campfire

I forgot to update this thread, but I've kept riding the Kodiak. Have done several more local tours (20-55 miles) for a total of 285 miles. Last week I fell off the bike and scraped up my arm & knee. Felt just like a (stupid) kid again.

Otherwise it's still rolling smoothly on the 32mm tires.

19 days left!

campfire

Also, my insurance claim has progressed to the point that I ordered a replacement cargo bike, and tonight I received a beautifully large box! The kids made me promise I wouldn't open it until they get up tomorrow, but that's a hard promise to keep. It feels a bit like Christmas...

campfire

Being a tinkerer, I also had the bug to see how salvageable the wrecked bike is. The passenger cage is definitely damaged, but the frame appears to be functional. The bike cleaned up a lot better than I expected.

ThermionicScott 

Holy crap, I didn't realize you were here in Cedar Rapids! What team are you doing RAGBRAI with?

campfire

We have a small team of family and friends. Think a van plus a trailer, rather than the stereotypical large team riding in a party bus.

With wife & kids dropping out (due to the crash), we're down to just 6 riders now (plus sag drivers).

campfire

And, yes, we're local. Could meet up for a trail ride some time...

campfire

With 9 days left to go, I've found myself playing with the Xpedition cargo bike this week. The good news is that the damaged Xpedition does still ride. The gooder news is that I have a brand new one sitting beside it (minus the backordered back seat). The goodest news is that RAGBRAI is around the corner, and this Raleigh is (almost) ready to take on the challenge. See you in July!

campfire

The final configuration of the RAGBRAI Raleigh Revival. Now with another bottle holder, kick stand, air pump, and speedometer (all scavenged from other bikes, so no net cost). I also installed new front brake pads (already accounted for). Will this barn find survive 500 miles? I think so, but we'll find out together. I do still need to fix a broken strap on my cargo bag.




Heading out first thing in the morning. It's RAGBRAI time!

Peruano

We are all confident that you and the vintage ride will do the deed. Enjoy the ride and get back on whenever circumstances demand it. As you have already demonstrated to us in prep days. Be proud of that bike; it has chops.

campfire

Thanks! It has done well this week. I've seen just one similar Raleigh so far.

The only drama has been a broken rear spoke.

More later!

steelbikeguy

chops?
did someone say chops? I'm getting hungry!


(from the 1999 RAGBRAI)

I seemed to show up mid-morning, which is too early to be eating a pork chop with your fingers, but they were sooo good!

Steve in Peoria

Peruano

I have an Alyeska sitting in a barn in central Illinois that wishes it was on the ride across Iowa, fueled by Pork Chops or whatever else might present itself. Me, I"m in Albuquerque where its only 103 today, but there is a breeze! Carry on.

campfire

You're right, I am proud of this bike. It does have chops. The Raleigh survived the whole week with no breakdowns aside from the broken spoke. I'm not sure exactly what I hit, but I do remember slamming the wheel hard into something. Completely my fault. No punctures, no broken bits. Never even got my tool kit out. My 8 year old popped a sidewall on the night before the ride. Very happy to get that out of the way before departure. After that she also had a smooth week.

This year was organized by a brand new planning committee with minimal RAGBRAI experience. It shows. The route was poorly planned and the campground baggage logistics were poorly organized. However, RAGBRAI is a tour of dozens of small towns. Each town puts on its own festival, and there's not a whole lot that the central planning committee controls. So there's not a lot that the central planning committee can screw up (especially for self-sag folks who don't care how messed up the baggage system is). Therefore, we had a great time, despite the newbies in charge of the route.

We'll be back. I've been experiencing RAGBRAI since the 90s, and I've always enjoyed myself. Even the year that I slammed a rear derailleur into my wheel. I found a replacement derailleur, disabled the rear brake caliper, and rode down to the Mississippi with a very bent wheel. BuBump. BuBump. BuBump. Riding down a 200' bluff with only marginal front brakes isn't for the faint of heart, but I still had fun.

Even a bad day on RAGBRAI is funner than being at work, eh?

campfire

I wound up doing 438 of the 500 RAGBRAI miles this year. The 8 year old got tired of hills, so we sagged some of the hilly segments.
I have 737 total miles on this bike since its revival.

campfire

I am irritated with the Dia Compe 981 brakes. I replaced the front pads right before the ride, and the cams setting the pad alignment shifted several times during the week. I corrected the alignment a few times before the ride, but I didn't bother messing with them once the ride started (I rarely use the brakes on a long road ride anyways). The brakes still function, but they produce the annoying squeal typical of misaligned canti pads.

I'm not sure whether I'm following an incorrect alignment procedure or if the knurling holding the cams in place is just worn out. At this point I definitely prefer threaded pads to smooth post pads.

