Chilly commutes are still worth it.

This morning, 6:45 AM or thereabouts, on the way to work. 18 degrees and windy.

(Please forgive the craptastic phone camera quality...)

A new friend

Yes, it's true. I have an upright. :-)

I purchased a lovely used Bianchi Castro Valley from Joe last weekend, and have put about 110 miles on it during my commute this week thus far. Reasonable gearing (8 speeds, sufficient for me to get up to a decent speed on the flats, and to crawl up McClure at a snail's pace); dynamo hub paired with an IQ Fly (astoundingly nice headlight, compared to the DLumotec I've been using on the P-38), and a Shimano bar-end shifter paired with a Paul's Thumbie mount on Nitto Promenade bars. Oh, yeah, and XTR brakes with which I've already fallen in love. Some dings, some rust, but hey, it's a commuter.

So, why? Why, I hear you ask? Well, there are various reasons. First and foremost, the RANS Rocket on which I commute is in dire need of some love. The seat's about shot, the drivetrain is in less-than-stellar shape, and the frame could use a bit of paint or powder to prevent a terminal case of corrosion. I have a plan for a rebuild, but it's going to take a while to gather all the needed bits. It made sense to drop a few bucks on a machine that I could use ASAP, rather than rush the Rocket rebuild. Secondly, I've been wanting a decent upright for a while. Never having ridden one to any great extent, it seemed like a fun break from the 'bents, as well as an easy way to make use of accessories for the kiddies like Trail-a-bikes that are significantly harder to get working with the 'bents. That said, I have no intentions of leaving the recumbent fold...I'm merely expanding my horizons...

It's been an interesting week, full of discovery, adventure, and (a new experience) saddle discomfort. Things I like: the height, and ability to stand tall on the pedals to see from a more altitudinous vantage point; the handling, as it seems to work well with my drunken-monkey pedaling style; the ability to stand and power on the cranks for short periods is all kinds of spiffy. Things I dislike: the height, as it feels like I'm on a frickin' circus bike; the saddle, as my nether parts are not exactly inured to such pressures; and, although it may sound odd, the fact that most people could just hop on and ride off.

I'm already thinking about some changes: Joe supplied the bike with lots of extra bits, including the original drop bars, and experimentation has shown me that I feel more comfortable bent over a bit farther than the Promenades and current riser encourage. I'd have to drop a few bucks on some Tektro levers capable of pulling my XTR brakes, but that's a fairly trivial expense. Also, although I'm not going to jump the gun for at least a couple of hundred more miles, I may well invest in a Brooks saddle.

My lack of mad skillz must be addressed forthwith. I need to work on a couple of major areas, including one-handed operation (gotta be able to carry the coffee cup), slow-speed (okay, all-speed) turns, bunny hops and curb climbing, and graceful mounts and dismounts (it ain't pretty, believe you me!). Most of this will come with practice; it's just very odd to be a confident and moderately fit commuter, with minimal handling skills on the bike in use. I'm liking it, though...it has really added a lot of joy to turning over the pedals this week. Not that cycling is tedious, but it's nice to shake things up once in a while.

I caved in, plus weekend plans

Yep. The 70-degree weather during yesterday's commute did me in. Despite my vows and fervent oaths to make it to the end of March, I couldn't bear to leave the studded tires on any more. Off with the Marathon Winters, on with the gently used folding Marathon Racers.

And, as a shout-out to all my commuting buddies, I'm sorry...expect ice storms shortly.

On a different note, we just hit 38 weeks of pregnancy, so I'm expecting that this weekend may be my last one with long rides for a while. I'm planning to scout a route from Meadow Lands to Ohiopyle with Jim this Saturday, then do some town-area riding on Sunday (Red Belt is sounding tempting). As I'm not a complete idiot, I've got a friend standing by to provide on-call taxi service on Saturday if, for some strange reason, I need to come back to town in a hurry. Sunday, and for the foreseeable future until spawning officially commences, I'll be sticking to an hour or so from town. Loops, loops, loops...

