Geriatric woo-hoo speed!

[Patrick Moore]

The geriatric woo-hoo speed (adapting a phrase from Bike Snob) was 30.54 mph, probably while pulsing the brakes on one of the steeper parts of the Tramway hill, but the real news is that I had a very, very pleasant ride with Chris Young on his Homer up the 7-mile Tramway climb, me on the #2 Matthews IGH fixed gear. 

It had been 8 or 9 years since I’ve ridden Tramway, to my best recollection; I used to take my daughter to skating lessons at the top of  Tramway, and I’d bring a fixed gear in the car and ride up and down while waiting for her. But she got her learner’s permit and the use of my car in ~2016 or 2017.

But I am proud to say that I climbed it with, I daresay, aplomb. The Matthews with 1956 ASC close ratio fixed gear hub is geared 72” direct, 65” underdrive, and 54” underdrive, and I did the first quarter of the climb in the 72 and the rest, including the ~1-mile-long steep part about 3/4 of the way up, in the 65”, just to see if I could still do it. I did have to stand quite a bit, but man, I’m learning very, very late in life that cycling is just so much easier if you start out slowly.

10.21 mph clock running from my house about 7-8 miles to the base of the incline, but that included 5 or 8 minutes idly cruising around the parking lot at the Alameda trailhead waiting for Chris, so not bad at all for a geriatric.

Downhill was less pleasant than with a “real” fixed gear with cog screwed to hub instead of to the driver of the internal mechs, since there is noticeable lash in the internals — like a very loose chain; but it wasn’t as bad as with the S3X which had more slop in the internals.

The really good news though is that the climb should be a doddle on the gofast with the direct/75% TF hub that has hardly any lash at all; with a 76” direct and a 57” underdrive the climb ought to be easy, given that the gofast just “feels faster” then even the #2 Matthews. Heck, I’ve got a 17/21 Dingle that would give me 76”/61”, or I could simply put a 23 t on the flip side of the Phil fixed/fixed hub with the 17/19 on the other side for 76”/68”/55”.

I am, as they say, chuffed — though I’ll probably pay for the exercise tomorrow.

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Patrick Moore

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

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When thou didst not, savage, know thine own meaning,

But wouldst gabble like a thing most brutish,

I endowed thy purposes with words that made them known.

[Sally Bidleman]

Chapeau, as they say in the Tours! I enjoy reading of your dilemmas and exploits (though I have to look up references to the technical stuff, ha!).

Sally

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[Patrick Moore]

Thank you, Sally. I’m all the more gratified in that I fully expected to have to bail halfway and turn around.

In other news, the new merino nether garment under Giro touring shorts was “didn’t notice it” comfortable, and the cheap VO blowout orange bar tape ($5 per package) was perfectly comfortable for my ungloved hands, and the bike setup — Riv content: the Matthews #2 is a clone of the 2003 Curt which was a clone of the 1999 Joe — was just right: powerful, and low but “natural.” (But for some reason I can’t fathom, since I’ve also cloned the components and setup) the 1999 just feels even more perfectly natural.)

I’m looking forward to riding Tramway again on the 1999.

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/CABey9MWZ1Pi%3D0V%2BWq5u8ao2J3CT7TfxzgcpLX--XYzVH7rUc5g%40mail.gmail.com.