November Recap

It's been a heck of a month. I had November penciled in for 250 miles when I went arbitrarily throwing miles into months to come up with my 5,000 mile goal. I sqeaked by with just a few more than that, entering November at a deficit of 276 miles and exiting with 267.

That means I have to log 384 miles this month. Assuming I'm man enough to really do the 200k permanent with c'Dude on December 6th, I will be home free, barring any major unforseen incidents. If I don't make that ride or find a lot of evening recreation rides to go on, I could be doomed.

Urban Times KC: The Pedestrian Experience

I don't often flip through Urban Times, but I saw it while I was out today and the cover grabbed my attention. The feature article: The Pedestrian Experience [PDF Download] This issue's already a few months old, but the article is worth a read. Although I suspect its message applies directly to most urban areas, it's directly relevant to Kansas City.

It goes without saying that most of the benefits that apply to walking for transportation apply to utility cycling as well. A great many of the things said in this article line up quite nicely with reasons that I often eschew my car or SUV for my bike: Scenery, people, and culture that still exists beyond the superficial glitz of whatever KC's latest shiny object is (currently, the Power & Light District)

Granted, my wife and I still have two motorized vehicles, but I find myself driving less and less -- You don't have to be a radical, a hippie or a rebel to ditch your car.

Image credit: Urban Times, Front Cover, September 2008.

It's ALIVE (Kinda)

I've been slowly and surely amassing parts to get The Goat back on the road. Back in September I had decided that I'd kind of like an internally-geared hub. I'd been thinking about it for a while longer than that. I have a few hookups and could score the Nexus 3 pretty cheap. Then, there's the spokes, the rim, the labor to assemble the wheel (I'm not ready to do that myself yet) and other stuff.

My Diamondback Sorrento did pretty well the past two winters, but it's taken a lot of abuse. it's still on its original derailleurs, crank, shifters and chainrings. Also, the cables and housings were new when I bought it right before Thanksgiving '06 but now they're more than 2 years old. Also, the good wheels I bought for it had been moved to Hybridzilla, so they're gone.

A few weeks back, I started looking into what it would take to build it up again. The derailleurs barely budged, and wouldn't spring back. The cables were in need of help. Obviously, new wheels (one I figured would be built on a Nexus 3-speed), a new chain, and probably a new single-chainring crank. The v-Brakes were also sticky. Basically, she'd seen a lot better days.

I found some old tattered (and seriously wobbly) wheels in my parts closet. I found a bunch of brand new cable and housing as well. I took the brakes apart, cleaned them, and greased the pivot points. They worked nicely again. I painstakingly trued the old wheels, replacing two spokes that were broken. I found a never-used SunRace 8-speed cassette bolted to an old hub. JR gave me the hookup on an old rear rack, too. It took some creativity to get it home earlier this week, as shown above.

It became quite obvious that buried in plastic tubs I keep in my "junk closet", I really had most of what I needed to kludge together a working winter beater. I just needed one more shifter cable and a chain. And maybe a pair of derailleurs.

After reading this post on Blue Collar MTB, I emailed Guitar Ted (who wrote it) and asked for advice on the derailleurs. He told me to soak them in solvent, clean them up, and work them by hand to see if they'd quit sticking and spring back like normal. If that worked, then he said to use something like TriFlow all over the moving bits to make sure things slide nicely. Sure enough, it worked like a champ. In fact, my front derailleur has never liked shifting to the small chainring, even when I bought the bike 2 years ago. Now? It's smooth like butter. It shifts better than the day I got it.

I was too busy with family to make a "give thanks" post yesterday, but it's obvious that I have many friends here who I'm thankful for. It's easy to be thankful for those who donated some of the essentials I needed when a bunch of my gear got stolen. I'm also equally thankful for those who offer advice and kind, encouraging words. Thank you, all.

Oh, and I suppose I should let you see the current incarnation of The Goat. I need to get some metal bracing to finish attaching the rack to the seat stays, but this should be all I need to keep me rolling through winter.

Half Day

Ostensibly, I've got a "Half Day" today. It's more like 3/4 of a day because I get in kind of early.



The ride to the bus was fascinating as ever. Although it's maybe 2 miles to the bus stop from my place, it's 2 miles through what I usually call "My Village" - The stuff that's a reasonable walking/cycling distance from home. My village has a lot of cool places -- pretty much everything I really need and most of what I like that I don't need. Not to mention all the places that I will probably never go.

