freewheel hayes has 6 low track bikes in stock.  each are flawless in person.  and still handmade in san francisco.

originally from freewheel hayes.

getting the brake pad holder screws out proved to be quite the task.  it appears as if dustin over-torqued them upon installation a couple months back, which made them strip when I tried taking them out myself yesterday night.  luckily, he was able to extract the bolt and replace the pads with a bit of drilling and sawing.  new brake pads in the rear!

take note.  freewheel hayes has 9 low track frames in stock.  if you can’t bear to wait 6 months for your frame, you may want to consider giving the shop a call to see if they have your size.  they’re absolutely flawless in person!

taking a lazy day off today.  back to marin in the morning!

connor’s pacman themed hunter cycles cyclocross bike.  absolutely spectacular in person.  shimano dura-ace 7900 hubs laced to hed belgiums – proper.

the sidi screw plate getting replaced.

no plain colored pace caps to be found.  I may have to get one online…

yea, so I completely forgot to stop to take a picture while out on this morning’s ride.  it’s not like there was a plethora of scenery to show, anyway.  the fog was so thick and misty that I found myself wiping my glasses constantly just to keep the water at bay.  the weather continues to get warmer though, which is good.  I think the fog is the atmosphere’s way of saying, “whoa, it got all warm all of a sudden but I’m still cold in certain spots, chill out!”.  needless to say, I rode the bike through the gritty sand and twiggy shoulders, catching a ton of ugliness on every inch of the frame.  but I guess I’d rather have that, than a flat tire in the middle of no where land – quick, flashback to 2 weeks ago.  absolutely horrible.

as I made my way up camino alto, I started catching up to a familiar sight.  maurice was slowly making his way up in zone 1, and we chatted for a bit.  this is going to be his first season racing – he’s skipping the san bruno hill climb on the advice of dario (whole athlete), but he’ll be out racing the early bird criteriums all january.  he was keeping his morning ride brief, so we split shortly thereafter.  all alone on paradise drive.  minus a couple cars that passed with a few inches to spare.  love it.

no more road construction out of sausalito, so that’s a plus.  I saw 2 or 3 group rides heading out as I was coming back into the city – one of which was going a bit too fast, 2 abreast and slightly staggered on a section of path that wasn’t meant for more than 2 across.  people have a strange sense of spacial dimension if they think they can still talk to their buddy side by side with another cyclist coming straight towards them, hugging a rail on the opposite side of the path.  oh well.

I ran through my remaining ‘daily’ chamois cream this morning, and had to resort to some dz nuts.  I’m convinced that if I were a baller, I would only buy dz nuts.  it really is that good.  but I do think this is the day that I’ll finally be less lazy and ride one of the bikes to freewheel to pick up my chamois butt’r that’s sitting on the special order shelf.  hopefully they have 2, because it’s always good to have spares.  especially with the season coming up.  on the ‘buy’ list, there’s also tubes, a tire (probably a gatorskin), cycling cap (the plastic visors on all my caps seem to wear through the cotton over time…), brake pads for the road bike, sidi mtb cleat plate, and I think that’s it.  I need to write these things down so I don’t forget.

3 more framesets in addition to the ones above, all now at freewheel hayes!  last one is my favorite colorway.  andrew low never fails, his framesets are works of art, meant to be ridden/raced.  do them justice!

originally on low.

more wind, and lots of it.  not quite as bad as thursday, but definitely in between horrible and bad.  the sky was perfectly clear – I’m assuming the strong north wind had blown everything away.  it felt good sleeping in for another 45 minutes this morning, and the legs were rested.  there weren’t too many people out on the paths yet, so I had a fairly quiet ride up until the bridge.  then it was nothing but wind, some of the strongest I’ve ever felt.  the bridge section wind was stronger than it was on thursday.  it might’ve been because the bike section was closed on thursday, and the way the wind moved around cars, the bridge itself, and the guard rail, the air was ‘dirty’, and easier to ride through.  today, riding on the west side was just plain torture.  the wind was straight off of the coast, unrelenting, and blowing directly at the walkway.

