cycling – Page 71

Danielle’s New Bike

February 23, 2008

2007 Electra Townie 3

Here’s Danielle’s new bike, a lime green 2007 Electra Townie 3. That is, three speed, internal gearing, with a rear coaster brake and a front V-brake. It also has the optional black plastic fenders fitted, which I think look great. The thing I particularly like about the plastic accessory fenders is that should something happen to them, they can be replaced. Bikes which come with metal painted to match fenders would be really hard to replace should they get scraped / scratched / bent.

Second Honda Music Link For Auction

February 17, 2008

Honda / Acura Music Link for Auction

After a rather complex day (good wandering around at the park, bad DIY experiences not at my house), I came home and went for a nice 5.11 mile bike ride around the neighborhoods, condos, and sidewalks around here. I was a bit limited by some non-cleared areas which still had 6″ of slush on them, but otherwise things were pretty good. I finished it off by riding one lap around my neighborhood as fast as possible, which left me plenty winded when I got home. That was nice.

After rather slowly carrying the trash out I headed downstairs and took some pictures of my original Honda Music Link, the one which prompted the Honda Music Link iPod Adapter Review and, to some degree, caused me to learn quite a bit about electronics, firmware programming, etc. Listing the auction was really simple, as I used my previous HML auction as a template. Here is the current auction, #290207606818, if you are interested.

Now I’m just sitting here sipping a tasty beer, which will be the subject of another post… Then maybe I’ll watch some Trailer Park Boys.

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Still More Bike Stuff

February 16, 2008

Shimano SH-MT40 Mountain Bike Shoes

Today Danielle and I headed out to some bike shops attempting to find other places which would have the Electra Townie she wants. We didn’t have much luck, but did end up at REI, where a bunch of stuff was on clearance. I ended up getting that pair of bike shoes seen there for $54.93.

See, I normally wear boots. For the last 12 years or so, my standard shoes have been issue US military combat boots. They are comfortable, wear very well, and (now) are rather padded with cloth uppers and Gore-Tex lining. While I’ve been wearing them for biking, they really aren’t the best choice, so I had hoped to get some running or trail shoes. When at REI I decided to try on some bike shoes and ended up deciding to (eventually) purchase a pair of these Keen bike sandals. While wandering around and getting ready to leave I ended up coming across these Shimano SH-MT40 shoes in a size which fits me (12.5, of all things) at a rather nice discount.

It’s a bit odd to me to be wearing normal shoes, especially biking ones, but they seem pretty nice. They are snugly comfortable width-wise with the (expectedly) very solid sole, with mounting for cleats. I’m tempted to get some manner of pedal / cleat setup for it, but I’m not quite sure what I want yet. Shimano makes a nice looking platform / clip in combination pedal which I think would work well for my type of casual use. There’s also the reasonably priced Crank Bros. Eggbeaters at the other end of the spectrum, but I’m not sure about those either. If any of you have suggestions, I’d love to hear them.

I also ended up picking up a pair of Ergon GP1-L handgrips. After playing with these a few months back I’d been wanting them, and as expected they are really comfortable. I went for a short ride around the neighborhood after installing them and it’s just simply a lot more comfortable than using normal soft rubber grips. Here is a photo of those grips on my bike, without the endcaps fitted.

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More Bike Stuffs

February 9, 2008

Bike in Stand

Today I ran by Fraser Bike with Danielle and picked up second bottle cage for my bike. While there I asked if they also sell the stands used on their floor models, and it turns out that they do, for $41.99. This stand, the RK-B RAKK STORAGE STAND is just a nice, simple roll-in stand which is extremely stable.

You can also see the rear rack, snap-in bag, light, and second bottle cage there.

I questioned getting the rack and bag (and basket) for a while, but it’s pretty light weight and seems to work out quite well. Unfortunately that bag there, the Topeak RX TrunkBag EX, is the smallest one which will latch into the rack. It holds everything I’d want to bring with me (spare tube, pump, Cliff bar, multi-tool, patch kit, phone, wallet, keys, lights, etc) with plenty of room to spare, so (for now) I’ve had to stuff a inflatable packing bubble thing in there. At least it’ll be good when going for multi-hour rides down the trails near here. I can stick a sandwhich or whatnot in there and stop to eat a bit before continuing on.

