45F, drizzle. Supposed to get to 60! Pineapple express conditions. I got to look through the clouds driving to Seattle Saturday, definite snow accumulation in the Cascade foothills, which is good for this summer, need snowmelt to keep the rivers flowing. Olympics still bare, though. No cracks in the cloudcover down here since, last Monday? Can't remember that far back.

Last night, the weather forecast said heavy rain and wind with rain accumulation of 0.8 inches (2 cm). I thought I'd prefer to skip that. In the morning, the forecast changed it to 0.4 inches of rain. I took the subway. On the way from the subway, one minute from reaching the building, the heavy rain started so I didn't get very wet.

I pushed a little harder than usual this morning. I have a presently-vague goal to ride my age, 49, on my birthday, the last day of May. That's about 11 weeks, nearly a quarter. But presently I'm riding to work 1-2 days a week and that's been it, hardly fitness. I haven't tried it in a few years. Last time, with probably better base fitness but no extra preparation or training, I washed out seven or eight miles short. I probably need to be doing an hour a day, most days. Between kid duty, savings time, girls softball, and wife also planning to start up aerobics, it's going to be hard to put in some time every day, or enough time on the available days. I always feel like I'm taking time out of a budget I've allocated to spend on them

Tundra_Man I hope this is the last severe winter weather for the season.

I was going to take a weekend ride this weekend but events and weather conspired so I did 45 minutes on the stationary bike Sunday morning. I'll ride in the rain, snow and cold for commuting, but it's tougher to get motivated when it's just for 'fun'. I've been noticing that more and more on the days I don't ride (mostly Wednesdays, and one or both weekend days) my body feels like it doesn't 'come up to speed.' and I'm not so spry on the stairs or walking in the parking lot or out shopping. And then there's a corresponding lack of mental acuity, or so it seems. Perhaps it's all just late-winter SADS even though there's more sunlight since daylight savings.

So I was eager to ride today. We had a cold front blow through overnight Saturday to Sunday morning leaving snow and a high of 20-something. This morning the streets were dry with an outside temp of 11F...clear with no wind. I took a chance that there was no snow and ice on the commute routes and left the studs off the winter bike but still chose it for its weight and wide footprint. I had a little trepidation about dressing right, but I just stuck to what I knew and I was fine...warm and comfortable, but not too hot.

I did try something new, though. Usually with temps under 15F down to my limit of 5F I will wear long slightly breathable poly workout pants over my bike shorts and then some fleece-lined light nylon snow pant over those, which works, but is sometimes a little too warm as they don't breath as much. So this morning I wore my old pair of long poly workout pants over the new pair. It was okay for 11F, but if it were windy or any colder It wouldn't have worked for me.

The ride was refreshing, and I felt alive and sharp after arriving at the office.

The expected high today was only 38, but by the time I left for home it was sunny and 50F, dropping to 44 by the time I rolled into my backyard. On my heaviest bike and with the heavy 'everything' commute bag, and all the extra layers of office and bike clothes packed in it, I really felt the weight on a few minor uphills going home, but on the steeper hills I just dropped down to the super low first gear and took my time.

When the going gets rough, or I get bored I can easily tell my phone to play the news and I can listen to it in my right ear. But for the last few weeks the urge to hear the news is quickly followed by the realization that the news is no longer interesting...just depressing...so I just pedal a little harder and try to read what my body and the bike are saying.

Much warmer yesterday. 40F in the morning, quickly rising to 45F by mid ride.

I took the main commuter and the route that takes me east to west through downtown on Pikes Peak Avenue, which has separated, protected bike lane for two blocks. Occasionally there's a car or work truck blocking the lane. Yesterday there was a pickup truck and trailer with a small gas-electric generator behind it parked in front of the new Fiona Apartments, the construction of which blocked the bike lane for almost two years.

It was a food truck specializing in coffee. I hooked around it and doubled back. There were no patrons, but a harried-looking 40-something was behind the counter. Making sure to remain calm and pleasant despite the bike-ride adrenaline I said, "The bike lane may not be the best place to set up."

"I'm finding that out," she said. "But this is where the apartment management told me to set up. They're not open yet, but when they do I'll let them know."

