The dream of the 1890s

How I look without blood running down my face.

As you no doubt know, I am totally up on the latest trends. I stopped riding fixed gear bikes ages ago and  transitioned into cyclocross and touring bikes. I only eat artisanal sausage and pickles. And, of course, I am an urban lumberjack.

I was urban lumberjacking yesterday by getting some blown down limbs from the park across the street, as I periodically do. I trying to dislodge a large one from a pile on the side of a hill. The branch I was pulling on snapped and I hit myself in the head with it. It hurt. A couple of seconds later I felt some liquid running past my eye and then the blood start dripping. So, I went back to clean myself. There was a kid walking on the sidewalk whom I totally freaked out because I emerged from the park with lopping shears and blood running down my face.

I probably would have called the police on myself.

How I look after I hit myself on the head with a stick.

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Damn log

As if singlespeeders needed another reason to feel superior, this happened to me today:

Luckily, that's a very popular Specialized derailleur hanger. Unlike last time I did this, it appears I broke the derailleur, too. I broke the old Dura Ace derailleur on my technium in the fall and bent the hanger (steel frame) and I still have got around to realigning the frame. Anybody want to let me borrow their alignment tool?

I have a replacement old XTR derailleur and a replacement old Dura Ace, but they're getting harder and harder to find. I need to be more careful.

Like this beaver:

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Wound update

My gross wound from this weekend is getting better, but walking to work is actually pretty nice. Time to collect my thoughts, look at flowering trees, say "good morning" to people, document things on see click fix. Also, I've ridden passed this bike balcony at least a hundred times without noticing it.

Rain was threatening this morning and I wanted to see if I could pedal. I can, so it looks like I'm still on for Salem's ride on Saturday.

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Interesting weekend

On Friday, a ride of semi-epic proportions was planned and happened. Damian, Dario and I set off for Middlefield to meet Peter and Salem. From there, via Tyler Mill (a place I hope to some day ride with a mountain bike), we rode to New Haven. Nominally, it was to participate in that East Coast Greenway ride, but we snails of the Group W bench (not to be confused with the eponymous "clothing store" in New Haven) aren't really joiners. We were the only ones in wool, so we let them leave without us.

Eventually, we caught back up and ate snacks. I've never ridden the Farmington Canal Trail south of Farmington, because I wasn't really sure where it was and wasn't excited by the prospect of riding rt 10 in Southington until I found it. The state park section with the canal next to trail is really nice.

Dario got an awful double flat on a pot hole near Peck Ln, which requires everyone's assistance in fixing. A few miles north, Peter and Salem left for home, by Farmington, Dario and Damian left me. Then, I was all by my lonesome. I rode up to 189 and came home over the abandoned road over the Tariffville Gorge, swung by Critical Mass for some unknown reason on continued on home.

No complaints, it was a nice ride

On Saturday, I was going to go help my dad work on his car. I opted to take the scenic route through the Reservoir to get some bonus mountain biking in on the way there. That was stupid, apparently, because I ended up in the emergency room. Riding over one of those logs on the fence line trails, I bobbled, didn't click out in time and keeled over. Not particularly spectacular, but I fell on a sharp stick and tore a hole in my leg. 18 stitches!! The doctor and med student at the ER put me back together well.

I'm not allowed to ride my bike for the rest of the week, so I'm walking instead. Yesterday, I walked around People's state forest. It was nice.

And then, they killed Osama bin Laden!

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Hey Whippersnapper,

It's not enough that you had to go tearing across traffic and then the wrong way on a one-way street. I was willing to overlook that, ignore your lack of helmet and bad fashion sense. But at some point, someone needs to intervene. Maybe your momma is too tired from workin' it all day to raise you up right. Maybe your father is in jail. Or worse, maybe he taught you to do this. In any case, I will be unable to sleep at night if I do not say something.

You're doing it wrong.