the rest of the way through marin was quiet, but the wind was still bad.  I made it up camino alto, and caught an extremely slow driver on the descent down.  a white scion xb with a bumper sticker that said, “aerodynamics are overrated”.  for those of you who can’t remember the shape of the xb off hand, it’s the one that’s basically a box.  after a painfully slow drop into the back of paradise drive, I had the road to myself.  full paradise for the weekends.  I rode back towards sausalito and saw 4 guys riding from the roadway onto the path.  of course, it was connor (metromint), maurice, jason (de la paz), and gabe (mashsf).  I rode with them back through the city, with a strong tailwind.  maurice and I stopped briefly at the parking lot to let the others catch up – he told me that he was riding with travis the day that he fell.  travis broke his femoral neck (upper part of the leg bone that connects into the hip) last saturday when he took a spill in the presidio.  the same turn that maurice fell on.  justin had told me a couple days ago, but I hadn’t heard details until now.  travis was in surgery after the accident, and is recovering as we speak.  heal up soon, buddy.  we also saw zach heading out for his ride while riding across – hope you had a good ride.

I split from maurice and headed towards the marina.  then the slews of fair weather cyclists and runners started showing.  cyclists with their heads down, looking at their stems, ‘powering’ through the wind’, dangerously unaware that their bikes were swerving all across the path.  runners running in the lanes marked for bikes, noise cancelling earbuds in both ears, oblivious to their surroundings.  people walking their dogs with 10ft leashes strung across the entire walkway, forcing the oblivious runners in front of the head-down cyclists.  and of course, there was bound to be a collision.  I saw a runner and a (seemingly) casual commuter type cyclist both down on the ground – both were women, but I don’t think that matters too much.  the rider was laid out, and the runner appeared to be clutching her arm.  maybe the risers on the townie bike caught the runner’s arm?  hard to say for sure, but there was already a horde of people surrounding and helping them, so I figured it wouldn’t be much help to be another person asking them what happened, if they were okay, and if they needed help.

not even two minutes later, I came down the short hill near the beginning of van ness and saw the most ridiculous runner/pedestrian/dog situation I’ve ever seen.  there was a person walking their pit bull with a long leash on the right sidewalk, the leash and dog extended out quite a bit, into the ‘street’.  there are usually no cars driving all the way at the end of the street anyway, since it’s a dead end.  so that’s fine.  but then there were 6-7 runners, all running side by side, for the most part, coming around the bend.  the dog leash was taut as the pit bull struggled towards the runners who were running in the middle of the entire path.  the runners continued to run in the middle as I called out to them.  they had tons of room on their right (my left), but common sense told me not to chance it – passing them on their right might look like a viable option, but it only takes a split second for someone to not realize a cyclist is coming up on the ‘wrong’ side, and to step right in front of me, thinking they’re making more room for someone to pass on their left.  so, at this point, I’ve been grabbing my brakes for a bit, calling out to them, and the situation is still not changing.  one of the runners moves aside at the last second and says, “slow down”, right as I pass between her and the dog.

here’s what I don’t understand: 6-7 runners running all across a roadway, cutting a bend, suddenly means that common sense and courtesy no longer apply?  what was the situation last week, and every other day during the week where there were few runners out at all?  I see runners out in san francisco and marin all the time that move aside, and give a wave when called out to on a shared path.  those are the runners that I appreciate the most, because they’re still out enjoying their passion even when the weather isn’t ideal.  they’re not fair weather, weekend athletes.  what’s the excuse of a fair weather cyclist or runner, then?  I’d love to hear it.  is it, “I work [so and so] hours so running during the week isn’t convenient” – if something is your passion, hobby, or even remotely important to you, then you make time.  the guys I see out when it’s freezing cold, those are the guys that make time for their sport.  they realize that moving aside, even a fraction of a step, or pedal stroke, means that a pass is that much safer.  I mentioned it before, too.  speed is only a small part of the equation, when it comes to shared path safety.  be aware of your surroundings, move aside when you see people coming the opposite direction, and maybe don’t play your favorite album, full blast, with both headphones in your ears.  common sense.

