Out of Sight

Destroyed pads after 1 ride!

I keep debating about disc brakes. Obviously there is not much of a question when talking mountain bikes as it is and ever-shrinking pool of quality product for rim brakes. No, what I debate, is if new randoneurring or commuters should have discs.

I have a grand goal of building a lightweight randoneur that triples as a gravel grinder and commuter. I have a few of these bikes now, but each of them is not quite right. I know geometry, single/geared options, even most of the components. But I get stuck on the brakes. The photo shown is a customer's pads after 1 ride. 1 RIDE! One side of the pad set is completely gone.  The other nearly worn to the metal at the top.  The spring between the pads is worn through on one side completely.  Mud and gunk can destroy pads so fast, how is this a good idea to put on a bike? I ride cantilevers on most of my bikes and replace pads every few years (the bonus of spreading the riding over many bikes and only weighing 135#). I do have to replace pads on my winter commuter every year, but that is the exception. I love the idea of being able to run a bunch of tyre widths with no adjustment, but does it offset the wear issue?

I have been using disc brakes on my single speed mountain bike for a couple years now, but I don't ride that very often.  And as I don't race, I don't ride that bike in very adverse conditions.  Using discs on a bike I would ride in all sorts of nasty conditions certainly would change the pad wear.  Now with the UCI allowing discs in cyclocross, I am expecting higher quality road brake setups.  Hopefully my custom bike will take long enough that there will be better options for road discs.  Or it will just make my choice that much harder.

Racing Weekend

Well, I didn't actually do any racing, but this past weekend was the Dakota 50 in Spearfish, SD.  I grew up in the area and started my adult riding career getting lost in the Black Hills on my 1991 Schwinn Impact.  It was tons of fun to wander around the area and do some riding again.  I think the last time I rode a bike out there was 1999.  Crazy different, and crazy fun.

My friend Matt and I left Friday afternoon and cruised all the way out to Spearfish.  Camp for me was super easy to set up as I decided since it was so nice of weather to sleep sans tent.  This would continue for the next 2 nights, as well.  Our friends Dan and Jessica and their friends Nate and Annie were already there.  We had a couple of beers and turned in quite early.  There was riding to do.

Monk, our great riding companion

Saturday morning we leisurely awoke and headed out to do some pre-riding of some sections of the course.  I had chosen to ride my Surly 1X1 as I am not the biggest fan of the multi-speed mountain bikes I own.  We left the parking lot and coasted downhill for the first 10 minutes.  As we rolled into what would be the 4th rest stop on Sunday, the trail went almost straight up.  I was actually very surprised how much of the trail I could ride.  There were only a couple of times when I decided to walk.  Most of the time was absolutely incredible.  It has been a very long time since I have ridden point to point trails like that.  The views were gorgeous and riding such a variety of terrain rejuvenated my interest in mountain biking.  

We ended up the morning ride with a super fast fire road downhill and small gravel road ride back to the car.  It was definitely time for lunch.  We cruised back to Spearfish to eat at a small BBQ place that ended up being closed.  So instead went around the corner and had a couple beers, some great food, and charged my phone at the Chophouse.  I would recommend this place to anyone in the Spearfish area.  

Matt and I were not quite done riding for the day, so we headed back up to the Big Hill trail system.  It turns out we rode another small section of the race course and then veered off for some of the fastest riding of the day.  The uphills were not nearly as steep, and it was a nice way to finish off the day.  Being from the area, I biked over to a friend's house for dinner.  Home cooking is very nice when camping.  I was expecting people to go to bed early that night, but was very surprised that there was absolutely no motion when I returned to camp at 10 PM.

Matt, hanging loose

Sunday morning came very early with a 7:15 start.  Jessica and I traveled around to the different rest stops throughout the day.  Nobody had the times they were hoping for, but it seemed that everyone had a good time.  It was definitely a great event and the racing thing is certainly infectious.  I don't know that I will actually ever sign up for it, but it would be top on the list if I do any sort of ATB race.  We hung out for a long time after, but only one of our group won anything.  Sunday night was a great time of hanging out and recounting riding.  People were a little tired for some reason and we did have a long day of travel in store for Monday, so bedtime was around 9 PM.  Earlier than I can remember in a long time.

Dan finishing amongst fans

Monday was mostly uneventful.  Matt and I had breakfast with my parents and took the back roads home.  It added a little time to the drive, but certainly was more interesting than interstate.  The trouble with driving that distance with a couple bike junkies in the car is that various plans were made and dreamed about involving mountain biking, touring and all sorts of travel with bikes. 

It appears I need a little more vacation time...and a pay raise.