your daily bicycle log

ma non posso

dear bikey dirtbag weirdo on mtn bike who passed me, slowed down, then chased and taunted me when i finally went back round you ("ohhh, yerrr sooooo fast. DO YA WANNA GET SLAMMED??! DO YA WANNA GET SLAMMED? HUH DO YA?!! FAST GUY?!!! too fast to wear a BACKPACK!?" and tried to run me in to the parked cars and dumpster: you are a complete fucktard.

after i shoved him pretty when as he pushed me towards a roadside dumpster he turned off.

pretty hard that is

adrenaline causes me to make no sense apparently. so i pushed him back then he turned off.

What a cocking cock. If necessary if things had got nasty could you have outrun him?

wiser not to make that bet
after about 30 seconds of his carrying on i slowed up to tell him i had no beef and ask him his deal. he just escalated it from there.

You should have said "how is it that you're not driving a car?"

oh man

he was a bit of a scary dude with a large heavy krypto chain readily available. didnt wanna mess with that.

wow

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v642/emperorhand/SpeederBikeChase.jpg

so theyve rerouted the big ride from evergreen to vail tomorrow bacause the water company has closed the dam road due to imaginary terrorist threats.

theyve actually routed ONTO the road thats gonna be blown up, so we dont have to battle cars on swan mtn road. i doubt ill miss the extra vertical.

when ppl cant make music videos the terrorists have won

122 miles, 3 mtn passes, 7.2 hrs riding, done. weather was perrrrfect, but i somehow forgot to sunblock my left arm, which is now lobster-toned.

weather is fucking perfect out and i have a new bike and stuff to do >:(

122 miles! kudos

There once was a time I could do that :(

Note to self, attempting over 20 mile singletrack route not the best idea after three months of being more or less entirely sedentary. I didn't take my heart rate monitor, but plotted an estimated reading in red on the graph below. Also added a line for general strength/stamina/skill level in purple.

http://img37.picoodle.com/img/img37/4/7/14/f_cyc1m_b2d3862.gif

gps + google maps = awesome. here's a pic of the second day's ride, a more modest ten miles at nant-y-aran near aberystwyh:

http://i26.tinypic.com/aaku1t.jpg

(exaggerated terrain of course)

(google maps earth)

nant-y-aran Nant yr Arian

that's awesome.

MY BIKE LOG:

SAT: ROAD BIKE, GOT SHUT OUT AFTER A LAP AND A HALF, CENTRAL PARK IS CLOSED FOR BON JOVI. LATER SEVERAL MILES ON CRUISER BIKE...TO VIEW NYC WATERFALLS......THEY SUCK.
SUN: BUILT A BRAND NEW 29" SINGLE SPEED, BY A COMPANY THAT RHYMES WITH BURLY, BENT THE FRAME...ON WHAT I GUESS ID CALL MY SEMI LOCAL SINGLETRACK. BUMMER. FIRST RIDE!!!!!!!!! ARGH!
MON: FULL SUSPENSION ON MY LOCAL. SUPER HEAVY FRAME...BIT OF RAIN....2 LAPS, TOTALLY EMPTY, EERIE AND FUN.
TUES: ROAD **NEW** SINGLE TRACK...RAN INTO 4 DEAR AND A TURTLE ON SINGLE TRACK, WEIRD. I YELLED AT THEM!!! SUPER EMPTY! WHICH IS ALWAYS WEIRD. SUPER FUN!!
WED: ROAD BIKE (weather pending) PROSPECT PARK

BIKES, YAY!!!

My Bike Log

Friday: Prepare for a morning ride before heading off for the weekend - pump up front tyre, head off to kitchen to fill water bottles... BOOM! Front tyre explodes blowing weakened rim apart (it was old and very worn). Spend the morning wonkily wheeling the bike to the bike shop instead.

Monday: Go to collect bike. New wheels not arrived. Doh!

