Bicycle thread

[Mambo Danny]

The current and hopefully last car is this Tesla Model Y Long Range. Works fine as a box that moves. Costs around $3 - $5 to charge overnight at home from around 50% to around 80 to 100%. Depending on what out plans are the next day.
receiver mounted bike rack is still to be used.

Sooner or later I imagine I'll get a Tesla. They are sweet. I just wish they had more storage inside. I'm absolutely fine with saving the planet, saving energy, having a reduced range and having to charge for longer periods of time than a fuel pump. I will bend the knee if, and only if, I'm making those sacrifices for at least a Suburban-sized or four full door, 6-foot bed sized vehicle.

The Model Y is great in concept, but I've seen them next to Priuses, and they are only a tiny bit bigger. I just don't get that all the savings of electric has to be put into tiny packages. The Cyber Truck is interesting, but some people online are stating that a regular F-150 four-door still has more room in the cabin. Maybe electric cars still aren't quite there, yet, if we can't drive around larger versions of our pickup trucks, cargo vans, etc. with them?

 

[ZoomerP]

Keep an eye on Rivian. They're no longer exclusive to Amazon with their van platform, so a consumer product based on it may be what you're after.

 

[Stormdog]

I've never owned a pickup truck. Though an old used Dodge was almost my first car. When I needed a truck I rented it. I've never owned a high performance car, but I've owned a minivan, that my motorcycle would fit inside of and I could tuck two hardtail MTB's behind the third row seats, after pulling the front wheels. Ten bicycles would fit the roof racks.
The current and hopefully last car is this Tesla Model Y Long Range. Works fine as a box that moves. Costs around $3 - $5 to charge overnight at home from around 50% to around 80 to 100%. Depending on what out plans are the next day.
receiver mounted bike rack is still to be used.

Anyway. my wheels arrived yesterday afternoon. I installed them with no drama. They look fine. A bit wider than the Rovals they replace, but lighter.
i can’t imagine not Owning a truck.

Thankfully I don’t have to make a new vehicle decision for around 5 years. But a hybrid seems to make the most sense for our lifestyle.
First the country ( and by country, I mean California) needs to decide an equitable method of taxation. There is no way that EV’s can not at some point start paying their share of road costs.
On a side note….
Turns out I just treated this carpal tunnel stuff like any other injury.
Seems to be responding well. Though oddly enough cutting some stuff in my wrists hasn’t really improved my back or elbow.

These rims are tubeless ready and came with tubeless stems in a bag. I don't have any tubeless tires or goo or tools for adding goo. It will be a while before I do since I have two spare tires that are also not tubeless.

 

[Richard]

I know nothing about the road taxes. But, the license fees are pretty impressive this year with two new Teslas in the family.
Getting tax revenue out of fuel is regressive and hurts those least able to make the switch to anything more efficient and of course all those poor souls in lifted 4x4 pickups, commuting to work. But, all that is not much to do with bicycles. There was a time in my life when I mostly rode a bicycle and put more than twice the mileage annually into the bicycle than the car.
When we needed to replace the car no hybrids that fit the bill were yet available. I'd rented a Prius once and drove it to Mesa and back. I had to stop on the way back and lay in the back seat because the drivers seat hurt my bad left knee so much. it was a horrid little car, but did impress at sipping fuel.

Getting my kit out to see how these new wheels roll. Back in a bit.

 

[CTG]

Electric cars still place massive demands on resources and IMO there needs to be changes in the way we live and travel for a sustainable future.

FWIW, home is wind and solar powered and a car free zone. The village is a compact design and most people work within 1km of their homes.

 

[Richard]

I got out for that ride yesterday.

Chilly then warm enough to unzip the vest about a third, then back to nearly full up, then when climbing home, unzip all the way. Half hour after getting home the sky grew cloudy and the wind chilled us.

The new wheels work well. Maybe need a bit more pressure to get the feel right.

I noticed a short climb a few weeks ago that Strava decided was a KOM. It's not what I'd normally call a climb though it does ascend. Just not steep or technical, or long. I looked it up since I was third in my age group on it at 41 seconds. The KOM in that group is 28 seconds or some such. Further checking revealed that to be an E-bike.
Now, I wonder about the overall KOM's lingering around the world? How many of them are falling or have fallen to these forms of motorcycles?

