TRIP 2: This past weekend I put the bike in the back of Terese’s car and rode with her home in time to catch a nice chicken dinner. I knew it was going to rain the next day 100% chance when I decided that I would bike back. The next day I put on 9 layers on top and less on bottom. By mile 3 I was soaked and had dirt in my mouth and water bottles from the constant spray of my tires. More annoying was having to wear my glasses which were fogging and reduced visibility significantly yet a better option than getting dirt in my eyes. I was completely drenched but glad I made the trip. I am sure it wouldn’t have stopped Devon so no reason that it should stop me. It was wet but not too cold so honestly I have seen worse.
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TRIP 1: My first serious trip was down to Bethany CT to see Terese. Round trip it is a 66 mile trip. The first time I made the trip down was at night which was fine until my light went out right as I was hitting the small mountain that Terese lives on the other side of. Short of 750 feet of elevation in less than a mile, no light, no shoulder… no crying? But, when I got there it was rewarding.
The return trip was a bit more ridiculous. I left and made great time. I decided to stop at a random gas station to top off the tires since I have done n0 maintenance thus far this year. After speaking with Rolando he assured me that I shouldn’t have a problem using a gas station air pump. Skip ahead 5 minutes and I had given myself a flat tire. Rolando couldn’t pick me up because I had taken the car keys with me (the whole point of me taking the bike was so Rolando could use the car, but so much for that ) so after walking a mile with the my bike and self inflicted flat tire I hitched a ride with a nice round jolly man in a red pickup truck to the nearest bike shop 3 miles away to have them fill my flat. To my unsurprise they couldn’t find anything wrong with my tire… TRIP 1 SUCCESS
So about a month ago I took my first 20 mile ride down to PO-KEP-C. It was nice and despite having very hard nipples I took my shirt off. Since then I have used the black beauty more as a transportation vehicle. My car is on the brink of death so I have decided to put as much of the burden of my mobility on the bike as I can.
I have had the bike about a year now. In one year I have put on about 1750 miles so not to shaby. If you figure 15 miles an hour on average that is about 120 hours of sitting on my bike. My ass has less fat on it then when I started but seems to have a higher pain tolerance. Perhaps Devon had ulterior motives?
23 hours ago I woke up in Londonderry, NH at 2am and suited up to ride my bicycle. My intermittent reliance on the bicycle as a primary means of transportation has continued for a couple extra unexpected days. Reduced mobility left me with extra down time at home and I rewarded my bicycle for its efforts with the maintenance promised in my previous post. In the photo here, the installed replacement cassette and chain illustrate textbook shiny newness. Overall, swapping these components was a quick job. Shifts are a bit snappier and there’s noticeably less play in the pedal stroke.
Luggage On Bike At Gym
Wasting no time putting my handiwork to the test, my challenge for the weekend was to deliver myself and a week’s worth of luggage the 12+ miles to work to catch a 4am airport shuttle. Benefiting again from seasonally advanced warmth, I opted two trips, a daytime one to deliver the bulk of my luggage and the early morning one for the primary purpose of delivering myself. The first truly warm saturday of the spring brought out many lightweight road bikers on the winding rural roads of Londonderry and I couldn’t help but laugh at my own image grinding through town with a suitcase tied to my rack. :) Truth be told, it was a very pleasant ride. I enjoyed the luxury of comfortable riding in my short sleeved jersey at least as much my streamlined comrades. Further, the 2am ride in reminded me of the great peace in rural summer nighttime riding.
Birthday Cake
I finished today here in Santa Cruz as Fin’s Coffee’s lone customer at 10pm local time, with a slice of carrot confection to suffice as birthday cake. Here I’ve seen more bikes at night with proper headlights than I do in a month in NH. It’s perhaps the most hours I’ll ever spend awake in one birthday. Unusual, but certainly memorable!
