Nice. Adding the tail section made it look a lot more balanced and complete. I hope you're planning on a convertible for the top because it gets really hot when you're completely sealed in. That may be less of a factor in MA, but when I tried it once experimentally I was sweltering - and that was during a cool rainstorm.

I've been commuting lately on a minimalist road bike, with no fairing, because the winter has been so mild this year. I am planning a new build though, scaled back and more light-weight.

Holy Head Wind, this morning was brutal!!!

my commute this morning was within the climate controlled comfort of a commuter train.

it wasn't the snow this morning that forced me onto the train.

it wasn't the cold this morning that forced me onto the train.

it was the 35 mph wind screaming out of the NNE.

that's an 11 o'clock headwind for me on my 15 mile commute up the chicago lake shore.

no effing thanks.

I will give props to anyone who chose to ride in today. Had 34mph gusts out of the north this morning. Crazy.

About 39-40F coming in. I leave home at 5:15AM and have only a short ride on, at that hour, deserted streets - unusual to see more than a few cars. Unless it is raining heavily, there isn't much drama. I try to ride fast, chase a bus if I find one, get my heart pumping, get to work all awake-like. I've ridden every day this winter. except one day when it snowed. The sun is out and it looks to be a fine day in Portland OR.

45F and grey; starting to get breezy.

Miserable ending of a pretty nice week: low 40s and rain Quiet, uneventful ride though.

Nice and balmy 17c Celsius with a mild southerly wind and clear skies... after a few weeks of rain, clouds and gloomy weather, today was a pleasant surprise!


On my way back home in the afternoon...

Telly,

Nice picture. I like the way the light catches the rims.

For once I had different weather than Hardy: 31 degrees and beautifully clear with those sparkly things in the sky that I forget about. No wind. It's supposed to be raining tonight so I wore my rain gear.

The bolt holding my crank together almost came out though. My first clue was when it wouldn't shift into the high front gear, as the assembly was moved too far to the left. I finally had a use for my tool kit. This weekend I'll pull it back out, clean the threads, and re-assemble with blue loctite. Losing that bolt would have made for a bad day.

I miss being able to ride my bike anywhere I want...

*sob*

Carry on.

Early signs of spring indeed. I don't think I've every had problems with swallowing bugs on the ride in FEBRUARY before, but I've managed to swallow a few in the last week, including two on the way home yesterday afternoon. One was gnat-like, the other was bigger. Despite my best attempts to spot them out and clear my throat, I ended up relenting and washing then down with big gulps of water.

Weather rather warm today. 50 or so for the ride in, 70 for a predicted high temp this afternoon. Hope to avoid the 50mph subsists that are supposed to usher in the cooler air for the weekend. Something about a gusty 50mph headwind, perhaps accompanied by rain, just isn't that appealing. Extreme, yes, appealing, not so much...

Driving day for me as well with severe thunderstorms forecasted along with a tornado watch, 40 mph winds. Worked out well driving today because we are going out of town for the weekend and I need to get home from work earlier than my usual schedule when riding. Hopefully the weather will be better by Monday.

I commuted by bike 4 out of the 5 days this week. This morning's ride was difficult, it felt sooooooo cold - although the temp was over 40 degrees, I just couldn't get to where I felt warmed up! This afternoon I felt better though. The wind was still both legs of the commute, so I feel sorry for all of you that battled headwinds!

No class this week and I haven't done any riding at all since Sunday.

I took advantage of this week to make progress on the wheel truing project for my hardware class. Modifying a dial indicator so that it could be read digitally was far more difficult than I thought it would be (little gears ... argh!).

I had to go to the hardware store many many times this week. About 4 times alone for the MDF base I made for my Park TS2 stand. Once for the MDF, again because I didn't have a saw, again because I didn't have a large enough drill bit to countersink the bolts and one more time because I didn't account for the countersinking when choosing bolt length.

Today I installed the 3 sensors I'll be using and cleared off a spot on my desk so I can start working on the software. The easiest one was a bike computer sensor I got for free from the LBS for detecting a complete rotation. Hardest was the dial indicator to which I mounted 1/2 of an old ball mouse. And today I finished up the sensor to measure wheel circumference / position using part of a cd-rom frame, roller from an old printer, the disc adapters that came with my mountain bike fenders and another ball mouse.

