Check out this wicked bike hopping video! I hate to think what sort of injuries this guy did to himself…
The music is pretty cool, too–It’s a track called “The Distance” from Cake’s album Fashion Nugget, which has been added near the top of my Amazon wishlist.
I rode my bike to work this morning. I guess I just woke up on the “foolish” side of the bed! It was beautiful but cold: -2°C (28°F). With the “wind” chill from riding, it was about -8°C (17°F). The view coming over the Guy West Bridge was the high point of my ride–the deck of the bridge was rimed with frost:
Unfortunately, my camera/phone doesn’t do justice to the sight.
I’m a bicycle commuter here in Sacramento, and I’ve had my share of bad encounters with motorists. I’ve often thought of posting something here on the blog to let motorists know what it’s like to ride a 30-pound bicycle while 3,000-pound cars are whizzing by right next to me, honking, yelling, or just plain ignoring my presence. But somebody has already taken care of this for me! Check out CrazyBikerChick’s open letter to motorists.
I haven’t done much long distance (e.g. over 50 miles/80 km) bicycle riding for the last two decades or so. But since January 2006 I’ve been making a concerted effort to ride my bike as much as possible, for commuting and errands as well as LD riding. I’d ridden in three organized rides already this year, but this past weekend I rode my old Takara Tribute in the Lodi Sunrise Century and completed my first 100-mile bike ride since c. 1986 (20 years ago)!
Continue reading ‘Lodi Sunrise Century’
I’ve used my century checklist for several rides since BAB, and it’s saved my butt more than once! Tomorrow morning I’m riding the Lodi Sunrise Century, assuming there are no thunderstorms or other hideous weather. Once again I’m heading out for a hundred mile ride on my 20-year-old bike. Speaking of which…
I was talking to the wrenches at Peak Adventures some more about my upgrade-or-replace quandary, and David was asking some very insightful questions. He wanted to know which bike I was thinking about getting. The Specialized Sequoia Elite is my top contender, but he thought my old bike was a better-built touring bike. I also mentioned that I’d like to get my wife to go out touring with me, when he suggested that I buy a tandem bike. Doh! Why didn’t I think of that?!? So for right now, by dilemma is solved–I’m saving up my money for a KHS Milano tandem bike.
My wife doesn’t want to start tandem riding until our remodeling project is done, and I’ll keep riding my old bike when I’m solo, so I’m going to go ahead and upgrade the rear wheel and cogs pretty soon. This is an excellent solution, since I get to have my cake and eat it too! I’ll fix up my Burgundy Beauty and get a new bike and (hopefully) get my wife to start riding with me. 
I got some new bicycle tires for my mountain bike last month. It took me a while to finally install them, but today is Bike to Work Day, so I had extra incentive. (I normally ride my Takara Tribute, but I didn’t want to take that downtown for the rally today–cleats are great on a normal ride, but they’re dangerous in a slow-moving crowd!)
Previously I had the original knobby tires that came with my KHS alite. These would be great for off-road use, but I only use this bike for errands around town. Just in case I ever decide to re-install these, the tire circumfrence (for my cycle computer) is 2015 mm. The new tires are 26″ x 1.4″ Ritchey slicks. For my cycle computer setting, I measured 231.5″ for 3 rotations x 25.4 mm per inch=5880.1 mm. Divide by 3 to get the average circumfrence=1960 mm.
I’ve only ridden these tires one trip, but they’re much more pleasant than the knobbies so far! They give a much smoother ride on pavement, whereas the knobbies generated an irritating humming that I could both hear and feel through the frame. I’ll definitely be riding my mountain bike a lot more often now that I have these slicks mounted!
I haven’t ridden a century (100 mile bicycle ride) in quite a few years, but tomorrow morning I’ll try to complete Bike Around the Buttes on my recently-upgraded Takara Tribute. Since I haven’t done a ride like this in years (decades?), I thought I would make a pre-ride checklist. Then, after the ride (when I’ve figured out all the things I forgot), I’ll add comments to this post so that I’ll be better prepared next time. And perhaps some other intrepid rider will get some benefit out of this as well.
Don’t forget to charge the cell phone and Ipod the night before! Also, wash out the Camelbak bladder and water bottles.
