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Stony Creek Bike Ride

Published March 24, 2008

Today’s Bike Ride at Stony Creek

Today I was off work, so I had a rather relaxing, but work-filled day. It started out with a now-typical weekend breakfast of yogurt, granola, coffee, and a banana. Then I showered, and decided to work on cleaning up my bike. A little while later my bike was freshly washed with a nicely oiled chain and clean brake rotors. After oiling the chain on Danielle’s bike† I decided that I needed to go for a bit of a bike ride.

Since the weather was relatively nice (it felt like 40, even though the various online systems indicated it was only 35 or so), I headed up to Stony Creek Metropark. I took my car (with the bike rack) on the highway to get there, and while the rack was nicely stable, my car did seem to drag a bit. It’s clearly not as aerodynamic with a few bikes sticking up off of the back of it.

While at the park this time I ended up riding along the road. It’s a bit smoother and tends to have less water on it, and being a park the drivers are familiar with watching out for those on bikes in the road. I ended up doing two laps along the main road, with a jaunt down to the Nature Center between the two.

This was the longest ride I’d ever done, with the GPS clocking it in as 16.6 miles, and the bike computer at 17.05. Normally I wouldn’t think that is very much, but as anyone who has been to Stony knows, it’s nothing but rolling hills there. I think there is only maybe half a mile of flat pavement amongst all of that; where the main road crosses one of the dams. It was definitely a good bit of exercise.

After coming hope I ended up showering again, sitting around for a bit, then ordering a pizza and enjoying the majority of it with a Trader Joe’s 750mL beer and some TiVo’d entertainment (King Of The Hill, Colbert Report, Daily Show, and How It’s Made).

Here is the KMZ of today’s ride, and here it is in Google Maps, if you prefer to look that way. Again, this was logged with my old Garmin eTrex Legend. This time it was converted with GPSBabel for Windows, because the drivers for my USB RS-232 port are complete crap on OS X. They repeatedly hang, can’t be unloaded via kextunload, and just cause problems. Therefore, next time I place an order with Mouser I will be ordering a good FTDI development serial cable.

† I never, ever want to oil the chain on a coaster brake bike again without either a workstand or a second person to help. That was not easy.

4 Comments

Flat Tire

Published March 23, 2008

Yesterday I decided to see if I could easily get near the Lakeside / shopping area via bike, with as little riding in roads as possible. This worked out well, except while riding along a small connector road which runs behind Meijer and Costco and whatnot, I got a flat. It was a sheet metal screw stuck nicely into the thin part of the new tires. Uggh.

It wasn’t particularly hard to change the tube, it was just a bit dirtier and colder than I would have liked. The area near there is still under construction, so there was a bit of water and mud that I had just gone through. It was also just above freezing, so the tire was really stiff and took a bit of effort to get back on to the rim. Oh, and the Blackburn Shorty pump took quite a while to get to get the tires actually full enough to ride on.

Ah well. At least it got sorted out. If you are interested, here is the route I took, with start and flat tire points marked, and here is the KMZ itself.

Oh, and those tires? They do great on the pavement, in snow, in a bit of mud where there was no sidewalk, and on grass. I’m pretty happy with them.

13 Comments

Bike Shorts

Published March 22, 2008

Last night I picked up a set of Novara Exposure Double Bike Shorts from REI. Thus far they seem pretty comfortable, and the L size fits nicely.

I do wonder how long they’ll last. At $56 or so, hopefully at least a year. That said, I wonder if I’d be able to eBay them for profit after they are worn out. After all, there is a market for used women’s underwear. I’m sure there’s a market for used men’s bike shorts.

UPDATE: eBay does not seem to garner high prices for worn bike shorts, nor other men’s shorts in general. I imagine I’ll just have to throw these out once they are worn out. That’s probably for the best, anyway.

9 Comments

Weird Drivers…

Published March 22, 2008

Tonight when Danielle and I were driving back from my parents’ house while heading west down M-59 towards my house, I just so happened to have a police officer behind me. I don’t think he was following me specifically, he just happened to be behind me in a bit of traffic.

