Dutch Double

   I don’t have anything too exciting to report on my projects, as I have been doing a bunch of repair/tune-up jobs lately and wanted to clear those out of the way before I take on the more complex work. I did tinker with the Pinarello Veneto frame, as it appears it will require a similar process as the Vuelta bicycle I worked on last fall. I put a bit of MicroSol (a decal softening solution used by modelers) on the deteriorating logos and used a dull X-Acto knife to pick off the remaining pieces. The method works well, but it is time-consuming work.

   This morning I headed out again into Pennsylvania Dutch country to ride on the Lebanon Valley and Conewago Trails. I had the opportunity to ride here a few years ago when I purchased a Motobécane bicycle from someone who lived in the area. Unfortunately the weatherman screwed up his prediction, and a rainstorm rolled in before I even reached the trailhead.

   The two trails primarily follow the route of the Cornwall and Lebanon Railroad (C&L), not to be confused with the rival Cornwall Railroad, which ran parallel much of the way to its namesake town. The Cornwall, originally the North Lebanon Railroad, had a head start in 1850, taking advantage of a connection with the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad to move iron ore from deposits around Cornwall. Robert Coleman, who had received $1.2 million on his twenty-first birthday from the local Cornwall Furnace, built the C&L and had trains running by 1883.

   The big moneymaker for both roads was iron ore, the C&L hauling its freight to a connection with the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) near Elizabethtown. The ore was sent from there to mills in Steelton, just south of Harrisburg. C&L company stock was eventually acquired in 1913 by the PRR. Both the C&L and Cornwall roads prospered well into the 60s, but the mines were beginning to peter out when Hurricane Agnes flooded the mine shafts and devastated the C&L right-of-way in 1972. Not enough revenue remained to justify reopening the line.

   The Cornwall Railroad (a Reading Railroad acquisition in 1962), remained in business for one more year as Bethlehem Steel continued to send shipments of foreign ore to iron concentrator plants in the area. A truncated section served an Alcoa plant, a feed mill and the Lebanon Daily News, until Conrail abandoned the line around 1996. Below are photos of the PRR and Reading stations in Lebanon.

   I’m also mentioning the Cornwall Railroad because the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy had some misinformation about the trails being on the C&L route, as there is a small section of the trail through downtown Lebanon that is actually where the Cornwall Railroad tracks had lain.

   I discovered this when I was riding, as I spied an old Cornwall Railroad structure (photo below), which I thought was a station, still standing not far from the old connection with the Reading Railroad. After doing some research at home, I found that the building was actually the company’s general offices, as the passenger station, demolished in 1974, was across the tracks.

   George Costanza of Seinfeld fame expressed a wish to be a “buff” on some subject, and even though my family members (who call me the “Font of Useless/Senseless Information”) think I qualify on several different subjects, I think that I am only on the hook for two - railroad and cycling buff. However, I know that there are plenty of folks on far more of an expert level in both categories!

   I imagine that my pursuit of railroad information caused two other cyclists some confusion, as I had passed them and then turned off of the trail to a parallel street in order to view the former Cornwall Station (photo below), which now functions as a borough office and police department. Because the trail starts to climb abruptly at this point, to a 130 foot steel truss bridge (second photo below) that used to allow the Cornwall Railroad to pass under the C&L, there was no trail access further down the road. I had doubled back to rejoin the trail and I eventually passed the same cyclists again – I can only wonder what was going through their minds!

   A former riding partner of mine would be thrilled to hear me admit that this trail is definitely not flat, as it climbs nearly 400 feet up to Mt. Gretna. Keep in mind that this was a railroad, so it does so in over six miles! It is a bit of a grind going at the speed in which I usually like to ride, but the grade certainly isn’t something the casual cyclist couldn’t handle. And the ride back down the other side is tons of fun! Yes, I had to eventually turn around and do it in reverse, but of course the trip ends with the downhill back to Lebanon.