The adrenaline wanted me to go all "scorched earth" and leave a nasty message, but I decided to wait and see if it happens again, and then appeal to the apartment management, and then the city.

Then, 72F and sunny for the ride home with another warm wind out of the north. I was constantly dropping down to the lower handle bars to gain a couple of MPHs. The Greenway trail through downtown was packed with cyclists, joggers and pedestrians seemingly rendered oblivious to other trail users by the warm sunny spring-like day. And more than a few comfort-bike riders were doing slow lazy slaloms from side to side. The trail traffic thinned out as I headed east on the Rock Island trail, but I still encountered what the late automotive journalist Brock Yates referred to as "obliviots".

As I pulled up to the traffic light by the house where a car collision sent a pickup careening through a hydrant, fence and air-conditioner last week, I saw the home owner cleaning up. His English was limited, and my Spanish was even worse, but we were able to have a brief conversation. He said there were many close calls, and some collisions and damage, but this was the worst. He thought the city should put up lights on the approach to the hill warning of a traffic signal at the top, and that cars regularly blow through the red light at highway speeds. I know...I live just a couple blocks away and can often hear them.

Yes, you'll need to be taking longer rides here and there, at least once a week. On that ride, push yourself and the commutes will be recovery rides.
You'll also need to fuel yourself better to avoid washing out. Carby meal the night before helps and more carbs the morning of. Meal stop in the middle of the ride and maybe electrolytes in one of your water bottles.

Yeah, me too. It just changes the whole feeling of the day.

I'm sick with a cold or something and we got a dusting of snow last night. Still snowing, but I rode anyway. I noticed I never feel worse after a ride, even when I'm sick.

We have a bike club meeting tonight that's around 6 miles across town and I'll probably ride to that as well. We'll see how I feel.

It felt good to do a bike commute this morning, even with the cold & snow. There was no wind, which was a refreshing change from 15+ mph we've had every day for awhile.

Consecutive bicycle work commute number 2313:

It's been an interesting week of commuting so far. I already told the tale of Monday morning in my previous post above. Monday evening the temp had risen into the teens and I had a tail wind, so I rode the bike the whole way home from work. There was lots of rutted ice on both the MUP and the roads, making the ride treacherous and slow.

Yesterday morning the air temp was back down to 3°F, and the wind was blowing steady at 20 mph. It was behind me pushing for the ride to work, which I enjoyed at the time but knew I would loathe later on the way home. The rutted ice hadn't had a chance to melt any due to the low temperatures, so I had another treacherous and slow ride to work. Because of all the ice, I took the mountain bike with studded tires.

Yesterday afternoon the temp rose into the mid-20s, but it snowed again. We wound up getting about 3/4", which sat on top of all the rutted ice hiding it from view. On the roads, the cars had pummeled the new snowfall into mashed-potato snow, which is really tough to ride through as it provides no traction. It is dense enough to keep your tires from hitting the pavement/ice below it and digging in, but also doesn't stick to the pavement/ice causing it to slip out from underneath the tires. Couple that with the headwind and it made for a challenging ride.

I needed to ride home, change clothes, throw some food down my throat, and be at the theater by 6:30 so I left work about 15 minutes early at 4:45 PM. That turned out to be fortuitous that I left early. About a mile from the office as I was riding down the MUP I thought, "My left pedal feels funny." I looked down and could see the crank visibly wiggling back and forth on the bottom bracket spindle. I looked like it was about to fall off. Unfortunately, in my tool kit I didn't have an allen wrench large enough to try and tighten it. I ascertained that it probably wasn't going to survive the entire ride home. I then decided that if I call for help immediately, maybe someone could rendezvous with me at one of the parking lots up ahead and save me some time vs waiting to call when it finally broke.

I called my son. As luck would have it, he was just leaving an appointment and was driving my truck. He also was less than a mile from where I was currently standing. I asked him to meet me at a parking lot about 1/4 mile further down the MUP. I continued to pedal slowly towards the lot. I was about 200 yards away when the crank completely fell off. Upon inspection, the square hole in the aluminum crank arm that fits over the square taper on the spindle was visibly no longer square. Looks like it had slowly wallowed itself out over the years and finally got loose enough to fall off. I pushed the bike the last little bit right as my son arrived with the truck. I threw my bike in the back and he drove me home, which actually got me home a little faster than had I not had mechanical trouble.

