We Need More

I found this over at Mad Blog Media. The article linked to there is interesting. More riders = safer cycling, and it makes sense. So, how do we get more people out there?

I'll be out there today, making 18 consecutive days of riding. My previous record was 5.

Caveat Emptor

Or, at least read the fine print.

The prices for chicken seemed pretty good when we last went to Sam's Club. Unfortunately if you read the tag it says "case sell only" so the prominently displayed price was, to say the least, a little misleading. The only place the price per pound for the packages was on the packages themselves, and it was significantly higher. I wonder how many people fell for it. We almost did.

Food Lion has a better trick. Often the items in the cases and shelves for buy one get one free sales are similar to the ones actually on sale, but are not on sale at all. Not being that attentive at the checkout, I would only find this out when I got home and discovered I'd paid double what I thought I had. Now I read the upc labels on the sale items to make sure it matches the one on the sign.

I guess you make money however you can.

Foliage

It's hard to get some things past me. For instance, recently I became aware that summer is over and fall has commenced. The shorter days and cooler temps gave it away. I'm not all that fond of less daylight, but the cooler temperatures are really, er, cool. Its nice to be able to turn off the AC and open the windows. Our new kitten also seems to enjoy an open window.

It was mentioned to her that she should not do this again.

Another thing I've noticed is the leaves changing color. One of my goals for today's bike ride was to get some pictures of the fall foliage to share. The only other goals were to get in a decent road ride in spite of the 20 mile per hour winds and have fun.

First, the pictures. I took this one:

And this one:

I know what you're thinking: nothing too spectacular. You're right. Now, the fall foliage here is never going to rival that of say, Vermont, and having lived in Vermont, I know first hand how spectacular it can be, but sometimes it is kind of pleasant here. Not this year, though. This year it looks like almost everything is going to varying hues of brown. Oh well, the have been shared so I met all of the goals I set for the day.

The rest of the ride was great in spite of the wind. The temp was in the low 50's and I somehow managed to pick just the right amount to wear, so I was comfortable. I got in 38.46 miles and averaged 16.7 mph. Today made twelve consecutive days of riding, although yesterday was an hour on the trainer due to the uncooperative weather that didn't clear out until it was too late to go for a ride outside. I spent an hour on it for 16.8 miles.

Tomorrow starts another week of bike commuting. Now that I am doing it I wonder why I could never convince myself to before.

Everyone Loves a Parade

Or not...but it gives me a chance to try embedding a slide show - something new. I'm overdue for learning something new.

Today was the homecoming parade for Providence Grove High School. I saw the floats staging outside my office, and since everyone else had already gone for the weekend, I left too. Having my bike made getting down the parade route quicker than walking and easier than driving, finding a place to park and then walking. As for having my bike, I rode it to work every day this week. In fact, I have ridden it in almost every day for the past month, rain or shine. This morning was rain, even though it was neither forecast nor showing up on the weather radar. Don't know how they pulled that one off. All I know is it was very wet. The lunchtime ride home was partly cloudy, and the evening ride home was shine, so we got it all in one day. The lunchtime ride also put me over 4000 miles for the year, and with the ride home tonight I am now at 4008, with two months left to add some more.

Also a record for me: ten consecutive days of riding. Granted the mileage each day isn't much, just 12 each weekday, but it's still riding. Even though there's still enough daylight to ride after work I'm up against having to ride into the setting sun no matter what route I choose. I figure if the sun is blinding me I can't really expect motorists coming up behind me to actually see me, after all, some of them don't seem to even under the best conditions, so I am reluctant to challenge them further. I can still get long rides on the weekend, though. Well, maybe not tomorrow - thunderstorms and lots of wind are predicted, so maybe I'll have to get out the trainer. There, I said it. But, since I don't have a trainer tire, I have an out, if I feel particularly wimpy.

And now, without further ado, a parade of pictures of a small town parade for your viewing pleasure.

Scary Out There

It was mentioned that I hadn't updated this blog for a while. So here ya go! I have intended to, but, well, you know what they say about intentions... I compose some pretty good entries in my head during my rides, but they seem to vanish by the time I get home and turn on the computer.

