14th December 2015 Beware of falling ice!

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Monday 14th 32-37F, 0-3C, white frost, pink overcast, quite still. Rain forecast from lunchtime onwards. 

I was just thinking about yesterday's ride and how comfortable I was despite the "just above freezing" temperatures. As usual, I wore my cycling cardigan but it soon went into the saddle bag. Leaving me with only a long sleeved thermal vest under my warmest cycling jacket. I hadn't even worn one of my default racing jerseys over a thinner thermal vest.

The Dintex scooterists gloves were just right with a thin pair of polyester gloves as liners. The liners help to absorb moisture when the heavier gloves can't get rid of it quickly enough through the membrane. Damp gloves quickly lose their thermal insulation and can make one's hands feel horribly cold even in warmer conditions.

What works for a short ride is not remotely the same as one of five hours of continuous effort. I am always pushing along and frequently get out out of the saddle on small rises and even longer hills. Dawdling was never my style unless forced on me by tiredness or hunger or both. I try to maintain 90+ rpm and was even climbing at 110 rpm yesterday [while seated.] The downside of scooter gloves is their thickness hinders easy gear changes. 11 speeds offer such close ratio changes that it makes it much easier to spin. Obtaining lower gears with the MTB cassette and changer mean that I can maintain higher revs on many more hills.

Just my usual ramble loop up through the woods in an hour and half. A complete absence of birds until seven Whooper swans went over in stealth mode. Cold enough to make the mud uncomfortable and noisy to walk on but not firm enough to take my weight. Only a thin skin of ice on the puddles but 3/4" thick [18mm] on lorries shedding hard frozen puddles from the roofs of their trailers! Huge sheets had slipped off and smashed onto the road on the local S-bends. The damage they could do to cars, cyclist or pedestrians doesn't even bear thinking about! Nobody would survive a direct hit. A sheet of ice that size and weight, with typically sharp edges, would probably cut a cyclist in half!

Disaster has struck my Shimshramergo gear system! The right Chorus Ergo lever has given up struggling against the odds. They were 2013 models bought new in October 2012 and now with ~20k miles on the clock. The long lever failed to lift the chain beyond midway on the cassette today before getting stuck at the top of its travel. It wasn't the Shimergo ratio-changing arm hitting the BB after all. The pawls which drive the ratchets seem to have given up and the lever is now unable to return to top gear.

Following a viewing of the Campag dismantling video on YT I have emailed a Campag repairer specialist for advice on the economics of repair. Or whether replacement is a better, though expensive,  option. I can hardly complain given the demands I placed on the lever over the last three years. I often changed gear [literally] every few seconds to maintain my 90-100 rpm cadence on constantly changing terrain. The only maintenance the lever has ever received is a blob of Castrol LMP grease at yearly intervals if I remembered. The ratchets were looking a bit tired when I last replaced a cable. Probably not even a Campag example. Worse, I used a variety of non-standard changers. All completely unforgivable according to the manufacturer.

Still, I had no plans to claim under the manufacturer's guarantee so would/could not be dictated to. Had I wanted a perfect gear change I could have followed the expensive route and bought into the entire Chorus "Groupo" system and had my gears titivated by a skilled Campagnolo cycle mechanic. Then probably replaced the entire "Groupo" on an annual basis simply to satisfy Campag's relentless [annual] updating to ensure complete non-backwards compatibility.

Just finding Campagnolo components [and, therefore, skilled Campagnolo mechanics] in Denmark is fraught with difficulty. None of the bike shops in Odense stock it as far as I can discover. I was repeatedly told that demand is so low and prices so high as to be not worth stocking.

All I wanted was a high quality, 11 speed indexing gear/brake combo lever and low enough gears to match my age, high cadence, typically loaded tricycle weight and fitness level. Campagnolo would have me use a 34-29 lowest gear at the time I bought the Chorus levers. I could now have a 34-30 if I was really, really good and asked Santa VERY nicely. Though which groupo I'd need to invest in to get that 34-30 is another matter entirely. What I really want AND NOW NEED is 33-36 to spin freely on the steepest hills without wrecking my knees and having to give up cycling for good! Neither Santa, nor Campagnolo, are interested in delivering such low ratios. Hence Shimergo.

The Chorus levers provide rapid shifting up and down the cassette thanks to "Ultrashift." Another lifesaver for ancient knees which don't want to wait for the old fart upstairs to press the gear lever 10 times. Just to find a low enough "crawler" gear for when the road suddenly rears up. Nor do they [the knees] want to do 500 rpm when the trike just as suddenly "falls off a cliff" in the wrong gear on a descent. Been there, done that, don't like it.

