Scenic Route

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!

I’ve been waiting for the perfect setting and lighting to shoot some pics of the new wheels.

It just ain’t happenin’.

So for now, I’m settling for these. You’ll have to settle for them as well.

Click ’em for something a bit larger.

Shimano Alfine dynamo hub, in black, on the front. You’ll see the wires and connection on the right fork leg.

 

Complete front wheel with Velocity VXC disc-brake-specific hoop in Spangled Silver, the CenterLock version of Avid’s G3 rotor, all held together with 32 DT Competition spokes laced three-cross. Shown with my three-season road tires, Bontrager Race Lite Hardcase in 28mm.

 

As I see it from the bed when I wake up. Here the Portland is wearing its cyclocross tires, Bontranger Jones CXR.

 

Velocity road disk rear hub in black. The brake caliper was recently replaced by Avid under warranty. The new one has that hole in the top which I’m hoping will help me flush out the salt come winter. We’ll see.

 

Completed rear wheel with Velocity VXC hoop, the ISO six-bolt version of Avid’s G3 rotor, spoked and laced same as the front. Shown with the Arkel Tailrider trunk bag and Nashbar Daytrekker panniers.

 

Headlights. My two DiNotte 200L-AA-S on the bars with their battery packs hanging on the stem, and the new Schmidt Edelux on the fork crown. The other widget with the wingnut on the bars is my camera mount.

 

Taillights. The distinctive twin reflectors and center LED of the Busch & Müller D’toplight XS Plus mounted to the rack’s taillight mount, and the DiNotte 140R-AA-R mounted between the rack leg and fender. My Arkel Tailrider trunk bag rides on top and the Nashbar Daytrekker panniers hang on the sides.

“Dude, that’s a nice light. I’m riding with you,” said John on tonight’s Tuesday Night Urban Assault (TNUA) ride. Then, referring to my twin DiNotte 200Ls on the bars he asked, “Now is that with all three of them on?”

“Nope. Just the one,” I replied.

“Awesome!”

Schmidt Edelux headlight

Tonight was my first real test of the Schmidt Edelux light driven by the Shimano Alfine dynamo hub, and I heard similar things all night long. It’s just plain impressive.

It wasn’t the brightest light on the ride—HIDs still out-power it—but it puts plenty of light in a useful spread on the pavement, whereas the HIDs all seem throw light up into to the trees and out into passing shrubbery. And when one of them comes at you, they put plenty of light directly into your eyes. I’m not convinced they light up the actual pavement any better than an Edelux.

The whole reason I bought the Edelux is that it doesn’t scatter its light all around the neighborhood. Its LED shines backwards into a segmented scoop-shaped reflector which directs all the light forward with final focusing through a ground glass lens.

As a result, the Edelux keeps its output in tight boundaries on the pavement. It lights up a six-foot wide rectangle of pavement from about 5 feet out to about 50 feet, judging by my night-blind eyes. There are a couple of beams sent out at about a 45° angle, and a smile of light on the ground right in front of the wheel as well.

On the streets, the Edelux’s beam becomes indistinguishable from car headlights in the lane next to me. I run the DiNottes too on city streets, mainly for the be-seen aspects. The DiNotte’s symmetrical conical-shaped beam puts a lot of light out to the sides and up in the air, which is good on city streets. That picks up signs and alerts drivers on side streets and in driveways. It’s a good thing.

Once out from under the city streetlights, by my defective eyes anyway, running my DiNotte headlights in addition to the Edelux doesn’t seem to appreciably improve what I can see, how far I can see, or how well I can see it. A wider beam would be nice in a very few places with very tight turns. Of course, I could just slow down a bit. Away from streetlights, the Edelux is just fine all by itself.

And for light on the road in front of me, one Edelux beats two DiNotte 200Ls.

I am very satisfied with the Edelux.

Busch & Müller Dtoplight XS Plus taillight

The B&M taillight is nice too, there’s just less to rave about in a taillight. Except it’s very red—one of the reddest lights I’ve ever seen.

