| random |
[Jul. 13th, 2006|07:04 pm] |
I see a small list of people adding me as a friend to their journals. That is pretty neat.
Maybe I'll actually use this journal more now.
Hello to my new friends.
Here is what is happening bike-wise:
At the start of summer I started riding again seriously. There is a loop that goes to a cool bridge, it is 27.1 miles round trip. I was riding it 4 times a week. A couple of weeks ago, I set a new personal time trial record: 19.6 mph average speed. That seemed pretty fucking fast. I was having one of those days where I just felt strong and skinny, like the wind couldn't touch me.
The bridge is the turnaround half way through. It is an old railroad bridge, that they converted to strictly pedestrian/bike and it is planked with weathered wood. I sprint to the end, and try to maintain 30mph over the bridge. I dream that I'm racing in a 1920s velodrome, maybe at MSG during a six day race. It makes an awesome noise.
My sprints haven't gone over 30mph and I think it has to do with the shitty surface, and the fact I've ridden hard for 13 miles, and the fact that I suck. I think I'm in pretty good shape now, but not as well as I have been. It is flat as hell here, no good training hills. I suck at hills now. Lame.
One time, back home, there was a stoplight and after it was one of those police trailer things with the radar gun built into the speed limit sign to get you to slow down. From a dead stop I hit 31mph on my road bike, so I'm dissapointed that I can't break 30 right now.
I run a 45/16 on my fixed wheel bike, and I have the same 30mph problem, but I did the math and I'm totally spun out, 133rpm at 30 mph. I think I'll swap it up to the 50/16 I ran at the track. My goal is 35mph on a sprint. When I have a couple weeks off at the end of summer, I plan on riding centuries daily. |
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| Random |
[Mar. 21st, 2006|01:11 am] |
i haven't updated this shit forever so sorry to, uh, no one because this is for my own amusement and no one reads it anyway.
um, i pretty much wanted this to be about bikes after reading everyone elses lj that is just a bunch of writing
NY sucks for bikes, but the velodrome $5 race series is coming up so I'm going to do that, just go get my ass kicked every week.
I really wanted to buy rollers but I was/am too poor. I'm starting training rides but it is hard to get up early sundays to do 3hr endurance rides.
gotta do it. |
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| First Post in a While. Velodrome! |
[Sep. 13th, 2005|04:42 pm] |
I showed up at Kissena park last sunday for a beginner's clinic thing after talking to the coach. Instead, they had some other guys there and the kids from West Point training and racing, so I raced.
I did the flying 200m to qualify for match sprints, but the bastard didn't get my time so I got hosed and didn't get to do that event. Looking at other people's times, I would estimate a mid 14 second time. The best time of the day was 12-something set by a 100 lb (or less!) 13 year old girl. Awesome!
I did race in the Miss-n-out though, and made it I would say 1/2 to 2/3 the way through the pack, I think there were 15+ riders and I made it 8 laps, I think before getting tossed out.
It was totally fun and actually is much cheaper than any other form of recreation, so I think I'm going to be a regular there. |
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| Bromine Release, Gremlins Strike with fury |
[May. 24th, 2005|02:59 pm] |
So I set up my reactor to start on friday night. No problem, everything is controlled.
FF to monday: I come in to check it out, and bromine is all the hell over the place. WTF!
Apparantly the GC that controls the on/off valve for bromine didn't turn off, so it was pumping into the fume hood all weekend. Everything was coated in HBr and colored disgusting brown/yellow. Everything metal was corroded to hell as a bonus. I spent all yesterday cleaning 5 miles of 1/16" tubes inside and out after dismantling the whole thing.
Fuck man. Apparantly some auto-backup bullshit of the computer that controls the GC happens at midnight that paused my reaction run, so the control never got to the "valve off" line in the program.
Oh and for a triple word score, I got HBr on my arm above my double pair of long gloves and it burned me like hell.
Fucking reactor gremlins. |
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| Weird Finger Nail |
[May. 18th, 2005|05:14 pm] |
So the fingernail on my right ring finger felt all weird and numb after my bike wreck but I just figured it was smacked or something.
Tody I'm looking at it, and what happened was the nail cracked right in half, below the cuticle and today the broken like is starting to emerge. The main part still looks somewhat normal though.
It is reall weird. The new part is just pushing the old part right along.
later |
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| fuk helmets, gloves all the way though |
[May. 14th, 2005|02:32 pm] |
Yesterday I was biking home. What happened:
1. Riding in bike lane up to a red light, 2 lane road, 5 or so cars in each lane
2. Light turns green, people start turning right so I
3. Split lanes, going approx 15mph.
4. Guy in right lane doesn't like slow people turning right in front of him
5. Guy decides to cut into left lane, directly in front of me.
6. I have 1/2 second to decide if I want to
a) Plow broadside into car
b) Try to cut left fast between two stopped cars.
