your daily bicycle log

otm, it’s been great to slide the (rental) brompton under my desk at work. saves heaps of time over parking my bigger bike underground a block away, locking it up, taking off the lights &c.

so this week i’m ordering my own brompton, and am expecting to get a hell of a lot of use out of it. seriously excited about this.

got the brompton. went with the standard chainring, which is apparently harder work up hills but was magic riding home. absolute magic. got up to 33 km/h with very little effort. only mishap was the absolute fucking tosspiece who tried (and failed) to push me off my bike, because he thoughts it was fine to stand in a bike lane and didn't like me going past at not even 5 km/h. what the fuck is wrong with people

Glad to hear- even little improvements can be such a joy of life.

Srsly given the commuting miles i did i had so few moments of true assholes acting out. be alert, predictable, assertive, and kind is my best advice, in that order.

sorry to reddpost but i couldnt find it elsewhere. Alert because: https://www.reddit.com/r/bicycling/comments/8tyv63/there_are_some_real_scum_bags_out_there_fuck/?st=JIYLYVLM&sh=89d3f934

good grief

i know, that's been flipping around the twitterverse, it's so violent and absurd that i wasn't quite sure i understood what it was.

also i'm flipping my advice order to: alert, predictable, kind, and assertive.

because there are situations and assholes who really won't be happy until there's been a big problem for us cyclists, and assertiveness is better reserved for a new forum.

Yeah I haven't figured out where to rank assertiveness.

I'm fairly sure a car driver considered running me over on Monday morning. I was "taking a lane" (as I do every morning at this stop) at a stoplight since the rightmost lane is a right-turn only lane and I'm proceeding straight. An angry man in a white panel van yelled at me to get out of the road, and then pulled the van behind me. I visibly took a picture of the van and the driver as I waited for the stoplight to change. When it turned green, the driver pulled right out of the lane and turned right, yelling at me as he went.

I'm not sure he would have done that had I not taken the picture.

But should I have gotten out of the road after he yelled at me? I'm not so sure.

sorry to reddpost but i couldnt find it elsewhere. Alert because: https://www.reddit.com/r/bicycling/comments/8tyv63/there_are_some_real_scum_bags_out_there_fuck/?st=JIYLYVLM&sh=89d3f934

jesus christ. astonishing that people would be so glib about doing this that they'd film it and make it public.

also i'm flipping my advice order to: alert, predictable, kind, and assertive.

because there are situations and assholes who really won't be happy until there's been a big problem for us cyclists, and assertiveness is better reserved for a new forum.

― Hunt3r, Saturday, 30 June 2018 01:30 (five hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i agree with this completely, although i did yell a few choice words to this particular fuckhead because i was in shock. lucky i was going super-slowly because it was easy to stop.

next time i'm in this situation (people swarming across a bike lane) i'll probably just stop and let some other cyclist deal with it. really don't want this sort of conflict.

But should I have gotten out of the road after he yelled at me? I'm not so sure.

― fajita seas, Saturday, 30 June 2018 05:30 (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

well that sucks. we have boxes for bikes to stop in, which at least takes the pressure off us a bit, because drivers know we have a right to be there.

after what happened last night i'd probably relent to someone like that now. i don't assign blame on victims, but just for me personally, if a mentalist has the power to screw me up i'll probably keep quiet and just try to get away.

nearly all my run-ins in the past couple of months have been surprise car doors and drivers jumping lanes right in front of me (i.e. not aggression), and apart from a loud "oooiiiiii" in lieu of a 120db car horn, i just ignore it and keep going. it really fucks me off because i took the time to learn and follow the road rules, and these goiters clearly don't.

yup, i'm not even saying "don't cuss some jerkwad who's being a tool," more like, "sometimes discretion is the better part of valor, health, and progress."

yeah, you can't change fuckwits.

Easier said than done, though, sometimes. For me, the red mist descends.

true

especially when you’re physically in danger/under threat and survival kicks in

Rode my bike today. My schedule is less bike-friendly now (including a couple gym slots a week) but I'm going to try to get more consistent. The gym has been great for me but ILRMB.

+T

I broke the 20 yr old Ti rails on my old rigid mtb today, and had to ride 1000 ft of vert downhill on singletrack, then 18 more miles home...with no saddle, just post and 1/2 rails.

If you are raiding parts bins, 20 yr old Ti rails is probly risky.

otoh, i think i wanna Cambium the hell out of this bike. Next potential problem- it lives 5 days a week locked up at a low risk train station, but still...

The Brooks saddle? looks nice.

i am very brooks resistant on the basis of they've not been notable comfortable to me, they're kerrayzay heavy, and hate fussing over them getting wet. but this looks like the correct style solution for them, and this bike i don't really care about the saddle being almost 1/2 pound heavier than the old one.

I did it and also my first super short commute to station on c13 145. Pretty much i could ride cast iron with a chamois, and used to ride 100-120mi/week in boxers (well, also shorts or trousers too).

Its really firm in a way i prefer, but i think im positioned too far aft on it, when i slide up just a bit i start to feel that nice brooks sling effect.

Mainly this saddle is just, man, it’s fucking gorgeous aesthetically. The Al rivets. Even the way they tuck the label away under the tail. Non mainly, it’s still heavy for what it looks like.

