What does all this mean?

Help me interpret the signs. Today, the first Monday in March, I went for a ride. It was supposed to rain, but it didn't. I think that's a good sign.

But I got a flat, and then realized I'd left my pump on my other bike. That's got to be a bad sign, right? But I was really close to my bicycle commuting sweet wife's workplace, so I got her pump and fixed the flat. Good, right?

Then, as I rode, I saw rainbows. Big, sky-crossing bright rainbows. Bright, and glowing against the dark sky, they'd come and go, but mostly they stayed for a long while. That must be a good sign.

Then, coming home, I had another flat. With almost a boom my front tire was instantly lacking air. That can't be good. But I still had the pump, so I patched the tube and when home. Not that big a deal.

Normally I don't believe in signs, but holy smokes, if ever there was a message this must be one, but what is that message?

Big Bike Love

We've been bingeing on DVDs of HBO's Big Love, the great cable show about a polygamist family; a man and his three wives.

Tricia pointed out I'm a bicycle polygamist with three bikes.
So, of course, we started trying to decide which bike corresponded to which of Bill's wives.

I said the Fixed gear was Margene, because it's young and hip, like her. Nikki is the commuter bike because Nikki knows how to work and handle the grunt work. My Kestrel should be Barb, because it, and she, are good for the long haul.

Tricia had a different take. The commuter bike is Barb because Barb is reliable, and equipped to handle the load. Bill can always turn to Barb, she'll get him through whatever comes along.

Nikki is the fixed gear. She has her own beauty. It's a sparse and simple beauty, but beauty none the less. She does, however, take some getting used to. She has pretty basic needs, but like a flat on the rear wheel of a fixed gear, she has her own special maintenance issues.

Margene is the Kestrel, because your road bike makes you feel young, fast and exciting, and reminds you why you love to ride your bike. A lot. And the drop bars provide a variety of positions.

Tour of California prologue 2009

Tyler Hamilton of Rock Racing and a fanboy on the right.

The Tour of California prologue was cold, windy and totally amazing. Tricia and I almost took our bikes, but it looked like rain so we ended up being pedestrians. You can read all about the tour on a zillion blogs and news sites. I've been going to Versus TV, CyclingNews.com and the Fredcast.com.

But here's what it was like to be there: I've never seen so many bicycles and riders. The teams park trailers on side streets near the start. You can walk up and watch them warm up on bike stands that hold their bikes. You can oogle their equipment. I got to see that Rock Racing rides Kestrel bikes like mine, only they do it faster. Some teams hand out posters and other swag. It's amazing to be so close.

There's a large "Lifestyle Fair" near the start,which is really a lot of mostly bike-oriented booths that ether have cool stuff on display, or are selling cycling stuff. We couldn't resist the great deals at the Hincapie booth, and ended up with a jacket and some shorts.

As much fun as it is to watch cycling gods zoom past, it's impossible to know exactly what's going on. I took my daughter's iPod touch hoping to get a wi-fi signal so I could keep up, but it didn't work. So near the end we found a brew pub and watched on TV, where we could see the whole course and know what the times were.

After the race we went to a restaurant for a meetup with cycling bloggers. We got to meet many of the people whose blogs I follow. David of the Fredcast, Fritz of Cyclelicious, and Jonathan Tessler from Bicycle.net. It was very cool to find out the people I read and listen to have actual faces and drink beer.

Red tires, baby

No big deal, but I got red tires, and even red cable ends for my fixed gear bike. Click to view this photo at a size large enough actually see the red tires and general fine-a-tude of the bike.
I'm starting to like it this fixed thing. I think. I swapped the 18 tooth rear cog for a 17, which feels more natural.
Today I rode it 22 miles with Tricia and a group from Bike Forums. I don't know that I'll ever become a fixed gear zen guy, but I am feeling more comfortable all the time.

Fixed gear conversion

It used to a Gitane Tour de France from the early '70s. I got in '75 and used it as a road bike for years.

Over time it went through many changes. The fork wrecked, so I replaced it with a Columbus steel fork. And had it repainted too.