I try to cut between the cars. I don't make it. My right bullhorn bashes directly into the left rear tail light of the car, I get thrown over and down. The thing that sucks is the guy who cut me off just kept going, and I doubt he had any idea of what happened at all. The guy I hit pulled over, we exchanged information. Today he called, and was actually really cool about it the whole time but I still have to give him $140 for the busted out light and reflector. I didn't even touch the bodywork at all, just totally center-punched his light, luckily.
I think this is one of those no-fault situations but I still have to pay money. The real point of the story is this: WEAR GLOVES. Everyone. If someone wants to call me a glove nazi or something, fine. When I bashed his tailight, my had slid forward directly into jagged edges of busted lens material. I was wearing full-finger gloves. Sort of like punching full on into the edge of broken glass.
I have some deep but still minor cuts on my right hand, no stiches required. There are small shards of busted lens still stuck in my gloves, but I'm damn sure that had I been wearing even half-gloves I would have had proably 40 stiches in my hand right now. The kevlar reinforced part of the palm of my glove is almost ground off from when I hit and slid on my hands. Could have been flesh.
Total talley of injuries:
1. Minor road rash on Right and Left knees (left is worse, right is annoying at best)
2. Bruise/scrape on Right hip
3. road rash on Right fore-arm
4. Bruised to hell right thumb (went and got x-rays, not broken) feels better already though I can't use my hand too well
5. Creepy deep cuts to middle finger R-hand (think worst hang-nail you have ever seen)
6. Less so with ring finger, still gross looking though
7. minor cuts on various other parts of right hand |
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| I'm a loser. Literally. |
[May. 12th, 2005|10:28 am] |
Things I have lost in the last week:
1. Pocket knife. though to be fair, I'm 90% sure it was stolen.
2. Sunglasses. Last night I rode my bike home from the pub, heard plastic falling noise thought it was my bike light, but my light was still there so I kept going. realized it was my expensive glasses today.
3. haven't been able to find my good belt for a week.
4. mind. I'm losing my mind. i feel all tension-y right now. this sucks. |
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| hella fast |
[May. 11th, 2005|10:11 am] |
last night on the way home from work, I had the fastest fucking tailwind ever.
Doing the math, my average speed was 26mph on my fixed gear bike. I estimate the wind was at a constant 15-20 mph. I was totally spun out with my 45/16 gearing the entire way. Had I a taller gear, I'm sure I could have averaged 30 mph. I stopped at exactly 0 stoplights, but didn't really have to becasue I got lucky on most and timed the others well.
I made the trip home (8.4 mi) in 19 minutes. holy christ. I was so hot because I was riding on the wind, so I basically had no air cooling me for the entire time. I sweat more that ride than ever before.
Goddam I wish I could crank 25 all the time. Something to shoot for, I guess. |
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| Total Lack of Respect for the Law |
[May. 4th, 2005|10:16 am] |
After we droppped out of the CM due to injury, Pete and I waited at a bus stop and when the bus finally came, someone had a bike on the two bike rack so we couldn't take the bus from SF to Santa Rosa. I called my g/f and she agreed to pick us up from the Larkspur Ferry Terminal. We then proceeded to haul ass to the ferry building. The day was mostly slow-paced fun, then riding with petes friend was way slow. So I wanted to crank it up a bit.
It was downhill. I didn't stop once. I sprinted the whole way. Which brings me to my point:
I give a lot of shit to car drivers for putting my body in danger by being ignorant, not paying attention, etc. but...
The way I ride my bike it must appear to them that I have no regard for personal safety or that of cars.
Not true.
What is true is that I run every red light and stop sign. Yesterday in the two or three miles between work and the Pub, I got yelled or honked at twice. One guy on a motorcycle yelled at me, "RED LIGHT." Duh. Thanks dude. The thing is, it is retarded to stop at a red light when NO ONE IS COMING! I can't say how many times I've felt like blowing a red in my car. On a bike, I just do it.
When I do run a questionable one, cars don't have to swerve to avoid me. I know I'm doing something "wrong" so I'm sure as hell not going to cause an accident doing it so I can get arrested. In fact, if I went down because of something like that, I couldn't even blame them.
I would say, on a rough average, a driver would cause me to crash about once per ride if it weren't for me paying close attention, even if I came to a complete stop and all that.
What I can say is running a light is wayyyy more safe then just riding along the right side of the road, looking for people to turn into you or door your ass.
My number 1 thing that pisses me off: Me riding in the traffic lanes, faster than any car, and getting honked at. I will put up with this shit no more. I get honked at, I give the finger. Next time some dickhole tries to hit me on purpose (see a previous post), I'm slinging the U-lock I carry on a beltloop into a tail light or mirror. Fuck that. You endanger my body, I ruin your shit. That is the deal.
