Handlebars for bicycles

Everyone seems to have an opinion about handlebars. Flat, riser, noodle, attack, mustache, and what have you.

I've been using flat bars for the last three years.

The Miyata I bought came with a flat bar, and I still use that bar on the 1x1 I built. The Instigator came with an old Azonic world force riser bar. the Long Haul Trucker we have has had mustache bars, bull horn bars, riser bars and now has nitto noodle bars. My Pugsley came with a Salsa Mo'to flat bar. Angled up slightly it might be the most comfortable bar I've used.

A while back I'd seen a thing about bar end grips being put in the middle of a flat bar, and have mulled this idea over since. I imagined this for riding through the suburbs,--a mockery of the pathletes on their skinny tires in lycra sausage casings.

This afternoon I finally put them on.

Bwahahahahaha!

pictures to follow.

The enchiladas I was eating that Jim mentioned were fantastic, but too little too late.

I am pretty sure I hit a wall because 1. I was underdressed for the weather 2. caloric intake was completely eclipsed by hours on the trail.

Breakfast was 1 1/2 scrambled eggs with 1/2 oz feta cheese melted into it, a small muffin and 4 shots of espresso with 4 oz soy milk.  

What I wore was the medium weight long underwear and a pair of knee high smartwool socks, a wicking shirt a long sleeve wicking shirt and a rain coat.  for gloves I wore a pair of synthetic gloves I got from Team Ortho.

I should have worn the heavier long underwear.  I should have had a larger breakfast or mid morning snack before heading out.  I should have worn the wool shirt and mittens I was carrying in the pannier sooner. 

We had a great ride though.  I think Jim liked that I had a map of Scandinavia, and I liked that his phone told us where we were.

I think I need to work on taking longer rides.  Depending on the weather I might ride Frenchie next Monday and try to pull another 44 miles.

This post is particularly whiny.  I blame it on The Biggest Loser.  They rode a stationary bike tonight and keep bitching about how hard the seat is etc.

not quite enough for a century

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2583448

Today I got in my longest single day of riding of the year.  Jim and I left from HC and tried to make it to Carver.  It was my whimpy legs that made us turn around.  The trail got less and less plowed the further we went and my excuse is the single speed lacked the gear ratio necessary for the slipping.

So my legs cramped at mile thirty or so, and by mile 40 I was aching, by the time we got to Humboldt I needed to sit down.

A damn fine ride though.

Shannon got to be the knight in shining Jetta and save my sorry ass at Uncommon Grounds.

The things they left behind

So I hadn't thought to much of the stuff in the shoulder bag.  Dirty lunch carton, old newspaper, etc.

There was also this water bottle.

For all the rooting around, the person missed a pair of Grobet pliers I had in the bag that cost me a small fortune.  Also a 9 dollar three sided ruler.  But, I am glad to still have these things.

I imagine the person standing at the Jetta finding an Eagan police water bottle and leaving.  I imagine the person power walking away.  

I was helping a repeat customer the other day and her Cannondale had been stolen.  The suburban police had made an honest effort trying to track the ten year old bike down, but some things are hard to find.

Tomorrow I'm thinking I'll bike to the Depot in Hopkins, and I'll use the new chains to secure my ride home.

is this rain, sleet or snow?

The correct answer is D. all of the above.

The ride home was quite pleasant.  I wasn't over or under dressed, the trails were clear of rutted ice.

time riding home: 40 minutes.

I mentioned before that I can't really go faster.  The bike is geared pretty low so I can get up to around 20, but faster than 16 is uncomfortable.  Where I improve is in improving the average speed by not going as slowly on the climbs.  I'll keep piling on weight to keep my time around 45 minutes though.  I am thinking it might be fun to try some of these local races, and I think of this as casual training.

Linked together

Since the car was broken into I've been thinking about things being stolen. And since Menards was selling their Kryptonite chains for next to nothing (apparently they weren't good sellers???) I have two of them now.

The added 16 pounds of chain didn't slow me down too much though. I made it home in 57 minutes compared to 45 minutes from the night before.