Back in the saddle (Ok, Barcalounger)

First commute post-illness this morning. Not bad, although the legs are less than snappy, and the lungs are still bubbling like La Brea.

Amusingly enough, I realized halfway to work that I'd replaced several major components of the drive train the previous weekend, before getting hammered into pulp by the Evil Microorganisms From Hades. Never actually tested, or even adjusted, anything, before setting out this morning. That could have been a poor choice; luckily, friction shifters are forgiving, and I think I'd eyeballed the limits on the new rear derailleur pretty well.

Assuming the long-range forecast for Saturday holds up, or at least stays above 20 degrees with minimal precipitation, I think I'm going to try to get in a century or so. I'm already down a month for the UMCA Year-Rounder challenge, and I'd like to scout out some prospective route segments for the 2010 Pittsburgh Randonneurs brevet series.

Feh. Forgot that whole "cold water freezes" thing.

I had to drive to work today, due to my own foolishness.

After Wednesday's wintry commute home, I was a good and conscientious bike owner, and immediately washed off the worst of the salt and grime, dried off the moving bits with a hot-air gun, and re-lubed the pivot points. I even ran a few drops of lube into the cable housings, worked brakes and gears, etc.

Sadly, I neglected to take a basic precaution last night; I left the bike in the (unheated, detached) garage, rather than simply wheeling it indoors. As a result, I came out this morning to find that all four cables were frozen in their housing. D'oh.

I now better understand the urge to omit excess gearing/cabling/temperature-sensitive moving bits from the commuting bicycle. I'm becoming tempted to invest in an internally geared hub for the rear at least, maybe even with a drum brake.

Ah well. These things happen. Amusingly enough, it took me only 10 minutes less time to drive to work than to pedal; further verification that cycle-commuting really doesn't suck much additional time from my working day.

Hiatus. H-I-A-T-U-S. Hiatus.

It's been a while since blogging hath occurred; not for any particularly exciting reasons, but merely due to vast quantities of slack on my part. In no particular order, here's the highlights of the last month.

Dirty Dozen: That was FUN with a capital OOF. I made twelve of the thirteen; Canton is still to be surmounted, however. (I don't feel too bad about the big C; the first time, another rider hit the ground in front of me; the second and third attempts, my cleat popped out of the pedal; and the fourth and final attempt, well, I wimped out. How's THAT for justification?) It was quite an experience; I managed to maintain the "I'm having a great time on this social ride" face for about the first six hills, which was far longer than I'd anticipated. I wasn't fast by any stretch of the imagination (Took 4th on the Liberty Tube sprint, though!), but wasn't exactly trailing the pack either. I'll do it again...good times indeed.

Commuting: Thus far, I've driven to work a whopping two whole times, counting my first day. I've pedaled through some fairly crappy weather; pretty much everything short of a full white-out blizzard or a serious ice storm. I like this commuting thing; although it's only been three months, and there's still a lot of winter ahead, I'm feeling good about it.

Solstice Century: Ended up being a solstice 45-miler, as I was riding the Baron, and started having a bit of knee trouble. I need to spend some time dialing the Baron in a bit more; it's a fun ride, but I haven't yet taken it for a ride of any real length.

2009? Plans for the future year will be forthcoming shortly, once I actually make the time to formalize some. The Endless Mountains 1240K in September will probably be the high point, at least as regards cycling. The arrival of my baby girl in April kinda trumps that overall ;-)

New job, commuting, the Dirty Dozen, and suchlike.

As of October 6th, I've been employed at DynaVox, a nice little company on the South Side that makes various and sundry products to assist people with various communication difficulties. It's been a bit of an adjustment, considering that I was with McKesson for darn near a decade, but I'm pretty happy with what I'm doing now.

