Category: Bike stuff

Don’t touch that dial

~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 11 Comments

If the posting seems a little spotty around the DogHaus, you need not fear that I’ve been snatched up by space aliens or the Homeland Security douchenozzles. It’s just that (a) I have a deadline and (2) we’re enjoying a stretch of absolutely beautiful weather perfectly suited to the underemployed.

We topped 70 today in Bibleburg and I went for an actual road ride, which is a rarity. Started in shorts and short sleeves, which is rarer still. The downhill bits were into a headwind and the climbs featured a tailwind. All this I like.

What I didn’t like was getting buzzed by a gravel truck in a blind corner on Marksheffel. Sonofabitch just had to squeeze past me despite oncoming traffic and Colorado’s three-foot rule, and I very nearly ran out of road (ordinarily this would not be an issue but today I was riding an actual road bike instead of the usual cyclo-cross bike).

Didn’t catch his company or his license plate, more’s the pity. But I didn’t let it spoil my outing. Did I mention I had a tailwind?*

*Yes, we have no photos to accompany this post. Did I mention I had a tailwind?

Is it March yet?

~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 13 Comments
The Shadow knows
Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows. ...

February always gives me a case of the ass. The weather is generally unpleasant, my usual running and riding routes seem unsatisfactory, and it seems as though there’s always some indoor cycling involved. Blaugh.

But yesterday’s bonus day took some of the sting out of what had been a chilly, windy month.

 I got out for a two-hour ride that took in some streets, bike paths and trails I hadn’t ridden lately, and for a change I was actually overdressed — I could’ve done with knickers rather than leg warmers and quickly swapped full-finger gloves for the sawed-off variety.
Today I’m off to the North American Handmade Bicycle Show, leaving Herself to hold down the fort. It’s just a short hop, more business than pleasure, so I’m not taking any cycling kit, just running stuff. There’s a park near the hotel, so maybe I can run on grass or dirt instead of concrete. My old knees complain bitterly when forced to run on manmade surfaces.
If I have a moment between chores I’ll pop up some pix and notes about the bikes I see. Keep in mind that I’ll be focusing on transportation, not toys. Any requests?
• Why I Loathe Air Travel (No. 1,296,593 In a Series): Being a professional paranoid who travels by air almost, um, never, I get to the Bibleburg Interfaith Interdimensional Airport way too early to catch the Vomit Comet to Denver. Naturally, the announcement that boarding will commence is followed almost immediately by the announcement that our plane is undergoing “a test flight” and that we will not be scurrying inboard for 40 minutes. Will I make my connecting flight to Sacramento? Someone ask Rick Santorum. He seems to have a pipeline to the Almighty.
• Why I Loathe Air Travel (No. 1,296,594 In a Series): Nope. In the words of Maxwell Smart, “Missed it by that much!” Now I get to enjoy three hours in Denver Faux Tipi Intertribal Airport while I wait for an alternative. Should I be concerned that it has begun snowing? Rick? Anyone? Looks like I picked the wrong day to quit sniffing glue. …
• Why I Loathe Air Travel (No. 1,296,595 In a Series): Oh, good, a bomb threat. No, seriously, a bomb threat, levied against an earlier flight to San Diego. The traffic controllers must be enjoying their work today, along with the gate agents who get to speak with all the happy people..

Tahoe, Sacramento and excremento

~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 22 Comments
Chevy Tahoe
Dig the giant hunk of Detroit iron Herself is driving to Function Junction. And yes, the Death Star is a rental, not a keeper. I've lived in smaller houses.

Ahh … another Saturday unsullied by work for vampire capitalists. Doesn’t pay worth a damn, but it has its advantages nonetheless.

For example, today we’re looking at a high in the mid-50s, which strikes me as pretty good cycling weather. And there are containers of freshly made green chile sauce, chili con carne and vegetable beef soup in the ’fridge, so the day’s eating is more or less taken care of — assuming I don’t decide to assemble some chicken enchiladas to slide under that green chile come dinnertime.

The trick will be to stay far away from the computer, wherein all the evil tidings dwell. There remain four red-ass baboons running for the GOP pestilential nomination — ook ook ook chee chee chee! — and they are flinging dung at each other with a will in advance of Tuesday’s primaries in Arizona and Michigan.

There’s plenty to do around here without all that smelly old shit. Herself is off to Function Junction for a couple of days to handle some library business, and Bouncing Buddy Banzai the Spinning Japanese Wonder Chin has managed to FUBAR his right eye, which requires the application of various pills and potions, and eventually surgery.

Poor little dude has not had much luck with the medicos. Neither have we. Every time we take him to the vet I hear the sound of someone’s Mercedes payment being made. Cha-ching!

Once Herself gets back, I’m off — to the North American Handmade Bicycle Show in Sacramento. Never been to one before and I’m looking forward to it, if only because I’m in dire need of a road trip, some sort of Gathering of the Tribes. Plus there will be editors there, and occasionally where one finds editors, one finds paying work.

What I’d really like to do is hit the Arizona desert for a week of running and riding. But since that pays, um, not at all, an actual play date may have to wait until I unearth another patron of the velo-arts or two or three.

It’ll certainly have to wait until after the primary. You couldn’t pay me to set foot in the state until someone’s policed up all that GOP poo.

A bridge to somewhere

~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 26 Comments
New bridge
This new bridge spans the creek just south of Bijou Street.

I gave the Innertubes the slip at midday yesterday and went out for a rolling 23-miler, missing exactly 23 tweets. This I call a fair trade, especially since I had a tailwind on the hilly bits while Twitter is always pretty much up in your grill.

The hard part lately is finding that sweet spot in the actual wind. Some days it seems to be generated by the handlebars. If you’re riding deep-section rims you’ll occasionally get a probing gust from port or starboard, generally when riding no-hands to adjust some article of clothing or fetch something from a pocket.

While out I noticed a new bridge on our major north-south bike path. It replaces an iffy concrete dip that was occasionally underwater during spring runoff and thus seems a major upgrade, unless you’re the sort of GOP dipshit who thinks that bicycles should be the littlest pig at Uncle Sammy’s trough.

I crossed it on the way home and felt as though I’d hit the lottery. Unc’ usually spends my money bombing brown people, giving a wink and a nod to white-collar criminals or holding hearings on women’s health issues to which only Penis-Americans and those who love them are invited.

But every now and then the crooked, simple-minded old fool throws the little people a bone — like a bridge that actually goes somewhere.

Congress wants to stick a pump in our spokes

~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 15 Comments

Cycling advocates nationwide are up in arms over congressional assaults that the League of American Bicyclists says “threaten 20 years of progress in promoting bicycling and walking as energy-efficient, healthy and safe modes of transportation.”

You probably already know this — but just in case it comes as news to you, LAB, the America Bikes coalition, the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, Adventure Cycling and other organizations are fighting tooth and nail to keep bike-ped funding in the House and Senate transportation bills presently slithering through the legislative sausage-making process.

In the Senate, advocates are backing an amendment by Sens. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) and Ben Cardin (D-Md.) to guarantee local governments a voice in transportation decisions and provide funding for bikeways, sidewalks and safe routes to school.

In the House, they are urging representatives to oppose the entire transportation bill — it’s that bad. Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), interviewed for “Living On Earth,” called the measure “arguably the worst piece of transportation legislation I’ve seen that has been proposed. Not just in the 15 years I’ve been in Congress, but for many years before that.”

If you haven’t already contacted your senators and representatives, please do so. And thanks.