Saddle Comfort

 I am so much in love with my Brooks B 17 that recently I swapped the Surly's saddle with the Red Roadie's. Since I was not riding the LHT and was taking out the RR every evening I wanted to go for the more comfortable seat on that bike. The LHT had the Brooks while RR had the Shimano. To keep the swap process simple I took out the entire seat post and placed one into the other, so that swapping it back would be easy, if I need to. 

While the Roadie became super comfortable, despite its geometry being different, the Surly has become super uncomfortable (I use it for the short office commute once in a while). Now, I am a little puzzled by this. I have ridden the Surly with the Shimano seat on before. In fact before the arrival of the Brooks that was my installed seat on the Surly. It wasn't so uncomfortable then. I went to Darjeeling in this combination. So what could be the reason for this new found discomfort?

I have two possible explanations. A. I have got used to the comfort of Brooks B. The seat post has a major role to play in saddle comfort. 

The LHT seatpost is a stainless steel one, while the Merida seatpost is made of aluminum alloy. But I must also add here that the Red Roadie with the Shimano seat and Merida saddle wasn't as uncomfortable as what the Surly feels now. 

My Daily Cycling And Goals For 2021

 

Before reviving the Red Roadie 

After the lockdown was lifted in 2020 and offices partially re-opened, I had started commuting to work on my LHT. Around this time I also started cycling every day in right earnest. I was quoted in Telegraph and the TOI etc. This routine of cycling every day for fun continued for a few months. 

Sometime in June/July I also installed two new tyres - Continental Gatorskin - on my Red Roadie. They were size 25, as opposed to my OE tyres that were 23. This dramatically improved the comfort level of the bike. I don't know if it was the slightly broader tyres or the make and model or a combination of both that did it but the bike became more welcoming for me. This made me ride the bike more frequently.

Sometime after the Pujas Monisha started going to office more frequently and I had to drive her to work. So I started cycling in the evenings. This dramatically improved my daily mileage. I started riding around 400 kms every month for a few months. Mostly on the Red Roadie. I guess the lower temperatures of the season also helped.

January has proven to be the most productive month so far, in terms of total distance cycled. Till date - 27th January morning - I have already done 650 Kms, riding around 5 days a week. I am sure I can do 800 Km this month. 

When I started this new year, my goal for the year was to do 5000 to 6000 Km, with one gran fondo every month. But the way things are going and if this can be maintained through summer and monsoon I am sure I can clock above 10K Kms. But I am happy if I can make a total of more than 5K at the end of the year.

As of now every evening I ride for two hours covering 40 Km. My cruising speed is 25 Kmph (that is on decent stretch of road and without traffic interruption) and the average over two hours, given the bad roads and heavy traffic, is around 19/20 kmph. I feel a little exhausted at the end of the ride and drink a mug of milk and banana smoothie mixed with some whey protein. Once in a while I stretch the legs before the ride but I have to make it a daily habit. As yet, I am injury free. 

I think one major difference maker was my decision to ride in heavy traffic to work. This made me accept traffic as part of life and ride even in the evenings. I wouldn't call it more courage. It's just that I am now okay to ride in traffic because the pleasure of riding is very high and I have become more accepting of traffic. Of course it slows me down but I don't feel intimidated by them. I take adequate care not to do stupid things like change lane suddenly on a fast road. After that it's all in the hands of God. 

I now have the Brooks installed on my Red Roadie too. And it's now super comfortable to ride the bike. Only issue is that, at this rate of daily riding this tyre will wear out by the end of this year. I don't think they can last for more than 5/6000 Kms. So what happens after that? India has well nigh banned tyre imports. My tyres were perhaps two of the last tyres that were imported. At the time of purchase I had no idea about the import ban and frankly I never thought I might be riding close to 800 Kms a month. 

Now we have to depend on someone to bring them in for me. Of course these are folding tyres and it should not be a problem for someone to bring two of them but I have to pay for it from here. Let me see how to address this. I have got to do something about it. 

Few Learnings

If I don't ride for two days, it becomes difficult to go out on the third day. But once I am out I am good for 40 Kms. I have often gone out thinking I will do just a short 10 Km ride but ended up doing 40.

So forcing yourself to go out is a good strategy. Even after one day's rest one feels lazy to go out. I often wonder whether taking a complete rest day is a good strategy or whether one should go out for at least a couple of kilometers. Since my riding intensity is not very high I might get away with this. 

I am better disciplined on working days. I get back home at around 6/6.30 and off for the ride at 8.30 pm. Rarely have I deviated from this. On holidays however, when I sleep the whole day or laze around, I find it lazy to go out at all. Every Friday night I go to sleep promising to wake up in the morning of Saturday and go out for a Gran Fondo of 100 Km but I find myself waking up at 8.30 or even 10.

 

Brake Cleaning

My Red Roadie is now almost 2500 Km old. For the last few weeks I had been hearing a most annoying sound whenever I pulled the brakes. I have rim brakes on both my bikes. To get rid of the sound I had cleaned the rim a few times with alcohol. Things would improve for a day but again go back to square one. The other day I took the pads off one by one and cleaned the shoes thoroughly. They were pretty dirty, as you can see. Truth be told. They had never been cleaned since my purchase. Shiny metal deposits were visible as evident from the photograph. 

