pdlamb

One last nice ride today before NOAA (or is it Noah) sends more rain our way. And it was a nice ride in (leaving out the part where I have to work once I get here!). Clear, cool, calm -- I managed without a raincoat, which seems remarkable this year.

HardyWeinberg

33F, partly cloudy, dry, 1st commute since May (shoulder injury and surgery intervened)

Tundra_Man 

Came in this morning and had them issue me a new card. Apparently since they went to their new system a couple years ago the wires embedded in the badges are fragile and frequently break. They said they replace a couple of them every day that start acting exactly like mine.

Consecutive bicycle work commute number 886:

Kind of a tough ride in this morning 26F this morning with a strong headwind, but the big story is ice. We had temps in the upper 30s over the weekend which made all of the rutted ice even more rutted. Plus some of the snow melted and then re-froze creating large sheets of glass smooth ice. I had at least a half dozen close calls where my wheels started slipping out from under me, but most of the time I was only going 4 mph so I managed to get my feet down and stay upright.

My sister-in-law gave me a GoPro last night as a gift. She thought I could film some of the more interesting portions of my commute. I'm going to order a mount so I can put it on my handlebars. That should be fun to play with.

Phil_gretz

On my initial descent from my neighborhood, I felt something strange beneath my right foot, where I'd normally be securely clipped into an SPD/SL road pedal. I felt it again and then my foot came away from the crank.

Yup. The bearing seized and the spindle threads backed out from the crank arm. What the heck? The pedal was still clipped to my right foot. It was dark but not too cold, so I sat down to inspect things. With a frozen spindle, there was no way to ride the bike except one-footed.

I walked it home, swapped out a right pedal from another road bike, and continued on my ride to work. I wonder if I can salvage the failed pedal? I'll find out tonight.

Nice day, though, as it'll be in the 60s for today's commute home. Yay!

RidingMatthew

well this morning was a good commute until this happened.



some how chain snapped and wrapped the wheel.

mgw4jc

RidingMatthew - OOF! I hope you didn't go down because of that. Never seen such a thing.

RidingMatthew

i did not fall down. i was a bit disappointed in the police training that was going on. they heard the loud crash and tire going flat. when they came back from their run and I am still waiting to get picked up. they did not ask what is wrong...

madpogue 

That's a new one! Slightly new meaing to "chain suck".... Post mortem will be interesting; there's an active thread today over in Mechanics about re-using quick-links, which might be relevant. Any other evident damage, besides the tire, poss. rim and derailleur?

Tundra_Man 

Dang, RidingMatthew. That's some impressive destruction.

noglider 

I've never seen that kind of failure! And I've seen a lot.

My commutes have been uneventful lately, and that's a good thing. Stuff happens but not much noteworthy, like overdressing as I did today. I'm trying hard to be more cautious around buses and trucks, but it's hard to change old habits. This morning, I nearly forgot my lock which would have made arriving at school unpleasant, but I remembered before leaving (the first time). I got out onto the street and realized I had forgotten my wallet, too, but I didn't have to go back far, so I got to class early.

Mind you, the way drivers treat people here would make people's blood boil, but here in New York City, people take it in stride. I'd be a nervous wreck if I remembered it all. Chr0m0ly how are you adjusting to NYC?

A big story might emerge for me. A friend gave me her old action camera, something I've wanted but didn't want to spend money on. I'll receive the memory card in the mail on Friday, so I'll be able to start using it next week. My theory is that if I post a video of my commute, some people here will puke from horror. But maybe not.

RidingMatthew

Thanks Tundra_Man i guess

yeah i will have to look for that thread or post the link if madpogue have it handy. I know it will be tire, some spokes, not sure about the rim. And the derailleur is toast. I told wife that now would be a good time to upgrade to some GRX stuff. I have close to 6k miles on the derailleur mostly commuting miles.

I will take it to the shop this evening to see what they think we need to do. Sad only had 962 miles on the tire the last ones I got 4995 miles

mgw4jc

Warm enough this morning that I wore shorts and a short sleeve shirt. I did wear lightweight gloves though.

I'm trying to forget what I saw this morning. A squirrel ran across a bit in front of me, but not soon enough to beat the car from the other direction. I'll spare the details, but it wasn't pretty.

Steely Dan

WINDY!

i was riding straight into a 23 mph NNE wind, gusting to 32 mph.

that was some serious work, it feels like i just biked 28 miles instead of 8.

thankfully, it was pretty warm (35 degrees), so the windchill was still quite tolerable.

the wind is expected to decrease a tiny bit, bit still hold at NNE, so the ride home should be fun!!!!!

arsprod 

Wow, that sucks! A couple years ago I had a plastic bag fly into my chain, snap off the derailleur and a couple spokes, break the chain after it wrapped around the wheel. We forget how fast the chain moves and the amount of torque we create!

