Good Ride?

I asked Ken if he wanted to go riding yesterday sometime around 7AM. Wouldn't you know I was out the door by 5:30. Questioning why I would want to give up a nice warm bed to freeze my everything off, I was answered with the moon hanging over Como Park. I was able to ride all the way through the park, enjoy the amazing view, and not be bothered by a single car. Pretty much made the ride worthwhile, and I was only 2 miles from home.

After a short stop to straighten Ken out, we rode out east and stopped for a hearty breakfast. I made the right choice in changing base layers and eating was fantastic. Then it was through St Paul to stop at Hiawatha for some parts for Ken. Somewhere in St Paul I really started feeling like crap. I had upper chest pains and it felt like I wasn't getting oxygen to body parts. I could breath all right, but I had no energy and almost felt dizzy. So I figured I would ride easier and that should help.

We stopped down along the river and that maybe helped a little, but not much. We hung out at Hiawatha for a while and looking back, I think that was a really good idea. Still wasn't feeling good, but I did make it home. I ate and drank a little after I was home and took a small nap. It wasn't until 7 or 8 that evening that I really felt good. Super tired, but good. Slept like a rock the whole night and woke up this morning almost as if nothing happened yesterday but a good ride.

Ken mapped out our route HERE...I added at least 25 miles to the total as the stupid one using studded tyres.

More Bits

My mudflaps and rack bolts came in. I eyeballed up the mudflaps and they are going to work very well. I still wish for a little more coverage behind my rear tyre and a little more to the front of my front tyre, but that's what I get for not making my own fenders. Front and rear may seem like overkill, but after riding behind people around town, I figure less spatter is better. The real issue being, when will someone be behind ME?

As expensive as they are, the Paul rack bolts are almost a work of art. Such precision in the machining is great, even to look at. Not to mention it makes such a difference when needing to perform their function. A word of warning: Be careful of the road you begin to travel. Once you start with the nice stuff, it's a let down to go back.

Coming together

Now that the broomball season is over, it is time to start concentrating on Trans Iowa. I have been thinking hard about the CrossCheck setup and finally started to bring some things together. I spent the better part of today installing my new Bertoud fenders, Nitto M18 rack, and Wald basket. It's not a good picture, but if you look closely you can see all of them. The fenders turned out ok, but there is a little line issue that isn't consistent. Fitting those 60mm wide beasts in there was easier than I thought. I didn't want to destroy them too badly, so therefore I have the line issue.I think the picture makes the rear fender look worse than it is. I had to push it all the way forward to make room for my wheel to come out. The front fender lines are almost right. Now that all those parts are on there, I can remove them to be powder coated. It seems a shame to do that to all those nice shiny pieces, but in the end, I think the overall theme will work out nicely. I don't have the mudflaps yet, but they will be added (they if there is room on the front fender for one).

There are still a couple of items yet to be decided on. I need a computer and some sort of q-sheet set up. I have the crankset and I am pretty sure of my gearing, so I sleep easier because of that. I don't know if my Edelux will fit under my basket, so there may be some engineering to fit it in there. And the coffee cup is just resting in the basket right now. I am hoping to put a mount inside or out to have java along the way.

Training

On my way to work yesterday I came down the pedestrian bridge onto Energy Ln. The St Paul police often use this street for training new officers on protocol when pulling over vehicles. I have been by these vehicles many, many times and I have never seen them move. So I was very surprised when, as I started to pass them, they both pulled away from the curb, cutting me off. No signals. I'm not sure this is what is supposed to be taught new police officers.

I made up for it by not stopping at the stop sign at the end of the street. Take that cops!!
(I do not advocate running stop signs. There is virtually no traffic at that intersection. I did slow down and since I ride really slow, it means I was nearly stopped.)

I am starting to become more and more nervous about Trans Iowa. With the amount of snow and ice around here, it makes training rides less than enjoyable. I am thinking that we are going to have ice encrusted roads for a while yet, and the weeks are counting down. I may have to do something rash...rollers. I shudder at the thought of dusting them off.

Improvisation

Being a bike mechanic, it has been my motto for a long time that I can fix almost anything mechanical. Combine 15 years of cobbling bikes together and my years spent working on a ranch in western South Dakota, and I tend to have a fairly high accomplishment rate of making things work when they need to. No matter if the right equipment is at hand, or not.

This morning, Joe was kind enough to purchase supplies for making burgers at the bike shop. Unfortunately, someone was not nearly as kind to us when they stole our grill from behind the shop. Now I know it shouldn't have been left there in the first place, but it still aggravates me when you have to be so protected of everything you own, or are even in possession of, at all times, lest someone swoop in and absconds it. Frustrating.

But I digress... the point is, we didn't have a grill to cook the burgers on! While Dan was out deciding that replacing it was just too expensive, Joe and I came up with a plan to make-shift a grill.


It turns out we had an old mop bucket that made a great base. I threw some old brake rotors, a chain ring, and made a shelf of spokes (and a couple hacksaw blades) for the coals to rest on so there was air flowing all around them and they would be closer to the food for better cooking. We still had the coal grate from the old grill, and it made a perfect grate for the burgers. With the curvature, we could rest the lid to a garbage can (it had never been used) on top and they turned out to be some of the best burgers we have had.


Great day to be a bike mechanic!

Why I ride a bike: Reason #1

Finding the second shoe

No, it's not the number one reason I ride if I were to be ranking them in order of importance. I just figured I needed a place to put these reasons down as I think of them, to be reviewed later and possibly consolidated into a list to have on hand for answering that question that I am asked many times a year.

Ken and I were returning from breakfast on Sunday and I noticed a shoe alongside the road. Now this is not anything new. Somehow, and this is a very interesting subject that should be discussed and possibly even written into a thesis, there is almost always only 1 shoe along the road. How did it get there? And why is there only 1?

Too many questions to try to answer. The exciting thing about riding a bike, is that when there is a matching shoe to be found, it is much easier to do on a bicycle. Sure enough, roughly 1/4 mile farther (further?) down the road was the match to the other shoe. It still doesn't answer the how people lose shoes along a stretch of highway question, but there is satisfaction to matching the pair.

I'm in

I guess I am in for Trans Iowa V6. Last year my postcard disappeared in the mail. In the end, it was a good thing.

This year, it made it all the way to Iowa. I hope in the end it's a good thing.

Let the training begin (which means finding good eats farther and farther away from me, or maybe a golf course ).