But, but, I want to complain to someone!! :troll:

Just another beautiful day in paradise. Started out a wee bit chilly, but I'll take it anyhow. Come July and August, I'll be ready to cry when I remember low 50s.

I'm expecting one more week as the pecan pollen rolls through. The first "noodle" was on the back steps this morning. Then I can wait for the ragweed pollen later in the summer. :/

55F, gray

We'll listen and commiserate with you. I think that complaints lodged through the city or park boards will only result in issues for us the cyclists.

We have had gorgeous weather and I have so badly wanted to ride more. Anywho life is great and well and my short rides are great.

I'm with you all the way. The e-bike guys are getting out of hand. Their speed limit must be kept very low (I'd be ok with 10 or 12mph), to make sure that only those that truly need "assist" are on the paths. Anyone that wants to go faster to save time, or for the thrill, needs to ride on the roads. Any faster and they are an electric moped/scooter, end of story.

I see a bunch of e-bike users in the city. But most of them are the food delivery guys. At least its one less car. I also see some speeding on the GWB sidewalk and think that is reckless behaviour. The sidewalk can be a little tighter than the Hudson Greenway MUP and it also has two areas that have four 90 degree turns to go around the bridge supports. Its easy to hit or "brush against" someone going in the opposite direction in those areas if you don't take a line far enough right to give them room. I once brushed up against a jogger in that area and apologized to her. So I learned my lesson on that a while ago.

It was another gret ride in today. Just did the park and ride today to take a break from riding from home yesterday. Looks like it will be similar temps today. So I might leave my long sleeve baselayer on since the 72F yesterday felt more like upper 60's. I recently replaced the front tire since it was getting to be fairly chewed up (small slices from debris) and a small area in the sidewall started to bulge a little. I saw a good deal on Excel Sports for them at ~$36 incl shipping. However, I just checked and it looks like the deal is gone. If you haven't done so, check out the Hot Deals section:

https://www.bikeforums.net/road-cycl...got-em-87.html

2 nice days in a row? I love it!!

What's up guys! Haven't been on here in a minute, work and life have been crazy this winter/spring. Had a sucky March cycling/commuting total due to illness and incessant rainy/wintry weather that simply would not let go. April was only a little better. Now it's the 2nd week of May and suddenly we're at near 90 degree temps in Memphis! Still commuting 60-90 miles a week, mostly on my e-bike these days. I don't ride my road bike nearly as much as I used to. Oh well, I still love the ride!

Today's the second day I've biked with my co-worker who is new to the PNW. We've had fantastic weather both times, so he's definitely hooked. I suspect that I have him going a little faster than I did when I started out, and he's improved a lot already despite being a year out of bike shape, so I'm hoping in couple months we'll be pushing each other a lot faster.

Decided I'd rather do a hard workout ride at the end of the day so I didn't commute in. The end of day ride felt really good. Tomorrow I ride in, pleasant day expected, and Thursday I'm supposed to go out after work, so no bike.

I'm so hooked on cycling though that going out after work has become an interruption to my riding routine.

A very nice commute in this am even with the temp at 47 f degrees and clear skies. 47 F degrees is just 3 degrees warmer than yesterday yet it made the all the difference and I took the longer ride in today.

That sucks [MENTION=339610]Darth_Lefty[/MENTION]. Hope she heals fast (no pun intended) and in the meantime you can figure out a way to squeeze a ride in here and there.

A week ago neighbor brought his bike over asking me to fix his rear derailleur. He said he loaned his bike to his 14 year old son and after he got it back it wasn't shifting right. He pulled the bike out of the van and it took me all of 5 seconds to tell him to put it back in the van. The derailleur was mangled like none I'd ever seen before. The bottom cage was ripped open and one of the pulleys was completely gone. He said he suspects his son got mad and kicked the derailleur. That may have happened at some point, but there's no way kicking it would have caused that kind of destruction. I'm guessing the kick happened either before or after the derailleur moved into the path of the spokes, which tore it apart. In any event, I said he'd have to take it back home while I order parts.

The parts arrived so last night he brought the bike back over. I removed what was left of the old derailleur and chain. This was a direct mount steel frame (no claw or removable hanger) so I hooked up my straightening tool and got the rear attachment true again. Then I installed the new derailleur and chain and adjusted everything. Shifts pretty nice now. He said he has to take the bike on a 50 mile ride as he helps his son complete a cycling merit badge, so it should be ready to go for that trip.

