All about bicycles

Good man.
If you had kept a stand on the way you were riding, it probably would have found a way to poke itself through your flesh.
Being a PRS snob, I don’t even look at bikes with kick stands on them.

BMX, FTW!
Hell yeah!!!!!!!


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Was tired on the way back, but not that tired!


Great rides and pics as usual, Dave!


I've been having some good fun in north Florida lately.

Three weeks ago I got to do a 58-mile mixed surface ride, about an hour or so southwest of Jacksonville, that had a bit of everything. A perfect ride, really. One highlight was riding through Etoniah Creek State Forest. We don't get pine forests like this further south where I live.

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We also don't get many of these great canopied roads...

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I got in two rides west of Gainesville (location of University of Florida) this past weekend. The first was a not quite 62-mile mixed surface ride on various rural roads. This one was a new challenge with more varied terrain than I get closer to home. Didn't grab any pics during the ride since it was a faster-paced affair. It was a group ride, but dang they were fast. I got dropped after 15 minutes, but luckily I was able to team up with one other rider.

After miles and miles of farm and low-traffic roads, having a gray bike is an advantage. It hides just how dusty it was. ;)

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Sunday, I met up with the Florida Gravel Biking group, who happened to also have events planned not far away. These are social rides and keep a comfy pace. It was supposed to be a recovery ride, but it ended up being 27 miles and the pace got away from me a bit. Oh well, it was an excellent route on an unpaved road in a place called Devil's Hammock. I'd love to know how it got its name.

Action shot! I'm in the foreground here. It was a good sized group, which always makes things fun.

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Thanks to my bike I have seen so many areas of my home state that I wouldn't have seen otherwise. I've developed a new appreciation of the vast areas of minimally developed land.
 
Great rides and pics as usual, Dave!


I've been having some good fun in north Florida lately.

Three weeks ago I got to do a 58-mile mixed surface ride, about an hour or so southwest of Jacksonville, that had a bit of everything. A perfect ride, really. One highlight was riding through Etoniah Creek State Forest. We don't get pine forests like this further south where I live.

Dqj2qyWh.jpg



We also don't get many of these great canopied roads...

cg92ZvLh.jpg




I got in two rides west of Gainesville (location of University of Florida) this past weekend. The first was a not quite 62-mile mixed surface ride on various rural roads. This one was a new challenge with more varied terrain than I get closer to home. Didn't grab any pics during the ride since it was a faster-paced affair. It was a group ride, but dang they were fast. I got dropped after 15 minutes, but luckily I was able to team up with one other rider.

After miles and miles of farm and low-traffic roads, having a gray bike is an advantage. It hides just how dusty it was. ;)

bwUhpvdh.jpg



Sunday, I met up with the Florida Gravel Biking group, who happened to also have events planned not far away. These are social rides and keep a comfy pace. It was supposed to be a recovery ride, but it ended up being 27 miles and the pace got away from me a bit. Oh well, it was an excellent route on an unpaved road in a place called Devil's Hammock. I'd love to know how it got its name.

Action shot! I'm in the foreground here. It was a good sized group, which always makes things fun.

ppSErW0h.jpg




Thanks to my bike I have seen so many areas of my home state that I wouldn't have seen otherwise. I've developed a new appreciation of the vast areas of minimally developed land.
Garrett, that looks like a fantastic area to play/ride in!
 
NRD... New Rack Day!

My Topeak Beamrack just doesn't work for the Stance because of the rear suspension. Back tire keeps hitting/rubbing on the bottom of the rack, so...

Enter the Topeak Tetrarack M2L. This device attaches to the rear seat stays and feels quite robust.
After fumbling around for a minute or two I had it installed in about 15 minutes including adjustments.
Total weight allowed is only about 25lbs, but that should be OK for what I want to use it for.

One lovely thing about this setup is that I get to keep the tool/trunk bag on as the Beamrack necessitated its removal.







Has the same connection method so my bag/pannier slides in and locks nicely.