Anyway it was a good ride. I rode the harbor road out to the point as hard as I could manage. Topping my HR at 170 in the effort. That blew me up and I had to back off the last bit. If I stay down in the mid-150's I can go hard longer.
There was a bit of wind at times and I did take advantage. I do the same with traffic. When riding along side a traffic lane in the bike lane heavier traffic at speed can help pull you along.

My version of "Doping".

Just under 3 hours out there on two new wheels. Mud at one point thanks to a slide at the ocean center and cars parked across the only access unloading and shuffling about forcing everyone else into the mud.

Today will be a rest day thinks to gear needing laundry and holiday baking needs. That should free up Sunday for a final ride for thew week.

I have been trying to run the workout app on the Apple Watch, but it pauses at odd points sometimes. I thought I'd fixed this by reorienting it with the stem up my arm, yesterday I noticed about half way the thing had paused. The point of using the workout on the watch is to get the watch to eventually guess a VO2Max, rather than my having to calculate it.

It is nice to know I can go hard enough to burn off a good number of calories now. By the above tension tested vest it is evident I need to do more. Much, more.

 

[Richard]

Out for just under three hours today. Chilly then warmish then back to chilly on the descent and ride back to the beach in the shade.

Not real fast today, but did do some more exploring. I was able to go hard enough to burn some real calories. Finally back to that.

Six days of riding left to the year for me. I'm going to try to finish it strong, to kick off the new year.

Happy holidays everyone. Our weather is low 60's they say thru the end of the year.

I'm at that point where I'm going to be forced to carry food and a second bidon with electrolyte to stave off cramps. Or maybe just a bigger breakfast?

 

[CTG]

Big, big Christmas Eve ride this year. Z1-ish for me again. I really don't mind. More time to catch up with people I haven't seen for too long. Even bigger Christmas lunch with our local sister club.
Saturday a group of us went flying. PPG down the south coast. It has been an age.

Christmas morning I had #3 and #4 munchkins climb in with me at 2am. I could almost set my clock from them. By 4am I am up and they are looking for food. #2 finds her way out, then another five... six... seven... Suddenly I am catering to a ravenous horde. I survived that and Christmas gift giving so that a few of us could hammer north south through the ranges. More strange weather. By the time we got back it had started raining and it didn't clear until this morning.

 

[Richard]

Got in a Boxing Day ride yesterday. 100km, 4:15. Not fast, but I made it.

We have our real winter chill going these days. Doesn't get above 60°F until noon or so.

I'll do a couple of shorter rides the next two days and take it easy on pushing.

 

[Richard]

I managed another two shorter and attempted lazier rides. First one I managed to hold my HR down to 117, the second a 111, which got me closer to the Strava-suggested 60, 100 and 70 respectively.
I had intended to ride a metric century with the group today, beginning in Oceanside, which meant I'd need to have woke to my alarm at 5:30am.
I did not. My wife woke me at 7:10 to ask what time I'd intended to wake. No way could I make Oceanside by 8.
I rolled over and went back to sleep. I'd spent much of the night tossing and turning thanks to muscles tweaking here and there. No real pain, just annoying spasms at my forearms, triceps, biceps, neck and all over my legs. Not all at once, but only when turning into a position.

Tomorrow we're to get rain all day, but another group ride is planned for Sunday. That one will get me past my years mileage quest of 5,000 km.

I'll do a summary for the year after I finish that up and add my plan for the new year as well.

The above from yesterday's riding. A bit more exploring got me on the toll road path where I helped a couple who'd run out of CO2 and had no pump. I of course had my small pump along so was able to lend it. This is a bit more out of the way path to Santa Margarita than Antonio parkway, but it is a protected path. The high fence to my left id for wildlife and there is a lower cable fence to fend off errant cars and trucks as well as nudge wandering cyclists away from the toll lanes.

