Out to Forestville for pizza (Sonoma Pizza Co) with some friends and back, almost all on the trails. Made a wish at 11:11 on 11/11. The usual: “some peace, somewhere, for a little while.”
Red Fitz at the Laguna de Santa Rosa
The veganized pizza with added mushroom was delicious! Brian’s shop was closed (Tuesday/Holiday).
Red Fitz outside Russian River Cycle ServiceVineyard foliage and a red barnPoppies!
Cleaning the rim seemed to help the crazy squeal, so I put the shiny brake and new pads (sanded of course) on the Fitz for tomorrow’s road run out to Forestville.
This new Fitz Porcorosso is an update to my 2019 Fitz Supermoto. Both are custom drop bar, rim brake, go anywhere (carefully) bikes. Big tires, big dropper post. The main update with the new bike is “make it bikepacking” with zits galore on the forks and frame. Fitz Cyclez
Two friends and I rode out from Santa Rosa to a bike community campout at the foot of Willow Creek Road (famous local dirt climb).
We took the Creek Trail to Occidental Road, Occidental, Monte Rio, and out to Hwy 1.
Lots of great people, maybe 20 campers, vegan food and fire-roasted meat, lots of amazing food.
I stepped off the trail in the night into a 4 foot hole and broke a rib which was not great. Rode back to Monte Rio in the morning and took a week off work.
Curved top tube lots of custom details. Illusion Cherry powdercoat. Fitz Cyclez
shiny painted frameJohn in the shop with the finished frame BikeCAD drawing of the Porcorosso bikeMy thumbnail drawing of the Porcorosso bike with bags
I bought the frameset used at Christmas time 2022. The stem had been sold, but I got a matching Valentine Red stem from a friend a couple days later. Currently I’m using a slightly taller stem with less reach, but may go back to the red one.
It’s built up with 3×9 parts off the Fitz. XTR rear derailleurs and Ritchey Logic cranks have been signature parts for me since they were current.
A friend gave me (‘gave,’ not ‘gifted’) a set of gray brakes which kicked off the build set: gray PNW pedals and tape, but the tape discolors unpleasantly; gray XTR hubs I built into wheels with DT Swiss A319 rims (cheap wide good); gray Cambium saddle with a cool topo map pattern that looked good with the bar tape when the bar tape looked good.
Bontrager Privateer Comp drop bar rigid mountain bike
2023 New Year’s update. Knobby tires, original XT cranks back from the Fitz. I moved the RTP tires to my sister in law’s Trek 930, and I sold off all the XTR cranks and funky bottom brackets, including the XTR/Jericho setup (which would have looked amazing on the Fitz…).
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Bontrager Privateer Comp “gravel bike”
2022 New Year’s update. Rat Trap Pass tires, Nitto riser threadless stem, XTR cranks. Unicanitor saddle for all-weather riding. I stole the old-style Bontrager innertube sleeve to protect the seat post slot; I got the idea from the RoadLite, and found old catalog pictures showing other Bontragers with it.
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One of my current older project/brainworms is to convert my Bontrager to a fat-tired road bike. Bars are On-One Midge bars with bar-end shifters. I swapped the SID Dual-Air for a Kona P2 canti fork, and bought some phenomenally expensive (for me) Compass Rat Trap Pass tires. I’d been planning the conversion for some time, but changed the fork the day after I rode down Mt Tam and back to the top with knobbies and a suspension fork.
I visited a couple of cool bikeshops in Sebastopol, and got some bar tape, since I like to buy something when I visit a shop. Black bar tape replaces the dingy faded cloth tape, looking a little more intentional. Spot the electrical tape fanciness on the stem!
Here’s the “finished” bike, still wanting an LD stem (UPDATE: I tried an LD stem, and it was too tall), and A23 rims for tubeless setup. Maybe a setback (or just fresher-looking) 27.0 seatpost (UPDATE: I got a Thomson post).
Bontrager Privateer Comp with drop bars and rigid fork
I rode it for a week with the rigid fork. Less funky dive in the corners. I like it. I chose the canti-only fork because it’s lighter, I don’t like extraneous bits, and I’m happy with V-brakes on this bike.
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This was always a fine bike, and it came with Bontrager-modified King hubs. Keith Bontrager once told an interviewer they were the one piece of kit he wished he had a secret stash of.
Bontrager Privateer with drop bars and suspension fork
An online acquaintance mentioned that he was leading a 31.4 mile Pi Day ride, and I had to steal the idea.
It’s a nerd’s nerd thing, Pi Day, and today’s is special. Today’s date is 3/14/15, which is the first five digits of Pi, 3.1415. Further, at 9:26:53 this morning, we were good to 10 digits of Pi!
Epic Pi Day.
Bike nerd? Check. All-’round Nerd? Check and double-check. I started my ride at 9:26:53 (Strava should have a time counter into the hundreds of seconds for starting rides like this. You know, the ones that happen every hundred years)… or so.
I was kind of surprised I started on time, but I woke up naturally (the reason we have Saturdays), thought, “I’m not sure if that dream was troubling or comforting,” and started putting on bike clothes. Full Riv regalia: sneakers, wool socks, Riv knickers, Wooly Warm jersey, Devold underwear. The jersey was green, which didn’t match all the blue everything else, but my baby blue jersey is looking kind of green itself after all these years.
In addition to the ONCE IN A LIFETIME MAGICAL NUMBER THING, I also wanted to get some miles in before the Strada Rossa, and assess how enjoyable the 50k is going to be after a “winter” of sloth. Turns out, that’s a good length to feel like I accomplished something, but still enjoy the whole thing.
So, I rolled out, bought a double Americano (very nice, $2.07 (that’s a stupid price – not egregiously high, just a dumb number. I was going to pay cash, but switched to a card because I didn’t want 93 cents in change rattling around my pocket, so it cost them whatever the card companies charge)), and headed to the Prince’s Greenway.
Holy Grounds coffee shop
My plan was to run the loop of Sonoma bike paths I’d mapped on Google Maps that added up to 31.4 miles.
Oh yeah – this is me, before the ride.
Mostly I did that, with a couple wrong turns side quests. I have to say, that the trails are pretty awesome, but the signage is designed to please the people standing back admiring their handiwork, not the people navigating intersections while focusing on moving automobiles.
I took the Greenway/Creek Trail to Willowside road, shelling grandpas and kids on trikes like a Cat 6 monster, then took Hall Road into Sebastopol, where I finished my coffee in front of the Whole Foods.
Heading North on 116, I stopped at Andy’s Market (legit produce) for another Americano. This one was marginally cheaper, at $1.75, and tasted smokier than the Holy Grounds espresso. I very much enjoyed it, and it would appeal to people who like Portland espresso. Frankly, it had all of the good and none of the bad (“What? This is no longer a fluid. It’s a solid. You just steamed the grounds.”) aspects of Portland espresso.
Every Bay Area Rivendell Rider who mailed me an SASE* from Canyon, CA (a place fighting to keep its post office) last Sunday got a free Entmoot patch. A bike drawing was worth extra points, but was not required.
These are the outgoing patches, with the incoming envelopes.
Cool stamps were also worth points.
Points are not redeemable for cash.
*Self Addressed Stamped Envelope. From the old days. You buy two stamps, and two envelopes. On one envelope, you write your own address, affix a stamp, fold it in half, and put it into the second envelope, which you mail. Someone puts something in the first envelope, and mails it back to you.
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