Category Archives: Rawland

New Bike Day! Rawland Nordavinden

Posted on May 14, 2013 | 30 Comments

Felkerino and I celebrated New Bike Day at the Dining Room Bike Shop this past weekend. New Bike Day New Bike Day!

This edition was particularly exciting, as 1. the bike was for me; and 2. I purchased the frame and fork in June of last year, but took another ten months to get the parts for the bike in order.

The bike I purchased is a Rawland Nordavinden, designed by Rawland Cycles out of Danvile, California. Unlike the Rawland dSogns that Felkerino and I own which are a mix between a mountain and cross bike, the Nordavinden is meant to be a fast-ish touring “all road” bicycle.

Rawland Nordavinden

Photo by Felkerino

While I think it could be a little duplicative of my Rivendell Romulus in some ways, the Nordavinden appealed to me for several reasons.

I wanted an attractive steel bike with a responsive feel that I could use for commuting, century bike rides, and the occasional 200K brevet. The Nordavinden is an icy blue-gray color with attractive decals and a little lug work on the fork and rear dropouts. I’m not a huge fan of lugs, but I find the lugs on this nice looking. As for the bike’s feel, I have only ridden it a total of four miles so I will get back to you on that.

Unlike my Rivendells, the Nordavinden is designed to eliminate toe overlap. That has not been a big deal on my Rivendells, but it can be annoying, particularly when riding in the city where there is a lot of inevitable stopping and starting.

Rawland Nordavinden

There is versatility in the tire widths I can use on this bike, with the maximum tire width being 35s. I could take this bike on dirt if I wanted, or keep it on the road. It’s nice to have choices. I am still deciding on what tires (both type and width) I will use. I don’t like spending a lot of money on tires, but I also want the ride to have a good feel. Suggestions?

The Nordavinden is also made to take fenders. Yippee! Even though I sometimes dream of riding a fenderless road bike without a care in the world about a little rain, I know how I am. If I can avoid a rooster tail by applying full fenders, I will do it.

The bike’s price point suited my budget, with the frame and fork retailing for $725. Felkerino and I used as many parts as we could from the Dining Room Bike Shop to help with the overall cost of building up the bike.

Another preliminary shot of the Nordavinden

Another preliminary shot of the Nordavinden

The Nordavinden will take a light load. It’s not a touring bike, though. In fact, it’s designed to take a front load. I’ve never been a huge fan of the big porteur bag, but I will likely use one on the Nordavinden. I’m still working through my front bag options. Do you have any ideas? For the moment, the bike has a small Carradice seatpack on the rear.

College Park Bicycles did a great job taking all of the parts and getting the bike to where it is now. I will go into the parts spec some other time; I don’t have the bike finalized yet so explaining it would be premature. Also, I’m not a huge gear head so keep your expectations in check. It was a fun group project to put this bike together, though, so I will do a build post at some point.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be dialing in the fit of the Nordavinden and getting a feel for how it rides. I’ll keep you posted.

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Posted in Bikes to Like, Dining Room Bike Shop, Rawland

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Riding the C&O Canal on the Rawlands

Posted on September 16, 2012 | 3 Comments

This weekend, Felkerino and I took advantage of the spectacular mild weather and busted out our Rawland dSogns for a day ride along the C&O Canal.

Rawland dSogns on the C&O Canal

Our destination? Homestead Farm, a pick-your-own produce place just outside of Poolesville, Maryland.

Homestead Farm makes for a perfect fall ride from home. The one-way trip is about 29 miles, the route along the C&O is quite pretty (particularly the spots near Great Falls), and the reward for our efforts is tasty fresh fruit (or maybe even a piece of pie or a caramel apple if we want to get something extra special).

Picking out a gourd at Homestead Farm

The Rawlands are great for terrain like the C&O. 650B wheels make for a comfy ride with no toe overlap. Fatty Rumpkin tires tolerate the bumps and dips well. My Brooks Flyer S saddle smooths out any uneven ground. The grippy disc brakes offer ready assistance to deal with weaving pedestrians or any other untimely obstacles thrown in my path. Oh, and my Carradice Nelson longflap is perfect for hauling home any fresh produce or treats we pick up along the way.

