pdlamb

Warmer than expected (meaning sweatier than expected!). I took the long way, ran late, and had a good time revving it up on the 3-4 mile fast flat section.

I noticed a dogwood tree coming out. Most of it was white, but it looked like one pink-flowering branch had been grafted on many years ago. Wonder what's the story behind that tree.

Phamilton

Which Bontrager tire is that? I have a pair of T2s that I've ridden on 3 bikes, I have probably 3,000 miles on the pair now. A little heavy, but good ride, decent grip, and had few flats with them. They're 27 x 1 1/4 and won't fit my current commuter and I'm starting to shop around for my summer tires. Was considering Bontrager among others.

OhLylo

These are my OE Bontrager H2 Hard-Case Lite in 700x32, and they have around 1,000 miles on them. They make for a pretty quick ride, but in my case (crappy suburban roads with gravel and all sorts of crap on them) they clearly don't have the longevity.

Phamilton

Thank you. The roads on my commute are also pretty rough. The only tread failure I've ever had was on a super light skinwall tire, ran over a sharp rock and it ripped the tire from the sidewall up through the tread. But I think those tires were probably 20 years old. Fastest tire I ever rode until that rock though! I weighed the tires before I disposed of them, 280g for a 27 x 1 1/8. Now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure those tires were Bontrager too.

Darth Lefty 

madpogue 

I see some on Amazon in the $45-50 range. When I had my surgery, I had to remind myself that a lot of the one-off expenses were worth it, simply because it was a critical life change.

The ones I see at first glance are about 2" in diameter. I wonder if there's one just a little "fatter", that could be held in a bottle cage. I suppose you could wrap it in something for a snug fit.

Darth Lefty 

Well that's a lot better than I expected. The last one I looked at was this: https://www.fumpapumps.com/shop/ $140 and up. It is a lot more compact.

Do you mean this one? https://www.amazon.com/CYCPLUS-Porta...dp/B07B65GN6W/ You could put this in a cut-off bottle in the seat tube bosses. It maybe comes with a bike mount (not clear) that looks primitive. But weatherproof? It's not shown doused in water like Amazon bike lights always are.

madpogue 

^^^^ Yeah, there are a bunch that are pretty-much the same as the one you linked. I doubt it's weatherproof either. I was just thinking of the bottle cage as a way of conveying it during a ride; I'd take it with when parking the bike away from home.

Or put it in a small boating dry bag, maybe. Cumbersome, but still a lot < $140.

Tundra_Man 

At lunch I went to ride across town to our office and had my 2nd flat of the day on the same tire. I triple-checked the inside of the tire for any foreign objects, and looked at the rim to see if maybe the rim strip had failed, but couldn't find anything. Replaced the tube (last spare!) and discovered that my frame pump had also bit the dust. After about 500 pumps (no exaggeration) I got the tire to maybe 20 psi. It was very noticeably under-inflated, but was holding enough air that as long as I rode slowly I wasn't hitting the rim on the ground. I creeped my way about 2 miles to my LBS and bought more tubes and a new frame pump. They also filled my front tire to proper pressure. I rode 6 more miles to the office and it held full pressure the whole way, so maybe it was just a fluke that I had two flats in one day on the same wheel. I guess I'll find out when I leave tonight to ride home.

Phamilton

I had a similar situation either last week or the week before. I dug a big chunk of glass out of the tire tread, patched the tube, then noticed it was still leaking and then found a tiny wire sliver just an inch or so away from where the glass was. I'm glad I noticed the second leak before I put the wheel back on the bike.

phile

downloaded strava yesterday and told myself i wouldn't worry about KOM, but I couldn't stop myself this morning on 2 segments on my way to work. I am such a child...

mgw4jc

Bailed on riding today because of rain and needing to get home asap after work. Kids and I are going to a TobyMac concert tonight and will have to battle traffic to get there. I took the car opportunity to bring in a swap of pants and shirts that I leave at the office.

And geez I'm glad I don't normally drive. I left home early enough to go the gym for a bit, then left there early enough to get to work early. But this one intersection, well a combo of a right turn to then get into a left turn lane for a stoplight was backed up. It took about 15 minutes to go less than a quarter mile, mainly due to the left turn stoplight being so short and only letting about 5 cars through at a time. Throw in a couple of semi trucks and only 2 or 3 get through. While sitting there I was eyeing the sidewalk and shoulder of road that I usually use if I go that way on my bike.