The .6-watt LED is equivalent to the ½-watt “bright” LED in a PlanetBike SuperFlash blinkie—widely acknowledged to be the second-best rear light after the DiNotte—but conforming to EU laws, the B&M light does not blink. It points a nice bright spot of light out the back, and is clearly visible to the sides as well.

The reflectors are angled up a bit, which seems to make them more visible when I walk up behind the bike. I would expect it does the same for motorists.

On the TNUA, super-bright taillights—especially blinking ones—can be very annoying. There are several riders I simply can’t ride behind. In group rides, (day or night) I always run with my DiNotte taillight off. I’m pleased with both the visibility of the B&M, and that it wasn’t so bright to cause complaints from other riders.

Shimano Alfine Dynamo Hub

The Shimano Alfine front dynamo hub is a very nice piece of work. When the lights are off, there’s no more rolling resistance than with my old wheels. In the work stand, you can spin the front tire and it takes a satisfyingly long time to spin to a stop.

With the Edelux’s ambient light sensor turning the lights on and off automatically, I can honestly say that I can’t tell the difference as I’m riding along. One might think that as it kicks-in through an underpass that I’d notice something. All I notice is that the light has come on. There’s no difference in feel through the bars, feel through the pedals, and no feeling of slowing down.

Even tonight on a couple of fast descents, there was no feeling of increased drag. It’s just plain amazing.

Of course, the endless runtime is also satisfying. I’ve always had to leave TNUA rides early so that my batteries didn’t run out of the way home. I’ve miscalculated a couple of times and have had to ride home without lights.

A couple of riders on tonight’s ride had their batteries run out. Fortunately, they drive to the ride, and within a group of 62 riders, you can get by with the light from other riders.

For me, it felt really nice to not have to worry about runtime at all. When I left the group, I fired-up the DiNottes (for their off-axis “be-seen” aspects) and still had at least 90 minutes of runtime left in them when I got home.

Velocity Road Rear Disc Hub

Did I mention the rear hub? The freehub makes nice, expensive-sounding noises. Coasting along, it sounds smooth and precise, as opposed to smooth and mushy.

It doesn’t have the sharp, snapping sound of a Campy, a Chris King or a Phil Wood. I find them too loud too. The Velocity hub is quieter and sounds more like a watch than a ratchet. Very refined.

It also rolls like the dickens. It has the same frictionless feel that Yellow Bike’s hubs have. In the work stand, it spins a ridiculously long time. It gets boring waiting for it to spin down.

Velocity VXC disc-brake specific rims

There’s more to wheels than hubs. As for the rest of the wheels, I like them a lot. This, despite the rear hoop having a defect near where it’s welded together. It has a shimmy and a flat spot there that no amount of tensioning and truing can remove. Two people have tried, one of them twice. Velocity is sending a new hoop under warranty.

Despite this, the wheels feel oh-so-nice under me. They have the same quality feel I associate with Yellow Bikes handbuilt wheels. There’s some, hard to describe feeling I get only on handbuilt wheels. They feel velvety smooth, yet tough as nails. The don’t roll so much as glide. And they don’t feel like they’re going to freak out on hard bumps.

With the old wheelset, I never jumped curbs. The wheels felt too frail. The new wheels feel robust, so tonight we jumped curbs. Plenty of ‘em, and in both directions. I felt a confidence I never felt with the old wheels. And there was nary a complaint from them.

Plus, these new rims are wider. That made the tires easy to mount. I’ve never been able to mount a tire with just my fingers. I can do it with these new rims. The additional width also means additional volume. Additional volume means I can run with less pressure.

I’m still experimenting, but it looks like I can go with a jaw-droppingly low 60 PSI in front, and somewhere between 70 and 75 in the back. On a road bike, with 28mm tires rated for 120 PSI. What that does for the ride is simply magnificent.

The Portland has always ridden nice. With the old wheels, I ran it at 70 PSI front, 80–85 PSI in the back. It rode nice, and it rolled forever. Now it rides even better, and it still rolls and coasts like there’s no resistance at all.

Summary

With these new wheels and new lights, the Portland has finally become the bike it was meant to be. And I couldn’t be happier with it.

