Thursday, December 29, 2011

Bad Cycling Weather

The last time I rode the bike was Friday, 17 December.  Beautiful day for it.... but over the weekend we received about 10" of snow followed by another foot a couple days later, then a couple inches on top of that.
We had over 24" of knee-deep snow followed by several days of below-freezing temperatures, so the snow has been slow in fading away.  Then this last week between Christmas and New Years has been spent largely at home busting up firewood and enjoying visiting kids and grandkids.  A few more cold shots....
Here's a shot of the snowman Christopher a nd Jason constructed, with very wet snow that was beginning to melt but produced a snowman that would make Calvin and Hobbes jealous:




I expect to begin riding at least the 14+ miles a day starting my first day at work on Monday, 2 Jan 2012.
We might try a joint Jacque & Jim ride down the Bosque trail on Saturday:  We'll see.

Friday, December 16, 2011

A Dry Butt is a Wonderful Thing

Friday Morning Warm-Butt Track
Friday Evening Return Track

My recumbent lawn-chair-on-2-wheels seat had only a fairly thick coating of fresh frost this morning (14 degrees) which brushed off nicely with a couple swipes of my mittens, with no imbedded ice to refigerate my hind end as I rode to work.  The difference in comfort level compared to yesterday's frozen-fanny episode was, of course, wonderful.
I neglected to mention last night as I rode out from under the Montgomery bicycle underpass, I again encountered "the screamer".  I mentioned several months ago about this lunatick who got outraged at me as I passed him a bit further south, around sundown, because I had blinking red lights on my bike.  He was somehow offended by this and screamed at me as I went past and continued to scream at me even though I was a long way past him and ignoring him.  I swear he was still screaming audibly half a mile away.
Well, last night he saw me coming toward him as he walked north on the trail and I walked south, and began screaming gibberish at me as I neared him and thankfully only 40 or 50 yards after I passed him,
I'm always tempted to taunt him just as I get close enough to sprint by him and avoid any attempted physical response, but at age 64 I have learned it's seldom worth the risk to get in a slice-and-dice comment.  If he was sane enough to understand such a gibe he likely wouldn't be screaming insanity at me in the first place.  If he understood it enough to REALLY take offense, who knows if he's:
-Faster than I (not hard to imagine)
-Stronger than I (ditto)
-Armed??
(Sigh) Oh Well.  I suppose I'll just continue to allow him to scream insanities so long as he continues to allow me to get past him with only minor injuries to my hearing.
I really enjoyed my ride back to where Jacque was waiting for me in her Exploder tonight.  It was cold enough to require mittens (though no chemical hand warmers were needed, unlike the mornings) but the breeze turned into a mild tail-wind that kept from freezing me and it was just a great ride.  Love it.

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Great Ride, Frozen Butt

Today's freezing but enjoyable track via APRS

The weather has been pretty nasty recently.  I can and do ride the bike no matter how cold it is but with freezing rain and snow dominating the last several days I have missed out on the desired exercise.
Yesterday, Wednesday, when I left home it was snowing and miserable slush, giving way to blue sky and dry roads just as I exited Tijeras Canyon and entered the Albuquerque City Limits.  BAH - I was driving Jacque's Exploder but should have taken the time to mount the trailer hitch-mounted bike rack and brought the long monster along.  It was cool and cold all day but the wind was very mild and no rain, ice, nor snow.... I felt cheated for not having brought along the recumbent.
Jacque and I decided last night that she would give me a ride to "town" this morning and I would ride the bike the last 7 miles, as usual, and she would go to her normal morning water-exercise class.  It was a bit of  a pain in the butt to take the bike rack off the RV and bolt it onto the Exploder, but the real pain in the butt began when we got to town and I saddled up:  The bike has been out in the snow all week and built up some crunchy ice in the padding and webbing of the seat which did not want to come out easily.  I dusted off the snow and ice as best I could and saddled up and took off.  I had an extra wind-breaker jacket layer this morning and was warm enough everywhere EXCEPT my hiney which immediately got chilled and thence near-frozen the farther I rode.  I got to work after a good and uneventful ride but with a seriously cold and numb backside.  It's noon as I write this and it has ALMOST dried and thawed out by now.
It's always dicey changing vehicles, or clothes, for me.  I invariably forget something I later find necessary when I move my large stash of STUFF to another set of clothing or a different vehicle.  When I started unoading the bike from the rack this morning I realized I had left me GPS/Ham Radio handlebar set in my normal commuter-car, so I was unable to exchange insults or anything else with my normal coterie of other ham radio operators who enjoy hassling and teasing me while I'm on the bike.  The Tracker Radio (APRS) is stashed inside the back pocket of the bike seat, however, so I was able to activate it and obtain a track of position reports on the way to work (see above link).
Pre-Ride BG:  262(!)   --  BG when arrived at Work: 68
Beginning Battery Voltage: 12.7                Ending Voltage: 12.6 (New Gel Cell battery pack, charged 5 days ago)
Beginning Temperature: 34 F  (in ABQ)     Ending Temperature: 59 F
Morning Stats from the GPS: Total Miles: 7.44
Overall average speed                    Moving Avg                       Max Speed
8.3 Mph                                         09.7 mph                             19 mph
 


Saturday, December 10, 2011

Balderdash, Curbed Again

Track me until. the tracking stops for some reason
Heading home last (Friday) night after work, all was calm, all was  bright, er, dark...... and then I hit the SAME STUPID CURB that bent my front fork last week.  This inspires me to do (at  least) 2 things:
(1) - Get a brighter head-lamp
(2) - take some reflective paint and tape and mark this crossing so I and others can avoid injury and damage.
This time, however, no damage seemed to occur to the fork, frame, or wheel.  I may have hit it at a slower speed, but it still didn't help my self image the least bit.  My commitment to avoid foul language took another beating, as well.  I was really surprised my chewing-gum-looking blobby welding job on the current front fork survived this stress.  I have been watching and worrying about it since I re-welded and re-painted it
Today I am in the midst of frantically cutting firewood (mostly juniper and :"gift:" scrap lumber from friends' remodeling projects) - we have been really burning the stuff heavy duty with the freezing and sub-freezing and sub-zero weather we've had for over a week now.  We still have several inches of very cold frozen snow in all directions, including our primitive roadway to our house.  I bladed the road today using our old trailer tongue "V" pulled via a chain attached to Jacque's 4WD Ford Exploder.  Then I set about gassing and lubing up the chainsaw and cut a couple sled-loads of the stuff, and got exhausted and took a long break.  Now I'm all rested and warm and comfy so I better get back out there again;  daylight's a-wasting.....

Thursday, December 8, 2011

b-b-b-B-Back in the Saddle Again

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