ClifBars meet Xtracycle

http://www.2milechallenge.com/#/bikebuilder
I knew about ClifBar’s two mile challenge site, but now they’ve got plugs for assorted bicycles… and under cargo you get to a plug for Xtracycle, silhouette and all.
Of course, I don’t consider it a cargo bike. It’s just a sensible, multi-purpose bike.

Do what now?

… it’s 12:09 and I’m at work still in my biking clothes, having arrived early.

There is more to do after than there was before the silly event, as it turns out. Must get coolers and tools back and get money and get it in the banka nd get the insurance stuff done. Oh, and the newsletter, too

No early loops yesterday or today, in part due to the psychological effect of 1000 miles being attainable without it, but also the realization that there’s stuff I want to make happen. However, it honestly does seem that I’m so much more productive off the bike when I’ve had 40 miles on it that there’s a net gain in Stuff Done even with less Time To Do It.

Yesterday I donned my jacket and sort-of rain pants and trundled in, and got a “Looking Good!” from a fuzzy faced guy on a motorcycle at Mattis & Church. Says something about the culture

There were also lots of lightless folks out last night, including somebody headed the wrong way on Vine Street. A: Did she need to be on Vine? Anderson’s parallel and much less congested. B: Wrong way? C: lightless?

A runner had already gone past me, on the road, coming my way… a shadow in the dark. First thought: idiot? Then that David Wilcox song… perhaps I should call out, “May the light find you!”

Tank is full, switch is on
Night is warm, cops are gone
Rocket bike is all her own
It’s called a hurricane

She told me once it’s quite a ride
It’s shaped so there’s this place inside
Where if you’re moving you can hide
Safe within the rain

She wants to run away
But there’s nowhere that she can go
Nowhere the pain won’t come again
But she can hide
Hide in the pouring rain
She rides the eye of the hurricane

Tell the truth, explain to me
How you got this need for speed
She laughed and said “it might just be
The next best thing to love.”

Hope is gone and she confessed
When you lay your dream to rest
You can get what’s second best
But it’s hard to get enough

She wants to run away
But there’s nowhere that she can go
Nowhere the pain won’t come again
But she can hide
Hide in the pouring rain
She rides the eye of the hurricane

We saw her ride so fast last night
Racing by a flash of light
Riding quick, the street was dark
A shining truck she thought was parked
It blocked her path, stopped her heart
But not the hurricane

She saw her chance to slip the trap
There was just the room to pass in back
But then it moved, closed the gap
She never felt the pain

She wants to run away
But there’s nowhere that she can go
Nowhere the pain won’t come again
But she can hide
Hide in the pouring rain
She rides the eye of the hurricane
She rides the eye of a hurricane.
(David Wilcox, from How did you find me here?)

Xtra stuff!

Interbike is happeneing and it seems that the explosion of popularity of longbikes just might mean punctuation in the punctuated equilibrium of longbike accessories’ evolution, too.  There’s that nifty aluminium “snap” deck that snaps in as opposed to out, and … who knows?

Go, creative humanoids.  Go!

Sounds

I am glad to have the air horn.

Came in via Old Church this a.m. which meant crossing Windsor on Race – four-way stop with oh, ten lanes or 12, *and* a bit of construction that impedes visibility behond the usual other-cars-in-other-lanes.
The far-laner to my perpendicular right hadn’t seen me at all, but I proceeded forth and the driver began to creep forward. My lil’ air horn announced my presence and the driver waited. Not sure how that would have turned out – perhaps just the driver waiting after going a little further, or perhaps me waiting in the middle of the intersection… but tootles made it all work out.

No horns for the Old Church situation – the opposite lane almost completely blocked by construction stuff. Cars coming behind me. Cars coming towards me. Would the ones behind me feel compelled to try to squeeze around me? Would the approaching…. the approaching driver, with three or four cars behind her, simply stopped completely while I grabbed the lane and rode on through and thanked her. What conflict? Not when drivers chill

I *do* want a working speedometer, though.

