Thursday, February 23, 2006

Hail Hail!

Okay, here's a ride home for the books...
The morning ride to work was cool and windy. However, the weatherman promised that the afternoon should be clear and sunny.
Which it was, until naturally it was time to go home. As soon as I hide a road home, a squall came in, cold and windy. And the heavens opened up and began dumping.... hail!
I've been rained on, snowed on, but I never been hailed on!
And it hurt!
Oh well, no one said bike riding was boring!

Wednesday, February 22, 2006

I have this great Bizarro cartoon and I'd scan it into this blog if I could. Since I can't I'll have to explain it...imagine a psychologist with a patient lying on a couch....the good doctor is saying....

Let me put this in layman's terms--the mind is like a bicycle. You've gotten your pants leg caught in the sprocket and your chain has come off.

Thursday, February 09, 2006

When you've had enough

So this motorist in toronto tosses some crap out his window. A bike courier tosses it back in. Escalation happens...

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

Johnson Street Bridge

Riding over the Johnson Street Bridge is an, er, interesting proposition at the best of times. Going west, it's two narrow lanes on a metal grating. Lots of fun to ride on in the winter wind and rain. The posted speed limit is 30kmh and lane changes are not allowed. Yet I'm always amazed that I can get up to the speed limit on my bike, yet every single car passes me and many of them change lanes to do it. (And most of them probably spend their driving time cursing those #$%&ing bike riders. But I digress.)
Suffice it to say, crossing the bridge is not for the faint of heart, especially when I cross during the afternoon rush hour. Traffic is tight, tempers are tighter and riders are taking their lives in their hands.
Hell of a time for my chain come off.
Which is what it did yesterday, flying off the front crank and wrapping itself around my peddles just I hit the metal bridge decking. I had just hit top speed when my chain decided to depart. (The vehicle behind me was a Victoria Police van that illegally changed lanes, then sped up over the limit to pass me. The officer driving was probably mumbling something about those #$%&ing bike riders. But I digress.)
The good news is that with nary a wobble I was able to maintain my balance and coast across the bridge to the first turn-off and with a few minutes of cursing and grease stains was on my way.

Tuesday, February 07, 2006

Monday, February 06, 2006

Gears

I've been having trouble with my gears. I ride a ten year-old 21-speed mountain bike, and despite the fact that I have a brand-new drive train on it, my gears are acting up.
When I'm in my high gear at the front, I sometimes have a devil of a time finding the low gears in the back. And it's got me thinking: do I really need 21 gears?
Honestly, I never use most of them. I rarely leave my top gear of the three in the front, and only use a few of the seven in the rear. Sure, if I was cross-country riding across lots of mountains, some low gears would come in handy, but as a commuter and trail rider, most of them are wasted.
I figure that I only need about five gears:
- go like hell;
- medium cruising;
- cruising in traffic;
- little hill;
- big hill.
Give me those five gears, and I'll be happy.