[MENTION=60072]HardyWeinberg[/MENTION]

Sorry about the accident. I can relate to how driving sucks the soul and cardio endurance from your seemingly barely alive body when you're not allowed to commute.

I have never tried tubeless, but a few years ago on a model of Marathons (can't recall exact model) I has three tires give me wire bead/sidewall delamination issues. Once I was incredibly lucky that I noticed a bulge forming on an easy slight uphill grade, because I had a screamer hill with three lanes of rush hours coming up next. I booted it and got to work. Two other instances I had the read bead/sidewall blowout, it is loud. They replaced at least two of the three is I recall correctly, I never had an issue since then.

I agree. The potential downsides are too great.

I definitely see your points!

Due to family responsibilities and other commitments, I rode less in june than I did in January or Feb. (I'm not complaining, I'm still lucky enough to ride about 3 days/week!!)


I broke a spoke yesterday AM. I took it easy, and then on the way home I stopped at MEC* and they replaced it, and only charged me for the material cost of a single spoke!! They did warn me that I'd soon be in the market for a new rear wheel--I knew that already...






* MEC = Mountain Equipment Co-op, which is similar to what REI used to be, although MEC is changing a lot in the last few years...

You mean, "They spoke to me..."

"Yup, that wheel's gonna be breakin' more spokes soon. Nah, don't you worry about what Earl's doin' to it with that file. He's a perfeshunal and we always act in yer best intrests."

Hot, sticky, humid...those frigid winter commutes feel like some fuzzy dream from the distant past. 77F/25C before 06:00 in the morning.

I took a different route to work today. I do not usually ride in this particular area and I have been trying to learn the area. I took a wrong turn and went about half a mile before I realized I was going the wrong way. Oh well just a little extra riding added in. Another humid day today but not to hot this am.

Man, I was dripping wet when I arrived this morning. I've been riding a road bike with a backpack, just to change things up. It's faster and maybe a little more sporty and enjoyable. But having my glutes and hamstrings engaged to much has changed the way my body feels. I was a little tight and sore this morning. Warm up took a bit longer.


The bike rack at work has been empty except for me. What is this, February? Where are all of my fellow riders from last summer? Anyone?

Wild ride this morning with the storms rolling in. Barely missed a flying trashcan and couple limbs even before I left the neighborhood. Awesome tail wind though!

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.

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...