Tuesday: New wheels still not arrived. Urgh! Borrow crazy-big Cannondale mountain bike loaner from shop. It only makes me realise how much I love my own bike.

Wednesday: Wheels better be here today... I desperately need to ride.

ddb, is the Surly okay? What can you do about the bent frame?

Krakow, what's your bike? And what wheels are you getting?

Neither bike nor the new wheel is anything fancy.

The bike is an 7-8 year old Dawes Discovery 501. It's been ridden to near-death several times over and very little original other than the frame is left. I love it to bits though. It's now running as a singlespeed, which gave it a whole wondrous new lease of life for me.

I just got a new front wheel, as I like to ride things properly into the ground, so the old rear wheel can stay for now. I just got the standard that my LBS orders in, a couple of steps up from their most basic. It's a Mavic A119 rim on a Shimano Deore hub by the stickers. I could have got something better/cheaper by shopping online, but I like to support my LBS for all the times when I really need them.

they couldnt rebuild the wheel cheaper, or the hub was trashed?

SURLY IS IN MAIL....I HOPE IT WILL JUST BE REPLACED AND THAT'LL BE THE END OF IT.

IT WAS A GREAT BIKE...FELT REAL NICE!!!!!

I don't know, I didn't consider that. It was just the rim that was damaged, so the hub probably was OK, but I doubt it was in the best nick given the age and abuse.

I'm going to attempt to update this strange blog thing on the go during my ride to Paris over the weekend - have a look if you're interested at all.

http://lanternerouge.tumblr.com/

I've finally got around to doing a sponsored bike ride. I've been meaning to do the London-Brighton ride for a few years, but never quite got round to it. Then just recently I accidentally gatecrashed the London Bikeathon ( Bikeathon ) and that (plus Mark C's ride to Paris) spurred me on to actually do something, instead of just thinking it would be a good idea. So I signed up at short notice for the London-Cambridge ride here: http://www.bike-events.com/ and rode 63 miles* to get there in sweltering heat today. Fours hour and sixteen minutes of actual riding, plus about 45 mins worth of stops. Here's me covered in sweat and dead flies about five minutes after the reaching the finish:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3157/2706899433_4af274fcca.jpg

*actually 68 miles by the time I got home, which is easily the furthest I've ridden since I mostly gave up cycling in 1991.

im tryna wrap my mind around the concept of a place where its cool enough for guy to be riding in tights and armwarmers. its been like 19 straight days of 90 degree plus here, no thunderstorms to speak of.

woohoo, did my first mtn bike ride this year yesterday and i middle ringed mt falcon-- because they've done so much trail maintenance that its super smooth.

Hunter, it was about 85 degrees in London today - the guy in NBS's photo is a mentalist. It's well over 80 degrees now and I'm lying on my bed with a sodding fever - what a day to fall ill.

However, I did managed to complete a three-lap (21 mile) de facto time trial round Richmond Park this morning. It wasn't a proper individual one, cos I did it with the two mates from the Paris ride (so several minutes quicker than we'd have been alone), but we managed 63 and a half minutes at an average speed of just under 20mph which is nothing to a decent rider but we were pretty pleased. I had been wondering why I was struggling with energy and recovery levels but maybe the oncoming sickness was to blame.

Hunter, it was about 85 degrees in London today - the guy in NBS's photo is a mentalist

^ OTM - the air seems to be made up largely of steaming liquid at the moment

FWIW there were also various 'wacky' types riding in tutus / with false arses, although I was disappointed not to see either a top-hatted Victorian gentlemen on a penny farthing or a clown on a unicycle.

i'll stop complaining since i prefer 95 degrees and 20% humidity (Denver) over 85 degree steaming liquid anytime.

get well soon mark.

If it's any consolation I'd like to be in Denver right now, nursing a Fat Tire and anticipating a steak while working out how to get Hunter to take me for a ride.

I just took my first proper bike ride in about 6 years! Shaky at first but I discovered my touch OK! Up from Lee, through Blackheath, and through Greenwich Park to the Royal Observatory. Then I played some cricket.