Now I think it’s time to go get some dinner. I’m thinking some decent beer, and maybe pizza… although… that’s not sounding so hot either. Hrm.

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Creaking Bike

February 3, 2008

Also, I need to figure out why my bike is creaking. The sound appears to be coming from the center of the top tube when weight is shifted between the seat and pedals. Online research is saying that it may be a seat post in need of lube.

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Winter Cycling

February 3, 2008

56 minutes, 8.1 miles, most of that through snow, about 1/4 of that through snow-covered fields and front lawns where people don’t have sidewalks.

I’m a bit winded.

Only bottomed out once, where a pile of snow along the edge of a curb dropped about 16 inches to the road, and I got stuck on it.

cycling moved from livejournal weather

VG’s Bike Rack

January 19, 2008

So, the note I sent to VG’s yesterday? I got a response this afternoon, and it’s good:

Dear Mr. Vigneau....
Thank you for your email. Your request is an excellent one. It seems that in the scramble to get the store open, we missed installing a bike rack. I have ordered one and it should arrive at the store within the next week or so. We'll get it installed as soon as it arrives. We look forward to having you shop at the store and thank you again for the great suggestion. Have a good weekend! Regards.... Bill Ogle VG's Food Center
phone 810.629.xxxx fax 866.706.xxxx

This is excellent. Here is the route from my house to there, and as you can see, it’s pretty darn short. Very, very bikable. I will be avoiding riding in Schoenherr, as it is a 50MPH road with no shoulders (only curbs) and loads of people driving really, really horrible. (If you know this area, you know the sort… it’s >60% SUVs and trucks, swerving around the people making turns, with ~20% of drivers talking on cell phones.)

But, anyway, yeah. This is good!

Today Danielle and I did a bunch of running around as well. I ended up getting a rack for the back of my bike, the Explorer w/ disc brake mounts. I was going to get a smallish bag for holding the small, necessary bits, but instead I think I’ll get the RX Trunk Bag EX instead. It’s only about $10 more than a small underseat bag and should provide plenty of room for lunch or whatever.

Then again, there’s always the possibility of folding grocery bag holders…

UPDATE: Oooh! This, a basket which clips right into the rack I just installed, is $25.80 via Amazon. I think that’ll do. That should hold a hand-held basket full of groceries, which is exactly the quantity I normally buy when going shopping. Yay!

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VG’s

January 18, 2008

I just sent the following to VG’s via their contact form. It’s a bit over the top, and I’m not really a cyclist, but I would like bike racks there. As it’s only ~1 mile from my house, there’s no reason why I shouldn’t be able to ride up there when needing to pick up something small.

Hello,
I live not far from your store in Shelby Township, located at 22 Mile and Schoenherr. I regularly ride past the store on a bicycle, and I'd love to stop and pick up groceries, but I haven't seen anywhere to secure my bike. That is, no bike racks around the store. If I just haven't noticed them, could you tell me where they are located? Or, if there aren't any bike racks, would you please consider installing secure bike racks somewhere along the front of the store so that cyclists like myself can secure a bike while shopping? Thanks very much! -Steve Vigneau c0nsumer@nuxx.net

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Smooooooth Rider

January 9, 2008

Specialized 2008 Rockhopper Disc w/ Forte FastCity ST/K Tires
(Click for bigger image…)

Two more of the packages of bike stuff I’ve been waiting for arrived today, bearing the GPS mount, smooth tires (Forte FastCity ST/K), tubes (yes, including the wrong ones with Presta valves), Crank Brothers tool, tube patching kit, tire tool, and stuff like that.

