On The Road Again

Sunday (February 15) I went for a ride, not to work and not on the trainer. It was cold and wonderful! I used the old Coppi and she feels more like the old speed demon I used to love back in high school then the nasty clunker I used to complain about this past summer.


I spoke to Macolm at Biseagal and he told me it was possible to upgrade the Coppi parts, holus-bolus to STI, even the bottom brackets. So I am thinking, this year, at the end of the seaon I am going to buy a new Dura-ace double group for Erin and take the Ultregra group and put it on the Coppi, Malcom also told me he'd keep an eye out for a decent wheel set.

She may be a steel frame but she's still got the heart of a rocket, as more than one car discovered tonight on my way home from work.

But as for the Sunday ride, a number of events conspired to prevent me from riding at around noon as I had hoped, ultimately I did not actually get on the road until about 3 or perhaps a quarter after. I tried to use the friction down-tube shifter, once, and that is why I am going to move the Ultegra to the Coppi and get a new groupo for Erin, dropping a chain really sucks. Even worse than stopping though was that I was sweating and it was cold. Much of the ride home was a battle of me against my own sense of cold.

I took the Lakeshore trail and discovered to my disappointment a few ice patches and some ugly potholes, but most upsetting, at the foot of the Humber River bridge was a huge frozen puddle, that could, with little exaggeration be called the Arctic Ocean. The ice looked thin and I figured if I dismounted and walked my feet would get soaked, if I rode I'd end up sliding and crashing, so very warily I rode, and lets just say its a good thing I have eroded cleats on my shoes, I had to unclip plenty fast to avoid falling when my wheels started sliding out from under.

One other thing I have to admit I found shocking, I expected that car drivers would be more considerate to a cyclist when it is at or near freezing. I would expect it, and I was wrong for it! To say car drivers collectively have less brains my the empty kettle on the stove beside my laptop is a grave insult to my kettle, poor thing did not need that comparison. More and more I am convinced that as soon as the key hits the ignition the IQ of your average well adjusted driver goes into the negative integers. Truly, when one considers all the implications of driving, green house gases, oil, Osama bin Laden, Ralph Klein, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Sarah Palin and of course the House of Saud, oh yes, lets not forget the multibillion dollar bailout to GM and Chrysler.

Remind me again, the reason we made a machine that according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration kills about 35,000 to 40,000 Americans a year, (compared to Bin Laden who's only done in about 3000 in his life time!), but anyway remind me the reason we made the car god? There does not seem much about the modern car that is remotely god like. I find it even more ironic that only in a discussion of oil can you put the likes of Ralph Klein, Sarah Palin, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Osama bin Laden and the entire House of Saud in the same sentence. (Actually on reflection, I can think of another sentence, a group of kleptocratic criminal thugs such as... but they are only kleptocratic becuase oil gave the state wealth worth stealing.)

Oh well, one day the World will run out of oil, and then there are some lovely suburban cul-de-sacs I am looking forward to riding through.