Eureka L'Eroica

When I shared a Vimeo video of L’Eroica with a good friend, he suggested I might rather ride a three-stage tour in Wisconsin if I wished to rip my legs off.

With all due respect to our more competitive riders, here is my answer:

Those who ride in L'Eroica must ride steel bikes built before 1984 with down tube shifters and no clip-less peddles. 11-speed electronic transmissions on carbon fibre bikes need not apply.

Those who ride L'Eroica sport kits like Fausto Coppi and Gino Bartali. Wool, not spandex, is de rigueur. Even modern helmets—though extremely important for safety—appear out of place.

L'Eroica's routes are over white gravel roads -- strade bianche. The Triple Crown no doubt is all tarmac.

L'Eroica is one stage only -- but one may choose grand 200K route to fill the day.

L'Eroica is a "happening." Triple Crown is a race.

L'Eroica is in Tuscany. Parma ham n cheese come from over the Apennines maybe 50 miles away, and the chianti is picked, pressed, aged, and bottled locally. Need we say more.

Ci vediamo a Gaiole in Ottobre 2012.

Lusting for the Feel of Steel and Other Substances

I am continually enchanted by my Obsidian Blue Madone 6.5. Technology moves beneath me in a sensuous telepathic groove every time I throw a leg over and with every stroke of the peddle.

But, alas, when I swing, straddle and roll upon my sweet ole revamped Trek 412, or the rescued Giapponese Sanwa that strayed into my life, I’m all smiles.

Thanks to Bill Leibman (who also owns a Madone 6.5), these simple diversions on old steel bikes have become—well—how can one convey the appeal of what today are turned out only as works of art?

The answer came when Bill pushed me on to Robert Penn’s "It’s All About the Bike" where he chronicles his pursuit of happiness on the ultimate road bicycle.

And so, as we approach 65 aboard our glorious Trek carbon fiberology, we find ourselves still yearning. Perhaps, if you play piano, it is like striding Gershwin over the ivories of a Bosendorfer grand yet unable to quench a thirst for the Steinway just beyond your hands.

We ushered in 2011 with former teammate and dearest high school friend Gil (too close to Norwegian) Gulbrandson and his gracious wife Debbie (Don’t you dare refer to Indiana University as U of I, or I’ll kick you till you’re dead.).

As the New Year approached, Gil introduced me to his Victrola, along with a memorable collection of big band music, and his Waterford bicycle.

Hold it!

Did I say WATERFORD as in custom bicycle built in what was formerly Schwinn’s Paragon custom bicycle facility in Waterford, Wisconsin?

Gil’s Waterford is a light and lithe late 1990’s set-up, which our dearest high school buddy, Dan Dekoven discovered for him on “ebag” (sic.) for less than the cost of a entry level Trek street bike.

Dan creates lovely fine furniture and passionately restores old steel bicycles in Evergreen, Colorado. As I lifted Gil’s Waterford off the floor, I became instantly connected, and immediately emailed Dan and to ask why he hadn’t thought of me.

Little was I prepared for what transpired after that:

January 2nd, 2011

Dan: “I just acquired a 1994 Eddy Merckx Century frame on ebag (sic.). Paint is rough but frame is straight and rust free. Not too shabby for $280. Hope to get it built up by spring as I have most of the components left over from previous bikes. "Hello, my name is Dan and I'm a bikeaholic..."

Dave: "My God. Why am I missing these opportunities?

Perhaps I’ve been slow at the trigger, lacking in Ebay Savvy, and, yes, because I spent nearly $5 Gs on my 6.5 Madone not 1.5 years ago. Now I suffer through Bob Penn’s book and have for some time been transfixed by the work of an extraordinarily gifted artisan named Dave Wages of Ellis Cycles.

Now back to Dan and his 94 Merckx."

Dan: “I have a mixture of new and used Campy components for the Merckx - Chorus brakes, shifters and headset; Nitto stem, bars and seatpin; Veloce compact crank; new Athena11 speed derailleurs that my friend the bike mechanic said will work with 10 speed; and my Campy Proton wheelset. This is my 4th Merckx and I've regretted selling the other three - especially the MX Leader, which was #98 of the last 100 produced, so will probably hold on to this one. They hold a certain mystique for me... This one is definitely used, so has character.”

