I spent December 25 cleaning my road bike, Erin.
Now in truth there is some vanity involved in cleaning a bike, after all a clean bike will not ride faster or steer truer than a dirty bike, but, cleaning a bike forces a person to go over every part of the bike very carefully, so if there are any hairline fractures you can see them and, well in my case foolishly do nothing about them. But cleaning certain parts of a bike are critical, in particular the drive train.
If the drive train is left to build up dirt what happens is, besides rust, the parts wear, and as they wear they begin to lose their fitting. For example, the bits and pieces of a chain become more and more loose and the chain itself begins to "stretch" - it is not that the chain is elastic, but the parts of the chain are looser so the chain does not fit together so well anymore. Enough chain stretch can wear down the cassette to the point where a replacement chain won't even fit the old cassette. Even more stretch can have the same effect on the chain rings. Eventually the chain will just break wide open, at which point not only do you need to buy new chain rings, cassette and chain (all in, can cost between about one hundred fifty and one thousand dollars) but you will either have to buy new shoes, or pay a fortune to a taxi driver to get you home. By contrast, I have never seen a high end chain for more than ninety dollars, and by keeping your drive train clean, you can probably almost double the life of your chain.
Sorry the slide show is rather annoyingly fast, but if you are interested in cleaning your own bike it might be best to read the captions. Next time I do this I should get a photographer to take pictures. The problem is I spent the entire time handling some pretty nasty stuff, varsol, a citrus cleaner with petro chemicals, rags saturated with dirt picked up from the side of the road, and so on, as a result it was a big pain to stop, scrub my hands and take a picture.
While washing Erin outside I noticed there was a dull roar like the sound of an expressway. I thought nothing of it, until I realised the nearest expressway is about 2km away, then I looked to the south to the beach and saw monster white caps, so after I brought Erin back into the house I went for a walk to the beach and took some pictures. This has nothing to do with bike repair, but it was an awesome sight all the same.
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Saturday, December 26, 2009
Thursday, December 24, 2009
On More Cost Benefit Analysis
I got quite a bit of positive feedback from my analysis of the motivation of drivers to use the bike/bus/taxi lane on Bay Street. (For people outside Toronto, the right lane is reserved, the left lane is for general use.)
In my post I noted that for a driver the calculation proceeds along the following line, assume the chance of getting caught and ticketed is say X, now assume the ticket value plus lost time waiting for the cop to write up the ticket, plus hike in auto insurance premiums is say, $Y. The "cost" for using the bike lane is logically simply $XY (or X times Y). Now using this 'right' lane is obviously faster than the left on Bay street, assume the drivers time is worth say, $T/hour and assume the driver estimates they will save H time (measured in hours, or fractions thereof), if we compute say V = $(TH - XY) we get the savings from driving illegally in the bike lane. If the number, V, is negative it does not make economic sense to put a cyclist (including me) at risk of death by 2 ton blunt instrument, but if the number is positive, well a driver would be foolish to drive anywhere other than the bike lane.
Of course if you are driving, illegally, in the bike lane and you see a cop the natural thing to do would probably be to get into that left lane, since X has just gone way up. Except, it turns out, and here is a dirty little secret, X, recall, is the chance of getting caught and ticketed, well the value for X is a big fat plump juicy ZERO no matter how many police are out there.
I was riding south to work, on Bay and I saw a cop at a red light, on Friday Dec. 18. I asked him if he was going to ticket the car behind me on account of the fact that the car was in the bike lane. The cop responded: "what bike lane?" I answered: "right here!" Then the light changed to green. In retrospect I should not have taken advantage of the green light, but argued my point.
I believe I am entitled to get to work, by bike, without taking my life into my hands. We all know the lyrics sing along, bikes do not pollute, they cause considerably less wear on roads, they are responsible for far fewer fatalities, than cars. Use of a bike does not enrich Osama Bin Laden or Mister Richard B. Cheney, but a bike will cause the rider to loose fat and gain muscle. So I want it explained to me, why is it that police so religiously enforce the no left turn on Bay Street southbound to Richmond Street west, but won't pop their head around the corner and enforce the bike, bus and taxi lane not 30m away?
