The World is Flat Pedaled

When it comes to building a touring bike there are so many things that are taken as fact; steel frame, high range of gears, quick wicking clothing, but some gear parts are debated. It seems that clipless pedals are one of these things that falls on both sides. I have seen a good deal of "ways to improve riding" or "how to prepare for a bike tour" promote clipless pedals, but I'm going to go ahead and say that these are less than ideal for bike touring.

Casual SPDs were becoming the rage when I first began riding, with Chrome exploding everywhere and other companies finally following in their wake (Teva, Five-Ten, and Vans now all have their own casual clipless pedals). I started with rat cages, but after destroying many metal cages I have taken the plunge into full on flat pedals and could not be happier.

Surly Cross Check rocking Wellgo MG-1s

The tides seem to be turning away from clipless toward flat pedals on touring cyclists, with the rise of casual touring promoted by Rivendell and hike and bike bikepacking as promoted by Cass Gilbert. And here is the real reason why flats are more superior than clipless pedals, they are multifunctional. For anyone who has ever packed for an extended bike tour knows that having multi use items is extremely useful as it saves space and weight, yet people still believe in clipless pedals and off the bike shoes/sandals, when one pair of sneakers functions for both. For me, bike touring is about exploration, and exploring off the bike is half the fun, from incredible day hikes, to museum walks, to unplanned games of soccer, not skating everywhere is fantastic.

Another tenant that the flat pedal fulfills is the keep it simple stupid attitude, an attitude I shortly picked up from Surly upon purchase of my Cross-Check. As an example, I remember being a few days north of San Francisco last summer when I met a couple traveling the coast and it was about this point that one of their touring pedal cleats was so torn up from being walked on over rocks, curbs, pavement, what have you, that they could no longer clip in and needed to limp by on a small platform to get to San Francisco to replace their cleats. Another example comes from an old article from Urban Velo magazine that I found, in which these avid cycle tourists cited the tool or piece that they'd never leave without again and it was consistently pedal bolts. When you go flat, that's one less tool and one less headache.

Another shot with the white MTB pedals.

"But what about the power increases!" well, that's mostly a myth. There may be small gains, but nothing extremely major. People are bound to believe that being clipped in allows you to pull up on the upstroke, which is actually wrong. The only benefit may be that you are less fatigued because you don't have to worry as much with foot position but with grippy shoes and grippy pedals this is not an issue whatsoever.

One of the greatest gains that have come from the switch to platform pedals over rat cages is learning better bike ability. I had never known how to bunny hop and was completely dumbfounded by the process, I kept trying to pull up the rear wheel with my feet, which is dead wrong. Flat pedals have taught me better weight balance on the bike and now I'm having a blast throwing my rear wheel wherever I want it, be it mountain biking, hopping curbs, or bike poloing. For performance, flats reign king in my bike.

What do you ride? Flats, clipless, cages? Why? What are the benefits and disadvantages?

Further reading: Riv Bike on clipless v. flats.

Review: On One Midge Bars

In the mid 80's Wilderness Trail Bikes, one of the earlier pioneers of mountain bike design, unleashed the Dirt Drop Bar, a wide flared drop bar intended for off-road use. The bars were wildly popular on cyclocross style with Specialized even throwing in the mix on their Specialized BB-2, unveiled on their Rockhopper Combo, the manufacturing giant's response to the Bridgestone's XO series (as an example of the lack of interest in drop bar mountain bikes, the Rockhopper Combo only lasted one year and had trouble selling stock).

WTB Dirt Drop bars, credit to My Brain Hurts on Flickr

Specialized Rock Combo with Specialized BB-2 drop bars, credit to Russ Teaches on Flickr

Over the years dirt drops never caught on. While the WTB Dirt Drops stayed in production, mountain drops were rare on full build kits, until the Salsa Fargo 2. The Fargo featured their own in house mountain drops, the Woodchippers. They fit what this bike was intended for very well, for an off-road touring bike, because they offered the multiple hand position of a drop bar but also had more horizontal brakes and wide grips for control.

Salsa Fargo

Now, mountain drops are coming back into style as bike touring is on the rise and off-road bike touring is no longer seen as a totally insane venture. The choices are still slim, but they are out there (besides hounding ebay for the now discontinued Specialized BB-2 or WTB Dirt Drop bars), some of the choices are the aforementioned Salsa Woodchipper,the Soma Junebug, the Origin-8 Gary bar and the On One Midge Bar. After reading reviews I decided give the Midge Bars a run, being my first mountain bike drops, this is both a review of this style and of these bars themselves.

The first thing I noticed on the Midge bars was how natural the hoods were. My hands rested easily on a 45 degree angle on the hoods, both widening my grip and making my ability to reach the brakes much easier, a joy when descending on dirt. This isn't the only good position for descending though, as I found in the hooks was way better, with immense braking power and a very wide balanced controlled position with my hands in that semi-horizontal position. Ascending was equally better with these bars, as I could grab the drops and mash some leverage on the wide position as well as being low enough to keep my butt in the saddle, keeping traction on my skinnier cross tires. The tops were great for road riding too, expanding the hand positions so my wrists never don't tire, as what often happens on flat bar touring.

The cockpit view.

