30 Days of Biking - Cool off

We have had a wonderfully warm Spring this year in Minnesota, almost a month ahead in terms of temperature. I was looking back at some of last year's posts on this blog and we had snow on April 20th last year. Yikes. I would hate to give up the shorts at this point so when the forecast was calling for 'snow showers' last night I got a case of the hives. I am in a Summer biking state of mind already and the Winter bike is put away (well, in the garage awaiting the ritual tear-down and clean-up). When I woke up this morning, I saw that the forecast was more the weatherman getting his undies in a bundle than reality. It won't snow at 45 degrees! Right??!

30 Days of Biking - Cycling in Old Japan

Several years ago I spent a week in Japan and somehow the opportunity came up to rent a bike. We were in Kyoto, a city packed with old temples, gardens, and palaces. You could spend months seeing everything. I am into that kind of stuff and we were running out of time so using a bike to get around seemed like a great solution.

It turns out that it was. Many of the old parts of Kyoto are great for biking. The narrow streets lend themselves to slow cruising without fear of traffic. And you get attention as the gangly American cruising around on this little Japanese bike. My wife,  7-months pregnant, was riding behind and took this picture. We got a few friendly waves and probably a couple of chuckles.

30 Days of Biking - Mystery tunnels

Biking along the Mississippi - especially before the leaves come out - you can see mysterious inlets, ravines, and the dark entrances to caves near the waterline. Some of these are real caves and others are man made. In either case it isn't everyday that something new shows up on the cave map.

So, I was quite surprised to see that some new caves were being dug into the bluffs right along my bike route. Equipment started showing up a few weeks ago and they cleared two areas. Here, there was a need to excavate more above grade so they built a gravel driveway up to the site.

I assume the corrugated metal tubes are to stabilize the entrance. The limestone in the cliff is very convenient for free landscaping mater...I mean very loose.

At the second site (below) you can see the shattered rock around the entrance. Once past this initial stage, they started tunneling into the cliff. I will get some better photos since the work is pretty cool to watch. The tunnel itself has a rectangular profile and so far it looks like they are going to leave the walls natural stone.

I have tried to ask one of the construction workers what the project was about but they aren't too responsive over all of the drilling noise. My assumption is that since these two tunnels are just below the East Bank of the University of Minnesota campus that they are meant to service the buildings on top of the cliff. In fact, just upstream there is an underground archive that does just that. This stuff is quite cool! And, all on the bike route to work...

30 Days of Biking - April showers

We have had light rain showers yesterday and today during the commute. In the morning there was just enough rain to make greens greener and bring out an earthy, damp smell in the air. Crossing the Lake Street - Marshall Avenue bridge between St Paul and Minneapolis there was this really dramatic sky as the rain moved off to the East.

I took a pic and then just stared for a minute as those low clouds cruised by. By the time I arrived downtown (you can just see the buildings peaking over the trees about 4 miles away), the sky had changed completely. It was bright, windy, and the ground completely dry by the time I returned in the evening.

30 Days of Biking - Bike switching

I rode the same bike year-round when I started commuting, come rain, slush, snow, salt, and all the other gross stuff that messes up a bike in Minnesota. I would go through a few chains a Winter and usually burn through a set of brake pads, rust through a fender bolt, and cause other sundry damage. This isn't Iron Man, this is just grubby streets takin' it out on the machine. I finally figured out that having a separate Winter bike would allow me to spread out the wear and give me time to get the main bike in shape for next season.

This year, my Winter maintenance took much longer on the Bianchi since it is 6 years old and there were quite a few things that needed cleaning and replacement. Here is an odd picture I took last year showing, in part, how chewed up the bar tape was getting on my handlebars. (The bike is standing still but I took this to show how my wireless bike computer would go haywire near this particular building on my ride.)

So, this year the Bianchi got: new front derailleur shift cable, brake pads, and miscellaneous bolts (not chainring, although I noticed later it could use a new set). The bike got a thorough cleaning. 

And...drum roll...new bar tape.

A few of these projects were new for me so certainly the next time I go through this I will be faster.

A quick job will be to hit the Brook's seat with proofide. You can see where the seat got banged up on a bike-car incident last year downtown. The proofide doesn't seem to take out the gouges...oops. 

30 Days of Biking - Windy Spring

We have been enjoying a very long Spring in Minnesota, one that started early and has continued to bring us warm temperatures. No complaints here, even from a Winter biker. The last two days we have had a really consistent weather pattern: a huge wind out of the South, grey skies, light rain, cool temperatures. What does this sound like? A normal Spring in Minnesota.

Here is a sunrise looking South over the Mississippi. The sky looked more pink than shows up in this picture. We are starting to get to the time of year where it is light as day when I leave in the morning. As much as I love the sunrise, it is great to not have to be concerned about visibility to vehicles. Happy Spring riding!

