I have been browsing eBay and craigslist bicycles recently for a couple
of friends, trying to find something of quality at a reasonable price that I
can maybe upgrade for them into an exceptional ride. I am very happy with my
bicycles, and let most of the “eye candy” go by without much thought. However, something
occasionally catches my attention that will start the gears in my head going, and in
this case the bicycle was a 2005 Bianchi Axis.
My son Carrick, who is now the tallest member of our family by an inch
or two, expressed during a summer ride that his mountain bike felt small. His
full-suspension K2 Attack 1.5 (photo below) was part of a swap I made only a
couple of years ago, so although I was a bit disappointed he didn’t get more use
out of the bicycle, I could take some solace in the fact that I didn’t sink a
lot of money into it. There is not much you can do about a teen growth spurt!
I don’t do a whole lot of mountain biking anymore, and I thought just
giving him my Giant Boulder SE (photo below) would be an easy solution, but I still
use it on some of the more leisurely-paced trips with my father and on our
annual Lehigh Gorge family rides. The upright bars and wider tires provide
stability when crawling along, which is often the case during these excursions when
conversation, not fitness, is the priority.
I then came across an eBay listing for the Bianchi (photo below), which
has a frame with actual cyclocross geometry, as opposed to some of the road
bikes I’ve fit with knobby tires, allowing for tire widths approaching those on
mountain bikes. This Bianchi had also been converted to an upright bar setup (including trigger shifters instead of stinkin’ Gripshift!), which gives it a look similar
to today’s popular 29er mountain bikes.
The recent sales dominance of 29ers, mountain bikes with 29 inch wheels, has many manufacturers questioning whether they should continue producing
traditional 26 inch-wheeled MTBs at all. The larger wheels are the same
diameter as a road wheel and roll faster through increased angular momentum; the wheels will lose less speed to small obstacles and rough sections. In the past, the argument against the 29er
was lateral flex of the larger wheel and a perception that the bikes weren’t as
nimble as their smaller cousin, but today’s off-roaders don’t seem to be
bothered at all.
I thought of a couple of trips with my father, such as the recent ride
on the W&OD, when I was relaying back to a vehicle by myself and would have
appreciated a bit more speed. Considering all factors, even the idea that
eventually I might want to downsize my collection and that this bike would fit
two slots as a mountain bike-type ride and a faster trail bike, the Bianchi
seems like a perfect buy. Plus it has the mystique of the world’s oldest continuous
bicycle manufacturer!
Although the family bike collection is changing, the title of my blog
actually has more to do with me going in a bit of a different direction in the
next few months. Last winter’s projects stretched WAY past the expected
completion schedule, and I am still waiting for the right person to wheel the
“Pantani” Bianchi and the Cervélo Soloist out of my shop.
I made a decision not to start anything new until at least two bicycles
are sold. The Pinarello Treviso is still in a holding pattern while I await the
new paint job, but I guess that is what you get when you express that you
aren’t in a real hurry, and the artist has other pressing jobs on his to-do
list.
I’ve met a few people this autumn through my selling attempts, and I may
end up doing some work for them eventually, but otherwise the shop has been
fairly quiet, and that’s okay. I’ve been wanting to turn some attention to my
other hobby, model railroading, and I have been consistently setting aside a
few dollars here and there from my bicycle work.
Three years ago I dismantled a large layout (if interested, you can view
pictures here) on the third floor of our house, partly because my sons had
abandoned me for other interests, which made the solo maintenance of the layout
a bit of a burden. However, I also wanted to devote some of the space to my
indoor trainer with the capability to leave it set up for the winter.
I saved a couple of the structures that I had spent extra time building,
as well as a few locomotives and freight cars, so I won’t exactly be starting
from scratch. This layout will be more of the table-top variety though, and I’m
building it in four sections that will be lug bolted together, so that it can
be disassembled and transported, if needed. Over the past week, I’ve completed
framing the sections (photo below) and attaching the plywood top.
My previous layout could handle a couple of running trains at once, but it required electrical blocks of track that had to be isolated
for the use of two separate power packs. In this
situation, an operator was pretty much glued to the spot where a power pack
was mounted on the layout in order to move his train. The new layout will have
digital command control (DCC), which involves a circuit board decoder mounted
in each locomotive, which takes the power from the track and converts it to an
individualized signal and allows the running of multiple trains, even on the
same section of track.
Operators will be able to move around the layout with hand-held
throttles, which are tethered, but can also be unplugged and moved to a
connection elsewhere on the layout. An added bonus to DCC operation is
sound-equipped locomotives which simulate the engine rumble, bell, horn, etc.
that you would hear along the railroad tracks.
Above is a plan of the layout made on a program called AnyRail. My focus
will be the Lehigh Valley Railroad around 1974, before the federal government
got involved to save the collapsing railroad scene in the Northeast. On one
side it will feature the station complex in Bethlehem, PA (my hometown) and on
the other, an interchange with the Baltimore and Ohio (Chessie System) at a
place called Pittsburgh & Lehigh Junction, just west of the Finger Lakes in
New York. The tracks leading off the upper left edge are for an optional fold-up railroad
yard.
There will be a center divider (the dashed line) with a scenic backdrop
on each side in order to separate the geographical locations, and a track will
pass through the center to simulate cars going into an industry on one side and
a finished product coming out of a separate facility on the other. I don’t plan
to provide layout updates here, since it obviously isn’t the intended
subject matter for this blog, but if you would like some photos as I progress,
just send me a note.
Otherwise, I will be taking a few
weeks off from writing the blog – unless the Treviso magically shows up at my
door, all ready for me to start assembly. Happy Holidays!
