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Edit July 2014: Please also read part three of my review. A couple of months ago, I posted my first impressions of the Velo Orange Model 1 and Model 3 saddles. In the meantime, I have ridden the Model 1 for over 2500 km now on rides ranging from my 5km commute to 10 hour, 160 km days on a tour from Montreal to Toronto. The Model 3 hasn't seen that kind of mileage yet and therefore I will only give an extensive perspective on the Model 1 for now. Break-in period ...

After really enjoying my 200km brevet with the CVRM in early June and finishing with lots of time to spare I decided to give the 300 a try last Saturday. My main goal was to finish and since it was Nicole’s birthday the next day the secondary goal was to get home before midnight. At the start I got up at 4:35, slurped down my oatmeal, and left the house at 5:15, well in time for the 6 o'clock start. With 9 riders (one more would catch up with us later) we got going right on time, heading for Chambly. I started out riding with Clement and one rider whose name I forgot but soon decided to catch up with the riders slightly ahead of us, Serge and Raymond. This turned out to be a good decision and I would stay with them for quite some time. The first controle was a gas station in Saint-Césaire after about 55km, and during our quick stop the whole group regrouped again. Route Verte near Granby We continued east towards Granby where Raymond (who Serge described to me as "the human GPS") took us on a detour on the Route Verte 1. This was slightly longer but much more scenic and quiet than the original route. Ten kilometers past Granby we changed our general direction, now heading south. This should be the beginning of the hilly part of our ride which continued for the next 100km. Initially, I was doing fine on the rollling hills, yet our pace was fast and the closer we got to the second controle in Lac Brome the more tired I felt. Second controle in Lac Brome Awesome scenery Rest, V8, a coke, and two Clif Bars got me back into shape, however, and we continued. The dark clouds and showers that we had observed all throughout the ride now finally reached us, and for about 20 km we rode through heavy rain. Since it was still very warm and I was wearing my wool jersey I didn't bother putting on any extra clothes. Riding in the rain without fenders is something I haven't done in years but I wasn't as bad as expected, and eventually the sun came out again. In a little village near the Vermont border (Mansonville?) we stopped at a gas station for a final refuel before the big climb of the ride. Jean and Olivier passed us there while Martin decided to stop, too, and continue with us. The route was still very scenic, following a river between the sizable hills of the Eastern Townships. After about 160 km it was then time to leave the valley and tackle the climb on Scenic Drive. The climb, while being the biggest on the ride, is not all that bad with less than 200m of elevation change and a doable gradient. Nonetheless, I quickly fell behind Serge and Raymond, and Martin also slowly disappeared ahead. On top of the hill I took a quick stop to get out my camera and then it was all downhill. Martin fortunately waited at the next intersection which I otherwise probably would have missed. The descent was smooth, steep, and awesome, and I got up to over 70 km/h. For the following ten kilometers to the third controle I decided to take it easy, enjoy the scenery and take some pictures. I made it up Scenic Drive Getting ready for the downhill on Scenic Drive Woo-Hoo Controle in Sutton. Yes, that big bottle of V8 is mine The picturesque town of Sutton was buzzing with St. Jean-Baptiste/Canada Day celebrations. The controle was at a supermarket on the outskirts of town, and the rest was very welcome. I devoured a bunch of crackers, a liter of V8, and a cup of coffee. Freshly nourished our group of 6 riders got going again, now headed north and into the wind. Serge had stop after about 5km for what I think was a mechanical, and Raymond and Olivier stopped with him while Martin, Jean, and me continued on. For the next 50 km I should learn why Jean is nicknamed "La Machine": despite the headwind he pretty much pulled me and Martin along all the way at a very good clip. I felt somewhat bad for not being able to contribute much but I was in no shape charge ahead. At km 225 we had another stop at a little dep with the now usual crackers, coke, V8. Somewhere between there and Farnham Olivier and Raymond caught back up to us and for the rest of ride we'd stay together. Quick stop in Stanbridge East Quiet country roads Unplanned stop at a railway crossing Tired legs at the second-to-last controle Getting ready for the last leg of the ride The second-to-last controle was again in Saint-Cesaire and from there we took the direct route back to Montreal on the Route 112. This is a busy four-lane highway but it has a wide paved shoulder and we made good time. The wind had mostly died down and I felt very good, allowing me to do some work for the others. We had a quick stop to fix a flat on Martin's bike but other than that the final stretch to Saint Lambert was uneventful. Following Raymond's suggestion we followed a different route into town which had much less traffic but unfortunately many more bumps. Through the suburbs Yay, 300km Into the sunset After 14 hours and 26 minutes with a moving average of 27.5 km/h we arrived at the final controle. I still had some way to go, and at the end of the day I had clocked in 335 km. During the ride, Jean and others kept suggesting that now I should do the 400 -- and I must say that probably I would have been able to do another 65km. Unfortunately, the CVRM's last 400k of the season is this coming weekend and I'll be in Europe. Oh well. I'll definitely be back for the remaining 300 and 200 km brevets in July, August, and September. Cartier Bridge on the way home from the ride's start/finish A big merci goes to all the riders who rode with me last Saturday, and especially to our great president Jean, for their advice, encouragement, stories, and paceline work. Without them I probably still would have made it but it would have taken much longer and been much less enjoyable.

