Scenic Route

Last night and Wednesday night I was wired up at the sleep research center. Unfortunately, I slept wonderfully—by my standards. I’m not sure how they’ll interpret it.

Among the techs, there was a trainee and one of the is techs noted among the staff there for heavy glue use. I lost most of one eyebrow, and had to get more solvent even after my shower on both days. But, no electrodes fell off overnight either.

I’d also not considered the problem a freshly sunburned face would be with both the exfoliation before gluing the electrodes on, and scrubbing the glue off in the morning. Ouch!

On the plus side, I did a few things differently this time and lost a lot less hair to the shower-without-conditioner prep process and to the morning glue removal process. And I mentioned to the techs my trouble with the EKG electrodes last time. I had gotten silver-dollar sized itchy red marks from them last time and the itching lasted for the better part of a month. They used different ones this time, designed for use on kids, and there’s no apparent problem.

As an aside, I’m back down to 162½ pounds. My resting pulse has dropped by 10 bpm to 54 and both numbers on my blood pressure dropped 10 points to 100/60. At those numbers, the tech said it was the strongest heartbeat he’d heard. He wanted a volume control for the stethoscope. I suppose I can blame all that on the bike. Geeze, just over 30 days. Amazing.

I took the bus there on Tuesday night because my bike wasn’t supposed to be ready until Wednesday. It seems like so long ago that the 50-minute bus ride didn’t bother me.

I picked-up my bike on Wednesday. While I was there, I had them install the fenders. As it turns out, unless you get a bike from the factory with all crap you want designed for and already installed on your frame, there’s a lot of messing around to get things fitted.

Because of the design of my bike’s frame, I can’t fit standard fenders. There’s no mounting holes on the front fork. My only choice was from several different removable styles. I’m not really bothered by that because once the fenders were mounted, it didn’t look or feel like my bike any more. And they rattle. The same rattle I remember on my bikes as a kid.

So I took them off when I got home and practiced putting them back on. Takes about ten minutes. I think I can work that in when there’s rain in the forecast.

Last night I rode my bike to the hospital. I took the Genesee River Trail rather than go over the hill as I’ve been doing. Takes a few extra minutes, but it’s a much more enjoyable ride and I felt no different when I arrived than if I’d taken the bus.

Those two days of enforced no riding worked wonders for my legs.

I rode the same route back this morning. After clearing two blocks of AM rush-hour traffic, I swung into the main university campus and then on to the trail. Wow! What a difference. It was quiet. So quiet I could hear the waves on the river lapping at the shore. My bike made the most noise, so I decided not to coast, just so it didn’t break the silence.

Traffic on the three or four miles consisted of two joggers and one other biker who came over a pedestrian bridge just behind me. A handful of squirrels and a bunch of crows punctuated the ride.

The trail ends in the heart of downtown, across the bridge from the courthouse, across the street from the central library, two
office buildings and a block from the parking garaged that collapsed a week ago. Exiting the trail to the sidewalk, the change in environment is sudden. Traffic, trucks, buses, pedestians everywhere. And the noise. I never paid attention to it before. It was simply the contrast that brought it to my attention.

Fortunately, from downtown to home is counter to the main flow of morning traffic and my side of the street was fairly clear. Lights seemed time just right for me and never eve had to slow down for left turns. I made my lane changes and turned without need for coasting, braking or downshifting. When I got home I wished the ride had been longer.

I waited a while until Tamra opened at One Hip Chic Optical. I rode over and let Tamra pick out some new sunglass frame for me. As usual, I loved the first frames she suggested for me. I should have my new sort of retro trendy sunglasses next week.

I took a long way home just to get a ride. Which wasn’t hard to do since One Hip Chic is just two blocks away. I didn’t do anything special or long or challenging. Just put some time in the saddle and miles on the wheels while looked at lawns, flowering trees and and stuff as I spun by.

Backtracking a bit, my new backpack arrived yesterday. I had everything packed in my old one, just in case, but UPS arrived with plenty of time to spare.

My first reaction? It’s fucking huge! After removing only the change of clothes and shaving kit from my old bag, my new Brain Bag from Tom Bihn swallowed the old one whole. And then, into the second main compartment, it swallowed my helmet. Room to spare, and nary a burp.

Yikes!

I unloaded the old bag completely, the loaded all the usual crap into the Brain Bag. Then I loaded my bike shit—which fit perfectly into the compartment I planned for it. Next I loaded the change of clothes—sleepwear and fresh clothes for the morning—and the shaving kit and a hardcover book. There was still room in the first main compartment! Finally, I stuffed my helmet into the second main compartment.

There was still room.

By the numbers, this bag is only two inches bigger in all three dimensions than the old one. That’s less than three fingers. So I didn’t follow thorough with the multiplication. Those two inches though, make the new bag over 40% bigger than the old one.

Strapping it on, the Brain Bag doesn’t feel any bigger or bulkier than the old one. It rides right where it should, even when I’m on the bike. The shoulder straps are wider, which is good because with 40% more capacity, I’m bound to carry more weight too. There’s also a sternum strap to keep it from shifting left and right, and a waist strap to move some of the load to my hips under a heavy load.

The wasit strap is one of my two disappointments. I wish it was detachable. I won’t need it most of the time, but left hanging, I’m aftraid it will snag in spokes. Secone, I had hoped the upper strap on the umbrella look had a buckle that opened. I wanted to run teh strap through the air vents in my helmet. Alas, it has only a cinch. On the other hand, the helmet fits inside, which is something I never even considered.

So far, I’m still in shock from the size (but it doesn’t make me look like a sherpa, so don’t get the wrong idea there.) Still, I was looking for a bigger bag and this one will fit everything I wanted to fit, and then some.

I was thinking that except for bread and gallon jugs of milk, I could fit almost two weeks of groceries in it, (remembering I’m single and I don’t buy a lot of prepared food in boxes full of air.)

Coupled with my new grocery-getter panniers that arrived today, I’m ready to do some serious damage at the grocery store. I got a pair of the Townie Baskets from Nashbar.

These bags aren’t as big as I’d hoped. They could be a little taller. On the other hand, at $17 on sale, they’re the cheapest ones I found and the only ones where the covers came standard, not as options. The covers aren’t anything special, just yellow nylon with elastic and they self-store in a little compartment. They fit on the panniers like a shower cap and are just enough to keep things from bouncing out and a light rain from getting in. You wouldn’t want to do anything other than ride home from the grocery store with these covers, and that’s just fine for my intended use.

If I’m really going to stock up, I could also take my duffle and strap it to the top of the pannier rack. The four bags together would hold nearly a full cart of groceries. As long as I remember the weight rating of the pannier and put heavy things like meats and canned goods in the backpack, I should be just fine.

Also in the box that arrived today was what I hope will be the last bit of bike shit for while. I got a CatEye wireless cadence and speed bike computer. So now I’ll know how fast I’m going, how far I’ve gone and rate at which I’m pedaling.

It installed easily enough, once I figured out how the shims and adjustments worked for the handlebar mount. The electronics? Well, if you enjoy setting digital watches, you won’t mind this. I found it a pain and unneccessarily complex. The instructions were also less than helpful.

In the end, I think it’s set correctly. They include a chart for wheel sizes and circumference. My tires have two sizes listed, so I’m not sure if I should use 2180mm or 2200mm. I’ll work it out eventually. Or I’ll just take the average. If I get really ambitious, I’ll do what the forums recommend for maximum accuracy, which is to got on the bike and measure out one revolution. Somehow, I don’t see that happening.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 4th, 2006 at 10:41 pm EST and is filed under Bike, Generic. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.