Dave: "Has Dan gone off the deep end? No, he is just really detailed passionate about bikes. In fact, when we rode the Santa Fe Century together last May, Dan was straddling his Waterford that he found on “ebag" (sic.) The color scheme is a bit unctuous, but, beneath the paint, it is a lovely bike nevertheless.

We continued our dialog after my dumbfounded concern about the headset on my own restoration of a Raleigh Record—something we’ll chat about later."

January 25th, 2011, expounds January 2nd’s conversation.

Dan: (Dave’s translation of Dan’s tech lingo) “I have the gruppo together. It's a mixture of various Campy components: Record (not Raleigh but Campy as in Campagnolo) headset, Centaur BB, Veloce compact crank, Chorus 10 speed shifters, Veloce 13/29 cassette and chain, Chorus brakes (Centaur, Veloce, and Chorus are all Campagnolo creations.), Nitto (Non e italiano ma Giapponese) seatpin, bars and stem, and new Athena (Campy also) 11 speed front and rear der. (derailleurs) that my bike guy says will work fine with 10 speed. Some new and some used off ebay or parts I had lying around. Bike mechanic just prepped the frame and I treated it with Framesaver before. I'll get it from him on Thurs. and sand out the rust spots before touching it up with Testor's (the company which makes paints we used to use on our model airplanes as kids). We'll probably put it together pretty soon before he gets busy.

By the way, another great resource that my riding buddy Greg turned me on to a couple years ago is www.probikekit.com. They're Brits (funny fellows with funny accents who are wild about anything remotely mechanical) and have the best prices (probably only in Pounds Sterling) I've found with free shipping all the way from England. The only hang up is that they ship via the Brit equivalent of Parcel Post combined with all the new tighter shipping regs. (homeland security provisions) due to package bombs (Brits take very seriously those who skulk in from the colonies not intending to play fairly by the rules of cricket.) - so it generally takes about a month to receive your order.”

Dave: "Gracious sakes alive. I cannot wait to try this Merckx out. Danny, I’m breaking off early from Linda’s family reunion in New Mexico and coming up to ride this re-creation.

Now, we move deep to absolute bottom of bicycle riding psychology. I temper my translations of Dan’s male anatomy jargon trusting that cycling adults will get the point."

Dan: “I see that you got a used Brooks for your vintage Trek. (This was a gift purchase from Bill Leibman who found the lovely leather too soft.) I'm a Brooks convert - currently have four of them. My only complaint was that, unlike modern saddles, there’s no accommodation for your balls on most models.”

Dave: “Wait, Dan. Are there accommodations for one’s balls on any saddle—Brooks or otherwise?”

Dan: “Actually that's not my only complaint - they take forever to break in. The B17 Imperial addresses this with a gonad cutout. I traced it and applied it to my other B17's and my Brooks Professional. I found that it definitely helps me. I'd be glad to send you a pattern and directions if you encounter a case of numbnuts (I don’t ride my 412 all that much and definitely don’t ride it more than 20 miles.). I also gave the Brooks Pro the Sheldon Brown treatment. Do you know about him? He just died, but was perhaps one of the most knowledgeable bike people around. He suggests soaking Brooks saddles in neat’s-foot oil (Mon dieu! I mistakenly thought it was motor oil). My bike guy and many other experts say this is not advisable (Admittedly, since Brooks provides their saddle softening lubrication) , but I like the results.

This is the kind of bicycle minutiae that the dudes at classicrendezvous will go about forever. I'm hooked. It's a nice diversion from the harsh reality of trying to survive as an artisan (Dan’s furniture is on a level with Dave Wage’s bicycles. These are two great artists and craftsmen.). At some point I hope to free myself from this attachment to the material - but not yet...

Don't get me started. Have they hung Lance Armstrong yet?”

Dave: So there you have it. We shall forever love and miss Sheldon and love to hate Lance. The allure of steel is and will be with cycling lovers until the Apennines come tumbling down.