After the tough but successful 147km Populaire in late April, I was determined to do at least one 200km brevet this season. I missed the first opportunity in May but last weekend there was another one scheduled. Great summer morning riding Rolling hills  As per usual, I didn't get much sleep the night before and at 4:47--13 minutes before my alarm was going to go off--I got out of bed. Despite my attempts to prepare as much as possible the night before, my slow morning self still had to do a couple of things and I only got going at around ten past 6. My ride to the start leads across Île-Sainte-Helene and I was lucky to still get through, as there were already barricades and plenty of security people in preparation for the Formula One Grand Prix weekend. Rando-panda cockpit shot After the obligatory group picture, we got going a few minutes after 7. Overall there were, I believe, 9 or 10 riders and I started out with the lead group of 4 others. As I tend to stop at traffic lights and only ride through stop signs carefully, I fell behind the group a couple of times but always caught back up when they got stuck at a traffic light. Like on the populaire, the route led south but on a slightly different route due to construction. By the time we had gotten out of the suburbs, one of the four riders had gotten ahead and quickly disappeared in the distance. The speed of the other three was just a bit too high for my taste and I stayed a bit behind all the way to the first control at a gas station in St. Cyprien, after 41km. From there to the second control I stayed with the three others. One of several vineyards and cider mills on Covey Hill Rd Covey Hill in the distance The route took us pretty much straight south towards the US border, parallel to the A15. The weather was lovely, the roads were scenic and quiet, and I was very much enjoying myself. At the "last exit before the border" we then turned west towards Covey Hill which I had just climbed a three weeks ago. Before getting on the actual Covey Hill Rd, there was a horrible but fortunately short stretch of very rough gravel road. After that the initially gentle and rolling climb to Covey Hill began. Me and one other rider of the group had an easier time with the climbing and after a while we each went off on our own before regrouping at the top of the hill. The last bit of Covey Hill felt pretty mean again, but I arrived on top first. The rest of my group arrived after a few minutes, almost at the same time as those riders who so far had been behind us. From here to the second controle it was all downhill which, despite the poor road conditions, was very enjoyable. Gunnar on top of Covey Hill View down Covey Hill's western flank Controle 2 was a nice change to the usual gas station/depanneur stops: Saint-Antoine-Abbé is a tiny village but it features a lovely bakery, Boulangerie Chartrand. Of course, they didn't have anything vegan but that was alright. I refueled with an espresso, a can of V8, and a homemade lemonade. With a group of nine riders arriving and the usual customer traffic the rest stop took fairly long but the folks I had been riding with previously were also eager to get on the road again. Their pastries looked awesome The next part of the ride would lead us back east, and the roads we were riding were awesome. The espresso (my first caffeine of the day) worked wonders and at some point I decided to ride ahead at my own speed. After a while, another rider from my previous group caught up with me and we rode together until the next rest stop. For most of the time we shared the work and were going at a very good clip. Only for the last 20 km before the controle, my partner was starting to bonk a bit and I pulled for the rest of the way. This didn't slow us down too much but it definitely drained my energy reserves; and we were both very happy once we got to the gas station controle. I had just started drinking my bottle of Pepsi when the 5 riders of the bigger group and after another couple of minutes our two riding buddies arrived, too. On one stretch of road there were dozens of telephone poles with stuffed animals nailed to them. Very weird. With only 40 km to go I didn't feel like hanging around for too long and thus headed out by myself ahead of the others. As I was now riding mostly into the wind I kind of expected to be caught by the others but that didn't happen. My speed was still decent and at 3:47 pm I reached the final controle. I would have gotten there at least ten minutes earlier but my bike computer and the cue sheet didn't quite match and I therefore rode past the controle and had to turn around. On the way back from the ride finish. Masses of people at the Grand Prix To conclude: this was a great ride, both in terms of performance and of experience. I was fast (moving average of 27.8 km/h), the route great, the weather awesome, and never during the ride did I feel particularly crappy. Next stop: 300km.

