zjrog

Took out a tape measure to.measure top tube stand over heights for a few bike.

32.5" standover for the CAAD8 and my R200 is essentially identical.

34.25 for my old steel KHS. I expect the new to me 98 R300 to be about the same.

Just a tick taller is the Marin...

And at 34 even, is the 29er Monster Cross.

Both the Marin and the 29er were measured halfway. Between seatpost and stem.

For contrast, my 89 Trek 950 is 31.5. And after a lot of thought, this bike might get the drop bar and 9 speed treatment.

The Marin is on hold for now. Waiting to get wheels trued.

The R300 is completely disassembled, to clean parts and see what I need for it.

Gotta get my mojo back. Winter is kicking my butt.

tallbikeman

Zjrog I grew up in Nevada under similar conditions as you are in. We have passed the winter Solstice so days are getting longer. More sun means our moods will start to lighten from the cold and gray winters grip. Your digital rides sound like a great idea. I've been fighting the cold north winds but still canI cycle every day here in Central California. Our cold is your warm. My seasonal allergies have started so now I take a 24hr. allergy pill every day to keep the head and chest colds at bay. Because it is warmer here all the plants start pollinating much earlier than in Utah. I'm praying the Corona virus does not get a toe hold here in the US. All I need is one more thing that kills older men lurking around. Even at that I have been sticking to my diet using Myfitnesspal and a personal diary. I use my personal diary to keep track of daily calorie, daily weight, and all my exercise. With these listed in one place I can see more clearly why I'm not losing weight and proceed to change something to get back on track. Losing weight is such a war. I'm down to low 236lbs and flirting with 235. My weight scale is a triple beam doctors office type and is very accurate in an analog way. I have not measured the height of my top tubes on my giant old frames but I do clear them with both feet flat on the ground. I got my phone working again by dumping everything and restarting all the programs. I can take pictures again so I'll get some of my go-fast Nishiki Sebring. Keep strong and keep those wheels spinning my friend.

zjrog

I stand flat footed across all these as well. The Marin seems just a bit closer than the others. So probably a good idea to keep it on paved paths.

Awesome for you keeping with your program! Looking forward to seeing your Nishiki!

While I blame winter, I have a ton of other things weighing on me as well. I only blame myself for letting these things mess with my mojo...

I got the RSX brifters for the R300 cleaned and functioning. Cleaned the front derailleur without disassembly. Cleaned the rear as much as I can, but it needs disassembly, maybe new jockey wheels. I cleaned the headset bearings and put new grease to them. But they just are not smooth... New sealed bearing headset ordered. Fit the Tektro calipers I had left over from the KHS upgrade, andcrealized I had a set of wheels on hand I can use. I'm really quite anxious to get this bike rolling!

Wheels for the Marin were dropped off to be trued. I need to replace shift and brake cables. So I want to pull the right side shifter and clean and lube it. But no rush... (the R300 has my attention presently)

zjrog

Still battling my lack of motivation. Weight is yoyo-ing a little. But that's ok.


Left pic was June 2018. Right pic was 2 days ago. WINNING!

Wheels for the Marin are back, and I think I'm going to fab a tool from a vise grip pliers to crimp the chainstays to fit 700x45 tires. I look at it this way. It was cheap, and I can learn something new. If I ruin it, I'm not out much money, and have a complete group to use elsewhere if I wish. Besides, as bent as it was when I got it, I'm already ahead. I can't get the right shifter to run the gears properly. So I need to disassemble and clean the shifters. Or.... I could do the drop bar swap and switch to 9 speed.

But. I kind of want to do a drop bar on my 89 Trek 950...

Mocked in place, I like it... The Sora 9 speed will require a different wheelset though. Hmmmm. Maybe the RSX and brifters off the 97 R300 might be better. Hmmmm. Must think. Like I really need a bunch of drop bar bike projects...

tallbikeman

Early 1980's Nishiki Sebring with 4130 main triangle tubes. The front fork is a Kabuki fork to replace original bent fork.

