My Long Summer Off Work Is Almost At An End… I’m Going Back To Work, Saving The World, One Project At A Time
Well, maybe that’s a lot over the top, the whole saving the world thing. It sounds cool, though! I’ve accepted a position at an industrial solar facility as a project manager. I’m relieved, too. The company is awesome and the work appears as though it’ll be right in my wheelhouse, especially with some of the new tech coming on line (more on that another time).
The job is so close to my house, I’ll have to go the long way to make the commute interesting by bike.
I can see myself commuting much of the spring, all of summer and most of the fall season, just for fun. I used to put 30,000 miles a year on my car. That’ll go down by a ridiculous margin and I’m excited to see how much I can do by bike.
Beyond being able to ride a bike to work, the executive team seems quite spectacular, to the point I had fun at the interview. It was an astonishingly cool, whirlwind of a process.
More on this after the paperwork is signed… and maybe after I start.
In the meantime, it’s below freezing outside. It snowed yesterday, for a few minutes (not near enough to accumulate). We’re riding the trainers this morning. Thank God for good timing and trainers!
Uh Oh, It Appears Coffee Is Swinging Around To Bad For You Again…
My first thought is, why? Actually, it wasn’t. My first thought was, “who looks like that after drinking coffee“?! That’s how I looked after a case of beer 30 years ago.
You know how it is, though, and this alludes to larger things; as I’ve pointed out often here, coffee is good for you. Six months later, it isn’t. Six months after that, it is again… until it isn’t again. So, to hopefully learn something new, ahem, I clicked on the link.
Hang on, this is my shocked face. Who would want to quit their morning coffee… on purpose? Anyway, yes, something has gone awry. It’s the usual, “science says this!” “No, science says that!” jockeying we’ve become to be accustomed to. Probably nobody paying attention, anyway.
Carry on, folks. Nothing to see here. Carry on.
Why I Use Mudguards On Our Gravel Tandem; The Tale of Two Co-Motion Kalapuyas
I have a confession to make; I love mudguards on a tandem. I particularly love them for dirt roads, I think they’re the best thing since sliced bread.
They’re not perfect, but I’ll tell you this about mudguards; if you want to minimize cleanup after a muddy or wet ride, there’s nothing better. One of my best friends and his wife have the exact same tandem my wife and I have, only in blue, and we went out on a gravel ride yesterday. It rained the night before, so the dirt was mucky in places. Chuck is running the 45s that came on the bike with no fenders, I’m running 40s with the setup in the photo above.
Their bike was absolutely smoked after our ride, mud everywhere. Ours, while it did require some cleanup, took five minutes with a hose and a soft-bristled brush on the crankset and bottom bracket cable guides and along the bottom tube. The wheels required a little work as well, but they weren’t all that bad. You’d expect them to be a little gnarly after a muddy ride. Chuck’s were worse for the wear.
In the end, it’s always come down to one question; “how unsexy are fenders on a bike”?
On the one hand, the truth is, they’re not as cool as the sleeked up no fenders setup:
On the other, not blowing an hour on a Saturday cleaning up after a muddy ride on the tandem is very cool. In my world, there’s no-fender season and fender season. I love our bike when it’s all sleek and sassy… but I love easy cleanups after a ride.
And, with SKS mudguards (which is all I really know), once you’ve set them up and locked them in, you can take them off or put them on, exactly perfect every time, in a matter of minutes. I had about three hours into getting mine installed and adjusted to where I liked them, but that was my first set. If I had it to do over again, I could knock that down to a couple of hours, maybe less. They’re worth their weight in gold. Actually, check that. They’re shockingly light. We’ve got the 53mm Longboards and I’d be surprised if they were more than a few hundred grams for the set.
I’ve got a set of the P50 Chromoplastic Longboard fenders in silver but those are a few years old. It looks like they’ve pared down the choices and now the set is named “B55 Bluemels”. Add the Extra-Long mudflaps to make yours “Longboard”. You can pick the width for whatever you ride: https://sks-us.com/collections/eyelets-clamps-required/products/bluemels-fender-set-700c-650b-wheels
As the Cold Weather Pain Sets In…
When we set out Friday morning for our ride it was a balmy 37 degrees, a mere 2C. As I settle into my 50s, I can tell you without question, the cold hurts. At least for a few weeks it does. I’m starting to get used to it but I don’t like it. I can understand why older folks move south. The heat does a body good, as I’ve found. Or, at least, it doesn’t hurt like cold does.
