collideous

La Petite Douanne to the Chasseral

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After I had taken a break from cycling yesterday, I was well rested today to attack the Chasseral mountain, which I had not visited since my bike accident in July. A sunny Sunday is usually not a good day to go up there on a road bike, but my plan was to stay off the busy roads for the climb up to it. I left Biel for Corgémont where I began the climb up to the Anabaptist Bridge. Today marked the first time I saw someone else on a bike halfway up the climb. A female mountain biker. I continued to the Petite Douanne on a lightly climbing road and as soon as I crossed a Bovi-Stop and the road sharply turned left, I was on gravel. Nothing a road bike can’t take until it intersects with the fireroad coming from the Place Centrale. The next two kilometers to the Metairie de Morat were the ones that concerned me most. I knew this trail from mountain biking and I was prepared to walk. Well, it turned out that they put some new gravel on the trail and it was perfectly fine to ride. Once out of the forest, the last 600 or so meters were on dirt, but the dry conditions allowed it to be ridden too. At a cattle gate I greeted a mountain biker who came the other way, but the guy on his full suspension bike only returned an unfriendly look when he saw my ride. Oh well. Two more climbs were waiting ahead. A short pitch across the Petit Chasseral at 1572m and the steep climb to the Chasseral antenna. After enjoying the view from up there, I dove down to Nods. Today, I stayed on my brakes almost all the way. Lots of cars, motor bikes and bicycles were making their way up the road and just like myself others were going down too. Definitely too busy to let it fly. I did fly later though. On the slightly descending stretch from Nods to Lamboing, I had a nice tailwind pushing my speed between 43-48 kph. I continued to Orvin and hit the short climb to Evilard to return back to Biel. Overall riding time was just a minute over 3 hours.

Distance:	64km (40 miles)
Total Climb:	1600m (5260 feet)
GPS Track:	GPSies.com

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Great Bikes: Baum Cubano

White Baum Cubano GTR with Shimano Di2.

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Great Bikes: Specialized Tarmac

Specialized’s 2011 Tarmac Expert, SL3 frame construction, Shimano Ultegra components and Fulcrum Racing 4 wheels.

Vincero Design Water Bottle Promotion

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Vincero Design saw my short review yesterday and is offering a free 24oz. water bottle to all my readers with the purchase of a system (bottle & mount). To take advantage of the promotion, head over to the store, put a system and an extra bottle into your shopping cart and use the promo code 2NINERCH when checking out. It’ll then take out the price of the bottle from the total so you only pay for the system. Super deal! I should mention that I paid full price for my two systems including lovely Swiss import duties and I don’t get anything from this promotion. I just like the edge 16 mount and bottle and think you might too. Today’s road ride proved that it can handle the rough stuff.

First & Short Review: Vincero Design Bottle Mount

     

I recently received two water bottles and mounts from Vincero Design. Right at the time I ordered them, Vincero Design had just received new mounts in UD carbon with a stronger magnet. Robert, the founder, emailed me to ask if I wanted the old or the new style. Stronger magnet sounded good, as I’m planning on using a mount on a singlespeed and rigid mountain bike. So I chose the new design. After several days of bad weather, I was able to use the bottle mount for the first time today. When I got on the bike and put the bottle in its place my first thought was “No way this is going to hold”. Putting the bottle on the mount and pulling it off to drink is smooth and easy. I rode down the road, and other than the bottle hitting the downtube while riding across some rough pavement at a road construction site, the bottle securely stayed where it belonged and it did so for the whole ride. It’s only been one road/gravel ride, but if the system continues to perform as it did, the Edge 16 mount is one nifty bike accessory. The next big test will be riding my local Jura trails on the A9C.

Doing The Ebay Thing

In keeping with getting rid of all stuff not used, I put some bike components on Ebay that would just collect dust and take space in my basement. The current list:

• Set of black RaceFace Turbine LP cranks
• One red 34.9mm Hope seatpost clamp
• A Selle Italia SLR saddle with little butt-time

Retirement Well Deserved

   

A hand still recovering, a lousy weather forecast for the next couple of days and an email from my bike shop that the new frame and fork were coming were reason enough to build my already four year old Niner One 9 for retirement. Retirement, what? Once in a while, I own a great bike that I think is worth keeping. Such a bike gets carefully restored and finds its way out of the dark basement into the house. The Niner One 9 is only bike #2 that doesn’t end up as a trade-in or an item sold. I spent Friday night in the basement until 1:30AM taking it apart a bolt at a time, clean and re-lube everything as well as adding a couple of new bits to get it back to mint condition. The bike covered lots of miles out in the sun, in the mud and during the winter in the deep snow. It doesn’t show it. Niner One 9, four years and still as great as on day one.

Got Myself a 4-Letter Domain

Now I need to make something with it ☺

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