Yo Colorado! - Part 1

While I was jealous of those who were participating in the Brompton World Championship, I had to make do with the US Pro Challenge in Colorado.  This trip will be written in two or three parts, since there's a bunch of photos I'd like to put up.

I made use of my recently acquired B&W hard case and brought the Brompton along.  As I had mentioned before, I had to take off my Brooks saddle, which I wrapped in my riding shorts for protection.

I also covered the folding pedal with an old sock to prevent it from scratching the frame (again).

Here's the case loaded up...

When I arrived in Denver, everything was still intact.

One day my buddy Saul Mora (head honcho for iOS app developer Magical Panda) and I rode from Highland Ranch to downtown Denver, which was something like 25 miles one-way.  Here's some pics from that excursion:

Bicycle stairway to heaven!  We don't see these in Tucson!

Surprisingly, it takes more effort to wheel a bike down the stairs than up it.

Cuernavaca Park, right in the middle of downtown Denver!

Saul sucking some water.

Cherry Creek Reservoir

Cold filtered!

I must say that I am impressed with the hundreds of miles of bike paths in Colorado that are detached from car traffic.  It was a wonderful experience to cycle without having to constantly worry about being hit by cars.  I think I rode about 120 miles during my trip.  Also, no goatheads to worry about (although my Flat Attack would have probably taken care of them)!

Part 2 coming soon!

Departure

So I'm packed up with my B (with an old sock covering the folding pedal) along with a riding short (with which I wrapped my Brooks saddle), spare tube, some patches, a 5mm Allen wrench and a 15mm wrench / tire lever, all in the B&W. At the baggage check-in the case weighed in at 47.5 pounds. I had a couple of pounds to spare!










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Location:S Airport Dr,Tucson,United States

B&W was the case that they gave me

I took another trip to Portapedal yesterday to take care of a couple of things. First was to take care of my 100-mile service to make adjustments to the Brommie as cables stretch and other things break in.  Everything looked pretty good, but then they took a look at my tires.  They noticed about half a dozen thorns and a piece of wire in my treads, along with the tell-tale sign of sealant.

Plugged!

Thank god for Flat Attack!  I ride along some gnarly terrain!  I saw that they had Schwalbe Marathon PLUS tires in stock... I'll switch to those when my current ones wear out.

The second item on the agenda was to pick up a B&W hard case for my upcoming trip to Colorado!  This case is specifically designed to pack a Brompton and be within size and weight limits for normal check-in baggage (no extra fees!).  Here's how it looks:

The Brompton in the B&W hard case. 

The Brooks saddle had to be removed in order for the Brompton to fit.

There are a couple of things to note...

 First, the Brooks saddle must be taken off in order for the Brompton to fit (apparently the standard Brompton saddle can be kept on if you slide it forward).  At first I was a little concerned about this because I didn't want my seat positioning and angle to change.  But as it turns out, it is possible to take the seat off of the seatpost without affecting the seating position by loosening the pentaclip just enough.  Loosening it too much will obviously allow seat adjustments.

Loosening the pentaclip just enough will retain the seat position.

Secondly, it seems that the case doesn't open or close very well under torsional load (twisting).  The latches don't align very well when the case is not lying on a flat surface, making it difficult to open or close.  

Al from Portapedal mentioned to me that one time a customer had told him that the latches on his B&W were in pieces after inspection by the TSA (Transportation Security Administration in the USA).  Al believes that the TSA agent didn't notice velcro straps that help secure the case and thus used brute force to open it.  That may have been the case, but I also think that the agent may not have laid the case down on a flat surface, thus making the case difficult to open.  With that in mind, I wrote some helpful hints on the case.

The case does roll on its wheels very nicely.  I will probably stuff some of my clothes in the case to act as padding.  Slipping socks over the pedals should prevent them from scratching the bike.  I'll see how it works very soon!