Riding the Rawland Nordavinden

I started cross country skiing in November of 1976 in a rural part of New Hampshire, at the home of a guy who knew Bill Koch at Putney School a couple of years earlier.  It was after Thanksgiving and an early snowfall gave Chris the opportunity to share his passion for cross country skiing with all of his overnight guests.  I jumped at the chance to try this new sport, something I had never heard about - though I would have if I paid attention to Nordic skiing at Winter Olympics earlier that year when Bill Koch won the first medal in a Nordic event by an American.  I missed it.  I couldn't tell you what I was watching on the tube back then but in those days, I was probably watching television although I skipped television for the most part since then.  Having taken up cross country skiing and never having a lot of money, I tried downhill skiing only once.  But starting in 1995, I started to learn Telemark skiing.  Telemark is a turn developed in Telemark, a county in Norway.  Telemark is free heel skiing, in which you turn by bending your knees with the downhill ski in front and the uphill ski trailing.  It is a graceful turn when well executed and interesting to downhill skiers even when done just adequately.  I have even impressed quite a few downhill skiers with my technique.  In the early 2000s I was skiing with a bunch of telemark skiers, including one guy from Trondheim, Norway.  The joke in those days was that randonnee was French for "can't telemark".

Fast forward a few years.  A lot of my telemark friends left for other states or other countries or had children and couldn't spend the time skinning up a mountain for one run down.  At the same time, I grew tired of paying for lift served telemark and was more comfortable skiing 15 or 20 mile solo than climbing a mountain for a wild descent by myself.  One day while skiing into Greeley Ponds from Waterville Valley, NH, I spied a skier descending one of gullies on Mount Osceola.  This skier was more skilled than I ever was and was doing it alone in what could be very hazardous conditions.  As I skied down towards the Kancamagus Highway, on what was for me an out and back route, the skier from the gully sped past me, on randonee skis.  Apparently not knowing how to do a telemark turn was not an obstacle for this skier.  If anything, he had the right skis for what he was doing.  And he was more courageous (or stupid) than me on very steep hills and was faster on the flats.

That's a very long introduction to my concept of randonneuring, which I have to think is closely related to randonnee skiing, though I may be wrong. But it's clear to me that the right equipment for the job is key in any endeavor.  My introduction to randonneuring was quite by accident.  I was about to buy an Independent Fabrication Club Racer in 2007 and I read a page (since updated) written by Pamela Blalock about her Club Racer.  The idea of long distance riding is appealing and would be more appealing if I discovered this in the late 1990s when I was more or less single.  After reading Pamela's writing, I didn't pay much attention to the long distance aspect of cycling (more than 60 or 65 mile rides) for a few years.  But after reading a few of Jan Heine's Bicycling Quarterly articles (that a friend had graciously lent me), I was again exposed to this type of cycling.  Though with two children now, that kind of time has to be negotiated for.

Fast forward to today.  Everyone is now talking about short trail bicycles and 650b wheels, concepts that remained just concepts to me although I do like the idea of these.  A friend, who now has the Joshua Bryant randonneuring bicycle recently reviewed in Bicycle Quarterly, explained his long road to this bike as an evolution from the small stiff frames of the 1990s through a Rivendell Rambouillet  to something that his body would not have to adapt to but instead would fit him and be comfortable and would still be responsive.  That's a lofty goal and one that I think he and the builder succeeded at.  I think that I could borrow this Joshua Bryant, if only the bicycle would fit me.  The reach would be a bit long and I could tell that from looking at my friend or seeing the numbers on the geometry of his bike.  And there aren't a lot of 650b, short trail bikes on the market for me try.

I met Velouria of Lovely Bikes this spring.  She happened to have her Rawland Nordavinden with her.  While this bicycle is not set up as a randonneuring bicycle, it has some key elements of such a bike, if I am reading Jan Heine of Bicycling Quarterly correctly.  And it has the mystical short trail and 650b wheels.  And she was willing to let me try it.  Velouria is understandably busy and my schedule, with children, is relatively inflexible. Having a scheduled day off during the week, Velouria made time for a ride together, with her riding my Independent Fabrication Club Racer while I would ride her Rawland.  Unfortunately she was sick on the arranged day.  Fortunately she was willing to take my bike in trade, if only to photograph, while I took the Rawland out for some exercise.  Her Rawland Nordavinden is set up primarily for dirt road and hill riding.  The first indication of this is the very small chainrings in the front and the large chain rings in the rear, which you might be able to see in this picture (at the Concord center rotary):

The bicycle has the Grand Bois Hetre 650bx42 tires, which seems to be Jan Heine's favorite for brevets and are great for dirt roads, at least in my very limited experience.

