Scenic Route

Today Google Maps introduced a cycling choice for routing in 150 cities in the US. R-Town is one of them.

Playing around with it this morning, it frequently picks different routes than I typically use. It seems to favor side streets and turns more frequently, where I generally prefer a more direct route. However, it also favors bike paths over streets.

It generally provides a couple of alternates too, in addition to its preferred route.

Last week I tried it for the middle part of my Tuesday three-legged commute from Presbytery (1190 Winton Rd S) to the Arnett Branch Library. Choosing the walking route, it took me over Pinnacle Hill, through the Ellwanger and Barry neighborhood and across the Ford St bridge.

Today, the same route is listed as an alternate route, with its primary choice being a bit longer but infinitely more pleasant using the Erie Canalway and the Rochester Riverway/Genesee Valley Greenway. Neat.

For my main home to library route, it chooses an entirely reasonable route, similar to my chosen route. Where I prefer the Meigs St bridge over 490, it prefers the Averill Ave bridge. Both are better choices than Goodman or Alexander streets.

It makes an interesting choice in lining up for the Ford St bridge over the river. It takes you south to Sanford St, then right on Mt. Hope to line you up for a left to the bridge. For many riders, this is a more prudent choice that I hadn’t considered. I’ve been taking Gregory St to Mt. Hope where I have to wait to make a left on Mt. Hope through heavy traffic.

I’ll have to consider this choice, but with my own variation. Instead of my current Meigs to Cayuga to Gregory, perhaps Meigs to Caroline to Sanford.

It’s not without its quirks, though. Across the bridge, strangely it routes to Bartlett St, then has you turn a block north to Whittlesey, then back south at Epworth right past Bartlett again. I’ll ride that today, but I suspect it’s to cut out the light at Bartlett and Jefferson Ave. Maybe it knows something else I don’t, or maybe it’s just some weirdness.

The estimated ride times seem consistent with my experience. My long-term average speed is in the upper 15s, so your times may vary.

There’s an article about it on Wired, which seems more like a press release, and a slightly more in-depth article about it on BikeHugger, and of course, on the official Google blog.

Today’s ride doesn’t look like much from the numbers, but for me, it was a resounding success. Eleven-and-a-half miles, around 45 minutes, average speed of just under 15 MPH.

But it included nearly 1,300 feet of climbing in five repeats of Rich’s Dugway. My goal was three, and I hoped for four. Five had me beaming. I felt like doing more too, but I was out of water and didn’t want to be too sore during the week at work.

And I did it all on Blue Steel in the 39/27 gear. It seemed easy too. That bike sure can climb!

Part of it is the motor. I’m fresh off a whole winter of pushing those darned snow tires. As much as I hate them, their 900 grams weight, coupled with their high rolling resistance does keep my raw strength up, even if my reduced winter miles causes a drop in endurance.

Part of it is that the Dugway is a pretty easy climb. It’s 200 feet bottom to top, and between 4% and 6% all the way. Nothing really spectacular, unless you consider that on my new commute, I get the same 200 feet of climbing, but spread out over 9.65 miles round-trip.

Part of it is the bike. Not only is Blue Steel my lightest bike, but its wheels seem lighter than even Yellow Bike’s. Its new tires certainly are. Plus the whole drivetrain is lighter being an Ultegra double rather than a Sora triple. I spun up the hill in the upper 80s and lower 90s. I amazed even myself.

Before I left, I looked-up last year’s first club ride of the season. It was 1,056 feet of climbing in a 20-mile ride. I did 125% of the climbing in 60% of the miles today. So unless it rains (as is forecast as of today), Blue Steel will be making its debut with the club on next Saturday’s ride.

As for headwinds, this afternoon winds were from the WSW at 20–25 MPH. The climb up the Dugway is pretty well protected, but it’s into the wind. Maybe half of it came through the trees, but still, every repeat was into the wind. The ride home was another 200 feet of climbing, unprotected, dead into the wind. Blue Steel made it easy. It seemed like it always wanted just one more gear higher.

In the drops, both descending the Dugway and into the wind on the way home, I definitely need a longer reach. The bars are too close resulting in twitchy handling on the descent, and cramped breathing. The question is, how much longer should the stem be, and do I want a different angle? Only more miles will answer that question.

