My favorite bike blog... one of them... OK, a few of them, actually.

I am really finding the BIKE HACKS blog as a daily pleasure. It has humor, helpful low budget tips, and other views of the bicycle culture in the world.

I've also visited Bike Hugger for some of the same reasons.

Lastly, I enjoy the web site for DIYers called Instructables . It allows users to share their home-built projects, anything, really, but I tend to search for bicycle-related topics. It seems there are a lot of cyclists obsessed with building cheap trailers to tow gear behind their bikes. There are also homemade lights, ways to make your bike even more visible, and other things like that.

Worth a look at these sites as the weather grows darker, colder, and wetter.

a cautionary note

I like my socks to match what I'm wearing, typically, when I'm dressed in my business casual work clothes. I change at work from cycling attire (I bring my work clothes once a week to have on-hand so I needn't ride to work with them wadded up in panniers or risk getting them wet/dirty/etc.).

I usually change in the restroom on our floor rather than the workout fitness room locker room, a habit I adopted during the year the locker room was closed for remodeling. In the morning, since my ride is under 3 miles and generally down hill, I don't need to re-shower in the AM... at least no coworker's have complained about it.

As I change in a bathroom stall, I usually hang my clothes over the top of the door and set items like socks to the side, propping them up on the top of the TP holder, for example. Well, this morning things did not go so well. Like a tired or distracted first baseman missing what should have been an easy out, I bobbled the rolled-up socks and they landed with a *sploosh* into the toilet.

My first thought was to somehow save them and dry them out, however, the thought of having wet socks perched on my desk, staring at me soggily, only further irritated me. So I opted to trash them and instead wear socks that don't match what I'm wearing.

Funny considering on the ride in I was thinking "it's such a really great day for riding" buzzing down the road with happy, positive thoughts in my head, unaware of the sock drama about to unfold minutes later.

it took a cold to get me to pause to post

I think I've been going full-tilt all summer long with so many activities, as posted before, I did some camping trips this summer, toting a bicycle along whenever I could. I was a bit disappointed it looks like I won't do a charity ride this summer or a longer-distance event, however, sometimes I did get out for a 11-12 mile ride solo or with my wife... it has been that difficult to get away to cycle this summer.

Finally, a cold that hit me this week - less than a week after the kids started back to school - got me to slow down enough to write an update on what I've been doing lately bicycle-wise.

I might be considered by my friends and neighbors to be the "Harold LeMay" of bicycles. I think I have eight currently, though not all of them are keepers. The most recent purchase was a pair of Japanese Tange double-butted cro-mo steel-framed 18-speed Shogun touring bicycles, both converted to mustache style bars when new. Both were taken care of really well and ride like new.



I am planning to sell one and keep the other at this point. The springy Schwinn seats and upright position make for a very enjoyable ride on an asphalt paved trail.

Another bicycle I've been toying with is a Schwinn BMX bike pulled together from parts handed down from a friend of mine. Originally, I thought this'd be the bike to tote along to the camp grounds, but that idea was tossed in favor of my mountain bicycle, since we'd be riding greater distances.



I've fooled around on this bike with the kids on their bikes but I have a feeling I'll eventually sell this too. For me it's just a curiousity. Watching MTV's show SCARRED has pretty much took away my interest in doing wild bicycle tricks and plywood jumps.

This'd be me on a jump... from the film Napoleon Dynamite... at about 30-something seconds into the clip.


For my birthday this year, the kids painted me a painting of these bicycles. They were inspired by another artist's work, however, I think they did a pretty good interpretation of bicycles - not bad for 5 and 6 years-old.



The week of my birthday in August, we went camping at Lake Easton in WA State. Here are a couple pics during a ride along the John Wayne Trail with me and my friend, Bill.





I'm still bicycle commuting 2-3 times a week in general and will continue to do so as long as there isn't ice in the morning. My commute might be slightly affected by a highway construction job, but I have a few work-arounds for that I've explored. Last year, I rode until December and stopped until February - using an indoor bicycle trainer during that period.

Until I post again - keep the rubber side down! :)

I've still been bicycling!

I realize it has been forever since I last updated this blog. I cannot recall if I even posted any updates about this past bike to work month. I think it's because bicycling has wrapped itself into a daily or weekly routine for me so I don't really change much of my behavior like I used to when May rolled around.

I just wanted to let everyone who might be interested know that I've still been biking - mostly for commuting (2-3x a week) and sometimes 3-5 mile rides for fitness and recreation, usually with my kids (youngest just started riding without training wheels this week!)

Me with a bunch of kids (ours and friends children) riding around the cabins at Cama Beach on Camano Island, WA. This was in July 2009.


