On Saturday a bunch of us (eight in total) from the BCC rode 100.5km to Stouffville and back, the wind was just brutal, coming from the North West. Mind you the trip home was nice, we flew south. Then on Sunday Thi and I went for a little ride, 136.1km of pretty intense rollers. Thi let me do most of the pulling (nice guy) on the way into the wind and then he got the chance to stop and wait for me at the hill tops on the first leg south (now that I was spent from breaking the wind).
When we got to the coffee shop in Stouffville we found a bunch of BCC'rs out for the 85km Stouffville ride, so we rode home with them. I thought I was spent when Thi and I got to the coffee shop, but maybe it was the tailwind or maybe it was steady downhill I felt a lot stronger coming home and was able to roll from the front to the back and back to the front of the paceline a bunch of times to ensure no one was getting dropped. Of course now my legs are sore, but its the good pain.
Here is a way to identify true roadies, if a person walks down the stairs without issue they are not a true road cyclist, but if walking down the stairs, even a day or two after a ride is agonizingly painful and difficult, you may have a roadie on your hands. Yes walking downstairs today has been a study in pain. I think I might buy myself a toboggan, just to get from the bedroom to the kitchen. (Good thing there is broadloom on all the stairs!)
Anyway quick thoughts on the up coming municipal election here in Toronto, yes I think Robert Ford is a fat serial exaggerator (he claims the bike lane on Jarvis cost the city $6 million when the actual cost turned out to be $59 thousand). Ford has the support of big Jimbo the first minister of Finance in Canada to run a deficit in more than ten years and a member of the Ontario cabinet when the province was $5.7 billion in the hole yet according to official statements, still in the black. Ford also believes that the signed on transit city plan (a $7.2 billion expansion of light rail and bus lines for Toronto) should be canned and the money saved be used for building a new subway. (Apparently somehow enough money will be saved by backing out of signed contracts to build underground subways instead of grade level light rail?)
Well at least Sarah Thomson has a really interesting proposal. I am not sure it is a solution to all the city's traffic... issues, but it is a definite step in the right direction. I'm still unsure if I like Thomson or Joe Pantalone more but one of those two will definitely be getting my vote come November, unless some sort of "Anybody but Ford" coalition gets it's act together and someone else steps up to the plate.
Finally, last night some idiot cyclist tried to cross Lakeshore Blvd. at Colborne Lodge against a red light. The first car to hit him, flung him into a second car. A 40 year-old on a red mountain bike without identification was pronounced dead on the scene. Now as a cyclist I have to admit, I've run red lights from time-to-time, I'm not proud of it, but then I only run reds when it's a side street and I'm on a major street and, critically, there are no cars. Or if it's a 'T' intersection and I am not impeding auto traffic. But crossing Lakeshore at Colborne Lodge, that is just insane, worse it gives the rest of us a bad name.
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Monday, September 27, 2010
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
On Drive Chains
Someone on the BCC website recently found an article entitled Today is the world premier of the chain-less Hungarian developed bicycle. Okay either this article is about the most poorly researched article ever or the authors are excited that Hungary is free of it's chains and into a new world of cables. Sorry guys, but chainless bicycles are old news.
Yesterday I went to a meeting with, as it turns out some old friends of mine from my undergrad days. The meeting was in Waterloo so I had to drive there which was upsetting because it was such a nice day out. When I got home I was tired, I find driving to be fatiguing, so I went for a ride to wake up. (Actually I went for a ride because it was a nice day out.) In 2:57:58 I rode 87.19 km so averaged 29.39km/h, I maxed out at 63.65 km/h and burned off 3719 calories as I bore into a pretty nasty headwind (naturally when I turned around the wind died off some so I did not even get a free ride home).
At the start of the ride the wind seemed to be coming out of the south west so I picked a route that was as south and west as possible so that I would have less work to do on the way home. I have to admit, I like my slightly modified Mississauga Loop which I draw below, using Matheson instead of Eglinton is a really good idea, Matheson is a quieter road (at least in the evening) and it is in much better repair. It does make the ride a little longer, but hey, long is good.