In any event, I’m really starting to like this bike. I’m ready for spring.

It was really hard, staying indoors and off the bikes today. The first brush of 40° on a sunny day sure was tempting, but I needed a rest. Badly.

The new commute to the Arnett Branch is about twice the distance as the the ride to Sully Branch, and three times the distance as the ride to Winton Branch.

Plus the weather broke this week and I just couldn’t keep from riding as fast as I can. I think the Portland was actually gamboling a few times this week after I took off its snow tires. It was as happy as I was to be done with the clodhoppers.

Then yesterday, I took Blue Steel out for a spin in the afternoon. A stinkin’ little 15-miler wore me out. And my legs were hurting. I just can’t seem to get away from the need for a rest day once a week. Still, it was a nice ride, and the first of the year with my three-season shoes.

Oh, I stopped and had Blue Steel weighed. Including fender, lights, battery packs, mirror, and cyclometer, its a shade over 21 pounds. More than I thought, but still six pounds less than the other bikes. It feels even lighter than that.

In any event, today I stayed home, rested, looked out the window, napped a lot, and cooked.

It occurred to me that the way I make pot roast takes right about the same amount of time as it does to bake bread, what with all the mixing, kneading, and rising and all. And chocolate-chip cookies might be nice for dessert.

So after my afternoon nap (yes, there was a morning one too) I started the pot roast, made the bread and then put the cookies in when I took the bread out. Timing would have been perfect if I was serving dinner, but eating it, well those last few minutes were up and down, back and forth from the plate to the oven.

Still, a nice hot loaf of homemade whole wheat bread was just the perfect thing to soak up the gravy from the pot roast and vegetables. I think I’ve finally nailed the bread recipe. It took more tries and experience than I expected it to. I couldn’t find a whole wheat recipe I really liked, so I had to experiment and make my own.

On the other side, while the cookies are certainly tasty, they spread and ran all over the cookie sheet. I caught the first sheet just as they started dripping off the side. They look like one of Dali’s melted clock paintings. I’m not sure what I did, but I was tired by then, so it could have been anything.

Meanwhile, by the time everything was done, I no longer had an appetite. I had half my usual portion of pot roast and veg, two slices of bread, and I’ve had only one of the two dozen cookies.

It’s supposed to get into the 40s Sunday. It’ll still be windy, though. The plan is for a leisurely morning and maybe some light housework. In the early afternoon I’ll take Blue Steel out for some serious hill work.

I’d sort of like to ride it on the club’s first ride of the season next weekend. That route crosses the Irondequoit Creek ravine twice using Browncroft Blvd. Every year it’s tough for me with a triple. Now I want to try it with a standard double.

But first, I’ll do some repeats of Rich’s Dugway tomorrow. The climb on the Dugway isn’t quite as steep as Browncroft’s westbound side, nor quite as long as Browncroft’s eastbound side. But it’s fairly private. The only traffic is from the residents. It’ll be nice in case I have to walk.

I picked up my order from Ribble Cycles UK yesterday. On the forums there have been several raves recently about the pricing and service from Ribble.

I’m a little tapped right now, so saving a few bucks seemed like a good idea. The prices were amazing. I could barely contain myself. Much of it has to do with currency differences, part of it is that some parts are OEM unboxed components. The rest? Who knows, but the selection, service and shipping seem as good as the prices, so for now, they’re my online parts and accessories supplier.

They ship via Royal Mail Global Priority, which translates to US Postal Service Express Mail. I wasn’t home on Saturday when the mailman tried to deliver it. So I went to the post office yesterday morning.

After work last night we got down to business. Blue Steel got a set of Continental Grand-Prix 4-Season tires in 25mm, a shiny new set of Shimano A-520 Road/Touring SPD pedals and a sparkly new 9-speed 12-23 cassette.

The smaller tires are the same size as I run on Yellow Bike, which allow just the smidge of room I needed in the brakes for the mounting hardware for the Portland’s factory quick-release fenderettes. Actually, only the rear one is mounted. The front one rubbed the tire, but while there was room in the brake, I couldn’t move the bracket up higher because the mounting tab intersected the headset. If I had a bench grinder, a few minutes with that would fix it, but I don’t.

