Busy, busy, busy. Deadlines, chores, exercise. There just ain’t enough hours in the day. I don’t know how people with real jobs and children ever get a damn’ thing done. I’m a free-lance rumormonger, a professional slacker with two cats, and I spend most of my time with my head jammed firmly up my ass, cursing the darkness.
Herself brought some class of a bug home with her the other day and feels puny, yet must suck it up and deal with her real job, which can be a lulu at times. I thought I was catching it yesterday, but all I had to do was decide whether it was smart to ride the bike for an hour or so (turns out it was, as I feel much better today).
Speaking of which, the road bike has a new fork, a Ritchey Comp Carbon Road with an alloy steerer, so I’ve been able to give the cockpit a slightly less geezerly appearance through many spacers and a stem with a tad less rise than the average flagpole.
The Ritchey site only mentions one rake option for this fork — 45mm, the same as my old Wound-Up — but the fork that showed up on my doorstep had 43mm of rake. Screw it, I had the guys at Old Town Bike Shop install it anyway. I’m into instant gratification and bad surprises. Gives me something to write about.
The new fork seems to damp the unpleasant feedback from our crumbling roads better than its predecessor, and the bike’s overall handling seems slightly improved, so this morning I checked the rake on the DBR’s stock alloy fork from the mid-1990s, and lo and behold, it was 43mm. Go figure.
Today I’ll give it another test ride around the AFA with Big Bill McBeef and Deb, assuming I can keep up. Gravity seems awfully strong lately, but I am not.
Mad Blog Media 
I know what you mean – how the hell do people with real jobs keep up. My 18 credits this quarter are a black hole that sucks my time like a Dyson sucks up cat hair. But I look at it this way : I could be 52 years old with no education, or 54 years old with a marketable degree. But, either way, I’m still a fat bastard. Now, back to the grind (algebra).
That question haunts me too. I’m a freelance mechanic most of the time, and thus spend about a third of the typical work week technically working. As a relative newb to this sort of lifestyle (since 2008), I’m not certain how long I can keep it up on the financial end (so far so good), but I am certain of one thing: I’m definitely getting used to it. Should I ever need to go back to the 9-to-5, I’ll be in for a world of hurt.
It’s not like I spend my time sitting on the couch and eating Cheetos. I STILL can’t find time for things the average American likes to do – say, spend three or four hours daily watching the tele. Instead, I find myself outside, riding my bike, hiking, working on nonprofit ideas, pursuing photography, reading Wendell Berry essays, writing my own essays, considering the fate of our world, visiting friends, and a whole host of other things that are much more important to me than the pursuit of monetary wealth (not like the typical bicycle mechanic is pursuing wealth – more like pursuing rent and, just possibly, some Ramen).
I can only conclude that most people aren’t that into most of the things I’m into… otherwise, they’d come home from work and dash out to catch up on their real lives instead of plopping down in front of the boob tube to catch up on Lost.
Wow, Boz. You’ll have a marketable degree! I’ve discovered, based on hours or research (time spent mostly by sitting on my ass here at home watching cycling videos) that my degree isn’t as marketable as I’d hoped. It’s enough to make me wish I hadn’t sucked the financial aide well completely dry as far as the State of Colorado is concerned. If I was go after another undergrad degree, y’know, something useful, I need to do it in some other state. On the other hand, I could go on to grad school, get a masters degree, and then be unemployed with really impressive credentials. Imagine how cool it’ll be to watch those cycling videos with a framed masters degree on the wall over the tele.
Oh, and Patrick: less rake can be good. Less rake = more trail = more stability. I put 40mm rake forks on both of my road bikes, and I like it. Both bikes track downhill like they’re on rails.
Gents,
I’m in favor of whatever takes you off the beaten path, whether it’s higher ed, sampling the austere joys of free-lancing or, in John’s case, trying to figure out how the hell to pay the bills. It all expands the mind, if not exactly in a Tim Learyesque sense. This southern-Arizona tour is something like that for me — a detour from the usual. It’s given me something different to obsess about and is therefore refreshing.
All the changes to the road bike have been positive thus far, and so naturally I feel driven to mess with my setup just a wee bit more, this time by doctoring the fit to accommodate Sidi mountain-bike shoes and Time ATAC pedals. The Adventure Cycling folks recommend “touring” shoes for our little excursion, which I take to mean that my directeur sportif will not be Johnny-on-the-spot with my casual footwear the moment I step off the bike for a dalliance in some tavern, grog shop or alehouse. The impertinence.
As a cyclo-crosser emeritus, I’m not that fond of road shoes and pedals anyway, especially my Ultegra roadies with the SPD-SL cleats. Jesus. Trying to clip into those sumbitches with toe covers on is like trying to kick a marble with cowboy boots in a snake pit after a couple-three whiskies, and walking in ’em makes me feel like a high-heeled transvestite who can’t get his shaving dialed in.
Off road (aka “touring”)pedals and shoes are especially good when you are captaining a tandem. Nothing quite like slipping sideways on your exposed brass cleats and leaving your significant other lying horizontal on the side of the road, thinking up new variations on Old English curse words.