While it’s been a capable all-weather commuter these past two years, it’s always felt limited by its wheels. The new wheels take it to the next level, where there’s no concern about equipment at all.

And with the new lights, we own the night.

The Portland’s new wheels are all built. But we need a lockring for the front brake rotor. So I can’t pick them up until after work on Monday. Drat!

Meanwhile, here are all the drooly particulars.

Front dynamo hub

I chose the Shimano Alfine dynamo hub for the front. This will power the lights. It is what needs the lockring for Shimano’s proprietary centerlock disk rotor mounting system.

I simply could not afford the Schmidt SON dynamo hub. The Schmidt is supposed to have a little less rolling resistance, and be a few percent more efficient. The electrical specs are all set by German law, so there’s no difference in output between it and the Alfine. The Alfine is Shimano’s most expensive dynamo hub, yet it’s about a third of the price of the Schmidt.

Within Shimano’s line, there are several choices. Word is that most of them use the same internals, so it’s simply a matter of choosing your brake type, axle style, color and price point. The Alfine can be used with disc brakes or traditional brakes, and it comes in black. General consensus is that road salt is less likely to ruin the finish of the black. Plus the rear hub is black, so it had to match.

Rear road disk hub

Finding a rear hub was challenge. The Portland uses standard 130mm road spacing between the rear dropouts.

Most disc hubs are made for mountain bike spacing, or 135mm. Aluminum doesn’t bend like steel, so cold-setting (spreading) the frame to 135mm is not an option. And I didn’t want to have to deal with any chainline issues that might be involved.

The only, real, affordable 130mm road disk hub we could find is from Velocity. And even so, it costs the same as the front dyno hub. Until I have a few miles with it, there’s not much to say about it.

Except that the hub page on Velocity’s web site is the easiest place to see the part of the disc brake weight penalty due to heavier hubs. Compare the weights of the various front and rear rim brake hubs with their disc brake counterparts.

Rotors

I thought rotors would be a special challenge. First, for winter use I want stainless-steel. Second, I wanted the rotors to match, despite one being Shimano centerlock and the other being standard ISO six-bolt. And I wanted to avoid using a Centerlock-to-ISO adaptor if I could.

It seems that Avid, makers of the very same BB7 disk brakes on the Portland, make a stainless-steel rotor that comes in Centerlock or ISO. They charge dearly for the things—over twice what I paid for the Delta stainless-steel rotors on my current winter wheelset. But despite different mounting systems, the rotors will match.

Rims

There are only two real choices in disc-specific hoops. Either the Mavic A317 Disc, or the Velocity VXC. The Mavic comes in only black or silver, and weighs more than the Velocity. And I’ve been pleased with the Velocity rims on Yellow Bike. They seem to hit the sweet spot between lightness and strength.

The hardest part of buying Velocity rims is choosing a color. The Portland is burnt orange metallic. Rims in pink, yellow, blue, red, gold, purple or Celeste, just wouldn’t work. What I really wanted, titanium grey, isn’t offered on the VXC. That left black, white or silver. I wasn’t enthused over any of those either.

In a call to Velocity we learned that Spangled Silver is available in the 700C size, although it’s not listed on the web site. Depending on if you look at the USA or Australian web sites, Spangled Silver could be sort of a silver metal flake over black, or a black sputtering on silver. Either way, it would be unique and will probably hide the salt better than any other choice. So Spangled Silver it is.

Spokes

There was no question in my mind. Spokes would be DT Swiss Competition—double-butted, stainless-steel. I can never remember the model name, Competition, so I just specified 14/15 (2.0mm/1.8mm for you metric folks).

With the black hubs and black background of the hoops, black spokes would probably look better, but I chose silver anyway. I’ve learned with the Portland that nobody stocks black spokes—even dealers who sell tons of bikes with black spokes. Every time I broke a spoke, I got a silver replacement. It looks silly.

Yes, I’m going 32-spokes instead of 24, and standard spacing instead of paired, and 3-cross instead of 2—all things that should pretty much eliminate spoke breakage. But I’m never going through the “we only stock silver” thing again. So the spokes are silver. Full stop.

