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Today after work I rode to Rochester, then a little ways down the Paint Creek Trail, then back to work. It was a total of just over 16 miles, but they were particularly tiring. I also learned a bunch of things during the ride, and here are some of them:

· Auburn Hills and Rochester Hills are named that way for a reason. What is a fun, hilly area to drive is hell under one’s own power. A few miles of uphill with no trees gets tiring quickly.
· The gates at work will not open for a pedestrian or a person on a bicycle, regardless of if a person is swiping a badge or the guard is pressing the button. There seem to be hall effect sensors or something similar in the pavement, and my bike is too small, too non-ferrous, or both. Thankfully an AT&T guy was pulling into one of the data centers behind me, so I just pulled forward until the gate opened for him.
· The sort of crosswalks Rochester has installed on the Clinton River Trail are crap. Here is one. It has a raised median on which it is too small for a bike to stop, but it is ringed with plastic posts making it difficult to traverse in one go. These should be replaced with crosswalk signals and flashing yellows which turn red when someone presses a button. It’d then be easy to cross in light traffic, and easy (despite stopping) if traffic is heavy.
· I could ride to and from work in a reasonable amount of time, but the area near work would make it pretty unpleasant. I’d also be quite stinky and there aren’t showers at work. As I’ve now ridden this route in two separate pieces, one day when I have more daylight available I’ll do it in one go.
· Armhair, particularly mine, is very good at trapping gnats and other small insects when riding through swarms.
· I still don’t feel very comfortable on non-paved areas nor around other people while using pedals which attach me to the bike. I may need to loosen the tension, and I definitely need to work on the positioning of the cleats themselves on the shoes.
· Way, way too many people don’t know how to handle themselves around bike. When someone says “passing on your left”, don’t stop and turn around. Yes, you have the right of way, but you should be reasonably comfortable with where you are as well. You also should be courteous and not take up the whole width of the path with strollers, dogs, or your desire to ride two or three abreast at all times, particularly when you can see people coming in your direction.

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Having a bike I was bound to fall eventually. Unfortunately today I fell twice, both times on account of not being familiar with the new Shimano PD-M540 pedals I installed last night.

The first time I was at the intersection of 24 Mile and VanDyke, on the sidewalk, and as I went to press the crosswalk light button I didn’t get my right foot unclipped and I toppled over against the pole. Because of how I fell the rear brake lever stabbed the top of my thigh, just above the knee, making a nice puncture wound. The second time I’d just returned home and I pulled up in front of the mailbox and again didn’t manage to get my right foot unclipped before I toppled over, with my right knee, the rear rack, and the handlebar all hitting at just about the same time. The second fall hurt a lot more, but only scraped an area about the size of a dime. It still hasn’t finished bleeding.

Beyond my needing to get familiar with the pedals, I think I like them. I rode just over 20 miles today and for the most part I had no problems dealing with them. I just need to get the idea of pivoting my foot before moving it more ingrained.

There’s no GPS plot of the ride because I didn’t feel like logging one, but I rode from my house to the head of the Macomb Orchard Trail by way of 24 Mile Road before winding my way back home. Here is approximation of the route, save for the bit of trail leading from 24 Mile to Dequindre, and a few bits of wandering down side roads.

Oh, and the wind. ~20 MPH gusts aren’t much fun, particularly when you are riding straight into them. I had a hard time maintaining 12 MPH for the route down VanDyke back to 22 Mile.

I feel dumb about falling over, but it just shows that I need to get more familiar with using these pedals. My bike shorts and shirt are in the wash so that I can bring my bike to work tomorrow and possibly go riding from there. There’s a bunch of nicely accessible trails and paths leading from the end of the road my building is on, so it’d be a nice place to go riding. I’d just need to be sure to sort out dinner beforehand. And not fall over while practically standing still.

