The other day I posted about finding a gold wedding ring during a ride. Not something you see everyday, so I posted it on Craigslist and called it a day.
Well, since then, I’ve found myself scanning the road ahead of me while on climbs. It seemed silly and pointless, but it’s sort of like winning the lottery or hitting the jackpot at a casino, where you figure it happened once, so surely it’ll happen again. Right? As it turns out, yeah, that’s right.
While on the last leg of my ride yesterday, nearing the top of my last climb, a very shiny object caught my eye. My first reaction was that it must just be a shiny washer, except that no washer shines quite like that. I hit my brakes, back-tracked a few yards, and picked up a shiny titanium wedding ring. It’s more scratched up that the gold one, but it’s still in decent shape. It’s engraved, this time with a first name, so maybe that’ll help track down the owner a little better.
So, what do you want to bet I’m going to be able to keep my eyes on the road now? Third time’s a charm… maybe I’ll find my original wedding ring, next.
Changing batteries in the Cateye Loop is extremely easy, but only once you know how. I tossed the packaging the day I got it, and I don’t see instructions online, so I had to figure it out for myself. If you’re having trouble getting it apart–since it’s not at first obvious–then follow the instructions below.
First, grab a flathead screwdriver. I took the headlight off my bike while I did this, but you an just as easily leave it mounted.
I got this little light a few days ago for those rides where I want to be sure I’m seen by drivers, but I don’t feel I need a headlight to help me see the road. There are a few different types of these small, easily mounted lights on the market, but since I’ve had good luck with Cateye products in the past, I decided to skip the others and try the Loop.
Cateye makes this light in both with and red, but since I already have a Cateye TL-LD610 taillight, I just went with the white version. Mounting couldn’t be easier, since all you have to do is wrap the elastic band around your handlebar, frame, seatpost, backpack, or wherever you want to mount it, and you’re done.
The body of the light is made of semi-translucent gel, so it mostly conforms to whatever you mount it to. You can tell by the curvature of the back that it’s designed to fit a 31.8mm handlebar, although it bends around my 25.4mm bar just as easily. I doubt I’d want to mount it on a thin seatstay, like I have on my steel road frame, but I think it’d work pretty much anywhere else. Since it weighs only 22 grams, you could even leave it on your bike all the time, and not notice the extra weight.
About a month back, I was going through some old issues of Bicycling magazines that I had laying around, looking for useful info before I finally tossed them in the trash. I ride a singlespeed road bike, which means I run out of top-end gearing faster than someone with the ultimate 55×11 gearing. As such, I find myself trying to get as low and aero as possible to make up speed when I can no longer accelerate through pedaling.
I’ve been trying this tuck position on some of the longer hills I ride, and I’ve noticed a huge difference in speed, especially on windy days–which we’ve had a lot of lately. I wouldn’t suggest it to everyone, since it puts a lot of stress on your elbows, and it moves your hands away from your brake levers, but for the occasional quarter-mile or longer downhill, where pedaling no longer does any good, it makes a difference.
SEDALIA — Several hundred cyclists traveled across Missouri on the Katy Trail to celebrate the path’s 20th anniversary.
The Sedalia Democrat reported that more than 300 riders from 30 states traveled the 225-mile hiking, biking and equestrian path in five days. They slept outside and stopped in cities along the way. Their ages ranged from 6 to 81 years old.
I see lots of interesting stuff on my rides, but this is the first time I’ve found gold jewelry. Heading up a long climb, a shiny gold object caught my eye, so I swung around to check it out.
Sure enough, it was exactly what I thought, a gold wedding band. Of course, there’s no name inscribed (why make life easy), but it does have the wedding date and something else identifiable inscribed on the inside.
I put an ad on Craigslist in the Lost & Found section, but I don’t hold out a lot of hope of ever finding the owner. However, I lost my titanium wedding ring last November, and kept hoping it’d show up, eventually having to just buy a replacement. Hopefully, the owner will hit up CL to see if it’s posted, and I can get it back to him.
I had a great bike ride today in 106° heat, all except for one part. I sent the following email to Doug Perry Towing when I got home from my ride:
"I was riding my bike on Forum Blvd. today around 5:10pm, doing 35mph (in a 35mph zone) downhill around the curve that heads away from the Missouri Country Club. A car was holding up traffic behind me, even though I was on the edge of the lane, until I got to the bridge just past Wilson’s Fitness Center. The car finally passed me when I was able to get over about a foot more into a bike lane, and right behind that car was one of your employees driving one of your white trucks. When he got beside me, he revved his engine up to get my attention, then waved his fist and yelled something at me through the window, all while taking his eyes off the road. He then proceeded to flip me off through the rear window as he passed the entrance to the MKT parking lot and on up the hill.
I didn’t get a great look at him, but he was a stocky guy, maybe 25 to mid-30s wearing dark sunglasses and a ball cap. I’m sure you know we have laws in Columbia about acting threatening toward cyclists, and whether you agree with them or not, you will be held accountable if one of your employees–while on the job–does something to cause an accident, or even a potential accident with one of us. If I’d twitched my bar to the right when he came up beside me and revved his engine, I would have hit the side of the bridge and wrecked in front of the traffic that immediately followed him. Let your guys know that not only will I find out who is responsible should something like that ever happen, I’ll hold them criminally liable, and I’ll also hold Doug Perry Towing Inc. civilly liable. If you’d like to spend countless hours dealing with court and put your business assets at risk, then continue to hire people who act irresponsibly and dangerously toward others. Otherwise, I suggest you have a long talk with your people.