My co-workers think I'm crazy and that I have perpetrated an act of major overkill, but I like my bikes dammit.

Also, the added weight improved traction and momentum riding. Braking suffered on downhills, but when rolling the tires cut right through rotten ice.

The golf club

So I've been having a recurring dream since Saturday.

It has me riding my bike south along the River road towards Lock and Dam #1, which is weird because I work in the southern suburbs, and I see the person bust out our window.  Suddenly I have a golf club in my hand and bellow "pedestrian polo!"  the phrase "now I'm gonna take $250 out of your body" creeps in as I break the hand that busted the window.

a disturbing dream made worse by putting it in text...

What irks me is that we had better plans for that money which is now going to replace our window.  The glass is on order, I expected to hear from the Volkswagen dealer that it came in today, but predicting shipping apparently sucks in more than one industry.

pub crawl

SO we went on the HC pub crawl.  And there was a high degree of awesome.

not a high degree of warm, but people were interesting and the food and drink were excellent.

I strongly suggest the tulburg.  Some wicked awseome dutch beer.

more as I am sober

shod in shoes for shlumping through the shnow

So I "accidentally" didn't use all of my vacation time last year (I had reasons for saving a day but that's another story), and took a Saturday off to balance the time out.

Saturday Chester and I went to bike around Lake Harriet.  And I went to the wrong lake.  There wasn't too much confusion since we were car pooling, but we did lunch at Isles Buns and Coffee.  The wind was wicked on the south end of the lake.  And the snow drifts on the lake made it almost completely impassable.  We walked much of the way across.

The folks at Isles make wicked good espresso.  I place the Mocha between Brewberry's and Black Dog.  

Saturday night we went to Let the Right One In.  I don't remember the last movie we liked enough to see 4 times in the theatre.  This one was totally worth seeing four times.

Yesterday we biked to the Town Hall Brewery.

And today we went snowshoeing in Eagan.

Happy New Year!

I've never been hugely into resolutions.  I've never worried too much about my weight.  I've never been too heavy into vices.  So my resolution is to keep better track.

Track of what?

Everything.

Today we did a shake down ride on Shannon's winter bike.  Seems the rear brake needs "adjustment."  or a whole new unit.  The left caliper has no springiness.  So far this year my milage on the bike: > 1 mile.

Unofficial Goal: 2,009 miles

It was a bit chilly

Apparently the air temp got a bit low last night on my way home.  I froze to my Balaclava.  Well, my beard did.  No frostbite that I am aware of yet (nothing is purple).  I didn't get home till a few minutes after 8 so my commute took an hour and a half again.  But the trails through Eagan were complete shite.  After 4 miles of zigzagging through muck I took to the streets and the going improved.  

I wasn't surprised to see snow on the Mendota bridge... I was surprised by the ice on the Bloomington side.  Twice.

I would like to say the teenage drivers on Highland Parkway are much more polite than the old fogies in their minivans.  Do they feel threatened by a cyclist? Do they think following closer will make me move over into the mushy snow?  I know my rights. [/rant]

I need to get Shannon grips for her bike.  I don't know how we forgot to get them before...  I don't know what I'm going to do, usually when I get to Hiawatha it is just moments before close...  I'll have time to...browse...dun Dun DUUN

Joe Soucheray can eat my socks

Up yours ass hole.

(I will provide no context for this outburst.  I don't want anyone to send him letters.  I don't want anyone to look up his article in the tuesday paper.  I don't want him to profit from increased exposure from excited readers, regardless of their opinion.)

Guy Woodhouse

Some folks are curious what Guy Woodhouse looks like.  I'd say: the ugliest bike in our stable, Shannon says the greater metro.

I think it's worth five dollars.

The handsome Cannondale in the background is Shannon's winter bike.

What I like about Guy is the simplicity of his parts.  There is very little that can go wrong mechanically.  With the cube prism reflective tape on the fork and rack it glows like a christmas tree.  And with the patches of dirt and rust and overall crappy appearance an otherwise sound bike will never ever be stolen.  I hope.

and then I found five dollars

Back in college this was the classic end too a lame story that took too long to tell and the audience became bored from.

