Success in Part, then Nearly Epic Disaster

The front triangle changes are working well.  The bottles are secure and drawing from the down tube cage is notably easier now.  Holstering the bottle is not quite as quick, but I'm sure that will resolve itself with another ride or two.

The behind the seat bottle cage was a near disaster.  Today was the first time I've ridden with a filled bottle in place.  It was a good idea to keep it small with a 550ml or so bottle.  I checked things a few times during the ride and it seemed fine, maybe a bit flexy, but not loose.

But close to my turn around point, I checked and uh oh, the whole thing is flopping around.  I pulled over to look at what's going on and saw that one of the two bolts clamping it to the seat rails was gone.  The remaining one was literally hanging by a thread--I turned it a little and the assembly came apart, leaving the threaded steel plate on the saddle rails while I held the bottle, cage and mount in my hand.  If it had fallen while moving, the cage, etc. could easily have jammed in my rear wheel.

Looks like I needed to use thread locker to keep this thing together.  If I decide to reuse it, I'll likely go with locking nuts on the other side of the plate rather than relying on the minimal threading available in that thin plate.  I'm more likely to add a third bottle cage to the front side of the down tube, if there is room.  I might use something like the SKS Anywhere bottle mount.

Tested, improved further

I've taken a number of longer rides and it is working out pretty well, although drawing the bottle is taking more conscious effort than I would like with the Zefal Wiiz bottle cage, so I've changed a few things:

1. re-deployed my bottle cage lowering bracket (basically an aluminum plate with three holes drilled 64mm apart, 3 standard M5-.80 bottle cage bolts and one M5-.80 locking nut) from another bike that I no longer need a seat tube bottle cage for
2. replaced the Origin8 Articul-8er adjustable/side entry cage on the seat tube with a Planet Bike stainless steel cage mounted in the normal orientation
3. replaced the Zefal Wiiz side entry cage with an oldie (and long discontinued) but a goodie, the Catamount Catcage that can be mounted front, left and right oriented

Lowering the seat tube cage gives me a little more room to move the frame bag backwards, giving freer access to the down tube bottle, plus lets me use a normal, front-facing bottle cage on the seat tube.

Using a regular bottle cage is more secure, which I found out is important because with my first use of ice in my water bottles, the obviously air tight Elite Maxi Cincio bottle deforms as the ice melts and the water volume inside shrinks.  That allowed the bottle to slip out of the cage a little and actually rub my chain while riding.  I found that out when I noticed some damage on the bottom of the bottle--not enough to cause a leak, luckily.  Maybe that also explains why I was feeling kind of weak on my ride yesterday--chain rubbing on the water bottle! :-)

Using the low profile Catamount Catcage puts the bottle just that little bit closer to the down tube and away from the frame bag, plus it naturally makes the top of the bottle angle slightly to the side, which makes drawing the bottle easier.

I haven't test ridden it in this configuration yet, but I have high hopes that this is it, the final setup.  Fingers crossed!

One final note and mini-rant:  bike companies, frame designers, etc. need to stop putting bottle mounts so high up on medium to smaller frames.  I understand that some people might not want the seat tube cage mounts as low as possible.  Not everybody wants to use really large bottles and some people like to use seat tube bottles as their primary bottle (how crazy is that!?), needing easy reach and clearance for the front derailleur clamping band is important, but the right answer is something I'm seeing on some new frames recently--have three bottle cage bosses on the seat tube so the end user can choose where to put their cage.  A couple of Presta valve nuts also work perfectly as spacers to provide clearance for the derailleur clamp if needed.

Before and After Storage and Hydration Improvement

Here's what the on-bike storage and water bottle setup looked like with the Novara seat wedge (modified by adding a Twofish Bikeblock pump mount to push it further back from the seat post to enhance leg clearance while pedaling) and SKS Tool Wrap:

To recap why I was looking to make a change, the tool roll under the top tube made it inconvenient to access tools held within, and I wanted to carry more than 1.7 liters of water while keeping the Nalgene OTG bottle (the red bottle on the down tube) as my primary bottle and without resorting to a hydration bladder.