In unrelated news, tomorrow is December 25, this day is significant to some as International Jewish* Movie Day. Others, followers of a Joshua son of Joseph, celebrate Joshua's birthday this day (despite the fact that he was probably born in the spring). I will be cleaning Erin, I will post images and give a detailed explanation while I work, hopefully anyone I haven't just offended will find it helpful.
* Okay I should probably call it Muslum or Hindu Movie Day, but a friend of mine in high school called it International Jewish Movie Day and that's worked pretty well, but lets be honest, its basically Internation Movie Day from what even Christians tell me.
In my post I noted that for a driver the calculation proceeds along the following line, assume the chance of getting caught and ticketed is say X, now assume the ticket value plus lost time waiting for the cop to write up the ticket, plus hike in auto insurance premiums is say, $Y. The "cost" for using the bike lane is logically simply $XY (or X times Y). Now using this 'right' lane is obviously faster than the left on Bay street, assume the drivers time is worth say, $T/hour and assume the driver estimates they will save H time (measured in hours, or fractions thereof), if we compute say V = $(TH - XY) we get the savings from driving illegally in the bike lane. If the number, V, is negative it does not make economic sense to put a cyclist (including me) at risk of death by 2 ton blunt instrument, but if the number is positive, well a driver would be foolish to drive anywhere other than the bike lane.
Of course if you are driving, illegally, in the bike lane and you see a cop the natural thing to do would probably be to get into that left lane, since X has just gone way up. Except, it turns out, and here is a dirty little secret, X, recall, is the chance of getting caught and ticketed, well the value for X is a big fat plump juicy ZERO no matter how many police are out there.
I was riding south to work, on Bay and I saw a cop at a red light, on Friday Dec. 18. I asked him if he was going to ticket the car behind me on account of the fact that the car was in the bike lane. The cop responded: "what bike lane?" I answered: "right here!" Then the light changed to green. In retrospect I should not have taken advantage of the green light, but argued my point.
I believe I am entitled to get to work, by bike, without taking my life into my hands. We all know the lyrics sing along, bikes do not pollute, they cause considerably less wear on roads, they are responsible for far fewer fatalities, than cars. Use of a bike does not enrich Osama Bin Laden or Mister Richard B. Cheney, but a bike will cause the rider to loose fat and gain muscle. So I want it explained to me, why is it that police so religiously enforce the no left turn on Bay Street southbound to Richmond Street west, but won't pop their head around the corner and enforce the bike, bus and taxi lane not 30m away?
In unrelated news, tomorrow is December 25, this day is significant to some as International Jewish* Movie Day. Others, followers of a Joshua son of Joseph, celebrate Joshua's birthday this day (despite the fact that he was probably born in the spring). I will be cleaning Erin, I will post images and give a detailed explanation while I work, hopefully anyone I haven't just offended will find it helpful.
* Okay I should probably call it Muslum or Hindu Movie Day, but a friend of mine in high school called it International Jewish Movie Day and that's worked pretty well, but lets be honest, its basically Internation Movie Day from what even Christians tell me.
Monday, December 14, 2009
On Slush
On Thursday November 20 2008 I rode to work. Nothing unusual so far I confess, but on the 19th it snowed, starting in the late afternoon and continued unabated for several hours. At the time the Coppi had no fenders and was still running an ancient friction down tube shift with a six speed free wheel. About the only thing, besides the frame, that I have not changed since then were the pedals that Jeff (from Rochester) and I attached on November 14.
By the time I got to the office, I was covered in slush and mud, head to toe. (The slush was so bad I still remember the date it happened, I did not even need to look it up.) More than a year later I rode that Coppi to work again on December 9, 2009 and like that awful November 20, December 9 had a major snowfall the night before. Only this time the snow turned to sleet by the time I got out the door. Thank goodness for fenders, I got wet but at least the wet was clean precipitation not mud kicked up by the back wheel.
Now despite the fenders this ride was no bed of roses, there was so much slush that it got into my cassette (the advantages of the modern ten speed cassette) and gummed everything up. The slush was so bad I could feel the chain slide over the sprockets with only the most modest power transfer to the hub, if I did torque things up the chain would just slide right over the gears. On the other hand drivers were, for the most part, more respectful. I think the realization that anyone who would bike in this weather is someone worthy of respect, or more likely someone insane enough to bike in this weather is not the sort of guy you want to annoy, whatever the reason drivers were modestly better. Still the ones that cut into my lane and soaked me by kicking up a huge puddle, well couldn't they wait until they had clearly passed me before going right?