30 Days of Biking - More metal shoes

I mentioned the other day how much I love these sculptures of shoes on the Midtown Greenway. I still don't know who created these but I love the concept. When you cruise by on the trail unless you look closely you might think someone has just abandoned a pair of shoes.

I stopped today to look more closely at these since they also look like a pair of beat up hikers I own. 

The detail is great and adds to the realism. I am the kind of person who likes to see how things are made and, yes, there are little drain holes in the soles to let rainwater out!

30 Days of Biking - New brakes

A few weeks ago we were looking at our stash of kids' bikes getting ready for warm weather. Our 6-year-old daughter got a hand-me-down bike last year from an older cousin. It was bigger and heavier than any bike she had ridden before. She learned to handle the bike alright but the brakes were always too hard to pull. We realized after watching her ride that her inability to stop was making her anxious. It also meant it would not be safe for us to do anything but sidewalk riding.I did a little bit of research and found that others had similar problems with hand brakes that were too hard for small hands to pull.

I thought about replacing the bike but it seemed like I shouldn't have to throw away an entire bike just for brakes. Somewhere online I saw a recommendation for the Avid Speed Dial 7 brake levers to use for small hands. 

What is cool is the lever can be adjusted to bring it close to the handlebar. Also, the really neat part is the red dial that adjusts the tension of the pull. 

I ordered a set of levers and also added a set of Avid SD-5 caliper brakes to replace the OEM gear. I was able to dial in a good tension setting and set the levers to a short spacing. The result was a huge improvement in braking for my daughter. The best part was she is much more comfortable on the bike to the point we can ride out in the street safely. For $50 this was a really great investment. 

30 Days of Biking - Alternate routes

I sometimes find myself too often taking the same route to and from work on my commute. Without realizing it, I may go weeks and longer taking the same streets, the same trails, parking in the same spot. Every working fool has this problem and most of us rarely notice it. A cool thing about biking is that often it will take the same amount of time to vary the route, try a different street, take an alley, hop off the trail. In a car this could add tens of minutes but on a bike your speed is fairly constant so there isn't a reason not to try it.

I thought about this on my Friday ride where I left work and headed to South Minneapolis to attend an....Easter egg hunt! I tried some new roads I hadn't biked on, checked out some new on-street bike lanes, and saw some different scenery. It reminded me that finding variety is refreshing and must ultimately be good for the brain.

30 Days of Biking - Look for the shoes!

There is a fun series of sculptures on the Midtown Greenway along my route. It consists of different pairs of shoes, cast in bronze, set on benches as if they were just left by their owners. Each pair is a different style, some are meant to look quite worn, others like they will be picked up shortly and used again. Sometimes they look quite real, adding to the sense the owners might return in a minute.

The pair in this picture looks kind of like my beat up hikers I wear in the winter. The phrase 'walk a mile' really applies in this thought provoking art piece.

30 Days of Biking - Favorites

I bike to work daily and am happy to report I have kept this up pretty much every day since last August. This is fun for me and I don't think of  it as an accomplishment since I get exercise, enjoyment, and time to listen to podcasts. There are some things I enjoy in particular every day, regardless of the weather. One of those is that I get to bike over the Mississippi and see the river traffic.

Sometime in late March, the University of Minnesota rowing teams come out and practice in the morning. I have different routes I take but at this time of year I like to ride on the West River Parkway which runs down at the level of the river for part of its route. It is hard to see the rowers here but there is one rowboat and a motorboat with a coach following the crew. The undulation of the water was really cool this morning, too.

30 Days of Biking - Spring Sunrise

I love the dark/light contrast in this one. The color lasted just a few minutes.

30 Days of Biking - Bridge out

We have a fairly prominent cycling landmark in the Twin Cities known as the Sabo bridge. The structure swings out dramatically over highway 55 as it enters downtown Minneapolis. The bridge's designers used a cable suspension design that was much more visually imposing than your typical pedestrian bridge. Unfortunately, just a few years after its opening, metal plates that help anchor the cables to the structure began to fail. When bridges begin to fail...we close them. Bummer.

The bridge is...er...closed.

Even the temporary scaffolding bracing the deck makes for an interesting picture. 

Fortunately, no one was hurt when the cable plates failed. Also, there is an alternative route which involves crossing the rather treacherous Highway 55 at road level. Once this bridge is opened back up to bikes, I'm sure we will all appreciate the sense of safety it gives. At least from traffic.

30 Days of Biking - Where I learned to ride!

The 30 Days of Biking starts today. If you need an excuse to make yourself ride, this is a great one. There are few requirements: just ride your bike every day for 30 days. You decide how far, where to go, iron man, weenie, beer run, however, wherever, with whomever you want. Then, post online about it. Cool concept so take a look.

My 30 Days started with how I learned to ride: cruising around the neighborhood with tiny people.

We went probably a bit over a mile, down alleys, raced down 'hills,' and had just one or two crashes caused by gawking. Fun stuff!