Thursday, June 25, 2009

THe sun

Wow, the sun is out.
The rides in have been soggy but otherwise not too bad. Warmish weather helps when its damp out. The clip on fenders are pretty good too at keeping alot of road spray off the bike and body. NICE. And when it dries out, they take 2 seconds to undo.
Well since the sun is out, rather take the long route home than write about. Enjoy the sun

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Soggy

I hope to provide more structure to these random postings that way you can skip the parts that don't interest you (most likely the last half of any posting).

Commute/Bike: It has started off as a soggy week to say the least. The Iron Giant took a heavy beating on monday during a 45 minute soaking downpour of a ride. The elder chaos machine wanted to help dry the giant off and get it ready for the next day but i quickly learned, never give them grease or oil. It was everywhere in a matter of second but none on the bike. It was rather funny to watch though. Got the bike wiped down and dry before applying some new Squirt Chain Lube. All exposed cabling got a wipe down with Teflon silicone oil....I didn't think silicone needed Teflon but it sounded good and it has worked well so i haven't switched. Stick with what works well and what you trust. The Geax tires are holding up really well after two years of commuting on the iron giant. I hope that in the next few weeks i can get a few miles on the Panaracer Evo III and see how they handle and hold up on the busy pothole filled streets of the republic. I got them on some old Ritchey Pro wheels. These were amazingly tight to get on the rims to a point that I snapped a tire iron. The bead is amazingly tight so we'll see how they hold up. A new saddle is on the way too....90% off a sella so that should be interesting too see how it goes. I wish you could try a saddle out before buying it. Its just a matter of finding out what fits best. I have one specialized toupe but i can't afford another right now....so any imitation cheapo that is on sale will have to do the trick. The "carbon" saddle on the redline is the least comfortable seat and needs to be replaced before putting mileage back on that bike.

Food: Did get to munch down one of these the other day


Lobster rolls are something that i like to enjoy but can't figure out why they are so expensive. Are you getting 2 pounds of lobster meat in the roll. I haven't a clue but the other day it was 9 bucks for the roll and some interesting looking onion rings, more like onion fries that were tasty but not crispy enough. The lobster meat had only a very light dressing of mayo so it was good.

Rant: I understand items in very simple terms and sometime the complexity of situations is lost in translations. On the news the other day, I heard that Goldman Sachs is making record profits and will be dolling out remarkable bonuses to all employees. Wasn't this one of the companies that helped sell junk and facilitate the downfall in the market. They weren't the only player nor the biggest contributor but they do deserve the blame. I understand rewarding employee's for hard work, leadership and retention. However when you see the totals on these bonuses, it is staggering that the same people who almost destroyed a company are now getting large bonuses. These are people who offer little "core necessities" to the marketplace. You trade paper! (Speaking of paper-this makes for an easy analogy in my simple mind) However if you look at the paper industry which has been hit extremely hard you see a direct trickle down of the effect from the mill and pulp processors down to the loggers. These are workers who work extremely laborious jobs, fight to keep finding work even when the mills and pulp processors are not accepting wood, yet keep going without large bonuses or rewards. I don't want to say that a 50 hour work week at Goldman sachs is a cupcake job but at the end of the day, who do you think has to take more advil and figure which bills get paid and which don't at the end of the month. I would also have to imagine that the thousand or so ex-goldman sachs employees that got cut less than a year ago must be pretty infuriated that the executives are going to take home some record bonuses. I don't want to draw any conclusions from my nonsense just yet but at the end of the day I rather see the "logger" take home a paycheck than the management from GS. I don't pretend to understand many of politics at play in any industry and I am still wading through the information to make a better judgement but sometimes certain issues just sound unbelievable.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

money pit

The usual eventful june has continued unencumbered. The furnace developed a leak and my "fix" didn't seem to work. Being that i'm not a plumber and wanting to destroy my furnace, i called in a few experts to take care of that.

This week has been rough on the commute. The bike path is being re-surfaced in a few new areas and I really think it will be a great improvement. The areas already finished are pretty smooth and perfect for when you are tired and don't want to deal with the bumps.

Got some new rubber on the wheels as well. Panaracer Evo III. A pretty nice looking tire. More of an update on them when i get some mileage on them. Maybe an update after a 100 miles of commuting...cambridge potholes....jogger avoidance...Those are on some old Ritchey Pro deep dish wheels. Those things can take a beating and still hold true. Alot better than some other wheels that have been on the commuters.

Been doing some eating and biking as usual when the sun comes hot and the temps get hotter...not too mention I really like providing links to places that are solid places to support and frequent.