Here is how things look with the seat wedge and tool roll consolidated into the Banjo Brothers medium sized frame pack:

The frame bag is installed backwards because it fit better on my frame that way. With this setup, the water bottles are a bit hard to access, so I moved the down tube cage, the Origin8 Articul-8er, which is adjustable to be side or front entry, to the seat tube because it fits as close to the frame as possible, increasing room for the bag slightly.  I may end up using a vertical adjustment gizmo to lower the seat tube bottle as low as possible for even more room for the bag.

In its place on the down tube, I put the Zefal Wiiz side entry cage.  It is working OK, but has a a couple of problems.  Firstly, it stands off the frame quite a bit, which eats into bag room.  Secondly, it doesn't hold very tightly so lost bottles is a possibility, though with the frame bag in the way, that's quite unlikely.  But it does have the advantage of being very easy to draw and holster the bottle.

I forgot to take a photo of this current configuration, but it doesn't look substantively different.

The final changes were adding the behind the seat bottle cage in place of the Novara seat wedge to hold one additional bottle.  In the photo, it is holding the one liter Elite Maxi Cincio.  I was rightly concerned that such a large bottle could be problematic while swinging a leg over the saddle, but I can probably deal with it as long as I remember when the bottle is there, or stick to smaller bottles.

I used to have a Cygolite Hotshot Pro 80 tail light on the seat wedge's rear light loop and a Portland Design Works Radbot 1000 tail light on the left seat stay, but with the seat wedge gone, I rearranged the tail lights a little.

I put the Hotshot on the left seat stay and put the Radbot on the seat post, just below the bottle cage.  One pleasant surprise was that when using a clear water bottle, e.g. the Maxi Cincio, the tail light makes the whole water bottle glow red.  I don't know how that affects visibility with a larger, but dimmer/diffuse light, but it's certainly an interesting look.  With no third bottle in place, the seat post tail light is mostly unobstructed.

Once I trim off the excess velcro, the bike should be ready to go on a test ride.  I'd like to keep the velcro intact so that I might have the option of returning the bag for a somewhat smaller one, but I'm probably going to keep it since return shipping would be prohibitive and the smaller bags might not be able to hold everything I would want anyway.

Hopefully I can post a "final" photo of the setup along with a ride report soon.

Enough to Drink, Access to Tools and Stuff

Two things became evident in the Summer of 2016 when I was riding my road bike a lot in triple digit temperatures (Fahrenheit) and experiencing more than my expected frequency of mechanical problems out on the road:

1. 1.7 liters of water isn't enough for 3+ hour rides when it's really hot
2. it's much better to have easy access to tools than not-so-easy access to tools

My primary road bike has the usual two water bottle cages on it, a large-ish seat wedge for a spare tube, wallet, keys, and food, and finally a well-stocked, top tube mounted tool roll.

Enough to Drink?

My favorite bottle to drink from while riding is the Nalgene On-the-Go (aka OTG) which holds 700ml or 24 fl.oz.  I like it because of the secure, closed loop to hold it (no slipping out of your sweaty hands), easy open cap (squeeze the sides, then rotate open rather than trying to flip it open with your thumb--the latter may seem to be the obvious way, but it doesn't work well), good outflow of water with no squeezing needed and finally a modicum of protection of the drinking spout from gunk kicked up by the tires.

For longer rides, I refill that with the Elite Maxi Cincio, which holds 1000ml or 34 fl.oz.

On really super hot days, I may use an insulated Camelback Podium Big Chill, which holds 750ml or 25 fl.oz. as my primary bottle, and either a semi-frozen Maxi Cincio or, on shorter rides, a second Big Chill with ice water, as my reserve tank.

If you look around for the On the Go bottle, you may actually find the newer, On the Fly (aka OTF) bottle, also by Nalgene.  It is the same container, but with a different lid that, while better for tossing into your backpack or gym bag without worrying about leakage, makes for a poor cycling bottle.  This newer design does indeed solve a real problem with the OTG, i.e. the older cap design is not "leakproof" and is liable to open on its own if jostled.  But the other problems the OTF purports to solve are actually non-problems if you know how to use it properly, and the OTF's solutions make it less usable on the bike.

OK, enough ranting about the OTG vs the OTF lids.  What am I getting at?  I sometimes need more than the ~1.7 liters of water I can carry with two bottles.  Sure, I could carry 2.0 liters if I used two Maxi Cincio bottles, but these bottles are huge and a little awkward to take a swig from while riding.  They make for great reserve tanks though.