I got caught in a truly biblical deluge yesterday afternoon; probably the craziest amount of rain I've ever cycled through. It was fun.

I've always fancied cycling round Heathrow Airport so today I gave it a go. I got soaked in a fairly brief but torrential shower in Brentford on the way but the weather turned nice and it didn't matter I was wet (and also my Rapha Sportwool Classic Jersey (TM) dried out beautifully, of course). I kind of like watching planes take off and land so I stopped halfway round the airport and tried to get some decent pics of planes. I managed one.

The journey back was through pretty unremarkable suburbia, but who cares, I had a tailwind, and I briefly knew the joy of cruising at over 30mph, until my lungs basically gave out anyway. 33 miles in the end, just under 2 hours, and I feel pretty pleased all told.

(here's the map - bit tricky to follow but the figure 8 route was Barnes - Mortlake - Kew - Brentford - Hounslow - Heathrow - Cranford - Osterley - St Margarets - Richmond - Barnes. Not a climb in there other than the 150 vertical feet from Richmond Bridge to Richmond Gate.)

Just managed to hit a maximum speed of 40.6 mph on a brief downhill stretch near Loughton. It's not particularly steep, but it's a straight main road so you can just peg it without worrying about what's around the corner. I'm sure they hit much higher speeds coming down the Alps, but for the London/Essex borders that's pretty good going.

Haha I got my bf to meet me for a bike ride on Sat. I picked up my bike in Pros Heights, rode across the Wburg Br for the first time, met him on the West Side of Manhatt. His ride was much shorter but his bike needs mega upkeep work. I seem to have a new project....

One question: What's the best cross-town route from the Wburg to the far west side?? I was a zig-zaging, tunnel-traffic-hitting snarl on Sat.

9th/10th are pretty good, lanes on them at least. Prince has a lane but I've only cycled it in bits and not sure what happens East of 6th Av.

Prince also sucks for unaware pedestrians.

Hmm will keep in mind. Looking at bike maps, I'm thinking Grand most of the way, jogging over to Prince on the far West. Bit further south, but a straighter shot for getting all the way to the Hudson.

Took my girl out on her bike for the first time yesterday. Seems I have done good in terms of design.

http://cottonandsand.com/sandandcotton/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/weird_science.jpg

I rode 68 miles on Saturday and promptly collapsed 20 minutes after finishing (and feeling great). The home leg, 36 miles or so, I did in 2 hours on a cereal bar and a small bottle of water. I'll know better next time.

Fair-weather cyclist that I am, I've got fuck all done this summer. Maybe we'll get a mild autumn.

I made that mistake a couple of summers ago cycling across the new forest. Thinking I would hit a pub or a shop for refuelling, boy was I wrong.

xpost

across the new forest

tearing down all the pubs and quickiemarts to build new forests everywhere SHOCKAH!

y'all may remember my "dya wanna GET SLAMMED" incident while I rode to work a few weeks ago. basically, i passed a guy and he got very emphatically bent out of shape about it.

so yesterday, a different guy passes me at a light on a balloon tire cruiser. leather full sprung seat, leather bar tassles, the works. hes pretty quick, im in no hurry. while this guy is very wussy looking compared to my "get slammed" friend, i figure, "y'know hunter, just go with the flow. don't pass him, ppl will think yr an ahole." so i follow him about 15 meters back for 2 or 3 miles. finally we get to a light, and he stops and looks at me with a mocking grin. "man, you cant even pass a guy on a CRUISER BIKE? that's SAD!" i laugh, "well, you've got 6 lbs of just rubber on that bike, i cant top that." but no, he's really dissing me-- "dude that's sooo weak, what the fuck?" he then turns and pedals off to the right.

i'm like asshole-on-a-bike magnet. this asshole was better than the previous one tho.

even that cant spoil the riding right now tho. its blue skies and 68 degrees. just gorgeous.