Also from July (might be early August) me with a 1990s Specialized Allez I "rescued" from a free pile in our neighborhood. It's all low-end Campy equipped (Veloce) and I just needed to replace the left crank arm (I replaced both crank L and R plus chain rings with a NOS Veloce crankset I found on e-Bay for $40) added Shimano SPD road pedals and swapped out the weathered but hardly-used stock Specialized brand tires for Serfas Seca II tires.


I'm still using a REI Novara brand commuter bike (Transfer) for my daily commutes though for fun (and practicality) I will sometimes ride in a older Schwinn cross bike or Giant hardtail MT bike as both are equipped with platform pedals. This is especially for when there are farmers' market Tuesdays where I'll ride from work to the market and not want to roam around in crowds while wearing shoes with cleats.

My health has improved - I dropped 22 pounds from a doctor visit in fall of 2008 to a check-up in the spring. I continue to drop weight and improve my commute times home.

Happy and safe riding everyone!

Riding into 2009

I'm starting back up commuting by bike next week. I've been sticking with riding a trainer indoors a couple times a week and some light weight training - a term I still like to call "dry land" work outs a leftover from my days in highschool as a swimmer. Since we shared a pool with another highschool, they got into the pool first, and we had to wait (weight) it out in the weight room. We called this part of our training the "dry land" training.

Also, our REI dividend (like a rebate check) arrived today with a 20% off coupon that can be used towards bicycle gear including REI (Novara) brand bicycles. Tempting to move up to a road bike, but I think I could more immediately use a light weight rain poncho type jacket and/or a reflective outer layer.

update

I have had a chance to get out and ride 4-9 miles a couple times each week for the past couple weeks. Due to a minor outpatient surgery, I'll be off the bike or trainer for a week or two. Better to do it in the winter than the spring or summer, I guess.

I did get a few nice things for Christmas in addition to the indoor bicycle trainer, such as the red Novara brand (REI) jacket I'm wearing in this photo. I also got the socks and the under helmet head cover (beanie?) as gifts too. The shoes are new-to-me slightly used SIDI brand shoes. Regular price new is $135 and I found a guy who was selling them for only $35! I suspect he was getting out of road biking entirely.


A pic of me and the bike at the end of the Cedar River where it joins Lake Washington. Roughly the half way point in a 9 mile round-trip ride from my house, roughly the last 2 miles is uphill the whole way.


Pausing near the Cedar River (up river from the mouth) at a bench dedicated to my deceased great uncle, who was a former police chief in our town in the 1950s and 1960s. Impossible to read the small plaque, but it has his name and dedicates the bench to his memory.


Can't wait for more improved weather and health so I can get back to riding again.

"nice" weather was back this weekend

I guess in the winter months, I need to define "nice" as not a rainy downpour, ice or snow on the ground. By this definition, the last couple days was "nice" though the temps were peaking in the low 40s. With adequate cold weather gear, it isn't as much an issue. I did do two rides, one being up to about nine miles of mixed flats, downhill, and uphill. I rode for about an hour on the saddle.

Of course, with the improved weather conditions, the fluid trainer I ordered arrived today. I'm sure if snow lingered longer, it would have taken a few more days. It got here pretty quick, considering I ordered it on the 26th of December.

It's a Ascent brand, pretty much as entry level as you can go. I'm not complaining though. For a list price of about $139 and discounted to just over $100 (plus I had a gift certificate to use on the purchase too) I only had to pay for tax and shipping.



I mounted a 1990s cross bike (Schwinn CrissCross) to it. It is a flat bar road bike with 700c wheels and Tioga City Slicker tires. Not dialed in completely, but it seems to do the job as a dedicated trainer bike. I used a 2x4 scrap of wood for a front wheel elevation block instead of the $24.95 rubber/plastic thingies they sell for the same purpose.

Today for an inaugural run in the garage, I went for more than 30 minutes, equipped with a bottle of water and my iPod. Time went by fast, but I may need to find an old TV and DVD player (to view training videos, like the ones by Chris Carmichael, Lance Armstrong's trainer) if I want to do longer workouts.



I didn't realize how much you can sweat doing this and I'm glad I had the water handy. I went through 24 ounces in that 30 minutes.

I dressed in cycling gear, especially the shorts. The hat was because our garage is uninsulated and I also figured it would help retain some heat and catch any sweat that would otherwise drip down. I need to find a better saddle, as the one on the bike now has absolutely no padding to speak of. Also, I may get clipless pedals for this bike too, as it felt odd to ride in street shoes after having been in SPDs for the past few months on my commuter bike.