More importantly, at least from the pedal-powered perspective, is that my new office is a measly 8 miles from my house. That, plus no laptop, means daily commuting is now so simple as to be practically unavoidable. It's quite nice to be able to either commute by bike or work from home five days per week; it's even nicer to realize that I'm filling up the tank on ye olde Subaru about once every six weeks or thereabouts, rather than once a week or more.

Commuting has been a bit of a learning process; for example, it took me a few days to realize that sweat was okay, and that bike shorts in the office, while a bit of a bold fashion statement, would not be grounds for termination or merciless mockery. The highlights of my day now include the befuddled gaze of passers-by when I cruise by on the 'bent, with steaming coffee mug raised to lips and a look of almost indecent contentment on my face; the cheers of approval (or so I choose to interpret them) from the colorful characters hanging out behind the Salvation Army; and the joy of comfortably keeping pace with (or, not infrequently, outpacing) traffic on the Boulevard of the Allies on the way home. Not that I mean to wax overtly rhapsodic or anything; it's just such a pleasant change in my life, and I haven't really grown accustomed to it yet.

I've also been fortunate, in that I've now got a nice bunch of folks in the area for potential lunchtime riding partners, some of whom not only are crazed enough to agree that it's a good idea to ride three or four Dirty Dozen hills over lunch, but are also patient enough to wait for me to haul my flabby carcass up the slopes in their wake. Thanks, Brian, Robbie, Dave, etc...

Speaking of such things, Dirty Dozen training proceeds apace. I'm not sure if I'll be able to take Canton or not, as I've been utterly incapable on the Rocket, and the P-38 barely made it a third of the way at last attempt. Regardless, I'm feeling pretty good about it; been riding the hillz at least twice a week for the last month, and, while I'm still slower than a wide gamut of very slow things, I'm happy with my progress. I'll give it a shot; since points are so far beyond my reach as to reside in the realm of wildest fantasy, there's really no pressure whatsoever. I get to go out, have fun, push myself a wee bit, and hopefully demonstrate that recumbents aren't solely bound to rail-trails and velodromes.

Ah, yes. Almost forgot. Wintry crapola has officially descended, so the commute is becoming more interesting. I threw a set of Schwalbe Marathon Winters on the Rocket; they're heavy, and sound like they're rolling on a perpetual trail of Rice Krispies, but I have this unfounded hope that they'll help keep me moving in a more-or-less controlled fashion when the weather turns to utter frozen shite. Nice tires, from what I can tell on short acquaintance. They handle much like the stock Marathons, with the addition of a bit of buzz from the carbide spikes. Mine are in the 42-406 size, so are quite beefy; like most Schwalbe models, they're available in a ridiculous number of sizes and diameters, including a 35-622 that looks just spiffy for commuters on 700c wheels. If and when I set myself up with an upright all-rounder, I'll probably invest in a set of Marathon Winters for that as well, assuming that these hold up well enough to vaguely justify the ludicrously high price tag.

Weekend round-up, highlights and lowlights

Friday: After work, I popped over to the Ambridge Bike Shop, in order to try out a Surly Cross Check and Long Haul Trucker. They had a 54 cm CC (upper limit for my inseam on that model) and several LHTs, ranging from "just barely fit" at 57 cm to "you're joking, and I'm singing soprano" at 60cm and above.

Gary got the bikes set up and roughly fitted, and I took them each for a short spin along the highways and byways of scenic Ambridge. Interesting, very interesting. I had this preconceived notion that I was going to really dig the Cross Check; I did, but found that the Trucker, with the longer wheel base and (relatively) fat 26" tires, had me riding much more confidently.

I also now far better understand why many people like STIs, rather than down-tube or bar-end shifters. Speaking as a highly inexperienced drop-bar rider, the death grip on the drops made moving the hand all the way to the bar-ends to shift a more intimidating prospect. Doable, but I finally grok why STIs are so nice. I do wonder about interference with handlebar bags and whatnot, but I'm sure such can be overcome.


