rail trail

My daily ride to work runs near a pretty long stretch of abandoned railway track. Last year a fellow commuter suggest that I try riding it as part of my route. I rode parts of it a few times and didn't give it much thought. A few weeks back I was feeling my lack of off-road riding and figured some gravel trails would be good medicine. The bike has skinny slicks on it these days so they are not the best for off-roading it, but they are holding up fine. On the way to work I stick to the roads, but on the way home I manage to sneak in a several km stretch of singletrack. The singletrack route, if anything is faster than the roads because there is not a lot of road crossings and you don't always have to be on the lookout for vehicles. At the moment I am considering putting some bigger tires on the bike to take the harshness out of the ride, but I am happy being able to spin along on the road and do quite well on the trail.

braking news - Avid BB7

So I'd heard a lot about the Avid BB7s and there relative cats-arsedness when it comes to mechanical disk brakes on bicycles. When I had my Marinoni built up I made sure I spec'd them (they were the spec anyway). The bike came fully assembled for me so I played no part in the installation. The brakes worked out of the box with no problems, no squeeling. They were awesome. Last summer when I crashed the rear caliper was loosened. I played around with them a bit and got them re-tightened on my own without putting much thought to it. I figured they were fine.

Really, by all accounts they were fine but I didn't line up the pads perfectly so I ended up wearing down the pads a wee bit unevenly and they wore out prematurely. My rotor seemed to be fine thoughout this ordeal, I was a bit concerned that I had wrecked it too. So far so good.
Instead of dumping the bike at the shop to have them change the pads, I figured I might aswell learn how to change the pads myself. I'd read that it was an idiotproof process. Enter me.
I had the old pads out, purchased a new pair and figured I was 5 minutes away from having aligned and full strength braking once again. Not quite. What I didn't realize was that I had bent the pad retention clip (not the spring, but the little clip inside the caliper) and it was forcing the outboard pad to be off center). I fiddled around with the caliper, the spring, the pads for a few hours before I took everything apart and started from scratch, complete with the help of the manual from SRAM (I find there website to generally be horrible, but they do have a good service section). Oh, I opened a beer too. That always helps, though never really speeds the process up any.

Eventually I got it, got the pads in properly then trued the caliper to the rotor, tightened the cable and I was laughing.

I have no problem getting my LBS to do work on my bike, but I really try to do as much work on my bikes as possible so that when I am stuck miles from nowhere and something breaks, I'll have an idea how to fix it. Disk brakes were a new thing to me so much like figuring out how to adjust the pads on my cantilever brakes in my early teens, I needed to take the time to figure out the BB7s. Now that I have been through it once I am confident that future pad changes and adjustments will take minutes.

The Avid BB7 disk brakes really are a dream to use. The power is excellent, the wet-weather performance is great. They pair well with my Campagnolo Veloce levers, and they really are dead easy to adjust, install and maintain, at least after you get a chance to learn how they work.

More on Sheldon Brown

Grant Petersen over at Rivendell has a great story about Sheldon Brown up on their news page. I have read countless postings this week with everyone's personal message about him. There is no doubt that the cycling community has suffered a tremendous loss.

Ride some miles for Mr. Brown

Yesterday Eileen and I were traipsing around the neighborhood in search of avocados to make some guacamole. She pointed to the rear wheel of an old Raleigh and noted it was kind of different looking. I explained that it was an old internal geared hub and thought about telling her about that 'guy' on the internet that raved about them and still sold hard to find parts to keep them ticking.

That 'guy' was none other Sheldon Brown (aka CaptBike), one of cycling's greatest resources. It was with much sadness that I learned that Sheldon Brown passed away yesterday. We'll miss you.

been a long time coming

I have never been much of a person to make new years resolutions and I am not really about to start. I have been thinking a lot about the blog, or lack thereof, for a while now. I have composed many posts in my mind. Titles like "I can't believe I rode without decent lights for so long", " I (heart) messenger bags", "Rain Gear: friend or foe?", "Care and feeding of your mechanic". The list goes on. I suppose it is time to get off my arse and start typing.

I have been doing a lot of riding though, that is good. My girlfriend has been getting plenty of miles in aswell. Her trusty Jake the Snake is doing quite well. This year, along with getting in more miles than ever, we are planning on doing some light touring. The idea of spending several days on the bikes is appealing to both of us. In the meantime, the daily spin to work is pretty nice too.

