Browns Camp

After way too much road biking lately and Saturday's triathlon I decided it was time to go on a mountain ride. The only real issue is that I still haven't resolved the super creak issue in the Curtlo SS 29er so I didn't have a mountain bike to ride today. Or at least not one I was willing to ride. But...I do have the Curtlo Cross bike. It has proved itself to be pretty capable in Forest Park, perhaps it is time to take it on some real trails. Yeah, I decided I was up for it.

DTP came with me. He tried to minimize his nausea by eating nothing unhealthy, fatty or carbonated before the ride, but he still felt off for the first half of the ride or so. I felt great though. At least on the first half, which is less technical than the second half of the ride.

I have never taken a cross bike on a trail like this. Not that Browns is too difficult, but certain spots are a little challenging to clear even on a mountain bike with fat tires. On a cross bike with its steeper angles and skinny tires it became impossible for me to get over one spot in particular. That spot is recorded in the video below. It looks easy, but it is not--I assure it is not at all. With a geared mtb it is not so bad. But with gearing that is similar to riding a mountain in stuck in the outer ring of the crankset it is hard to get the torque needed to climb over some roots and rocks. What looks like it should be easy, becomes hard. Oh, and did I mention that my cross tires don't like to stick to roots or rocks too much? Yeah, well they don't. On packed dirt they totally hook up though which meant it climbed most of the trails like a scalded monkey. I was amazed at how during the first half of the ride I was able to blast up some of the steeper climbs. This bodes well for cross season. Anyway is the video(with low quality thanks to youtube's bulk video installer)


DTP and I had a good time. We stopped on the way back and ate too much food at Muchos Gracias, but it was worth it.

And speaking of overeating--I ate almost an entire medium-sized Super Combo Pizza (ham, sausage, beef, pepperoni, green peppers, mushrooms, olives, tomatoes, onions, and extra cheese with a serious amount of red pepper tossed on to get the heat right) from Godfather's Pizza last night. It was just about the only thing I ate all day, but still...I was surprised I could pack that much away at one time. Hooray for gluttony!

Vanity

Oh, yes, if a guy can be vain, I am. But not really in the usual ways. I mean, having a blog is a bit vain, especially when I seem to only write about me and my issues. And sure, I check myself out in the mirror these days to see if the gut is really going away or if I am delusional. I also find that I will occasionally look down at my legs as I am pedalling and find myself shocked that the legs that are under me are really my own. They look more and more like real cyclists legs as the summer goes on. So I am feeling pretty darn good about myself, at least physically. Mentally--well we won't go there. There are days that I feel a bit mentally fragile and down, but that is mostly related to my legal job prospects.

But one of the main sources of my vanity comes from my bikes--especially my cross bikes. And of my two cross bikes my number one is the Curtlo. Sure the Lapierre is sexy and rides nice, but it is still unproven in battle. The Curtlo...yeah it is pretty well dialed and when cross season comes it will probably be the choice for 2 out of every 3 courses. The uglier it gets, the more the scales tip in its favor.

Since I have swapped out the gearing for road riding purposes this summer (here, here and here) I have been using as my sole ride. I have had no issues and the gear range is great, even in the hills around here. I rode it today to work and back. And, by the way, I felt great, my recent bout of bronchitis is in the past finally.

While at work this fellow came in with his new baby. It was one of the sweetest cross bikes I have laid eyes on. Everything was shiny and new. The parts were all very high end and all the colors were matching. The frame was by Indy Fab, and it was painted the most perfect shade of metallic orange that I have seen. The hubs and headset were from Chris King and their color of green went perfect with the frame. The fork was the weak link in my opinion, but still not bad, a Wound Up carbon cross fork. The rest of the stuff, FSA SLK Light cranks, Dura Ace drivetrain, and Paul Neo retro brakes were all top notch. One of the new guys at work who is also very into cross just about lost it when he laid eyes on the bike. Totally beautiful. This was not his first cross bike and the guy seemed like he had a lot of years of cross underneath him. I didn't take him for a poseur, he is a pretty good rider I am sure. But he is also older and must have some disposable income because this was a very spendy bike he had.