Besides, I don’t intend to run fenders on Blue Steel a lot. I just want to get through snowmelt season with them. This weekend looks like it may be nice enough to get some good rides in. Tires made for the wet and a rear fender will get us through all the snowmelt we can find.

The Portland got a set of the Grand-Prix 4-Season tires in 28mm. I like the ride on 28mm tires, and the Portland has plenty of space for them. It also got a new RD. The cage got twisted a year ago parking in a snowbank, so the shifting has been off. Not far enough off to justify local or even US online pricing, but Ribble made it cheap enough.

The Portland will get its new parts later in the month when it’s time to take the snow tires off for the season.

Yellow Bike was not left out. Ribble had the impossible-to-find 13-23 8-speed cassette I like to run on Yellow Bike. The current one isn’t worn out yet, but I’ve been concerned I wouldn’t ever find another one. Now we have a spare.

Meanwhile, I feel a dose of spring fever coming on.

Oh, and the first day on the new job went well yesterday. Today will be the first three-legged commute with Presbytery in the morning and the library in the afternoon. I have to work a little more on a a wintertime route for that, so I’m off to Google Maps.

Yesterday the roads dried sufficiently that I could test ride that bike I wrote about last week without feeling guilty for riding a steel bike in the salt, or returning a dirty bike if I decided I wouldn’t buy it.

So I stopped by Towner’s Bike Shop on the way home and test rode it. I was primarily concerned about climbing. All my bikes have been triples. The new (to me) bike is a “standard” 53/39 double. The small ring is the same size as the Portland’s middle ring.

Climbing all over Cobb’s Hill went well. So I bought it.

Meet “Blue Steel”

Blue Steel is a 1999 Schwinn Peloton, the second from the top of the line in that model year. It’s a pure racing bike. There’s no room (or even mounts) for fenders, nor any mounts for racks.

The frame is TIG-welded Reynolds 853 double-butted steel—their best steel tubeset. Only their 953 stainless-steel is better. The front triangle is traditional racing geometry with a level top tube and standard (not oversize) tubing. It’s a look that I really, really like.

The rear triangle features oh so slender seatstays, and chainstays that start out oval and taper to round. Both sets of stays feature S-bends to help soak up the bumps. And they’re just sexy as all get out.

Box stock, (specs here) Blue Steel’s drivetrain was full Ultegra (9-speed), with the aforementioned 53/39 double in front. Nothing shabby at all about that. But its previous owner had a major case of upgraditis, so now it rocks a Dura-Ace rear derailleur. In other upgraded parts, it has an Easton EC30 carbon fork, Easton EC90 carbon bars, Thomson stem and seatpost, and a Selle Italia SLK Gel Flow saddle. All good stuff.

It rolls on an older set of Neuvation wheels, which were recently re-laced, and is shod with 28mm Specialized Armadillo All Conditions tires—the only upgrade I really don’t care for. While nearly perfectly puncture resistant, they’re heavy, and ride like cast iron.

The price was right too. I got the whole bike for less than the cost of the upgrades alone.

The test ride revealed a couple of things that needed attention. The rear shift cable was binding, the brakes needed a little adjustment, and the bars and levers needed adjustment to fit me better. Towner’s took care of the balky cable and housing, and I tackled the rest last night.

This morning I replaced its quick-release skewers with bolt-ons. I don’t have the finger or hand strength to open QRs without some sort of prying tool. Since I have to use tools anyway, I might as well use skewers designed for tools, so all my bikes have bolt-ons.

Rooting around in my bike parts box, I came up with the seatpost mount for my DiNotte taillight, and mounted that. I moved a DiNotte headlight and two battery packs over from the Portland. Yellow Bike graciously lent its second-bike kit for the cyclometer. And finally, I installed the Mirrycle Road Mirror for STI (Quelle horreur!) that I bought along with Blue Steel yesterday.