On the way home I was stopped at a light, on Davenport about a third of the way up a steep hill (Christie Street). A guy in a red VW I think Jetta, looks at me as I stand waiting for the light to change. When the light goes green, he guns his engine, jack rabbits and cuts off the bike lane and slows as if to stop. I yell something to the effect of "get out of the bike lane". And he drives to the top of the hill and pulls over. As I pass him (now legally parked) he yells at me "I was gonna give you a draft". Then after I pass him without saying boo he goes and tries to catch up with me, so I hammer hard and know that he can trivially catch me, I wait until he's along side and I slam on the brakes - at least I can out maneuver any car - then I turn on a side road and wait for him to drive off. Strangely I don't want to have an altercation with a motorist any more than I want a motorist to give me a draft up a steep hill. Mind you I find it exceptionally hard to believe that his motives were to give me a draft, I mean, either he is the dumbest nice guy in the world, or more likely he's just an inconsiderate driver - have not seen that before!
Logically, why would a cyclist need a draft up hill? Besides, how much draft is a small car going to give? And even worse, I was breathing hard, it is a short but steep hill, now I'm taking in auto exhaust, yeah, that's just want I want during a tough hill climb. So like I said, either the dumbest nice guy or inconsiderate.
Yesterday I went to a meeting with, as it turns out some old friends of mine from my undergrad days. The meeting was in Waterloo so I had to drive there which was upsetting because it was such a nice day out. When I got home I was tired, I find driving to be fatiguing, so I went for a ride to wake up. (Actually I went for a ride because it was a nice day out.) In 2:57:58 I rode 87.19 km so averaged 29.39km/h, I maxed out at 63.65 km/h and burned off 3719 calories as I bore into a pretty nasty headwind (naturally when I turned around the wind died off some so I did not even get a free ride home).
At the start of the ride the wind seemed to be coming out of the south west so I picked a route that was as south and west as possible so that I would have less work to do on the way home. I have to admit, I like my slightly modified Mississauga Loop which I draw below, using Matheson instead of Eglinton is a really good idea, Matheson is a quieter road (at least in the evening) and it is in much better repair. It does make the ride a little longer, but hey, long is good.
On the way home I was stopped at a light, on Davenport about a third of the way up a steep hill (Christie Street). A guy in a red VW I think Jetta, looks at me as I stand waiting for the light to change. When the light goes green, he guns his engine, jack rabbits and cuts off the bike lane and slows as if to stop. I yell something to the effect of "get out of the bike lane". And he drives to the top of the hill and pulls over. As I pass him (now legally parked) he yells at me "I was gonna give you a draft". Then after I pass him without saying boo he goes and tries to catch up with me, so I hammer hard and know that he can trivially catch me, I wait until he's along side and I slam on the brakes - at least I can out maneuver any car - then I turn on a side road and wait for him to drive off. Strangely I don't want to have an altercation with a motorist any more than I want a motorist to give me a draft up a steep hill. Mind you I find it exceptionally hard to believe that his motives were to give me a draft, I mean, either he is the dumbest nice guy in the world, or more likely he's just an inconsiderate driver - have not seen that before!
Logically, why would a cyclist need a draft up hill? Besides, how much draft is a small car going to give? And even worse, I was breathing hard, it is a short but steep hill, now I'm taking in auto exhaust, yeah, that's just want I want during a tough hill climb. So like I said, either the dumbest nice guy or inconsiderate.
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
On Goals and Rides
Back in June I proposed a challenge, measure how much distance was done using fossil fuels and how much was done using a bike. I have a confession to make, I stopped recording driven distance, principally because in mid July I was sent to London Ontario (over 200km) for work and then had to make a return trip the same weekend, for a total drive in one weekend of almost 950km. I am working on changing things around so I will not be doing that much driving going forward but for now, sadly, I need to keep buying oil by-products. On the other hand, because I drive a beat up old diesel that does not even have a working air conditioner, my 950km of driving resulted in the consumption of an entire 45L of fuel. Still it was a lot of driving, not a good thing.
