SpokEasy

November 2018

PSI

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What PSI do your tires need? I can\’t speak from personal experience; so I have to rehash things I\’ve read. First, here are my own stats on this \”pressing\” issue. For the road bike, I run 100 psi in both tires; for the hybrid, I use 80. I don\’t remember what psi I used for the tricycle; but I think it was about 50-60. They say that slightly lower psi gives better traction when the roads are wet; because the tires have a bit more \”give\” and provide more contact area with the road surface. I myself never tested that. To inflate the tires, I use a floor pump. I like having the built-in pressure gauge, because trying to check tire pressure using a pencil-style gauge often lets out too much air! That wreaks havoc on the PSI. Fortunately the floor pump that I have can be used on either Shraeder or Presta valves; and I don\’t have to bother with  any kind of adapter. In case of a flat, I use an under-saddle pack to carry a spare tube; CO2 cartridges; and a nozzle for the cartridges. I haven\’t had flat in ages, thanks in no small part to tire liners; and I also use tough tires. It doesn\’t hurt to be prepared, though. The catch about tire liners is that I\’ve become too complacent; and don\’t pay enough attention to what I\’m riding over!

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UN-turkey Day?

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This is UN-turkey day. I hope you\’re all having a great Thanksgiving. I don\’t have a turkey, but don\’t fret, I\’ve got plenty to eat. Too much to eat, if the full truth be told! I didn\’t have to go to work, so I could sleep until eight o\’clock🙂 That\’s a rare treat. If I want to be sure of getting my miles in during the work-week,  have to get up at 4:30 am; and, as I\’m sure you can imagine, that gets rather tedious. Of course I had to go out on my road bike. With no need to hurry home, I could go a little farther than usual. Today wasn\’t an interval day; but all the same I put in one attempt to get up to 20 mph. I made it; and I even sustained it for more than a second! After I got home and stowed the road bike, I rode the hybrid over to the neighborhood Walgreen\’s to get a pint of ice cream to add to my \”feast\”. I got Rocky Road today. I could have walked; but using the bicycle  got me a tad closer to my goal of 5000 miles for the year. Then home to fix my dressed-up version of boxed mac \’n\’ cheese (I added canned chicken breast and peas). I had some of the mac \’n\’ cheese, and whole-berry cranberry sauce. Then, the ice cream. It was enough of a feast for me. So that\’s how UN-Turkey Day goes. And how\’s yours?

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n + 1

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They say that \”n + 1\” is the formula for how many \”rides\” a cyclist should have: \”n\” being the number of bicycles currently owned; and \”+ 1\” being the next bicycle that the cyclist has an eye on. For me, n + 1 = 3. I have a road bike and a hybrid; so according to this formula I \”should\” want a — well, let me think. Mountain bike? Around here a mole hill would be considered mountainous. An MTB\’s knobby tires, they say, take a lot of extra effort when riding on pavement; and I hardly need that. Perhaps a cross bike? I prefer a bike that\’s in a good mood, thank you very much. I\’m not sure I\’d be in such a good mood myself after an event that leaves both me and my bike plastered with mud! Touring bike? Maybe I\’ll get one, some day; IF I manage to put aside enough funds to both buy a touring bicycle and take one of Adventure Cycling\’s epic tours; and these trips can last for up to three months. That would mean a LOT of training! Alas, one day we all reach the point where the budget and/or available storage room forces a halt to the \”+1\” part of the how-many-bicycles equation. My having \”only\” two bicycles would seem like bicycle poverty to the hardcore \”n+ 1\” camp. Two is my limit because I don\’t have room for any more. But maybe one day I\’ll jump on the \”+ 1\” bandwagon. One never knows!

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Everything at Once!

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Things seem to have a way of happing everything at once. For example, why do expenses tend to come in clusters? I just had a tune-up done for the hybrid. The road bike needed a new chain and a new rear derailer hanger. I have to have oral surgery; and it\’s almost time to pay the December rent. At least one pair of my cycling shorts needs replacing. Then, while I was riding this morning, the clear lenses fell out of my Tifosis®! I heard them hit the pavement; but who knows what happened to them after that. They may have bounced, and ended up in the grass alongside the path. I spent several minutes looking for them; but had to give up and head home. It was still dark (as usual); and I had to get ready to go to work. If I can\’t buy replacement lenses, I\’ll have to buy another pair of those glasses. Yet another bite out of the budget, not to mention it\’s time to be doing my Christmas shopping. Everything at once; and I hope all this doesn\’t break the bank!

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Just Imagine!

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Just imagine what you can do, if you put your mind to  it! When you have a major cycling event coming up, some coaches recommend visualization to help bring about the best performance. Visualization, they say, takes practice. It\’s hard, for example, for me to imagine myself riding at top speed against a strong wind. I know only too well that the reality is something very different! I guess visualization means imagining myself riding strongly against that wind, undeterred, be my speed what it may. See the difference? Visualization is a sort of \”booster shot\”; a psychological leg up. I admit that I\’ve done very little of it. Naturally I pictured myself finishing Tour de Cure still feeling as strong and energetic as when I rolled off at the start; but I was really quite tired by the end. But still elated😊 Just imagine yourself riding strongly, \”full of spit and vinegar\” as people once said, on a morning when it\’s dark and cold; blowing hard, and raining. HA! I don\’t want to think about it at all! If I ride on a day like that, I only want to finish the darned ride; get indoors where it\’s warm; and divest myself of sopping wet cycling gear. That\’s OK. Few people, I suspect, enjoy riding on such days, much less attempting exercises in visualization at the same time. Try again another day!