I love my Rawland dSogn and the C&O (and my NC Randonneurs jersey)!

We departed around 8:30 in the morning with hopes of avoiding any big crowds, but our plan resulted in us crossing paths with a half-marathon going on in D.C. and a 20-mile run going off on the C&O. How about that for our plan totally backfiring? Oh well, we were in no hurry, our disc brakes came in extra handy, and it was fun to cheer on the runners. We even got a “Go bikers!” from somebody. Yeah!

Felkerino and the Rawland

My Rawland is a bit stodgy on paved surfaces, but it thrives off-road. Every time I ride it I’m glad Felkerino picked one up for me, and I thank Rawland for the reasonably priced yet sturdy and responsive bikes that set up well for away-from-the-pavement adventures.

Despite the fact that Felkerino and I rode the whole way together, my computer showed 57 miles door-to-door compared to his 56. What does it mean? I’d say it means I win the mileage challenge.

Want to see more from our Sunday ride? Felkerino’s pics are here and the few I snapped are here.

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Posted in 650B, Rawland, Whatevering

Spring Training Rides, Leaving the Pavement Behind

Posted on May 14, 2012 | 10 Comments

The Rawland and a nice rollout

The past two weekends, Felkerino and I put the brevet cards aside to enjoy some excellent training rides. As you may know, I like to qualify weekend non-brevet cycling as “training.” It’s like a doctor’s note that excuses me from my household responsibilities.

D.C. to Frederick, Maryland – 120 miles

Two Saturdays ago, Felkerino and I ventured out with friends Alec and Lane and pedaled from the District to the outer edges of Frederick, Maryland. It was a beautiful day for riding, made a little bittersweet since Alec is relocating. We’ll miss our friend, but I know we’ll ride together again.

Alec and Lane near Dickerson

We made Frederick our destination in order to check out some of the beginning roads for the upcoming D.C. Randonneurs 400K brevet. For some reason, I got it in my head that the ride would only be 105 miles. As we pedaled closer to Frederick, I noticed the odometer creeping up and up. 54, 55, 56… no way this was turning out to be a 105-mile ride. I told our group this was the Ride of Lies.

Our ride out to Frederick was mostly rolling, but the return leg had some significantly undulating parts. The most undulating was our climb up Mt. Ephraim road, a beautiful unpaved road that passes by Sugarloaf Mountain. It was a bit trafficky, but drivers made room for us. I highly recommend riding in this area if you have the tires for the hardpack.

Alec on Mt. Ephraim Road

Ultimately, Felkerino and I ended up with 120 miles on the day. I don’t know why I considered our mileage such a crisis, considering we had just ridden 189 miles the week before. Sometimes when I get it in my head that I’m doing one thing and end up doing another I get grumpy.

Dirt Road Riding on the Rawlands – 83 miles

Last Saturday, Felkerino and I left the tandem at home and took the Rawlands out to hilly horse country, Virginia. If you live in the D.C. area, you know that this past weekend offered up some absolutely stellar weather.

Felkerino and I took advantage of the sun and low humidity by completing an 83-mile loop from Haymarket, over to Purcellville, then to Middleburg, and back. This ride included lots of grinding hills through pretty rural Virginia areas. Probably the most significant climb of the day was the leg-shocker at mile 5 over Bull Run Mountain. Topping that climb felt good!

The unpaved roads were made more challenging because of the extensive patches of washboard and other myriad sections with newly strewn gravel. The rough and unsteady surface required us to take frequent squeezes on our brake levers. I love the feeling of an unfettered downhill, but Saturday’s roads did not allow for them.

Felkerino tops another grinder

The Rawlands are good for roads like this. A couple of times I wished for beefier tires, but overall the bike handled the washboard and gravel without much trouble. The Rawland felt solid, handled well, and the disc brakes gave me extra confidence in handling the downhills.

Everybody smile!

Our route choice, while perhaps not rewarding in terms of downhill speed, was stunning in its greenery. Horses and cows came out to say hi to us, too. We did not want to be rude so we stopped, hung out with them for a little bit, talked about the weather together, and took their pictures.

The horses check out the Rawlands

More photos from our rides are here and Felkerino’s are here.

