Spare Parts

How many of you can say that you are 5 spare parts or less away from being able to build a bike? I discovered just that when I looked into building a bike that I could put on my trainer so I didn’t have to haul my commuter to the basement on rainy days. This has helped me to be more willing to ride indoors when I can’t ride outdoors.

It started as I realized that I wasn’t doing much indoor training because it was a hassle to haul a bike to and from the basement. I started looking around and realized that I had a lot of parts lying around so I took inventory. When I was done I was short a seat tube clamp, saddle, pedals, shift cables, and a slick tire. Now the bike is not road worthy because the steer tube is a bit short and there are no brakes, but these are not an issue when mounted to a trainer. I even found an old computer with cadence which is important sine all of my indoor work is cadence related.

This allows me to have a dedicated trainer bike that stays ready to ride, so I ride more. I highly recommend this type of project to anyone who is not doing indoor training due to the hassle of getting the bike to the trainer. Even if you go out and get a cheap bike to dedicate to your trainer, I am sure it will increase your training time.

Pictures of the trainer bike coming soon.

I’m Back

WOW, I knew it had been a while since I posted, but March 26th! Well there have been a few things going on and I am back to update and re-commit to this blog. I love to write and I really enjoy writing about cycling, so I am not sure why I took such a long break. I have razzed my oldest daughter about not blogging, and now she has made an entry so I can’t let her get ahead of me.

I have been riding as much as possible and the commuting is going very well, especially since I don’t have to carry the laptop back and forth. I am up to 1,363 miles for the year and all of that has been on the road. My son took up soccer this spring so our Saturdays have been consumed by games, but those have ended so we look forward to getting back in the dirt. The irony is that this is Bike to Work Week and I will not be riding at all.

I have been interviewed by two papers for my commitment to commuting and can’t wait to see the articles this Sunday. The one will be in the Atlanta Journal Constitution and the other will be in the Cherokee tribune. I have been interviewed before, but it has been a couple of years ago. I love being able to get the word out about commuting and I encourage everyone, if given the opportunity, to speak to a reporter and tell your cycling story.

As I mentioned above, I had to drag my laptop back and forth with me for a couple of weeks. I was surprised at the weight it added as well as the added wind that I caught with the larger bag. I usually use a large trunk bag for my commutes, but with the laptop I tried a new bag and a regular pannier. The new bag I bought was from Performance Bike and I was not very impressed. It didn’t have very many pockets and it was smaller than I needed so I returned it. The pannier worked fine except for needing a small bag to keep my wallet, cell phone, and watch in, and it doesn’t have a handle or shoulder strap. I have looked at several other bags, but until I need to carry the computer on a regular basis I am not going to worry about it. I may even look into designing my own that would be laptop bag on one side, general bag on the other.

Well that is all for today. Tomorrow I will share what I did to make riding my trainer easier.

Cheers!

Are YOU tuned up?

OK, so we are now having summer like weather here in Georgia so my cycling season is ramping up to full speed quickly. I took the bike down to my shop yesterday and cleaned and lubed the chain, checked the tires, and gave the whole bike a quick once over tune-up. The bike is looking and functioning well, but I have to ask, “How well am I tuned up?”

I have to say that I was really motivated coming out of last year and into this one, but I took a hit a bit over a month ago. I was getting into the gym regularly doing cardio and weights, riding when I could and my body was responding. I am not sure what happened, but I suddenly lost almost all my urge to work out. I started finding it hard to get out of bed in the morning unless I was riding. On the non-riding days I am coming in and doing a little cardio at times, but not lifting weights. This morning I got up in time, but fell asleep sitting on the couch so I drove in and just showered and changed at work. I am not sure what it is going to take, but I have got to get my desire back.

It would be a lot easier if our bodies were more like our bikes. If we could only put ourselves on the maintenance stand for thirty minutes to an hour and make all of the necessary adjustments it would be great. Think of it; remove the spare tire, 10 minutes. Lube all the creaky joints, 20 minutes. Inflate lung capacity, 5 minutes. Change mental grip, 10 to20 minutes. Tighten loose screws, wait, that is a never ending process as most cyclists have a screw loose. None the less, after just over 45 minutes you would be all tunes up and ready to ride.