9-5? Horrors! Just say not to real jobs. Pat, I have to say I wonder how you’ll keep from tipping over backwards on steep climbs or nosediving on steep descents with the bars up so high? The MTB shoes idea is smart, after my wife convinced me to switch years ago I haven’t worn a pair of “road” shoes since. Once I got over having a bit of knobby tread on the bottom of the shoe (who really notices this crap anyway?) I found Shimano’s road-specific SPD pedals to work very well plus I can drive the CycleItalia van, load bikes and do pretty much anything else in a pinch without changing shoes. If I needed any more convincing, seeing a client fall on his a%$ instantly while walking out of a bar in Italy in road shoes with slippery plastic cleats on ’em was the final kicker.
K&L,
Yeah, I used to ride everything with Time ATACs and Sidi MTB shoes, since I spent most of my time on one ’cross bike or another, but some sinister impulse drove me back to road pedals for the road bike. I hate the sonsabitches, and yesterday was the final straw as I stamped and skittered, trying to clip into the Ultegras while wearing a pair of Pearl Izumi toe covers whose burly seams interfered with the cleat-pedal interface. Feh. Off they come. The Ultegras, not the PIs. I need them to keep my tootsies toasty.
I’d like to give the new SPDs a spin — I liked the originals for everything but cyclo-cross — but I have a ton of old ATACs and Crank Brothers pedals lying about the joint, so I’ll just perform a pedalectomy on one of the bikes that isn’t getting ridden lately.
As to the dramatically upright position, now, I have a little degenerative-disc action going on in the neck coupled with lower-back issues from delivering heavy appliances in college, so I’m simply trying to find some comfort on the bike without looking like a giant Lycra praying mantis who swallowed a medicine ball. I’f I’da knowed I was a-gonna live this long, I’da taken better care o’ myselfs.
One of the best road pedals ever were the Ultegra SPD pedals they offered in mid 1990s. Not SPD-R, not SPD-SL, but real SPD, just like the mountain bike pedal only made for road. Nice float, easy to get into, “mountain bike shoe” compatible, reliable and, of course, long since discontinued. The one set I have is on the missus’ road bike, but every once in a while I wander by that bike with a pedal wrench in hand…nah, there’d be hell to pay. If you can find a set, try ’em.
Persistent, and apparently life-long, knee problems have me using Speedplay Zeros on my road bikes. Expensive, high maintenance, with pricey cleats that wear out quickly. Not to mention the joy of using road shoes, even though there’s about 100 meters of mud between my front door and the road right now. But my knees seem to like them, so it’s a trade I live with.
I tried the newer Ultegra SPD-SL pedals not long ago for all of one ride. Actually, I think I cut the ride short. My knee expressed its disapproval quite loudly. Not a great design, in my opinion.
As for living sans income, or at least not much of it, I’m counting on finding a rich relative and waiting ‘im out. I figure that’s a more reliable retirement plan than most others these days.
Used the standard Shimano SPD mountain pedals on my road bikes for years. My group tends to like to break up a ride with lunch sometime after the third hour of riding. (Leaves lots of time to digest on the way back to the nap couch.) While easy to use and to walk in I started getting hot spots after 50 or so miles and the knees started to complain about something. Got some Zeros as a gift (the best way to fund this obsession that is cycling) and haven’t looked back.
SPDs remain on the commuting/touring/’maybe I’ll try Cross bike’ for now.
Being employed is nice, but it’s halved my annual mileage. Not that twice almost nothing is much anyway.
Shimano A520
http://www.nashbar.com/bikes/Product_10053_10052_197350_-1_201485_10000_201491
The sorta cheap SPD road pedal, 530, 525, a 500 series, whatever it is most recently (if you want I can take a photo of mine) has been the best one for me. A cheap alloy body with one-sided entry, wide platform and simple exposed spring and adjustment screws. The SH71 cleat gives me enough float and in a pinch I can ride down to the grocery store in sneakers. So far the cheaper ones have been better than the more expensive models for me. Easy entry, easy exit, no slipping on the floor of the “Stop & Rob” or the coffee bar in Italy.
I am gainfully unemployed as of two weeks ago Friday and I am finally getting some shit done. I even had time to get other people’s shit done today–I trailered 3 horses across Houston in the rain. I was in mud up to my knees. My truck looks like a truck–covered in hay, mud, and horseshit. Smells like a truck, too. I like unemployment. It doesn’t pay at all, but the lifestyle is way better than wearing a suit and tie and sucking up to both clients and bosses all day. Oh, and most horses are way nicer than any of my bosses.
As for the shoes, I only own road stuff. But I’m a huge fan of the idea of the SPD sandal. A Cat. 2 friend of mine told me he did the entire RAGBRAI one year (sometime in the mid 90’s?) drunk and sporting the SPD sandals. I’m all for that.