This is a relatively enlightened but marginally qualified post to this blog. Yesterday, March 20, 2010, the day before someone turned 29 BTW, it was incredibly warm here in northern New England (upper 60’s F) and absolutely gorgeous. Given this was the first day since last summer that felt this way and there were no other crises, it was a perfect opportunity to deal with some broken trees and items around the yard, which Mary and I did for the day. Why does this relate to a bike blog, you ask? Well, we started with outside stuff, then swept and organized the garage a bit, and the finale for this annual tradition is always blowing up the tires on the bikes. Usually this entails a quick flirtation with a compressor and then replacing the dusty bikes in the corner. However, since there is new inspiration for biking, this was a major and culminating event in the day. The grandchildren seem to have newer and cleaner bikes (go figure), and their tire pressure was good. There was more dust and grime on Mary’s and mine, but with a wipe down and some air, they are good to go. Those new, obscenely priced puncture resistant tires I put on my bike last year held up well over the winter. I did a liberating 0.05 miles in the driveway without a helmet and in boots, and then carefully put the bikes away. The NEXT uncommitted Saturday that breaks 60 F will definitely be a day for the road!
At this point, everyone’s already heard the story of the fateful night of automotive woe that inspired the purchase of my bike as a backup form of transportation. I don’t remember what was going through my head as I rode the block around the bike store working my way through the glittering clean cogs, but I’m sure I had no idea where that bike and I were going. I was just hoping to have a backup plan for my work commute the next time my car was out of service. Oddly enough, that exact situation didn’t happen again for another year and a half, but it’s finally here. Working its way through the inspection and maintenance gauntlet, old four wheels has spent a few days this week away from home and I’ve been relying on pedal power to bridge the transportation gap.
It’s liberating, to prove that it’s possible to get through a day without a car. Sure, I’ve done it plenty of times before, but there’s something grittier about living the necessity of not having another choice. It also simplifies things, since there’s nowhere to rush off to when you get home, although I have to admit there is still no way to be a social creature in rural New England. I can bike almost anywhere I usually drive, but when getting somewhere interesting and back takes the whole day, it can’t be a complete solution.
I’ve recruited a few fellow cyclists to contribute. My dad, my brother, and my friend Debbie have all had some role in my adventures and I’m hoping they will share theirs too.
This morning when I got on my bike and started pedaling a funny thing happened… It Moved! Absent the familiar whir from trainer resistance, pedaling was converted to forward motion for the first time in 2010. If February was any indication, this year should be a doozy, but my top plan for managing life’s challenges has just been enacted. Checking the log Monday night, last year came in at about 3400 miles. Can that be beat?
Maybe. I feel pretty good. A twinge of knee pain, but my commute times today were comparable with the end of last season. That’s a vote of success for winter’s efforts. Somehow, it wasn’t until I almost reached home at the end of the day that I remembered the first 10 mile phenomena. That is, every ride hurts the most for the first 10 miles. Just happens to be how long it takes me to really get warmed up. Luckily, my 12.5 mile commute is just long enough to let me experience that fully!
The bike is happy to be counting miles again too, as far as I can tell. A bit of tire pressure and generous chain lube was all it took to achieve today’s smooth shifting easy rolling ride. The first maintence project of the season needs to be replacement of the chain and cassette. The bike shop wanted me to replace them at least 1500 miles ago. If my next entry is about my walk home with a broken chain, I give you the right to say: “You told you so!” Don’t ask why those didn’t get done over the winter. That’s okay, I think there will still be at least a couple weeks of questionable bike weather to get the job done before spring arrives in force.
I also almost forgot how time efficient the cycle commute is. Today, I woke up a half hour later, got to work a half hour earlier, and got home an hour earlier than I would have on any day I relied on the gym for the same 90 minutes of cardio spread throughout the day. Combined with the sunlight hours getting longer, I feel like I’m finding those elusive “more hours in the day” everyone keeps asking for.
Here’s to warm weather!