I'll use the rainy day to do a full clean on the bicycle with a wash and polish. I plan on checking each wheel for true as well. #newwheels.
We are finally into our winter weather, though it appears to be dryer than the worst El Niño winters I've experienced. But, that really is something that can only be summed up after the winter ends.

I'm still experimenting with what kit to wear. So far a base layer plus arm and leg warmers added to my usual summer jersey and bib shorts seems about right. My wind vest is a bit too heavy, isn't form fitting and doesn't add much warmth or venting. Not ideal.
I'm still searching a solution to that. In seasons past I never quite got into a routine. This past winter, I barely rode at all. Bacon the day I'd wear a Basel layer, long sleeved summer weight jersey and a cycling sweater which was wool with a nylon front to fend off the wind. Worked well down to the temperatures we see here at worst.

I believe I even had a wind jacket strapped into the seat tube bottle holder.

 

[CTG]

Who's that young fellow? lol

 

[Richard]

Who's that young fellow? lol

Indeed. 42+ years ago now. About 30 pounds. Before bifocals too.

Rain has slowed down here. It appears the rain for today is over. But, we still have a bit of drizzle. The weather reports are never local. More an approximation of what will happen in a general area than anything too exact.

Tesla: When we were buying it was our only real electric option. Having traveled in both the Prius and Model Y, the Model Y is bigger, more comfortable. The Tesla Model Y Long Range was about $20K more with FSD Beta and the tow package.
Fit and finish on the Tesla is both worse and better than Toyota. The interior of the Prius is very basic, My brother has had half a dozen between he and his daughters. I've driven and ridden for hours in a few of them. The back seating sucks. I have doubts that two adults could sit in the rear seats with a child in a child seat. I liked the Toyota Hybrid Highlander 2WD, but it was not available and wasn't planned to be released for nearly a year.
If I could have talked my wife into a forest green car, we'd have bought a Subaru Outback we test drove. I like the boxier shape better and the seating and interior better than the Tesla. She preferred the white, which was available on order. Sales said that would be a two month wait, which I was told by a friend inside the industry, (manufacturer, not dealer) said more like March, but probably April 2022. This was August 2021. We also had about a week to make a decision.

I was not comparing the Model Y to the Prius I was comparing it to the car we were replacing, the Murano. Seating in the Murano was excellent. Fit and finish were benchmark. But, I wanted better fuel economy. 24 to 26 mpg is pathetic. That was what we experienced over a decade of ownership and travel.

If I were buying now? A lot of choices.

If I could get away with it, I would not own any cars.

 

[Richard]

Finished off the year with a nice big crash into the rocks.

Nothing broken, but not for trying. Landed on rocks at my left shoulder, quad, back ribs and just ahead of my elbow. Swollen quad, forearm and shoulder looks to not have liked the treatment.

Our group,

Surf was big,

Finished up my ride though as this was before I even got to the start point, Tore a couple of holes in the rain cape.

The years stats from Strava:

 

[CTG]

Ouch! Heal well.


I am consistent so another good year. Still two activities every day. Bike, run, swim, gym. I only missed a few days. 263 days on my bike, 21965km, 502,800m and burnt more than twice my weight in carbs. That doesn't include 65 track sessions totalling 2140km. I ran 43 days for 395km. 121 days and 418km in the pool and 110 days on weights in the gym. Weight is consistent at 48kg +/-1kg. I feel and perform better nearer the top of that range. So eat up... I'm on a see-food diet.

Speaking of, last week a few of us flew west for a day. We brought back two boats. Little 5m centre console "tinnies". We did some fishing on the way back and caught bag and boat limits on a few species.

No sick days, at least nothing to wipe me out. That is despite a toddler germ factory plus a six and an eight year old. Covid made it mostly acceptable to cover our faces and since wearing a mask every time I leave the house I haven't been sick. IME, there is definitely benefit in masking and hand sanitiser.

