Posts

Posted on

Not So Sexy Tan Lines

If you’re concerned about white lines on your face from your helmet straps, grow a beard.
 
Strange tan lines are part of the game. I ride in Shimano Sandals. They make for a really weird pattern.
 
Shortly after I started riding, I looked down at my hand on the keyboard and thought, “Wow, that’s an odd bruise. I can’t remember hitting my hand.” Then I looked at the left one. Same bruise mark.
 
Suddenly it dawned on me: bike gloves.
 
I consider the unusual tan lines not to be silly, but an indicator of many happy hours on the bike.
Posted on

How Many Gears Do I Need?

All of them, only one at a time and I usually need one more lower than my lowest.

Never had I the occasion to wish for a bigger, faster gear but, woe is me, I have wished for a smaller, slower, easy to climb with gear.

When I was a kid in Missouri, my bike only had one gear.


When I went back there a couple of summers ago and rode my old paper route, I realized how many fewer hills I would have walked up 40 years ago if I had had gears.

One of the first things I did to my road bike was to switch out the front chain rings for lower geared mountain bike rings.

Posted on

Well Fitted Bike Eliminates Carpal Tunnel Symptoms

I know all too well what carpal tunnel (CTS) is all about. Too many years at a keyboard and a mouse have taught me more than I want to know. And, yes, I’ve been wired up and had my muscles jerk like a frog in a skillet while a guy in a white lab coat scribbled cryptic notes.

Bike riding didn’t cause CTS, but a poorly fitting bike aggravated the symptoms.

A well-fitting bike has eliminated most of the bike-aggravated symptoms and has given me a reason to get a life away from the keyboard, which has helped the computer-aggravated symptoms.

Posted on

Digital Camera Bicycle Handlebar Mount

I mount my Nikon Coolpix on my bars with a home-brew piece of aluminum angle. Since the lens and body swivel, I can have the lens pointing forward and the LCD display facing up where I can see it. If I want to take a picture off the bars, it’s just a matter of loosening the 1/4-20 tripod screw.

 

One note: you got to watch out for big temperature swings.

 

I had to cover an indoor swim meet in the middle of winter once. Temp outside was in the teens and my equipment had been in the car for many hours. As soon as I walked into the 80-degree heat and 99% humidity, there must have been a rainstorm inside the camera.

 

When I took it to the repair shop, the tech said the all the dust inside the body had turned to mud.

 

Digital cameras don’t like moisture even more than the old mechanical Nikon Fs.

Posted on

Cycling in South Florida: It is Another World Here

It’s another world down here.

Don’t count on The Eye to slow them down. That requires the driver to actually be able to see you through their cataracts and Coke-bottle thick glasses, assuming that their eye level actually makes it above the dashboard. At least once a month, we run a story about some XX or XXX year-old driver who ends up in a store front / swimming pool / gaggle of people waiting for the bus / etc. when they get their gas and brake mixed up.

South Florida ain’t the south. It’s more like New Jersey or New York. If you believe in Darwinism and the survival of the fittest, you have to wonder how bad the drivers were who were weeded out on the way TO Florida when you see the ones who made it.

In addition to The Eye, I find a loud air horn helps. That and a healthy dose of paranoia.