It's cold here in Texas.

It's cold (again) here in Dallas, and they tell us we are going to have snow again tomorrow. If we get 2 inches of snow, we will have had the snowiest winter EVER here in North Texas, which is kind of interesting, I guess. I didn't ride the train last week, though I did get a couple of bicycle rides in around the neighborhood. IF it snows tomorrow, and IF I am not a big weenie, I will ride the trian in tomorrow. I do have another post to make about a train trip my daughter and I went on this Saturday. As I've said here before, she is loves trains, so when we had a Daddy/Daughter Saturday to spend together we ended up taking the DART train down to Lovers Lane and having a Krispy Kreme together. I've got photos, but I need to get them off of my camera in order to post the blog here.

I have been hitting the trainer in the garage - that's going well, as is my weight loss regimen. I've been counting my calories with an app on my iPhone, and have lost about 10 pounds over the last couple of weeks. I'm still a damn sight too heavy, but I will be thin by the end of the summer. My goal is about 185 (which is a net loss of 33 pounds, and I think that if I'm careful about what I eat, and if I ride like I did last year, that I should be able to reach that goal. Luckily for me my neighbor has taken up road biking - though I am a little concerned that he is always telling me he averages 25mph. I'll be totally honest with you here and tell you that I generally average about 10mph slower than that, so I don't know how well we will be able to ride together. Nonetheless, I am looking forward to getting things fired up again as the weather warms.

I do have my roll of dollar coins, so I am ready to get on the train as soon as I decide the weather is acceptable to my delicate constitution. I dont' know if you all look forward to these posts, but there will be more of them coming your way very soon.

Uh, the money goes to Haiti.

I rode the train yesterday, and while it was cold, it was a nice ride. I got my folder out and braved the 35 degree cold to run to the station in the donzerlee light. The morning ride in was cold but uneventful, except for one of those hard to define perfect music moments; for most of the ride my iPod was picking one great song after another, each song making me tap my feet and sing along.
My work day was pretty much the same as my commute, including the "cold" part. I work in a very old building that holds no heat and is full of holes, so I was so very cold all day, just miserable. I unlocked the office door at 8:10 and it was 39 degrees - by the time my brother came in at 9 o'clock our building was a balmy 49, and that might have been our inside high all day.

The evening ride home was pretty much unventful, save one small exception;


This young woman was selling Worlds Finest Chocolate bars, and she came walking through the car like a beer guy at the baseball game, holding her box high in the air and shouting "Who wants a candy bar?". I was the first one to bite; I love chocolate, and I love World's Finest chocolate bars more than most. I gave her two dollars and picked my two candy bars - as I finished, she added "The money goes to Haiti" almost as an afterthought. To be honest, I wasn't really concerned with who the money was going to, as long as the end result was 2 candy bars in my pocket. After I broke the seal, she must have sold another $30 worth of candy to just about everyone in the car. As we all sat munching afterwards someone made a comment about selling the same bars for little league, and very shortly about six or seven of us were all reminiscing and laughing about our common experience with Worlds Finest. I wonder how much money she made selling her bars on the train, and I walso wonder if each car she passed through had the same sort of conversations afterwards. It was a nice end to an otherwise completely uneventful day. Plus, the chocolate was tasty and fueled my cold ride home.

On a personal note, happy birthday to my sister. I remember the night she was born - Mom and I were watching Circus Of The Stars and I missed the trapeeze act because I had to go next door and wait while Mom went to the hospital. Happy birthday, Corrinne.

Eight hundred views

It seems like only yesterday I was celebrating 400 views, and now here we are at 800+, and it didn't take that long to double the views, so thanks everyone.

It is supposed to be cold and rainy the next couple of days so I will be setting up the trainer in the garage in order to fine tune the fit of the Falcon. I think it's pretty close to where I need it, but I'm sure that over a few hours of garage drudgery I will be able to dial it to an alomost perfect fit. The real riding season approaches, and I'm starting to get ready; I woke up this morning at 5:15. Over the next few days I will push that to 4:15 in order to make time for my morning rides, and I'm going to add in some strength training a couple of mornings as well.

I sort of got off track there, but I do want to thank all of you (both of you) for reading. Shall we move on?

Finally, something interesting again!

I rode the train last Friday, because it was supposed to be a nice day, and also because my brother now has a bicycle - we made plans to go for a ride at lunchtime and eat. That was all very nice, and I love riding around on a nice day, but it was what I saw in the morning that got me excited - wierdness on the train!

I got to the station at about 7:05 and bought my ticket. All I had was a five dollar bill - and the machine didn't have change, so I ended up with a voucher for a dollar. A little ironic, as I was a dollar short last time I bought a ticket and had to beg for change from a passer by.

Dart has now implemented the new low entry car on most trains, and it really is a boon if you are riding a full sized bicycle. These cars even have benches that fold down and allow one to hang a bicycle in order to keep it out of the way. Luckily I was on the car early enough that I was able to politely ask the woman sitting in the seat if I might use the spot for its intended purpose. She moved grumblingly to one of the dozen other empty seats in the car, I hung my bike, and enjoyed the sunrise as we pulled out of the station.


