OK, today was trying to end me, bigtime.
I'm trying to embrace the "car free" mantality as well as I can, but today was definitely testing my resolve.
I needed change for the washing machines here, so I decided to bike over to the bank and get a few rolls of quarters. In the same shopping center as the bank is an Aldi, so I figured I could pick up some cheap stuff and make the taco soup recipe I saw on Fatty's blog. (the recipe is in the comment by James--I make it without the corn and it is awesome. I would call it tortilla soup, but that's just me).
Anyway, I bike out there (about 2 miles) pulling my trusty Burley trailer, but the traffic light for that intersection is not working. Great, thinks I, this is crossing a 5 lane road and the cross traffic is not stopping. So I decided to make a quick right, make a u-turn, and slip into the lot. I'm a genius.
Now, having successfully gained entrance to the lot, I proceed to ride to my bank. It's located across a lovely expanse of concrete with "No biking!" signs everywhere, so I push my bike for a while. It didn't occur to me to notice that none of the surrounding businesses had lights on inside...when I reached the door to my bank, I first notice how dark it seems, and next notice the hand-written sign that says "We are closed due to no power".
Great.
I ride past Aldi on the way back, but they are dark inside as well, so I figure out how to cross the road again--not as easy as one would initially think.
I go ahead and ride out to my brother's house to pick up a package he has for me. I decided to have all my packages shipped to his house in an upscale suburban neighborhood because the only two packages I had delivered here were stolen--and one had about $110 worth of this year's Fat Cyclist stuff, GRRRRR. It's a good 10 miles from my apartment to his house, so I decide to make the most of the trip. I grab two books I had borrowed from him (Wizard and Glass and Wolves of the Calla by Steven King, books 4 and 5 of the Dark Tower series), and throw them in the trailer. Since I'd heard there was a chance of rain, I safely stow them in a dry bag first.
I set out for his house already feeling tired, but I'm not gonna let a little tiredness ruin my carfree ambitions! The trip over there is slow, but uneventful. I'm getting pretty hot and notice that I feel no wind for most of the trip--uh oh, that means a decently strong headwind for the return trip.I get to his house and throw my box in the trailer, then we grab some lunch at City Barbecue. I recommend the mustard BBQ sauce, it's amazingly good.
Anyway, I decide to head back home because it looks like the incoming storm could miss us to the north and the brother had some yard work he wanted to do. Before I go, I check the weather and notice that there's a WSW wind at 23mph. Great, I'm heading mostly W, but a little bit S.
I decide to make it a very leisurely ride. I'm not trying to win a race, I'm trying to run errands. I spin slowly up the big hill in my path as I head back toward the apartment, but then I decide to take a little side trip to Petsmart to pick up some cat litter on the way.
When I get to the top of the big hill, it starts to rain just a little. The wind picks up. I notice darkness in front of me and to both sides. "This could be fun", I think to myself.
After another mile, the rain picks up. The wind begins to whip me mercilessly...I would estimate the gusts at 40+mph, I am cranking the pedals pretty hard and running about 8mph into the wind. The sky opens up. Lightning flashes and thunder booms around me. Finally, an adventure!
I force my way through the storm, sometimes barely seeming to move. I flip on my blinky and my headlight s othat people know I'm out there. I finally take the access road to Petsmart, and roll slowly down it, feeling the left side of my shift instantly soak through with rain. This is a low traffic road and I am still not in much of a rush, so I just roll slowly down the right side. I get to a part that has a couple inches of standing water, but I just roll through it because I can tell there's someone wanting to pass. I don't mind riding through a little water. Unless...
Suddenly the bike seems to drop out from under me. I feel a sharp impact through the bars, pedals, and seat. My left pedal is scraping along the pavement that my bike just left. Rain hides big holes.
I coasted along, looking for somewhere to get my bike on the road, slowing quickly. I put my right foot down, luckily it's a gravel surface and it's gotten shallower here. I take a quick breath and pedal back onto the road.
I'm not sure how deep the hole was that I entered. Enough for my pedal to scrape the pavement when it was not quite vertical, and apparently enough to flood the front of my trailer (since it's just a cloth flap on the front, that only means "higher than the bottom of the trailer").
The worst was over now though, and after I looked in vain for something appropriate to lock my bike to (I settled on a big metal thing that dispenses trash bags for cleaning up after pets), I bought a 50lb bag of litter and a 5lb bag of cat food.
