Coast to Coast for Veterans

So, a few weeks back, I babbled on about how the Surly Long Haul Trucker was maybe a bit of pig-iron overkill for a lot of cyclists. But then, there are riders like Iris......who is stuffing DC life in an Ortlieb pannier bag, and setting out on a cross-country ride to benefit the Yellow Ribbon Fund. Iris needed a bulletproof rig that would flatten out 50-100 miles of pavement a day (here's her route) and plunked down for a nice new LHT.
She asked if we would chip in with some accessories, which we did, thanks to Serfas who is exceedingly generous in stocking our schwag bag. Iris has a noble intent -- to support the Yellow Ribbon Fund's invaluable mission to fill in the gaps in the rehabilitation efforts of troops at Walter Reed AMC and the National Naval Medical Center.

Sound familiar? You may recall a handsome young man, who is not too fond of the French and has a man-crush on Matthew McConaughey, schlepping wristbands....
Yes, the WristStrong campaign, of course. Which did not seek to appropriate the likeness to another rubber-wristband-based charitable endeavor in any way. Stephen T. Colbert raised about $172K for the Yellow Ribbon Fund, with wristbands that, paradoxically, were not yellow. Here's the very funny check presentation:


I'm sure if you click through to Iris' site, and put a few dollars down to help her top the Colbert Nation's $172K, she'll sign a 10-foot-tall novelty check too.

"The Jamis Aurora bores me, Alice."

Alice? Alice in Pun-derland, sorry.


People really like the Surly Long Haul Trucker. So do we. All steel, super-pure touring bike, Subaru-ish aesthetics, eff-you brand, good price, even the name, "Long Haul Trucker," just talking about it makes me want one.
Problem is, they're a bit scarce. We have two small ones in at the moment, check back here for up-t0-datish info. We can also order them, for now. But next week/month? Dunno. And it does long-distance touring really well, but it's a bit overbuilt for many other more pedestrian tasks.

Some folks bemoan the lack of good steel road bikes to choose from, but just for giggles, let's have a look at the Jamis Aurora.
We'll start by describing what it's not. It's not a pure, cross-country (ahem) trucker. With bigger front rings, a shorter wheelbase, lower-rake fork, and higher bottom bracket, it won't handle as well when completely loaded down. It doesn't have the unique touring-tough spec of the LHT, in favor of all-around riding ease. The brand name doesn't describe the mood resulting from your existential crisis. And while I find it attractive, it's a different look.

But if your touring is more in the olde English manner, the Aurora still features a steel frame and fork, all the braze-ons necessary for racks front and rear, and nice wide gearing. And maybe you'd like to throw in some all-season commuting?No problem. And the adjustable stem might seem odd, but it helps this bike fulfill it's mission as a great all-rounder. Hike it up for touring or commuting....
....or lower it down for fast group rides (yes, slap on some skinnier tires, and it will do). Maybe even put some knobby tires on, and use it to give cyclocross a first try.

We've sold a few Auroras over the years, and it's always nice to see these rigs bouncing around the city, and on the roads and paths out yonder. It's even nicer to hear riders crow about them, as this recent customer of ours did ("a revelation").

Have a look at the Aurora Elite, too. The price bump gets you a high-quality 10-speed drivetrain, a higher grade of steel, and carbon fork (which still has mid-blade eyelets for front racks). Big Shawn is pretty sure this was the most frequently EP'd (employee direct purchase from the factory) bike in City Bikes history, back when it was still known as similarly-celestial Nova.

If you're planning to criss-cross the country, you'll be better served on the Long Haul Trucker. But the Auroras are 95% as good for more typical touring, and will also do all those other things at 95%, too.

Touring in the British fashion

Looking for something to do this weekend? For 130 years, England's CTC has had a good suggestion.



And don't forget part 2.

