M
Mike Jacoubowsky/Chain Reaction Bicycles
Guest
From today's almost-daily diary entry (www.ChainReaction.com/diary.htm)
02/15/05 7:18am- "MIKE, KEVIN HERE, IT'S REALLY RAINING OUT THERE" said the
voice mail that came in while I was getting my bike ready. "Give me a call
if you're still planning to ride." So I call him back, and he tells me that
it's really dumping, as if I can't look through the window and see all the
water that's pouring over the gutters that I haven't cleaned. I tell him of
course I'm still going to ride. That's what I do. I ride, on Tuesdays and
Thursday mornings, no matter what. But Kevin decides to stay indoors, saying
that he needs to get some decent rain gear. As if. As if it really makes a
huge difference; when you've got a ride with lots of climbing, you've got
the choice of either getting soaked from the inside (sauna effect) or the
outside (rain). Still, you at least have the choice.
Just saw a couple other cyclists out there, both on Canada on my way to the
start. Brave souls, they, as it was seriously dumping at the time. In fact,
it kept on dumping all the way to the top of King's, where the heavy rain
was replaced by heavy fog. Too bad, as it takes some of the "epic" nature
away when a ride starts gnarly but ends on a softer note. One benefit to
nasty weather though- the car traffic always seems substantially lighter.
The biggest effect rain has on my ride is to lengthen it by maybe 15
minutes or so. Some of the extra time comes from the fact that the Iron Pig
(my rain bike) weighs a whole lot more and just isn't all that fun to ride.
No STI shifting, cranks a bit on the short side (170s while I'm used to
riding 175s these days), and gears that aren't quite as low as they ought to
be (42 front/23 rear vs 34 front/27 rear on the 5900). But, it works, and
when it gets all messed up you don't have to worry about having destroyed
expensive equipment.
I thought about shortening the ride a bit by lopping off the Old LaHonda
west-side loop, but according to my bathroom scale, that wouldn't have been
a good idea. (Why do we keep scales in the bathroom anyway? Wouldn't they
have more effect if we kept them near the dining room table?).
Overall, it was a good ride. Certainly not fast, but sometimes you need to
ride just because you can, and if the weather is foul enough that people
would think you crazy for wanting to, well, that's all the better. The only
thing that could have made it even better would have been if the rain had
kept up through the day, since bragging rights are greatly diminished when
the day becomes not-so-bad, even though it was insane when you were out
there. "You rode today?" If it's a Tuesday or Thursday, the question is
entirely rhetorical. It's what I do.
--Mike Jacoubowsky
Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReaction.com
IMBA, BikesBelong, NBDA member
02/15/05 7:18am- "MIKE, KEVIN HERE, IT'S REALLY RAINING OUT THERE" said the
voice mail that came in while I was getting my bike ready. "Give me a call
if you're still planning to ride." So I call him back, and he tells me that
it's really dumping, as if I can't look through the window and see all the
water that's pouring over the gutters that I haven't cleaned. I tell him of
course I'm still going to ride. That's what I do. I ride, on Tuesdays and
Thursday mornings, no matter what. But Kevin decides to stay indoors, saying
that he needs to get some decent rain gear. As if. As if it really makes a
huge difference; when you've got a ride with lots of climbing, you've got
the choice of either getting soaked from the inside (sauna effect) or the
outside (rain). Still, you at least have the choice.
Just saw a couple other cyclists out there, both on Canada on my way to the
start. Brave souls, they, as it was seriously dumping at the time. In fact,
it kept on dumping all the way to the top of King's, where the heavy rain
was replaced by heavy fog. Too bad, as it takes some of the "epic" nature
away when a ride starts gnarly but ends on a softer note. One benefit to
nasty weather though- the car traffic always seems substantially lighter.
The biggest effect rain has on my ride is to lengthen it by maybe 15
minutes or so. Some of the extra time comes from the fact that the Iron Pig
(my rain bike) weighs a whole lot more and just isn't all that fun to ride.
No STI shifting, cranks a bit on the short side (170s while I'm used to
riding 175s these days), and gears that aren't quite as low as they ought to
be (42 front/23 rear vs 34 front/27 rear on the 5900). But, it works, and
when it gets all messed up you don't have to worry about having destroyed
expensive equipment.
I thought about shortening the ride a bit by lopping off the Old LaHonda
west-side loop, but according to my bathroom scale, that wouldn't have been
a good idea. (Why do we keep scales in the bathroom anyway? Wouldn't they
have more effect if we kept them near the dining room table?).
Overall, it was a good ride. Certainly not fast, but sometimes you need to
ride just because you can, and if the weather is foul enough that people
would think you crazy for wanting to, well, that's all the better. The only
thing that could have made it even better would have been if the rain had
kept up through the day, since bragging rights are greatly diminished when
the day becomes not-so-bad, even though it was insane when you were out
there. "You rode today?" If it's a Tuesday or Thursday, the question is
entirely rhetorical. It's what I do.
--Mike Jacoubowsky
Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReaction.com
IMBA, BikesBelong, NBDA member