oouellette

It's great! Just a few more things to finish up with her then I'll take some proper photos. Having a tough time with some of the gears chattering but admittedly I am not derailer expert nor have I spent enough time on tuning. Really enjoying the ride.

mrv 

wow @Roger M, suddenly my 65 miler from the 'burbs into Detroit seems pretty lame.... https://plus.google.com/photos/11838...CIasjMecpN31Lg

Vonruden

Roger please keep those awesome pics coming.

Weekend visit to the Philadelphia area. Took the Schuylkill river path for about 20 as well as a stop at Capone's for a Belgian refreshment.

fender1

Got a late start today, (so only 1 pic). Did 48 miles and according to the GPS, 4300ft of climbing. With the temps around 85+, I was pretty cooked when I got home.

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The big, ugly triangle on the rear seems to alert drivers so they are giving me more room when they pass (unscientific study).

Got home and found this guy hiding in a tomato plant, that had been knocked sideways by a thunder storm.

[IMG][/IMG]

nlerner

Did a 55-mile night-time ride with four others last night between 8:30 p.m. and 1 a.m. No pics as it was dark out!

thinktubes 

@ Rodger M as a flatlander, I love seeing PNW pics.

Your post reminded me of this "classic"

Roger M

Fender, Nice elevation numbers! A big chunk to climb in under 50 miles.

BTW, isn't that bike a copy/knockoff of a vastly superior Cannondale...

Thanks Thinktubes

Yep, I remember that commercial vividly.. Here's another that was popular back in the day..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocfToV3xzUY

fender1

Yes. In a desperate attempt to improve it, I filled the frame tubes with aluminum foil......

jimmuller 

I did no long-distance riding today, nor any tandem ride to speak of. A fresh-out-of-college friend came over to discuss bikes. He's looking for a decent road bike but probabloy with index shifting, and for not too much money. So I let him test ride two of mine around the neighborhood. All too big for him but rideable enough to show him the handling difference between his BSO and a good road bike.

Then I snapped the seat post binder bolt on the Centurion repositioning the saddle so I rode the Gazelle over to Belmont Wheelworks for a replacement. Then I replaced the RD cable and brake pads on the tandem and repacked the captains BB. So I had to take it around the block.

All pretty mundane with no views of Mt. Ranier within 3000 miles.

pressed001

It is nice to see and to hear that you have all been enjoying your rides! I usually do too. However yesterday I was about 90km into a 130km ride when I was bitten by a dog!

I was riding down a gentle slope on a high traffic bike path at about 35km/h. There was a lady on the far right side with her dog, off leash, about 20 meters ahead in the grass. I have a bike bell but didn't use it because I had 4 meters of open space to her left. I went by the lady, then the dog. After about 20 meters past the dog I heard something to my right and saw the dog blow past me. I braked so as to not hit or injure the dog. Maybe that was a mistake. The dog then went straight for my leg, grabbed hold of my ankle which was locked into my clipless pedal and bit down hard enough to draw blood. She promptly let go and turned back to her owner. I stopped and, not over-reacting, told the dog a firm "No!" or two, but in German, which is "Nein!". I then proceeded to lecture the owner.

It was very surprising for me. Growing up I always had dogs and I know very well how to handle them. At least, I thought so! I filed a police report just so the incident gets recorded. Law and law enforcement here is more common-sense than politically-correct. When I file a police report, the state is simply made aware of the incident. It isn't like I am suing the people or being an obnoxious dick. The state then makes the owner take classes with the dog or various other corrective measures. If the breed is known to be dangerous or aggressive, or has a history, then more extreme measures would be taken. We are also covering the medical costs ourselves, something in which we could force upon them.

There were also two witnesses to the whole thing. They were coming from the opposite direction, saw it happen, and stopped to offer assistance. I got their info and handed it over to the police. It just so happens one of them used to work for the police and they knew each-other.

Anyhow. What a trip man. The way I see it, it was bound to happen some time. May as well make sure it doesn't happen again, especially to a child or an older person.

cb400bill

No pics, but we had a nice turnout of vintage bikes on our Club ride this evening.

Sprinkled amongst the numerous modern bikes were an early 80's Peugeot, a mid 70's Maserati, and three mid 80's Treks.

That was about 10% of the total bike count. Not bad.

Chrome Molly

Ouch! Sorry to see that pressed001.

