Travel Bikes – Page 5

On the Road – Evergreening Paris

We caught the red eye, the last flight on the departures board before an air traffic controller’s strike shut down the Charles De Gaulle Airport. We set our bikes up at the hotel (we’ve got reassembly down to 22 minutes now), and immediately hit the pavement, excited to see Paris from the saddles of our Evergreen SLs.

It might be lame to cast Paris, the City of Light, as an amalgam of American metropolises, but to us, Paris was like a perfect cross between Boston and New York, windy and narrow like our hometown in Massachusetts, but congested and massive like the Big Apple. Fortunately, Paris’ motorists don’t resemble Americans. They drive a bit more slowly (the roads don’t permit much speed), and they are far more accepting of cyclists. We don’t recall a single horn being honked in anger, despite the fact all the bike lanes run opposite the flow of traffic. This was confusing and occasionally terrifying, for a pair of over-tired, over-excited Americans, but it seems to work well for Parisian cyclists. It would be hard not to want to ride a bike there every day, or all day on the one day you had, which is what we did.

Characterizing the riding in Paris in general is hard, because the whole city doesn’t conform to any one style. There are cobbles aplenty, as well as the asphalt you expect from any place this massive, but there is also a fair amount of dirt and mixed-surface, whether it’s grassy verges or sprawling park and garden spaces. Our shake out ride did more than whet our appetites for more, but having skipped food after coming off the plane, we needed to get back to the hotel and prepare for the real exploration to come.

We gave ourselves some time the next morning to rest and refuel, not throwing legs over top tubes until 10am, but it was fourteen more hours before we returned. We wanted to maximize our ride time here, to do a week’s worth of exploration in the one day we had, and there is always something to see in Paris, some bit of architecture, an open plaza, an opportunity for food that kept us going until midnight.

We followed the Seine out into the suburbs, clinging to it like a trail of bread crumbs, trusting it to take us someplace great, and it delivered everything, from the drama of the city center, to factory districts, to bucolic suburbs and a lone hill overlooking the magical sprawl. We found urban double track, and abandoned, nearly primitive sections of the city’s manufacturing past.

We could have kept on riding, but rolling back into the hotel after a full day and night on our bikes seemed smart with the Paris-Roubaix Challenge on tap for the weekend. We did another ride around the city center in the morning, before repacking our bikes and boarding the train to Lille and the shuttle on to Saint Quentin, where our adventure would continue.

Wheel Test – Paris-Roubaix Pacenti Luxe Disc Wheels

We’ve been looking for good go-to disc wheel for mixed-terrain riding. It’s a category with a number of entrants, but few products that really hit the mark. So we connected with Justin Spinelli at Luxe Wheelworks and Kirk Pacenti at Pacenti Cycle Design for a set of Pacenti’s own rims laced to White Industries hubs with Sapim bladed spokes.

They proved very durable and, at 24 hole front and rear, they manage to strike the right balance between weight and strength for us. Certainly we were impressed with them over the 54km of cobblestones at the Paris-Roubaix Challenge last weekend, not to mention the 14 hour mixed-terrain odyssey we did around Paris a few days before. We did both these rides without a broken spoke, dent or even a flat tire.

We rode them with Challenge Paris-Roubaix 27mm tires, similar to what the pros ride, to really put them through their paces. Justin had promised us that we’d have no problems, that they’d be bulletproof, but the cobbles of northern France have crushed all sorts of wheels (and spirits). We were impressed enough with them that they’ll become the default wheel for our Evergreen line in the coming months.

On the Road – The Paris-Roubaix Challenge

We packed our travel cases in a low-level frenzy, trying to get designs done and customers taken care of before getting on the flight to Paris. By the time we landed, our heads were full of cobbled dreams. And doubts. Were we fit enough? Did we bring the right clothing? We looked around at the others in our group and got quietly into the van.

We’re not like most of the people who take on the Paris-Roubaix Challenge, either die-hard amateur racers who want to test themselves against the famed pavÃ© of northern France or die-hard race fans who have memorized the route, can talk at length about each edition of the Hell of the North, and who want only to ride in the tire tracks of their heroes. We are fans, but bike-building precludes us from taking much else very seriously. We love to ride, but going fast is more something we measure against ourselves than against the pros.

We came to the Paris-Roubaix Challenge as a way of breaking out of our daily context, to see a part of cycling culture that exists in a parallel universe, and to test ourselves (and our bikes) in a way we hadn’t tried before. Oh, and we wanted to see the race, arguably the most storied event in pro cycling.

At dinner the night before our own ride, war stories crossed the table like a full salt shaker. Many of our table mates had ridden it before. Some were planning to wear two pairs of bibs. Most had their bars double-wrapped. As first-timers, all we could do wassecond guess our own choices, our bikes set up more or less as they always are for travel.