Anyway, Sunday, September 19, there was a race, the Queens Park Grand Prix, which is just a fancy way of saying a Criterium at Queens Park Cres. Among the competitors include Michael Barry and sixth fastest man in the World (fastest in North America) on a bicycle, none other than Ryder Hesjedal. One would think the results would be a foregone conclusion, they were not. Now don't get me wrong, that a Canadian is the fastest cyclist in North America and has a real shot at a yellow or pink jersey one day is totally about the most awesome thing for Canadian cyclists to look to but that some guy, Jeffrey Schiller, from London Ontario won, is even more cool because it means that Ryder is not a one off thing, that just maybe we have more great roadies coming down the pipeline? If only car drivers would be considerate, we - Canada - might actually be able to put an entire pro tour team together one day.
Speaking of rude drivers, I have decided, the most annoying thing motorists do, for now. I am hammering away, for example, this morning, I am booking it on Queen Street west bound towards Coxwell, now Queen is a 40km/h zone and I was clocking 48km/h according to my GPS. So would someone please explain to me, why, if I am in the right lane and a car is in the left lane the driver has to do 60, cut me off and then make a right turn, rather than go at the posted speed limit and make the turn in safety behind me. The number of times I have been cut off by right turning cars in the past three days is disgusting, and they don't even get anywhere, if they just went behind me it would be safer and they would only be a second or two slower than by doing things dangerously.
As for riding, well this weekend I rode on Saturday and Sunday with Thi from the BCC. Both were published rides but on Saturday there was also a ride to Stouffville and Sunday was the Crit so I guess most people had other ideas. Anyway both were good rides. On Saturday Thi had to get back home in time to open his shop we had to turn for home early but I took a little detour and ultimately rode 100.5 km in 3 hours, 27 minutes and 20 seconds, I burned 4440 calories and averaged a heart rate of 135 bpm, my top speed 56.72 km/h and despite an awful head wind at times and a lot of traffic lights we still achieved a 29.08km/h average speed. (I did a few extra hills too.)
On Sunday we took a very scenic route around South Eastern Ontario, we covered 134.6km in 4 hours 24 minutes and one second, I burned 5457 calories and had an average heart rate of 133 bpm, my top speed 56.47 km/h and this time, with another brutal head wind still pulled off a 30.59km/h average speed. It was a very hilly route and as the green of summer turns to amber and crimson of autum, one of the prettiest rides I have done. The full route is here, or see below. The one thing is, I wonder if Westney is a good road from Taunton to Highway 7, if we could use that and bypass 7 completely that would be a good thing. Still this was a very nice route and enabled us to bypass Oshawa while still getting all the really good hills packed in.
Anyway, Sunday, September 19, there was a race, the Queens Park Grand Prix, which is just a fancy way of saying a Criterium at Queens Park Cres. Among the competitors include Michael Barry and sixth fastest man in the World (fastest in North America) on a bicycle, none other than Ryder Hesjedal. One would think the results would be a foregone conclusion, they were not. Now don't get me wrong, that a Canadian is the fastest cyclist in North America and has a real shot at a yellow or pink jersey one day is totally about the most awesome thing for Canadian cyclists to look to but that some guy, Jeffrey Schiller, from London Ontario won, is even more cool because it means that Ryder is not a one off thing, that just maybe we have more great roadies coming down the pipeline? If only car drivers would be considerate, we - Canada - might actually be able to put an entire pro tour team together one day.
Speaking of rude drivers, I have decided, the most annoying thing motorists do, for now. I am hammering away, for example, this morning, I am booking it on Queen Street west bound towards Coxwell, now Queen is a 40km/h zone and I was clocking 48km/h according to my GPS. So would someone please explain to me, why, if I am in the right lane and a car is in the left lane the driver has to do 60, cut me off and then make a right turn, rather than go at the posted speed limit and make the turn in safety behind me. The number of times I have been cut off by right turning cars in the past three days is disgusting, and they don't even get anywhere, if they just went behind me it would be safer and they would only be a second or two slower than by doing things dangerously.
As for riding, well this weekend I rode on Saturday and Sunday with Thi from the BCC. Both were published rides but on Saturday there was also a ride to Stouffville and Sunday was the Crit so I guess most people had other ideas. Anyway both were good rides. On Saturday Thi had to get back home in time to open his shop we had to turn for home early but I took a little detour and ultimately rode 100.5 km in 3 hours, 27 minutes and 20 seconds, I burned 4440 calories and averaged a heart rate of 135 bpm, my top speed 56.72 km/h and despite an awful head wind at times and a lot of traffic lights we still achieved a 29.08km/h average speed. (I did a few extra hills too.)