8km ride/shopping trip was successful with around 3 days worth of groceries including eggs, meat, poultry, veggies, cereals etc.





Load was stable with zero issues. When empty, the DXP bag/pannier rattles a bit. When there is a load it runs silently. Likely there's something I can do about that.
So far extremely happy with the purchase.
Perhaps the Beamrack will go to my son, as he has a Giant Talon E which is hardtail.
 
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Pulled my 11-month old bike (Specialized Roubaix Sport) out of the garage after a two-month winter layoff. To my dismay, the front disc brake started squealing as soon as I used it.

"Squealing" understates the case. Upon hard pressure, the front brake was louder than a trumpet (I think its pitch was C#). It was an airhorn. It was a foghorn. It was Foghorn Leghorn. Pedestrians turned their heads, annoyed at the blaring assault. Drivers of nearby cars thought I was honking at them. Embarrassing, like a small child having a tantrum - not my fault, but I'm responsible.

It's my first bike with disc brakes and I was, as you'd guess, alarmed - because the front brake now only gently suggested stopping.

On to the YouTubes for instructions. I carefully cleaned the rotor and the pad surfaces (in situ) with isopropyl alcohol. Nope. The pitch went a little higher, maybe to D, and the brake still didn't stop.

I replaced the brake pads next ($14 for a set) and that did the trick. Glorious stopping power again - and silence!

Still baffled at how the pads got contaminated while sitting on a wall rack in the garage for a couple months in a mild winter climate, but anyway. I'm rolling (and stopping) again now.

Good thing it was a quick cheap fix, because the next stop is to deal with the brake rotor, and I understand that's not cheap.

=K
 
Most of the time getting my fast bike ready for the road was electronics, which felt a bit weird.
3 firmware updates (pedals and derailleur). One battery replaced and two charged up. Recalibrate power.
Speaking of electronics. Last Sunday my Apple Watch decided to call 911 continuously while I was in the shower at the gym. My poor wife got the alert and was speeding down the highway at close to 90 mph because she thought I crashed my bike and was lying on the side of the road. Two hours with Apple did not resolve the problem. Miraculous, all was well with the watch Monday morning. I never experienced that with my old cheap Timex that did noth more than tell time.
 
I hear ya. I go and bust my @$$ in the heat, a punishing ride up hills and across yonder dales, glide into the finish and tell my Garmin to record the ride for the mother-ship database and to compile comparative statistics against other rides, to accumulate the mileage and altitudes and calories...

And it's lost. Failure to communicate with my phone. That syncing feeling.

What did I do before any of these sophisticated electronic geegaws? I just rode my bike hard.

=K
 
When did the simple act of riding a bicycle get to be so complicated and time consuming pre-ride?
Okay well first I have to have a meeting, okay? And I HATE meetings!
Then it has to go to a committee. You know how THAT goes.
So after the committee decides where and when I can ride, I have to figure out if I can fit that into my schedule.
My schedule SUCKS! Especially on weekends.
Maybe I should quit... or retire...
Anyway yeah... it's complicated!
Haven't even gotten to the tire pressure, sealant level or WHATEVER yet!
 
Speaking of electronics. Last Sunday my Apple Watch decided to call 911 continuously while I was in the shower at the gym. My poor wife got the alert and was speeding down the highway at close to 90 mph because she thought I crashed my bike and was lying on the side of the road. Two hours with Apple did not resolve the problem. Miraculous, all was well with the watch Monday morning. I never experienced that with my old cheap Timex that did noth more than tell time.
My Garmin detects an incident every couple of months and insists on sending messages to my emergency contacts. The interface invites me to cancel, but is really obscure about what behaviour on my part would constitute a cancelation of the emergency message. More than once, my wife got a text from me telling her the emergency was fake, I had just braked hard when a light went red.

Today, I came close to having a real incident. For reasons unknown, a flagman with his stop sign up waved me through...and that put me the wrong way on a one lane path through a construction zone. I was pretty sure I was going to get a pickup truck mirror in my face.
 
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