Really Inexpensive Compression Socks

Often, when I'm finished with a hard ride, the legs need to cleared.  It's helpful to cool down in the last 10-15 minutes of a ride, but one of the best things I've found to help clear the legs is to lean them up against something whilst laying down apres velo.  The point is to have the legs at an angle of about 30-45 degrees to horizontal such that they are above the heart.

Many of the gear heads and marginal gains wonks out there swear by the use of compression socks, but these can be expensive and don't really add value given that you can put your legs up.  In such cases, I'd much rather spend my coin on stuff that wears out than duplicating what can be achieved easily with what's already on hand.

Gettin' Jiggy

The frame building jig is still coming together.  Lori at RT Machining in Ballard is working on the pieces that need to be machined to center the bottom bracket, head tube, and seat tube.

The main triangle in the jig.  A rear axle spacer will be added to the rear of the main jig backbone, aligning the rear dropouts at the appropriate distance for brazing.

Centering the head tube in the jig with two conical pieces machined to be threaded onto a piece of M8 threaded rod.

The seat post center had to be machined to fit inside the seat tube cluster, rather than using a wedge, as the top of the seat lug isn't cut square to the seat tube.

The bottom bracket center block, ready to be machined down to the thickness required to hold it off the jig by the necessary amount to center it.  Threaded rod will be inserted into its center, then the last of the conical wedges will be threaded on the outside to center it.

Mt Baker Climb

One of my all time favorite climbs in the Puget Sound region for its challenge, length, and scenery is Mount Baker.  I keep coming back to the mountain for the lessons and strength it imparts.

I was on a good day riding up the climb of Washington SR-542 to Artist's Point.  I was able to stay on top of my gear the whole way up, only switching to standing up occasionally to change the rhythm of climbing and give slightly different muscle groups in the legs a chance to do the work.

I love the work of climbing, for me, it's all about feeling around for that boundary below which I can keep the current pace, and above which I completely and utterly explode.  The climbs around Seattle certainly allow for playing with these limits; however, they are completely different in that their short durations mean that I always know that if I keep going, the effort and hill will be over soon.  On a climb like Mt Baker, the limit must be set knowing there will be no respite along shortly.  As such, the boundary is slightly lower, but must be pushed against constantly for the duration.

I've heard the Cascades referred to as the American Alps, and the picture above shows why.  This is very much like an Alpine climb in its length as the meat of the climb is 11 miles at an average gradient of 5.2%.  This got me to thinking about how even though the differences in wattage, speed, and talent vary widely between myself and the pros, the sensations and emotions we feel on the way up are probably very similar.  Burning lungs, heart in the throat, leg searing efforts like this remind me of Greg LeMond's oft repeated quote that, "It doesn't get any easier, you just get faster."  This was true for me, as I set PR's up the various segments on the mountain.

Further reminders of this came the next day, as I went for a recovery spin with a novice buddy to clear out the legs.  We went out to Golden Gardens park, a flat route, where he decided he wanted to climb the hill up to Sunset Hill.  My legs were also warming up by this point, and so I agreed.  This climb seemed so easy to me compared with the efforts of the day before that I was able to climb from the seated position and spin up without a second thought.

Milestone

This weekend saw a milestone in build #0, that being the first time the main triangle had been fitted together.  Since the dimensions I knew were that the top and seat tubes were 585mm center to center, these were the ones I laid out first on my plywood template.  Once these were cut to length and fitted, the fixed angle of the bottom bracket between the seat tube and down tube revealed the length to cut the down tube at the head tube junction.

Main triangle tubes fitted together for the first time.

Each lug required grinding down the inside surface where it mates with the appropriate tube.  Early on, my reluctance to remove too much material led me to follow a procedure that was like, grind, test, grind, test, grind, test, before finally arriving at a good fit.  By the last lug, this was more grind, grind, grind, test, grind, ok.  It feels good to be learning and getting the hang of it.

I cut each of the copes using a tube angle jig that worked with a 1/2" drill motor and a hole saw arbor that a buddy loaned me.  I cut the correct end of each tube, indicated by a bit of paint at the end to cut, as the thicker butted section is longer at one end than the other.  This is especially important on the seat tube, as it's only butted at the bottom bracket end and requires no cutting to fit into the seat lug.

Drill motor and downtube in angle cutting jig. 

Once the tubes were able to be fit through the lugs, I marked each tube's cutline with a Sharpie and scribe by laying the tubes on the template and setting each tube on its centerline.  These marks can be seen on the sides of the tube in the picture below.  I also scratched a small file mark at the point of each lug so that the tubes could be placed into the cutting jig horizontally, as once one end is coped, the tube's orientation is established.

Preparing to cut the 60 degree cope in the downtube where it meets the headtube.

Finally, once each tube was cut, I fit it into the lug and ground the end flush with the lug.  The remaining tasks to complete prior to brazing the front triangle together are to cut the head tube to length and figure out how I'm going to hold it together and in alignment whilst brazing.

Bikegasm

I've always wanted to build myself a custom lugged steel bike frame.  A current gap in my employment as an IT professional, combined with just enough cash to get some parts, and some awesome encouragement from my Velomihottie (thanks, babe!) recently had me going from just thinking about this, to ordering a Columbus SL Tubeset with lugs and all the rest.

Uncut tubeset and lugs roughly laid out on my template board.

Upon receipt of the package, I set out the tubes and lugs to see if the angles and sizes were roughly correct.

Once this was confirmed, I decided to start with the top tube/head tube junction, filing the lug and removing the burrs from the edges to fit it to the top tube.

The headtube/downtube lug sitting on the workbench.

The idea is to build a classic steel road frame with lively 74 degree angles like the steel racers I rode as a kid.  I plan on it being a size 58.5 center to center because this is the only way to get that size, and that's my size according to Greg LeMond's formula of taking one's inseam and multiplying it by 0.65. It'll have enough clearance for fenders, and I'm still deciding whether it should have rack mounts as well.  I want it to be versatile, but at the same time, I'm a bit leery of cluttering the frame too much with braze ons.

Thought Replacement

Cycling often functions for me as a microcosm of life.  It's a smaller, rather more controlled circle of limited boundaries in which to try things out.  Since much of the focus is on the physical aspect of power against the forces of wind and climbing, it's sometimes easy to forget that it is the mind which ultimately powers every endeavour.

I've been experimenting with saying one word from a mantra or validation phrase on every third stroke of the pedals and synchronizing this with the breathing.  That is, on the first right stroke, I will breathe out, focus on pushing the pedal hard, and saying in my mind the first word of the affirmation.  Then I will soft pedal the next left and right strokes, giving both legs a brief respite.  Finally, I'll breathe out, push hard, and say the second word of the affirmation on the next left.  And so on.

The natural tendency is to synchronize the breathing with one or the other leg, but this leaves things unbalanced.  Focusing on every third revolution balances the effort between legs and repeating whatever affirmation during moments of hard effort replaces any thoughts of the suffering with what I choose to put in my head.  It can be as simple as "keep going."

Risk

Today is two years to the day since Wouter Weylandt died racing his bike in the Giro.

We all take risks every day, in cycling and in life, and often it is the seemingly innocuous little things we don't see that can have tragic consequences.  In Wout's case it was some low stonework that he clipped on a descent, and instantly he would never see his wife and child, nor race a bike again.  And yet, the man died doing what he loved.

RIP.