A little package in the mail

I received a little package in the mail yesterday. I had ordered a handlebar from Bike Works NYC (www.bikecult.com) on Saturday morning. I've never had anything shipped so quickly. Nice folks too.



I've already got them on the Surly and they are the ticket. I bought them because I liked the retro shape and figured they offered enough for hand positions. My first impression is that I like the feel and I love the style. Picts to follow soon.

I believe I can live with riding home in the light. It's been a while.

Think I may have screwed up my back a bit hauling IKEA boxes about. That particle board is some heavy sh!t. Not affecting my riding but it's a chronic pain. I'll let it go another week before I entertain anything as drastic as going to the doctor.

Enjoy the ride!

Son of Swap Meet

Ok. So here's this hot Italian bike. The price is cool, considering what it is. The purchase of another bike may not be cool, considering my wife's possible reaction. It's a swap meet and so far I've only occupied the receiving end of the transaction. A purchase of another bike would bring the total to five. This is clearly obsessive behavior. Fun obsessive behavior but still obsessive.

I walk away from the deal. Glowing in the realization that I have mastered my desires. Well, at least my desire for another bike. Clearly one who has mastered his desire has nothing to lose from doing a little innocent browsing. I'm not buying anything more. I limited my total purchases to $15. Look at more bikes, more frames, more components. A guys offers to sell me a pile of used mountainbike tires for 10 bucks. The tires weren't half bad and would have been a great deal if I was in need of them. I pass.

I spot a decent bike of some brand I don't recall. Horizontal dropouts mean this could be a great beater of a fixed gear project. Lugged construction. Alrighty. As I make my move, you guessed it. A college kid starts asking about it. A long conversation ensues. The bike is $30, $30! The conversation goes on entirely too long leaving me with a glimmer of hope that he'll pass. No such luck. Oh well, he needed it more than me. Being a college guy I figure he doesn't have a lot of money to spare. I feel ok about this but am questioning my crap timing.

This is getting frustrating. I need to go home. This sucks.

To be continued. Be well.

Swap Meet...so why am I only buying. Is that really a swap?

Went to a bike swap meet today in Saint Paul. Lot's of yummy goodies and of course our fair share of crap. I come from the sticks so I was expecting something pretty low key, not crowded. When I got there I found there were more than a few like minded individuals around.





So, as I'm scoping things out, my eye catches a Brooks sprung saddle. That would be just the ticket for the Surly, although I have a decent leather saddle on there at the moment. Anyway, it's a Brooks and I'm a sucker for name brand goods and I see the price is $30. As I make my move through the crowd, I see another guy hand over the money and grab the saddle, my saddle! Oh well, that's really half the fun. Everything doesn't work out. I'll get it next time.

So, I move around the table and goods. Too much to take in at one time. I'm sure I've overlooked some good stuff. I do manage to grab a nice Avocet saddle for ten-bucks. Nothing special but it's in good shape and it's nice and firm. I don't like soft saddles. They start to bite after an hour or so.

Go to another table and snatch up a pair of nice pedals. All metal, toe clippable, just my thing. Five-bucks. The best deal I could find online for similar pedals is more like $35. Sure, they're used, but I don't really care. Everything is used five minutes after I buy it anyway.

This really was enough for one day. Found some cool stuff for a fair price. I'm taking my time looking through the bikes, just for fun. I check out a Bianchi Milano, my size, black, internal gear...pretty cool bike that I had never seen up close before. I'm looking a little more closely and some of the parts just strike me as being kind of cheap. Great idea, but I don't think the bike was all that well put together. The price is right, but I decide to pass. I don't need another bike (not that that should stop anyone) and I think it will be pretty much of an impulse buy.

Checked out a lot of other used bikes and frames, some good, some bad, but nothing all that tempting. I have passed by a Tommasini road bike (80's, 90's, I really don't know) a number of times. A hot Italian number. The sort of bike I don't even bother to check out on eBay since they go for big bucks, at least by my definition of big bucks.

Everytime I pass the Tommasini there is someone there checking it out, touching it, talking to the seller. Lots of interest. It is a sharp bike, well tended. Sort of a Burgundy color with mostly yellow graphics. I figure it's going to be sold. That's ok as I'm not here to buy a bike. I browse around and make a final pass. The bike is still there so I stop to talk to the owner. He's had it since the early 90's and bought it just after he finished college. Believes that he's the second owner. He bought it as a frame and built it up with Shimano 105 and 600 components. It likely had Campy originally so everything is not original. It is a nicely detailed bike with a lugged Columbus tubing.

To be continued. Be well.

The Program

Time to get with the program. Last year, when i started biking, I went on a healthy diet in order to feel better and to lose some flab. It worked. I lost 15-20 lbs of middle aged belly fat. Well, I don't put on the same amount of miles in the winter and with the cold weather I have had a voracious appetite. I wouldn't say I'm completely disgusting but I'm not exactly cut.