After a hearty brunch and a restorative nap, we hit the road this afternoon. Conditions weren’t ideal, but they were darned nice for February. I really wanted a not too stressful, getting to know you ride, so we took East Ave into the city, went north on St. Paul to Summerville on the lake, then turned around and came home the same way.

On the road, it’s fast and quick (two different things) like Yellow Bike, but where Yellow Bike always makes me feel like I have to pedal faster to keep up with it, Blue Steel eases down the road like the Portland does. It uses the same muscles that Yellow Bike does (and those are sadly out of shape), but it sits like the Portland.

The contact points seem to be in the right places, although come spring a longer stem will be nice. The bars will take some getting used to. The curve forward from the tops to the ramps is done in two 45° steps, and this angled part takes up most of the meat of the ramps. Hoods are okay, tops are fine, but the ramps, I dunno yet. I spent no time at all in the hooks or on the tails in this ride.

Blue Steel came with M-520 MTB pedals. That’s fine, because I ride SPDs, and the Portland came stock with the same pedals. I just prefer the A-520 “road” SPDs. The M-520s felt funny under my feet. Not bad, but unfamiliar. A-520s are in its future anyway, so it’s no big deal.

I think the saddle going to become a gem. It’s narrower than what I have on the other bikes, and I’ve been thinking a narrower saddle would work better for me. I just haven’t known which one to try, nor could i decide which bike to try it on. So it’s nice that the Peloton came with the Selle Italia SLK Gel Flow saddle. I get to try it basically for free. I think it’s a keeper.

The ride was marred only by the tires. On BikeForums someone referred to them as Army boots. I’m thinking concrete overshoes is the better descriptor. I’m ordering new 3-season tires for the Portland soon, so I’ll just order two sets.

Riding north and west of here, it’s really flat. The wide-ratio 9-speed cassette has a “hole” in the gearing right where my sweet spot is. It’s lacking a 16-tooth cog. Even way back on my first bike, the Giant hybrid, I found the 16 was missing, yet right where I want to be pedaling. I cured that with the 13-23 close-ratio cassette that I still run to this day on Yellow Bike. I had a 12-23 on order for the Portland before I even brought it home.

On the other two bikes, I can get away in hill country with the close-ratio cassettes due to their triple chainrings. With Blue Steel, I don’t have that, so I have to do something else. One thing is work on the motor so the 15 and 14 become the sweet spot. I’ll give that a go. But fortunately, 9-speed cassettes are pretty cheap, compared to the Portland’s 10-speed ones, so I’ll likely pick up a 12-23 for Blue Steel as well. I’ll have to switch back to the 12-27 for any hill riding, though.

And that’s about it for now. The tires excepted, there’s nothing bad about this bike. It needs only a little adjustment and personalization. It’s a welcome new member of the family here, and I think it’ll be around for a while.

New job and new bike. It’s a longer piece, but you’ll be done before either one happens.

New job

Problem One: I’ve wanted more hours at work ever since I became a clerk four years ago. I’m scheduled for only 12 hours a week at Winton Branch, and four hours a week at Sully Branch. I’m on the sub list, so I’ve been able to supplement this with subbing, but it’s not the same as a regular schedule with dependable income.

Problem Two: Each winter, I ride fewer and fewer recreational miles. The novelty has worn off, and having done it, I no longer have anything to prove. But, I feel best when I’m riding 50 or more miles a week. This winter I’m having a hard time with 20.

The Fix: Happily, I’ve been able to resolve both these problems with one solution. Last month I applied, Wednesday I was interviewed, Thursday I was offered and Friday I accepted a change in job location to the Arnett Branch across the river in the old 19th Ward.

My scheduled hours are one hour less than the maximum I’m allowed, which with belt-tightening of $2.50 a week, puts me right where I want to be income-wise. The schedule itself is a dream—Monday through Thursday, early afternoon to early evening each day.

This means I have all morning to myself, every morning. After lunch, I go to work, and I get home in time for a late dinner. I’ll miss the Tuesday Night Urban Assault Ride in the winter, but I haven’t been attending that anyway. In summer, I’ll miss the Monday Night Small Ring Ride and the Wednesday night club rides from Mendon Ponds Park. On the flip side, I’ll be able to attend more the club’s day rides.

