Lock Up Effectively When You Bike to Work

Good lock, bad technique: the front wheel quick release could mean all that is left behind is the wheel.

When you bike to work, make sure you lock up effectively to increase your chances of finding your ride where you left it. Nothing is perfect security, but there are better and worse levels of security. 

For ways not to lock up, see these posts on this blog, and for suggestions on how to lock up more effectively, see my yellow card, and also check the internet for videos and further instructions on locking up with a u-lock.

 
 

Found on Road Bike Tool

What a Park Tool IB-2 looks like after being dropped in the street and run over multiple times by SUVs

If there's a "Bike Friendly Universe" list, a top ten picked by the overlords of the multiverse, then I nominate this one, this now, for dropping this article of beausage into my bike lane on this fine late Spring commute. Everything still works. Just a little rough around the edges. Hey, that reminds me of someone. I like to think of it as non-slip knurling. 

Which Path Does the World Take?

Marking progress on the Arizona Canal multi-use path project in Scottsdale

As a follow-up from the project kickoff post back in December, I note here the excellent progress being shown on the Arizona Canal multi-use path upgrade project in Scottsdale. As noted back then, the "Fall, 2015" date still shown on the City of Scottsdale site appears a bit padded to me, but perhaps the 80-20 rule applies. The wonderfully precise progress marker bar appears to show approximately 66.66% completion at this point, so a linear project progress would put the completion date somewhere in July, 2013.

Two-thirds, give or take

The detail-oriented among you may also note a budgetary difference, from $1.3 megabucks on this sign, compared to $2.3 megabucks on the COS page. Perhaps the last million will be spent slowly, over two years, to really finish it off that last 20% with a bang. We'll see.

Path guardian

I rode on it today, even though it still has 33% more to go, and saw this friendly path guardian watching over all who visit here. I saw him, watching out, and it got me thinking, the path the world takes is decided by each of us, all seven billion, every time we make a small choice, to drive a car or ride a bike, to help someone in need or walk on by, to do something small and good, or large and bad. We make the choices. We pick the path. In some cases, we even build it.

The sum total of the world's path is all of those individual choices added together. Tolerance and understanding, or hatred and violence? These are not only choices made by others, out there, the anonymous mass of seething humanity, but by each of us, all the time. In our jobs, in our families, in the quiet time alone with ourselves riding our bicycles, those choices add up to the world's path, nothing more, and nothing less. It's no use shrugging it off, or pointing the finger at others. I am part of it. Anger, or patience? Rage, or understanding? Which path, world, shall we go down? You are part of it. It is us.

Fresh pavement...and one steel trench plate.

Also, and I'm almost done here, and thank you for your consideration and patience, those small choices have the powerful ability to influence the small choices of others. If you watch, if you pay attention, you will see it in action all the time. Mirror neurons, mood sharing, smile and the world smiles with you, and the opposite, too, the cascade of small decisions forms the waterfall of our lives. That's the role we play. It's what is happening right now.

Mr. and Mrs. Duck, out for a Friday afternoon stroll...

...be careful out there on the path

I've been taking a blog break, and it continues. I'll try to make my small choices the good ones, the right ones, and I'm sure I'll make mistakes, but I'll learn from them and move on. I remain convinced that tolerance and understanding is the path we need to go down. I can't always ride the other way from hate and anger, as sometimes they grab you up and try to smash you down. In that case, I try to respond to them with love and understanding, regardless of how hard they grasp, or how many others are making the same choice. Those small choices are mine, and yours, to make, every day, and they add up. That's which path the world takes.

 

Happy the Day

I'm taking some time off from blogging to work on other projects. I'm excited about them, but since I find that I have just a little too much fun blogging to set aside enough time for them, it's on pause for now. So, off I go, on yet another journey of sorts. Happy the day when we begin new journeys. Or retrace previous ones, for that matter. I believe I'll be back here eventually. Thank you for reading, and ride happy on your own journeys.

 

You Will Go Far

Distance has potential. New River trail.

Since I opted for a longer than normal ride out to the west side, I decided the road bike needed some usage. I threw an extra spare tube into the bag just in case. Good thing, too.

Saturday's machine, sunlight glinting off crankset incidental

I was up for a longer ride. After about ten miles I worked out the kinks, and started to feel very connected and strong. That's actually a poor description of the melting into the bike flying across the pavement that I felt, but words are sometimes insufficient to the feeling. While I sometimes eschew the road bike for more utility-oriented, or less race-oriented setups, when I just want to ride far and with some speed, lightweight carbon, aluminum, and steel which respond promptly and lively to power input to the pedals is quite enjoyable. And it's pretty easy to repair a flat tire on it, too.

I picked up a thorn in my front tire somewhere around mile 20. It was medium-sized, not a goathead, but stiff and sharp, and punched a clean hole straight through tire and tube which flatted quickly. I found a shady spot to put in the new tube. As I was sitting on a comfortable bench with the wheel across my lap, searching for the puncture source, a little girl of perhaps three or four years old, along with her parent or guardian, wondered up.

"What are you doing?" she asked me.

"Oh, hi there. Fixing my flat tire."

"What's this?" she boldly asked, pointing.

"That's my frame pump."

"Can I try it?"

"Sure!" she picked it up, and turned it around, considering how to try it. She then put one end on the ground, and began pumping it. 

"What's it for?"

"For putting air back into my tire, once I get the new tube in."

"Can I help?"

