Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Problems

Since America has presidents, America has holidays for its presidents. I get those holiday days off from work. So, over the last six days, I had four of them off. When I have days off and Johanna has to work, I try to go mountain biking or at least hang out in the woods. (America also has trees and a holiday for them, but I don't get Arbor Day off. Too bad.)

On Lincoln's Birthday, I went off to Mt. Riga with my 'cross bike to climb CT's biggest hills. This was a totally failure as these are also CT's only seasonal roads (as far as I know). So, I took a long and snowy/rainy walk, pushing my bike through the highlands of Salisbury.

You cannot ride most bikes, but especially not a 'cross bike on hills that look like this (because of the snow, not the steepness):




On Saturday, I decided to use an actual mountain bike to ride in the snow and went to the reservoir. After about 1/4 mile of riding my chain broke. But, I came prepared. Well, sort of. In trying to fix the chain, the chain tool broke and I couldn't get pin all the way back. It was mostly back in, so I figured I'd probably be alright. I wasn't and the chain broke a 1 1/2 mile later and couldn't be fixed. This is the third cheap Lifu chain broke that I've had break. In fact, they generally are half broken after their first use. I bought a Park Tool now. It'll probably last until my fingers can't turn it.

On Sunday, I went for a road ride with three newly-met-by-me dudes, Ryan, Gabe, and Kyle from UHa. That was totally uneventful and a pleasant ride. I also now know what inland East Windsor looks like. Or, maybe it's inland South Windsor.

Yesterday, with another day off, I tried to ride at the reservoir again. I didn't fail per se, but thawing old snow requires an incredible amount of energy to ride through and has next to no reward.

I did get some cool rewards yesterday unrelated to a bike from my stove.

Home fries and tofu scramble:




Kimchi miso soba with tofu & bok choi:

7 comments:

  1. Your stove gives out nicer stuff than mine does. Maybe mine needs repair.

    I didn't break a chain, but I was cleaning mine a few days ago and found that it had 30+ cracked links! Isn't that weird? It was a Sram chain that I installed the morning of the Eel race, so between that and snow commuting it had a rough life, but still that was what, three months ago? I called the store and they warranteed it without question, so it worked out. I just thought that was weird.

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  2. thank you for the breakfast before and after photos!

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  3. in case you guys don't think that I eat.

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  4. Uneventful ride as in bad ride???

    I'm planning to go for a ride this weekend if the temps permit my water to stay in its liquid phase. Interested??

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  5. The individual links had visible cracks in them, usually from one pin to an edge, but a few were from pin to pin. None of them had broken apart completely but I could catch some more than others with my fingernails. I should have taken a picture. I got the chain at REI and their bike dept. people had not heard of such a failure or any recalls or defective chains from Sram.

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  6. Ryan- Uneventful as in nothing bad happened with the weather, to me or my bike. The ride was great.

    I'm probably going to be up in Boston this weekend, though.

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