Re-starting the commute tomorrow
 

9 Days ago I decided to mount the new brake pads on my road bike. My inner zen was greatly disrupted when I noticed that my rear rim is cracking, one of the spokes appears to have created a tear in the rim which is not good. The wheels are only 10 months old, so I should have another 14 months of warranty. So after riding the bus/train/subway for a week I'm sick of it.

Tomorrow I will start commuting on my normal bike. It's an alu bike with Nexus 7-spd on it, 28" wheels. Already pumped up the tires, mounted a set of panniers, put on some LED lighting just in case.

Only thing I'm wondering if I should do it or not, is mount the Brooks B17 Narrow from my road bike on the normal bike. Maybe some adjusting of the handlebar and saddle height and angle are still to be done, but that's for tomorrow. I'm feeling great and am ready to give it another shot! :D

Just do it.

How far is the ride?

16 Miles one way. It's doable. I've done it before on the normal bike. It's the Pointer from my signature by the way. Most of it is still the same, though I am running it with a classic handlebar right now and without the aero bars. I mounted the flatbar specially for the aero bars, but when I never used it I thoght I'd just sell it again. My mistake, could have come in handy right now.

I'll make sure the picture from the signature will be updated ;)

I kind of miss my Raleigh Marathon right now. Right now I'm a bit sorry I sold it. Even though it wasn't perfect, it was faster than my normal bike. It was comfortable for a road bike and actually had near-touring geometry. Though, you should know that being a Marathon owner as well :)

That's about the same as my commute. A week ago Friday I rode it on my 1973 Schwinn Varsity to work (and on the Critical Mass ride afterward, almost 50 miles for the day) and I somehow made it.

Just ride, baby!

As for the Marathon, I no longer have mine either. I suffered a mishap at the beginning of a charity ride and bent the derailleur hanger and dropout all to heck.

Sorry to hear that, they're great bikes. I love the feel of steel, it's pretty different from alu. Somehow more comfy.

Ah well, let's just change my style for the colder months then. People already love to laugh at me on the road so doesn't hurt ;)

First ride in was this morning. Was actually pretty comfortable, except for the saddle. Looks like my ass finally got fit to the Brooks then, doesn't it? ;) Think I will be switching the Brooks tonight.
If I will be keeping this up I might need a new handlebar to accomodate more hand positions though. Right now this is what I have, I am leaning towards butterfly bars as they have so much hand positions.
Ideally I would get myself a more setback seatpost and a nice set of dropbars, but I don't think the Mrs will appreciate me spending such a load of money on bikes again ;) Besides that, I don't really think a dropbar would match the looks of the bike too much... lol

Hopefully the road bike's wheel will be fixed soon so I can ride a bit faster on the nicer days like today...


*edit*
Is it me or does a derailleur geared rear wheel run smoother than a IGH rear wheel?

The ride back was harder than this morning. Bit of a headwind which slowed me down quite much. Took me about 70 minutes, which is 10 minutes more than this morning. Found the saddle too high so lowered that a bit, but it wasn't enough to speed me up as much as I needed.

Heard that my road bikes rear wheel crack falls under warranty, so I'm sending it in for replacement. That's good.

Derailleur shifting systems have lower losses than IGH systems. There is a lot more drag in an IGH.

My ride home typically features a headwind. It used to really sap the strength out of me, but now I'm used to it. It still takes more energy, but I expect it and don't let it wear me down mentally.

always good to have a backup bike and a backup for the backup. its fun to switch bikes even though each has some different things to get used to.