I continue commuting the three miles into Liberty most days. I should have started this a long time ago. Even with the heavy old bike and my bag bungeed to the rack it only takes 15 minutes. Since it's still a little dark at 7:30 in the morning I mounted the five LED Cateye tail light to the rack and put it on flash. That should make me visible enough. I hope. There is a freeze warning for tomorrow morning, so I guess I'll freeze. At least my feet will. That's a given.

Not only is it cooler this time of year, which is nice,but the wind has picked up too which isn't. Saturday's ride was 64.36 miles, but the average was only 16.4 mph. That was because of 10 to 15mph winds. Still, though not a bad average, and I really wasn't too tired at the end. In fact, if it hadn't been so windy I'd have ridden further. That picture up there and the ones that follow show some of the Halloween decorations in the area I came across yesterday.

Today was even windier it felt like 20 to 25 mph. I got in 21.4 miles and only averaged 16.1. I just didn't feel like battling the wind so I took it easy and cut it short. Gave up might be more accurate.

I need 46 miles to make 4000 for the year. Probably by the end of this week.

Check out the bike in the background. I don't know what it is, but it obviously hasn't been ridden for a long time and has been seriously neglected. I'll wait until the zombie vampire is gone and then check it out. Maybe I can pick it up for free?

Another piccture of the bike. Not in focus for some reason so I can't read the decals. I was too scared of the bride to get any closer.

He lost his head....

The cut in half magic trick gone awry.

Car Free Day

Living only three miles from work and riding about 4000 miles a year, you might think some of those miles would be logged commuting. They aren't though. But yesterday morning I once again drug the old, ultra heavy, steel Fuji out of the shed and rode those three miles. I rode home at lunch and took the car back because, of all things, I wanted to go for a bike ride after work. With the sun going down earlier, getting home as quickly as I can to get changed and get the light Fuji out is imperative. So I got in 6 miles commuting and 22 on my "normal" ride.

Today, though, with no after work ride planned it was a car free day (as opposed to care free - I need one of those sometime, too). Living this close to where I work means I can come home for lunch and ride the bike back for four trips - 12 miles. If the weather stays like this, temps in the high 40's at night and low 70's for highs, I think I'll keep commuting. Not only is it free, I get a few more miles in and it's pretty relaxing.

As I noted a few times, last September I got in all of 29.7 miles in one ride. I did a little better this year. There were 16 rides with total mileage of 426.44. Two of those 16 rides were over 100k. What a difference a year makes, although whatever it is that causes my asthma and allergy problems this time of year was definitely out there again. I just pushed through it.

You know, 5000 miles this year isn't impossible, but I'm not commiting to it. Not yet, anyway.

I leave you with these guys. They seemed pretty interested in my ride when I stopped to take the picture.

And a new picture of Annie. She's pretty cool, and she has taken over. Resistance is futile.

Pie Plates

This is a pie plate. It's only purpose is to keep the chain from shifting past the largest cog in the rear and into the spokes. This is never a problem if your derailleur is adjusted properly, and most bikes don't even come with them. This is the one I took off my old Fuji several years ago. The Roubaix Pro never had one. Never will, but I could have used one last week.

I didn't mention that in my attempt to make the Wipperman chain shift I managed to get things so badly adjusted that the chain shifted past the last gear and into the spokes. Since that locked the rear wheel, I came to a screeching halt, and it took a while to free the chain. I didn't really want to say anything. I'm a better mechanic than that - most of the time. I lapse once in a while. Anyway, I didn't think much about it.

This morning I went for a short ride, only 20 miles. At about mile 18 a spoke broke on the rear wheel. I opened up the brake, wove the spoke between the others so it wouldn't flop around and proceeded on home. I still didn't think much about breaking a spoke since I had broken a few on the old bike. they just fail once in a while. So, it was another trip to visit a bike shop in Greensboro. This time I went to Cycles de ORO, the bike shop I used to use all the time before Performance opened their store right up the block. Since the broken spoke was on the drive train side I knew I'd have to get a tool to remove the cassette, and to be honest, I just felt like going in and knowing whoever I dealt with would know exactly what I needed, even if it might cost just a little more. I bought the tools I needed and I got 10 spokes so I'd have some spares.

