Two Great Rides, And I Won!

I followed yesterday's wonderful ride with another today.  Arielle and I took one of our favorite jaunts: to Point Lookout, along the Atlantic coasts in the Rockways and Nassau County.  Along the way, we managed to avoid some of the crowds and the Tour de Queens.  I've no objection to the Tour; I simply didn't feel like riding with 1000 other people.

Besides, the ride along, and to, the water is sublime on a day like today.  It was just a bit warmer than I like, but at least there was practically no humidity.  The only downside to that, of course, is that even though I drank all of the water I brought with me, I made two stops besides Point Lookout so I could fill my bottle and for other beverages.

The tide was in at Point Lookout, so I kicked off my shoes.  The waves washed between my toes and left--seaweed.  I saw lots of it today.  And, for a moment, I wondered whether I should find some fisherman's net and harvest some of it.  Just as I think of making pesto whenever I see fresh basil, I now have visions of miso soup when I see seaweed!


Before I left on my ride, I was watching the auction for the Miss Mercian and just barely resisted a temptation to increase my bid.  Turns out, I didn't need that higher bid:  When I got home and checked, I found that I won the bike for exactly the amount of my highest bid.  The shipping is going to cost a bit more than I thought it would, but from what the seller and Fed Ex say, I should have the bike within a week of shipment (or dispatch, as the Brits like to call it.)


I've been thinking of how I'd like to set it up.  At the moment, I'm envisioning a nice, classy transport bike. I'll keep all of the components, as they're of good quality.  However, I will definitely replace the saddle.  I might take the Gyes Parkside off Marianela (sorry!), as it's like the  Brooks B67 and I really don't want to spend the money for, or break in, a new saddle.  Also, I have set up the Parkside for my "quick release" Carradice bag.  And I'm also thinking of installing either the Velo Orange Montmartre or North Road bar with cork grips.  But if I install those bars, I might want a wider saddle.  Perhaps I'm getting ahead of myself.  But I think you can understand why!

At The End Of Today's Limits

Well, the thunderstorms we had yesterday got rid of the heat and humidity--for a couple of hours this morning, anyway.   To be fair, although it turned into a warm, sticky day, it wasn't nearly as bad as yesterday.  Still, I overdressed:  After going to Parisi's for a couple of snacks to take on the ride, I changed from the tank top I'd been wearing, and intended to wear, on my ride for a heavier, three-quarter sleeve shirt.  At least the shirt is cotton, and kinda cute (or so I've been told).


Anyway, it felt good to get out earlier than I had been riding, and to ride with Lakythia.  She says that today I pushed her past an old limit of hers.  It was funny to hear that:  For a moment, I though of myself riding in a studded leather bustier.  Then again, I've never owned one of those, and finding one to fit me probably wouldn't be easy!


What she meant was that we went on a longer ride than any other she'd taken in a long while.  The funny thing is that I wouldn't have known that unless she'd told me:  She was tired, but so was I.  It was the kind of day that would have tired out just about anybody who was riding five or more hours and wasn't a Cat III racer.


I do have one excuse for being tired:  I rode in a fixed gear.  I don't mean to blame the bike;  Tosca, when I pedal her, just wants to keep on going.  But I simply didn't have the option of shifting gears, which I would have liked later in the ride.  When you can't shift gears, even ascending a ramp to a bridge walkway can seem like a real climb.


I find that it's always late in a ride of two hours or more (depending on the season and my condition) that I notice the difference between the way my bikes feel.  Arielle and Helene remain comfortable and, like Tosca, just want to keep on going.  


However, I feel that of all of my bikes, Arielle can "carry" me the most at the end of a ride:  I can just find a comfortable gear and she'll get me home.  Plus, the drop bars allow me to find a position that's comfortable.  Paradoxically, sometimes I want to ride in the "drops" when I'm tired, because the efficiency of the position helps the bike to maximize whatever energy I still have left.  Of course, I can also do that on Tosca, but I can't shift to a lower gear.  On the other hand, on Helene, riding on the forward position of the Porteur bars isn't as efficient as riding on drops.  Then again, if I want to, I can ride upright on Helene, which I can't do on Arielle or Tosca.


Of course, I didn't explain all of this to Lakythia, mainly because I wasn't thinking about it while we were riding.  However, if she wants to know more about such things, or turn into a gearhead, I can help her with that, too.  For now, I'm content to have found someone else with whom I enjoy riding.

Resettting

The threat of rain was real:  By early afternoon, intense thunderstorms dumped two to four inches of rain, depending on where you were, on this area.  So I don't regret not having gone for a ride today. 

I don't mind riding on a warm, rainy day.  But the lightning looked particularly dangerous today.  I'm glad I wasn't out in some open area when it struck.

The rain has continued into this evening.  I had the opportunity to catch up on a few things, one involving a writing project.  That I did them earlier than I'd planned means that I'll get to bed earlier tonight.  That will be good, for I've wanted to reset my clock so I can go out for some early morning rides.   I plan to do that tomorrow, with Lakythia, my new riding partner.  

