Hi. It's me.

I've been avoiding this thread assiduously for quite some time now due to my complicated relationship to bikes! Many years ago, after I was a baker and before I was a woodworker, I worked as a bike mechanic.

This was back in the days when you could still find mafac brakes. we're talking 1979-1986 roughly, with some bakery overlap.

I was never a racer. I'm not sure about now, but then racers and mecahnics held each other in disdain. (We mocked their inability to do even the most rudimentary of repairs, and they, in turn, mocked our ability to fix their bikes. Maybe they mocked our preference for riding as an excuse to grill hotdogs and drink beer after, I'm not sure, so few of them could compose a thought, much less carry on a conversation. I digress)

I used to live on my bike. I moved from New Rochelle, NY to Brattleboro, VT via bicycle. I cycled form Jackson Hole to Glacier one summer. Another time I cycled from Rockwood, ME to Quebec. While I was living in Burlington, VT a bunch of my fellow mechanics organized a ride we called the 100/200 which was an all day ride held on June 21 (solstice) that ran from Canada to Mass, via Route 100 for about 218 miles. (hence 100/200) It was my suggestion to jump to route 30 in Jamaica and then to route 5 to Bernardston since that was my old stomping ground and I assured everyone that the scenery was better.

That's me digressing wistfully up there.

Anyway. At the pinnacle of my cycling life I was working 32 miles form home and had no car since me and the GF at the time broke up, so it was a 64 mile R.T. commute each day. In Vermont.

A year or so later I bought my first car. That was pretty much the end of cycling as I knew it. That was 1986.

20 years later I've gone from 6-0 and 165# 32" waist to 210# and a 36" waist. My blood pressure hit some crazy ass numbers like 146/94 resting pulse of 87. So...

Today my sewups arrived in the mail. My wool cycling shorts with the real chamois liners have been consumed by moths, my toeclip straps have dry rotted, and no one sells those crocheted biking gloves any longer.

I am getting back on my bike after 20 years of carrying it around.

Rip Van Winkle rises.

I will not go through this whole thread, it is too much for me emotionally, the purpose of this excerciese is to lower my blood pressure.

At one time cycling meant as much to me as music means to Ibram. Maybe more.

I've come back and the world I knew is gone. I was a gear head, but became downhearted when the gear kept changing seasonally. I found a shop in Wisconsin that still has a lot of old school parts and accessories. So I can give it a go.

After this season, if I can log a thousand miles (formerly two weeks riding) I'll buy some clipless pedals and retire my duegi cleats.

I also noted that the rear derailleur on my touring bike which was broken by a friend, is now a vintage collectible selling for $250. on ebay. A huret duopar titane. A marvelous derailleur, but not that marvelous.

I'm off to glue on my sew ups.

Welcome back.

Some things are constant, like road racers being pricks, some things improve like clinchers, and somethings get worse like component companies changing product lines every couple years. The riding is still awesome and you'll probably appreciate it more with 20 years behind you. Kick butt man!

Wow F3.

Good luck, don't get too discouraged at first, it will be very hard to not compare what you can ('t) do now to then.

Um, what are sew ups?

I'm plugging away with kid in Burley again this summer. My usual ride is after dinner, about 6-7 miles long, with a stop at various parks depending on the route. Nice change of pace from running.

sew ups are to bike tires what stockings are to legs. Clinchers are the pantyhose of tires.

As for discouragement, I keep looking down to see if my brakes are grabbing or my wheel is rubbing the rear forks. No, it's just the extra me.

Yeah the inch is attached to my touring bike via a burley and my road bike is just plain.

Thanks Griff, I'm glad you started this thread. I admit I did read a couple of your posts. Your post ride posts reminded me of how good it feels to have been riding.

Nothing better than the biking life. As a kid, bikes were my best friends. I remember them all. My first was a Schwinn Sting Ray. My friends and I would spend hours and days taking bikes apart, putting them back together, switching handlebars, adding extenstions to the forks, etc.

