I took the Zilioli out for a spin yesterday just to give it another go after almost 5 years in the basement. I put the old tubulars back on it, which may ultimately be a mistake since they are really dried out. They held air so why not give 'em a go.
It was cold and what I've noticed is that I can't ride well in the cold. Every year I complain about not being in shape at all, and it turns out that once it warms up I have no problem. We've had a few warmer days this year where you didn't need a jacket and I felt fine, and the next day it'll be colder and my legs feel like lead.
Cleaned up the Kuota too, and it rides great. This is still my primary ride. The other 2 steel road bikes just don't do it for me even if they look great.
So far this year I've only done Prospect Park, so nothing to really talk about. I haven't even made it into Manhattan or Williamsburg. Soon enough it'll be spring... But first, my lager has to finish. I need the cold weather to do it.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Brewing up another batch
I haven't actually brewed the batch yet, but probably tomorrow I'll be doing my first batch in a long time. I bought the ingredients for an amber lager and another Ruination IPA clone.
When I started looking into making a lager again on the homebrewtalk forums, I found that I made one major mistake the first time. When I pitched the yeast, I did it at room temperature. While this is sometimes OK with a lager, and is done by a lot of homebrewers, it produced a lot of banana ester that way. This time I'm going to cold pitch the yeast, meaning down at the lager fermentation temperature of about 50F or so. In order to do this though I found out that one needs to make a large starter, much bigger than the usual pint plus 1/2 cup of extract. This one calls for 3 quarts. What it really is doing is propagating the yeast so you have enough cells to get the fermentation started immediately. The smaller starter won't have enough and it would take a long time to get it going. Cold pitching is the German way of doing it, AnheuserBusch uses beechwood and that makes it less important, or something like that. Beechwood aging is real I guess, not just an advertising slogan, and really part of the brew process.
So tomorrow I'll brew it up, and then let it cool overnight in the carboy, then pitch the yeast in the morning. At least this means I don't have to worry about it cooling fast. Leaving it without yeast though means there is a greater chance of contamination. The other option is to cool it all down to 50 in the pot using lots of ice. The tap water is already cold enough.
When I started looking into making a lager again on the homebrewtalk forums, I found that I made one major mistake the first time. When I pitched the yeast, I did it at room temperature. While this is sometimes OK with a lager, and is done by a lot of homebrewers, it produced a lot of banana ester that way. This time I'm going to cold pitch the yeast, meaning down at the lager fermentation temperature of about 50F or so. In order to do this though I found out that one needs to make a large starter, much bigger than the usual pint plus 1/2 cup of extract. This one calls for 3 quarts. What it really is doing is propagating the yeast so you have enough cells to get the fermentation started immediately. The smaller starter won't have enough and it would take a long time to get it going. Cold pitching is the German way of doing it, AnheuserBusch uses beechwood and that makes it less important, or something like that. Beechwood aging is real I guess, not just an advertising slogan, and really part of the brew process.
So tomorrow I'll brew it up, and then let it cool overnight in the carboy, then pitch the yeast in the morning. At least this means I don't have to worry about it cooling fast. Leaving it without yeast though means there is a greater chance of contamination. The other option is to cool it all down to 50 in the pot using lots of ice. The tap water is already cold enough.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
My Bikes
I currently have 3 road bikes and 1 mountain bike, hence my moniker. I'm not riding any of them at the moment, and I don't mean as I type this. It is winter here in the big apple (does anybody call it that anymore?)
The first one is my custom built, hand painted, steel Davidson. I had this one made when I lived in Seattle back in the 80s. Up to that point I had mid-level off the rack type bikes, Austro-Daimler, Atala, Peugeot. Nothing fancy, but decent bikes that I could barely afford. When the last one was stolen, I was finally working after college, in fact it had been a few years already, and I was ready to step up. I had taken a maintenance class at Wright Bros. cycle coop down in what is now the "Center of the Universe", Fremont. It has become well known for another type of riding before the Solstice Parade. For one of the class sessions, we took a car ride down to Bill Davidson's shop south of Seattle where he demonstrated the art of frame building. It was one of those moments where you see something and you say "I WANT that". So, I bought one. Not right there on the spot, but a bit later. I equipped it with a mix of parts, but stuck with Campy NR derailleurs and shifters, the other thing I always wanted. This was in 1981 and I still have it. Over the years I replaced all the parts that wear out, I even had a pair of sew-up wheels built for me, this time on Campy hubs. A few years ago, when I got back into cycling, I was seeing all these much nicer clincher wheels on the road and decided to check them out, and posted on the BikeForums asking what would be good. I had an immediate response from someone that happened to be local, he didn't even know that, and I bought another pair of wheels for my then 20+ year old bike, these were Velomax Tempests. Wow, what a difference. These wheels were smooth and stiff and could really accelerate. And they were cheap. I've also fixed up a few other things recently, like new brakes, saddle, seat post, pedals. It didn't add up to much money.
