Bike Blog

Is it the brakes or is it the brake pads? 15 years ago
I always wonder what’s the minimum level of hardware you can really buy for a bike. Do you need a carbon fiber frame, or is an aluminum or steel frame just fine? Are Dura-Ace parts more reliable or just lighter? I had a chance to test this out recently when I realized that for a little bit more than…

Four car keys 15 years ago
So I managed to misplace my set of keys while in Borrego Springs. There were a few places they could be, and it turns out they were at a restaurant we had dinner at after the ride. The restaurant served Italian food (good stuff, too) and seems to have an entirely Asian staff. Since I couldn't get in…

Tour of Borrego 15 years ago
I rode 66 out of 80 miles through the desert on the Tour of Borrego a little over a week ago. I'll tell you, the looks I got from co-workers when I told them I was going to ride 80 miles through the desert were worth every penny I spent making it happen.

Too energetic on the commute 15 years ago
First, make sure you watch the POWERTHIRST video: If I ride home at a "normal" pace, it's not enough of a workout. So I've been riding home at an "all-out" pace. Since I'm not going to bother trying to do intervals, I started doing fartleks instead (links to the blog I found the term in…

Geeking out about water bottles 15 years ago
I biked to Sports Basement and spent a bunch of time in front of the exhaustive display of fancy water bottles. I’m sick of the plastic taste coming from plastic-taste-free bottles, mildly perturbed by the whole BPA thing, want to carry more water, and would like my water bottles to look a little…

The impotent feeling you get, over a year after somebody jacked your bike 15 years ago
So, my bike's brake shoes are about spent. There's a smidgen of brake compound left, and then it's metal-to-metal and I'd like to avoid that. My first thought was "Gee, my bike's gone long enough before being stolen that I've been able to wear down the brake pads". I guess this is going to be with…

Climbing most of the way up Mt. Hamilton for the first time 15 years ago
It turns out, at least out here in California, if you want to do anything truly interesting on the bike, you need to be able to deal with a lot of climbing. And climbing is actually kind of hard for me, because climbing is very much a power-to-weight sort of thing and, despite getting lighter…

Today's ride was a little weird 15 years ago
Reasons why today's commute was weird: Riding up on the overpass, I was behind another clyde on a mountain bike. Except he's not as far along as I was, so I was sitting there not even panting using the middle chainring and he was standing up to get more power. I seem to have come a long way. I hear…

The narrative of the bike 15 years ago
It ends up that, given the massive numbers of different bike makers and models, it’s very rare that you’ll ever meet somebody with exactly the same bike. Even if you get a fairly popular bike that’s selling like hotcakes. On the VTA, I get used to the other cyclists. There’s the guy who’s missing…

More tweaks to the commuter attire 15 years ago
I think I caused the warm weather around here. See, I had a row of days where my eyeballs were just in total pain, because I was biking with cold eyes blowing on them. It got real old. So I order a pair of Tifosi Pave sunglasses. They've got three lenses -- a neutral density "smoke" lens, a orange…