Topics

1

Gear Talk / Is this an appropriate crankset?

« on: October 10, 2006, 11:25:08 am »

Hi all:

I've taken the plunge and ordered a Surly Long Haul Trucker frame that I plan to build up in the coming months.  As far as cranksets go, I'm leaning towards something along the line of a 46/36/24 or 46/36/26, preferably using one of the newer splined bottom brackets available.

One that I've seen that has these specs is the Shimano FC-M530.  Anybody have anything pro or con to say about this particular crankset?

Are there other cranksets that meet the above requirements that I might also consider?

Sugino cranksets seem to be popular and are widely available, but it looks like they've stuck with the square-taper bottom brackets.  Does Sugino now make cranks that use one of the splined bottom brackets now available?

TIA.

Tom Young

2

Routes / Familiar with Anza-Borrego/Cleveland Forest area?

« on: February 08, 2007, 12:58:05 pm »

Hi:

My daughter and I are planning to take our first self-supported tour (we'll, actually, our first bike tour of any kind) in March and thought we'd try something in the Cleveland National Forest and Anza-Borrego Desert State Park area in eastern San Diego County.  We'll be driving down from San Francisco and hope to park the car somewhere in or near Cleveland/Anza-Borrego and ride some sort of roughly circular route from/to the car.

Can anybody suggest a suitable starting/ending point where a car might park for 6 or 7 days safely?  Looking at the map we've identified a couple of towns (wide spots on the road?) that might be suitable: Warner Springs on Hwy 79 about 20 miles west of Borrego Springs, Ranchita on S-22, or possibly even Borrego Springs itself.  Can anybody comment about these spots, or suggest others to consider?

Thanks.

Tom Young

3

Routes / Newbie's First Try: Anza Borrego area?

« on: October 12, 2006, 12:58:51 pm »

Hi all:

My daughter and I are thinking we might want to try our first limited self-contained tour in February or March of 2007.  (At this point we don't even have our equipment together.)  Since Northern California is typically cold and rainy around that time of year I thought we might drive down to the Anza Borrego Desert area (east of San Diego) for a shake-out trip of a week or so.

If anybody has some local knowledge of the area and could provide pointers or recommendations I'd appreciate it.