my saddle is too firm, my glutes/IT band take too much of a beating and those start to complain, so it’s a trade off that takes a while to hone in on, and can and probably will change over time.

[fluffybunny]

A friend sent me this. Looks interesting, perhaps for someone like me who doesn’t have a long view of historical cycling.

Book review: Grant Petersen, “Just Ride”

http://www.bikemag.com/news/reviewed-just-ride/#

[Author]

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