Your saddle is wrong. So wrong that I almost choked on the lunch I was eating as I watched you speed by. As I'm sure you know, all manner of depraved kink can be located on the internet. Take this as a sign. If one searches for "backwards bike saddles" on Google images, nothing of the sort resembling your rig appears in the first hundred or so photos. If it's too kinky for a search sans filters, it's too kinky for a boy your age.

There is nothing macho about flipping the saddle around so that you risk impaling yourself with one wrong move. Now, maybe because I'm an old bag, or whatever you youngsters today would call me, you might think I know nothing. To indulge you in that fantasy, I did some research. Jim Langley, who I'm sure has his sphincter intact, notes that:

"If the nose of the seat bothers you, tip the seat down 1 to 3 degrees. Don’t overdo it because a tipped seat will cause your body to shift forward putting added pressure on the knees and preventing the seat from supporting your weight adequately. If the nose bothers you enough that you want to tip is excessively, try different seat designs."

See how he never says that you should flip the nose of the saddle complete around and tilt it skyward? Sheldon Brown, another expert who presumably has not ripped himself a new hole, says:

"The angle of the saddle should be pretty close to horizontal. Some men prefer the front to be slightly higher than the rear; some women prefer the front slightly lower than the rear, but extreme angles should be avoided."

See? No extreme angles. Peter Jon White, yet another expert, says:

"In order to fit a bicycle, you need a saddle you can sit ON."

One website states the obvious: "Bicycling is supposed to be fun, not painful."

Nobody gets street cred by landing in the emergency room with a saddle up his ass. Nobody. Read more!

Ulnar Neuropathy

Do you think about your left pinky much? I've been thinking about my left pinky a lot, because it's gone numb. It would seem that I have developed an ulnar neuropathy, which according to velo news is caused by "poor bike fit with too much forward pressure or riding on rough terrain under constant handlebar vibrations". I'm guess my problem was caused by mostly the latter scenario. It sucks, because I have motion and control on my pinky and it doesn't hurt, but I can't really feel it. Supposedly, it'll go away in three weeks or so.

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When you should not ride a bike

It's a beautiful day today; happy Valentine's Day!

Yesterday, Salem and I rode up to Congamond to spectate the NEMBA ice race thingy. My right knee has been bothering me with increasing intensity and frequency lately. I think it's because I smashed it into a root and rock about a month ago. Some think it's because I have new shoes and the cleats aren't lined up perfectly. I lean towards the smashing, because I've never had cleat or float problems affect me while walking and this has started hurting me while I walk. Maybe that whole "shoes ruse" thing is correct, but I'm still blaming the root and rock. I almost didn't go yesterday because of my knee, but I shift my cleat a bit and I seemed ok riding to Constitution Plaza. So, we journeyed up and back. It was very nice. My knee started complaining a bit, but then when kinda numb and everything seemed ok.

This morning, there was a mountain bike ride at Meshomasic State Forest that Salem to which alerted me. My knee started to hurt me last night a bit, but I hoped I could either sleep it off or scare the pain with whiskey.


I woke and it was ok, but the more I used it the worse it felt. I debated going some more and sort of took my time getting ready, perhaps to erode my resolve. The bike still went in the car and was driven over to Glastonbury. Taking my time brought me there about ten minutes after the 9:30am start time of the ride, but I made out only one set of tire tracks, so I thought I might be able to catch up. That very quickly became an impossible proposition because my knee hurt so bad that I was only able curse at myself for getting out of bed. None the less, I followed the tire tracks for a good four miles before eventually giving up at riding back to my car. Ugh.

So, the lesson, I think, is that you should not ride if it hurts. Read more!

An open letter to Gary Fisher (Trek)

So, I went to the basement last night and discovered the bizarrest thing! It was as if I owned some R-Sys wheels.