On Sunday we took a very scenic route around South Eastern Ontario, we covered 134.6km in 4 hours 24 minutes and one second, I burned 5457 calories and had an average heart rate of 133 bpm, my top speed 56.47 km/h and this time, with another brutal head wind still pulled off a 30.59km/h average speed. It was a very hilly route and as the green of summer turns to amber and crimson of autum, one of the prettiest rides I have done. The full route is here, or see below. The one thing is, I wonder if Westney is a good road from Taunton to Highway 7, if we could use that and bypass 7 completely that would be a good thing. Still this was a very nice route and enabled us to bypass Oshawa while still getting all the really good hills packed in.
Monday, September 13, 2010
On Riding West and Oil Economics
Saturday a bunch of us from the BCC went out for a properly long ride. It was supposed to be out to the Forks of the Credit, except that due to construction the road was closed and the very best part, the reason we hauled all the way through the city to Belfountain had to be missed. Still we rode over 198km with an average near as makes no difference of 29km/h, which is especially impressive because on the ride out there was no wind but by the time we turned around there was a brutal head wind.
On Mississauga Road, up around Boston Mills Road a bunch of guys in an oncoming Jeep threw a full water bottle at us, and nailed someone in the pack square in the head. I wish we got their licence plate, we would have phoned that one in, but they drove much too quickly (I don't think they were worried about a speeding ticket if they were throwing 1kg projectiles at people.) It was a really disgusting and repulsive thing to do and frankly kind of ruined the ride for me there.
I mean the guys I rode with were great and the scenery was nice, but when drivers have that sort of attitude towards cyclists. It was not like we were blocking the Jeep (he was oncoming, remember?) and it is a quiet country road with lots of room and we were in a single file paceline too, almost in the gravel on the right hand side! No this sort of attitude from some drivers, it is where the expression "war on the car" comes from. Of course we all know there is no war on the car, that is silly political grandstanding, what there is, is an expectation among all too many motorists that they ought to have an untrammeled right to the road, that anyone who dares to take precious tarmac from their beloved automobiles is fair game for their grill or their water bottles. I guess I can only hope that the monsters who were out for a joy ride got busted by the police for reckless driving at some later point that day and end up loosing their licence and are forced to ride a bike for the rest of their days, that to me would be an appropriate punishment, somehow I doubt that is what is going to happen.
On my drive to work I often listen to the radio but lately I have found CBC to be rather unengaged. I have taken a new habit, doing number crunching. Today I started with the fact that the Peel P-50, the smallest production car in the world had fuel economy of 1 gallon (presumably UK, or imperial gallon) per hundred miles, now one imperial gallon is 4.546 Litres and one hundred miles is 160.9344km, so the P-50 can go a mind blowing 35.4km on a Litre of petrol, put in modern metric terms, a P-50 gets 2.82L/100km, which is about twice the range per Litre of my diesel Jetta. But what gets me, is while the fuel economy is pretty impressive, consider this, that P-50, uses about a million calories of energy to cover 10km, by contrast for one thousand calories, using my bicycle I can cover 25km, and I look a lot less idiotic on my ride than Jermey Clarkson in his.
On Mississauga Road, up around Boston Mills Road a bunch of guys in an oncoming Jeep threw a full water bottle at us, and nailed someone in the pack square in the head. I wish we got their licence plate, we would have phoned that one in, but they drove much too quickly (I don't think they were worried about a speeding ticket if they were throwing 1kg projectiles at people.) It was a really disgusting and repulsive thing to do and frankly kind of ruined the ride for me there.
