Try, Try Again

    Several years ago I sampled a product by Selle Italia called "SmooTape". I had described the failed experience with this bar tape as a "good idea gone bad", when I couldn't find a neat way to finish off the bars, and the puffiness of the material just didn't look right on a quality racing bicycle.
   A recent customer contacted me recently about purchasing a modern, lightweight bicycle for his wife, and we lucked out to find a 2008 Orbea Onix Dama, in fantastic condition and at a great price! The carbon fiber bike came equipped with an excellent mix of Campagnolo Record and Chorus components. Unfortunately, the existing pink Lizard Skins bar tape that complimented the bike nicely was unfortunately quite worn. Not wanting to wait a week for delivery of new tape ordered online, I visited a local shop to see what they had in stock.
   With the previous SmooTape debacle clear in my memory, I was understandably hesitant to purchase another round of frustration, but the color matched perfectly with the bike, unlike the "hot pink" shades that were the only other alternative on the store's shelves. Luckily the cutaway in the box allowed me to feel the SmooTape, and it seemed to be a thinner ribbon, which now had a synthetic leather finish. I decided that I should give it another shot.
   I am not usually a person who uses the tape tuck technique in which you force the overhang of tape into the bar end with the plug. I like to wrap the first course of tape flush with the bar end and then angle the tape in successive passes around the bar. It was clear that I would have to go with the tuck, otherwise the profile of the SmooTape was going to leave a large, 
unsightly bulb at the end of the bars.
   I had no problem with the wrapping of the bars, and I was careful to push all the edges of the overhang piece under the plug before tapping it in neatly with a rubber mallet. I was very happy with the look, and my customer was excited to pick up the wonderful bicycle the next afternoon.

   A couple days earlier, I had visited my friend Bruce and his impressive new digs at Victus Sports. He has really gone "big time" with the company, creating custom baseball bats for many Major League Baseball stars, such as Bryce Harper, Aaron Judge and Fernando Tatis, Jr. I recently saw an ESPN.com feature on my talented friend and his bat artistry, and joked with my cycling friends that "I knew him when."

   Bruce had done his usually wonderful job matching up colors, both the pearl white on the Merckx Corsa I was building for a customer and the midnight blue on my brother-in-law's Ciocc "World '77" (I'll be sharing photos of that bike in a few weeks). I also dropped off the Merckx Alu Team frame for painting while I was there, and Bruce assured me that he could match up paint for the Pogliaghi frameset that Brendan recently gave me. I have to do a little prep work on that one before he can do his magic.

   I'll say good-bye with photos of the 1989 Merckx Corsa in Domex-Weinmann team colors. I assembled the bicycle with Campagnolo Chorus gruppo and a 3T bar/stem combination.

  

There Can Be Only One

    Fans of the movie Highlander - really, everyone should be - will immediately recognize the meaning of my title, as it is a significant quote from the film, but it is an appropriate description for the unique Old Croton Aqueduct Trail. It runs above the amazing feat of engineering that once carried fresh water 41 miles from the Croton River to the heart of New York City. The trail travels through woods, over bridges, through backyards and across an historic estate.
   I was in the area to complete a bicycle transaction in the neighborhood of Astoria in Queens, and was excited to see the famous Silvercup Studios neon sign, which was destroyed in the dramatic climax of Highlander, as I crossed over the East River on the Ed Koch (Queensborough) Bridge. Regular readers known that I am somewhat fanatical about finding toll-free routes, and this bridge was no exception. The more "convenient" through route, using the RFK and Kosciuszko Bridges, would normally involved an additional $19.00, and that just wasn't going to happen!
   With traffic being relatively light on Easter Monday, I returned via the Ed Koch and drove up FDR and Harlem River Drives to meet I-95 and crossed over the George Washington Bridge to reach the start of my cycling trip in Fort Lee, NJ. That left the day's total tolls at only $16, when I used the Lincoln Tunnel to arrive in Manhattan!

   Sue and I did a route very similar to the one I rode yesterday (read about it here), though we weren't so impressed by the Old Putnam Trail in Van Cortlandt Park, so I instead rode along the very nice bike lane up Broadway, along the west side of the park to reach Yonkers. I then cut across the neighborhood of Park Hill - VERY appropriately named - to arrive at the South County Trailway.

   I've ridden this trail several times, most recently during a May 1999 trip along the full length of this former New York Central Railroad line, so I wasn't surprised by a poor section of trail south of the town of Elmsford. There were a lot of uprooted cracks, sinkholes, and some of the asphalt seemed to have been laid directly over the old railroad ties and was now suffering from many winters of upheaval!

   There was plenty of neon marking spray all over the pavement, so perhaps the trail is due for some maintenance in the near future.

   On the other side of Main Street in Elmsford, the path becomes the North County Trailway, and I followed it for about five more miles until its intersection with Route 117, near Graham Hills Park. I turned west and hooked up with Sleepy Hollow Road, riding slightly downhill for about four miles through gently rolling terrain that reminded me a lot of the Valley Forge area.

   The connection with the OCA (Old Croton Aqueduct) here is strangely hidden behind Sleepy Hollow High School. I'm not going to rehash the whole ride, because I covered it all in the previous article, but it was quite a different experience riding among the bare trees. For one, the cool stiff breeze sweeping down the Hudson gave me a good push all the way back. The lack of foliage also afforded nice river views as I pedaled south toward Yonkers.

The new Mario M. Cuomo Bridge (Tappan Zee) near Tarrytown

The Palisades across the river from Hastings-On-Hudson

   I simplified my return route from the one Sue and I followed, heading down the east side of Van Cortlandt Park on Jerome Avenue to meet the Grand Concourse. I thought it would be fitting to return to Manhattan via the High Bridge, since it was part of the Croton Aqueduct system, so I made my way to University Avenue to meet that iconic structure.

   From there it was a fairly simple linking of bike paths back to the GWB. I was somewhat shocked later to find the route contained over 3300 feet of climbing, when the (seemingly?) tough Tro-Bro Brandywine trip was only 2700!

   Back in the shop, the repair business has really picked up, but I still had the opportunity to finish up Brendan's Peugeot PY-10FC. There was a minor complication to find a broken part for his Mavic rear derailleur, but that was just a matter of patience (and stretching it a bit with one particular seller). I had to find a pair of replacement Modolo hoods, some yellow brake cable housing and Benotto cello tape to match, and it was ready to go.

   I'll close this article with photos of the bicycle: