I guess two blog posts this year isn't that bad. I could do worse. ;)
I'm now up to 5 mountain bike rides for the year. I had a great ride yesterday on mixed trails... Washington and Old Dominion bike path (Paved), Fairfax Cross County Trail (Mixed single track, double track, paved and gravel) and Laurel Hill Regional Park (Singletrack).
It feels really good to be back on the mountain bike after very few miles on it in the last 2 years. I will be doing more of that and hanging the road bike up for a few months. Fixie and MTB for a while. I need a change.
Since I'm not driving at all, I need to work out how to get to the trailhead. Sean's been great about driving me when I need, but I can't do that all the time. It looks like White Industries double/double set-up will be my weapon of choice. 34 and 36 tooth chainrings combined with a 16 and 18 tooth cog on the freewheel. That gives me 36x16 gear for the roads and 34x18 gear for off road. That should work well. Cool thing is that I can use the same chain length for both. Those White Industires folks are very smart people.
Dr. Einstein broke his stem while adjusting it last week. I used the 5.5nm torque wrench instead of the 4nm one. D'OH! I'm a moron. Oddly enough the stem held through a 60+ mile ride yesterday. Lucky for me.
Other updates need to be made. My 4 year old Avid Juicy 7's need to be replaced. All the hardware is rusted and the brake lever pivot is worn so that the levers move around a lot more than they used to. I could overhaul them, but I think I might just get new ones.
As usual, I ramble.
Later!
Pete
Monday, August 10, 2009
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Weird bike day.
Yesterday was the day for seeing strange bikes during my commute. I'm not talking about people riding fixies or different paint jobs. We're talking some whacked out shit here!
First was nice trike guy.... not to be confused with Napoleon on a Trike (a guy who rides a recumbant trike and yells at everyone to get out of his way. I figure he's got a Napoleon complex about being so close to the ground and he thinks he can boss everyone around.) Nice Trike Guy (also rides a recumbant three wheeler) is different. He's actually nice (as his name implies). Seeing him isn't so odd. I just hadn't seen him pulling a trailer before. Every few weeks he needs to bring his dirty laundry home, so he hauls it in a trailer. Again... not such an odd thing. Escept that the way the trailer attaches to the trike, it sits off to the side. It looks more like a side car than a trailer. It was weird and cool. I slowed a little and chatted with him.
The second weird bike had a set of PowerCranks on it. I'd read about these, but had never seen them before. They are FREAKISH. Basically the idea is that you develop a lot more leg strength and learn to pedal circles if your left and right crank arm are not connected. Each turn independently of each other, yet they both have the ability to drive the chainring. It looks pretty normal when riding, but coasting is a strange thing to see. When you coast, both crank arms go to the bottom.
When I first saw this from a distance, it looked like every time the guy coasted, he clicked out of his right pedal and dragged his foot on the ground. That isn't the case. He just had both pedals at the 6 o'clock position. Bizarre.
He said he loves the cranks and they really help with leg strength. He uses them through the winter and has for the last two years. He said when he gets on normal cranks that he just flies.
That might be something to look into. I may have to give them a try.
Later!
Pete
First was nice trike guy.... not to be confused with Napoleon on a Trike (a guy who rides a recumbant trike and yells at everyone to get out of his way. I figure he's got a Napoleon complex about being so close to the ground and he thinks he can boss everyone around.) Nice Trike Guy (also rides a recumbant three wheeler) is different. He's actually nice (as his name implies). Seeing him isn't so odd. I just hadn't seen him pulling a trailer before. Every few weeks he needs to bring his dirty laundry home, so he hauls it in a trailer. Again... not such an odd thing. Escept that the way the trailer attaches to the trike, it sits off to the side. It looks more like a side car than a trailer. It was weird and cool. I slowed a little and chatted with him.
The second weird bike had a set of PowerCranks on it. I'd read about these, but had never seen them before. They are FREAKISH. Basically the idea is that you develop a lot more leg strength and learn to pedal circles if your left and right crank arm are not connected. Each turn independently of each other, yet they both have the ability to drive the chainring. It looks pretty normal when riding, but coasting is a strange thing to see. When you coast, both crank arms go to the bottom.
When I first saw this from a distance, it looked like every time the guy coasted, he clicked out of his right pedal and dragged his foot on the ground. That isn't the case. He just had both pedals at the 6 o'clock position. Bizarre.
He said he loves the cranks and they really help with leg strength. He uses them through the winter and has for the last two years. He said when he gets on normal cranks that he just flies.
That might be something to look into. I may have to give them a try.
Later!
Pete
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