collideous

Eurobike 2010

Mon, 06 Sep 2010 10:41:43 +0200

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.

Grenchenberg Left today and climbed up towards the Bözingenberg...

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 20:56:58 +0200

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...

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 21:30:59 +0200

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...

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 21:18:07 +0200

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

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 21:23:38 +0200

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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.

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

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 09:37:17 +0200

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.

Fri, 27 Aug 2010 20:29:00 +0200

Friday’s Great Bike

BMC’s 2011 RaceMachine.

Company servers should break down more often

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 17:20:06 +0200

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?”

La Petite Douanne to the Chasseral

Sun, 22 Aug 2010 15:20:57 +0200

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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

Great Bikes: Baum Cubano White Baum Cubano GTR with Shimano Di2.

Fri, 20 Aug 2010 22:51:00 +0200

Great Bikes: Baum Cubano

White Baum Cubano GTR with Shimano Di2.

Great Bikes: Specialized Tarmac Specialized’s...

Fri, 20 Aug 2010 22:48:15 +0200

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

Fri, 20 Aug 2010 21:44:04 +0200

Zoom Hidden

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

Thu, 19 Aug 2010 00:21:00 +0200

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

Sun, 15 Aug 2010 10:49:52 +0200

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

Sat, 14 Aug 2010 22:49:00 +0200

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

Wed, 11 Aug 2010 11:54:00 +0200

Now I need to make something with it ☺

Summer Days Getting Shorter • Photo taken with my iPhone 3G on...

Mon, 09 Aug 2010 22:32:00 +0200

Summer Days Getting Shorter

Photo taken with my iPhone 3G on the way to the Place Centrale.

(Off)Road Riding • I have an Air 9 Carbon on order. Yeah,...

Wed, 04 Aug 2010 20:40:38 +0200

(Off)Road Riding

I have an Air 9 Carbon on order. Yeah, I’m one of those waiting. But based on what I’ve been riding lately I’d really need a cross bike. Whatcha think?

First Ride In Two Weeks

Tue, 03 Aug 2010 23:08:26 +0200

It’s been two weeks off the bike after my crash. I came home from work on the bus and decided to ride the Litespeed into the Jura. The plan was to take it easy and see if my body would complain about it. Well, my banged up knee seemed happy to be moved. No complaints from the right hand either, only the left one constantly needed to change positions. It was super sunny with a chilly wind that kept temperatures cool. It felt much like an early fall day. I rode the same loop as on July 15th and enjoyed being back out there not running into anyone.

Meringue à la Crème Chantilly

Sun, 01 Aug 2010 20:58:59 +0200

Today we undertook a small road trip to Sainte-Croix and then traveled on some super narrow and occasionally scaringly steep mountain roads to La Gittaz and to the mountain restaurant Grange Neuve situated right between the Aiguilles de Baulmes and the peak Le Suchet. I wanted to do a little bit of hiking, but leaving town I lost my hiking map when I jumped out of the car to get some cash at an ATM. Instead of climbing mountains, we enjoyed a tasty Croûte au Fromage and half a Meringue à la Crème Chantilly. Now let me say something about half a meringue by Swiss standards. When I got my dessert the real mountains around us suddenly looked a whole lot smaller. As we sat there outside, the sky turned darker and darker and an occasional thunder announced that something was brewing. We decided not to wait for the storm and drove down the Route de la Montagne to Baulmes. We hit heavy rain on the highway back home. Luckily we outran or better outdrove the worst. It was a great little reconnaissance trip. This region offers so much to see. Jagged mountain tops with stunning views, a vast network of hiking trails, lots of mountain bike routes, paradisal climbs for road bikers and countless picture-book mountain villages. The first thing on my todo list for this area is the climb from Baulmes up the single lane Route de la Montagne. One word - unreal!