your daily bicycle log

xp my bro I rode with today is one of the SF2G founders just to tie this all together.

(i really like their kits, for just a bunch of cat6 commuter geeks, they did some good work)

I was riding around in the (slick, concrete) driveway, testing out the new Look pedals I had just installed, wearing my regular (slick bottomed) road shoes. My brother and sister-in-law came over to return some stuff they'd borrowed and conversation turned to the cyclocross race I'd went up and watched last weekend. I decided to demonstrate a cross dismount/remount....on the slick concrete, in my slick shoes. I now have a twisted and swollen right ankle. Idiot.

visited the fam on thursday night, took bike out and did moderately hard 70km out to kinglake and back on friday morning - 32deg c heat, humid and a headwind all the way up the hill, blargh. some roadworks were being done at the foot of the short but sharp hill that is my nemesis on that road (near 10%, 650m) with one lane only and limit dropped to 40km/h - i assured the traffic control guy that i would stay under that on the way up, heh.

I think thanks to my occasional layoffs and greater increased caution after my pair of accidents lately my fitness has decreased by a small but obvious amount. The crashes meant cancelling the longer rides I had planned, but even on my commute I'm aware I'm taking it so much easier because I'm so nervous of not being able to stop if I get doored, or hooked, or pedestrianed or whatever. On top of that, I don't really trust my roadie after the accident as I must have given it an almight smack, and you know what they say about carbon. Ah well. I'll be lucky to complete the 4,000 mile minimum target for the year at this rate.

I'll be lucky to complete the 4,000 mile minimum target for the year at this rate.

I've given up on mine - haven't ridden at all for 8 days, it's been pouring with rain whenever I haven't been working.

I don't really trust my roadie after the accident as I must have given it an almight smack, and you know what they say about carbon

I thought your frame had actually snapped in two?

That's my steel frame! Which I crashed 2 days earlier, though so lightly I thought there'd be no damage at all. Carbon impacting at 10+ mph seems sturdier than steel at 3mph, whaddaya know.

On my fourth-choice bike today, and still managed to get a puncture on the way to work. Sigh.

On my ugly new bike which is way faster than me ... did Paradise loop for the first of hopefully many times. With in-city travel and wrong turns, was sixty miles. My legs could use a glycogen drip and I don't think I'm going to meet my friend at 6am for the Calaveras route.

goddam

winter is upon us here in the middle western states, i don't expect to ride more than 20 miles at a stretch for basically 6 months.

here's hoping this XC skiing thing takes

have u not xc'd before? it's awesome!

xc skiers are uh... very concerned with the perfection of their gear. they make roadies look like happy go lucky drunks.

i have! but only a few times, last winter.

and yeah, my buddy is an ex-collegiate XC guy, and he is fanatical about his shit (he also gave me a pair of fischers, so)

GET OUT OVER THAT GLIDE SKI GBX

it so ~balancey~

also the only thing to do in MN in the winter

also also i am pretending that if i srsly XC ski this winter it will somehow be cross-training for an as yet unplanned (and maybe unlikely) "ski mountaineering" trip somewhere this spring

happy go lucky drunk advice: dream it, do it.

obv let me know if you hit CO somehow

did Paradise loop for the first of hopefully many times. With in-city travel and wrong turns, was sixty miles.
― just woke up (lukas), Tuesday, November 16, 2010 6:09 PM (2 hours ago)

wow! not sure where you live but that's exactly a 70km (~43 mile) ride for me.

I live next to Dolores Park. I went east to Embarcadero first, then did Presidio-GGP on the way back. Plus an accidental Strawberry variation off Tiburon and a couple other mistakes.

i think i'm gonna start saying i rode KM instead of miles to seem like i went farther. i rode 56km this weekend. a loop around the city. a ton of climbing. tons of fun. beautiful indian summer. i really love my new bike. http://tinyurl.com/24johcf

u guys know if there are any decent iphone apps that figure out gps route for you and elevation and stuff so i don't have to try and do that on gmaps?

i think strava kinda works with iphone* but there may be other sites.

