your daily bicycle log

have moved to new suburb and am BACK on the bike. first ride: sunday nite, from new apartment along track to near city and back, about 10km.

Just put down a deposit on the Raleigh Rush Hour. Due to arrive in a week or two. Will update.

ddb: Yeah, you'd only know that if you ever came out with us, ever.

coming up to an intersection today saw a late 20s/30s commuter guy kind of spazzing out on his MTB inbetween cars [Alex: market and 8th]. as i approach, he jumps off his bike, throws his bike to the ground in front of the car to his left, and starts yelling into that car's window: "you want a piece of me, i'll rip your goddamn head off you stupid motherfucker" just as the light turned green.

I just rode past and said "you tell him!"

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wizardishungry/2253526708/

;_;

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wizardishungry/2252984171/

n_n

My bike got stolen. I've been riding my Huffy but it is tiny in comparison to me meanwhile somewhere out there a bike thief looks ridiculous riding this oversize thing.

This all ultimately resulted in me resentuflly prowling the streets in ridiculous cold weather having PeeWee's Big Adventure moments of visions of people riding it just out of the corner.

of my eye.

ha

bad luck dude. insured?

first commute on bike in month (again). sweaty, exhausted, out of shape.

Haha nice one Tom. I cycled today too - I'm *just about* keeping my fitness at a certain level, but I need to start building up soon for the Paris trip - I really, really want to take advantage of the motivation to move to another level.

PUT THE ROAD BIKE ON THE ROLLERS TODAY FOR A BIT...I HATE THEM...THEN RODE FIX TO WORK...LATER SOME MTB VIDEO GAME.

how much should I pay for a service (this is in the UK)? I have never paid for one before.

"service" of a bike, not a willy

bike commuting is soooo satisfying
i did it friday but it's too cold for me this week

service usually costs....$45? in my hood. mostly that's a clean and maintenance of all the lines/brakes/deraillers. truing wheels is extra most of the time.

tonight i'm going to open workshop to figure out what the fuck is wrong with my touring bike.

I should get some rollers and figure that out. Someone from the shop wants to get enough women together for a roller race sometime soonish??? Not me, I'd be eaten alive. I could be getting in shapier, though.

slightly less sweaty today - although i'm wearing slightly thinner clothing and decided it would be a good idea to pump my tyres up to slightly more than 20psi.

maybe tomorrow i'll break out the gps and heart-rate monitor. woo!

i reckon a uk bike service should cost around £20-25?

There's a bike shop in Putney where they dismantle your bike and give it a full service... for £89.

Tom, £25 isn't even an hour's worth of labour in most industries, are you sure you're not underestimating a bit?

Hm, Evans' stage one service is £55 so I guess you're right - http://www.evanscycles.com/servicing.jsp?item_id=441

I still think that's exorbitant thought. Assuming all those checks don't find anything amiss, the only really time-consuming task there is the drive-train cleaning.

Evans' stage 2 service (£125) is the same as the £89 one I mentioned above. I guess I need to bite the bullet and get it done, especially if I'm not getting a new bike.

Same here, for the same reason. Still, £100 or thereabouts is a lot cheaper than £500 or whatever. I did buy some muc-off in Condor the other week (2 for 1 offer), it's still in a bag somewhere. I really have no idea where I'd start in trying to clean my bike. A service should fix shonky brakes and dodgy headset, which would be a good thing, although they haven't killed me yet..

Yeah - I can clean my bike but it's not going to do 10% of the necessary!

courtesy of a 1' deep 3' round pothole on 15 St, i have trashed my rear rim (deep flat spot). gaaaaaaaaaah. i was in traffic at about 20 mph and saw it at the last minute, got my front wheel over it. couldn't really hop as i had a full pannier and trunk on the back. so. pissed. off. waaaaah.