Hard Lessons

Last week, we received word that Richard Nicodemus was stuck and killed by a truck on a rural road east of Orangeville.

After his retirement from Kelly-Springfield tire company, Richard was smitten by the bicycle bug and became the aerodynamic recumbent protege of Tyger Johnson.

Richard was a soft spoken rider and always in a delightful place while he rode.

It is hard enough when fellow riders crash and are seriously injured as was Chuck Garrett last summer. Loose gravel on pavement at the bottom of a hill was Chuck’s demise.

At Richard's visitation, Chuck told me that while his wife, Janis, was in for knee surgery, Richard visited with Chuck as he was recovering in the room across the hall. That was Richard exactly.

Fellow rider Paul Heitz was sideswiped on Pearl City Road a few years ago, gravely hurt and very nearly dispatch from this earth. Bones were broken and a lung punctured. Paul was laid up in hospital but today is back on the road as active as ever.

Adam Schultz was returning home on Park Boulevard when a careless person blew the stop sign at Park and Empire and threw him up on her windshield. She had no insurance and little remorse. I guess Adam made her late for an elective college class. Adam’s surgical repairs are ongoing.

Peter Flynn was struck from behind in broad daylight by an elderly lady. She was so distraught that she nearly backed over him. Later, Eric Walser said the same lady brushed him, whereupon he chased her down and gave her a severe tongue lashing.

These close encounters are terribly unsettling but death is too final, and the only person who can say what really happened is the driver of the truck which killed Richard. He is Peggy’s neighbor and is taking it quite hard and will most likely live in a dark place for the rest of his days.

Riding bicycles can pose hard lessons. It is easy to lose our focus for self preservation as we drift into riders’ rhapsody. So our joy of riding begs a certain amount of circumspection.

I write this in the company of jazz pianist, Bill Evans, playing his “Re: Person I Knew.” It is thoughtfully haunting-- typical of Bill’s compositions.


In and Out of the Canyon

Packer fans are chomping their brats after soundly biting the Falcons beaks last night. And while the Bears were ripping out the talons of the Seahawks, I was pointing my cyclocross deep into the cold wild country where, as Yoda Yonda would say, “the owls screw the chickens.”

I’ve ridden through but never out of Apple River Canyon State Park. This seemed like an excellent place from which to explore new roads between Stockton and Apple River.

It was 16 degrees as I parked the Blazer in the lot. I lifted the Las Cruces out the back and began adding layers over my Craft tee and merino V-neck-- a hooded jersey followed by a fleece lined nylon vest, and finally my Patagonia lined ripstop hunters-hold-yer-fire orange shell.

Then, toe warmers to socks and booties on tap; puffy down gloves; and warm woolen cap. These are a few of my favorite things.

I rode east out of Apple River Canyon Park to Fiedler and turned south. After about a block, as Fiedler turns right, I continued straight ahead on Kupersmith Road. Kupersmith is paved down into the valley to the intersection at Rush Town Road.

“Let dogs delight to bark but not bite for God hath made them so.” A pair of honey furry golden retrievers trotted along side on my approach to Rush Town.

At the stop sign just across the little bridge, it was straight south up a very abrupt incline. After tackling that, I rode flat and curled back east to Rush Town Road along Kupersmith and Chelsea Roads. Several creeks run together chiseling solitary hollows around this loop.

Back at the intersection of Rush Town and Kupersmith Roads, we might have ridden straight ahead on Rush Town over to Canyon Park Road. Instead back turned north on Kupersmith up the hill past our fluffy tail waggers to Fiedler Road. From there we reached over to Canyon Park Road.

Circling back into the Park, we crossed the bridge, and turned left. My GPS measured 17% on the climb out of the canyon. On top, Canyon Park Road eases its way west to Broadway Road.

For years, I have passed by the south end of Broadway Road. On a whim, I drove it in the Blazer the Friday before and was delighted at my discovery. Broadway runs from the village of Apple River southwest and terminates at Townsend Road just east of the Boy Scout Camp.

