Had a nice commute day! Grabbed the light, minimal commute bag. choose the 16" folder, and removed the quick-release back rack. It clamps on the seatpost but has two bolted struts which I use wingnuts on, so it came off in about 90 seconds. I forgot it's aluminum and weighs practically nothing, but the bike looks and feels jauntier without it, especially when there's a bag on it, and even more so when it's the big everythings-in-in commute bag.

Because yesterday's old route in was so fun, I took another old route which takes me through the quadrangle at Colorado College and on down Tejon street. I rode it untill the construction. The bike felt fast, but I didn't turn on the GPS so I don't know how quick, but that's okay.

When I got to the newly refurbished bridge, I could see the new sidewalk was blocked off. But as I approached one of the city crew made room for me. There's a 15-foot gravel break in the pavement where the construction vehicles had been transversing the new sidewalk. The worker said that by the end of the day it would be paved.

It was a light day at work and I got to really concentrate and enjoy putting together a 30-sec TV ad for an upcoming Jazz and R&B concert. I was given the poster, publicity stills of the four acts and links to their music. I wrote, voiced and mixed the audio track and then used AI to change my voice into something deeper and more "urban". I then used AI to separate the elements of the poster and animate them as well as the publicity stills. I'm discovering all these new tools and with them, newer, faster and more capable ways of accomplishing the finished project I see and hear in my head, as well as new kinds of styles based on the tools. It's even more exciting than when I transitioned from analog to digital production 30 years ago.

I left a little early, it was sunny and 70F with a negligible breeze...almost perfect. The 16" folder felt quick again and seemed less finnicky than usual.

I didn't experience the mild, inexplicable annoyance, agitation or anger that had been dogging me the last few days.

The 1989 Dahon Getaway seems like a non-serious compromise of a bike, until I take advantage of the higher gearing I put in, then at about the same speeds as the other bikes together with the better brakes and tires (Schwalbe Marathon and Marathon Plus) the bike feels like a real serious commuter...until it hits a bump and exhibits a jiggle or twitch no other bike on earth could produce.


Ready to slingshot outta the ofice and into the weekend.

I took the subway yesterday (Friday) and had many places to go. In the evening, I attended the seminar on Urban Planning at Hunter College with the main attraction being Ray Delahanty, aka City Nerd from YouTube. He always gets appreciative audiences but this crowd was, as he put it, orders of magnitude bigger than everywhere else. The auditorium is very large, and it was absolutely full. The subject is rather academic and potentially boring, but the speaker makes it accessible and funny at the same time. There were also speakers from the City's DOT and Riders Alliance, a transit advocacy group.

So I got a ton of exercise walking. My phone and watch say that I walked 5 miles and climbed 28 flights of stairs, and I really felt it. City life can offer decent exercise just doing your regular life.

The elevator at my school has been out of service for a year or two. I've seen technicians working on it recently. We were apparently waiting for permits to come through, and that caused the delays. It won't be a life changing thing, but it will be an improvement. It might mean that I can easily bring my bike into my office which is on the 5th floor. But as it is, I'm pretty satisfied with the bike rack outside but there might be days when I prefer to bring it in.

There is another teacher who commutes there on bike. She brings her bike in, but it's a lightweight fixie. She parks it right in her classroom or in the hall right outside. She's clearly a badass cyclist, riding with no lights, no helmet, and no brakes. I'm not going to offer my opinion on that style. She saw me with my bike and said, "Oh you've got all the accoutrements," which is fair enough.

Left at 5:35am.....it's almost bright enough not to use a front light but I'll use it for another week. There are roadworks on my longer route so I took the main road...less scenic and flatter.
I've a new bike....photo from last week (after 14 years on a Felt Z4).....what a huge difference DI2 gears, disc brakes and wide wheels make!


Trek Domane Gen4 SL7 2026

Nice story, nice bike.

I run my headlight whenever I ride, day or night. It might help, and it can never hurt. It's a steady (non-flashing) light, and I'm careful to aim it lower than people's eyes.

This cold is pretty miserable and long. My oldest kid caught it nearly a month ago. He started on the Maundy Thursday and had the worst of it all thru spring break. No fair. He still has a lingering cough. We thought we had dodged a bullet. Mine started up last Monday night, and so also for boy twin. Girl twin started up Thursday or Friday. We are all pounding down the store brand dayquil / nyquil pills whenever we remember. So much for commuting much less fitness goals or big ride I fantasized about last month

Feel better, Lefty family.

Mine is also non-flasing....I really dislike strong flashing bike lights!! Mine is an Exposure (British make)...pricey but it really illuminates the road in the winter, and it has an auto-dimmer on the highest setting when it detects oncoming traffic.

48F, grey, supposed to get some at least heavy mist today, but I don't know, so rode cross bike w/ fenders. I am just energizing as the year progresses, maybe, only 1mph slower than roadbike vs 2mph slower 2 wks ago

I am not a fan of flashing headlights but I have a very flashing tail light. I have I think an edelux headlight on my headlight bike which does a good job of lighting up the road in front of me and cutting off below oncoming handlebar height.

