It could be argued I need another bike like I need a hole in the head, but indeed I have been spending the summer readying a new custom built machine. This time from Seven. This actually caps a year and a half saga to build up an S&S coupled bike that perhaps I’ll go into another time, but when I finally got around to engaging Seven, things moved quickly. This weekend I got it out for its maiden voyage.

A bit of history… The whole point of doing this was to build a bike with S&S couplers. You’ll see a picture below of a coupler. As their site says, a coupler “is a precision lug that is installed in a bicycle frame […] to allow it to separate and pack for easy transportation.” In other words, they make any bike a travel bike. I had thought about maybe just retrofitting one of my older bikes. My old Trek would have been a decent candidate but it’s aluminum and there are many things that make it impractical if not impossible. Retrofits do work out though. Kem retrofitted her Merlin and it’s made it an excellent travel bike.

In the end, I decided just to go ahead and get a completely new bike. This time I went with titanium. The S&S website has a great list of framebuilders but I quickly settled on Ti from either Moots, Merlin or Seven. I chose Seven. The main reason was a local referral and a meetup with a Seven rep who just happened to be in town. But truth be told, they also just have a good website and it had the information I was after and a product line that met my desires.

The main reason for the Ti was I wanted an unpainted bike and Ti performs and looks great unpainted. A travel bike takes more abuse in handling than a normal road bike. Why worry about paint? And when you travel you can’t pick the days you ride. You’ll probably still go even if it’s raining. While I love the feel of steel, I wanted to avoid worrying about corrosion. The other reasons for frame material choice get more complicated. Suffice it to say, my choices during the process were designed to yield a bicycle that was lively to ride but comfortable.

So, how does it ride? I must say I’m very happy with the results so far. It’s indeed a lively ride, though not harsh. It’s light and responsive and feels great climbing hills. Out of the saddle and cranking hard on it, I find the stiffness pretty much ideal. There’s a solid feel to the ride and I felt confident in steep, fast descents. I did find myself feathering the brakes just a little though when descending down curvy roads that I otherwise wouldn’t. There’s nothing squirrelly about the ride. In fact, I’d say it’s very responsive and predictable. There is, however, a slight difference in the fork rake between this new bike and my Waterford, and it’s just different enough to be noticable and be something to get used to.

The couplers are rock solid. The one thing I did notice though was the cable splitters. These allow the cables to be split when the bike is disassembled. They’re kind of big and when the road gets rough, they make a noise against the frame not unlike the noise of the lines of a flag pole when the wind causes them to rattle against the pole. A light pinging sound. They have rubber bumpers built into them to limit the noise but it’s inevitable it’ll make some noise. All in all, I’m looking forward to the places I can go with this bike.

The details:

• Frame: 3-2.5 Ti, custom geometry
• Stem: Ti, custom
• Fork: Seven, carbon
• Headset: Chris King, NoThreadSet – in black (thanks Kem!)
• Seat post: Seven, aluminum
• Handlebars: Stella, aluminum (being a travel bike, handlebars are on and off often. You have to be too careful with the right torque to go with carbon handlebars on a travel bike in my opinion.)
• Water cages: King, stainless steel
• Groupo: Shimano 6603
• Pedals: Speedplay, Ti
• Saddle: Specialized Alias, Ti rails
• Wheels/hubs: Bontrager Race Lites

My fresh set of cycling gloves arrived and was there on the doorstep when I got home last night. Apparently my Monday must be pretty uneventful if that was the highlight of my day but, hey, we live for simple pleasures, right?

Ordinarily, I wouldn’t make much note of it, but I really like these gloves. They have gel inserts that are better than any I’ve run across. I routinely buy a pair every year even though my old pair may not be completely worn out just on the off chance Spenco might stop making them. Because in fact, there was a time when Spenco did just that. I had a pair years and years ago and then they quit making them. Apparently people couldn’t stop asking for them though because they started to sell them again. Now they have their own special site at http://shop.spencocycling.com/.