After a couple easy rollers, the road dips into a quiet coulee and rises steeply out the other side around a corner near the Bonjour Farm. I was impressed with the grip of my Schwalbe tires and was pleased I had listened to Bill Leibman’s lesson on tire rotation.

In the next quarter mile the coulee converges with Apple River Canyon, and you look down on either side through tight naked woods expecting a buck or buckskin covered Boy Scout. In fact, I was close a place where people practice orienteering to build teamwork and leadership skills, and perhaps mix it up with the Scouts. It was tough terrain on a bicycle but I preferred riding on frosty gravel to trudging through the thick forest.

I squeezed the brakes down the hill to Townsend Road and approached my turnaround at the entrance to the Scout Camp. After slowing for a lady in a dirty cream Chrysler I came about. Alas, I cut handlebars too short. The snow clogged rear tire met the cold hard pavement, and, BANG, down I went. All the mummified layers failed to cushion my left shoulder from the fall. I prayed for my rotator cuff as I climbed back up Broadway and made my way back to the Park.

Maybe I should take up snowboarding -- eh, maybe not.

412 Revival

This week, Joe Dadez and I revived my ole Trek 412 purchased in 1981 by yours truly.

The Brooks saddle came from Bill Leibman who just couldn't get used to it and graciously sold it to me. A new seat post makes for friendlier more comfortable adjustments.

Speaking of comfort, I took Bill's advice and installed Nitto's "Noodle" handlebars and their longer stem. Fresh brake levers permitted us to wrap the cables into the handlebars with Bontrager's simulated leather tape. The cocoa tape and honey brown saddle colors don't quite match-- yet.

The original Michelin tires still held their pressure, but to avoid flatting on Freeport's livelier streets, we installed new Bontrager tires and tubes.

My Vibram Five Fingers and Terra Plana "barefoot" shoes grip well enough over the MKS RMS Sneaker peddles from Rivendell.

Now, it's time to look for some touch-up paint. Master painter, Jason Sanchez from Milwaukee finishes Dave Wages' fabulous Ellis hand-built bicycles, and he suggested using Testors' model paint. Jason's good advice echoed that of my ole "geezer" buddy, Dan Dekoven, who rode his lovely Waterford with me in this May's Santa Fe Century.

Twenty Something Again

This winter, I made a New Year’s Resolution to maintain some familiarity with hill riding in our Upper Left Hand Corner. On January 16th, we explored ghostly rural roads between Massbach Ridge Winery and Hanover. On Sunday, the 24th, we revisited “Twenty Something,” a route we blogged last May.

Twenty Something begins and ends at the Salem UCC church just up the hill from the Slurp n Burp in Loran. We named it Twenty Something, because there is something close to a twenty percent assault twenty something miles into the ride.

This January, we were in forty degree wool piercing nearly dreary “sun please appear” weather. A southwest blow squelched the tinnitus in my ears as I rode into the stately Val de Loran towards Mount Carroll.

In Carroll County, I happened to look over my left shoulder to see an ominous looking earthen dam holding back Lake Carroll. I turned back to the road ahead and instinctively quickened the tempo.

Then, a deep baritone growl invaded my conscious. Glancing down through the handle bars, I was horrified to see water gushing over my tires. The peddles now turned in great earnest as I struggled to keep my rims above the rising water. This was now a race to get out the valley before being swallowed by the deluge.

Then, miraculously, the water vanished, and I remembered the possible side effects from the Analox antibiotic I was taking for a pesky sinus infection—“hear voices, see things, or sense things that are not there (hallucinations).”

Relieved, I ascended the west wall of the valley and pressed through the wind to the corner at Meyer’s Road. Now, the blow barely hissed in my left ear as I rolled through the hills and valleys of one of the loveliest roads in the Upper Left.

Meyers Road is unique, because it doesn’t follow through or cross perpendicular to the valleys. Like the path of a great mogul skier, it takes an oblique path sliding over the dales. And so, you receive a different perspective of the surrounding hills and woods.

