putting fenders on my bike

landotter wrote:

Discard your cyclometer or at least put it in your sock draw until you
reach a point where it doesn't depress you. Make rides about
excursions, not times. Don't repeat routes so you don't have
expectations of how long they should take. Ride more. Bring a banana.

I agree, I don't have computers on any of my bikes. I used to have them
on all my bikes, and I always wore a HRM. I never wear a HRM any more,
and only use a computer for the odometer when I'm doing a ride with cue
sheets. Life's too short. Don't turn cycling into work.

Oh, yeah, fenders are great, I have them on most of my bikes.

Michael Press wrote:
[... [1]]
The great thing about running errands on a bicycle is
not having to find somewhere to park a car.

Around here, car parking spots are more plentiful than places to lock a
bicycle.

[1] Ellipsis in brackets indicates partial quoting and not editing.

--
Tom Sherman - Holstein-Friesland Bovinia
“Mary had a little lamb / And when she saw it sicken /
She shipped it off to Packingtown / And now it’s labeled chicken.”

Woland99 wrote:
On Aug 31, 8:49 am, "Peter Howard"
wrote:
"Woland99" wrote in message

...



It keeps raining in Texas - and precisely when I have window in my
day when I can ride. Got tired and decided to adopt rain or shine
riding policy. One of the professors I knew at Mathematics Dept
at UT used to commute on bike (65+ yo) every day of the year -
except those 2 days every couple of years when we get freezing rain.
But I digress.
Getting wet mud-butt from riding in rain is not my idea of fun so I
bought some fenders. Full size SKS P45 fenders. I ride touring
bike - steel frame, 36 spokes, wide MTB gearing - all chosen to
support all those extra pounds I carry. But I took off the rack from
it - and I just pretend it is a road bike - even though that illusion
comes crashing down every time I struggle to keep 8pmh speed on
some some hill and I hear "on your left" and another skinny roadie
is passing me and flying up that hill as if we were on flats.
So now when I put those fenders on I won't even be able to keep
that illusion when I am riding alone - every time I will look down
and see those fenders - it will say "you are riding a touring bike,
fat man". I guess that means I may as well put that rack back on
and embrace the touring/commuter image - start going grocery
shopping on a bike, get a Grateful Dead t-shirt and become one
car-less bike-zealots. Not sure I am ready for this.
Anyways - it is not really a question - I am just think loud at
4 o'clock in the morning.
Screw the roadies and their Tour de Lance fantasies! What matters is whether
your bike is practical and useful for you and your needs. And what's wrong
with going grocery shopping on a bike while dressed in normal clothes and
(gasp) sneakers on flat steel cage shin-scraper pedals? The problem with the
bicycle in American society (and Australian society too) is that it's viewed
as either childs toy or elitist sports equipment. There's not enough
emphasis on bicycle as comfortable and efficient daily transport that just
about anyone who isn't a grotesque porker can use. By all means embrace your
steel framed tourer and just ride, damnit. Let others worry about the image.

One of my commuter bikes is a rigid-at-both-ends MTB refugee from the trash
heap with a gas pipe frame that has been brought back to life with nice
wheels, ancient Brooks saddle, a rattle can spray job and curvy North Road
bars with $10 friction thumb shifters. Local mid-teenagers borrow it and
every one of them has independently described it as "awesome". I think they
like it because it doesn't have ten pounds of low end suspension components,
wears well inflated road slicks and has a comfy riding position. But I'd
look in vain for anything as practical and comfortable among the pseudo
downhill bikes and flat bar hybrids on the floor at the LBS's.