Artsy morning shot

The ride was fairly uneventful, though more crowded than the last couple of times I rode. Admittedly, both of those rides were on holidays, so I should have known what to expect. I rode along just fine with my bike hanging from the hook until about Lovers Lane station, where I spotted the blonde woman who inspired this post, and moved to get a photo for you all.


Look, special effects!

Before I tell you what got my attention, let me remind you that the train is a fairly bouncy, sometimes rough and jerky ride. I have been thrown off balance more than once, but thankfully I have the reflexes of a cat and the legs of a sailor, so I have never fallen - though I have seen people stumble into others more than once. Additionally, this woman was standing on the stairs in the car, with no place to grab should she stumble. The lack of handholds doesn't matter, though, as both of her hands were busy.



Knitting! With a needle in each hand and the yarn coming out of her bag. I can understand knitting when you are sitting down on the train, but standing? I tip my hat to your balance, older crafty lady!

Self indulgent drivel.

I take the title from a statement that my lovely wife made about blogs and bloggers in general. This post was actually written in July of 2009 - shortly after I started writing it the city of Plano tore up the roads that I was riding on, and effectively put a stop to my early morning routine. I tried to find another route that was as good, but was unsuccessful. The roads are finally finished, and the weather is warming up enough for me to start again, so I completed and published this post to inspire myself - and to indulge myself as well.

I wake up at 4:10 when my alarm goes off - and sometimes when it doesn't. This has become a routine for me; my body doesn't really need the alarm now, but I think my mind needs to be reminded. I drag myself out of bed and into my bathroom to put in my contacts. Contacts inserted, I shuffle down the hall - I am the only thing in my house that is awake. The dog used to wake with me, but she has realized that there is nothing in it for her, and my early morning movement is no longer a cause for concern for any of the creatures in my house.

Once into the kitchen I brew an expresso and fill my water bottle for the ride ahead. I go into our pantry and suck down an energy gel to fuel me for my ride - I like the Clif Shot "Double Expresso" flavor - it is thick and strong tasting, and I like java to be the first thing I taste in the morning - it has been that way since I was 14 or so, and now is no different. As I sip my expresso to wash down my expresso flavored gel I get dressed. I apply my chamois cream (an intimate process that my wife caught me at once - she still giggles when she sees the tube), shorts, heart rate strap, and then my jersey. I have to wet my heart rate strap so that it will pick up my heartbeat, and I just use some water from my cup - the shock of strapping on the now ice cold strap always makes me gasp - the shock is as much a part of the routine as the rest of it. Once dressed, I put on my shoes and socks. Bicycle shoes are an interesting thing; special shoes for a sport that involves no walking - and ideally in the morning mine never touch the ground except to walk to the bike. I use Speedplay pedals, because they offer great retention and double sided clipping in. Since I am riding a fixed gear my pedals are moving if I am moving, and the Speedplays allow me to siply step on the pedals, without looking. I listen to music on my weekend rides, but not in the morning. I try to keep these rides simple and quiet

After getting dressed, I go into the garage and power on all my lights - my helmet light first, follwed by both headlights, and my two blinking rear lights. After the lights are on, I put on my helmet and clear glasses (to protect my eyes from bugs; generally gnat clouds), open the garage door and wheel my bicycle out. The bicycle I use on these morning rides is an eighties Sears marketed Suteki that I have converted to fixed gear. A fixed gear bicycle is a little different than most bikes in that it does not coast - if you are moving, you are pedaling. I use a fixed gear workout because it I assume it must be a better workout. Lots of hipsters ride fixed gear bikes in the city for transportation, but I use mine to try to get faster and fitter. So far it's not working that well, but I'll get there.

The first few pedal strokes are slow to get me into the street. I have a neighbor who has his porch light on a sensor, and when that light comes on, that's my cue to really put my legs into it. One lap is 3.3 miles. The first two laps are fairly easy. I get into a rhythm quickly, and the small hills on my route seem to flatten themselves. By lap three, I am breathing hard; I'm also trying to talk myself out of the final three laps I have planned.

By the fifth lap I am spent. There is one spot in the route where I allow myself to take a drink of water. Once I was in my designated drinking zone on the fifth lap and I was so exhausted and uncoordinated that as I took my water bottle out of my jersey pocket I threw it directly in the sewer opening. Had I been standing in the street trying to throw it in, it would have taken a couple of tries, but riding by at 14mph I hit the opening like I had the Force.

When I hit the hills on my last lap, they seem to be flattening themselves out again, instead of swelling up as they did for the last few laps. As I am heading home, the cars have started to come out, people driving to work. I don't like to ride too long with morning drivers, so I try to time my laps to avoid them - it's the reason I start so early. As I make the final turn onto my street, I sit up and ride no handed, as if I have won one of the grand tours. I am powerful, I am fast, I am a cyclist.

I ride into the driveway and put my bicycle back in its spot, log my statistics (speed, distance, heartrate) go inside, have a sip of water, and make lunches for the family. Once sandwiches are made and packed up, I go in the bathroom and shower. It's my shower that wakes up the girls - my wife sees the light as I go into the bathroom, and my daughter hears the water running as I wash off the sweat. It's been a good ride, but every one of my morning rides is good - it's time when only I am awake, and I own my little track. In the garage, the bicycle waits until tomorrow, when I will suit up and go again.