Then in 1986 I became a bike messenger in Boston. I actually used a Raleigh 3-speed my first few months, but moved up to a Specialized Rockhopper shortly thereafter. I lived 17 miles from Boston in Natick, MA, so with the round trip commute and the daily deliveries, I was riding a whole bunch. Then I took a solo trip from Boston to Toronto on the same bike; kinda heavy, but I liked its durability, and when I camped at night I could ride in the woods. When I returned, I was tired of the messenger job, so I traded my job for my best biking friend's job at a print shop. Me and this guy would ride centuries on our mountain bikes, screw hex-head screws into our Ground Control tires to ride on frozen lakes, and do insanely stoned night rides into the wee hours. This guy, Scottie Roberts, died from hitting his head on a curb one night; he had a bunch of champagne and was baked, but I truly think he musta hit some rock or other object in the road. I remember I had taken the most recent picture of him, so they put it on his casket. It was him and his bike. They were inseperable, like I became with mine. Scott's dad gave me the bike he died on, a nice custom mountain bike made by Fat Chance in Sommerville, MA. I sold it back to the company and bought a nice road bike with Columbus tubing and a mixture of Campy and Shimano 600. Then I REALLY started riding, making sure to do at least 200 miles a week with some good hill grinds and sprints to boot. I raced on Sundays at these dangerous criteriums, and did the Wednesday time trials in Maynard, MA. Never joined a team, however. I went to college, got married, and moved to Chicago, so the biking slowed down a lot; but I kept in the saddle. Now that I live in Atlanta, the city that is rated the worst for cyclists in the whole nation, I just don't ride that much anymore. But reading this thread makes me want to start again. At my peak I was so slim, so fit, so full of energy; I could eat any amount of anything and not gain weight. I took a lot of pride in my cycling. Now I feel I let myself down.

So thanks for the inspiration, people.

Gee whiz guys, now you're making me feel good.:)

I am proof that even the chubby, clutzy and old can ride a bike, even a little, every day. Yea!

Speaking of clutzy, my new friend is named vicadan. I will be putting on a few pounds as I mend fractures of the ulna and radius. crap It turns out pavement is not forgiving. again, crap...

Oy. Best wishes for a speedy nad soon painfree recovery.

Ouch with a capital OW. vicodan been berry berry good to me.

Get well, lucky for you, you have all that practice at one handed typing;)

Thanks guys, keeping chin up.

Since my typing hasn't been slowed, I may as well tell the story. This is all a "near as I can figure" commentary. I was riding behind my friend off his wheel to the right, on top of my bars so no brake levers (I think the lawyers took away suicide levers). I drifted back and switched sides (this is all happening unconsciously) to get off the shoulder which was limited. I gave a quick stroke to put me back on his wheel and relaxed waiting for deceleration to match his speed. He thought I was on his right and decided to get out of his saddle and burn some calories. He bounded up, swung left tipping/turning my wheel abruptly. Somehow I hit on my right side maybe trying to recover? So I'm road rashed on my right arm and shoulder but broke the bones in my left arm in compression.

I tried to get back on my bike but my wrist felt mushy when I put my weight on it. We made a sling from Sams jersey and a tube. My buddy road back to a house to phone another guy who rides with us to pick us up and it was off to the ER. We got to survey flood damage on the way and solved the various world crises. Pete met us at the hospital and Sam headed home. The only screw up at the hospital was a nurse who came in and removed the spint I had on switching it with a foam one that didn't give me any support. My ER Doc is a mountain biker and we chatted about gear while he checked me over. A car wreck came in so Doc left me to his PA who put a plaster(?) splint on and set up yesterdays appointment with the orthepedic guy.

The ortho guy was hilarious. He hung my arm by three fingers from wire chinese finger traps while we talked about Bingham's swamp. I couldn't relax enough to pull things back into place so he hung some weights from my arm for 10 minutes. He then put a sock on my arm and wrapped it with a bandage that hardenes into a cast. He then shaped my wrist giving it a good squeezing that sorta hurt quite a lot. The follow up xrays looked good.