Hello there,
A few years ago I bought a second hand Tassajara. I think it was probably a 2005 model. I haven't used the bike in a bit, but I put some studded Nokians on the wheelset to use for winter riding on a different bike. It's not the greatest wheelset: Bontrager Camino rims, Deore hubs and no name black-painted spokes. Winter time has returned to Connecticut and I was about to put the studded wheels on my bike last night and I noticed that many of the spokes had popped, like 1/2 of them on each wheel. I was totally confused, it appeared as if someone had cut them of the wheels had been run over or something, but my basement is pretty safe. I went to bend one of the broke spokes and it just broke, no flex at all. Apparently it was totally corroded, although you couldn't tell because of the black paint. The corroded spokes were popping because of the spoke tension. Has this even happened before? I thought most spokes were stainless. If I ride on salted roads, I do clean the bike off, because I guess you can't clean under the paint on the spokes.

Regards and happy holidays,
Brendan

Anyway, merry xmas and such from the beat bike blog!

This might be my last post for awhile unless I bring a laptop on my minivacation. Although, I might have some interesting beach cruiser tales upon my return. Read more!

White Castle Bicycle Drama

I am starting to suspect that fast food and bicycles should not be mixed, though, most likely, the the problem is just the fast food! After a good night of drinking, it was decided I would be forced to try White Castle for the first time. Never had it before, and was kinda excited to finally have one of them damn shooters!


We spied Issac pedaling by and he soon joined us and brought his bicycle inside as he did not have the key to his lock. As we entered, the register person and the cook noticed the bike and shouted angrily, “Get that thing outta here!” Issac again tried to explain that he didn’t have his lock and he was only waiting for us to order food.


The cook then broke into a frenzy of angry yelling and gestures, “That guy is NOT getting served. Nope!” Then more to himself as he took the order from the two people ahead of us in line, “I ain’t serving them, bringing that bike in here, don’t know what they was thinking, crazy-ass, I AINT’T serving them.” Then to us as the cook hooted and hollered in agreement, “Excuse me sir, we are not going to serve you with that bicycle in here, please take it outside. Issac relented and went outside, he smartly was nor ordering any food.

We got back to the apartment and I suffered through one of those “burgers”. Shit that was bad! The “meat” was like 3 sheets of construction paper slapped together. BLAAHHHH! Never ever again. But, those round chicken ring things…

And how do you burn off bad food or get ready for the Monday Night Ride…


Pollard, pedi-cab driver with skills, about to get some air at Mikey and Jason’s crib, errr..make that ballroom!



And here is the rest of it.

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Vacation

If you're unmarried, like me, you don't give much thought to your left ring finger. You don't point at stuff with it or don't make hand gestures with it. It's just sort of there. Now, I'm giving lots of thought to it because I broke it on Sunday at the Reservoir. I'm leaving for vacation soon and I'm down a digit. It seems to be healing quickly, but I'm certain it'll be a bit of time before I can mountain bike with it. It looks like I won't get the Kingdom Trails time that I was hoping for.

Anyway, anybody have recent broken finger stories that can clue me into healing time? When I get I start riding my road bike? Tomorrow? In a week? October?

However, I will get to spend lots of quality time with Johanna!

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Not all cyclists are carrying heroin

I just got back from a pleasant, though sort of wet, ride To see if I had missed any important news while I was gone, I went to courant.com and was greeted with this headline: "Bicycle Fall Leads To Drug Arrest In Bristol." It seems that a concerned citizen called the police because it looked like a man had fallen off of his bicycle. The police came and found that he had a bunch of heroin. The article doesn't explain how they ended up searching him even though the call was because of the fall, though it does say that he was asleep when the cops came.

Anyway, remember that not all people on bikes are drug mules. Read more!

Awesome & not awesome

This is awesome. You can read the rest of the story here, but nothing holds a candle to the awesome picture. (Driver is ok).


It is not awesome that Brendan & Johanna's hero, Jill Homer, has had to quit the Iditarod Trail Invitational due to frostbite on her foot. She's still our hero, though. Also sad is that her roommate/boyfriend (she keeps her readers guessing), Geoff, is out of the footrace due to knee problems (and strangely not due to the horrible respiratory problem he's having). Maybe now Jill will set her sights on more sensible and warmer endeavors like winning the Leadville 100 or the Great Divide Race. Read more!