Rim brakes for road bikes are really simple. Just one nut and two washers on either side hold it to the post. First I tried cleaning with a fine grade emery paper kept for my tube repair. It failed to do a thorough job. I tried various methods. Rubbing them on the carborundum block meant for sharpening my knives was one. The final removal of the last bit of the shiny thing was achieved by using my heavy duty iron file. 

I do not know if I over did it but possibly a lot of rubber got rubbed off and it might not have been even uniformly sanded off. I am hoping that the rim will eventually rub the pads off to a uniform flat. The braking efficiency has improved a lot, no doubt.

There was still some noise coming from the rear brakes. It is not really a squeal. More like someone was dragging a large bamboo along a road. A rough vibrating kind of noise. I adjusted the pad to make the front touch a little before the back. This is called toeing. Things seem to have improved quite a bit. I will have to be alert. I also adjusted the torque in the rear brake's central bolt that holds the unit to the frame. It was so loose that one could turn it by hand.

Today I also ordered for two sets of Kool Stop brakes. The brakes I have as OE on my Red Roadie are integrated and brand less. That is, you cannot just replace the pads. You have to change the whole unit. So I invested in a good pair of brakes costing me close to Rs 3000 for the two sets. Ordered them off Happy Earth. I have Kool Stops on my LHT also, upgraded before the Darjeeling trip. 

I will change the existing ones on the Red Roadie when they stop working, which I suspect will be pretty soon. 

After the upgrade I will just need to change the pads and not the entire unit including the holder. 

IceToolz Multitool

Now that I ride both the Red Roadie and the Trucker I was thinking about getting another set of multitool. My Crankbrothers stays in the Red Roadie's saddle bag. The Trucker, which I ride less now due to Monisha's regular office commute, is ridden without a multitool unless I was going far with it when I take the Crankbrothers out of the Red Roadie. 

So the other day when I went to Rito's Stay Tuned I picked up this IceToolz multi tool. They have two types. I picked this up which is a little more expensive at Rs 650. I picked it up due to its sober colour. The cheaper one had a very loud lemon green colour. 

This tool has all the basic Allen keys that might be necessary on the road. A few fancy spanners are there but I doubt I will ever use them. It does not have any chain breaker. 

Brooks on Roadie

 A few days ago I did what I was meaning to do for a long time now. I took the Brooks out of the LHT and put it in the Red Roadie frame. I took it out along with the seat post so that it was a quick change. I never knew road cycling in Calcutta would become so smooth and comfortable. I am waiting for either Guria or Gublai to come. I want to buy another Brooks. There is no question about the comfort factor.

Initially I was a little concerned about the saddle's suitability because of the change in sitting posture. On the LHT my position is a lot more upright. Here on the roadie I am a lot more inclined forward. I thought the saddle would have been used to my upright position and whether it can handle the other posture equally well.

I realised, after the change, that my reservations were completely unfounded. It is just as comfortable. I will not change my saddle unless I was selling the bike. Period. 

I know there are people who hate the Brooks experience. I think I love it. The gentle flex that it has is a feeling unparalleled in anything else. Of course I have not used the famous saddles that are known for their comfort. But I am quite happy and don't need to look any further any more.

First Fall of 2021

Two nights ago I had the first fall of 2021. Hopefully this is the last. It was a minor fall and there was neither any major bruise nor cut. Just a small pin head sized cut between the fingers on the left hand and a bit of pain on the left hip. I got up almost instantly without help and rode back home after a 12 km normal ride - albeit a bit slower than usual - and a short visit to a friend's house.

I had turned left from Acropolis mall, as I was coming from Ruby and found half of the road was blocked by pedestrians walking gingerly. I went to the other side of the road to overtake them. After crossing them I cut back left. Here at the last moment I realised there was a road divider. I tried to cross it vertically but it was a round and smooth plastic divider. In an instant I was down. I was on the Red Roadie.

 

The fall happened at 1:6:40 in the lane opposite Acropolis Mall

I fell on my side. None of the attached things fell off the bike. The lights were still on. A few young boys came to help me up on my feet. I thanked and told them I was absolutely fine. Jumped on the bike and pedalled off to Shilbhadra's house.

Initially there was pain on the knuckle, elbow and the hip. All on the left hand side. The knuckle turned out to be a minor cut under the gloves. The elbow pain was gone soon. The hip pain was more pronounced. But I could ride back home. Yesterday, Sunday I was at home the whole day. But that is my usual routine on a Sunday. The pain subsided a bit. I don't think there is any fracture. These are muscle pains. I had two paracetamols, 1000 mg each. I did some IT band stretches. 

Tonight I propose to go out again. Possibly with the LHT.

I think recovering from this type of pain is all about fitness. If you are fit you suffer less. I see footballers falling and getting hurt in collisions all the time. But they recover so quickly. They would limp for a while and then go all out again. Except fracture and muscle pulls footballers hardly nurse an injury for long. 

I intend to do a lot of stretches tonight, of the glutes and hamstrings, before going out.

Tuesday, 5th January: I did go out for a ride on my Musafir last night. It was slower than usual but the effort was perhaps more. The wider Schwalbe tyres are really slow. There was no pain while riding. Before the ride I did some stretches and Padmasana and Bajrasana. Didn't feel any pain.