I used to have this oncoming guy who wanted to make eye contact with me and exchange enthusiastic greetings through the blinding flashing lamp on his helmet and I could just keep looking away...

Last Friday on my way home I was feeling good, I guess, and thought I'd see how long I could go without turning on the assist. I ended up doing the whole route and climb home (~500') unassisted. Took an extra 5-7 minutes. Kind of an interesting exercise, and nice to know that if I do space out on charging the battery I should be able to get home with just a little more effort.

My main headlight is a 950 lumen nightrider, used after dark. All the bikes have low to medium strength flashers front and rear, and my helmet has medium flashers front and rear. At night I switch the helmet light to solid to help light up off to the sides of the main beam or where ever I look. After dark I make the rear bike light solid.

I read somewhere that it is more difficult to gauge the location of a moving flashing light, and my own experience bears that out.

My next headlight will be stronger, but dimmable for traffic. I'd really like one of the expensive shaped discharge lights from Europe which would work very well with my helmet lamp "fill" light.

Took the main commuter today with the big commute bag since rain was forecast for the afternoon. I also ferried 4 kilos of loose leaf yerba mate in my backpack...that's 8 and a half pounds, but on the rear rack. Didn't feel it weight or stability-wise.

I took one of the usual routes in since there was a car fire at one of the intersections yesterday and I wanted to see if there was any residual scrorching or other evidence of the fire. I know it's a lame excuse for choosing a route. For all the flames seen in the news video, there was nothing to indicate what had happened...no burns, no foam residue...nothing.

Also yesterday there was a brush fire along the last leg of the trail a couple hundred yards and across the creek from the office. But when I rode past I also saw no evidence of the fire. When I got to the office I looked again at the drone footage from the news and still thought it has to be where I thought it was. I asked our dayside news team assignment editor and he said it was just past the far fence of our parking lot. In fact, the fire department pulled firefighting trucks into our lot. I looked again at the photos and realized I had misidentified the creek and the trail, and indeed, it could have been catastrophic for us. Our main building would have been fine, but our secondary building and satellite dishes were less than 100 yards from the flames, separated only by mounds of dirt the city began storing right outside our fence. An eyesore, but now I have a new appreciation for them.

It did indeed rain for the ride home. Low 50s but no wind. My DIY rain cape and fenders kept me dry, and the superior ventilation of the open bottom kept me cool. I realized I could ride to the out-of-commision bridge by the college and then take an access road I usually only take on weekend rides and then only seldom...but it hooks up to my old, old route from the old job and by the time it angles in to rejoin my most often used current route it mitigates the added distance.

Also, I realized the inexpensive Blackburn tires from Walmart with their longitudal tread stayed much grippier in the wet than the lighter-weight, smoother tires I prefer...so the Blackburns make for better commuting tires I suppose. I realize bike tires don't need tread for water dispersal, but the soft rubber, and the squishy ridges make them grippy.

I rode into work only one day last week, Monday. I rode today, Tuesday, the day of extra destinations and miles. The weather looks great.

I had a couple of errands before work but I didn't set my alarm early. I just told myself to be more efficient with morning preparation. But instead, I woke up early and got going. I had to drop off my concert shirt at the dry cleaner. And I had to vote in today's special election for City Council member. We have ranked-choice voting in our primaries. We have four candidates, and I ranked three of them. It's actually a healthy problem in that I think all the candidates look very good.

And I got to work early.

Today is an unusual day at work today. We are proctoring the PSAT and SAT today for 10th graders and above. We sent the 9th graders off on a trip to the American Museum of Natural History, the famous one with the dinosaurs. I wanted to be a chaperone but they didn't want me. I grew up near that museum and have been there countless times.

I've been thinking about improving my overall physical conditioning. Sometimes I'll be riding, and it occurs to me that my cadence is too low. Not that I think cadence is super important. Then I look down and see it's at least 90. My (incorrect) suspicion seems to come from the feeling that I'm pedaling hard. I'm not sure.

Today's ride in was faster than usual, so I guess I'm glad about that. The weather map shows that I had a headwind which I hadn't even noticed.

Easy commute in this morning on the Vektron. Lower 50s when I left, lower 60s later. I had a tailwind and this bike rolls really well, so unpowered. I'll probably dial in a bit of tailwind for the ride back here in a few minutes. I'm taking the afternoon off to go assemble Cari's Lectric XP Trike 2, which just arrived. Probably will take a run around town on it this afternoon. I'll be interested to feel how it is to pedal unpowered, as it is a 90 lb. trike, but with a single gear that seems to be optimized for 12 mph. I expect it'll be good in cadence sensing mode, so it'll assist from a stop and up to the desired speed.

I'm leading the Turtle Tuesday ride tonight for the club, but it'll be easy to have legs left for it, I think.

The faster ride I lead Mondays was canceled yesterday due to T-storms, so I'm unusually fresh today.

I feel like this deserves more explanation. Is this like a lifetime supply?

I usually buy three kilos at a time for the office and that's about a 4-5 month supply at about four cups a day (at the office...including home 5-6 cups a day total ) This time I accidentally ordered a 2-kilo bag of one of them.

