Wherein, I was almost killed..

After days of rain, today became cool and sunny around noon.  I decided to go for a ride out at Little Big Econ.  Great ride, I did two loops and rode for about 2.5 hours.  I stopped for a moment and talked to some dude who spent lots of money on his bike - and he tried very hard to make sure I knew it.  The conversation started with the normal "So how do you like that 29er?" and basically ended with him telling me how much better everything about his bike was. He scoffed when I said my bike was 29lbs or so.. "Well mine, is full suspension and weighs in at less than 25" then he expounded on how Fox forks are the way to go.  Judging by the fact that it was made of titanium, and a 'luxury' bike brand - Im going to fathom a guess that it cost him about a grand per lb. that it was less than mine. (That and he mentioned how much it cost him) Basically I got the feeling of being 'talked down to' the entire time.

Anyway, on to the part which this post is about.. As I said, it was gorgous out.  So - I just went out for a bite to eat down near UCF - and rode the motorcycle.  Its funny, just when I was getting on the bike to ride back home thoughts flashed through my mind like.. "People think I'm crazy for riding this - but I am an excellent rider" or "Its getting dark, some idiot is going to pull out in front of me"

Well.  That is what happened.  I was going down Dean road(which is a nice ride) going about 50 where the marked speed limit is 45.  Okay, so I was speeding, a little.  Some dude pulls RIGHT out in front of me.  Thank god, when I ride I watch every entrance and every road for idiots who are pulling out.  I looked and was thinking "Is this idiot going to pull out?" and I already had my hand on the brake, and my foot on the rear brake.   I downshifted twice, pulled the front, and pressed the rear brake - a little too hard.  The familiar high pitched squeeeeek of the rear end getting loose, and the slight fishtailing feeling was scary as hell.  Thank goodness, I slowed down in time - practically coming to a stop behind the guy. 45 mile an hour limit - he didnt go over 30 until the next turn.  The driver of the car in front of me was absolutely oblivious.

Guess what?  That driver must have been 70.  Im not 'agist' against people who are getting up in years.  However, I do believe that once someone reaches 65 years old they must have an extensive driver examination EVERY year.  If I was not as alert, or 'skilled' rider as I am - I would either be a) under that car or b) flying over it.  Why? because the guy was absolutely oblivious to everything going on around him.  How do I know this?  I rode up next to him and WAVED. "Hey stupid! Wake up!" he didn't even look over.

Big Time Suckage...

I rode the motorcycle to work yesterday - which I havent been doing much lately.  The weather was gorgeous, and since 50mpg is better than 20mpg, frugality ruled the day.  Unfortunately at 5:30 when I went to leave I had a flat rear tire. Not a little flat - but totally flat. I could see the silver nailhead embedded nice and deep.  Boo!  Since I dont carry a pump and a rubber flat fixie thing I had to go get a flat fixer from Autozone.

Luckily, Autozone is only a block away. I picked up the needletool with plugs and went back to the bike.  Not having any needlenose pliars with me, I had to pick those up as well.  I must have tried pulling the nail out for 5 minutes without success.  So, I got pissed and just pushed on the nail and it pushed right through revealing a nice sized hole in the tire.  The rear is newish, and replacing the damn thing would be close to 180 bucks installed.

Theres a funny picture i found on teh interwebs.. but this is basically what I did.  And it worked!  I rode slowly over to the Mobil station and pumped up the tire to 38psi or so and was able to make it home and cut the remainder of the plug from dangling out of the hole. Before leaving I had some dinner and a delicious chocolate chip cookie from Whole Foods with Kim. I couldn't even tell the cookie was vegan!  There was a party in my tummy.. so yummy.. so yummy!

Suffering with a smile..

Yesterday was the first time I got out on the bike, or rather any bike other than the motorcycle, in a week. The whole Thanksgiving, family, and a bit of rain got in the way. I also did some work on the motorcycle and on the car - cleaning both of their K&N air filters, and re-oiling them.  I had to put the SV on the battery tender for a couple of hours to get it started - then went for a nice ride on saturday for a couple of hours.

Oil, oil filter, and spark plugs need to be changed next weekend.. I do all of my own maintenance and I hadnt ridden the motorcycle for about a month. Mainly I havent been riding it much because I need to check and possibly adjust the valves - Im about 6K miles over the suggested check mileage. (Im at about 20k miles on a 2006 SV650) I do know, however, that I probably wont have to adjust them till 30k miles. But - I also know it will be a pain in the ass. For a while I was riding it almost every day to work, and on the weekends for fun.

Anyway, back to the bicycle...On previous rides the squishiness of the Reba front shock was very apparent. It was obviously under pressurized.  So, before going for a ride on Sunday I picked up a shock pump from Orange Cycle Orlando. It is a 'Buzzys Pollinator' Pump. Yes. That is what its called:  Buzzy's Pollinator.

To be honest, I dont care what it is called, as long as it works.  And this works, and was around 30 bucks.  According to recommendations the pressure I should run is 130 positive and negative.  So, I got to pumping the shock up.  It was very easy.  On the Reba, the positive chamber is located on top, and the negative is on bottom.  As shown in the pics below:

These photos are kinda dark, but you get the picture.  The air chambers are on the left side of the fork.  When I screwed the pump in, it was reading a very low 80lbs pressure.  No wonder I bottomed out a few times.

Sunday, I went for a 2.5 hour ride and covered about 20 miles out on the Snowhill trails.  I averaged almost 9 miles an hour - which includes about a 5 minute rest stop.  Thats not bad for Snowhill and its switchback laden trails.  Thats about a mile an hour faster than any previous ride out there, and I didnt fall off the bike. The shock made a difference, for sure, but it may have also had to do with the fact that it rained alot last week and the sand was packed down.  The shock was not squishy at all, it soaked up bumps but didnt bottom out and jolt me.  Much more plush than the 'wet-noodle' feeling that I had before, and I didnt have to struggle through gobs of powdery sand. I really pushed myself through alot of this ride.. I had a group of guys that looked like they were pretty experienced mtb riders on my tail for a bit of the ride - and I managed to keep them out of sight and behind me until I took a different trail than they did.  I could hear them yelling at the blind corners.  Thats a pretty good idea out there - considering I almost had a head-on collision with somebody when I was coming around a blind corner.  Off work again today, and may get out for a ride...