Nice - No Rain Showers, Riding Faster

Ugh, daylight savings time. Terrible sleep last night, or is it early this morning (at least when I actually fell asleep). Woke up an hour later than my alarm, oh well. Dressed for rain, but it was actually dry, a bit cool but not bad for riding. I rode with a little higher effort this morning, not sure why, just did, I guess. It was fun to push along in my higher gears, having the feeling of speed.

Along the Eastbank Esplanade I came across some traffic, of which these two Canada Geese were a part of. I stopped to take their picture as they were grazing for breakfast.

Even with the greyness, blue sky poked out here and there. Since I was later than I wanted anyway, I stopped to take a few more pictures. This one is along the floating section of the esplanade looking toward the Steel Bridge, you can make out the Broadway Bridge (red) and way off, the Fremont Bridge.

I left around mid-day to work from home, away from distractions. I focused on another project that had been ignored due to our email migration woes. Some woes still there, but I wanted to put some time into something else.

Here's an average shot taken along a sitting area on the esplanade, looking toward the Hawthorne Bridge.

My cycle commuting has done another benefit. Listening to co-workers, their morning commutes were significantly longer this morning. There was a big motivation conference, Get Motivated, just across the river at the Oregon Convention Center. A normal commute of 40-45 minutes turned into hour and a half. Cycling, my  time was totally unaffected. Not so bad.

My hill ride back up Harrison/Lincoln was ego boosting. Not only was I using my 2nd and 3rd low gears, but the general strength feeling was great. The little climb in Mt. Tabor seemed easier and I felt more comfortable staying seated in my low gear.

Hey with all the lighter days, I may actually swap out my expensive, super bright headlight for the still bright, but smaller Dinotte front light. Will see.

Dry and Blue Skies - Ow, Some Hip Relapse

No school for Evan, but we still rode together as he needed to go to home number 2 today. He led the whole way, so I guess he's got to route down pretty well now. His pedalling style is pretty smooth, I would ride with him anytime. Do you suppose I am a little biased, though? haha.

Comfortable ride in, bikes worked flawlessly. I did do a good clean up on them this past weekend. The previous mega rains and hail definitely took their toll. For Evan's, it was clean the dirt off, wash down the rims and brake pads, then I also readjusted his rear hub bearings, adding a bit more grease while we were there. One of the bearing lock nuts had loosened, so we fixed that. Then clean and lube the chain, pretty grimy.

About the same for my SUB, though no bearing tear down. Chain was pretty washed out and some very, tiny surface rust. Lubing took care of that. I also did a little re-wrap on the handlebars, to clean up the wrapping around the shift levers.

The intro picture above was taken a bit after 4:00pm from Waterfront Park looking east. Nice clouds, heh? Temp-wise, I think was in the mid-40's.

This image was taken along the floating Eastbank Esplanade back toward the Steel Bridge. The light was very nice and made for an enjoyable ride home.

Hip-wise, I think I had a bit of a relapse over the weekend, maybe from over use from our SOLV tree planting on Saturday. Seem to have picked up a bit of a dull, constant discomfort and I have lost some sitting duration time. In general, though, I  think it is still on the positive side of healing and getting better.

Riding strength seems good, as a fun test, I used just the 36 x 17 gearing combo from Evan's to work and then from work to SE 21st and Harrison, which was the start of the climb toward home. Even climbing Harrison I was able to spin up without dropping to my lowest gearing so that is a good sign.

Kind of disappointed, have not heard anything back from TriMet from my note to them about my close call with the bus the other day. Will see if anything comes up this week.

Well thoroughly enjoyed the lovely weather riding today, will see what the rest of the week brings and the weather folks are saying rain starting tonight or tomorrow with possible snow Wednesday and/or Thursday. Evan is totally hoping for snow and no school - surprise, surprise.

Of Flats and Internet - Commuting Goes On

Gee, don't realize how much we depend on the internet, until it's gone. While switching providers to gain more speed, there were 4 days of absolutely no internet. Wow! Sure glad to have it all back.

Thursday, January 20, 2011
The commute last week (20th) was, weatherwise, fairly uneventful. Lot's of clouds, as you can see here, and a little cool. Notice how brown the Willamette is? So much rain, lot's of mud, tree debris flowing along. This was taken on the upper portion of the MUP, just east of the Steel Bridge.

I was on my way to meet Evan at school for our ride home. As we were leaving the school, Evan said his bike was pulling to the left. So we stopped just a block away. His front tire was flat! At least it was not raining like my recent flat tire adventure! I got out the tools and took the tire off and we discovered a first -- the stem had completely separated from the tube, plus the tube had, somehow, rotated 180 degrees! How bizarre! Shortly we were back on the road.