At least riding in slush is not nearly as bad as it used to be. Even better, I am still hammering out the miles outside when the roads are dry. On December 12 I went for a ride, I ended up doing 80km in an unimpressive 3 hours (GPS, which auto pauses at under 4.8km/h, i.e. when I am about to stop for a light, said I averaged 27 km/h.) Of course my speed was limited by the hypothermia I got on the way home and the brutal head wind on the way out.
In other news, Trek has published the new Team Radio Shack bikes. Oh my god! There are several artists, and a clothing designer who have no taste whatsoever. Of course since the great and mighty Lance will be riding with The Shack bet your knickers we are about to get saturation coverage of those sinfully ugly Madone-6s all over Versus. I like team CSC/Saxo-Bank, not only because they are decent guys, but they have the good taste, sense, to keep things subdued.
Now I will grant the SRAM Red levers and deraileurs are, to my thinking a lot better than the Shimano Dura-Ace, but the drive train itself, well I guess if SRAM is sponsoring Lance & Co, then Lance better be happy with a pure Red groupo.
Here are some images so you can see, I haven't lost my mind, which is more than I can say for Mike Pfalzgraff (Trek's Design Director).
By the time I got to the office, I was covered in slush and mud, head to toe. (The slush was so bad I still remember the date it happened, I did not even need to look it up.) More than a year later I rode that Coppi to work again on December 9, 2009 and like that awful November 20, December 9 had a major snowfall the night before. Only this time the snow turned to sleet by the time I got out the door. Thank goodness for fenders, I got wet but at least the wet was clean precipitation not mud kicked up by the back wheel.
Now despite the fenders this ride was no bed of roses, there was so much slush that it got into my cassette (the advantages of the modern ten speed cassette) and gummed everything up. The slush was so bad I could feel the chain slide over the sprockets with only the most modest power transfer to the hub, if I did torque things up the chain would just slide right over the gears. On the other hand drivers were, for the most part, more respectful. I think the realization that anyone who would bike in this weather is someone worthy of respect, or more likely someone insane enough to bike in this weather is not the sort of guy you want to annoy, whatever the reason drivers were modestly better. Still the ones that cut into my lane and soaked me by kicking up a huge puddle, well couldn't they wait until they had clearly passed me before going right?
At least riding in slush is not nearly as bad as it used to be. Even better, I am still hammering out the miles outside when the roads are dry. On December 12 I went for a ride, I ended up doing 80km in an unimpressive 3 hours (GPS, which auto pauses at under 4.8km/h, i.e. when I am about to stop for a light, said I averaged 27 km/h.) Of course my speed was limited by the hypothermia I got on the way home and the brutal head wind on the way out.
In other news, Trek has published the new Team Radio Shack bikes. Oh my god! There are several artists, and a clothing designer who have no taste whatsoever. Of course since the great and mighty Lance will be riding with The Shack bet your knickers we are about to get saturation coverage of those sinfully ugly Madone-6s all over Versus. I like team CSC/Saxo-Bank, not only because they are decent guys, but they have the good taste, sense, to keep things subdued.
Now I will grant the SRAM Red levers and deraileurs are, to my thinking a lot better than the Shimano Dura-Ace, but the drive train itself, well I guess if SRAM is sponsoring Lance & Co, then Lance better be happy with a pure Red groupo.
Here are some images so you can see, I haven't lost my mind, which is more than I can say for Mike Pfalzgraff (Trek's Design Director).
Sunday, December 13, 2009
On A Late Season Ride
Aside, sorry this entry took so long to post. In fact I have almost finished writing up the next entry already! I have just been awfully busy, so while I can still steal the few minutes each day to write and tweak my entries, the actual time it takes to post these things is just not there anymore. (Notice I am posting at 1am on Sunday!)
