"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.

mothballed!

Since it snowed A LOT since mid-December, I've reluctantly put the commuter bike in mothballs (figuratively) until the overnight temps are above freezing. I've heard to many bad stories of slips and falls on black ice during the winter. We had over a foot of snow accumulate and stick around for over a week - unusual for the Seattle area.

With the holidays, I would not have typically commuted as much anyways, however, the commuting got to be such a routine for me, I miss it immensely, especially since I was seeing results with strength, weight, stamina, etc.

Luckily, from my in-laws, I got a gift certifcate from Nashbar, an online bicycling parts and supplies warehouse. I ordered an inexpensive fluid trainer, so I can mount a cross bike to it that I've had sitting around. I heard fluid trainers offered more of a road like feel than a mag trainer or other styles.

After the gift card was applied and tax and shipping were added, I only paid about $30 out-of-pocket. I'll see whether I really get into riding a trainer or not. The "good" ones are easily over $200 and the "really good" ones that output your performance to your PC can exceed $1,000.

I'll be sure to report how this goes when the trainer gets here.

me and my bike

Me and my Novara Transfer "Green Bike" 1 of 200 made.


The only modification I made in the past few months was adding a couple more lights and a set of Shimano SPD pedals. This has made a significant improvement on my uphill return commutes.

Green Bike status report

Since September, I've been commuting by bicycle about 64% of the time. This includes commutes since mid-November, when the program paused until mid-February.

Since it is in the 20s today and snow fell yesterday, I dropped the bike off at REI for their "warranty tune-up" to check things over, make adjustments, etc. About the only thing going on, and is completely normal, was the brakes need adjustment. The cables tend to stretch when new and I've backed out the barrel adjusters to almost their full extension.

Also, I'm having the REI techs look at how my bike computer is set-up. Since last weekend, when I took a 5.5 mile ride around the neighborhood and vicinity, the computer isn't functioning normally. It might have a bad pick-up lead or the magnet on the spokes isn't properly aligned so the computer fails to register movement. The GPS type cycling computers, though expensive, are probably a worthwhile investment. I believe most also record/chart out your path for later download to your computer; a nice feature if one does a lot of backwoods trail riding.

waiting game

I ordered a hiviz yellow jacket from E-Bay at the end of October. Still has not arrived. Grrr.

I could use it too since the Daylight Savings Time has changed - plus it is typically very rainy.

wish list item: DiNotte lights

If I found a wad of money in a trunk, I would spend some of it on better lights for bicycle commuting now that Daylight Savings Time is upon us.

DiNotte makes lights that seem (based on my viewing of a few product demos on YouTube) much brigter than you'd expect to get from such a s small package, and they take AA rechargable off-the-shelf batteries, not a specialized, expensive, cumbersome battery pack.

Of course, with his convenience and performance, the cost of the product is well north of the $100 range, which plants it in between most battery-powered head and tail lights and the higher end, higher powered, rechargeable units.





Photos are all from the DiNotte web site (http://www.dinottelighting.com/).

Here are videos posted to YouTube demonstrating the lights and their effectiveness.




Of course, if I had a set of these, the cost of the lights would be more than the cost of the bicycle!

R.I.P. - Bradford S. Perkins

I worked with Brad almost a decade ago. He was a regular bicycle commuter in Seattle and active in sports, especially hockey.

Brad was diagnosed with an aggressive brain cancer two years ago and I was just informed he died yesterday after several surgeries and treatments over the years that took his health and vitality but never his spirit and sense of humor.

He will be missed.