Sunday, April 6, 2008

On Fitness and Projects

I figured I'd put up a few things that I've learned over the past few days.

First, seat adjustment makes a huge difference in your ride. I never used to think about how my seat was adjusted other than height. I bought my Cannondale Adventure 400, and swapped out the springy seat with a narrow seat that I was used to riding on with my older commuter. This season, I started having a lot of trouble with leg fatigue, so I broke down and switched back to the springy seat and did some adjustments, like moving it forward a little and adjusting the tilt a little. What a difference it made! I increased my average speed by almost 3 mph just by doing that.

Next, I learned that riding assertively in this town is guaranteed to do two things...one, it will pretty much ensure that folks see you. There's a lot of debate about where to ride in the lane, and I'm one of those who will ride in the bike lane if there is one, but if there isn't one, I will take about a 3rd of the lane. I generally tend to ride in the right wheel rut. It gives me enough room to dodge out of the way of the idiots that try to cram an Excursion up my backside, and it puts me out enough that the same Excursion driver doesn't think there's enough room to squeeze past. Two, it WILL piss off someone. Guaranteed. I have yet to make it to work without at least one horn. Usually, they will speed right up till they're about a foot off my back tire and lay it on. This is where I like to piss them off even more. I wave and smile, maybe give them a peace sign, then laugh as they get flustered, move over a lane and speed on by just in time to have to stop at the upcoming red light.

As far as projects, I've got two going right now. The trailer, and cleaning my garage. I'll post some pics of the garage later, so you can see exactly why. The trailer is in version 3.1 now. I put the sides on, and, except for the decorations, I'm pretty much done. Everything is working, and I can pull it pretty well. I'm going to have to work on the endurance a little to make it all the way down to Winco and back. For those outside of Medford, I'm on the extreme north edge of the town, and Winco is at the southern edge.

In other news, An Inconvenient Ride has reached Tuscaloosa, AL. The site has photos and other media up. It looks like they're doing well. I'm proud of them.

Keep checking back for updates on them as well as Medford bicycling information.

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