Still, there’s something to be said for having a winter. Absence of warmth makes the heart grow fonder… and joints ache more.
We’re rolling out this morning at 8:30, it’s getting light much later these days (it was light enough to ride at 6AM a few months ago) and we’re just before hitting our first really cold weather. Temps well below freezing at night, just above during the day.
The bikes are set up on the trainers in the living room again… and it’s almost time to use them regularly, and I’m looking forward to it. Trainer season is so easy.
Dave Is Home From The Hospital
You may remember, a while back, I wrote about my friend and regular commentor on my blog posts who had been hit while riding his motorcycle by a careless driver as she exited a filling station parking lot and ran into him (actually, I believe it may have been a T-Bone).
He came home from the hospital and will begin his at-home recovery and his work to get back onto his bikes shortly.
His spirits are high and we’ve got a place in the pace-line for him to hide when it’s time. We’re all stoked for where he’s at.
Good news, indeed. We’ll see you soon, Dave.
Who Are The Worst People To Ride With In A Group?
The most recent GCN Show Dan and Simon explored the topic of the worst people to ride with in a group.
I can imagine I’d be able to come up with a nice list of my own, but I’m going to refrain. I’ll instead worry about the one cyclist I can do something about. I’m the list. Don’t we all love to point at someone else and say, “they’re the worst ever!”?
What isn’t easy is to aim that harsh light back at me. Though generally well intentioned, I’ve made some mistakes that I regretted for some time.
I’ve since healed the critical me and moved beyond that, but I’m a long way off from the finish line that I’ll never quite reach. For now, I’ve got enough work to worry about for myself. I never did well with righteous indignation, anyway.
One Last Glorious Bite At The Fall Apple… And A New Driveway
I added onto our driveway to accommodate our new popup tent camper a couple of months ago. I went with 23A crushed limestone with a crushed limestone (6A) topcoat. It’s been beautiful, but not perfect. I didn’t make the addition quite long enough and the 23A sections that met with the driveway didn’t get enough limestone cover. My wife loved it, especially the 23A ramp to the main addition, but I always felt it was a little off. It was also short, so it was tricky to navigate my car in front of the camper so we could fit all of the cars in the driveway without having to worry about jockeying everything around every time someone wanted to leave.
The additional driveway, about 8′ x 40′, cost about $300. Amazing how cheap that stuff is when you do it yourself and have access to a trailer to haul the crushed limestone.
After having the new driveway addition for the better part of the summer, my wife and I discussed adding onto it to make it easier to drive my car up onto it… and I wanted to even out the crushed limestone covering to make it look a little more upscale. $75 and a couple of hours devoted to raking and shoveling, and it’s beautiful. I can finally be done and my wife is excited about it.
This was made enjoyable by the fact I was out shoveling and raking with shorts on. It was unseasonably beautiful yesterday. An outstanding peach of a day, really – and we’ll get rain today which will really lock the new driveway 23A limestone in (more on that in another post).
And no peach of a day is complete without a bike ride. I was overdressed, barely, from the first turn of the crank, in a thermal vest, arm warmers, leg warmers and full gloves. A half-unzipping of the vest was good enough. We rode with our friends, Mike and Diane and did a lovely 30-mile+ route at around 17-1/2-mph on asphalt roads (and it was a good thing, too, the grader was out on our local dirt yesterday). It was amazing after our way-too-cold cider ride Sunday morning and we had a glorious time.
It’s also going to be short-lived. Next week it gets really cold.
Michigan Cycling Weather; One Last Bite At The Apple
My wife and I are heading out for a nice little cycling adventure this morning. We’ve got reasonable temps (meaning jackets aren’t required, but I’ll likely wear a vest, arm warmers, leg warmers, wool socks – it is Michigan) and a mild breeze from the south on tap. It’s shaping up to be a wonderful day. The end of the week looks quite nice as well, but things change in a hurry up here, so I’m not holding my breath yet.
One thing is for certain; everything changes at the end of the month. We’re looking at highs just above freezing and lows, well the lows will be cold enough I don’t even want to think about it right now. Cold enough they’re close to my cutoff for riding outdoors (20-ish° or -several degrees in Celsius).
For now, though, it’s time to make hay while the sun is shining, and so we shall. The tandem is currently set up for the road, but I might switch that over to gravel before our little nice weather streak comes to an end. I rode my mountain bike for the first time this year yesterday (because the starting temp was just below freezing – it was cold). The ride was quite enjoyable, so I’m looking forward to a lot of gravel in the near future. We’ll see.
