Harvey !
Way to go !
And to make this message more than just an "attaboy!" , I never really thought about the fact that riding a fixed-gear allows you to calculate EXACTLY how many crank revolutions your pedals ( and your feet ) have performed , for a specific distance . Neat ! And then this allows you to compare bicycling to stair-climbing ( and descending ) with a good deal of accuracy ( if you know how much was going up , and how much was going down ) . Neat ! Thanks for a new perspective !
Raoul Delmare
Marysville Kansas
<kanford@comcast.net> Sent: Monday, September 29, 2003 9:35 PM Subject: [CR]Sense and the Century: a vintage ride.
> If one heads due south from Washington DC into the real world, keeping
> the Potomac to his right and the Chesapeake to his left, he does not
> fall off the end of the earth, but he does get to Leanardtown, MD, 5 mi.
> from Hollywood, in very pleasant country. Every fall, the local club
> (Patuxent Area Cycling Enthusiasts) sponsors a really nice and very well
> supported Century ride. I decided last minute to ride it, attraced by
> the announcement that it was mostly flat to rolling, with a few hills.
> It inspired me to pack both the Cinelli SC and the old Roma Sport fixed
> gear in the van and get up before civilization arises.
>
> The good news was running into Our List's (whoops, Dale's list's) Paul
> Raley, who greeted me warmly and modestly showed his lovely deep red
> Bottechia. Paul's first reaction was that it might be a bit challenging
> on the fixed gear. His second thought was that I could make it, and
> that I should ride with him and his buddies. With them did I set off.
> On the fixed gear. This was nuts.
>
> I rode my bike swap-meet Roma Sport, with FB HF hubs, track rims,
> sew-ups de jour, Magistroni cranks and a magnificent "patina" of chalky
> paint and rusty chrome. With an oval fork. Must have been built on a
> Monday, but a lovely ride. For the occasion, I changed out the
> many-cracked Brooks Swift for a modern saddle on an Ideale microadjust
> clip, and added an old Avocet cyclometer. And a Weinmann 500 brake...
>
> About a mile out, it started to drizzle, which was a great excuse to
> drop out of fast company before they got fast. They finished in under 5
> hr. After the drizzle lightened up, I got back on the road, and finished
> relaxed and a bit sore more than 7 hr. later. With a 67" gear, that is
> just over 94,000 crank revolutions. But hill climbing is no different
> from stair climbing. If you live in a 15 story walk-up. As expected,
> the downhills were more challenging than the ups. Let's see, 31.5 mph on
> a 67.5 is a cadence of 160, according to my old Cyclo-Pedia. That's why
> I used the brake to keep it down in the low 20s (mph) most of the time.
> Now, climbing at 8 mph = 40 rpm, just like stairs.
>
> I really hadn't planned on doing this. That darned Ken Sanford set me up
> for it by telling me how much he enjoyed a fixed-gear century in Alabama
> last month. If he can do, can't I? Hubris is the mother of soreness,
> but your mileage may vary.
>
> Harvey Sachs
> McLean VA