brendan
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@Riley Casey 47198 wrote:
I do kinda miss these being behind Qualia Coffee even though I haven’t been to one at Annies Hardware. Coffee and bikes are such a good combination.
Annie’s is just a few blocks from Qualia. Plus, Yes! Organic Market is on the way. And, if you’re more old fashioned, the 7-11 around the corner has hi-test.
B
Give it a nice wash to get the winter salt and grime off.
Clean the grime and muck off of and out of the chain, chainrings, cassette and derailleur assemblies.
Check to make sure your wheels are aligned and properly/safely bolted/cammed onto your fork and dropout.
Manually check for loose/broken spokes and a wheel out of true.
Check your brake pads and tires, looking for signs of excessive wear or misalignment with respect to the rim and/or braking surfaces.
Check cables, especially ends, for dirt and fraying. Check cable housing for signs of end of life.
Check for chain stretch plus cassette and chainring wear.
Check your bottom bracket and headset for slop/looseness.
Make sure your handlebars (and stem, if applicable) are properly positions and that the associated bolts are torqued to a reasonable tightness. These can come loose over time, I’ve found out the hard way.
Adjust and/or replace anything problematic above as necessary.
If you or you and your friends are comfortable doing all of the above, then no, you don’t need to get it professionally tuned this season.
If not, you can bring it to a shop and leave it there for a full tune up for some number of days. Or you can come by The Bike House clinic in DC any Saturday and if you get there early enough, you can learn how to do many of these things using your bike and their tools! Well, except maybe the full wash, but you can figure that one out on your own.
Oh…helmet? No, unless you’re a heavy sweater (vs. wearing one) or need to shave 2 seconds off your hill climbing (well, really hill descending) in the french alps. Though, if it looks *really* cool…
B
Any glove suggestions for next winter for those who plan to ride long distance but have super sweaty hands? My bar mitts got stolen in December, right before I had to stop riding post-surgery
Though, I guess that was the best possible timing for the theft!Just to mull over…might get bar mitts again.
Brendan
PS – I really think I need to have some sort of active water transport system, like an inner lining of neoprene or latex with small water drainage holes at the tips of fingers to the outside, keeping the insulating layers dry. Gross, but true!
Assuming a baseline fitness level and in the context of solo riding or riding at your own pace…
In my opinion, when one is significantly overweight or obese, the weight of a bike is less of an issue than when one is in the middle of the “normal” weight range. One just needs to do the miles, primarily. As an adult, I’ve never been at a weight where it made more sense for me to get a lighter bike than to do the work toward having a lighter body.
Well, except for rides where I was *required* to paceline in order to complete them, but that’s a different environment.The most important thing, from my perspective, is to find a bike you’d like to spend 75% of a weekend day riding around and exploring. Try to do that ride most weekends, plus a few evenings or work commutes a week. In addition to loving being outside, where the human heart and mind thrive…it gets one away from bad habits as well. At least, in my experience.
The bike that works for you can be a MTB, hybrid, cruiser, touring or road bike. Upright, race position or recumbent. A trike. Unicyle. Whatever! As long as it has the appropriate gearing and tires for the terrain you plan to cover. Make sure you feel safe and comfortable on it for both short and long rides.
Oh, and keep it in good repair. Safety first!
Brendan
PS – a personal aside: I went from seriously obese to the middle of overweight (as per the doctors’ charts) mostly by walking and calorie counting. I kept it that way by transitioning to cycling and a little bit of running. At the time, most people thought I was normal weight, but my body shape tends to hide some of my weight. However, now I’m up 16lbs. over the past 1.5 years due to a combination of cycling injuries/recoveries/surgery…and not learning to slow down my calorie consumption in my downtime. This puts me just back over the line into obese, by the charts. Mea culpa. I’m really looking forward to getting permission to ride and run again in a month or so! That is, if the surgeon finally sees what he wants to see under the clavicle plate he put in last December. In the mean time, I’m walking at least 35 miles a week and keeping a food journal.
