Handlebar Stem Riser on the Nishiki Road Bike

This afternoon I installed a handlebar stem riser on my Nishiki Maricopa road bike. As I was reminded on my Saturday ride, having a gut make for a less comfortable ride on a road bike. By raising the handlebars I am able to have a more upright riding position.

As the bike came from the factory:

Removing the handlebars, using the Granite Rocknroll mini ratcheting tool kit:

And finally, with the Outerdoo stem riser installed:

I took it for a short test ride up and down the block. The derailleur and brake cables had enough slack in them so their function is unaffected. My riding position is now more upright and much more comfortable. We're currently in a heatwave so a full shakedown run will have to wait until Friday or Saturday.

If I ever do manage to lose my gut I can restore the bike to its original configuration.

The Patrol Bike and Cycling for Preppers

Note: This post contains a bunch of Amazon affiliate links. If you buy something after clicking through, I'll get a cut at no extra cost to you.

A few years ago, Matt Bracken posted an article, "The Patrol Bike" over on American Partisan. It's worth a read, and I recently reviewed it due to my renewed interest in cycling.

One thing I want to comment on that's missing from many prepper-oriented articles about bicycles is the necessity for conditioning before you need to rely on a bike during an event. There are a lot of bikes out there gathering dust in garages and sheds because people bought them thinking that they could ride them around all day like they did when they were kids, and find out that is no longer true.

If you include bicycles as part of your preps you need to ride now, to make sure that your legs, butt, and heart can handle it.

Bracken noted that he switched to cycling from jogging because once he hit 60, his knees started complaining. In my case, my feet are so flat they may as well be flippers, so I've never been able to run much. Cycling is a good way to get in a cardio workout for those of us with similar physical limitations.

When I was young I did a lot of road biking. I still see cyclists on the road but I will no longer do so. IMHO, there are too many distracted motorists and I feel that it would only be a matter of time before I got hit by someone paying more attention to their cell phone than the road.

The good news is that many urban and suburban areas now have an increasing number of bike trails. Many of these are on former railroad beds and as such, are kept to a very minor grade. These paths are great for exercise and getting around. Bikemaps.org is a good resource for finding such trails.

Another article worth reviewing is from Greg Ellefritz at Active Response Training. "Your Tactical Training Scenario - Attacked on a Bike" raised a few points I had not considered, notably the ability for an attacker to use your bike helmet against you.

There are a few safety items that you should have:

1. Front and rear lights. These are for making you visible as much as lighting the way.  It's 2021 so we no longer need to power bike lights with big, heavy batteries or bottle dynamos. There's a wide variety of LED bike lights that run off AAAs, coin cells, or are rechargeable. I find that when riding on a crowded bike path that I appreciate it when other riders have their lights on, even during the day.

2. A helmet and gloves. Yeah, us Gen-Xers survived while not wearing bike helmets. Modern helmets are lightweight and will keep you from cracking your skull if you wipe out. I find that padded gloves make cycling more comfortable. Plus the last time I crashed my gloves prevented me from getting road rash on my palms, which would have really sucked.

There are some accessories you'll want to keep on your bike to keep running and make it more useful:

1. Patch kit and/or spare tube. Make sure you include a couple tire levers.

2. Pump and/or CO2 tire inflater. I use a floor pump at home. Many if not most currently made pumps will work with either Presta or Schraeder valves. If you must reinflate a fat tire in the field one or two CO2 cylinders will speed things up a lot compared with using a bike-mounted pump.

3. A rear cargo rack. I am happy with the Planet Bike Eco rack that I installed on my Trek 820 about 5 years ago. My Lectric XP came with a rack. A solid rear rack will also act as a fender to keep you from getting a racing stripe up your back when going through mud puddles. Use a little blue Loctite thread locker on the mounting bolts when installing a rack, to keep them from vibrating loose.

4. Bag to carry your toolkit. I like a trunk on my cargo rack because I can put my tools, a light windbreaker, snacks, and an extra water bottle in it. Another option is lashing a milk crate to the rack for bulky items.

5. Water bottle rack and bottle. Most bike bottles hold 20 - 24 oz. Zefal sells 33 oz. bottles, which are nice in hot weather. You can also get canisters that fit water bottle holders and can be used for your toolkit. Good for bike with more than one water bottle holder. 

6. Tool kit or multitool with wrenches to fit all the screws and bolts on your bike. Most bikes have used Allen bolts for the past 25 years but you may have one or two regular hex head bolts. Consider swapping them out for Allen head bolts. Otherwise, include an adjustable wrench. A pair of pliers and/or a Leatherman-type multitool may come in handy as well. If the bike multitool doesn't include a spoke wrench, get a separate one. I recently added this ratchet set to my bike kit.

7. In case something breaks, some zip ties and a roll of 1" wide Gorilla tape may come in very handy. I recently saw a forum post in which a guy was able to ride his mountain bike out of the woods after reattaching the front chain ring with zip ties.

8. Most importantly, the knowledge to use all of the above. Sheldon Brown's site is a good resource for all things cycling. Also, Park Tool's YouTube channel demonstrates many aspects of bicycle maintenance.

