The roads in town where I commute are really bad. I need a new fork since I twisted mine last week clipping a tree. I stole the cheap suspension fork from the wifey's bike she never rides and tried them out. I like the suspension forks, but these cheap ones bottom out hopping off high curbs and stuff, so I might splurge on a better set of suspension forks.

http://i1272.photobucket.com/albums/...psaebfoaez.jpg

Looking at the radar and listening to the weather terrorists' forecasts it looked like the rain would hold off until I got to work and be gone before I ride home. Cruised in on my touring bike with the fenders. Cool but humid so the sweat was rolling. Supposed to stay cool in the upper 60's for the ride home thanks to that big AC unit of a lake and an east wind.

Nice and cool ride this morning, got to the station pretty dry. But then, waiting on the platform, it started to rain -- strange rain, big warm drops, I wasn't the only one wondering if a bird had got me. It stopped before the train got there.

The word for today is construction - blocking 2 separate trails today. At least the workers were good about directing me through

Interesting situation when I left work yesterday. I rolled my bike out of the building (this client has an indoor bike storage area,) hopped on and started for home. Immediately something didn't feel right. I looked down and my rear tire was flat.

So I wheeled the bike back inside so I could at least fix the tire in air conditioning. Pulled the wheel, swapped the tube and replaced the wheel without too much fanfare. This was the first flat I've gotten on this bike (bought it a year ago) so I got to try out the new CO2 inflator I bought at the same time. Worked pretty well, which was a relief. Later when I got home I released all the CO2 and filled the tube with proper air from my pump.

After I put the wheel back on, I noticed the rear derailleur was stuck in the highest gear. Odd. It wasn't like that when I first tried to ride away twenty minutes earlier. Upon inspection I discovered the derailleur cable was completely slack. I have no idea how that happened. So I spent a few minutes setting up the derailleur from scratch. Glad I know how to do my own maintenance, otherwise I'd be calling for a ride home.

I thought about just riding home in high gear and deal with fixing it when I could put the bike on my work stand in the garage. Then I remembered the monster hill upon which I live, and realized there was no way I'm strong enough to pull that high gear up the hill even if I dropped the front into the smaller ring. So I'd be walking that hill for over a mile. In bike shoes. Doing a quick calculation I decided that I could probably fix the derailleur faster than I could walk the hill, so I just dealt with it right then and there.

At first I thought it was a really weird coincidence that I had a flat tire and my derailleur went slack at the exact same time. I was suspecting perhaps someone vandalized my bike? I decided that the "smoking gun" would be testing the tube. If the tube had no holes in it then maybe someone did indeed let the air out of the tire and loosen the clamp on my derailleur. However, when I got home I put the tube underwater and confirmed that there was a pin hole in the tube. I was just being paranoid. It actually was just a weird coincidence that both things happened at the exact same time.

Excellent! my legs are definitely riding faster than my brain is willing to lean into a turn so I need to get them reharmonized.

In the handlebar bag, my chili paste jar unsealed a bit and leaked onto my breakfast apples, so spicy morning treat!

May I ask why you are carrying chili paste to work?

But, mmm chili apples. My Fijian landlord uses lots of chili and I recall him once bringing me a spicy dish that had apples in it. They were nice and crisp and the spice worked well with them and everything else in the dish.

I have a small jar at work that, when it is empty, I refill from a gallon jar at home. Today was a refill day!

Fifth flat tire in <2 weeks on my way home from work last night. Weather was nice so wasn't a big deal to change it; even conveniently broke down at a nice spot with some grass & trees beside the sidewalk. Then I got home and realized I'd left my emergency under-saddle bag on the ground after re-packing it with my tools etc. It was about a half hour ride away so I got in the car and drove back; found that somebody had dumped the contents of the bag all over the ground and took the following:

• Specialized CPRO2 CO2 head (~$30)
• 2 CO2 canisters (one was used, $1.25 for the unused one)
• two KMC Missing Links (~$5), and
• Crank Brothers Speedier Lever ($10).

The vermin thieves left behind:

• pile of nitrile gloves (cheap);
• my holey tube (cheap); and,
• the Ibera Waterproof saddle bag itself ($40)

I actually just realized I didn't check whether they noticed my Crank Brothers M19 multitool tucked away in a sort of hidden pocket at the top of my bag; probably wouldn't have fallen out if they'd just shaken the bag contents onto the ground. I'll need to check that out when I get home (didn't bother carrying the bag with me today as it had nothing in it of value to me if I broke down).

All in all, it could have been worse. They took about $50 worth of stuff (>$90 if they took the M19), and left behind about $40 worth of stuff (>$80 if they left the M19). Worse than the money, it's just a pain in the a$$ that now I have to take the time to replace that stuff. It's also pretty annoying that they actually took the time to selectively sort through what they were going to take.

I guess the better question is what do you do with a supply of chili paste at work? And a gallon at home?!

What sort of chili paste are we talking about? I am thinking something like a sambal?

Wow, [MENTION=348526]HydroG33r[/MENTION], thieves are so weird.

Exactly that. I just use it with lunch.