The Chorus 'Ultrashift' is the perfect tourist's lever. It's just a shame that Campagnolo don't drop their half century old [drug abuser's] racing halo and sell some nice kit for those who prefer distance to absolute speed. Not that a company which demands £3500 for their top end "El-Groupy" is likely to find many followers amongst anybody but the [typically overweight] investment banker, weekend warrior for whom, supposedly, every gram matters. Perhaps there really aren't enough tourists and commuters to warrant the R&D necessary to build bomb-proof touring kit. i.e. That which can rely only on rain-soaked bread crumbs, mature Cheddar and/or jam for lubrication?  

Short, late morning ride for 7 miles under a leaden sky.

Tuesday 15th 39F, 4C, overcast, light breeze. Some sunshine is expected. I had better look at the Higgins to remind myself of its road-worthiness. It has hardly been ridden since I have had the Trykit. There is always the option to move the [rear derailleur ]10 speed Campag Centaur lever over to the Trykit. The lever is almost brand new from having so little exercise. It would be no hardship to lose top gear of the Trykit's present 11. It is only useful for 28-30mph downhill on the aero bars.

The 1954 Higgins proved to need nothing more than some air in the tyres and a saddle fitted. It looked strangely small as I wheeled it around. A blast of chain lubricant loosened up the gears and chain so I'm ready for the road. The Carradice Junior will provide a little space for some shopping aided and abetted by the latest sports bag.

Riding the Higgins for the first time in a couple of years [from memory] seemed very odd indeed. It felt twitchy, nimble and fast compared with the Trykit. Whether I was going any faster I could not tell because I had no computer fitted. The riding position felt very strange too. Almost jockey-like, with my legs folded under me and my arms stretched right out. Climbing and sprinting out of the saddle was also very different because of the rearward bottom bracket. Riding rippled camber was decidedly more "interesting" than on the Trykit. The triple front changer movements were abrupt and unforgiving. The sun never did show its face and the wind had picked up by the time I left, mid-afternoon. 14 miles.

Click on any image for an enlargement.

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11th December 2015 Does doing a 'century' over two days, count?

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Friday 11th 42F, 6C, breezy, very heavy overcast, potential for showers. Windy later, with rain. An hour and a half walk up through the woods. Slippery underfoot with so much mud being churned up by forestry work. Disturbed a family of freshly-painted Bullfinches in a field hedge. Arrived home just in time to miss a heavy shower. Perfect timing! It had been looking quite promising with the clouds breaking up to a hint of blue and a threat of sunshine. Now it is so dark it could be dusk and the sky is uniform, dark grey. It is raining so hard it looks like thick fog as it turns to hail!

I told you it was overcast!

A mid afternoon ride returning in the dark. The gears were perfect at times and misbehaving at others. I think it is to do with stiffness in the Campag lever or the cable sheath [outer] on the handlebars. As it was spitting with rain and huge black anvils were coming up from the west I bought a dirt cheap [and further discounted] florescent cycling helmet cover. A label claimed 3M reflective strips. When I shone my bright "Scream" front light on it outside the shop the strips looked very dark! It wasn't until I returned home and saw it reflecting in the outside house light that I realised it is only reflective directly "on axis." Perpendicular incidence, if you prefer. I've finally found another decent sports bag in a charity shop. The bright pink one with the broken zip can now [finally] be retired. 14 miles.


Saturday 12th 40F, 4C, overcast, light winds. 

For those who wonder at the importance of a sports bag to a tricyclist: It is the equivalent of a decent sized saddlebag [for carrying shopping home] but without all the hype. The bag is hung by its own handles simply looped over the seat post and carries the lighter, or more fragile items, back from distant supermarkets. The trike scores heavily over a bike in having so much free space between the back wheels. My endless supply of cheap sports bags has saved me thousands of pounds/dollars/kroner in easily avoidable expense on petrol and car repairs.  Though I still have to pay the same road taxes as the road-weary rep for my miserable few hundred miles per year.

The fitness I gain from cycling to the shops, over a wide area, has probably extended my life and keeps my weight in check. The psychological benefits of cycling are too wide-ranging and obvious to need further explanation.

Cycling and blogging about it, supported by my constant photography, reinforce my interest in wildlife, the landscape and admiring the traditional architecture. I can share my hair-brained schemes  and inventiveness with the entire world without greater expense than normal, monthly Internet charges. Cycling has given back far more than it has cost in replacing worn out parts, improved components and tyres. It even gives me a strange form of social life despite being rurally exiled in a foreign land. People use the trike as an ice-breaker to conversation outside supermarkets. Often it is simply to satisfy their curiosity as to the whys and how far do I travel and where can they get one like mine?