San Diego Ride Report

Back in mid-January, my productivity had hit its usual winter-hibernation levels. So my bosses shipped me off to the Bicycle Leadership Conference, no doubt hoping that the San Diego sunshine would burn off my symptoms of seasonal affective disorder. I mentioned the outcome of the riding I did out there, so I've cut and pasted the ride report I sent back that first night in San Diego, along with a couple of pics.

Opened up my bike case, assembled the Moots, and took the cover off the wheels, only to find both rims smashed inward. Grrr.
Mike worked the hookup for me, and referred me to a great bike rental dude who lent me a spare wheelset. Yahoo! So after a few hours walking to his shop and back, I mounted up and headed over to Ocean Beach. Had a lobster taco at the pier, tested the climbing legs on Point Loma (they failed). Perfect 60 degree day. Ahhhh. Then, climbing up some road that ended in 'o' in the very confusing Point Loma residential section, my chain somehow got jammed, don't quite know how. I tried to shift/pedal out of it, snapped the rear derailleur hanger off (it's replaceable, thank god).
Naturally, i forgot my multitool back in the hotel room, had a pretty incomplete knowledge of where i was, it was getting late, several miles from the hotel, and my bike was quite definitively disabled. So, i hiked up a bunch of twisting residential streets, coasted down the hills in the goofy pro-racer chew-the-bar-like-a-rawhide-bone position, trying to suppress my impulse to pedal, and suck the now-vestigial rear derailleur into the wheel that i don't own.

However, other than Point Loma (lots of hiking up Uphillo drive), and Canon Rd (long downhill that would be a lot more fun on a functional bike), most of San Diego is flat. Walking wasn't going to get me back in time for the reception, so I resorted to sitting on the bike, reaching to the ground with my tip-toes, and kicking along like a Hotwalk. Beach cruisers whizzing by at a relatively scorching 10mph, i kicked along my titanium hi-end Moots for several miles at a jogger's pace.

Other cyclists averted their eyes, either because they didn't want to help, or they saw the derailler hanging flaccid from my bike, and recognized the futility of my sitch. Also, the need to dismount/remount for every uphill gave me the opportunity to practice my cyclocross skills (still have that goshdarn remount hop).

Anyway, that's Day One. Don't cry for me, Argentina, it's still 60 degrees out.

Bicycles in Ireland, pt 1

With things around the shop settling into an offseason swoon, the timing was right for a long-planned and often-delayed trip to Ireland with my dad to tour the sheep farms and village pubs of his misspent youth in County Cork. Regrettably, we did most of our tour either by foot or by Nissan, but I did take a few pics of bike relatedness, and wished I had hauled the Moots along with me.

We began in Dublin, where nearly everybody bikes. No wonder, they really make it painless (at least in comparison to DC). Every road, everything from one-way lanes to the highway into town, has a bike lane. And nice ones, too. Every road in Ireland is paved with this terribly coarse chip-seal asphalt, it's basically just stones mixing in with some tar. It percussed my lumbars in the car, and I'm guessing it would turn any bicycle into a circa 1987 Cannondale crit racer. However, they've put a nice colored surface seal on the road that not only provides a smooth (but not rainslick) ride, but provides a nice visual distinction.

The gent to the right is fairly representative of the commuters I saw. No fancy gear, riding an older MTB or hybrid, wearing his work clothes. Atypically, he's wearing a helmet, one of the few I saw in Ireland.

When he got to work, he likely locked his beater to one of the many bike parking islands throughout the city. The first pic is the quite barren racks outside of (you guessed it) the department of motor vehicles. The next one was far more typical, filled nearly to capacity during the workday.

Miscellany -- The Guv'ment is trying to keep Gaelic alive, no doubt having observed the Babelicious harmony that prevails in such other such polylingual nations as Belgium, Spain, and my home and native land. So they have entire towns whose citizens are subsidized to be all-or-nothing Gaelic, Gaelic state radio and TV stations ("South Park" and "Pimp my Ride" dubbed into Gaelic), and of course, bilingual street signs that taught me that the Gaelic word for bike is either "Raon" or "Rothar".

More later, perhaps.