Upgrading

The old Cannondale still has a lot of life left in it.  I have had it for about 20 years now and it has been a great ride.  Through many rides and an altercation with a dog of indeterminate breed it is still in good and reliable shape.  The new Schwinn was purchased in part because the Cannondale has obsolete components that work well but cannot be easily upgraded.

Most modern road bikes have brifters - integrated brake and shift levers.  These are made by brands like Shimano, SRAM, Campagnolo, etc...  My Cannondale has Suntour shifting.  It is not compatible with the other brands.  Suntour closed up shop in 1995.  They were small and couldn't compete with the giant Shimano, though their quality was arguably superior.

After taking the new Schwinn on a couple of rides I came to a surprising conclusion.  The bike is a pleasure to ride and its Shimano 105 gearing shifts well, but...not as well as my 20 year old Cannondale's Suntour. What little research I have done revealed that Suntour does indeed shift more precisely by design but is more likely to be finicky about being properly adjusted.  Maintenance requires a more diligent mechanic.  In the decades of ownership, however, I don't recall ever having adjusted it apart from installing new cables.

Shimano, on the other hand, is less precise in shifting but is more forgiving when it comes to adjustment.  The shifters on the Schwinn remind me of the Rapidfire shifters on my mountain bike in the manner of operation.  It is a nice setup, don't get me wrong.  I can't say yet one system is better than the other.  They are simply different.

The only downside to my Suntour shifters was the mounting location.  In the early '90s downtube shifters were the norm.  Shimano and Campagnolo introduced integrated shifters at some time in the '90s, not long before the demise of Suntour.  The downtube shifters work really well but at times can be inconvenient.  Shifting requires moving the hands away from the handlebars.  When riding in large groups I prefer to keep my hands ready for braking and making evasive corrections.

I always wondered what would have happened had Suntour survived.  One day I stumbled across something on eBay that hinted at the direction they were taking.  Instead of being integrated with the brake levers the shifters are mounted on the handlebars just above the brake levers.  The mechanism actually sits right alongside the brake hoods so shifting can be achieved from the hoods, and supposedly from the drops as well.  They look like big wing nuts, which I like because it is a bit different from everyone else's gear.  I found a set and installed them but the weather has not been conducive to riding lately.  I can't wait to get out there and take them for a test run.

They were a little expensive.  I found them online, NOS.  17 years old , never even installed before.  Of course rarity can make thing cost more but there is also another reason.  Cyclocross racers like them.  Unlike other shifters on the road, Suntour's shifters were switchable between indexed and friction shifting.  In indexing mode they only really work with Suntour gears, and not all of them.  But when switched over to friction mode they will work pretty well with just about any gears you might have.  The downside is that the rider has to move the shifter to just where it needs to be.  The indexing is what sets the proper positioning on most bikes today.  The CX racers like them because the levers are convenient to use, yet their location protects them from accidental shifting due to bumping into other riders and crashes.

toys

I have too many ideas and too little money and too little free time...not to mention motivation.  Unfortunately, many of these ideas escape me before I can flesh them out or, in many cases, write them down.  And the motivation???

I have a digital level.  It is a professional model with an rs-232 port on the back.  To those who grew up after the proliferation of the USB port, it is an older type of serial connection.  Anyway,  I often ride the bicycle on hills and wonder just how steep it is.  My thought was to get a little netbook computer, connect it to the level and  strap it on the bike.  I could then record the slopes of the route in real-time.  So far I have yet to locate a cable to connect it to the computer (I haven't tried very hard).  Then I would have to figure out how to sample the data, import it into a software program, etc...  That sounds like a lot of work.

There is a simpler solution.  Much less elaborate, but much cheaper and real time.  It is essentially a level, much like a carpenter would use, but with graduations indicating the grade of the slope.  Cheap, simple, small and lightweight.  It reads up to 27% grade.  It is the red and yellow object in the photo above.

The Road Warrior
Apart from that I have been doing little with the bikes lately, at least when it comes to riding.  I put a new rear wheel on the old 10-speed.  I know a lot of people who would ask, why bother?  It is an obsolete clunker.  I have had that bike for 28 years and it has been through a lot of miles with me.  I am thinking of getting it re-painted, maybe powder-coated.