This morning was pleasant. 58 degrees, partly cloudy, although there was a pretty stiff head wind. Yesterday was rain all day, and tomorrow is supposed to be rainy, but today is projected to be dry. As a result of the forecast I saw a greater number of riders out today as compared to normal.

As I was fighting the wind and holding about 12 mph, a guy on a nice road bike slowly passed me. He must have been going about 13 mph. The only reason this was noteworthy is I saw him in my mirror coming from a long way back and he was standing up on the pedals the whole time. As he went by I glanced down and noticed he was on the big ring and the smallest cog, and just mashing with everything he had to keep the bike moving into the wind. He eventually disappeared from view in front of me and was still standing and slowly mashing for the duration of when he was visible. If he rides like that all the time I'd be surprised if he gets 500 miles out of a chain. He was wearing a backpack and casual clothing, so I suspect he was a commuter (versus someone out on a training ride.) I also suspect that he arrived at work completely tuckered out.

Wait, there's a tool for that other than vice grips?! :) Sounds like you should be getting the merit badge not the stupid kid. Nice morning commute, 51F and sunny. Thunderstorms predicted for this afternoon

I bought the Park DAG 2.2 derailleur tool after I crashed my road bike a few years ago and bent the hanger. I felt bad for paying so much for a tool that I assumed I was only going to use once. After I fixed my road bike I decided that as long as I had the tool I'd check the alignment on all my other bikes. Lo and behold, they all needed some amount of alignment.

Now, aligning the hanger has become part of my routine yearly maintenance. It's surprising how often I find the hangers have become slightly misaligned just from day-to-day bumps and leaning the bike against things. And they sure shift nice after everything is trued back up.

In my neighbor's case, after the derailleur got mangled the hanger visibly looked ok, but was vertically off by about 4 inches at the rim. Amazingly, it was still spot-on horizontally. Had I not had the tool to check I probably would have replaced the derailleur and wondered why it wasn't shifting well.

You're giving me the excuses I need to buy one! I wasn't kidding about vice grips which is what I recently used after sucking a plastic bag into my derailleur and bent the hanger. I have to admit it's still not right... I NEED one of those!!!

59F, partly cloudy (the parts where the sun and mountains are), clammy/muggy

I used a 12" Crescent wrench for years, but getting the right tool gave me much better results than the eyeball. By now, though, the Park needs some O-rings to replace the ones that fell off. :(

A couple of nice rides. There was a great blue heron slowly crossing the road last night at treetop level. Watching those birds fly is like watching a jumbo jet take off, they look like they're going so slow, because they are so big, and you wonder why they don't fall out of the sky.

This morning I was feeling like a recovery ride was in order, so I took it easy. I still didn't want to stop when I got to work.

I had a great ride in today, on the second day in a row of good enough weather. Woohoo!!!! 60 degrees and sunny. No wind and no humidity. Cycling perfection.

I even had time to throw a new spoke card onto my bicycle, before I left home.

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...061b3930bd.jpg

Then when I was less than a mile from work, some lady took a left off of the road into the highschool parking lot, and totally cut me off. She was even nasty enough to roll down her window and start yelling obscenities at me, with her kids still in the car. People really suck sometimes, especially drivers who don't even understand the traffic law. She wasn't worth my time and aggravation, so I just kept riding.

Nice ride in today as well! First time riding the Zeke (Zebrakenko) which was setup as a single speed and gosh, that bike is fast! I probably shaved a good 15-20 min off my normal commute, and it was fun! Saddle was terrible, but part of the fun of riding is the tinkering that will soon come afterward:)

It rained last night. I was expecting it, so wore my Cannondale pack-me-up jacket. Big mistake because the rain soaked through the sleeves in less than 5 minutes, while my new riding buddy/co-worker's t-shirt hadn't even fully dampened. Before I went to bed, I ordered a PI short-sleeve jacket from Steep & Cheap (last small they had in green, the site claimed) because I don't have any raingear for when the temps get higher. It should do fine during the shoulder seasons too when paired with arm warmers, which I already use.

Thanks for the suggestion. I will try using trackimo and let's see if it will work well. :)