Fortunately, the Paris-Roubaix Challenge does not take in the 100+km of pavement the pros ride before the first sector of cobbles at Troisvilles, so we were fresh, if a little nervous, when we got there. Our first impressions, in all honesty, were that the cobbles were fun to ride. We are avid trail and gravel riders, and the cobbles, though each sector has its own unique character, present the same sort of bike handling challenges. The dead flat terrain let us focus on keeping our front wheel moving forward.

We rolled out in a cool, light rain, the sort of grim, gray day that part of the world, and certainly the race, is known for. The rest of the day would bring everything from cold showers to bright sunshine, and rather than struggling with the constant changes, we found they really just set off the different phases of our adventure.

We had fun trying to figure out the best place to ride through each sector of pavÃ©. Sometimes it was the smooth gutter. Other times it was right on the crown, down the middle of the road, although rain slick as they were, you could feel your tires sliding off those tallest stones. In some places the road was so bowed upward, so concave, that the following cars would scrape loudly over the crown, a horrible sound, especially for their drivers.

When we reached the Arenberg Forest, we found complete mayhem. This is the sector that claims the most pros every year, and the same was true for the amateurs. An ambulance was parked 50 meters in, already attending to someone with a day-ending problem. The cobbles there are larger than the other sectors and more irregular. The gaps in between seem to fit a tire perfectly, and the whole thing was covered in black mud. We felt fortunate to make it through unscathed.

The hardest section, though, came later at the Carrefour de l’Arbre. This sector is long, and there is no where to ride. The gutter is uneven and unpredictable. All the cobbles had rounded tops that rattled our teeth for more than 2km.

For all this, we felt surprisingly good at the end. All day we had been careful to keep the right pace, often slowing down on the pavement between sectors to save our legs. Over most of the cobbles, it actually seemed to help to ride faster, to try to ride across the tops of the stones.

Rolling finally into the famed velodrome at Roubaix, the transition from the day’s rumbling and bouncing to the smooth, curved bank of the track was jarring. We didn’t feel elated or relieved or victorious, so much as overwhelmed, trying to build a little speed to keep from sliding down the steep embankment just short of the finish line.

We’d come through. Our bikes had come through, performing flawlessly, not a dropped chain, not a flat to change, and given a little time to think on it, we saw it for what it was, one of the most extraordinary days we might ever spend on a bike.

A Bike for All Seasons

We’re at a funny spot in our local cycling season. After record snow and cold, we are beginning to see more sunlight and significant melt. Many of us have been riding our Evergreens all winter with studded tires, which are good for keeping you upright on icy surfaces. You don’t go fast with studded tires, but arrival at your destination is more likely. We have had fun riding through snow storms, through cold snaps, over icy trails and slick roads. The time has come, maybe, to think about switching back to an everyday tire, like a 32mm file tread.

It was in contemplating that change, and ultimately deciding that we have more ice in front of us, that we realized the value of the Evergreen.

In the summer we ride dirt roads, trails, gravel, pavement, really any surface, on the Evergreen, with tires that range from 25mm road tires to 40mm all-terrain rubber. That range of options for tire selection is a real game changer. Add on top, the effectiveness of disc brakes in foul weather, and you have a bike that will go almost anywhere, at any time of year. We highlighted this bike’s versatility in a post a few months ago, but since then we’ve ridden it in some of the heaviest weather New England has seen in more than a century.

Now, as we contemplate converting back into something like spring riding mode, it is amazing to think of all of the places we’ve ridden our Evergreens over the last year, and how good they are at just about everything. They might just be the most versatile bikes we’ve ever built.

Zachary’s Evergreen SL

We built this Evergreen SL for Zachary with our good friends at the Downtube Bicycle Works in Albany, NY. Zachary is a strong, young rider, who takes his bike long distances over variable terrain to visit family and friends. Being able to pack gear was very important to him, as was the ability to do extended stretches without stopping to resupply. Note the third water bottle.

Some photos, and kind words, below:

I know it’s been a few months here since I got my new bike but I just wanted to send you both a brief update and some photos.

The evergreen rides like a dream. In stark contrast to the (name of bike removed), my other trusty steed, I am just floating up the hills effortlessly (not to dis the (other bike), it’s my tank when I need it). The bike does feel solid and familiar but is so much more agile and maneuverable. I have since been riding very comfortably.

After the first long ride (Sdy to Cooperstown) I am hooked. I have since been enjoying weekly winter rides through the hills of Pennsylvania. I’ll be attempting a complete Brevet series (randonneuring) this spring as well. Attached is a photo of the bike and the hills around Cooperstown, NY as well as a photo of my recent ride from my home in the Pocono plateau of Pennsylvania up north to Binghamton, NY.

Thank you both for helping to build my dream bike. I am very excited to see where in New York State and Pennsylvania it will take me this upcoming summer, as well as the years and hopefully decades of riding it will bring me thereafter.

Cheers!

Zachary