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Some Bike Thoughts

2010/05/14 By ronnyd

I posted this in a thread on facebook, in response to someone who was asking my cousin, who actually did legally changed his name to XXXX as you see below, for advice on what type of bike to get for commuting.

He wrote, “Dear XXXX, I want to buy a bike for me to ride in place of driving a car to most destinations. You know more about bikes then any of my friends I think. I was looking at road bikes (craigslist of course) because most of my travels will be on road, but i heard they are really uncomfortable to ride. Do you have any experience or wisdom to offer? should I just stick to mountain? Thanks for the help man!”

So, I, of course without being prompted or asked directly, replied with this:

Hi XXX, this is XXXX’s cousin.

I know a few things about bikes.

If you’re looking for a commuting rig, then yes, a bike like Lance Armstrong rides is going to uncomfortable and impractical. Unfortunately, this is what the bike industry is geared toward selling you: an extremely light, and very expensive “racing bike.” I’m not Lance Armstrong, and I doubt you are either, meaning, you’re not going to train for the Tour de France anytime soon. So, since you want to commute with this bike, I suggest getting a bike that at first glance will still appear to be a “road bike” but there are a few characteristics that you should look out for.

1) You should be able sit more upright that you typically would on one of those fancy racing bikes, you probably shouldn’t have the drop bar handle bars (picture typical racing bike handlebars). However that’s not a sure thing, if the geometry of the bike is designed for you to sit more upright even with the drop handlebars, then the handlebar type you get is really more of a personal preference. My wife’s bike for example is a “flat-bar road bike” It’s got flat handle bars like a mountain bike. The geometry of the bike coupled with the handlebars help her sit more comfortable upright.

2) It should be made of steel ideally. Aluminum is much more stiff than steel and you’re going to get a lot more feedback from the road (i.e. bumps) transferred to your body.

3) It should have a lot of braze-ons (little threaded eyelets on the frame) that allow you attach very useful things like water bottle cages and racks, both on the front of the bike and back. You’ll probably get to a point that if you have to carry something, you wont want to wear a backpack when I riding. This was my personal experience.

4) You want the road size, or 700c, wheels. Mountain Bikes come with 26″ wheels typically, and they’re about 650b size. Per revolution you travel farther with the 700c wheels because the circumference of the wheel is longer than a mountain bikes. You’ll go faster. If you’re afraid about feeling too many bumps in the road, it’s all about tire size. Run tires that are 28mm or bigger. The fatter the tire, the more comfortable your ride will be, while still allowing you to ride efficiently and fast.

5) Another thing about mountain bike tires is that they’re knobby, which is great for tearing up the trail, or rolling over logs and rocks, but it’s horribly inefficient for commuting on pavement. Go with the fat slicks you’ll put on the 700c wheels.

Sorry that was a lot to throw at you. Bottom line is that Mountain bikes are great for … mountain biking. They can be retro fitted with slick tires too, but the gearing on them is designed for climbing steeps hills in dirt, so you’re not going to be able to go as fast on pavement with them. You want a commuting bike. Don’t be afraid of the “road bike” look of them. You won’t be uncomfortable.

Hope this helps and didn’t confuse you too much! If you have any questions I’d be happy to try and answer them. Happy riding!

It took some time and I thought I would post it here too.

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Filed Under: biking, environment, pondering

Google adds Bike Routes to Google Maps

2010/03/10 By ronnyd

This is awesome and, in my opionion, extremely overdue.  But it’s here now, so get out there and ride.

Would you ride this route?

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Filed Under: biking, excercise

white shirt, white bike

2005/09/14 By ronnyd

Well, here she is, my new pride and joy. My new 2004 Santa Cruz Blur. I’m insuring this one and registering it with the National Bike Registry. Don’t even try to steal it, motherf#$%ers!

No comments on the hair please.

I got it this evening and I’ve been putting it together, but I accidentally squeezed the brake levers on it without the discs between the brakepads, and I need to make an adjustment on both of them tomorrow to finish with the wheels. Also, this bike was built once already, and I cannot believe that whomever built this thing up would mar it like they did with all of the extra stickers they put over the damn thing. They are so damn ugly. I count six extra on the frame, and four extra on the fork! What the hell? They’re coming off once this thing goes for a test ride and I decide that it’s good to go and I can keep it.

Here’s a thought on bikes: While I’m going to enjoy this one for what it can do, and let’s face it, with the specs on this thing, it can probably do more than I can ever hope to get out of it, it’s going to require some diligence and effort to maintain. There is a hydraulic disc braking system, a suspension fork in the front, a suspension frame with an air shock in the rear, and of course, front and rear derailleurs. It’s a complex machine. A complex machine means more parts, more parts means more maintenance, and more maintenance means that there is more to forget to do, and that of course means that there are going to be more things that can fail.