So the diet goes like this. Supper is one half of a plate of vegetables, one-quater protien and one-quarter starch. I'm simple minded and don't like to fuss around too much. The diet also calls for a breakfast of oatmeal, fruit, skim milk and something roughly equivalent for lunch. Cut out the candy. Snack time in the afternoon is skim milk and maybe some carrots. It all worked once and it can wiork again. Yup, gotta get with the program.

Enjoy the ride. It's all about the ride.

Bike Porn

Saw this entry in the Fixed Gear Forum last night. To me, this entry is exceptional, truly bike porn for us bike freaks. Others may disagree. I say, way to go, Matt!

Original Post of Matt's bike

The only thing I'm wondering about is the nose-up position of the seat. Not for me as it would not agree with me Lucky Charms.

Another day in February

Figured out a pretty smart thing at work today...actually I think it's a lesson that's been sinking in for the past year or so. Take care of yourself cause no one else is going to do it for you. I was starting to stress out about an upcoming deadline. Once I figured out my superior on the project was going on vacation next week, it all seemed so clear. I don't need to pull any one else's weight. Enough. Most of you are probably intelligent folks who figured this out a long time ago. It takes Mr. Protestant Work Ethic a little longer to catch on. I know this is degenerating into a rant, but really, I'm not bitter. I'm just thinking more clearly now.

Onto more important things, like the rest of my life. The commuting is going well. I wouldn't dream of driving to work anymore. I actually am enjoying the winter, a first for me. I'm continuing to get used to the Surly. I'm beginning to gain some confidence in the handling at higher speeds and I'm loving it! I have been pondering why I chose to be such a puss (please excuse the non-PC language) and chose to go with a single speed vs. a fixed gear. There's no coasting with a fixed gear. You know what ? I'm not entirely opposed to coasting. I'm all about enjoying my ride. I want to be in good condition but prefer to have the option to be a slacker. It's not the bike, it's all about the ride. The other day my pant leg got caught in the sprocket. No trouble, I just stopped peddling, did a quick back crank and presto, pant out of sprocket! Had I been on a fixed gear the results could have been a bit more traumatic.

Don't get me wrong. I'm all for you fixies out there. I just don't know that I'm ready for the discipline. I do make a daily pilgrimage to the fixed gear gallery, http://www.fixedgeargallery.com/ . Love the clean lines of the single gear. We'll see. I've got an 80's Cannondale in the garage that seems like a good candidate. Hmmm....

I was talking with my wife this past weekend. It sounds like we'll become a one car family once our second car dies. I feel good about this. It's not much, but I do feel like I'm doing something right by powering my own vehicle. You know that teensy bit less of crud you didn't inhale today? That was my doing. I don't take it too seriously, but the ride does connect with my politics. I'm not going to save the world, but I won't let that stop me from doing the little bit I can.

So. Sort of a stream-of-consciousness rant today. Don't get me wrong. I know that I'm one fortunate person. I make enough money, have a wife that I love, and the time to enjoy life. I am truly privileged.

Enough. Be well.

It's true...

February is indeed the month of madness. I've had more than one needless conflict at work in the past few weeks. Today was a shining testament to this theory. I don't mind that folks turn ugly. I do mind that they want to involve me.

Great commuting lately. Warm temps compared to the sub zero weekend. Today was the first day that I didn't consiously think about the way my Surly handles. A sure sign that I'm getting used to it. I discovered last night that I had been cruising around on 35 lbs pf air. A little quality time with Mr. Floor Pump brought them up to a firm 80 lbs. The hill on the way to work just became a lot easier. I'm pretty inattentive to tire presssure lately. My shop is out in the garage and it's cold out there. Perhaps a basement setup would remedy the situation.

Still enjoying plenty of juvenile skids on my new brakes. It would seem that I've never experienced decent brakes. Perhaps the maintenance issue is rearing its ugly head. I'm thinking of going with moustache handlebars but that may just be a whim. The current handlebars are just old mountainbike castaways. I'm a fan of multiple hand positions.

Enough babbling for now. Be well.

February...insanity

A former supervisor, not a midwesterner, but a southerner, once told me that he didn't listen to any complaints in February. He claims we all go insane during that time and tend to rant and rave about everything. I wish it wasn't so, but I do tend to think he made a good point. Someone else once told me that the native americans around here used to refer to February as the "season of bones and death". I don't know if this is true but it seems to sum up how a lot of us feel this time of year.

Wassa point? Point is I was thinking about this and have been careful to take care of myself this year, especially in February. I've been coming home from work on time, I used to be a fairly extreme workaholic so this is a change, and it as helped my outlook. The days are getting longer. It good to be able to ride home in the light and to appreciate the things around me on the ride home. Today was the first day in a some time that I've taken the long way home. Winter is a dying old man, still capable of considerable fury, but dying nonetheless. I believe I can see the end of the tunnel on this winter. I don't expect to reach the end of the tunnel soon, but at least I can see it.