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Think 100?

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Is it realistic for me to think 100? I don\’t expect to be conquering mountains like this rider; but I\’ve not completely let go the thought of doing another 100-mile ride. But preparing for a century ride is not something to be undertaken lightly; and I always wonder whether I\’m really doing things right when it comes to working up to a long ride. My recent participation in Tour de Cure is an example. At least a year before the day, I started doing on-bike exercises to try to improve my force. I think those exercises helped; but in the long run I don\’t think they were enough. I barely made the cut-off time on the big day. Should I have done them twice a week, instead of once a week; or pushed myself to make those intervals longer, sooner? Am I too much of a wimp when it comes to long, intense efforts? TdC was 61.4 miles. So how long should I allow to prepare for a century? And how? So many training plans are out there that it makes my head spin! Now that the weather is turning cold, I don\’t like to think 100 for a certain day; only to find myself frustrated by strong wind; cold temperatures; and maybe even rain when that day arrives. If I were to follow an 8-week training plan, event day would be mid-January. Weather can be nasty at that time of year! It\’s easy to think that any ride on two wheels would be easier than my first century, almost seven years ago. In a sense, yes. At least my \”rig\” is much lighter, but headwinds are headwinds. There\’s no hurry, though. Maybe I can aim for April? Or maybe, just dream on.

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Andromeda?

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None of us wants to end up like Andromeda, chained to a rock. But don\’t we sometimes feel chained to our bicycles by the need to maintain that chain? There are a variety of products available for chain care. I ended up using Rock N Roll lube, because I wanted a self-cleaning lube. Keeping the chain clean (or at least reasonably so) helps it to last a bit longer, I would say. I tried a chain scrubber gadget; but the trouble with such a method is that I\’m left with jars of oily, detergent-y water. You\’re not supposed to put such things in the regular trash, or down the drain; and the only toxic-waste drop-off facility that I could find in the area is at an inconvenient location. I might need to lube my bicycles\’ chains a bit more often than I do. Every 300 miles might not be quite enough. A lube job is rather tedious, because I need to hook the bike into the trainer. That lets me turn the pedals freely without having to work to keep the bicycle upright; but for the road bike, it means swapping skewers in the rear wheel. It\’s not difficult; but it\’s a nuisance. It\’s also important to keep an eye on the chain and replace it as needed. A worn chain wears down gear teeth, and replacing a cassette costs considerably more than replacing a chain. All this chain stuff makes me feel like Andromeda; but could we say that chains are another thing that link us cyclists together?    

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Owlish?

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I got owlish today. \”Wise as an owl,\” the old saying goes; and sometimes we have to emulate that owl. Sunday is typically long-ride day, and I was tempted to push for 50 miles. But I did little riding during this past week; and I had a feeling that it would make more sense to do a shorter ride. So I turned around at a point about 19 miles from home. Maybe that was just as well, because about 4 miles before I got home a spot near my left knee began to feel strained. I had been riding on the small ring, using a rapid cadence; and I figured it was a good idea to slow the cadence. Gotta be owlish sometimes! I hope to make it to 5000 miles for 2018, road bike plus hybrid. I\’ll need to total about 91 miles per week to meet that goal. It looks like the weather during the coming few days will be better than that of this past week, thank goodness. It feels like November now, not February, which will make it a little easier to get out there and ride. And who-o-o knows? I just might hear an owl!

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Hang in There!

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Hang in there! Or hang on; or something. Lately my road bike\’s rear derailer hasn\’t been working right. When I try to shift cogs, the chain hesitates and makes clattering noises. I thought the derailer might need adjusting, even though I had the bike tuned up within the last month or so. I took the bike to the shop. It turned out that the chain needed replacing. They weren\’t busy; so they could take care of it right away. After a while it began to seem that the work was taking quite a long time. I went to the work-pit; and saw that they had taken the bike\’s rear wheel off. I knew then that something else was going on. I was right. I\’m not sure how it happened, but the rear derailer hanger had gotten bent. That was why I was having trouble shifting gears. I\’ve had to have that hanger replaced several times in the past. The first two times it happened, I lost a week of riding the road bike because the shop had to order a new hanger, which is very model-specific. (I asked whether that\’s typical of all bicycle models; and they said it is). I finally wised up and asked the shop to order two new derailer hangers; one to put on the bicycle, and one for me to take home and keep for the next bent-hanger episode. Thus I had a spare derailer hanger at home. I went home to get it, and back to the shop. Now the road bike is really to roll! Oh, and I ordered a spare derailer hanger for next time. I\’ve got to hang in there, you know.

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