My old club, the FLCC, has the tradition of a Memorial Day getaway where everybody stays at a not-too-close-but-also-not-too-distant location on Friday, and then we have 2.5 days of riding from that destination. This year the destination was once again Ottawa, and this was a perfect opportunity for me and the accomplice to join the FLCCers and have a chance to meet and ride with old friends. By train, Ottawa is about 2 hours from Montreal, but I decided to do the route by bike. At a distance of 215km that seemed far but definitely doable. There are two main route options, both following the Ottawa river (which flows into the St. Lawrence near Montreal): you can follow the Route Verte 1 on the Quebec side of the river or you can ride on the southern, Ontario side. I’ve had pretty good experiences with riding on the various Route Vertes, but after some online research I figured out that this particular stretch isn’t all that great: it mostly runs on the shoulder of the 344/148 highways which are apparently busy, including a lot of trucks. The Ontario side, in contrast, was supposed to be very rural and quiet, presumably due to the existence of the more direct A40/417 expressway. I planned my route mostly based on Brian Hedney’s suggestion, but chose to stay completely on the southern shore of the river instead of riding from Oka to Hawkesbury on the Route Verte. That decision was mostly due to timing: since I was leaving in the very early morning hours I couldn’t be sure if the Hudson-Oka ferry would already be running by the time I’d get there, and in addition the ferry crossing itself would cost me some time. So if you ride at a more normal time of day and aren’t in a rush, the northern option makes sense, too. ...

The important thing first: I forgot my camera at home, and this will therefore be text-only. Which is a real pity because the ride went through some really lovely countryside. The triangle between the St. Lawrence, the US border and the A15 is very flat. Covey Hill is the one exception to that rule, and it’s a pretty popular destination amongst cyclist. I had read some lovely-sounding ride reports on Montreal Cycle Fun, but up until now I didn’t have enough confidence in my abilities to make it there all the way from Montreal, meaning at least 180km of riding. Yesterday, I finally gave it a try. After some searching on GPSies I initially planned to follow this route by the Club Cycliste Cycle Pop. After looking at the route more closely, however, I realized that there were long stretches where the route needlessed followed busy provinicial highways and I decided to create my own route. ...

If you’re using rim brakes, it’s a certain fact of life that at some point you’ll have deal with rim wear. Braking gradually grinds down the sidewalls of a rim, and at some point they become so thin that they will break. If you’re lucky, this will happen at home while you’re pumping up your tires. If you’re less lucky, it’ll happen somewhere in the middle of nowhere, leaving you stranded. And if you’re even less lucky, the exploding rim will cause you to crash. How long a rim will last is very hard to predict, as it very much depends on riding style, brake type, and environmental conditions. I have so far only had one rim failure (I was medium lucky: no crash, but I had to walk home three kilometers through freezing rain), and that happened on my everyday bike after less than 10 000 km. Rims can last much, much longer, or they can fail even earlier. ...

