Out, Dam'd Spot

Mine Surly hath treaded but lightly upon yon carpet, yet here's a spot.

I have been expecting this memo eventually. It was only a matter of time before our memo-crazy apartment manager got around to finding a problem with bikes.

I was just mentioning to the S.O. last week that the volume of memos has dropped considerably since the manager has been on maternity leave.

Earlier in the week she returned from her maternity leave, and that evening there were no fewer than four memos taped to our door.

In this instance, the memo was addressed specifically to our apartment, not the tenants in general, as was the one pertaining to cats in the hall.

Apparently there have been "dirt spots" in the hall, and apparently all forensic evidence points to me and Champion.

I am not sure how the conclusion was reached that only my bike leaves "dirt spots", since the majority of tenants in the building have bikes. The memo doesn't state where the evidence was found. There is only one short hall that I take my bike down. If the spots were not in that hall, they will never be able to pin this rap on me.

The most worrisome aspect of this memo is the possibility of taking further action, such as banning bikes from the building. I don't know how well this would go over, since the landlord provides no outdoor bike storage and many people in the building own bicycles.

It would not be fair to outlaw bikes and not outlaw other wheeled vehicles, such as, say... baby strollers. And if they want to disallow anything that could track "dirt spots" on the carpet, they would have to banish shoes from the building as well.

From now on, will potential tenants be grilled about owning bikes or shoes? Only bikeless, shoeless folk will be approved to move into this bike-and-shoe-free Shangri-la with its catless and welcome-mat free halls (yes, welcome mats, which could help prevent the hideous "dirt marks" have also been banned from the sacred halls of our fifty-year-old apartment building).

Hopefully this will not escalate to anything beyond this memo, but you never know. If sometime in the future she is having a "slow memo" day, it may suddenly occur to her that there have been no bike-related memos in a while.

And, as you can see, my corporation is greatly appreciated, but since I am the CEO I guess it is my responsibility.

Monkey Shines

In an effort to shake things up a bit, I decided to whip the old Monkey into shape (I'm talking bikes, I swear!) and try it on my commute next week. The Karate Monkey, which is officially my backup commuter, hasn't been in rotation since my neck and back issues started preventing me from using a backpack or messenger bag.

This will also be the inaugural trip for my Old Man Mountain Red Rock Rack. I was looking for a rack on a bit of a budget, and one that would work with a 29'er. Since the OMM racks are designed to fit on bikes that aren't designed for racks, it seemed to be my best bet. I could have went the bling route and got something like a Tubus or Nitto, but they would have required major kludging (Major Kludging, didn't he lead the troops to victory in The Big One?) to get them to fit properly. I measured my bike and looked at the dimensions of the rack on the OMM site, and it seemed it would fit. One thing I hadn't counted on was the solid plate in the center of the rack sits about a quarter to a half-inch lower than the rail, which effectively makes the rack about a half-inch lower than the actual dimensions.

The rack went on relatively headache-free (a zero-Excedrin job), I just had to add a couple washers on the non-drive side to get the railing to clear the disc-brake mounting tab. But, because of the lowered center plate, the clearance between the top of the tire and the rack is very tight. I think it will be fine, but would not recommend it for trail riding, as twigs and stones could easily get wedged in there, causing an abrupt halt to your fun. Also, the option to add fenders at some point is no longer on the table. I was a little concerned that once I inflated the tires to the proper PSI, it might be a little too close but there is still maybe a quarter inch between the tire and rack.

As I have mentioned before, the Karate Monkey has some sentimental value to me. Not because of the bike itself, but because of the parts. Almost everything attached to the frame came from my Trek 7.5 FX. And though I hated that bike, it was my first commuter and got me started down this path. After I got the Cross Check, the Trek was relegated to backup duty, but whenever I had to ride the Trek it felt like I was being punished for something. Eventually I decided to get the Karate Monkey frame and transfer all the parts over. I still think of this as my first commuter, since all I did was switch one part — the frame.

I will do a trial run on the weekend just to make sure I have enough heel clearance with my pannier on the rack. Hopefully it will work out better than the last trial run I did after doing some maintenance. If that works out, next week will be the KM's first trip to Hollywood!

Ciclovia!

Isn't That A Russian Toast?

It looks like Santa Monica is on track to have its first Ciclovia later this year. And though I am all for shutting down the roads to cars, it still leaves me scratching my head. What exactly is the purpose?

The proposed route is a 1.3 mile stretch of Main Street, and will be open to cyclists, joggers, skaters, skate boarders, walkers, baby strollers and perhaps a few surfers who made a wrong turn at the pier. From what I understand, there will also be activities going on in the street. Not exactly conditions conducive to cycling.

It sounds like it might be fun, but not safe to be riding your bike through. I am guessing that the bike lanes that are normally on Main Street will be inaccessible, so anybody trying to get anyplace on this day would be wise to circumnavigate the area.

To me, it sounds basically like a farmer's market without all those pesky vegetables.

Perhaps I am missing something, since many cyclists seem to be pushing for this event.

It might be a nice way to meet like-minded folks, but as for actual riding, I don't think so.

I suspect quite a number of people won't even ride to the event, but instead as usual, carry their bikes on the back of the SUV, fight for a parking space, then walk them to the festivities.

