(*I didn't ride 100 miles. Well I did in total, just not all on that bike.)
Please note this story focuses mostly on what it's like to ride a modern-day gravel bike and a century-old museum piece back-to-back. What's missing is some of the backstory as well as some of my trademark awful photography, which I'll provide you with in the very near future. And speaking of photography, the photos in this piece were provided by none other than the globetrotting and formidably bearded Ultra Romance:
He went to find adventure and you'd better believe he found it, because it doesn't get more adventurous than photographing a washed-up bike blogger put on a sorry show of riding a bicycle.
Anyway, there it is. Enjoy the Outside story (or don't, see if I care) and I'll be back in due course with a detailed list of everything I ate all weekend as well as an exhaustive inventory of everything in my suitcase. (Sadly I forgot the courage.)
30 comments:
I don't mean to brag, but my dog has often referred to me as a century old museum piece on a bike.
Great position on the Ranger. You're really breathing from the abdomen. Yoga plus.
The urge to attempt podiating overrides my lack of anything particularly insightful to add.
Nice piece. I thought coaster brakes were a more recent innovation (like 1940s recent, not recent recent). I assumed it was a fixed gear when I first saw the pictures. I have a coaster brake on my winter bike to minimize external moving parts exposed to freezing salty slush. Other than that, it sucks.
That Marin is one sweet looking whip. I wonder how the Mead would've felt with modern wheels/tires?
Nice historically accurate Vans, by the way.
—Would be instructive to compare the Mead Ranger coaster-brake with the Marin hydraulic brakes with 102 years on them.
Skidmark,
Definitely plan to follow up in 2120--or at least make provisions in my will requiring my great grandchild to do it.
--Wildcat Rock Machine
What if for one stage in each big Uropeen tour riders had to ride bikes built up from pre 1980 frames? New components ok. At the end auction the bikes for charity.
The Adventures of Bike Snob and Ultra Romance...I’d read the book/watch the movie.
Learned a lot in your article - thank you. You are right - bikes may have reached their zenith of functionality and aesthetic appeal 40 years ago.
Thumbs ups on the Oury shout out! I didn't think anyone used glue-on grips anymore. I wonder if they'll still be as good/made in Coloroddy, U.S.A., now that the Lizard Skins People bought them?
Nice article Mr. Snob.
Really the only thing that sucks about L'Eroica worthy bikes are the toe clips, and you solved that by not having them. Everything else is fine. Sure the brakes are more about speed control that stopping, the brake levers (assuming you even have them) are not particularly ergonomic and the gears are tough; saddles and tires are wear items and should be replaced with appropriate modern equivalents, e.g a Brooks. When that Mead was new most roads were crappy dirt roads so it's no surprise it felt right at home on the gravel, that's what it was built for.
@paulb: No new components. Make them ride downtube shifters, crappy brakes and 12-21 5-speed freewheels with 52-42 cranksets. That'll learn these young whippersnappers.
Where are your leg tats? Lasers, or photoshop?
Fuck you.
That is certainly one aesthetically pleasing bike. Only thing keeping that pic from being perfect is the leetle bit o' slack in the chainline.
I love both old bikes and modern bikes. Having recently procured my first ever crabon bike though, I will say it is marginally superior to my handmade steel bike. Way better than any aluminum bike I ever had.
"a pretty sumptuous package" - Snob
based on the photos, you sir are a pretty sumptuous package...like 3 pounds of lobster in a one pound sack.
one word: plasti....no, sunscreen!
Until I saw that photo, I was under the misimpression that you had left shaving your legs behind.
Now that you are back to racing, the peach fuzz on the lower extremities had to go?
Looks like a Surly.
Doing the long route on the Mead would have been cool not stupid. The paint job on the Marin reminds me of a 1990's Klein. Looks like a wonderful ride in CA : )
HDEB,
It would have been really awful.
--Wildcat Etc.
which one would you do again?cali or italian version?is there a ny one that you might plan?
Snob’s life is a lot cooler than mine. Carry on.
Good article, one of your best for Outside.
The Mead is a fine looking bicycle.
Very enjoyable Outsiding piece - I am jealous!
I took one long ride on a relatively modern single speed bikingcycle - about 170 miles over two days. I had just been talked into buying the bike from a friend a week before the ride and decided to give it a try (the ride was relatively flat on the Great Allegheny Passage Trail ).
I found that by mile 50 each day I really really really wanted to shift gears.
Great read, Wildcat.
And, on a gearing note, the cranks on the Ranger look really long, which will lower the overall gain ratio. If the wheel size is also smaller then modern wheels, that will also lower the overall gearing. The fact you got that bike up and down those hills as well as you did is proof the people at Mead 100 years ago knew what they were doing when selecting components that will work together to make a capable bicycle.
Will they let me ride with an AHTBM jersey?
What kind of tire can stave off dry rot for 50 years? More importantly, what pressure you running? Single speed from that era weigh about 35lbs?
Sunscreen wasn't a thing until the latter part of the 20th century so you were being period correct. You should've been smoking an unfiltered cig also, or a joint cause it's legal now.
Nice. I enjoyed reading Gironimo!: Riding the Very Terrible Tour of Italy, by Tim Moore. The story of a non-bike-mechanical guy and his quest to ride that tour on a vintage 1914 bike he fixes up.
Counting sprocket teeth on this slightly higher resolution photo, it appears the Ranger is running a 60, maybe 62 teeth in front, and 24 to 26 in back, a 2.44+/- ratio. If we assume the pedal cranks are 5 mm longer the average modern road bike, then Wildcat's guess of being equivalent to 50/21 = 2.38 is just about perfect.
great post, loved it!
Anyone know if bikes are allowe3d in the bus lanes on 5th and Madison Aves? I almost got hit by a bus this morning while cycling in a bus lane, and after I avoided getting hit and passed the bus on the other side, its driver proceeded to yell at me that I wasn't allowed the lane.
Obviously the bus driver who was using his bus as a weapon to enforce his interpretation of the law was in the wrong, but I'm curious if I was also in the wrong by being in the bus lane.
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