Chicken Shizt Meter

On Monday, I began my one day-a-week, save gas and ride to work day. It was 27 degrees yesterday morning and I was close to chickening out. However, once I got moving it was OK. Still, to get suited up for the ride was an ordeal in itself and took 15 minutes. Today I tried a fleece vest, riding jacket, fleece pullover and a Techwik T-shirt. I wore my winter riding bibs, spandex shorts, and fleece snowboarding shorts. For the feet, I finally got to test out my overshoes and they did the trick! It was the perfect combination of clothing for the temps.

I rode the Bridgestone with the freewheel single speed, 42:16, and it rocked. It was a little slow climbing but it wasn't like I had to do the walk of shame. The bike felt rock solid, if not a little on the heavy side and small. Adding to the weight was my garment bag panniers and I was carrying my laptop in a backpack. That is the only drawback about commuting on Mondays is that invariably I will be bringing home the laptop for the weekend and it means I will have to drag it back on my back.

Had one mechanical along the way, my seat clamp wasn't tight enough and the saddle shifted backwards. Had to stop and fix that before I could go any further. Unfortunately, I think the bike is too small for me. It's probably a medium, and if I do sell it I am still in a quandary about what to do with the rear wheel. I have a Surly Fixxer but I already have enough money into the bike that I am afraid to add any more.

I am using the wheel from the Fetish but since it has vertical drops it's overkill to use a bolt on hub. That leaves the wheel it came with, in which case it can only be marketed as a single speed or I could go with the Bombblast wheel I still have, which is overkill on the roads, and that way I can still get some fixed gear riding in. The best scenario is to find a 26 inch flip flop wheel, cheep, and use that.

On the way home I wore just shorts, Techwik, and riding jacket but it was too cold after a mile and a half so I threw the fleece pullover on and a hat and I was much more comfortable. Bike performed flawlessly.

Kid Train

I took the boys to the Farmington Canal Greenway in Hamden, CT today. Since both won't fit in the Burley trailer togehter anymore I hooked it up the Trail-a-bike and made a train. I tried this once before over on the Housatonic Greenway in Monroe. It works great but I don't think I get much help from Elliot. I think he just likes the idea of cruising and letting me do all the work.

Brodie loves sitting back and watching the scenery go by. At one point, he got a little upset sitting back there so I offered him my cell phone. Told him if the phone rings, hit the green button, and talk to who ever calls. My wife called and they had a pretty good conversation. Later, Brodie's grandmother called, too, and they talked.

I think this is the first official parking lot for the Greenway. We parked over by the Stop & Shop but it didn't look like official Greenway parking. Apparently, you can park over the near CVS and start from the beginning to get the full experience, which I might try next time.

I wore my helmet with the camera mount and aimed at Elliot and Brodie but as you can tell by the angle it should have been pointed down further.


Kid Train from Mark on Vimeo.

Above is the map of the route, which includes the little foray into Brooksvale Park. The boys needed to run around since they were accustomed to doing this on the Monroe Rail Trail I figured why not. What's nice is the Town of Hamden built a bike path off of the Greenway that comes right into the park. One one side, next to the Sugaring Shack, is a little jungle gym and the other side is swings.

I let the boys bounce back and fourth while trying to get snack foods into them. The only draw back to the park was the lack of facilities, which were closed at the moment. Even if they were open, they were still pretty far away and up a hill. Not sure if is on purpose for plumbing or gravity issues. As soon as I got Brodie settled in he informed that he had to go! I took him over to another parking that was a little more secluded so that he was water the plants.

This was the first ride on the 'Goose with the new Ergon Grips and they are simply outstanding! I was skeptical at first but everyone I have spoken to swore by them and now I see why. They were so comfortable, I think mainly because my palms had a place to rest. We stopped at Monroe Cycle Fitness to pick up a few tubes, which I forgot to bring in case of a flat I picked up a brass bell. It mounted perfectly to quill stem and resonates loudly. I got a little horn for Brodie to use in the Burley, too.

Another new thing I finally tried is the heart rate monitor on my Garmin Edge. Sportracks has a great feature to let you analyze your heart rate with a few different graphs. I think if I weren't stopping all the time you would see a smoother graph.

While looking for parking areas I found a little history on the Greenway that you can read about here: Farmington Canal Rail to Trail Association. After the ride we met the boys' Grand Parents and their favorite Uncle, Uncle Mike, at Eli's for Pizza. They loved it. I think we are headed back next weekend, only this time I am going to plan on trying to ride to the end, and then on the way back hit the park for a picnic lunch.

Just in time for winter?

Now that winter is undwinding and spring is a mere 9 days away, what perfect timing to unveil my new winter commuter. It's a 1992 Bridgestone MB-5 that came into my position via the town dump. Unbelievable how someone could throw out a classic bike.

Below is what it looked like when I got it. In order to make it a Singlespeed I had to use a different crankset. I originally tried to get the bottom bracket off but it wouldn't budge. Took it to the shop and they couldn't make it budge either. Rather than putting a torch to it that may or may not work I decided to let sleeping dogs lie and just find different cranks with square splines. The cranks that came with it had an offset but I couldn't use them with a single ring up front becasue they all mounted in the spider at one point. Ended up finding a drive side single crank with an off set and ordered the left side through the LBS.