Back on the horse!!!

My Karate Monkey might not appreciate being referred to as a horse, but it suits the metaphor. Plus, I consider it a noble steed.

Last week I got back to riding to and from work on a regular basis. Since my accident I had been using a combination of buses, driving and sneaking rides from coworkers. Not no mo'. Until then my shoulder (which took the brunt of a minivan hit) was too sore to ride for very long on. I have been slowly rebuilding the strength in it and the stiffness is going away.

As my new bike (that I received around the same time as the blog went on hiatus) is in the hospital still, I am back to my tried, tested and true Surly Karate Monkey and its one speed. When the new bike arrived I still rode the KM off and on, but I was starting to get used to the non-single life. Getting back to the SS reality has been a welcome change. Not riding SS for very far in the last two months coupled with a further 3 weeks of no riding, the rather low 38x16 gearing on the Monkey has been whooping me back into riding form quickly. I passed a roadie going up a hill today, that is always a good sign.

bikes are replaceable

Cyclists are not.

I am just going to pretend like nothing happened to the blog. Pretend like I didn't miss posting for 3 months.

I'd really like to pretend that one of my closest friends, Amy, didn't call me last weekend to tell me that she was okay but just got out of emergency after going over the bars , cracking her helmet and getting some not so tasty road rash.

I'd like to pretend that I didn't get hit by that minivan 3 weeks ago when a driver failed to give me the right of way in a traffic circle (blog irony perhaps) and hit me.

I can't pretend that any of the above did or did not happen, whichever is the case. I am happy to still be riding, I could have been killed. Amy is happy to be healing up too. Neither of us are happy that our bikes are both possibly ruined.

I am happy to be back on the blog too.

Ride of Silence

In cities all around the world cyclists gather for group rides. Vancouver has all sorts from the international, to the local, to the specific and local. If I ever get my new bike, I may even try to get my own going.

As cyclists, we all love to ride. As commuters, we all ride on the streets with cars. This bike-car relationship can be rocky sometimes. Sometimes people get hurt, sometimes people get killed. Enter the Ride of Silence, a group ride that exists to remind the world that roadways are here to be shared, to remind people that cyclists can easily be hurt or killed on the road by motor vehicles.

The Ride of Silence has spread its wings to cover many cities in its 5 year tenure, a list of locations complete with information is is provided on their site. In Vancouver, the local site is http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rideofsilence/ and the details for the ride are:

Meet at Grandview Park at 7:00 on Thursday May 17th 2007. The riding pace will be easy and last about an hour, ending downtown the way it will start: in silence.

Some new literature

I have a hard time finding good bike mags. Dirt Rag and Singletrack are about the best 'big publications' that I'll read. I long gave up MBA and Mountain Bike. Bicycling never really did it for me. Matt Chester has been taking forever to get out all of the first edition of 700See so I haven't bothered sending him any money. Cranked looks like a worthwhile publication, I intend to send a few dollars down to Washington State to find out - looks like a safe gamble to me. Otherwise I stick to the web for my dose of bike-readin'.

Today on commutebybike they mentioned that Urban Cyclist has just released issue#1. Limited edtion of print, but, are you ready, for this? You can download the whole issue for free. PIYIYW (print it yourself if you want). I have given it a quick read, it looks good. Check it out. Also let me know about Cranked if'n you've read it.

The return

S oI hopped on the fixed monkey today after about a 10 day hiatus from riding (...out of town see below) Ugh, I wasn't the fastest Johnny on the bike route this morning but it felt great to be out in the morning air. I was up a bit earlier today so I headed to work about a half an hour earlier than usual. To no surprise I didn't leave any earlier...
On the way home I ran into one of my usuals, well at least a guy I see every 6 months or so. Until today he had a Johnny-name, the name I give to people who I don't know. The format is like Johnny Red-Shirt, such that the last name has to describe the person. Anyways this gentleman always comments on my singlespeededness and I usually ask about his efforts in doing the Trans-Rockies race which he has told me about. He met some fellas that did it singlespeed last year, that's nuts. The race is something obscene like 600km in 7 days in the rockies. Today we talked shop - racing mainly (a bit of work talk too), but he gave me the heads up on a local race that is starting this summer. One that looks really cool, cause it starts in my back yard, the BC Bike Race, a race from Victoria to Whistler. That looks pretty sweet, I'll have to keep my ear to the ground about its goings-on. I ain't been racin' fer some time, I just might have to do a cross race this fall though.
Back to the commuting aspect of this post - ahem, where was I - so the cool part about this was that although I took my sweet-arsed time getting to work this morning, on the way home I got to ride and talk about 2/3rds of the way home and it seemed like no time at all, plus I took the long way home. Time flies when you are talking bikes.

whoa, what happened there?

