In Which A Winter Ride Works Despite the Seat

Me after I arrive on campus. Winter biking look, wearing new reflective vest.

Well, the seat slipped all the way down. It compressed the supports for the back light, shoved the reflector off to the side and made the lock a bit difficult to extract.

By the time I got to campus Saturday morning, Jan. 6, 2018, the seat on The Fancy Beast was resting as low as it could go, which made pedaling inefficient. To climb the hill at MMU, I had to stand on the bike—and that’s not good, a fat old man like CR Biker puts a lot of stress on a bike when he stands while going up a hill.

I wasn’t sure riding my bike to campus was a good move in the first place. It was zero out, but I had found my headband, which I wear under my hood and helmet in winter, and I took that as a sign. And I was a bit “bike crazy,” having not ridden yet in 2018.

So I did it.

Sidewalk on C Avenue as I start out. Some snow, but enough bare pavement to ride my mountain bike.

Staub Court, the road with the most snow. It's a little hilly too, which made it a bit exciting, but no slips.

Riding down Eastern Avenue late Saturday morning--some other poor soul out in the cold walking a dog.

Parked in Warde Hall.

The streets were a bit dicey, icey in parts, but I was riding the mountain bike, and I never felt a slip, although I did go slowly.

It took me 40 minutes or so to get to campus, a commute that is under 30 minutes on bare pavement. I was being careful. I’ve fallen before, and have no desire to repeat the experience.

Despite the cold, it was not a bad ride. I was bundled up, in full winter outfit, including long underwear, two pairs of socks, three shirts and warm boots. Honestly, I was sweating a little bit, although my face did suffer a bit from the cold.

Biking has begun! Back at you, 2018, despite your winter cold CR Biker is back on the road! And I did raise my mountain bike seat again. I hope it stays up.

Seat as I lock bike in Warde Hall--it has fallen as low as possible. I fixed it, for now, I hope. The contrasting position (below) after I arrive home in the afternoon.

In Which I Note Sure Signs of Spring

Late Monday. I had bell practice until 7 p.m. and then had to pick up some stuff. This is corner of  F and Collins Road at close to 8 p.m. Pretty sunset, and it's not full dark anymore. Sun is climbing the sky!

April is here, fellow rollers. There are all kinds of signs that, although there will still be some frost and possibly even flakes of snow now and then, winter is gone.

For the first time this week, I don’t recall for sure which day, I rode in the morning sans coat. It has to be close to 50 for that to happen. And I've worn the coat since then, so it’s not as if I put it away—but I don’t need it every day, and that’s new.

March 30? March 31? I think it was Monday the 30th. Me, heading to work (on The Beast) with no coat.

Also, Francis! I got a flat tire way back when, November sometime, I think, and had not had time to get to the bike shop, since my spare tube proved to have a flawed valve. But I finally got the tire fixed Friday, April 3, and although it was getting late, I had to pick up some things on campus and rode Francis.

Spring is here--but not all snow is gone. Or it wasn't despite warm days this week--slowly melting snow hills in Rockwell-Collins parking lot. Might be gone by now, but the remnants of the winter were amazingly resilient.

The first ride was just to the corner, where I discovered, to my dismay, that the brakes were too loose and the derailleurs too stiff to shift much. Well, a few minutes with a hex wrench and WD-40, and I was back in the saddle again.

It's back! I've just fixed Francis. Started to change tubes at 5 p.m. and found the rubber gasket that goes around the wheel was broken--but luckily the bike shop closes at 6, not 5 as I had feared. So a bit after 6, I was finally ready to ride. After 6 on Good Friday, MMU was a pretty quiet place.

Truly, I’m grateful to The Beast, which proved a very useful winter beater bike. And it was a bit strange to ride Francis again—it felt so oddly light, and I was also so very much taller on that bigger bike—but I’m glad to again be riding my regular wheels.

Today, Amelia got the first ride.

And yesterday we got some items from our rented storage unit—including lawn chairs for an Easter egg hunt today. Anyway, we also retrieved the toddler seat and child’s helmet, which meant today I gave three grandchildren bike rides. I would have given four, but one returned home while I was out with another—but, no worries. It’s a long season of warm months, and I’m sure the granddaughter in question will get many rides.

Welcome, warm months. I am not sure I’ll ride many days next week—it’s supposed to be an unsettled, potentially wet week. But still—spring, I am happy you are here.

In Which I Ride The Dream for 14 Miles

Fancy Bike in  bike rack at Warde Hall, MMU, today. Naturally back lit.