About a year after I bought the Davidson, my step-father Louie came back from his home town of Cuneo, Italy, with a bike with the name Italo Zilioli on it. He said it was the town fair special. It had everything I drooled over but couldn't quite afford on it. Campy SR pantographed components. Nisi Laser aero rims. Modolo Kronos brake levers with the hidden cables which were new back then. He then basically gave it to me in trade for a mountain bike that he could really ride. I never found out what he paid, but he paid in Lira that he had from his army pension. He only used that money when he went home, so it was like free money to him. So now I had two steel bikes. I never upgraded anything on this bike as it was too nice the way it was, although I put a compatible chain on it so I could ride it with the new Velomax wheels from the other bike.
The third bike is my MTB, which actually has only been ridden by my son Daniel over the last few years. It is a Trek 8000 from around 1994 that I bought for my 40th birthday as a present for myself. I enjoyed riding this one for a while, I even put a child seat on it and I'd take Daniel around the park.
The last one is my Kuota Kredo, a full carbon fiber lightweight. I went almost all out on this one, only holding back on the wheels when the bill got too high. I still lust after better wheels. This is equipped with Campy Chorus all around and other bits of the same type. This one makes all the others seem slow. The only thing holding this bike back is the rider. It also cost more than the other 3 bikes combined. There's one more thing about this bike though and it involves 2 broken wrists. Ouch. I had originally bought a Kuota Kharma in January 2005, a somewhat cheaper frame that was built with those parts, but I then crashed it in June. After I healed and the insurance money came in I bought the Kredo and swapped all the parts over.
Now if I could get to ride any of them that would be great, but at this point I'll be happy to ride once or twice before March. Which one I'll take will depend on how I feel. Since all three are spotless at this point I'd hesitate to take them in the rain or snow.
The first one is my custom built, hand painted, steel Davidson. I had this one made when I lived in Seattle back in the 80s. Up to that point I had mid-level off the rack type bikes, Austro-Daimler, Atala, Peugeot. Nothing fancy, but decent bikes that I could barely afford. When the last one was stolen, I was finally working after college, in fact it had been a few years already, and I was ready to step up. I had taken a maintenance class at Wright Bros. cycle coop down in what is now the "Center of the Universe", Fremont. It has become well known for another type of riding before the Solstice Parade. For one of the class sessions, we took a car ride down to Bill Davidson's shop south of Seattle where he demonstrated the art of frame building. It was one of those moments where you see something and you say "I WANT that". So, I bought one. Not right there on the spot, but a bit later. I equipped it with a mix of parts, but stuck with Campy NR derailleurs and shifters, the other thing I always wanted. This was in 1981 and I still have it. Over the years I replaced all the parts that wear out, I even had a pair of sew-up wheels built for me, this time on Campy hubs. A few years ago, when I got back into cycling, I was seeing all these much nicer clincher wheels on the road and decided to check them out, and posted on the BikeForums asking what would be good. I had an immediate response from someone that happened to be local, he didn't even know that, and I bought another pair of wheels for my then 20+ year old bike, these were Velomax Tempests. Wow, what a difference. These wheels were smooth and stiff and could really accelerate. And they were cheap. I've also fixed up a few other things recently, like new brakes, saddle, seat post, pedals. It didn't add up to much money.
About a year after I bought the Davidson, my step-father Louie came back from his home town of Cuneo, Italy, with a bike with the name Italo Zilioli on it. He said it was the town fair special. It had everything I drooled over but couldn't quite afford on it. Campy SR pantographed components. Nisi Laser aero rims. Modolo Kronos brake levers with the hidden cables which were new back then. He then basically gave it to me in trade for a mountain bike that he could really ride. I never found out what he paid, but he paid in Lira that he had from his army pension. He only used that money when he went home, so it was like free money to him. So now I had two steel bikes. I never upgraded anything on this bike as it was too nice the way it was, although I put a compatible chain on it so I could ride it with the new Velomax wheels from the other bike.
The third bike is my MTB, which actually has only been ridden by my son Daniel over the last few years. It is a Trek 8000 from around 1994 that I bought for my 40th birthday as a present for myself. I enjoyed riding this one for a while, I even put a child seat on it and I'd take Daniel around the park.
The last one is my Kuota Kredo, a full carbon fiber lightweight. I went almost all out on this one, only holding back on the wheels when the bill got too high. I still lust after better wheels. This is equipped with Campy Chorus all around and other bits of the same type. This one makes all the others seem slow. The only thing holding this bike back is the rider. It also cost more than the other 3 bikes combined. There's one more thing about this bike though and it involves 2 broken wrists. Ouch. I had originally bought a Kuota Kharma in January 2005, a somewhat cheaper frame that was built with those parts, but I then crashed it in June. After I healed and the insurance money came in I bought the Kredo and swapped all the parts over.
Now if I could get to ride any of them that would be great, but at this point I'll be happy to ride once or twice before March. Which one I'll take will depend on how I feel. Since all three are spotless at this point I'd hesitate to take them in the rain or snow.
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