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Today - November 2012

Half-Fast Mike

Lanterne Rouge-et-vert
May 22, 2007
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Time for November's 'what we've been up to' mini-blog thread.

Still riding my steelie and really enjoying it. Spent some time last night pimping up my GS Astuto deep rim carbon wheels - it'll a long job, and still a long way to go, but I think the results will be cool. Wanted to put a different tubular tire on, but ran out of tape half-way through. This necessitates a trip to the bike shop... dammit :)

Roads were really busy this morning on my way to work, but didn't see any accidents. Must be a first-of-the-month thing.
 
Standard commute today. Work is busy at the moment, as I had the genius idea of setting up a private Twitter account for everyone, and demanding they follow it on their phones, so they have zero excuses for not bothering to do/know something.

Obviously this idea was met with the standard response to anything new. I will not back down on this one though.

Does mean I have to work late a lot at the moment, and ride home in the dark. Never used to like it, but getting into it now. Have lit myself up a lot more than before too, so feel safe enough...
 
Prepared the bike for Saturdays race at Cycle Mode (MakuHari Messe) - God I love Crits!

Hopefully I will have recovered from this stinking cold by then - The doctor has me on more drugs than the US Postal Team!

Getting sorted for tomorrow as I will be working the Champion System booth at the trade show on Friday and some of the day on Saturday.
 
Prepared the bike for Saturdays race at Cycle Mode (MakuHari Messe) - God I love Crits!

Hopefully I will have recovered from this stinking cold by then - The doctor has me on more drugs than the US Postal Team!

Getting sorted for tomorrow as I will be working the Champion System booth at the trade show on Friday and some of the day on Saturday.

Good luck!
 
cheers - although the fever and cough aren't going to do me any favors.
 
You are not running red-lights but you ride with fever ... maybe your risk judgment is impacted by your cold :(

Fever is past tense.
 
I've been off the bike all week, I tried out cycle this cold last week, and it got it's revenge with a renewed attack this week. Fever and cough. I'm just getting back to the stage of thinking about going for a ride....:eek:uch:
 
I've been off the bike all week, I tried out cycle this cold last week, and it got it's revenge with a renewed attack this week. Fever and cough. I'm just getting back to the stage of thinking about going for a ride....:eek:uch:

Thats exactly how mine went - last friday heavy coughing and snotty nose, cleared up so rode - then hit me again with a fever. Fortunately thats gone and Im now left with a dry cough and a bunged up nose.
 
not road cycling but still added some kms and burned some calories (more important).

rode the mtb with 2.5 tyres up front and 2.35 rear and adjusted the rearshock pressure to 250 lbs. feels much better, now that i am not sitting way into my rear travel. went to the nearby park and was pleasantly reintroduced to the feeling of having roots and soil under my tires again.
 
On one of my recent mountain rides I managed to drop my chain between the cassette and the spokes at high speed. :eek:

I had been climbing a hill, then crested the top and accelerated downhill. I wanted to upshift to start pedalling fast, but accidentally pushed the wrong lever. I was still in 1st gear and did not have the low gear limit screw set correctly, so the derailleur moved the chain beyond the largest cog and dropped it off the cassette into the spinning wheel. The noise was horrible, it sounded like the chain, hub and spokes were eating each other alive! :(

I stopped and looked. Though the spokes on the drive side were badly scored, with steel shaved off by the edge of the chain, none were broken. All were still in one piece and both the chain and hub were OK. I was amazed the wheel had survived this ordeal as well as it had. These 20" wheels with 32 short spokes are virtually bomb proof (or at least Joe-proof!).

About 700 km later I finally took the bike to the GS Astuto store and Tim and Eric rebuilt the wheel with new spokes and spoke nipples on the drive side. Now I can climb hills with confidence again :)
 
Been mixing 51X18 rides on my track bike and cross rides in the woods. Finished gluing my tubulars for Nobeyama. A week long affair. Used the Belguim gluing method on a set of Tufo Primus with CX tape and Mastik. Have a feeling it will be a hard job removing. Havent rolled the roadie for a month. I just pick it up to reminisce how light it is and then put on my tights and get the job done. Colors are changing. Glad to be me
 