   The riding condition of the Lebanon Valley segment was wonderful, as it was a hard-packed dark cinder - none of those patches of thick stone that regularly appear on rail trails and cause your front wheel to “ski” out of control. There were a few rockier sections, perhaps where small washouts had occurred and then had been repaired with coarser stone. Overall I knew how spoiled I was with this surface, as I had little of the palm/wrist fatigue that is a consistent result of bouncing around the rough Perkiomen Trail.

   Much of the extra-wide Lebanon Valley Trail has a separate parallel path for horses, keeping the huge animals safely in the clear, as well as minimizing the damage their hooves can do to the riding surface! I can imagine the width of the trail is due to the railroad having been double-tracked, considering the heavy ore trains that would have been pulled up Mt. Gretna and the need to allow trains to pass downhill in the other direction. By comparison, the Perkiomen Trail was a flatter, single-track Reading Railroad branch with occasional passing sidings. It is a relatively narrow path with not much room to spare, and as a result, some of the nicer, crushed gravel sections have been eventually wrecked with divots created by horses.

   The Conewago Trail may not be as regularly maintained as the Lebanon Valley, but that isn’t always a bad thing, as well-worn tracks are always more comfortable to ride upon! The base for this trail was well designed with a thick clay layer with crushed stone much lighter in appearance than that of the Lebanon Valley’s surface – kind of looked like Strade Bianche, ha!

   Much of both trails are under a thick canopy of deciduous trees (photo above) that created a tunnel-like effect. I almost felt foolish to have slathered on the sunscreen, as I was actually out in the sun very little. I can imagine this shady ride is a great alternative on really hot summer days!

   Another summer attraction to the trail is the Root Beer Barrel, which once again opens to provide snacks and cool drinks to riders. The quirky structure used to stand out on Route 72 near Mt. Gretna, but business flagged and the barrel fell into disrepair. A local boy renovated it as an Eagle Scout project and a lawyer nearby made a donation to have it moved to a protected location along the Lebanon Valley Trail.

Click HERE to see an old feature on the Root Beer Barrel.

   I was a bit surprised that there were no water stops along the 40 miles of the two connection trails, but I found out from a local bike shop owner (who kindly shared a cool bottled water with me) that the reason is very poor water quality in the area. Sounds like a frosty root beer would be a good buy!

 

    

Big Time Busy with Bikes

   I really had no intention of purchasing so many frames/bikes at once, it’s just that the great bargains presented to me were too hard to pass up. Then I received some calls from my “regulars”, and my shop started filling up!

   I was intrigued with trying to replicate a cromovelato paint job, but I was thinking yellow instead of the copper color of the Wilier and Faggin bicycles I’d seen. One could refer to this bicycle with the fun-to-say name “Gioiello Giallo” (yellow jewel). I was looking for a vintage frame with poor paint that I could work on slowly over the summer, since I was down to only two bicycles in stock and had cleared out all other projects.

   I found a late 1970s Fausto Coppi bicycle that fit my needs, as the paint was well worn and really not that attractive of a color anyway. I envision updating the parts a bit as well, perhaps putting to use that cool set of Rigida wheels I picked up a few weeks ago. The complete Coppi bicycle went for a very low price, even when including the shipping price from Italy. I’ve already picked up a set of decals to apply when the stripping and painting is complete.

   During my search I also saw a nice Pinarello Veneto frameset going for a low price and kept a watch on that as an alternative, if bids on the Coppi went out of my budget. No one bid on the Pinarello, so I figured that I could snap it up and set it aside for a future build.

   The photos I had seen really made the frame look shabby, but it arrived in surprisingly good shape. I think the paint might just need some automotive rubbing compound to brighten up some areas that have discolored/aged. It will definitely need a new set of decals – of course...it’s a Pinarello!

   Yes, one more surprise surfaced – an early ‘90s Pinarello “Spring” mountain bike. Although the bike has no suspension, I presume the name refers to the coil-type spring and not the season, as I would hope the company would have properly called it La Primavera instead! Again, no one was bidding, and I figured, “Who is going to ever see a Pinarello mountain bike around here on the trails? Why not give it shot?” The small amount of money I had to pay (again, including the shipping from Italy) made it a no-brainer!

