today I forgot my sportcam's bar mount so I have to wear the stupid thing on my head tonight ;-(

Slept in two hours late, tried to get in a quick ride before work, felt like **** and pulled the plug early. Been a down week.

Also decided I'm going to ride every day in November.

Way to go buddy!

That's a really good idea. Here in Iowa around this time of year, one day of "meh, it's windy out, maybe tomorrow" or "meh, looks like it might drizzle, maybe tomorrow" or "meh, snow already?" easily stretches into many, and then you wake up much fatter one day in February and realize that you haven't ridden in months.

Yeah, I just dip into laziness really easily, and the weather's too nice to make any decent excuses.

40's and rain here, third day in a row. I try not to make excuses as to why I haven't ridden, but nope, I am not riding in that crap weather. Speaking of rain and dropping your phone in a puddle after you get out of the car, that is what I did today, well, super early this morning after work.

damn!

arent you a “bike messenger” with a chrome bag full of sandwiches?

ouch.

#messlife

27 miles today, cloudy and cool, nice times. Haven't gone out for a daytime ride without putting on sunscreen in a while.

It's funny. You have someone on ignore, and then out of the clear blue, you see that they posted, and you open the post even though you know that it is not a good idea. You then read the post. It doesn't take long to remember why you put this person on ignore in the first place. You then remind yourself that when you see this person post, motrheadsroadie, talking to you here.....you remember that you don't click see post. You keep scrolling past their dribble and pretend like they don't exist.

Now, since you seemed to care about what it is that I do, you will get an answer. There is no messlife. Jimmy John's was a means of extra spending cash and just having some fun on the bike. Miles added up as fast as the tips did. If you want to deliver something by bike where I live, this is how you do it. There are no messenger companies, not even UberEats or anything like that. They are the only place in town that delivers anything by bike. Fortunately for me, it was not my main source of income and was a total throw away job. Since the opportunities to deliver something by bike were extremely limited, the situation was what it was.

It is funny because no matter who you ask, if you delivered for Jimmy John's or some of the food places, you were considered trash, or not a messenger, less than worthy of calling yourself anything other than some guy who rode their bike. The thing is, and this goes for anything that is delivered by bike. It is the same crap weather, the same ignorant drivers, the same crappy streets, and you have a deadline. The item in your bag is different, but there is still a customer on the receiving end that wants what you are delivering and is paying for it. Food, legal documents, flowers, whatever.

You can look down your nose all you want, and make fun and joke about it all you want. I was out there. In the rain. In the heat. In the snow. In the wind. In the negative wind chill. I was on my bike. I was delivering something to someone. Think less of me all you want. You weren't there and I don't want you there. In the summer it is in the upper 90's with humidity. In the winter it is in the single digits with wind chills in the negatives. I had close calls. I was hit by a driver. I wiped out coming in hot on the crosswalk paint in the rain. I had pedestrians step out in front of me. I was almost taken out by a red light runner.

So yeah, to answer your question, I did have some sandwiches in my Chrome bag, but that is completely irrelevant to me dropping my phone in a puddle after getting out of my car.

closing this for a bit

opened, play nice please

Today I commuted to work on studded tires for the first time since spring. I didn't quite have the "going to have a heart attack" feeling that they usually give the first time around, but I did take it somewhat easy, and my commuting route is pretty short (~4 miles each way) now that a bunch of road construction is complete.

Today I did a quick 21 miles with a friend. I didn't get the memo that track bikes were gonna be ridden so I was on my road bike. He showed up on my old Felt TK3 that I regret selling. Beautiful ride until the sun went down and the temp dropped 12°.

Today I became a Lyft Driver. My inner cycling kid is mad at me.

today i shattered the flange on my rear paul hub.

Last night was my first night driving for Uber. Gonna do weekends and nights and all monies go into the cycling gear fund.

How does one accomplish this?

thats a good question. stood on the pedals to start my ride and heard a pop. tirel rubs the inside of the chainstay. figure "wtf how did i just break a spoke?!" get off the bike to inspect the damage and see the flange cracked and ripped away in places. walk back up my driveway and swap bikes.

Hmm, how was it laced? Had it been built into another wheel previously?

2x
never been laced to anything before. i know the history of this wheel.

Any off road shenanigans in it's history, or did it just fail?

Today I built two stupid small wheels. 451mm 20" with a NuVinci hub laced 1x with 162mm spokes.

Today I remembered why it is not a good idea to do a snot rocket when its super windy out