Alas, our bodies are not machines and as they age we can’t just swap out or upgrade the aging parts. We must toil and sweat on a regular basis and watch what we eat if we want to achieve and maintain our fitness level. This takes daily dedication and resolve to stick to a regiment of diet and exercise that will allow our bodies to do the work on our bodies to tune them up. The time is never too late and the time to start is now. Find what you need to succeed either through self-motivation or through the support of others or a coach, whatever it takes.

March Madness

It’s time again for another round of March Madness, but not the type that involves a basketball and a lot of college guys. This is a time for cycling madness! We are all feeling it, the yearning for time on the road or in the dirt. Being lost in thought on the road by yourself, or pedaling along with the local club waiting for a sprint to break away. To be shoulder to shoulder in a peloton, or picking gravel out of your knee and wondering how bad the bike is.

For those in the north, it’s the madness of wondering when winter will end. How many more late snow storms will blow up? When will the thermometer get above and stay above 40? When will all the snow and ice go away? I used to struggle with these issues when I lived in Michigan. We wouldn’t start to get good weather until late April early May and the MS Bike ride I did was the first weekend in June. We fought to get every training ride we could in before a setting out to tackle the two days of century routes. It was madness, pure madness that drove us to pushing our bodies and cramming to get ready for this.

Now that I live in the south I suffer a new type of madness. It’s the madness of wanting to find all the time I can to be out on my bike. We have a lot earlier spring here and it leads to the madness of spring fever and a hunger for lots of miles. Take today, it’s a perfect low 80’s with bright sun and a light breeze, and I am stuck at work. I rode in and I will ride home, but I wish I were riding all day. I know that this is selfish, but I don’t care, I just want to ride. It’s madness.

For me, cycling is madness no matter what month it is. I love the road, I love the dirt, I love being on a bike. I hope to always have this madness and I hope to infect everyone I can with it. If we have more cycling insanity think of the impact it could have. Just imagine, fewer cars on the road, less obesity, less diabetes, and a happier society feeding off of natural endorphins. What a wonderfully mad world it would be!

Suffers of March Madness rejoice, for spring and summer are before us, and long and winding roads and paths await. Take the opportunity to infect someone else with the madness and swell our ranks. If you haven’t already, get those bikes ready, clean your bottles and hydro packs, and wash that forgotten pair of sweaty bike shorts. Let the madness begin!

Warm Weather Cometh

In a world filled with transitions it is always nicer if the transitions are gradual and allow time for the adjustment. This is not the case here in Georgia the week as we go from last week’s weather where I was still wearing tights, a long sleeved base layer, long sleeved jersey, and a jacket in the morning to this morning where I was plenty warm in a short sleeved jersey, arm warmers, a wind jacket, and leg warmers. Yesterday I rode home in shorts and a short sleeved jersey and my arms were only slightly darker than my white jersey. I will say that my arms should regain their summer color quickly if the weather stays as it is.

We never really had a winter here in Georgia so I guess the change to late spring temps should be expected. The high for the next few days is supposed to be in the low 80’s and lows are only getting down to the upper 50’s. This has allowed me to shed the extra winter clothing and not have to stuff wool socks and toe warmers into my shoes. This early warm weather will also allow me to start on my tan lines (I rarely burn) and force me to dig out all of my summer togs. I won’t put the winter stuff away just yet as you can always get a cold snap through the end of April. Believe me I love the change and being able to dress lighter makes me feel faster and less fatigued.

I feel for the folks in the north as I lived in west Michigan for 10 years. Up there its seemed that spring would never come and summer was over before you knew it. We are in cold weather gear well into May and back into it as early as September. I can remember a June 1st morning when we were getting ready to start a day of riding in 32 degree weather. It did warm up as the day went on, but I kept knee warmers and a wind vest on all day. I miss the flat terrain and straight lightly traveled roads, but I love the longer season here in the south.

