So this week marked the first cold weather commuting of the season. Conditions included snow flurries and even showers at times. The roads weren’t terribly slick, save for a few spots yesterday morning (I had to bypass the hill out of Morningside on Hampton). I have been curious how the various bits on the Novara commuter would deal with typical Pittsburgh winter conditions, and thanks to this cold snap, I know a bit more.
This morning, both the rear brake and shifter (for the Shimano Nexus hub) froze. It appears that a bit of water/condensation was present where the cables meet the hub/brake body, and the cold weather promptly caused that to freeze. I couldn’t engage the brake, and a mis-shift up (instead of down) locked me into 6th gear. I futzed with the cables on Negley Avenue, and this resulted in the brake getting stuck while engaged, thus locking up the rear wheel. Another yank of the cable fixed that. I did manage to get the hub into 5th gear, which is my usual flatland gear, making the commute a bit easier than it might have been.
All of this prompted me to reconsider kitting out the Monocog was a MC-style fixed gear machine. This requires only a few mods:
* TomiCog on the rear wheel (16 tooth)
* Narrower tires (~45mm)
* Bigger chain ring (36 tooth)
* Fenders (in the basement)
I suspect this will start tonight, unless I can conjure up a way of keeping the cables on the Novara from freezing.
Posted on November 19th, 2008
So I decide to skip the Dirty Dozen, and what do I do?
Sycamore->Welsh->Barry/Holt/Eleanor->Flowers/Tesla + some random steep hill in Greenfield.
At least my power will be up, right?
Posted on November 14th, 2008
So I think I’ve officially changed my mind about doing the Dirty Dozen. In it’s place, I’m going to do the Murrysville cyclocross race. Yes, I skipped out on every single ‘cross practice this fall, and I’ve riding Dirty Dozen hills religiously for the last three months, but it comes down to this–there will be plenty of people at the Dirty Dozen. It will happen next year. I can ride the hills any time I want to. But a cyclocross race in western PA? A rare bird, that. And if I want to see more races here in the future, then I should show up and do this one.
So I’ll be cramming during the next two weeks. I’m planning on doing one more set of DD hills tomorrow during lunch, then I’ll spend my time riding in the parks, working on my dismounts (and re-mounts). I’m sure the race will hurt, a lot, but that’s okay–it’s the idea, right?
Posted on November 13th, 2008
The Bulldog Grill is opening in the spring, just across the street from the new coffeehouse. As if this wasn’t exciting enough, I looked at their projected menu, which emphasizes their desire to use as many local ingredients as possible in all of their dishes. I can’t wait.
Posted on November 9th, 2008
So one of my molars was chipped, and this was causing some pain, so I went to the dentist. Whee. After 18(!) X-rays (here, let me jam this big piece of plastic in the back of your mouth, m’kay?) and a cleaning (it may pinch a bit as I use this sharp pick against your gums, m’kay?), the dentist came in and told me that I needed, in descending order:
- Antibiotics for an infection in my chipped tooth.
- A root canal in said tooth.
- A crown for said tooth.
- A trip to the oral surgeon to remove a wisdom tooth that has decided to start moving again and is pushing against my other molar.
- A couple of other crowns.
The fun begins on 2 December, assuming the wicked strong antibiotics doesn’t kill me in the interim.
Posted on November 6th, 2008
So we’re about three weeks away from the big event. During most of my training rides, there’s a point where I think “why am I doing this?” but I’ll be at the Oval for the start. So, below is my early plan for approaching the hills:
Center Avenue: First hill. I’d like to position myself in the front half of group, just to see what the pace of the leaders is like. The cobbled false flat should give me a chance to move up in the group if necessary.
Ravine Street: Perhaps worth pushing the boat out a bit to see if I can position myself for a tenth place finish? The last stretch on Sharps Hill provides a good opportunity for bridging, if need be.
Berryhill: Position myself in the front half on the descent to the climb, simply to avoid the chaos on the hill. Otherwise, this hill will be a sandbag as I’m not a sprinter.
High/Seavey: Likely a sandbag, unless I happen to be in good position before the start of the hill.
Logan: Get good position before the hill simply to avoid problems.
Rialto: Sandbag.
Suffolk/Burgess/Hazelton: Stay out of trouble at the bottom, and perhaps see if it’s worth taking a dig near the top?
Sycamore: No need to sandbag this one, but at this point, I doubt I could even dream of challenging for a single point.
Canton: Stay. Out. Of. Trouble. Two approaches, I supposed. One: try and stay near the front of the group, knowing that the pace on Coast will be brutal. Two: stay at the back and just wait. The only problem is that there will be a conga line of people trying to successfully do the hill clean.
Boustead: Sandbag and stay out of trouble.
Welsh: Hmmm. Probably best to stay near the front, as there are some sections of poor road surface, so it would be nice to pick my line.
Barry/Holt/Eleanor: I’m guessing that being in the front half is preferable, given the narrow streets and the steepness of Eleanor.
Flowers/Tesla: I need to ride this hill a bit more, just to judge what sort of effort I can put in on Flowers and still have enough juice for Tesla. Likely a sandbag, though, given that it’s number 13.
Posted on November 6th, 2008
From “The Most Radical Thing You Can Do by Rebecca Solnit:
For the privileged, the pleasure of staying home means being reunited with, or finally getting to know, or finally settling down to make the beloved place that home can and should be, and it means getting out of the limbo of nowheres that transnational corporate products and their natural habitats—malls, chains, airports, asphalt wastelands—occupy. It means reclaiming home as a rhythmic, coherent kind of time.
Posted on November 4th, 2008
The Morning Glory Coffeehouse apparently opened while we were in California. We are very excited about the prospect of a cafe one block away from our house.
Posted on October 26th, 2008
Yes, we’re in California. Travel was fine. I, however, didn’t feel terribly well on the flights, and the final leg was downright painful (silly sinuses). But here we are. We spent the night in Vegas (technically Summerlin), then drove through the mountains to Bishop. We spent a few hours at the Buttermilks on Saturday, spending most of our time at the Roadside Boulder, then moving up to Soul Slinger (which, at V9, is beyond most of us for this trip).
Sunday was spent at the Buttermilks as well, this time warming up at the Tut Boulder (where I sent V6–this is a good indication of my fitness (or lack thereof), since just a few years this would have hardly been noteworthy). From there, we moved the Drifter Boulder, where everyone worked on High Plains Drifter (V7). I took two burns, then wandered off to go “buttermilking” with Seb and Oren. Both have been very enthusiastic about climbing up the numerous small boulders that little the landscape here, which is at once both cool and tiring. From here, we stopped at Soul Slinger, then moved over to the Bowling Pin. I begged off doing this highball, but I’m regretting it a bit now.
Today we went to the Happy Boulders. Hot. Sunny. Hot. Too hot, really, to even climb in the sun. We warmed up near More Power, Less Water, then moved over the Happy Boulder to work on the Hulk. I felt creaky from the climbing yesterday, and after a few burns on the Hulk, I was done. The boys were also tired, so I offered to take them back to the hotel for naps, so here we are. Right now, we’re likely missing the best conditions of the day, but, oh well. Jen is still out with Paul and April, hopefully taking advantage of the good conditions on Morning Dove White (V7).
Tomorrow is a rest day. I can’t wait.
And sorry, no pictures. We have them, but I forgot to bring the USB cable for the camera.
Posted on October 20th, 2008