Sweet, so I made it about a month before disappearing for two weeks, that was longer than I expected. I'll just have to start blogging from work. ha.
Actually, I was out of town for about a week - just got back from the Souther US. Tucson AZ to be more precise. Before I left I learned that Tucson is a pretty bike-friendly city. With 360(!!!) sunny days every year, it'd be hard not to ride in that town. My first morning out in the city I was wayyy early for my appointment so I took a drive around town to check things out. FIrst bike I saw was a Surly 1x1. I knew that Tucson would be a cool town from that moment on. There were bike lanes all over the place in the city and on secondary highways out of town. A friend I made during my stay showed me the UofA Campus; it was loaded with bike racks and a multitude of bikes showed that they were well used.
On one of my adventures through the area I took a drive (sucks that I didn't have a bike) out of town towards Saguaro Natl Park East which involves taking a trip over a small mountain pass. The road seemed to be pretty popular amongst the roadies, I saw many packs of them out in the hot sun. Where there weren't painted off bike lanes there was signage to remind drivers about what was going on.

I don't know how they do it in that temperature, I'd be dead. It was well over 30deg C and it was only the end of April.

All in all, Tucson seems like a pretty good place to ride a bike.

car door'd, pain you can't afford

I have had a few close calls with car doors, never been hit. In all cases myself or the driver has corrected the problem before things got messy. Always keep an eye open for signs of a driver about to escape. Watch for lights turning off, check for heads in drivers seats - anticipate their movements. Slow down if you aren't sure. If the lane is free, move over a bit don't ride in the door zone.

In BC it is the person swinging the door that is at fault if a cyclist gets hit. When a cyclist gets hit by a door, it doesn't matter who's fault it is - the cyclist is already hurt, or worse. Try to avoid the problem. If you do get hit and feel fine, don't be quick to brush yourself off and ride away. Get the drivers info, file a police report, see a doctor if need be. You may feel fine in the present, but that might change when the adrenaline wears off.

trouble a brewin'

The Karate Monkey got wind this week that, probably within the next few weeks there would be a new bike in the apartment. The Karate Monkey isn't too happy about it. "Gears!?" it says. Then it came back with this image and rode off into the darkness.
It is going to be a rough few weeks when the new bike arrives. It'll mellow out after a while - I hope.

I am not a messenger

nor am I a posenger, but I don't really care about what I am not.... anyways.

Besides lugging my clothes to work day in day out, I don't often carry much else (what I carry is another post). Today I had to make a few stops so I had to do some hauling. First I packed my lock, which I don't usually carry as my bike sits in the machine shop at work, then headed out. First stop was my 'old' office with which my company is now separated from. We still like to borrow tools from each other though and I was in search of a 1/4" NPT die which I did not find. weak. So after a few minutes of chit chat with old friends and coworkers I was on my way. This stop was on my way, but I got to take a different route for a while -always a nice change. I rode by my LBS and shook my fist at it for not having my bike in yet and continued past a friend headed in the opposite direction. Stop 2 was at Home Depot for some plumbing supplies. Have you ever tried to find a place to lock your bike at Home Depot? No, didn't think so. I ended up using some temporary fencing as an anchor. I guess they don't get too many people in there buying drywall and loading it onto their xtracycles. After Home Depot it was off to work via some previously unexplored territory.

Using my bike as my vehicle to run errands for work is particularily liberating. Most of the things I deal with comes from afar or in great quantity so the chance to pick up a few wee things here and there is nice.

On the way home I noticed a friend's truck parked on the road near his house - a sign that he was back in town. A quick call revealed that he was not home, rather at school finishing up a paper. My attempts at extorting beer from him had failed. I could have resorted to B&E and theft I suppose. Instead I continued on. A handful of blocks from my house is a liquor store. I figured since I was hauling my lock around I would stop in for a visit. Ten minutes later I left with a bottle of red wine, a 6-pack and a 'big beer' (the essentials) which I proceeded to stuff into my messenger bag on top of my clothes. It all fit. Sweet.