Oh, and brass nipples for strength and corrosion resistance.

In total

I don’t know yet, but I’m hoping the rear wheel will weigh less than the current ones. I really, really want a lighter wheel in back. That’s the one I spin. I know it’ll never come close to Yellow Bike as far as “spinability”, but I’m hoping for better than I have.

When I pick them up Monday, I’ll have them weighed.

And shortly after, I’ll report back, with pics.

Nearly a month has passed since our last visit. However, not much news to pass on.

I got my first cold of the season out of the way. Unfortunately, it was in progress on Columbus Day, which meant I missed out annual Leaf-Peepers Century ride to Letchworth.

Last year I was just getting over a cold and wasn’t sure if I’d be able to make it. It was in the 50s at the start, and after a few miles the ride literally kicked the snot right out of me. I was fine for the rest of the day.

This year was 28°F for the start, with damp and 40°F all day in the forecast. I’ll ride at 28°F no problem, and I’ll ride at that temp sick. But not for eight hours.

I also missed the first and second TNUAs of the season for the same cold. Although for the second I had the additional excuse of subbing for a vacationing co-worker that week. Come to think of it, I didn’t make it for that reason for the third week too. An additional workday and three double-shifts in the week, leaves little time to recover from a TNUA.

In other workplace news, it’s only taken three years (Or has it been four?) since I was promoted to Clerk, but I’m finally on the regular schedule at work for my full complement of hours. I picked up an additional shift at Sully Branch starting two weeks ago.

Now I can project my budget into the future without fudge factors or hoping for sub shifts that may not come. Sub shifts will truly become extra money.

Of course, I’d promised myself two or three years ago that I’d join the New York State Pension System when I got up to full hours. There just wasn’t extra money to put away—especially not during those years I was at minimum wage.

I have to “buy back” the last eight years to when I first started at the library, so for the foreseeable futures I’ll be paying double into the system to make up. That’s why I couldn’t quite swing it until now.

Bike stuff

I’m still waiting on the new wheelset for the Portland. The new lights came in, and yesterday I mounted them. So I’m getting very anxious to have the new wheelset with the generator hub.

The Schmidt Edelux headlight is smaller than I’d imagined. It’s a shade under two inches in diameter, and about the same depth. It mounts in front of the head tube, above the front fender and below the head badge. You almost don’t notice it there, which is nice.

There’s a choice of finishes. I got it in black hoping it will stand up to the salt better than polished aluminum. There’s a lot of “blow back” from the front tire, and I’ve noticed the polished aluminum fork crown is starting show signs of corrosion.

Well, at least it was until the fork was replaced under warranty. The fender eyelets started coming loose. The last thing I need is for the fender stays to pop out and snag in the spokes. The only remedy was a new fork. The fork was on Trek’s nickel thanks to the five-year warranty. I paid only for installation, and the headset was overdue for service anyway.

Anyway, it took a couple of tries, but I finally ordered the right fork crown mount for it. The “universal” mount for bikes with disk, cantilever or V-brakes wouldn’t work, since the Portland’s fork has no holes in the front of the fork crown.

I ended up using one for road caliper brakes. Instead of mounting behind the brakes and reaching under them to hold the light in front of them, it mounts to the back of the fork and reached under the fork crown.

I’m really, really pleased with the thought that’s gone into the design and execution of the whole system of Schmidt Edelux headlight, Busch & Mueller taillight and the associated wiring.

The headlight connects to the hub (once it arrives.) The taillight connects to the headlight. There is no switch at all on the taillight. The headlight’s switch controls both. The switch is a magnetic reed type that requires no holes through the sealed case. It has three positions: Off, on, and sensor.

Yes, in sensor mode, it turns the lights on automatically below a certain ambient light level. So once everything is installed, in theory, I should never have to touch it.

Operating on that assumption, I spent over an hour yesterday mounting the new lights and running the wiring between them. I fussed, and tucked, and zip-tied, and inspected, and tore it apart and started over again—lather, rinse, repeat—to the point where, unless you’re specifically looking for it, the wire running from one end of the bike to the other is nearly undetectable.