It was recharging to enjoy a couple of casual, yet challenging, rides with friends. Now that I’ve taken a little break, I’m ready to return to the brevet series.

I’ve been following fellow randonneurs’ and the #bikeDC crew’s rides via Twitter and Facebook. Looks like a ton of riding is going on. Hope everybody is having fun!

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Posted in 650B, Brevet Training Rides, Centuries, Rawland, Training & Fitness, Whatevering

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The Road Less Travelled 130K Populaire on the Rawland dSogn

Posted on November 23, 2011 | 4 Comments

Over the past weekend, Felkerino and I met up with fellow D.C. Randonneurs Chuck, Crista, and George to ride the recently approved Road Less Travelled Populaire.

This ride, designed by George Moore, totals 130K/83 miles, with approximately 60 percent of featuring unpaved roads. It starts in Haymarket, Virginia, and takes a blend of back roads and pavement to Purcellville, on to Middleburg (the heart of Loudoun County’s horse country), and back again to Haymarket.

Horse-drawn carriage near Middleburg

Felkerino and I thought a ride like this would be an excellent change of pace from the regular road riding we do. Because the course had so many unpaved sections, we decided to leave the tandem at home and ride single bikes. We readied up our 650B Rawland dSogns, threw some fatty rumpkin 40mm tires on the bikes, and headed out for a fun day in the country.

Felkerino and the Rawland

I had a blast riding my Rawland. While the beginning and ending miles of the route were mellow, the bulk of the ride felt pretty much like a perpetual roller coaster. Overall, the route has over 6,200 feet of climb in 83 miles.

Some of the climbs on the ride were steep, but with the Rawland’s mountain gearing I felt I could climb anything. Also, having done so much climbing on the tandem, the relative lighter weight of the Rawland made me feel speedy and strong. In reality, I was not speedy, but the Rawland made me feel like I was!

My Rawland and me

The 40mm tires gave me extra confidence on the hard-packed or sometimes gravelly downhills, as did the disc brakes. The brakes are so responsive on this bike that I have to be careful to not grab them to tightly. A little bit will usually do.

I had to pay extra attention on this ride, not only because I was steering for a change, but also because the road surfaces varied in quality and the patchy shadows cast over the roads in the tree-lined areas made the road more difficult to see. The minute I stopped paying attention I would inevitably dip my tire into a pothole.

Rawland dSogn, taking a break

The Road Less Travelled was the first ride of the season where I accepted that winter will actually arrive soon. Though the day’s temperatures rose into the 50s, we began pedaling while they were in the 30s. (I know, I know, that’s nothing compared to many other parts of the country right now. It’s all relative!)

The leaves on most of the trees had fallen, and many of the bright colors of fall had given way to varying shades of brown. The route was still picturesque, but I can only imagine how much more stunning it would be if ridden earlier in the fall, or during the green of spring and summer.

Bare trees and the long shadows of late fall

Felkerino and I did not race through this ride, but we did need to keep moving in order to finish within the mandated time limits. To see more pictures of what the ride offered, check out Felkerino’s photos here, and my small set here.

Like I said, it was great fun. We launched relatively close to D.C., started in daylight, finished in daylight, challenged our legs with the ups and downs of the route, and saw lots of “new” lovely areas just beyond those familiar paved roads. This excellent day on our Rawlands left me wanting to do more dirt road rides.

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Posted in 650B, Populaires, Randonneuring, Rawland

New Bike! Rawland dSogn

Posted on June 15, 2010 | 1 Comment

Felkerino’s Rawland

Felkerino liked his Rawland dSogn so much, he bought and built me one, too!

Today Felkerino and I took my new ride on its maiden voyage. I love it! This is my first bike with 650B tires and disc brakes.

My new Rawland dSogn

First impressions: I love the feel! Maybe it’s because I wasn’t carrying around panniers, but the dSogn feels responsive and zippy. Can’t wait to really dial it in and take it off-road, where is where it really deserves to be ridden.

Rawland, Rawland, and Felkerino

Now we have matching bikes. Little by little, all our dreams are coming true, ha ha!

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Posted in 650B, Bikes to Like, Dining Room Bike Shop, Rawland

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