I started talking to the guy and I went on expressing my admiration for his bike and the build and eventually we got to his brakes. He said that he has been having trouble getting to feel as good as some other Neo Retro set-ups he has tried. I told him that I was running them and that mine felt pretty good to me. He wanted to check out my set up so I went and got my bike. When I brought it out an amazing thing happened--he started to gush on and on about my Curtlo.

Now for those that don't know, my Curtlo frame retails (I didn't pay retail) for about 1000 bucks. His frame retails for around 3000 bucks. His parts spec retails for probably another 3000 bucks or more and mine for about $1500 to 1700 at most. Basically, his bike is more than twice as expensive as mine if we had both paid retail. I didn't, but I bet he did. Yet here he is pointing out how he really likes the way my 1x9 is set up with the Kelly Take off. He loved the color of the frame. He loved the fork, the wheelset, the frame construction, the threaded housing stop on the rear of the frame, blah, blah, blah. At one point I started to blush for my bike's sake. He complemented me on the fact that although his bike is about a 52cm frame, my bike was at least a pound or two lighter. He thanked me a couple times for letting him look at my bike and letting him check out the set up of it. And yes, my brakes set up, even though they are the same brakes, made his feel like crap. He said to me "you're bike is cooler than mine." I told him he was full of it, but he persisted.

Yeah, it was cool deal. His comments totally stroked my ego. After all, this bike wasn't just born the way it is set up. No, it has gone through about 5 major changes on its way to its current set up. Well, at least they are major changes to me--some might not notice. But this guy, who didn't appear to be crazy by the way, spotted most of these things that I have changed and commented on them. Things like the brake set up, the lever feel, the crank/derailleur/shifter set up, etc. Yeah, I sort of felt like I had achieved some level of credibility as a cyclocrosser today. The bike has obviously been ridden hard--there are plenty of scratches, and scuffs on the frame and parts--but those marks have given it character. Yeah, this bike rocks. And frankly, I rock for coming up with a bike and a set up like this. So if this makes me vain--so be it.

Curtlo S3 Cross Pics

In case people haven't seen the Curtlo that I have been posting about lately, here are a few pictures.

There was just enough chain to do it without taking any links off or adding any right out of the package.

The somewhat ugly chain line in 53/34 combo

Update on the Curtlo ring swap

Please excuse the boring posts lately, my lungs are still filled with something that looks like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Ooze that I had has a kid. It makes doing any activity seem like I have been a pack a day smoker for about 20 years or more. But at least I feel good otherwise.

Anyway, so I took off the driveside crank and tried to mount the 53 tooth ring on the inside of the crankarm, instead of the outside where it is normally mounted. I left the chainguard on the outside even though it looked silly. I did so because in order to tighten down the chainring bolts I need it there. Without it the bolts would not have been tight against the single ring. I didn't have any washers to take up the space instead Then I put the crank arm back on the bottom bracket, but the ring is too big. It hit the driveside chainstay of the frame. Dang it.

Then I swapped the 53 tooth on the outside and put the chainguard on the inside. Again the chainring guard, which is slightly larger than a 42 tooth chainring hit the chainstay. Well it didn't actually hit it. But it was about 10/1000 away from it and any sort of torque on the crankarms would have made it rub. So back to the drawing board.

This entire time I kept thinking that I should just mount up the two chainrings and then I could run the 53 tooth or the 39 tooth whenever I wanted. Without a front derailleur I could have still done it with my foot if I wanted to go down from the 53 to the 39 (I have done this before a long time ago on another bike) or just moved it back the the 53 by hand in about a second or two. Or I could never use the 39 and just let it remain something to space the chainring bolts enough to tighten down the 53 tooth ring. But this is simply not an option. If I had both rings on--even if I never intended to use the 39 tooth again people are still going to think that I am using a normal drivetrain. But dang it I am not, this is one of the coolest 1x9's you will run across. The shifting for the rear deraileur is accomplished with a dura ace bar end shifter mounted to a Kelly Take Off. The Kelly Take Off is about the coolest thing for a 1X9 cyclocross bike. It allows me to shift from just about any position on the bar. I can jam the shifter on multiple shifts faster than a regular STI road shifter will do at times. Also in the mud the shifter seems to work better than the regular road shifters, or at least my old shimano ones. I mean it is not quite as ergonomic, but for cross it works and that is all I care about.