Now that I'm back to commuting, the squeal is annoying enough to motivate me to look at it again.

campfire

I'm riding with an 8 year old (12MPH pace) and we don't head out before 6 or 7, so we never saw him before proper lunch time. If you're showing up mid-morning, you're either fast or starting at 4am. Or both!

This year was busier than previous years. Some of the days this week I estimated the pork chop line to be an hour long. Those days saw me choosing something else for lunch.

Here's a picture of one of the short line days:

campfire

The bike crash kept my wife off her bike this summer. She got medically cleared to ride right before RAGBRAI started. So she decided to bring the smaller kids and join us for half of Wednesday on the cargo bike:



Is it cheating to bring an ebike on RAGBRAI? Yeah, pretty much. However, it helped her get back on the saddle after her traumatic crash, and provided a convenient way to carry the kids. So I'm calling it a win, even if it was cheating.

The biggest win is that it built enough confidence that she came back on Saturday and rode her real bike another 30 miles to the finish line (no kids this time). Her first decent ride since the world stopped last May.

And the two short segments have convinced her to add more of RAGBRAI to next summer's calendar.
That's the real win.

campfire

And a gratuitous shot of the Raleigh on the High Trestle Bridge:




Not officially part of the RAGBRAI route, but it was a heavily-promoted detour. Worth the extra 5 miles to see it.

campfire

And who can forget Beekman's ice cream?




I grew up listening to the sound of these hit-n-miss engines churning out fresh ice cream. You can't beat that soundtrack, and the ice cream is among the best I've ever had. Very happy to relive these memories and to share them with the next generation.

campfire

The Raleigh is still on the road. 862 miles logged on it now. I took it out of town to ride a memorable segment of the RAGBRAI 2010 route into Dubuque. 378' of climb in under a mile, with a section of 18% grade thrown in for good measure. Not huge by Colorado standards, but good enough by mine. My 6yo took several breaks and walked some of the steep portion. The 8yo didn't need to walk (but did have the benefit of stopping each time the 6yo did). On the corresponding downhill I set a new speed record for this bike, 44.3MPH. In hindsight that speed seems scarier now than it did when bombing down that hill. I finished up the ride and then loaded the bike up for the car-trip back home. Before I got home the front tire was flat. This isn't very surprising to me. That tire was a take-off I used to fit-check various tire configurations. Throughout the summer it has been accumulating cracks (particularly during RAGBRAI), so it's pretty vulnerable to punctures now.

In hindsight, though, I realize that it could have flatted while I was bombing down that hill. And that adds some sobering perspective. Its retirement is now immediate rather than imminent.

campfire

My stash of 700c tires is dwindling, so it's time to finally lock in a tire size. I'm still conflicted.

The 28/28 combination was too stiff & chattery.
The 32/28 combination was tolerable.
The 32/32 combination I used for RAGBRAI worked well.
The 32/35 combination was also good, but it barely clears the fenders.

The 47/38 combination on my Crosscut is nice for gravel riding. Dampens the chatter considerably. For winter I will be running a studded 35/35 set, presumably on the Crosscut.
But if I ditched the fenders and fitted larger tires on the Raleigh, I could consolidate down to a single bike.

I hardly ever benefit from fenders, removing them won't be a practical loss. Aesthetically they're the largest color contrast on an otherwise monochrome bike. I do want to rewrap the bars, and that could add some color back in...

Decisions, decisions!

campfire

This story came from the same Dubuque segment I just repeated. Turns out it's almost twice as high as I remembered, and now I'm curious just how fast I managed to do on the 44MPH downhill segment (and a few other similar ones). Alas, I don't remember the speed. I just remember how sketchy it felt riding fast downhill on a wobbly bent wheel with a single-pull caliper in front and no brakes in the rear.

Good memories, eh?

steelbikeguy

I just did the last two days of RAGBRAI in 2010, but do recall grunting up at least one of the hills. I was on a recumbent, and recall getting into the bottom gear for the worst of the hills. It was a bit of work to keep things balanced and rolling, but I had practice from the local 14% grades.

Here's one photo from the ride towards Dubuque, with more than a few folks walking their bikes...




and a look down the road towards Dubuque (somewhere in the distance)...




That was a fun time!

Steve in Peoria

campfire

Yay for Dubuque hills! The hills tend to look alike, but that first picture does look a lot like the top of the hill that I was talking about. "Potter hill" is by far the largest hill on that route into Dubuque. And while going up it I found I recognized it and uncovered some grunty memories from years ago.

I tried telling the kids that this was good training, and that it brought back happy memories from when we lived in Dubuque. To which both kids decided they're happy we don't live in DBQ anymore. Our area has smaller rolling hills compared to the crags and valleys of the Driftless Region.