SpokEasy

SpokEasy

Author name: CAL

Going Ape?

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Going Ape? I’m not thinking of going ape! Have you ever noticed bicycles that have high handlebars? Now and then I see someone, usually a youngster, on a bicycle with such bars. I only recently learned that these are called “ape hangers”. I wouldn’t be at all comfortable trying to use ape hangers. If my hands are continually above shoulder level for more than a short time, they go to sleep from reduced blood flow. I think we all know what that feels like; and it doesn’t do any good for one’s grip, let alone for controlling a bicycle. My core and upper body strength is, I suspect, inadequate for attempting to control my bicycle with my hands in such a position. I’m far from being the Champion of the Chinning Bar! I also suspect that I’d have to re-learn how to steer and turn. To me, looking  “cool” isn’t worth sacrificing comfort; much less sacrificing safety. So forget about going ape. I’ll hang on to what I’ve got.   This blog/page may contain affiliate links. “We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.” ABOUT ME © This website is the property of its author. DISCLAIMER I am not a cycling coach; nor a health professional. This site is based on my own experiences, opinions, etc. If you need help, please consult the appropriate professional. FRESH FROM MY JOURNAL ✍🏻 Facebook Twitter Youtube INTERPRETER

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It Never Ends

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It never ends! Once again, I\’ve been going at it hammer and tongs (okay, okay, so that\’s an adjustable crescent wrench). Creating the slides for my site\’s pages is taking quite a bit of doing, plus a lot of time! Tonight I worked on the slides for the For All Cyclists page, and  I\’ve been getting the buttons from one slide to another by using a copy/edit type of function. I copy the first slide that has the buttons on it, then edit the color, text and image. But I haven\’t yet set up the actual slideshow operation. One of the most maddening things about it is that my laptop\’s screen is much too small to show everything that I need to be able to see. Of course this means a lot of scrolling up and down, and with my laptop and on this particular screen that is a finicky operation. Not to mention the strain on my wrists. Another infuriating aspect was that one of the slides seemed to keep getting lost! I don\’t know whether I was forgetting to save it, or what. I finally threw it all overboard for a while, and cleaned up the kitchen while I let my mind clear. After that I at last seemed to get that disappearing slide to stay put. It also drives me crazy that the slides look different when I go into my actual site to view them. Things change size and/or position. There\’s still more white margin than I like. I need a two-week vacation right now to devote my energies to this; because, as any web site owner knows, it never ends.

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Deadweight

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I sometimes feel like I\’m dragging a deadweight. My road bike\’s under-saddle pack feels quite heavy when I hold it (loaded) in my hand. I finally weighed the contents of that pack; and came up with 1 lb 8.4 oz. Add in the weight of the pack itself, a bit over a quarter-pound; and we\’re talking about some 1.75 lbs. When I take the road bike into the shop for servicing, I remove the saddle pack to make the bike easier for shop staff to handle. I sure can feel the difference when that pack isn\’t there! I don\’t quite dare go riding without it, though; because if I did, that would be when I got a flat ten miles from home! Therefore deadweight isn\’t all bad.  ADDENDUM, SEPTEMBER 18, 2021: That under-saddle pack for the road bike is nothing compared to riding the hybrid and hauling the loaded trailer home from the salvage store. Even so, I love having the trailer because I can bring home big loads; and sometimes I hit a good deal. A while back, I found bathroom tissue; a huge package of a dozen 4-roll packs. The big package couldn\’t fit into the trailer; but I opened it and stuffed the 4-roll packs in. That way I could manage.  Other times, I find great deals on canned goods such as tuna fish; or a good sale on cheese. I love the salvage store!

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Going Bats!

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I\’m going bats! I don\’t know how much the expression, \”to have bats in one\’s belfry\” is used nowadays. It meant to be crazy; insane; or off one\’s rocker. When I was a kid, if something was really annoying you, you\’d say it was driving you bats. That\’s what my web site is doing to me at present. I had already created a slide show for the landing page; and I got the idea to create side shows for other pages. That\’s not quite so easy, as it turns out. The slide builder I\’ve been using lets me build slides, all right; but when I go into my site to check them, they don\’t look like they do in the slide builder! The pics have changed size and position; the buttons I made for hyperlinks have shifted position; and the captions have moved themselves. It seems that there\’s a LOT about slide-building that I don\’t know. In fact, in trying to get those hyperlink buttons from cluttering up the pic as it appeared on the actual web site, I managed to trash those links! I had to go into my Dashboard and get the pages one by one, and make new links. With all the work I\’ve been doing on my site the last two days, I feel like I ought to be on the railroad! At any rate, it has me going bats; and unfortunately all that work doesn\’t burn up many calories.