...compared to the beginning of the trip, the ride home with 80lbs of cargo seems pretty uneventful, so I won't summarize it here since I think I've used up enough space already.
Do I get to classify this shopping trip as "epic"?
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Giant hates me
OK, so today I took out the Giant again for the first time since the wonderful walk caused by the flat.
Made good time this morning, but then on the way home it started to express its apparent disgust with me.
Reached the bottom of the first hill, sprinting for the light in top gear, but didn't quite make it, so I got to make a very fast stop. Of course, it's pretty hard to downshift while doing that, so I was in top gear sitting at a red light. I didn't relish the idea of taking off in that gear, so I decided to downshift. I'm sure we've all done it, pick up the rear wheel, spin the cranks, work the shifters. I dropped the front into the small ring (it's a double) and started working the rear shifter....only the cranks seem to be spinning excessively. I look down to discover that the bike decided to drop the chain. Joy of joys, I'm in the middle lane with a light about to turn green with a bike that won't pedal. I retreat to the side of the road and try the old trick of pedaling forward while
working the front shifter....nope, it's binding on the rear. Apparently the chain dropped before the rear had shifter much, so the rear der was trying to be in the smallest gear while the chain was sitting on the second biggest, essentially freezing the rear drivetrain due to the sideways strain on the chain. 5 or 6 clicks of the right shifter and I actually get the chain moving on the cassette, so Ican begin messing with the front again. I decide to go the reliable way and just backpedal with my hands while putting the chain on the middle cog with my free hand. This is actually successful, so after THIS red light finishes, I can catchh the next green.
Things seem to be going well, at first.
My speed was getting progressively lower as time went on, I chalked it up to overstressed legs and the headwind we've been having all week. My plans to turn in a sub 1 hour roud trip seemed unlikely to come to fruition. The high speed sprint at the end of the bike path saw me only going about 15mph, I couldn't figure out the problem. I continued riding at a crappy pace until I got to the turnoff at my apartment, and felt the rear end try to jump out from under me. Oh, I suddenly got a theory as to where my speed had gone....yep, the tire felt like it had maybe 40psi. I had pumped it up in the morning, so I knew it had managed to get another leak. By the time I walked to my apartment proper (very short walk) it was at more like 20 pounds, and as of a few minutes ago it was completely flat (on the bottom, at least). So my project for..whenever I feel like it is to find where the hole is and see what might have caused it. I have a feeling I need to replace the rim tape or something, not too long ago it had a small puncture on the rim side.
Oh well, the Long Haul Trucker has never failed me yet.
Made good time this morning, but then on the way home it started to express its apparent disgust with me.
Reached the bottom of the first hill, sprinting for the light in top gear, but didn't quite make it, so I got to make a very fast stop. Of course, it's pretty hard to downshift while doing that, so I was in top gear sitting at a red light. I didn't relish the idea of taking off in that gear, so I decided to downshift. I'm sure we've all done it, pick up the rear wheel, spin the cranks, work the shifters. I dropped the front into the small ring (it's a double) and started working the rear shifter....only the cranks seem to be spinning excessively. I look down to discover that the bike decided to drop the chain. Joy of joys, I'm in the middle lane with a light about to turn green with a bike that won't pedal. I retreat to the side of the road and try the old trick of pedaling forward while
working the front shifter....nope, it's binding on the rear. Apparently the chain dropped before the rear had shifter much, so the rear der was trying to be in the smallest gear while the chain was sitting on the second biggest, essentially freezing the rear drivetrain due to the sideways strain on the chain. 5 or 6 clicks of the right shifter and I actually get the chain moving on the cassette, so Ican begin messing with the front again. I decide to go the reliable way and just backpedal with my hands while putting the chain on the middle cog with my free hand. This is actually successful, so after THIS red light finishes, I can catchh the next green.
Things seem to be going well, at first.
My speed was getting progressively lower as time went on, I chalked it up to overstressed legs and the headwind we've been having all week. My plans to turn in a sub 1 hour roud trip seemed unlikely to come to fruition. The high speed sprint at the end of the bike path saw me only going about 15mph, I couldn't figure out the problem. I continued riding at a crappy pace until I got to the turnoff at my apartment, and felt the rear end try to jump out from under me. Oh, I suddenly got a theory as to where my speed had gone....yep, the tire felt like it had maybe 40psi. I had pumped it up in the morning, so I knew it had managed to get another leak. By the time I walked to my apartment proper (very short walk) it was at more like 20 pounds, and as of a few minutes ago it was completely flat (on the bottom, at least). So my project for..whenever I feel like it is to find where the hole is and see what might have caused it. I have a feeling I need to replace the rim tape or something, not too long ago it had a small puncture on the rim side.