Anyway, leaving the ring, even as a dummy ring was just not an option. I finally went to the shop where I found we had not chainring bolt spacers. I had to go and buy them at Bike Gallery. And after messing around a bit with the number of spacers, breaking a torx wrench multi-tool, and making my wife wait on me more than I should have for somethings she wanted me to do I was finished. Really, I made a simple operation an overly complicated and tedious affair. Not sure why, but making simple operations complicated is what I do best sometimes.

Now the bike looks clean. I looks like I am just a hammer because the only ring I am rocking is a freaking 53 tooth monster. The mountain cassette is there of course but that is not what you immediately notice. This bike is pretty sweet. For cross, don't let Brianero read this, but I think the Curtlo is a bit sweeter for cross than the Lapierre. Most of it is the set up, but still, some of this feeling is becuase it fits me so well. The frame's build has been thoughtfully revised a few times and each time it gets a little closer to perfection. The Lapierre still has yet to go to battle and so I am at the beginning of the learning curve with it, so to speak.

Well, hopefully soon I will have more to report than boring tales of easy maintenance made complicated by yours truly.

You'd think I have enough bikes to cover a simple road ride

But, I really don't. I don't have a good bike for long road rides currently.

Facts:

Fuji Aloha CF2 is set up as a time trial bike. With the aerobars set up it is not friendly to regular road rides in traffic. I am too lazy to swap the bar back to a regular road shifter/drop bar set up because I anticipate doing at least one more tri this summer.

Lapierre XLite is really a cyclocross racing machine. It currently has a side gig as my commuter and sub 2 hour road machine. The problem lies in its lack of any water bottle mounts whatsoever. Afterall, you don't need or want a water bottle during a cyclecross race. Its lack of water bottle mounts show that its rider is indeed a cyclocross junkie. It also makes it difficult to go on rides for much longer than 2 hours (less if it is a hot day) because the only water that I carry has to be in one water bottle that I stick in the back of my jersey. I can fit a 24 ouncer back there. I have gone on longer rides with the Lapierre, but it requires a route that has 7-11 or something similar along the route at an opportune time. This is not always possible when going with others.

Curtlo Singlespeed 29er. Well duh, one speed, fat tires, and again no water bottle mounts (I use a camelbak when mountain biking).

Curtlo S3 Cyclocross bike. Hmmm. Facially this seems like a bad match. It is built up as a 1x9 and the front ring is only a 39 tooth. Not big enough to maintain speed on the flats or on a slight descent. But the bike does have two water bottle mounts, because I forgot to tell Doug not to put them on. Maybe that is lucky for me. The rear cassette is currently a 12-25, or I also have a 12-27 and wait for it....an 11-34. Yes. Anyone thinking what I am thinking yet? Gear junkies out there, it is time to perk up.

Most standard sized cranksets with a 130 BCD (Shimano/Sram) or 135 BCD (Campy) come with a 39 tooth and a 53 tooth set of chainrings. On many bikes the cassette mated with this combo is either an 11/23 or 12/25. In fact that is the very set up that I have on my Fuji. Back when the Fuji was set up with road bars I rode this set up everywhere and did just fine for the most part. The lowest gear, 39 tooth front mated with the 25 tooth in the back gives a 41.0 gear inch measurement. The top end, the 53 mated with the 12 cog in the back comes to 116.1 gear inches.