I’ve never gotten the Tour or Pro models, so can’t vouch for them, but the Elites, shown here are my favs and as I sit here sipping the morning cup before the morning ride, figured I might as well share.

I must admit I think I chuckled out loud when I came upon this sign recently warning me of the steep downhill coming up. Someone has more signs than they know what to do with.

While I was in Wisconsin recently, I took a short detour and drove over to check out Waterford Precision Cycles. I had a custom built Waterford done back in ’03 that I really love. I got the lugged steel RST-22. I thought I’d check out where it was born.

You have to be looking for the place. It’s off the beaten path in the small town of Waterford, Wisc. Richard Schwinn – one of the co-founders – greeted me with a friendly hello and proceeded to give me a quick tour of the facility. He was joined by Gunnar the dog – the name sake of the Gunnar Bikes. Gunnar’s are made alongside the Waterford bikes. And as it turns out, Waterford also makes Volae recumbents and some Terry bikes as well as some for Rivendell.

Gunnar was really a friendly dog. I snapped this photo of him and also a shot of one the new custom bikes in progress in the paint shop.

This is the third bicycle manufacturing facility I’ve been to over the years. I think they’re always kinda fun to visit. The first I ever went to was Bike Friday out in Eugene Oregon. I remember being surprised by how small an operation it seemed to be. But they were very nice and let us borrow a couple bikes from their show room to try out. I really liked it and ended up buying one. (You can see it in the picture here.)

The other was the Tommasini factory in Grosseto Italy. They were bigger but like Bike Friday had a showroom attached to check out the bikes. Kem picked up the lugged steel bug from me and decided to order a classic steel Tommasini. She was fitted by Mr. Tommasini himself. Pretty cool!

Is this summer hot enough for ya yet? Yeah, I know. As far as the calendar goes, it’s still spring. But we’ve already had as many 100 degree days as all of last summer so I think I can safely say it’s summer in central TX.

Despite the heat, we’ve managed to get out in the Hill Country and do a couple interesting rides recently. A few weeks ago we did an old favorite – a ride from Dripping Springs to Johnson City. The Creek Road route south of Dripping Springs is always a favorite. Low traffic and scenic countryside.

The only downside to this route at all is the relatively short section of Hwy 290 as you go from FM-165 to the park road FM-3232. It’s busy with only a narrow shoulder and that shoulder is about as rough as asphalt gets. FM-3232 is nice though with some fantastic views of the Hill Country. The entrance to the park has a nice spot under some trees to take a break – which we did.

FM-2766 into Burnet is a similar scenic road of rolling hills. The windmill pictured here caught my eye on the way out. There’s no house or barn there any more but the windmill still works. Some Prickly Pear cactus has somehow managed to take root and do quite well on the top of a rock gate post.

The same road has a winery named Texas Hills. We didn’t stop in but oddly enough, there was a wine festival in Austin the very next day and we went to it. Texas Hills was there. Surprisingly, one of Texas Hills wines turned out to be one of our favorites of the day. Their Due Bianco is a blend of Pinot Grigio (21%) and Chardonnay (79%) and it was crisp and fruity and perfect for a hot day.

The middle picture of Kem and I was taken on Creek Rd on the return. If we look a little red, well, it’s cause we were hot!

The other ride we did was the Real Ale ride in Blanco. It was a benefit ride done by Real Ale for the public library there. They had a huge turn out. By their report 1400 riders. Logistics were a bit of a mess at the start, but otherwise, the ride was great. The 50 mile route was pretty hilly and the heat pretty intense. As the morning wore on it appeared to take its toll. I think the medics were busy that day. We took it slow and were fine.

The bottom picture here was post ride at the Real Ale brewery. There were serving up mounds of BBQ and some of the beer they make on site. The Firemans #4 Blonde Ale which we’re raising a glass of here was perfect for post ride quaffing. More please.