Oh well, the Long Haul Trucker has never failed me yet.
Oops....too long
It looks like I went a little longer than I had intended without updating. I apologize to my legions of adoring fans.
I made another bike trip to the grocery store pulling the Burley on Sunday. It is actually possible to stuff as much in that trailer as you can fit in a shopping cart....I had to hang a couple bags of chips from my handlebars, but I also had the 3 12 packs of Cherry Coke Zero in the rack under the cart, so I think by volume it balances out. I had posted about the tongue of the trailer seeming to flex before, but I'm no longer sure that's accurate. It might just be super emphasizing my regular acceleration/deceleration as I go over bumps in the road--which we have no shortage of.
My work schedule has changed from 9-6 to 10-7...that could be annoying in the winter when my ride home will be entirely in the dark, but I built a pretty sweet light (http://www.bikeled.org/), so seeing is not a problem. Speaking of seeing, I almost hit another cyclist on the bike path the other night. I was coming home from watching "The Incredible Hulk" at about 12:30 in the morning, and I didn't see this guy until I was about 30 feet away, and even then I only saw the lighter-colored part of his shoes moving. Probably blinded him pretty well too, as I had my light on bright (as soon as I saw him, I dimmed it and aimed it at the ground....if he had been smart enough to actually have any kind of light I could have done this from much, much further away and spared his vision).
I am going to try to be almost 100% car-free for the month of July. There will be a couple of exceptions though. I think I found a doable bike route to church (18 miles), but I will have to give it a test run before I ride it. And I won't be able to ride there when I'm on call, because it would take too long to get back home to my computer in a work emergency if I biked (have to get any problem resolved within an hour or it alerts my boss's boss).
I guess the car-free thing will also be hurt a little bit by the fact that I intend to drive back to my hometown for 4th of July weekend. I think a 400 mile trip for a weekend is allowed when one is flirting with the car-free lifestyle though. I think I would, even if successful, be classified as "car-lite" though, because I still plan to keep the truck around for mountain biking trips. There may be irony hiding in there somewhere.
Every time I see gas prices go up, a little part of me is happy--it means I can raise my estimate of gas saved for the year. There's something wrong with me.
I made another bike trip to the grocery store pulling the Burley on Sunday. It is actually possible to stuff as much in that trailer as you can fit in a shopping cart....I had to hang a couple bags of chips from my handlebars, but I also had the 3 12 packs of Cherry Coke Zero in the rack under the cart, so I think by volume it balances out. I had posted about the tongue of the trailer seeming to flex before, but I'm no longer sure that's accurate. It might just be super emphasizing my regular acceleration/deceleration as I go over bumps in the road--which we have no shortage of.
My work schedule has changed from 9-6 to 10-7...that could be annoying in the winter when my ride home will be entirely in the dark, but I built a pretty sweet light (http://www.bikeled.org/), so seeing is not a problem. Speaking of seeing, I almost hit another cyclist on the bike path the other night. I was coming home from watching "The Incredible Hulk" at about 12:30 in the morning, and I didn't see this guy until I was about 30 feet away, and even then I only saw the lighter-colored part of his shoes moving. Probably blinded him pretty well too, as I had my light on bright (as soon as I saw him, I dimmed it and aimed it at the ground....if he had been smart enough to actually have any kind of light I could have done this from much, much further away and spared his vision).
I am going to try to be almost 100% car-free for the month of July. There will be a couple of exceptions though. I think I found a doable bike route to church (18 miles), but I will have to give it a test run before I ride it. And I won't be able to ride there when I'm on call, because it would take too long to get back home to my computer in a work emergency if I biked (have to get any problem resolved within an hour or it alerts my boss's boss).
I guess the car-free thing will also be hurt a little bit by the fact that I intend to drive back to my hometown for 4th of July weekend. I think a 400 mile trip for a weekend is allowed when one is flirting with the car-free lifestyle though. I think I would, even if successful, be classified as "car-lite" though, because I still plan to keep the truck around for mountain biking trips. There may be irony hiding in there somewhere.
Every time I see gas prices go up, a little part of me is happy--it means I can raise my estimate of gas saved for the year. There's something wrong with me.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
A reason to bike
Well, during my drive yesterday, I remembered the reason I tell people I bike:
And it's up 30 cents a gallon today.