   The bike was in good condition overall, but was absolutely filthy! The rims looked as though someone had ridden through the Carrara quarries and let the dust just cake on the rims. I had to soak the rims in four inch segments with a degreaser for 15 minutes and then scrub clean with an old toothbrush. I was rotating, spraying, waiting, brushing and wiping for a couple hours, but came up with fantastic results.

   I have to say that it has amazingly good decals (except on the seatpost) for a Pinarello. The hot pink to dark purple fade paint job had been done over a white coating of primer and looked pretty rough in some areas because of the sharp contrast in colors. The fade effect was going to make touch-up painting impossible, but It was amazing how the bicycle’s looks were transformed with a dab of pink or purple Sharpie marker here and there!

   I found a nice country setting for some pics:

   Other work was coming in steadily as my friend Chris picked up his finished Lemond Alpe d’Huez and exchanged his other bike, a 2010 Jamis Eclipse with a cool retro paint job, for a complete overhaul. My neighbor then sent me some business, as a friend of his had received an old 3-speed cruiser that needed an inspection/tune-up.

   Finally (whew!) I received a call from the man who had purchased the Colnago Nuovo Mexico I had completed in the spring of 2014. Also big fan of Sean Kelly, Brendan had bought a Vitus bicycle and wanted to create his version of the KAS team bicycle the Irish legend had ridden to so many victories. It was such a shame Brendan had missed out on the purchase of my previous Vitus build, since I had used almost exclusively Mavic components, as Kelly certainly would have had on his racing machine – and the parts I used had been in pristine condition!

   Brendan was realistic and knew finding these parts in such condition was going to very difficult and costly, so he had decided to settle (if you could call it that) on Campagnolo Super Record gruppo. He had collected a good portion of the required parts already and stopped over one evening to discuss the project.

   We had an enjoyable time discussing “King Kelly”, and Brendan explained his thoughts on the build. I shared some of my experiences with the Vitus bike and mentioned some issues I knew might come up, such as misalignment of the rear drop-outs, and possible solutions.

   Brendan also dropped off his gorgeous red De Rosa bicycle (my first contact with one), which was equipped with Campagnolo’s legendary delta brakes - some might say “infamous” would be a better word to describe the parts, as they were aesthetically beautiful but were somewhat over-engineered, proved difficult to service and had rather average stopping power. Anyway, he had some downtube shift levers he wanted to swap with the Vitus and a couple other tune-up issues he wanted me to take care of.

   A few days later, when he came to pick up the De Rosa and drop off a just-purchased wheelset for the Vitus, I surprised him a bit with the progress I had made with the decals:

   As you can see, I’ve been quite busy, and will be for quite some time!  All good news.

All Over the Place (with topics)

   My recovery is going fairly well, as the maxillofacial surgeon who repaired my lip told me the gum looks healthy and pink with no pooling of blood. He is confident the nerves will regenerate, but I’m pretty frustrated with the effort it takes to chew and do something simple such as smile! The skin from my chin to my lips is still somewhat numb, plus the muscles are tight and don’t respond normally.

   There are moments of extreme pain, when it seems as though the nerves are trying to recall where they belong, but can only come up with what damaged them in the first place – and then they decide to remind me exactly how that felt! Of course the wonderful (sarcasm) thing about extreme mouth pain is that it radiates through your teeth and jaw. I am sucking it up, but man, am I starting to understand folks who are addicted to pain killers.

   I did manage to get myself back in the saddle, though. I was antsy and really needed to get out, but there was way too much thinking about what I was doing, and I’m pretty sure I noticed every single unguarded and/or unmarked roadside ditch along the way!

   I rather suddenly have a whole bunch of projects in-the-works, so I didn’t have a lot of opportunity to take photos to accompany a summary of that activity. I’ll postpone that article for next time, but I had several thoughts recently that I wanted to share. There is no real connecting theme, except that they are mostly random.