I mean the guys I rode with were great and the scenery was nice, but when drivers have that sort of attitude towards cyclists. It was not like we were blocking the Jeep (he was oncoming, remember?) and it is a quiet country road with lots of room and we were in a single file paceline too, almost in the gravel on the right hand side! No this sort of attitude from some drivers, it is where the expression "war on the car" comes from. Of course we all know there is no war on the car, that is silly political grandstanding, what there is, is an expectation among all too many motorists that they ought to have an untrammeled right to the road, that anyone who dares to take precious tarmac from their beloved automobiles is fair game for their grill or their water bottles. I guess I can only hope that the monsters who were out for a joy ride got busted by the police for reckless driving at some later point that day and end up loosing their licence and are forced to ride a bike for the rest of their days, that to me would be an appropriate punishment, somehow I doubt that is what is going to happen.
On my drive to work I often listen to the radio but lately I have found CBC to be rather unengaged. I have taken a new habit, doing number crunching. Today I started with the fact that the Peel P-50, the smallest production car in the world had fuel economy of 1 gallon (presumably UK, or imperial gallon) per hundred miles, now one imperial gallon is 4.546 Litres and one hundred miles is 160.9344km, so the P-50 can go a mind blowing 35.4km on a Litre of petrol, put in modern metric terms, a P-50 gets 2.82L/100km, which is about twice the range per Litre of my diesel Jetta. But what gets me, is while the fuel economy is pretty impressive, consider this, that P-50, uses about a million calories of energy to cover 10km, by contrast for one thousand calories, using my bicycle I can cover 25km, and I look a lot less idiotic on my ride than Jermey Clarkson in his.
Thursday, September 9, 2010
On Politics and Bottom Brackets
Lesley was asking me about the plans some Florida (why is it the dateline for all the craziest things that happen in the United States seem to be somewhere in or very near Florida?) pastor has for burning a bunch of copies of the Qur'an. Now I will grant you I thought the response to the Danish Muhammad cartoons thing was way over the top, but this is very different, mostly because it is almost completely the reverse of the Danish cartoons.
To the reader, one must understand that I am a bibliophile, I have a passion for books and reading almost as much as I have a passion for riding. I find the notion of book burning repugnant and the idea of attacking someones religion by defacing or destroying the underlying ideals manifest in printed form repulsive. That something like one and half billion Muslims are enraged by this idiot Rev. Jones is unsurprising, that even Sarah Palin does not approve is only a modest surprise, but you know when you the nations foremost lunatic saying your actions are wrong... well I guess I'm just joining a very large choir.
Oh and yes, congratulations Mrs. Palin, you beat out Rush Limbuagh, Glen Beck and Bill O, that's real spunk to beat those guys to the top of the lunatic pile, and so quickly. You go girl!
Anyway enough angry ranting about lunatic attention seekers... although, well Toronto has a municipal election coming up and I just want to say, as I have said all too many times before, this "war on the car" is crap, the real war is a civil war. Now that I have to drive too work so much, it is painfully obvious, don't allow trucks on highways during rush hour and really crack down on illegally stopped or parked cars during rush hour. Bikes aren't the problem it is vehicles that block lanes or need too much space and time to accelerate or change lanes.
Anyway as for biking, well I've got Jordan back!! Yipppeeee! What happened was a chain ring bolt had come off the crank and mashed itself into the chainstay where Specialized has a metal plate to protect the stay. Anyway the metal plate was all ripped up and rubbing right up against the chain ring (yes I will have to replace that chain ring :( - but at least not right away.) I thought I simply had a busted bottom bracket. Anyway when I took the crank off to replace the bottom bracket I saw the sorry state of my chainstay. Well thanks to Mr. Carbon Fibre, aka Malcolm Munroe and Specialized I was able to get a replacement part and have it expoxied down. Malcolm (a skilled machinest) was able to look up the tables for the bolts that go into my chain ring and it turns out that if you have aluminum bolts (standard on the Shimano Dura-Ace 7900 crankset) torque the bolts to 12Nm or about 8.86 foot pounds. Yet another reason to always have a torque wrench when doing bike repairs, its just too bad Shimano does not document that torque anywhere.
Lesley and I went to DC last weekend, maybe this weekend I will write about it, but since all the images are still on the SD card at home, I'm going to put off writing about Washington.