Finally, my friend Dave comes home from the hospital today. He’s excited to get back and I’m going to be spending some time over at his place over the next few weeks and over the winter. He’s stoked about starting trainer rides once he’s cleared to bend his leg enough to get the pedals around. Thank God for good doctors who ride bikes. His knew exactly how much Dave needs to get back on two wheels.
Our Annual Cider and Donut Ride; Brutally Cold and Headwind All The Way Home… But Strangely Awesome
We were set to roll at 9am and, having failed to fully understand exactly how cold it was going to be, I simply didn’t worry about it. Until I went outside to ready the tandem. Oh, my.
I changed the gravel wheels over to road and took the mudguards off, finally switching the chain for the shorter road version. Then I went in to lay out my clothing. Long sleeved jersey, base layer, leg warmers, tights, bibs, wool socks, hat… and gloves… a neck gaiter, and my wife and I decided on the Funkier winter jackets we bought years ago. They’re the best winter cycling gear we’ve ever owned.
We were the first to arrive at the high school parking lot, around 8:40 Sunday morning. The sun was shining but the wind chill said it was going to be a cold ride. Yes, there was a wind chill.
We bundled up while cars started to file into the student parking lot. Once prepared, we rolled out at exactly 9:01 in the AM. It took a nice hill about three-quarters of a mile in for us to get to anything resembling “warmed up”. The sun made it bearable, though. It was lost behind clouds before we finished the decent down the backside of that hill. The wind was enough to make our eyes water behind our wraparound sunglasses.
The route took us through the Lake Shannon subdivision, a favorite of virtually everyone who rides it. Lots of downhill, a little bit of up, and winding roads the whole way. Jess and I shot off the front as we began the first descent because I was seriously looking forward to doing that section on our tandem. Jess responded to my hammering and we set a wonderful pace around the winding roads. I’m pretty sure I was smiling the whole time. The Co-Motion handled the corners with ease, almost making them a little boring. It’ll never cease to amaze me how that thing corners.
We took our time up the hills and enjoyed every last bit of downhill on our way to the cider mill. We pulled into the parking lot with about 18 miles. Thankfully, our teeth weren’t chattering until we hit the line for the cider and donuts.
The donuts were amazing, but the cider was disappointingly lukewarm… even bordering on cold. And we had headwind all the way home to look forward to.
We ate and drank up, I removed the long-sleeved jersey and stowed it in our saddle bag and we rolled out. It was brutal cold into the headwind so we opted for a shortcut. We pushed the pace the best we could and hit the parking lot with a little more than 26 miles.
We changed shoes, took the helmets off, stowed the bike and booked it for home and a warm shower ASAP.
And on the way home had a nice conversation about how nice the ride was, considering the cold. Surprising, really. It made me laugh, reflecting on it. While we were out there, I couldn’t wait for the return trip to be done. Once we were in the car, I couldn’t come up with much negative to say about the whole experience. My wife was in the same boat.
Pretty cool.
Prepping The Tandem For Asphalt, Perhaps For The Last Time This Year
We’re rolling out this morning for a paved road ride, for our annual cider mill jaunt. Previous years have been dirt road adventures, but not this year. One of our riding buddies is going in for a procedure next week and he’s a little fussy about riding in the dirt so Chuck hooked him up with a paved route.
I like riding the dirt this time of year, especially now that we’ve got a tandem that we can configure for both. It’s nice to get away from traffic when it gets cold out.
So, without further ado, I’m off to it. More on the ride tomorrow morning.
In recovery news, I gave an open talk last night after being asked just last week. I went into this one with zero prep, correctly assuming that, for once, I had enough to fill the hour with because I’ve been working so hard with my sponsor. I was right about content, but wrong on the time. I made it about 35 minutes which left time for a lengthy question and answer time that I wasn’t prepared for, but handled.
My wife, father-in-law and youngest daughter came in support and, I have to tell you, it was pretty amazing having them there. I covered most of my recent developments in working with my sponsor, another 4th & 5th, the 6th & 7th, and how all of that tied into some massive changes in who I want to be as I move through the world (much of which I wrote about here, but not enough of late).
I suppose in the coming week or two I’ll start getting into that on this page. It’s going to be some hefty writing.
Enjoy your Sunday.
Fit Recovery 