Missing Pants....

Today I relied that there is something to be missed about driving to work, like pants. Pants might be one of the greatest garments ever invented. I would put them in the list of a good pair of gloves on a cold day, and the garter belt. After those two comes pants, today my tights (I'll give you a moment here to get your self back into a safe mental place) were just not staying in place. I'm sure gravity is fully the problem. If I was wearing pants I'd be able to have on one of the other great inventions of man kind, the Belt. Oh well back to the point of the day,

Good ride into work today, no quite as cold as it was earlier this week, My legs felt a little bit better today, I was able to get up out of the saddle on a few of the little climbs. My back side is still very, very sore, I'm looking forward to the weekend.

Numbers on the day, from the last three trips.

Moving time: 1:29
Moving Avg: 8.9 mph
Stopped: 12:02
Overall Avg: 7.9 mph
Trip: 13.26 miles

A day of Change.

Well I thought the title was appropriate with all the things going on in the world today.

The ride in today was cold, but very pleasant, the only issue I had was my feet got very cold by the time I got to work.

My legs were a bit not under me much, but all in all it was pleasant, I believe now with an addition of a pair of booties I can successful ride down to temps around 10 degrees.

Numbers on the day.

Moving Time: 26:51
Moving Avg: 8.7 mph
Stopped: 5:29
Over all Avg: 7.3 mph
Trip: 4.32

Can kiss the fatest part of my as#

My car is jellious,

W - 10

Wedding in 10 days,
Honeymoon :) in 11 days,
Blazer taking a crap with most parts, expensive

So lets sum up what has broken in the last week.

1) Inspection and Emissions
2) Both front wheal bearings
3) Breaks, all of them
4) Break calipers, both rear


And last night it did something that I have never heard of before, taking Mels ring over to the jewelry store for replating, it just turned off, no lights, no engine, no nothing, just OFF!!!!

I pulled over, stopped and it restarted fine. All I can say is WTF!!!

Bike is fine, its visiting the garage today as they repair the breaks on the truck.

Bike Report Tuesday...

Well no ride on Monday, tummy not feeling well, and when things in the lower digestive track are not to spec, sitting on a bike is probably not the best idea.

Today was ok, got a pinch flat on the way in, but luckily enough it was not so bad that I was unable to inflate, and pray.

Numbers on the day:

Time: 23:20
Avg: 12.4
Max: 22.7
Trip: 4.8

Bike Gear Revisited...

In the words of my 2 year old niece "No like"

At the time of my buying all the gear I also purchased something so trivial it did not make the original post. GLOVES. so 10$ latter, I had a pair of Avenir Bike Gloves, now I will admit that I was not expecting these to last a long time. 2 weeks!!! is all I'm going to get out of them. I can now see my hand in some of the holes forming on the palm where the padding used to be.

I'm sending a message to the company, lets see if they every get back to me.

~Jason
"Its all downhill, breath"

5 Days...

Making the assumption that I can make it home tonight, I have now ridden to work five days in a row. The ride in this morning was fantastic, the new spokes held wonderfully, and the tire is now straighter then it has ever been thanks to the boys at the LBS.

Why Dave H. Rocks
1) He has all the tools needed to maintain your bike
2) While adjusting your front derailer, he brings you a beer
3) He has a keg in his home...
4) He just over all a good person, willing to do anything to help
5) He helped me clean my chain rings, and chain last evening
6) No really, its a freaking nasty job, no one wants to do it

I happy to report that the cleaning effort worked fine on the way in. I did suffer a little bit of chain suck, but that was more my fault then the bikes. GPS is dead, needed battery's, combined with me getting to Dave's house 29 min late I did not have time to record my ride in today.

Had a office breakfast, of Mrs. Smiths muffin, a pack or cheese of wheats, and a coffee cup of instant oat meal that was left in my desk from the previous cubical monk. Oak meal was good, but needed a little bit of brown sugar.

Brand: Quaker
Flavor: Regular

Something my commuting buddies have started to do when we get to work is send a group email that we are all OK. Just a quick note that we all in, alive and well.