Be well.

The weekend off

Didn't so much as think about riding this weeekend. Yesterday was brutally cold. I would have got ont he bike if I needed to go anywhere but that never came up. Today was a lazy day. We continue our remodeling chores and things are slowly shaping up. It takes us a long time to make up our minds and the remodel has been proof of that. I'm thinking our car will be able to drive to IKEA by itself by the time we wrap it up. I'm starting to feel a little guilty about the amount of money we've spent on things that don't seem all that important. On the other hand, we're both around 50 yrs old and have never had furniture that wasn't given to us until pretty recently. I guess we can feel good about ridding the world of some of the most butt-ugly harvest gold/orange shag carpeting the 70's had to offer. I've removed enough carpeting in my life, and seen what's underneath it, to be pretty much a non-carpet kind of guy.

Truth is, I'll be glad when we wrap it up, and that won't be anytime real soon.

Lesse, what else? I've been spending a lot of time thinking that I need to quit smoking. Some probably think it's incongruent that a biker would be a smoker. The way I see it, wanting to be in decent conditionand being addicted to nicotine are two separate issues. I need to cut this sh!t out but quitting has a very negative effect on my mood. Doesn't make me a real pleasant person to be around either. Any advise from anyone who may read this is welcome.

Oh yeah, I've also been thinking about how well our new dog, he's 1.5 yrs now so not exactly new, is working out.

Here he is as a little guy.



And more recently, as a coffee table camping cur. Ok, I know it's sideways. Turn your head 90 degrees.



We enjoy our pets. As you can see, they lead a pretty easy life.

Enough. Be well.

Little chilly

It is no doubt cold this morning. Minus 5 degrees F with a wind chill of minus 32. Facemask was a must this morning. About the only trouble I had were my hands. Twenty year old chopper mitts with worn out wool liners weren't quite up to the task. Definitely need to upgrade. Other than that, no trouble.

Took on the most badass hill on my way to work this morning. Given the temp, I was highly motivated. It was a grind, but nothing horrible. I think that my body's energy was diverted to full time furnace duty, so I wasn't even breathing hard. So far, the 67" gearing seems like a go.

Enough. Be well. Ride on, my friends.

ok...so, the facemask

Ok... so it was a balmy 7 degrees F this morning. I remembered and wore the facemask but didn't really need it. Looks like the next two days may be a bit more challenging. Friday AM should be sub 0, so a definite facemask day. About the only issue was fogging of my glasses. I pulled the mask down to expose my nose and mouth. Problem gone. Elementary, but it just hasn't been cold enough this winter to worry about this. Lack of experience.

My baby soft legs were crying out for a lower gear this morning. But with the Surly SS I've two choices; mash the pedals a little harder or get off and walk. Fat chance on the walking. My mindset is not used to the lack of options. We'll see how the next week or so goes.

The Surly frame seems a bit, very little bit, more flexy than the Pig. Pig must be made of gaspipe, there's no flex at all. I'm liking the ride but still getting used to it. Way too much juvenile fun skidding the back wheel. Love the control and ability to do this.

Be safe and enjoy.

The Surly

I finally got around to posting a picture of the Surly I've built up this winter. Not exactly a great oicture but it'll do for now. Huge thanks to the boys at Express Bike Shop in Saint Paul. Many of the items were picked up used, in perfectly good condition, and ready for a new life. An absolute fraction of what they would cost new. Big ticket , heavy wear items , like wheels are new and so I paid a bit more for them. If I'd been more patient, I'd likely found a good used set. Of course, I know all this after I'm done with the build.



There are really no top end, fancy, expensive parts on the bike. Rode it to work today. COLD...must find facemask. After a winter on fat, low-pressure tires it seemed to float pretty nice. It was the first real trial of the 67" gearing and seemed to work out ok. So far, I'd say it's a decent compromise. Don't die going up hills and moves along well on the flats. It does force me to keep my cadence up. The frame, so far, and that's not so far yet, seems nice. The ride and handling are pretty much what I was looking for. Of course, everyone's happy when they first try out a new purchase. I'll come back with an actual opinion once I've logged some miles. Spring is eventually coming and I'm sure to be doing a bit more distance. As long as I'm on this disconnected stream of consciousness, I'll say I love the direct pull brakes. Mega power, mega controllable...as long as I remember which bike I'm on.

Enough. Looks like the coming few days could be around 0 degrees F, so welcome back to winter.