I’ll be sure to pass this encounter on to local online cycling forums, and write up an accurate review of my experience with your business on Yelp.com so potential customers will know who they’ll be dealing with should they ever have to do business with you.
MOBikeFed.org is asking for help in bringing Missouri one step closer to getting specialty bicycling license plates for the state. They’re currently asking for financial support, and you can find all the related info on their site.
EighthInch posted a hint on Twitter that they have a cyclocross frame in the works. I haven’t heard any more about it since their April posting, so hopefully it’ll be out before too much longer. I’ll keep you updated when I hear more.
I love sensational headlines, and nothing beats this freak-out story being reported by all the bicycle blogs.
Basically, Trek has decided to end the Gary Fisher sub-brand, named after one of the sport’s most influential–and odd dressing–characters, Gary Fisher. The reason why is pretty simple: as its own brand, Gary Fisher Bicycles is not as widely distributed around the world as Trek. By ending the line as a separate entity, they have basically increased the distribution of Gary’s bikes eight-fold.
“This makes sense. I love this strategy,” says Gary Fisher in a press release. “I’ve been working with Trek on the Fisher Brand since 1996, but this puts me right in the middle of the best team of bike people. I can now bring my ideas to Trek, number one bike brand in the world. Better bikes and more people on those bikes. I love it.”
Now instead of buying a Gary Fisher-brand bike, you’ll be buying a Trek, with "Gary Fisher Signature" painted on the frame. Same bike, different strategy, nothing as severe as killing the entire brand.
I’m not sure if this is technically legal, and it’s certainly not moral, but I kind of don’t give a crap: I just replaced my 48T 1/8" chainring with a 50T 3/32", and slapped a 3/32" chain on it, too. Yeah, I know, it’s called an EighthInch Scrambler for a reason (the old-school 1/8" chain, if you’re not paying attention), but you sometimes have to do what’s necessary.
I thought I was pretty cool doing some singletrack riding on my singlespeed road bike, but this dude has put me to shame.
British trials rider, Martyn Ashton, takes a carbon Raleigh Avanti Team road bike for a cruise around town, across beaches, over boulders, on the edge of rails, and down a crazy slope, er… I guess, just because he can, and somehow manages not to get the bike posted on BustedCarbon.com while he’s at it.
Okay, so technically I’m not that lazy. So far this year, I’ve logged ~1,900mi on my bikes, the vast majority of them on my singlespeed. Unfortunately, most people haven’t gotten anywhere near a bike, and the most walking they do is from their SUV to the snack isle in the grocery store and back.
Considering how many trazillions of dollars the government wastes on b.s. every year, I think this relatively small amount is well spent. My city–Columbia, MO–benefitted greatly by a government grant a couple years back, and they’ve used that money to add additional bike lanes, and for maintenance on existing trails. I’m hoping that as my city grows, and bike lanes continue to be added, it’ll encourage more people to ride, or at least make it safer and more accessible for those of us who already do. With this extra money being thrown around, I’m hoping other cities benefit the same way mine has, and helps cycling (or walking, if you must) continue to grow.
Good work, Obama. I don’t like or trust your politics, but this was a good move.
The following ad is a perfect example of what I see on Craigslist just about everyday..
As an avid cyclist, and someone who has been very active my whole life, it bothers me to see so many of these sorts of ads. Everyday, millions (I’d assume) of people decide to get in better shape, and one of the quick answers to that is to buy a bicycle. Chances are, their doctors suggested it as a low-impact form of exercise, and it’s easy to envision oneself pedaling around outdoors, enjoying nature and feeling like a kid again.
Speaking of bamboo bike frames, if you’re more of the DIY type, BAMBOOBIKER over on Instructables.com just put up a new post on how to make your own.
Basically, you’ll need an old frame, some bamboo tubing, and a whole lot of free time, but it looks like a great project for someone who likes to get their hands dirty.
The frame is made of bamboo tubing, with recycled aluminum lugs, and sells for $400, which is a pretty decent price for a bamboo frame. Or you can get a complete bike for $799.99 (singlespeed or fixed gear) or $849 (3-speed with a Shimano Nexus hub). As is typical with CyclingCloseouts, you get to pick out your components if you go with the complete bike.
In a convoluted way to get cyclists off the road, Blackhawk, CO, mayor bans all bicycles on roads because of "a state law requiring drivers to give bikes 3 feet of clearance when they pass." Bike-hating aside, the mayor sounds like a real piece of work.
My wife asked me what I wanted for my birthday, and since a Porsche 911 Turbo S is still somehow out of the question, I told her to get me one of these badass titanium axle wrenches, instead.
Made by Paragon Machine Works, it’s simply stamped out of some flat, scrap titanium, and weighs a mere 27 grams. It’s a little on the short side, but it seems long enough for torquing down the 15mm nuts on my singlespeed if I put some muscle into it. It’s definitely super strong with zero lateral flex, even when putting all of my weight into it loosening my rear axle nuts.
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