The extreme rarity of sporting trikes on the Danish roads means that [probably] thousands of people recognise me from seeing me on their own travels. I see hands waving from behind windscreens wherever I go. The odd beep of a horn is usually accompanied by a wave. Though I haven't a clue who they are it hardly matters. I consider it my duty to reduce my impact on their progress and it must be appreciated by some. My average speed of 11.2mph [according to my bike computer] gives me sufficient range to reach much of the Island of Fyn in a single day and return home. Though not to the far reaches every day and it usually means traveling in a [fairly] straight line and back by another way. If only to reduce the duration to an acceptable level.

My wife is remarkably tolerant of my cycling though she does worry about the potential risks. It is indeed fortunate that cyclists enjoy far greater respect in Denmark than in the ultra-aggressive chaos of the UK's total anarchy of the road. The Danes are much more relaxed about hierarchy so don't drive around with huge chips on their shoulders. Nor do they waste valuable reaction time worrying about who has right of way in their thousand daily "games" of chicken.

Many Danes cycle and/or own a bike so they share a common empathy with each other out on the roads. Respect for [some of] the rules of the road and almost universal provision of cycle paths or marked-off cycle lanes reduces the impact of each form of transport on the other. If you must do it, then cycling, in Denmark, is probably as good as it gets anywhere. If somebody could do something about the wind and the cold of winter it would be [almost] perfect. At least it doesn't rain all the time! The icing on the cake would be for the supermarkets I visit to actually stock their heavily advertised special offers if only once in a while. Lies, damned lies and Danish supermarkets, eh? They must be inspired by the endless, empty promises of their politicians.

I walked around the edges of some very soggy fields for a change of scenery. Within a hundred yards I had seen Bullfinches, Fieldfares and several, large birds of prey. The mink gulls were much depleted in numbers today. Cold on my hands at first but the clouds have cleared to bright, but low, sunshine. Only a week to the shortest day. It's a good day for a ride if I can decide where to go.

I rode northeast at 11 am to the edge of Odense before looping back through Søndersø and then home. Tailwind going but the contrary on the way home. So that I needed the tri-bars quite a bit just to maintain reasonable progress. Lots of puddles and minor flooding in the lanes. At least the mud was regularly washed off the tyres and my new brake blocks. Like an idiot I only had one muesli bar and a small box of pure apple juice for company. Not enough for being gone for five hours when I missed lunch. So I was getting a bit tired by the time I neared home and dusk. Lots of birds of prey about as well as flocks of different kinds of birds. The gears were the same as yesterday. Mostly  perfect indexing but unaccountably stiff at other times. I shall have to investigate with the trike up on the workstand. 49 miles.

Sunday 13th 34-36F, 1-2C, still, overcast. Much colder and supposed to clear to sunshine with a slight risk of wintry showers. My walk was delayed while I dug out my Salomon boots from the rafters of the shed. I had left my best [£5 from a charity shop] Ecco walking boots to dry in the weak winter sunshine [then forgot them overnight.] There was half an inch of water in them presumably from overnight rain. Whoops!

Suitably adorned in my Salomons I clomped off around the rural block as the blinding sun rose into a now, cloudless sky. I had seen several buzzards before I had even let the drive. It was so incredibly still I could hear the high altitude airliners passing over which is unusual. The hedges were full of small birds moving steadily away from me as I plodded on to the sound of my boots. The Eccos are very much quieter.

A gaudy pair of Bramblings joined the blue Tits, Great tits, sparrows and Blackbirds at their game of tag. Until they finally lost patience and crossed the road for a rest in the opposite hedge. Cocks were crowing, geese complaining in their cottage back gardens, crows and rooks were calling as Jackdaws stood silent watch on the treetops. Ponies stared  as I passed, no doubt hoping for a treat, to break the boredom of their hay in their posh, bottomless, galvanized dispensers. A perfect morning was spoilt only by a cold breeze on the last leg of my triangular route. Making my eyes water and my hands cold in my jacket pockets. I'm hoping I shall be allowed out again. There is still a [slight] chance to reach 6000 miles this year if I can maximize these fine, relatively still days. A Sparrowhawk has just landed in one of our birch trees as I finish my morning coffee.