We all know that's not the real reason we ride, though. If they gave out gas for free, we would still ride. We ride because we like it. We ride because it's fun. We ride because it's nice to know we won't have heart attacks when we're 35.
And this might just be me, I like to ride so that people will pass me in their warm dry car and say "That guy is insane."
Speaking of insane, we have had some hellacious headwinds this week. Monday and Tuesday I had a nice 5mph tailwind going in to work, but a 15-20mph headwind for the trip home. I've always found it interesting that speed seems to have more to do with exhaustion level than the actual work you're doing.
12mph into a huge headwind spinning 85rpm in a small gear makes me wish I had a car.
8mph up a steep grade spinning 85rpm is the same.
29mph on a slight decline spinning 85rpm? Utter bliss.
Due to gearing, we can expend the same effort in all situations, spinning the same speed with our legs, but the ones where we go slowly just make us feel tired. I say us, maybe it's just me. Either way, I am in favor of travelling faster.
And it's up 30 cents a gallon today.
We all know that's not the real reason we ride, though. If they gave out gas for free, we would still ride. We ride because we like it. We ride because it's fun. We ride because it's nice to know we won't have heart attacks when we're 35.
And this might just be me, I like to ride so that people will pass me in their warm dry car and say "That guy is insane."
Speaking of insane, we have had some hellacious headwinds this week. Monday and Tuesday I had a nice 5mph tailwind going in to work, but a 15-20mph headwind for the trip home. I've always found it interesting that speed seems to have more to do with exhaustion level than the actual work you're doing.
12mph into a huge headwind spinning 85rpm in a small gear makes me wish I had a car.
8mph up a steep grade spinning 85rpm is the same.
29mph on a slight decline spinning 85rpm? Utter bliss.
Due to gearing, we can expend the same effort in all situations, spinning the same speed with our legs, but the ones where we go slowly just make us feel tired. I say us, maybe it's just me. Either way, I am in favor of travelling faster.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Driving day
Well, after 6 consecutive days of bike commuting, today I drove to work. I was ready to ride, but started to come down with a migraine, and I dread the ride up the hill with a splitting headache. Mine seem to be the lowest class of migraines, whereI am still functional but very, very miserable. I don't like missing work when I can possibly avoid it though (I have missed one day due to stomach flu and one and a half days due to appendicitis so far this year).
Driving in, I noticed that I am down to about 1/8 tank of gas. Oh goody, that's close to $70 in gas to top the truck off after work. On the bright side, I plan to use it very little except for going to church on Sundays (25 miles one way, don't know a good bike route to that area yet, and I'm not sure anyone wants to sit next to me after that long of a ride....we'll see, though).
I suppose while I have the truck handy I'll pick up some things from various places...like a new copy of my registration, which I seem to have lost. That might need to be near the top of my list.
This weekend I plan to ride out to John Bryan State Park and camp for a day or two. It's not a far ride, and there's very little actual road on the way, so it should be pretty good.
Hopefully I can find someone else who wants to go along. Solo camping isn't always the best.
Weight update: 255. It's going down, though slowly.
Driving in, I noticed that I am down to about 1/8 tank of gas. Oh goody, that's close to $70 in gas to top the truck off after work. On the bright side, I plan to use it very little except for going to church on Sundays (25 miles one way, don't know a good bike route to that area yet, and I'm not sure anyone wants to sit next to me after that long of a ride....we'll see, though).
I suppose while I have the truck handy I'll pick up some things from various places...like a new copy of my registration, which I seem to have lost. That might need to be near the top of my list.
This weekend I plan to ride out to John Bryan State Park and camp for a day or two. It's not a far ride, and there's very little actual road on the way, so it should be pretty good.
Hopefully I can find someone else who wants to go along. Solo camping isn't always the best.
Weight update: 255. It's going down, though slowly.
Friday, June 13, 2008
Tired now
Whew, long mileage week is over! Every day my average speed has been dropping, and my legs haven't stopped hurting since Sunday night. If I were in better shape this would be no big deal, but I think I definitely need to take the weekend off the bike so the legs can rebuild the muscle. Too bad, as that means I have to put a few miles on the truck--need to return a pump to Performance and buy some cat litter. The litter would have gone in the Burley trailer, but it's a 10 mile round trip to the pet store, and I really do need to rest the legs. ...of course, there aren't many climbs on the way there.....hmmmmmmm.