To the reader, one must understand that I am a bibliophile, I have a passion for books and reading almost as much as I have a passion for riding. I find the notion of book burning repugnant and the idea of attacking someones religion by defacing or destroying the underlying ideals manifest in printed form repulsive. That something like one and half billion Muslims are enraged by this idiot Rev. Jones is unsurprising, that even Sarah Palin does not approve is only a modest surprise, but you know when you the nations foremost lunatic saying your actions are wrong... well I guess I'm just joining a very large choir.
Oh and yes, congratulations Mrs. Palin, you beat out Rush Limbuagh, Glen Beck and Bill O, that's real spunk to beat those guys to the top of the lunatic pile, and so quickly. You go girl!
Anyway enough angry ranting about lunatic attention seekers... although, well Toronto has a municipal election coming up and I just want to say, as I have said all too many times before, this "war on the car" is crap, the real war is a civil war. Now that I have to drive too work so much, it is painfully obvious, don't allow trucks on highways during rush hour and really crack down on illegally stopped or parked cars during rush hour. Bikes aren't the problem it is vehicles that block lanes or need too much space and time to accelerate or change lanes.
Anyway as for biking, well I've got Jordan back!! Yipppeeee! What happened was a chain ring bolt had come off the crank and mashed itself into the chainstay where Specialized has a metal plate to protect the stay. Anyway the metal plate was all ripped up and rubbing right up against the chain ring (yes I will have to replace that chain ring :( - but at least not right away.) I thought I simply had a busted bottom bracket. Anyway when I took the crank off to replace the bottom bracket I saw the sorry state of my chainstay. Well thanks to Mr. Carbon Fibre, aka Malcolm Munroe and Specialized I was able to get a replacement part and have it expoxied down. Malcolm (a skilled machinest) was able to look up the tables for the bolts that go into my chain ring and it turns out that if you have aluminum bolts (standard on the Shimano Dura-Ace 7900 crankset) torque the bolts to 12Nm or about 8.86 foot pounds. Yet another reason to always have a torque wrench when doing bike repairs, its just too bad Shimano does not document that torque anywhere.
Lesley and I went to DC last weekend, maybe this weekend I will write about it, but since all the images are still on the SD card at home, I'm going to put off writing about Washington.
Thursday, September 2, 2010
On Matters Divine
Talking about religion is always a risky subject, there is a real chance I will really leave someone pissed off and lets face it, the religious crazies, Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim - take your pick, they are loony. (Not to say that say, your average Hindu is a bad person, the overwhelming majority are, I am sure, very good and decent people, but when some Mosque gets blown up in India well, violence seldom begets peace.)
Anyway I bring this up because a couple years ago (September 18, 2006 to be specific) a pastor, fellow by the name of Pastor John Hagee (I can already hear some people moaning) said "Hurricane Katrina was, in fact, the judgment of God against the city of New Orleans... New Orleans had a level of sin that was offensive to God... there was to be a homosexual parade there on the Monday that the Katrina came."
Since Hagee's little rant against The Big Easy was divine punishment there have now been two major oil accents in the Gulf of Mexico that I think are worth bringing up. One is the well known Deep Water Horizon well, the other, an oil platform called Vermilion just exploded this morning, no word yet on how much (if any) oil is escaping. (Allegedly no oil is getting out, but well, in theory only five thousand barrels a day came out of the Deep Water Horizon, in fact it was closer to sixty thousand barrels a day.)
So I have a question for Hagee because I'm a little confused. Are these oil spills the work of divine retribution because New Orleans still has not mended in her ways? Are they divine retribution for too much use of oil? Are they divine retribution for kicks? Maybe they are big oil's retribution for the fact that we had so much fun beating up on old Tony Hayward? If so what was the Kalamazoo oil spill retribution for? The American revolution? (!)
Anyway maybe, just maybe these oil spills are our planet's retribution for being such appallingly lousy stewards of what really is, or was, a pretty pleasant place to inhabit. Anyway a hurricane is working it's way up the Atlantic Seaboard, I hope another one of these hurricane's floods Hagee's home, except I don't think he would understand the irony.
Anyway I bring this up because a couple years ago (September 18, 2006 to be specific) a pastor, fellow by the name of Pastor John Hagee (I can already hear some people moaning) said "Hurricane Katrina was, in fact, the judgment of God against the city of New Orleans... New Orleans had a level of sin that was offensive to God... there was to be a homosexual parade there on the Monday that the Katrina came."