Another boring post on consistency of the snow

While our brave blogging brother was getting ready to speak to truth to power on Saturday, I went mountain biking. I had to feed my parents' cat, so I was over the hill in Avon. I don't really have any fascinating insights, other than groomed cross country skiing/snow skating trails are a weird place to ride a bike. Or really, they're just generally a weird place to be.

I found that much of this Avon snow was compressed to the point of becoming sheets of ice. That's no fun without studs, as I was without them on Saturday. However, pine forests stay shady even in the winter, due to the whole evergreen thing, so the snow compacts into this cool styrofoam stuff instead of becoming ice.

some nice styrofoam snow

some more nice styrofoam snow

some wound-causing ice. (the bike is like that because I crashed)

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Two personal items

My knee is feeling better, thanks to everyone who had advice. Although, it seems to be the inserts for my shoes that Johanna gave me that did the most good.

Also, come to Dayville this Sunday for the Opa Opa Beercross. It'll be fun. They even give you free beer.


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My knee

None of this really answers my question.

For about a month, I decided to take up running. I think it was Johanna's idea for me to do this. She only went once, but I continued. Actually, up until two weeks ago I continued. The Sunday before last, I tried but felt this horrible pain in my knee and had to limp home. The pain hasn't really gone away, but riding my bike actually feels better than walking. So, I've kept doing that, but I mostly avoid walking these days. I just returned from a ride at Penwood. Riding a singlespeed there is rather tough on the knees, thus my aggrieved knee is particularly angry. In fact, towards the end I tried to ride up one more hill and the knee just wouldn't let me, luckily it was on my way back, and for those familiar with Penwood, it was right near Lake Louise, so I just went on the paved path back to the parking lot. From what I understand, you're not actually even suppose to ride on the Metacomet there, so maybe it was my knee just telling to follow the rules.

Anyway, my question is and the purpose of this little blog post: should I go to the doctor? Two weeks of knee pain does seem like a lot. Anyone else have any experience with this? Read more!

Legs

Photo credit to someone who actually ran the marathon.

This weekend was Columbus Day weekend as well as the running of the Hartford Marathon. It also was a weekend of beautiful weather. I'm sure the marathon runners loved that. My neighbor, Val, ran the half marathon. I think that's pretty impressive, as I have no idea how to run 13 miles, let alone 26. Some how that morning, Johanna convinced me that I should go running. I'm not sure how that happened. I hate running and I always have, but next thing I knew we were at Sports Authority buying running shoes and before long we were at the Reservoir. I've been the reservoir a million times, but I've never actually run around it. Now, I have. It wasn't so bad while I was doing it, but man I was unhappy the next morning.


Also, yesterday afternoon, as I had the day off, I went over to Case Mountain. I was having a good time and didn't get lost for once. On my way back I ran into these two kids who were partially lost and it was starting to get dark. I told them to go back the way they went, as it was the easiest return trip for them. I also told them to follow me, but realized I was going a lot faster. So, I kept on ahead and returned to my car to get my headlamp. When I got there, I ran into the father of one of the kids and told him that I was going to go retrieve them with my headlamp. I went back and found them. Things were going ok, until I was riding slowing down a drop and did a nasty endo. I temporarily got that I-bashed-my-knee-so-hard-I-feel-like-I'm-going-to-puke feeling, but I persevered and didn't want to look like a wuss. We made and it back just fine until the gate a very end, where I almost did the exact same thing and managed to tear my shorts but not crash. I'm uncertain as to how I tore my shorts. But, everything turned out ok. Also, I managed to grow another knee cap on top of my old one.

In the event of this much water, the race'll probably be canceled.

Also, on Saturday, Johanna and I rode The Eel. I think it's going to be a sweet race. Two laps shouldn't be a big deal and hopefully no one gets scared of 20 miles. I need to figure out how to make a map of it so people don't get lost while racing. Maybe I could spray paint arrows... Read more!