*topographical tho, ie, not GPS... like if you go over a bridge or through a tunnel it ignores the structure/tunnel and gives you the topo reading which can be very deceiving, esp from a total ascent/descent pov.

strava works with runmeter iirc

I like Cyclemeter

imapmyride is OK

Can't wait for the coming slew of iPhone plus ANT+ stuff to come down the pipe.

what about android huh

insert rapha joke from other thread. only sugoi and canari wearers on android.

went on a short jaunt today and my front derailleur stopped working. saw a dude (z@ch) wearing steve shasta's team's jersey and asked if he knew him and if he could help. he was super nice but suggested i just go to the bike shop and have them look at it. he looked like he was practicing CX, doing a bunch of bunny hops and dismounts on the street (and checking out cute girls). pretty funny. i was stuck in the big gear and the only way to get to the shop was up and over some hills (from GG park down arguello over presidio to the marina). just had to power though it. wasn't really that bad, but it's all fixed now.

correction: that is my ~club~ jersey, my team is totes different. you must have been riding around 3:30pm because I also saw Zach on my way back to my house.

I did 60 miles including a 500W 60 second effort up 18% avg grade on Belvedere Island which was soul destroying. Apparently "off-season slow base endurance ride" is just not part of my repertoire.

sorry, ~club~. yah, he said he'd just seen u 5 min before.

500W 60 second effort up 18% avg grade

wowowow

i nearly got sideswiped into a parked car on friday and i'm still not quite sure how i made the gap between the car and the van that had moved over on me into the bike lane!

i looked at heap of greasy ancient d/a bike parts from my stripped road bike (now at blasters getting powdercoat stripped), considered cleaning and assembling parts on vacant cheapo cx frame, and said "fuck that." i would like to ride one of these days, but weather and work mean its commuting only.

new gruppo for road bike on way *rubs hands greedily*

hunt3r did you opt for FORCE?

yup, and despite wise counsel from friends here, i did stay with standard cranks. i usually ride a 39/23 up the 6%-8% longer climbs in my neighborhood (1500-2500 vert), and there arent too many short pitches over 10%. also, i got an 11-26. maybe i can get another 5 years out of that ratio before my dotage makes compacts a much smarter idea.

i'm saving about 350g over the setup i had on the bike, but i'm giving some back by adding 300g of couplers to the frame. that'll put the frame at a relatively massive 3.9 pounds, but whatevs. love that frame's ride.

since garminconnect has fucked up its maps, ive been playing with ridewithgps.com. it's very good for mapping, but i dont think it will work for running or other activities so well.

strava is expensive ($60per annum or $10/mo) but it is a great site imho.

the guy at the auto/machines place who stripped my bike seems sorta clueless. not just about bikes, but um, like metal generally. he seemed to be confused as to whether ti is magnetic. he used poly to blast it, so i expect he didnt hurt anything.

he did say that the welds on my frame look really great though.

yikes, although not unexpected anything beyond steel is pretty esoteric really.

I will also put in a good word for Strava. I am really enjoying using that site.

so i just scotchbrited for like 1.5 hours and shit looks pretty rad. one bad thing out of the blasting is that i didnt realize that the bottle mount rivets are alu. the blasting pretty much did the threads in-- i dont know if they can be retapped, or if i should just drill em out and have new rivets put in. i suspect the latter.

I am in hibernation

I'd go for new lugs, If you tap them out there might not be enough metal to support the clamp force.

xpost

now that i have daylight, the threads go quite deep, and engaged the bolt smoothly and securely. i really think its ok.

excellent scotchbrite technique: take 2.5 feet of 2" wide duct tape, affix piece of scotchbrite 2" x 10" to center, fold sticky tails of tape over themselves. loop over frame tube to be brushed. now use shoeshine buffing technique. you can get all of the major tubes done quickly and evenly this way. use small pad 1/2" x 4" for smaller bits. if you are inside, put down a drop cloth, there is some gray/black ti dust generated.

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5129/5206931483_05f31940d0_z.jpg

riding on thanksgiving is amazing. absolutely no one out on the streets.

For reals. It was clear and cloudless here today too. Soooooo perfect.

f u cali

http://i55.tinypic.com/2uqbozr.jpg

did my usual thanksgiving ride-- 35 degrees, not a cloud. 2 hours on lots of singletrack around town, really really great. some kitted out guy buzzed my tire to pass me (i couldn't hear him because i was d-_-b). i then shadowed him up and down and around the loop for a really nice hard 15 minute interval.

Finally got my good bike back! Fixed again & it feels great!