On another note, one of our programmers walked into the break room at work, looked at me, and proclaimed "I knew you would ride today." He concluded this when he saw that it was supposed to storm. Apparently according to his observations, I am more likely to ride when it rains than during fiar weather. Make of that what you will.
And one more item--looks like I crossed the $100 mark for gas savings this year. Go me!
On another note, one of our programmers walked into the break room at work, looked at me, and proclaimed "I knew you would ride today." He concluded this when he saw that it was supposed to storm. Apparently according to his observations, I am more likely to ride when it rains than during fiar weather. Make of that what you will.
And one more item--looks like I crossed the $100 mark for gas savings this year. Go me!
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Rough day--half over!
Well, this morning's commute was on the rough side.
Took my TCR for a faster ride since I'm being slowly beaten down by the increased distance this week. Of course, the rear tire went flat at mile 14. I was already using the spare tube and had no patch kit with me. Normally I carry a patch kit and a spare tube, but alas.... I got to walk the three and a half remaining miles to work, though I did ride a bit on the flat tire because I really didn't want to be that late for work.
Luckily once I got to work I found someone to drive me to Performance over lunch to get a new tube--I bought four, one of which is now keeping air in the tire. I also bought aTopeak Road Morph pump in case I have problems on the way home, due to using both of my CO2 cartridges in an attempt to make it a short distance on my punctured tire. If I don't need to use it today, I will return it this weekend, since I can just start carrying CO2 again if I need to inflate something.
Yesterday the ride home was killer, pulling the laundry-filled trailer home. I put it on the bathroom scale upon arrival, and it was just over 40lbs, so that gives a workout on the 9% grade on Kemp road. I used my lowest granny gear for the first time yesterday.
I got a few pictures, a couple of them came out OK, so here's where I rode yesterday:
The view out my front door. Yay, pool.
I love that there's a 10 ton limit on the bridge on the bike path. Are they hinting that I really need to lose weight?
My bike in its customary parking spot. Not super secure I admit, but this area has a very low probability of theft. That's also where everyone goes to smoke. Ugh.
I just love this view. It might be better if there were no houses, true, but it's a nice little slice of seemingly happy suburbia.
The same spot, but looking ahead. I have a crappy bike path!
Wait, I don't have a crappy bike path any more.
I couldn't shake this guy until nightfall. He was tenacious
Oh how I love going up this hill pulling a 40 pound trailer on a 30 pound bike with a 6 pound pannier. Really, I do.
Many miles later, a father and son on the bike path. Sun soon to set. Legs tired.
I'm just hoping to make it home today without any mechanical issues. That would make me very happy.
Took my TCR for a faster ride since I'm being slowly beaten down by the increased distance this week. Of course, the rear tire went flat at mile 14. I was already using the spare tube and had no patch kit with me. Normally I carry a patch kit and a spare tube, but alas.... I got to walk the three and a half remaining miles to work, though I did ride a bit on the flat tire because I really didn't want to be that late for work.
Luckily once I got to work I found someone to drive me to Performance over lunch to get a new tube--I bought four, one of which is now keeping air in the tire. I also bought aTopeak Road Morph pump in case I have problems on the way home, due to using both of my CO2 cartridges in an attempt to make it a short distance on my punctured tire. If I don't need to use it today, I will return it this weekend, since I can just start carrying CO2 again if I need to inflate something.
Yesterday the ride home was killer, pulling the laundry-filled trailer home. I put it on the bathroom scale upon arrival, and it was just over 40lbs, so that gives a workout on the 9% grade on Kemp road. I used my lowest granny gear for the first time yesterday.
I got a few pictures, a couple of them came out OK, so here's where I rode yesterday:
The view out my front door. Yay, pool.
I love that there's a 10 ton limit on the bridge on the bike path. Are they hinting that I really need to lose weight?
My bike in its customary parking spot. Not super secure I admit, but this area has a very low probability of theft. That's also where everyone goes to smoke. Ugh.
I just love this view. It might be better if there were no houses, true, but it's a nice little slice of seemingly happy suburbia.
The same spot, but looking ahead. I have a crappy bike path!
Wait, I don't have a crappy bike path any more.
I couldn't shake this guy until nightfall. He was tenacious
Oh how I love going up this hill pulling a 40 pound trailer on a 30 pound bike with a 6 pound pannier. Really, I do.
Many miles later, a father and son on the bike path. Sun soon to set. Legs tired.
I'm just hoping to make it home today without any mechanical issues. That would make me very happy.
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