Saturday was the annual Armadillo ride out in Liberty Hill. We ride out there all the time, but this ride is always well attended and fun to go to. This year, the weather was just plain sultry. Thankfully the sun stayed behind the clouds till we were nearly done with the ride. Even so, it was downright hot. But we enjoyed the ride a lot. Neither of us has been out riding much recently so it was nice to get out to LH again.

Things are still pretty spring like and green around here. We didn’t have a great crop of wild flowers this year but occasionally there are some nice ones to be found. I saw this field of pink flowers just as we were nearing the end of the ride and it seemed to be a perfect spot to get a shot of Kem and her pink Serotta, with it’s pink bike bag and water bottles.

The shot of me was at the first rest stop we stopped at. I don’t think this is actually a working general store, but it made for a nice back drop.

Meanwhile, a few days ago we managed to get an early sneak peak at Mellow Johnny’s, the big new bike store in town. One of Kem’s friends works there. It’s gotten a lot of press locally because it’s co-owned by Lance Armstrong. It’s a bit of a museum almost. It has several of Lance’s old bikes and some of his own art hanging up on the walls.

The name of the place seemed odd at first but as it turns out, it’s a play on words that makes a lot of sense. In French, the yellow jersey is known as the “maillot jaune“. If you don’t speak french and try to sound it out in English… well, you get it. Likewise the name of the coffee shop that’s within the store is also a play on words – of a sort. The coffee shop is named Juan Pelota’s. I would have never gotten it without someone sharing the play on words but then I don’t speak Spanish. Pelota is ball. So in other words, “one ball”. Read on if you’re still scratching your head…

Kem has added one more bike to her stable of bikes. This time, a tandem. And it’s very cool. For around town cruisin’, it’s really hard to beat the fun you can have on this bike. We got out yesterday in the nice weather to cruise around west Austin. Went down to Medici for a coffee and then up to Central Market for some stuff to grill. The bike has a detachable basket so you can take it right into the store with you. Handy.

Half the fun of the bike is just watching the smiles on people’s faces as you ride by. Seriously, we’d be riding by and people would just light up. Kids love it: “Hey, cool bike!”. Yes, it is.

Yesterday was the Pedal Power Wildflower Ride out in Stonewall. Actually, it starts from the park at the LBJ ranch, but I guess that is considered Stonewall. The ride name is a bit of a mouthful to say so I just way “Pedal Power ride”. I love the 60 miler route they do on this ride because it includes the Willow City Loop.

Kem’s off the bike for awhile so Jim and I did this ride. It’s a bit of a hike out to Stonewall so we were up before sunrise packing things up and heading out. Leaving from Jim’s up north we routed through Marble Falls on the way out. We had plenty of time so pulled into the Bluebonnet Cafe – home style cookin since 1929 – for some breakfast on the way. I don’t usually go for a big ranch hand style breakfast, but I figured I’d be burning more than a few calories on the ride so opt’ed for a really big breakfast. Scrambled eggs, hash browns, bacon, biscuits – with gravy of course! – and coffee. Holy cow! Lots o’ food.

Gravy for breakfast is over the top but then there was the rest stop food along the ride. There was the usual bananas and cookies and things like that, but a couple of the stops had full sized sausage wraps, slices of what appeared to be summer sausage and two kinds of cheese cubes! Not your typical ride food. Had I not had the monster breakfast I might have given some of that a try but instead stuck with the bananas.

Ordinarily the route through the Willow City Loop is loaded with flowers at this time of year. Might have just caught it at the wrong time but this year, very few flowers. You really had to look for any at all. Last year Kem and I rode the same route and the area was blanketed with them.

Rosedale Ride

Although I have no pictures of it, I thought I’d also quickly mention last week’s Rosedale ride. It was cold and damp last week but I decided to go anyway. That ride is always really well attended. The routes are pretty flat ones northeast of Austin. Thankfully it never rained though it did sprinkle for a bit. For some reason people have a tendency on that ride to take off fast. The group seems to have this collective pent up need to race. Winds were out of the north and yet we were still humming along at a 20’ish mph pace as a group.

