I’m doing #30daysofbiking this year. If you don’t know what that is, it just means you ride your bike every single day in April, even if it’s just to go around the block.
I took my newly-derailered Cross-Check out for 14 miles today.
I stopped off at the park for some helmet-haired self-portraiture.
Yes, I still need to wrap the bars.
Check it out: This is the first time ever Harrisburg is going to do something cool to celebrate bike month! They’re closing a big chunk of Front Street to cars, so you can bring your kids and whoever else, and ride all over the place without having to worry about traffic.
Read all about it: http://www.bikeharrisburg.org/
I did a little research on frame geometry, and the numbers show that two of my bikes are pretty darn similar. My 1987 Trek 520 and my 2010 Surly Cross-Check stack up like this:
 |
||||||||
| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | |
| Trek | 64.7 | 72.7 | 72 | 58.9 | 45.5 | 5.2 | 6.5 | 108.1 |
| CC | 64.5 | 72 | 72 | 61.0 | 42.5 | 4.4 | 6.6 | 105.5 |
The cross-check has shorter chainstays, and a longer top tube. The Cross-check also takes monster truck tires, while the Trek tops out around 38mm. I’m thinking a drivetrain switcheroo might be in order. The CC could easily be my primary bike, but it isn’t because the Sturmey Archer gearing is a little too high for most of the hills around here.
With a wide gear range, and suitable tires, the CC might be the better bike for 99% of all the riding I do, and the Karate Monkey would probably be better for the other 1%.
Not sure what I’d do with my beloved Trek, then.
Decisions, Decisions.
Long, long ago, I mentioned that I wanted to hike all 798 miles required to earn the State Forest Trails Award.
Last weekend, I went out into the frosty mountains with Klinutus and my evil sister. It was about 16 degrees up in the snowy mountains.
I got to try out my Subaru’s AWD in the snow for the first time. It worked very nicely.
There was a lot of rocks. I hate rocks. Especially when they’re under the snow and you can’t see them.
Because I am a very clever boy, I had a thermos full of coffee in my backpack. So, I was fully caffeinated for the hike.
There are a lot of nice views on this section of the trail. Here is Klinutus contemplating endless infinities or whatever.
At any rate, it was very nice, except that I twisted my ankle or something out there, and have been out of commission for the past week.
Klinutus brought along his camera tripod, so we could pose for our end-of-the-hike group photo.
Another four miles down, only 768 left to go!
The first week of 2012 is in the bag! I’ve lost 10 pounds, and already ridden twice as many miles as I did in the whole month of January last year!
Yesterday, the Sloth and I circumnavigated the Capital Area Greenbelt on our bicycles.
We stopped around the halfway mark to brew up some coffee. Sloth had a new coffee filter he wanted to try out, and I had a new stove that I wanted to play with.
I had an entire pannier’s worth of coffee brewing accouterments. Stove, fuel bottle, extra water, pot, french press, etc. It all adds up to a lot of pannier space, but was well worth it.
Due to some miscalculations while lighting the stove, I ended up with a small fuel spill, and a gigantic ball of flame. This seemed to amuse / horrify the joggers and dog-walkers who were passing by.
Nonetheless, we had our coffee, and it was good. Personally, I think coffee / tea breaks should be mandatory on any ride over 15 miles when it’s less than 50 degrees out. Anything less would be uncivilized.
Fortified with caffeine, we soldiered on through the gigantic traffic disaster of the Farm Show. We made a few wrong turns (the signage on the Greenbelt is a little spotty), and ended up with about 21 miles — my longest ride for the week/month/year!
The new year appears to be off to a good start, and ambitious plans for a multi-day tour are already underway.