Deliberate case of déjà vu today.  Left again at 11am and headed north to cover exactly the same ground as yesterday. Only this time I found my goal thanks to some pre-ride swatting of an online  map service. I was passed by a dozen or so clubmen out training.  Lots of nice comments as they sprinted past. Not enough grub again though I did take a sandwich and a banana. I was so weak and hungry that I arrived home feeling distinctly wobbly. Which seems odd because I was doing 20mph on the tri-bars on the way home and climbing well.

Yesterday's headwind had turned into a cross headwind. A blinding low sun made me uneasy about cars overtaking but they all gave me plenty of room. Finished in mid dusk after a day without a cloud in the sky. My tinnitus came back for most of the day but the wind roaring in the other ear helped to drown it out. No time to sort out the gears but I think it's a lack of cable tension between the arm and the rear changer. It looks as the arm is moving too far forwards so that it hits the bottom bracket. 54 miles.

Click on any image for an enlargement.

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10th December 2015 Shimshramergo: Roundabouts.

Meanwhile, back at the mini roundabout:

My simple lever is a very handy ratio conversion system for a trike but probably quite unsuitable for most bikes. There just isn't much room behind the seat tube/bottom bracket of a bike because of the rear wheel intervening. Though the lever could be placed elsewhere on a bike it has paint damaging and serious cosmetic problems which are probably best avoided. 

I doubt a pulley would fit behind the chainwheel but it could be located forward of it with quite normal cable runs. In fact it can be placed anywhere on a normal, "bare" gear cable run. Even high on the downtube, top tube or seat tube if the cable runs that way. All it does is alter the gear lever's pull-per click to that needed for the rear derailleur and cassette. The only real stipulation is that it works on a bare [inner] cable. So it could be placed just below a cable stop on the downtube. Or even on the chainstay provided it doesn't get in the way. It just needs a decent clamp to avoid any movement. Where you want to fit the pulley and its size then become a cosmetic choice.

Making my original double pulley in the lathe left few options for the cable to rise from the smaller to the larger pulley. I had drilled the large pulley radially but it meant a very sharp change in cable direction and far too much friction to pull the cable through the resulting hole. Once committed to the bend there is no chance of further adjustment. The cable had already taken a right angle set and is jammed fast. It can only be pulled back out. Which is decidedly limiting. It was lucky I used a stump of old cable for the first cable threading trial.

Ideally the cable would leave the smaller pulley on a tangent, climb steadily [in radius] and then join the larger pulley again on a tangent. [No bends!] Small flats or "lands" between the three pulleys would provide harmless re-routing. The limited pulley rotation, from moving the changer from each end of the cassette, would avoid potential cable damage at the cable "detours."

On the trike, the cable would enter the pulley system horizontally and leave horizontally after taking almost, two full turns around the entire pulley system. Note how both entry and exit points are low on the pulleys to maintain normal cable runs. The lower image shows the actual cable run though it is limited to an arc of 36mm on the larger pulley rim and 26mm on the smaller pulley. In practice the cable can enter and leave the pulleys at any angle of the user's own choosing. I have digitally removed the unused portion of the middle "ramp" pulley for clarity. It is a normal pulley but offset from the axle of the other two which sandwich it.

The only way I can imagine how this pulley system might be achieved at home is to make three individual pulleys. Then fix them all together later. The pulley unit would be rotated to the correct phase on installation. This new, pull-ratio conversion pulley would be attached to a clamp on the bottom of the seat or down tube with the large pulley just clearing the bottom bracket shell.

The pulleys need not be quite as large as the ones I made to [literally] pivot around the bottom bracket but should not be made too small just for appearance. Otherwise the cable will quickly fray through bending stress and leading the stiff cable around the triple pulleys becomes much more difficult. Why bother making a better one when Jtek can provide a Shiftmate to fray your cables for you?

The hope is that the cable will experience so much friction on its journey twice around the pulleys that no clamping is necessary.  A sharp-bottomed, narrow V-profile on the pulley rims, similar to that employed by V-belts, would increase the friction by means of a self-jamming effect. The cable must not slip on the pulleys or the ratio conversion is lost. Jamming would [hopefully] be further increased by the normal gear cable tension. The active radii for ratio conversion lies in the center of the cable when seated on the rims.

I am considering light alloy, rather than Tufnol, for the new pulleys. The ratio in diameter between the two outer pulleys would be as required by the lever/changer/cassette system. 1:1.38, in my case, but wide open to any variation to suit any bike gear system. The only major limitation is not being able to obtain any more gears than the indexing gear lever provides.

Click on any image for an enlargement.

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