I guess if it was longer and more spread out it might make more sense, like the seven miles of roads they are planning on closing for the L.A. Ciclovia, but closing seven miles of roads in Santa Monica would not be logistically possible. Like most events in Santa Monica it will be heavily attended and Main Street will be too congested to ride on. On the other hand, whether bike riding is possible or not, it would be pleasant to explore some of the businesses on both sides of Main St. without risking being run over by an SUV.

Not to sound like the proverbial grumpy old man (which I happen to be), in fact I will probably be there, I just don't really get what the connection is to cycling besides the name.

We'll see when the time comes, I could be totally misunderstanding the concept, but for now, let's all raise a glass - CICLOVIA!!!

Vacation, All I Ever Wanted

I may be slightly premature in writing about my upcoming vacation, but since it has been about a year and a half since I have had any significant time off work, I am looking forward to it.

Since work commitments and monetary reasons prevent us from taking any major trips this year, we are just going to go to San Diego for a few days.

How is this bike related? It's not, exactly, but one of the secondary themes of this blog is getting around without a car. Since the S.O. doesn't really ride, I won't be taking a bike along on this trip, but we will be doing it entirely without a car. I am not averse to renting a car if needed, but this is a vacation, and driving to me is too much like work. Also, the S.O. doesn't drive, so I have the permanent job of designated driver when taking a car, and on vacation I like to sample the local pubs.

We have taken a semi-carfree vacation before. Several years ago, when visiting the S.O.'s family in Washington State, we stopped off in Portland on the way (having taken the train from L.A.), and didn't have a car while there. Once we got to Washington we did rent a car.

The last time we were in San Diego, we rented a car and drove there, but ended up leaving the car in the motel parking lot the entire time. San Diego is much more concentrated than Los Angeles, and is fairly easy to get around in without a vehicle.

So this time we decided to forego the automobile altogether and take the train there, using a combination of public transport and walking once we arrive.

Of course, every time I get ready for vacation, I need to shop around for vacation "gear". You would think that my vacation supplies from the last vacation would also suffice for this one, but of course not. I need to tailor all of my gadgets and gizmos to each vacation.

This year, my main obsession has been to find the perfect bag for carrying my camera gear with me. I often forego taking my good camera with me because of the difficulty of carrying it around. I end up taking my point and shoot which I can stick in my pocket, but the pictures just are not as good as with my DSLR.

And not just for vacation. I was also looking for something that would allow me to carry my better camera on my bike. I can't really carry it on a strap around my neck while riding, letting it swing wildly around, banging my handlebars and frame. I can't really put it in the milk crate on the Brown Cross Check either, as the extreme bouncing caused by the crater-like potholes in the roads is not really good for any electronic device.

After much online research, I decided on the Lowepro Slingshot 102. It is a sling style backpack with a stabilizer strap, so should work well on the bike without sliding around on my back. After I use it for a bit I will write a more thorough review of it.

I hope to get a lot of pictures on this vacation, and not being in a car will help me reach that end. A combination of train, walking, ferries and public transportation seems to work well in San Diego, so I hope to document that.

Since the vacation is still four weeks away, I am jumping the gun a bit with this post, but will revisit it as the time draws near.

Is My Bike An Enabler?

Something I have noticed when looking through my past blog posts, perusing the numerous beer reviews, burger reviews and photos of things I have sampled from the Great L.A. Food Truck Boom, including a dangerously authentic Philly Cheesesteak from "The South Philly Experience" last week, is that if my doctor ever saw my blog, he would sit me down and give me a stern lecture.

I am no spring chicken as they say (does anybody really say that?), and should be diligently watching things such as blood sugar, blood pressure and numerous other things that have the word "blood" in front of them.

The reason that I was thinking of this is because I have a follow-up appointment in a couple days to revisit some of these issues.

And I know, based on past experience, that if not for the bike, eating and drinking these things as I have been would earn me a spot on a Richard Simmons special. If I noticed my weight nearing the four-digit mark, that would serve as notice that I better revise my diet somewhat.

But since I have been cycling, particularly since they revoked my Thursday day off and expanded my work week to five days, I can get away with some bad eating habits and not have to worry too much. Of course, just because it doesn't have a major impact on my weight doesn't mean it doesn't affect other things.

I am sure my sodium intake is much higher than my doctor would prefer. Deers that frequent salt licks probably have a much lower sodium intake than I do.

As for the beer, well the less said about that the better.

Not that I can eat anything I want, but I can "cheat" a lot before I notice a significant difference.

Am I canceling the benefits of exercise because of my habits? Probably a little, but based on my health before I started biking every day, the cycling is still winning out over my overindulgent tendencies. My heart rate is much lower than when I had a sedentary lifestyle. According to the doc, things like circulation and lung capacity are excellent. And I am working on eating healthier, but the fact that it doesn't immediately show kind of makes me put it on the back burner for the time being.

In fact, I have gained a couple pounds lately just because I did some bike maintenance. For a few weeks, I noticed my bike getting more difficult to pedal, and as a result of the extra effort I had to put in I also noticed that I had dropped a few pounds. Now that I have the new wheels mounted and did some cleaning and lubricating of the drive train, the pedaling is a lot easier but some of the pounds have come back to visit. I have contemplated putting the old wheels back on just to get the weight back down.

But rather than arriving home exhausted from the difficulty pedaling, I could always change my diet a bit, but sometimes enablers make it a little too easy to do otherwise.

But I am starting to exhibit more self control. I did, after all, take a pass on the South's Signature Sandwich.