26 y/o frame. VO cigne. Brooks. White Stans rims. This bike is such a goddam poser but it is a blast to ride from road to rough real singletrack.

longest (and really only second ever sustained road climb today). made it about 2/3 of the way up the local testpiece/HC climb, which came to ~10mi and ~2500ft. hoping to try it again on something that doesn't weigh like 30lb

turns out really long twisty descents are fun as hell

that looks like a great climb, nice. i don't that canyon at all- the ski area is snow west-facing, that snow must have a tough time.

I wouldn't know -- they didn't even get any last year!

it's a really nice climb, though it was pretty busy traffic-wise even at midday, midweek

The canyons ive seen in nm down— by gila, and over by black mtns, and up in taos— all had such narrow canyon spaces, pretty winding and neat. As long as traffic is safe they were great. Be careful tho the most insane truck rollover i ever saw was a few russian dudes in the black mtns with NO BIZ taking a rig up that shit let alone rolling it. Tho that was pre good phone coverage days. Damn those dudes were fucked.

Sorry retrospective grammar attempts alwAys fail, all the dashes————-

as it happens, I passed a car accident on the way up

Heading north on the big red bridge gives you absolutely no shoulder to ditch into, so it was awfully exciting when I was cranking uphill and dude rounded a corner towards me, cruising down, in my lane, looking somewhere else. I bark out a "YO" and he glares at me as he swings off with little margin for error. Sorry to hurt your feelings man! I took it out on someone who tried to pass me near the peak of Hawk Hill though.

Crossing the big red bridge in the days before the rail between you and the traffic lanes used to really freak me out. But yeah, it can still be bad now.

Hopefully I can do that ride again soon! It's been a while.

bike died, have no idea why or what to do, am stuck in heavy traffic in a taxi

this is the folder? hope u get it sorted!

yeah thanks. i’m sure it’s fine, just need to learn how to do bike maintenance. standing in a basement with unhelpful youtube videos is not fun.

just go to the park tools youtube account, they'll explain everything

I live in a relatively low theft zone, but just heard you can fill saddle allen bolts with hot glue. What are your tricks? To deter ez pickins. (Lol its a fucking c13 and my preeeciousss).

I bought some security bolts after I got a saddle stolen and have never used them. But they exist!

yeah i say pitbolts and pinheads and like that, but i uh...have a LOT of hot glue, can't reglue baskets and grips without that shiz

just go to the park tools youtube account, they'll explain everything

― gbx, Friday, 24 August 2018 07:06 (one week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

thanks for tip. turns out the cassette was loose (i don't know what that means or how i would have diagnosed it)

Buy bike
Buy accessories
Fail at riding
How do I change my gears?!
Ugh
Cry.

What the old saying doesn't mention is how long it takes till riding a bicycle is something you never forget. Can we help?

Practice and repetition is a pain but part of the game. specific questions i’ll try to respond if i know.

Shifting- shift before it gets difficult is one non-insight insight.

uh lemme see if i got this right: don't buy upgrades, ride up grades

"it never gets easier, you just get faster"

is the physical act of changing gears difficult? (janky derailleurs, old cable, front derailleurs in general) or is it how to find the right gear? after years of fixed gear/single-speed i did think that finding the right gear was tricky (i mashed when mashing was called for, got spinny when that was required). getting into the right cadence (esp when you're in the middle of the cassette) can be frustrating, but i have found, as a heuristic, that any time you move the big ring in one direction (eg it got harder), move the rear two in the opposite (eg make it easier)

p sure sheldon brown (RIP) has a whole tutorial on this?

i just spent 16 days with a bunch of people riding the length of thee isle of great britain (john o'groats in scotland to land's end in cornwall). mostly we stuck to quieter roads which added to the distance considerably - 1220 miles ridden in total and on an average day we did about 80 miles. we were camping in tents every night, but my mum and dad drove the whole thing in their camper van so they carried all our tents and other gear so that was a massive boon. weather was mostly okay, the only day when we got totally soaked was riding through lancashire (typical), the haul over the the forest of bowland was a glorious battle against wild, wet and windy conditions. my 14 year old son did the whole thing with us - he normally only rides bmx and mountain bikes but he absolutely stomped everyone on every single climb, he was amazing. the riding was great, but tbh i really struggled with the whole group dynamic and once everyone started getting tired and grumpy i was glad to just spend most of the later days with just my son and one other guy. anyhow, photodump in my long-neglected flickr if anyone's interested in viewing my terrible helmet hair and whiskery bad looks:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/145923930@N07/

congrats, that is a great great event. it must have been amazing to do it with your kid, too. can't wait to check yr photos.

Great work

This is not the content I expect from ilx but I find it pleasing. A stone circle! Wheelies!

so many endos!

Yeah he had an spd moment after one of those endos, landed in a heap on the floor and totally ripped the leg warmers I bought him just the day before. Grrrr!

That is a fun photostream, looks like a great trip.

hardly the most memorable moment for you probably, but the one of the geese is cool in a _is that what they actually do?_ kind of way.

Wow I didn’t check this for like two weeks!
Thank you guys!!!!

missed the old CX bike and wanted something for road/path/dirty hijinx for the summer, got sweet deal on kona rove with 650b wheels and superfat slicks. so good! the french were right!