I’m plenty proud of it anyway.

I took the opportunity to clean up my home brew rear brake cable routing, and the cyclometer cadence and speed sensor installations too. Now they all look just dandy.

There’s a little loop of wire between the fork and the frame downtube to allow movement without pulling, and the scant two inches of excess wire is looped behind the taillight. Otherwise, well, only an internal routing would be cleaner.

I’m undecided a bit on the new B&M taillight. Their taillights have always been a bit funky looking. It took me a year to get used the battery-powered one this new one replaces.

I like the funkiness of this new one, but with its twin round reflectors flanking what can only be described as a “schnoz”, I can’t decide whether it looks like Mickey Mouse, or if I should put Groucho glasses on it. Although, I’m leaning towards Groucho because Groucho is funkier than Mickey.

Yellow Bike

Yellow Bike hasn’t been left out of the current round of upgrades.

As you may recall, Yellow Bike was Trek’s bottom-of-the-line road bike ten years ago. While I’ve upgraded nearly all the components since I bought it almost three years ago, I never got around to the brakes.

The best that can be said of the cheap, unbranded brakes is that they stopped. Modulation was iffy and feel was vague. And the back one never stayed centered. Of course I’m spoiled by the Portland’s brake feel and superb modulation, so when I get on Yellow bike, I have to really work at adjust to how its brakes work.

The new fork (which I still love) required a new “long reach” front brake. The one we got was a Shimano model that’s outside the usual groupset designations, in what used to be called the “hi-grade” series, but they’re allegedly Ultegra level.

Well, the new front brake was a huge improvement. But, it became a real hassle to stop the bike because of the huge difference in feel and modulation between the two brakes. For most of the last few months, I’d simply ignored Yellow Bike’s rear brake and used only the front.

I finally got Yellow Bike a new rear brake. It’s not quite a match aesthetically, but it’s to the same level mechanically and operationally. I installed it last weekend and it was a real joy use.

Also since the crash, I’ve dithered on the stem. As you may recall, in the post-crash fitting, from muscle-memory I dialled-in exactly the same too-long reach I’d been stuck with before.

Riding around last week I found myself riding the ramps all the time, with the knuckle at the base of my index fingers jammed up against the hoods. That’s no way to ride a bike, and it’s damned uncomfortable. So I finally decided to get a shorter stem. We go to the shop tomorrow or Tuesday to do it.

Home front

I’ve really settled-in to the new place and it truly feels like home. I’m very, very happy here.

I’m still waiting for the bike racks I ordered in August (!), so I’m not ready to share photos of the whole place, but here are two.

First is Yellow Bike, locked to the living room radiator, looking wistfully out the window. I was sick and stuck indoors on that fine-looking autumn day. And Yellow Bike was none too pleased about it.

Second is the Portland taking a shower. I installed a bike hook in the tub so I can hang the bikes to wash them. It works beautifully.

Meanwhile, I can’t think of anything else I need here. I’ll pick up another print or two when something strikes me, but I don’t even mind a few blank spaces on the walls.

The kitchen remains a joy. I’ve nearly filled the cabinets with food. Despite being in a secure job, I can’t quite shake the insecure feeling even a cubic inch of unused food storage gives me. It doesn’t seem that long ago when the only thing I had in the house was the dregs at the bottom of a potato flakes box.

I’ve gotten used to a sink with no disposer. And I’m nearly adjusted to the stove. The oven is fine, but it’s taking me a while to get used to using a gas cooktop again.

My Sunday breakfast isn’t quite perfected yet in this new kitchen. First, the new microwave is a little ambitious when it comes to cooking bacon. I have to lie to it and say there are only two slices to cook instead of the three I put in. Yes, it’s only an appliance, but lying to it still somehow seems wrong.

In the old place I’d reached the point of military precision in the preparation of fried eggs. I didn’t even have to think about it. I’m getting there, but I don’t quite yet have the eyeball for the flame.

That’s it for today, I think. I feel a nap coming on. Two weeks of extra hours preceded by ten days of a cold, and I’m going to yield to the urge.

