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Weather be damned, I _CAN_ ride!



 
 
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  #1  
Old February 7th 04, 11:47 PM
Rick Onanian
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Default Weather be damned, I _CAN_ ride!

I thought all you icky-weather riders were nuts.

I was wrong!

I rode today. Many of you will call this mild, not unpleasant
weather. This was pushing it for me; the worst I've ever ridden
before was warm, light rain.

I must say: It was GREAT!

43 degrees f. Snow and slush everywhere. Road covered in deep
salt-water puddles and sections of slush. I've been itching to ride,
and bitching about the weather.

:Summary:
With all the problems[listed below], it's amazing how much fun I
had, how much I enjoyed the ride, and how much I now like the bike.
Weather be damned! Terribly beat beater be damned! Wet ankles be
damned! I can ride, damn it!

I may even do it again in worse weather than this.

:The ride:
Probably 10 miles. Probably an hour. I didn't keep track. I don't
know how fast I went, and I didn't care. I was riding, numbers and
weather be damned! Woohoo!

I saw one person with a snowblower attachment on his lawn tractor
throwing the slush off his driveway. I saw a few shoveling.

On the way home, a guy with a snowplow blew past me. Other drivers
gave me more room and less speed.

:The clothes:
Long johns. Bike shorts. Noisy, water-resistant pants with yellow
reflective ankle things to keep the baggy pants from getting in the
chainrings. Two layers thick of wicking shirts. Noisy,
water-resistant jacket. Thin, lightly insulated winter gloves with
that same noisy, water-resistant material outside (what is that
stuff, anyway?). Thin fleecey balaclava, bought Thursday; great even
in the wind, and sufficient for probably another 5 or 10 degrees
down. My mountain biking SPD boots.

Okay, I just checked that material: The jacket is nylon. The pants
are polyester. How do they make it crunchy and noisy and hard and
nearly abrasive, and importantly, water-resistant? Different weave
than the normal soft, quiet versions?

Attention Rhode Islanders and anybody with a The Sports Authority
store around: Balaclavas on sale cheap at The Sports Authority. $7
for the thin one, thicker ones for something like $10 and $15;
they're marked two or three times their actual price. Find them in
the snowboarding department.

:The bike:
I spent a half-hour un-seizing some of the seized parts of a beater:
an ancient Windsor "International" (I think) that I've been
considering making into a fixie, whose very nice stem shifters I
would then use on another bike that needs them.

I have decided that, as terrible as the condition is, I like this
bike. The front derailer is sprung backwards, so when I push both
shifters all the way in the same direction, I get the highest or
lowest combination I can get -- except that the derailer adjustment
screws were seized and I couldn't adjust them well. No top gear in
the rear -- good, because the rear tire was NG, the road was wet,
and I wasn't used to the cold wind. The front doesn't shift into the
big ring very well, or very often. That backwards front derailer is
cool; if only I could adjust it -- I snapped both screws on it. I'll
get them out another day.

Oh yes, the rear tire. Very rotted, didn't seem prudent to add too
much air. It lost air pretty quickly anyway. When I finally decided
to turn around and head home, I figured I pump it up a bit; that's
when my pump broke, and let out what was left in the tire while it
was at it. Luckily, I had a CO2 inflater in my backpack, and it was
mostly downhill going home, so I put the contents of a 16g cartridge
in it and rode it home.

The freewheel was not freewheeling. I thought maybe I could test the
theory of a fixed gear being sure to break a derailer-style
tensioner. However, the WD-40 that I sprayed liberally into the
freewheel must have found it's target shortly after I left the
driveway.

The rear wheel had at least one centimeter of lateral run-out. When
I hurriedly attempted to true it, with it's seized nipples, I broke
two spokes, both on the side that exacerbated the problem. I ended
up with two spokes gone, the same lateral run-out, and now I think a
flat spot on the rim. It was a little bumpy, once per revolution...

As a result, I left the rear brake nearly useless for being so open.
I did replace the missing pad, though; even so, it wasn't useful on
the road.

The front end was squirrely; it kept wanting to turn back and forth
a few degrees; I think it's the headset, and also the cause of:
I found out that it was pulling left. Either the frame or fork is
bent, or the headset is beat. The headset feels a bit notchy,
especially if I turn it left.

The handlebars had this terrible, completely unpadded thin cloth
tape on them. It didn't cover the non-aero brake levers, nor did
they have rubber hoods; I still found them a reasonable place to
hold on.

The saddle was a bit hard, but more importantly, was not tightly
attached, and tilted forward/backward whenever I shifted my weight.
It'll probably be not-so-bad if I secure it and raise it an inch.

