kar

Hopefully, will start commuting again from September. If not, then from 2022.

pdlamb

FWIW, I snapped a tensioner bolt about a year ago. I found a new bolt, but the leather had shrunk or relaxed to the point I couldn't get the new one in. Grr.

I had a spare bolt and nut in the garage -- 2.5-3" long, about 5/16". Jammed the bolt into the nose with the nut screwed way in, and then unscrewed the nut to tension the thing. About 9 months later, found the official tensioner bolt and nut, and after taking the 5/16" bolt out, I was able to prise the saddle enough to put the "real" one in. You better believe there's grease on the new bolt!

essiemyra

A very pleasant ride into work today. The rain stopped just before I had to leave, that was nice. Otherwise I would have taken the car.

Darth Lefty 

No commuting, long weekend

essiemyra

Back at the the work week. It was a pleasant commute to work today. I saw a porcupine on my way to work, that was in the middle of the road crossing. From a distance I thought it was a turtle, but as I got closer I saw it was a porcupine and gave it distance. The animal went back to the same side of the street it started on. I guess I scared him a little.

Tundra_Man 

Consecutive bicycle work commute number 1205:

Threw my back out on Saturday. Spent most of the three-day weekend sitting in a chair, immobile. I don't handle being idle very well. When my wife suggests, "Let's watch a movie!" I cringe inside because I can't think of very many things less interesting than sitting still for a couple hours in front of the TV.

So by today I was going stir crazy. My back is still hurting but I had to do something different. Through a combination of tenacity and stupidity, I climbed on the bike and rode to work.

Getting on and off the bike is painful. Pushing the pedals hard is painful. Hills are painful. Bumps are painful. But pedaling slow and steady was bearable. I made it to the client's office. I did break down and take the elevator rather than climb the three flights of stairs to where my desk is located.

Scheduled to ride 22 miles today total. At least the weather is extremely nice today: mid 70s, sunny and hardly any wind.

essiemyra

A very pleasant commute to work this morning. The temp was at 50 f degrees this am and I wore shorts anyway. As last evening when I left work the temp was low 80's. I did not want to be in long pants at that temp again today.

SapInMyBlood

My two week old tubeless valve broke.. :/

Darth Lefty 

That’s a weird one. What do you think caused it, what brand was it? Fixed with tube or Uber?

Darth Lefty 

Two laps this week. Thinking again about finishing the gearing project on my Stormy. I might take the 1x parts off the tandem, which seemingly no one is interested in buying. But not for a few weeks because we are doing a lot at home. At least in the meantime I should finish the brakes.

SapInMyBlood

No idea what caused it. Only a week old. Slapped a tube in it and rode it home.

I did a 600k ride this past weekend, and here's how it went:
4km in : failed sidewall in tubeless schwalbe tyre with about 200km on it. Threw on spare conti gp5000 and a tube. Bead didn't want to fully seat so I had a lumpy tyre going "Bump, bump, bump.." for the next few hundred kilometers.

11pm, 270km : next puncture. New tube in. Punctured tube putting it in (?? super delicate ultra thin). Put in last (3rd) tube.

550km : last tube punctured. Inspected tyre. Found one hole with tread showing, but no glass left. Patched the tyre with a inner tube patch hoping to protect the tube. Pulled out all 3 tubes. Patched them on the side of the road. Put one in after waiting 15 mins. Could hear slow leak at 90psi. Put in 2nd patched tube. Inner tube patch held, but noticed upon inflating that the tyre was jutting out of the sidewall, another sidewall failure... removed everything again, patched the tyre, reinserted tube, and then finished the last 50km of the ride holding my breath ...

essiemyra

Back at Monday again. It was a very pleasant ride in today even with the mugginess of the day.

Tundra_Man 

Consecutive bicycle work commute number 1209:

Heat wave/drought happening right now. The temps over the weekend topped out at close to 100F. The next seven days every day but one is projected to be in the 90s. The one day of "relief" it's supposed to be 86. The good news is I'm no longer having to wear sweatshirts/gloves/pants in the mornings. This morning the temp was 75. T-shirt and shorts it was!

Regarding the saga with my Brooks saddle tensioning pin breaking: Brooks directed me to contact the seller from whom I purchased the saddle regarding a warranty claim. I bought the saddle online from a seller in the UK. I contacted them, and they said I could return the saddle for replacement, but I would have to return the entire saddle along with all packing materials. I had a few problems with this. First, I didn't want to have to break in a whole new saddle just because a fancy bolt broke. Second, who keeps all their original packing material a year after you buy a seat? Third, shipping costs to send this thing back to the UK would probably be more than the cost of the bolt.

So I contacted Brooks again and explained the above issue. I was hoping they would say, "Because it's under warranty we'll just send you a new bolt," but instead they directed me to a US vendor from whom I could purchase a replacement bolt. Not the level of customer service I was hoping to receive. I decided to bite the bullet and just purchase a new tensioning pin, but then I learned that these things have pretty much gone extinct on the open market. Everyone I checked with had them out of stock with no estimated date as to when they would be getting more in.

Rather than waiting for an indefinite period of time, I took the saddle to my local hardware store and browsed around the nuts and bolts section. I figured out a metric button head allen bolt would kind of fit into the front retainer on the saddle. Then I figured out a nylock nut threaded backwards would kind of fit into the tensioning bracket. I decided it was worth a shot and spent $3 on the bolt and nut (splurged to get stainless steel.) Came home and was able to cob together a workable fix for my saddle using this hardware. This was on Friday night. I set the saddle on my workbench with the intention of installing it back on the bike sometime over the weekend.

