On previous rides on the new bike, I’d decided that my saddle needed to come down just a bit, and that its nose needed to come up a degree or two (I prefer it to be either level, front to back, or to have an almost imperceptible nose-down tilt). Anyway, before heading out today I finally adjusted the angle and dropped the seat about 1/16″. After riding along for a bit, I decided it was now too low, so I raised it about 1/8″. Continuing on my ride this felt a tiny bit too high. Apparently, it had been exactly where it needed to be before I starting fussing with it (other than the angle, which now feels just right).
Another thing struck me as odd. I was climbing easier (remember, this is a fixed-gear I’m talking about), but felt like I was spinning out at a lower speed. “It’s almost like I swapped the gear.” I thought to myself.
Upon arriving home, I checked and sure enough, I had, in fact, been riding with the wheel swapped to the side with the 17T cog, rather than the 16T. “Oh, yeah… I did that yesterday, when it was raining”, I suddenly remembered.
Duh!
I was relieved to verify that my spin hadn’t actually slowed down, I’m still maxing out at my pitiful 140 RPM, at least until I can polish off the rough edges I developed over the winter.
Well, apparently the geese-chasing dogs actually arrived sometime last week. Looking back, I can’t recall the last day when I actually saw geese at the park. I’m a little bummed about the whole thing. Mainly because I don’t think I’ll ever actually get to see the dogs chase the geese, as I have a feeling this is primarily an early morning activity. Secondly, I’ll actually miss the geese. I really enjoyed hearing and seeing them arrive each morning, and depart each evening, locked in their precise formations.
I would really have no quarrel at all with the geese if they:
A) Weren’t so aggressively obnoxious.
B) Didn’t shit so damned much, everywhere! (2 pounds a day per goose!)
C) Hadn’t become year-round residents, rather than passing through twice a year during migration (like they’re supposed to!).
So, the park next to my house has (for the last several years) been over-run with “wild” Canada Geese. Over the past few years the city has tried a variety of solutions to drive these obnoxious feathered fecal factories away. First they put up loudspeakers which would periodically (day and night) broadcast a recorded goose alarm call. This was quite effective initially, but the geese eventually caught on and their ranks swelled once more (on a side note; it took longer for me than it did for the geese to realize the calls were pre-recorded. I spent many late-night hours wondering what had the geese so worked up).
Then they tried placing floating plastic crocodile heads in the “lagoon”. These seemed to have little or no effect on the geese, though they did make me giggle. (Crikey! That’s one big disembodied crocodile head!) Now the city is playing for keeps. They’ve enlisted the services of a company called “Goose Be Gone”. Specially trained border collies (with their handlers) will patrol the park five days a week for three months, theoretically driving the geese away for good.
Can geese count? I think it would be hysterical if the geese realized that the dogs were only there on weekdays and they returned en masse on the weekends. All I know is, I can’t wait for the goose-chasing dogs to arrive, that is going to be some first-rate free entertainment.
I couldn’t have asked for nicer weather to take the new bike out for a spin. It made it into the mid-sixties today! I was actually a bit too warm with my lightest tights and a long-sleeved jersey.
Click photo to enlarge
The new bike rides like a dream. I don’t know if it’s the carbon fork or what, but it actually gives a much smoother ride than the
Pista (using the same wheels and tires). I really could not be any happier with it.
I love my new bike!
The new bike (frame) came yesterday, so today it was off to the bike shop to buy a stem, have the cranks installed, and have rivnuts put in to mount a bottle cage.
Roger got it all buttoned up today, so I picked it up, brought it home, and put on the wheels, chain, saddle and seat post (why is it that it’s a saddle, but it’s mounted to a seat post, anyway?) fiddled with the bar/brake lever position, etc. Unfortunately, I didn’t manage to get out for the inaugural ride, but holy frijoles, I can’t get over how light this bike is! It’s the lightest bike I own, by several pounds. I’m guessing it’s right at (or just under) 16 pounds, but it feels even lighter than that.
I’m planning to ride tomorrow, and I’ll probably take a picture or two (of the new steed), too; so stay tuned, Bat-fans.
As some of you (my imaginary fan-club) may recall, I’ve been going on and on for some time now about buying a new fixed-gear bike, and was crestfallen recently when I discovered that I wasn’t going to be able to order my Bianchi Pista Concept frameset from I-pro.
Well, happy days are here again. Earlier I was perusing eBay and I found a Felt TK2 frameset, my size, with a very reasonable “Buy It Now” price, so that’s exactly what I did. The Felt was one of the bikes I was seriously considering before setting my heart on the Pista Concept. One factor in that decision was the Felt’s MSRP being about $200 more than the Bianchi’s. That reasonable “Buy it Now” price I mentioned earlier? Over a hundred dollars less than a Pista Concept!
More to follow.
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