I confess to being cheeky about a certain training camp in last May’s blog. Only recently did I learn that Blackwater’s facility trains law enforcement people in special weapons and tactics with an emphasis on tactics.

Mark Marti opened my eyes to how critical this kind of training is to preserving our freedom from fear and intimidation. Mark is recently retired from Freeport’s Police Department, and he shared his experiences as a volunteer officer for the United Nations security force in Kosovo.

There he received several letters of commendation for bringing down some truly bad guys without so much as shot fired. While producers of movies and television sell heavy armor and gunplay, real law enforcement strives to shield innocent folks like you and me from becoming innocent casualties of desperate gunplay.

Mark’s experiences echoed stories I had heard from a former Captain of the New Mexico State Police Narcotics Division. While the Cohen Brothers’ No Country for Old Men may be gripping in its entertainment, it would be refreshing to see a factual treatment of the hours of training spent by those who keep us from harm’s way?

Always grateful for a tail wind, I pressed up the 20 (something) percent grade on East Loran Road. A sweet looking lady in a shiny new Chevrolet Traverse rounded the corner as I crested the hill. She gave me the look like, “wherever did you come from?” I don’t believe she was an Avalox induced hallucination.

Finally, it was all down hill to Loran past the Slurp n Burp tavern to the little church and the heated seats in my trusty slightly rusty Blazer, Ruby.

Byrne's Bicycle Diaries

In his book, Bicycle Diaries, David Byrne circles his feet over his peddles and writes about cities he has visited around the world.

Santa Fe, New Mexico is as close as I’ve been to urban cycling. Even the central plaza in peak turista season seems a quiet neighborhood compared to Byrne’s experiences in Berlin, Buenos Aries, Istanbul, London, Manila, New York, San Francisco, and Sidney.

Although they impinge with all manner of vehicular and pedestrian traffic, Byrne finds these places worth seeing from the seat of a bike. Several cities, like Berlin, Paris, London, and New York are actively promoting bicycle use with special lanes, creative racks, and short-term rentals.

Recently in Paris, I saw locals in business attire straddling loaner bikes. Renting from Velib is as simple as swiping your credit card and plucking one of their bikes from the rack. Peddle into the Parisian traffic, and if you persevere for thirty minutes, vous payez rien.

I found Byrne’s socio-cultural, artistic, and, yes, musical commentaries thoughtful once we got through the Bush Bashing. This “Talking Head” has his views and is not bashful about bringing them along on the bike. But can you think of a better place to talk politics?

The author closes with a discussion of urban planning and future travels along the streets in his home town, New York City. He peers over the horizon where technology and legislators promise to curb automobile driving freedoms in Manhattan. And what will become of urban cycling if rallies like Critical Mass “cork” in the paths of others? Will we jeopardize control of our bicycles? More of that later, and permit me to digress.

The first time I saw the New York City was on a bright Saturday in my “72” BMW 1600. Riding shotgun was David Lipp, a fellow Army classmate who was born and raised in Chicago’s near north.

We emerged from the Holland Tunnel and drove into an empty financial district not yet shadowed by the World Trade Center. Then, only stately Trinity Church stood guard over Wall Street. Lipp and I waived off a proposition from una Madonna della strada and walked over to Fraunces Tavern where General Washington bid farewell to his officers. On the way, we passed Delmonico’s Restaurant, when a ghost appeared in my imagination. It was a cigar smoking Samuel Clemens eating sautéed sweetbreads.

Back in the Bimmer, we headed north on Lafayette where Midtown’s congestion swallowed us whole. I had driven in downtown Chicago but had never experienced anything like this cacophonous gridlock.

Lipp was a huge astronaut groupie and worshipped adventures in Outer Space. His eyes grew wide, and he cried out over the din, “I can’t believe they live here.”

Even after reading Byrne’s book, I tend to agree. Permit me to paraphrase Walt Whitman:

“Take your Manhattan streets with its powerful throbs, beating drums and the endless noisy chorus.

Give me fields where unmow’d grass, fresh corn and wheat grow and serene-moving animals teach content. Grace me with solitude and glorious hills as I cycle the Upper Left-hand Corner of Illinois.”