What is a commute like on Fancy Bike?

A dream, a dream within a dream, even a dweam within a dweam. It’s pretty good.

I took Jon’s Fancy Bike (a Cannondale, and why I didn't remember the brand name plastered so prominently on Fancy Bike earlier today, I don’t know) out of the garage this morning, lubed the chain and then pumped up the tires.

There was nowhere to put my briefcase, so I slung it over my shoulder. And I was off.

It took a few blocks to reacquaint myself with the gear shifts. And I’ll have to tighten Fancy Bike’s brakes, which you don’t really want to have very loose because if you start off on this horse, it’s going to want to gallop.

I like this style of handlebar. Many more ways to use.

And gallop it did. This Fancy Bike can run. While riding The Beast felt a bit slower than Francis, riding Fancy Bike is dramatically more different in the opposite direction. Several times I found myself thinking words like “sweet mother of Jesus that was fast, I better slow down” while riding Fancy Bike. I sometimes think things like that on Francis, but generally only on RAGBRAI and only on an impressive downhill stretch—not on my regular daily commute route.

I was still not the fastest bike on the trail during my afternoon ride home—one guy passed me riding a hybrid bike like Francis, and one very young buck even hurdled by on The Beast style mountain bike. But I was among the faster bikers and passed way more people than I usually do.

I only rode Fancy Bike 14 miles or so, because I had been busy and had less time today, but it was enough to boost my total miles in 2014 to more than 900. With luck, perhaps I will top 1,000 before May is over—that would take riding around 88 miles in two days—we shall see.

And when I ride to campus tomorrow? Sure, it will be on Fancy Bike. Later, if I tow some grandchildren using our bike trailer, it will be with either The Beast or Audrey’s bike. I’m not going to hitch a trailer to Fancy Bike. And if I do the Sac and Fox on Saturday, it will surely be on The Beast.

But I’m pretty happy that some of my biking miles while Francis is in the shop will be on Fancy Bike. I promise to both tighten the brakes and limit my use of Fancy Bike to only a few rides. But I am sure going to enjoy those rides.

The seat on Fancy Bike. Much more narrow than Francis, probably narrower than The Beast. Yet, almost as comfortable as Francis, and I am not sure why. Everything about Fancy Bike screams "cool," including the seat design.

In Which I Contemplate The February Dip

Magic of Excel. My bike monthly mileage totals so far in 2014.

Now that winter is over (knock on wood), it’s interesting to see how the biking year has gone so far.

Thursday, I managed to squeeze out an unexpected day of biking. As a rule, CR Biker doesn’t like wet and will avoid a rainy ride. I know, I know, true bike commuters are like mail carriers under the old motto of the U.S. Post Office—neither rain nor snow nor dark of night, yadda yadda. Well, I’m not a mail carrier, and even if I’m not the Wicked Witch the West, I drive a bike that makes me look a bit like her.

I won’t melt in rain, but neither Francis nor I enjoy wet. It’s more serious for Francis. If I get wet, I have to dry off. If my bike gets wet, the cancer of rust spreads.

Anyway, rain was in the forecast Thursday, which normally would have called for a driving day. But, sometimes when it is going to “rain,” that doesn’t mean all day—it means rain now and then, and Thursday’s forecast was of that type. So I checked the radar in the morning (one of the minor positive aspects of modern life—when I was young, no random bike commuter would “check the radar”) and saw that, splotched with rain-green as the state might be, none of the splotches were on me.

So I rode, and I was fine.

On Thursday afternoon, I was lecturing, when I looked out the classroom window to see it raining. I had been talking about my bike at the time (it was relevant to class), and the class interpreted my nonverbal reaction to mean that Francis had been stolen. Well, no, my bike was parked inside the building in the hall by my office—its usual “rain” spot on campus—the dramatic pause was just my reaction to the rain and the prospect of a cold, wet ride home.

Fortunately, as it turned out, the ride was damp and cool, but the passing shower had passed by the time the class period was in the past.

I’ve been keeping an online bike log on Google Docs to track my miles. I had a dip in February mileage, caused, I’m sure, by the harsh winter we had. March was a winter month in Iowa this year, but my mileage nicely rebounded. According to my bike log, I’m up to 324 miles for the year as of Thursday, and just shy of 200 of those miles were in March.

My goal this year, if you recall, is 5,000 miles. I will have to average more than 400 miles a month to get there, but I knew in setting that yearly goal that many of those miles would be packed into summer months. So to near 200 in March isn’t bad.

Here’s hoping for 300 or more in April!