The other common alternative is to use a hydration bladder, the stuff that Camelbak made their name with.  Been there, done that, no thanks.  I don't want to carry even more weight on my body and hydration bladders are annoying to clean (not that bottles are a joy either).

How about a soft flask, like the Hydrapak Ultra Flask or Camelbak Quick Stow Flask?  Those were my first thoughts--they could fit in a jersey pocket with less discomfort than a hydration pack/bladder would impose, or could even be stowed in an on-bike bag while imposing a cleaning chore comparable to that of a normal bottle.  Cool, except I don't own either of those.

What I do already own after keeping an eye out on closeout bargains over the years is a triathlon-type bottle cage mount that goes behind the saddle, specifically a Tacx Behind the Saddle bottle cage adapter for bottle cages.  I have been leery of those types of things due to the setups I see so often out there, with folks carrying large bottles that protrude above the plane of the saddle.  I suppose it's more aerodynamically efficient, but I think that I'll try out this type of thing using a lower mounting height and angle, and smaller bottles that do not sit up high.  That would give me an extra liter or so of water carrying capacity that I can put on or take off the bike without too much fuss.  I'll see how that goes this Summer--2.7 liters of water should last me a good long ride without having to stop at service stations.

But wait--how do I use a saddle-mounted bottle cage system if I also have a large seat wedge taking up that space?

Better Access to Tools and Stuff

Here's where some accessory acquisition comes into play to improve an existing bike.

Over the years, I have searched far and wide for the perfect saddle bag.  After trying many variations, the closest thing I've found to perfection is a long-discontinued Novara (REI house brand) expanding seat wedge.   It is narrow so my thighs didn't hit it while pedaling, and it is deep enough to hold a good bit of stuff that I need.  But it wasn't quite big enough to hold the growing list of tools that I want to carry on my rides.  So I added the SKS Tool Wrap, an adequate tool roll that hangs underneath the top tube.  It holds a micropump, multi-tool, spoke wrench, patch kit, tire levers, a few small spare parts and organizes them well enough, but with one big problem--the mounting system.  It is basically two straps cinched by pairs of D-loops, plus velcro on the edge of the roll.

While I do hate velcro most of the time, that's not the problem here--the problem is that I have to totally undo the cinched straps and remove the tool roll from the bike to access the contents.  So basically I have to put it on the ground while using any tools, which is a potentially messy pain.

I like efficiency, killing two birds with one stone, getting fun, exercise and transportation all-in-one (aka cycling!).  So how about something that can do the job of that near perfect seat wedge and the innocuous to carry, but cumbersome to access tool roll that allows me to continue to access my existing water bottles, plus allow the option to add more water bottles?

The answer:  a frame bag that is small enough to fit my sloping top tube road bikes without interfering with water bottle access (side access bottle cages are OK with me, if needed), yet large enough to hold the stuff I currently have spread out between the seat wedge and the tool roll, all the while having improved access to all the contents without having to uninstall anything.

Here it is, the Banjo Brothers medium sized frame pack.  There are so many similar frame bags out there, but this seems to be just the right size and shape to hold all the stuff I need to carry, in the space available to install it on my bike, with far improved access through the full length zippered openings while staying on the bike.

Photos and results to follow...

Acquire or Improve?

I was hoping to revive my old cycling blog with a posting about some changes I'm about to make to my Lynskey Cooper road bike, but I've apparently lost the administrative credentials that I had used to create that blog so long ago.

Sadly, there is no credentials recovery mechanism that I can find, but that failure to re-launch serendipitously provided the inspiration for this new blog covering a broader range of topics within the framework of acquiring vs improving.  I'll most likely start with bicycle stuff since that was my impetus to restart blogging, then add posts in other areas.

In cycling, there's a classic riddle:

What is the right number of bicycles to have?

The answer is, of course, the first part of this blog's name, "N+1" where N is the number of bicycles you currently have.  I'm sure other hobbies, activities and interests have a similar ethos of acquisition where "N+1" would be recognizable.

The "x.improve()" is just a way to denote improving something in computer-ese.