I kept the suicide brake levers and put thumbie shifters on the bar right where the stem is. The thumb shifters are friction shifters made by Sun and the fit drop bars just fine. This has been a good system. Brakes are old used Dia Comp e bay items. I polished them up and put new pads on them. They are awesome. Seat is a noseless Hobson Easyseat that is one of the most comfortable saddles I have ever had. Wellgo magnesium platform pedals. These pedals are very light and as you can see I have 27mm pedal extenders on the bike. This bike is quite comfortable.

This is an older style mtb crank rear derailleur setup. 180mm Raceface cranks and Shimano Alivio shadow tech mtb derailleur. I found that the old Suntour front derailleur has no problem shifting the triple up front. 32mm Gaterskin tires. So far very impressed with these tires.

This bike has the lowest bottom bracket of any bike I've owned. Not racing criteriums so no problem but don't pedal in corners or the pedals will strike.
This is my reward bicycle and I am quite pleased with it. The wheelset is an older Shimano aluminum aero rimmed with flat spokes type. It has 16 spokes on the front wheel and 20 spokes in back. These spokes look to be 13 or maybe 12 guage size spokes and have caused no issues. As you can see I'm gravel roading this bike and it is very fast but jars you more than my flat bar all road bik

zjrog

Woohoo! I like that!

I'm uncomfortable with the idea of low spoke count wheels. I have some, 16 front, 20 rear. But just don't see myself riding them outdoors. I have 20 front, 28 rear on my CAAD8, and 32 front and rear on my old KHS. My 29er rolls 28 spoke wheels...

I admit to not liking the chicken lever brakes in general, yet they look "right" on your Nishiki.

That bike sure came out nice. I hope it's as good to ride as it looks.

tallbikeman

Zjrog this bike has been great. The lightweight aero wheels accelerate faster than anything I've had before and easily maintain higher speeds than all my other bikes. I have been averaging 14mph+ on my rides and easily accelerating to 17mph and higher at times. I paid $50 for the used Shimano wheelset in very good condition, no issues. It has been a stellar wheelset with no broken spokes our out of alignment episodes. I weigh 234lbs this week and this helps the wheelset to survive. I tried it gravel roading as a lark and found out it is just about as fast on gravel roads as on the pavement. When using suicide brake levers you have to have very little play before the pads hit the rim. If you remember the suicide levers tend to bend under load so I wanted a brake system with very little excess brake cable travel. To facilitate tire removal in this system I installed the brake quick release levers on both front and back brake cables. I flip the little release lever and enough brake line slop then allows me to pull the straddle carriers off the straddle cable on the brakes and the wheels with fully inflated tires drop out without a problem. Centerpull brakes are very powerful when properly set up and even the suicide levers will stop the bike on a dime. The thumbie shifters have worked out better than I thought so they are staying this way. I have been experimenting with different types of foam rubber under the handlebar tape trying to find that magical least vibration and hand numbness solution to drop bars. Good luck with your rear chainstay crimping job on your Marin. The biggest tires I'm running are 40 mm and wish I could run bigger. Post pictures of the tool and the final result please. Good health to you and your family.

CommuteCommando

Just hauled a big pile of 3x to the DAV.

zjrog

That is AWESOME!!!!

I am in XL shirts predominantly now, some LARGE as well. I have a pile of 2x, 3x, and 4x shirts, XXL and XXXL shorts, 42 to 54 pants to donate somewhere. I hadn't considered DAV, and will look for a collection center locally. I am keeping one pair of 54 pants, and one 4x shirt as a reminder. From 54 to 38, and I can get 36s on, but they are not comfortable.

I'm having a severe motivational issue. Perhaps weather and seasonal related. But as mentioned before, some personal home issues are in there too. And of course, just I had decided to hit the gym, this Covid-19 mess hits. I'm not as concerned for myself, but my wife has several additional risk factors and co-morbidities that make me NEED to stay healthy.

