2X flu; 2X recovery; ride; mileage for 2025; Roadeo again; Barley “Safari;” Carradice quality.

[Patrick Moore]

I took a very short (10.5 mile out ’n’ back) and easy cruise today, riding gingerly for fear of causing another flu relapse — so far so good; we’ll see what tomorrow bring — because it was a nice day — tho’ chilly — and I didn’t want to wait another day off the bike. 

Since I’ll very likely not ride tomorrow, that brings the total miles for 2025 to 2,383.2 including “riding” the dog. This would easily have been over 2,500 had I not been sick twice this month. The other 2 low mileage months early in the year, then the gradual improvement in fitness, meant that I didn’t really start putting in decent (for me) miles until May or June. Extrapolating from the second half of the year, even with only 155 miles so far this month, if I had ridden all year at the second six-month rate, that would have been close to 3,200. Not a great deal compared to many riders, but 3K is my comfortable personal goal. 

Anyway, we’ll see how next year goes.

Because I wanted to take it easy, I rode the Roadeo — it feels like cheating, having multiple gears and a freewheel. It’s funny: I find that many-cog cassettes make riding easier, not only because you have hill gears and downhill freewheel, but because you can fine tune the cruising gears for just the right ratio for small changes in wind and incline, as I can now do with the 14-32 that replaced the 11-32. I’m surprised how much *apparent* energy I save — or, let’s say, how perceived effort drops — when you can shift from a 76” gear to a 72” gear, after which comes the 68” gear, instead of having to drop from the 76” to the 68” as with the 11-32 cassette or, on the fixies, from 75” to 68” or 72” to 65”. At any rate, it did seem delightfully easy to pedal. 

Lastly, for the Roadeo: I swapped the very nice Carradice Zip Roll for a new Barley. The Zip Roll t 3 liters is just too small for the very frequent end-of-ride grocery stops, and the 9 liter Barley is just right for ad hoc shop stops, with side pockets just big enough to hold the rather bulky (incl 2 tubes and 4 fl oz of OS) tool kit, leaving the main compartment free to just barely accommodate a gallon of milk.

Carradice quality has varied greatly over the years. I remember the first Nelson Longflap I bought from Rivendell circa 1995: the real old-school quality, with thick, stiff, tightly woven, highly waxed duck, cloth lining, thick, supple leather, including a thick leather scuff pad; those earlier bags would literally hold water — I tried it.

Quality went downhill, with much lighter but still coarse duck, no lining, duck scuff pad, and cheaper leather. This new Barley has lighterweight canvas — but no lighter than my Sackville’s — and a duck scuff pad, but it’s nicely lined, and the leather is back to the original quality. I do prefer the old heavy cotton tiie tapes and cotton duck side security flap arrangement over the nylon drawstring necks, which IMO are less convenient for containing overflow than the old method. Of course, Carradice has never matched Riv’s bags’ quality — I’ve owned about 8 Riv bags — but then they charge less.

Here’s to a good 2026 to all RBWlisters.

Patrick Moore, who is about to pop some (very efficacious) Chinese medicine pills and potions to prevent another relapse, in ABQ, NM.

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Patrick Moore

Alburquerque, Nuevo Mexico, Etats Unis d'Amerique, Orbis Terrarum

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[Guy Jett]

Patrick,

Nice to hear your mileage report.  Although I am far behind you and many others here, I am pleased with my number.  After being off my 15-year-old Hilsen for over two years following a heart attack I got back on in mid-May to prepare for a cardiologist requested step stress test.  Follow-up for the stress test was I can do just about any exercise I want!  And no worries!  By year's end I'd covered just over 1,000 miles.  And, again, I recognize many on this board do much, much more.

And I, too, like the close ratios of my 9-speed cassette.  I'm running a 12-36 rear with a 44-41-24 1/2-step + granny Sugino crankset.  As you mention those small steps are great for minor adjustments encountering slight changes of grade or headwinds.  And the larger steps in the 24 are also great because, when climbing, the grades often change much more and the bigger gear changes are welcome.  I generally treat this gearing as a 41-24 ultra-compact that can be fine-tuned in the bigger gears as needed.

I'm currently reworking my 50-ish year-old Raleigh Competition from a 26-46-49 x 13-26 6-speed to a 26-45-50 x 14-32, keeping the old Cyclotourist crankarms to get a lower high and low gears.  Downside is the wider steps in the two large chainrings, so more double shifting in my future.  And this frame is a wonderful ride.  I think a unique feature of this bike will be my continuing to use the original Huret Jubilee front mech.  This delicate item has been with me on this bike for most of it's 50 years.  (Though I may put an old SunTour Cyclotourist II or Superbe on it.)  It also has an original Phil bottom bracket and original Phil hubs, which are being rebuilt right now.

And Happy Rides for everyone in the New Year!

G.A.Jett

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[Patrick Moore]

Kudos for the recovery and best wishes that it continue. And kudos to for a very nice 3-tooth jump between half-stepping chainrings. I briefly used a non-mathematically exact” half step system for commuting some 20 years ago and it worked very well. (I gauged rings and cogs by the ratios I wanted instead of per a precise mathematical pattern; which seems to me a very reasonable way to approach gearing.)

Please post photos of your Raleigh Competition. Can you say where in the road bike lineup the Competition fell? There were extensive threads recently on the iBoblist about the International and the Competition; apparently both much loved. My highest Raleigh was a upper-level Sprite* with cottered/swaged 48/44 X 14-24 drivetrain shifted with Simplex Delrin, B-15, Raleigh-branded Weinmanns, and steel everything else. I had no idea (age 17) how to shift half step (I didn’t even know what that was) and so basically kept it in the 48 all the time since that was “faster.” 

*I envied a fellow HS student who had the next model up; Grand Prix? At any rate, plumbing pipe but with what back then were called “cotterless cranks,” a true mark of excellence. Years later as an errand beater in WDC, I had a downmarket Sprite model, 46 X 14-28 or so, big blocky stem shifter, rubber block pedals, and North Road bar which I flipped and trimmed; cut off about 4” from each end.

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[Tim Tetrault]

Is there any way to shorthand tell when you're encountering a quality vs. less than quality Carradice build?

Here's hoping you stay hale Patrick

Tim Tetrault

Seattle

[Patrick Moore]

Thanks, Tom. As a matter of fact, even that minimal ride yesterday brought on a fortunately minor relapse — dry itchy cough, fatigue — so I’ll take it easy for another day or so.

Yes, again the difference is in the quality of the canvas — thick and tightly woven, thick and coarse, lighter and finely woven; lined or not; quality of the leather; quality of  the hardware; added features like tie-loops.

This new Barley has lighter — = flimsier — canvas than other Carrdices I’ve owned but it’s more tightly woven than some; it has good leather — in fact I found the straps too thick to use for my usual strapping directly to the saddle rails and had to resort to toe straps; and it has some little extras like a parallel series of tie-loops and dark cotton tape binding along the edges. OTOH, the side pockets flaps close with large snaps instead of the leather straps that I at least prefer.

BTW: a new email from Carradice shows some new sales for closeouts including Barleys (don’t know models) for GBP69; a Brompton bag; various other bags; and misc other stuff. Sorry, don’t have link right now.

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