Quiver Math

I am blessed with a lot of good bikes.  I have been collecting them for more than 20 years, but still, I know I have, what most sane folks would call, an excess of bicycles.  But the old ones just keep on working and the new ones fill niches and bring joy.  And in the grand scheme of things, collecting bicycles is much cheaper and healthier than collecting coins or cars.  

So my current quiver contains (in chronological order):

1. 1990 Cannondale Aluminum road bike.  This is mostly used for indoor trainer duty and an occasional mucky day road ride.
2. 1995 Grove Innovations Ti bike.  A titanium, no-holds barred, XTR/S-works 26" hard tail.  It was a premier bicycle in 1995 and my pride and joy while riding in Colorado during grad school.
3. 2006 Masi Team Issue 3VC.  Carbon road bike with SRAM force.  Very light and quick.  I got this used from a semi-pro who gets a new bike each year.  So it was a relative bargain for the quality of bike.  
4. 2007 Masi XC.  An aluminum cross bike with ultegra group and sweet, super light wheels.  Again a bargain scored from my semi-pro friend who road it three times. 
5. 2009 Gary Fisher Superfly 100.  An all-out carbon 29er full susp bike.  The last year GF made bikes before it was absorbed by Trek.  I owe my wife a bike thank you for digging deep in the savings account for this one, but it is a marvelous machine.
6. 2010 Surly Karate Monkey.  I have it built stock as a SS and got it at a deep discount.
7. 2011 Salsa Mukluk.  A shop in MN was closing and liquidating its inventory ... a new bike at 40% off and I couldn't pass up the deal.  

I also own a 1998 Cannondale cross bike which is out on loan to my dad and a 1985 Cannondale M500 mountain bike which was donated to a neighbor who promised to give it love.

Each bike still has its purpose and use.  I use the old C'dale road bike as my indoor trainer.  The carbon road bike is for fast group rides.  The cross bike is one of my most used -- winter training and gravel exploring.  I've hardly been off my KM SS all year: commuting, grocery shopping, century rides, exploring, you name it.  The Superfly100 is the sweetest single track carver and NUE series competitive weapon.  My Mukluk is looking forward to winter snow.  And the old Grove Innovations bike is a special rare frame and a good wet weather trainer.

Now the next step.   I am a computer scientist by training and all these bikes got me thinking about how I use them and which ones I value more.   Much of my professional work involves dimensionality remapping and data compression and I wondered if I could make sense of my quiver using the same analytic tools.

1) My first step was cataloging all the reasons I ride bikes.  I came up with 18 different "uses/properties": group rides, alone rides, road rides, singletrack, gravel, explore, relax, go fast, snow, mountains, flats training, towning, nights, cold, touring, commuting, hill repeats.  It is an arbitrary list, but it accurately represents the kind of bicycling I do and the reasons I own each of these bikes.

2) My next step was to score each bike on a scale of 1 to 10 along each of these 18 properties.   A score of 10 represents a perfect use of this bike, a score of 0 indicates a non-use.  I then normalized the scores so that each property sums to 1.

3)   Then I assigned a multiplicative factor to each property (between 1 and 0) indicating how important that property was to me.  These factors summed to 11.7 (arbitrary) which means I will ultimately have 11.7 points to distribute over the seven bikes.

4) I then compute a "score" for each bike determined by how well it fit each category and how important that category was for me.  Basically a sum of normalized property scores multiplied by the category factors.  Here are my bikes ranked by score:

1. (2.95) KM Single Speed
2. (2.45) Masi Cross Bike
3. (2.02) Salsa Mukluk
4. (1.42) Masi Carbon Road Bike
5. (1.40) GF Superfly 100
6. (0.78) Grove Innovations Mtn Bike
7. (0.68) Cannondale Alum Road Bike

Though not shown here.  I also divided each price (I paid) for the bikes by the score to determine a value coefficient.  Obviously the KM and Cross bike jumped even higher because they already had a high score and came with a low price.  The SF100 dropped more due to the high price tag.

