About the Bike

My horse.

From Seattle, I hopped a ferry to Bremerton, camped near town, and finally gave my bike some loving. I think there's some interest in the bike I'm riding, and this seems like an appropriate place to talk about it. To the gear heads out there, this post is for you. I'll do my best to communicate effectively, although I'm afraid I don't qualify as a gear head myself.

The bike is a Giant OCR 3 that I purchased new in 2007 for $650. I purchased it to commute to town, and enter the Kluane to Chilkat Bike Relay once per year. It came with low end Shimano shifting components, pedals that strapped onto shoes, and a standard plastic seat. Since then, I've replaced and modified many of its parts, but the frame, shifters, and brakes remain the same.

The frame is aluminum, primarily designed for the racer on a budget. That means it's light weight, but not as durable as a steel frame would be, or  as stiff as a carbon fiber frame would be.  Although most frames are sold in sizes measured by centimeters, this line of bikes simply comes in small, medium and large. My bike has a 'large' frame. At the time I purchased the bike, the cycle shop owner simply had me stand over the top bar and ensure that my crotch cleared the bar, but by less than two inches to fit the bike to me. Since then, I've grown a couple inches. But with a long stem and properly adjusted seat, I'm comfortable on the bike, which I suppose must mean that the frame fits me reasonably well. In retrospect, I think that paying a bit more money and sacrificing some weight to get a steel frame would have made sense for me. Although I haven't ridden one, they are reputed to be more durable, easier to repair if damaged in a crash, and more comfortable to ride on. Since I primarily use my bike for commuting, and now touring, those qualities are worth the extra weight. On the other hand, the frame has held up great through several thousand miles of riding without any signs of wear so far, so maybe aluminum is durable enough for me anyway!

I haven't changed the shifting components at all: they're still the same low end Shimano shifters. They occasionally come out of adjustment, making it hard to change gears when I want to (and occasionally shifting when I don't want it to!) but with some tweaking they still work as well as ever.

One neat gimmick on this bike is that it has two pairs of brake handles: one on the drops and one on the horizontal part of the handlebars near the stem. It's essential to have the brakes on the drops for descending hills, and the other pair of brakes is handy for cruising through towns. Both pairs of handles connect to the same brake cables, so each wheel is braked by one pair of pads just like any other bike. I've replaced the brake pads in the rear twice and the front once during, but the brake cabling is still original.

I don't know much about the wheels on my bike...I do know that they have shallow rims, accept presta valves, and are Alexis brand. I replaced the entire rear wheel this summer because the wear groove on the original rim had disappeared, indicating that the rim was getting dangerously thin.

For this tour, I've been running 700X28 mm tires and tubes. 28 mm is pretty wide for road bike tires, but I think they give a bit smoother ride than the standard 23 mm tire, and seem to hold up better with a load on the bike. Currently, I have a Continental Gator Skin tire in the rear, and a Continental Ultra Sort tire in front...but basically, I just get whatever I can find when I need one. I'm also carrying two foldable, narrower tires for spares. Again, the spares just happen to be what I had when I left home.

I got my seat this spring specifically for the touring I expected to do. It's a leather seat made by Masi. I picked it up at a bike shop in Fairbanks...I had been planning to get a Brooks Saddle, based on recommendations from a few friends and a bit of reading; they seem to be the gold standard for touring seats. But the bike shop only had the Masi. Fortunately, I like it. It was hard as a rock and uncomfortable for several hundred miles when it was new, and it contributed to my discomfort on the ride from Fairbanks to Haines, but now that it's broken in I can ride all day without getting a sore butt.

The drive train consists of an 8 speed SRAM cassette and chain, and a "triple" set of chain rings. Sometime while I was in Seattle, the chain started to slip on the middle chain ring because the teeth were so worn, so I replaced it as well as the outer chain ring in Bremerton. Currently, I have a 29 tooth middle chain ring, a 52 tooth outer, and a very small "granny gear" for the third chain ring. Again the chain rings aren't ideal for what I'm doing. Now that I've ridden with this arrangement for awhile, I would prefer a bigger middle ring and smaller outer ring, maybe a 35 and a 48.

For pedals, I use a set that has clips on one side that attach to my shoes, and flats on the other side that are comfortable to pedal on with tennis shoes. Although I was skeptical at first, clipping in has a huge benefit because it allows riders to pull up on the pedals as well as push down.

Overall, my bike has held up very well and I've been happy with it. Apart from the tires and tubes, the only repair work I've done on the bike for this trip was replacing two chain rings, the chain, handlebar tape, and brake pads, and adjusting the derailleurs. I purchased a book in Bremerton in the hope that it would teach me the right way to fix my bike, and to capitalize on the interest my brain currently has in bicycle repair. I also payed $15 to have a professional adjust my front derailleurs, because I couldn't get it to shift after I foolishly purchased new chain rings with such different dimensions (I started the trip with a 32 and a 52, with "shift assist pins" on the bigger chain ring...I didn't pay much attention to what the mechanic gave me when I picked up new chain rings in Seattle, and wouldn't have known what to ask for anyway. With the smaller middle chain ring and no shift assist pins on the big chain ring, the new set up doesn't shift as well.)

Finally, to carry my gear I have an Axiom handler bar bag, Ortega paniers, and a small backpack to carry my gear. The paniers have torn a bit at the seams since I've been abusing them with excessive loads, but a few wraps of duck tape seem to have solved the problem. The handlebar bag is holding up like a champ, and is a tremendous asset to my trip. For my body, I've got a pair of Pearl Izumi bike shorts with a nice thick pad, a pair of bike shoes that are decently comfortable to walk around in, a bright yellow jacket, a helmet and lights, and a pair of well padded bike gloves.