This morning, the temp was a balmy 28°F and hardly any wind. With the studded-tire mountain bike out of commission I had no choice but to ride the Salsa fat tire bike, which I tend to dislike due to how much effort it takes to pedal (I'm lazy.) Due to all the mashed potato snow in the streets, this was probably the better choice anyway. The fat tire bike handles mashed potato snow pretty well. This bike is slow, but I notice it is equally slow on both pavement and in snow. So it's a fairly consistent bike to ride speed-wise.

The first mile or so of the commute I was buzzing along at about a 7 mph average. Then I started to get slower, which I just assumed was me getting tired. By the time I reached the office, I could barely hold 5 mph, and that seemed like effort. Once I parked the bike I noticed that the rear tire was almost flat. Not flat enough for the rim to hit the pavement, but flat enough that when sitting on the bike the sidewalls would wrinkle. Well, that would explain why it was so hard to maintain any speed. Maybe I was getting tired, but I was probably tired from trying to ride a bike with a flat tire.

When I bought my fat tire bike in 2019 I had it converted to tubeless tires. I had heard that in addition to significant weight savings without the fat-tire inner tubes, it also makes your tires much more flat resistant. Well, I'm not sure I buy into that second argument. I have had more flats on this bike than I have on all my other bikes combined during the same time period. Considering how little I actually ride this bike (1458 miles on it in seven years) that's a very high flat-to-mile ratio. It's not just the same tire every time, either. I can never find anything in the tire that would cause a puncture. I just reinflate them and they seem to hold air again for a while. Every fall I make sure to add more tire sealant in preparation for the winter, so it shouldn't be that the sealant is drying out.

So before I head home tonight I'm going to have to try and get the tire to hold some more air. Dealing with this all the time doesn't increase my liking of the fat bike.

50F, drizzle. All the uneven parts of the roads/trail filled to the top, so lots of splashing. Still, shoes/tights/gloves not wet enough to need heroic measures once I got to the office, air drying should suffice...

Yesterday at 2 I was summoned to come get behavior kid. By the time I got to the school it was only 7 minutes to the bell. What was the point of that?

kid duties morning, kid duties afternoon, delivered dog to vet, no ride

Last week my wife needed the car on Thursday, which has been my day to drive lately. So I ended up with five straight days, and probably will do the same this week.

A couple of days ago, had a close call on my commute home. The ride starts with a big descent, one lane, usually with traffic. I no longer try to squeeze by, even though we can be faster on a bike. So I just tap the brakes, look around. OK, nothing 100 yards ahead on the curve to the right ... Oh, look, there's a family unloading and getting ready for a hike on the left, that's sweet ... HEY, THE CAR IN FRONT OF ME STOPPED! What the hell? Emergency braking, a little lock-up and swerve and release, look for hazards and a bail-out route.

She stopped for a squirrel. Couldn't believe it.

Must have been a bad day, because I remember now that I had another interaction with a car that day, too. Oh, right it was someone flying through a yellow-red with plenty of time to stop.

Yesterday on the way home - 90 degrees! Headwind! - I noticed a sound coming from behind me, like a clicking. Kept thinking someone was coming up behind me. Got home and investigated, and it turned out that one of the screws holding the top hook had come loose, so the bag was moving a lot on the rack. Found the nut in the bottom of the bag and secured it. Not bad for 35-year old bags, I guess.

Today I came across the guy on the fat e-bike with two front wheels. He was waiting at a light, and proceeded to tear up the bike trail and left me way behind. Even saw him on the way back, so he must go up to a certain point and turn around. Finally figured out that he is on a Rungu Dualie. What a weird (terrifying) craft. Goes 25 mph, weighs 91 pounds. I did see him pedal a few times, at least.

That looks like a contraption that would do nothing well.

Piaggio makes dual front wheel scooters. The two struts are connected to the single head tube with a parallelogram. They are able to stop without putting feet down and park with no kickstand. But they do have the normal single head tube, all the clever stuff is in the fork region.

Which does not explain that thing, it may be wholly inexplicable, except for style

Been there...done that. Oddly fond memories now...not so much when they happened.