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While at Fraser Bicycle & Fitness (my preferred local bike shop) after work to get my bent wheel trued I ended up grabbing a pair of Shimano PD-M540 clipless pedals. I had originally been looking at the PD-M520 which has, but something about the PD-M540s jumped out at me. In particular, they are tightened down a bit differently (hex bit through the back side of the crank), and they appear to be easier to disassemble for overhauling (no need for a special tool). At US$79.99 they were only US$5 more than Amazon, so the price was pretty reasonable as well.

I was told that if my front wheel gets bent again, it’s most likely going to have to be replaced, but for now it’s pretty much straight. There’s a very slight wobble (1mm – 2mm at most), but it seems pretty good otherwise.

Before putting the wheels back on my bike I disassembled, cleaned, and greased the rear pulleys (jockey and tension). I also gave the the inside of the derailer cage and other dirty bits some special attention before giving the whole of the frame a washdown. It was pretty muddy from Saturday’s rainy ride and I wanted it clean again.

It was after 10pm so I didn’t want to test the new pedals out tonight, but hopefully I’ll be able to do that tomorrow. The cleats are fitted on my shoes, but I’m sure they’ll need some tweaking position-wise before I’m comfortable with them.

There are more photos of the pedals on this page, if you are interested.

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After bending my front wheel a bit yesterday while riding I headed with Danielle over to REI to grab a spoke wrench. I ended up getting a Park Tool SW-7 for $9.99, and after getting home I read up a bit more on wheel truing and gave it a go.

Not having a truing stand I tried using a chopstock, some non-slip padding, and a small bar clamp in place of a feeler, but it didn’t work out very well. I was able to get the wheel to wobble less, but it still didn’t seem perfect to me. Also, I worry that I’m screwing up the dish of the wheel.

I think that tomorrow after work I’m going to try and go by Fraser Bicycle & Fitness and see if they can sort out the wheel for me. I really hope I don’t have to buy a new one. I imagine I won’t, as the wobble isn’t too bad. Hopefully it won’t cost too much for them to fix it, either…

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Despite what I said in my last post I went for a nice, long bike ride today. Sometime mid-afternoon the weather was looking better (only a few occasional drop falling) and I was feeling crappy, so I put on some BDU pants, my normal boots, a rainproof jacket, helmet and gloves, and hopped on my bike. I hadn’t intended to go particularly far, but I ended up doing a bit over 20 miles.

I started out by going west down 22 Mile to VanDyke, VanDyke north to 23 Mile, then 23 Mile west to Dequindre north. Not long after getting on Dequindre I came across a possible destination, the easternmost end of the Clinton River Trail. This is right near Onyx Ice Arena, and right where it meets with the Macomb Orchard Trail, which Danielle, Brian, and I rode a five mile section of last weekend. I then got on the Clinton River Trail, headed into downtown Rochester, and rode along the marked route to the beginning of the Paint Creek Trail.

After stopping for a few minutes to look at the river and grab this photo I turned around and headed home. Not long before this the rain had picked up, and so the rest of the ride home was in a steady drizzle. As noted a week ago it’s good to get out in the rain, and it really isn’t that bad.

This ride wasn’t all good, though. While crossing Shelby Road along 23 Mile, and preparing to cross to the south side of 23 Mile, I made a slow, but very sharp turn at a crosswalk. When doing so my front wheel slipped sideways and I almost fell, but was able to hop off and catch the bike. As this happened I felt my right leg above the knee quite gently, but thought nothing of it. Continuing to ride, I noticed that my front wheel now has a distinct wobble. After getting home I’ve since noticed that there are two loose spokes, 90° apart, on the same side of the wheel. I guess tomorrow I’ll pick up a spoke wrench (yes, I know, I really should have one of these) and have at sorting the wheel out.

That said, I’m almost tempted to just bring the front wheel into the shop where I bought the bike. It’s hard to imagine that it should have gone out of true so easily, and they do offer a free bike “tune up” after buying one, which I never took them up on. I could pick up a spoke wrench at that time too, I guess.

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