I got new wheels, pedals, headset, seatpost, saddle, stem, brakes and handlebars along the way.

But over the past years it just sat.

Now it has a new rear wheel -- A flip flop rear wheel. So I'm not sure what it is now.

The derailleur and freewheel are gone, as is the 52-tooth chainring. I'm a fixed gear hipster now. Kinda.

So far, after seven miles, I can report that riding fixed is weird. The riding is fine (the old steel bike feels great), but the the stopping is just odd. And I haven't been bucked off, I have been kicked a couple of times when I foolishly tried to coast.

I'm going to try commuting a bit on it and see if I learn to embrace it, as so many have. I'm may find that I'll fine my knees are too old, and I'm too set in my gear changing ways to adapt. Or maybe I'll just become super cool.

Cross-Check a Keeper

After her first real ride on her new Surly Cross-Check Tricia pronounced it a keeper. Let the upgrades begin!

New bike saddness

As I look at Tricia's new Surly Cross-Check, propped up in front of our Christmas tree, I find myself charmed by its new-born innocence.

The cassettes and chain rings are sparkling. The chain still shines. The paint is pure; without adolescent pimples or old warrior battle scars. The tires have barely encountered pavement.
Because it's only a 42cm frame it also has that young colt, all legs and knees look that make me think of spring, hope, and corn ball movies.

What is it about a new bike that makes it so beautiful? In a coldly rational evaluation it's a machine that still needs a water bottle cage, a seat bag with a spare, new pedals (or at least toe straps), a pump, a bunch of adjustments, and, in this bikes case, a rack, panniers, and a light. It will take hours to make it really useful, and when it's done it will be great. But it will also look like a bike with baggage. All its clean perfection will be obscured by the very things that make it ride worthy. It was purchased not to be a jewel, but to be a solid citizen commuter, carrying school papers and a molder of young minds to school each day. It will be doing noble work, and will be dressed appropriately for it's task. It will be beautiful.

So then why am I somewhat sad? Why do I wish she'd just leave it in the warm, dry, safe living room a bit longer?

New Stallion in stable

I innocently took Tricia to the City to "check out" some bikes. After a mere four stores she started to kinda sorta consider the Surly Cross-Check, a cool steel cyclocross bike.

They had her size, and were willing to ship it to a closer store if she called them after she'd thought about it a while.
But, well, after a parking lot ride, and, lunch and, hey, there we were anyway.....

So this will become her commuter bike, and her current commuter bike with transmogrify back to the mountain bike she's been missing.

I guess I'll be working on my fender, computer, rack, seat bag, pump and pedal adding skills soon.

How will Tricia adjust to bar end shifters? Will she actually be willing to add a bunch of junk to her now-clean bike? Will she miss her triple chain rings? We'll see, and of course, obsessively blog about it.

New Years Day on Diablo 2009

Me: I'm getting up early and riding Diablo on New Years day. Wanta go?
Tricia: uuummmmmmmm. I'll think about it.

Me: Coffee's on. Coming?
Tricia: arghmmmmmmmmmm. (rolls over)

Me: Ok. I'm suited up and going. Bye!
Tricia: Wait. I coming with you.

Me: Big smile.

Tricia has done the junction a few times, but all the talk of epic rides and the wall had her a bit... concerned.
Of course, she had absolutely no problem. She didn't even bother to stand up for the wall.

We started off in too much fog, and by 1500 feet elevation I figured we'd be in a cloud all day. But somewhere around 2000 feet we popped into a beautiful day. And unlike he last time I rode Diablo, no wind.

There were cyclists everywhere. I wish I had a count (paging Dr. DiabloScott) even a guess count. It was grand.

Coming down was fun until we slammed into the fog and could hardly see. We could really feel the temp drop as we got to the wall of gray. We were braille-riding for a couple of miles.

My first New Years day on the mountain, Tricia's first summit.
A good time was had by all.

Year end mileage and goals 2008

7730 miles
For the record
Commuter bike starting odo: 3072, ending: 5818, total: 2746 commuter miles
Road bike starting odo: 3481, ending: 8457, total: 4666 roadie miles

Disclaimers:
I sometimes ride the commuter as a mountain bike, or on errands, so those miles are not strictly "going to work" miles.