 

[Richard]

Thursday night was a tough one. All spasms all the time. I managed three hours sleep according to my monitoring.
The spasms were near my breaking point I think. It has been decades since I had such and those landed me in the hospital with an ambulance ride. Back then I was much lighter and much better condition. 30 years will do that.
These spasms were across the left side of my back from the rhombus down to the bottoms of my ribs. I'd describe them as crushing. These were joined in the wee hours of the morning by leg spasms. Not so good times.
Ice to my back served to relieve the spasms long enough for them to subside a bit. By morning I was better and able to move a little better, but still not moving much. And carefully when I did. I was able to get into a hot shower and stretch full twisting and extensions above my head and bending. Zero pain in the hot shower.
That was good news. I took full advantage by heading to bed very early. I managed nearly 8.5 hours sleep last night.

The spasms are all but gone this morning, but I'm definitely not moving easily. I figure at least another week of rest before my body will be happy with cycling again.

The current plan is hot showers, stretching and rest. Watching UCI cyclocross on YouTube via the FloBikes channel.

Cheers,

 

[ZoomerP]

You know it's bad when it wears you down by interrupting your sleep.

Since heat helps, have you tried soaking and stretching in a hot tub?

 

[CTG]

Thursday night was a tough one. All spasms all the time. I managed three hours sleep according to my monitoring.
The spasms were near my breaking point I think. It has been decades since I had such and those landed me in the hospital with an ambulance ride. Back then I was much lighter and much better condition. 30 years will do that.
These spasms were across the left side of my back from the rhombus down to the bottoms of my ribs. I'd describe them as crushing. These were joined in the wee hours of the morning by leg spasms. Not so good times.
Ice to my back served to relieve the spasms long enough for them to subside a bit. By morning I was better and able to move a little better, but still not moving much. And carefully when I did. I was able to get into a hot shower and stretch full twisting and extensions above my head and bending. Zero pain in the hot shower.
That was good news. I took full advantage by heading to bed very early. I managed nearly 8.5 hours sleep last night.

The spasms are all but gone this morning, but I'm definitely not moving easily. I figure at least another week of rest before my body will be happy with cycling again.

The current plan is hot showers, stretching and rest. Watching UCI cyclocross on YouTube via the FloBikes channel.

Cheers,

Was it ever diagnosed? Could it be related to your crash last week?

...

TdU is here and the week has been crazy with every weekend wannabe out on the road causing a nuisance. Seriously, I sometimes understand why so many people including police hate cyclists. They make the rest of us targets.

Today was a 60km group ride with an extra 75km for some of us to the meet point. We were running a little late so we'd gone into hammer mode through the hills making good time. The final descent was a joy at 80-90kph before it flattens to 2-3% through the suburbs to the city. We were still hammering at 60kph to the outskirts of the city when we were all stopped by police. They were never clear about why, like they had nothing better to do and the two lawyers in our group schooled them. A change of government was required to get them under control after covid. It was funny though. Still, that was 15 minutes wasted and by the time we were moving again the group we were to meet was nearly at the coast. They had about 7km on us. About twenty of us were straight into full hammer, motopace mode with a fast rotation of a very tight double pace line to make up the lost time. Pace was mid 50's kph, a few scowls from the haters, scrutinised by more police who shouted something and was mocked and decided we weren't worth the effort, he was going to lose. Some encouragement from others. We passed a few riders who tried to latch on... and failed. Looking very pro ourselves with uniform kit we blew past a couple of real pro teams who were just rolling along. More encouragement! Lots of laughter. We were having a good time. There were only two riders who struggled with the pace. Our sister club here have their own motoslaves who kept them with us.

We caught the main group at 52km, spent the next 47km in Z1/2, finally got a coffee and something to eat at 99km before the ride home. We avoided Norton Summit which has been used for the ITT in past years (afaik not this year) and on a Sunday morning before the race is going to be a mess of cyclists. Probably worse next week. Same the Crafers bike path, a mess of cyclists. Straight up Greenhill that attracts riders who can climb. We caught a small group and chatted for a while before parting ways. We weren't interested in racing. From the summit it was a long roll home, a little up, but mostly down. 137km ridden.

I was hungry and ate a whole bird. Mostly protein, a little fat. Some people still have difficulty with how I eat. It was a 12MJ ride. That is, I do enough that I am really not afraid to eat. Dropping weight is a fail right now and later I was looking for some carbs. A big plate of insanely good fresh ravioli hit the spot.