Thinking about this makes me looks forward to the mechanical simplicity of my rigid singlespeed when I get that project done

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Filed Under: biking, writing

master of self potraiture

2005/09/08 By ronnyd


So, here’s a picture of me that I took of myself and my new phone that also has a picture of me on it that I took of myself. Aren’t you awed by that?

I’ve had a very productive week. I made pesto on Monday, then when I arrived home on Monday night I managed to not leave the house until around noon on Wednesday. I went to my garage to get my laundry out of the car as it had been there since Monday evening. I also went to the ATM, and the grocery store for butter. I went on my bike at least.

I made it out a bit more today, going for coffee and lunch on Lakeshore in the Grand Lake district of Oakland. Made it to the post office and mailed the title release for my motorcycle to the DMV. Went to the comic store too.

I am enjoying this downtime. Finally.

I haven’t driven my car since Monday, aside from taking it to get an oil change at 8:30 this morning. Life on the bike … it’s nice, really nice.

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Filed Under: biking, pondering, random

Riding / Shopping

2004/12/19 By ronnyd

So I rode up Lakeshore Drive to the neighborhood north of the Lake. There’s much less traffic and good hills to ride in. It really has been a while since I’ve been on the bike, and it felt really good to be back there. I’m going to attempt a really long ride on Tuesday. It’s a ride I’ve done before, riding from downtown Woodside along Hwy 84 [Woodside Rd] to Hwy 1 at San Gregorio Beach. It’s about a 45 mile round trip, but I should be able to complete it. If not, well then … Nah, it’ll be fine. I took a rest at the Beach when I did it last fall, but I have no idea what the weather is going to be like at that time of the day [ass-crack of dawn early,] or what my legs will be like after 22 miles of damn big hills. So glad that I took the day off.

All done with Christmas shopping? I am to an extent thanks to Amazon.com. I hate malls and ‘shopping’ but I think that I’ll still have to brave them on Christmas eve for some last minute stuff. Ain’t the holidays grand? Mass consumerism at it’s best. Or is that worst? At least I know that the gifts I’m giving this year are going to be very useful and appreciated by the respective recipients.

Next year, maybe no gifts at all. Wouldn’t that be nice? Just enjoy the fireplace and the company of loved ones. We don’t need to feed the machine any more. There’s a lot of unneeded stress when it come to gift-giving at this time of year. For me and a few of the people I’ve spoken to about it. Or maybe I’m just lazy.

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Filed Under: biking, pondering

pondering

2004/05/29 By ronnyd

OK. I was reading some of my old posts going back to last year, and at this time I was in the merry olde country of England. Just being in England gave me enough to write about almost daily, but realistically and actually, weekly. Looking back on those old entries I realize that it was the new locale that prompted my need to get it all in writing for all of you, my loyal readers.

Now that I’ve been back in CA for the past eight months [has it already been eight months?] I have posted very infrequently if at all. This is a shame. I love this state as much as I did living in England. This place is as new to me after four years as it was in the year 2000. I will be a more frequent poster, and I’ll write my love letter to CA.

Last week, Saturday, I went biking in Saratoga. Probably going there again today, or up to Marin. Let me think for a bit.

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Filed Under: biking, travel, writing

Moab, UT II

2004/04/25 By ronnyd

Hey all! Welcome back to www.ronnyd.com. Your home away from home on the internet. If that’s the case for you, then you’re in more a sad state that I’ll ever be. So, what have you all been up to? Are there daily readers of this thing. Send me some mail, and let know if you’re lurking out there.

I made it to Detroit, Chicago, and Moab since the last time I posted something here. Detroit was laid back, Chicago was fun, and Moab was challenging and the most fun i’ve had on a vacation in a long time. Riding everyday kicked my rear end something good, but in the end it was ll worth it. I took a ton of photos, some of which I’ll get up here very soon. The Photos, while nice in themselves, do not do the place justice. Moab, and the great desert of the southwest, is just a place that you have to see to believe.

The trip consisted of my friend Jeremy, my cousin Dan, and myself. While we were there, Dan’s girlfriend Kathryn was on the verge of labor any day, and there was always a moment when we thought we’d have to get Dan to SLC as soon as possible. The constant stream of communication between Dan and Kathryn kept everything calm, and all worked out in the end. Dan is now a father, Kathryn now a mother, an I am the proud uncle of Mackenzie Orion Morris. Let’s see some of the those new baby pictures I know you have now, Dan-o!

This is us:

Three Dudes in Moab, UT

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Filed Under: biking, travel

Moab, UT

2004/03/06 By ronnyd

Well, Dan, Jeremy and I are in Moab, Utah. After a quick week in Detroit, which, as always, is much too short to see everyone that I want to see, I left at 7 am EST this morning.

