Tuesday was probably an “I could have taken the bike” day (except that I don’t know how hard it was raining, from inside the bus; the wipers were on the fastest intermittent). Yesterday had varied forecast and I had a bike club meetng at a house not on the bus route so I got on the folder which, I confess, I also have the seat at “okay, not as high as it prob’lly should be.” National forecast had storms but local was “maybe some showers and a little thunder touching our area,” and that was the right call. LOTS of storms just to the south; the skies looked all kinds of ominous at the lunch lap, but I just got slightly sprinkled on on the last 3 miles home, and with the reasonaby good rain gear it was wonderful. (Yes, I still need to spring for Real Rain Pants but mine were sufficient for this.)
This morning local was “showers and thunderstorms” but clear radar and national was “might rain at 1:00 p.m.” but it was getting the pavement damp where there weren’t trees the whole way in 😛 I didn’t wear the rain pants but had sweats tucked in the Kitty Litter Bucket, but don’t need ’em. I have a lunch book thing so it can rain then 😛 Both yesterday and today wanted more attention all along the way — lots of gestures and nods at intersections figuring out who is going where, but friendly stuff 🙂 Today, LOTS of construction, mowing, etc. because THE STUDENTS ARE DONE. OUr last final is 8:00 a.m. today. Commencement tonight.
And we’re going to have our bike rides 🙂 And I have stuff to do to promote them. And I need to drink this coffee 🙂
Whereas, when you get the urge to walk away from the bus stop and get on the bike, you should do it. It really was just calming down, and now I’m going to be sleepy all day for lack of the ride in. On the other hand, I couldn’t really tell how much it was raining from inside the bus and I was feeling very kindly towards the bicycle and not wanting it to get the wetness b/c I probably wouldn’t find the cloth to wipe it down afterward. I would like to have another “the bike’s all in tune and awesome” ride (I figured out a few years ago that this happens about six times a year 😛 BUT maybe w/ BR Bikes & Repairs having a bike shop closer to me…
TL/DR: Really, ADJUST YOUR BIKE, don’t settle for almost. Get the seat height rigiht. Inflate your tires 🙂 It’s a whole lot like tuning a musical instrument for the joy it brings.
Whereas, I lent the bike out for people to do the blender on it for Earth Day.
When they brought it back the seat was down. It was also really snug, as seat posts can be, so they might not have been able to raise it. I only noticed because I couldn’t get on the bike 😛 Where I used to put my feet… oh, I looked down, the seat was there. We wrested it up a bit on the Wednesday ride and I was reluctant to get it up to its old height because … oh, what if I couldn’t get over that seat? It took me at least a minute to get on the thing with it sort of up, trying to figure out how to angle shoe and top bar and… I didn’t pick up my marathon bike marshall volunteer packet because I didn’t want to be standing there trying to get on the thing in front of people. Then at my next pause in a driveway I discerned that, d’oh,, if the seat is lower, it’s easier to get *up and over* it. So …. it was “fine.” Okay, my knees weren’t really happy, and I sort of felt inefficient…and my butt hurt after the Wednesday ride, like regular people complain about. I successfully topped off the tires Friday, having failed when in a hurry (see the post about having figured out that valve covers keep crap fromgetting in the valve…) and did our Saturday Saunter in ideal conditions – 6 mph crosswinds that shifted so … slight tailwind on the return. Oh, COASTING!!! Efficiency!!! Sort of 😛
Got to farmer’s market in time for a pepper plant and was asked at bike booth “no blender?” and I answered that hey, Earth Day it had been used! and about the seat … to which the bike booth next door person said “Seat adjustment???” because they had the stand and everything and…. they wrested. And I said, hoping I wasn’t lying, “I know where it should hit.” And I wasn’t lying, AND …. all this consciousness of saddle/foot/top bar location meant… I no longer have to find my foot with my hand and pull it across (I can’t see what I’m doing or else I’d have known a lot sooner :P) at all. And oh, my, COMMUTING 🙂
…. not me, but that person in CD 91067 — I turned left onto Main as a guy was getting into his parked car so I went wide, seeing a car hugging the right margin behind me… when I got ’round the car, I swung right and whooooosh!!! Big Acceleration! Most folks recognize that I’m moving over for them …. Church and Mattis — don’t think I’ll call it in, but we did not get the green westbound until there were people on Northbound Mattis going left triggering that light. 3 cycles it was, so there were six cars in the queue ;P a TRAFFIC JAM!!!