I tried to ride Saturday, but the wind (25mph gusts of 40+) made it impossible, and so much dust, my eyes are still red and dry.

zjrog

I use quite similar wheels on my bike on the trainer. Pretty sure I won't ruin a low spoke count wheel on the trainer. Just my preference and opinion. But I really can't afford another big injury. I certainly admit, they make any bike look awesome. These are also Shimano wheels, WH-R561...

Like I said, they are sure purty... Once I cleaned them up. I got this set and and one other wheelset from a triathlon guy last year. I don't know if Shimano offers replacement spokes...

tallbikeman

That is a beautiful Cannondale. Your wheels are somewhat different than mine. They have their nipples at the hub instead of the rim. This is aerodynamically better. They also have a radial spoke pattern on the cassette side of the rear wheel. The spokes look to be very large, maybe 12-13 guage. These wheels should be pretty bulletproof. I thought of your accident when specing my tire size and went with 32mm tires. Very happy about that choice. That size tire grips the ground better than smaller tires and is more forgiving of riding and road problems. My rims could take much smaller tires but I view them as having less of an overall safety effect for the rider. You would have to research where to get such special spokes. Of course start at Shimano first. I just posted the fasted time in years on my Nishiki using platform pedals. I changed out from the SPD's. I going to try for a 15mph real world average speed for rides in the 10-15 mile distance. I'm holding at 14.5mph now so that is a leap but I think doable. I'm looking into more aerodynamically superior clothing and helmet also. The biggest aerodynamic drag on upright bicycles is the rider. California's governor has now mandated that 65+ yr old people have to stay at home. I believe I can keep on bicycling because I always ride alone or with my wife. They don't have any age police out there yet so I'm continuing to ride. Good thoughts, Good health.

zjrog

Be safe out there, Spain and Italy have banned cycling. Except for professionals of course...

Spokes are tough to get, as these are 10 years or older wheels. In my old way of thinking, radial lacing isn't a strong wheel. But that is 30 year old thinking. Obviously, they are stronger than I expect. And yet the cLYDE IN MY IS CONTENT TO RIDE THEM INDOORS ONLY...

zjrog

Went for a small group ride the other day. Felt good until we got in the headwind of 25mph. I did most of the 15 miles the group did. Not bad for so long off the bike, lacking motivation.

So, I'm off work/working from home in a recall status. We'll see how this lasts. I can at least get some bike stuff done. Marin hybrid is on a deep back burner. 97 Cannondale R300 is getting Sora 9sp brifters, deciding on FD and RD and cassette. Thinking 11-40. That may decide RD, FD may stay existing RSX. Thinking about drop bar on the 89 Trek 950 as pictured above, but keeping it 3x7 and using the RSX brifters and drop bar from the R300.

Stay safe out there. Weather turned ugly here for a few days. Hoping It warms up soon. We had that earhquake yesterday, left lots of people anxious. I've been through about everything, I don't rattle easily.

zjrog

I have an old Pedestal waterbed set that I couldn't sleep on after I broke my back. I tried selling it, giving it away... I guess no body needs a waterbed anymore. So. I repurposed it.

I stacked the pedestals and used the mattress platform as a benchtop. After I do some basement decluttering, I'll screw things together. And now I have a nice place to work on things. Not that my bench on the garage is a bad place to do that, but in bad weather, the basement is nice than my garage.

LED lighting fixtures to replace fluorescent fixtures are quite bright, and inexpensive.

tallbikeman

I've been slowly raising my saddles on all my bikes. This one is my highest at the moment. As the saddle position gets higher I get to the point where my foot rests more naturally on the pedal. I like to use the ball of my foot directly over the pedal axle. The higher saddle tends to keep my foot positioned better. If I have a lower saddle my foot moves around on the platform pedals a little too much. That requires action and you spend some of your energy just keeping your foot positioned right. With the higher saddle my pedal stroke is smoother. Just more experimentation. I'm using the original Schwinn 13/16th inch diameter seat post but upside down. Schwinn had a proprietary smaller seatpost clamp size that is difficult to get and not as strong as the prevalent 7/8th inch seatpost clamps used by all the other bike manufacturers of the era. I use a Wald shim to bring the post up to 7/8 inch diameter. This bike is heavy. I think it weighs at least 40lbs as it sits with rack and bags and all. It is also very durable and reliable. I live in a flat world so the weight is not an issue. It is also a very comfortable bike. It doesn't transmit road vibration much and is almost as fast as my smaller tired lighter bikes on my flat bike courses. The dark picture is looking north at the Port of Sacramento. The light picture is the same position but looking south toward what is called Lake Washington. A very small overgrown with reeds lake.