I go here alot for a drink and some tapas.
Chapman Cottage They have a great wine selection and bottles are SUPER CHEAP. The bartender Tumi is very nice, and the owner and chef are wonderful people. A great place to stop for a drink or three.

Also, been going here for change of pace for the fried clams.
York Lobster and Seafood Its a great place for fried clams. Their breading was nice, portions were good. Whole bellies were good. Not as good as Yorks Best but really close. I don't like a heavy battered piece, and they weren't over fried. Just close to perfection. After a long morning ride or morning with the chaos machines....a perfect mid day break. Since this is open air dining under a pavilion, i'm not sure how the skeeters will be at night but dining at the lunch hour was awesome.
enjoy

Friday, June 12, 2009

Busy week

This week is the typical cliche...."where has my week gone." Well in my case, down the crapper. Between the fridge dying, broken screen door and the car going into the shop. It has been challenging. However it has made the work week fly by.

For starters they have some new pavement laid down along the river and its pretty nice to roll along on something so new and smooth. Its pretty amazing. But there have been two days that rolling to work on two wheels hasn't worked so I've been forced to drive. The lastest and greatest auto to grace our families presence is our rental car (to tide us over while the 'Ru is repaired). A Jeep Commander, 2008. I have never sat in a bigger piece of poorly enginnered junk in my life....except maybe my parents Reliant K station wagon. I could spend a week talking about whats wrong with it. But instead I will talk about its positive attributes.....do you hear crickets chirping....yes....thats becuase this car has NONE. You can't see stop lights becuase the front windshield is too small, there is less front seat room than the civic, same amount of back seat space as the 'Ru and the cargo area is 5 feet off the ground. The car has 2300 miles on it and the transmission sounds like its about to die when you have it in reverse and the motor has a rolling idle already. I am wondering why Fiat would want to buy into this, I can only hope they rally the workers, redesign many models and inject some quality into this lackluster peice of sh#$@. However since the union has them by the cajones, i'm pretty sure we'll continue to see some junk roll off hte assembly line.

Back to biking. Got some new team bib shorts. Have been trying to break them in a bit. We switched from Craft to Pactimo. I really liked the craft product line. Craft Their jerseys and bib shorts were of great quality. So with many members taking cuts in pay we went with Pactimo. Now I have never heard of them so i didn't know what to expect. For starters their race cut jersey is awsome. The cut is perfect, the material is a nice waffle style, full zipper, great jersery. One of my favorites. Their full length sleeve jersey is not the waffle material but a thicker fabric. It feels ok but once you really work up a sweat it sticks to you like glue and the logo/images on the fabric are slightly blurry becuase of the material. lastly, the bib shorts. They have a lot to live up since i have gotten acustomed to Verge and Craft bibs. The bibs have a great over the shoulder fabric, smooth, soft and comfortable. The chamois is top notch and fits perfectly. I wish it had silicone leg grippers like the the craft but the leg grippers do work, I haven't tried with leg warmers or knee warmers yet. So far i'm pleased with the line-up with the long sleeve exception. Its a product that i support and they have plenty of other items in their line-up that could be even better.

New tires...Panaracer will be on the commuter within the next week or two so i'll post some info about them shortly.

Friday, June 05, 2009

HOla

The weekend is finally here!!!!
MIT graduation is today so that complicated the commute a little this morning, many nervous parents and parallel parkers. It is interesting to watch people who don't parallel park often..do so, especially around the peoples republic.

Have to rush it home and beat the expected rain. I hope that it will hold off but if not, no big deal, its warm enough out that getting drizzled on isn't a big deal. The hardest part is getting the bike inside, wiped off, dried and re-lubricated and get it ready for next week.

Shoes....Still thinking of buying a single pair of shoes that stiff enough for road, forgiving enough for hike a bike MTB Sessions and mud-shedding for CX season. Right now i have a pretty sweet pair of Adiddas road shoes that are about 4-5 years old and my MTB shoes are a pair of Answers that are pretty nice but are probably a half of a size to big when compared to the road shoes and they are terrible at shedding mud. Time to start looking at a good shoe that can do it all....and it's also time to start looking for that money tree...

Thursday, June 04, 2009

Its been a pretty nice week on the wheels. This morning ran across a few deer down by the river. Something i have not seen ever. Even came across the largest snapping turtle i've seen since i was a kid. This thing was a big as a hubcap.
Logged about 400 miles on the schwinn, 300 on the redline, 200 on the MTB...however i thought the legs would come around and be good for 5 days of riding but i'm finding that wednesdays ride home is always the toughest, the legs feel empty and powerless. Thursday I feel a little better than wednesday and fridays aren't bad but not great either. Slow steady improvement though.

