In Which 30 Days End in Badass Ride

Gloves on, Monday morning, ready for my badass mountain bike ride. Heigh -ho Fancy Beast!

It’s hard to know what October will bring. While typically a rather nice month in this part of the globe, odd is the new normal in weather, these days.

I am supposed to be finishing an exam and grading student papers—and, in my defense, I’m writing this during a break in test writing. Blogging can be a nice release. Not as nice as beer, but again, to be honest, I’m applying that remedy to my woes, too. Multi-remedying.

Anyway, my wife and I ate supper in the basement during a tornado warning on October 1. October is not typically a wet month, and it’s raining now, with the possibility we may see our normal monthly rain total tonight.

Today, on the first day of October, the rain in the forecast was one reason that I drove rather than rode. The other reason is that this afternoon I went down to NewBo to pick up my hybrid bike at Goldfinch Cyclery. It was overdue for a tune up, and I had broken a spoke on its beefy back wheel.

Cloudy afternoon between rain showers. I arrive at New Bo bike shop to get my bike.

“You know the deal with spokes, right?” the mechanic asked me Saturday when I dropped off the bike. When you break one, your chances of having another one or two break in the coming weeks is enhanced—the broken spoke puts pressure on other spokes.

Well, here’s hoping that deal doesn’t come true. I got the bike tuned partly because we plan a fall break trip to the land of cheese, and, if the summer thunderstorms have finally passed us by and drying fall air has moved in, maybe get some biking in.

New tyre on the Fancy Beast, parked Sept. 30 in hallway by my office.

Well, it was nice to get the bike back. And I had purchased a new rearview mirror because the previous one was broken—when I got my bicycle home, I put new mirrors both on my hybrid bike, and also on my wife’s bike. I had purchased a mirror for her bike some weeks ago, and it was time to put it on.

Yesterday was the culmination of the a poem. Indeed, September hath 30 days, and yesterday was the final one. It was humid and breezy, but at least the sun was shining.

When I took my hybrid bike to the shop Saturday, I also took in my mountain bike. A tyre was worn and the back wheel had a wobble. In fact, the wobble on the mountain bike was worse than it was on the hybrid bike, but fortunately, the wheel on the mountain bike was just getting old and wonky. No spokes broken, and the bike mechanic was able to true it, even if he complained about it some. The back wheel on the mountain bike is getting due for replacement, but it’s true for now.

So Monday, with the hybrid in the shop, I rode the mountain bike to work, partly to celebrate it being not wobbly. I put on bike gloves, which I don’t normally do for my work commute, but I was feeling a bit badass, an old man tooling around on a teen’s mountain bike.

Well, technically when my son received the mountain bike from Microsoft during a summer internship, he was already a young adult, not a teen. But I still feel like a teen when I ride it, and somehow the gloves added to the faux penumbra of teen angst.

Just to be a badass rebel, when I rode home in the humid early evening, I rode down the Lindale Trail and did a loop on the Boyson Trail because it’s limestone and I have a mountain bike and I’m a badass Monday mountain bike biker. With a bell, that I use, as I slowly and politely approach other trail users.

Being badass is no excuse for being rude.

Pretty creek view on Boyson Trail, late afternoon, Sept. 30.

When I was getting ready for the morning ride, my wife suggested I wear a t-shirt and take a polo shirt to wear at work. I did, and it was a good move—even in the morning, the ride was a bit sweaty.

September, you were summer in Iowa in 2020. Fall frosts, cool rides, dry autumn air—Oct. 1 didn’t feature any of those, but let’s hope. Knock on wood. In a badass way.

In Which My Attempt at Bike Maintenance Fails

Is it true? Truly not, and beyond my powers to fix.

I took Matt’s mountain bike inside the other day to try to fix the wobbly back wheel.

First, I checked to ensure none of the spokes were broken. None are, the good news. Then I watched a YouTube video on how to true a wheel.

Using a piece of cardboard for reference and the bike frame as my wheel holder, I took off the tire and tube and proceeded to try to use a screwdriver to tighten spokes.

Yeah, 90 minutes of work for naught. Total true failure. The video showed working with a spoke wrench, not a screwdriver, and I suppose I will try to get one of those tools.

But I will probably have to take the bike into the shop for someone whose better with tools (which I think probably includes the majority of species from age 3 to 80) fix the bike.

Oh well. Streets are still a bit dicey, but since my schedule is more open today, I may attempt a ride on Francis. We’ll see.

Recycling Some Bikes for Final RAGBRAI Rides

Junk bike, courtesy of Ames dumpster.  Yes, I got both wheels fixed and chain back on, so it's sort of ready to ride.

Well, yesterday's wobble was more than I thought.  I missed it when I inspected my bike, but I broke a spoke, again.

So, I took Old Blackie into the shop, which this week feels like my second home because I have been there three times in two days.

Anyway, I’ll be without a bike in the week in which I want to maximize my miles.

But, luckily, I have three other bikes to choose from.  Audrey’s?  Well, I did ride it once before. But I prefer for it to be available to her, even if she doesn't choose to use it much. What other bikes do I have?

Audrey and Ben found an old junk bike in a dumpster in Ames this summer and brought it home.  It had multiple problems, including a weirdly overlong chain.  Jon removed some links, but didn’t have time to put the chain back together before moving to Paraguay.

This week, one of my extra trips to the bike shop was to get spare tubes for my main bike and a tube for the junk bike.  When I went to put the tube on, I found it needed new wheel spoke tape, which was an extra trip to Northtowne.  Anyway, what with one thing and another, in several hours I think I got “New Junkie” ready to ride.  Sort of.  It is supposed to be a 21-speed bike, but the derailers are so out of whack that it’s really just a 3 speed.  Well, I can still use it to get some flat trail miles in, so it’s progress.

Jon's pedals.  Need special shoes.

I also bought two cheap pedals at Target.  I swapped out the pedals on Jon’s bike, which require bike shoes, for the plain pedals.  That was a quick fix, and Jon’s will certainly be a more versatile bike, but I have not figured out how to pump up his tires yet.  (CR Biker hates those precious new dinky valves—give me big old fat old-school valves every time).

Anyway, my plan is to use the junk bike for the most part, but do some hilly rides on Jon’s bike once I figure out how to get air into his tires.  My RAGBRAI bike should be back in less than a week, and I admit I am not too sad that I broke that spoke.  It forces me to get the bike tuned now, which makes sense—I’ll be riding over 400 miles across Iowa on a newly tuned bike.

The new pedals, no special shoes.

In Which CR Biker Finds a Wobble and a Puddle

A wet street on the way to the trail this afternoon. Rain!

I did an early morning ride over the Bowman Woods hill, as usual, but instead of riding on the Boyson Road trail in Marion through the Frisbee golf course, I went east to 10^th Street and north to Lowe Park.

The trail there is short, but nice, but getting to it is a huge pain. I might ride it again on a quiet weekend, but not on a weekday morning. There is just no good bike route there, which is mildly frustrating, because why put in a bike trail that nobody can bike to?

Anyway, what with one thing and another, including cleaning out my dresser and killing Japanese beetles with traps and soapy water, I didn't get on the bike again until 3 p.m.--right after a rather surprising afternoon sprinkle. I'm afraid it was nowhere near enough rain to do much good in these dry conditions, but it was rather nice to see puddles on my ride for once.

I used a gift card to buy a back rack for my bike at one store, and went to my regular bike shop for other supplies, including an old school (glue included) patch kit, a new master link for the junk bike and some inner tubes.

Cedar Lake is calm after the storm, but the sky looks
more interesting that it has in recent days.

Then, I noticed a wobble on the way home. I checked, and no spokes are broken, but I think I probably should take Old Blackie to the shop for a pre-RAGBRAI tuning and to get the rear wheel true again. Unfortunately, they are probably buried in bikes right now, which means I won't get mine back much before RAGBRAI.

Which means that I sure hope the master link works to mend the junk bike. Looks like it might be my new training ride!

The Spoke That Broke

Yikes. Old blackie has bad ankles, or something.

I am in my office, dealing with a backlog of grading, and on the way here took a detour on the Cedar Valley Nature Trail. And I was in Hiawatha, headed the way of MMU, when I heard a "pop."

Stopped to check. A spoke had broken. I was riding pretty fast and pumping hard, but really--I've never had a bike before break so many spokes so quickly--second time in a few months that the bike will be headed to the shop with the same problem.

A bit of a worry with RAGBRAI coming. I hope the bike shop has a not-expensive idea on how to solve this problem. At least I had done about 10 miles before it happened, and Ben's bike is home so I'll see if he'll let me borrow it again.

I was busted--Audrey thought I was in my office already. Well, I am now and better cut this short.

Should I carry spare spokes on RAGBRAI?

Bike is Now in the Shop, and log

Turns out the bike had 4 broken spokes, I had noted only 2. Since I hadn't taken it in for new bike tuneup, the bike shop is being very nice about it and it may not be too costly for me to get it back into shape.

So this week's miles are logged on Ben's bike:

Tuesday: 10 miles

Wednesday: 10 miles

Saturday: 8 miles

Year so far: 226, over 200 miles!

Did not ride Thursday or Friday due to other family needs for a second car on campus (we had a young guest and Audrey was doing a project Thursday--since I had to watch kids Thursday I had to drive Beetle to school so Audrey would have it while I used van to ferry kids, then used Beetle take our young guest to school Friday morning).

Did, however, get some miles in by biking over to Nikayla's Saturday birthday party. And I did try to register for RAGBRAI Friday, we'll see if I get in!