Benton Hot Springs Bike Ride

14 MAY 2016, 05:48 PM

We started our ride from the Mammoth Airport parking area where we left our cars. First day route took us 25 miles north along highway 395 and the 42 miles east along highway 120.

There were 2 major climbs – one to the top of Deadman Summit and Sage Hen Pass along 120. After the pass the wind pickets up and we enjoyed fighting a 20 mile an hour head wind the rest of the way.

Benton Hot Spring resort is pictures and there are hot tubs everywhere. The only objection I have to the place are the noseeum bites I got while eating dinner outside.

Next morning we took the Benton Crossings. It was 39 miles back to the Mammoth Airport.

After lunch at Tom’s Place our hosts Jan and Eric Simpson took us to see the the Crawley Columns

Bob

Joan

Hal

Benton Hot Springs

Benton Hot Springs

The butcher house and the spring at Benton Hot Springs

the Conway House where we stayed

Joan and Jim

me

the Crowley Lake Columns

Santa Rosa Summit to Scissors crossing

My truck at Santa Rosa Summit, highway 79

My bike at Scissors Crossing

21 FEBRUARY 2016, 04:10 AM
8 am – finally on the bike heading to the starting point of my hike.

12 noon – stopped at the picnic table near the fire station on highway 79 for lunch. It is beautiful here with big trees all around.

2 pm – San Fillip highway. I fixed a double flat in my front tire which took almost a full hour. One motorist stopped to ask if I needed help. Very nice.

4 pm – Scissors Crossing. Made it. It is too late to start hiking. I will stay here for the night. I locked up my bike to one of the foundation post of the bridge.

MTB Wide Range Cassette on Road Bike II

It took 2 weeks for all the parts to arrive, even with Amazon Prime. The cassette and derailleur arrive within a couple of days, but the 1.85 mm spacer took 2 weeks.

Replacing the cassette and derailleur was surprisingly easy. The gear cable took a bit of research. The gear cable on my bike runs under the chain stay, so the only logical place for the Shiftmate device is right on the derailleur. Actually, I use a very short piece of cable between them.

Note the 40 cog sprocket wheel which is slightly gray.

One thing I am worried with this setup is dirt getting in the Shiftmate and interfering with its function. So I made a small box out of kydex using the Shiftmate itself as a template. I use tape to hold the box in place.

Forming the sides of the box.

Conclusion

With 4 rides and over 100 miles on the new cassette I must say that I am impressed. Having 2 extra lower gears to switch into on steep hills has made riding so much more enjoyable. It is not that I am going faster, but I am certainly able to keep going longer. Also, the shifting have been smooth and predictable. I can shift any time up or down without any issues.

 

MTB Wide Range Cassette on Road Bike

The idea is to get lower gear ratio for my road bike to help climbing steep hills.

Rational

I like climbing hills on my bike. Particularly going up to Skyline BLVD and down towards the ocean. My problem is that I find myself using the 1st gear all the time and even then I often can’t maintain a fast enough cadence. The gear ration of the Shimano 105 components on my road bike is already the lowest possible. My only option is to use mountain bike (MTB) components. This article is about changing the rear cassette.

Cassette

Change from Shimano 105 11-speed 11-32T – CS-5800 to XT CS-M8000 11-speed 11-40T – XT CS-M8000 will add 2 more gear options at the low end. The numerical ratio will be 25% lower, or from gear inch 28 to 22.5.

The 11-42T version of this cassette only works with a single chainring setup. There are 30T, 32T and 34T options. It is actually quite compelling. My bike has a 34-50T compact crank and 11-32 cassette to create a gear inch range of 28-120. A single 34T chainring with 11-42T cassette has a gear inch 21.5-80.