Since I take two weekends off for ride weekends, (like the Great Finger Lakes Bicycle Tour coming up in June) I’ve had to use vacation time for them. A three-day weekend every week (besides being awfully hard not to like) saves me vacation time. It’s like getting extra vacation days.

On the down side, I’ll have to accept slightly lower standings in the Commuter Cycling Century Challenge at BikeJournal. On balance, I’m psyched over the schedule.

While my commuting days drop, my commuting mileage doubles and trebles. It’s 3.4 miles round-trip to Winton Branch, 4.4 to Sully Branch. The route I used on Wednesday for my interview is the best candidate for my MDAS (Most Direct And Safe) route to Arnett. It was 20 minutes each way, totaling 9¼ miles round trip. By itself that’s 75% of the 50 miles a week that I really need. Shopping and errands (plus commuting to my quarter-time job at Presbytery) will easily cover the rest.

And it’s such a nice route too! Using almost all secondary and residential streets, the only place I may have to contend with traffic is crossing the river on the Ford Street bridge. On either side of I-490 and either side of the river, I have all sorts of choices for variations. But the MDAS route uses the best part of Park Ave—from near Culver to Meigs—which even with regularity is unlikely to become monotonous.

In snowstorms, the residential streets are last to be plowed. They can become a bit dicey, especially as hardpack begins to form and again when it breaks up. Worst case, I can deal with traffic and buses, but ride clear pavement instead, by taking East to Main to Genesee to Arnett.

Finally, come summer, I can do all sorts of things the end up on the bike paths. I can exit the Riverway at the Ford Street bridge, or exit the Canalway at Chili Ave. If I want climbing instead of miles, I can ride Cobbs Hill to Pinnacle Hill up through Highland Park, then shoot through Mt. Hope Cemetery for a few hills before crossing the river on the ped bridge in the U of R. The possibilities are endless.

Oh, and did I mention that with the prevailing winds, I’ll have a tailwind home instead of having to buck a headwind at the end of a long day?

Things take time in library land. I don’t have a start date there yet. The earliest it could possibly happen is Monday March 8. My new boss is taking vacation soon and may not want me starting while she’s gone. So I may not start at Arnett until Monday March 22. Either way, I can’t wait.

New (to me) bike

When I resumed cycling four years ago next month, I rode the cycling learning curve pretty quickly, and bought a new bike every nine months. It’s been 29 months since I bought the Portland. I’m three bikes behind schedule.

Seriously, I love both the Portland and Yellow Bike. I’ve been very satisfied with them both, especially after the upgrades I put into them last year. Still, in the future, I really want a bespoke bike. Or two. Something about hand-built, one-of-a-kind, made-to-measure appeals to me strongly. (Maybe it’s all the hyphens.)

I don’t yet know enough about the different materials and geometries used in bikes to make an informed choice. Both the Portland and Yellow Bike are aluminum. I’ve learned that, contrary to popular opinion, aluminum doesn’t have to be a harsh ride (Yellow Bike can be, the Portland would never). I need to learn these sorts of things about steel, titanium and carbon fiber.

The first step is going to be steel. I came across a second-hand, well-made steel bike. I’ve put a deposit on it to hold it for me until a dry day when I can test ride it. A couple of quick measurements indicate it will fit me just fine, perhaps with an adjustment or two.

It’s a late 90s, TIG-welded frame made of Reynolds 853 tubing—a very good tubing set. It originally came with full Ultegra, and it’s previous owner had a major case of upgraditis on top of that. It has an Easton carbon fork and bars, Thompson seatpost and stem, Dura-Ace rear derailleur, Selle Italia saddle, and it rolls on Neuvation wheels shod with Specialized Armadillos. It even has pedals that fit my shoes.

It’s a lot of bike, and representative of the sort of parts spec I’d be looking at myself. I don’t have an exact weight yet, but it seems to be 8–10 pounds lighter than Yellow Bike and the Portland, which puts it in the upper teens.

You’ll never guess the brand.

It’s a Schwinn of all things. A 1999 Schwinn Peloton, the second from the top-of-the-line that year, and much higher-end than anything they’re selling now.