The missus has never made a trip longer than 25 km but she's often done that without complaint and I thought it was time to try doubling the distance. Departure was delayed by a tyre explosion (described in another thread), but eventually we set off. After just 15 km or so she was complaining of how boring the route up Tamagawa was compared with the route down it. Shortly afterwards she said she was tired and wanted to go home. I suggested that her saddle might be a bit low but she wasn't having any of that. Still, I persuaded her to carry on a bit, and we reached the destination I'd had in mind. Then she wanted lunch -- none of that nibbling-on-a-Soyjoy nonsense, but instead a real lunch. So she had that, and felt good -- but then unsurprisingly felt a lot more tired. For the second time today (and maybe the fourth time in all) I suggested experimenting with the saddle. This time the suggestion went down well. The saddle went up 7mm or so, to immediate approval. Her speed increased, we got home with no incident and she says she feels fine. There's a moral there somewhere.

Today I'm wearing my cycling shorts for the first time. This means I'm wearing cycling undies for the first time. When I'm sitting, fine. When I'm walking, I feel as if I'm wearing an incontinence pad. (Not that I have experience of those.) A bit disturbing.
 
Real lunches are great--you should've had a (really) nice place picked out beforehand to surprise her with.
 
This was a cheap, utterly unpretentious, but good lunch, and conveniently close to Tamagawa We Slow Down Cycling With Metal Strips Road. Details later.

Oh, we both love excellent lunches, but I worried about heaviness of the gut and stiffening of the rather tired muscles. Me, I'd have suggested bananas, the Joy of Soy, and so forth; and holding out for a real dinner. (I mean, 50km for her is like 100km for me -- I'm working on it! -- and perhaps 300km for you.)

PS The lunch was at "Hiraoka" (Tabelog entry, map, closed on Sundays).
 
Yesterday I dusted off my mountain bike, which I hadn't used in at least 2 years.... Had to pump up some tires, now street based, but quite wide. Also changed pedals, my old crank bros were falling apart.

Man, it was cool!

No helmet, wind in my hair. This must be what it's like where there are no motorcycle helmet laws!

Went wherever I wanted, sidewalk, other side of the street, crosswalk, whatever! hooligan!

Disc brakes! Oh my! i forgot how good those were. Hydraulic baby!

None of this lycra crap, shorts, flannel shirt from college, crappy backpack....!!

And some dude stopped me at a stoplight and wanted to get a pick of my bike! haha! never happened on my (almost) fancy road bike! Was going on with my broken japanese with this guy and eventually figured out that he does some kind of journo stuff with bicycles (called BB works?) and translation work...his english was perfect. haha.

Did a few KMs and thought about going to the gym....but I didn't..... Great fun!


And my god was it hard work! geez.... the thing weighs a ton and a half! Looking forward to getting back on the road bike now.....

:bike: :bike: :bike:
 
Today I rode into Tokyo to collect/guide a friend, and we went to see Fuchu Prison's 37th Annual Open Day / Bunkasai / Kulturfest. This was really quite interesting. There were opportunities buy products that prisoners have made in the prison factories, try the prison food and join a bus tour of the 'facilities'. My friend was really late and really slow, so we didn't get there until 1.00 p.m. and were pretty much too late for everything except the end of the food stalls and some window shopping. Reckon I'll go back again next time.

Still, I got 81 km of nice, slow suburban riding. Very relaxing.

prisonh.jpg
 
looks cool, Mike. Was watching that show Gordon Ramsay goes to Prison or whatever.... didn't realize they made "stuff" here as well?
 
looks cool, Mike. Was watching that show Gordon Ramsay goes to Prison or whatever.... didn't realize they made "stuff" here as well?

Oh very much so. There's a fascinating paperback -- or perhaps a two-paperback set -- that displays stuff made by Japanese prisoners. And a lot of it is good stuff as well. On a visit to Jinbouchou a year or so back, I found piles of remaindered copies outside one little used bookshop and then noticed it elsewhere too.

Heartbreaking really, when you think about (i) the tremendously high conviction rate in criminal trials in Japan, (ii) the importance of confessions in convictions in Japan, and (iii) the ease with which confessions can be wrung out of the innocent (see Mistakes Were Made (but Not by Me)).
 
I used to 'know' a girl who was on weekend release from a 'rehabilitation centre' here in Japan.

The stories I could tell you...
 
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