De-railed
 

Decided I wanted a relaxing short ride, so parked at my 3 mile ride location. Got less than 1 mile from car, when this happened:

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4042/3...a12bf287_b.jpg

Wheel would not turn, because derailler was loose enough to get into spokes. Used the strap from the toe clip to pull back the derailler, lowered the seat, and rode the bike as a strider back to the car.

Anyone got a Shimano Altus derailler? I might end up looking to replace the bike; the frame is a little small for me, but I have enjoyed riding this for the past few years.

50F, sunny but hazy

Everything at Amazon! 69F this morning with a ripping headwind. Hope it's still there going home

Fortunately for you pretty much any 6-9 speed long-cage Shimano derailleur from the last 30 years is a direct replacement

[MENTION=26168]High Fist Shin[/MENTION] not a candidate for ultrasonic treatment?

I had another flat when a mile from home yesterday and accepted a rescue. Flats essentially caused by using an 18-25 tube in a 37 tire which should pretty well answer that question for people. Because the tube is stretched 2:1, the least insult causes a hole to tear open like a pin in a balloon. Both flats have started from the channel, not holes in the tire. I've noticed while following this up that most tubes are rated in a 1.5:1 range of sizes and I've resolved in the future to use the biggest tube I can fit in the tire.

I'm done for the week. I had to deliver dogs to the vet this morning and my new 32-47 tubes are still in the mail. (this fat with a long Presta valve is kind of an obscure size and shops don't stock it.) On the plus side, I got a free Fitbit to participate in a medical study, and I discovered that dirt-cheap 12 gram CO2 cartridges from the pellet rifle section at Walmart will work in the Slime-branded inflator I bought the other day. No commuting next week due to road trip, though there might be mtb'ing in Soquel Demo - really looking forward to that.

No, it is not offered where I am located. I live in a really small community. Health care options and treatments are limited. I would have to travel 5 hours to San Francisco for lithotripsy. It's not really feasible.

It's a small price to pay to live here behind the redwood curtain.

-Shin

I had a mechanical on the fixed gear this morning, when my windbreaker somehow escaped from the rack and wrapped around the cog - resulting in a sudden skidding halt. The torque pulled the wheel into the right chain-stay. I teased the windbreaker out, but to make matters worse I had the wrong wrench in my bag, too small for the axle nuts. That was a disconcerting quandary - I'm not going to call home for a wrench, or drag the bike the last 2 miles with the rear wheel locked, and I wasn't wild about rolling it while holding the rear up. I wound up hammering the axle nut with my beefy mini-tool and got just enough clearance to get the tire rolling, but I was worried that too much pedaling force would torque it back, and justifiably since that's what happened when I started uphill at an intersection. So it's going to be one of those least possible effort rides on the way home, until I can properly adjust and tighten the nuts.

I'd had the windbreaker rolled up, under two bungee cords, double-checked that it was secure, yet somehow some part worked loose enough to get into the wheel and got pulled in. Lesson learned: it goes in the bag, or on the back of the rack, never on the front no matter how secure.

Repair the old, or get new or 'new old'.
 

Drove down to the LBS in West Newton, got a quote on the repair, too much, asked about new bikes, took a quick spin on a Giant Escape, now I'm trying to figure out how I could squeeze it into the budget.

Or check out CL, see what I could find. That old Trek 800 sport is too small for me, really. (rationalize). A new bike would have everything set up right (rationalize). It isn't really that much more expensive than the repair. (rationalize). I could keep the old bike as a foul weather bike, after repairing it myself (rationalize)...

What I'd consider perfect although I didn't get to ride in the rain again, sad. Did ride 10.1 miles this morning on the red slug. I always get close to the 10 mile mark but always seem to miss it.

Warmer and muggier this morning than it has been all week. Back to summer conditions I suppose. A good 15 miles anyway.

Although I did come across this on the MUP. I contemplated calling to tell the boss that I can't make it in due to a road block.
https://scontent.cdninstagram.com/t5...27615488_n.jpg

Crappy day yesterday. Rode the backup bike to work. Came out to rush home for a vet emergency and found a flat tire. The tire had separated from the valve stem - no patching for you! I had a spare, then discovered I left my pump and CO2 inflator at home.

Finally got home, got the pooch to the vet, and found the kidney failure was too far gone. Riley's in a better place, but I'm a wreck.

Today is a new day.

[MENTION=422519]SloButWide[/MENTION]: Sorry about your dog. That sucks.

Today was a beautiful morning. 64°F, sunny and hardly a breeze. It rained during the night so there were puddles and wet spots, and the air was pretty humid. Lots of people must have agreed with my assessment of the day as the MUP was rather busy for that early in the morning. Lots of walkers, joggers, leisure riders and other commuters.

Got to work and was locking up my bike when I noticed my rear tire on my road bike is starting to show cord. I bought a new set of tires a few months ago anticipating that this set was reaching end of life. I'll replace them both over the weekend. Got more than 3700 miles out of this set of tires, which were the original tires that came with the bike. Not bad.

I did rotate these tires at around 2000 miles. I know Sheldon Browne was an advocate for not doing that, with the idea that you're moving the more worn tire to the front where you need the traction the most. However, I was unable to find replacement tires that matched the original equipment tire, so when I replaced one I wanted to replace them both so they matched. Any of my other bikes I really don't care and will run tires that look different on each wheel, but for some reason I'm a bit more vain with my fancy road bike. So I wanted to try and get the tires to wear out at about the same time so I could replace them at the same time. The new tires are Continental gp4000s which are easy to find, so now I can just replace each individual tire as it wears out and not futz with rotating them. Or maybe I'll try Sheldon's advice and as the rear tire wears out, put the new one on front and move the less worn front tire to the rear.