It so happens that a lot of those cool places are also offering "Black Friday" deals. That means that Quivira, one of the main roads through town, turns into a circus of selfishly inexorable motorists. They push, shove, honk, nudge, and bully one another as they attempt to shoe-horn their beasts into over-crowded parking lots. A traffic jam at 6:00 in the morning, where the stop lights aren't the bottleneck and the minor road crossings cause big problems. It was as if thousands of people were willing -- no, eager -- to participate in one Consumer Thunderdome after the next, while playing Demolition Derby between stops.

Even if I had the day off and stores were literally giving stuff away, I can't picture myself in mindless consumer zombie mode like this. I don't know how (or why) these people do it. But to each their own.

It was a pleasant ride for me, But I saw a lot of undue animosity between motorists. Thanks for not running me over, honking at me, or bullying me around on the road too much this morning.

Anyone down for a chilly Century?

Not sure how chilly or mild it will be, but c'Dude is doing his 11th ride toward the R-12 on December 6th. As always, he's open to other participants and I'm going to try to make it. It's a RUSA-sanctioned Permanent, so to participate, you have to be a RUSA member and you should let him know ASAP if you plan on making it.

This route is a 200k Permanent with an actual distance of 125 miles or so. If you can do a Century, you can probably do this. Who said riding season is over!?

If you're not a RUSA Member, you can register and ride the route with a pending membership. That's how I ended up riding my first one.

I just about came home early!

I had to hike over to Human Resources to pick up my December bus pass this afternoon. I didn't want to come back into the office! It was about 60°F. I brought the camera along.

I love the details on this building. They just don't build them like this anymore.


Looking down 11th street from Central


Federal Holding Corporation Building. Another magnificent piece of historic architecture.


I ended up trudging back to the office and finishing off the work day, though. Have a happy Thanksgiving, all!

More from yesterday

I didn't get anything this morning. I woke up early, couldn't get back to sleep, and I'm kind of in a fog today. Took the bus to work.

Last night, I sat down with the bracketed photos I took of the moon over the mall, and threw together an HDR of it. I'm not sure I like it any more than I like yesterday's long exposure with the streetlight blurs I threw in at the last 2 seconds of the exposure)



I hung out with Eric over lunch. On my way back, I saw this guy:


I keep forgetting his name, which bothers me. It's something simple, like Jeff or something. Occasionally I'll pass him (or he'll pass me) on Southwest Boulevard. Despite the trailer, he can really haul some ass. If I recall correctly, he's one of the people who helps put on Bike 4 The Brain.

The glare on my homeward commute has been getting worse and worse. For a good chunk of my usual route on Southwest Blvd, the sun is right in front of the road and it's low enough that I know it's got to be blinding drivers. I've been a little more on edge this week. I may have to start leaving work later (after the sun sets) or optionally, start riding the bus home. It breaks my heart, too. These evenings have been perfect: mild with only a light breeze. I was scorching along last night, and averaged 200 trillion Angstroms per hour on my way home. There's a way to make yourself sound fast.

Crescent

I always love when the darkened part of the moon is readily visible. This morning's Crescent Moon was breath-taking, and my photos couldn't dare do it any justice. Just long exposures, no HDR today. The second photo was intentionally blurred for fun. I took quite a few photos, but these two were my favorites.





Random Tunage:
Orbital - Halcyon + On + On
Nine Inch Nails - Dead Souls

Having a case of the Mondays

Forgot to set my alarm. Woke up late.

Groggily checked bus schedule (I have it stored on my phone). Saw that the second bus would be at The Maul in 22 minutes. It takes me 10 minutes to ride there.

Got my clothes and lunch together, opting for only one pannier this morning. Threw everything on the bike and rushed out the door.

Arrived at The Maul, not quite in record time, before the time I thought I needed to be there.

The time I was expecting the bus to arrive comes and goes. I check the schedule again, and see that I was looking at the wrong location. So I stand in 31°F weather for 15 minutes longer than I need to, looking and feeling like an idiot. I could have made some breakfast for my wife and I in that 15 minutes!

Got to the office, only to find out that my access card was in the other pannier, at home.

Hey, at least I still made it to work at a reasonable time.

Here's something to kick off your (hopefully) short work week: