Pittsburgh Bike Jersey; Brooks B73 Repair at Thick Bikes

Nov.7.2014 0miles

Today was a maintenance day, starting with the flat tire I acquired in my Honda van on my way to visit work. Argghh. Cars; you can't patch the tires yourself, what's up with that?

The front spring on my Brooks B-73 saddle had sprung askew. I think I twisted the seat frame-and-spring when I took a fall in the spring and taco'd my front wheel, and then set the seat straight with the top-bar without really examining the entirety of the damage.

Anyway hey: Brooks Saddles, a seat you can have repaired! This is what my Surly LHT looked like, before and after, outside of Thick Bikes Pittsburgh. I so appreciate that they took the initiative not to just sell me another seat, but to repair the one I had.

Anyway, the picture on the left is How To Take A Bike Into A Shop On Friday Afternoon . If you're not doing it this way, you're doing it wrong. Pro Tip: wheel the bike into the shop area; complain that it feels like something's dragging, or maybe there's too much weight somewhere; ask them to do what they can to reduce the weight. The picture on the right is the "after" shot.

Also extremely cool: I mentioned I needed an old, one-time-left beatup U-lock for the upcoming Ghost Bike, and Thick Bikes donated a legacy shop U-lock which I put Thick stickers on.

Also, got to see this kinda-hott model introducing a very cool jersey. The artist's spouse, Jordan, is a strong cross racer. More info on the Pittsburgh cycling jersey here.

I find the most (pleasantly) unexpected connections in bike shops. I was talking about an effective Homewood neighborhood activist, turns out Jordan the cross racer knows Elwin Green, too. Small world; cycling makes connections.

I was surprised to see a small reflective strip on the back of the Pittsburgh jersey, I haven't seen that before. They're made locally by Aero Tech Designs of Coraopolis.

Pogies (handlebar mitts) from 45North. This has interior compartments, pit-zips, wow.

Handlebar porn: the two-bagger --

Such wow. Very cycling.

Surly LHT Reloaded

03/22/12 40m 75F

I have my four panniers on my bike and I'm starting to move my overnight gear on board, in a month I have my first scheduled overnight and it's almost time for me to start figuring out where everything goes. I've done it before, so I'm reloading the bike, but I've got new/more gear to pack. The bike is heavier and so a little bit slower, but it does seem that the Surly LHT's reputation for handling even better with a bit of a load on the frame is well deserved.



Rode the Montour Trail and the Panhandle Trail today. Started at McDonald under the Trestle and rode the Montour south-west, listening to local NPR station 90.5 talk about the local bicycle scene - very nicely done. I like listening to NPR on the trail; it's a two-fer. Wore my SPD sandals today, I thought I'd embrace the high temps while they were here.

Approaching Route 50 I left the trail (as the signs indicated) for the on-road detour, only to find that the road was also closed also. I applied "veteran's privilege" and continued, but it should be simpler than that.

Met R. at the trail near his house, and we continued together to trailside Farmhouse Coffee for coffee and biscotti. Top-notch as always, I really like that place.

Reversed and rode back to Route 50 together where we parted ways. Rode the detour route again, except this time I took the offered alternative trail route. Descending and turning on the temporary trail I hit an extended spot of deep soft gravel, couldn't maintain speed and couldn't get my feet out of the pedals fast enough so I fell down ('doing the Artie Johnson, for people of a certain age, aka the horizontal track stand for people of another niche).

I have been so overdue for a fall. I generally fall once every 500 miles and it's been quite a while. No injury, just some road-rash on my forearm. Looking back on it, I think I was foolish to not consider that by exchanging my shoes (with worn-down cleats) for sandals (with fairly new cleats) I was increasing my clip-out time latency. Lesson learned (again), and pretty easily: complacency is the hunter.

I returned to McDonald and rode the Panhandle Trail westbound. They're resurfacing and widening the trail from the Fort Cherry Ambulance Station east, and it looks like they're doing a very nice job of it. I saw that when the Panhandle passed by the Midway VFD with its fire siren tower, there's a rough path that leads to a gas-station convenience store so I got a cold drink and a snack.

Continued on the Panhandle out to the Cataney Airport, where I parked the bike and found a seat. I had my cold drink and Kellog's rice krispie treat and watched RC-airplanes fly around. For a while there were two helos in the pattern, one doing acrobatics and the other doing tactical manuevers. I wondered if these operators would find their skills in demand as the domestic drone industry gains a foothold. After the helos, there was a yellow R/C taildragger giving an airshow. Very impressive.

Got back on the trail and returned to McDonald. 40 miles and a very nice ride.

Reunited with my Surly Long Haul Trucker (LHT)

6/14/11 #224 26.4m

0730 3 blueberry muffins 1000 Clif Bar 1500 Clif bar 1900 power bar 2000 grilled chicken breast

Today I got my main-squeeze bike, my Surly Long Haul Trucker (you down w' LHT?) back from its brief visit at Pittsburgh's best Local Bike Shop (LBS). During the period of confinement I've been riding my road bike (which has been an interesting interlude) but it was great to get the LHT back and take it out for a spin. I took some pictures since it may never be this clean again.

It was curious to get back on the LHT. The longer wheelbase made me feel like I was stretched way too far forward, and I kept reaching for the road bike's STI shifters instead of the LHT's barcons. The changed seat setback relative to the bottom bracket, and the change from an EasySeat to a Brooks sprung saddle, made it a study in contrasts.

The bike had new Kool-Stop Salmon brake pads on the front, which Sheldon Browns says "are the finest bicycle brake shoes made.". I had a young bicyclist cross the trail in front of me and I need to apply the brakes quickly, and the new brakes really performed well.

I (we ?) rode 26.4 miles on the Montour Trail in 1h56 minutes, which IIRC is the first time I've done that route in sub-two-hours. It was a pretty, cool day without significant wind. When I was riding east near Ikea a rider caught up with me and engaged me in conversation, I had to boost my speed to keep up with him, and although I later begged off and resumed a pace closer to the speed limit - it's a congested area - the sprint certainly helped my time.