Just Cycling

The value of a good bicycle pump!

2012-03-13T15:43:00.001-04:00

I ran out of the house this morning and noticed my wife's car had a very low tire. Seeing that it was raining out and the fact that I didn't want to change the tire I look around the garage to see what I could do. I saw my tire pump and figured I would give it a shot. Surprisingly it worked much better then I thought it would. I filled the tire faster then using one of the electric pumps that plugs into your car lighter.

So next time you need a new pump......here is your reason to splurge!!

Wow has it been that long?!?!?

2012-02-04T08:28:00.000-05:00

Wow, I had all intentions of keeping this blog going through the summer (and winter) but I guess I failed. A lot has happened through the year so I guess I have a lot of catching up to do.

I'll be posting my catch ups soon.

It's better to be alive, than right!

2011-03-25T09:18:00.002-04:00

The rules of the road are either misunderstood or ignored when it comes to bicycles vs. cars vs. pedestrians. After going out for a short ride this saying rang true to me once again. It seems as if we are invisible to a lot of people that we share the road with. Just because you may be right may put you in a situation that is best avoided in the first place.

So how can we avoid this? One thing I learn during my motorcycle days is always watch the front tire of cars. Why the front tire? It will more often then not show the truth of the car you are looking at. A right directional, eye contact with the driver, a car at a stop sign, if taken at face value is really meaningless. Yet when you see the front tire of a car turning left while the directional is blinking right, what will you believe? You make eye contact with a driver (or so you think) yet the front tire is still rolling what will you trust? For me it has always been the front tire rule and it has saved me countless times on my bicycle. So next time your are on the road (even if you are in your car or walking) keep an eye on the front tires and you will see what I mean.

Also, while we are talking about safety, take a look at bicyclesafe.com and revisit what we all should have learned as kids.

It's a beautiful Friday, sunny and 70 degrees!

2011-03-18T14:24:00.000-04:00

Yet I will be stuck in the office all day today. By the time I get out of here it will be late, a bit colder, and probably to much traffic. But maybe I can still sneak in a quick ride if I stick to the back roads. Of course I could wait until tomorrow. It's only going to be 25 DEGREES COLDER!!!!!

Oh Mother Nature, what a tease you are............

Free GPSpeedOMeter for Blackberry*

2011-03-13T18:08:00.001-04:00

I have downloaded about 6 or 7 different GPS apps to my BB to find one that will work for me. Of course being frugal as I am I always look at the shareware stuff first. I did have one last year that was ok, but through mergers and acquisitions it became cumbersome to deal with. So this year I expanded my search to one time paid apps as well. I found GPSpeedOMeter and downloaded and gladly paid my $5.00 for what looked like a very promising app. Well, I was pleasantly surprised at the interface and loved the upload to Ridewithgps.com. So after buying the app I went to the the GPSpeedometer website and registered. Well apparently, the full interface to their website is not yet fully functional, and I get this email response to my registration.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hi,

Thanks for registering online.

At the moment im doing alot of work on the website and dont yet have the app properly hooked up to it. it should take me about a week or so to get it all working properly.

I've already got the backberry app up and running for the past year with ridewithgps.com though.

If you want you can goto

http://onlyblackberry.mobihand.com/product.asp?id=84729&affid=4284&wid=9964

the app is normally $4.99 but if you enter the coupon code preRegGPS on checkout it will give you the app for FREE.

As soon as the app is updated to hook up to my own website you'll automatically receive free membership for registering early.

Mark Cronin

GPSpeedOMeter

www.gpspeedometer.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If you have paid attention, I already paid for my version. But with Mark's blessing he told me to share the offer.

*There are only about 20 free downloads available so don't wait.

For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake.

2011-03-11T08:23:00.000-05:00

“For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move; to feel the needs and hitches of our life more nearly; to come down off this feather-bed of civilization, and find the globe granite underfo”

Robert Louis Stevenson

I couldn't sum up why I like to ride better then this simple little quote. There is really nothing more to say....