Believe it or not, I once had a year in which I rode 361 days. Back then, I would have been pouty and nasty and worse over missing a day of riding.  But I think I needed this day.  I would not have understood something like that back in the day.

Another Mercian?

If you've been reading this blog, you know that I never, ever do anything irrational.  Right?

So, what I just did doesn't qualify as irrational. Perhaps if I were more religious, or were still enamored of Kierkegaard, I would say it was a leap of faith.  To those who know me best, it might just be a typical act of visionariness (Is there such a word?) or pure and simple insanity.

What did I just do?  I've bid on another bike on eBay.

However, it isn't just any bike:

It's a 1997 Miss Mercian. The fellow who's selling it bought it after a hip injury prevented him from using a diamond (or "men's") frame.  He set it up, he says, as a tour/commute bike.

If I were rich, I would buy the bike just to give it a good home.  And, yes, that is one of my intentions.  However, I thought of some practical ways in which I could use the bike.

The frame size is a centimeter bigger (at the seat tube) than any of the Mercians I now have.  And its top tube is a centimeter and a half longer.  If the bike fits the way I think it will, I might swap the drop bars for North Road-style bars, or Porteur bars (like the ones on Helene) on a stem with a shorter reach.  And, of course, I'll change the saddle.  Then it might become my transport bike.  (In that case, I might even put drop bars  on Helene.)

I've given myself a limit as to how high I'll bid because the bike is in England, which means that shipping it will be expensive.  But I do like the way the bike looks.  And I don't think I would change anything else, at least in the beginning, besides the bars and saddle.  The components are all good-quality, and the bike has a rack and fenders.

The auction for the bike ends Sunday afternoon.  This will give me something to obssess over between now and then!

The Day After An After-Work Ride

After yesterday's spontaneous after-work adventure, I just did a normal commute today, over one of my normal routes.  But, as the weather was about ten degrees (F) hotter than it was yesterday, and the humidity rose in tandem with the temperature, the normal commute was more of a workout than it usually is.  Plus, Marianela is a considerably heavier than Helene.  She can't help it; she's got heavier tubes in her frame.  At least she doesn't seem to have body image issues.

And I won't, either, even though my students surprised me with this today:

Hmm..,Maybe I should've taken another ride after work!

A Voyage After A Great Labour

This is the story of an excellent after-work adventure.  (Can you believe that twenty-two years have passed since that movie came out?  Can you believe that, just about every year, someone has managed to make a movie even dumber than that one?)

Anyway, about my excellent after-work adventure on an excellent and fair day:  It goes to show how English ladies, after getting a little bit of French culture, lead impressionable young women down all sorts of paths they never planned:

Well, OK, I'm not so young anymore.  As for impressionable....All right.  This lady certainly didn't protest when she whispered, "Let us abscond!"


And abscond we did, first through an exotic land:

West 139th Street, Harlem, NYC

From thence she transported me to a land where the language spoken was not mine:

Union City, NJ:  No es necesario para hablar ingles aqui.

Then, after our journey down a mighty river, we came upon a realm of ships and bridges: 

From the Staten Island Ferry

Thence we boarded a great vessel and countenanced many more bridges:

Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges, seen from the Staten Island Ferry

Finally, we encountered an aged but fine vessel:

And so ended our great voyage: 

(Somehow I get the feeling that this is the image many people have of American History--or of immigration, anyway!)

Yes, twas a sweet voyage.  This young maiden gaped in disbelief upon realizing she had pedaled over 45 miles in her after-work ride.   She was well contented, for I am that maiden.     

So ends this tale of an excellent after-work adventure.               

Showing Their Colors On The Fourth

Hello there!  Today is the Fourth of Joo-lie.  


Yes, it's American Independence Day.  And it's my birthday.  But I can't say I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy:  I was born in Georgia!  Then again, it was one of the thirteen colonies that declared independence.


(One thing they never teach in American History classes, at least in the US, is that there were really fifteen colonies.  Thirteen seceded.  The other two, Quebec and Nova Scotia, didn't.  The reality is that they couldn't:  Nova Scotia was the North American base for the Royal Navy, and Montreal and Quebec City were essentially garrisons for the Royal Army.  But I digress.)


Anyway, on a day like today, what better theme than red-white-and blue bicycles?

Perhaps it's not surprising that red-white and blue bikes come out in the wake of victories by American riders.  It seemed that during the reign of Lance, every other Trek model had some sort of variation on the flag that poet Bill Knott referred to as "a starry sweatband of cheese."

All right, it's a Do-Rag.  My question is:  Will it fit under my helmet?  


Back when I was training in Prospect Park, I sometimes rode with a guy who wore a yarmulke under his helmet.  And the fringes of his tallit dangled from underneath the hem of his jersey.  I also sometimes rode with an observant Jewish woman who carried a skirt in her jersey pocket.  As soon as she got off the bike, she pulled the skirt on.  Where else but in America, right?


