Painting the CX Bike, Part 2

So I posted below what the final product should look like When completed in the prevous post.

Here is what the bike looked like to start.

The bike did not look terrible before, but there were some issues with the original paint.

1. There were several rust spots on the frame where the paint had been rubbed away or chipped and rust had started to form. Not good on a CX bike, and something that is hard to stop once started.

2. The transfers on the frame were all coming off and looked pretty worn. 80's stickers were not the best quality.

3. I did not love the color of the frame, and it had a pearl clear coat on it which was peeling off in sheets in different places. 

New Paint For the Cyclocross Bike

Well, I decided a couple years ago that I wanted to re-paint my cyclocross bike. I'm now well into the process, but I thought I'd show some of the process here....

To start, I had to decide what I wanted the bike to look like. I pulled up BikeCad and had a go at putting together the paint scheme.

Here is the result......

Next up, I'll show some detail of the actual work......

177 Miles On A Vintage Bike

This past weekend was the annual Rock N Roll MS150 bicycle ride. The event goes from the Memphis, TN area to the Tunica MS casinos via a nice winding route. This was my 10th year participating in the event, and I've been lucky to be part of the ride committee for the past two years (not much participation on that team this year though).

My company sponsors our team, and even pays for jerseys for us to ride in. Pretty sweet deal! I also enjoy getting out and just riding for a whole weekend. Not training, Not racing, just riding.

So the weather for the weekend could not have been better. The temperature was perfect, the clouds were just enough to keep us from getting burnt, and the wind was pretty nice to us most of the time.

For this year, I elected to ride the Colnago Super I built this summer. At the beginning of the ride, I got a lot of looks from folks on carbon bikes. Their eyes said 'what is he doing out here with that old thing?'. Later in the ride, I started getting all sorts of comments from folks who really appreciated seeing a well maintained vintage bike. Over and over again, I told the story of finding it and the build. People were amazed that I had no trouble keeping up on a bike that was older than them.

The best compliment came when I pulled up along one of the LBS shop owners. As I rode up, he eyed the bike for a few hundred yards and said 'now that is a bike with class and character'. That made me feel real good.

One other fun detail of the weekend was day 1. On day one, they had an option for riding a century. I've never ridden a century in all my years riding (20+). Countless metric centuries, but never a regular Century. The weather was so good, I just had to go do it. I finished with a comfortable (not fast) time and headed to the banquet hall for some good food.

Day 2 was just as nice, but we only had a 75 mile option.

In the end, I rode 177 miles in two days. Definitely a personal record and one I'd like to duplicate next year.

CX Magazine

Well, I've written pieces for other hobbies I've been part of. I like to pass on what I've learned over time and through experience. It can be really fun to pass these things on.

To that end, I got an opportunity to write for CX Magazine. Fun gig. I've had several small snippets published, and just had my first longer piece published.

Give it a read. I hope you like it!

Click here -->CX Magazine Ridley Article

Legend of Stanky Creek 2011

So going into this one, I had high hopes. In 2010, I got on the podium, and my fitness this year is significantly better. I hoped that things would go well and I might get on the podium again.

Like last year, my plan was to get into the woods first and hold that until the woods tightened up and made it much harder to pass. To that end, I succeeded. I did end up letting Kiran (teammate) past about 1/2mile into the woods, He was just jumping behind me to pass and I know he's a lot stronger, so I let him by.

I stayed there in third for another 5 mins. Then I hit the same damn root which bit me last year. I hit the root and went down between two trees. Instantly 2-3 guys jumped past me in the woods and I never saw them again.

After getting back up and getting under way again, I hit it hard and rocked the big ring. I was doing well until about mile 7. I was going through some gravity cavities and trying not to catch air coming out the backside. Unfortunately, I misjudged one badly and overcooked the far side. I came out in the air and had not planned to. Needless to say, the landing was terrible. 3 more guys got past me as I caught my wind and straightened out the bike.

At that point, I remembered the admonishment my better half had given me "We're going on vacation next week, don't you dare go out there and get hurt!!!!". I figured I was now in 11th place and just rode the rest of the way in. I still passed several people from other categories, but was 11th in my cat.

The time sheet was interesting - I was 5 minutes faster than last year and could have been as much as 8 mins faster if I had not hit the dirt!

ShimSramNolo

So I was looking at the Colnago and trying to figure out the gearing.... Every time I rode with my group, I was repeatedtly asking them to check what kind of speed we were holding. From their answers and what I could tell my cadence was, I knew something was not quite right.

I checked the cassette, which I thought was a 11-23 7sp and found it was actually a 13-23 7sp. If you plug those numbers into a gear calculator, the difference is quite large. Also the 13-52 that I was running when spun out is quite a bit short of the 11-50 I was spinning out on my plastic fantastic.

So I started digging in my stash of parts and managed to find a new SRAM 11-23 9sp cassette. This gave me the 11 I was looking for, and gives me a tighter range between ratios. Since I'm putting this on a 8-9-10 cassette body, it fits fine. The shifter just barely has enough cable pull to make it through the entire cassette, but it works.

This thing really needs a 9sp chain, so I'll be trying to lay my hands on one this week and hopefully it will work fine.

So I now have Campagnolo crank, rings, derailleurs and brakes running with Shimano hubs and chain and a SRAM cassette... ShimSramNolo!

Bare Legs.......

I finally did it...... I started riding in '91. I started riding road about that time. That makes for around 20 years of riding the road, but.......... I've never shaved my legs. Until now.

Finally, this weekend, I broke down and did it. I got out the electric razor and buzzed off the majority. I then hit the shower and got out the razor and like that. It was done.

Feels wierd. Definitely not anything I'm used to.