Cycling New York's Capital Region: Cohoes Falls, the Niagara Falls of Eastern New York

The title isn't hyperbole. Cohoes Falls, the much, much, much lesser known huge waterfall of New York State is the second largest waterfall in the United States. Second largest, is that a typo? No.

So why don't people travel from all over the world to visit it? And why haven't you heard of it?  Unfortunately due to diversions for power plant and the canal, the falls doesn't run all year at the consisten volume that Niagara tends to. When it's flowing the 1000ft wide by 90ft high waterfall dumps a ridiculous amount of water volume over the precipous (at peak it comes within a mere 10% of Niagara Falls peak), but there are times throughout the year it's just a trickle. 

Unfortunately (actually, quite fortunately for those of us who live here), the Capital Region is terrible at marketing itself. It's also somewhat apathetic. With a location that puts it within 4 hours (a mere half day drive) of 90% of anything worth visiting in the Northeast US and some of Canada, it's a great place to live and I think perhaps some of that convenience makes the folks in the area not care too much.

Pit Stops Matter: Why Weight and Aerodynamics Are (mostly) Irrelevant on Flattish Bike Touring (Bikepacking) Routes

Setup: touring is 4 panniers, bikepacking is the typical bar, frame and seat bag. Watts (effort) and rolling resistance are identical in both setups, only weight and aerodynamics are variable. Added into total time is a very modest +20 minutes per day for bikepacking to resupply. Race mode assumes less time. Times are based on modest 50mi days.

One of my favorite past times is seeing how long in a social media post with a loaded touring bike it takes for someone to ask "how much does that weight" and "that's a lot of stuff for a...tour" .

A few things to keep in mind before I get into the actual data.

Your base gear is mostly the same for a weekend, week, cross state, cross country or around the world tour. Depending on how remote the longer trip is you may bring more repair gear, or more of this or that. But it's also likely you'll filter out some stuff that is more faff than it's worth. While some people would say that's what you should be doing to get the load light for every trip, in cycling weight doesn't matter very much. Bikes are very efficient, and unless you spend all day climbing in the alps, weight just doesn't matter. Aerodynamics and rolling resistance actually have a greater influence in most cases. So bringing that saw to help build a nice fire and a chair to sit around it on a weekend trip isn't going to matter much. But on a month long trip, having a fire and camping might not be a nightly priority. So those things might get left behind. You may also need more things on a longer (remote) trip. Like a way to charge devices and charge devices that charge devices. Like a solar panel and extra battery storage.

Photo: (C) loadedtouringbikes.com

For me, I prefer not to spend time on my trip time stopping at a store. There's three reasons. Dietary restrictions, cost and time.

Even if the first and second don't apply to you, the third is actually relevant to anyone. I was listening to a podcast with Ted King and he and Jan Heine (owner of Rene Herse) brought up something I already knew from virtually any sport, or even just driving a car over a distance. Time lost by not moving is time that is virtually impossible to make-up. If you stop for a few hours on a drive, no matter how fast you drive you cannot make that time back up. If two groups of travelers start out at the speed limit, one stops for an hour the other doesn't. It's very unlikely the second car catches up without significant risk of a speeding ticket. We also know this is true in car racing. It's why having the best pit crew is almost as important as having the best driver. Pit stops matter!

Photo: (C) Evan Christenson Insta: @EChristenson

The same applies if two equal riders are riding together, one stops for an half and hour extra each day for food and the other just keeps plugging along, there is virtually no way -regardless of bike weight, aerodynamics and rolling resitance- that the rider who stops finishes with or before the rider who doesn't.

So bringing everything you need on a weekend to week long tour actually will have the more laden rider finish in front of the bare bones rider (at the same effort level), even at speeds as fast as 18mph, which is quite fast average for non competitive touring/bikepacking. The only rider that finishes ahead, the speeder who rides fast and rarely stops but for the bathroom and maybe a quick Coke grab out of the convenience cooler. That strategy isn't valid for most bikepackers. It's hard to do it in a race, and even harder when you aren't competing.

Refueling in Arlington, VT on a 65 mile, 6500 vertical gain NY/Vermont gravel grind

Data and how I came up with these numbers:

My data basically normalizes energy expenditure (effort= input watts) over identical terrain which in this case is the Erie Canal. I normalized rolling resistance between the two riders which you could argue is unlikely to be true, but let's assume the rolling resistance difference in the real world is very marginal (it's 12lbs difference, not 100lbs) if the touring rider uses an appropriate tire higher volume (fast rolling premium tubeless, latex or TPU tire). If they are riding 25mm Gator Skins, I imagine the losses will be significant with a big load.