The day was a brilliant spring day, with blue skies and an expected high temperature of about 70F.  We talked for a while and exchanged bicycles after I took the Rawland for a spin around the block.  Velouria has described the short trail experience as something that some people may adapt to and others may hate.  It was worth it to experience it first hand before committing to a longer ride.  I didn't notice anything unusual on the ride around the block except some instability when I used my left hand to signal a turn.  I wasn't alarmed and was happy to take the Rawland for a long ride - 45 miles as it turned out.

What I first noticed was that I had trouble making the bike go fast.  This was mostly related to the seat position, which I had set to the measurement that my fitter gave me.  But that was intended for the Terry saddle that I use.  Velouria warned me that the Selle Anatomica wouldn't be so easily adapted to the same measurements and she was right.  I added several millimeters to find the right place for my saddle.  After the adjustment I noticed that the saddle was too far forward, a result of Velouria's preference for a steep seat tube -compared to my IF at 72 degrees.  Rather than mess with her fit, I decided to ride with the saddle slightly out of my preferred position.

Next I noticed that I couldn't make the bicycle go all that fast.  This was in part from the gearing and, I think, from my saddle position.  I found myself backing up on the saddle as I road, which I found  bit more comfortable and more ergonomic.

Once I figured out positioning, I did notice two things, the promised tracking of the short trail and the comfort of the 42 mm Hetres.  The tracking was not noticed per see, rather it was something that just felt natural.  I never could really lift my hands off the handlebar (at least not more than a couple of inches above the handlebar) but the bicycle did seem to follow a line without any effort.  On one significant downhill run, Strawberry Hill Road in Concord, the bike easily followed the line I intended at around 25 mph.  I have taken that S curve faster and could have done so on this bike, if it didn't belong to someone else.  The comfort of the wide tires was obvious from the bumps on the the bike path to the usual bad pavement on the the rural roads.  It wasn't the floating feel of the Seven Cafe Racer that I tested last summer but it was anything but jarring.  And if I could make this bike go fast, it would prove, to me, that Jan Heine's thesis about tire width and speed was correct.

As far as speed goes, I finally figured out how to make it go fast.  In Lexington center, a triathlete, Sarah, pulled up even with me at the light in the center of town.  Sarah is preparing for Lake Placid Ironman Triathlon in late July and was heading home on what would be a 60 mile ride.  I kept pace, mostly in front of her until Arlington center, when I stopped to let Velouria know that I was coming back into town.  It turns out I just needed to adjust the seat some and have some friendly competition to figure out how to make this bike go fast.  Sarah did thank me for pulling her though that 5 mile stretch.

I didn't talk to Velouria about me taking her bike on dirt roads specifically so when I passed the sign for Camp Acton, I decided to be cautious.  I walked up the hill for 500 meters or so.  I enjoyed the quiet that Velouria and I had thought missing in town.  Then I cautiously descended back to Pope Road.  The bike handling was smooth and I was very confident as I descended.  In retrospect, and after mentioning this to Velouria, I wish I had rode up through all of the camp sites and descended with a bit more speed.  This bike could have handled it easily.

Another aspect of the bike that I was very interested in was the Paul Racer brakes.  I have been very disappointed with adjusting the Avid Shorty 4 brakes on my Surly Cross Check.  The brakes perform well but adjusting them seems to be hit or miss.  And aesthetically, they are not amazing in my book.  I've long thought of switching to the Paul Racer brakes (mounted on the fork) but it's not clear that the brakes will fit on my Surly and whether they would look terribly out of place with the canti mounts so close to the brakes.  I think that I would use the Paul brakes on my next bike, whatever it may be.  The performance of the brakes was great and while not as sharp as the Shimano long pull brakes on my IF, I learned to appreciate the feel of the Paul brakes.   This Rawland has the rear brake on the left lever, front on the right.  I felt this was an easy transition to make and could imagine this for my IF.  I adjusted my speed mostly with the front brake and, once adjusted to it, was perhaps more easily measured than with my Shimanos.  I have machined rims on both my Surly and my IF and that certainly affects the feel of the brakes, making braking a bit more firm than it may be otherwise.  I don't think the Pacenti rims on the Rawland were machined.  One criticism of the machining rims is that you are guaranteeing that the rims will wear away faster.  I recently had a wheel built up with a dynamo hub and machined Mavic Open Pro rims to match the rims on both of my bikes.  As I made this transition, I noticed that my old (3000 mile) front rim on my Surly was already worn.  So machining may make your brakes better, but it will wear away, if you do some off road riding, as I have done on my Surly.  The rims on my IF, with 8000+ miles on them, are still in great shape.