Shifting on my bar ends was a breeze on the On One bars, as the drops were shallow and when positioned correctly the bar ends sat perfectly near the bottom of the hoods, making that switch easy. I even began to get into the point of on road of finding that shift perfectly in the drops with my pinky. STI shifting is also an option on these bars, but I have never been a fan, as bar ends are far easier to fix on the fly (the ability to switch to friction shifting is even nicer when the cable stretches and you don't feel like playing with it).

Side view on the Cross Check.

The On One Midge Bars make great off road touring bars as they offer the multitude of positions but also allow for more controlled descents and more traction and leverage on the ascents. That plus easy functionality with bar end shifters make these my go to for off-road touring at the moment. How they match up to the Soma Junebugs or Salsa Woodchippers is hard to say, but they definitely work well for me, plus come in at a better price point than the Salsa or Soma bars.

Further reading:

• Guitar Ted on how to setup Mountain Drop Bars on a Mountain Bike not designed for drops.
• 29 Drop on a better history than mine on Mountain Drops.

A Test of Many Miles: Vittoria Randonneurs v. Schwalbe Marathons.

It's a common debate, argubaly two of the best production touring tires on the market, the Schwalbe Marathon and the Vittoria Randoneur. Over the past year I have extensively ridden both, carrying Schwalbe Marathons on my cross-country schlep and Randonneurs around the Bay Area, almost exclusively for commuting. While I did use them in different circumstances, I did get a good feel of riding both of them, so here is how they stack up against one another.

Durability

Vittoria Randonneur – This is why people buy these two tires, they are burly and don't seem to break. Commuting on my Randonneur's it's hard to remember when I actually blew a flat it's become so rare. Sure nothing is “bulletproof” but these get damn close.

Vittoria's come in white or black, a nice option the Schwalbe lacks.

Schwalbe Marathons – Okay, this is an unfair assessment because I rode them a lot more than the Randos with a lot more weight, but I did have some flats on these, but 70 miles a day going across country, they were rare. I remember first purchasing these and pulling glass out of my tire with no flat. Occasionally, a stray piece of metal would strike at the right angle and flat these, but it was rare.

Fully loaded the Marathon's held up well.

Ride

Vittoria Randonneur – One thing I noticed differently from the Marathons is how much quicker the Randonneurs were. There is a difference in weight and I think that's where this comes from, but the first time I put these tires I took off down the road pretty hastily. That comes at a cost though, with a thinner compound, these can't be run at as low pressure as the Marathons and can be a little bumpier of a ride. Sure it's not like a roadie feeling super heavy ride, but noticeable.

Schwalbe Marathons – COMFORTABLE. Their added weight makes these guys a little bit slower, but the trade off of speed to weight is well worth it. The Marathon rolls like a dream, holds pressure well, and can be run at a lower pressure, meaning that bumpy roads don't feel so bumpy.

Verdict

These tires are very similar and serve as great road touring tires, especially for those just getting into it (widely available, affordable, and straightforward). The big difference is what you are going for, speed or comfort. If you are looking for that little bit of extra spin, go with the Randos, but the Marathons will feel more comfortable, especially if you're hauling over long long miles, losing that time for a less bruised under area is nice.

Strava: Not Just for Dweebs Anymore!

Or maybe I'm just becoming one of them. It's hard to say. But one of the greatest things about being a cyclist in today's day and age is the variety of every rider. Commuters are wearing clipless pedals, once deemed solely for the racers and racers are trying their hand at steel, once deemed too heavy to ever put under their legs. People are just becoming enthusiastic about cycling in general, which who can really complain about?

My foray into Strava came once I returned from tour. Now being GPS linked, I realized I had all this data and no way to process it. Send in the Strava. Most of my friends were talking about it before I even started, so I decided to take my tracks and upload them to the website. Now I'm hooked.

But why? What is so intriguing about this website? It's not the king of the mountains, the original competition this site brought that gave it such a negative connotation in my head. Why would I want to race every time I got on my bike? It seemed to me that this constant competition is what I disliked about cycling, it's way nicer to just go out and ride, but at the same time there is someone I like to beat every time I go out. Myself.

Seeing days you rode and days you missed is helpful to track if you're finding time to ride or not.

Maps with plenty o' data.

It's an old ethos I carry over from my cross country (that's running not mountain biking) days in high school. Day in and day out, you can never control how fast the person next to you goes. They have their good and bad days just as you do. But the one person who you can constantly control whether you beat or lose to is yourself. It's training advice I truly take to heart and that's what Strava provides me. I can see over time how my climbs compare, how my mileage compares and more. Plus it tallies up my mileage, so it can help motivate me more to get out and do the ride I wasn't planning on. Even further it's the ultimate social network for cyclists, following your other friends as they break their first century or as they set a new PR on their favorite climb, it's exciting to see how they're doing.

Elevation plots and the infamous segments underneath.

Certainly some people take it too far. There are some people who constantly go for a new PR on group rides (not cool, if you want that ride on your own or with a paceline, not the group rides I sign myself up for usually). Or the people who ride extremely dangerously for the extra seconds (the Berkeley tale is so close to home that it's a constant reminder to compete on the ups and play it safe on the downs). Having a way to truly measure my fitness is really rewarding and I'm glad I finally signed up and have been trying to stay on top of my riding because I have the mile ticker to know when I decided to sit inside instead of see something gorgeous.

(Follow me on Strava: here)