I'm sure I've posted about mate on BF before, but the short story is it is a highly-caffeinated South American plant in the holly family that makes a good low-acid substitute for coffee. In addition to traditional methods of preparation and serving, yerba mate can be made in a drip coffee maker like coffee. Unlike coffee, yerba mate has anti-inflammatory and anti-histamine properties and aids in lowering cholesterol and triglyceride levels. Depending on how it is grown and prepared for market (including drying methods and aging) the taste can run the gamut from "grassy green tea" to "malty and smokey with notes of tobacco".

I buy loose leaf yerba mate online from places like pampadirect.com or goyerbamate.com, where mid-priced brands now go for about $16 a kilo which is bout $7.25/pound compared to about $9.00/pound for coffee. And my two main sources offer free shipping over $50.

The caffeine comes on slower and lasts longer so my "caffeine" schedule is less demanding and more flexible.

I still love the taste of coffee more, but I just can't handle the acid, and the sudden drop in caffeine levels. Mate's anti-inflammatory, anti-histamine, cholesterol lowering and tryglyceride-lowering properties have been a real game-changer in my life.

I will still substitute a cup of coffee now and then because I still love coffee.

Consecutive bicycle work commute number 2323:

Despite having a giant hole in the rear rim, I've been continuing to ride my road bike for the last two weeks. My replacement wheel isn't scheduled to arrive for at least another three weeks, so I've been trying to milk the current wheel as long as I can. My speed drops and my effort increases when riding my hybrid bike, so I find myself really going out of my way to avoid taking it. Even if that means having to ride a bike with a gaping hole in the rear rim.

That being said, on the way home last night after logging 22 more miles on the failing rim, I noticed the rear wheel was getting far enough out-of-true to start to noticeably rub on the rear brakes. I had to open the rear brake release to allow the wheel to spin freely, which effectively makes the rear brake non-existent. So I may have taken the Kestrel as far as it's going to go on this wheel. Bummer. Have I mentioned I don't like riding my hybrid if I don't have to?

This morning I got up early to do my usual Wednesday morning walk, however my sciatica was complaining. It was difficult to walk around the house completely upright. I decided not to push it and bailed on my walking outside. Oddly enough, when this happens most everything hurts: sitting, standing, walking, etc. except for pedaling a bicycle. It hurts to get on and off the bike, but once I'm rolling I really don't notice much pain. I'm not sure why, but I guess it helps keep the commuting streak going.

Outside of my physical ailment, it was a pretty glorious morning. 36°F, sun shining and best of all: no wind. With the Kestrel unavailable, I decided that given the lack of wind today was as good a day as any to pull out my old fixed gear bicycle. I haven't ridden it in a couple of years. The tires were flat and I had to clean out some spider nests. After about five minutes of wiping and pumping, it looked pretty decent.

I hopped on the fixie and took off. When I haven't ridden a fixed gear in a while, I always experience a situation where I instinctively try to coast and then get surprised when the pedals don't stop moving. It's a little jarring. It's not a question of if it will happen, but when. As it turned out, the "when" was about 40 feet away, at the end of my driveway. Without thinking I tried to coast as I turned onto the street, and was startled by the feeling of my legs still being forced to move. It made me chuckle that it happened so quickly into the ride. But that was the only time it happened.

The fixie wasn't as fast as my road bike, but it was much faster than my hybrid would have been. Part of the speed was due to the fact that I didn't push myself super hard, and part of it was due to me having the rear gearing relatively low.

I had a goose attack me, which has been happening a lot lately. It's the time of year when they have babies and get super aggressive even when you aren't threatening them. Geese are jerks.

When crossing a pedestrian bridge, there was a group of transient men slowly strolling across the bridge ahead of me, going the same direction. I encounter transient people all the time when I ride through downtown, and generally they don't bother me. However this morning something inside of me told me not to try and pass this group. I can't tell you why, it was just a feeling. I stopped for a couple of minutes to let them get across the bridge while I stayed back about a hundred feet. Then when they were far enough ahead, I crossed the bridge and then turned off the MUP and cut through a parking lot. Maybe I was just being paranoid.

The wind is supposed to come up slightly as the day progresses, but it will be from my back pushing me home. The last mile of my commute is up a very steep hill. It's a challenge on my geared bikes, let alone a non-geared bike. The combination of our typical South Dakota wind and this giant hill is the main reason my fixed gear bike rarely gets ridden. Today the wind won't be a factor, but I'll have to just suffer and grind up the hill.

48F, gray, due to hit 67 - went for roadbike - 1990s ultegra brifter was stuck so not easy to shift down from big ring to middle - wd40'd it when I got to work, seems to be good to go now, riding it around the parking lot shifting up and down... I see strava started giving kudos for 'personal record - so far this year' I guess too few people kept rolling up new achievements and they felt obligated to throw us a bone ... ok I guess...

just out of curiosity what kind of brakes? Mini Vs in particular are so finicky that I wouldn't take rubbing on them as a sign of serious wobble - but actual Vs, or roadie calipers, that might be a different story

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oh yes, wearing shirt today w/ seatpost grease-stain almost as old as the shirt