Once the lube worked it's way in, the rear derailer and chain worked
surprisingly nicely.

I put my favorite cheapo SPD pedals on. Gotta have the pedals!

I put two extra-cheap clamp-on fenders, bought for $5/each at
Building #19 (a semi-local deep-discount liquidation chain). I was
surprised how well they worked. I clamped one on the seatpost, as
they're intended to do, and even way higher than the tire, it did
it's job well enough. I clamped the other one on the head tube,
between the downtube and top tube, and was shocked to find it did
the job too, again with the tire far away.

I didn't bother testing the QR levers before I left, and luckily,
never needed to find out if they're any good.


Ads
  #2  
Old February 8th 04, 12:21 AM
Q.
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Posts: n/a
Default Weather be damned, I _CAN_ ride!

snip
Attention Rhode Islanders and anybody with a The Sports Authority
store around: Balaclavas on sale cheap at The Sports Authority. $7
for the thin one, thicker ones for something like $10 and $15;
they're marked two or three times their actual price. Find them in
the snowboarding department.


Hunting clothing is usually cheep this time of the year as well. Rhode
Island's archery season is from October 1st to January 31st and of course
there are clearance sales on anything that's left over. Nice winter
clothing if you don't mind camo. Archery clothing tends to be very quiet as
well ... I know that bugs ya (c: Don't want to spook the deer when drawing
a bow.

C.Q.C.


  #4  
Old February 8th 04, 04:06 AM
Eric S. Sande
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Default Weather be damned, I _CAN_ ride!

I thought all you icky-weather riders were nuts.

I was wrong!


No, you were right the first time.

--

_______________________ALL AMIGA IN MY MIND_______________________
------------------"Buddy Holly, the Texas Elvis"------------------
in.edu__________
  #5  
Old February 8th 04, 04:33 AM
Zoot Katz
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Default Weather be damned, I _CAN_ ride!

Sat, 07 Feb 2004 22:06:02 -0500, ,
"Eric S. Sande" wrote:

I thought all you icky-weather riders were nuts.


I was wrong!


No, you were right the first time.


We're all Brazilians on this bus. . . uhh, bike.
--
zk
  #6  
Old February 9th 04, 07:39 AM
Dane Jackson
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Posts: n/a
Default Weather be damned, I _CAN_ ride!

Rick Onanian wrote:
I thought all you icky-weather riders were nuts.


I was wrong!


I rode today. Many of you will call this mild, not unpleasant
weather. This was pushing it for me; the worst I've ever ridden
before was warm, light rain.


I must say: It was GREAT!


One of us! One of us! One of us!

--
Dane Jackson - z u v e m b i @ u n i x b i g o t s . o r g
"Judges, as a class, display, in the matter of arranging
alimony, that reckless generosity which is found only in men
who are giving away someone else's cash."
-P. G. Wodehouse
  #7  
Old February 9th 04, 09:04 PM
Rick Onanian
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Posts: n/a
Default Weather be damned, I _CAN_ ride!

On Sat, 7 Feb 2004 20:09:42 -0500, David Kerber
wrote:
I have decided that, as terrible as the condition is, I like this


I'm glad it's working for you, but don't spend more money on it than
it's end condition will be worth!


I wouldn't need to spend money on it; I can just cannibalize other
beaters. You saw part of my collection..
--
Rick Onanian
  #9  
Old February 9th 04, 10:57 PM
Rick Onanian
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Posts: n/a
Default Weather be damned, I _CAN_ ride!

On Mon, 9 Feb 2004 15:12:57 -0500, David Kerber
wrote:
I wouldn't need to spend money on it; I can just cannibalize other
beaters. You saw part of my collection..


As long as you're cannibalizing and not buying, then go ahead and make
any kind of Frankenbike you feel like GGG. Like putting those
beautiful stem shifters on your newly tripleized road bike G,D&R.


No way Jose! I like my STI, thank you. For the Peugeot, however,
which lacks STI...the Peugeot might get those stem shifters when the
Windsor goes away.
--
Rick Onanian
  #10  
Old February 10th 04, 01:24 AM
Tanya Quinn
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Default Weather be damned, I _CAN_ ride!

Rick Onanian wrote in message . ..
43 degrees f. Snow and slush everywhere. Road covered in deep
salt-water puddles and sections of slush. I've been itching to ride,
and bitching about the weather.

snip
stuff, anyway?). Thin fleecey balaclava, bought Thursday; great even
in the wind, and sufficient for probably another 5 or 10 degrees
down. My mountain biking SPD boots.


A balaclava at a balmy 6 degrees celsius? 6 in the winter up here in
the great white north would be good cause to break out into tights,
a t-shirt and light jacket.
 




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