I broke my Sigma computer part way through the year so I had to guess the odometer miles. I know I'm close, but I'm pretty sure I cheated myself out of a few.

Goals report:

• Oregon Coast tour (Done)
• Giro di Peninsula (Bonus, Done)
• Sequoia Century (Done)
• Waves to Wine (Done)
• Tierrabella Century (Done)
• Wildflower Century (Done)
• Wine Country Century (Done)
• Davis Double (Done!!!!!!)
• Seattle to Portland (Done!)
• Foxy's Fall Century (100K) (Done)

Tricia's mileage

Commuter bike: 1937 commuter miles
Road bike: 4114 roadie miles
Total: 6041

Busted

Maybe it's the lightweight Mavic 517 rim, or the number of curb cuts I ride over, or the weight of the junk I carry. Whatever the reason, I just noticed I'd actually broken the rim on my commuter bike. What a drag.

I had to decide on a new wheel or repair. I went with repair. I'm keeping the XT hub and having the Wheel Peddler build me a new wheel using a Macic 717 rim. I'll cost. I'm not sure I made the most cost effective choice, but I'm hoping it pays off by ending up with a wheel that is well made and will last forever.

I'm so tired of fog

I am I am I am I am so freakin' tired of tule fog. Today it was much lighter, and I could actually see across the street, but all too often it's been at maximum density.

Here in Antioch, the Bay Area, but really on the delta near the edge of the valley, the fog won't stop. I'm not a huge fan of sub-40 riding, but I can do it. Toss in wet yucky fog and all the fun is gone.

Sea fog can be nice, it has texture. It comes and goes. It's sometimes playful.
The fog here is Stephen King style, dark and relentless, with no redeeming values.

Just to taunt us, it hangs in the low areas where we live, but leaves the peaks clear, just so we know what we're missing. Even a drive over Kirker Pass can reveal a sunny crisp sunglasses day before you descend back into the muck.

The dampness seeps into your clothes even more than rain. It collects on your glasses. It drips off your helmet. It makes you, even if you have a geek-style blinky light, invisible to the cars that seem to speed down the road beyond all reason.

In the "light" of the day, and I use the word light to mean "not pitch black" it's still a depressing gray of evil that looks like smoke, but without any warmth. In the dark it makes a hole in your heart.

Bring me rain. Or bring me sun. Bring me fluffy clouds. This has got to stop.

Diablo ride with Bikeforums

The last 200 yards (correction: DiabloScott, master of all things Diablo, insists it's 300 meters) of Mt. Diablo is an 18% straight-up grunt. It's hard enough without having climbed almost 4000 feet just to get there. So Lanceoldstrong and I sprinted. It was a blast.

The NorCal Bikeforums "Work off the turkey" ride was quite an event. It's always fun to see old friends, but toss in the weather and the wind and it becomes quite an event.

I left home in 45 degree overcast. It was mid 60s at the start. I'd worried I'd overdressed. It was warm climbing, but then the wind kicked in and I was glad to be in by knickers.

The weather station there reported:
11am Windspeed 47mph; Peak windspeed 62mph.

All in all, major fun.

Fenderized at last

I gave in to winter and bought fenders for my commuter bike. I'd been stalling because fenders aren't cool, I didn't want to have to take them off when I go mountain biking, and my bike didn't look like an easy fit.
But wet is... wet, and just how cool did I think I looked before? So I went ahead. I got advice from the commuter forum to not get clip ons, so I went with Planet Bike Hardcore Hybrids. They were even on sale!

I'm not much of a modifier kinda guy, but the help I got on BikeForums.net made me brave.

I ended up drilling a small hole in the bottom back of my fork crown to attach the fender with a very short sheet metal screw and a bunch of washers.

I also bought longer bolts so I could fit the rack and fender in my rear eyelets. (Hardware stores have a zillion bolts that all look alike. Thankfully the hardware store dude was helpful or I'd have bought the wrong size)

I also used zip ties. Everything looks good and doesn't rattle.

