A quick peek at the Elena Gallegos Open Space,
where I have not been riding.
Bit by bit I’m returning components of exercise to the daily regimen.
I began with walking, the most basic form of locomotion for a biped. Unless you count crawling. This we have all done, at first while diapered, and perhaps later while suffering the side effects of our reality-management system of choice.
Next came cycling, sans hills. Then the jogging. And finally, the cautious lifting of very light weights.
Yesterday I threw caution to the winds and climbed some of the lesser hills in the ’hood, aboard the Soma Saga (canti edition), which has a low end of 20 gear inches. And yes, I used every inch, while dispatching scouts along the spinal column and down the legs to check for sleeper agents in the hamstrings.
Luna. See?
The stretching? Kinda, sorta. The yoga? Mmm, not so much. But as regular readers know, I will never be smart.
My only half-smart moves to date have been (a) to ease back into daily exercise after an extended back spasm, and (2) to avoid the off-road cycling.
When you ride singletrack using rigid steel, drop bars, rim brakes, narrow tires, and equally narrow gearing, you need to use a lot of English (or, in my case, Irish) when negotiating obstacles. If the lower back will not do The Twist you are slam-dancing with yourself in a minefield.
So, yeah. Road bikes. Broad gearing. 38mm tires at 60/65 psi. My running can be identified as “running” only because it seems slightly faster than walking. And my weightlifting? Arnold probably uses a heavier toothbrush.
Meanwhile, speaking of heavy lifting, BRAIN contributor Rick Vosper wonders whether the Bug-boosted, bike-buying bubble is ’bout to burst.
He quotes Jay Townley of Human Powered Solutions as predicting that retailers — suddenly finding themselves overstocked after The Great Product Drought while consumer interest returns to something approximating normalcy — could soon be slashing prices and running sales to attract buyers and reduce inventory, with the financial burden falling “particularly hard on bike shops and small to midsize retailers.”
Rick adds that this does not apply to e-bikes, the industry’s latest shiny object for the wandering eye. Shocking, I know.
Tags: bad back, Bicycle Retailer and Industry News, Bike bidness, e-bikes
Mad Blog Media 
January 10, 2022 at 10:09 am |
Anent e-bikes, recent fire in NYC thought to be caused by … e-bike lithium batteries. Kind of like the poor schmuck whose house burned down from the Tesla
January 10, 2022 at 10:28 am |
Not the most recent fire, the one that killed so many people in the Bronx, right? That was said to be a malfunctioning space heater, another technological achievement about which I have my doubts.
January 10, 2022 at 11:00 am |
No, this one – https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ny-bronx-fire-started-by-ebike-battery-20220108-q4bzegvl7baijcm2n5xgfsl37u-story.html. Cheers, good man
January 10, 2022 at 11:21 am |
Yow. I bleeve we can expect more of this sort of thing. (See the Chevy Bolt battery fires and subsequent recalls.)
January 10, 2022 at 12:07 pm |
There is essentially no recycling of lithium batteries. Producing a ton of lithium takes 500,000 gallons of water. Most lithium is produced in China where fresh water is getting as precious as in the American Southwest. Seems this quick switch to electric vehicles is another silver bullet for climate change that doesn’t pass closer environmental inspection. And like plastic, cheaper always wins over pollution.
https://cen.acs.org/materials/energy-storage/time-serious-recycling-lithium/97/i28
January 10, 2022 at 12:52 pm |
I can neither confirm nor deny that there are metric shit tons of those things buried all over Iraq, Afghanistan, and Kuwait.
January 10, 2022 at 1:32 pm |
We used to burn shit, literally, in half drums full of diesel fuel during my overseas deployment. It produces an interesting odor. Comforting to take a dump in the latrine and not get diesel splashed on your delicates. Burning shit was a detail to be avoided, Of course they finally contracted that chore to locals.
January 10, 2022 at 2:43 pm |
Goldern it all to heck anyways where’s m’nucular flyin’ car?
January 10, 2022 at 3:28 pm |
This e-vehicle thing seems to be the latest “free lunch” that is being sold to avert the “climate crisis” but to me is just another way for someone to make money. All that lithium, rare earths, and even transition metal nitride compounds have to be mined and refined and made into product. Then when the product is no good in a few years, thrown out or recycled. Perhaps better than infernal combustion but if we don’t cut down our demand, this seems just another way to rape, pillage, and burn Gaia.
Meanwhile, no one wants a lithium mine in their backyard.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/dec/05/rio-tinto-lithium-mine-thousands-of-protesters-block-roads-across-serbia
https://www.npr.org/2021/09/02/1031726626/these-tribal-activists-want-biden-to-stop-a-planned-lithium-mine-on-their-sacred
January 10, 2022 at 6:31 pm |
We want to have our cake and eat it too. No changes in lifestyle, please, and thank you. We thought the nest was so big, we could shit in it forever.
January 10, 2022 at 7:21 pm |
Yep. Exactly.
January 11, 2022 at 8:41 am |
I am so stealing that last sentence! Magic. You good bro, real good!
January 11, 2022 at 8:49 am
In quotes of course, with credit given to the illustrious Mad Dog Media.
January 11, 2022 at 9:10 am
Steal away, me boyo. All property is theft. I probably stole it from someone and thought I invented it.
Hell, I’ve been known to steal from myself. I got a leaky seabag, is what.
January 10, 2022 at 3:23 pm |
Rigid bikes for singletrack got old for me about 17 years ago, when I herniated a disk in my lower back. Went to double boingers and never looked back. I don’t do the super crazy stuff mind you. Just prefer getting home without more pain than when I left.