One interesting thing about the feel of the Nordavinden:  After the ride, Velouria asked me how the bike felt.  I thought it was similar to my IF and I thought I was honest about this.  But on getting on my IF for the ride back home, I felt two huge things.  One was the saddle - sitting down was like hitting something very solid. The Terry Liberator Y I use on both of my bikes is not noticeable at all to me except after riding the Selle Anatomica on the Rawland.  I was pretty shocked at how the Terry felt when I first got back on it - it sort of hit me and was more solid than I ever thought it was before.  In retrospect, the Selle Anatomica was invisible to me.  I think that the Selle saddle, set up correctly for me, would be ideal.  Second was handling.  Velouria asked about the weight of the front bag, which was largely empty, which I really didn't notice.  However, when I got back on my IF, and recovered from my saddle surprise, I next noticed the feel of the front end of the IF.  It felt as if I were on my old Trek 520 and I just removed the front panniers while on a tour.  I don't attribute this to weight of the bag and rack but to the difference of the handling of the Rawland and the IF.  The IF is purposely designed to respond to body English, as Roy Cervantes of Grace Bicycles says.  This is perhaps not exactly what I'd ask for today, if I were to have another custom bike built for me.  The Rawland never felt like it was a hard to steer - it was anything but that. It was simply a bike that followed the line you chose.  And that's a nice goal for the kind of riding I do.

Once I figured out that the bike could move quickly with what seemed like very wide tires, I was very impressed.  A bike that tracks well, absorbs the bumps of New England roads, and can go fast is a great goal.  I could imagine getting a Rawland myself one day, once day care costs are a bit lower.  I can also imagine that this is the kind of bike that my wife would be happy with.  She was amazed at the difference between her old aluminum racing bike and the old mixte we bought for her last year.  But the mixte isn't exactly what she wants and this bike could be it.  I could imagine my wife doing credit card tours on a Nordaviden with me carrying a bit more weight on my Surly.

As far as the saddle, I thought the Selle saddle disappeared beneath me, just as my Terry usually does.  And it wasn't something that made me sore after the fact.  I rode with my two boys today and noticed no soreness on the ride.  I was very surprised at the leather saddle.   My experience with them is both outdated and restricted to certain brands of saddles of a couple of decades ago.  This saddle, broken in for someone else - although I understand that no breaking in was necessary - felt just fine for me.  Except for positioning, I did not notice the saddle and that is saying a lot.

I thank Velouria for the opportunity to ride this Rawland.   Getting a 45 mile ride on a 650b, short trail bicycle on familiar roads was an amazing opportunity.

The ride is here except Middle Street in Lexington was closed so I took Lincoln Street into Lexington center and then Mass Ave into Arlington center.

Here is the Rawland at the bridge on Maple Street in Carlisle:

Commuting in the city

I talked with a fellow parent at pre-school drop off this morning as I took my bike off my roof rack - I have to get two boys to school before I can ride, or drive, to work.  She is European, I think, and mentioned that she lived for a time in Finland.  She said she was afraid of cyclists in the US because cyclists are, in her mind, literally all over the road and were more apt to do unexpected things than not.  She also said that in Finland there were cycle tracks (although she didn't call them that, I inferred this from her description) and all cyclists used the tracks and followed the rules.  To some extent, I see what she means.  There are a lot of cyclists who believe that rules are for cars and that bicyclists can disregard them, though Massachusetts bicycle law says something else about the matter.  But scofflaws aside, I think that most cyclists do behave in ways that you might expect if you read the law.  I was reminded about this morning as I stopped at the Somerville bike to work coffee stop at Star Market on Beacon.  There I met one of the Somerville bicycle committee members who I met last year outside of the Diesel Cafe in Davis Square.  I met him because he was riding a bakfiet (spell check please), or a bike with box and if you are curious about bikes you have to be curious about these bikes.  The box can be used for haul groceries, or in his case, his child - at least on the day I saw him.  I imagine he does carry groceries in box as well.  I watched him ride off in traffic and noticed then how smoothly he rode.  I've seen him on the road, usually from my car, many times since and I'm always impressed how smoothly and predictably he rides.  I can say that about a lot of other riders I see.  Yes, there are glaring exceptions and I've written about some of them here but I would never see a rider and assume they were going to do something dumb.  I would give them some room, however.

