A new project is in the queue, this one is in honor of a great opening week of Tour de France racing. I recently purchased a very rare Peugeot 1100 Team Line bicycle frame.
A Peugeot catalog page supplied by the seller shows bikes equipped with the Mavic Zap system, an early, mostly unsuccessful electronic shifting set-up. Zap was released in 1992, so this frame would fit into that timeline.
The frame was built in partnership with Vitus and looks very similar to their Carbone 9 frames, produced at the end of the 1980s. These frames similarly featured carbon tubes bonded to aluminum lugs.
My plan is to use mostly French parts on this frame, primarily Sachs-Huret's "New Success" 8-speed component group, which featured the early drop-bar "Ergo" brake/shift levers, developed with cooperation from Campagnolo. Some of the New Success group, such as the brakes and crankset, were rebranded products from Modolo and Campagnolo, respectively.
My friend Mike introduced me to his riding pal, Roger, last summer, and I soon learned that they liked to climb, as they took me on a few punishing excursions into the hills along the border of Montgomery and Berks counties. They hadn't let up this spring, as they led me and my buddy Chad (who also likes a ton of ascents) on a particularly grueling route up to French Creek State Park and the surrounding area, to the tune of 40 miles and over 4000 feet of climbing!
I'm generally of the "longer route, medium amount of elevation"-type of rides, but I have to admit that their brand of torture has improved my climbing immensely. I find myself pedaling much more quickly over the short, punchy climbs that I routinely face in my neck of the woods, and I recover much better from each effort, as well.
Last weekend I decided to treat them to a route more of my preference, based on the legendary (among my crew) "Five Trails Ride" that features several area connecting paved pathways. The 52-mile loop started on the Schuylkill River Trail (SRT) into Phoenixville, then took to roads, following Pickering Creek out to Rt. 113. We then headed out to Lionville to reach the Uwchlan, Struble and Lions Trails into Downingtown. We would pedal east on Route 30 a bit, then weave our way on back roads to Exton and ride the length of the Chester Valley Trail Chester Valley Trail (CVT) to meet back up with the SRT for our return to our starting point.
The Six Trails version started similarly but cut across Phoenixville on the SRT, then followed streets out through Kimberton. We veered southwest into the village of Birchrunville to meet Horseshoe Trail Road, where the climbing really started. Roger and Mike were fairly familiar with the terrain up to this point, since they had participated in the Iron Furnace (charity) Ride a couple of weekends earlier, and it traversed many of the same country lanes.
It was hot and humid, so I tried to maintain a fairly relaxed tempo until we eventually crested at Conestoga Road. From here I took the lead, since the guys didn't know the roads too well, and circled Marsh Creek Reservoir on Fairview and Little Conestoga Roads. I was wearing down after a very long pull on the front, about five miles of undulating streets, but I knew the second half of the loop involved more of the designated trails, less turns, and I figured that I could count on the guys to take the majority of the wind while heading our mini-peloton the rest of the way.
Mike enjoyed the newly-paved Route 282, which winds mostly downhill along Brandywine Creek towards Downingtown. There had been some rain overnight, and the heavy tree cover left a few wet patches of asphalt - I was careful to keep slightly off the left of his rear wheel, so that I didn't get hit in the face by the spray coming from his tires.
The route duplicated the Five Trails loop once we hooked up with the Struble (photo above) and Lions Trails, and Roger took off like a rocket, at one time pulling us along an empty stretch of the CVT at 30 mph! We ditched the trail at King of Prussia and took residential roads, the majority of which had Revolutionary War-themed names, over to Heuser Park, where we met the Schuylkill River West Trail to head back to Valley Forge.
After crossing Sullivan's Bridge, we were back on the SRT, and Roger jumped on the front for another epic pull. However, with the majority of the 58-mile loop in our legs, Mike and I were pretty much toast! When Roger swerved over to let me come through, I could only manage a measly four or five seconds in the wind, and said, "Nope, not happening." I turned around to see that Mike had also faded and left a good gap, which gave me some relief that I wasn't the only one nearly spent.
The last three miles were taken at a very leisurely pace, but we could see some dark clouds rolling in, and it was obvious the wind had been picking up for a reason, so we didn't mess around too much. As we were wiping down and changing into some dry t-shirts for our respective drives home, we all agreed that knocking off about 10 degrees and 30% humidity would have been ideal, but still, a great time was had!
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