The weather in 2009, in Toronto, has been, to put things mildly, bizarre. In July it was so wet and cold they could have renamed that month April, version 2.0. August was hardly any better. Then September was the driest month in something like 40 years! After the rain that was the summer of 2009 I spent so much time on Erin in September that by the time I crashed I could hardly keep my eyes open I was so exhausted. In one very small sense, the crash was a good thing, it forced me to catch up on my sleep.
October was warm, possibly warmer than July and right though what ought to be a very rainy November I was enjoying rides almost every day. Even on my Birthday I rode Erin to work, now granted it has become cool but the weather is still pretty decent. Occasional rain I can handle, but the weather in July was enough to drive me insane. Although I cannot complain now, what riding I missed early I made up for late. That I am still riding Erin in December is remarkable, amazing even.
Anyway a couple days ago I was riding home from work on Lower Simcoe. Now normally Lower Simcoe is a great road, there is a bike lane, very little traffic and well the only other options to cross the railway tracks near the lake suck. But this day the Buffalo Bills were playing a "home" game at the Sky Dome, excuse me, Rogers Centre. Traffic on Lower Simcoe was a disaster, complete with an abundance of lousy taxi drivers. Question, what is up with cab drivers? Are they physically incapable of not driving aggressively, or yielding now and then?
Well one cabbie was driving in the bike lane. And I don't mean, he was about to make a right turn and he cut into the lane, no, he advanced a good 50m in the bike lane before I managed to get around his vehicle, bang on his windshield and scream blue murder at him. An ugly exchange with a great deal of swearing followed with a call by me to 911, sadly I do not expect anything was actually done. But I so inconvenienced the taxi driver, I stopped directly in front of him and stood my ground, that I suspect he did not use the bike lane for the rest of that hour (it was about five minutes to 5.)
The next day I was driving, don't ask what I was thinking, I honestly do not remember my excuse for using the killing machine. Anyway there was a green light, a four lane one way road and due to construction only two open lanes, one lane had a parked car. Well to make the green light I pulled into the parked car lane, made it through the intersection and well into the next block where there was a long train of taxi's, and not one of them would let me in just to get around the parked car. So I simply forced my way in and got... A lot of honking and swearing from a cabbie, I made the biggest toothiest grin I could and waved back at him. Then, on the next green light, the car in front of me though hardly moved, managed to get just far enough for me to squeeze around the parked car, but in honour of the honking taxi behind me I just sat still and finally moved off and made my right turn when I felt good and ready - and my pulse had slowed. For all I know that cabbie is still, I hope, where he cannot hurt anyone, trapped in a horrific traffic jam.
The fact is there ought to be a war, a war on taxi drivers. They are reckless and aggressive. They have no respect for the rules of the road or the people they must share the road with. I would love to see better enforcement of motor vehicle legislation against cabbies, but somehow I just don't think that is going to happen soon, which is worse than a shame. Just over a year ago a taxi driver took a man's legs off, and somehow I don't think this gong show, that is driving in Toronto, is going to end anytime soon.
The weather in 2009, in Toronto, has been, to put things mildly, bizarre. In July it was so wet and cold they could have renamed that month April, version 2.0. August was hardly any better. Then September was the driest month in something like 40 years! After the rain that was the summer of 2009 I spent so much time on Erin in September that by the time I crashed I could hardly keep my eyes open I was so exhausted. In one very small sense, the crash was a good thing, it forced me to catch up on my sleep.
October was warm, possibly warmer than July and right though what ought to be a very rainy November I was enjoying rides almost every day. Even on my Birthday I rode Erin to work, now granted it has become cool but the weather is still pretty decent. Occasional rain I can handle, but the weather in July was enough to drive me insane. Although I cannot complain now, what riding I missed early I made up for late. That I am still riding Erin in December is remarkable, amazing even.
Anyway a couple days ago I was riding home from work on Lower Simcoe. Now normally Lower Simcoe is a great road, there is a bike lane, very little traffic and well the only other options to cross the railway tracks near the lake suck. But this day the Buffalo Bills were playing a "home" game at the Sky Dome, excuse me, Rogers Centre. Traffic on Lower Simcoe was a disaster, complete with an abundance of lousy taxi drivers. Question, what is up with cab drivers? Are they physically incapable of not driving aggressively, or yielding now and then?
