After work I drove to the bike co-op to see if they had any Shimano Clarus 8-speed integrated brifters to replace the broken right-hand unit on my main commuter, my 2015 Charge Plug. A new compatible Microshift 2x8 pair is about $55 on Amazon. The co-op had 2 loose units and two pairs of brifters...one pair being a 3x8 Microshift set...a little scuffed, but not as much as the original brifters on my bike, otherwise they seem to be in working order. And for just $10...I bought 'em!

My bikes don't have to look pristine, they just have to look like a blur to the fancier bikes I pass on my way to and from work.

Now I have to find the time. The co-op will mount them for $20 each...even if they need to re-cable that's only $12 more I think.

I'm hoping I can get to it in three weeks, and then I'll ride with the satisfaction of having done it myself...the same satisfaction I felt on my resurrected, resto-mod 16-in folder I rode to work this morning where my car was waiting for me.

I rode home late last night. It seemed as if I had a tailwind on each leg of my goings. It couldn't be that I'm just getting stronger.

Boy, it's so pleasant to ride in warmer weather. And I love the long daylight hours.

I'm working on battery cycling the eBikes I don't use as much; today was the Yamaha's gravel eBike's turn. I'll probably leave it around 50%. Then I need to discharge the eFatty, which may sit until the winter. (unless I get a hankerin' to hit the trails) Nice easy ride in.

I might get out for a fitness ride after work today; weather's going to be iffy though. We'll see.

Rode today. Looked warmer than it turned out to be, in the mid-fifties. 12C for acidfast7. My sweater wearing threshold is around 60. As usual I risk the scoff of the members in the frozen north.

Same here 12 C but looked 20 C. I usually wear some birks with socks, denim trousers, linen button down shirt and a half-wool, hat-fabric vest and it was chilly

I refuse to yield though and hope the summer finally comes.

I've pulled this stunt a couple times, when for one reason or another I forgot my keys. Wrapped the lock that was locked up to the rack around the bars (and fastened my helmet around the front wheel and downtube). The bike was safe in the afternoon both times.

Of course, there were other factors that probably helped. Guard desk just inside the doors, and a surveillance camera looking right into the bike shelter. And a beat up, 10-15 year old commuter -- who wants to steal that old thing?

Consecutive bicycle work commute number 2108:

Rain was predicted for today. For a change, the forecast was spot-on, giving us some much-needed moisture.

I took the hybrid bike with fenders. The rain was steady, but not torrential. The temp was a decent 46°F so I wasn't cold as I rode. I did have a strong tailwind pushing me, which was nice but will make the ride back the other way rather challenging.

I arrived at work pretty wet. I thought about going directly to the client's office today, which would have cut my rain ride in half. However, we have a company meeting this morning, so it was best that I was at our office in-person. Normally on Thursdays I do a split-commute by riding to our office in the mornings, then riding to the client over lunch. Depending on if it's still raining and/or how much my clothes have dried off I may just tell the client I'm working remotely all day. I'm blessed that I have some flexibility like that.

The only problem with staying at our office the entire day is traffic on this side of town is terrible at 5 PM. Usually if I stay at the office I try to leave closer to 4:30 to get ahead of the worst of it. However, a person with my client scheduled a meeting to start at 4:30 PM today, so I can't leave early. I'm not sure what kind of psychopath schedules a meeting for 4:30 PM. That's probably a discussion for the psychology forum. LOL

Today I'm celebrating the 6-year anniversary of the day I rode my bicycle to the hospital where I had open-heart surgery to get a new mechanical aortic valve.

On the ride home yesterday I saw two recumbent bicycles. They may have been together but separated because the odds seem pretty low otherwise. The first one was very compact, a single boom with the rider sitting right on top of or just in front of a 20 in wheel and a tiny front. Maybe it was a BikeE. It also looked pretty clapped out like it had spent some years outdoors. The second was a long chopper like a Sun or Easy. The rider had a black full face helmet that made him look like a sci fi bad guy trooper.

I feel that I see fewer recumbent 2-wheelers any more. There is a trike dealership on the other side of the river./lake in Fair Oaks, Laid Back Cycles, so I see tadpole trikes all the time.

Rode again today. There's an office chair that appeared this week I've considered shooting for the "what have you found" thread. On the way home there's also a large onion that was present before we went on vacation and is still there...

Events conspired against a bike commute the last two days...but I just fit in 40 minutes on the stationary recumbent which figured I did 8 miles which is the time and distance I do on the surface streets. On the MUP I do 8 miles in 30-34 min.

Not as satisfying indoors but it feels better than no ride.

Beautiful spring Friday. Reached over 3000km commuting for 2025 today.

I forget my lock more than I'd like to admit. I finally decided to bring an old combination cable lock to work and leave it in my desk drawer. Next time I inevitably forget my good lock, I'll just bring the junky one down from upstairs. It's good enough for where I'm locking it.

Nice morning, will be even nicer this afternoon. Upper 40s °F (~9°C) for the morning commute Lower 50s (11°C) this afternoon. I have this J2 jacket thing I bought at a bike swap; it has a puffer insulated vest and arms that are vented on the bottoms and a bit more solid on the top. It looks nice & techy, but it's always sweaty on the back, especially so this morning, since I was wearing a backpack with my gravel bike. The bike is equipped with one of those big bikepacking seat bags, but no rack. My dorky, ugly Baleaf jacket is much better, all around. It breathes in all the right places and is also a lot more visible.