Saturday: Loaded Owen in the trailer, and went for a spin down to Dancing Goats Crazy Mocha in the South Side Works. It's a nice routine; we do about 10 miles while he reads or watches for trains, then stop for a cup of coffee (me!) and to share a Cookie As Big As Your Head. Chill for a couple of minutes, then back down the river, parallel to the tracks for more trainspotting opportunities, and a nice sweaty grind up the hill to home. I'm just pleased that his tolerance for rides is now well over the 2-hour mark, and can easily approach 3-4 if we have at least one extended break in the middle. He'll be a good little stoke-monkey in a few more years. :-)


Sunday: As further proof that the boy enjoys our rides, he asked to go for another, even with grey skies and spitting rain. Same drill, except that we swung by REI for Heed and Gu packs for next weekend's scouting ride.

Later that day, I accompanied Annie on her Django, in order to scout out her potential commute route. As she lives near the Ohio River Trail, getting from there to downtown and back should be no big deal, except for the #$%^ing casino construction. So, I took her on a tour of the construction, the posted detour, and my preferred variations on said detour. With any luck, she'll be commuting to the office before crap weather sets in.

Commuter thoughts: Hrmph. I'm growing up. Poop.

I've been planning to sell off the Rocket, so as to partially finance the purchase of a decent upright all-rounder for use in crappy winter weather. Thusly, the Surly investigations. However, upon reflection, it looks like it'd make better fiscal sense to at least try to make the Rocket more winter-worthy, and go upright this winter only if the Rocket just doesn't work at all.

So, I'll look into tweaking what I've got, instead of buying new toys and learning new skills. *sigh*

Local bicycle commuter Dan Blumenfeld was today delighted to have his faith in humanity restored

Not only did the courteous and friendly Sergeant Seibert follow through with his plan to observe traffic on 19 to watch for vehicles without passenger mirrors, but my sometime ride partner Scott Reckless this morning took it upon himself to do the same.

No results thus far, but it makes me happy to see tangible evidence that not all people suck.

Local bicycle commuter Dan Blumenfeld was today dismayed to learn that some drivers suck

I got smacked by a car on my commute this morning.

Well, "smacked" may be too severe a term, but "brushed" sounds too light, as the moron du jour's passenger mirror ended up breaking off on me. Not just the glass, but the whole damn thing, and it was most emphatically NOT a folding mirror.

I'm okay...contusion on my left triceps, and a nice gash running from upper arm to lower across the crease of my elbow, but nothing serious. I suspect that the seat frame of the P-38 soaked up a lot of the impact, as post-action forensic analysis reveals rips and scratches in the seat fabric that I didn't put there.

I don't know if the driver was simply oblivious, or attempting to "scare" me by brushing by, but they didn't even waver before, during, or after the impact, so far as I could tell. Classic hit-and-run.

I called 9-1-1; talked to the dispatcher, assured them that it wasn't a medical emergency, and gave them the basic information re: location. They dispatched a very courteous officer, Sergeant Charles Seibert, who took the details (and the broken mirror assembly). An EMS team showed up a few minutes later, toweled off my wound and threw a bandage on it. From there, I continued on my merry way to work, had a hot shower and spent some quality time with antiseptic ointment and gauze pads from the Zee Medical cabinet.

Sputter/Gasp/Splash to Work Day

Unless I utterly misremember, this is the second year in a row where my Bike To Work Day commute has involved precipitation ranging from "stinging" to "torrential" to "biblical".

I need a shell that is actually water resistant; the old cheap one from Nashbar looked and felt more like a wet tee-shirt by the time I arrived at the office. The sleeves did a good job of supporting sloshing puddles around my elbows (Yay, recumbent riding position!); allowing arms to hang straight down and loosening elastic at wrists produced copious quantities of water pouring over my hands.

Wool socks and SPD sandals were a good choice, though. I'm using that combination for most of my cycling at this point, as it seems to Just Work for most applications.