I saw an interesting article in VeloNews about fat tires rolling faster than skinny ones. I run 700×25’s and after reading the article I will stick with them over going to 700×23’s. I can’t say that I want to run 700×28’s unless I can find tubes that are not 700×28 – 32. I tried running these for a time, but got tired of trying to jam that huge tube into the tire as well as feeling like I got more flats with them. I used to run 23’s on my road bikes and have to say that I don’t notice any rolling difference with the 25’s, but the ride does seem smoother even at 120 psi.

Hurts So Good

Ooch! After being off of the bike for nearly 2 weeks, and not working out at all last week the ride home last night and the ride in this morning “hurt so good”. The temps here are getting pretty mild and the conditions were perfect to get me back in the saddle. We had clear skies, temps in the mid 60’s, and a bit wind. The ride would have been better had I not missed my pedal while starting off from a stop light and scraped skin off of my shin.

Not sure why I took the time off from working out. The weather was not conducive to riding, but the rarely keep me out of the gym. I guess we can all fall into a bit of a funk and get de-motivated and that is where I was dwelling last week. It is amazing how much weather and other environmental conditions (aka life) can grab us by the short hairs and drag us into a pit. We must fight it though by picking our sorry tails up and getting back to the important things.

One thing that helped me was watching “Race the Divide” which is a documentary about a mountain bike race from Canada to Mexico down the continental divide. If you haven’t seen it I highly recommend it. It is not the most professional film I have seen, but I think that makes it better as it stays more real. The racers are pretty average people who are attempting and amazing feet of endurance and mental toughness.

Well gotta move on. Keep on pedaling!

Are those crickets I hear?

I realize that I not posted in a while and thought it wise to put forward a reason. I realize that my blogging is driven by my riding and wrenching, and I have been doing neither. This is flat depressing!

I hope to be back on the road next week, but I have to confess that a duathlon is NOT in my near future. Until I drop about 50 lbs. I feel that running is not in the best interest of my knees. This does not mean that I have any plans to back off on my commuting so long as my work schedule will allow. I love to bike, I live to bike, and I get grumpy (as my family will attest) when I can’t bike.

I am also hoping to be doing more wrenching as I am launching “A Spoke In Time” bicycle garage in my basement. I am hoping to get locals to bring me their bikes for tune-ups, repairs, and re-builds that will allow me to involve my son so he can learn another trade. He is only 11, but a bright lad that seems to be good with his hands.

Hope the rest of you are getting some mile in and I hope that spring thaws any northerners out soon.

Cheers!

Review: Compact Double

For this installment I am going to give a non-scientific review and opinion of a compact double vs. a 28/38/48 triple. As you may know I upgraded my commuter to a 50/34 compact double and went from an eight to a nine speed cassette. From this I would like to share what I have found and my overall opinion of the crank up-grade. This is in no way based on anything measurable, but it should be good for killing some time.

The first thing that I noticed is that a double is a bit trickier to tune than a triple. It takes a bit of playing around to get the derailleur tuned so that you get the most options from both rings. In my opinion it is more important to get the big ring tuned to go as low on the cassette as possible and not to worry as much about the small ring. I have gotten mine to go down to the third cog on the cassette and if need be I can go to the second and not really notice a rub. On the small ring the 5th cog is as high as I can go without noticing a rub and I am happy with that. I feel that my limits are partly due to the fact that this is a retro fit and I had to add a spacer to keep the big chain ring from rubbing the frame.

As far as the riding goes, I really like the compact double. I find that I stay in the big ring most of the time and only shift down to the smaller one for steep climbs. With being able to shift to the third cog on the rear that I can even start on a slight up-hill grade and stay in the big ring. This makes shifting a lot simpler and it entices me to push a bit harder. The 50 tooth big ring gives me plenty of top end speed as well as allowing me to have more power when combined with the larger cogs in the rear.

