your daily bicycle log

gorgeous late autumn morning, went on a 2.5 hr ride through melbourne’s inner north (where the cycling infrastructure is surprisingly good for australia), had the best time ever, got home, dropped the bike down the fucking stairs. bent the derailleur but my local fixed it in minutes THANK GOD.

I love it when a mishap ends up with the person and bike ok.

Still, mordant larfs for incidents when rider (usually self) is like, maimed, but is only _really_ freaked out about the status of his/her bike*...

*note: i’ve never seen a woman do this idiocy.

yeah i’m pretty pleased the sum total of my cycling injuries is smashing one (1) pedal into my calf while walking the bike across the road

considering i ride the entire length of the local death trap almost daily, it’s pretty good going tbh

My main recall of Melbourne roads is nearly having a tram impale my rental while I tried to turn across traffic. Be careful.

tram tracks are basically ingrained into most of us, but they still scare the crap out of me, and i know at least two people who’ve jammed their front wheel in a tram track and copped a load of broken ribs.

you really quickly get into the habit of staying miles away from the tracks, and double checking any time you turn anywhere, but i would happily forego all the trams in favour of a bus network. they’re just shit.

is your recollection of a tram impale or of a tame impala I'll get me etc

Don’t say that. Teams are so much better than busses, even than busses in cities where busses are actually good. Melbourne busses are shit.

they're slow, they shit up traffic, when one breaks down (e.g. swanston st, st kilda road) the whole network dies, and too many trams and stops are still not properly wheelchair accessible. if low rider buses replaced every tram it would be fine imo.

Nice gbx but I think tame impalas are perth,tram impales are melb.

spent the week on a brompton, and going back to my dahon has been pretty deflating tbh. massive difference in ride quality between an aluminium chinese import and a handmade steel bike that’s built to last 20 years. definitely getting one.

no experience on either, but i hear so much brompton praise, i believe there must be something beyond branding. glad it was a good experience.

it just feels so solid. my aluminium cheapie vibrates and is more effort to build up speed on, but the brompton is so much smoother on the road. also incredibly easy to fold up and put away (my dahon keeps bursting open).

the price difference is about double, but just being on the brompton for a few days, it’s easy to see where the money goes.

the only real criticism of the brompton is it’s not all that fast if you have the lower gearing option that’s suited to climbing (i don’t think i ever got it above 21 km/h), so effectively it comes down to whether you‘re prepared to walk up longer/steeper hills.

I love my Bike Friday Tikit. It has an 11 speed in hub shifter and is fine on hills and flats!

But you can't get em anymore. And my friend can fold his Brompton just about as fast.

Honestly don't feel safe going more than 30km/h on 16inch wheels.

But yeah more expensive folding bikes are worth it imho.

made it to 4000m+. i wanted to find out how much hikeabike was necessary from the west approach, assumed 100%. Actually like low 90s%. this is recon for a loop later. Grays, Torreys peaks are the view. scree descent was tricky, but not so much hard as EXPOSURE.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/sgrmWZZ5Q83TpfwQ6

no idea if this will work or be too huge but...

https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipPDYG4WceFYK_ThoWW6GrR_yQbTbE_rIb90sIV6

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/kj-04PAsQOYGExKJg7wlKfKQfNg5hdXYDiylVXc75nvl31Qh3u9lD4JJbVywsCKsNOZJFTMjE7DBecBlba0KSUAdCxdmzOjHVoMHqXVfYKabeCmd-3lIV6hgDlPk0sKcvz2US044xydOvpQ0pklWkVPLnPVg-lbQe9WPcxPFxLvbvXejW8sr-eOCDO9LDpcxPEuyHUxRsG3xD70VM6xahuP2QqwbAndKqZEQ-z7y-kFQkml8oWhyz15v6s3RP_-NjXA2IwD-eHJKhBmXItp6F306-yZLHnrm4rRWXpLs9-9AFu_RntmZO0Y7K9NuRhlKNY2y9NzZg0FPC2Zpd2TmGM9YE1yDyhJaaOXIAtwrdW7WbWtYyooICEPVfHQ0Dd6p9p_3q-SqI7tSz0j-wdbjy3bAcVonEw7x2P1swBh6yeoQFTHCUAhKb_p2Y6uejGBNED2feWiicdYvpPPeLFRFLHS-OrCZFpuEDOBr825IR86PVQuXFZk6aOMe1TPrqCNwpu6sAfI99Iu-VBGtkV22SeA7Rfl_3rir1C28Hv_qLuwfr2cbCdyltH1tblzqDO4XG2x4t881zNnBDZ2jH4OTpjNQOiBUvYU9ZjlTU7s=w1920-h573-no?