"Well, I don't know, right now I'm trying to find the hole in the old tube so I can remove whatever caused the puncture so as not to poke a hole in the new tube."

"That would not be too good. I don't see the hole, though."

"Here, may I? I'll put some air back into the old tube and we'll see if we can hear the hissing."

"You carry that on your bike?" the parent or guardian was asking me. Separated from the bike, it was a little unclear where one would mount a full-sized frame pump. 

"Yeah, it mounts under the top tube, with these ends. There's a pump peg on the head tube, too. It's a lot easier to pump up a high pressure tire with a frame pump."

I found the hole in the tube, and ran my finger along the inside of the tire in the corresponding place. My finger found the thorn the hard way, and a small drop of blood appeared on my fingertip. I didn't notice it at first, though, which resulted in my smearing some blood on the rim.

"Mister, there's some blood on your finger. I can get you a bandaid for your ouchy."

 

I dug the thorn out of the tire, and mounted the new tube. Around that point, something else caught her interest, perhaps the playground equipment, and she and her guardian wandered off. I took my time finishing the job, made sure the tube was not pinched and the bead fully engaged all the way around. I like to double check these, because it's no fun to put air into a tube just to have it leak or explode because I mounted it wrong. Been there, done that, don't want to repeat.

Canal information sign, near the end of the canal

Linear park. This section includes shade and water stops, along with excellent signage and maps.

As I got back on the bike, I thought about the open curiosity and friendliness the little girl had shown. As she toddled away, full of enthusiasm for whatever was next, and I hope slightly more knowledgeable about bicycles, tires, pumps, thorns, and air, I sent a little prayer or wish in her wake: you will go far, little one, you'll go far.
 
 

Cyclist's Weekend Out of Office Message

Hello, if you need me for something this weekend, I will be located on my bicycle somewhere in the greater Phoenix metro area, or within the surrounding desert.

My destination will be unknown, or unspecified/other.

My cell phone seems to have developed some sort of mysterious non-functionality which causes it not to ring or buzz while I am on my bike. It's weird. If you call and I don't answer, please leave a message, and I will get back to you on Monday morning, after I am done riding my bicycle all weekend long. The forecast high temperature is around 80 degress F, the skies cloudless, the breezes slight. The bike riding forecast for me is long, extensive, wide-ranging, aimless. My target goal is everywhere which is not here.

Trails which are, trails which shall one day be

If you are a member of my immediate family or a loved one, and you need to reach me this weekend, the best approach is probably to be out there riding with me. If you are a member of my immediate family and/or a loved one, and are out there riding with me, I promise to reply to your inquiry. If you are not out there riding with me, I will reply to your inquiry on Monday morning. In case of urgent need, it may be best to head out to an open part of the desert and begin shouting my name. It's not likely to reach me, given how large the desert is, and how open, but it may make you feel better momentarily, and/or forget whatever it was you wanted, and/or give you time to figure it out on your own. We're talking the whole metro area, 16,573 sq. mi. or roughly the same size as the Netherlands, so you'll be out there yelling into a lot of desert, if you take that route. It's probably better to just be out there riding with me, if you feel the need to contact me may arise. It would turn out much the same, except with less shouting.

Recreate, recreate, recreate. If I say it three times, let it be so. It was a beast of a week. Time to ride it all away. Farewell, beastly week, you are behind me now. 

I'll be out there, somewhere. Let's hope for the best, or even better, make the best, miles and miles of it.

Sleepy Dog Grips

Along the road on the quest for comfy grips. Many position options for a sleepy dog to explore.

Back when I had a dog, it amused me to watch him seek out the softest spot to lay down, and then proceed to circle around and around to push the padding into just the right position for maximum comfort. This circling, nesting, fluffing the pillow, padding down the grass, denning or whatever behavior it really was came across as starting with something that was probably soft and comfortable from the beginning, then seeking perfection through persistent rearrangement. He would always leave behind a perfect dog-shaped indention when he left.

That's kind of how it is with my grips. My hands are medium-large, and smallish normal grips just seem too small. The current grips don't feel comfortable to me while commuting, so I keep looking for ways to improve them. Rather than go to the trouble of removing my brakes and shifters and taking off the old ones, though, I decided to slice open an old pair that I had and wrap them around the old ones. Enclose and secure them with three loops of stainless safety wire, and BAM! my hands are ready to start circling like a sleepy dog.

I've used stainless safety wire on grips before, though not exactly like this. Rather, I just used them to secure some Oury grips that were a bit too large to fit snugly. That worked well, and I was surprised by how compatible safety wire is with rubber grips. I thought that maybe it would just cut right through as I tightened it, which is certainly possible, but I just made sure to stop before the wire started cutting into the rubber, and it worked out. One of these days I may have to buy an official/legitimate safety wire pliers instead of the junior model I currently use.

I don't know if slicing open grips and wrapping them around others is actually a good idea, so I'm not recommending it for others to try. In this case it initially appears to have worked, but I suppose there are several things wrong with the concept or implementation. We'll see. But in the meantime, I find my hands acting like sleepy dogs now, not staying in one place, but settling briefly in one position, enjoying the squishy comfort, then moving slightly to see if a different position would be more comfortable. Of course, since I sliced the old grips open, these are sort of flat and open along the bottom, which is strange, but not necessarily bad as far as I can tell. And the triple safety wire wraps keeps them from being flappy.

My dog snored, too. I'm not sure these grips are that comfortable, but we'll see. At least they fit my hand better.