Some observations.  My intuitions were confirmed with my KM SS and Cross bike being my two favorites.  They get the most use and are highly versatile.  And they permit me to do the kind of riding I like to do best -- explore back country roads and gravel paths.  My KM gets extra points for filling commuting duty.   I was surprised how highly my mukluk scored; maybe a product of wishful thinking about snow riding this winter, because I haven't had it that long.  I was surprised by how low my SF100 scored; it brings me a lot of joy, but I mainly use it for singletrack days and I don't get enough of those.  The last two bikes are older bikes that fill a small niche now that they have newer replacements, so I expected those to be at the bottom.

That concludes our lesson in quiver math for today.

Fall Gravel

Nice ride today.  55 miles, 55 degrees, 3200 ft vertical and plenty of quiet back roads.  You need days like this, especially after the Thanksgiving orgy.   It is wonderful to spend two lovely days with family and eating yourself silly.  But it is nice to balance that with some alone time out on the hilly gravel.

I mapped out two new-to-me gravel roads: Hidden Springs Rd and Witches Hollow Rd.  With names like that, it is impossible to resist.  How cool is it to have a road named "Witches Hollow"?  You just know a road like that has to be (1) gravel, (2) hilly and (3) scenic.  And it didn't disappoint.

We were blessed with temps in the upper 50s and bright sunshine.  It has rained buckets for 3 straight days, so this nice weather day is well deserved.  Still, we don't often get sunny warm days like this on the verge of December.  At this point last year, we already had snow on the ground.  The day did have brisk winds out of the SW which made the return trip a chore, but I really can't complain.



I honestly do get the point of Thanksgiving.  I have a lot to be thankful for.  A wonderful family.  A nice quiver of bikes and beautiful places to ride.  I wish I had more time to ride, but I do treasure and enjoy the time I get.  I am thankful to have my health and a body which can carry me 55 miles through the gravelly hills of Ohio.  And a wife who stays home with kids and puppy while I am out and about.  We do trade -- she gets her time too, but she "gets it".  I don't have to explain why I need to disappear for 4 hours on a Saturday or why I need yet another bike.  Yes, a lot to be thankful for.

Mohican Sized Smiles

Every once in a while all the cycling gods come together and bless a riding day.  This was such a day.  Yeah it was a windy, mid-November day, but the temps were higher than normal and nearly perfect (45 to 55).  Plus the hills and trees made the wind a non-factor.  

I've been neglecting the GF superfly 100 since the W101 in late July, so I thought I would give the bike some love and take it to Mohican.   Even the drive went by quickly as I arrived 15 minutes ahead of schedule. In the parking lot were five guys from the Cleveland area and they looked the part of good mtn bikers.  So I asked if I could tag along with their group.  It was a good decision as their skill level was just about right for a "fun but not killer" effort.  We set out at "3-hour" pace with some frequent stops scattered in to let one or two guys catch back on.  

I admit it, I stole this pic from someone else.

Normally 3-hour pace is pretty fast for me, so I was wary about trying to hang with them.  And I feel like my fitness level is pretty low compared to earlier in the summer.  But as I was riding the pace seemed much more relaxed than what I was used to for a 3-hour loop.   My confidence was growing with each climb and fluid descent.  I was starting to get in the zone.  

We hit the bridge at Mile 11.5 in about 1:17.  It felt more like 1:50 or something, so I was surprised we were there so quickly.  When we stopped for what was likely 5-10 minutes of catch up and rest time, I thanked them for the company and pressed on alone.

Then I dialed it up.  I started working the climbs hard, not quite hammering, but definitely pushing myself in the red zone.  And I was finding loads of magic zen on the flowy single track.  Carving, flowing, climbing, catching air on the jumps.  It was lots of fun.

I killed it for the next hour and dropped back into the parking lot with 2:21 showing on the clock.  My fastest time ever and I still felt great --- like I could go on at that pace for quite a bit more.  I figure I could have made 5 or 10 minutes less time in the first loop if I had gone on my own, but I can't complain.

