Category: Bike stuff

Tempo fugit

~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 20 Comments
Herself makes those pedals spin. I'm practically getting trails ... or it could be an acid flashback.
Herself turns those pedals around. I'm practically getting trails off those wildly spinning legs ... or it could be an acid flashback.

Yes, it’s that time of year again — the season of indoor cycling, which sucks a mile of yak dong but still beats ballooning to Orson Wellesian proportions due to one’s fondness for food and drink.

I usually bolt a lesser bike to my Cateye CS-1000 trainer for use in evil weather, but this is an imperfect solution. For one, it sounds like a speed freak with a hand saw trimming up wood for the stove. And that spinning rear wheel is a cat magnet.

Worst of all, it won’t accommodate Herself without much clusterfuckery — fetching bikes in and out of the garage, popping off/restoring front wheels, adjusting the Cateye framework, and so on and so forth. I’m 6 feet tall, she’s 5 feet tall; you get the idea. And anyway, the whole idea is not to go outside, where the garage and the foul weather are.

So, fearing a long and unpleasant winter based on what we’ve seen so far in October, and lacking a gym membership, I bought us a Giant Tempo exercise bike from John Crandall at Old Town Bike Shop.

The Tempo is adjustable without tools — seat post, saddle, and stem/handlebar combo all raise and lower and slide forward and back, using knobs or quick releases. Everything’s neatly hash-marked so you can quickly rearrange the bike to suit the tall or small. The fixed-gear flywheel has a recessed magnet so you can add an aftermarket cyclo-computer (I did), the stock pedals are easily removable for replacement with the pedals of your choice (ditto) and the belt drive keeps things quiet enough so you can hear the old iPod without cranking it to 11.

Like most human constructions, the Tempo is not without fault, especially as regards the stem/bar combo. It could go lower to accommodate smaller riders (a hacksaw can fix that), and it could have a longer horizontal track, which would allow the vertically challenged to bring the bars closer to the saddle (one possible workaround is disassembling the setup and flipping it 180 degrees).

But these are nits I’m picking here. The Tempo is solid, quiet and reasonably priced, and we’ve both ridden it and like it a whole lot more than doing the Ice Capades on two wheels with a critical audience of SUV pilots entranced by the texting capabilities of their Crackberries. It’s not as much fun as riding outdoors, but what is? When you’re wearing clothes, anyway. …

Full disclosure: I got this rascal at a considerable discount, thanks to John and Steve, our local Giant rep. I can see why John might cut me some slack, since I’ve been buying bikes, parts and service from him for a quarter century or so and live within eyeshot of Crandall Manor, but Steve’s assist was entirely unexpected and most appreciated. A tip of the Mad Dog skid-lid to both gents for their generosity.

Let’s us preserve the moment in pictures

~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 5 Comments

Howler of the day: The infamous road-rager Dr. Christopher T. Thompson says he never slammed on his brakes in front of cyclists Ron Peterson and Christian Stoehr — he merely stopped to take pictures of them.

This asshole’s lawyer must eat a lot of Chinese takeout, ’cause he appears to be basing his strategy on the advice of fortune cookies. Almost makes me wonder whether he’s written this one off in hopes of getting a conviction overturned on appeal.

Meanwhile, I’ll tell you the pic I want to see — the one of the look on Thompson’s face as the cell door clangs shut behind him.

Speaking of clowns, check this out — and this — and consider whether you’re enough of a multitasker to walk and/or operate a motor vehicle while talking/texting on or trying to find your cell phone. Would you see the clown or the 6-foot orange rabbit on the pedicab?

Boulder Cup relocated

~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 8 Comments
Harlow Platts Park circa 2005, when it wasn't buried under a ton of snow.
Harlow Platts Park circa 2006, when it wasn't buried under a ton of snow.

Bummer — Brook Watts advises that this Sunday’s Boulder Cup cyclo-cross will be relocated to the Boulder Reservoir after heavy snow that made it impossible to use Harlow Platts Park.

Says race director Chris Grealish: “The racers love Harlow Platts because of the challenging nature of the grassy terrain, but we have an agreement with the city of Boulder to make a move if conditions there risk long-term damage to the park.”

Too bad. Harlow Platts is a fun venue, but there’s no point in chewing it the hell up. And I wasn’t going to be able to go anyway, as Sunday is one of my days in the Velo-barrel.

Here’s a bit I wrote about the last race I saw there. Well, as usual, there’s not much in there about the actual race, but what the hell, it’s either read this or get back to work, right?

Safety in numbers

~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 17 Comments

Gretchen Reynolds at The New York Times notes a study by surgeons and ER docs at the Rocky Mountain Regional Trauma Center in Denver that concluded a staggering increase in the number and severity of injuries sustained by cyclists may have its roots in an uptick in bicycle commuting.

“What we concluded was that a lot of these people were commuters,” Dr. (Jeffry) Kashuk said, adding, “If we keep promoting cycling without other actions to make it safer, we may face a perfect storm of injuries in the near future.”

The “perfect storm” cliché aside, the piece makes interesting reading. In Europe, Reynolds writes, the “safety in numbers” effect has led to a decline in cyclist injuries, and a California study suggests that “adaptation in motorist behavior” in response to an increase in walking and cycling contributes to a decreased likelihood of injury.

“In other words,” writes Reynolds, “when more cyclists show up on the roads, car drivers become used to them and respond appropriately.”

Reynolds notes the obvious Catch-22: If cycling is perceived as dangerous, then fewer people will take it up, even though more putting cyclists on the road — in time — will mean fewer accidents. While we await that happy day, she urges “individual responsibility,” saying cyclists must obey traffic laws, though I can find no similar admonition for motorists.

So there you have it. Get out there and make the streets safe for cycling. Just don’t expect to see me on a two-wheeler today. It’s 10 a.m. and still below freezing.

Altitude sickness

~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 5 Comments

Well, that’s officially it for summer — I pulled the cover off the pergola and stashed it in the garage. No chance of cranial sunburn on the back deck for now, the skies being gray, the temps in the mid-30s and some nasty-looking weather to the south.

Still, it could be worse. My man Hal up in Crusty County reports thusly: “It’s snowing again. I’m moving to Pewblow.”

He’s kidding, of course. We have both lived in Pewblow, and the best that can be said for the place is that it’s 10 degrees warmer than where Hal is right now, which would be stuck in a steadily swelling snowbank at 8,800 feet just east of Weirdcliffe.

Pewblow makes Bibleburg look like San Francisco on a sunny day. My hometown has its faults — many, many of them — but at least here the cops don’t tase you before they shoot you just to see that look on your face. They just ask if you’ve found Jesus and then blow a great big .40-caliber hole in your heart so they can see if he’s really in there.

Meanwhile, I’m trying to work up the ‘nads to go out for a short bike ride, maybe a little cyclo-cross over in Monument Valley Park. Try that in Pewblo sometime. The cops will see you running with the bike and figure you stole it. Then it’s zap, bang, and hasta la vista muchachos.

• Late update: OK, I did it — sucked it up, pulled on the winter kit and went out for an hour of solo ’cross. Lord, did I suck, particularly on the running bits, which used to be my strength. But about 40 minutes in, it finally started getting good to me, and for a lap or two I felt marginally competent, if awfully slow. And now my back hurts. Mine will not be a pretty old age.