This morning as I was getting ready to leave I realized I forgot to reinstall the saddle. I glanced at the clock and decided I was running early enough to try and get it put on the bike before I left. Installing bike saddles is such a fiddly process. The adjustments needed are so minor and precise, yet the adjustment mechanism on the seats are clunky and inaccurate. After installing the saddle I made about four adjustments with short test rides between them until I felt it was "close enough." I then got to work about five minutes late. I think I need to make another tweak before I head home tonight, but I'm getting close to having the fit dialed back in.

Darth Lefty 

I'm setting up to do a slightly longer ride today, round trip from the daycare instead of drive there and home and rt from home. Lets me do a little more with my MTB than just get the tires dusty

According to the National Weather Service it's hotter than usual in SD and cooler in CA because there's a big green U in the ocean

Darth Lefty 

SapInMyBlood

When I was deciding whether to do tubeless in my two main bikes I looked for stories of failures. Nearly all of them had to do with tire tears too big to plug, and rim damage. I figured that's the kind of thing that happens years apart for aggro downhill riders, and seldom since they started doing tire liners; and for single track, gravel and commuters maybe never. Two of them in one ride and then cracking a valve to boot, which I've never heard of before, is a real bummer!

On all my next tire changes my bikes are getting cush cores or airliners. For the gravel bike it's stories like yours and for the mtb it's so I can run the pressure down into the tweens and put off buying a full squish a little longer.

SapInMyBlood

I've done substantial mileage on my mtb and "gravel" (2.25" tyres) bike on tubeless, never with any issues.. No flats, punctures, plugs, nada

On my road bike however (max tyres I can fit is 28) it's been a nightmare

I picked up a new front TLR Tyre under warranty (Schwalbe one TL).. While at the shop, one of the other customers mentioned he had that as his front Tyre and he's put 10,000km on it with no punctures
Meanwhile my sidewall failed after 200 km..
Let's hope the new one holds up better

Darth Lefty 

Yesterday I parked near the daycare and went the long way around the lake on the MTB. All familiar territory and I was carrying the laptop so didn't get too rowdy. Skipped all of the places I usually think about and then chicken out. But still had enough fun. Three years on I am still really enjoying this MTB, it was a stellar choice for original value and as a platform for trying stuff.

In the afternoon I took the most direct non-artery route back to the daycare, as I wasn't feeling great (too big lunch) and didn't want to be late.

Still frustrated by bizarre cutouts in my GPS. Considering a head unit for my next bike stuff purchase instead of sticking with phone or watch.

essiemyra

A very pleasant commute in this am. The temp was 51f degrees with mostly clear skies.

pdlamb

Did a quick round-ish trip "commute light" to outside the office park and home before the first telecon of the day. Nice ride, generally light traffic, overcast and 70F; if only the rain had held off for the last 25 minutes!

I sort of felt sorry for the PDS (poor dumb schmuck) who'd run into the back of a dump truck. Sorta. He hit the truck hard enough to crumple his hood. I hope the driver learned to put his phone down and drive from that accident, before he misses seeing a cyclist like me!

pdlamb

Some of us get wet from sweat during a commute, without having to ride through the lake and back!

Darth Lefty 

Considered throwing my phone in the lake as I flew over it at Mach 2... or would have if I'd known it was happening. Sometimes I wonder if the lake itself is at fault, if the uninterrupted span is allowing them to pick up wifi signals from the other side and screw up the GPS location with "indoor positioning" data

Chinghis

Is it really a commute if you only do it once or twice a month?! Have not ridden much at all this year, but I rode in to work today, third or fourth time. Hills are still there, fancy that.

It was a good commute, I guess. Cool-ish weather, mellow drivers. Ten miles through LA.

Tundra_Man 

I consider it a commute any time you travel somewhere by bicycle in lieu of driving a car.

Tundra_Man 

Consecutive bicycle work commute number 1215:

I noticed on the way home from work yesterday that the chain on my road bike was getting a little noisy, which is my cue to clean and re-wax it. I usually do this about every 150 miles. So last night I did my ritual of scrubbing the chain with Simple Green, blowing it dry with my air compressor, removing it from the bike and letting it air dry for another hour and then throwing it in my crock pot full of wax for an hour or so to let the wax get into all the inside parts. Then I put it back on the bike.

This morning I left the house, made it about 50 yards and suddenly the chain fell off. At first I thought maybe I didn't get the quick link re-attached correctly, but upon closer examination I saw that the pin on the quick link had completely sheared off. I know that KMC recommends replacing the quick link every time the chain is removed, but frankly I've always ignored that advice and reused the same quick link over and over. I estimate I've reused this one about 30 times. So apparently the magic number is 29 times. I should start replacing the quick link after reusing it 29 times.

I'm thankful I only made it 50 yards. The last time I broke a chain was about 10 years ago, and unfortunately on that day I was 6 miles from home and the temps were below zero (also prior to me owning a cell phone.) That was a cold walk. Today's retreat back to my garage was much less painful.

So I grabbed my vintage Panasonic road bike that I still haven't gotten around to selling. The tires were flat as I haven't ridden it in at least a year. I was grabbing the air pump when suddenly I had a change of heart. I put the Panasonic back in the rack and grabbed my fixed gear.

I hadn't ridden the fixed gear bike yet this year. The wind is supposed to be pretty tame today at only about 10 mph, so I thought it would be a good day to take it out. I'm riding a total of 21 miles today, so I should be good and tuckered out by the time I get home tonight.

Darth Lefty 

if you want to nerd out you can examine the sheared pin (if it's not already gone out to the bin) and see if there's weathering in the crack. Then you can revise your estimate...