It is also my opinion that I am becoming a stronger rider with the compact double. With the large difference in tooth counts, I am less likely to down shift to a smaller chain ring to make the climb easier. Now when a climb presents its self I get to a comfortable cassette option and lift my butt off of the saddle. This increases the speed in which I am climbing and forces me to expend more power. At first my legs complained, but now they accept the challenge and keep pushing me forward. I have never liked to climb though now that I am doing it better I hold less distain for the activity.

To wrap this up I would have to say that going from a triple to a compact double is a worthwhile endeavor. I haven’t gone into the mountains to test the gearing so I can’t say how well it would do on the steep stuff. I can say that I have not found anything on my commute here north of Atlanta that even starts to get me into the low gears. I can also say that I feel stronger and like the reduced shifting concerns. Results may vary depending on your individual riding style and course terrain.

Winter Fitness

It’s February and no one expects you to be in great cycling shape. It’s the time of year when the majority of us are getting our miles in on a trainer, if we are riding at all. There are some in the warmer areas that are still able to ride in comfortable temperatures, but for most this is a time of cycling hibernation.

This is an odd year though for many of us. The weather has been mild and the roads clear. It is hard to believe that I have been able to commute the first eight days of February! With this has come a test of my endurance and fitness levels and I am proud to say I feel pretty good. I was able to put in a full week of riding and I actually feel that I could do a couple more commutes. Now I will admit that I wasn’t out there trying to set any new records, but after 144 miles this week I feel great!
I never find that trainer miles ever really equate to road miles. I do trainer time and it does help, but there are no environmental elements to deal with. The room is a constant temperature; there is no wind, potholes, rough pavement, or cars. You can’t really coast downhill on a trainer so your legs are in constant motion, but you can also make a hill as long or as short as you want. I can crank it up and have a really intense trainer session especially if I use one of my DVD’s, but it’s still not the type of workout that I get on the road.

So, how is YOUR winter fitness? If you can’t get outside, get on the trainer. If you don’t have a trainer, get one or get to a gym. Use this time to also work on your upper body and core strength. Do some weight training or join the “Cross Fit” movement. Get yourself ready to make this an epic riding year by avoiding the hibernation habit. The more you do now, the more you will be able to do this summer.

The Dark Side

For those who have never ventured there you really don’t know what you are missing. The quiet, the sense of isolation, and the bond of bike and rider as you ride alone on the dark side. It is cold, crisp, clear, and quiet. The number of cars that pass you is a fraction of that which passes you in the light and all you see is lit by the eerie glow of electric lights.
My commute to work this time of year starts in the dark and ends in the dark, and at night I am just now riding more in the light than the dark. Mornings in the dark are my favorite because of the light traffic and the cold crisp air. It is not always easy to get going, but once on the road I fall into my rhythm and the miles start to roll by. Traffic is not only light, but easy to see, so long as they have their lights on. The only real fear is that a stray dog or other animal will come out of the shadows and into my path.
Once I was buzzed by an owl and another time I arrived at work to discover that a bear had been hit at an intersection that I had crossed. I hear but not seen a lot of animals, and I have had a lot more close calls in the light, especially from squirrels. I have also had close encounters with runners and other cyclists who feel that wearing dark clothing and no lights is just fine.
I find that there are things I can hear in the dark that I might not notice in the light. You hear light rub of the chain or a brake pad, the sound of the tire against the pavement, and the sound of the animals that also prefer darkness to light. You also hear the absence of noise with the absence of traffic, mowers, and other mechanical equipment. There is a sense of peace and stillness as you silently glide through the darkness.
I realize that to ride in the dark, especially alone, might be a bit un-nerving to some, but you never know if you like it unless you try it. I recommend morning darkness over evening darkness because of the traffic. Riding a bike in heavy traffic in the darkness rates right up there with encountering a hornet nest or poison ivy, you can do it safely, you just need to be that much more alert and assume that everyone is out to hit you. In the morning though, there is peace and quiet as the darkness is pierced by the beam of your lights and all around you is waiting for the rising sun. The air is fresh, clean, cold, and it is unspoiled by the morning rush. You and the bike are one as you venture where few cyclists dare.
So come out and join me as we ride on the dark side.