I haven’t had the chance to ride much at all lately, and I’m starting to jones pretty bad. Mainly it’s my schedule, but I’ve also been taking it easy with the cramping/pull in my right thigh. When it gets very tight, I find that if I take a few minutes and massage it, it feels much better for a while. Cycling does not seem to aggravate it at all, and it is gradually improving.
Pictures will be forthcoming, but the Marin has now taken on a new persona: Version 5a. First, it now has Albatross bars and the original wide padded Marin seat for a very upright riding position. Second, the 35m tires are gone and it is now sporting a pair of 42c knobbies. Finally, the rear rack has returned. With the fat tires, there is absolutely no clearance for a fender by the back brake stay unless I were to split it and do a custom mount. Since I would need either 45m fenders or woodys, I’m not going to make that investment just yet.
Here is my logic as far as this setup: I wanted the upright position to make a comfortable bike for Red when she wants to ride. The frame has a hand adjustable seat clamp, so setting the saddle height is very easy for switching between her, me, and the boys. I think they would prefer Rapidfires or some other indexed system, but I went with friction bar ends because it was quick and easy to switch from the moustache setup that had been on it. The knobbies will allow the bike to go places where the Long Haul Trucker might not be up to. Thus I have a “mountain bike” to take along if the boys want to try some trails, and it gives me an option for some rougher terrain. Plus if someone else wants to try some rougher trails, there is nothing preventing them from tweaking the seat height. Finally, the rack allows strapping down whatever and/or attaching the panniers and making a grocery/camping or whatever run.
All the while I was thinking about later this summer when we will be camping for a long weekend. The campsite is accessed by a rough gravel road, there are mountain trails all over, and there will be a need to move anything from food to towels to game stuff all over the place. This bike will now be perfect for that.
I also now have the option of swapping the wheels and knobbies with the LHT if I want to use that bike on some rougher trails. I haven’t checked the clearance yet, but I think the fenders should be fine. The rear axle spacing is 130 rather than 135, but I’ll cobble something together to make that work, if needed.
The albatross were an Ebay find, and the tires were $5 each from Nashbar clearance. Not bad.
The sizing is not perfect for me – a little cramped because the bars sit back pretty far. Ideally I would either go for a larger frame or rig up a longer stem. But for now its fine.
In other news, the All-Star tournament has started. There are three games in the initial round, and last night my son’s team won 10-0 with a homerun slugfest. The field is in South Hanover and has a 200′ fence, which is no match for several of the players. The opposing team was obviously overmatched, especially with their pitching. Fortunately their parents were good sports, and enjoyed the homeruns. Unfortunately, Ave had three hits, but they never made it out of the infield; and all three resulted in outs. He is excellent at making contact, but now he needs to put some more power behind his swing. He is capable of doing so, but I sense it is a mental thing at this point. He is fearful that he may not start tomorrow night.
As for riding…maybe this weekend.
Pedalling Along 