This mentality has lead to me being a worse and worse driver as well. I get really frustrated waiting in traffic, or at traffic lights. I have pretty much refused to drive at all. When I do, I feel ashamed to be doing it. All I think about is how goddamn much gas costs and how easy it is to bike. I don't even work up a sweat much anymore, unless I'm punishing myself. Then I get a crazy endorphin rush, best High ever. |
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| Best Mutha Fukin' Bike Ride Ever |
[May. 1st, 2005|10:41 pm] |
So pete and I hard-cored it from Santa Rosa to San Francisco (so we cheated a bit and took the ferry from Sausalito) the rode the HUGE critical mass. Pete's friend ate shit onto her dome courtesy of the muni track. Sucked for her.
I got some sweet pics. I think the only way to post them is to send them to pete and have him post them in Bikepirates. Dunno though.
More tomorrow when I'm at work, I'm tired.
Total Mileage: About 80 miles, all on the fixed gear. Fucking RAD. |
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| Wheels! |
[Apr. 27th, 2005|11:08 am] |
I built up my rear wheel yesterday! I even used a dial indicator to see how true it ended up being: it is +/- 0.005 (0.010 total) both in roundness and lateral truing. I'm not sure what a good number is, but I looked on the internet a bit and that seems pretty good. Since I'm not running a brake, it doesn't matter lateral as much as roundness.
At lunch today I'm going to go get some cycling gloves and a seat post clamp, then my sick-ass track machine is done! Ho-Ra! |
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| Hill |
[Apr. 25th, 2005|09:03 am] |
Went on the Gibralter ride again yesterday. Left at 8 in the morning, hit the "5-way street" at 8:35, topped out at 9:45. About an hour and ten minutes for 4000 vertical feet of climbing. They re-paved a lot of the road too, so the descent was epic. I think from the summit all the way to the shower at my house took 15 minutes. I'm sure I averaged well over 35 mph on the descent and certainly spent most time at about 45 peaking at maybe 50. Cornering was amazing, a lot of times you could see really far ahead on the road and with no cars coming, you are free to pick awsome lines downhill. I wound up and spun out my top gear. It was the first time I took the Trek 5500 frame to the limit. It was rock solid, the whole time. Last time I did that descent on the bike, it was so cold my feet were frozen, and I had to keep stopping to put my hands in my armpits so they would be warm enough to operate the brakes.
And I discovered that I really really need a new chain and probably a whole new component set. My shifters suck. Dammit, more money more money. |
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| Oh yeah, Please Comment |
[Apr. 23rd, 2005|12:01 am] |
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To whoever reads this: The point is sort of to assume that no one else reads this but come on, if you are reading just let me know so it isn't total waste. It is for me, yeah, but I chose to make it public for a reason. |
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| So Stoked |
[Apr. 22nd, 2005|11:50 pm] |
I dunno, just read a good post on the bikepirates blog about fixed gears. I miss mine so bad. My girlfriend says I talk about bikes too much. She might be right. I am obsessed with them, she knows this. I get obsesses with other shit. For example:
Scuba Diving
Spearfishing
Fencing
Anatomy
Metalworking
Steam Engines
Classic Cars
Rock Climbing
Watchmaking
The Hummingbird Feeder
And so on. I think it all makes me an interesting person.
The whole point is this: I'm so stoked right now on cycling. It is such a pure feeling, and mostly I ride alone. It is me versus the road, I look down at the pavement on hill climbs and that is my world. One more pedal revolution. When I see that, it looks like the road goes by fast. It is my pain, and I love it. After I get to work on my bike, I think about bikes for a good hour. I look for excuses to go places on my bike. It is pure time. Nothing else.
And Sunday I'm climbing the hill. I start at sea level, go up 4000 feet, then descend. Fast. Really really fast. I duck my head down and can feel instant acceleration. The efficiency of it is staggering. And then I'm home, in the shower, back in bed before she even wakes up. I have kicked the day's ass before it even started. I sooo win.
And now I'm out-ie! |
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| Spokes shipped |
[Apr. 21st, 2005|01:44 pm] |
Last monday I sent Nashbar my spokes to be exchanged. Yesterday, Wednesday a week later, they shipped the replacements.
Slow like molasses. The FedEx estimate is delivery on next wednesday, which gives me that evening and the next to rebuild my rear wheel for the ride to Critical Mass in San Francisco.
Gotta love working against the clock.
