Wednesday Madness

Rode to work again this morning, per usual. Had, not one, but TWO, idiot bicyclists coming at me the wrong way, in the bike lane, on Fletcher Parkway. One was even a "real" bicyclist, with a helmet and jersey.

I think the seat post is slipping down, I tightened the quick release whilst riding, maybe that'll hold it.

Adjusted the front rack last night so it would be level, which doesn't sound so complicated, but it involves loosening seven bolts.

Sunny Sunday

Did the Dam Loop "B" this morning, early as it is quite hot later in the day. It's 1:30 and it's now 91 outside. So the earlier the better. It was acutally a little chilly on the Olde Mission Gorge bike path.

Came home and earled the chain, mounted the front bike rack on the Jamis, and made another stab at mounting the LED lights. This time I used STEEL, but it's "steel" pretty flimsy, and the lights kind of vibrate around.

I stuck the Schwinn way up high on the rack. Kinda sad, but it's in the way right now. I still intend to ride it again, however. I think the Jamis will be my commuting bike and the Schwinn will be the weekend ride.

I've got 120 miles on the Jamis to date.

Performance Thursday

I biked to Performance and got a rear rack, a mini-tool thingie, and a Presta air gauge. I always wanted one of those nice air gauges, and I had all the Performance coupons, so I used them.

The guys at the shop said they thought I could just bend the low riders a little and the clearance would be fine, and in retrospect I see I could have used a spacer and fixed things, but I got the rack anyway.

Of course putting the rack on wasn't as simple as one would have thought. The goofy brake mechanism was in the way so I had to spend an hour filing a clearance notch in one of the rack seat stays. It probably won't crack...

The rack is pretty wimply, only rated for 40 pounds, but that's good enough for commuting and it WAS on sale for 20 bucks or so.

I'm gonna put the front high rack on and space out the lowriders one of these days. Then I'll have a place to mount the headlight.

And that was one of the reasons for the rear rack, I can strap the headlight battery on there, and when I make a little bracket I can put the LED blinker there, too.

Tuesday

I've been riding to work this week. The bike is working well, but I noticed today that the panniers can hit the spokes when the bike sways. I shall definetly have to get a rear rack for these panniers, and maybe someday get some that fastened more securely for the low riders.

Saw on the news a bicyclist was killed by a hit-and-run today up by Miramar. The police stopped a guy a little ways down the road with a smashed windshield. The guy says construcution debris on the road caused it. Hmmmmm, I'm not buying it.

Some guys in a car were yelling stuff at me, but I couldn't figure out what they were saying, or even if they were just fooling around. I blew them a kiss, but I don't think they saw it.

Some chick turned right on me at an intersection next to a school. I asked her through her open right-side window if her turn signals were on (Not!). Good thing I was turning too!

Last day of Summer

I've been riding the Jamis all week to work. The low rider pannier setup is working well, the weight slows the quick steering and the bike is very stable. I would like to have a lower granny gear, the hill up past Colina Del Sol park is a booger!

I keep raising the seat. It's about two inches higher than when I started out, and it's much more comfortable now. I'm not sure if the tilt is correct, and it doesn't look like the tilt is adjustable anyway.

There was a big clunk from the seat area once, when I hit a pothole. I don't know WHAT that was!

I got a bunch of coupons from Performance so now I can get some accesories, like a LED headlight, a rear rack, one of those nifty multitool thingies, maybe a CO2 pump! Whoopee!

So the bike-o-meter says I've got 60 miles total, including 32 miles commuting this week.

Don't forget you should be able to comment on these posts, if you like. Try it!

Ride to Ibarra

As I have no pump to carry on the new bike, I took a bit of a chance by riding to Ibarra. I figured it's only eight miles round trip, so I could walk it easily if worst came to worse. It was a twenty minute ride, so I think I will bike to work on Tuesday. I will have to put the low-riders on to carry my lunch.

I was cursing the speed-o-meter as I started out because I couldn't get a clock to come up, so I figured it didn't have one. Later on the ride I had a inspiration and pushed the right-hand button. Zut alors! There it was! Later I was pushing buttons trying to find the odometer, but no joy. Later later on the ride I had a inspiration and pushed the right-hand button TWICE. Zounds! There was the odometer.

All this agravation could have been easily prevented if the Performance guys had given me the instruction sheet when they installed the bike-o-meter.

Or I had remembered to ask for it...

New bike

Here is a picture I took of the new bike, not the one from the Jamis site. They look pretty similiar.





I'm going for a ride tomorrow to check out Ibarra Elementary, to see where it is.


Also, a picture of my tool bag, for your edification.








Whilst shopping in Kearney Mesa I decided to go to the Performance and get a new bottom bracket for the Schwinn. Of course, I had to buy a special installation tool! Darn Shimano! Once I get it installed we shall see if it lasts another 30,000 miles.

Stupid Bicyclist

I've been riding the #7 bus to work the past couple weeks, except for the days I ride the trolley/bus. Today a bicyclist in full regalia came on to University at Parks. At some point he passed the bus and shouted curse words at the driver, something about "Go, it's a green light" or something. He stayed, or we stayed, with him all the way to 54th, so he was moving along pretty good. The bus driver, unperturbed, mentioned to his passenger buddy that the cyclist only stopped for two red lights, the one at Collage and the one at 54th. He blew all the rest of them. He took off early for those two, and was riding around in circles at Collage. Just like the pros do, I'm sure... What an idiot! And, of course, he was wearing headphones, too...

Sunday

Went with the Jamis Coda Sport at Performance. It's very pretty. It has a nifty shifter that tells you what gear you are in. I had them had toe clips, but the ones they put on are really flimsy, so I will have to replace them. I got a speed-o-meter for it, too.

The picture say "click to enlarge". Since I stole the picture from the Jamis website I'm not sure what clicking it will do!

Saturday

Now I'm looking at bikes by Jamis, since I can't afford a Sakkit, a Rivendell, or even a Cannondale.

Near as I can figure using TopoZone and Windows Calculator:

The Alpine grade from the bottom to the rec. center is 1.5 miles (7,920 feet) long, 600 foot rise, and 7.5% grade.

The Jackson Drive grade from Mission Gorge Road to Navajo Road is 1.2 miles (6,336 feet) long, 387 foot rise, and 6.1% grade.

What say you?

One week later

It's been a week since the BIG CRASH. The ouchies are scabbing over nicely.

I still don't have a bike, but my mother-in-law gave me some money to get a new one, so I have been visiting several bike store to see what they got, as it were.

I went to Performance and saw a couple of bikes that could be interesting, a Giant and a Schwinn. I went to Trek but nothing excites me since I can't afford a 520. That's really the problem, I can't afford a bike like what I have, but do I really need another touring bike anyway?

Did you know you can click on the pictures to view larger images! Yes, you can, why don't you try it right now!!




The Schwinn that Performace sells is custom-made for Performance, it's different than the one above in some respects. I want to go to Zumwalts and see what they have, but I don't think they sell Schwinn anymore.

I want to support the local bike shop, no offense to the big chains (even though they ARE open on Sunday, bless them!)


So maybe it's time to get something different.

I've an idea, why don't you loyal readers vote using the comments, eh?