I got it for Christmas in '83 and it has been through a number changes since.  The name on it was Aragon.  I knew a guy who had a Schwinn World Sport with all of the same components and the frame lugs were identical.  Does this mean it was made by Schwinn?  It is possible but I have no way of verifying this theory.  The only remaining original parts are the frame and brakes.  It looks heavy because it is.  As shown in the picture it weighs in at a stout 34 pounds.  It is a beast but the old steel frame is comfortable on long rides.

The Mountain Bike
One year I took the Road Warrior apart to repaint it.  One day I went out to the garage to do some sanding on the frame and discovered someone had dropped it.  The bottom bracket now had a flat spot on one side which would prevent me from putting it back together.

So I gave up on it and bought a mountain bike.  It was 1991 and mountain bikes were starting to take over the market.  The bike I chose was a Schwinn High Plains Aluminum.  It had a beautiful paint job, bright blue metallic paint with silver splattered on it.  Unfortunately, they didn't have my size and, since it was on clearance I bought the 21" frame.  It was fun for riding but really a bit large for any serious off road riding.

A number of years later I bought a frame from a catalog and transferred most of the parts to the new frame.  It weighs in at about 37 pounds but feels like   57.  I have a rack on it and have grocery panniers that I could use to make grocery runs.  I did do that once...

The Cannondale
A year after buying the mountain bike I felt the call of the road again.  I liked riding off-road but it just isn't the same.  I went back to the bike shop and saw a Bianchi on the sidewalk.  It was a used item for sale.  I liked it and put it on layaway.  A week later I went back to make a payment and saw a used Cannondale on the sidewalk.  A dark blue SR400, $50 more than the Bianchi.  It only weighs about 23 pounds and I found that fact appealing.  I asked if I could trade up and soon I had my new road ride.

A few years ago some friends and I rode in the Great Pumpkin Metric.  After the ride we loaded the bike into, and onto, his Tahoe and went home.  Upon arrival my front wheel had escaped from atop his truck.  It would be nearly impossible to find it and likely it would have been worthless after the fall from the top of his truck, at highway speeds.  Fortunately, my friend had an extra wheel and gave it to me as a replacement.  In reality, it was a significant upgrade from my old front wheel.

A couple of years ago, I broke a couple of spokes on my rear wheel.  It was showing its age and was due for replacement.  Unfortunately, this would be a challenge.  The rear wheel contains parts that must be compatible with other component of the bike to function properly.  Those parts are no longer made, haven't been since the mid-90's.  Ebay can be a great thing.  I found a hub and cassette NOS (New Old Stock) parts that fit the bill.  A little pricey but available.  I took those parts to my friendly neighborhood bike shop and had a wheel built.  I have been quite happy with the new wheels.

And as for the damaged frame on the ten speed...  A year or two after buying the Cannondale I looked at my collection of spare parts and decided, on a lark, to see if the frame could be repaired after all.  As it turned out, it could and the repair only cost me $25.  That is why the Road warrior is still with me.  Maybe I should call it the Phoenix.

The Super-cruiser
The N.I.T.E. Ride is an event that comes along every summer in Indianapolis.  It is a short nighttime ride through the streets of the city starting at 11PM.  Along with the ride are a post-ride meal, lighting contest and  door prizes.  I have participated in this ride every year since 2000.  One year I won the door prize...a beach cruiser.  What the heck am I going to do with a beach cruiser?

When I went to the bike shop to pick up my prize I did some looking around.  I had, for years, thought it would be cool to have a recumbent bicycle.  They had one on the sales floor so I asked if I could trade up.  It was a cheap one, the cheapest one you could get, but I didn't need it for serious riding.  I may try it on a substantial ride someday.  At 39 pounds, it is very heavy and the small wheels make it even more sluggish.  But it is a fun ride for local exploration and tooling around.

Paramount
I have been wanting, for several years now, a modern bike.  The Road Warrior and the Cannondale have certainly been faithful steeds and I will continue to enjoy riding them.  But there are advantages to newer designs and I wanted something different.  I stumbled upon a pretty little thing in a shop here and took it for a short test ride.  The price was right, again an older model on clearance. But this time it was my size.  I know a lot of people will turn their noses up at it because it bears the name Schwinn.  But, unless one is to spend upwards of 2 grand, they won't find a bike made in the US,  The vast majority of all bikes sold are made in one or two Chinese factories.  Buy American?  I would if I could afford to...and justify the expense.