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\’Round She Goes

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\’Round and \’round and \’round she goes; where she stops, nobody knows. So ended the song for a ring game that the younger girls used to play when I was in grade school. That was eons ago! Now I\’ve come around to, \”Pedal in circles.\” What cyclist hasn\’t heard that at least once? But how does one do that? There\’s a technique called ankling. Years ago an exaggerated form of ankling was used. In theory it was a good idea; in practice, it led to some bad cases of Achilles tendonitis. I think I\’ll skip that one! I\’m not at all sure whether I\’m using any kind of ankling, and now is not the time to start trying to do  it. Not with a major event coming up in less than three weeks! On top of that, I don\’t want to start doing what I think is ankling, and find out I was wrong when I end up injured. I do know this much. If pedaling at a rapid cadence causes you to bounce all over the saddle, your pedal stroke has \”dead\” spots in it. The goal is even application of force all the way around each 360 degree rotation of each pedal, while remaining steady in the saddle. No bouncing, no rocking of the hips. It would be nice if I could be filmed with lights on my shoes while pedaling the road bike, just to satisfy my curiosity as to whether I am, indeed, pedaling in circles. Even if I\’m not, I\’m still pedaling. Each pedal comes back to its starting point in the \”circle\” because, as we all know, what goes around, comes around.  

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Recycle!

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There\’s that kind of recycle, which is quite popular. There\’s also \”recycle\” as in finding more uses for a thing. Back before I got the road bike, I bought a Sigma Heart Rate Monitor with Chest Strap. Working with precise heart rate zones was a ways off at the time; but I wanted to see how hard my heart was working. The Sigma model that I got has a readout unit with a strap; and it can be either worn on the wrist, or fastened to the handlebars. It was easier for me to have it on the handlebars. I could check it without having to ride one-handed. The screen has a large, digital readout of current time (such as, is it 7:00 or 9:00?); and it can be set to either the 12-hour system, or the 24-hour system. I\’ve been accustomed to the 12-hour time-keeping system all my life, so that\’s what I use. There\’s also a button at the bottom of the screen that I can press to start a stopwatch function. I use that when I go on a very long ride; because when I stop the Garmin and select Save Ride, the ride Summary shows only roll time. Having the stopwatch lets me get the total time as well (i.e. it includes time spent at rest breaks). About two and a half years ago, the Sigma\’s heart rate sensor quit working. That\’s when I bought a Garmin; but I kept the Sigma readout unit. Now I use it as a wristwatch. It\’s bulky and clunky-looking; but what of it? It keeps time, and re-purposing it was much better than throwing it away.

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Working\’ Up a Storm

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I\’m workin\’ up a storm! A web site is a constant work in progress, as I quickly realized. It\’s sort of like being a cyclist: there\’s always something to work on. There\’s never an \”I have arrived!\” moment. Well, except the finish line of a cycling event. I\’m learning how to create Sliders, using Layers to add and position pics and texts. Creating Buttons is another facet of it. I still have to figure out how to change font style within a Layer, and how to double-check that those  Buttons will actually work. Several times within the last half-week, I\’ve gotten on the phone with a service called WP Live. It lets me get a screen share session, and I can have someone talk me through what to do. The person at WP Live uses some kind of pointer to show me where I need to go on my own screen. Then, once off the phone, I\’ll keep doing more of it before I can forget how! I have to keep workin\’ up a storm on my own. Unfortunately I can\’t keep up WP Live indefinitely. It simply costs too much. Having had it for a few months, however, has been invaluable! I certainly can recommend it.    

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More Tinkering

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Yet more tinkering; it never ends. I\’m working on my web site\’s appearance again, trying to make it more attractive. Please bear with me. The \”My Story\” page doesn\’t look like the Slider I created, and I haven\’t completed the other Sliders. This is a very short blog, because I need to go rest my eyes. I had an ophthalmology exam this morning, and those dilating drops take hours to fully wear off! Tomorrow, I can do some more tinkering.

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Music To Dress By

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I never thought of music to dress by; and my, what trouble it used to take to get dressed! We cyclists kitting up for a ride have it easy! It\’s interesting to see what they wore back then, such as this Elizabethan lady. The music, in case you\’re curious, is J.S. Bach\’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 4. In a way, the music is an odd choice. The Elizabethan period was 1558-1603. Bach wasn\’t even born until 1685! Cute cat, by the way. Perhaps you\’re wondering what Bach has to do with cycling. Just this: it\’s a pity there weren\’t bicycles yet in his day. The story is told of how Bach walked 200 miles to attend an organ performance by Buxtehude! If Bach could have had a bicycle, the journey would have been so much faster and easier! Fast-forward to the Edwardian era. They wore a lot of layers then, too; but I suspect that only the upper classes could afford to dress like that. The music, I guessed, was Debussy\’s La Mer. I got the Debussy part right. The music is 2. Módére. So, if I were to choose music to dress by (for a video of a cyclist kitting up), what would I choose? There are so very many options! Something sprightly, I would think. Although I\’ve been a classical music fan since early childhood, I like a few Joplin rags now and then. Maybe Maple Leaf Rag would be good. Would something relaxing be better, so you aren\’t tired out even before you can get out of the front door? Or something like the fourth part of William Tell Overture (think Lone Ranger!) to get you pumped up? Or maybe forget about music for a minute, and just get dressed!    

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