A week or so of riding

It has been over a week since I did this longish ride.  While it was a long ride for how much riding I did this year prior to the ride, I wasn't completely worn out.  In fact, I didn't ride on Sunday only because I had no time.  I did ride on Monday, getting out of the house at 5AM for a 20 mile ride on the Surly.  Lighting was necessary for the ride but the sun came up on my way back home.  The season for early morning rides sans lights is about here.

I've been commuting some and rode in twice last week.  My wife let me borrow her older mixte, a Miyata 215.  The fit isn't amazing but it was good enough.  I rode from near pre-school so I didn't have any hills - the gearing was fine. I was going to a conference and couldn't park indoors.  We agreed that it was reasonable to park the Miyata outside with a u-lock and a cable and it was fine.  Bike parking was tight:

On my Friday commute home, I saw a NFG Cycles cyclo cross bike.  The owner knows the builder.  The frame is nice and the build is largely American made.  Another local frame builder.

I did ride a couple of decent rides on the weekend.  On Saturday, I did this ride in reverse.  On Sunday, I did a slightly longer ride, this variation of the basic Arlington, Carlisle, Concord route with an eye to avoid the main roads when possible.  It makes for a very nice ride.  Saturday was a bit cool.  Sunday was much nicer and there were a million riders out there.  From the Sunday ride:

I now have a Hubway account to run errands at work when I don't ride so to test the system I rented a bike at lunch on Monday with a friend.  We did a loop along the river.  The bike is a tank.  The locking mechanism in the front is massive.  The tires are beefy enough to guarantee long wheel life. A few miles on this beast was a real workout.

I also commuted on Tuesday, which was a fabulous day and many cyclists were riding that day.  I was in a posse that was between 30 and 40 riders at some points on Hampshire Street.  It was quite the scene.  Travel with that many cyclists makes the trip slower but it was a fun experience.  People weren't crowding each other so it remained safe.

Total miles for the year: 530.  Total number of bikes I rode in the last week or so: 4, miles: 125.

Group ride vs solo ride

I was inspired to ride the New England Randonneurs Spring Populaire.  The ride was scheduled for last Saturday but with the rather difficult circumstances of Friday, April 19th, the event was postponed for a week.  I did end up riding that Saturday afternoon.  I wanted to get out to Harvard to check out Pamela Blalock's route recommendations. But I couldn't get out of the house until 2PM and I had only 3 hours before dinner so Harvard was out of the question so I did this shorter route.

I still had a hankering to go to Harvard and while the Populaire would get me there, I had to get myself to the Populaire.  I had planned on riding it until late on Friday, after I printed out the sign-away-all-of-your-rights sheet.  I had my water in bottles on the bike, clothes laid out, bars in my helmet with gloves, tires up to pressure.  But I just wasn't sure.  The main difficulty is the drive to the start.  This adds a half hour to the trip on each end, which is significant when you have kids around and a sympathetic partner who you would like to remain sympathetic.  The smaller, second issue was money.  I had $15 in cash and my wife had none.  I would have to stop at an ATM to get money for emergency snacks on the road and spend even more time getting to the ride.  More fundamental was the ride.  I generally have fun on these kinds of rides but sometimes, if the pace is too quick or to slow, I find that I burn through energy a wee bit faster than I would if I were riding alone.  I find my pace to be perfect, whatever it happens to be.  And life has been hectic recently.  Even commuting time, by bike and even by car, is a calm time that I have learned to value.  And here was a chance to be on my own for  5 or more hours.  So I decided to go off on my own and skip the Populiare.  The only person who knew that I was going couldn't ride with me so it wasn't as if I would be missed.  My friend did say that I'd meet fun people on the ride but what I really needed was relatively quiet time.  A smaller group, two or three or so, would have been fine but I couldn't manage to arrange that at the late hour I made my decision.  Another small issue was temperature.  I was riding my IF, which doesn't have any way of carrying clothes once I no longer needed them.  Leaving a bit later meant that I could dress somewhat light for the conditions that I started in and somewhat warm for the latter part of the ride.  That ended up working out well for me.

So off on my own it would be.  I was a slacker in the morning, getting the boys fed and dressed and playing some.  I didn't get out of the house until after 9:30.  I took the standard route out to Concord, then followed well known (to me) roads out to Nagog Hill Road in Acton.  Following Pamela's route, I took Nagog to Harwood to Harvard Road to Littleton Road to Harvard.