tallbikeman

I love home workshops. I've yet to buy a property that had a properly sized workshop. I'm thinking maybe a 40ftx100ft metal building with 220 volt power available. Plenty of room for proper tool storage. A proper heating and air conditioning system. A separate building for my wife to store her stuff. In other words only I would have the key to my workshop. Just a dream at this point.

zjrog

One thing about that PT bike fit, while I raised the seat on the bike I took for that fit, I had to lower the seat for the bike I rode the other day. A tad bit more than I had. Due to my lack of flexibility in my AFO brace.

Nice Varsity! I don't remember there being that much tire clearance on the Varsity I had 30 years ago. I had a friend fill the main triangle tubes with lead one day. Bike weighed about 70 pounds. But it was good training, and for climbing. But not for descending...

Ah, a proper shop/mancave is indeed a good dream. Some good ideas for these dreams is www.garagejournal.com ranging from neat budget setups to money no object stuff.

tallbikeman

Zjrog I rode a 21 mile flat ride today over to a university town called Davis California and back. Basically it is a flat ride with most of it alongside I-80 from West Sacramento to Davis. I used my Reward Bike. This old Nishiki just packs the mail. I was able to post a 14.3mph average speed including segments in town and fighting a 5-8mph wind all the way to Davis. Coming back was much faster with several miles at 18mph. This bike is surprisingly comfortable but the noseless saddles take some getting used to. If you push a pedal real hard the bike tries to tip toward the force being exerted down on the pedal. A nose saddle will bear up against your thigh, end of story. Never gave it a thought until I got noseless saddles. If you push hard enough it can cause the saddle to slip sideways under your butt. One has to get used to this cause and effect. Weather is getting better and riding by yourself is allowed here in Cali. I'm going to lengthen my miles and start doing 20 and 30 mile rides a couple of times a week. I really like my chicken levers. The entire brake system is very powerful with all hand positions on the drop bars allowing access to braking. Even with the chicken levers racers and racer types wave more than when I ride an upright bar bike. I guess I've bought my way into the drop bar racing gang. Yahoo. I hope your weather is getting good enough for you to ride outdoors. Stay safe on and off your bicycles.

zjrog

Nope, the weather here has been dreadful and wet and cold. We had 6" of snow the other night, but it has melted now. After last weeks wind and this week's storms, looming g forward to nicer days this week.

zjrog

Motivation still low. But I've been on the bike on the trainer a couple times. Weather tomorrow and Sunday might be conducive to riding outdoors. Before more storms come in.

Stuck at home, I've fidgeted with my bike projects a bit. I got in a new headset for my R300 project. Need to drive the old one out, and install the new. It is getting the Sorta 3400 brake/shifters I have. And robbing the Acera RD from the Marin for 3x9 gear train. And for now, the wheelset off the Marin as well. These will suffice for now. Also robbing the seat collar from the CAAD8, as I got a nice carbon fiber clamp for it. Saves 12 grams, and looks cool.

The Marin. That thing is a porky critter. The bike weighs just shy of 31 pounds. My 29er weighs 31 pounds. The Marin's fork is a bit over 5 pounds alone. So. It needs a rigid fork anyway. Preferably a disc brake. The wheels are over 8 pounds with 700x25 tires and tubes and cassette. I will be looking for something else for this bike. And planning a 1x9 drivetrain. The Box brand Prime 9 set includes all but the crankset. With a choice of 46 or 50t big cog... At $199 for the group, fairly reasonable.