With riding identical low rolling resistance and used commonly believed to be true watt penalties to calculate aero losses with each setup in  this worked out to be about 10-20 watts or about 3-5% lower speed at the same effort (watts). 

Weight only worked out to be a few watts no matter what calculator I used, and I knew this to be mostly true from when I rebuilt my road bike a few years ago and realized dropping 1-2lbs had virtually no benefit UNLESS I was climbing the steepest mountains all day, and to  convince myself that titanium bottle cage bolt and lighter seat mattered, I literally calculated best case climbing the steepest roads I could map out in calculators, I actually still have the screen shots of the 15 second savings. But when sanity caught up, it wasn't enough to fret over as a non-competitive cyclist. And when you had to go down those hills, the heavier bike actually was faster. Of course, descent increases average speed much less than ascent, so they don't cancel each other out. 

The results: 

• The rider at 12mph with bikepacking rig is the baseline, the rider with panniers at the same output is really averaging 11.6mph in my calculations based on aerodynamics and weight.

• For 15mph with the lighter bikepacking rig, the touring rider (with 4 panniers) is riding at 14.4mph, again, watts/effort/rolling resistance is the same. The losses are weight and aerodynamics.

• And 18mph bikepacking rig is 16.9mph in kitchen sink touring mode.

From here we can calculate time to ride 50 miles per day (average speed and miles). And compare the times. The bikepacking rig with minimal food is faster because it's more aerodynamic, not because it's lighter. However, once we add extra stops for food (and I was very conservative) the bike touring rig wins. And remember, I'm only assuming the bikepacker buys food and cooks at camp side by side with the bike tourer. If the bikepacker doesn't choose to eat at camp, these numbers increase quite a bit. You absolute cannot make up restaurant stop time, this I keenly know from long distance drives. 

Eating at restaurants vs camp would change these numbers significantly. Minimum I'd estimate if say fast food was 3 meals a day, would be 60 minutes, vs the 20 extra i worked in. 10 minutes from order to reception and scarfing down your burrito or burger and coke another 10 minutes. Of course that is incredibly fast. Ordering ahead only saves a few minutes unless you can order and ride at the same time. Crashing also cost time so I would recommend pulling over to spend 5 minutes ordering.

For me, I'd rather spend the time (and money) I would spend shopping enjoying my campsite and downtime. I can also spend more time on photography, site seeing, and grabbing a beer when I want to, not because I have to...and still meet my mileage and time goals.

I also understand for a lot of people, perception is everything. If the bike looks fast (and I'll admit bikepacking bags look sleeker and are modestly faster if everyone adheres to the same stops), you are perceived to be fast. However, fast is total trip time, not perception. And the less you stop, the faster you are, and no perception is going to change that. 

Looks fast(er)...

...IS faster

Cycling to the top of Cohoes Falls: The Waterford Flight of Locks

At the top of the Waterford Flight of Locks

Those in the Capital Region of New York might not pay much attention to the Erie or Champlain Canals; afterall, that which surrounds us is often least visible.

From the gatehouse of the first lock on the Waterford Flight of Locks

Waterford, New York is the crossroads of the Champlain and Erie Canals. It is also home to the worlds highest elevation gaining series of successive locks. There are single locks both on the Erie Canal and around the world that gain more elevation in a single lock than any of the Waterford Flight of Locks, but none gain the 169ft the Waterford Flight gains in about 1.5 miles to bring boats above Cohoes Falls, which is the Capital Regions version of Niagara Falls. A true engineering feat.

I've lived at the cross roads of the Erie and Champlain Canal for a good chunk of my adult life and like most people didn't pay much attention to it. When the Empire State Trail, which follows greenways and bike paths up the Hudson River from NYC to Albany, and then to Buffalo (west on the Erie Canal) and Canada (north on the Champlain Canal) was unveiled I also dismissed that. The main reason was I hate multi-use paths. Kids, pets, roller bladers, joggers and walkers all share these paths and as a cyclist you are non protected and most at risk for getting injured. A walker can step out of the way at the last second, but if I cyclist makes a last second, last ditch move, it could end with them planting face on the pavement.

The Empire State Trail which is formed by the Hudson River Greeway, the Erie Canal and the Champlain Canal

Over the last 6 years I've gotten deeper and deeper back into recreational cycling and along the way, I've become more and more road averse. Drivers are just very distracted today, even those who aren't on their phones, and cars are bigger, cycling infrastructure on road ways is still largely just a 3ft shoulder in most places, and less in plenty. As a result I've gravitated to gravel, trails, and bike paths.