The original spec is here. Comparing that to what I listed above, you’ll see that every iffy part, and then some, have been replaced already. The price is more than Craigslist or Ebay, but less than I expected at an LBS. Oh yeah, I found it right across the street at Towner’s Bike Shop.

I knew I’d get in trouble moving so close to an LBS.

Pics and ride report coming soon…

The past week or ten days or so have been wonderful, weatherwise for R-Town in January. We’ve had sun on several days, highs above freezing on most of them, and other than a dusting last Tuesday morning, no snow.

Riding the studs on the Portland this year hasn’t been quite the effort as other years. Thinking about it, it’s a little easier every year as I become a stronger cyclist. But that doesn’t mean I don’t long for days with the road tires.

Unlike other years where I swapped wheelsets on the Portland, having only one dynamo hub means I don’t have that option this year. At least not if I need to ride home after dark. It does mean that Yellow Bike moves to the top of the list in winter when I want to ride without studs in the daylight hours.

So Yellow Bike got quite a few miles recently. We commuted to work on each of the past two Saturdays, and got in a pure pleasure ride last week Sunday. It rained yesterday.

Last Saturday we took the direct route to work, the rode home detouring southeast of the city through the hills of horse country. While there was evidence of other bikes around, we encountered only one cyclist, a greybeard named Ken, who was airing-out his Cannondale. We rode together for a few miles, talking before heading our separate ways.

Turns out, Ken is a fair-weather commuter, cycling to the U of R along the Canalway.

Last Sunday, Yellow Bike and I took a lap around Irondequoit Bay, taking advantage of both the weather and that the swing bridge over the outlet is swung shut in the winter allowing vehicular traffic to cross. Again, there was evidence of bikes, but we ran into only one other rider, Tom, a retiree from Ontario, NY, who was getting the wheels wet on his Ridley.

I was wearing my Club Hypoxia jersey, which has mountains on it, and this got conversation turned towards climbing. Tom does hillclimb racing with his summer bike, a Parlee. His third bike is a Titus. Old guys get all the good stuff.

During the week the Portland was back in service for commuting duty. I forgot exactly how bright the Schmidt Edelux headlight is on dry roads. Jeepers, that thing is bright. And along with the DiNottes, we really light up the road.

Last Wednesday the bikes got their mid-winter desalination and rub-down with Bike Lust. The Portland especially was filthy, despite getting rinsed-off after every ride. The bike hook in the shower is huge convenience, both for the everyday hosing-down, and for the periodic thorough scrubbing.

One thing I’ve slacked off on this winter was chain cleaning and lube. After its bath and polish session, I threw the chain-checker on the Portland before relubing. Uh, oh. The 0.75% side fit through easily, everywhere I tested. Fortunately the 1% side didn’t, so it’s not quite chain replacement time. I’ve gotten only 600 miles or so on this chain, or about a third of normal wear. Cleaning and lubing do make a difference, I guess.

This past Saturday, after a full week of thaw, I took a chance and got up early to take Yellow Bike on the Long loop to work. Around half of the 20-mile ride is on the bike paths, which aren’t plowed in the winter. There was really only one spot where I nearly got off and walked. For the most part, the bike paths were clear with spots of leftover snow and ice only in the occasional shady spot. And even those had paths worn through from foot and bike traffic.

The porta-potties are gone for the winter, but that doesn’t change my needs. I pulled over at one point where I can usually get a minute’s privacy. Not so. Runners were everywhere. One even told me I was brave for being out in the cold. (It was 18°F at the start of my ride.) No braver than she, I explained. After all, she was dressed similarly. I was able to stop and pee at my second choice.

The day seems to go so much better after a 20-mile ride into the rising sun. Saturday was just wonderful at work. It was also the debut of one of my new t-shirts.

I like to wear cycling-themed t-shirts to work on Saturdays. My collection was getting a little tired, so when I renewed my membership to Adventure Cycling Association earlier this month, I treated myself to three of their t-shirts.

I wore the Global Cooling t-shirt last week. It was quite the conversation starter. Easily a dozen patrons said they liked it, one asked where she could get her own.