 

[Richard]

Was it ever diagnosed? Could it be related to your crash last week?

...

TdU is here and the week has been crazy with every weekend wannabe out on the road causing a nuisance. Seriously, I sometimes understand why so many people including police hate cyclists. They make the rest of us targets.

Today was a 60km group ride with an extra 75km for some of us to the meet point. We were running a little late so we'd gone into hammer mode through the hills making good time. The final descent was a joy at 80-90kph before it flattens to 2-3% through the suburbs to the city. We were still hammering at 60kph to the outskirts of the city when we were all stopped by police. They were never clear about why, like they had nothing better to do and the two lawyers in our group schooled them. A change of government was required to get them under control after covid. It was funny though. Still, that was 15 minutes wasted and by the time we were moving again the group we were to meet was nearly at the coast. They had about 7km on us. About twenty of us were straight into full hammer, motopace mode with a fast rotation of a very tight double pace line to make up the lost time. Pace was mid 50's kph, a few scowls from the haters, scrutinised by more police who shouted something and was mocked and decided we weren't worth the effort, he was going to lose. Some encouragement from others. We passed a few riders who tried to latch on... and failed. Looking very pro ourselves with uniform kit we blew past a couple of real pro teams who were just rolling along. More encouragement! Lots of laughter. We were having a good time. There were only two riders who struggled with the pace. Our sister club here have their own motoslaves who kept them with us.

We caught the main group at 52km, spent the next 47km in Z1/2, finally got a coffee and something to eat at 99km before the ride home. We avoided Norton Summit which has been used for the ITT in past years (afaik not this year) and on a Sunday morning before the race is going to be a mess of cyclists. Probably worse next week. Same the Crafers bike path, a mess of cyclists. Straight up Greenhill that attracts riders who can climb. We caught a small group and chatted for a while before parting ways. We weren't interested in racing. From the summit it was a long roll home, a little up, but mostly down. 137km ridden.

I was hungry and ate a whole bird. Mostly protein, a little fat. Some people still have difficulty with how I eat. It was a 12MJ ride. That is, I do enough that I am really not afraid to eat. Dropping weight is a fail right now and later I was looking for some carbs. A big plate of insanely good fresh ravioli hit the spot.

The rhombus problem once paralyzed me with twisting my spine sideways snaking my spine side to side. The treatment for that ended me in the ICU for two weeks and lingering kidney issues for a couple of years thanks to medication shutting my kidneys down and nearly ending me.
I went though physical therapy to help the back problem. Between learning the exercises and better habits and eventually more cycling, my back got better in that area.

I'll message my doctor today after another night of 3 hours sleep out of ten. No more spasms just pain from the sore spots on my ribs. They definitely feel broken. That dull ache in the wrong position brings on nausea. I doubt there is any painkiller I can take that will take the edge off. I have sensitivities to all the usual and the narcotics make me feel worse than the pain. Having broken ribs too many times I am aware of the drill. At 14 it was easier than at 70.

 

[CTG]

The rhombus problem once paralyzed me with twisting my spine sideways snaking my spine side to side. The treatment for that ended me in the ICU for two weeks and lingering kidney issues for a couple of years thanks to medication shutting my kidneys down and nearly ending me.
I went though physical therapy to help the back problem. Between learning the exercises and better habits and eventually more cycling, my back got better in that area.

I'll message my doctor today after another night of 3 hours sleep out of ten. No more spasms just pain from the sore spots on my ribs. They definitely feel broken. That dull ache in the wrong position brings on nausea. I doubt there is any painkiller I can take that will take the edge off. I have sensitivities to all the usual and the narcotics make me feel worse than the pain. Having broken ribs too many times I am aware of the drill. At 14 it was easier than at 70.

What I meant was, did doctors ever find the root of the problem, the cause... or were they just treating the symptoms?

 

[CTG]

Richard Never mind my question. I caught your Thursday post on the other site. Broken ribs, bruised lung, (3-4 day?) hospital stay and bags of drugs. That sucks! Heal quickly.