The Single Speed Bikes of RAAM 2007

Dad and I in Hillsboro, OR on 5 June 2007.

Lots of people have asked about the bikes I rode during RAAM. I heard rumors that I had several bikes or that my crew was swapping cogs and chainrings during the race. Neither is true. Here's the scoop.

The tires on all my wheels (yes, I did have several wheels) were 28mm Continental Ultra GatorSkins. Tubes were Continental Race (butyl) tubes. Tires and tubes were both courtesy of Highway Two, the primary US distributor for Continental bicycle tires. The whole race, I only had one rear flat (after some rain in Ohio, I believe) and one front tire that went soft (Upton helping with the flats issues - somewhere in AZ, we had the front tire go soft, upon inspection, I found a little piece of steel belt sharp was worked into the tire, right on the edge of the tire liner, and the flat in OH was after the second rain in the race, which the tired had an 1/8 inch gash which the entire inside of the tire was soaked, so some grit was the ultimate culprit of the second flat. The gash occurred where the tire liner was, protecting the tube for a good while). And if you think 28s are too fat, feel free to ride across the country on something skinnier. It's your ass.

DiNotte Lighting supplied headlights for both bikes, including the incredible L-series flood attached to the Vanilla. Until RAAM, I had been almost exclusively a Schmidt hub generator guy. Although I'm not about to give away my Schmidt wheels, we carried two of them with us on top of the follow van and never used them. The DiNotte lights, batteries, and chargers were perfect for a supported race like RAAM. And the DiNotte lights are better than anything I've ever used for those wet, pitch black descents on overcast winter nights that render a 3W halogen bulb practically useless.


Ira Ryan photographed on 16 June 2007 at 4:36 PM race time (EST) in El Dorado, KS.

My orange bike was set up for comfort and speed on the flats.

The frame and fork were built by Ira Ryan. (Note Ira's name in reflective tape on the down tube in the picture above.) The frame is steel with Henry James lugs, braze-ons for a rear rack, caliper brake mounts, and horizontal dropouts (sans derailleur hanger). The steel fork is threaded.



I built all my wheels. The Ira bike is shown with 32 hole Chris King single speed hubs, Velocity Aerohead rims, Wheelsmith DB14 spokes (dipped in Wheelsmith spoke prep) and brass nipples. A Chris King 15 tooth steel cog is mounted on the rear hub. The tubes sit between Velox rim tape and SpinSkins Race (?) Bike tire liners.

The rest of the drive train consists of a Phil Wood 116mm stainless steel bottom bracket (and cups), 165mm TA Alize deluxe track cranks (note that the fifth arm of the spider is "hidden" behind the crank arm), a 39 tooth TA Alize 3/32" tandem chainring (tandem rings do not have ramps and pins like other 3/32" TA chainrings), and a Wippermann chain.

Beneith my rear, a Thomson Elite seatpost supports a brown Selle An-Atomica Titanico LD saddle.

In the front, a Nitto Technomic stem slips into a Chris King Gripnut headset on one end and holds 44mm Nitto handlebars on the other. Nice (and VERY nicely priced) Soma brake levers activate a pair of Shimano R600 caliper brakes. Relatively inexpensive Profile Airstrike aerobars were temporarily attached to the otherwise classic bike just for RAAM.


Vanilla photographed on 22 June 2007 at 5:17 PM race time (EST) on the podium in Atlantic City, NJ.



(This post is a work in progress.)