I have been imagining being on an e-bike on the commute in. I tried to share an Xtracycle Facebook post but was informed it went against community standards the 3 assorted ways I edited, and NO I am not going to appeal. FB is like that horrible school system that’s what you’re stuck with for certain things so you only use it as needed and basically do damage control. I’m not sure I like what I’m imagining because when I rode the fast bike, I’d be going faster than expected — BUT with more of the faster things rolling out there, expectations are going to change, and the big bikes are more visible than that little Trek. Today, it would have been nice to go faster ’cause I was late. THere’s also my preference for riding something that’s Got Miles On It. The obvious solution is to decorate the thing 😉 … but first is dehumidifier and, oh, I get to pay taxes this year because of some things.
But it’s SUNNY (yes, the weather likes me) on this ECLIPSE DAY.
Took the bus home yesterday because I was goingto be out ’til 9 (okay, got a ride home from singing). So, bus in this a.m. and yes, a bunch of folks even on Tuesday are going to Parkland on the Brown. (There are more MWF than T TH classes. 4-credit classes don’t meet Thursday so that’s even quieter.)
Brought the helmet In Case and … got out for 10 minutes at lunch when it’s trying to decide whether it’s raining or not, forecast for wind at 25 mph from the west for rest of the day …. so I’ll prob’ly hope on the Racer. The wheel talked to me a little on the lunch lap and I’m hoping it’s not thinking of going flat… BUT I have a pump here 🙂 and last time it was a slow leak (and I can hoist it onto the bus…)
Tomorrow: snow and 19 mph winds. Oy. Rain snow showers wind 22 for the evening commute. (So, yes, incentive to ride home because “it is only going to be worse tomorrow.”) But we’ll see!!!
TL/DR (i.e., summary): I fixed the flat on the Schwinn 1-speed and rode it in today and it’s probably going to rain for the next 3 days — normal commute. Picture at the end 🙂
I successfully fixed the flat on the Schwinn. Bought tube… a week ago? This Saturday, Remembered “coaster brake, need screwdriver and wrench, and don’t forget to just put the little nut and bolt back while the wheel is off.” Thanks, Bernabe for putting the nuts on so I can get the wheel off, not “bike shop tight” 😛 One tire lever and the tire came off…. and I took a toothbrush to the valve and YES thepump seated right on, pumped it right up, and I found the itty bitty hole. I did not discern anything in the tire (and I had to look all around the whole tire because I looked to see where the valve was and thought it said “inflate to 60” but it actually says “maximum inflation 65” so I’m not sure which of the assorted black on black wrods I was looking at 😛 ) and I wrestled the tire back on the wheel with several restarts because each bike has its own sequence of “inflate the tube? How much? Tuck it in the tire first, or wiht the tire halfway on?” (Tuck valve into wheel, then tube in the tire and fail at getting it to tuck in, so I still had to feed it into the tire later). Then it was dark. So, Sunday afternoon — storms delaying their arrival so it’s SUNNY AND WARM and everything is GROWING!!!! — no, the pump will not seat. New tube (from Bell, “SCHWINN: 3 SPEED ONLY!!” shh… I won’t tell it’s a 1-speed if you don’t). I take toothbrush & isopropyl to pump and hope it’s not soluble 😛 but it acts as a lubricant. I try later. Nope. I say to self “okay, you haven’t been able to get CO2 cartridge to work, so it’s worth using one up if you can get it to work.” I FIND THE CARTRIDGE (there are two, now one, floating around) and get it in there but nope,it’s not working, and I think I just haven’t tightened things hard enough to break into it, and try the pump again and the cartridge must have shifted the valve because it pumped right up to the happy 60. I go out and NO, the wheel nuts aren’t in the tidy cats box. Oh, the peace flag that *was* in the box but is on the garage floor; they’re in there. Bring the Schwinn out, still upside down. Realize that no, I did not put the little screw and nut back in the coaster brake but mirabile dictu I *did* at least put the screw in the nut and they’re there on the concrete. I remember to get the chain ’round the axle and the brake in between the slot and it slides in, and the chain is new and beautiful still 😛 I only *almost* forget to bring the basket parts up and get them on 🙂 Then right side up 🙂