Now, then here is my thought; swap the 39 tooth ring out for the 53 tooth. The bike would still be a 1x9. But the front ring would be the 53 tooth and I would run not the 12/25 or 12/27 cassette (I wish I could push this all the time going up and on to Skyline, but that aint gonna happen) but instead plop on the 11/34. Yeah. Check out the gear inches range now: Low end is the exact same 41.0 and the high is now 126.6. So my 9 gears in gear inches would be; 41.0, 46.4, 53.6 60.6, 69.6, 81.9, 92.9, 107.1 and 126.6. Or to convert that to what those of you running a standard BCD would be like having the following gear selection (approximately): 39/25, 39/22, 39/19, 53/23, 39/15, 53/17, 53/15, 53/13, and 53/11. Really this is not too bad. Sort of large steps in between at times but not too bad I don't think.

Guess what I am doing tomorrow, Daddy is getting his new road bike ready, the Curtlo S3 Cyclo-Road! I can't wait. I will probably try to mount the 53 tooth on the inside of the crankarm to get a better chainline. I need to find some spacers to put on the outside of the arm. Right now I have a chainguard on the outside, but I suspect that it will look a little goofy since it was only made to guard a 42 tooth ring at the most. But that should be small stuff. The crankarms are old style Campy Record--carbon arms with the square taper bottom bracket. The Campy style 135 BCD makes it hard to find rings in anything but 39 and 53.

Anyway, off to bed. I am excited to try this out and I am finally feeling well enough to do so.

Minor Update: 16.95 lbs

I threw on a Dura Ace 9 speed 12-27 cassette, which is great for half of the courses here, and removal of water bottle bolts (with the holes deftly filled with waterproof clear bathroom silicone--I have never had a water bottle on this bike anyway).

16.95 lbs. Holy crap. Steel frame even. New school lightness with old school cred.

Face Lift Complete! 17.10 lbs of sweetness!

The Curtlo S3 Cross bike is back from serious surgery. I am very impresssed.

Yes, it is really 17.1 lbs. All parts are on, even water bottle bolts.


I like the bar tape even if it is a bit much.


The crankset is a 2004 Campagnolo Carbon Record crankset set up for 1 x 9. Crankset with the bottom bracket weighs 710 grams. I picked it up from Performancebike.com's clearance closet then got my employee discount off sale price. The cassette is a 12/34 XTR cassette.


I put a shorter stem on so that I could more easily ride on the hoods when I removed the inline brake levers. It is a 90mm instead of a 110mm. It feels perfect.


Velocity hubset. Rear weighs 250g and the front 80. These wheels were 1360 grams built up. If they break, so be it. I only have 200 bucks in them total, not counting the tires. My DT 240 hubs are overall a tad lighter than the velocity hubs. THe velocity hubs are made by Chosen. They have sealed cartridge bearings and a very nice buzzsaw sound. I will be building up the Dt 240 hubs with some tubular rims as well soon. I will still have a backup clincher wheelset available as well.



The saddle is the sketchiest of all the changes. But I took a short ride on it and I doubt there will be any issues. Especially during a cross race. I only want the bike to fast, with minimal comfot considerations.

Curtlo Cross Bike gets updated and cleaned.

This was sort of a slow week. Not much to apply to job-wise and not too much else to do around the house. So I spent a couple hours a day for about 3 days working on my Curtlo S3 Cross bike. [By the way, it really needs a good name, other than "Curtlo S3 Cross bike, and it is long overdue]

After working on the ol' girl, I felt pretty bad. It was sooo dirty. Dirt was in every nook and cranny. Obviously, it has been a hard year of cyclocross. The last race of the season my crank broke. I got a replacement for it from FSA (here) but I didn't want to put it on the cross bike. The warranty crank is one if the MegaExo versions. My old crank was for ISIS bottom brackets and was a considerably lighter setup even though they are the same quality. I wound up putting it on my Fuji CF2. This lowered the weight of the CF2 by about 100 grams (the original carbon crank on the Fuji was a FSA Team Carbon crank which weigh at least as much as a FSA Gossamer). I sold the heavier carbon crank off of the Fuji and used the money to pick on closeout--65% off MSRP--a 2004 Campagnolo Record Carbon crankset from the shop. This crankset uses a square taper bottom bracket. This should be a fairly bomb-proof setup. Afterall, square tapers were used for decades without any significant problems before the engineers decided to force external bottom brackets down our throats, but that is another issue for another post.

