Today's Freezing Forte via APRS
Well, late Sunday night I finally finished stitching the new black-mesh fabric onto my lawn-chair-looking recumbent bicycle seat. Saturday, the day before, I had successfully welded a cracked front fork, painted it, and installed it on the bike. Since Jacque was gone to Dallas to visit the grandkids over the weekend, I did all the necessary work inside the house where it was nice and warm, with the stretch-recumbent bike parked right in the living room, right in front of the wood stove. I really love my twin-V dual Kick Stand, which when folded up looks just like a normal kickstand but when extended for parking makes a "V" support that elevates the rear wheel. This allows brake and chain and wheel adjustments, and allows bike repairs without a bike stand. To keep the front elevated with the front wheel and fork removed, I just put an upside down bucket underneath the front of the frame; the V kickstand kept everything steady and no danger of falling over.
Welding the front fork was a bit tricky: The metal in the fork tubing is very thin while the stem where both sides of the fork meet is very heavy pipe, and takes forever to get orange and white-hot so the metal will flow together for a good weld. It took quite a bit of careful effort to get the thick stem heated up to welding temperature while trying to avoid overheating and completely melting the thin tubing of the fork. The finished weld is not too pretty but seems solid. I scraped and sanded it and painted it bright yellow; a color I'd like to paint the whole bike eventually. Even with all this effort, it was small potatoes compared to re-fabricking the seat. It laces up behind like a fat old woman's corset, so it took a long time to untie all that cord, cut the new fabric to approximate the old fabric, hand stitch reinforcement seams on all borders, punch holes for the lacing cord to match the old fabric, etc, etc. My fingers were already dry and cracked and sore from all our recent cold weather so it was a mild bit of torture working the big sewing needle back and forth through all those seams. Finally I was able to start lacing the new seat cover in place, trying to make it fit well and tight, etc.
So, I was "finished" with the bike late Sunday night. I couldn't ride it on Monday since it had been below zero and snowing all weekend, and the roads and snow and ice were so miserable I wouldn't have even driven to Albuquerque to work except for the fact Jacque was flying back Monday Night to arrive at 9 PM. So, since I had to fight my way to town sometime during the day in order to be ready to pick her up, I drove on in to work.... 2 hours late. Thankfully the snow stopped before noon and no more came down until about midnight, so picking Jacque up was no problem except for the bitter cold and we arrived home safe and sound. It snowed a bit more Monday night and when we arrive home it was FIFTEEN BELOW ZERO.
I'd left the water dripping so thankfully no pipes have locked up yet in spite of the bitter weather. The roads were snowy and icy again both Tuesday and yesterday, Wednesday, so I drove my Taurus all the way to work each day (having to put tire chains on the front wheels to get up the nasty mile of private road to our home).
The roadways here in Albuquerque have seemed to dry out fairly nicely, and smart remarks by one of my local ham radio buddies (Tom, KG6MVB) convinced me it was time to ride again.
It was 12 degrees on our outside-wall thermometers at home this morning, meaning it was barely (if) above zero out in the air away from the house walls. Several of the ham radio guys and gals told me it was in the upper teens in Albuquerque as I drove to town to park the car and saddle up the bike. It was tempting to put on another layer of a warmer coat this morning but experience has taught me no matter how cold it is, I get overheated quickly with a coat on. My layers this morning were: Garment, thermal turtleneck wicking shirt, thick long sleeve work-shirt, sleeveless insulated vest, and the ever necessary day-glo green/yellow reflective vest that also helps a little bit to break the wind. Polar Fleece skull cap underneath the bike helmet, wraparound safety goggles to protect the eyes from the biting breeze, and a Velcro-attaching face mask fo give the nose, face, and throat a break from the breeze as well. I did NOT get very overheated until about the last mile of the 7-mile commute today, and then most of the heat was bothersome under the face mask, which is easy to remove and hang on to while riding without stopping. I also didn't break any speed records today... you know how it is. It takes weeks of exercise to build up any stamina at all but only a day or so off the exercise and it all seems to fast fade away.
Pre-Ride BG: UNK -- BG when arrived at Work: 188(!)
Beginning Battery Voltage: 12.1 Ending Voltage: 12.0 (Old Gel Cell battery pack, charged last WEEK)
Beginning Temperature: 37 F (in ABQ) Ending Temperature: 34 F
Morning Stats from the GPS: Total Miles: 7.44
Overall average speed Moving Avg Max Speed
8.3 Mph 09.7 mph 18.3 mph
Total Trip time Moving Time Stopped Time
53 mins 34 secs 46 mins 08 secs 7 mins 26 secs
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