Anyway, the commute is 2 miles per leg and I'm going home to have lunch with my wife in a couple hours, so I'll have 8 miles commuting today.

I'm hoping to get my wife out on her eBike to join me for an evening ride tonight.

Getting any miles in this weekend is going to be tough, as it's my weekend with my 13 year old daughter, and she thinks she's tool cool for bike riding with Dad now. (and I think I'm too cool to be driving everywhere with my daughter, face-down in her phone!)

5-lap week, woo! But with 7 miles round trip I'm never touching 1000 miles by Christmas, much less 3000 by Easter

That's an impressive amount of commuting miles so far! (3,000 km is 1,864 miles for us who use the Imperial measurement system.)

Coincidentally, I broke the 1,000 mile commuting mark for the year today. I feel like I ride a ton, so I can't imagine how much you ride to hit 3,000 km by now.

To paraphrase Jens Voigt..."Shut up aortic valve!"

Mazel tov and continued health!

Rode 6.5 miles to deliver a Sunday paper to my 95-year-old mother-in-law. She had been living with us for the last 7 years until she entered rehab 2 months ago. All the while taking the Sunday paper which meant a walk down the driveway for me. Two months ago she entered a rehab facility that was 1.5 miles from the house which was a 7 minute ride from the house. Two weeks ago she moved into long-term care, 6.5 miles from the house and today was my first bike ride to deliver her paper.

I took an old commute route from the old job commute which takes me under some train tracks south of downtown. I'm 63, but it's still a little exciting to ride under a train. And this morning...planes on a train!

It was sunny 51F-57F and took 1 hour at an average speed of 13mph. Beats the heck outta the stationary bike in the basement!


Alternative use for bottle holder...

It's funny they would not put those in a box. The sort of people who shoot up road signs also take potshots at trains. This would be a prime target. My job has intuitional memory of finding a bullet inside something that really should have exploded. The potshooter was never discovered; it could have happened anywhere in a thousand mile stretch. But it was inside a boxcar. He probably never had any idea how close he was to making the national news on his way to prison forever

Boring commute today. I took the eFatty just to get it discharged for summer storage. It's gonna take quite a few trips, as it's got a big battery and only goes 20 mph.

On this bike, PAS1 gives 250 W of assistance, which feels like a lot. It's doled out via torque sensor, but not a very precise one, so it feels kind of on again, off again. PAS2 gives 400 W. I haven't bothered with anything higher, but it's a 750 W system. I guess it could haul a lot of weight up a heck of a grade.

I'm leading a (road) bike club ride tonight, so I won't take it tonight, but will probably run some errands on it to speed the discharging or go for a long ride tomorrow.

I may look into reprogramming it to something like:
PAS1 = 50 W of assistance (maybe just enough to effectively cancel the extra 40-50 lbs. of weight the bike carries?)
2 = 100 W
3 = 250 W
4 = 500 W
5 = 750 W

750 W is about 1hp. That's typical max for an e-bike, pitiful for a 50cc scooter, but it's a lot for a human. 250 W is like FTP for fit males, which puts zone 2 in the mid hundreds W

https://www.cyclinganalytics.com/blo...output-compare

Onion report: onion is still there

I took the eFatty again today. For one thing, I burned up my legs at last night's club ride. Strava tells me it was a "Historic Relative Effort", and I burned over 1700 calories in a couple hours. For another thing, it needs further discharging to be ready for storage.

I'm not really happy with the torque sensor on this bike; it's not sensitive enough or not tuned well. Sometimes, I'm moving along and it just stops assisting, even though I'm pedaling at a constant rate that would have me going maybe 8-9 mph if unpowered. If I pedal harder, then it surges up to at least 250 W. I can use the throttle, but that is a clumsy option.

I'll take it downtown for Turntable Tuesday and back home again; that should be enough to get it down another bar on the battery.

I'll end up with about 10 easy eBike commuting miles today. However, if not for that, I would've taken my scooter and gotten NO exercise, so there's that.

Too many beers last night at the brewpub, I slept like crap and am dragging today. I took the scooter to work.
I need to quit drinking; I'm slowly killing myself, even with beer.

Consecutive bicycle work commute number 2113:

The only thing more inaccurate than South Dakota weather forecasts are the promises of politicians.

When I went to bed last night, today was supposed to be sunny and nice. When I got up this morning I saw there was a slight chance of rain between 9 and 11. "No problem," I thought, "I'll be at work during that time span." It was 53°F when I left the house, with just a hint of a head wind. I took the road bike thinking I wouldn't need fenders or my water proof bag.

Just beyond the halfway mark to the office at 6:45 AM, I started to feel sprinkles. Within a quarter mile it was raining steady. I put the hammer down hoping I could get to the office before things got too wet. My hopes were quickly dashed. Within a mile it was raining hard, and the puddles were getting deep.

When I got to the office, I was completely soaked to the point of wringing out my clothes. My backpack had absorbed so much water it had nearly doubled in weight. My work clothes inside of it were wet. I was not a happy camper.

An hour later it's still pouring rain.

This is the perfect time of the year here. 65°F when I left the Park n Ride. The sun didn't crest the buildings and trees until I turned to the south. Fun ride in.

4 laps in a 4 day week.

I'm having recurring trouble with my rear thru axle backing out. It takes a few days but it keeps coming back. I adjusted this hub a few months ago. Now it runs smoothly but it seems the resistance was tightening it.

Onion is still there.