I had a good day at the garbage dump recycle shop yesterday. The dead bikes
are usually department store junk but in one day I found not one but two $5
bikes that were worth having.
Bike One is an incredibly light drop bar MBK, an exact clone of one I was
asking about on this forum not long ago. On the minus side it has a godawful
Maillard Helicomatic rear hub with a missing cassette, probably the reason
it went out of use whenever. On the plus side, it is just late enough to
have an ISO threaded bottom bracket rather than French which will simplify
things in the future, though the existing cups and spindle are unmarked and
usable.
Bike Two is a Miyata Triple Cross flat bar job circa 1992. Its Vittoria
tyres are newer, still with moulding whiskers on them and held pressure when
I pumped them up. It was then rideable if you didn't mind being stuck in top
gear. Investigation of the early Rapidfire trigger shifter revealed that its
little pawls and indents were simply gummed up with hardened grease. A wash
out and a new shift cable later and it now shifts perfectly. Looks like
someone stopped riding it for a very small problem. Oh yeah, it also has
Bio-Pace chainrings. So in one bike I have two Shimano ideas that didn't
fly. Bio-pace chainrings and Mark I Rapidfire shifters with up and down
triggers both thumb operated in the same direction.
I'm very happy to have these butted and lugged Cro-Mo junkers. One will
become a fixie and the other will become a fantasy drop-bar road burner
though I'm not sure which will be which yet.

Anyway, I'm just thinking out loud at midnight myself.

Peter H

Thanks Peter - good point on emphasis - years ago when I was commuting
daily to work I rode commuter bike with fenders and had simplest cyclo
puter on it. I did not worry much about making good average speed and
had fun doing it. That bike would not pass for a racing bike even for
group of blind Martians. Somehow when I came back to cycling 9 months
ago I decided to do it scientifically - bought GPS cycloputer and
started keeping logs and averages. And all that is fun when you are
moving forward. But I was sick for a month - did not ride, some weight
crept back and suddenly OMG! my usual after-work 20miles took 5mins
longer than usual and 10mins longer than best time.... And now those
fenders threaten to rob me from whatever is left from that image of
me getting better on bike...

The bike computer is for recreational rides, not the commute (or for the
recreational /bike/, if multiple bikes are part of your reality). I've
learned to take it easy riding home after a 11-hour day; if I push it
when tired, I'll only enjoy myself less. No point in dreading the ride
home.

Likewise, many recreational rides are improved by ignoring the
cyclocomputer, especially if burnout threatens. A little strategically
placed masking tape can help you remember why cycling is fun.

I love my bike gadgets, but sometimes you gotta ignore 'em.

Mark J.
rec rider 33 years, year-round commuter 29 years.

PS - my commuter bike is a "tank," fenders and all. Practicality and
dependability trumps speed on the way to work.

On Aug 31, 10:54 am, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On Aug 31, 8:08 am, " wrote:



Hey, you just CAN'T lose when you have all that crap on your bike.

You'll be dry, comfortable and can get your groceries.

Then, if you can't keep pace with the 'young studs', they'll
understand because of all the junk you have on your bike.

If you do happen to be able to keep up with them (and maybe even pass
one of them) they'll think you are the 'stud of studs' because of all
the junk you have on your bike. :-)

And your bike's happier when it's got fenders!

http://www.bicyclinglife.com/Practic...yofFenders.htm

- Frank Krygowski

Great URL:
"So why don't American bikes come with fenders, like sensible bikes in
most of the world? It's an image thing! Americans buy rugged-looking
SUVs to drive to the grocery. They buy tough- looking mountain bikes,
or sophisticated-looking road racers, to pedal on an afternoon jaunt.
You've gotta look cool! And the cool off-road dudes and road racers
don't use fenders, because they've got to shave every ounce!"

Exactly!

"Well, maybe it's time to admit that we're not trekking across the
outback, and we're not climbing the Pyrenees just behind Lance. We're
using our bikes to get out, see the sights and get some exercise. If
fenders allow us to worry less about the weather, we'll see more
sights and get more exercise. We'll be in better shape when we do trek
the outback, and ... well, maybe we'll be able to keep Lance in sight
a few seconds longer! "

ROFL - those few precious seconds...

On Aug 31, 1:24 pm, Eric Vey wrote:

If you are biking strictly for exercise or recreation, and you are
getting tired of it, then I predict that you will stop altogether within
a year.

Actually no - I love to bike. It is like zen in motion - you only
concentrate on NOW and the only thingg that matters is breathing
and becoming a perfect human engine (right gear, right cadence
all that). It is very liberating and ecstatic feeling. I just
hate when I cannot maintain some decent averages.