The latest addition to my stable is a 2010 Schwinn Paramount Series 7.  It is a blue and white carbon fiber beauty that weighs in at little more than 20 pounds.  It may be heavy by carbon fiber standards but should be a much smoother ride than the Aluminum Cannondale.  Whether it will prove to be as comfortable as the old road warrior remains to be seen but at 14 pounds lighter I'd be willing to sacrifice a little bit.  And being modern components, I can change things up to get to a gearing combination that suits my purposes.  that is nearly impossible with the others.

Nobody cares...

I just watched a little bit on Tosh.0 in which there was a car wreck.  After the mother arrived and asked about her son the police officer reached over and peeled one of the little stick figures off the rear window of her car.  I had a good laugh over that one.

Who do the self-important bozos of the world feel it necessary to tell everyone else about their special lives.  One might have thought that sort of pathetic bragging died with the baby on board signs of the eighties.  I did see one of those a few weeks ago as well.

These stick figures are even worse in that they must describe the makeup of the whole family, down to pet scruffy.  I don't care if you forgot your pill 3 times and have a dog, a cat and crab lice.  Nor do I care that one of your mistakes is an honor student at Mediocre Middle School.

Sure, though I was always a fan of Calvin & Hobbes, I thought the little window stickers of Calvin whizzing on a Ford or Chevy logo were idiotic as well.  But at least those stickers tell me something useful.  It is the same message told by the big plastic testicles I have seen hanging on the backs of some trucks.  They say "The driver of this vehicle is an ignorant rube or a classless redneck!"  Surely some practical information.

If they must tell me something about themselves, maybe these people with the stick family should instead put some useful info on the backs of their cars instead.  An "inattentive driver" sign would be appreciated.  Why should I care how many kids you have in your car if you don't care enough to stay off the phone long enough to get them home safely?

Tell me you are addicted to Vicodin or Oxycodone.  Warn me about your multiple DUIs and lack of insurance.  I might appreciate it if you told me you are bipolar and quit taking your meds. 

Even better, instead of all of these stickers, which can only be seen from the safest position....behind you...., let's get you one of those big, lighted boxes like those sitting on the roof of the Papa John's delivery boy's car.  It will read "SELF-IMPORTANT ASSHOLE!"

Just listen...or leave me alone!

I seem to have picked up the bad habit of talking to myself. The strange part is that, while doing so, I believe I am talking to other people around me. It happens mostly at work. In some cases, I am busy doing something and someone well meaning decides to help. In reality they are holding me up and getting in the way, ignoring my requests to let me work.

Also infuriating are the ones who don't listen in a conversation because they are too concerned with what their reply will be. For instance, one guy at work commented the other day that I asked a lot of questions. The truth is that I asked him the same simple question 4 times before I got an answer to that question.

Looking back, I guess it has always been this way. Either I have some real credibility problems or people just tend to ignore me. Sure, there are times when I am just talking out of my ass, so to speak. But I am right about something now and again.

Numerous times I have made suggestions or given solicited advice to friends on various topics. Invariably, they don't listen until someone else tells them the same thing. Apparently it all just sounds better coming from someone else. Perhaps I should just tell them, from now on, to just go ask someone else. That should save them some time and save me from wasting time and energy on talking to myself.

Goings on

There really has not been much going on since my last post. I simply don't do much. Work, sleep, repeat....that's my life. I did do a few bike rides over summer: dinner rides, N.I.T.E. Ride, B&O ride, etc... I just did far less cycling than I intended.

A couple of weeks ago I did the 100k route of the Great Pumpkin Metric. I have done this many times over the years. It went about as I might have expected. It was a fun ride. The hill at Burdette Park is seen in the photo at right. The picture doesn't do it justice.

The weekend that just passed was spent on the bike again. This time it was the Hilly Hundred. Saturday was a bit cool but overall pleasant. The ride was about 58 miles with 5202 ft of climbing. There were a dozen hills with a grade of 10% - 24%. It was a good workout. The only real downside was rolling down a hill at about 30mph and hitting something. I didn't see what it was, either a small pothole or something on the road. What I do know is that I finished the day's ride with a damaged rim and broken spoke, after having fixed a flat tire. I am just glad I was on my old 10-speed. Had I damaged a wheel on my Cannondale I would have been p***ed off.

