Musings about life on two wheels

There are a lot of folks who will tell you about the functional aspects of their bikes or kit (the clothing cyclists wear), but almost all of it is fashion. 1×12? Ask any fixie geek about her ‘gear range’ (and yeah, I was one for years) Aero socks? This is perhaps the most marginal of…

My wife and I got out for a ride this weekend – notable because we don’t ride together very often. She was a bit concerned about the traffic, our local freeways were all due to be closed. She also wanted to drive our bikes to a trail of some sort – stuck in traffic to…

I like to tinker. Rather than chuck my well loved White Industries freewheel, I opted to rebuild it. It’s not much work honestly, I did it in less than an hour. But it’s quite satisfying to do something like this – you don’t know quite how, but figuring it out and having things snap into…

Years ago, Idaho passed a law allowing cyclists to treat stop signs as yield signs. Apparently, the next year there was a 14.5% reduction in Bicycle injuries. This post is about exploring and recording the scholarly record related to the Idaho Stop concept. For the record: I buy it from a personal perspective. But I…

Here’s a very interesting article on sits bones and saddle selection. Tl;Dr: you have to try a bunch, sits bones measurements don’t help that much. I measured mine at a store today, 125mm.

Now that I’m home I’ve been riding my city bike more. It’s a single speed (no gears) , which means a bit more standing up and my top speed is pretty slow. And… I like it. It was a bit weird getting back on it – riding Clyde the adventure bike is like driving a…

One of the best books I’ve ever read is: Thinking Fast & Slow by Daniel Khaneman. A big part of the book is about the inherent biases in human thinking, and my favorite example is about this experiment: Why people prefer more pain. The video is a bit long and nerdy, but worth it. Basically:…

Nice hike with Brian G. To the peak of Mt. Margaret yesterday. Took a short dip in Lk. Samamish and had a great dinner.

Tl;Dr: saddle sores almost healed. Went to see the doc today. He says: almost healed, no need for dressing, continue on about your bizness. I got some cycling ‘bibs’ bike shorts with suspenders. Basically what everybody says is the Right Thing. I have to say, feels ok. I’ll have to see how things shape up…