Category: cycling

Today some friends (Left to Right: Mike, Brad, Jon, Krug, Bob, Eric) from the MMBA Forum and I rode from Rochester to Richmond and back, totaling just over 51 miles. One person was towing two kids (Trail-a-Bike and trailer) (Eric), another had one trailer (Mike), and yet another rode a fixie mountain bike (Brad).

The route was up the Macomb Orchard Trail to Powell Road, to 33 Mile, to Armada Ridge, then back on the trail to Richmond. This is done because, as illustrated last year, the part of MOT which we skipped is topped with what’s essentially pea gravel.

After reaching Richmond we rode over to the Richmond Family Diner for some lunch, then headed back to the trail and back to Richmond. On the way back the trailer was handed off from Eric to John, as the first long ride of the year and rough dirt road were dragging a little much for Eric. All in all it was a fun and relatively uneventful ride, save for when we arrived at Onyx Ice Arena in Rochester.

For some reason a helicopter was parked at the side of the parking lot, and it was (obviously) attracting a lot of attention from people passing by. People were stopping to show their kids, another group of kids was taking each others’ pictures in front of it, and everyone was generally gawking at what appeared to be a parked helicopter. Suddenly a man appeared, came over, and seemed to be telling people that it is private property, dangerous, was accusing kids of touching it (which I hadn’t seen), and saying that if anyone wants to look that they need to stay at least six feet away. He wasn’t implying that it was his helicopter, just that it was parked on private property and they had no right to be there looking at it.

I can’t imagine that someone would believe they can leave a helicopter alone in a parking lot – much less one along the side of a busy road and well traveled public trail – and not have people looking at it. Such things are generally fairly rare around here. Regardless, this didn’t spoil today’s really nice ride. Nice people, great weather, and a pretty darn good route.

Here’s some more photos from today:

· What would be the brake side of Brad’s Quiring, showing the flip-flopped hub making it a fixie mountain bike.
· View of the drive side of Brad’s Quiring mountain bike. It is currently set up as a fixed gear using a drilled cog.
· Heading out of the Rochester / Shelby Township area, towards our eventual destination of Richmond.
· Everyone who rode the Rochester to Richmond ride on the Macomb Orchard Trail on 14-Mar-2009, except for me as I was taking the photo.
· After reaching Richmond we stopped at Richmond Family Diner and got food. Bike parking was quite conveient.
· Brad on his fixed gear Quiring.
· This helicopter was parked outside ONYX ice area when we went past there.

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Here, have a dorktastic, slightly out of focus photo of a very sweaty me, complete with an indentation from the Coolmax Shorty that I wear to keep sweat from running down my face.

Tonight after work I went on my first long-ish bike ride of the year, totaling just over 36 miles. I left my house just before 6pm with the intention of riding to Metro Beach, but turned around about two miles from the park (at Crocker and Metro Parkway) because it was starting to get cold.

In the low laying / windless areas the temperature was much closer to freezing, so heading back home through parks and over the low-laying streams was a bit bitter at times. Thankfully once I got closer to roads again things warmed up to today’s nicely comfortable weather.

During this I was only insulted by random strangers a handful of times; typical for riding in this area. Three people honked at me, but the passenger in one of the vehicles strangely apologized. Two people shouted things, including a very loud and almost horse sounding “fucking freak!”, and one person came within 6′ of hitting me as I crossed an intersection and they made a 35MPH right hand turn. (I’m certain this person saw me, as my bike was fully lit up, there are bright street lights there, and I made eye contact with both the driver and the female passenger as they began their turn.)

This was also the first time I was able to try wearing a cycling jersey while riding, and I must say that I found it quite a bit more comfortable than the $9 workout t-shirts from Target that I’d worn last year. This may prove to be a problem, because these jerseys aren’t cheap. Maybe I can find a way to get a bunch at a discount or free… Hmm… I do think I’ll probably be buying this Dogfish Head jersey as soon as they sort out their pricing error. (It currently says $50 discount, but has the original price as $49 and the discounted price as $99.

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Here’s some random bike things which you may or may not care about…

· After a bunch of shifting problems while riding during the really warm day a few weeks ago I determined that my shifting cables and houses needed to be replaced. Tonight I replaced them, finding the cables intact but the ends of the housings rusty and the innards dirty. I’d had the parts since before I went on vacation, but finally got around to it today.

Cutting the cable was very easy with Dremel cut-off discs and a razor blade and awl for cleanup. I then dripped some Triflow in each end of the cable, fitted the end caps, then assembled everything Shifting is now as smooth as it was when my bike was new a year ago. I’m sure there’s a bit of fine tuning I’ll have to do as the cables stretch, but things seem nice so far.

· I washed my Specialzed bike tonight so that I could replace the shift cable, and at the same time also washed the Bianchi Single Speed. It didn’t really need it, but most bike washing time is spent setting up the hose. So, why not?

· The forecast tomorrow is for highs near 60°F, so I’m hoping to get out for a ride tomorrow after work. I’ll start towards Metro Beach with the intention of riding there and back, but I’m not sure I’ll be able to do the full 46 miles. We’ll see. This will be my first longer distance ride since last fall.

· I’m not so sure about the On-One Mary Bar that I’ve been borrowing. The Bianchi handles very nicely with it on the bike, having a nice twitchy feel that I can’t wait to try on single track, but on longer rides (as Bob and I did last night up through River Bends and back) the slightly odd positioning makes my wrists hurt. Maybe some Ergon grips would help. I do like these, and would probably want them on the riser bar the bike came with, so a purchase wouldn’t be lost money.

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After getting the new stem at lunch I was finally able to install the Mary bar I’d been loaned. I’m still waiting for the grips to dry so that I can go for a test ride, but a quick lab around the basement seemed to indicate that these bars may be nice. As soon as the alcohol which I used to install the Oury grips dries I’ll take a test ride up to the post office, where I need to ship an iSight Tripod Adapter that someone purchased today.

UPDATE: Well, the ~6 mile round trip to the Post Office was interesting. It seems that I didn’t wait long enough for the Ourys to set up, and this caused a bit of slipping while riding. I’m not sure if it was this or the new bar shape which made my hands hurt a bit. Time will tell on this.

I fell once after I thought I could ride over a 1′ pile of icy snow, only to have it collapse and my front wheel stop, toppling me over. Oops. This damaged the end of the Oury a bit, and makes me think that I might fit something else (say, some spare Specialized grips) to this bar.

That all said, I’m still pretty happy with the Bianchi. It still needs a bit of fiddling (seat post binder tightness and brake pads), but I think I like how it feels. This should be fun off road once things thaw and dry out.

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Thanks to the bizarrely, unseasonably, but very welcome warm weather here (54°F / 12°C) I was able to get out on my bike tonight and go for an after-dark ride. Overall the ride went well, except the many places where people failed to clear their section of sidewalk / path resulting in a very bumpy ride over ice. Or, worse was when there was no bumpy ice and I had to fight through 4″ of slush or ride around it on sopping wet grass.

After I made it out to Ryan Road and was heading back I heard my phone make the familiar “new message” sound. It was 7:39pm, and checking it I’d found that I had missed a meeting about some MMBA stuff. At the time I didn’t think I’d be able to make it home in time, but some very hard riding (for me) resulted in my arrival at the meeting place only about an hour after the message arrived.

Still, I am glad I made it out tonight, as tomorrow’s weather will be warm but very rainy, then the forecasts for after that show more typical February weather for here in Michigan: just below freezing, snow, and ice on the roads.

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