Was layed over for 4 hours in Atlanta, GA. Didn’t do much there except to call a few people, spend my www.wheresgeorge.com dollar bill on a New York Times, and eat the shittiest meal at TGI Friday’s. Yeah I know, I haven’t learned anything in this life if I’m still eating at TGI Friday’s, but I was tired and hungry and needed someplace to read my paper.

Slept most of the way to UT, and was greeted by my cousin Dan and My friend Jer, who were having fun watching me from afar answering my phone, and immediately losing the signal. When I saw them finally and saw the tears running down Jer’s face, I knew he was just screwing with me. Ah this is what the week is going to be like. ;-)

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Filed Under: biking, travel

Getting Ready …

2004/02/21 By ronnyd

Getting ready for the trip back to Detroit and to Moab. I have been buying new parts and doing upgrades on the bike, as you can see by the picture on the intro page to the site. I may have gotten in a bit over my head, but I think i’ll be able to have the thing in working order by the time we start out first ride on the 7th. Awwww yeah.

Getting the bike to Moab is actually turning out to be the biggest obstacle of all. I have a Trico sports case, and it just comes in over the size limit for standard shipping with either Fed Ex or with UPS. It makes a huge difference on the price if it comes in over the limit, and hopefully removing the rubber ‘legs’ on the thing will help shrink it down and make it pass the measurement at the shipping office. The airlines want to charge 80 per leg, so that would mean, 80 to detroit, 80 to utah, then 80 back to san jose. I can’t afford to spend 240 on airfare for my bike. Any suggestions would be appreciated. I am already considering getting rid of the Trico case. They advertise it as UPS shippable, they just neglect to tell you that it won’t meet the size requirements. Bastards.

Not much else to write, I’m kinda tired and not feeling like I can write too much right now. So perhaps tomorrow there’ll be some more to report. Till, then …

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Filed Under: biking, travel

Only On a Bike

2004/01/14 By ronnyd

Shadow’s death is getting to be a bit easier to take. The torrent of emotion will hit me when I walk inside my parent’s home for the first time next month.

My new year’s resolution of riding to work as often as I can is progressing nicely. I went home for lunch on Monday, in my car, and rode my bike back to work. Haven’t been in the car since. I love the view of the world that you get from a bike. Robert Pirsig, though he was writing about the experience of riding a motorcycle, described it best when he said that riding on a motorcycle ‘puts you in the scene.’ On your motorcycle, or bike, you are a part of the environment, inches away from the ground, feeling the wind, the sun, smelling the air. In a car, you’re suffering through the experience of watching the external world go by as if watching through a television set, made up of the windows of the car. Those panes of glass seal you off, and lock you up in your cage. The experience of riding a bicycle takes all that you get from motorcycling and enhances it by virtue of your having to provide the energy to move from your own body. You are the motor that takes you where you want to go. I can’t think of a place that I feel happier.

I am learning some new etiquette from having taken my bike to the train station, and then taking the train to San Francisco. There is an order to placing your bike in the bike car. You line them up next to each other, and bungee them to the side of the car four bikes deep. You’re supposed to put the bike that has the furthest to go closest to the wall of the car to minimize traffic at the stops when people need to get on and off. Makes sense. People even label their bikes with their destinations so you don’t have to ask every one on the train about the bike. You just look at the tag and determine if your stop is before the stop labeled on the bike you’re about to ‘park in.’

Something Morbid: This is another, although morbid, experience that I could only have had on my bike. On Sunday, I was riding across the Golden Gate Bridge back into San Francisco, when I arrived at the tower closest to the city, the south tower. I saw a group of people looking out, some straight out, some looking rather intently over the side of the bridge. I stopped to see if the view was something spectacular and unique for the time of day that it was, although I didn’t think that it could be, because it was only 2:30 in the afternoon. I looked out into the ocean and, though nice as always, didn’t see anything that warranted the gathered crowd. I looked down as most of the others were, and then saw what was the object of everyone’s fascination: the dead white male floating face down in the cemented in portion of the bay surrounding the pillar. I was shocked, but not for long. I started up conversations with the people that were watching, and we talked about how sad it was, and whether he had jumped or whether it was a murder. We decided that it was probably a suicide, and I think that this is the right assumption, as I couldn’t find anything in the SF Chronicle’s website that gave any further details. I stuck around on the bridge, along with a few others who stayed the entire time, and with the presense of one of the CHP officers. I watched the Coast Guard boat circle the tower a few times, sometimes drifting out on the ebb of the bay. The SF Fire Department eventually sent a boat, and tow firefighter divers arrived and dragged the body under the bridge from everyone’s view. I really wanted to how they were going to pull it out,but no such luck.

So, 100,000 people die every single hour, and I happened to see one of them floating in the SF Bay. It definitely wasn’t something that you see everyday, and something that I only could have seen while on my bike. Happy riding!

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Filed Under: biking