All in all a great day for riding. The differences that a lock and a few places to go can make....

Side note: posting title provided by shirts that used to be available from Dustin at Cadence.

MEC merino wool longsleeve lovin'

My early childhood experiences with wool scream itchiness and fullblown states of discomfort.

So what?

For Christmas of 2005 my parents bought me a pair of MEC merino wool lightweight long underwear bottoms. I had a sneaking suspicion I that I wouldn't use them, so I brought 'em back and exchanged them for the same garment, only in upper form. It's been 15 months of bliss.

I have worn the shirt year round, it regulates temperature really well. In the winter I wear it sometimes under a thin fleece (perhaps another review) but often I can get by with it just under a jacket; my windbreaker when it isn't pouring rain, or my rain-jacket when it (almost always) is (as if it will NEVER stop). In the summer i wear it on its own; its perfect for the early morning chill and in the afternoon I just hike up the sleeves. There is just the right amount of elasticity in the very fine wool fibres, that it doesn't feel too tight when I bunch up the sleeves to my elbows, and they stay put.

Another, most excellent, feature of this shirt (and anything made out of wool in general): ZERO STANK. It takes a fair bit of abuse to get this thing smelling bad. If I wear most of my wicking tops for more than 2 days, the smell factor approaches unbearable; after 1 day they usually hit anti-social. My wooly little friend, on the other hand, can be worn for days without any sign of stink. I am not too easy on my stuff, but I do hang it up to dry at work and most of the time it gets hung up or draped over something at home at night. It wicks moisture incredibly well, I have watched beads of water form on the outside surface on a few occasions, it look like the fibres pull the water out. In anticipation of this post I wore it on my daily (45+ minute each way) commute for 7 days, generally under a windbreaker, always with my Chrome bag there to make for some moderate back-sweat conditions PLUS I wore it on a 10 hour hike/snowshoe trip over the weekend. After the first 4 days (before hiking) it still smelt fine, I could even smell detergent in some areas. I eventually gave up, but after all of that it still wasn't any worse than a regular synthetic shirt after a few hours of use.

The garment is pretty bare bones, which I like. No neck zippers, no pockets front or back, no extra length in the back to cover your stern; just a basic crew cut fit (wear them on the snug/tight side otherwise they don't wick or keep you warm).

As you can see, I love this garment. Year-round functionality, able to go the distance between washings, very nice cut (I find MEC stuff to be very hit an miss on garment fit) and fashionably neutral (I gots the black one). The price is right too; under $65 for something of this quality is cheap, err.. I mean inexpensive. Highly recommended and easily one of my favorite pieces of clothing, cycling specific or otherwise.

...

Baaaaaaa

If there ain't brakes...

Karma may have caught up to me today. During my ride to work, into the Sun, i heard a 'tink' as I rode over a metal object. The glare was great enough that I wouldn't have really seen anything on the road to begin with so I just kept riding - uphill. Eventually I got to a major intersection requiring some stoppage.

whoa nelly

My rear brake lever engaged - pas de problem. My front brake lever seemed to be AWOL though. &^%$! the bolt must have loosened, fallen out, leaving my lever to just plop out.

so that's what that noise was 8 or so blocks back.

Needless to say, I turned around and went on the hunt. I have Magura HS33 brakes, so the lever is pretty much only attached by the one bolt. There are obviously no cables to hold onto it. Thanks to the little red, pad adjustment knobby, I found it pretty easy. The bolt was nowhere to be found though. I pocketed the lever and rode on, wounded. Luckily, I ran into a buddy a few minutes later, who invited me over for some beers - that is a bonus that would not have come if my decellerator had not come apart.

I managed to rig up a fix for the brake at work (thank you bag o' mixed screws) and was fully repaired for the ride home. Having only a rear brake sucks, I would much rather have the front (which gives you loads more stopping power) if I were to only have one. For a while on my singlespeed I used only a front brake - it was fine. When I ride fixed, I sometimes use a rear, but it s not at all necessary. I just use my legs and a front brake for fixed. Sure, there is always the chance of doing the fear'd over-the-bars journey, but I highly recommend getting to know your front brake. Find out how hard you can brake before endoing. Find that combo of speed and body position (the further back and lower you are the less likely to go over the bars). It may come in handy when some Johnny cuts you off in his racecar.

