Switching It Up

   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!