This last sensor will be a great overkill method of determining the wheel size setting for bike computers in only a few seconds.




An interesting thing I hadn't noticed before about bike computer speed sensors. They are a simple magnetic switch and make a faint clicking noise every time the magnet passes. I'm pretty sure I'd heard the noise before while tuning my bikes and mistaken it for rubbing brakes or the hub

Very hot today, the temperature must close to 40C ํ(Plus heat from vehicles and concrete building made it hotter than normal.)

And this just the beginning of the summer!

Here in El Paso we have only about three weeks left of our "cold" weather until it starts to heat up for Spring again. Looking forward to it!

Cloudy, warm and moist but fine weather to ride in so I cycled over to a friends house around 10 miles out, and took advantage of his space to clean up the bike from yesterdays excursion only to have the presta valve base puncture when I was cleaning the rear tire... bummer and to add insult to injury, I didn't have a spare tube so I left the bike there and will pick it up on Tuesday when the shops open (tomorrow is a local holiday and everything's closed).

Back after 3 weeks in Barbados, where the sun is bright, the temps were either 24C or 25C (upper 80sF), and the trade winds kept everything wonderful. Meanwhile, back here this morning it was 25F (-4C), but it didn't seem that cold. I had a mindless ride in, as I am not fully back yet.

Probably a bit cold for wearing my short riding pants but I made it in. Sun creeps higher each morning...I may actually see it rise before we change the clocks.

Friday's ride home saw a stunning sunset, I need to pack my camera in the bag.

Another beautiful morning 30F. Spring must be very near as the allergy is killing me.

Nice ride, starting to get light early again, heard some birds today. Spring is near.

I was out of town for the weekend, so I was surprised to see the local forecasters calling for rain today. Last time I checked, it was supposed to be a sunny day, but that's par for the course around here. Forecasts aren't much good beyond a day or two and sometimes not even that much. I rode today regardless as it wasn't raining when I got up, and whatever rain we get is supposed to be light. Made into work fine but it had already started raining by 9 am. I'm trying to top 700 miles for the month, which would be the first time I've done that in a February, so it's worth taking a chance as I'm only 2 rides short of that.

Took a spill this morning on the way in! It was 12 degrees out with frozen snow and ice all over the roadways. I was riding my new Salsa Fargo to try her out in the snow. Which, btw, was awesome! What a beast....anyways, I rounded a sharp corner on the MUP at a pretty good clip and the bike slid right out from under me and sent me flying over the bars and into the ditch. I'm fine, lucky I was wearing my heavy winter gear as padding. The bike suffered some minor damage. My new B17 is scratched up and my bar tape is ripped a bit. My rear derailleur took a whack and shifted funny for a few seconds but it functioned perfectly the last few miles to work so I'm thinking it's ok. I guess I'll be investing in some 29er studded tires for next season.

First leg of the commute this morning at 6 am, pitch dark, super sweet!

Also, I must mentioned this. Yesterday, on Sunday, I spotted what I called a super deal on a bike listed on Craigslist. I called the seller, and arranged to meet at a light rail station. The seller was 15 miles away. But, all I have to do is ride 6 miles to the subway, transfer to the light rail, and I am there. I took my beater #1 with me. An old rusty 85 Raleigh Gran Prix. It is rusted from top to bottom, but it has got a sweet ride, and this is the only bike I will take and chain up without an eyeball. At the subway about 8 miles from my house, I chained up the beater. That way, if I buy the bike, I can ride that back, and go home, and come back later or the next day and get the beater. Well, the bike I was going to buy, wasn't what it was supposed to be. Looked a lot worse in person. I declined on the sale. However the sweet thing was, when I got back to the subway, I jumped on my beater, for the 8 mile ride home the beater let me know, it can ride. I smiled the whole 8 miles home. Also, that earned the beater the right to spend the night in my bike bedroom!

Tell me life isn't sweet!!