Suddenly, as we approached the Meijer at M-59 and Hayes, a Ford Explorer came flying over the top of one of the 8′ grass berms, airborne, straight at the road. It bounced a couple of times in the easement, turned sharply across the grass just avoiding the road, then took off back into the Meijer parking lot. The police offer understandably headed right into the lot behind them.

We drove around, then back into the Meijer parking lot to see if the person was being detained, but the police officer and the Explorer were gone. I imagine the police followed them out of the lot or something before pulling them over.

While still in the parking lot, after taking the opportunity to once again remove the piles of ice in the wheel well, we had to leave via a carefully chosen entrance. It had to be one plenty far away from the other individuals still in the who were driving full size pickups across the lot at high speeds, then sliding them sideways or backwards for 100′ or so. I was hoping to see of them hit a light pole, a sign, or maybe even a curb sideways and break a wheel or tie rod or something.

10 Comments

Cold!

Published March 21, 2008

I was able to knock icicles off of trees while riding up to the bank. Danielle and I are going to meet up with my parents, grandparents, and a bunch of other family members at a church fish fry tonight, so I needed some cash to pay for fish and chips.

I found that:

– Riding to the bank takes the same amount of time, even when I have to wait at 23 and Schoenherr for the lights. (Likely because making the left turn to the bank takes two or three light changes in a car, and one on a bike.)
– It’s funny to ride past long rows of backed up cars.
– The ATM isn’t very viewable from a standing position, likely because of a polarizer to make the display more viewable in sunlight.
– Being on a bike puts your head at head level of as a typical mid-size SUV driver. This is good for making eye contact.

I’m contemplating getting a skull cap and something to keep my ears warm while riding, but that costs money and I don’t think (hope?) that the sub-40F cold will last much longer.

Also this episode of This American Life, Episode 352: The Ghost of Bobby Dunbar is particularly good. I listened to it while showering (yes, a long shower) and then burned a copy to disc for my grandparents to listen to.

1 Comment

Bike Rack: Confirmed

Published March 20, 2008

My Bike & Groceries
(Click for full size…)

Last friday I received some email from the person who had promised me that a bike rack would be installed at the VG’s near my house, apologizing that it hadn’t yet been installed. Sunday, on the way to and ‘s place, Danielle and I drove through the VG’s lot and saw a bike rack next to the front door.

I haven’t needed groceries yet, but with finishing up the yogurt, carrots, bananas, and smoked salmon within the last few days, and combined with some rather nice after-work weather, I figured I’d put the basket on the back of the bike and go pick some things up.

The basket, tires, and lock all worked out great, even though the basket does occasionally touch my bum while riding. As it’s only 1.5 miles to the store, that’s not a big deal. The cheap black bungee cords I picked up for holding things into the basket seem to work pretty good, and if they somehow get lost or break it’ll only be another $2 or so from Lowe’s to replace them.

I’d brought a brown paper bag to the store with me so that I could not take up another new bag, and that seemed to confuse the checkout guy a bit. He first took it and put the potato chips (Better Maid Hot, I hope they are good) and bananas in there alone, then went to get me another bag for other things. After a little prompting (and my saying that I’ll just carry the chips myself) he packed things differently, and it all fit nicely in the bag. That single bag then fit in the basket great, I was able to strap the top down, and ride home.

The lock worked out pretty good as well. It’d be nice if it was just slightly longer, but it worked. I found that the left strap on my helmet can’t be wholly undone, so it’s safe to lock it in the cable. Someone could cut the straps on it, but a helmet without straps is pretty worthless.

Now, time to figure out what to have for dinner. I would go for a longer ride, possibly trying to find a reasonable way to get to Riverbends, but it’s really windy and it’ll take at least half an hour to find and prepare food, I think.

Oh, darn. I just realized that I forgot to purchase bread.

9 Comments

Do Not Want

Published March 18, 2008

Humax Series 2 80 Hour TiVo

Since my TiVo HD is working properly (seems to have been an update glitch) I grabbed a photo of my older, Series 2 80 hour TiVo to post along with this:

Would anyone like this TiVo?

