Despite having biked to work an average of fifteen or twenty days a month for the last year, I somehow forgot my lock combination at the office today. I had to stand there for nearly twenty minutes working it out. What the hell? I use this combination nearly every day....
For the last decade or two, the most meaningful impact that daylight saving time had on my life was that I was cheated out of an hour of sleep in spring, and given it back in fall. The fact that the evenings got darker sooner has never really been all...
I got a complete flat flat flatty flat tire on my bike today. I unfortunately blasted through one of those portable CO2 cartridges trying to revive it before I rode ten feet and pushed all the air out. Lame. I guess it's not too bad—I do need some work done...
Wow, ok. Turns out it's not summer anymore. My ride to the office today was nice and sunny. On the way back I encountered heavier rain than I've ever biked through before. I'm glad I brought my jacket....
...not really. This is what happens when you stand sideways and rub the back of your leg against your freshly lubed chainring....
I thought I had cleared 600 miles on my bike already. Turns out I was wrong, since I had accidentally left my watch in "bike" mode when I took my B-17 flight. Correcting the accounting error set me back about 60 miles into the mid-500s. On Thursday I closed on...
Get it? It's a play on Spokey Dokes. Whatever—let's move on. Apparently sometime in the last week or so I busted this spoke. The bike rides fine except that the wheel is a bit out of true, and it's pretty surprising that I didn't collapse the rim. I won't be...
Renovo makes these wooden-framed road and commuter bicycles. Astounding. Spendy, but really astounding. ...actually not even particularly spendy in terms of high-end road bike frames. But the point is they look phenomenal—and reportedly they ride well too, but I can't comment on how it rides from my desk....
I did a ~25 mile ride around Lake Sammamish this morning. 25 miles felt like a bit much without real road biking gear—plus, much of the route was on somewhat busy streets with lots of headwind. These 25 miles were way more work than 20 miles on the Sammamish River...
One of the perks of working for a reasonably progressive company in a reasonably progressive part of the world is support for alternative commuting. Mostly this translates into mass-transit but those of us who bike have access to employer-subsidized bike service twice a year. I finally took my bike in...
...is riding your bike to the AAA office....
I rode the Sammamish River Trail again this morning. This time, I took the 520 trail down the hill, and I also went all the way up to Wilmot Gateway Park (pictured). The 520 trail is a longer ride than 51st but it doesn't tend to kill you on the...
I biked the Sammamish River Trail up to the Redhook brewery earlier today. Alas, no beer when I got there—but maybe in the future I'll schedule in a longer stop. The entire ride was around 20 miles round-trip and I managed an average of 4:15 min/mile pace (~14mph) overall, with...
I've put about 396 miles on my bike so far and expect to crack through the 400 mark by tomorrow. Not bad for four months—I was genuinely expecting less. Telemetry is great stuff. That is all....
I've done a few things to the bike since I got it. Just so you remember, here it is: And here's how it is now. So...I've removed the water bottle holder, added a rack over the rear tire, and added a pack under the seat. And painted the deck....
I find it particularly interesting that despite the apparent rigidity of a bicycle frame or a car unibody, it all flexes—even under everyday use. I'm not a mechanical engineer1 but it seems to be that nearly everything we use sags, bends, and deforms minutely on a day-to-day basis. The limit...
My rear derailer has started autoshifting under load—while pedaling uphill it will spontaneously jump a gear. The linked page actually hints that this may be due to friction on the actuating cable, which is unbelievable. Apparently torsion of the frame due to heavy pedaling causes the cable to bind at...
I pulled the front wheel off my bike earlier. This is the caliper. It's covered in cat hair since apparently I raked my hand across the carpet before adjusting the brake pad dials. Interesting stuff. Very tiny....
Here's a post for those of you who are interested in the relative effectiveness of various forms of cardiovascular exercise. I've been tracking my outdoor running since I bought my GPS last August. That's about six months—but really it's more like three since it was too cold to run for...
I just bought a rack that mounts over my rear tire. Somehow I have to find a way to strap two styrofoam boxes full of teriyaki take-out to said rack in a way that doesn't compromise the structure of the styrofoam or leak all over the rear tire. Once I...
I haven't fallen in a ravine but my GPS shows I spent part of my bike ride earlier in the lake. P.S. If you ever go biking around here—OK maybe that's not going to happen, but anyway—be sure to check the topo data (or at least, you know, drive the...
I bought this today. It's a Novara1 Big Buzz hybrid/commuter bike—it's a few years old, has been owned by an REI employee, and I managed to pick it up in decent shape for about a quarter of the retail price with all the added stuff I got with it. For...
I'm looking at used bicycles again. I got distracted the last time I looked, and with the Porsche out of service about 50% of the time, it would be nice to have some form of transportation that doesn't chew through a gallon of fuel every dozen miles or so. Last...
I'm finding that used commuter bikes constitute an awfully rough market. 90% of the bikes posted for sale in the first place are either race bikes, mountain bikes, or for kids—and of the remaining 10%, all of the sub-$500 items are snapped up long before I find the ads....