Well one cabbie was driving in the bike lane. And I don't mean, he was about to make a right turn and he cut into the lane, no, he advanced a good 50m in the bike lane before I managed to get around his vehicle, bang on his windshield and scream blue murder at him. An ugly exchange with a great deal of swearing followed with a call by me to 911, sadly I do not expect anything was actually done. But I so inconvenienced the taxi driver, I stopped directly in front of him and stood my ground, that I suspect he did not use the bike lane for the rest of that hour (it was about five minutes to 5.)
The next day I was driving, don't ask what I was thinking, I honestly do not remember my excuse for using the killing machine. Anyway there was a green light, a four lane one way road and due to construction only two open lanes, one lane had a parked car. Well to make the green light I pulled into the parked car lane, made it through the intersection and well into the next block where there was a long train of taxi's, and not one of them would let me in just to get around the parked car. So I simply forced my way in and got... A lot of honking and swearing from a cabbie, I made the biggest toothiest grin I could and waved back at him. Then, on the next green light, the car in front of me though hardly moved, managed to get just far enough for me to squeeze around the parked car, but in honour of the honking taxi behind me I just sat still and finally moved off and made my right turn when I felt good and ready - and my pulse had slowed. For all I know that cabbie is still, I hope, where he cannot hurt anyone, trapped in a horrific traffic jam.
The fact is there ought to be a war, a war on taxi drivers. They are reckless and aggressive. They have no respect for the rules of the road or the people they must share the road with. I would love to see better enforcement of motor vehicle legislation against cabbies, but somehow I just don't think that is going to happen soon, which is worse than a shame. Just over a year ago a taxi driver took a man's legs off, and somehow I don't think this gong show, that is driving in Toronto, is going to end anytime soon.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
On Riding and Writing
Happy Birthday to me! Anyway, I wrote this a little while ago but decided to proof read it a few times to make sure it was not quite as bad as some recent posts.
I know my last post positively stunk. The only thing I can say by way of an apology is that it was a lot better when it was still in my head before fingers touched keyboard.
Anyway my red cell count is down, probably something between eight and ten percent and the weather is iffy, at best, so I am back on the saddle! But in much worse shape than just ten days ago. There was a study an Italian doctor believes he has found a therapy for MS, it is still in the early stages, but if this works in larger study populations MS might become a thing of the past. I bring this up because the therapy involved reducing iron build up, ironic, MS patients have too much iron, right about now I could use an anvil in my stomach.
I have been developing a novel in my head, well it is more the background, the characters, the plot, all that good stuff. The problem is while I have decided on the issue my protagonist will face I have yet to settle the underlying motive. Look for the book sometime this spring! (Not!)
I would like to try my hand at writing, I think I can be good, sometimes, and to be honest it would make a nice change to do some fiction as opposed to all the stuff I do in my day job. Don't get me wrong I do like what I do, but my creative streak needs an outlet, that is partly why this blog exists, and writing a short novel seems like a pretty harmless way to express my creativity.
Other than that, I should report that Toronto drivers are setting ever deeper lows. Today a guy turning right did not bother to check the bike trail as I nearly slammed into him (good thing I had new tyres on, the ground was wet, with older tyres I would have gone through his side window for sure.) Yesterday on a four lane road a minivan driver blasted his horn at me, I had the audacity to "hog" the entire right lane, there was no traffic in the left lane. Eventually our horn tooting minivan passed me honking all the way as s/he ran a pedestrian cross walk, where pedestrians who had the right of way, were waiting to cross.
Other than riding I recently wrote up a product review of Shimano Dura-Ace 7900 brake/shift levers. What a disappointment the 7900 groupo has been eh? (If you don't have Dura-Ace don't get jealous, it is totally not worth it.)
First of all the new Dura-Ace master link is so bad it does not just suck, it actually swallows! I mean here is something that is supposed to help the roadie salvage a busted chain roadside, well a couple weeks ago I was cleaning Erin and I went to take the chain off. After struggling with that link for a good 30 minutes I finally get, well very black hands, but I do get the link off and loose one of the pins in the process. I have switched to KMC links, cheaper and easier, a lot easier. Next chain will be SRAM, they have a sensible master link, even use a different colour to make it easier to find, isn't that helpful?
