Ok, it's been a while since I posted, but I did do some pretty good rides... and some not so good ones recently. I did two 20+ mile rides on the 11th and the 13th, and then my bike has seemed to break... constantly. I've had three more blowouts... and had to come home... anyways, the good rides are below.

I also managed to pick up a rack & trunk, and a computer... more info to follow

6/11 20.17
6/13 21.32
6/20 18.37

Lessons Learned:

1. stuff breaks... fix it and get back on the bike
   

well, monday I did another commute in, on the way I blew a tire in front of the middle school that's on the way... I was sitting there changing a tire, looking weird, so I tried to go as fast as I could. Turns out that's not such a good idea: apparently you actually can put the rear tire back on a bike the wrong way... as I found out. It's not so good for riding, if you can't take your feet off the pedals quick enough, you crash... ask me how I know. So after that, I told myself I needed to hit the bike shop near work to pick up a spare tube... yeah, didn't happen. On the way home, at exactly the same place on the road, sure enough, the tube went again. Of course, I have no spares, and there's a bike shop next to my house, and one back at work, and I'm stuck in the middle. Yesterday I spent the night recuperating from a 2 mile walk home (god my knees suck).

Ending the post on a high note, I just did almost 17 miles (damn, google earth just wouldn't give me that last .23 of a mile) and I feel really good. I'm going to try for 20 tomorrow and see how it goes.

Lessons Learned:

1. 1 spare tube isn't enough if you don't like walking
2. biking really does help your knees... mine feel really good right now
   

Clipless at last

No riding today(I'm still a little sore from yesterday... I'm calling it a recovery day- light climbing as some cross)but, with my bonus from work, I was finally able to get my pedals... they're crank brothers quattro's, which are freaking awesome.

Yesterday, after getting the new gear, which consisted of pedals, shoes, a new stock of inner tubes, and a pair of Mr. Tuffy strips (hopefully they'll save me some flats) I was going to ride down to the little park south of my apartment, then I started riding. What. A. Difference. After tooling around the neighborhood, I finally made it out to Guadalupe, and I just kept going. 15-ish miles later (my longest sustained ride) I was almost home, and stopped at a light. I had my left foot unclipped, and leaned a little on the bike. Losing my balance, I tried to take my right foot off the pedal with predicable results. The cleat did it's job and I just ended up pulling myself over. The biggest thing I hurt was my pride. In the end, I picked myself up, clipped in and rode the rest of the way home.

After cooling off I realized that I was out of some of the most basic foodstuffs (damn but I really can't start the morning without my cheerios) so I rode down to the far Fry's. I got there fine, and again, I was only a mile or so from home and the same thing happened. This time I was so flustered I had to walk over to the corner (from the left turn lane) and settle down.

What's interesting though, is talking to other riders about this... it's kind of like initiation into a club... everyone falls when they go clipless, and everyone says it's worth it. Damn but I agree


Lessons Learned:

1. You really can pull up on the pedals when you're accellerating hard
2. don't lean toward your unclipped side
3. Clipless adds a whole new world of stability to your riding... you can push the bike around much more with your feet

Pictures:
all tucked in... those are the new pedals on it
a close-up of the pedals... you can see how aero the profile is

a top view... the big blue spring is what makes the mechanism work
Side viewThis is what my new shoes look like... they're all shiny so I get hit by cars less


And the sole: having a hard, stiff sole keeps my feet from getting sore on long ridesa close up of the cleat, the surrounding hard plastic makes walking really wierd
This is what it looks like mounted up
and from the front

well... I've gone a week and I've managed to post most of my rides.

Last night was pretty uneventful so I didn't really mention it... other than I got lost looking for the bridge from Greenfield over to Val Vista (the turn I missed the other night that almost got me creamed). I think all in all it was around 11 miles. AND I felt really good after the ride... some of which I blame on the honeystingers... damn this stuff is good (just rocket chocolate for breakfast before a 5 mile ride... not so much).

Today I managed my second bike commute, again, pretty routine, I can't really find a direct bike route... traffic isn't really fun, but I do have a wide shoulder the whole way.

I've started a google map thing, since the MAG map is this horrendously large PDF file... it takes so long to render it's damned near useless... even on my machine(doesn't say as much as it did a year or so ago... but I'm kind of attatched to the quirky little processor). anyone that's interested can check it out here. I hope it ends up being useful to someone else... but don't blame me if something's wrong.

Tonight I think I'm going to go take a spin around to find that bridge if there's one there... could be pretty cool, an easy ride since I already rode a bunch today.

maybe some good news tomorrow(two words crank brothers)
Lessons Learned:

1. Rocket Chocolate honeystinger bar <> good breakfast (sorry... did SQL all day... stuck on that syntax... deal with it)
2. honeystinger ginsting = no need for soda in the morning