I was humming along quite nicely at the 24 mile point when bam! I snagged a nail in my rear tire. That’s actually a first for me. I’ve never picked up a full sized nail before. I hadn’t even seen it. Stuck in there it made quite a racket. Thankfully the tire wasn’t destroyed when it blew so I was able to just put in a new tube. I had trouble getting air in the tire though but some really kind soul named Tom happend by, stopped and filled it with one of those air canisters.

I’m finally getting around to jotting down a few notes from this year’s Easter Hill Country Tour. Aside from a woeful fall that Kem had – which I’ll get to – the rides and weather were really great this year.

For those following along, last year’s EHCT was largely snuffed out mid stream by freezing temps and sleet on Saturday. Though as you can see from the link, the flowers on the ride that Friday were amazing.

Easter came much earlier this year though and consequently there were very few flowers to speak of along the routes.

Friday we opt’ed for the 44 miler. Last year we had done that same route and done the 60 miler but we figured this year we’d save the longer ride for Saturday. The route north of Fredericksburg is one of my favs. The views back over the valley after climbing Lower Crab Apple are always worth a short stop. And I love the section along Welge-Hausen where you zoom down hill with Enchanted Rock looming in the distance. The picture here is one I took on last year’s ride.

Our Friday ride was nearly complete – we had maybe a half mile or so to go – and Kem took a tumble off her bike. Thankfully she had a good helmet. It cracked instead of her head. Aside from a headache – not surprisingly – she otherwise seemed fine though we would later find she had injured her shoulder in the fall and is currently in a sling and off the bike for another 4 weeks or so.

Kem opt’ed wisely to just rest on Saturday. I made the trip down to Kerrville and did the 60 miler. Another really nice hill country route. The first hour of the route was largely up hill and got us warmed up pretty quickly. The hill on “Freedom Trail Rd” had a lot of people slowed to a crawl. The section along hwy 27 is not my fav because of traffic but at least there’s a wide shoulder. The rest, particular along White Oak Rd and Zenner-Ahrens are quiet scenic sections of the route.

Friday night we managed to make it back to one of my favorite restaurants in that area. The Hill Top Cafe. Johnny Nicholas played the piano/harmonica and sang a little too. We’d gone out there last year too. The food’s great and oh yeah, they make great pies!

Finally, a few notes for anyone involved in planning the EHCT that happens along this write-up. Two words: More toilets. The rest stops had only 1 portable toilet. The start of the ride had only 2! Sigh. And a little variety at the rest stops would be nice. Bananas, pretzels and pickle juice at every stop.

In contrast to that wet stuff of the previous weekend, it’s all sunshine this weekend. Seems like everywhere I go I’m seeing Iris and Daffodil flowers up. As if it weren’t otherwise obvious, Spring’s coming.

In a quest to get ever farther away from traffic, so far this year several of the rides have been way, way up north and far from the maddening crowds. Liberty Hill and Bertram continue to be one of my favorite places to ride. Unfortunately I have to drive a ways to get there and come home which seems ironic considering the point is to ride my bicycle. The ‘commute’ + the ride makes a ride of any distance take a fair chunk of the day.

Ok, so the ride was a loop ride from Bertram to Burnet and then back. See map. All familiar roads that I’ve been on at one time or another, but just never in this configuration. As it turns out, I’ll probably do this route again and again. I really liked it for the combination of low traffic, mileage (not too long at 40 miles but just long enough) and the fact that it has a nice break point to refuel in Burnet – in the 20’ish mile range.

The picture of the state of Texas done up as the Texas state flag in corrugated metal caught my eye as I rode along at some point south of Burnet.

The picture of the guys was done by Kem on a ride out in the same area a few weeks ago. That’s Austin, a friend of Jim’s (center), and me in blue of course.

This weekend Kem’s out tailing the Tour of California with her cousin and his wife.