Sounds

I’ve lubed my chain. It doesn’t make sounds any more. Happy chains are fun to ride!

Next Up…

What was I thinking? Ride looong the day before the lincoln circuit ride? Welp, still, maybe. I’ll try to make it the “get stuff done and then ride” carrot.
Had a fun ride home last night as a student with Soho was curious about cycling and our cycling community and good routes; we went across town together and lighter-traffic routes were revealed.
Rode the long way in this a.m. with minutes to spare *and* managed to wind down the energy level so as not to induce panic in those I approached at the tutoring table. There are energies science is afraid to explore ’cause some of them would be called spiritual… imagine, instead of being skeptical about such things, actually exploring the properties of the alternative energies – and *finding* the ways of exploring them that would not disrupt them entirely with the observation process?
Must find the rest of the blinkies of life!

Lincoln Ride Sunday

… and I am trying to remember details to coordinate.

Just remembered two of them!  BRB

Saint Murphy says hello.

Don’t have time to explain yet… but Murphy’s Law says that “things that can go wrong, will.”

“Saint Murphy’s corollary” says that yea, but in the middle of a bunch of things going wrong, and not when you actually *deserve* it, you’ll get a break – like nobody showing up in the chat room you’re doing when you’ve backed yourself into a temporal corner and … welp, not gonna back any further into said time corner, so back to the stuff.

Another first

Yesterday whilst waiting to cross Mattis on Church, a cyclist on a NEXT bike traveled N-bound on the Mattis sidewalk, doin’ a nice mountain-bikey swish with his tires to get that angle thing on the other side ’cause he was riding peppily.

My light turned green and I proceeded… and when I got to Bradley I saw the same guy, still on the sidewalk, heading towards Parkland. Welp, that’s where I, too, hop the sidewalk so I did, and behind his quickly revolving ankles, on that big-tired example of pathetic engineering, I started gaining. I got off the pedals ’cause I’m like, not into passing on sidewalks… but I was still gaining.

He pulled over onto the grass (yea, I *could* have done that but I have an unfounded fear of off-roading) and rode off-road to let me by. Mountain bikers rule

Can Crunch

Out at 5:50 on the Xtracycle… yea, last week I did the “extra” miles on the fast bike, but if I’m going to go long Saturday, I want to do the “heavy bike training” beforehand. Decided to “risk” going down to Philo simply because on Saturday’s ride there must have been a million aluminum cans on that one mile just south of the busy slab. “Risk” being if there’s a flat tire, I’d be far away from home (8 miles)so I couldn’t cut the trip short. Mitigated risk by riding fast Still snatched 14 cans from the road… stopped at 6:50 and turned around at 10.5 miles out (where the canny road meets teh busy N-S road by Philo – 130 I think).
Ed Kieser has said this week will be “bone dry” (and also gave the kind of detail that helped me be prepared for pockets of fog out there, and just a little bit of wind). Snork Hoping that’s true for Saturday! Also warned that Monday… FALL will come (tho’ the equinox happened at 10:somethign ) with a CHILLY front. Okay, will find gloves and prepare layers.
Many, many cyclists riding in. Had enough time to cut in the back way… retrieved seat and bag from LBS at lunch time and would have taken an extra lap ‘cept it was 2:50, as in a Class Exit Time. Time for one lap right now, tho’, before Chorus
Mixed motivations for Saturday’s ride… want to see if I can plan as the fearless dude who did Hoodoo500 Solo, No Support (519 miles, thank you!?!?) said… which is to say to set things up so that when you get totally fried you can go on auto pilot and follow your own directions and get through without hurting yoruself. I also want to, practically speaking, bring stuff so that I can use that time and come out at the end knowing the Rutter Gloria Alto Part. Shouldn’t take too much technology: MP3 and the music in teh map holder. Not sure I can do both planning *and* figuring out technology, though
Seemed to be an inordinate number of fuzzy faced riders today. I *like* fuzzy faces