It wasn't until I took the cassette of that I noticed this:

The remaining six spokes that exited the hub between the cassette and hub flange were all badly bent and gouged from having the chain jammed into them. No wonder one had broken. I was glad I'd gotten ten of them, since that let me go ahead and replace all of the damaged ones, and I still have four spares, just in case. The wheel is all fixed and true.

I mentioned the Wipperman chain to the mechanic at Cycles de ORO, and he said he'd had exactly the same experience with one. He also told me to take it back to Performance, they'd give me my money back. Next time I go up there, I'll bring it back and see. I'll let you know. Actually, I'd be fine with a store credit, since I know I'll be buying more bike stuff.

Chains (end of the trilogy)

Yesterday after work (Of course I stayed 'til 5:00 even though all my coworkers were gone by 2:45. Honest I did. Why do you ask?) I made another trip to Greensboro for another chain. This time I went to REI, which is similar to EMS, but not quite as good. I used to love going to the EMS store in Peterbourough, NH. I could spend hours and way too much money in that store.

But, back to the chain. They only had one ten speed chain. A Shimano 105 for $42. I bought it, brought it home and installed it. Today, I went for a ride. Well, a 100k (63.22 miles and averaged 17.1 mph) ride for the second Saturday in a row. Perfect shifts throughout. No problems whatsoever. So it really was the Wipperman chain causing all the problems. If you get a chance to buy one, DON'T.

Last September I rode one time for 29.7 miles. That was mostly because of problems with my asthma. There is something out there in September that really affects my allergies and my breathing. I had some of the same problems today, but, I have ridden four times for 124.49 miles already this month, and don't plan on stopping unless my breathing gets much worse.

Commuting

Working a scant three miles from my house would seem to make commuting a pretty easy decision. I keep thinking about it, but never seem to be motivated enough to actually do it. Today, though, I did. It was cool this morning, 59 degrees, and lots of sunshine so I rolled the old blue Fuji out of the shed, pumped up the tires and rode in to Liberty. My first impression was: man, this bike is HEAVY. And it is. It weighs twelve pounds more than the Roubaix I ride all the time. I can't believe I rode it over 8000 miles, some of them as fast as the miles I do on the newer bike.

I took my time so I wouldn't get too sweaty. Still, it only took me thirteen minutes to get to work. I came home for lunch so I got in a total of four three mile trips. So, 12 miles for the day. Don't know if I'll keep commuting, but it really doesn't make sense not to.

Chain II

So, yesterday evening I spent a little time trying to adjust the shifting of the new chain on the rear cogs. Trying being the operative word here. FAIL describes the level of success. Now, the worn chain was still shifting perfectly on the rear - it was just refusing to stay on the big chain ring, so I started looking at everything a lot more closly, especially the new chain. The picture over there shows what I found. The arrow is pointing to a distinctly beveled edge. My first thought - taken from watching too many Mythbusters episodes - "Well, there's your problem!" Since I have been working as an engineer for, like, almost forever, and have some limited knowledge of how things are supposed to work, my thought process was that if I wanted a chain not to shift, I'd bevel it exactly like that. The only thing those can do is push the chain away from the cog you are trying to shift to.


Here is a picture of the (Forte) chain that came off the bike (it's a piece that came off when I shortened it - it was new this spring). Notice the nice, sharp, corners?

Armed with this new found info, I did a quick search on Wipperman chains and shifting. Guess what I found. Yeah, there are a LOT more reviews complaining about how badly this chain shifts than there are kudos on what a wonderful part it is. Imagine that.

On top of that, I found this, written by Jobst Brandt (for a little info on Jobst you can go here). The chain he is talking about isn't a Wipperman, but a Sachs, and it sounds like it's made the same way, with the same problem.