Cassette Compatibility: Shimano 11 speed hub on road bikes is 1.85mm longer than the 11 speed MTB (11 speed MTB hub is the same as the 10 and 9 speed hubs). They make a spacer called “low spacer” for this  – 1.85mm Low Spacer

Chain

CN-HG700 seems to be compatible for both road and MTB 11-speed systems. My bike uses 56 inch chain (112 links) the new chain comes with 114 links or 57 inch. Calculating the required chain for the new bike (40T Cassette, 50T Chainring, 42.5CM chainstay) I need 58 inch. I will need to purchase 2 chains and combine them to make the length I need. – Calculator . Going with a 1-11 solution with a 34T chainring and 11-42T cassette the chain needs to be 54 inch.

Derailleur/Shifter

Shimano design derailleur and shifters for 11-speed bikes as sets. They are expected to work together, and with the specific cassette design. The combination currently installed on my road bike will not work with a MTB cassette for several reasons.

Cog Clearance

The road derailleur currently on the bike – RD-5800 will not clear the large cogs on the 11-40T cassette. Wolf Tooth Components makes an adapter RoadLink that may be able to solve this problem. Alternatively, a MTB derailleur RD-M8000 might be a better solution.

Cog Pitch, Derailleur Shift ratio, Shifter Cable Pull

MTB cassette cog pitch is 3.9mm and road cassette is 2.7 Compatibility. With the road derailleur/shifter combination, it may be possible to tweak the attachment point of the cable. This will cause the derailleur to move the required distance to the next cog. If switching the the MTB derailleur there are 2 possibilities: 1) use MTB shifter, which adds a new problem of how to attach it; 2) use Shiftmate 8 from Jtek with the current road shifter.

The Shiftmate adapter uses a wheel with 2 grooves with different diameter. The cable enter the wheel around one groove and exit around the other which changes the amount of pull the derailleur see.

MTB Shifters on Road Bike

There are some articles describing how to modify a front derailleur braze-on 31.8 mm strap to so it can accept a MTB shifter and attach it to the thick part of a road dropped handlebar. This makes it possible to shift but not from the STI shifter. switching between sscx mode and touring and Paul Components.

Derailleur Attachment

It seems to be compatible between road and MTB

 

Bicycling – Old La Honda Road

Old La Honda Road is one of the better ways to bike up to Skyline Blvd. It is a narrow, winding road that cars have to negotiate slowly. My reading is about 3.5 miles long and 1267 ft of elevation gain, about 7.2% climb.

It is also used as a gauge to measure the pace of a biker. Below is a portion of the ride rating page from Western Wheeler Meetup site.

A NA
B 43–54 min.
C 34–43 min.
D 27–34 min.
E 22–27 min.

First time I measure myself going up Old La Honda Road was on 7/15/15 on my old mountain bikes. These bikes are really bad and I should have gotten rid of them long time ago. Anyway I tried them and my timing was 1 hour and 3 minutes. Not even on the chart.

Two days later 7/17/15 I measure myself again. This time with my new touring bikes, Nevara Safari. It was also after a long day of biking with my friend Effi, so I was a bit tired. My time was 45 minutes, which is solidly in the B range.

Old La Honda Rd

Biking – Tehachapi Pass to Mill Creek Summit

Day 0 and 1 of the Pacific Crest Trail section hike from Mill Creek Summit to Tehachapi Pass – 65 miles and 3500 ft of elevation gain.

Day 0 – Drove to Tehachapi Pass on H/W58. Left my truck and got on my bike. Rode on Cameron Canyon Road, Tehachapi Willow Spring Road, Through Rosamond and into Lancaster. I stopped in Lancaster, spending the night at the Marriott. I hope to get a good night sleep and continue in the morning.

Day 1 – continued along Sierra Highway, Pearblossom Highway, and Angeles Forest Highway to Mill Creek Summit, but didn’t quite made it on the bike. It was too far and too much uphill from me. I hid the bike on the side of the road by some bushes and hitchhiked the rest of the way to Mill Creek Summit.

My Truck at the trailhead on H/W58. This is the spot Cheryl Strayed started her hike on the PCT

Can you see my bike in the tree? It was still there undisturbed when I returned to retrieve it.