Then I had a tough decision.  To call it a day and end on a high note with a big smile, or go for another partial loop.  Surely I could have had more good riding but I also would have eventually hit the wall and slowed.  I decided to call it there and keep the awesome ride as a fond memory.  Besides, Laura, the kids and the puppy were all at home waiting for me.  

Did I ever mention the SF100 is just plain awesome.  

Gravel in Fall Sunshine

We were blessed with a warm, sunny late autumn day, and there is only one way to proper honor a day like this, head out on the bike for an adventure.   It was just warm enough for a long sleeve jersey, shorts, light weight full fingered gloves, and regular cycling shoes.  Laura graciously gave me five hours on this Sunday afternoon to go play, and I took advantage of it.  Jumped in the car to drive 20 miles East (save myself an hour of bikepath slogging each way) so I could get to the good stuff that much faster.  

I took the cross bike out today.  I haven't ridden this bike much in the last 9 months, preferring instead to explore all summer on the Karate Monkey single speed.  But the gravel and the climbs urged me to get reacquainted with the cross bike.  Besides, this will become my winter training tool (along with the new mukluk) so I need to get used to the flatter position again.  

After a few pavement climbs, I snuck back on to Smith Chapel which winds up a small valley between two Ohio ridges.   A right turn on to Patton keeps to the gradual valley climb instead of the ridge ascents to the left and right.  

I then endure the incessant ups and downs of Pinewood trails.  It is a real leg burner, great for hill climbing strength, but you have to be wary of burning yourself out too early in a long ride on this road.   The heart rate monitor allowed me to climb in a comfort zone and save the real gas for later in the ride.





In Perryton,  I climb out of the valley hamlet on Myrtle -- great name and a narrow, barely paved farm path.

I was intent on exploring more in the area East of Licking Valley Rd.  I don't often get out in this area and there are more remote roads to explore further.

One of my great finds of the day is a new-to-me road, Church Rd.  There are dozens of roads named after churches in this area, but all of them have some other name other than just church.  So this is a bit of a novelty.  This road ran relatively flat North along a creek valley and I had to ignore delicious climbs to the ridge running along the right side of the road.

A great road that is usually just out of range is McCament Rd.   By starting my ride 20 miles east of home, I was able to put this route on my agenda.  I discovered this road on a motorcycle romp about five years ago, and now, have finally gotten to ride a bike out here.  It is a lovely road, scampering through gaps between the ridges until the flat realestate is corralled by valley walls all around.  It gives up the ghost and has to climb straight out of a valley over the ridge line.  Gravel goodness for several, uninterrupted miles and beautiful, quiet scenery.














More McCament images.
















I came back south along Aspen and would have enjoyed it more if not for the legs starting to go ... mostly on low energy.  Aspen is one of those roads that looks flatter than it really is.  It does roll up and down, but those are bigger and steeper rollers than what seems at first glance.









But as the road enters Licking County, and switches names from Aspen to Rock Run Rd, it becomes one of the most beautiful spots in all of central Ohio.  The way the narrow lane cuts through the old growth forest, the light beams stream through gaps in the trees and filters across the road,  the road falls down a gulch line toward the large stream at the bottom, it almost seems like hallowed cycling ground!

 And there is the stately covered bridge at the base of the descent ... for gravel dessert!
 

With low energy threatening to sap the enjoyment from my ride, I detoured to Fallsburg Pizza for a quick snack stop.  Then a couple of more climbs and another of my favorite gravely ways ... Priest Hollow.   What a cool name for a road.

All told, 55 miles, 4600ft vertical, and 14.6 mph.  I also got a nice treat on Saturday as Laura agreed to join me on her cross bike for a brief 90 minute spin through the northern countryside.   Thanks Laura!

John had just gotten back in town from a trip to Austin, TX.  He told tales of awesome, high desert single track.  I'll have to check it out sometime.