Oh and they sent my new wireless computer, too. So I can tell how far we went. |
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| Reactor Gremlins |
[Apr. 18th, 2005|08:05 pm] |
So for some reason, my reactor was 5 deg. C off when I was reacting. Uh, what? Temperature controllers are simple beasts: you set the temperature, it adjusts the heaters till the temperature is correct. Today it was off. And, there was a disassembled thermocouple probe on the bench next to my reactor. Everyone denies any wrongdoing. I have come to the inescapable conclusion that it was the same gremlins that turned off my chiller (see the entry a week or so ago).
Shit. |
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| Possible art/ photography project for bikeride |
[Apr. 13th, 2005|10:26 am] |
I'm trying to think up a way to mount my digicam on the front of my bike so I can take a picture every mile (or kilometer) along the trip. Then, since I'm getting a new powerbook, import those pictures to iMovie and make a film called "70 miles in 70 Seconds" or something.
this would require a cyclecomputer, and probably turning the camera on, take picture, turn camera off every 4-5 minutes if the ride takes 6 hours. I'm not sure how the battery would hold up, but I'm willing to give it a try. And I have two batteries. Every kilometer would be every three minutes for like 6 hours. Could be difficult, especially on hill climbs. It is only 100-150 pictures though, so the camera could easily handle it.
Unless it rains. Fuck you, don't say that! |
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| Critical Mass Bike ride |
[Apr. 13th, 2005|10:06 am] |
I'm actually pretty stoked. I was thinking about how much fun this bike ride is I have coming up:
I'm meeting up with an old friend who I never get to see enough, we are going probably 70+ miles fixed from Santa Rosa to San Francisco for the Critical Mass on April 29, 2005. I'm not sure if I'll bring a messenger bag. I think all I really need is my toolkit, spare tube and a pump plus some cash. It would be nice to have my lockpicks and medic bag that I keep in my messenger bag though. 70 miles is a non-trivial ride on a fix though.
I've been training hard on my bike recently. I think I'm almost in as good of shape as I was at the end of last summer. Last summer I trained 3 days a week at fencing. I could ride my bike to work, then to fencing, train 2 hours or so and still have punch at the end of the ride home on a friday. It is tuesday already and I still feel strong. The test comes after a long day of work at the end of the week: Do I stand up and pound out 35mph on the gentle slope of De La Vina for the last 1000m before my house? We'll see. I think training is mostly mental; I'm learning to tell my legs to shut up and just keep going. My heart and lungs are in great shape, but my legs scream sometimes when I'm not even breathing hard. Weird. I wish I didn't lose my fucking heart-rate monitor. All I really know is I'm about 170 bpm when it feels like I'm trying 70% of max. I would think my max HR would be maybe 210 bpm, If so I'd like to exercise the heart at 180 bpm on my commutes.
I now ride almost exclusively in the drops. The brake levers feel so un-aero now. Also, I ride the flats when I'm coming up to a traffic light or something, but that is about it. I am consciously keeping my elbows and knees tucked in tight and my back straight. Sometimes I feel like I'm cheating the wind, sometimes it feels like there is nothing I can do to escape it.
I don't know much about the other riders for the CM voyage other than pete. I'm hoping I can be an anchor for the group. It is going to be a gentle ride, but I'm pretty sure there are going to be some hills that will be a few kilometers long maybe 500m of climbing. That is at the far end of my "stand up and burn it" distance. I want to inspire others. I'm not going to be the one to suggest a rest stop and I'm never going to complain. I love the pain of a tough climb, anyway. I would bet none have really ridden in a pelton before. If there is even a 5-10 mph headwind, the trip might take a long long time without forming a paceline. This would be a great ride to practice paceline skills.
So I think here is how I'm going to set up my fix for the ride:
1. Build my fucking wheels already. Nashbar will probably get the spokes here the end of next week. 1 week to build up the wheels, I might only do the rear at this time.
2. Take saddle and seat post from my Trek road bike (that saddle is so comfy, and I don't want to mess up the setting by mounting that saddle on the fix seatpost)
3. Beg borrow or steal a front brake. Yah yah, I always ride brakeless but come on, metric century ending up in SF? I'm not stupid.
4. Bullhorns or drops? Hummmmm. I'm going to have to experiment to find the best way to set that up.
5. Gearing. Normally I run a 48/16. I'm thinking of backing down to a 42/16, I think I have a 42T chainring around. Spin, spin sugar.
The funny thing about this livejournal is that it really is for me. And this one is all about biking. Other shit in my life is really really important, but all I'm obsessing about now is biking. I love it. |
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| Some loser messed up my chemistry |
[Apr. 8th, 2005|05:10 pm] |
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so I go look at my reaction that has been going all day, and somebody turned off the temperature controlled bath that moderates how much bromine is put into it, and the rate. Someone turned it off so it flooded the reactor with bromine, way too much, and now everything is screwed up. I hate people. |
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