Oh well, got to work on time instead of early.

oldgeezerjeff

Almost perfect ride in this morning...no wind, perfect temperature in the low 50s. This is the best time of year to ride here in the DFW metroplex. Soon it will be 80 degrees at 6:00 AM and better than 100 for the commute home.
Trail animal count this morning: 3 bunnies, 0 skunks or opossums, and 0 coyotes.

Tundra_Man 

38F with pea soup fog, but no flat tires this morning so I'm not complaining one little bit.

Roads were unusually quiet as well. I kept thinking, "Is today a holiday that I forgot about?"

madpogue 

Only thing missing was the guy with the walker, going faster than you...

arsprod 

Stick with it, totally worth a week of discomfort! If you're sliding forward the seat nose is too low. Brooks adjust differently than other seats because you sit "in" them rather than on. Level is a starting point but you'll find most of the set up suggestions say the nose should point up slightly. I also found it impossible to get them right without a micro-adjust seat post. I rode for years hearing others sing the praises of Brooks saddles and discounted them as faddish. I caved and tried one about 5 years ago - won't ride anything else now.

Today was the warmest morning of the year so far, 47F. It was wet from overnight rain - smells like Spring!

phile

im not sliding off its just a slippery saddle im more sliding all over the place, plus kinda throws me of when i adjust a bit and suddenly slide all the way back or forward cause of how slippery it is. im currently just trying to break it in as much as i can before a ride to antwerp in 2 weeks

mgw4jc

Warmest morning ride in a long time: 60+ degrees so no jacket or gloves needed. Left early and went to gym for a bit. As I was leaving a guy there asked me how far I ride. He said he rides some too.

I made a big circle around the parking lot to hit 12 miles even before going into the office. Is that allowed?

phile

actually it is not it needs to be a big triangle.


commute went good, still trying to get kom in a tiny downhill on my way to work, cause i am a child. warm enough not to need any jacket just an undershirt and polo. backpack in the morning as an extra semi layer. by the time i head out of work later backpack will be on rack.

pdlamb

Woke to Deluge in the Dark, but it had passed before I got out on the road. There was evidence of the rain (besides the wet roads), bark mulch washed out onto the road, a couple of gravel swooshes that came from I-don't-know-where, some branches downed and others washed out from the curb where they were left for pickup. And the creeks, the ones that are usually drainage ditches where the water might come over the soles of your shoes if you were really unlucky? They were 2-4' deep and flowing fast.

I got 2-3 minutes of sunshine before the next batch of clouds rolled in. And the dogwoods are out in full bloom -- gorgeous!

OhLylo

58F and very nice. This was the first ride on new tires - Schwalbe Marathon Plus, upsized from 32 to 38. I can't say I noticed a tremendous difference in speed or comfort from the tire or size change, but I'll look at the trend data in a couple weeks and see.

I got passed by a dude on a road bike today wearing all black kit, black bike, and NO LIGHTS. In the dark. Godspeed, dude. He was 100 feet in front of me after a few seconds and all I could see was his rear reflector. I guess some folks like to live dangerously.

Skipjacks

Shorts on the way to work!

First time this year!

I've been able to wear shorts on the way home a few times but today was the first morning commute outside of the 30's and shorts on the way in felt fantastic!

Skipjacks

There is 'living dangerously' and then there is 'I want to be used as an example by all future life insurance salesmen'.

It's like people just don't think.

A reflector? That's it?

I take all the stock reflectors off my bikes because they are a useless waste of space. In addition to lights I add reflective tape in various places that is 10 times more reflective than the plastic reflectors that come on bikes.

But I like getting there alive. It's how I roll. Call me crazy.

OhLylo

I also pulled off all my stock reflectors. But, I have lights front and rear, a Proviz jacket that's 100% reflective, a full set of spoke reflectors front and rear, etc. You can't miss me. That dude was just asking for it. He was rocking an aero helmet (black, of course) so I have to think he was an experienced rider - but maybe not an experienced commuter or darkness rider, I guess.

Phamilton

I don't even know what the temperature was. I wore cutoff shorts and a thin hoodie and was a little sweaty by the time I got to work. I'll take it. Early last week it was still below freezing in the morning and I was dressing in layers.
The big piles of plowed snow at the local convention center parking lot are finally melted as of last Friday and the grass in my backyard is growing. I guess that's spring. Last Friday morning had the first bug fly into my mouth, and all the farm animals are back out in the pastures for me to talk to during the farmland half of my commute. I didn't realize how much I'd missed them over the winter. Oh yeah, and pollen.