Building a singlespeed.

Not too long ago, my brother asked me if I had a "spare" bicycle that he could borrow to ride to the gym. This is almost like asking someone if he has an "extra" cigarette. There is no such thing; every cigarette is meant to be smoked, and every bicycle is meant to be ridden.

Luckily for him, I did have a bunch of spare parts, including the Fuji frame that all of the Falcon parts were on originally. Doing a quick mental inventory, I told him I'd build him a bicycle, so I did. I made him buy the conversion kit to convert the bicycle to singlespeed, and away I went. I had all of the other parts I needed handy with the exception of a crankset and bottom bracket. I made some phone calls and secured a used FSA road crank and bottom bracket for $25, and began the build. First I had to convert the crankset to a single from a double. I had a lot of trouble removing the bolts from the crankset and busted my knuckles pretty well - those teeth are sharp!



I did pretty well for the first three bolts, but the last two were very hard. I don't know what tool I was supposed to use to hold the back There is a slot there, but it's much wider than a screwdriver - and holding a screwdriver sideways doesn't give you much leverage.

After I got all of the bolts off, and removed the inner ring, I installed the bottom bracket. The green you see there is grease. you should always put a little grease on if you are using this type of bottom bracket. If you don't, you will end up with a creak when you pedal.




Here is the bike in the stand awaiting the rest of the parts.


I mostly deal in roadbikes, so I didn't have any spare grips around. I wrapped the bars with some recycled bar tape, and I really like the way it turned out.


The bike is almost complete here - time for cables and tuning.

Once assembled, I had to take it for a couple of test rides, obviously. After taking a few links out of the chain to stop it from skipping, the bike was perfect. I rode it to the train station the next morning, presented it to him at work, and made him take this picture.



I liked riding the flat bar so much I'm going to rebuild my fixed gear with a flat bar instead of drops.

Justin and the horrible, terrible, no good, very bad morning.

As I said a few posts ago, my brother asked me to build him a bicycle to ride to the gym. I happily did so, and decided to ride it to work today to give it a sort of a shakedown ride, and to get yet another bicycle out of my garage. I made to the station just fine, if a little winded. Once I got to the station, things started to go downhill, and not in the way I'd prefer when riding a bicycle. DART recently (well, since I stpped riding regularly) raised the price of a single day ticket by $1.00. This isn't a big raise, and isn't really that big of a deal, I suppose. Well it isn't that big a deal if you have all four of those dollars when you need to buy your ticket, which I did not. I swear to you that I counted all four dollar bills out, and put them in my pocket before I left, but somehow one of my dollars managed to free itself and was nowhere to be found when I went to buy my ticket.

I actually arrived at the station just as the southbound train was pulling in, and while I wildly searched my pockets for the missing dollar I watched the train pull away. As I stood there staring at the machine and cursing our cashless society and the fool that decided not to put a credit card swiper on the ticket machine I realized that I didn't even have my debit card with me. No debit card means no easy cash at 7:10 in the morning. I was stuck.

As I stepped away from the ticket machine, an older gentleman wearing a day-glo yellow motorcycle jacket (with no motorcycle in sight) stepped up after me. I saw him paying for his ticket with a five dollar bill, and I heard the change drop in the return as he got his ticket. The train lights were flashing signaling an approaching train, so I stepped to him and said,
"Sir, I'm not a bum, but I am short a dollar for my fare. Can you spare your change?"
He looked me over very closely and kind of shook his head as he tried to decide wether I was really a bum or not. I always have a "lucky" silver quarter with me, and I quickly offered it to him in exchange.
"This is worth at least $4.00 - it's real silver. I'm happy to give it to you for your dollar."
He handed me his change and said "I don't want your quarter - here."
As I thanked him from the bottom of my heart, the train pulled up to the station. Turning to the ticket machine, I saw another woman who had sidled in behind me during my panhandling session trying to stuff the limpest, most wrinkled dollar bill I have ever seen into the payment slot. In went the dollar - then immediately out again. Three times. Finally, the fourth time it went through, and we had to wait while her ticket was printed. As I stepped to the ticket machine, I waved a the driver and held up the universal "hold on one second" finger. Unfortunately the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the one, and my universal sign language did not work. I could literally hear the machine printing my ticket as the train started to pull away.

I gave him a different universal finger sign as he made his merry way down the tracks.

During my foray into hustling for change, I had unzipped the smaller outside pocket on my (fairly expensive) Munsingwear backpack to offer the quarter, and when I tried to zip it back up, I had a zipper blowout. There I was, standing at the train station, struggling with my backpack and headphones (which kept getting caught up in my struggles and being pulled out) when the water bottle I had in my bag decided to come open and spill all over my bag and leg. Fantastic.

When the next train arrived, it was thankfully empty, so I didn't have to add to the rough morning by struggling for a spot to put my bicycle. I walked in, stood at the end of the car, took a photo, and watched my iPhone shut off as it died flat.


I have had better mornings, for sure.