So far... and what about those handlebars

So far, the winter commuting hasn't really been too bad. The snow has been light in the past month or so. If I'm having problems on the road, chances are pretty good the cars are struggling too. The cold is not generally an issue. If it gets crazy cold, -10 degrees F, things change, but nothing a facemask won't handle. Most typically, not being too warm has been more of an issue. Riding the Pig means I should be in reasonable shape come Spring. I am looking forward to getting back on a bike a little less heavy.

The touring handlebars are working out well. Plenty of hand positions and an excellent grip to dig in for climbing. They've worked out better than I imagined. I'm not thrilled with the looks but that's likely a matter of getting used to them. Not much in the way of an aerodynamic tuck position available, but neither does my body. The gut has slowly reappereed this winter but I feel iI'm in good shape. Better than ever, at least the past 10 years, for this time of year.

I'm continuing to build up the Surly X Check SingleSpeed. I'm amazed at the amount of money I've been able to throw at this project. Have gearing set now at 40x16 for about a 66" gear. I started out at something like 76", which seemed to be fated to blow out a knee. The 66" feels like a good compromise. I do have a substantial climb on many of my rides. We'll see. I am impressed with the v-brakes I installed (Avids). Maybe it's an indication of the dinosaurs I'm used to riding, but these brakes are way powerful.

Enough for now. Hope your rides are going well. Maybe I'll see you out there.

All the things that keep me from riding.

I'm going to try and post a little more frequently. I've been plenty busy, both at home and work, so that hasen't added to my blogging output. The other thing is that after a short while, I'm starting to run out of things to say about bicycling. I'm trying to avoid a daily commute/weather report as that would get old quickly. If I decide to get the camera out there's lots to talk about with equipment. But I've said that before and it's goping to be a while before that happens.

So what are these things keeping me away from all this. For one thing, we've been working on our home remodeling pretty staeady. Plenty o' orange and yellow shag carpeting/wallpaper/you name it to gut out and start fresh. The 70's were fine for me, but I have no desire to live there. Painting has been taking a lot of time. Color selction is a slow, sometime painful negotiation with the better half. We had a carpenter finish some of the items that had stalled all progress. Only problem with that is there's no excuse to stall anymore. Definitely chewing into my biking time. The Pig is in need of some maintenance. Doesn't shift worth sh!% at the moment. Likely fairly goobed up on the cables. The chain is a rusty disgrace but it seeems to recover surprisingly well with a little lube. Don't ask me why I can't take the 5-minutes it would actuallly take to lube it. I did check my tire pressure today and was sitting just a little shy of 30 lbs of pressure. Sort of explains why the hill to work seemed to get steeper every day. Pumped them up to 55 lbs. Should ease the knee strain.

The Surly SingleSpeed project has stalled. I've got a sizeable list of small part needed to get it up and flying. Did have it ot on a test ride but the gearing was a bit long for me. Better to spin a little quicker than blow a knee out. I've had trouble with my left knee so it's an all-too-real possibility.

Enough for now. I hope you're enjoying your winter commuting. It's been a piece of cake lately. When will we be paying for this?

Long time, no post

Back to it. I've gone so far off track on my goal of daily posting I may as well forget it. The purpose was to keep me motivated to commute by bike through the winter. I haven't missed a day and the weather;s been ridiculously easy to deal with. I guess we've got some single digit days coming in the next week. I'm sure I've become a bit of a cold baby since then.

I've been thinking my winter Trek has treated me so well that it deserves a name. I'm thinking of calling it the Vanilla Pig. Vanilla because of the color and pig because of it's substantial weight. I'm not sure if it's the bike or all the crap I've hung on it. Those accesories do add up. I've neglected the Pig pretty badly this winter. The chain will definitely be trash by Spring. Perhaps a little lubrication is in order. Perhaps a mid-season tune up and once over.

I've put some time and money into the Surly Cross Check. So far I'm going the single speed route. I'm still too much of a wuss to go fixed gear on this bike. The option's always there so we'll see. I'm not sue I can explain why I'd want a singlespeed bike in the first place. The simplicity appeals to me and I don't do a lot of shifting so I figure why not. I don't have to be the fastest. I've managed to build it up on the cheap. Plenty of perfectly good used parts out there. The express Bike Shop in St. Paul treats me well. Their stock of used parts is amazing for such a small shop.

We've been busy at our house. I finally broke down and hired a carpenter to come and finish my many half complete projects. I'm left with a crap load of painting to do but it's nice to see some progress. My wife is a saint for putting up with the mess for so long. It looks like the project has expanded into kitchen cabinets so we have a way to go. We may evn end up with a house that looks like it's occupied by adults.

I've slipped some in the past month or so and started to spend entirely too much time at work. Got it under control this week and feeling much better. I need to keep in mind that if I died tomorrow my workmates probably wouldn't remember my name a year from now. It's fine to make a living but keep it in perspective.

Anyway, what's this blog about anyway. Oh yeah, my midlife crisis obsession with biking. Don't worry, I'll get back to it.