Equipment Review.

When this blog started I talked about the gear I had purchased to facilitate the commute. I am happy to report that I would buy it all again if give the chance. The panniers are a little bit big for what I need but it is nice to have the extra space.

Have a wonderful weekend.
~Jason
"Its all downhill, breath"

PING! SNAP!...Oh Dear Lord what was that...

On the ride into I head a dreadful "PING/SNAP" from the general area behind my butt. At which time the bike decided to become impossible to move forward. After a close inspection of the back tire/wheel/hub area the epicenter of the SNAP sound was discovered. What was going to be the good day of the week has been brought down by the one bike part that everyone takes for granted.

Its not really this parts fault, bikers in general just take it for granted, and there are some compelling reason as to why;
1) It has no moving mechanical parts
2) There are more of this one part on your bike then anything else
3) They are critical for the bike to work at all
4) They are under enormous amounts of stress, rotational force and content flexing

Your guessed it, the lowly spoke. Now I am not enough of a bike geek to know how many there are on my wheal, but I do know (now) that I need every one of them. That back tire had the looks of a potato chip that just hit the fire. After disconnecting the rear breaks, I was able to complete the ride in to work without any other incident.

On my lunch break I made a quick phone call to the LBS to see if they would be able to take care of me if I brought the wheal in this evening. They said it was a solid maybe, and that we would go from there.

I figured I can cut my ride 1/2 by taking more direct roads, ride light and I should be OK. So i got on after work, rolled down the side walk from the bike rack, down the ramp to the street all was well. I'm thinking to my self I can do this, then that sound again "PING!!!!!" followed closely by "o for F&%$#@ sake. You have got to be F&*%&@% kidding me." Its a spoke munity, they have given up, get off us you fat bastard, no way, no how, not today, or ever. My back wheal is now starting to take the same geometric shape as your grandfathers wallet, and rides about the same to.

Off to the LBS

I arrived at the LBS and felt good about my chances, only one car in the lot, four guys working the shop. When I walk in I instantly figured I was screwed. 3 guys in commuter gear, all with broken something or other, I would have bet you a bucket of bait that it was going to be drop off/pick up for this one. One of the guys came over and asked what I needed, and after making a few arrangements for a six pack he took care of me. After about 3o min, and one really funny joke about a guy that looked like the buzzard from bugs bunny I was back in business.

Leekygas...

No, not the Tour De France team, my back tire. It must be loosing some pressure over night cause when I got to Dave's this morning my tire felt a little soft. So I pumped it up a bit and made the ride in. The ride in was good, legs felt strong, I jumped up on my big chain ring for a while, things went well. I even chased another commuter for most of my ride in, but just could not catch him.

Numbers on the day;
Millage: 9.9
Moving Time: 24.14
Max Speed: 21.5
Average Speed: 11.1

Ride home,

So I guessing I'm loosing air while the bike sits at work, so the ride home was a little bit harder then I think it should have been. I'm going to have to go to the LBS and get a new tube and make the change. (I hate changing tubes)

`Jason
'Its all downhill, breath"

Bike Shopping!!!!!!!!!

Well here is the way I see it, if I am going to;


1) Ride a bike to and from work
2) Survive that ride with/out a stroke and or heart attack
3) Be asked to come back into the office after the first day
4) Carry a laptop and office "stuff" each day


I need to go bike accessory shopping. After a very quick and expressive trip to my favorite Local Bike Shop (LBS)

Pedal Pusher
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&client=firefox-a&channel=s&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&hs=B4i&resnum=0&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=pedal+pushers&near=Harrisburg,+PA&fb=1&view=text&latlng=14072021090692125367

3798 Walnut St. Harrisburg, PA 17109
(717) 652-7760

I came home, in the car sadly, but with these items;