The books we read, and what we do with them, reveal much about us.

Checking in books from the overnight bookdrop this morning, one caught my eye. It has to be overdue, I thought as I ran it under the scanner. Sure enough, it was. The Procrastinator’s Handbook: Mastering the Art of Doing It Now by Rita Emmett, was returned a day late.

If anyone should ask, bad behavior costs $1.00. Or at least that was the fine, when a patron was four days late in returning The Cost of Bad Behavior: How Incivility Is Damaging Your Business and What to Do About It by Christine Pearson and Christine Porath. She returned it in-person, and we both had a good laugh about it.

I’m not immune. I frequently refer to myself as clueless. What am I reading now? One Hundred Essential Things You Didn’t Know You Didn’t Know: Math Explains Your World by John D. Barrow.

Sunday was my two-year anniversary with the Portland.

Not much has changed in the way I feel about this bike since I wrote Superlative two weeks and 200 miles after I rode it home for the first time. It remains a superb all-rounder that’s a joy to ride and I’m proud to be seen on.

The bike still seems custom-made for me and the riding I do. It’s nimble in traffic, yet stable carrying loads. It carves up curvy pavement with such ease it’s become ho-hum boring. The handling is precise, yet forgiving when I make a mistake. And it’s a comfortable ride.

Two years and 8,000 miles in and it hardly seems worse for wear. The shiny bits still sparkle, and I’ve put only one scratch in the paintwork. Most of the mechanicals are still original, save for wear parts.

The right-hand lever is new. But that was due to crash damage. The rear brake caliper was a problem right from day one. SRAM/Avid replaced it under warranty a couple of months ago, and the new one is fine.

That leaves the wheels. The 24-spoke wheels, with their trademark Trek paired-spoke lacing sure look pretty, but in a word, they suck.

The wheels weigh a ton, they won’t stay true, and they break spokes with regularity.

On the Monday Night Small Ring ride this week, we were just riding along (JRA) in a nice paceline through Irondequoit on St. Paul heading for Summerville. I heard a ping, felt something through the pedals and the guy on my wheel called out, “Bruce, I think you broke a spoke. Your rear wheel has a wobble.”

Of course I broke a spoke. These wheels always break spokes.

We crossed the river, rode to Turning Point Park where we tried removing the broken spoke, but settled for wrapping it around another so it wouldn’t get caught in anything.

Tuesday morning I had it fixed, ($23) and I ordered parts to have a new wheelset built.

I ordered 32-spoke Velocity VXC disk-brake-specific hoops in silver, a Velocity rear hub, DT Swiss Competition 14/15 spokes with brass nipples, and a Shimano dynamo (generator) front hub.

Oops. It seems I forgot to order brake rotors. I’ll have to remember to do that.

I expect these wheels to be both stronger and lighter than the stock wheels. Yellow Bike’s wheels use Velocity Aerohead and Aerohead O/C hoops and DT Swiss Revolution 14/17 spokes. I’m very happy with Yellow Bike’s wheels. They are strong and light. We’ll have a weigh-in when I pick up the Portland’s new wheels.

What’s kept me form ordering them sooner is that I wanted the dynamo hub. It will power new lights, and the cost of the hub and the lights can be breathtaking. Especially since I really, really wanted the Schmidt SON dynamo hub. The best there is, and they know it when they set the price.

While I continue to rave about my DiNotte headlights, my night vision continues to deteriorate. While most people gasp in awe at the DiNotte’s light output, (let alone two of them) I need more light. And I’m not yet ready to switch to a light with proprietary batteries and chargers. Dynamo lights are the only other option.

It’s out of both frustration (with wheels and lights) and economy that I’ve settled for a Shimano hub. It’s less than half the price, and only slightly less efficient. I’m still holding out for a Schmidt Edeluxe headlight ($200) and a B&M taillight. I’ll be dipping into my emergency money for those.

I’m considering it my two-year anniversary gift to the bike and to myself, as we cross the equinox into the dark part of the year.

With any luck the new wheels and additional lights will keep us both in good stead for many more anniversaries to come.