In the end, the Curtlo is a little more classy with the campy crank, though it did not change the weight at all. The Campy crankset with the bottom bracket and single ring/chainguard set up weighs 710 grams. Not too shabby. I have Campy Record Carbon brake levers so they kinda go well together. In fact those are the only two carbon bits on the bike, the cranks and brake levers.

But could I stop there? Nope. I sold some other parts that were laying around in order to buy a set of rims so that I could go tubular. The rims are Velocity Escapes that I employee purchased. A guy at the shop built them up for me on some Velocity hubs. The hubs are super cheap. The front weighs 80 grams and the rear hub was 250. The rear hub makes a nice buzzsaw sound. The wheelset helped me to drop roughly a pound off of the bike. The tires, Tufo Elites were each lighter than the Michelin Mud2s and tubes by over a 1/4 pound per wheel. Then the wheelset itself was about an 1/8 of a pound lighter per wheel. I also removed the inline levers. There went another 1/4 pound. With the removal of the inline levers I decided to shorten the stem a bit so that it would be more comfortable to ride on the hoods. Part of the reason for the inline levers was the comfort of resting my hands there on that part of the bar. Also, because of my Kelly Take-Off set up, I could shifter gears even with my hands on near the in line brakes. So the stem was a tad lighter, but only because it was shorter. I just exchanged stems at the shop.

Anyway, this set up should prove to be a winner. Nothing too stupid, and it was super cheap for the wheelset. The whole wheelset cost me lest than 200. Tires were picked up on the cheap too. The tires probably are not the best for mud, but this year of the 7 races I did, at least 4 were dry or nearly so. Anyway, I will report back with some pictures and ride report. Too bad it is 9 months until cross season again.

Browns Camp on the New Curtlo/Dave on the GT

Good times. Trail was pretty good despite the massive rains over the weekend. There is one section that is sort of tricky when it is wet. Tires don't like to stick to the roots that traverse the trail on a little climb. Dave normally has no problem, especially on his Fisher 293. But on the GT and while I was filming he couldn't get it together.


By the way, the Curtlo is amazing. Later I will post a review on a Schwabe Racing Ralph 2.4 29er tires that I just put on the rear wheel. So far the tire is great.

Curtlo "Crest" S3 First ride

Now the official model name of the Curtlo is "Solo 29" and "S3" is the type of steel tubing that it uses, but the color reminds me of Crest toothpaste, to that is my nickname for it until I come up with something better.

I rode with Dave today up at Browns Camp. The weather was not great, but not unbearable. The temperature was in the mid to upper 30's and as we started riding a light dusting of started to come down. There was a little bit of snow on the trail, no more than 4 inches, in spots were the trees didn't cover the trial (which they do for about 75% of the loop we did). Dave was dressed like he expected a blizzard to come down. By the end of the first hill he was taking off half of his layers and thinking about puking from the effort of the climb. It was kind of slick and so the first couple of steep sections--which are the steepest of the entire ride--we had to walk up a couple of sections. After that we rode the entire trail.

It was slick, but not dangerously so. It was muddy, but not the type of mud that stuck to tires. We also learned that you don't want to hit the front brake when riding in the snow--especially going downhill! Neither of us went down, but it was close.

The Curtlo was perfect. It fits me very well. Dave hopped on it but it didn't fit him very well at all. The Gary Fisher Rig that the Curtlo replaced actually fit him pretty well. But this frame has an effective top tube measurement that is about 3/4" longer and it just didn't feel right to him. He is about 3 inches shorter than I so it makes sense.