With Zinn and the Art of Mountain Bike Maintenance arriving yesterday, I’d started giving it a read. It’s pretty good, although a bit more basic than I need. As the book says in the beginning, it’s really for someone who isn’t comfortable doing mechanical work yet and wants all the basics. Still, it’s nice to see the in depth descriptions of how certain bits of a bike are to be taken apart, info on lubricating and cleaning bits, exploded views of things, stuff like that. Oh, and the author’s nifty bits of amusing advice and warnings are good too.

I read through the section on installing tires (only three pages), then went ahead and put the new tires on my bike. They are some smooth road-ish tires which a friend of mine rather likes. Putting the new tires and tubes on was easier than I expected. Removing the rear wheel was a bit of a problem, as I either don’t know a good trick for getting the rear quick release around the derailer, or it really is just difficult. Regardless, it got done.

After the tires (and GPS mount) were fitted I decided to go for a test ride around the neighborhood, to see how the tires, GPS, and things like that all work out. The first thing I noticed was that the tires work great. At ~70psi things were nice and smooth, exactly how I wanted it to be on pavement. The tires have a maximum of 90psi or so, so this is well within a safe range. I would have liked to have gone farther, but I don’t have lights yet, so riding in public wouldn’t be legal. The neighborhood here also has streets and is relatively cut off, so I figured it was a good, safe area for playing around and trying out braking and such.

Next I noticed that the GPS kept crashing, leaving a single column of pixels on the screen, and the bike computer wasn’t registering revolutions. Some side of the road poking around showed that the GPS’ backlight interferes with the wireless bike computer. This shouldn’t be a problem, as I’ll rarely be using the backlight anyway, but it is a bit annoying. I also need to determine if the bike computer was somehow causing the GPS to crash. I had recently upgraded the firmware on the GPS and thrown some new (2008) maps into it so that could somehow be related, but… I’m not sure. I’ll have to poke with it more and see.

While riding around, the bike computer clocked a maximum speed of 23.7MPH, but as these bike tires are a bit smaller than the knobby ones, I think that may have been about 10% off. Still, I’m pretty happy with how much faster I was able to ride. After three (fast, for me) laps around my neighborhood I was pretty cold, which is to be expected when wearing a nice flow-through helmet and having no hair.

Either way, I’m pretty happy. I just have to wait for the bike frame pump to arrive and then I can figure out what bag to get, and maybe go riding some this weekend. If the weather holds out it’ll still be reasonably warm, and as long as the trails haven’t acquired more snow / ice, I’ll try and hit up some of the local paved trails and see how things go.

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Trails

January 6, 2008

That right there shows why I couldn’t bike any trails in Rochester today. The Clinton River trail there was covered in around 3″ of slush and snow, making pedaling nearly impossible. So, I ended up riding from the parking lot just off of Letica Drive up to Parkdale, back down, around the eastern side of downtown Rochester for a while, up Letica Drive to Parkdale, down Parkdale to a little ways before Dequinder, then back.

It was foggy / misty from the warm air and cold, damp snow, but this was a bit pleasant. I do think that I may need fenders for my bike, though… There’s a good bit of wetness on the back of my jacket, and I had to periodically stop and clean off my glasses.

While it wasn’t very far, the hills in that area, the bits of snow that were still on the pavement, and the giant (1′ high, 3′ wide) banks of snow at each crosswalk made going a bit slow. I went a total of 5.76 miles, averaged 8.5 MPH, with a recorded maximum of 25.4 MPH (down a hill along Parkdale).

I imagine that once there isn’t snow on the ground and I have smoother tires, those numbers will change considerably. Also, I’ll be able to easily ride on dirt trails and whatnot too, once they aren’t coated with ice.

After returning home Danielle and I went for a ride around the neighborhood then down to a yet-to-be-completed (after ~3 years) neighborhood just down 22 Mile, closer to Hayes. Being on flat ground this was considerably more leisurely, covering 2.6 miles and averaging 7.3 MPH. Basically, we were riding around and just talking and stuff.

Also, here is a photo of cotton balls spilled in the parking lot of Meijer.

cycling mapping moved from livejournal