The mounting process took way too long. I had thought I'd remove them if I was going to put on my fat tire wheels for mountain biking, but now I realize I'm never going to want to mess with the fender mounting pain again, so they'll stay on all year, forever.

I have discovered that taking the rear wheel off to fix a flat is now a bit of a pain.

I'm also sure I'm causing a drought by being prepared for rain. But at least my bike looks even more dorky than before.

We can do it

Tricia had an ... interesting...day at work, so a little bit of motivational poster seemed to be in order. Not that I've ever even heard her threaten to punch someone. It's just a little post-workday hyperbole, for entertainment purposes only. I made it using a Flickr Toy at BigHugeLabs.com.

Foxy's Fall Century in Davis

It's so weird to get up so early and drive over an hour to ride a bike. But we do it.
We started just after dawn. I felt like ... well, like not so hot. My plan was to let Tricia and Joyce just go and I'd muddle through. I just felt slow and old. It turns out I was fighting the start of a cold.

But about 20 miles in Tricia's knees started bothering her. After much thinking she figured out that she'd had her bike worked on recently and perhaps the seat wasn't reset to the exact right height. At 40 we adjusted it, but it was too late. Her knees kept bugging her. She wasn't her usual metronome-solid self. At 61 we called it a day and sagged it back.

She's pretty mad at her knees.

Scraper bikes

My sweet wife just saw a video that explains all those extra cool bikes I see near the middle school. They're scraper bikes. They're a movement out of northern California that's starting to get national press.
I just love this video. I'm thinking, can an old white dude retrofit his old road bike and get a look this wonderful? Stay tuned.

Busted

My Sigma 1606 bike computer fell off my bike. I went back for it and got there just in time to see it get run over. Bummer. I really like that computer.
I called Sigma to buy a new head. They asked me for he number on the back, and then said "We didn't like the mount on that version. Send it in and we'll replace it."
Is that cool or what? Go Sigma!

Sad, and Happy bicycles

This bike is sad.
My own bike was sad, but is now happy again. Here's the story:

I was out for a much-needed ride when my bike stopped shifting. Completely stopped. I was stuck in the highest gear for my limp home. I discovered my rear shifter cable had broken.
I called the Brentwood Bike Company, my local shop, and owner Bobbi said they'd look at it that day! When Chris (owner-husband-cool dude) got the new cable threaded through the tricky internal sections of my Kestrel RT 700 it still wouldn't shift. It appeared the brake/shifter had broken. That's a major big dollar part. "Oh no" I was thinking.

About ready to spend the money, we discovered that the problem was that the broken cable end had fallen into, and become wedged inside of the lever. Chris polked, prodded then fished and shook until it came out. He recabeled, adjusted a bent derailleur hanger in the process and shazam, all better. Now my bike is a lot more happy than the bike in the photo.

Thanks Chris and your Brentwood Bicycle Company for seeing me right away and figuring out how to fix my problem and not just replace an expensive part!

Waves to Wine 2008

Thanks to everyone for their financial and moral support of our Waves to Wine bicycle ride for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

We wore ourselves out. The 75 miles each day wasn't so far, but the 7000 feet or so of climbing was really tough. This ride was a lot harder than the 100 mile a day ride we did from Seattle to Portland earlier this year. I was worn out Saturday from playing too much tennis on Friday, and really worn out on Sunday. Tricia and i took turns feeling good. She was a rock on Sunday morning when I was sore and trying to feel warm. I started feeling pretty good about halfway through Sunday when the sun came out. Together we pulled each other through.

There was hardly a level spot along the route. We were either going up or down. We spent about five or six hours a day on the bike, though what with lunch and a few rest stops the total trip time was closer to seven.

Our route took us from AT&T park across the Golden Gate Bridge, up Hwy 1 past Tomales Bay and to Cotati for the night.

Day two looped us back toward Peteluma, then up to Sebastopol for lunch then onward to Healdsburg and up to Lake Sonoma for a bus ride back to the start.

We knew we'd ridden a long way when we took the bus back. That darn shuttle took forever!

I didn't make many photos. I was too buy riding and breathing hard.