Pete co. is out of town so here I am changing the road rash dressings on my good arm gaining empathy for folks with real problems.

sounds like you caught his tire, it lifted your front end up, and the devil take the hindmost.

I remember riding with a friend who had just gotten a bike and she said "What happens when I touch my front tire to your back tire?"

I didn't have time to answer.

Sounds like you had good medical care. As they say, It'll feel better when it stops hurtin'.

I got on the bike today after a mini overhaul. It was great.

When we mtn bike we screw around bumping tires and such but not at speed and not on pavement. Quite a screw up. Ride well and write about because this is as close as I'm going to get for a while.

I have a question on bicycle upkeep. Do you:

1) Replace the chain with a new one after X miles to prevent the cassette from wearing down as well or...

2) Wait until the chain starts to slip and replace both the chain and cassette because they both wear at the same rate and a new chain on an old cassette will simply degrade the new chain and they'll both have to be replaced, anyways?

Yes.

Seriously, option 1) brings up the following thoughts:

What wears out the chain/ freewheel? Metal on metal friction? Your herculean strength putting tension on the chain and then transferring that to the cog? (i.e. plain old use) Particles of dirt?

All of the above to varying degrees, but it is the grit and dirt that will cause the most rapid wear. The point of the lube is to reduce metal on metal friction, but you want a lube that will not gather dust (or moss). There is a plethora of lube available. No aspersions on your heculean strength, but I doubt that will make much difference in your chain "stretching". Your chain will elongate, mostly from the wear within the links. When that happens, you get skipping problems since the links are now spaced differently from the teeth of the cogs.

The cogs also will change their shape somewhat due to grinding and a slight peening over of the metal. (Your H.S.)

Option 2) When the chain starts to slip or skip, it is time to replace both elements since often they both wear out at about the same rate. Another thing that is fairly common is a drivetrain that will be working fine, the customer installs a new chain for some reason. (dirty, ugly, needs the *new* cool one, sticky link, etc.) and all of a sudden the thing starts slipping like mad. The previous chain and cog had some kind of affinity, I'm thinking they had worn together, but the new chain won't work with the old cog.

That's why we mostly told people to get a new freewheel at the same time. The old cog won't wear out a new chain as far as I know.

More than likely, it's just the cogs you use the most that will wear out quickest. Some freewheels allow you to selectively replace bad cogs.

I only start replacing those things as they wear out and start skipping. When I was a mechanic, I endlessly tweaked my bike. After a while of fixing people's amazingly run down bikes, I began to relax a bit and realize that my bike isn't going to last a whole lot longer by the endless tweaking, I certainly would never recover the value of my time vs the savings on parts, so I just let some things ride until they really need fixing. Freewheels and chains are two of those things.

keep it lubed, but not wet. I like Superlube, it comes in a gray can. Goes on quite gloopy and dries almost immediately. http://www.super-lube.com/

While we're at it, here's one that could easily live in WTF?!

RevoPower Wheel! I want one. :)

How is your wrist, Griff?

I can move my fingers pretty well now without much pain. I still have to avoid turning it and once in a while I'll make a mistake and try to use it and it hurts pretty good. The road rash is healing up nicely. thanks g

What? No pictures? What kind of a train wreck are you, how are we supposed to gawk?

:D

On their list of potential buyers they list; That wheel makes your bike a motor vehicle, meaning plates, inspection, insurance and motorcycle license.....duh.:smack:

Close -- they don't get inspected or have to show plates, but I was surprised to find that in most states you still have to have a valid DL!

Nothing to dramatic.

and shoulder

Oooohh, a blue cast. Glad you're making progress. Thnxs for the update.

Well, I could've gotten hot pink but I think there are job interviews in my future...

PA requires a moped plate, insurance and class c drivers license but no inspection if it's a;Aside ~ Motorized scooters

Griff, are you able to use it as an excuse for omitting some items on the honey-do list? :D

Nice! Keep em out of the sun and you won't look like you had your tatts removed. The shoulder one is perfect placement.

Speedy recovery.