It works great and is all set for you to use, you’ll just have to grab a network adapter for it, or plug it into your phone line and let it dial up. The firmware is up to date enough that all the supported adapters (including the quite nice TiVo-branded wireless one) will work with it.

You’ll also have to pay the monthly service fee to use it, but that’s only about $12/mo.

It’s available for pickup, or I’ll ship it, but you’ll pay shipping.

5 Comments

TiVo HD

Published March 18, 2008

Preparing the service update. This may take up to an hour, possibly longer.

After getting home and putting a frozen pizza from Costco in the oven, I turned on my new TiVo HD to find a plain, black screen. The format button on the front wouldn’t light anything up, so it seemed to be solidly hung. I powered it off and back on only to get that screen above, which reads “Preparing the service update. This may take up to an hour, possibly longer.”

Here I was ready to take pictures of my old TiVo and offer it up in a post here, but now I might need it. Guh.

Also, my pizza still isn’t done, and it doesn’t look as good as the picture on the box. Hopefully it tastes fine.

UPDATE: When checking on the pizza I heard sound coming from the basement. The TiVo is probably working. Hopefully it wasn’t stuck / hung all weekend, not recording things. At least it’s working for now.

Hopefully the pizza will work out too.

4 Comments

Continental TravelContact

Published March 18, 2008

Continental TravelContact 26 x 1.75″ Tire

Today after work I picked up two Continental TravelContact tires for my bike. While the tires that it came with are pretty decent, I wanted a smoother rolling tire for when riding on paths and other paved areas. While I’d previous purchased some rather all right Forte FastCity ST/K mostly smooth tires, I found that they are just too narrow for anything other than pavement.

After a bunch of reading online and a bit of conversation here, I ended up going by REI and purchasing a membership, two tires, and two tubes. I wasn’t sure if the tubes already in my bike tires would fit, so I got these. I’ve got a spare 1.5″ – 2.0″ Forte tube, so that’ll continue to be my spare (these are 1.75″).

As you can see above (or in this top view), the Continental TravelContact has a really smooth center, with knobs on the edges. I took the bike out for a quick ride this evening after fitting the tires, and they definitely roll both more smoothly and easily than the knobby tires which were on there. I had no problem riding / hopping over some of the remaining piles of snow either, and they feel a good bit more solid / sure footed than the narrow FastCity ST/K ones I’d tried before. So, all in all, these seem like pretty nice tires. Hopefully I’ll have some time to ride this weekend and get a good bit more use out of them.

Oh, I also swung by Lowes on the way home and picked up this cheap lock ($12) for securing my bike when running up to the grocery store. It’s the sort of area where one could leave their car doors unlocked and most likely not have a problem, so I think this should be good enough for keeping someone from just riding away. I wouldn’t trust it for all-day use in a secluded area, but for a bike rack near the front door of a large grocery store, it should be fine.

UPDATE: I just remembered that I forgot to roll out the front tire and measure it’s circumference. Ergh. I’ll have to do this tomorrow. If I’m going to instrument something (in this case, the bike) I like it to be reasonably accurate.

8 Comments

Bike Tires

Published March 17, 2008

So, not long after getting my bike I picked up a pair of Forte FastCity ST/K tires. These are relatively narrow, somewhat smooth tires designed to make a mountain bike work better on roads. This they do very well, but they are awful on other surfaces.

The knobby tires which came with my bike seem to do well on trails, but whenever I’m riding on pavement they are a bit rough/rumbly, and just a bit harder than the smooth tires to pedal / go fast with.

I’ve been finding that what I really want, to match how I use the bike, is something which is smooth rolling on pavement, but will still be okay when I have to deal with spots of mud, puddles, and riding around on grass / dirt paths, two-tracks up north, stuff like that. Not true mountain bike uses, but more go-anywhere tires.

Looking around online I came across these, Continental Traffic tires, which seem to have a nicely smooth but still grooved center, and bigger knobs around the edge. From these reviews they look like they’d be pretty all right.

Do any of you have an opinion on these, or possibly recommendations for similar tires?

Thanks very much!

9 Comments