Beautiful dawn this morning, 39F, quiet, no wind, saw one car but lots of waterfowl, one Bald Eagle, bike running perfectly, best way to start the day...

Tundra_Man , sounds like you've got two bikes out of commission. Good thing you have options, though they may be fair weather only...

At this point, may I suggest: Re-tubing project for the fatbike. It probably has enough sealant in there now where you should clean it all out and start again, but I question whether the wheels & tires were "tubeless-ready" to begin with. Clean all that sealant out, put tubes in, and put FlatOut in the tubes.

Sounds like it's time for a new crankset, or maybe just a new arm if you can find one.

Darth Lefty I've seen those Piaggio MP3s in road cycle races for crew. I also know someone who has one. She started on midsize cruiser motorcycles, but kept dropping them at stops. She got the MP3 and has not had problems since. I'm not sure if that is a good solution. Maybe she's just not a motorcyclist/scooterist....

Chinghis I don't see the point of those Rungu Dualies. Dual front wheels would be less likely to wash out in a turn I suppose, but the single motor is in the rear, so they would not work better in loose or surfaces than a regular eFatty. They're nearly $5k too; it's a lot just to ride a motor vehicle on a MUP.

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Uneventful commute this morning. It was 34 °F when I left this morning, but it's supposed to be 56 this after noon. I remembered the old cyclists's saying: "Be bold, dress cold". It was meant to accommodate the heat we make as we go, but it also applies to these fake spring days.

Wife said I could drive today, but I took the ebike. I would just be angry and yelling at people in the first two miles if I drove.

Stopped to do some shopping yesterday, and then decided to take home a route that I hadn't been on for a while. It's a dirt trail that goes through a park; it cuts two miles off my regular 10-mile route home, but it's very steep. Since I hadn't done it for a while, I didn't realize how overgrown it was, and it wasn't terribly pleasant. I'm also still getting used to this thing on dirt. There's another alternative with a little dirt section I can do, but there's steep approach to get to it. Probably just go back to my regular pavement route for a while.

Today on the way in I passed a guy grinding up the hill. I felt bad as I passed him, spinning in a low gear. He was mashing in a high gear, and I just wanted to say, "Dude, shift down." But I just said hi and continued on.

Reviews say that it's capable in loose dirt and sand. But the beach is very far away from here ...

My overall experience with tubeless has been positive. It doesn’t prevent work on the tires, but it moves the work home. I almost never get a puncture of any kind. But the tape and sealant neither last forever. When tape goes bad, it leaks into the rim and compounds problems. I had something else written up before this, but I deleted it all because I thought I had better live my truth, and go check on my bike, which has been not holding air for an entire ride time lately. And I could tell it had sealant because I could hear it sloshing.

Following up the above. I don't know when the tape went wrong. It was not always. There's clearly sealant inside the rim now. When sealant leaked into the rim it sealed up the nipples and threads, and they were sometimes holding pressure. There are boogers at nearly every spoke hole. The nipples don't look great, I don't know if they would turn if they needed to. There's gooey webs of rubber on the beads of the tire. To add insult to injury, when I threw out the tape and drained the tire, I dropped the nut for the valve down into the dumpster, where I will not be chasing it. Nevertheless I will probably just throw it back together, maybe with Gorilla tape this time. It deserves outright replacement with something better, but none of it is actually broken, and I don't want to afford it right now.

I got out the Baconator to ride, and it was fine.

This has been my philosophy for years but I never really made a concise phrase out of it. I'd always say it less elegantly: "dress for how you'll be after you warm up."
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It was a very good day, bike wise and otherwise. It was at least 45F when I left the house so I wore only shorts and the magic poly shirt over my bike tee and a windbreaker over that and some light long fingered gloves.

I packed a light commute bag, topped off the tires on the felt f65, my lightest bike hit the 8 Mile trail to trail route. There's an underpass under circle drive that floods after any rain or snow and it had been closed long past the last snow. It was still dry but the gate at either end makes it difficult to. This morning on the way to work I saw a city work crew with shovels and brooms cleaning out under the bridge which was still blocked off with cones but I knew it would be open for the ride home.