I have mentioned RAGBRAI earlier in this thread, but bring it up again because it is goin gon this week. The highlight though, is that Lance Armstrong is riding today and I think tomorrow. He was quoted yesterday as saying that he would dip both his back and front tires next year. IOW he would ride the whole week. If you ever considered doing this, now is the time to plan. I mean, seriously, a chance to meet and possibly RIDE with Lance Armstrong? How cool would that be. I'll post actual links to info when I have a chance to find them.

Hope that wrist is doing well, Griff.

Lance Stops for a Beer
By John Campbell, TV9 Sports

LAMBS GROVE - The centerpiece of this year's RAGBRAI ride was the center of attention mid-afternoon in Lambs Grove, a small community just west of Newton.

Lance Armstrong stopped to have a beer on Phyllis Franzen's front yard.

"I was going up the hill, breathing really hard, and this whole group comes up talking and whizzing by me, in Livestrong jerseys, and I said, that has to be him," said Kristi Kiefer of Des Moines. "I came down the hill and stopped right here. They were stopped. He got off his bike, went and sat in a lawn chair, had a beer!"

Riders couldn't get enough of him -- exchanging small talk, welcoming him to the ride, posing for pictures.

"It was phenomonal! we sat out here all day watching for him, and had just about given up when they announced that he was coming and he wanted to stop at my house," Franzen said.

VIDEO

Pretty cool. How come I get no love when I drink on strangers lawns?

The cast is off as of yesterday. It is very stiff and my fingers are weak but I'm stretching it out. Things are looking up. Pete drove by the bike shop we use yesterday. The mechanic was out front...with his arm in a cast.

Trendsetter. : )

My 7 year old has been riding around on basketball courts, etc. for a couple of years. She likes riding her bike, but the roads around here are so busy, we've always kept her to the empty basketball courts.

Well, last weekend, my wife took my son to a birthday party for a couple of hours, and I figured it was the perfect time for me to introduce my daughter to the bike paths of Arlington county. I was a little nervous, because about a third of the people who use the paths are very serious riders who go fast. My daughter, weaving on her wobbly bike would have to really focus to stay safe.

So we had a little talk about how we were going to ride single file, with her in front setting the pace, and how she had to stay on the right side of the yellow line painted down the center of the path. She started off kind of nervous, but then soon gained some confidence. We rode by some of the playgrounds that were near our house, and then started going a little farther. At on intersection, I offered her the choice of heading home or continuing to explore. She very enthusiastically wanted to press on. So we kept going. After about an hour, we came upon a really cool playground that is clear across town. She couldn't believe that we had ridden our bikes that far. It normally takes 20 minutes in the car to get there. I could almost see the wheels turning in her head as she realized that her bike was a serious form of transportation. We pressed on even farther.

After about an hour and a half of leisurly riding, the plastic chain guard on the crappy kid's bike I was riding snapped, and my bike started making annoying sounds. So we turned around and headed home on a much faster trail. She had to really focus on this one, because there was a lot of bike traffic and most of it was going fast. Only once did we have a near collision, and that was when we went over a narrow foot/bike bridge, and she looked at the stream below as we went over. She swerved into the oncoming lane just as a racing bike was coming up fast. The other guy screeched to a stop just as I was yelling to my daughter to watch where she was going. The guy was a little miffed, but he didn't say anything, just shook his head and went on his way as I apologized. I think she learned from that incident.


After we got home, I got out GoogleEarth and mapped out our route. We went 6.8 miles round trip. I was pretty impressed that she went that far without any trouble. We'll have to do this alot more often, and I'll have to tune up my ten speed buried under a pile of junk in the basement.

That's awesome Glatt. Pete was a kid who used her bike to go places on her own. I dunno if its more or less safe today?

Beats me. I think I'll wait a year or two before letting her take off on her own. But the trails keep her out of most of the traffic. We're lucky we live 2 blocks from an entrance to the trails.

That is a great story glatt. Her horizons are expanding.

I remember biking with a friend when I was a wee bit older and we got to the "lifesaver" building in Portchester, NY. I had no idea how far we had gone, nor where we were. It was quite a few towns away, all on US 1.