Platform pedals and carbon fiber seat collar arrived for my CAAD8. Installing soon.

I brought my 90 Trek 7000 mtb home the day I found out we won't be at work for a while. I need to address the poor braking issues it has, and give a good teardown and servicing.

And non bike project includes some more basement cleaning, so I can use the weight machine I have. Might as well use it since the gym is closed...

I'm struggling with weight. After hitting 239 a couples months ago, I hit a high of 252 a couples weeks ago. I lost 6 pounds the following week. But gained .2 pound last week. I know I am eating out of boredom. I have been working on it this week. Not 100% successful. But not a total failure.

We are otherwise well provisioned. So no need for frequent foraging outside the home. Killing me not going and seeing my grandkids daily...

Cheers, my friends!

tallbikeman

The weather has been very winter like here. Lots of rain. I defer to my rain rule, NO RIDING IN THE RAIN. Easy rule. Got caught out on a 14 mile ride yesterday and it started raining. Some day's are better than others. Our state is in a stay at home all the time mode. You can go to the store for groceries or gas. I am now wearing one of my N-95 wood shop dust masks and gloves while shopping. Washing my hands all the time and staying away from everyone. The bike trails and walking paths are chock full of people that are exercising instead of going to a job. I only have a couple of N-95s and am reusing them over and over. People my age,67, don't fare so well with this disease. Our county is now entering an epidemic stage which means there lots of folks out there with it. We are now looking for less populated exercise areas and going to the store less. With the rain and stay at home I've stopped losing weight for a while but have not really gained any either. Once your weather gets better you will be able to go outside for exercise which is always better for your overall health. I don't live on top of a hill like you so my bikes can be heavier without being a burden. Even at that I always put low gearing on my bikes because I do have to go over highway overpasses and up our local levees which are 20-30ft high and very steep. On my Chicago Schwinn Varsity I am running a 1 x 10 setup with a Deore Shadow MTB rear deraileur shifted by a Microshift indexed thumb shifter. This is a very nice setup, very easy to use and very reliable. To get a low enough gear I used a 28 tooth front sprocket. This limits my top end to 17 or 18 mph. But getting my money's worth out of my gearing because I ride quite a bit on that little 11 tooth sprocket in back which makes me happy. I've been getting lots of projects done around the house and in my shop. That is a good thing. My eldest son is an RN and lives right here in town. I cannot see my two grandchildren of his now because of the danger to my wife and I. This sucks. As far as I can tell my goal in all this is to make it to the vaccine without having to experience this illness. That could be a year from now from what I can tell. Good luck and good health to you and your family. I hope you are able to go back to work soon.

zjrog

The weather is improving. Was supposed to rain today. But didn't.tomorrow will be busy a good chunk of the day, so no ride.

I'm fairly certain we will make it to a vaccine, the malaria meds seem to be a big help, and more than a few companies are claiming ready for trials. Add those to enough people that survived have donated blood to help with antibody testing, so "convalescent plasma " may be a valid option soon. But understand the concern of many with multiple comorbidities, such as my wife. Therefore, I go out masked and gloved. And just stay as far away from people as I can.


My basement is still a mess, but becoming my refuge...

Bench is made from my old waterbed pedestal and is quite solid. Serves for bike stuff, firearms maintenance and some computer stuff. I revived an old android tablet that a shop said was irreparably damaged. They lied. It works, but needs a new battery and charge port, ordered and received. Laptops are 2007 and 2014 vintage. Both running different flavors of Linux. I have a couple much older laptops, a 98 model still running Win98SE, and a 92 model on Windows 3.1. But that one is staying in it's case. I seem to hold on to things it seems.