The felt seems to have become less harsh over time. I don't know if that is a good thing or a bad thing but it feels wonderful and is effortlessly fast and stable. The only two big caveats are hard braking which well the brakes grip the rims skinny 700x25 tires don't really grip the ground like the fatter tires on my other bikes ... And when the front does grip the back wheel starts to come up off the ground which is unnerving. And while the skinny tires seem to work okay and gravel in a straight line and he turns involve sliding if not careful.

Our news team had mentioned the construction on 8th Street in front of the office was shifting to the west side and that the sidewalk on the bridge over fountain Creek would be open after Wednesday

The trail was clear by the college, I think it's spring break. And then I took my little spur up to 8th Street and lo and behold. The sidewalk was open and I did not have to deal with crossing three ways at the intersection or crossing over 8th Street and back. Old pedestrian bridge which they took down was narrow and covered and made two-person passing difficult especially with a bike or two involved. But it had its charm. The new sidewalk is better more than twice as wide has a fence along the side but is open otherwise.

Officially, it was 74 when I left the office in the afternoon, but my bike thermometer showed 81°F at one point along the ride home. There was no appreciable wind for a change and the trail was a little more crowded in spots. The underpass was open and clear and I took a slightly different route for the last quarter mile to avoid some Street construction. So I encountered only one stoplight in 8 mi.

I felt strong and fast and combined with a busy day at work. I was in a good mood the whole day.

Consecutive bicycle work commute number 2315:

Had another flat tire last night on my way home. I had neglected to pack the correct replacement tube in my pannier, so once again I had to make the call of shame to my son.

So to recap:

• Tuesday: mountain bike - crank failure.
• Wednesday: fat bike - flat rear tire.
• Thursday: hybrid bike - flat front tire.

I took the road bike this morning. We'll see if the streak continues on the 4th different bike. This is the kind of consecutive streak I would love to break.

At least it's only the bikes falling apart

I got a lot of commuting miles in yesterday:

1. Regular commute into work, 2 miles.
2. Downtown for lunch and back, 6 miles.
3. Extended commute home, 11 miles.

This morning, it was nice: mid-40s and will reach at least 62 by midday.

I washed my two main commuter bikes yesterday evening with the garden spray bottle. The Priority is SO nice to wash, as I don't have the avoid a chain. The belt was getting squeaky on the pulleys under high torque, so it was time to spray off the inside of the belt. The ZiZZO has an oily chain, as it was my main winter commuter and the wax-based lubes weren't cutting muster against the road salt.

I have an eye exam across town at lunch today; going to commute to that as well for an extra 6-8 miles. Going to treat myself to some sporty photo-sensitive glasses for cycling this year. Maybe even fancy-pants Oakleys or Tifosis. I have to admit that the optical shop is not located well. It's on that ridiculous stroad with 6 lanes, a 50 mph speed limit, and a bike lane that cars merge through all the time.

8" of rain this week; 55F and raining this morning ... the bike trail crosses this major street that has been crippled by a sewer job for over a year now, but today it impacted me! Usually it just stops cars so I can cross the street between them. Today they were digging up the exact crosswalk I need to get to the other side of the trail. I thought I was going to have to divert to the parallel street for a mile with no bike lane or shoulder and drivers late for work in the hospital; then I remembered I could go through the parking lot next to (and fenced off from) the bike trail and look for a break in the fence to get back to the trail. Then I found they actually had paved a ramp back from the parking lot to the trail right behind the trench they dug. So, whew!

Oh, also, when I am the first to arrive (most days) I take my pants out of the pannier to get the key to get into the building; I get in, turn off the alarm, go back, get the bike, move it into my office, cool down for a bit before changing clothes. Anyway, today, I didn't notice that after getting the key out, I didn't stuff the pants thoroughly back in the pannier, they fell out and then sat in the parking lot getting rained on until I realized what had happened. The other side of our building is a methadone clinic and we get a lot of foot traffic so I am glad I went back for the pants (w/ my wallet) before somebody decided to look through them.

While we have a keypad to the building, my office stays locked with a key. When I started 4 years ago I asked for a got a 2nd key to put on the key ring I wear on my bike clothes. 6 months later the locks were changed and even though I ask every 6 months I can't get a second key, so If I arrive before my office mate I have to dig into my backpack to get at the keys in my pants pocket. On the other hand, if I was interested in convenience, I'd drive every day.

Anyway, I'm glad no one took your wallet.