Jerk faces.

If you are ever in my hood I usually have a pump and levers in my front porch, accessible to all. I will leave a patch kit now too. But it sounds like you need new tires.

I once was lazy/complacent and left my saddle bag on my bike at my old strata in Burnaby. Something roused me and I went out unusually early and found that my bag was riffled through and my Gerber multitool. I actually caught the guy and confronted him but he was a sketched out meth head so I cut my losses.

Mmmm, mouth watering emoticon.

well, my default lunch out of the filing cabinet drawer is quick udon (not dried) and a can of sardines, both of which go better w/ chili paste...

Makes me kind of hope they don't know what the CO2 inflator is and try it out while holding the cartridge in their bare hands.

I probably shouldn't think mean thoughts like this. :innocent:

My thoughts exactly.

That's the funny thing... I was about 2 weeks into my new Continental Grand Prix 4000S II's (25C) when I got the first flat. Still using my Continental Race 28 tubes (the ones I always have used) then, I got the second flat a week'ish later coming up Ontario; that was an obvious sidewall cut and it blew out rapidly and audibly. Fixed that and used a Conti Race 28 Light tube (MEC was sold out of the regular Race 28's), and then had another rapid loud blowout that afternoon (admittedly probably the same mechanism due to the sidewall compromise combined with the thinner tube). Those were all rear tire. This led me to immediately change to Gatorskins (23C).

Monday on the way home from work I noticed a slow leak from my front tire (on the new Gatorskins). Topped her up with CO2, got home and changed that tube (it was a regular tube, not the light version). No obvious puncture; I was thinking faulty tube or something.

Then last night was the rear tire again; heard it leaking as I came over a bit of a high-lipped ramp to a sidewalk near Metrotown; it's a bit of a bump but I ride that just about every day without issue.

Also noticed two circular holes in the centre of the Gatorskin tread that I've seen people say are wear indicators; only showing up at one spot, and I have <150km on those tires. Think they may be going back to MEC.

Probably wise. Not sure what I would have done if I'd caught the guy stealing my stuff...

That'd be great! Though I use the Planet Bike ones with the neoprene sleeve, and was fastidious enough already to change the sleeve over from the spent cartridge to the new one. That jerk face got lucky.

Took a lunchtime lap of Lake Natoma. No PR's due to frequent stops to pick and eat blackberries.

I rode the commuter bike home and left the truck at work... tomorrow I'm taking the MTB! First time in a while, I'm stoked.

The jerk faces were, in fact, bright or lucky enough to find (and steal) my M19 multi tool.

Shopping to replace stolen stuff isn't even fun!

Thank-goodness today is Friday! My commute was damp at the start. The sky was just spitting a little. It completely stopped about halfway to work. I took the straight route in today.

Nicer Morning.
 

The DC area was a bit cooler and slightly drier this morning. I rode my fixed gear in and felt pretty good. Saw a box turtle on the side of the road. Good morning, Turtle.


I had to do some repairs on it last night, as the BB cartridge bearing had backed out a bit and creaked when I pulled the bike out last night to ready it.

Took my chances and decided to ride today, after three straight days of severe afternoon thunderstorms here. Forecasters are calling for more storms this afternoon, but the air feels a lot drier and the probabilities are lower. Plus, my wife is going to be downtown and can give me a ride home if the daily storms return at commute time. I was glad that I rode, even if I get rained out again this afternoon. After riding 7 days straight more 350 miles during vacation, I've only ridden once since my bike trip ended last Friday. It felt good to be riding again and my legs were fresh.

Oh I don't know... shopping for new bike stuff is one of my favorite activities (not paying for it)! Humid a cool this morning - kind of weird sweating and feeling cold.

Today's my last commute for a couple weeks - heading to northern Michigan for a few days before riding back home. Looking forward to a week on the bike

Staycation is over. So, my first ride in two weeks to the day. Nice ride. Hot and humid, but the stiff headwind kept me cool...lol.

I stayed home to work on the house. So, what do I do? I buy a nice used roadbike (Trek Madone) that needs a bit of TLC. So, I spent most of my home repair time reconditioning my new bike, replacing rims, tires, cassette, chain, cables, etc. All in all, it's done. I should have it on the road for its fist spin sometime this weekend.

My wife wants to kill me. :)

Road the Specialized again today.. what a drag compared to the Trek. Cool but still humid. See if I can make it home without a flat, up to 2-3 a month thinking about liners.

Nice ride in. 60F and muggy, really weird weather. I have a short sleeve t-shirt, long-sleeve, and raincoat to mix or match. am commute was aimed kind of between the 1st 2 but definitely not rainy enough for the latter. Yesterday's pm was rainy enough for the coat but too hot for it even with the short sleeve shirt. Will see what this afternoon brings.

Get a set of Gatorskins or Marathons. I never get flats and ride over a lot of crap.

I can see the headline now. Cyclist creates conflict causing common-law companion crushing cycle and cremating cyclsit. Sorry I love alliteration; that along with cycling and bad puns will cause my wife to kill me.

Meanie head jerk faces. I wish ill upon them.