Weather forecast is totally ominous. This morning East winds but storms moving in about 4:00, hail possible, and rain ’til Wednesday and then it gets cold. Floods also possible. Welp, I rode on in, and put the lock on the rear wheel and frame in the sheltered covey — if it were on the U campus I wouldn’t risk somebody yanking the whole thing and putting it on a truck, but thieves don’t come out here (the U has to many easy pickings). I appreciated the baskets for much of the week’s snacks, and yes, I’ve pretty much gotten the “when to use what brake” now there’s a front handbrake back. Yea, the seat’s technically a little low. Yes, this thing is FUN TO RIDE 🙂
I realize I’m prob’ly seeing through rose-colored glasses, but the radio announced that a stretch of Main St. on my commute would be closed, probably for weeks. It wasn’t, for another week or so, and now it’s got barricades but they are strategically aligned so it’s *really easy* for a certain bicycle to go through and nobody’s been there for a week or so. The big pipes are laying along the curb. There’s tall fence around where they’ve dug down to wherever those pipes are going, but it’s an easy path, almost as if they said “Miss Sue rides through here! Let’s make sure there’s a path!” (Okay, and the rest of the cyclists 😛 )
It’s strikingly different from “oh, let’s leave our construction vehicles on the sidewalk and we’ve blocked everything else” that happened oh, less than 100 yards west of there in the recent past but was ameliorated when I let Facilities and Services know even though it wasn’t them doing it.
Bus yesterday because of wind advisory and rain in the night forecast that did arrive. *Almost* as windy this morning but 17 is a lot less than 22 (though it says it’s up to 22 now) and we’re spposed to get rain and then things will be calmer and the winds shift to west for my ride home. Still thinking about the Swoop. I think I’d still have been on the bus of yesterday but … if it had been church (2.3 miles and no direct bus) … it might have been niiicer.
Four years ago I was workin’ from home…. riding the lunch laps… interesting times these are.
Whereas I can’t find the 26 by 1 3/8 to put on the Schwinn Racer, so I decided to just pump it up, top off the Xtra and get ’em bothe back in the garage. I couldn’t…. can’t… get the pump tos it right on the valve. I put it on and…. it says there’s 80 psi. Trust m e, it’s FLAT. Welp, I managed to get about 30 in. I found the broken pump to make sure I wasn’t working wiht a broken pump and … decided to try to top up the Xtra. I took off the valve cap, laughed at self b/c I never have them, and it worked peachily. I PUT THE THING BACK ON. I went to the back tire. NOPE it is NOT GOING TO WORK. Oh. Maybe there’s a reason for those valve caps.
I try but fail at finding the 16 inch tire that came to the surface in shuffling the compost filing method in the office because hey, that’s for the failed attempt at a rescued dolly, and figure my next thing (but not now) will be to take a toothbrush to those valves and try again… and reform my ways. Oh, and maybe sneak down to the bike project where they’ll have drawers full of valve caps.
I also came rather close to springing for N + 1 because the Xtracycle Swoop is a step through, except … it’s electric. I have to figure out those lifestyle changes. How does one secure that thing? I go to places with lousy parking for bikes. I s’pose I could have fun charging it on the Jackery solar battery. And … it could be a loaner on rides for people to try it (like with the trike recumbent). IT was a thousand dollars off but … hopefully they’ll do that again, because now that I typed that I could have people try it… kinda tipped me because MOAR PEOPLE NEED TO TRY THESE THINGS and stop driving their car thigns.
