today I started construction work for my summer job, oh my

As much as I do like my Turbo, I can honestly say you will regret this.

i hope you were able to put them back in your sockets

leuky: haha yeah i bet!

dave: dude I know, but she likes the B17 better, but I'm too broke da broke to get another one for a while.. haha no income in college is lameeee.

The hell Davis, hailing on June 1st. Today I got super wet and hoped that my 1 day old Lizard Skins aren't gonna be to bad after 2 days worth of pouring rain. Then I realized my math final is tomorrow.

Bike related, I decided I wanted a good helmet and gloves.

They won't. ;) Trust me, if you wrapped them like any normal wrap job you should be fine as water just runs off the material it's made out of. Did I mention they were designed by a company that started off making mountain handlebar accessories?

Worked on my stamina, as I don't have much (my heart sucks and my joints suck, I need to get them slowly into shape). 2+2 miles to and from the store in the morning and a few of my 1.3 mile quick-ride-route throughout the day. It is getting uncomfortably hot here. I usually don't sweat very easily and I was quite wet a few times today.

Riding fixed for a change is very nice - makes me work harder instead of giving-in to the wind and hills so easily.

Can't wait for it to cool down tonight so I can go out again.

I don't know what I'm going to do if my contract-work job suddenly gives me more hours.

Today I found hairline cracks on both the front and rear wheels on the bianchi.

Dear chpmnks,

If you want to try to sup me on the lake front trail at 10:30pm, at least be able to keep up with me.

Yelling "hey, you passed me twice now, how'd you do that?" (because I stopped to go to the bathroom, BTW) isn't an impressive pickup line.

sup

Sounds like you sure like his swagger.

Today I narrowly avoided becoming road kill... and for all you brake-less wonders this should serve as a cautionary tale.

Was heading west on what is a 6 lane road in the right through lane with a green light... the through lane is also a right turning lane so when I pass through here I always take the middle of the lane to keep cars from trying to pass and make a right turn.

Because of a few other incidents I always watch the left middle lane and today a woman driving an SUV pulled alongside and made a right turn from the centre lane.

When I built my new SS I used my old coaster hub and track bars and Monday I added a front brake because the coaster hub is lacking in the stopping department.

Today that front brake saved my life and I am still here to talk about what I did today.

Ran the woman down and reamed her out and told her she almost ran me over... she was very apologetic and said she thought there were 2 turning lanes.

Do they give driver's licenses out in boxes of Crackerjack or something ?

I am always wary at this intersection and don't bomb through it as the last close call here involved a gravel truck.

Have sent a really angry letter to the city to point out how bad this intersection is and hope they will make changes to signage and the lights.

today i did my 16 mile commute on my new SS and with a fully loaded backpack i still managed to go a 1 mph faster avg speed than my best time on my geared carbon road bike sans backpack. I figured the backpack and the aluminum frame would be equivalent to the 33lbs i've lost since last September so i'll attribute it to my better conditioning :)

But I am enjoying the Dawes SST, with the stock gearing on the flats of Irvine i can just cruise at 20-21mph no sweat. Fastest i got to spin out on a slight downhill less than 1% i doing 30mph must have been funny to see my spinning like that LOL

Glad you are OK!

So glad you are ok. There was a bad bike accident in Chicago yesterday on my commute route. I didn't see it, just heard about it. So far sources (both bikers and drivers) said the cyclist ran a stop sign and got hit. It is a four-way stop that I sometimes roll through. It sounds like she's in really bad shape. :/

ugh, cars man, WHY!? (old meme is old)

Cars are OVER!!!!

Today I:

...well actually Friday I learned that my left femur is 1.5cm longer than my right. THAT explained lots of bike fit issues I'd been having.

I've had this body for YEARS and didn't know that.

I was getting a fancy (read: $$) bike fitting for my race bike and it was worth every penny.

It's a shame you're out of warranty....

so does that mean you need to get mis-matched crank arms or just a taller shoe?

I called my mom and left a message asking if she'd kept the receipt.


She hasn't called me back yet. (finger's crossed)


Well, I assumed that adding a thick stack between my cleat and the shoe would be the answer, but that only works if the discrepancy is in the lower leg. The solution was to move my left cleat back 1cm which allowed my foot to go forward and down 1cm more than the right. Clever solution.

So, now the pedal axle is 1cm further behind the ball of my foot, but that's minor compared to everything else falling in line and freeing up my pedal stroke.

He also documented how inflexible I am (or was). I've been stretching like crazy ever since. Or at least I *thought* I was stretching on the first two days. I have a friend that was a competitive gymnast for 10 years. She showed me how to stretch. Made me cry :( The next day my legs were crazy fatigued (but not sore) like I had a serious day in the gym. Before I couldn't get anywhere near touching my toes. Now I can touch the ground on the first stretch downward before I even get warmed up.

I'm still learning a lot.

Today I encountered a severe idiot in a small Ford pickup truck who nearly ran me into a curb by being impatient and swerving around someone making a left into a gas station. Naturally, I called him a stupid ******* as I got myself out of that situation by ducking onto a sidewalk for a hot second to get around him. For whatever reason, he thought it would be a good idea to speed after me, get real close, stomp on the gas while right beside me and smash my elbow with his mirror as he passed me. Awesome.

However, he got stuck at a red light shortly up ahead, we had some choice words, I got his plate number and called the cops as the light changed and he drove off. About a mile later saw him pulled over. I rode up, showed the officer my bloody elbow and gave my statement.

Moral of the story: don't **** with the guy who tunes up the local police department's bikes.

Wow, that's a very significant difference. One good thing is that if you choose to go with a longer crank arm on the left side, there won't be any track banking pedal strike issues. You may have to find a compromise seat height which is a bit high for the shorter right leg.

I hope he gets an assault charge for the trouble.

Have you heard of racers using cranks of different lengths? That may be an option.

The saddle height is where I was having issues! Originally, my cleats were aligned the same so one day I would set the saddle height to make the left leg happy. The next day I'd do it to keep the right leg happy. Drove me nuts. Eventually, I settled on turning the saddle like 1-2 degrees left of center. I didn't know why this was comfortable...but it was!

I explained that to the fitter and he explained that doing that moved my left leg away from the left pedal (allowing it to lengthen) and put the right leg closer to the pedal (shortening it)...but it threw other stuff out of whack.

Moving the cleat cleared all of that nonsense up.

Damn, Scrod. That sucks, but good for you (and us) that he'll hopefully be prosecuted.

Today I took that....

Dumbass got slapped with a vehicular assault charge and operating to endanger - which can carry a hefty fine, license suspension and up to 36 months of jail time. It kinda sucks that I'll have to take time away from my life and things that are important to me to go to court but at least he may get what he deserves for being a dickhead.

That's nice to hear scrod! IT's a shame you didn't take him up on attempted murder.

Were you on a MTB or cross bike?

And that 1080 hd is a lie; all those hideous artifacts!!!!

Word.