From: jbrandt@hpl.hp.com (Jobst Brandt) Newsgroups: rec.bicycles.tech Subject: Re: chain stiffness data Date: 2 Nov 1998 21:08:22 GMT Damon Rinard writes: > I thought some of you might like to know that I've just posted the > lateral stiffness of a few bicycle chains on my web site at: > http://www.damonrinard.com/chain_stiffness.htm I think this information would be more interesting if you had their lateral flex of each chain when new and when 0.5% elongated. This would reveal more about the consistency of performance during its usable life and might reveal what causes the change. I has always been my experience that the more laterally flexible a chain became the poorer it shifted. In fact that was one of the early criteria for replacing a chain when it no longer shifted easily due to its ability to snake over to the sprocket it was on even though the derailleur was aligned with the next gear. As I said previously, the new Sachs derailleur chain is the worst shifting chain I have come across because its pins and side plates are beveled to reject climbing to the next sprocket. The intent was apparently to allow extreme crossover gearing with 9-speeds and triple chainrings. I am not impressed. This is another case where the demands of the incompetent bicyclist has prevailed over the riders who use their equipment effectively. Jobst Brandt

Guess I'll be off to the bike shop for another chain, this time it'll be a SRAM, Shimano, or Forte. I'm planning on riding after work tonight, though, so I have at least one more ride with this chain. Saving $20 by choosing the Wipperman over the Shimano last Saturday turns into throwing away $50. Live and learn, live and learn.

Chain

Today's ride confirmed that the drivetrain problems encountered in my previous two rides were, indeed, caused by a worn out chain. The problem of the chain trying to constantly shift to the small chainring went away with the new chain installed.

But...

This new chain does not shift very well on the rear cogs. I've tried adjusting the derailleur, but it doesn't help. Since it shifts poorly in both directions, adjusting really means I can get it to shift well one way, then not at all the other. Right now it's about as good as I can get it and I am hoping it'll get better if the chain wears a little bit. It did seem to get better towards the end of today's 35 mile ride. Since I paid $50 for it, I'm stuck with it for about 3000 miles.

So, with today's 35 miles and yesterday's 65, I had a 100 mile weekend.

Four Day Week

Well, for the first time since the end of May I actually got to ride four times in a week. Today I rode 65.7 miles ( 105.1 km). That is the fifth ride of 100 km since May. They're still hard. Today's was not as much fun as it could have been, either. It turns out that the problem with my bike shifting wasn't the cable, but a worn out chain. It took a while to figure it out. The chain kept trying to shift to the small ring, causing a jolt through the pedals every time. It even succeeded in shifting several times. I thought about stopping, but I really wanted to get that 100 km in today. Needless to say, there was another trip to Performance Bike in Greensboro after my ride. They only had two ten speed chains! A Shimano Ultegra for $70 and a Wipperman for $50. No SRAM or Forte. I got the Wipperman, not just because it was cheaper, but because I had heard the Shimanos need a special chain tool, and no one at Performance could verify that either way. I'll let you know how this chain works out, but I did have trouble adjusting the rear derailleur to shift smoothly after I installed the chain.

The mileage for the week is 184.13. That's the most in a week, ever.

Pretty Consistent

It's been a long time since I got two weeknight rides in. Over a month, in fact. I pulled it off, this week though. Tuesday evening was warm and sunny, so it was a no brainer - which is a good thing as there are those that claim I don't have one. Last night there were supposed to be scattered thunderstorms, and the sky was overcast with impending gloom. The sun was peeking through though, so I took a chance and went. No, I didn't look at the radar before I left so a repeat of Saturday's aborted ride was a possibility. That didn't happen, though. Both rides were over exactly the same route, a 32.75 mile loop and, even though the wind conditions were a little different, there was only a three second difference in the elapsed time of the rides. 1:50:32 for Tuesday, 1:50:35 for last night. That works out to an average of 17.8 mph.

The rear derailleur started acting up a little last night, too. It didn't shift on its own, but it was trying to. I checked the cable when I got home, and sure enough it is starting to fray inside the shifter. So it's off to Performance Bike after work today to get a new one. This one has gone about 3,000 miles.

BSOD

Windows users are familiar with BSOD, you know, blue screen of death. Well, maybe not some of the younger ones. To be honest, I haven't seen one in at least a couple of years, and since I babysit about thirty computers (or is it the users? I'm never sure) I am beginning to believe Microsoft may be getting the bugs out, finally.