The rebirth of the Erie Canal as a mostly protected bike path for a good chunk of it's 500 (NYC to Buffalo) miles and it's proximity to Amtrak service out of the Capital Region (there are 3 stations within 20 miles of the Erie and Champlain Canal intersecton) made it very appealing to me over time. I've both ridden the Empire State Trail \locally in the Capital Region and in sections via Amtrak.

Smelling the flowers on the Erie Canal Trail outside of Weedsport, NY

While not a wilderness experience by any means, there are plenty of spots on the EST that you will find yourself surrounded by nature.  

Bikepacking: 1991 Trek Multi-track 7900 loaded on the Erie Canal Trail (Empire State Trail)

Trek 7900 fully rigged and loaded on day 6 of the Heart of the Finger Lakes Route which used the Erie Canal, Cayuga-Seneca Canal and looper around the Finger Lakesfrom Syracuse Amtrak Station

These old Treks were some of the first mass produced gravel type bikes. There were others but none were so readily available. Of course back then gravel bikes weren't a genre so these were sold as hybrids with flat bars. 

It turns out, as long as you don't require disc brakes (and trust me, marketing is a powerful thing but a set of V-brakes with salmon Koolstops are going to stop your bike at least as well as most mechanical disc) these are ideal mixed surface touring bikes/gravel bikes. 

The higher end models like the 7900 came with premium level MTB components. Deore, LX, XT depending on year and a 700c MTB rim with MTB hubs and spacing. Rack mounts, fender mounts. 

Drop bar conversion on a 6/7/8/9 speed just meant a pull adapter for the front derailleur or even easier a bar end friction shifter (I've done both on the two I own). 

The gearing on this is far superior to any modern 1x or even 2x drive train. It's a little less than the 670% of my 7900 but still around 600% with nice tight spacing, a true high gear and a very good low gear (24x34). 

As seen, the bike is outfitted with a Soma Rakku 2 rear rack with Topeak Versa Cages and dry bags (this wasn't an aesthetic choice or a function choice, we didn't finish the second set of panniers), an aliexpress Pizza Rack knock off on front with some creative but very secure attachment, homemade (home modified) military sustainment pouch micro panniers that cost $2.50 each and an hour of hour time per set to modify. The feed bag is a Moosetreks which I scored 5 of for $65 total (shipped). If you know the outrageous cost of bikepacking labeled equuipment you know these climbing chalk bags are not worth $60 each. The Moosetreks feed bag is as nice as any other feed bag on the market and even at it's $27 retail price is still a steal. 

I added a downtube bottle mount for extra capacity. I know a lot of folks dislike the down tube bottle mount but a pro tip, don't drink directly out of it. You just pour the liquid into one of your other bottles.  

The rear derailleur is a takeoff from a newer (90s model) bike. It's XT 8spd vs Deore 7spd. It's running a 9spd cassette. We used microshift R9 brake shift levers, but ended up going with a Sunrace 3x front friction shifter instead of a pull adapter on the front brake shifter. Sunrace bought Sturmey Archer years ago and makes some high quality parts. It's not an AliExpress quality company.  While my preference is cantilever vs v-brakes, I opted for the lower maintenance, higher max stopping power of the XT V-brakes we had from a takeoff mountain bike in the parts bin. Cantis offer better feel and if adjusted properly will stop with plenty of power, but they also require fairly constant maintenance. 

The rear wheel I had to go with a new version. I went with a Weinman Zac 19 in my preferred 36 spoke configuration. There was nothing wrong with the original rim, but it was dished for a 7speed cassette and once again, I didn't have time to redish or bring it somewhere to be redished. 

As shown the bike is outfitted with 38mm Challenge Gravel Grinder tires on 18 and 19mm rims. I love these tires for the gravel I typically ride, and they were great on this trip, but they tend to wear fairly fast on pavement heavy riding. I feel like 35mm is the ideal tire width for unloaded road riding. 38mm might be a little narrow but the riders on this bike won't be heavier than 130lbs and fully loaded this bike is about 160lbs (bike, gear, rider). The multitracks vary in max tire width but 40-45mm is typical (sometimes 50mm possible up front). When this bike needs new tires I will upgrade to 40-45mm for better gravel and rough road performance and comfort. 

Trek 7900 in original form as purchased for $100

Overall, this is very solid frame up build using a mix of original parts and some parts bin or selected new parts where necessary. Every bearing and part was stripped and cleaned. This is essentially a new bike! 

Initial test ride before final adjustments and bar taping. All the racks are visible here and the down tube bottle mount. I got creative with the front rack mount but it's very secure and I wouldn't hesitate to run 20lbs on it.