Last week, I was going to bike home and Shannon called me to say it was too cold.  So we agreed to meet at a nearby Starbucks.  But I got there first, so I rode up and down the street and through a bunch of fresh snow.  

So I'm riding around in circles having a ball.  Light snow is flying all over, the bike felt like it was floating. And then the wind went right through me.  So I decided to stand next to the building out of the wind.  Crossing the powdery snow, aiming for the parking lot, imagining exploding out onto the pavement. 

Whump

I got stuck in the compressed snow from the plow.  As I haul the bike out of the snow an SUV stopped and the people inside insisted I take five dollars.

With a high degree of awesome.

Biking in the winter has always been fun. But having better traction has vastly improved the comfort over distances.

But then last night I found myself stuck on the Mendota bridge. Eagan seems to have forgotten to plow their sidewalks. And then Mendota stopped too.

So I called for backup and did power slides in the church parking lot till Shannon picked me up.

Finally some god damned snow

Since I put the studded tires on the Miyata a few weeks ago, the weather has been mind bogglingly nice.  So this morning, since it has finally snowed an inch,  I tested out the studly tires on ice for the first time.

It was like I'd made a pact with the devil.  When the bike should have flipped out from under me it was sure footed (can a bike that has no feet have footing?).

Anyway, it was awesome.  I rode down the river road and back without loosing control, even when the back wheel tried to escape in a frozen rut.

What I will need to do is add a layer of sock; my toes were freeezing.

Rubbing compound

When I put the knobbies on Frenchie I didn't tighten the quick release sufficiently.  And biking to work got louder and louder.

Eventually I had to stop because the dragging felt like a leaden weight.

But I hauled ass on the ten speed.

Studded tires

So last weekend I put the sexy new studded tires on the Miyata.  Thinking that the weather folks weren't lying and snow and ice was coming.  I was helped to this conclusion by icy walking in Minneapolis when we went to Harold and Maude.  But ice has not appeared and there is no snow.

And there is now visible wear on my brand spanking new tires from riding on bare pavement.

But I still have the 1 1/4 in. knobby tires for the Peugeot.  So today the slick 8 year old Continentals come off, and the Kendas go back on.

After a few months on a single speed Frenchie is going to be an exciting ride.

Politicians that fend for me

I'll start off by saying, I know who Lynn Warlow is (I had him as a math teacher twice) he was a wrestling coach and math teacher, reserve Marine, and all around a pretty good man.  But his constituents are lazy and didn't take his campaign signs down fast enough for them to not see recycling.

I don't know Chuck Baldwin from Adam, but the same goes.

The cross wind on the mendota bridge made the new fenders whistle like some '80s horror movie sound track.

Nite Rider

So the whole bike commuting thing is easy during the summer.  The days are long, the trails are clear of most debris, for the most part the biggest worry is rain.

But then fall and winter arrive and a new obstacle shows up.  It's dark.  What I used to use as a light is the Cat Eye light you see on the right.  It runs on three AAA batteries, and is a fine being seen light.  As far as being able to see though, even the freshest batteries give a dim patch 5 feet away to work with.

A little more than a week ago we picked up the Nite Rider light you see on the left.  It has a USB cable for the rechargable battery pack and it ran a whole week's commuting without significant dimming.  On Saturday I went on the Night Ride with the folks from Hiawatha Cyclery, and with just an hour's charging it went the whole trip.  The Nite Rider light casts a beam about 12 or 15 feet wide and about 20-30 feet down the trail depending on how it is aimed.

I still carry both because the Nite Rider light does not have a blinking function, but for seeing I recommend the Nite Rider.  Also, I think having a backup is always a good idea.

I hope there are more night rides or rides on Sundays because it is a fun group to ride with, and Saturday mornings line up tragically with my work schedule.

yeah, I know, what the hell.  The ISO was set to 200 and I didn't feel like fussing.  this is from the spiral thingy by the Gutherie.