jimincalif

The world has changed in less than a month. Not sure what April will bring. Here's our monthly thread just the same. Carry on and stay well.

TrojanHorse

One of our distribution centers finally caught a case of Covid-19, so I imagine we'll be shutting it down for a while and shifting the orders elsewhere. I can honestly say I'm glad I can do my job at home. Stay healthy out there!

dagray

Working from home going crazy - feeling trapped. We only have had a whopping two cases in my county.

I did go for a walk tonight with my wife and youngest son, and it helped.

jsigone

another week of rain, another week of working from home. Didn't go anywhere over the weekend.

Work is busy so makes the morning goes quick and teaching kids lessons after we all have lunch. Def a new routine, but getting used to it I guess.

Went to the school to get bagged lunch today and the two ladies were hanging onto the two EZ up they set up from flying away (20-25mph winds). They been doing that for an hour before I got there. I parked the truck and pulled out two tie down and setup the tie downs to the metal food carts they have under, I tried to keep my distance. EZ up didn't move much on the wind gust after they were strapped down. They seemed happy to get some help. We'll see if they use the tie down's for tomorrow and the rest of the storm this week.

Beachgrad05

I work in social services to I am still going to work. I was transferred temporarily to our office by Angel Stadium to be call agent for my division. Yesterday was sent back to my normal office to do same task but from my desk. Today the call center servers are down so no calls. Happy Birthday to me. I'm watching Netflix...currently the Movistar docuseries on 2019 season. Interesting to watch the dynamics of a pro team and some of their dysfunction.

My senior (17) boy cat Dallas has had hyperthyroidism since 2015 and has been on medication. In 2018 both he and the girl who is 18 now were placed on prescription diet for kidney function issues. That is somewhat normal for geriatric cats. His issue tho is complicated by the thyroid issue. Last August he was at 11 lbs and over time he lost 3 lbs and is now just over 8 lbs. His kidneys are not functioning well at all. Vet has me giving him subcutaneous fluids daily plus reducing his thyroid meds to aid in blood flow (make him more hyperthyroid). He's gotten more anemic and they might prescribe medication to inject to help him build red blood cells. So have that going on with all the virus stuff.

I did my first "crit" last week on Zwift. Eldo crit has someone who is part of organizing it who works for Zwift so they have set up a weekly crit in Crit City. Last week I did group D which was mixed men/women and didn't finish last! I averaged 160 watts for the 8 laps. Today they changed group D to women only and upped it to 10 laps. I don't think I will join today since it is my birthday. I did create a workout on TrainingPeaks with TSS of 55 to celebrate with a ride later tonight. But I intend to have cake. I got a 7 layer rainbow cake off Goldbelly. If any year a cake is warranted to celebrate being alive...it is this year.

Last week The Unlikely Cyclist hosted a meetup on Sand and Sequoias route. Don't let women fool you...we are as ego driven as men. We rode hard from get go. The hard breathing on Discord was evidence of the effort being expended. I did pretty well average for ride (136 watts). One lady reported her FTP increased due to how hard we rode. LOL This week the meetup is London Flat I think. We will see how much of a race it ends up being.

TrojanHorse

I'm shocked! Shocked, I tell you!

dagray

Well today I join the 1/2 century club as my birthday is today and I am officially 50 years old.

I am working from home, and not liking using my personal resources for the federal government, but am glad to have a paycheck.

I will be having some surgery soon to remove cysts on my belly, and remove a saddle sore that keeps recurring (even when I am off the bike). Surgery date to be determined.

Hope all of you are doing well on this anniversary of President Lincoln being shot.

jsigone

happy late birthday!

DrIsotope

What I bought:


And what I ended up with:


In fairness, I bought the Motobecane purely for the frame and fork. Which is good, because for $299 the frame and fork is a deal. The rest of the parts they give you are... well, they're really heavy, and that's all that can be said about that. The OEM rear wheel + tire combo weighs almost 6 pounds. The SRAM Courier crankset I threw on there weighs a full pound less than the crank it came with.

It's fun. It rides really smooth (why wouldn't it, steel + wide tubeless) and it absolutely does not let me cheat. I get to feel all of the hills.

TrojanHorse

Man, I'd never make it out of my driveway on that. Is it even the same frame?

Beachgrad05

Thanks.

jsigone

I did my first Eldo crit on Zwift last night, what a butt kicker!!!! mad max for the first 5-7min, tried to settle down borderline give up. I had other team mates in the race and we had a Zoom call, so everyone can see each other suffer and make moves if they are together in the pack.

10 laps at 266watts average, max HR was 187 of 189 so yah it was good effort.

Beachgrad05

I did it a few weeks ago. For me I was close to max effort and ended up averaging 160 watts (my FTP is 169). They need to create two categories for women. Right now the ladies in top 5 are averaging 4.1 to 4.5 w/kg.

DrIsotope

The only thing that remains from the stock photo is the frame and fork. The 48/18 (73.3gi) is excellent all-around, at least for me-- yesterday's ride stretched to just under 50 miles (~1,500ft) and I averaged just over 18mph. TBH, the gearing selection came about because the crankset in my price range came with a 48T. So I picked an SS cog I thought would work. Lucked out there. Going 20mph is right at 90rpm on the current tires, so it's pretty good. Sure, any climb lasting longer than say... 3 minutes, has my eyes buggin' out, but it evens out as I have to coast on most any descent, as I can't comfortably pedal past ~110rpm, at least not yet. I can already hold ~105 for a decent amount of time, which I think is pretty good, as my average cadence on the geared bikes was starting to slip below 80. But say... 125? I feel like I'm going to bounce off the bike into low orbit. I feel like I got the Goldilocks gearing for starting from a stop-- it's not too low, and it's not too high.

Two notes that will have impact for almost no one:

• the Cane Creek 40 EC headset is like a piece of artwork. It fits together so well, is so thoroughly sealed, and turns so smoothly it seems almost excessive. As most folks are riding IS/ZS headset frames now, that's lost on them. But it really is fantastic.
• the levers on the TRP Hylex brakes are... just absolutely the best feeling brake levers I've ever felt. They are luxurious. Sumptuous. The brake feel itself is absolutely butter-smooth, no shimmy, no judder, nothing. Which in itself is kinda infuriating, as I paid less for 2 levers + calipers + hoses than I did for a single Hope RX4 caliper for my 1X bike. Yeah, the Hopes grab a helluva lot harder, but the Hylex feel so damn good. And if we're talking about niche products, the Hylex is for people that have disc brakes and drop bars but only one gear. That cannot be a big market.

dagray

Goat Heads are the Devil... got one in my foot middle of the week two weeks ago. Thought I had it pulled out, and then a few days later I could feel some minor infection and foreign matter in my foot. Cleaned it out, put on some Neosporin and a sock for a couple days, and it started feeling better. A couple days ago it started hurting again so I went to the wound clinic. The nurse could feel something in the foot, but couldn't extract the object. So she put honey on it and a dressing to make the flesh a little goopy and draw out the foreign matter.
I go back to the wound clinic on Tuesday afternoon. Hopefully then they will be able to get the darned goat head out of my foot.