My vignette for the baldy ride ...
I rode it on my 26 lbs 1974 25" Schwinn paramount P-15 which hasn't been ridden totally stock (36-46-54, 14-30) for 25 years. On Friday night, I changed out a PAT 80 Nuovo Record for the original Shimano Crane derailleur and re-installed the 36T inner chain ring. I tried to put a 14-30 pro-compe freewheel and pie plate on the rear wheel, but after bending 2 QR axles trying to remove the 14-28 pro-compe - I gave up and left the 14-28 on the bike for this ride.
Famous last words (halfway up - noticing that I'm in 2nd gear, using a 36-24) :
"I didn't even need my lowest gear, I could have ridden a 42-28 !!"
At about halfway up, I decided I had to leave Charles & Co. behind because Sterling had said he'd be waiting for me at the bottom, and we were falling further and further behind. So I peeled out in 3rd and 4th gear to try to catch those guys at the front. That lasted for say, TWO HUNDRED FEET ONLY ! It was at that point that I needed 1st gear, more or less for the rest of the climb ...
Several times along the way, the ride turned downhill and I could ride or coast for up to 1 mile. Then suddenly it turned UPHILL again and I found myself cursing the second or third time this happened. I was really ready for the climbing to be OVER FOR GOOD !!
Twice I had to jump off the bike and push it uphill for 100 steps, before jumping back aboard. I've been training in the gym and can do 200 watts for more than an hour now and I've lost 40 lbs, so this was frustrating. The reality was, THERE ARE SOME THINGS ABOUT VINTAGE UNICANITOR SADDLES THAT CAN MAKE IT MORE COMFORTABLE TO PUSH THAN TO PEDAL !!
Near the end, I began pointing the bike up the hill, across the road, in the direction that minimized the gradient. When I eventually got to the edge of the road, and was in danger of riding off the cliff, I would turn the bike back uphill steeply and stand on the pedals to get back to the other side of the road, so I could repeat the gradient trick again ..
At one point, I heard the mountain throw a few rocks off the side - trying to do me in - but the minor landside missed my bike by at least 20 feet - I was just too darned quick on the bike to succumb to such an obvious threat ...
At Baldy Village, I made a wrong turn and headed uphill towards Arizona. After about half a mile, I had the good sense to stop and ask someone for directions ...
Being from Central Illinois, I had never experienced a steep (maybe 10%) downhill 2-lane road where the cars are going 45 mph and there is rock slide rubble in your path all along the side of the road. I used my rear brake as a "pulsed drag brake" until I blew the rear tire off that rim. Luckily, it deflated slowly and there was a 10-foot shoulder against the mountain only 100 feet from where it started to deflate.
I had the hardest time ever changing a flat tire. First of all, the rim was GLOWING RED, and I singed my gloved fingertips trying to get the wheel off the bike. When I opened my tool bag, I noticed that I had brought a presta - not a schraeder - valved tire. The schraeder tire valve was destroyed trying to get it off the rim (I had to use 2 cone wrenches to press it out), so I had no option to fix that flat tire. But then, I could NOT get the presta 27x1 tube to reseat in the ossified CyclePro 27 1 1/8 tire !! I actually had to try 4 times, and finally hit on the idea of opening the wire bead on one side of the rim, and inflating the tube to 30 psi, then pressing the wire bead back onto the rim to avoid pinches ...
Finally, I got off the mountain road and into the suburbs. Here - in a generous bike lane, with no traffic and 5 total lanes - I found myself screaming down the hillside in the 54x14 for at least 3 miles at about 100 RPM (31 MPH), with no traffic and no rubble in sight.
By far the most frustrating part of the ride was the return - 12 miles on Foothill Ave - due west to get back to Asuza ave and the park in Glendora where the ride began. In 12 miles I must have hit at least 30 stoplights - most of them triggered by Angelinos waiting to make left turns in front of me. It was at this part of the ride when I was heard speaking unmentionable words at stoplights many, many times ...
Still sore after 48 hours ...
- Don Gillies
San Diego, CA