fukkin a hunter that owns

thx! weird i cant get image on zing the link only appears on laptop

And lol in ski language its analagous to, like, “that time we skinned 2800 ft to that ridge just to prove it was doable. Descent was deadly dust on crust with cookies.” Oh well great view, may do it again in a loop.

i can't see that image at all, even on laptop.

xp to fajita seas: bike fridays seem to be the best small-wheel folding bike around by reputation. people absolutely love them.

also otm re the expense. most people i talk to balk at the cost of a good folding bike, but when you want the folding aspect to be reliable and not a 30 km/h death trap, the money makes sense. even with normal bikes you get what you pay for — you wouldn't buy a dirt cheap mountain bike and expect it to manage an actual mountain trail.

Lots of people like to ask me about my folding bike, but they're still very uncommon despite the fact that everyone seems interested in them. For me, it's just immensely practical -- daily commute plus lots of errands. Everyone should have one imho.

otm, it’s been great to slide the (rental) brompton under my desk at work. saves heaps of time over parking my bigger bike underground a block away, locking it up, taking off the lights &c.

so this week i’m ordering my own brompton, and am expecting to get a hell of a lot of use out of it. seriously excited about this.

got the brompton. went with the standard chainring, which is apparently harder work up hills but was magic riding home. absolute magic. got up to 33 km/h with very little effort. only mishap was the absolute fucking tosspiece who tried (and failed) to push me off my bike, because he thoughts it was fine to stand in a bike lane and didn't like me going past at not even 5 km/h. what the fuck is wrong with people

Glad to hear- even little improvements can be such a joy of life.

Srsly given the commuting miles i did i had so few moments of true assholes acting out. be alert, predictable, assertive, and kind is my best advice, in that order.

sorry to reddpost but i couldnt find it elsewhere. Alert because: https://www.reddit.com/r/bicycling/comments/8tyv63/there_are_some_real_scum_bags_out_there_fuck/?st=JIYLYVLM&sh=89d3f934

good grief

i know, that's been flipping around the twitterverse, it's so violent and absurd that i wasn't quite sure i understood what it was.

also i'm flipping my advice order to: alert, predictable, kind, and assertive.

because there are situations and assholes who really won't be happy until there's been a big problem for us cyclists, and assertiveness is better reserved for a new forum.

Yeah I haven't figured out where to rank assertiveness.

I'm fairly sure a car driver considered running me over on Monday morning. I was "taking a lane" (as I do every morning at this stop) at a stoplight since the rightmost lane is a right-turn only lane and I'm proceeding straight. An angry man in a white panel van yelled at me to get out of the road, and then pulled the van behind me. I visibly took a picture of the van and the driver as I waited for the stoplight to change. When it turned green, the driver pulled right out of the lane and turned right, yelling at me as he went.

I'm not sure he would have done that had I not taken the picture.

But should I have gotten out of the road after he yelled at me? I'm not so sure.

sorry to reddpost but i couldnt find it elsewhere. Alert because: https://www.reddit.com/r/bicycling/comments/8tyv63/there_are_some_real_scum_bags_out_there_fuck/?st=JIYLYVLM&sh=89d3f934

jesus christ. astonishing that people would be so glib about doing this that they'd film it and make it public.

also i'm flipping my advice order to: alert, predictable, kind, and assertive.

because there are situations and assholes who really won't be happy until there's been a big problem for us cyclists, and assertiveness is better reserved for a new forum.

― Hunt3r, Saturday, 30 June 2018 01:30 (five hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i agree with this completely, although i did yell a few choice words to this particular fuckhead because i was in shock. lucky i was going super-slowly because it was easy to stop.

next time i'm in this situation (people swarming across a bike lane) i'll probably just stop and let some other cyclist deal with it. really don't want this sort of conflict.