Since Hagee's little rant against The Big Easy was divine punishment there have now been two major oil accents in the Gulf of Mexico that I think are worth bringing up. One is the well known Deep Water Horizon well, the other, an oil platform called Vermilion just exploded this morning, no word yet on how much (if any) oil is escaping. (Allegedly no oil is getting out, but well, in theory only five thousand barrels a day came out of the Deep Water Horizon, in fact it was closer to sixty thousand barrels a day.)
So I have a question for Hagee because I'm a little confused. Are these oil spills the work of divine retribution because New Orleans still has not mended in her ways? Are they divine retribution for too much use of oil? Are they divine retribution for kicks? Maybe they are big oil's retribution for the fact that we had so much fun beating up on old Tony Hayward? If so what was the Kalamazoo oil spill retribution for? The American revolution? (!)
Anyway maybe, just maybe these oil spills are our planet's retribution for being such appallingly lousy stewards of what really is, or was, a pretty pleasant place to inhabit. Anyway a hurricane is working it's way up the Atlantic Seaboard, I hope another one of these hurricane's floods Hagee's home, except I don't think he would understand the irony.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
On Rides
Yesterday I was riding to work when there was a sudden slippery feeling on the pedals, thereafter pedaling backward became considerably harder - not that I pedal backward all that often. When I got to work I removed the chain (gotta love KMC master links) and found the same resistance. Relieved, the issue had to be the bottom bracket (an easy and not horribly expensive part to replace I carried on with my day).
The ride home included a frightful cracking noise from the area of the bottom bracket. When I finally got home, after feeding my boys (the cats) I set to work on Jordan (my ride) and took apart her drive train. Removing the crank took an awful lot of force, and when it finally came free it took part of the bottom bracket along with. (Further backing my theory of a busted bottom bracket.)
Then I walked around to the drive side and removed the other half of the crankset. Behind the crankset on the Specialized Roubaix frame, just behind the bottom bracket on the chain stay is a metal plate that I guess is there to protect the frame from a dropped chain or a really flexible right crank? Anyway for whatever reason that plate has literally folded up and was rubbing against the crank.
In fact the issue with Jordan was not her bottom bracket, the issue is that folded metal plate. The good news is, the plate is epoxied to the frame and the carbon is undamaged, so it should be a simple matter of removing the folded plate and replacing with a good epoxy (Specialized, if you are reading this, use better epoxy for the sake of my mental health please) and new metal plate. The bad news, doing this change will require a skilled machinist, who thank goodness I know, except he is very busy and probably will not be able to fix my poor ride for at least a little while.
I've been having a lot of mechanicals lately, but then it occurs to me, I have been doing an awful lot of riding - more than driving even and when one considers I just blew $650 on auto repair, well I have yet another reason to like my bike.
The ride home included a frightful cracking noise from the area of the bottom bracket. When I finally got home, after feeding my boys (the cats) I set to work on Jordan (my ride) and took apart her drive train. Removing the crank took an awful lot of force, and when it finally came free it took part of the bottom bracket along with. (Further backing my theory of a busted bottom bracket.)
Then I walked around to the drive side and removed the other half of the crankset. Behind the crankset on the Specialized Roubaix frame, just behind the bottom bracket on the chain stay is a metal plate that I guess is there to protect the frame from a dropped chain or a really flexible right crank? Anyway for whatever reason that plate has literally folded up and was rubbing against the crank.
In fact the issue with Jordan was not her bottom bracket, the issue is that folded metal plate. The good news is, the plate is epoxied to the frame and the carbon is undamaged, so it should be a simple matter of removing the folded plate and replacing with a good epoxy (Specialized, if you are reading this, use better epoxy for the sake of my mental health please) and new metal plate. The bad news, doing this change will require a skilled machinist, who thank goodness I know, except he is very busy and probably will not be able to fix my poor ride for at least a little while.
I've been having a lot of mechanicals lately, but then it occurs to me, I have been doing an awful lot of riding - more than driving even and when one considers I just blew $650 on auto repair, well I have yet another reason to like my bike.
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