today’s ride was fairly ordinary.  a bit of headwind on the bridge, but it wasn’t too bad.  I managed to see zach and jeremiah riding on the bike path heading back to san francisco.  while stopped at the corner light before camino alto, the crossing guard and I started chatting.  I see the guy every morning, and he’s progressively been wearing more and more clothes because of the change in weather.  he asked me where I was headed, and how many miles it would be.  then the light changed, we went our separate ways.  I should get his name.  he can be my crossing guard buddy in marin.  sometimes I see him on my way back as well, but that sighting is usually less frequent than the morning one.

I avoided the road construction on paradise drive and had the road to myself on the second half towards tiburon.  as I headed back towards the sausalito bike path, I saw connor and travis (metromint) riding onto the path from half-paradise/strawberry.  I must’ve been going slower than usual, because the last time I saw them out, they came up from behind me.  today, it was reversed.  I caught up to them at the main light off the path.  connor was on his time trial bike, getting all aero and such.  unfortunately, I couldn’t stick with them out of sausalito because of my gear ratios, so I left them and continued back to the city on my own.  tailwind galore on the bridge, and luckily, no unclipping in the danger zone!

I rode down to citizen chain, hoping one of the mechanics would be able to tune my rear derailleur after today’s antics.  as it turns out, they were closed.  so I did the next best thing, rode over to freewheel hayes, hoping they wouldn’t be too stacked up with work to take a look at the bike.  travis was extremely helpful, as usual, and was able to start tweaking it right away.  upon closer inspection of the replaced derailleur pulley, he found out that the new replacement had no lateral play at all.  so after grabbing a new shimano dura-ace 7900 rear derailleur (thank goodness they had one just ‘laying around’), taking off it’s top pulley and bolt, replacing it with the citizen chain one, and tuning the derailleur, it was shifting like new again.  the front derailleur was also giving me a bunch of problems, it might’ve been tweaked from yesterday’s visit to the other shop.  travis reseated it, adjusted the k-edge chain catcher, fixed the tension and limit screws, and greased all the essential points of contact for the housing and wire.

and of course, with the silence of the drivetrain, the bottom bracket bearings now make an audible popping sound under load.  it’s always something…

that being said, the bike now rides as it should.  so I thank citizen chain for putting in time yesterday to do the best they could do to remedy the situation, allowing me to ride the bike today, and I thank travis for gutting a new 7900 rear derailleur for me, and putting in a ton of time to make it shift right again.  as soon as I have some funds, it’s gore ride on cables time (with a slew of other bike goodies).

cue another warm morning out in marin.  but with the increase in temperature, came large amounts of headwind from the north.  I felt like I was trying to pedal through a field of really, really tall grass at some points on the bridge, it was thick and heavy.  then I was passed by a car on the descent into sausalito, which would’ve been fine, except the person appeared to be a ‘friday’ driver.  friday’s bring out the best (read: worst) drivers for a couple reasons: most people are anxious to get to work, get through the day, and then start their weekend.  that’s reasonable.  then there are the select few individuals that appear to only drive their cars once a week, (possibly) on friday’s.  well, I was stuck behind one of those drivers.  I’m the first to admit that I wasn’t in a rush, but it’s a lame feeling to burn up your descending momentum on your brakes.  but like 100% of the population, the person sped up on the flat section, leaving me with an empty road again.  oh, friday’s…

after a rather quiet climb up camino alto, I was passed by another car, just as I was cresting the top.  the sinking feeling of defeat…once again.  a white prius, this time, driven by someone that wasn’t afraid to apex the botts’ dots lining the road.  I kept thinking, “oh, this guy is driving aggressively, thank goodness he’s ahead of me”.  well, about 3 turns later, I was right behind the car (well, not that close.  a safe distance away, but close enough to smile in his rear view).  that’s when the driver’s instincts must’ve kicked in, because the car started diving into the turns in an attempt to rid me off it’s tail, or to just distance his car so he was no longer an obstruction on the descent.  more momentum burned on the brakes, oh well.  I’m merely stating that it’s just a hassle to be passed by a car, and then a second later, have to constantly ride your brakes on a descent.  granted, maybe drivers do this because the majority of cyclists that they do let ahead on a descent end up making crazy maneuvers all over the place, creating even more of a hazard.  who knows?