The bike felt really stable yet it turned with ease, though admittedly I didn't push it through turns as much because the trail was slick in spots and it was hard to know where the wheels would break free and where they would grab. Still, I was way more comfortable on my Curtlo than Dave was on his GT Peace which he took pretty slow, he said because he didn't want bike to get away from him on the slick stuff, but I think that Dave just wasn't feeling it today. Too much time sitting on the couch or something.

I am using a Panaracer Rampage tire on the front--it is the best front tire I have tried--and the Michelin XC 29er tire on the rear. It doesn't have the air volume that the Rampage has, but it is lighter and had good traction. It also shed mud pretty well. I had thought about getting another tire, but today the Michelin tire proved itself to be worthwhile.

Great fun today. We rode for 2+ hours and nobody got hurt despite the show and slick conditions. A good day for sure.

Below is the bike after I built it up and then this evening after the ride.

New Curtlo Solo S3 MTB Frame

More info later after I get it built, but here are some pictures and some stats:








Frame weight is 4.75lbs. including the Eccentric Bottom Bracket. My Fisher Rig, for comparison, is 4.35 lbs or so. Also this Curtlo is a about a half-size bigger than the fisher in frame size which accounts for some of the increased weight. Also the curtlo is made from steel, and the Rig is aluminum. But I am anticipating that the ride will be very sweet to more than make up for the weight gain. There should be enough tire clearance in the rear to fit just about any tire available currently.

Curtlo S3 Cross bike

Above are pics of my sweet cyclocross ride. The frame is made by Curtlo Cycles out of the State of Washington. The Tubing is True Temper S3 with a little OX Platinum. The frame weighed in at 3.5 lbs. Pretty sweet for a steel frame. There are some aluminum and carbon frames (Kona Jake and Argon carbon are specific examples) out there that weigh as much or more and they probably don't ride as sweet as my baby here. Well actually I am sure they don't ride as well. This frame was custom built for me by Doug at Curtlo.

The complete bike as it sits right now with most everything you see on the pic (taken a year ago when the bike was new) is 18.2 lbs. It is set up as a 1x9 using a Kelly Take Off to mount a Bar End shifter. I will try and take a pic of this set up soon and I will post it. I can reach the shifter in the drops, on the hoods or if I am back on top near the in-line secondary brakes. I think it is the perfect set up for cross. But what do I know, I ain't a pro, just a C class guy here in Portland. But I have had A and B guys jealous of the set up. The Kelly Take Offs are pretty hard to find since Kelly went belly up about a year or more ago.

I just can't say enough about the frame. The only thing I would change on reflection is the top tube. I came across a Salsa Chili Con Crosso not long ago. It has a top tube that has been flatten a bit where one would be shouldering the bike during a race. The flatten tube rests much better on the shoulder than any round tube, no matter how light the bike is. If I were to have the bike built know I would see if Doug could do something similar.

The bike handles really well. I have ridden it in all sorts of terrain. Mountain trails, cross races, and as a commuter recently It flys. I will probably review some of the parts here in this blog in the future, but the only issue I have had is the Paul Neo Retro Brakes. I have to regularly adjust the toe-in so that the fork, an Alpha Q CX wont stutter on hard braking.

There is something about steel, it just feels different than than aluminum. The frame is stiff enough that I ran it during the spring and summer as a singlespeed and the frame didn't feel flexy in the bottom bracket. I could probably run up to a 40-45mm wide tire if I wanted, but I haven't tried. I run 30's usually. Doug has built several other frames for me, mountain and road. This was my first one with S3 tubes though. I am currently awaiting a singlespeed 29er also made with S3 tubes to replace the Gary Fisher Rig that is reviewed below. [There is nothing wrong with the Rig, but it was always a temporary frame.]

S3 Tubing is a real winner. I know that Salsa is making a road frame with the tubing and that would be a great pick for someone looking for a bike that they could pick up off the shelf. Doug's wait times are 4 to 6 months.

Curtlo Cycles Website

Grade: A Cost is cheap for what you get, and a brazed frame is always cool.