twentynine inches • one gear • zero travel

Eurobike 2010

Saturday morning, I left the house for Eurobike at 4.30AM and walked to the train station to catch a train to Constance at 5.15AM. There were no buses at this early hour and I wasn’t going to kick my wife out of bed on a Saturday morning. At the train station I had the time to buy a Coke and a sandwich at an open sandwich shop. Seems like these shops are doing great business with the clubbers that are on their way home after a night of dancing and drinking. I had to stand in line for a while. Sandwich and Coke stowed away, I jumped on the train. It departed 5 minutes late due to a technical hiccup, but I wasn’t too worried about getting to Constance in time for the boat trip across the lake. 5 minutes is easy to catch up on such a distance. About 10 minutes after to the train rolled out of the station, a female conductor escorted by two security guys came to check everyone’s ticket. Another sign that trains at this hours were mostly loaded with drunk party-goers. By the time the train entered Zurich’s main station, the train was back on schedule. I got to Constance, quickly walked to the harbor to catch the catamaran going to Friedrichshafen. No luck, like everyone else who got off the train we were too late. The catamaran was already filled up to the last seat and they were not letting anyone else on board. We all had to wait for the next one departing in an hour. I used that time to head back to the train station to exchange a few francs and then stopped at a bakery for a Macchiato to go. I walked back to the harbor and got myself comfortable on a bench with a nice view of the lake. Time went by quickly and soon enough I was on the boat to Friedrichshafen. A short bus trip later and I walked into the bike show.

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Grenchenberg Left today and climbed up towards the Bözingenberg but then turned off to do the usual climb to the Grenchenberg from Péry. Today, I did neither bring my GPS mouse nor the camera - just wanted to ride and ride fast. At the top of the Grenchenberg before turning around for the descent to the home of Swatch and BMC, I shot the above photo with my old iPhone. On the somewhat flat stretch back to Biel I was hauling ass thanks to the assistance of a mild tailwind. Not much else to report other that I’m heading to Eurobike tomorrow. Zoom

Grenchenberg

Left today and climbed up towards the Bözingenberg but then turned off to do the usual climb to the Grenchenberg from Péry. Today, I did neither bring my GPS mouse nor the camera - just wanted to ride and ride fast. At the top of the Grenchenberg before turning around for the descent to the home of Swatch and BMC, I shot the above photo with my old iPhone. On the somewhat flat stretch back to Biel I was hauling ass thanks to the assistance of a mild tailwind. Not much else to report other that I’m heading to Eurobike tomorrow.

Switzerland And Its Street Signs • You can ride your bike as fast as you like, you can slalom your SUV between cattle as long as you don’t park it, but heaven forbid you put your hiney on a luge. Zoom

Switzerland And Its Street Signs

You can ride your bike as fast as you like, you can slalom your SUV between cattle as long as you don’t park it, but heaven forbid you put your hiney on a luge.

Riding Into The Evening • A cold wind blowing, a clear blue sky and an evening sun slowly ducking behind the mountain ridge. Always a good way to finish a workday on the bike to cleanse body and mind. Zoom

Riding Into The Evening

A cold wind blowing, a clear blue sky and an evening sun slowly ducking behind the mountain ridge. Always a good way to finish a workday on the bike to cleanse body and mind.

Letting The Chips Fly

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When you can’t do any work on your disoriented office PC because the company server - an Aitch Pee - died a horrible death, you go to the basement an turn on the rarely operated lathe. At least, that’s what I did this morning after our mandatory “Znünipouse” (9 o’clock break). My new bike was in dire need of a front wheel skewer, so I slammed a piece of aluminum into the chuck, got my hands dirty and machined one myself. Fun to leave work upstairs for a few hours, let the chips fly and end up with a sharp looking, one of a kind skewer. I haven’t done any metal work in a while and it’s always sweet to stand at a machine again to create something, especially when it’s something bike-related. And although my training as a precision mechanic is already 20 years away, operating a lathe or a mill is like riding a bicycle - once you learned how, you don’t lose those skills. Anyway, the parts now need to get anodized before they get the privilege to clamp the front wheel of the A9C.

Anonymous asked: What is frame size and stem length, and which CC headset -- thanks

The Niner Air 9 Carbon frame is a medium. The Rotor S2 stem is 120mm long with a negative angle of 7.5 degrees. The headset is currently still the FSA that came with the frame. A red Cane Creek 110 is on order.

Friday’s Great Bike • BMC’s 2011 RaceMachine. Zoom

Friday’s Great Bike

BMC’s 2011 RaceMachine.

Company servers should break down more often

When I got to work today and switched on my computer, the slow Windows box frantically tried to find the company server - to no avail. I spent until 9AM twiddling my thumbs, when we were informed that the server would be down for at least another four hours. I wasn’t going to twiddle my thumbs for four more hours and took the rest of the day off. It was too nice a day to waste it on doing as much as nothing. I took a quick walk from the office to the hardware store to look for a torque wrench, but didn’t find a suitable one. I returned back to work and packed up. I wanted to get on the bike and climb the Chasseral mountain and find a traffic-free descent down our highest local peak. I went home, changed, ate a little something and took off. Riding conditions were superb, sunny but due to a breeze not too hot. So from now on when I walk by our server at the office, I’ll be greeting the unit with “Hey you, how about breaking down today?”

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