ECV Bike Swap

2011-03-05T10:04:00.004-05:00

Essex County Velo is having their 2nd annual bike swap this April in Beverly, MA. If it is like any of there other hosted events, which I am sure it will be, it will be a grand ole time.

http://ecvcycling.org/2011/03/01/second-annual-essex-county-velo-bike-swap/

We are slowly melting down

2011-03-03T06:03:00.000-05:00

We keep getting these short burst of snow here and there but we are heading in the right direction. The roads are getting wider, the snow banks are getting smaller and I can finally see grass in my back yard. OK, so the grass is dead/dormant but at least I can see it again. Let's be realistic, the only thing growing in N.E. right now are the potholes.

I've hit a few of these in my car that has rattled my bones. I can't imagine the damage that would have been done to my road bike. Hell, a 6 inch full suspension MTB might never come out the other side. So if you plan on bundling up and trying any spring riding keep your eyes open and your good bike at home.

If you don't like the weather in New England, just wait a few minutes.

2011-02-17T19:10:00.000-05:00

Is a quote from Mark Twain. Unfortunately, it has been more than just a few minutes since I've hated the weather we've been having. I think it was about two weeks ago that we peaked snow wise and everyone was was wondering would it ever end. Well it did! Today we hit 60 degrees.

So for me, it's out with the old and almost time for the new.............

Will the real Big Dummy please stand up.

2011-02-04T07:39:00.001-05:00

This is a picture of the Surly Big Dummy, a nice utilitarian bike. I understand the purpose of this type of bike and that it may be a great commuter. But who is commuting in this weather? The roads are barely wide enough for two cars to go down and who the hell can even see around a corner anymore. Surprisingly, there is someone right by my office still commuting on one of these. So I have to ask, who or what is the real Big Dummy?

Iowa in the summer??

2011-02-01T13:47:00.001-05:00

I've been putting off a trip to Iowa for some time now. It looks like I have found the perfect time, July 27th. Why then? Thats when RAGBRAI will be rolling through town. This is supposed to be a sight to see and what better way to mix business with pleasure.

If you have never heard of RAGBRAI, check it out here

Here we snow again!!

2011-02-01T09:49:00.003-05:00

We have over 50 inches of snow and more coming. There isn't much room left to put this stuff. Already most sidewalks are treacherous to walk on. If I plan on riding before June it may be time to look at one of these.....

Happy Compromises

2010-11-27T09:26:00.000-05:00

Ok, so the mountain biking didn't go over so well. Don't get me wrong, I LOVED IT. My body? not so much. So in the spirit of DitA I will be

Leaving the knobbies on (hope to wear down the middle of them, a la CX tires)
Removing the suspension seatpost and going back to the carbon
For now I will leave the 90mm stem. Still not sure where I want to be with this

My feelings is this will be a great compromise through the not so nice weather.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

DitA works. Body doesn't

2010-11-16T07:25:00.001-05:00

Well the aches and pains have settled in. I pulled something in my back again. The good news, it is the opposite side of most of my problems. The bad news, it hurts like heck. Looks like MTBing may be over for this year. I need to work on my core more before I do this again. But after babying my back for over a year what should I have expected. Here's to hoping it is just a minor tweak.

JC remake

2010-11-15T07:26:00.001-05:00

I did it. I made up the JC into my DITA bike (Do IT All). I put skinny knobbies on it as well as the suspension seat post and went mountain biking. Had a blast on the XC trails. Did ok on the single track. And wasn't so awful on the road. I just need somw fine tuning and I am on my way to perfecting my DITA bike.

Indian summer is in Boston

2010-10-27T11:06:00.001-04:00

We have a nice warm spell up here. Yesterday was in th lower 70's and it is supposed to continue through tomorrow. To bad work has kept me to busy to get out on the bike and enjoy it. Looks like colder weather for the weekend. At least there is another local CX race on Saturday.

Fall is here!

2010-10-21T16:21:00.001-04:00

The weather is getting chilly and the trees are turning. It will only be a few weeks before the roads are covered with leaves. Once the foliage is in full force the trees will look awesome. But soon after it will be clean up time and nothing but dead trees to look at. It does make the trails new again as nothing looks the same when covered with leaves. The baby head rocks and downed trees sneak up on you at the most inconvenient time to throw you off the bike.

Looks like summer is over.