The next day's ride home was about the same, slight chance of rain, but mostly just plain grey. Here's another in my on-going series of the Steel Bridge. I guess because it is the biggest landmark next to the work building, plus, I just like all the lines and angles.

Friday, January 21, 2011
Friday (21st) was the first test of using my new Keen shoes only. I did put cleats on and under certain conditions the cleats do crunch on the ground, but it was nice not carrying an extra pair of shoes. I guess I'll have to do a gear review sometime soon. The Keens are definitely not as stiff soled as my normal biking shoes, but that's okay, I'm willing to sacrifice a bit of stiffness for carrying less. Bike commuting is feeling just, well, just normal. Evan is still lovin our joint bike commuting, too.

The weekend was spent replenishing the spare tube supply, getting Evan some new gloves and a neck/face shield. I tweaked my tool kit so it fits into a nice bundle in one of my water bottle cages, but can easily be removed and plopped into my messenger bag. Speaking of messenger bags, I replace the small one with a medium and it is so much easier to carry my stuff. I guess it is spreading the load out more. I like the messenger bag better than a backpack, my back gets less sweaty and it just feels more comfortable. Plus, I think I carry the load lower so it seems to have less impact on my back.

Monday, January 24, 2011

Following a very nice weekend, Monday was pretty nice, too. This was shot through the Steel Bridge (surprise, surprise) toward the Broadway Bridge (foreground) with the Fremont Bridge in the background. I'm still trying to get that just right image using the Steel Bridge as frame. Someday.

Legs are getting stronger and going up the few hills are draining me a bit less. I guess using a bike without super low gearing is paying off, beyond the pure joy of riding my favorite bike.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Okay, catching up to current events. Love seeing the check marks as I log my commutes on the Bike Commute trip log. (I'm sure my doc would love it, too, cuz I'm getting some kind of exercise in daily, ya know, 2 30 minute spins a day.)

I was initially home half day as I needed to be there for the internet installer. Funny, he ran a little late on finishing, so I had to rush to get to work to a meeting. I left at 12:20pm and got in at 1:10pm. Seems no matter how fast I try to go, my ride is about 30 minutes. Not much I can do about stop signs and red lights. Nice in that I rode in my work clothes, fortunately we have a casual dress code, but, hey, still just work clothes.

The evening was really nice, this is a picture of, can you guess?, the Steel Bridge. I love evening/night images. The river looks so calm and you cannot tell it is a rustic brown due to all the run-off.

This is a shot from the same location, just the other direction. 20 rides and each one has had something different about it.

Another Full Week of Bike Commuting

Well, I have to say riding when it is upper 40's and a bit rainy is better than really cold and dry, I've changed my mind from earlier claims.

This is a shot of downtown Portland from the pedestrian/bike bridge over the rail tracks to get to the Eastbank Esplanade and the Steel Bridge.

I am not quite sure why I like the image, I just do, I guess. I think maybe some of it has to do with looking like a mosaic or mosaic type reflection, though you are just looking through the safety fencing.

Evan and I do seem to have our prep patterns down and can get out the door pretty efficiently. We also have our landmarks down so when we get to that certain point, it's like, "gosh, we are almost there, already."

For me, it's like getting to live one of my big wishes, to be able to commute daily. I am glad Evan has wanted to and enjoyed biking to school. He says it helps wake him up.

While not on the bike or a bike route, this is a picture of the Portland sky from my 5th floor at work. I liked the clouds pattern, the light, and the interplay of buildings and nature. I've been using my new little Canon PowerShot camera, keeping it handy even on the bike.

I took this closer shot of those same clouds as in the wider picture above. Just something about the lightness, wispiness compared the framing, darker, thicker clouds I suppose.

Will see what the ride home brings ... to be continued.

Ride home started a little earlier so I could ride down to Showers Pass headquarters. I had emailed them a question about my wet knees the other day and talked to them on the phone today. They said I could stop by to so they could check to make sure the knee vents had the seam tape (apparently there were some issues with some of their rain pants).

Seam tape there, so we agreed I would just keep an eye on things. The most likely cause the other day was lots of rain, I was squatting for quite some time to fix the multitude of flats, which pulls on the material. Since it was only one time, likely a "user" error, hahaha.

Love the service from Showers Pass, and really love that they are a local Portland company. Their stuff is worth the money, as well as you are buying some amazing customer service.