Things weren't so safe back then. Another time my friend and I rode in theother direction into parts unknown and were in the process of having our bikes stolen from us when the perps's social worker pulled up and intervened.

We hightailed it out of there and stuck closer to home after that.

Not meaing to frighten the passengers, but it's a good thing you're dusting off your ten speed Glatt.

Great story, superb video, memorable experience - next time he drops by could you be so kind as to let him know that there's a nice cup of tea and a comfortable chair waiting for him at Cedars Lodge, Headley, Surrey, UK...?

Not that I would buy one, but I was strangely drawn to this bike-trailer ensemble...

The video's worth a look!

That design is much more elegant than the bob, although capacity is more limited.

glatt-

Awesome!! I can't imagine how far I rode my bike every summer as a kid. Pretty much that's all I ever did! There weren't any bike trails in my neighborhood growing up (still aren't), but that town is adding them slowly and surely.

Where we currently live there is a small trail not too far from my house. From the driveway to the end of it and back is a tad over 6 miles if you go directly to and from. There are however bike lanes painted on some of the roads, which is basically a white line painted about 2.5 feet from the curb. This is nice because the sidewalks are a pain to ride on with the Burley. Poor kid gets whiplash up and down the street crossings. Plus there aren't shocks on that thing to cushion all the bumps from cracks. (We live in an 'established' neighborhood.) I can't wait till she is big enough to ride on her own. I fondly remember going on bike rides with my parents, with my little brother in the seat behind my mom.

A bike is a kid's first taste of independance.

Anyone remember/come across these? - I hold a memory of seeing a rather attractive Parisienne hopping side-saddle mode aboard one when I was a lad visiting Paris, and then putt-putting off into the traffic and side streets of the city....

Ahh, attractive parisians, yes. The bicycle, no. But I did own two different rod brake raleighs. Three speeds. Oh I miss my three speeds.

All righty then you spoke heads !!!
Some X-mas list functional sculpture ,
http://www.bikefurniture.com/index.html

Cool stuff !!!!!

Do they have that in an off road version? ;)

you could probley put any tires you wanted on it , now as to shocke and the such well I didn't see any thing with those ,
You were talking a while back about feeling the need to do some welding , go for it and post some pics !!!

Completed that 100 mile charity ride last month - have made a small website for those interested - click here.

It turned out to be a small group of some 20 riders which broke down quickly into a number of smaller groups sharing the same stamina and speed. We soon became a group of 5, and then after half-way split into two (obviously not 2.5 riders per group!). A magic day though and one I plan to repeat next year.

Hope you enjoy the site!

a week ago the inchling and I drove sag wagon for our local bike club's autumn ride. Separate groups:a century and a half century. On the century ride in Arlington, VT a driver got his knickers in a twist over one of the riders and knocked him over with his vehicle.

When the cops came to arrest him he admitted that he did it on purpose.

Nutty nutty nut case.

The rider was not seriously hurt, more damage was done to the moron's vehicle than to the bike. Three riders dropped out of the ride because of it.

I'm back, sorta. It really hurts when I shift the mtn bike because I have to flex my wrist to get a long enough throw. It is coming though. I could change the angle of my shifters but I want to get full range of motion back. I've found an opportunity to add 20 minutes or so to my mtn loop, things are looking up. Now if only I had the spare time...

ride people

man there is too much of that nonsense out there

There are bikes....... and there are bikes.:D

#2 is the fixie from hell. :eek:

There comes a time.....

There comes a time..

When you break out the wind shell and the fleese !!!

Beautiful day for a road ride today. 2 1/2 hrs @ 18 mph It is a little disconcerting to have your thighs hitting your gut when you go to the drops. My buddy has a theory of propulsion based on storing energy when your leg compresses the gut and then is pushed downward by the released pressure... anyway we're outta shape and pretty sore tonight.

So it's not just me...

Ya, its tough having giant thighs isn't it?

Long legs man , I have LONG legs !!! ( yeah That's the Ticket !!!! )