The afternoon warmed up nicely—again for January in Rochester. Full sun, upper 30s and nearly no wind is as good as it gets. So Yellow Bike and I took the long loop home too. Along the way we encoutered Emily, a fair-weather bike commuter, out for her first ride of the year. She ordinarily commutes on the Canalway to MCH. On Saturday, she wasn’t quite so committed as I, and she turned back just after Clover Street, saying she’d ride the roads instead.

Further along a group of four cyclists were stopped discussing whether or not to proceed through the underpass at Kendrick Rd. One woman went through while the others stood around thinking. I said hi, and went through. The first woman stopped a hundred years past the underpass, looking for her friends. Instead, there was me.

“What did they do,” I asked her, “send you through first to see if it was safe?” She laughed. I stopped and shouted back, “Hey everybody, she lived! Come on through!” Now she just roared. It was great fun.

Yesterday, though, I was kinda glad it was raining. I don’t get many miles in during the winter, and I really felt that 40 miles in a day the next morning. Today I had to catch up on chores, seeing as how I washed bikes last week instead of cleaning the apartment. Besides, it was raining, then the winds came through before the cold front. It’s supposed to snow tonight.

So it’s back to winter, but I’m very grateful for the past two weekends. And I’m already looking forward to the February thaw.

When I first toured this apartment, it was full of other people’s stuff. And the other people. So I didn’t get a chance to do more than get an impression of it.

In my mind, the back wall of the living room would hold the bikes and bike stuff, and the front wall had a corner just right for a reading chair by the window.

Unfortunately, as relates to this apartment, imagination and architecture are in different, yet parallel universes—the latter one is smaller than the first.

The bikes wouldn’t fit together on the back wall. In fact, even one won’t fit there because of the french door to the sleeping alcove. There was no other place where my dual-bike rack would fit. I put it away and ordered two single racks with locking loops instead.

These racks are designed and sold for commercial parking garages. Those projects typically have a long lead time, so it took a while for them to come in. Then I had to decide where they’d go.

Then get help to install them. The ones for home use are aluminum. These are steel. Very heavy steel.

Today, my dad and I put them up, in the corner where the reading chair was supposed to go. I already like having the bikes off the floor and back up on the wall where they belong. I can lock them both when I go out too.

The space is small, but by staggering the height, I could conserve width by tucking one set of bars in behind the other, so they both fit in the space. And they have their own piddle tray on the floor.

Alas, no reading chair.

It’s been years since I had a decent kitchen—decades perhaps. Thinking about it, I don’t think I ever had a kitchen where I was really satisfied. Now I do.

I’d have taken this apartment anyway, but I nearly wet myself with glee when I first saw the kitchen. Right from the start working in here was a pleasure. There are separate storage, prep, cooking and clean-up spaces, each just the right size for one.

Of course, there’s the table space too, but I really don’t need it for a table, so that’s where my desk and bookcase live.

I made one change right away. I had my dad make a microwave shelf for over the stove. That made things just right. It’s not perfect—there’s no electric on stove/sink wall, and the freezer could be bigger—but it’s workable nonetheless.

Since then, I’ve been cooking, rather than just making food. Quickly I ran up against some issues. First, I’m horribly rusty once out of the comfort zone of a half-dozen meals I could prepare in a square foot.

Second, my repertoire is limited by my upbringing. I come from a meat and potatoes background. Vegetables were reserved for special occasions (and even then they came out of cans), and salad was had only for summer holidays. Herbs, spices and sauces were frowned upon because you didn’t need them if you bought good meat.

Thus, I have limited grounding in the nuts and bolts of how different stuff goes together from the market to the table.

So I’ve been on the hunt for new and tasty recipes. I struck gold with a new cookbook, The Pleasures of Cooking for One by Judith Jones. Jones was Julia Child’s book editor. I never thought of cookbooks having editors before, yet Jones has edited dozens of them, from all the best cooks.

Widowed in 1996, she has changed her approach to shopping, cooking and eating to scale it for one. Her experience in the kitchen and at the table in the intervening years has brought her to a place that I’d like to be.

The Pleasures of Cooking for One follows the whole of the market to table path of mealmaking. Shopping for one, building from what’s available this week, substitutions, and planning ahead for leftovers all get equal billing with what goes in the pan and how to cook it.

