I spent more time dressing than I spent on the bike yesterday. It's
so BORING to just ride around in circles that I dropped off some stuff
that doesn't fit at Our Father's House, then went to the courthouse to
work out on the steps, and called that a ride.

This time, instead of counting my laps, I recorded the time I spent on
the steps. It was about a third of an hour, and I can ride six miles
in an hour at that level of exertion, so I count the steps as two
extra miles. That makes the total ride about equivalent to riding to
the dentist and back.

I miss my semi-annual stop at Marsh after getting my teeth cleaned.
Not Covid19; Marsh went broke several years ago, and were soon
followed by the original Kroger, and now the nearest thing to a
grocery on the west side of town is a gas station. Dollar General
also has a little food. But I don't think that the people who live in
Retired Tigers can walk to either.

My phone informed me that I must wear my zip-front heavy wool jersey
from now on, so that I can carry the phone in an inside pocket. It
wasn't all that cold, and my two previous phones never complained or malfunctioned even when I had to blow into my bottle to keep ice out
of the valve.

There were streaks of molasses (or something) on Main Street, and sure
enough, it's snowing now.

I had to ride pretty close to the mayor's beloved "bike lane" to keep
my tires clean, but there was almost no overtaking traffic, and
overtaking drivers could see that my tires were outside the fog line
before I moved over.

--
Joy Beeson
joy beeson at centurylink dot net
http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

I'm debating whether to convert to my "ice bike" (with studded tires) or
stay with my general purpose MTB that has hybrid tires on it (smooth
center section with knobs on the sides).

Used to ride all year to work even in single digit temperatures. Now
I'm retired so the 12 mile ride to UMass from my house doesn't occur so
I don't have any built in riding activity any more. I've gone from
about 3-4 thousand miles per year to just 1000 (and might not even make
that).

C'est domage!

Used to take me about an hour to get to work and a bit more coming back
as I always liked riding down the main street of my hometown of
Northampton in Massachusetts. I always froze my hands during the first
fifteen minutes of the ride, but then they would slowly start to warm so
that when I got to work, they were nice and toasty and could get right
to work tapping a computer keyboard.

But my feet? They would gradually get colder and colder and colder as I
rode. They would be icicles arriving at my office desk and be a bit
painful as they slowly thawed out.

However, I believe that they had reached their coldest at the end of
that hour ride and would not get colder. If my commute was 15 miles
instead of 11 or 12, I think they'd be warmer.

Never tested that theory out though.

I no longer ride through the winter (with no regrets) but I do keep an
"ice bike" handy for an occasional winter jaunt.


SMH


On 12/16/20 1:51 PM, Joy Beeson wrote:

I spent more time dressing than I spent on the bike yesterday. It's
so BORING to just ride around in circles that I dropped off some stuff
that doesn't fit at Our Father's House, then went to the courthouse to
work out on the steps, and called that a ride.

This time, instead of counting my laps, I recorded the time I spent on
the steps. It was about a third of an hour, and I can ride six miles
in an hour at that level of exertion, so I count the steps as two
extra miles. That makes the total ride about equivalent to riding to
the dentist and back.

I miss my semi-annual stop at Marsh after getting my teeth cleaned.
Not Covid19; Marsh went broke several years ago, and were soon
followed by the original Kroger, and now the nearest thing to a
grocery on the west side of town is a gas station. Dollar General
also has a little food. But I don't think that the people who live in Retired Tigers can walk to either.

My phone informed me that I must wear my zip-front heavy wool jersey
from now on, so that I can carry the phone in an inside pocket. It
wasn't all that cold, and my two previous phones never complained or malfunctioned even when I had to blow into my bottle to keep ice out
of the valve.

There were streaks of molasses (or something) on Main Street, and sure enough, it's snowing now.

I had to ride pretty close to the mayor's beloved "bike lane" to keep
my tires clean, but there was almost no overtaking traffic, and
overtaking drivers could see that my tires were outside the fog line
before I moved over.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

I'm debating whether to convert to my "ice bike" (with studded tires) or
stay with my general purpose MTB that has hybrid tires on it (smooth
center section with knobs on the sides).

What do you do a out road salt corrosion?

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 12/18/20 12:08 PM, mac wrote:

I'm debating whether to convert to my "ice bike" (with studded tires) or
stay with my general purpose MTB that has hybrid tires on it (smooth
center section with knobs on the sides).

What do you do a out road salt corrosion?

Never really have had a problem.

The ice bike is a fairly nice, old Aluminum frame bike (Trek 7000) which
I use as an ice bike in the winter (studded tires and more powerful home
made 12V lighting) and a "boat bike" during sailing season. It's
actually physically too small for me but with stem extensions and 180mm
seat post, is very usable. LX gearing is good and the small frame size
make storage inside the boat cabin easier and out of the way.

It was a freebie dumpster queen that I salvaged when students left the combination office and housing where I worked for a time, so it isn't a
concern for me to keep "protected".

It has served me well for over 10 years, perhaps half of that time as an
ice bike. No corrosion problems ever (so far).


SMH

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On Fri, 18 Dec 2020 17:08:19 -0000 (UTC), mac <acolvin@efunct.com>
wrote:

What do you do a out road salt corrosion?

In the late twentieth century, I would lean my bike against the
garage, take my bottles inside, and fill them with hot water. I'd
take the first squirt from each bottle under the fenders. It usually
didn't take more than two trips to get the salt off. Then I would
take the bike into the house and park it on a washable scatter rug we
kept in the back entry for that purpose.

Nowadays, I park in the garage, and never come home with icicles
hanging from my fenders.

I wonder whether I could still survive being overtaken on a dry salted
road? The cloud of powdered salt was bad enough when I was young.

--
Joy Beeson
joy beeson at centurylink dot net
http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)