The end result: a cycle map in Basecamp Update September 2012: A while ago, Henning suggested minor modifications to the commands in steps 2 and 6 that should improve performance. I don't think I've written a plug for OpenStreetMap (OSM) on this blog yet, but in case you didn't know: OSM is an awesome project, and I'm a regular contributor to and user of their database. In preparation for my ride to Toronto I wanted to create a bike map to put on my Garmin GPS. For many regions in Europe pre-made cycling maps for Garmin are available but you have to DIY. I had created a OSM-based cycling map before but it only covered an area of 200km around Montreal. Creating that map had not been without problems, and unfortunately in the meantime I forgot a lot of the steps necessary. Consequently, this time I'm going to document the process for myself and others. I've tried to keep the instructions as dummy-friendly as possible, not requiring any deep understanding of the processes and programs involved. Feel free to ask questions in the comments and I'll try to answer them. Before we get started, I should send out props to OSM-contributor and bike tourer Henning Scholland/aighes. If you live in Europe you don't have to create your owns maps but just download the ones he created. He has also been very helpful in guiding me through the process of generating my first map. Now let's make a map. Step 1: Download data First you have to download the data of the desired region. In the ideal case somebody will already have prepared an extract for that region. If that’s the case you can move to step 3. In Canada, however, it is tricky: on the one hand, you probably won’t want a map of all Canada (I heard Canada is big and cycling in the Northern Territories is kinda lonesome); on the other hand you probably want to include some parts of the US. In order to achieve that you will have to create your own extract, either from the “planet,” i.e. the entirety of all OSM data, or from the North America extract which has a more manageable download size of about 5GB. ...

I like long rides, and I like the idea of randonneuring: mostly non-competitive long-distance riding where your goal is to ride a certain distance within certain time limits. While still living in Ithaca, I never got around to doing a sanctioned brevet, partly because I wasn’t quite sure if I could ride 200km or more, partly because none of the brevets start in or very close to Ithaca – and I both don’t like the idea of driving several hours to the start of ride and it’s also not exactly practical if you don’t have a car. In Montreal, the practical aspect was much easier: all the rides start at the same place, only about 10km from our apartment. In terms of the physical aspect, I have also grown more confident in my abilities to be able to do at least a 200km ride – after all, in 2010 I had done 230km on one occasion, and just two weeks ago I rode an average of 150km a day for 4 days in a row. Thus, I decided to give to give the CVRM (Club Vélo Randonneurs de Montréal) rides a try. I was a bit intimated by the fact that their website is all in French whereas my French skills are still pretty limited. But whatever, last week I sent an email to the ride coordinator and signed up for their first Populaire of the year. Populaires are intended to introduce riders to randonneuring, primarily by being shorter than regular brevets which start at 200km. The ride on Saturday was announced to be 147km with a time limit of 10 hours. I left the house around 8 o’clock and it was still around freezing. I had decided to do the ride on Wolfgang, my all-purpose, fully decked-out Cross-Check. As the forecast had predicted cold but dry conditions and the ride would be entirely during day light I might as well have ridden on the sporty Gunnar. After arriving at the start at 8:30 Wolfgang looked decidedly out of place: He was the only bike with fenders and dynohub lighting, and there were only a few other bikes with steel frames, racks, or non-system wheelsets. The rest was mostly racy crabon bikes, with a few titanium frames mixed in. After a very cold half hour – the icy wind was blowing relentlessly – and a quick group photo, we finally got going with about 20 riders. And going we were! I tried hanging on with the guys in the front, and for the first 15km or so we were averaging well over 30 km/h. It was pretty obvious to me that this pace was absolutely unsustainable for me and I slowly fell back to what I think was the middle of the field. Supported by a strong tailwind I nonetheless kept my speed up and every once in a while saw some riders ahead of me. The first controle – these are the waypoints where riders have to stop and get their brevet cards stamped – was at a depanneur in the little village Saint-Paul-de-L’Île-Aux-Noix. There I caught up with a larger group of riders. Following Jan Heine’s advice, I tried to limit my stopped time (the time limits on brevets count the total time, not only the moving time), and got going ahead of most of the rest of the group. Whereas most of the ride so far had been going south, i.e. in the same direction as the strong wind, the route now turned west or northwest, right into the wind. This slowed me down immensely, and I was quickly passed by the faster group. It would have been nice to ride in a group to better withstand the winds, but I knew that I wouldn’t be strong enough to hang on with them. So I just continued on alone. At a long straightaway I got a glimpse of the group again – and they were going straight where they should have turned right. The next controle was a gas station at km 95, and maybe 10 km before that the wrong-turn riders caught up with me and insisted that I ride with them. My legs weren’t too excited but I went along anyway, channeling my inner Jens Voigt and telling the legs to shut up. Riding in a small group was clearly more effective in the wind and just before the controle we caught up with another small group (I guess they had taken the right turn). According to the cue sheet, the second controle was a Shell gas station at the intersection of highways 219 and 221. I therefore was surprised and confused when the group left the Shell station on the right and stopped at PetroCanada 100 meters down the road. As a rule-abiding randonneur, I went over to the in my opinion correct gas station and met up with one other rider there. He wasn’t quite sure what was going on with the others, too, speculating that they might be abandoning because of the wind. Well, we had a nice chat and decided to do the rest of the ride together. He had done a couple of rides with the CVRM before and he confirmed my impression of the club being somewhat more competitive than what I had randonneuring imagined to be. Our abilities were fairly well-matched and while I in general don’t mind riding alone, it was great to ride with him for the final 55 km. At some point we had to cross the A10 which added a little cyclocross element to our ride: the bridge was being rebuilt, with the surface at this point only consisting of the steel armaments without the final layer of concrete. A detour was not available and so carried our bikes across the narrow cantilevered pathway built for the construction workers. The rest of the ride was fairly uneventful, and at 3:50 pm, after 6 hours and 50 minutes, we checked in at the final controle. At this point I was out of water, my legs were very tired, and my upper back and arms hurt. The final 10km back to our apartment I took it extremely slowly. This clearly had been the hardest ride I had done in a long time, surpassed probably only by my failed attempt of the “Terrible Hills involving the letter ‘B’" in Ithaca and my ride up the Stelvio pass last summer. Today, randonesia, the phenomenon that you very quickly forget about all the hardships a ride brings, has already started kicking in, and only my very sore legs are there to prevent me from immediately signing up for another brevet. ...