Speaking of Americana:  Like baseball, basketball and snowboarding, mountain biking originated in the USA.  So, of course I had to include a mountain bike here:

And, of course, the Fourth is not complete without parades and such.  And there are always kids on bikes.  This one's for them:

Finally, I would be remiss if I didn't end my homage to red, white and blue bicycles on the Fourth without mentioning the web page of someone who has a red, a white and a blue Cannondale.

Moving Forward: Setting Back A Carradice Bag

A couple of weeks ago, I described one of my rainy-day DYI projects that resulted in an easy-on, easy-off Carradice Nelson bag for my commuter.


Now, I'll describe another project I did the same day I did that one.  It also involved a Carradice bag:  in this case, the Barley.  Actually, it involved two of them.


Some cyclists complain about "thigh slap" when using traditional-style Carradice saddle bags, particularly on racing bikes.  That is because those bags were designed when bikes, even the racing variety, had shallower angles.  That meant that saddles sat further forward on seat posts and seat tubes than they do on modern bikes.  Also, Brooks saddles, for which Carradice saddlebags are designed, sit further forward and have less room on the rails to set them back than most saddles designed at a later date.  


The so-called Bagman is designed, in part, to alleviate this problem.  It looks well-made enough, but it weighs and costs nearly as much as some good racks.  (I own one, which I haven't used yet, for the possibility of using the Nelson longflap on Arielle or Tosca.)  Plus, it's not the easiest thing to install.  Finally, it mounts on the saddle rails and, depending on your saddle and where it's positioned, you may not have enough room on your rails to install it.


So, I adapted someone else's idea and added one of my own to set the bag back.  

Here's the idea I adapted:  I took two short pieces of PVC pipe, which you can find in any hardware store, screwed them together, filed one end to fit on the seat post and wrapped them in black tape. Then, instead of using the strap Carradice provides for attaching the bag to the seat post, I took a cheap strap and threaded one end through the pipe, into the part of the bag designed for the strap, and back into the pipe, which I cinched around the seat post.


After I installed the bags and rode them a couple of times, I discovered something else.  Canvas bags, like leather saddles, become more supple with use.  So the bag "collapsed" around the pipe, and sometimes (depending on whether I slid back on the saddle), my thighs grazed the ends of the bags.  

If you're familiar with these bags, you know that there's a wooden dowel that runs across the top.  When you attach the bag to the slots or loops on a Brooks-style saddle, you loop the straps around that dowel.  Well, I installed another dowel like it across the bottom of the bag, at the point where the pipe meets the bag.  

I fastened the dowels with small wood screws.  That is how Carradice attaches the original dowel, so I figured those screws wouldn't harm the fabric.


A few days after I made the modifications, I got caught in a pretty fair downpour.  (Is that an oxymoron?)  I am happy to report that everything I had in that bag--my camera, notebook, an extra layer and, ironically, a tube of sunblock--remained as dry as Charlie and Max were in my apartment.

Day Is Done

Last night, I stayed up much later than I'd planned.  There was a technical glitch, and I got a bunch of angry e-mails from students and a couple more phone messages from the technical school in which I taught a couple of classes this year.  It turns out neither the college nor the students got the grades.  For some students, it's not merely an inconvenience; it can actually affect whether or not they can register for some of the courses they need, or get financial aid.


And I got another message from the college telling me that I hadn't taken some online training course in sensitive communications (a subject about which I know absolutely nothing) or some such thing.  When I opened the site for that course, which is not maintained by the school itself but by an outside contractor, it crashed my computer.  Of course their IT department denies that their software would ever do any such thing to my computer.


So, after scrambling to fix those things (I'm still not finished with the course), I got to bed much later than I'd intended.  That meant, of course, that I got up later than I'd planned.  But at least at this time of year, in this part of the world, you can get away with that, as days are longer.  In fact, it turned out rather nicely.  I'm talking about the day as well as my ride. 

And now, appropriately enough, I'm listening to Nick Drake's "Day Is Done."

A Sign On A Nearly Perfect Day

We know we're committed to something (or someone) when an absolutely normal, routine day of it is utterly satisfying.


Today was such a day.  I didn't take a long ride:  Just enough to meet my friend Bruce, whom I hadn't seen in months, for lunch and to wander some side streets of the East and West Villages in Manhattan.  


I'll admit, though, the weather was glorious:  warm, but not overly so, and sunny, with a few clouds and moderate humidity.  


The ride itself was its own reward.  But even if such hadn't been the case, the ride would have been worth it for this:

His sign reads:  "Keepin' It Real.  I Need Weed.  Spare $1.00. Respect the (I couldn't read the last word.)"  


It wouldn't surprise me if he didn't actually smoke weed.  Actually, I hope that's the case, if only because it would show that the man has a talent.  Perhaps one day he will be able to use it, and won't need to stand with a sign like that.


Then, hopefully, he'll make some other cyclist's--or someone else's day.  It might even be on a day like today.