The Fat Guy In The Back
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Sioux Falls, SD
Posts: 2,538
Bikes: '81 Panasonic Sport, '02 Giant Boulder SE, '08 Felt S32, '10 Diamondback Insight RS, '10 Windsor Clockwork, '15 Kestrel Evoke 3.0, '19 Salsa Mukluk
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Consecutive bicycle work commute number 1875:
It stormed a good portion of the night. I woke up when the first of the storms hit at about 1 AM, then my brain turned on and I laid there and I tried to solve all the problems of the world for a few hours. Thankfully I fell back to sleep. A few lighting/thunder combinations and some hail woke me up occasionally, but I was able to keep drifting back to sleep between them. To no surprise, when the alarm went off I didn't feel very rested.
Tuesday is my "weigh myself" day. I'm now down 15 lbs since I started trying to get my eating under control 7 weeks ago.
There was a strong east wind blowing at 25+ mph. East winds aren't real common around here, and generally indicate storms. Thankfully one storm came to an end, and gave me a window to ride 8 miles to our company office, experiencing no more than a few sprinkles. About five minutes after I arrived, another huge storm hit. The timing was perfect. I'm going on the notion that this means it will be a good day.
The wind coming from the east meant that I had a tailwind on the way to the office. That also means I'll have to fight it on the way home, but hopefully by then the rains will have subsided so I'll at least stay dry.
Because of the rain/wet roads I took the hybrid bike with fenders. This was the second time I've ridden this bike since I built the new rear wheel. It was the first time I'd built a wheel from scratch, and while I certainly didn't break any assembly speed records, I'm extremely pleased with the results. I got the spoke tension nice and tight, and aggressively stressed the wheel about four times until it stopped going out of true between stresses. The wheel spins extremely true on the bike, and along with the new brake pads (both front and back) has made the bike a lot nicer to ride. Looking down and watching the wheel spin perfectly straight brings me a real sense of satisfaction.
I don't know if I'll always build all my wheels going forward, but I'm glad I was able to add this skill to my repertoire.