Garmin, on the other hand... I'll call this the Blank Screen of Death. Sunday I went out for a 52 mile ride, it took about 3 hours, and during that time my 305 shut it's self off no less than 10 times. It would power up again, and actually kept track of the mileage even though all the other data only got recorded from the last restart. As far as mileage and time, I always take my Cateye Astral 8 along with the display set to cadence, so all the ride data is there as well as on the Garmin, except heartrate and elevation. When I got home I Googled the problem - I'd Bing it, but Google is so ingrained - and found it's not all that uncommon. The most widely reported problem seems to be a design flaw that causes the battery contacts to fatigue and momentarily disconnect the battery from the circuit board. The fatigue is caused by vibration. Since my Garmin is still under warranty, I immediately emailed their customer support. About lunch time on Monday I had a response. Tech support suggested I perform a Master Reset. This consists of holding down the power and mode button until the unit asks if you want to clear all data, to which you answer yes. So, I did. I didn't think it would work, but it seems to have. I rode 32 miles on Tuesday in an hour and fifty minutes and the unit did not shut down at all. I don't even know what data it cleared, either because everything is still in it.

Can't really complain, they responded quickly with a solution that seems to have worked, and now I know what to do next time.

Caught

Maybe looking at the weather map before going off on my Saturday ride would have been a good idea, but I didn't. I knew there was a 60% chance of showers and thunderstorms, but it was supposed to be later in the day. Sure it was cloudy, but the sun was almost breaking through. Plenty of time for a nice thirty miles, I thought. I even decided to "go green" today and run my in town errands on my bike rather than later with the car. The errands only consisted of mailing a letter at the post office and getting my Powerball tickets, but it's a start. I did manage to get those out of the way first. About 2 miles south of Liberty I noticed the sky was getting very dark and the wind started to pick up. Two miles from town, and five miles from home if I kept going. I turned around and headed back to Liberty, since there was shelter there in case I needed it. I needed it. That orange area on the radar got there before I did, though, along with thunder, lightening, 45 mph wind gusts and even a bit of hail. It's interesting riding in that stuff, since I still had about 3/4 of a mile to go when the sky opened up. I got to the place where I work, went in and called CJ to come get me. So not using the car today didn't pan out either. But I did get in a 9 mile ride and had a shower too.

Tomorrow's forecast calls for a 20% chance of showers and plenty of sun. I think I'll check the map anyway.

Over 3000

Finally. There was an error over there in the monthly mileage that I corrected tonight. I won't go into the details, but, it was rider error in EXCEL that caused it. But, I am over 3000 mile for the year, at last. I am about 100 miles short of where I was last year at this time, but the weather has been a bit uncooperative with a lot of scattered evening thunderstorms. This week looks pretty good, and tonight was no exception. I got in 32.8 miles at 17.4 mph after work.

I've been sort of religious about slathering on the sun screen before my rides, but on a couple of these evening rides I've "forgotten". Since the sun was hiding behind a cloud while I was getting ready today, I skipped the SPF 30 and went unprotected. Of course the clouds vanished about 10 minutes into the ride, but since it was after 5:00, there was a lot of shade. Oh, did I mention it was 90 degrees with 60% humidity. I guess I just did. Anyway, has anyone else noticed that their sweat seems to evaporate better without sunscreen? Is that just my imagination? I feel so much cooler without it. One thing that isn't imagined is when sweat runs into my eyes. If I am wearing sunscreen my eyes burn so much sometimes I have to stop and wipe them because I can't see to ride. Without the sunscreen, sweat is just water in my eyes. No problem. I think I'll keep using sun protection, but maybe I need to keep it away from my eyes.

Hope I can get a Thursday ride in too. Maybe four this week?

Not Paying Attention

I was happily riding along this morning in another world and didn't see this swath of broken glass until it was too late to even think about not riding through it. At least I managed to go to the right of the largest part. I stopped after I got past it and checked the tires, figuring there was no way I'd gotten through it without picking up something. But I did get through. The tires were fine. That never happens. Well, almost never. It was the second time this week I ran through broken glass without getting a flat. Sometimes I get lucky, I guess.

