The Bikes

Three of us rode road bikes, one a mountain bike, all in touring trim with rear racks.

Gearing is a key issue on a route that would total 40,000 feet of climbing.

Scott (far left) was on an all-steel Salsa 29er with a hard fork, 48/36/26 chainrings and a 12-32 cogset, with thumb shifters.

John (in blue) rode an all-steel REI Novarra touring bike with (coincidentally) the same gearing as Scott and STI shifting.

Kevin (far right) rode a new aluminum (carbon fork) Specialized TriCross with 50/39/30 and a nine–speed 12-32 cogset with STI Tiagra shifting.

I ( in yellow) rode an older all-steel Novarra touring bike, with 48/36/26 chainrings but an 11-28 seven-speed cogset shifted by traditional bar-end levers.

Do the math: If you ignore tire circumference (and they were roughly the same), Scott and John had the same gearing and the lowest gearing. Kevin and I had the same gearing. According to a Sheldon Brown calculator, at a cadence of 40 (groan), Scott and John went 2.6 mph. Kevin and I went 3.0 mph.

On Guatemala’s common 10% grades and on the occasional 12+% that we encountered, John and Kevin climbed like goats. I struggled and sometimes so did Scott. Next time, I will use a 32 cogset. Maybe 34.

I used the widest tires 700x35mm, Scott and Kevin used 32mm. John used 28mm. I loved the high speed cornering of my round-profile Vittorias. Kevin wished his tires had less rolling resistance. Everyone suffered a rear flat except me. No high speed blowouts. I crashed, perhaps because of my tires’ profile, when I went too far to the right on a high-crowned gravel-dirt road descent and the front tire washed out. Boom. Might it have gripped if it were a more traditional cyclocross tire with a slightly raised and ribbed “corner?” Maybe.

The all steel bikes were comfortable but heavy. The alu TriCross too was heavy. All weighed in the mid 20’s…beefy, with not-light components. Some of us used 36-spoke touring wheels. Sure, it would be fun to take your 16 pound, scant-spoked, flimsy wheeled roadbike on a climb in Guatemala, but the descents, on broken pavement and gravel, and over unmarked tumulos (speed bumps), would have been more hazardous for sure, and I suspect ordinary road frames might not survive the conditions.

The bikes got a bit beaten up. Mine broke a rear spoke and that wheel, of course, went out of true. I continued with 35 spokes and trued the wheel in our makeshift Lake Atitlan “bike stand.” (see photo). A shifter worked loose on the bar.

All the bikes needed headset tightening. All suffered a lot of brake wear. At least one needed a shifting adjustment.

Our motors, too, suffered wear and tear. More on that later…

But our bikes were our mostly reliable friends for 500+ miles. Like friends, we occasionally got sick of one another, but we made it together, all the way across Guatemala.

(Steve1223bike 2/3/10)