Jeez, Jeff,
Did I miss a memo? Is this the first time you’ve mentioned being out of work? What happened? I myself have been technically jobless since I quit The New Mexican in 1991, but I still get paid, kinda, sorta. The last time I was actually a victim of layoff and on the dole was in the late 1980s — I spent six months riding my bike and looking for work, in that order, and was about two weeks away from running out of unemployment checks when I finally got the gig in Santa Fe. Whew.
Nope. I’ve chosen the Mad Blog as my platform to make my global announcement. I’m unemployed. There. I said it.
It was self-inflicted and it felt great. Now what? I dunno.
Yep. I’m done with financial services for anyone but my wife and me.
I know how to make money work for me, but if a client hires me to do it for her, especially with yields as low as they are right now, the client just doesn’t get much benefit. Fees are constant. Yields and returns are not.
I’ve thought about writing articles and books about planning, but there are already some really good books out there. In fact, the absolute fundamentals are really easy to learn (just f**king hard to do): keep 6 months worth of living expenses in a fully liquid account and don’t touch the money unless it’s an emergency; sock away at least 10% of pre-tax savings toward retirement if you have a government pension, 20% or more if you are in the private sector; work longer (think deep into your 60’s or 70’s); get more conservative with savings and investments the closer you get to retirement; pay off the most expensive debt first (the debt with the highest interest rate, not the biggest balance); get debt-free as fast as possible; never buy an investment you read or hear about in mass media, and never never buy anything you read about in blogs/chatrooms/etc.
I could get into details, but really, those are the basics. Everyone is different and there is no cookie cutter solution. The business models I worked under demanded cookie cutter solutions, illiquid investments, pretty high fees to clients, and pretty low payouts to me. Of course my payout went up significantly if I sold highly complex, highly illiquid products. I wouldn’t buy them myself. Why sell them to clients who don’t need them?
So, if the weather is ok tomorrow, I ride my bike. Yea! First time in almost a year. Then Saturday, do it again. Repeat until somewhat fit. Get honey-do’s done. Change careers. Read Mad Blog and comment frequently. It’s all good!
Jeff said: “I wouldn’t buy them myself. Why sell them to clients who don’t need them?”
Man what a honest thing to say. I’ll skip any further gratuitous swipe at the financial industry.
Bon chance on this. I’m going to suggest just one thing. If you ever feel the need to do some financial advising again thing of helping out a non-profit. Specifically small to medium sized public libraries. Many of my fellow directors are totally in the dark on even the most basic planning and any help – even simple stuff like budgets or what if cost analysis is just not in their skill set – will be welcomed especially if pro bono.
If that doesn’t interest call them up and offer to do a workshop of evening talk on what you just posted above. Keeps the face to face people skill sharp.
Awesome post, Jeff, and good luck. Thanks for the honesty in a field lately known for too much snake oil and sleight of hand. I think you just won some major credibility on the Mad Dog Trail should you need it.
Your former job, like my job, makes one appreciate the smell of “honest to God” horseshit rather than the 9-5 version.
Jeff,
Honesty pays. When I was working in the bike industry, the shop I was at operated on the same principle. Unfortunately we closed down in June ’07 (after 26 years!) but it is nice to hear that the idea of “honesty is the best policy” still holds true. Karma is good, and you will find it soon enough.
Khal,
Couldn’t agree with you much more than your definition of manure. The 9-5 kind stinks, yet the natural kind doesn’t. Unless of course, you choose to work with horses. Then….
Ben S, Khal, James:
Thank you for the kind words.
I’ve been doing something in financial services since 1994. Most of it was in Operations, but my most recent gig was in sales. I wanted to know if I could build a business as a financial advisor. Because of my Ops experience, I knew how the sausage was made. So I used the least egregious products and tried to teach the fundamentals to my clients. I learned that I could not make a living without selling very expensive, high internal cost products and have a high volume of clients. Both are against my nature.
My last sales manager put it this way: “Jeff. You’re a shark. You’re always moving, always looking for your next opportunity.” While the concept is true (it’s sales), I’m sure my clients would love to know that I am a shark and they are my prey–especially when we’re talking about something as personal and important as their fiscal health. I saw myself as a doctor, not as a pharma rep. My mistake.
I don’t know if non-profit is the answer. It might be. I haven’t looked into it. I do see a trend where companies are hiring planners as members of HR staffs to counsel their employees. That might be a way to go. The potential liability to the employer is pretty big, though. This trend may not last.
HR benefits are stunningly complex, and everything gets pushed down to the employee without much education or guidance. Retirement planning, education funding, investments, pensions, profit sharing, health, life and disability insurance, budgeting (specifically debt reduction/avoidance), property and casualty insurance, basic banking, taxes–these are all tied together and they are ubiquitous. And what about small businesses and the self-employed? Who’s gonna guide them through all this?
Education is definitely the answer for everyone. But the more the general public knows, the less opportunity for profit and exploitation. Ever wonder why high schools and colleges don’t teach personal financial planning? If being fiscally fit is as important as being physically fit, how come our schools don’t require knowledge of either? It really is just crazy.
So I’m not sure what comes next. I do know that, at least for the next couple of weeks, I’m getting those things done that don’t get done when I’m at work.