 

We're currently experiencing a shortage of new bicycles in shops due to increased demand and COVID-related supply chain disruptions. There are still plenty of bikes listed on places like Craiglist and Facebook Marketplace. Used bikes can be good deals. Older mountain bikes such as you'd find on those sites are especially well suited for prepper use due to lower cost and simpler construction, especially if you avoid bikes with suspensions. I do recommend avoiding any department store bikes, at least those made for sale in the past 25 years. Frankly, they are junk. Stick with brands sold in bike shops like Trek, Specialized, or Giant. Even low end models from these brands will be head and shoulders better than the crap you find at Walmart or Target.

To quote Freddy Mercury, "Get on your bikes and ride!" 

New Bike on the Way, and a Ride

Since getting back into cycling a few months ago, I've been kicking myself for putting my old Nishiki road bike out by the curb last year. Although my Trek 820 mountain bike with 1.5" wide slicks is good for the local multi-use paths, even Forbidden Drive, a road bike would allow me to ride further and faster. So, I started looking around on Craigslist and eBay for older road bikes with steel frames.

Lo and behold, after a couple weeks of looking, this popped up on eBay:

(Picture from the eBay auction.)

It's a mid-80s (probably an '86) Nishiki Olympic with the same frame size and color scheme of my HS graduation present. The Mavic wheelset isn't original, however. After a few minutes hemming and hawing, I bought it.

The 1986 Nishiki Olympic was a 4130 chrome-moly steel framed bike with Araya aluminum wheels, Diacompe brakes, Shimano derailleurs, downtube shifters, and a Sugino VP crankset. Assuming the Mavics on this bike weigh about the same as the originals, it'll come in at about 23 pounds. It should be a fast bike. While riding my old one with a friend who's Trek 520 tourer was fitted with a cycle computer, he clocked us going about 50 MPH on one extended downhill run.

Unfortunately, I'm still waiting for it. I got a message from the seller who found that one of the crank arms was stripped, where the pedal is attached. He discovered this when he began to prep it for shipping. He offered to either knock $25 off the price, or replace it with an original part. I opted for the latter, so I'm hoping it'll ship early next week.

After I get it I plan to rewrap the handlebars, replace the toe clips (one is broken), and of course verify that the derailleurs and brakes work properly.

In the meantime, I picked up a couple items to help me maintain my family's bikes. First, a copy of Zinn and the Art of Road Bike Maintenance. In conjunction with YouTube videos, this should help me learn how to work on them. The second item was a Bikehand Pro Mechanic Bicycle Repair Rack Stand.

I tried out the repair stand for the first time this morning, before I went on a ride. I used it to hold the Trek while I cleaned the chain. It worked well. The stand feels fairly robust and folds up, so that it doesn't take up too much space in my shed.

After cleaning and lubing the chain, I went on my longest ride this year, 12.23 miles, at an average speed of 10.9 MPH and a max speed of 16.1 MPH. Considering I'm riding a mountain bike with aerodynamics slightly better than a brick, I'm happy.

Back on the Bike

August in SE PA was so hot and unpleasant that I haven't been on my bike for a month, until today. Before leaving I checked over the bike and inflated the Bontrager H2s up to 80 PSI. I'd been riding with them at about 65 PSI and wanted to try out higher pressure for less rolling resistance. I also played around with my seat adjustment because the last time I rode I had some discomfort down below.

The difference in how the bike rides with higher tire pressure was immediately noticeable. Rolling resistance was much less at the cost of a harsher ride on Forbidden Drive's packed gravel surface.

My ride was cut short after only a little more than a mile, by two trees that had fallen across the trail. I didn't want to try climbing over them because there's a good chance that there would be poison ivy mixed in.

 It looked like the half rotted out tree on the right feel and took out the other tree on the way down.

I wasn't ready to go home yet so after getting back to my truck I drove over to the Spring Mill train station and hopped onto the Schuykill River trail, where I had a pleasant ride. The section I was on is paved so compared with the packed gravel in Valley Green I was flying. The extra 15 PSI of course helped quite a bit and I seem to have got my seat adjusted correctly, too.

Cycling as a Prep

In my last post on this blog I mentioned my recent purchase of a hitch-mount bike rack, and over on Blog O'Stuff, I have several posts about my renewed interest in cycling. My current bike is a late-90s vintage Trek 820 mountain bike on which I've recently added a few accessories.

Aside from replacing the original hand grips, which were deteriorating, I added the rack, trunk, kickstand, front and rear LED lights, and a RAM mount to hold my Garmin 62 GPS.  For a prepper there are several things attractive about an older steel mountain bike like my Trek:

• They can frequently be obtained at low cost. I paid over $300 for it in the late 90s, but nowadays you may be able to find a similar bike in good condition for $75 to $100.
• The lack of a front suspension means the bike is mechanically simpler and easier to maintain.
• The steel frame absorbs vibrations and shock from the road better than an aluminum frame.
• Many of these older bikes have threaded eyelets for mounting racks.

Mountain bikes in general tend to be more rugged than road bikes, especially the wheels. They are a lot more versatile, allowing you to ride on pavement, dirt, or gravel. Everything else being equal, mountain bike tires are more resistant to flats than high pressure road bike tires.

For preppers, bicycles offer low cost transportation that doesn't require fuel and can help you get and stay fit. Cycling on a bike that fits you is great, low impact cardio exercise. The "rails to trails" movement is converting many old rail beds to multi-purpose trails, all across the US. These trail networks not only provide a place to ride without having to deal with distracted drivers, they may also create less-used paths for cyclists and pedestrians to bugout in an emergency. Getting a bike now and exploring them is a useful way to combine recon with recreation.