Good health to you and yours Brother!

tallbikeman

I can't send you a picture of my shop area due to the unsure footing. The shop, my two car garage, is packed with our life treasures which leaves little room to stand and take a picture. I have a nice computer work station I bought surplus from my work with 10 active projects on it. I store all the active bicycles in the garage. I have my two bandsaws and a large scroll saw plus my other hobby stuff. That would be my RC Model Yachts. I belong to the American Model Yacht Association and actively race in several classes of model sailboats. My smallest is one meter in length and two meters tall. My largest is 6ft long with a 6ft mast and sails and weighs 28lbs. I own several of these models, or maybe a number I'm afraid to exactly specify at this time. The rest is boxes of life's treasures that we can't part with so they become a box sitting in our garage. After I retired we started going through boxes and have gotten rid of a bunch of stuff. I forgot my guitar amplifiers and sound systems I have used for bands I was in over my lifetime. I'm going to start selling that to free up space. I still play in bands but don't need all the gear I have collected. I just heard today that a vaccine that can be given to people is 18 months away. I can't imagine reopening restaurants unless there is a strict travel ban for the area. All people have been tested free of Covid 19 and there are no cases in your area. This is what China and other countries are doing that are successfully reopening their cities. The risk is that areas get a little lax and people come in carrying the virus and the infection cycle starts again. Until a successful vaccine is widely distributed there is no real end in sight to what is going on right now. I read what doctors mean by a mild case of Covid 19. You didn't end up in the hospital or on a ventilator. I read that this sickness is pretty ugly, can hurt a lot, can take all your energy to defeat, and leaves permanent damage to the lungs and heart. This is not good. Good for you for protecting yourself and family from this diseases ravages. Storm system passed through and I'm again riding every day. Good luck with your diet. Dieting is such a war but you and I have been waging a successful battle to get the excess pounds off. I look to you for inspiration in this long fight. Your Brother

zjrog

Staying healthy and away from people.


Learning to work with Linux and connecting multiple platforms.


The 97 Cannondale R300 just needs chain, shift cables and bar wrap. All ordered. I have cables, but no ferrule or ends, those are ordered too.

I had a right bicep injury recently, ruptured and detached the tendon at the elbow. Fully retracted. Nothing can be done. This is fairly common at my age, and they usually don't do surgery more than 10 days post injury, and frankly, not often on people over 30. The remaining muscles are in good shape, pretty much why I didn't get too concerned at first. My orthopedic gave me exercises and guidelines to strengthen the remaining muscles and tendons.

After weeks of weight gain, not alot, last week I lost 4. Still in the 240s. Which seems to be my comfort range. Staying home all this time, I'm not grazing or binging, though both are very tempting...

I need to get out and ride more...

tallbikeman

OWWW. I hope it doesn't hurt you. More to the point I guess it won't hurt your riding because biceps are up not down. That Cannondale is a lovely bike. Let me know how she rides when you get her going. I've been riding those Shimano Aero wheels a lot lately. 16 spokes up front and 20 out back. The wheels are very easy to drive. Rode 20 miles today at an average speed of 13.5mph. The wind was 10 to 15mph and I started directly into the wind and rode 10 miles. Down to 7.5mph at one point. Then I turned around and rode at 17mph home. Top speed was 25mph on a slight downhill and 22mph for about a mile at one point. The Nishiki drop bar bike is just a touch faster than my Schwinn Sports Tourer with 27" wheels. I'm going to do some riding one against the other to figure out which is truly faster. I wear a dust mask all the time when I go to the grocery or hardware store. We are on a Stay at Home order from Governor Newsom and it appears to have spared us a New York fate at this time. However LA has an outbreak so we'll see how that ends up. I don't wear any mask when I'm riding my bicycles or walking my dogs. I don't meet very many people either way and I never get close to them. Keep up the good work on keeping your weight down. I've been plateaued for a while but am again shorting my calories and starting to lose weight again. I just got the results for my A1c and my blood sugar had gone down. I'm still in the pre diabetic range just barely. I have another 35lbs or more weight to go. I weighed 235lbs this morning and am now going to push into the 220's. Blood pressure is way down. I'm 122/68 and thereabouts which is much better than when I weighed more. I'm going to try a 30 mile ride in the next few days and eventually want to do some 40 mile rides. I've been doing a lot of 15 to 20 mile days. Good luck with your tendon and stay healthy