Ride home for Friday, 07 April

I went into MEC at lunchtime and picked up a new bike computer, bell, and 27" inner tube, then I dropped by IdealBikes and picked up my Nishiki. It was all ready to go with new cables, tuneup and general fixup; all told I spent $72 to get the bike back on the road, which is a pretty good price for a bike. I dropped by a friend's place after work and put the bike computer and bell on, and he made admiring noises at the lack of wear, leather saddle, etc.

I set off a bit later than I really meant to, since I didn't have lights for the bike. I put my backpack lights on and was careful about keeping out of the way of oncoming traffic. I took the fire trail on the way back to avoid the road, but had to go slowly - the darkness, the skinny tyres, and the roughness of the trail combined to make it a rather jarring ride.

The bike is, however, extremely fast, and the component arrangement feels well selected. I had no problem powering away from a stop, although I need to fiddle with the saddle and handlebar height some more. I think I might also look into alternative pedals; I'm guessing one side of the pedal was designed for toe clips, as there's rails on either side of the pedal (just about visible in this picture) which make it a bit tricky to pedal, and flipping over to the other side doesn't always work - around 30% of the time the pedal does a full 360 back to the rails. I think I'll replace them if I can't figure out the trick of flipping the pedal the right way up.

Distance logged: 13.815km
Time: 47:44
Average speed: 17.4km/hr
Max speed: 41.4 km/hr
Temperature: 6C, breezy, cloudy
Cumulative distance: 1974.758km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.44
Monthly distance: 164.005km
Monthly cost per km: $0.68