On a side note - I have been listening to a lot of Silversun Pickups recently. It may be that I am pumped for their concert in a few weeks, but they are a wicked band. They were my mental soundtrack on the ride home, fully braked. Listen to them, they are good. Check out the bassist too, she is wicked cute.

guilty pleasures

My commuting bike at the moment is a singlespeed, it's been the bike that I've ridden for 99% of all my kilometers (that's like 99.5% of all my miles) in the past two years. Obviously I am a big fan, but I must admit to having a geared bike on order. Not as a replacement, but as a compliment to my stable.

This week while riding I will admit to smiling at two things that maybe I shouldn't have:

1. On one occasion I saw two cyclists at a traffic light, one all singlespeeded up (perhaps fixed?) the other geared to the heavens. Both of them were itching to take-off at the first sight of green light. As the light turned green, the geared fellow clanked and thumped as his chain stumbled to engage on his cassette. In the meantime, the one-speedified chap pedaled smoothly through the intersection. Yeah....
2. On Friday during the ride home I passed a guy on an electric scooter/moped contraption.

With singlespeeds, you never miss a shift and with 38x16 gearing you don't win too many drag races on flat, paved roads.

ears back

This probably isn't the only cycling website that you read, so this may very well be old news. I've seen it in a number of places, but I am not regurgitating it because I have nothing else to talk about. I will repeat it because it concerns everyone, especially those of us that ride our bikes.

A few weeks back a City of Toronto Councillor made a comment regarding bicycle lanes that just happens to be the most asinine, ignorant thing I have heard in a long time.

"I can't support bike lanes. Roads are built for buses, cars, and trucks. My heart bleeds when someone gets killed, but it's their own fault at the end of the day."

-Rob Ford,Toronto City Councillor

I had to bang my head against my desk for a while when I read this.

Apparently this isn't his first statement devoid of reasoning. It looks like there are more. That is not my concern at the moment. Right now I am concerned that someone in Mr. Ford's position has not only no idea of the laws of his own Province, but also that he can assert guilt to cyclists that are killed on the road. Mr. Ford, my heart bleeds for people like you who do not have a care in the world for the rights of other humans.

Rob Ford's email address is plastered all over the Internet. If you're concerned, do let him know how you feel. It would be easy to send him a sting of profanities, but don't do that. We're more intelligent than that.

if you have to ask

The weather in Vancouver continues to eat at the soul of its inhabitants. Thursday and Friday were particularily miserable with lots of wind, rain and chilly (for this time of the year) temperatures. I won't lie, I opted to NOT ride. I wasn't emotionally ready for it so I resorted to other means. Call it weakness, I call it spending quality time with my iPod on the bus.

A few months back in Dirt Rag, there was a wicked one-pager titled Bikakure: The Book of the Commuter. It states:

"The Way of the Commuter is found in riding. When the question is whether to ride or not, the answer is always to ride. The Way of the Commuter places emphasis on many qualities, including loyalty, self-sacrifice, justice, sense of shame, refined manners, purity, modesty, frugality, commuting spirit, honor and affection."

This online version of it seems to date back to 2005, I am glad they finally put it into print. Anyways on Thursday/Friday I didn't even ask myself whether or not to ride, I just said F it, and went on my way. I adopted the if you have to ask... policy in January, I like it. You just have to be weary about when you ask yourself whether or not to get on your bike cause it isn't always what you want to hear!

To make up for a few miserable days, I went out on a good ride today to blow some steam off and get some vitamin D from my friend the Sun. More on that ride later.

It's a hard rain

It was damn cold today, considering spring is supposedly sprung. It was spitting rain on the ride home, except for the parts of my journey where it was &^%$ing hailing. It wasn't very big hail, I guess it was more like freezing rain. It stung though. damn.

Nothing to note during the ride yesterday unless you count the two dudes (I am assuming teenager, I am assuming mildly intoxicated) sitting on newspaper boxes at Granville and 10th who were waving to cars, trying to get big trucks to honk, by doing the proper hand motions, and belting out the lyrics to Sir Mix-a-Lot's Baby Got Back. That's right - All you other brothers can't deny. That was fitting, my mental iPod has been playing lots of rap and hip-hop during the rides. The Roots being the major plaver.

I have talked to a few more people about the group ride and started a draft email. I should get that out in a few days. I figure I'll do a write-up about a piece of gear that I like soon too (ideally to become a regular occurence) I teenk I'll start with my Chrome bag or my MEC wool longsleeve.