This is why I shouldn't be allowed to wear anything white. Every time I wear this white jersey I get these grease spots within the first five miles. It baffled me where they came from. Today I finally figured it out. It seems that I slightly rest my water bottle against my stomach to reposition it in my hand after getting it out of the cage. I suppose if I washed my bike, this wouldn't happen, but it's been washed already once this year. Twice would be pushing it, don't you think? Besides, as long as we can get this, I'll be fine. It's saved more of my clothes, well, it's saved All of my clothes at one point or another. Magic Stuff.

Today's ride ended up being 52.2 mile with a 16.9 mph average. I went out early, around 9:00 when the temp was only around 70, but the humidity was 92%. Kind of sticky, but it stayed pretty much overcast, so it really wasn't too bad.

Riding

The past three weeks have featured a lot of riding. Not on the bike, though. I've only managed six bike rides in that time frame for a total of 206.23 miles. Not much for three weeks. But riding I was, every single night, as a passenger and driving instructor. I don't know how many miles we did on all kinds of roads, traffic and conditions with lots of parking and backing up and three point turns, but the student passed his test yesterday and is now licensed to drive in NC and, I guess, the other 49 states too.

Tonight I got out for the first evening week night ride in a long time. Are people driving worse or does not being out there all the time make me more sensitive to how close some of them come? Tonight's high point was a car backing out into the street as I was approaching at 30 mph. That's ok, but the driver blocked the entire lane and the shoulder. I knew right away that there was no stopping so I took the only path open to me, passing on the left. As I went past I turned to the driver, shouted "HEY!" and made the universal "wudduyathinkyerdoin" hand gesture (no, not THAT one). You know, open hand, palm up. Don't know if he got the message, but maybe he'll look for bikes next time.

So, it was short tonight 'cause I started late. 21.83 miles @ 17.8 mph. Guess that's ok for all the time off I've had.

TT Tuesday

Well, since last Tuesday's more intense ride to improve speed went pretty well, I thought I'd try it again. Around 3:00 it didn't look like there was much chance since there were storms around and it was pretty gloomy looking, but by 5:00 it was all gone and bright sunshine had broken out with only a few stray clouds wandering around.

The TT part was, just like last week, twenty minutes of full effort. I started it at the five mile mark and when I slacked off twenty minutes later I had covered seven miles. Using my abacus, fingers and toes, I calculate that to be an average of 21 mph for that distance. Not too bad for an old guy, I guess.

Here is the speed trace.

The heartrate

And the elevation.

The whole ride worked out to 32.8 miles with an average of 18 mph. I'm wondering, since I ride the whole thing alone with no one to draft and share the work, could that be fairly fast? Wish I knew, but it was fun, anyway.

Watching TDF on Versus now, I must confess, I succumbed to the spoilers on the WWW intertubes today, so I already know the outcome. I need to watch it anyway. Hope Jens gets well soon.

The Hills Are Alive...

Oops, wrong musical. Needs to be "The corn is as high as an elephant's eye"
So. we're not in Oklahoma, but, that is tall corn, no matter where you are. I don't think I have ever seen corn this tall, and I've driven through the corn fields of Indiana so I've seen corn. I had to stop and take this picture. I have been to the NC Zoo in Asheboro, and suggest that anyone visiting this area take the time to go there, and know just how high an elephants eye is. No elephants can see over this field.

The latest iteration of Saturday's route takes me within couple of hundred yards of Homeland Creamery. One thing they have is ICE CREAM! Depending on the route variation, it comes either at 32 or 38 miles into the ride. Today it was 32, or about 2000 burned calories. Unfortunately I never seem to take enough money with me to stop and replenish. I need to remember to. An ice cream stop on a hot summer day - what could be better. Maybe next weekend.

Not sure what is going on with the weather. Today was about 82 degrees. Believe it or not, that feels cold now. Not a normal NC summer, by any means. An amazing, beautiful day, though. Stats for today; 48.75 miles, 16.9 mph, 3099 calories. Not too bad, I guess.