And it’s chilly and the corner of my computer which is NOT really good at predicting is, however, saying “DOWNPOUR TOMORROW.” …. and the weather channel says no rain ’til 8:00 or so but a wind advisory so …. we’ll be on da bus thing…
I got the Xtracycle back and it seems better 😉 The ride in this morning was not as pleasant as usual because at 26 degrees my layer-up combo was just not riding right. Oh, and it’s first Monday after spring break and … people were weird.
Now, I think it was better than *last* Monday when 3 or 4 different folks on mycommute home were oblivious to things like red lights and stop signs — a truck that went by me and started doing “left turn on red, don’t bother stopping” before … stopping… and two others … since I can go months without this happening I wonder if there was sparse enough traffic so people just decided they could do that stuff on their devices.
Today, I pull up to cross Lincoln and it’s busy so I navigate to that “island in the middle” that is barely barely big enough for my Xtracycle and there’s 7+ cars approaching and I’m doing the “no, I’m fine I am STOPPED HERE” thing but no, the guy stops even though the guy in the right lane is not going to stop but then he does anyway so I go across.
A mile later, I pull up to cross First Street which is busy, and oh, across from me is person going to do a left. Cars are behind him. Sometimes it makes sense for them to go first depending on timing (and nobody’s waiting behind me) so I’m preparing for that body language as a car approaches from the left with several cars behind it and … stops. It’s only 1 lane, tho’ — I give it a few seconds as a car is now approaching from the right and decide … to foot-guide across and do a shruggy thing at the cars on the other side and happily, they all understood that … I’d done the most efficient thing. (Oh, and that’s about as close as we’ll get to a “traffic jam.” It wasn’t going to bottleneck.)
Then on Church approaching the school zone I get a close pass and honking and I call out “There are 2 lanes, can you count to two?” (No, I never know what I’m going to say…) and realize that okay, there were actually two drivers going our way and that possibly the horn was aimed at the guy going around me. Michigan tags…
But on the other hand, Saturday goin’ to get the Xtra on the Green Tank, a person’s backing out of the Africa store / restaurant across the way and the driver’s got her window down and greets me … pretty sure it wasn’t in English, but it was friendly 😉
Last week lotsa bus trips, but I rode at least once and … misplaced the Garmin again so I’m not sure. Monday and Tuesday? Everything canceled for the ice. I got in a bit Tuesday night with a 2 mile visit, and it wasn’t so bad… prepped to ride, but the radio said “heavy rain and dense fog” out there. Erm, no. Work was crazy busy (2 days out!) so I dashed out to bus and left the rain pants, but it wasn’t raining. It was so foggy that the bus driver noted that if somebody in a top hat named Jack was out there, we should just notify the British police and at my church meeting (which I rode to, b/c in town was better) they noted it seemed really British. Culture ;) Thursday it wasn’t raining *yet* … but I donned the pants for the ride home. The rain picked up a bit and I’m glad to say the gear held up well. Okay, those insulated work gloves that didn’t work for 9 below (and my pinky still has a numb spot) got soaked and … a little water got down to my socks but not much, but I was still totally comfortable. I could hve kept going (but no, I didn’t do a beer run 😛 ). So! Good to know. Top layer of pants were definitely damp, though, so that “gore tex” … isn’t impervious like the REI coat is. Still thinkin’ bout Black Diamond pants ;) Oh, and heading back from the Tuesday visit/beer run, I got a “get off the road!” holler and I think that’s 2 overt hostilities this academic year — and this one not at a typical hostility site or conditions. Usually in yuck people are tolerant, and I was approaching a red light so there was no time lost, though I *was* in Not The Right Turn Lane. (I hollered back “Hi, lover!!” and then when they were behind me goin’ left away from me, “That’s called harrassment and they can put you in jail for it.” I never know what’s going to come out of the mouth for *sure*)… This morning was the typical “all good,” with good communication and everything 😉 Different gloves, though ;) …. BUT I’m not sure the back wheel is round, so I’ve emailed BR Bikes about getting a tune up and checking it out. That m@nh0l3 cover may have hurt things…
Urbana-Champaign Cycling Ventures 