The world of chain lubing and maintenance is one of strong convictions and fervent beliefs: to clean or not to clean? Wet lube or dry lube? Teflon or oil? During the past couple of years I have almost exclusively used FinishLine Dry Teflon lubricant. My trusted LBS, Swan Cycles, recommended it–and more importantly: sold refills for cheap. The Finish Line lube is great in that it does not leave any dirt-attracting residue on the outside of the chain, therefore keeping it relatively clean. The downside is that it gets washed out pretty quickly, especially when riding in the rain or on wet roads. During winter this would often mean that my chain squeakingly demanded more lube after just a day. And since I’m a bad, bad bike owner, those demands often were ignored for several days… ...

The accomplice will go to a conference in Toronto mid-month, and I thought this would be a great opportunity for the first big cycling adventure of the year: riding from Montreal to Toronto. If I'm actually going to do it is not 100% certain: should the weather forecast predict high temperatures of less than 5°C and/or significant precipitation I will most probably cancel the trip. But that will be a last minute decision and until then I'll keep planning and dreaming. Here are the bare facts so far: Route: I have it mostly worked out: follow the Route Verte 5 to the Quebec border, then follow the Waterfront Trail on the St. Lawrence and Lake Ontario into Toronto.  Still to do: figure out the best way to get out to York University. Accommodation: Most campgrounds won't be open for the season yet and thus I will travel light and stay in the cheapest motels I can find. In some stretches of the route, for example Prince Edward County and around the Thousand Islands, that might not be that cheap after all but we'll see.  Bike: Clearly Wolfgang, my trusty all-purpose Cross-Check. Were it summer, requiring much fewer clothing items, I might have done it on Gunnar, but for early spring Wolfgang is the better choice. He is in pretty good shape, with readjusted pedals and a new bottom bracket but there are still a few things I need to service, most importantly repacking the rear hub and changing the brake pads. Return to Montreal: By train, hopefully in one of their bike trains. Daily kilometrage: Total distance is about 650km and I plan on doing it in 6 days. The daily average thus is about 110km. I won't book any accommodation in advance and thus take the liberty to do less or more per day. Food: Being a vegan, I'm a little worried about my food options en route. Ideally I'd cook myself but doesn't go well with credit card touring. But since it's only going to be 6 days I should be okay.