I made my way around tiburon and headed back towards sausalito.  then I saw 2 guys up ahead, fixing a flat tire.  at first, I was just going to call out to them, asking if they had everything, and then continue on back home.  but then I realized, holy crap, I know them.  it was maurice and carlos (owner of freewheel hayes/valencia).  so I stopped, waited for maurice to fix his flat, and we all rode back towards the city.  as predicted, the headwind was now a strong tailwind on the bridge – all 3 of us were making awesome time across, until we had to jump off our bikes to walk ‘the danger zone’.  we were actually on our way to sneaking through the whole work zone without unclipping, going a snail’s pace, but a worker spotted maurice trying to get into his left pedal and called our bluff.  so we had to unclip.  and walk.  in cleats.  again. and then a second later, eugene came riding the opposite way. talk about random, the guy lives in baltimore, but I swear he spends more time in san francisco than he does out there.

maurice split to head back towards the haight, but carlos dropped down into the marina with me since he was heading to de la paz (coffee).  after weaving through a bunch of haphazardly placed runners, random commuting cyclists, and pedestrians, we made it to the bottom of van ness, where I split off to hit columbus.

good seeing you guys out!

the benefit of riding on a brisk, foggy morning is that the bridge is completely empty.  I crossed over a bit past 7am, and surprisingly enough, the ground was dry.  after take a day off the bike yesterday, I felt refreshed and much more comfortable on the bike.  I decided to keep working on my pedal stroke and endurance, opting for another spin ride around paradise loop.  I passed a couple of individuals on the my way to the top of camino alto, and looked back before I started descending trying to see if there were any cars that wanted to pass.  the coast was clear, minus one guy that I passed at the beginning of the climb who seemed like he was still a good 200ft back or so.  not a big deal.

I descended and took the whole road through each turn.  as I made it through one of the sweeping left turns, I heard the distinct ratcheting sound getting closer and closer.  as I came to the apex, I took a quick peak over my left shoulder, surprised as hell to see the guy right there, eclipsing my rear wheel with his front.  he was riding inches away from the center line bot dots, bracing his handlebars as if he was going to crash at any second.  it really made no sense…drafting me on the descent would only get him to the red light at the bottom of the hill faster.  and if he wanted to pass, he just had to say something.  I was pretty spooked, so after the turn, I pulled off to the right side, coasting to let him pass.  but he didn’t pass, he just stayed behind me.  luckily, the descent ended, and I turned off towards tiburon.  I looked back again, and he was at the red light, awkwardly sitting on his bike.

bonus points for catching a draft down a short descent, and double bonus points of overlapping wheels completely.

anyway, I made it around and headed home.  I was pretty satisfied with my pedaling today, I was finally able to make it out and back while keeping my cadence light and fast.  in the past 2 weeks, it’s been nearly impossible for me to keep my endurance up.  I made it back home, packed up my powertap wheelset on my back, and headed out to freewheel hayes.  my garmin 500 and cycleops heart rate strap were already waiting for me at the shop, I just needed them to swap my cassette and sync the new components together.  they were a bit shorthanded today, but dustin said he’d try and squeeze it in.  I swapped my sidis for chucks and walked home.

oh yea, the powertap wheelset showed up yesterday as I was finalizing the osymetric piece.  I didn’t get a chance to take a picture of them, but they look exactly as you’d expect them to.  they came in a big box, with each wheel in their own cycleops wheel bag.  the joule 2.0 was in one of the accessory pockets.  I charged it up with a mini-usb cord and took pictures of it so I could sell on craigslist.  anyway, that’s where everything stands at the moment.