I got a 130 mm comfort quill stem from Nashbar with a removable face plate so that I could use my Ritchey Flat Bars that I originally got with the Qball. I was hoping to trade a friend of mine a few bottles of BBC for my FUBars that I traded to him last summer for an aero brake lever but we never connected. I have some old Avid levers, Seras ergonomic grips, and a mount for my Topeak bar bag. The cable housing upfront were a little ratty so they got replaced with some slick mauve ones.

Right now, I am using the rear wheel from the Fixation until I finish rebuilding the rear hub with a Surly Fixxer. Gearing is 42:16 with horizontal drops. Before he passed, Sheldon Brown told me the best gearing was 42:15 for horizontal drops but I couldn't get that to work with minimal chain sag. With this gearing, the sag is minimal. Right now I have the freewheel set up but when I start commuting with this bike I'll use the 16t TomiCog.

For rubber, I got some old Kenda Kross tires from the dumpster at my LBS. They were cool with it because the prior week I bought some tires from them. The seat post came from when I traded my Peugeot UO-8 for two seat posts to a French bike afficianado, which by the way I got another one the other day that I think I might build into a fixie for a quick Fix and Flip. Planet Bike fenders, that I had to shave in the front in order for them to fit in the fork crown. Crank Brothers pedals from a friend that got a new bike but only rides Shimano. I am using a San Marco saddle and I replaced the brake pads.

Just have to get a rack for panniers and it will be ready. I had one but ran over it in the garage and had to throw it out. I have a Blackburn but it doesn't have the seat stay mounts that the newers one.

Go Like Thoreau ! Simplify....Simplify....GO SINGLE SPEED

He's back!  Who, might you ask?  The man that I call the Crazy Eddie of Framingham, MA.  His prices are INSANE!

Its huge in the Big Apple, Its huge in Frisco, Its huge in Atlanta, Philly, San Diego, Chicago. 

Why is America going ga-ga over single speed? 

1. Direct short chain line for more power per pedal stroke. 

2. Easy to clean and maintain your bike. 

3. You get a much better bike for the buck, without all the rotten, over-priced shifters and derailleurs. 

4. We all hate planned obsolesence and corporate monopoly. Shimano controls the bike industry, and they make rotten shift systems, 

5. It IS the money. New bikes are WAY over-priced, and getting rid of the crappy shifters is a great way to save $$$. 

If you need gears to get up a hill, than you are a lilly-livered, candy-assed wussy !! 

Go Like Thoreau ! Simplify....Simplify....GO SINGLE SPEED 

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I'm a Lumber Jack and I'm OK ...

Here is a map of my ride from last weekend. Anyone familiar with the Upper Gussy Trail will see that I cut out a section to check out some other neighoring trails. I climbed up the Gussy from Sanford road, rode down the ROW, over the Wet Spot and instead of heading down into the valley of the two water crossings I tried an old trail I found years ago that seemed be cut out of the rocks when I imagine the Housatonic River was much higher thousands of years ago.

I heard some sawing in the distant when I finally hit the forest road. There were fresh truck tracks, too, and in the area where I noticed all the trees were marked there was a logger felling trees.

He was pretty well dressed for the occasion, as far as logging goes, as I now now. Doesn't look like I'll be riding any of those logs anytime soon.

I saw the skidder off in the back and below is route they are using within that tract of land. I was impressed that their impact was being carefully minimized, unlike what I have seen in the past at Naugatuck State Forest.

While I was still feeling adventurous I followed the white trail till it split off towards Kissing Oak but kept heading north. I found a nice little two step roller that I took some video on.

From there I tried to follow where the old logging road went but I lost it after the rollers. I think it goes through the nearby break in the stone wall and then parallels that still you hit the stream, which is where I picked it up again. In the photo below you can just make out the depression in the soild where the road tracks.

Here is closer view of the same track. It was pretty easy to follow but it's not rideable. At one point I hit a thicket in which I had to walk around which lead me up a steep incline and I came across the skidder path that made part of the Mulikin Trail. I headed west on this path, which I was able to ride for the most part and eventually hit the Mulikin Trail where comes down the hill and does a sharp turn onto the old farming road.

Of course the only way I am going to do this kind of exploring is on a singlespeed. I am not going to risk a busted hanger or my rear derailluer getting caught in my spokes.

I took hooked back around to the Forest Road and climbed back up towards the Gussy. Guess I am out of shape because I only made it half way up the steep climb. The Gussy was looking nice.

I had a little woops on the Log Ride Short. As soon as my front tire hit the log it slipped out from under me and I landed on my back on the benched edge of the trail. My camel cushioned the blow. I think I will wait till things dry out some more before attempting that stunt again.

I found a point on the Gussy trail that comes very close to the West Side Equestrian Trail so I decided to check it out a possible bail out. The two trails are probably 30 yards apart. Near the stream crossing is a mud wallow that needs some work that I tried to skirt the edge of it but stalled out and went down like a sack of potatoes right into the wallow.

I noticed that somebody did some armoring of the stream but could have done it better. Might have to fix it this summer when the stream is just a trickle.