Most of the farm dogs I happen upon are just interested in running along with me for awhile. Hope you recover soon.

pressed001

I thought that too. That she was just having fun running along with me! Thanks for the wishes. I am totally fine. I just have to take these antibiotics for a few more days.

pressed001

Is that an Abbey? A good Belgian Abbey was always my favorite next to a hoppy micro-brew Oregonian beer (Jabberwocky Ale). Ironic thing is that I gave up drinking, now live in Europe, and have been to Belgium a few times! Doh!

Narhay

I went to Stanley park from Burnaby and halfway back for a few hours yesterday. It was a holiday in Canada. It was more like a parkway on the seawall with the bajillion people out but it was nice all the same.

musicdiver

That it was! I headed west from around Main along part of the seawall and then took the Point Grey route out to Jericho Beach with a friend. It's beautiful, though I'd forgotten that part of the seawall near Granville Island is paved with somewhat uncomfortable flag stones (and just on the bike side, not the smoother pedestrian side!) so I took the road for that portion on the way back. So nice to see all the people out enjoying the weather.

Pemetic2006

May I ask how you like the gloves? I've been thinking of getting some with leather palms.
Thanks!

jimmuller 

No pics again today. Just another (successful) day at work with a bit of fun getting there and back on a bike. Had a threat of serious t-storms for this evening but dang one came close just to the south of us as I was preparing to head north to work. Got rained on lightly for about a minute. Experienced what the NWS calls "localized flooding", in this case the kind of very localized flooding we call puddles.

The ride home was a different story. Half an hour before I'd normally leave a monster cell came across dropping 1"-diameter hail. The sky got so dark it looked like night. So I waited for maybe 45min, and then it was all over. Radar showed another smaller cell coming that could clip my route in an hour or more. I left for home, got light rain for maybe a minute, saw the sun come out. Had to dodge much bigger "localized flooding" and some large downed tree branches. Debris in the road was a minor problem. Traffic was light and courteous though. What a ride!

Vonruden

20 after work miles on the BG

Thanks again @northbend for the pin.

Hoss Cartright

14 of us this evening. We did 28 miles, not much wind but some climbing, I had a 15.1mph average speed. This photo is North of Harrison High School in West Lafayette Indiana.

YouthxCrew

I like them very much. They are a bit like some new shoes, in that they're a bit stiff at first use, and I noticed some of the dye rubbed off onto the white bar tape I have on another bike, but they're very soft now that they've been used.

Sir_Name 

New England weather keeps things interesting. It's been less hot and less humid on the CT coast, though windy. A nice break from the past couple weeks.

No pics since my cell phone camera lens is shot and I've typically no room on the road bikes for my point 'n shoot, but got out for a quick ~20 after work yesterday on the Colnago. I had taken a few days off prior due to travel and felt strong yesterday, I guess the rest was needed and rewarded.

jimmuller 

While some of you were out riding wonderful empty roads up endlessly high mountains and across endlessly flat plains and along endlessly lovely coastlines, I just rode my commute again. But today was different.

I left the house 20 minutes earlier than normal hoping to get a good start to the work day. I rode the Gazelle so I could zip along quickly and indeed I zipped through a bunch of green stoplights (golights?). The temperature was cool and the humidity was way down, an ideal later summer morning in New England. All was going just grand when 4.8 miles from the house and about 11 to go I notice a problem with my chain. What the' ? The cage spring on the 1st-gen Cyclone RD had broken and the chain was flopping loose.

Now what? There were several bike shops in the area but ain't none of 'em open at that hour. Do I turn around or keep going? Either way I'd have to be able to keep pedaling. So I shifted to the large ring and sprocket to consume as many links as possible and rode on. Twice I tried shifting to the second largest sprocket but both times the looser chain ended up jumping around so I resigned myself to running without higher gears. The worst problem was getting started at stoplights because whenever I'd rotate the crank backwards to pick up a toe clip it would throw the chain onto the BB, but I managed.

I rode about 7 miles and all was going just grand until I heard a curious thumping coming from the front wheel. What the' ? The front tire had picked up a big screw. But surprisingly it still held air, about 140psi! I was afraid that if I pulled the screw out the tube might rupture through the hole. So I rode on. I got about another mile and a half when it finally went flat.



That's when I discovered that though I had my pump and patch kit I did not have a spare tube or tire irons. There is no way I can get those tires off those rims without irons so I just walked the rest of the way to work. Total time home to the office, 2hrs.

In the serenity of the office I patched the tire; it needed two patches and still had a slow leak. Then I worked out a solution to the derailleur.



I had to ride home on a single-speed, and stop to put air in the tire every 30 minutes. But I made it. All in a day's work.

Choke 

A bit of dirt and gravel today...

Vonruden

love that Hampsten!!!

Hit some dirt myself after work.