Sunday, day 2 of the Hilly Hundred, was warmer and really windy. 3968 feet of climbing. There were 8 hills with a grade between 11 and 24 percent. Mt. Tabor is the most infamous hill of the weekend. The photo below (courtesy of Joe Lucas) is looking back after the climbing of Mt. Tabor.

My rear wheel held up well, with a new tire

and tube installed. I was stopped on my way up a hill, but only because a got boxed in by a tandem on my left and the shoulder on my right. The rider in front of me dropped her chain forcing me to clip out and stop. We got her chain back on and went on our merry ways.

I spent Monday doing little more than resting. At the moment, my legs are still a little sore. Walking, stairs, etc... are no problem but the quads are a little bit tender to light pressure.

On the awakening...

I had a rather odd weekend. After a rough week at work I was tired and sore, in more than one way. So I went to bed Friday night determined to stay home from work on saturday. I felt I had enough OT during the week and needed to recover.

Saturday morning I awakened at around 8:30 am and stumbled to the couch to relax and watch a little bit of TV. I had recorded an episode of "Who's Line is it anyway?" while at work on Friday. Apparently I still had a bit of sleep in me as I soon fell asleep on the couch. When I awakened on the couch I coudn't move. It wasn't like the time I had muscle spasms in my back and couldn't move without severe pain. I didn't feel anything at all. I tried to get up but there was no movement of any sort. I tried to concentrate on getting up and going to the kitchen, and I could almost swear I felt my feet pacing on the carpet, but I was still in that petrified state on the couch. I tried to look around but was frozen in place. I could not even move my head.

I was facing the TV, the blue screen indicating the recorded program had played through. It seemed like hours I lay there on the couch and I was starting to feel a little bit concerned, though strangely not panicked. I didn't really think of much of anything other than "What the hell is going on?"

Then I awakened on the couch. I was a little bit nonplussed but otherwise well. The TV was still on, a blank blue screen indicating the show was over. The clock on top of the TV read 10:30am. I was still a bit sore from the week's work. I got up, called the job to tell them I would not be there and left town for my niece's college graduation party.

Doppelganger

Do you know someone who has a double? Often these doubles are simply just products of perception based on a simple trait or two. Other times the resemblance is quite uncanny. Several times I have run across someone in a restaurant or bar and someone approached me thinking they hadn't seen me for a while when indeed they had never seen me before. I am pretty sure I have never used the names they called me (the profane names I have generally answered to).

I ran across a waitress in a local bar/grill who looked very familiar. She was virtually a dead ringer for Kelly, a young lady I worked with perhaps 15 years ago. At another hangout, some years ago, there was a waitress who bore a strong resemblance to Gweneth Paltrow, though not as tall nor nearly as slim, and another who reminded me of Andrea Parker (Miss Parker to the Pretender fans out there).

There are a couple of doppelgangers of which I wish I had pictures. The reason is that they are damned funny. A few years ago I worked with a little guy from Ethiopia. He was a little guy with a big head and Southpark was in its prime. When I saw the Thanksgiving episode where the boys got a mailorder kid from Ethiopia I couldn't stop laughing because the resemblance was so clear, oddly enough.

Now I have one for the Simpson's fans out there. One of the minor characters of the show is a bit of a hillbilly named Cletus Delroy Spuckler. I know a guy that looks remarkably like Cletus. One day at work he took off his sweatshirt and was wearing a wifebeater. Had I been drinking anything it would have been a spit-take. That was a Kodak moment if there were one to be had for the purpose of this blog.

I also work with a woman who, though not purple, looks like Grimace from the old McDonald's commercials. Poor girl.

I once knew a girl who looked a lot like Rozanda 'Chili' Thomas and another who was said to resemble Rihanna, though I think that was due largely to her hairstyle. Certainly her forehead was not nearly so prominent.

Off on a tangent...there was a guy named Michael Jackson working for one of my previous employers and at another job I worked with a Tom Petty. It seemed to annoy him when we asked him when his next album was due out. In reality, those are really pretty normal names that happen to have famous namesakes. It does make me wonder if there is a guy out there somewhere cursed with the name Pink Floyd. Considering the post-hippie era of the band's popularity and the culture of drugs around them (they were considered acid rock) it is possible.