Ride home for Tuesday, 24 January
Went into MEC at lunch and picked up a couple of new chains and a set of brake pads. I've seen a couple of people around the blogosphere musing over whether to buy expensive gear or cheap gear; I go through gear at such a rate that I always buy the cheap gear, unless it's safety critical, in which case I buy the best I can afford. So, today I bought the $15 chain (they were all out of the cheaper $8 chain), and the expensive Kool Stop Brake Pads. Unfortunately MEC don't carry the salmon version for threaded brakes, only for cantilever style - I have the salmon pads in front and the wear is comparatively low, and the breaking is particularly good in wet weather.
The ride home was a bit of an endurance test, it started out OK but after about 10 minutes the freezing rain started, which coated my glasses nicely. I had to take them off at every stop to wipe them off, I ended up with them halfway down my nose and looking out over the top of them and using the visor on my helmet to keep the rain out of my eyes. About 10 minutes from home, it turned to heavy snow, which was at least a little less painful.
I took off my chain this evening and laid out the new one next to it so I could count off how many links to take off the new chain. I was more than a little perturbed to find that over the length of the chain, it had stretched by almost an entire link...
Distance logged: 14.176km
Time: 46:44
Average speed: 18.2km/hr
Max speed: 42.7 km/hr
Temperature: 0C, freezing rain turning to heavy snow
Cumulative distance: 374.062km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.54
Monthly distance: 374.062km
Monthly cost per km: $0.54
The ride home was a bit of an endurance test, it started out OK but after about 10 minutes the freezing rain started, which coated my glasses nicely. I had to take them off at every stop to wipe them off, I ended up with them halfway down my nose and looking out over the top of them and using the visor on my helmet to keep the rain out of my eyes. About 10 minutes from home, it turned to heavy snow, which was at least a little less painful.
I took off my chain this evening and laid out the new one next to it so I could count off how many links to take off the new chain. I was more than a little perturbed to find that over the length of the chain, it had stretched by almost an entire link...
Distance logged: 14.176km
Time: 46:44
Average speed: 18.2km/hr
Max speed: 42.7 km/hr
Temperature: 0C, freezing rain turning to heavy snow
Cumulative distance: 374.062km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.54
Monthly distance: 374.062km
Monthly cost per km: $0.54
posted by steve at 1/24/2006 09:34:00 pm
3 Comments:
Kool Stop is the only way to go!
Remember those Aztec II crap I had to get off my bike when I stopped in Halifax. Man, those were bad brake pads.
I can't believe you were voting for more snow over the 50 plus degree weather! Sure global warming is weird, but man, I was sure liking it.
Hi, I commute petty much the exact same distances every day to work & back that you do in Toronto! I enjoy reading about your commute. I find myself a regular at MEC too, seems I always need something for the bike:). Hope you have a terrific ride home!
Yeah, I remember those Aztec pads, Knox. They looked pretty worn, as I recall, and you looked a bit iffy on some of the steeper downhills!
Snow is fun to ride in (there's forecasts of up to 40cm for tonight), but ideally I'll ride in -8C (17.6F) to -15C (5F) - that's cold enough that sweat evaporates nicely, but not so cold that important things like freewheel pawls stop working.
Franz, you must be pretty brave to ride in Toronto, especially if you're downtown! I worked in TO in the building at the corner of Wellington and University for 6 months, and walking there from the Metropolitan hotel on Chestnut (off Dundas) was pretty sucky, especially at the height of summer - smog central! That's one contract I was really glad to finish.
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