I’ve been having trouble with my knees ever since I started commuting by bicycle. I tried adjusting my bike fit on my own, but some of the measurements really require a trained eye. (Said eye being in the skull of somebody other than the cyclist sitting on the bike.) So I took a ride to City Bikes after work a few weeks ago to see if they could help me adjust my touring bike for less painful riding.
The guys at the shop did their best not to laugh when I wheeled in my 20-year-old bike. They decried the overly large frame, fixed-length stem, and old-school drop bars. But keep in mind–The conventional wisdom back in the mid-80’s was to buy the biggest frame you could just barely stand over. The only adjustment one could make to the stem was to raise or lower it. If you wanted more “reach” you had to buy a longer stem, which is precisely what I did when I first bought the bike. And drop bars only came in one style back in the day. They went ahead and fitted me, but I guess I had already done a pretty good job myself–they weren’t able to find anything that could be adjusted that needed it. Thus, no charge for the fitting, but they did strongly suggest that I buy a new, modern bike with a smaller frame. They showed me a bunch of bikes, but the only one that caught my eye was a Specialized Sequoia Elite for about $1100.
So now I’m in a quandary–do I put money in my old bike or buy a new one? $1100 sounds like a fair bit of money for a bicycle, but it’s a heck of a lot cheaper than a car! Instead I decided to see what I could do with my existing bike first. I spent about $300 at Peak Adventures and replaced nearly the entire drive train with pretty nice components: Xpedo RF-L3 clipless pedals, FSA Gossamer triple chainring (53/39/30T) with 172.5 mm cranks and megaexo bottom bracket, Shimano Tiagra rear derailleur, and a new chain. The only original drive train components now are my 6-speed casette (28, 24, 21, 18, 16, 14T) and the wheels. I wouldn’t mind replacing the casette sometime, especially since I now have a 9-speed derailleur, but if I have to replace the wheels I’m going to be thinking very hard about just buying a new bike. (Decent wheels can be pretty expensive!)
If I do spring for a new bike, I’m not fixated on the Specialized Sequoia. I’d be looking for a touring bike–something with a rugged frame, drop bars, fittings for panniers (preferably front and rear), triple chainring or possibly a compact double, clipless pedals, and those very cool integrated shifters/brake levers (my favorite feature of the Sequoia)!
But before I drop that much cash I’m going to see how I do on some long-distance rides with my old Tribute. I’ve got a nice flat 100-mile ride this Saturday: Bike Around the Buttes. I haven’t done a ride this long for many years, so it’ll be interesting to see how it goes.
Grrr! Soma’s “Morning Rush” coffee cup holder uses a Cat Eye H-27 bracket, which (of course) is not the same bracket that came with my HL-350 headlight, which is the only Cat Eye headlight stocked by my LBS (Peak Adventures). So I searched the Cat Eye catalog for headlights that use the H-27 bracket (part #533-8591). A Google search for site:cateye.com 533-8591 returns 3 matching items:
Peak Adventures is willing to special-order the light for me, but I found it in stock at City Bicycle Works (mid-town store) so I’ll just pick it up there.
I seem to be making a lot of bicycle-related posts lately, so I guess it’s time for another hobby entry.
I got my first bike, a Schwinn Stingray, for my 7th birthday and I’ve been riding ever since. In fact, I didn’t even own a motor vehicle until I graduated from college and got a professional job at the age of 24. At that point, bicycling went from a necessity to a pastime. That was nearly 20 years ago, and I’ve found that the sedentary lifestyle doesn’t suit me. In May 2005 I was finally able to move close enough to my job to allow me to commute by bike, although it wasn’t until January 2006 that I got to the point that I was bicycling to work more often than not.
Over the last couple of months, I’ve been looking at Sacramento-area bicycling clubs. I’ll do a post some other time showing all the clubs I found, but the club I decided to join was the Sacramento Bike Hikers. They seem to have a lot of organized rides starting near my house, so that tipped the balance heavily in their favor.
One of my co-workers introduced me to BikeJournal, a world-wide online cycling community. Sadly you can’t really explore the site until you register, but a few days ago I wrote a post about BikeJournal and included some links (no registration required!) demonstrating the site.
Between the online- and meatspace communities that I’ve joined, I managed to find a few commuting buddies over the past two weeks. We had some pretty nice cycling weather in Sacramento last month, but March is off to a nasty start. Hopefully the rain will clear up soon and I’ll be able to return to commuting by bike!
