More Happy People - More Perfecting

Going into the weekend, Friday, the commute was wet and grey. With Evan, our commute is another extension and mode of our time, our connection. We chat. We also whine sometimes. The way I see it,  since we have made a commitment to bike commuting and we have been riding since January, we have the right to whine some.

So, the whine is, "I am so tired of riding in the rain!" Evan agreed. I mean, really, would some dry really hurt?

Of course, then come Monday, we get our sunny day ride! While at a stop I asked Evan, "Do you feel faster when it is nice out?" He just smiled.

I think I noticed more people smiling today. Certainly more people out, cannot really blame them either. This grey, wet stuff has kept people hibernating a bit longer this year.

This was a morning I definitely could have just kept riding, taking in just how wonderful this sunny weather is. Must be the Leo in me.

Today, I had to make a slight detour from my Harrison/Lincoln hill climb to stop at a couple of stores on Division St. Through Ladd's Addition I rode over to SE Clinton. Now, I have not ridden on Clinton for a long time, definitely way before I started riding daily for commuting. My memory was even Clinton had its climbs. Was I ever surprised at how much less climbing there was compared to Harrison/Lincoln, especially now that I have more miles on my legs and lungs. Nice, I now know if I am feeling overly tired I can take Clinton for relief. I still like my Harrison/Lincoln route, it is more direct and I just like that neighborhood riding better.

Over the weekend while doing some bike maintenance, both Evan's and mine, I made some aesthetic and performance improvements on the SUB. Since moving my shift levers, the cable routing has annoyed me a bit. The cables just looked dorky, to me. I am all about aesthetics as long as safety and function are not compromised.

First, I fixed the adjuster rings that had formed notches which prevented some adjustment. A bit of filing and then smoothing on a sharpening stone fixed that up. Now I could actually adjust the brake pad alignment - more happy, happy.

I also learned more about getting the most out of my center-pull brakes - thanks Sheldon Brown! So far they feel much better stopping wise in relation to how hard I pull on the levers.

Since I am happy, happy about the new shift lever position, I decided it was time to clean up the too long cable housings. So I shortened them up and I think it is a much cleaner look.

Now the cables do not run way out past the light. The other change, you will notice, is I have updated how I mount the headlight. The Ram mount I was using just always seemed bulky looking. Since the stem is pretty crowded with the shifters, I did a little redesign to help clean up the look a bit. I was looking for a solution that was clean, simple and sturdy. I also wanted to be able to use the factory handlebar mount for the light, in case I would like to put it on the road bike occassionally. To do this new mounting was why I made my detour stops this afternoon.

The mount is made up of my original clamp on the stem, 2 pieces of flat aluminum, a short piece of 3/4" aluminum tubing and two rubber bar end plugs. This has less vibration than the Ram mount, is more easily adjusted and also looks good aesthetically.

The SUB has given me a wonderful project to design, create, be innovative and make a fun riding, nice looking everyday commuter bike. Art in the everyday.