The leaves are just popping out on the apple trees in the orchard on Nagog Hill Road:

I've seen this farm quite a few times in years past:

I remembered the ride up to Harvard on Harvard Road, which turns to Littleton Road in Harvard, from a decade ago.  My wife made me stop near the Route 2 bridge, demanding food.  I think we rode 30 miles before our first break.  Being older, I decided to eat a bar in that vicinity, to hold me over to the Harvard General Store.  The store was the halfway point of my ride.  I stopped in for water and a raspberry bar, which I ate overlooking the scenic cemetery:

I saw a group of riders leaving Harvard as I arrived and assumed they were Populiare riders.  I briefly chatted with one Populaire rider who had this nice Seven with a Dill Pickle seat bag:

I had, up to this time, not looked at a map.  I asked the Populaire rider about her route, which reminded me of Pamela's route, which I had not looked at since the previous Friday evening.  So far I rode on roads that I was already familiar with, if in distant memory, but it seemed to make sense with the week old memories of Pamela's map.  I found my way to Burroughs Road, which I use at least several times a year, and then found my way to West Acton.  I checked the map on my phone and decided to use School St to West Concord, which was very quiet for a Saturday afternoon.  Punting, I took 62 to Thoreau St in Concord and then took quiet and familiar roads back to Trapelo Road at the Cambridge Reservoir.

The ride was 65 miles which I did at 13.8 mph, which felt just fast enough for this early in the season and a ride this long.  The roads I borrowed from Pamela were great and it turned out just a refresher for me - the entire ride was on roads that I had been on the past at least a few times. Still, it made for a nice ride and the first time I have been outside of 495 in a couple of years (excluding the times when I drive my bike outside of 128, which are legion).  I am tired today but I could easily to a 20 or so mile ride. (Edit: I got up early on Monday to ride 20 miles, starting at 5AM.)

If you agree with the concept that a person who gets energy from people is an extrovert then I am one.  But yesterday was a great day and I hardly chatted with anyone along the way.  For a sometimes outgoing guy, I sure appreciated being on my own.  I think I would have enjoyed the Populaire but I certainly enjoyed the solo ride.

The ride.

I rode the IF:

Sunday morning ride to Lincoln

Getting out of the house will always be tough and rides may sometime be shorter than I'd like but at least I am getting on the house.  Yesterday I did this route out to Lincoln, but doing the ride from Arlington center.  I chose the hilly Concord Ave route out of Belmont and started on the route at the end of Concord Avenue in Lexington.

The ride was very nice and while it was cold and the sky was spitting rain for most of the ride, the sun came out for the last leg from Lexington to Arlington.  The nicest section was the short jog just past the Cambridge Reservoir over Old Country Road, Old Conant Road, and Conant Road to Weston Road on the way to Lincoln center.  There is a short trail/fire road that gets you onto Old Conant Road, which looks like this:

A number of larger houses are at the Conant Ride end of Old Conant.  There are wetlands on this end and the road isn't much more than a wide, paved trail through the woods.  Conant is minimally developed and still a nice road for cycling.  I stopped to check the radar on Weston Road, worrying that the drops of rain were becoming more significant but they soon ended.

Stop for a radar check (fenders were not necessary on this ride):

I like the ride from Lincoln to Walden Pond over Sandy Pond and Baker Bridge Roads.  It is largely flat with a couple of rollers.  There was farm activity on the Rte 126 end of Baker Bridge:

I followed the standard route past Hanscom and the Cambridge Reservoir into Lexington.  A Ride Studio Cafe ride started to overtake me on Mill Street.  I intended to grab a cup of coffee at there so I cranked to get in before the bulk of the RSC riders.  I did and even managed to snag indoor bike parking.  Small victories.  After a quick expresso and a brief hello to Elton from Harris Cyclery, I caught a brief period of bright sunshine for my ride back home.  The ride was about 28 miles.

This was my second road ride on my IF this year.  I have otherwise been riding on my Surly, mostly because I don't want to expose my IF to salt and because I have been riding at night for at least half the miles I rode this year and the Surly has the dynamo hub.  I do intend to use the lighting on the IF if I do any overnight rides, like a fleche (or here).

The ride of the IF continues to amaze me, especially after spending over 300 miles on the Surly (starting very late last year).  But I did noticed inconsistent shifting after cleaning the chain rings and replacing the chain on Friday evening.  Rob V. from RSC adjusted my derailleurs and concluded that the shifter is starting to age.  This happened in the past and I will be bringing the bike into RSC for a rebuild or replacement, depending on what Jeff, their mechanic, can do.  The shifting is good enough for now and I will do the NER populaire next weekend regardless.

Let's see, still less than 300 miles for the year.