There are days, today being one of them, when I have grave doubts as regards my status among the higher primates.
The weather looked iffy, and I was ping-ponging back and forth as regards exercise (Do I ride outdoors? Indoors? At all?). Around 2:30 I sucked it up, pulled on a ton of winter gear and hit the garage for the Soma Double Cross, with its full-coverage fenders to keep the booty pristine on dampish days and its minipump mounted at the seat-tube water-bottle cage, all the better to free up pocket room for a jacket, balaclava and various other winter items. Thinking ahead for a change, I was. Or so I thought.
Then I remembered that I was wearing Sidis with Time ATAC cleats under my neoprene booties while the Soma has Shimano SPD touring pedals. Duh.
Bugger it, I thought. Instead of going back inside to unzip and peel and switch shoes, I’ll just grab the Voodoo Nakisi and get right after it. And so I did.
After spending a brisk hour playing rock hockey and dodging cacti in Palmer Park, the snow starts coming down, a nice wet one guaranteed to apply The Brown Stripe to one’s behind. The Nakisi, naturally, lacks fenders.
And as I pulled my jacket out of its jersey pocket, I remembered it lacked something else — an attached minipump. The one I usually stuff into a pocket was at home, sitting on the kitchen table. Double duh.
So if y’all want to find yourself another blogger to follow, I won’t blame you. Nobody this dumb should be allowed to write for public consumption.
Mad Blog Media 
Have you considered standardizing on one cleat and pedal type. I’m sure I don’t have as many bikes and cycling shoes as I only have three each that are current. I used Crank Brothers because they have plenty of angular float which I need because of my crooked left leg plus they are essentially self-cleaning for mud, snow, and ice.
Hey, Duncan … I just can’t settle in to one system. Call me fickle. I once used Time ATACs for everything — road, mountain and cyclo-cross. But then the bike collection spiraled out of control and I flat ran out of ATACs. The mountain bike briefly wore a pair of Speedplay Black Frogs, which I loved, but in pursuit of standardization I gave them to a pal just learning to ride clipless.
Crank Brothers was practically throwing Egg Beaters at people during Interbike one year, and I wound up with a bunch of them, along with a couple sets of Candys, but I found the Egg Beaters gave m’dogs hot spots on long rides, so I gradually gave most of them away — Herself, a teammate and various EB fans or newcomers to clipless gobbled ’em up. I still have a set of Candys on the red Steelman, but went to Ultegra road pedals for the road bike and just rotated my remaining ATACs among whichever of the other bikes I was riding at any given time.
So I was a three-system guy for a spell — ATAC, Ultegra and Candy — and then I discovered the SPD touring pedals, which I’ve really come to love. Nice wide platform, easy to clip into from a standing start, reasonably priced and OK for weight. So now those are on the Soma (A520) and the road bike (A600).
Since I was clearly into an SPD collection, I snagged a set of XT pedals for the mountain bike, and that was that — I no longer have to yank pedals off one bike to ride another. But I do have to remember which is which when I stumble out the door in my Sidis — the one constant in this equation. I have three pair of Sidis, with cleats from Crank Brothers, Shimano and Time.
Patrick,
Your are truly a hardman. There is no shame riding in bad weather. In full bad weather kit. Without a means to fix a flat.
Merckx would be proud–of course he would have a follow car with spare wheels.
Jeff, I’m dumb as a bag of hair. No brain, no pain, as they say. But it was a fine ride, one of those deals that sucks for about the first five minutes and then suddenly you wonder why you wasted most of the day indoors, working.
Patrick,
As another podcast/radio host, I would love to have you on a show some day, should you be interested.
Also as another resident of bad weather rides, I truly feel that it shouldn’t be any other way.
Thanks for the blog. I’m a’following!
Patrick Bulger
Brother Patrick, do you have a link to your podcast/radio show? I’d love to check it out. I did a radio/podcast interview with Diane “The Outspoken Cyclist” Lees a while back, and I thought I had failed to distinguish myself, but Diane seemed OK with it. I have a radio voice, and a face to go with it, but what remains of the brain behind the face occasionally gets distracted and goes walkabout.
Absolutely!
The shows are posted at http://www.packfiller.com, which also has multiple domains pointing to it, g.s.bulger, lmspod, but I digress in a geeky manner (which I most likely am).
I like the shows to be about anything associated with the cycling lifestyle, and humorous whenever possible. Let me know what you think, and I’d love to put something together.
Take care,
Patrick
Pardon me Patrick, but said brainless move could only have been so had you actually experienced a flat. In light of the lack of a flat-experience, I would say you dressed and prepared absolutely appropriately for such a ride as you had.
Barry, I’m forever scarred by the memory of jogging 10km home in a pair of Sidis, at 8,800 feet in Crusty County, after flatting and finding two flat tubes in my saddlebag.
I stashed the bike in some scrub oak and got after it. The last mile to the house was the hardest — an average grade of 7-plus percent with a stretch of 15 percent smack dab in the middle. Ever since I’ve carried three tubes.
Barry’s spot on. Of course the ‘justification’ for three sets of pedals might actually disprove that point, the logic is sound. Flawed in practice, but sound in logic. Glad to hear Patrick that you got out and rode. A day with a ride is always a good day.
James, right you are. A day without cycling is like a day without sunshine. Of course, I had a day with cycling but without sunshine, but I’ll take it nonetheless.
The low temps made the ride, actually. I didn’t feel like barreling along, which only heightens the wind chill, so I just futzed around on the single-track, slowly and gradually cleaning bits that usually confound me when I’m in a hurry and battling the bike, trying to wrestle it over those rocks or through this switchback.
It was a nice lesson in (you should pardon the lame gag) playing it cool.
STANDARDIZE. You’re in the freakin’ biz my friend, you score (or have scored) enough free stuff from various sources to actually BUY a few more sets of (oh how it pains me to say this) Shimano’s SPD road pedals, or (as I do) the cheapo (Wellgo, etc.) MTB style, which works just fine on my winter bike and MTB’s with the same M71 floating cleat that works so well on the 520 road pedal. I can use any pair of shoes on any bike, road or MTB. My only complaint is the cheapo axle on the road pedals I use on my “good” bikes rusts. I wish they’d make a chromed axle version but since these are a low-priced item for the big S, I don’t think there’s enough of a market for a higher quality version.
As for the pump, a couple years ago I found out the “universal” guts in the Zefal frame pump on my bike out in Santa Barbara weren’t so universal when I needed to air up a flat tire. NO combination of the guts would seal around the valve! A few folks went by with those worthless mini-pumps which didn’t do squat…until FINALLY someone came along with a real, full-length frame pump! Soon after this rescue I went down to a local shop to get the correct guts and the guy there couldn’t even find a combination that would work –so I felt less stupid — and then bought a Park “one size fits all” full length frame pump to take care of the problem once and for all. And of course have not had another flat since!
Follow up to my complaint the big S doesn’t make a better quality road SPD pedal — THEY DO, even though it’s NOT shown on their North American website! PDA600 seems to be of the Ultegra level in their quality lineup vs the 105 quality of the PDA520, which works just fine but is a little cheap in the axle/bearing department. The black anodized axle rusts and looks ugly pretty fast. The 600 seems to have a chrome-plated axle and (I hope) better quality bearings. A couple pairs of these ($100 a pair vs $60 for the 520’s) are on the way to the posh, well-lit CycleItalia US HQ as I type this!