Phil Bikes

My first randonee. I’d gotten interested in randonneuring last year after reading Joel Metz’s and Kent Peterson’s writings about their brevets. I had wanted to make the Verboort Sausage ride my first one, but I didn’t really want to ride 60 miles in the rain, even for sausage. At the time, I had been only riding my fixed gear and didn’t have a geared bike together. I had been building up a bike for this since last fall, but never quite completing it. It had taken a while to get together, after a comedy of errors of parts that wouldn’t quite fit together, or turned out to be broken. Then there’s that fear that you’ll get everything together and it won’t fit or you won’t like it, so I’d been stalling a bit too. I finally got it together (both the bike and myself) in mid-February and finished it off.

The start was at Cornelius Pass Roadhouse in Hillsboro. I rode from home up Springwater Trail to downtown Portland to catch the MAX out there. I missed the train by about a minute, but luckily being on a bike I caught up with it. On the MAX I ran into two other first time randonneurs, and we chatted in the mostly-empty car. After arriving, we biked the 3 miles to the start (I found out later that it’s closer if you get off at the next stop).

I was a bit nervous, since this would be my longest ride yet. I’d backed off my riding significantly over the winter, since the combination of cold, dark, and wet that winter brings to the Pacific Northwest is not particularly inspiring. I knew sort of what to expect, but not really. Could I make the distance? Was some of my equipment going to break? Could I repair it? Do I have the right clothing with me to be comfortable?

In the end, everything worked out fine. I finished in a hair over five hours, without rushing myself and with a nice stop for treats at Maggie’s Buns in Forest Grove. The only equipment problem I had was when my rear tire folded my SKS fender underneath itself, which I managed to unmung and continue with it on. That was a nice surprise as I started up the steep hill before Frogger Junction. The thing I didn’t expect was the feeling I got afterwards: it’s an incredible sense of confidence. I no longer had a fear of distance or hills. If there was some bizarre emergency where I needed to get to Salem in five hours, and the car wasn’t working, and no public transit was running– I could do it!

The Willamette Valley is beautiful, and reminds me a lot of the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia. I’d only driven though it a few times on the way to the Oregon Coast, but slowly cycling though really allows you see and smell and feel a lot more. In a car, you’d never smell the silage, or see the kestrel on the telephone wires, or see the red-winged blackbird flying along the marsh. Overall, a lot of fun, and looking forward to the rest of the season!

Equipment choices:

• Clothing: I wore my Portland Cyclewear long sleeve Oregon Randonneurs jersey, which was comfortable the entire time. I brought my Burley rain jacket, but never put it on in the light showers we encountered. Wool is amazing.
• Pedals/shoes: I put a set of MKS touring pedals with clips on the bike, and used a set of “modified” Adidas road shoes. The shoes are hard slick plastic on the bottom, so I put on a couple layers of duct tape to give some traction, and covered the first strap on the top so the shoes would slide into the pedals. I’m probably going to cut the strap off and glue some old tubular tires to the bottom.
• Gearing: I put a set of 70s Campy cranks on which had been modified to take a 74bcd inner chainring before Campy made a triple, geared 28(Biopace)-42-52. The 52 wasn’t really necessary (the first volume of Bicycle Quarterly has something about this) and required a triple derailleur, which caused a bit of chain rub. I’ve since removed it, but may move the 42 ring to a 46 ring as I get stronger.
• Handlebar bag: I bought a Jandd bag at a yard sale, which was just large enough to use for this. It has a clear flap on the front, which I think now is essential to good riding, since you can safely navigate and ride at the same time. For anything longer than 100km, I’d like either a full size Berthoud-style bag or a trunk bag on a rear rack (which is what I’ve since done).
• Fenders: Fenders are a must. The only riders without them were a small group of speed-demons who rode together and finished in something like three hours. We ran into a very muddy group of Portland Velo riders in Forest Grove, so I’m glad I had them, as did anyone riding behind me.