But should I have gotten out of the road after he yelled at me? I'm not so sure.

― fajita seas, Saturday, 30 June 2018 05:30 (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

well that sucks. we have boxes for bikes to stop in, which at least takes the pressure off us a bit, because drivers know we have a right to be there.

after what happened last night i'd probably relent to someone like that now. i don't assign blame on victims, but just for me personally, if a mentalist has the power to screw me up i'll probably keep quiet and just try to get away.

nearly all my run-ins in the past couple of months have been surprise car doors and drivers jumping lanes right in front of me (i.e. not aggression), and apart from a loud "oooiiiiii" in lieu of a 120db car horn, i just ignore it and keep going. it really fucks me off because i took the time to learn and follow the road rules, and these goiters clearly don't.

yup, i'm not even saying "don't cuss some jerkwad who's being a tool," more like, "sometimes discretion is the better part of valor, health, and progress."

yeah, you can't change fuckwits.

Easier said than done, though, sometimes. For me, the red mist descends.

true

especially when you’re physically in danger/under threat and survival kicks in

Rode my bike today. My schedule is less bike-friendly now (including a couple gym slots a week) but I'm going to try to get more consistent. The gym has been great for me but ILRMB.

+T

I broke the 20 yr old Ti rails on my old rigid mtb today, and had to ride 1000 ft of vert downhill on singletrack, then 18 more miles home...with no saddle, just post and 1/2 rails.

If you are raiding parts bins, 20 yr old Ti rails is probly risky.

otoh, i think i wanna Cambium the hell out of this bike. Next potential problem- it lives 5 days a week locked up at a low risk train station, but still...

The Brooks saddle? looks nice.

i am very brooks resistant on the basis of they've not been notable comfortable to me, they're kerrayzay heavy, and hate fussing over them getting wet. but this looks like the correct style solution for them, and this bike i don't really care about the saddle being almost 1/2 pound heavier than the old one.

I did it and also my first super short commute to station on c13 145. Pretty much i could ride cast iron with a chamois, and used to ride 100-120mi/week in boxers (well, also shorts or trousers too).

Its really firm in a way i prefer, but i think im positioned too far aft on it, when i slide up just a bit i start to feel that nice brooks sling effect.

Mainly this saddle is just, man, it’s fucking gorgeous aesthetically. The Al rivets. Even the way they tuck the label away under the tail. Non mainly, it’s still heavy for what it looks like.

26 y/o frame. VO cigne. Brooks. White Stans rims. This bike is such a goddam poser but it is a blast to ride from road to rough real singletrack.

longest (and really only second ever sustained road climb today). made it about 2/3 of the way up the local testpiece/HC climb, which came to ~10mi and ~2500ft. hoping to try it again on something that doesn't weigh like 30lb

turns out really long twisty descents are fun as hell

that looks like a great climb, nice. i don't that canyon at all- the ski area is snow west-facing, that snow must have a tough time.

I wouldn't know -- they didn't even get any last year!

it's a really nice climb, though it was pretty busy traffic-wise even at midday, midweek

The canyons ive seen in nm down— by gila, and over by black mtns, and up in taos— all had such narrow canyon spaces, pretty winding and neat. As long as traffic is safe they were great. Be careful tho the most insane truck rollover i ever saw was a few russian dudes in the black mtns with NO BIZ taking a rig up that shit let alone rolling it. Tho that was pre good phone coverage days. Damn those dudes were fucked.

Sorry retrospective grammar attempts alwAys fail, all the dashes————-

as it happens, I passed a car accident on the way up

Heading north on the big red bridge gives you absolutely no shoulder to ditch into, so it was awfully exciting when I was cranking uphill and dude rounded a corner towards me, cruising down, in my lane, looking somewhere else. I bark out a "YO" and he glares at me as he swings off with little margin for error. Sorry to hurt your feelings man! I took it out on someone who tried to pass me near the peak of Hawk Hill though.

Crossing the big red bridge in the days before the rail between you and the traffic lanes used to really freak me out. But yeah, it can still be bad now.

Hopefully I can do that ride again soon! It's been a while.

bike died, have no idea why or what to do, am stuck in heavy traffic in a taxi

this is the folder? hope u get it sorted!