It was 58F on the way in - supposed to be mid to upper 30's and raining for the ride home. So much for a taste of Spring

pdlamb

Wow, a lot happened since this time yesterday.

@HardyWeinberg, welcome back!

@Phil_gretz, ain't those pedal mishaps fun? I lost a pedal body (Speedplay Frog in my case) 25 miles from home a few years ago. Limped a quarter mile to the orchard and called for the ride of shame, I mean ride of fame. At least I had an apple slushy to comfort me on the way home!

@RidingMatthew, wow, just wow. I'd love to watch a slow motion video of how that happened. Did you bust a tube or tire?

My ride this morning was unremarkable, except the April shower came four days into February. The shower was enough to get me into a rain jacket, and I think my jersey is more wet from sweat than the outside of the jacket. Of course, we'll pay for this warm, wet weather -- in a day or two the counter-stroke of a cold front will blow through here, and we'll spend the afternoon and evening cowering in tornado shelters.

madpogue 

Link to recent quick-link thread: Quick link question

Minor break in the otherwise routine commute yesterday. On the way home, shared an elevator ride with a young commuter on a... oh... early '00s Trek MTB. Usual chatter about the great weather that spoiled us over the weekend, blah blah, then I saw it. "HEY, your quick-release is open on your front wheel." It was not just open, but unthreaded almost far enough to get past the lawyer tabs. She had no idea. And didn't know how it worked, like what was mentioned in a recent active thread about QRs and lawyer tabs etc, she kept wanting to use the QR handle like a "wrench". Two-minute primer on proper QR usage after we stepped out into the lobby, and she was set, and grateful. Didn't want to think about what kind of day it could have been otherwise.

Darth Lefty 

@RidingMatthew Howwww?

Do you like the bike overall? I'm looking pretty hard at it because I'd like to do some longer smoother rides where my MTB becomes a drag. Is it a carbon fork version? Did you try the flat bar or 700 versions?

Yesterday I got my pacemaker replaced (hello max oop, so nice to see you so early again this year) and today I'm still sore. Picking up kids today and tomorrow, dropping off dogs at vet Thursday, Friday off... I might not be back in the saddle this week. But we have a new nanny on the hook and reeling her in, so might be back to normal next week.

pdlamb

Look at the bright side, you get free medical coverage for the rest of the year!

mgw4jc

Windy here this morning and a little light rain on the last two miles. Still pretty warm though at about 60F. More chances of rain forecast for the afternoon, and even worse tomorrow. Looking like I'll probably bail and drive then.

On the home purchase front I mentioned last week, we are now under contract on a house in my current neighborhood. So no significant commute change. We looked at 2 homes that are less than 2 miles from my work. But the price per square foot was just so much more that I couldn't justify it. If all the kids were out of the home, it would have been a different story.

arsprod 

Ice! All the rain yesterday seemed to have flash frozen this morning. No problem for studdly tires. Forecast is for sleet, freezing rain, some snow - all euphemisms for ice. It's still winter

mgw4jc

I decided not to ride in this today. It's really not raining all that heavily, but I drove through pockets of down pours.



I did leave early and go to the gym for a bit of weight lifting before work, so not a total bum.

BlueCyclist

"Get of the f*ck*in' road!"

Heard that again today on my way into work because i dared be in a (correct) position to turn into a juction safely rather than sit in the gutter.
Still, angry words are better than last nights physical efforts by a driver trying to push me into a similar gutter with his 4x4 land tank lol.

Darth Lefty 

Dog woke me at 4:30. 3yo woke me again at 5. Left shoulder sore, from surgery. Right shoulder sore, chronic. Gotta take dogs to vet today, no bike ride. Can this week go get bent?

Tundra_Man 

Consecutive bicycle work commute number 889:

Nothing too eventful today. 18F with a 10 mph tailwind on the way to work.

Stopped and took a picture of the rutted ice. It seems to be getting worse each day rather than getting better, but maybe it's just me. After I snapped the photo I nearly went down trying to re-mount my bike.




I told my wife that I'm tempted to go buy a bunch of ice melt and spread it around this spot. Unfortunately this particular patch is a couple hundred yards long and about two inches thick. I'd spend all night trying to cover the whole area and probably go broke.

mgw4jc

Tundra_Man - you need an "Activate Tire Spikes" button on your handlebars.