She offers solutions to several problems I frequently face, like what do to with the remaining milk in the quart after I’ve used that half-cup of it in the mashed potatoes? I love roast pork tenderloin, but tire of if three days in a row. What can perk up the second and third go ‘rounds?

I have a particular problem with Italian sausage. There are always an odd number of links in the package, and the links themselves have grown recently at my preferred grocery store, but not by so much that I can use just one at a time. She shares her solution to this very problem, with a fritatta—something I love, but have never made at home, because I don’t have cooked sausage lying about!

What’s also different from the hundreds of other cookbooks I’ve brought home from work is that it’s not about how to spend the entire evening in the kitchen, or making impressive dishes out of weird, rare and expensive ingredients.

Jones has a day job and making dinner for her is the means to the end of day. That’s how it is for me. I like cooking, I like eating, but they’re not the point of of life. They’re a means to an end. But still, why not enjoy it as you go along.

I’ve tried several of her sensible dishes from ingredients I already keep on hand, and they’ve been marvelous. A Potato Dish for Julia [Child] has quickly become a favorite. It’s giving me the confidence to go ahead and try other things, like several lamb dishes. And there’s not a mention of mint jelly in any of them.

I’m not quite there yet for the liver, kidney, or tongue dishes, but I can see where she’s going with them.

Jones also encourages experimentation and substitution. It’s been a good season for venison in my family and several beef and lamb dishes look like they’ll be equally yummy with Bambi instead of Elsie or Lambchop.

The final chapter is about baking for one. Like most people, I love baked goods. I’ve never had a kitchen where I really could bake, and frankly a lot of it intimidated me. And, trust me on this, I really don’t need six dozen cookies at a time.

One solution, is icebox cookies—dough you make ahead of time and keep in the fridge, slicing off and baking a few cookies’ worth at a time. Who knew? I’ve been making icebox cookies a couple of times a week since I learned.

But cookies, cakes and pastries aren’t my favorite. I love bread.

If asked, my mother will tell stories of how horrified she was when, as a toddler (remember, this was back in the 50s), I’d tear into a loaf while still sitting in the grocery cart the minute her back was turned. While common today, half a century ago, grazing your way through the grocery store was simply not done.

My grandmother would take me to the bakery, offer me cookies, and I’d ask for bread. Such a child!

The Pleasures of Cooking for One has a recipe for a baguette for one, with a little left over dough to make a pizza for one. I’ll get there, but I wanted to start with the basic loaf. Surfing for recipes, I found one, a beginner’s basic loaf, that sounded perfect.

I wish I could share with you how nice this smells and tastes. You’ll just have to go with the pictures.

This is my first loaf, which I made last night.

It was easy, it was fun, it was delicious, and it’s gone.

It’s been an amazing November. For the season, the weather has been very good. It’s made for some excellent rides. You wouldn’t know it was Chirstmas shopping season.

Today Yellow Bike and I went out for a nice little 30-miler along the lake shore and out through Greece. It was one of those days where the old motor was just singing along, moving free and easy right from the first pedal stoke.

It kept up all the way through and coming home on University, I felt like riding right past my place and maybe putting in another 20 or 25 miles out south and east of the city.

The only fly in the ointment is I was already over the river when I remembered that the Irondequoit Bay Outlet Bridge was swung shut for vehicular traffic. I could have added Webster to my Irondequoit, City and Greece shoreline tour. Oh well.

The ta-da part in all of this is that November is my fourth-highest mileage month of the year, after July, June and May, respectively. With today’s ride we broke past August’s miles, and I’m less than 44 miles short of May. (!)

With tomorrow’s forecast of cold, and wind and rain, I’m not even going to try to beat May. But I have my monthly bill-paying errands to run, so the Portland and I will be out in the rain getting in some end-of-the-month miles in during the afternoon after a morning of laundry and housecleaning.

December seems poised to start with more seasonally-appropriate weather. Snow is forecast from Tuesday right through the coming weekend. The ground is still too warm for it to stick, but I’ve got the studded snow tires up from the basement, waiting in the closet.

Jingle bells!