Just since monday gas at the local pump n' serve has gone up 6 cents so i feel pretty good about keeping some money in my pocket....

This morning was Harvards graduation day. Even at 6:30am grads were all over the place. I was amazed by the number of students running through red lights and walking as slowly as possible in front of traffic and in the cross walks. I can't tell you how many had the "deer in headlights" looks I saw when they finally look up from the middle of a cross walk and see a dump truck and myself coming down the street...we had the green light....and I will admit that there are a fair share of cylcists that blow through red lights but not paying attention and stepping off the sidewalk onto a busy street without looking....


Since i like links lately. I had a cookie from them the other day and they are pretty tastey and i like cookies. I only wish that more would appear.
Geoff and Drews Cookies

Still looking into getting rid of these Crank Brothers Candy SL pedals. They are crap. I keep them in good shape however the bearings stink and the mechanism / spring that holds the cleats in place keeping breaking. THis is on top of the already really soft cleats that wear out rather fast. I really like the crank brothers philosphy and support for racers and events but i'm down three pedals now in a years time. Might switch to Deore XT on all bikes. Change is good right?

And since i finally got a camera, with batteries no less. Here is the first picture....Seriously...we can't manufacturer a steel disc in this country. Wow...I passed over 4 of these on the way to work the other day. Yes, I go so slow i can see where these things are made, but i will say that some were made in the USA, others in South Africa and Mexico.....but the point remains the same.

Tuesday, June 02, 2009

Sweet ride in this morning. Slightly cool but humid. Saw over a dozen rabbits down the NE boathouse. At least 4 wild turkeys down on river road, i really have to get a camera working for these moments. However I must say that 6:15am, i'm pretty brain dead and i'm lucky to make it work in one piece. This morning I was shocked that they have torn up a huge section of the river path, no more pavement. Almost endo'd in some soft sand but saved it at the last minute. However there a few people behind me who probably got a good laugh at that bobble. Going to have to take a different route home.

There is still something off about the front headset/fork. There is a dull clunking sound. The fork/stem are all tight and perfect, just can't figure this one out. Might have to throw a 6-pack the brazilians way and have him take a wrench to it. Still working on the cleat position. It was suggested that I just use one pair of shoes for all rides..road, CX and MTB. It may come to that but I will need to get better shoes first. Something that will work for all disciplines.

I'm thinking end of june or mid-july for some wells ave races along with some MTB events just to get ready for august cx races. I'm sure to bring a new level of suck to any event I participate in but i'll be there stinking it up. Going to try and get the elder chaos machine to go and maybe do a kids race. He would be all for it...except he has to pedal his bike, right now he just pushes it around with his feet. we will see what the summer holds

If you don't want to read my next rant about stuff I don't fully understand, I would stop reading right here. I just read that Sichuan Tengzhong Industries from China is going to buy Hummer..I didn't think it was possible to make Hummer even more un-reliable and crappy...i take that thought back....When Hummer was first introduced to the US it was in the form of the military troop vehicle...but good thing for us good ole' Arnold S. govenor of Cali said he must have one and a short time later, the average consumer could buy an H1 hummer. They were marketed on being a symbol of AMerican patriotism....i don't know how they are going to market that now...good luck.
So being a father and working on a thin budget, my chaos machines really put the hurt on most toys. It wasn't till recently that i started noticing that not of their crap is made in china. Some is made in Italy and some items are actually made here in the USA....I know....we still manufacture stuff here at competitive prices. Not every company is sold out. Here is a great example American Plastic Toy. I don't usually support many cuases but this is one i think might be worth the effort. Thats my pointless ramble for the day. Since I learned how to use the links application here are a few others:
Boston Organics
Russos Produce market

Monday, June 01, 2009

Mondays

It was cooler out than expected this morning but I was glad for last evenings thunder shower as it pulled all the dust and pollen out of the air. Ride in was emotionless and boring. I'm still waiting to see how long its going to take them to repave the section of the river path however I was suprised to see the construction crew out at 6:30am.

The new glove update is exactly as I expected. The lack of a terry cloth section or something smooth to wipe off the morning nose crust off is kind of annoying. It's like wiping your nose off with 200 grit sandpaper.

Weather is looking up for most of the week. Back to riding the schwinn this week. Now i'm working on getting the cleats in the right position between my road and MTB shoes so this upcoming cross season there will be knee problems. THere were none last year however the cleat positions vary enough so that its noticeable.

Thats it for now