On Aug 31, 11:24*am, Eric Vey wrote:
Woland99 wrote:

* Somehow when I came back to cycling 9 months

ago I decided to do it scientifically - bought GPS cycloputer and
started keeping logs and averages. And all that is fun when you are
moving forward. But I was sick for a month - did not ride, some weight
crept back and suddenly OMG! my usual after-work 20miles took 5mins
longer than usual and 10mins longer than best time.... And now those
fenders threaten to rob me from whatever is left from that image of
me getting better on bike...

If you are biking strictly for exercise or recreation, and you are
getting tired of it, then I predict that you will stop altogether within
a year. There is only so much motivation to go around.

I hate to exercise. I know that if I took up jogging, it would be very
hard for me to get up and "just do it."

If, however, you change your attitude toward bikes, and start using your
bike for more than a feeble attempt at weight control, working it into
your lifestyle, then you could be cycling every single day 20 years from
now. You would no more think about how hard it is than you would think
about how hard it is to breath.

Although, after day 59 of rain, you do look out the window in the
morning and groan a little -- as does my bike, which is ridden hard
and put away wet. I look forward to the wet weather, though, because
the throngs of cyclists will thin out, and I won't have to weave my
way through the sunshine commuters. I also like riding home in the
dark through the old-money neighborhoods in the West Hills and looking
inside the illuminated mansions to see how the other .05 percent
lives. -- Jay Beattie.

In article ,
Tom Sherman wrote:

Michael Press wrote:
[... [1]]
The great thing about running errands on a bicycle is
not having to find somewhere to park a car.

Around here, car parking spots are more plentiful than places to lock a
bicycle.

[1] Ellipsis in brackets indicates partial quoting and not editing.

This forum differs from a linear edited journal.
In this forum you have your own space to enter
data about quotes. Therefore you are at liberty
to stay out of my space.

--
Michael Press

Michael Press wrote:
In article ,
Tom Sherman wrote:

Michael Press wrote:
[... [1]]
The great thing about running errands on a bicycle is
not having to find somewhere to park a car.

Around here, car parking spots are more plentiful than places to lock a
bicycle.

[1] Ellipsis in brackets indicates partial quoting and not editing.

This forum differs from a linear edited journal.

Yes, indeed.

In this forum you have your own space to enter
data about quotes. Therefore you are at liberty
to stay out of my space.

Nope; your post, your space; my post, my space.

Mr. Press has failed to learn about Usenet convention and standard
English quoting convention.

--
Tom Sherman - Holstein-Friesland Bovinia
“Mary had a little lamb / And when she saw it sicken /
She shipped it off to Packingtown / And now it’s labeled chicken.”

Woland99 wrote:
and the only thingg that matters is breathing
and becoming a perfect human engine (right gear, right cadence
all that). It is very liberating and ecstatic feeling.

That's STUPID. It's stupid because every day you are one day older than
you were the day before. And one week, and one month and one year.

I just hate when I cannot maintain some decent averages.

And what "average" is that? The one you had yesterday or last year?
Average with a 19 year-old? Or a 80 year-old?

The only "average" is the one you have that day. Nothing else matters.

On Aug 31, 10:54*am, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On Aug 31, 8:08*am, " wrote:



Hey, you just CAN'T lose when you have all that crap on your bike.

You'll be dry, comfortable and can get your groceries.

Then, if you can't keep pace with the 'young studs', they'll
understand because of all the junk you have on your bike.

If you do happen to be able to keep up with them (and maybe even pass
one of them) they'll think you are the 'stud of studs' because of all
the junk you have on your bike. *:-)

And your bike's happier when it's got fenders!

http://www.bicyclinglife.com/Practic...yofFenders.htm


I passed quite a few "studs" today--when on my "Metric Century" in
quotes--as I didn't realize I was doing one--I was just out for a
ride. Passed a guy on a Gerolsteiner team bike before I stopped to
snack with the critters. I couldn't bring myself to ring my bell. Heh.
Normal roadie kit on the rider though--I was even I color coordinated
today--like Garanimals for grownups, the Park Tools cap going
perfectly with the Sugoi jersey.

http://i35.tinypic.com/5v803r.jpg

My legs were still pretty filthy, but the bike's clean. Mysterious!