More mountain climbing fun on a Dahon folding bike (pics & video)

[luv2climb]

I rented a car again for two more trips to the mountains to do some climbing and to record video (as a spectator) of the final mountain time trial put on by The Reno Wheelmen. I took my Dahon Speed D7 folding bike again since it is a PITA to fit a full-size bike in a typical sedan.

Unlike last month though, I now have lower gears in the form of an mtb triple crankset. The D7 doesn't have a front derailleur, so I had to remove about 3" of chain and put it on the middle ring. The chain was sagging in the middle ring until I removed the extra links, so I think the rear derailleur isn't designed for multiple front chainrings. Yes, I now have no top end, but the climbing is more important to me than the descending. Descending is mostly coasting anyway.

Saturday's trip was to the west side of Monitor Pass near Markleeville in Alpine County. This pass is part of the Death Ride, and it lived up to its reputation when I reached the first prolonged 9%-13% section. I think my body wasn't used to the altitude yet, as the effort was pretty intense. After that section I think I got warmed up or used to the altitude, as I felt stronger later on and had plenty of energy at the summit.

The descent was badass! I switched cameras to record the descent, as the Playsport is on its last legs with a cracked and partially stripped tripod hole. I have to run a small bungee cord through the wrist strap and cinch it down good to keep the camera from rotating in the mount. It still moves around more than it used to though, so the rolling shutter effects are even worse, as you can see in the climb videos. For the descent videos I used my Casio EX-S12 digital camera, which doesn't have a rolling shutter. I have to use the Playsport on the climbs because of the better battery life.

I have a ContourHD coming to me from Amazon, so future videos should be better quality.

Today I recorded the riders in the Mt. Rose Hill Climb TT. They climbed Mt. Rose from the Reno side, which is 13.7 miles long with 3,715' of climbing. I climbed that side last year on my 32 pound mtb when I was 40 pounds heavier. It was the most miserable experience I've ever had on a bicycle, so this year I chose to climb Mt. Rose from the Incline Village side, which is only 8 miles long.

The descent was almost as fast as Monitor Pass. Both passes have the smoothest pavement of any mountain road I've ever ridden.

Here's the Garmin Connect data for Monitor Pass: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/104518888. Garmin is still having issues with their site, so the elevation data is displaying in metric when it should be in English.

Garmin Connect data for Mt. Rose: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/104807799

Here's video of the Monitor Pass climb. Be forewarned, there is quite a bit of heavy breathing in this video due to the excessive effort on the first part of the climb, so if you find this objectionable you may want to mute the audio and put on your favorite copyrighted music. Don't say I didn't warn you!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kheW5n376UE

Here's the descent. Top speed was 43.8 mph: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkdeSSTY0QE

Here's the Mt. Rose Hill Climb TT video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pntu6MUskL8

Here's video of the Mt. Rose climb. Not nearly as much heavy breathing in this one, as the climb wasn't as steep and I felt stronger as the climb went on.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmgIKnW_gAg

Here's the descent. Top speed was 39.4 mph: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4wqDZ8GG5I

Top of Monitor Pass.

Dahon Speed D7 at top of Monitor Pass 8-6-11 by kittyz202, on Flickr

Dahon Speed D7 at top of Monitor Pass 8-6-11 (other side of road) by kittyz202, on Flickr

view from top of Monitor Pass by kittyz202, on Flickr

Funny no smoking sign on front door of Markleeville General Store.


Top of Mt. Rose.





The lower gearing that got me up these mountain passes:

[laura*]

Unlike last month though, I now have lower gears in the form of an mtb triple crankset. The D7 doesn't have a front derailleur, so I had to remove about 3" of chain and put it on the middle ring. The chain was sagging in the middle ring until I removed the extra links, so I think the rear derailleur isn't designed for multiple front chainrings.

There is a way to mount a front derailleur on the Speed series frames. Thor ("thorusa" I think) sells a "braze-on" style clamp. This allows fitting a "braze-on" style front derailleur. In the Shimano world, that limits you to a road bike derailleur. (Shimano's clamp-less mountain bike derailleurs use a different mount.) Of course, this does nothing about the limited capacity of the Dahon rear derailleur.

Now to view your videos...

Edit: Watched the descents! The fastest I've gone on my Dahon is I think about 33 MPH. I'm scared to go faster because at high speeds the bike reacts funny to steering input - it'll go through one cycle of wobble or shimmy.

[luv2climb]

I saw the clamp on thorusa.com, but it said it was for a double crankset so I didn't order it.

The first time I went down a mountain on this, which was last month on the Lake Tahoe side of Kingsbury Grade, the bike felt squirrelly at speed so I didn't go too fast. After that I lowered the bars as far as they would go. The next day's descent (Geiger Grade) was much smoother, so I was able to go as fast as gravity would take me.

I don't know if that would help your speed shimmy. You may want to give it a try.

[laura*]

I saw the clamp on thorusa.com, but it said it was for a double crankset so I didn't order it.

It would also work for a triple - but choices of compatible derailleurs are limited. Rear derailleur capacity limits probably mean that a triple can't really be used.

After that I lowered the bars as far as they would go. The next day's descent (Geiger Grade) was much smoother, so I was able to go as fast as gravity would take me.

I don't know if that would help your speed shimmy. You may want to give it a try.

The handle post height isn't adjustable on my TR. (Well ... there's a little bit of adjustment in the stem but that'll also affect fore/aft positioning.)

[luv2climb]

It would also work for a triple - but choices of compatible derailleurs are limited. Rear derailleur capacity limits probably mean that a triple can't really be used.

Yeah, it would be a challenge to find a compatible derailleur, since Dahon uses a proprietary rear derailleur.

I'll just get the Bike Friday Pocket Companion when my recumbent sells. The BF has a triple.

The handle post height isn't adjustable on my TR. (Well ... there's a little bit of adjustment in the stem but that'll also affect fore/aft positioning.)

Bummer! How can Dahon market a bike with the word "speed" in the name if you can't do a high-speed descent safely?

[Sardine]

Nice pix and videos. The downhill one - you're a braver woman than me.

Keep climbing and keep posting. I added an extra hill on my commute today thanks to your influence. But I need to make sure I don't get over-enthusiastic and climb on higher gears than are good for me. I've learnt from experience that can lead to a niggle in my knee, though it settles down pretty quickly.

Edit: I frequently get this wrong. I think it should be 'you're a braver woman than I'.

[luv2climb]

Nice pix and videos. The downhill one - you're a braver woman than me.

Keep climbing and keep posting. I added an extra hill on my commute today thanks to your influence. But I need to make sure I don't get over-enthusiastic and climb on higher gears than are good for me. I've learnt from experience that can lead to a niggle in my knee, though it settles down pretty quickly.

Thank you. I may be guilty of over-gearing at times too. On Mt. Rose I had pain in one knee that disappeared after a few minutes. It happened in the middle of the climb too. I've had that same pain on other climbs and it always disappears. Doesn't happen if cadence is high enough though, so it's definitely caused by over-gearing.