Great Ride…bad finish, a set on Flickr.
And now the final bit, at least for now. I rode the new C-17 Cambium from Honolulu to Haleiwa (73.5 miles from where I started to where I stopped).
The saddle was fine and my rump doesn’t feel like it had a bad time of it. I think that I might have been slightly more comfortable with one of my reliable B-17s (like the I did this ride with on Memorial Day). On the other hand it may simple be the way I was feeling today. I’d really have to A/B this several times to report reliably.
The saddle did pick up a bit of dirt today, mostly from my hands though I tried to be careful. It is the natural color version and this wouldn’t be an issue with black or another darker color.
So far so good with the Cambium. I think it’s really going to come down to a matter of taste as to whether one likes this thing or not. I’m not going to switch out all my leather saddles for the C-17, but I’m finding it to be a quality product that’s comfortable without break-in, looks good if it’s to your taste, and doesn’t involve livestock.
The ride itself was nice. I had a couple of mechanical issues after 60 or so miles. I started hearing a lot of rattling. On my RIvs that’s pretty rare so I slowed and tried to narrow down the noise. Turns out that, even though I did use beeswax, one of my bottle cages had loosened. Not a biggie. A couple turns with a handy tool and I was off….
…only to find that I could seem to select certain gears and when I tried I heard…a lot of rattling. Hmmm…this seemed a bit more serious so I immediately pulled over. Looking down at the rear derailleur I discovered that a bit of wire had wrapped itself around the rear cassette. It took a couple of minutes to untangle but didn’t do any damage. Once I took off my gears worked normally and everything was silent again.
When I got to Haleiwa I had a quick smoothie and then sat outside at a Thai place so I could get a nice bowl of Tom Ka – Thai coconut based soup. Yum. Just thing after a long ride.
I then hopped the regular bus (all our buses have bike racks) and my troubles really began. I had no trouble putting bike in the rack, fit fine and the springed loop was tight around my front wheel as far as I could tell.
Later, as we approached town (after 30 miles) the driver called out and said, “You’d better get your bike, you didn’t put it on properly.” BS. In any case, the springed loop was off and my biking was leaning forward pretty far. I secured it and had to endure a lecture from the driver on using bungie cords (I’ve never needed one before btw). Finally I just said fine, I’ll take my bike. I took it off, he drove away and I discovered I was f’d.
The bike had leaned so far forward it has actually damaged my rear rim. It wobbled something fierce and I figured I’d have to true it up. I wish. As it turns out the rim was actually cracked. It didn’t look particularly safe to ride, but after opening the back brake I gave it a try and decided that as it was broken anyway I might as well try to get home the final 6 miles. It held. Not something I’d really want to do but I take really low traffic streets so I figured it was better than walking.
I’ve got a few photos from the ride today and you can see a couple pictures of the rim taken after the fact.
When I got home I switched seat posts and saddles with the Quickbeam so I can ride to work tomorrow. I’ll take a few pictures of how it looks on the QB and let everyone know how I like it on a single speed.
Aloha!