   During my senior year of high school, shortly after Greg Lemond won his first Tour de France, I started reading Winning Bicycle Racing Illustrated. And when I say “read”, I mean everything in the publication, the articles (of course) and the advertisements, trying to learn as much as possible about the riders, their machines and all the various parts available to put together a dream bicycle. Unfortunately the magazine had a rather short run - its last issue was published in August 1990. I had gotten into the habit of saving the front covers as a mental index of what was going on month-to-month in the cycling world, but I ended up having a great memento of my formative years as a cyclist and pro racing fan.

   Winning occasionally provided a full two-page image (I’m not going to call it a centerfold) of a current cycling star in the middle of the magazine. I saved these over the years, and many adorn the walls in my third floor space (I’m also not going to use the pathetic “man cave” label). There was very dated wallpaper that I didn’t want to bother to remove, so I made my own wallpaper from all of the magazine covers I saved.

   Some of those which are opposite windows are fading pretty badly from sunlight – maybe I’ll start replacing a few with covers from Cycle Sport Magazine. It’ll be sad to see some of the old favorites come down, though.

   When reading Bicycling Magazine these days I’m more selective, and find myself skipping through to items that interest me. I don’t generally read about mountain bikes, because they just aren’t my focus. With the ability to build a bicycle up from a bare frame, I also don’t pay as much attention to the ads, although I do get sucked in by the “bling factor” occasionally. I tend to skip over the training articles, too – I’m not going for the Olympics, and I’ve been at this long enough to know what works for me. I also know how hard I can (or want) to push it, and I’ve learned the importance of recovery.

    Don’t you love it when right away, shortly after sitting on the saddle, you know right away that it is going to be a good ride. It doesn’t have to be great weather, but it sure helps, as does taking on some favorite route. You don’t just pull out of the driveway and ride away – you jump on the pedals and sprint away for a few seconds, holding that pace for a little while without feeling any weariness.

   Sure, most days it takes a bit of time to warm up or you’re shaking out a little fatigue left over from a really long hard ride last time out. But those times when you are fresh and really want to “hammer it” are magic! (I had one of those moments Monday evening.)

  

   I don’t dig disk brakes. I certainly understand their usefulness in certain situations, but my biggest objection is that we are trying to make a relatively simple machine too complicated. The last thing I want to become is an auto mechanic, so why would I want bicycles to become more like a car.

   Unfortunate, and gruesome, injuries (I won’t share them here, but if you are a bit twisted, images can be found online) inflicted on Movistar’s Fran Ventoso, which were a result of contact with a sharp brake rotor in a crash during this year’s Paris-Roubaix, emphasized the dangers of having the brakes in professional cycling. This isn’t the way I would have chosen to have them banned from cycling, but I’ll take it. Manufacturers generally follow the lead of the pros – what they will use is what will be made/sold, and the inverse is certainly true!

   I’ve often said that the best part of this bicycle business is the wonderful people I meet, and sometimes the relationships I form actually pay off financially. Not only have some of my customers made recommendations and bring in more clients, but sometimes they give me leads for bicycles and parts. I recently met a guy named Bill who used to be a masters level racer in the area.

   Bill actually had sponsors and had equipment and bikes supplied to him, and over the years accumulated quite a collection of leftover “stuff”. He isn’t into eBay or craigslist and the whole “reselling game”, as he called it, so he contacted me one afternoon and asked if I’d like to visit. He had a pile of old wheels that he was otherwise going to take to recycling and wondered if I might like to pick through.

   He didn’t ask for it, but I absolutely had to give him some type of payment, because he was going to just let me walk away with nine wheels, including a fantastic Rigida set (photo above) that reminded me of those Gipiemme wheels I used for the Pantani build. There were also a handful of wheels laced around Dura-Ace and Campagnolo Record hubs, plus a couple wheels with top-quality Mavic Open Pro rims.

   There was a pair of vintage Mavic MA40 wheels that I was hoping to use for an upcoming project, but the rims had very bad “hops” (flat spots). I’m not a wheel-builder myself, but I did save the Campy hubs to sell. I did a quick look around my shop, gathered a bunch of parts I have no plans to use and now have a good sized collection to list on eBay.

Check in next week for projects galore!