FIX GEAR + NO BRAKE + SNOW = GOOD TIMES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I sold this:

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b379/Vietgrove/recumbents003.jpg

I usually charge 25 quid + bits for service. I'm cheap, but the local market will not bear anymore. I see some of the ads for the big places "pamper your bike" (read: lubricate chain, slight ajdjustment to gears, check brake block wear, bottom bracket play, headset play) £89 and I just think what the fuck has this world come to.

It's a HP Velotechnik "Spirit", made in Germany. It's beautiful, construction quality as good as anything I've come across. About 1200 UK pounds.

these guys (http://www.backontrax.co.uk/5.html) will visit me at home and do a service for £25 + parts. that'll work.

Well yeah, a $35-50 tune-up here should include checking for bb and headset play, etc, but not nec overhauling everything unless it feels like it needs it. For eight-nine pounds (dont know how to make the sign) they better have replaced all the housing and opened everything up! Goodness snakes.

FOR $50, BUY THE TOOLS...DIY!!

DDB = OTM

Invest in a class and some tools or look around for a local DIY co-op/bike kitchen.

Aside from wheel building and bottom-brackets (and maybe initial brake set-up?), there is nothing that is unreasonably technical about bike maintenance.

BB'S ARE EASY....ITS WEIRD THAT PEOPLE ARE SCARED OF EM....OPEN IT UP, GET DIRTY!

I am skurred. help me.

Derailleur adjustment is a pain to get hold of. I don't totally understand it without thinking it out every time. "Okay, so, half a turn clockwise will OKAY NO WAIT. Shit. Half a turn COUNTER-clockwise...right. Okay." And so on.

But everything else basic is EASY PEASY.

FIX GEAR + NO BRAKE + SNOW = GOOD TIMES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

-- ddb, Wednesday, 13 February 2008 17:24 (Yesterday) Link

^^^^ OTM x100000000

haters will be banned

Invest in a class and some tools or look around for a local DIY co-op/bike kitchen.

Aside from wheel building and bottom-brackets (and maybe initial brake set-up?), there is nothing that is unreasonably technical about bike maintenance.

-- Steve Shasta, Wednesday, February 13, 2008 3:19 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Link

I did this in late '07 (as mentioned here and elsewhere). Brakes and derailleurs are fussy, no doubt (THIS IS WHY I DON'T USE THEM), but bottom brackets/headsets/hubs are actually pretty straight-forward, once you get the hang of it (ie - they're all variations on a theme). Also, it seems like older stuff is easier to service when you're D-ingIY. "older" = 80s-90s japanese gear. no one likes cotter pins.

except laurel.

8.87k, 22m43s (actual riding time, need to get total journey time to figure out % wasted at lights)

23.4kph av, 35.2 max
139bpm av, 166 max

kph? What is this, the continent?

I was a full mile per hour slower today than Tuesday. I hate wind so much (and it wasn't even very windy).

http://www.cartwrightstimberfixings.co.uk/images/scan1.jpg

I know how to do all the things I want doing (brakes, gears, clean drive train, etc.). I just can't be bothered. My hub is fucked too and actually needs some serious work, so I figure I may as well throw the service in while it's being looked at.

its either a crafty rebus or 1/2 of all of the parts to laurel's cottered crank

Yes, but where does THIS bolt go?? No, apparently they are all "wheel fasteners". I thought it was a sweet img.

ROAD BIKE COMMUTE TODAY. HAVENT BEEN ON IT FOR A BIT...A TREAT.

ITCHIN TO DO SOME MTB..BUT WEATHER HAS BEEN SHITE.

riding my flat spotted rear wheel part way home yesterday was a bit like riding a pony. the wheel is still laterally true at least. already bought a rim online, hope to just transfer spokes over and retension.

Heartrate 170 bpm tonight when I got home - did a 3 minute burn right at the end so that's pretty close to my top end. Does it mean anything by itself?

srsly not really.

it doesn't correlate to some universal chart about how much power output you have or might have. or how fit you are.

matters of hr are only useful in relation to your own hr really.

to the extent they allow you to calibrate your workload (which is not really that well) they can help your training program.