SIR 200K ride report

Saturday was St. Pat's day as well as the SIR 200K brevet. This was the first brevet to count towards my qualifying for PBP. Gathered in the pre-dawn darkness were roughly 100 riders. Myself and a few others were in the mood for St. Pat's and dressed accordingly. The forecast called for 80% chance of rain so we were prepared for the worse.

The ride started out heading west up Reith Rdd a stiff hill with which to start the day. We hauled ourselves up over the ridge before heading down towards the water. After the first control we headed back up over the ride and descended into the valley. A group of nearly a dozen of us had gathered as we headed inland towards Auburn. At the base of the ridge I spotted a sign which I found grimly amusing: it was a sign marking a volcano evacuation route. The amusing part is that the arrow pointed across the street at a funeral home. If (when?) Rainier does blow that's probably a realistic outcome.

As we neared Auburn we'd already complete 50km. The ride was a quarter over and I was feeling great. Our group plowed through Auburn and began heading out into the country side. A yellow Davidson tandem spearheaded our train as we blasted our way past farms and ranches. An ugly hill quickly broke apart our group and well ascended at our own pace. In my case this meant very slowly. I've been plagues by knee problems and installed a 30 tooth granny ring on my cranks the night before. The 30x27 gearing allowed me to get up the hill without blowing out my knees and soon we found ourselves at the Black Diamond Bakery. A local Team In Training ride had also descended upon the bakery and I suspect the owners were making a killing from all these lycra clad eating machines. I grabbed some water and peanut butter cookies and headed back out on the course. At this point I was on my own. Occasionally I'd hook up with a group but would usually find myself drifting off the back whenever the road pitched upwards.

Just past the 100K point we began heading out on Highway 410 towards Greenway. The road had a couple of climbs and some false flats and my body began to protest. The last 10km into Greenway became a bitter deathmarch. I staggered into the general store and immediately pulled a Kent Peterson: 1 Starbuck's Double Shot, a pack of chocolate Zingers, a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup, and a Twix bar. With only 60km left to go I knew I needed fast burning fuel. The temperature also dipped sharply and so I piled on my rain jacket for warmth. Not long after departing Greenway the rain began. Since it was St. Pat's day I began to channel my inner Sean Kelly and reached for the drops and began tapping out a steady tempo with a grim determination. The false flats that plagues me heading into Greenway were now propelling me out of it (that or it was the Double Shot!) We turned off 410 and headed down Mud Mountain Road. The descents were twisty, bumpy and wet. The sluggishness of the 650b tires had been bugging me at times during this ride but now I was happy I had them. I found another rider - Allison on a blue Romulus - and we began rolling our way through Enumclaw and farm country. We had one last major hill to climb and then found ourselves in Kent.

My odometer read 201km but the cue sheet said I still had 10km to go. Unfortunately, my legs had decided that since this was supposed to be a 200km ride they were only going to last 200km. The final 10km were a surprisingly hard slog. I finally arrived at the finish with my computer giving a ride time of 9:31:32 and a distance of 212.13km. My time for the 100k was 5:40 so I was quite happy to have done better despite doubling the distance. Of course the computer shows only riding time - not total time. Will need to wait for the official result to post. The ride finished at Greg Cox's house and he had several pots of homemade chili waiting for us. Overall, it was a good ride. I felt much stronger on all of the climbs. My right knee hurt at points but nothing like the pain I had on the 100k. My shoulders also fared better though they were also still sore. I'll raise the stem up a couple of cm and see if that helps. I tried rotating the bars up at the secret control but that quickly caused my hands to go numb - not a good trade off. Also my Sella Anatomica saddle was creaking like an old rocking chair comfortable as it might be I can't live with that kind of racket so it's getting replaced by my Fizik Rondine.

Thanks again to everyone who manned the controls, Kent Peterson for the photo, and Greg Cox for hosting the ride.

650B Conversion Project

I finished (finally) the conversion of the SOMA into a 650B machine. For those of you not in the know, 650B is an obscure tire size once most popular among French touring bikes. Lately it's been seeing a resurgence in popularity in large part thanks to Rivendell Bicycle Works and Kogswell Cycles who both produce affordable frames made for 650B wheels. The wheels themselves are slightly larger than the 26" MTB standard and slightly smaller than the 700C standard. Those who have been around for a while might wonder if this doesn't sound a lot like GT's failed 700D experiment from the 90's. It is except that 650B was once popular among numerous builders. Even Raleigh USA made a 650B bike back in the 80's. The size has also maintained life in Japan and France unlike GT's effort which was largely proprietary.

The supposed advantages are a fatter tire running at lower air pressures. This results in a smoother ride and better handling. To listen to some people you'd think 650B will turn a Huffy into a magic carpet. You can put fatter 700C tires on a bike but few frames outside of touring and 'cross can handle much more than 28mm. 26" is often seen as too small a wheel size. 650B is according to the faithful a perfect mid point.

650B is also a nice way to take an old road frame and make it into a more versatile machine sporting fenders and cushy tires. This is the appeal for me and I decided to see if the hype was for real by converting my 700Cx28 SOMA Smoothie ES into a 650Bx38 SOMA Smoothie ESS (Extra Super Smooth!) Beyond the new wheels and tires I also needed new brakes. I've always been a fan of how centerpulls look and a fan of Paul Components so picking up a pair of their Racer brakes was a no brainer (other than the cost!) Everything went together pretty easily. The Pauls just barely had the reach for my new wheels and the existing Berthoud fenders just barely contain the 38mm tires.

My first ride on the new machine was a leisurely 1 hour shakedown ride. At first I really didn't notice much difference except on a short patch of dirt trail. The first real test would come with the 100k Populaire put on by the Seattle International Randonneurs. This ride featured a couple of climbs and some generally craptacular weather (light rain, temp in the 40's, snow slush on the roads). Starting out on the ride it was hard to discern much difference between the new wheels and the old ones. The ride was a bit smoother but that was about it. When we hit the first climb - a short but steep 1/2 miler - I rose up out of the saddle and could definitely feel the difference between the 650B and 700C wheels. The new wheels were noticeably slower to respond. My normal 700C wheels are Mavic Cosmos shod with 700x28 Conti GP folding bead tires. The Cosmos is Mavic's day-in, day-out workhorse riding wheel. By today's standards it hardly qualifies as lightweight though technophobic luddites would call it scary light since it was less than 36 spokes. By comparison, the 650B wheels are 32 spoke affairs laced to rims that are the same as MTB rims and shod with wire bead tires. Bottom line is they weigh quite a bit more and it was pretty noticeable on the ascent particularly when you try to change tempo. To be fair, the biggest shortcoming on that climb was still the rider.

On the downhill the extra traction provided by the 38mm tires was much appreciated, especially on the slick, wet roads. The Col de Vie tires cornered very nicely without any noticeable edge or squirming. The tires did make noticeably more noise than my usually slicks. Not the annoying chased-by-a-swarm-of-hornets noise one gets when riding a MTB on pavement but more of a soft whizzing sound. It didn't annoy me but it could drive other riders crazy.

In terms of handling the bike did feel a little more stable. While it's not as good as a bike with dedicated low trail geometry I did find it easier to stay in a straight line while fishing through my front bag. Low speed stability also seemed better.

So far I'm not convinced that 650B is the wave of the future. It seems to be better in certain niche applications (loaded touring, for example) but for normal day to day riding over average roads I don't see it offering any huge advantages over 700C. As for conversion projects, 650B is a great way to make an old road frame more versatile.