supercres.net

Slimming down

Posted on Friday June 4, 2010 at 2:00 pm. Tags: bike, cycling

No, not slimming myself down. (That would be silly, and potentially lethal.)

I bought a new bike a few months ago— a Specialized Allez Double Steel. I wanted a steel, traditional-geometry road bike, and this fit the bill very well. It was cheap, but the components aren’t great. So I figured, I’ll upgrade components gradually, and when I get the equivalent of a full build kit, I’ll start saving up for a new frame.

That’s worked out pretty well… except the “gradually” part. Got the bike at the end of February, and by mid-April, I sniped an older-model Ultegra crankset on eBay, and it was all downhill from there.

On Wednesday, the last of my drivetrain parts came, and I started the build last night. Got the old parts torn off, plus the new cassette, bottom bracket, and cranks installed. Now comes the tricky part— derailleurs.

When it’s all said and done, I will have shaved almost two and a half pounds off the stock Allez (including wheels and tires). Can’t wait to ride it.

Fingers crossed, and pictures soon.

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Myth of Philly’s scofflaw cyclist

Posted on Wednesday November 18, 2009 at 3:25 pm. Tags: bike, philly

I wrote this as a comment to a Bicycle Coalition blog post about new possible regulations on cyclists. Forgive the stream-of-consciousness. I was angry and had to get my thoughts out before I exploded.

Post title taken from this excellent article.

Absolutely. [The regulations are] Anti-cyclist.

I’m all for the sidewalk-riding law, though $300 is way too steep. Leave it at $50 and enforce it, and that’ll be enough incentive for people to not be lazy (i.e., people ride on sidewalks when the street is going the wrong way) or to get over mostly-irrational fears and bike in the bike lane. Yes, accidents occasionally happen when you bike in the road, but they’re far more likely on the sidewalk.

The anti-fixie and registration regulations are sheer public-appeasing prejudice, though. There’s no question that people who ride brakeless are almost certainly able to do so. Registration won’t prevent anything. It’s a tax on a currently-unpopular minority that will overwork the PPD far past its benefits.

And here I go on a bit of a rant, unrelated to the regulations in question:

I’m sick to death of non-bikers screaming for stop-sign and red-light enforcement of cyclists. What about for cars, people? Have you ever seen a car not do a rolling stop at a stop sign? How about buses and taxis (and others) inching (or more) onto the crosswalk and into the intersection when they think a light is about to change? Bikes can be dangerous, yes, but they don’t have a literal ton of metal behind their motion. Bikes are not cars. They are lighter, more maneuverable, and afford much much better visibility.

And speaking of the differences, don’t get me started on cars (especially taxis) that floor the gas from stoplight to stoplight, easily reaching 40-45, then slamming on the brakes 10 yards from the traffic light. Not only is this terrible for the environment (air and noise pollution), but it exacerbates the gas crisis to no end, and probably causes more accidents in a year than bikes do in a decade.

Enough has been said about pedestrians already. They appear from nowhere and jaywalk across the street, ignore red lights at intersections, then have the gall to act like cyclists are the only/biggest problem with Center City traffic? Infuriating.

This is all to say… if drivers and pedestrians were saints, then I would not chafe at calls for a crackdown on “scofflaw cyclists”. But with rampant lawlessness by ALL travelers who believe that saving a few seconds (at most) is worth lives, well… PPD has bigger problems than a cyclist rolling through an obviously-clear intersection.

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Retro bike alert

Posted on Sunday October 4, 2009 at 1:57 pm. Tags: bike

I found this new bike from Fuji online (and Tweeted it) on Thursday, and I kinda can’t stop thinking about it:

I mean, come on. Tell me that’s not a hot piece of steel. Do any other companies make a road bike with this kind of classic, flat-top-tube geometry?

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My friends rock

Posted on Friday February 13, 2009 at 8:43 pm. Tags: bbl, bike, me

(This is in the style of a Twitter stream-of-consciousness story.)

supercres Just had most unimaginably frustrating 2-hour trip home from work. It usually takes 15 minutes X minutes ago from web

supercres What follows is an account if I had Tweeted at every turn. Why I didn’t will soon be obvious. It’s in reverse order for easy reading. X minutes ago from web

supercres Argh. Got to my front door to discover that I left my house keys on my desk at work. Don’t want to bike to the office back in traffic. X minutes ago from web

supercres Hm. Daniel (the roomie) is staying on campus and going straight downtown so can’t easily let me in. X minutes ago from web

supercres No worries. Will call Kristin and pick my spare set up from her when she gets home in a few mins X minutes ago from web

supercres Even better– she’s still at the office now and can just get my keys off my desk. Running to grocery store to kill time X minutes ago from web

supercres Ok. Groceries accomplished. Heading to K’s to pick up keys X minutes ago from web

supercres Crap. Phone is dead. She can’t call me to tell me she’s home. Will just ring bell. Fingers crossed X minutes ago from web

supercres No answer to bell. She might have already headed home to NJ, or she could be in the shower. Arrrrrghhhhhhhh. X minutes ago from web

supercres Ok. Running to fake Apple store (auth retailer) to buy a new power cord. Need one anyway. Hope they’ll let me charge for a bit X minutes ago from web

supercres Arrrghhâ€¦ phone does not want to charge. Buying cord PLUS brick and going to coffee shop near K’s house X minutes ago from web

supercres TAKING FOREVER to get enough charge to make a damn call. X minutes ago from web

supercres Shit. Voicemails from Kristin asking where I amâ€¦ and she left for NJ (rightly so) and put my keys on her counter. Can’t get to them. X minutes ago from web

supercres Not only that, but she saw my bike locked to her railing and checked the coffee shop WHERE I NOW AM looking for me X minutes ago from web

supercres So K’s gone. Trying her roommate to let me in, in which case I’ll feel bad for making Elena climb those 4 flights of stairs X minutes ago from web

supercres Couldn’t get Elena. Trying Eve, because Eve has a set of keys for Kristin’s apartment X minutes ago from web

supercres No Eve. Calling Daniel, who should be somewhere in the area. Hopefully close to here or close to home X minutes ago from web

supercres Ok. Got Daniel. Meeting him close to here and getting his housekey. Will have to get my keys later. X minutes ago from web

supercres Got Daniel’s key. Biking home. X minutes ago from web

supercres Finally home. Tweeting about adventure and listening to Radiohead. That will fix all woes. X minutes ago from web

supercres Got Eve on the phone. Meeting her to get into Kristin’s apartment. X minutes ago from web

supercres I have much better friends than I deserve. X minutes ago from web