MRC Cyclocross

2010-10-17T17:20:00.000-04:00

So I am still following the local CX scene. Today I went to the MRC CX race in Lancaster, MA. They had this obstacle that I have never seen before. A flight of stairs up, a short flat and a ramp down. Amazingly there was plenty of passing going on on this and I didn't see 1 crash. It was funny watching the beginner class practice on this. They would get to the top and stop in panic. Eventually when they got the gumption to go down they loved it. But, some people took 10 minutes of just staring down the ramp before they would go. Must be the roadie in them. I did hear people saying that this course favored the mountain bikers. But again, another great day to watch a race!

Curiosity got the best of me

2010-10-13T20:13:00.000-04:00

Reading about all these new and great hybrids had me wondering. They have some that are basically what I am attempting to do to my bike. So I figured, what the heck, let's go look. So off I went to the LBS to have a peek. While they all look pretty, none offered much more then I already had. My 1997 XC MTB had an aggressive geometry, more so then some of the hybrids. It was lighter and had a better component mix. So for about 150 dollars I had a custom built bike set up to my specs. I guess a new hybrid isn't in the works after all. The trip to the LBS just made me feel better about my current bike.

Classifications

2010-10-07T10:57:00.000-04:00

I look through bike mags and bike forums and all I see are categories for bikes. Road bikes (tourers, racers, flat bar, drop bar), mountain bikes (XC, downhill, 4cross, free ride, all mountain) and then there are CX bikes, hybrids, commuters and utility bikes. What ever happened to a bike bike?
I need a class to put the Jc bike in. Play bike? All condition? All purpose? Bike bike? Who knows, but I feel like a misfit (hmm misfit bike? Nah) not fitting in anywhere. Anyone else out there with an All Purpose type bike?

A beautiful fall ride

2010-10-03T16:34:00.000-04:00

The air has changed for the fall season. The Jc bike is perfect for this time of year. With the acorns, sticks and leaves littering the ground it begs to be ridden with a more generic bike.

I haven't done anything to make it more CX style yet but in its current configuration it can certainly take whatever I throw at it. I snapped this picture after I rode to the trailhead, shot through the woods on the fire roads and came out the other side. I decided to stop and enjoy the cool, brisk air amd grab a quick snack. I can't wit for the leaves to change and be able to ride through the woods in all its glory and color. The thing about falling leaves is that it changes the trail you have always taken into a new and exciting route.

Unfortunately, it will need to wait for the weekend to happen though. Work and the ever shortening days make the afternoon rides harder and harder. We'll see what comes up next weekend.

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Gloucester CX race

2010-10-02T18:17:00.001-04:00

So I went to the Gloucester Grand Prox today to watch some more cyclocross racing. Love watching them race the seemingly road type bikes on that terrain. It gives me lots of ideas of what my ultimate JC bike should be. I have had too much MTB mentality in my build so far. Can't wait for the winter transformation to begin.

_______________________________________

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First exploration ride

2010-09-26T10:23:00.000-04:00

I had a blast. Just took off after work with no destination in mind. It was almost perfect. Why only almost? Well I left at 5:00 and got so involved with nothingness that I found myself to far from home as the sun started setting. The end of the ride was a sprint home, which was kinda fun too.
I'm still tweaking the bike, trying to find the perfect balance of fun quotient. I think I am almost there. The acorns and branches don't bother me, I can throw in a little off road when I want or flip the lock out on the fork and make the front rigid to get the power down. The only part that leaves something to be desired is the akward feeling I have when climbing while standing. I think the stem needs to be a little longer.

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Skipped the group ride

2010-09-19T13:33:00.001-04:00

and went for my first exploration ride. 10 miles in I found a nice Specialized multitool on the side of the road. This is the first time I found §omething. I was so excited I needed to share it with someone. Hi someone!

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The shorter days

2010-09-18T10:29:00.001-04:00

means the end of my weekday group rides. Just can't get in the 20 mile group rides before it starts getting dark. In years past I took this time to go mountain biking by myself after work. Due to my back injury, and selling the FS mountain bike, this isn't an option any more. So my plans are to take out the JC (just cycling) bike and go explore. I am actually looking forward to this. Getting on a bike and cruising aimlessly. See the sights that I probably have missed through the years by being in a hurry to get nowhere fast. Back to the roots of cycling. A new begining? Or just getting old? You be the judge.
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