I could just about copy and paste [MENTION=175954]Tundra_Man[/MENTION] 's post. 16C/61F, sunny, bit of a breeze, with wet spots from overnight precipitation. And humid. Got to work soaked in sweat.

I also found some bald patches on the rear tire of my fixie, but I noticed before I left, so I rode a different bike. The bald spots kinda look like chunks of rubber were actually torn out of the tire, rather than just wear. Makes me wonder if Gatorskins are not good tires for a fixie with all those madd skidz I do. :) It was an old tire from a different bike.

I made it home after all, with that loosening axle nut. Heavy rain, not an unpleasant change of pace from the usual humid heat. It looks like rainstorms again this evening, but I'm feeling a bit more confident now that I have the right size wrench in my saddle bag.

I was riding along and a truck is coming up behind me, and I hear a "pop". I look back and the hood of the truck had flipped open. (One of those flip-forward-to-open type of truck hoods.)

I bought a new bike! I had +25,0000kms on the old one and everything was starting to wear at the same time. I bought a used cannondale caad10. Super stoked. I couldnt get one of the pedals off my old road bike last night, so i had to steal the captain's right pedal off my tandem. I rode to work this AM with mis-matched pedals but still loved it.

Yep, gotta work today. Low traffic on the roads and on these forums today. One of the hottest, muggiest mornings so far this summer. Last week's cool down was a short lived treat. I am off work tomorrow for the 4th, but may get a morning ride in anyway.

Halfway through the year and I am aiming for an arbitrary 6,000 miles for commuting this year. I am about 30 miles short of the 3,000 halfway point, but summer and fall usually have more weeks with higher mileage so I'm not worried about the minor shortage.

Monday morning.. so great! Energetic despite kayaking 9.3 miles yesterday. A bit muggy but a light breeze.

Roads were pretty quiet this morning. I'm guessing lots of people (not including me) decided to take the day off to make a long weekend.

I spent a few hours on Saturday putting new rubber on my road bike, cleaning and lubing the drivetrain, and giving the whole thing a much needed bath. Even went so far as to disassemble the cassette and scrub the gunk off the cogs. All shiny now!

Then 1/2 mile from home I came across a house who had one of their lawn sprinklers spraying directly into the road. This wasn't a slight overlap; this looked like the spray head had been installed 180 degrees backwards and was watering the pavement instead of the grass. I stopped and pondered the situation, not wanting to ride my freshly scrubbed bike through the mess (plus get sprayed myself in my work clothes.) I had only stopped for about 5 seconds when the zone finished it's cycle and the spray heads retracted into the ground. I then proceeded very slowly through the wet and made it to work without undoing all of my cleaning efforts.

I know my bike will eventually get dirty again. I just wanted it to stay clean for more than 1/2 mile. :)

Beautiful morning ride in, the weather is turning and looking more like early summer. The sky was clear, the sun was warm, the breeze was mild and I had a nice speedy ride in and I'm now feeling like my muscles had done some work. Most of the rest of this week is forecast for similar weather, rain on the weekend (of course!) and, if the long range can be believed, more sun next week.

Have a great day people!

Again, a great ride in this morning, warm, sunny, sweaty (oh, wait, that's me).

I had hoped to do a longer ride this morning, 22km/14mi instead of my usual 9km/6mi ride in but I have accepted a challenge recently to do extra fitness every day so last night, I did some bodyweight/calisthenic lower body exercises and I woke up a bit sore so I decided to do the regular route. Maybe tomorrow, I'll get out on my road bike and take the longer route (let's hope the weather holds up, I haven't checked).

Strange weather data this morning. Currently, just after 8am, TheWeatherNetwork is reporting that the current temperature is 17C, it reports that it was 15C at 5am and 11C at 6am, weird!

After my 9km ride home and dinner, I am going cycling with a friend who wants to learn her route into work (and back). Her work is 200m/yd from our home so I'll pick her and her bike up from her home, bring her to our home and we'll ride together back to her place and then I'll ride back home for an extra 21km (and then I have another fitness routine to do, upper body this time).

Have a great day and I hope my American friends had a great Independence Day yesterday (without the aliens though)!

A good day off for the 4th. I wanted to meet some friends who were going for a group run, but my bike lock was still at work (I normally leave it outside where I lock up). So I got out early enough to ride to the office, retrieve my lock, and ride back to the start of the run. Then we visited for a bit before I rode back home. 17.5 + 6 = 23.5 miles ridden. 7 miles run.

Quite muggy this morning, but an enjoyable enough ride in I suppose.

Ugh beat this morning, up till 11 last night with fireworks. Pleasant ride in with a sprinkle or two. Surprised I didn't hit any poppers along the way.

Well back to the grind after long weekend. Hope you Canadian guys didn't miss us too badly! 71F this morning and very humid - I was actually chilly.

Today is my first day back at work. My previous day at work was June 22, so it's been a while. I pushed myself to get on the bike, and that's a good thing. I didn't push myself to ride hard except for a couple of short segments. The weather is pretty mild for this time of year, not terribly hot or humid. But I just spend a week in the country, and being back in the city, it's easy to notice how much dirtier the air is here. Well, that's life, and there is still a benefit from cycling, even in dirty air.

Yesterday was the Fourth of July, and the Riverbank State Park has so much garbage littered all over it that it made me very sad. The city will pick it up quickly, but why do people have to do that?

Back in the saddle again!


Been a while; just short of four months since a medical issue kicked me off the bike (and a lot of other stuff!). Great ride this morning. It rained last night so the roads were wet and the air was humid, but everything is so much greener than my last bike commute! Traffic was light, which was nice. Magnolia trees are starting to bloom, and the crape myrtles are still in bloom. Didn't see any bluebirds, or hear any thrushes -- hope they're around this summer anyway.