1) Shimano SH-MT31
These shoes are wonderful, as comfortable to wear and walk in as a good pair of New Balance running shoes. Two years ago I made the investment to go with clipless peddles (Eggbeaters, by CrankBorhters) at the time I purchased them they had a deal running where you got the peddles and a pair of shoes for something like $100.00. I have since that day, HATED the shoes, and LOVED the peddles. These shoes are a totally different creature, I have worn them around the house, cooked in them, hardwood floors, tile, never with out a slip, fall or having to resort to the goofy bike shoe walk so I don't fall on my back side.
http://bike.shimano.com/publish/content/global_cycle/en/us/index/products/shoes/mtb/product.-code-SH-MT31.-type-.html

2) Giro Atlas II, Black

This one was a little frustrating, I had a Trek something, and the small plastic connector on the back snapped at some point. So in all truth I was buying a new helmet due to the failure of a 15 cent part. On a good note, it is stated somewhere??? that a helmet should be replaced about every three years.
Again, solid piece of head gear, it was designed to be comfortable on larger skulls.

http://www.bellhelmetstore.com/Other/bellbicycle/Atlas.html



3) Avenir Excursion Large Panniers
Now these took a little bit of adjusting, I had a Blackburn rear rack already installed on the bike, but when I first hooked these bad boys up my heals would hit the bags... After a little adjusting of the rack and the bags, I was golden.

These bags are water resistant, (proff) for all I can tell and have a mechanical clip on the top that attaches them to the rack so the CAN'T fall off. The only think about them I do not like at this point is the side pockets. They only have one small section of Velcro holding them shut. Just seems like something might work its way out. But time will tell.


http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00165Q4QM


The last item that I got today was a little bit trickier, I'm a consultant so it is almost always required for us to bring our own computer to the office. And since it is my computer and not my office I'm always a little twitchy about leaving it there over night. When driving back and forth you can just throw it in a messenger bag, or brief case and all is well. The thought if ridding 10 miles with a 17" Dell Vostro 1700 (Pictured Left by a 21" LCD) just makes my back heart. So off to the office supply store.

Where I scored:

4)Swiss Army Wenger GA-7306-06F00 Pegasus Computer Backpack



There's not much I can say about this one aside from I should have gone to this type of bag for my computer years ago. Wonderfully made, comfortable to wear, weather resistant, well balance, fits a bigger guy. I can find only one missing feature and that would be a MP3 player pocket on the shoulder strap for easy access. But that can be solved with a add on.

Over the course of the next few weeks I'll be sure to let everyone know the success or failure of my recent acquisitions.

Back to WORK!!!!!!!!

Thankfully, Happily, Wonderfully, what every "lly" word you want to use I'm a contributing member of society again. Back to work after four months off, now I relies that some of you might say. "wow four months off would rock", well not so much. I am completely sure I have looked at the Internet, the ENTIRE Internet. Twice.

To make things even better, my new contract is with a PA based firm, for a State run agency in Harrisburg. (not listing any company names so that I can STAY employed) With the rising cost of gas, by the way Is everyone else sick of that catch phrase yet? "the rising cost of gas". With gas prices at all time, and ridiculous levels I have decided that I'm going to ride my bike to work. I'm sure this is going to suck for a while, but in any event it will save money, and offer some MUCH needed excises.

In an attempt to shed some light on bike commute from a fat guy point of view, and also to test some of the hundreds of thousands posts on the web offering instructions on the "proper" way to get to work on your bike. I can tell you, in one easy sentence, the proper way to get to work on your bike. "Get to work with out getting injured, on a bicycle"

So here's the goal, I am going to try to post something every work day, what my ride was like, if I tested something new, a new route, a new accomplishment anything. I'm not naive and relies that most likely the only people that will read this post will be my friends, but if you find your self reading it and like or hate something let me know, leave a post. If your a Harrisburg, or just a bike commuter in general, i would love to hear your story. If there is something you want to know about, questions anything really leave a post.


One last thing, I'm a dyslexic so I relies there are going to be typos, miss-spelled words, and just stuff out of place. I'll do my best to clean it up, if you want to point something out please feel free. If you have a good dyslexic, or dyslexia joke go for it I'm always up for a good laugh.