Or how about this, I sold an old pair of levers, the ones that had been in the crash. I replaced a dinky plastic cover plate on them, it was purely aesthetic, totally unnecessary, but would make the levers more sellable, cost of the plate? $27 wholesale, $54 MSRP! It is a 1 gram piece of frigging plastic!
Of course over priced parts and well thought out master links are unimportant if the part works as advertised, which is why Dura-Ace is really over priced. To change a gear you have to heave the shift lever so far over that one might as well dismount and change gears the old fashioned way, by changing wheels! I had a chance to test ride some SRAM Red levers recently, I was a Shimano guy, but not so much anymore, one quick click and I've changed gears, a longer click and I change two gears, it really cannot get much better than that, especially at the bottom of a steep hill climb or the top of a steep decent.
Dura-Ace is pretty, but the short of it is, if this is Shimano's top of the line product for roadies then Shimano should stick to fishing rods. In a fair side-by-side comparison Campi and SRAM should put Shimano out of business.
I know my last post positively stunk. The only thing I can say by way of an apology is that it was a lot better when it was still in my head before fingers touched keyboard.
Anyway my red cell count is down, probably something between eight and ten percent and the weather is iffy, at best, so I am back on the saddle! But in much worse shape than just ten days ago. There was a study an Italian doctor believes he has found a therapy for MS, it is still in the early stages, but if this works in larger study populations MS might become a thing of the past. I bring this up because the therapy involved reducing iron build up, ironic, MS patients have too much iron, right about now I could use an anvil in my stomach.
I have been developing a novel in my head, well it is more the background, the characters, the plot, all that good stuff. The problem is while I have decided on the issue my protagonist will face I have yet to settle the underlying motive. Look for the book sometime this spring! (Not!)
I would like to try my hand at writing, I think I can be good, sometimes, and to be honest it would make a nice change to do some fiction as opposed to all the stuff I do in my day job. Don't get me wrong I do like what I do, but my creative streak needs an outlet, that is partly why this blog exists, and writing a short novel seems like a pretty harmless way to express my creativity.
Other than that, I should report that Toronto drivers are setting ever deeper lows. Today a guy turning right did not bother to check the bike trail as I nearly slammed into him (good thing I had new tyres on, the ground was wet, with older tyres I would have gone through his side window for sure.) Yesterday on a four lane road a minivan driver blasted his horn at me, I had the audacity to "hog" the entire right lane, there was no traffic in the left lane. Eventually our horn tooting minivan passed me honking all the way as s/he ran a pedestrian cross walk, where pedestrians who had the right of way, were waiting to cross.
Other than riding I recently wrote up a product review of Shimano Dura-Ace 7900 brake/shift levers. What a disappointment the 7900 groupo has been eh? (If you don't have Dura-Ace don't get jealous, it is totally not worth it.)
First of all the new Dura-Ace master link is so bad it does not just suck, it actually swallows! I mean here is something that is supposed to help the roadie salvage a busted chain roadside, well a couple weeks ago I was cleaning Erin and I went to take the chain off. After struggling with that link for a good 30 minutes I finally get, well very black hands, but I do get the link off and loose one of the pins in the process. I have switched to KMC links, cheaper and easier, a lot easier. Next chain will be SRAM, they have a sensible master link, even use a different colour to make it easier to find, isn't that helpful?
Or how about this, I sold an old pair of levers, the ones that had been in the crash. I replaced a dinky plastic cover plate on them, it was purely aesthetic, totally unnecessary, but would make the levers more sellable, cost of the plate? $27 wholesale, $54 MSRP! It is a 1 gram piece of frigging plastic!
Of course over priced parts and well thought out master links are unimportant if the part works as advertised, which is why Dura-Ace is really over priced. To change a gear you have to heave the shift lever so far over that one might as well dismount and change gears the old fashioned way, by changing wheels! I had a chance to test ride some SRAM Red levers recently, I was a Shimano guy, but not so much anymore, one quick click and I've changed gears, a longer click and I change two gears, it really cannot get much better than that, especially at the bottom of a steep hill climb or the top of a steep decent.
Dura-Ace is pretty, but the short of it is, if this is Shimano's top of the line product for roadies then Shimano should stick to fishing rods. In a fair side-by-side comparison Campi and SRAM should put Shimano out of business.
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