Cycling Season 2008 Begins...for me anyway

FINALLY after a pathetic four month hiatus I have resumed cycling. Today was a beautiful sunny and crisp Sunday. No wind. Temps. were about 35 deg. F (~2 deg. C). The roads were sandy but mostly dry. And most importantly all the chores around the house were done. Fortunately I have the 8-speed KONA in 'rugged mode' and took it down into town to pick up some groceries.

I picked up mostly produce for tonights dinner, chicken soup. When I got home it weighed in at about 14 pounds. Which fit pretty nicely in the panniers and rack trunk. That reminds me of the ol' joke:

'Whats a hennway? 'Bout 3 pounds.'

Anyway, I was friggin' slow. 11.98 mile round trip. 1 hour 2 minutes. At least 15 minutes slower than during my summer peak. Thats only less than a 12 mph average. I should be at least at 15. Regardless of my 'less than peak' performance it felt great to get back out riding again.

This is all a part of trying to get and keep cycling into as much of my everyday routine as possible. Grocery gettin' is a good start. Commuting into work will start up again (prev. posts 1,2,3) so thats good.

*If any reader(s) is/are curious about how to incorporate cycling as exercise into your daily routine feel free to ask and I will write up a post based on questions. I would love to see more people out there pedaling from place to place like the Dutch.

But yeah today was like "w00000t w0000t"

Tuesday crazy-ness

There are some days that just go by. There are some days that just suck. Then there are days like I had yesterday. Where you just feel GREAT...start to finish.

At work, I was the fucking man. Keeping two people coordinated on-site at underground storage tank removals. " Yes, do this. No, now do that. What are your results? This is what we need for samples. Ok good. Did you talk to the State guy? Is he happy?"

Then I had a project meeting to lay out the next few months. Which was continuously interrupted by then aforementioned on-site jobs.

At noon Wife showed up for lunch. We had sushi. It was goodBack at work, I continued to kick ass. A client had come in to discuss some new tanks they are installting. The existing tanks fucking broke! Leaked some gas and caused a big headache.
So, in that meeting with ClientGuy and BossMan I was able to steer the meeting because I had kept in recent contact with all the other parties involved *(State DEP, ClientLady in Canada and Monkey Subcontractors).

I got the feeling that BossMan was impressed and happy with what I had done.

Then just as Im going home...SmartWorkLady asks me to drop off lab samples on my way home. No Problem.

Then I get home and I rode the Kona into town to return the movie and because I was all pumped up I made it, the 5 miles into town in 16.4 mintues and return in 21 minutes. For an avg. spped of like 17.6 or something. Which is friggin' flying for this bike.

Kona Re-build. DONE.

The KONA IS DONE!

I picked it up from Percy mid-last week. Quite honestly I was excited to get it back. Kona is now running with:

• new ritchey headset;
• crank and ring (parts);
• a chain (parts);
• converted to 8-speed;
• suntour bar end friction shifter
• new rear hoop (sun rim cr18);
• bb rebuild;
• handbars are now set ram horn style (parts). i like this better than i thought because it give me more room in the cockpit;
• break levers (parts; shimano - each different type)
• 4 new breakpads;
• and bar tape.
  

thats about it.

I took it out for its virgin ride after bring re-born and did a near by 8.6 mile loop in 33 minutes. This my be become my everyday commuter.

The General Story

So in like...1986 I got it. The R.L. Osborne, Hustler Pro, General -freestyle bike. I bought the frame --*somewhere*-- and built it up from parts I had from previous bikes I had acquired until I had all the mods. I would need. I was patient and it eventually was complete.

TODAY, 21 years later...*woah..ok that was a long time ago...smmmm--ppphhhhaaa ok.* I was out for a walk (beautiful day, by the way -strong sun-mid-30's) and headed to Percy's, just to see whats up with the Kona, discuss details : Need to straighten out the new handle bar/ shifter set up and new/used crank build up. (Kona's going to 8 speed with a single 44 up front) so that was cool. But while I was there I got set up with a new pair of rims for the General. I like 'em! and the totally fit the look of the bike.

And here is the pic I took tonight with the new wheel set..

What you cant see is that the rear hub is blue anodized like the handle bars and the front hub is red anodized. They look really good on it. Now I will just spend a little time cleaning the whole thing and re-run all the break cables.

I noticed that the crank is a little loose in the BB. maybe Ill get to that this summer..for...

General Phase2.

Kona Re-build. -II

Well, I dropped the KONA off at Percys on Wednesday. I really wanted to do the whole bike but i dont have a BB tool and headset press. so off to the shop.

Anyway, the Kona will be getting a headset, and re-pack the BB. While it is there, and since he has the parts and I don't -(key factor) she'll also be gettin' a new chain and crank build up the from spare parts with a single 42. Ill be keeping an 8 speed rear. We will refit the bars with a ram-horn and sun-tour bar end shifter, i think the stem will need to change too. probably.

Kona Re-build.

I need a winter bike. This whole -no riding because the roads suck and i dont want to trash my good bike- thing is starting to kill me. I spoke with Percy at the local LBS to make a choice. Buy new, or build up ol' reliable.
To fix or not to fix, THAT is the question.

The bike in question is a '92 era Kona Cinder Cone-black. Everything on it is original except the grips...everything including the chain. To say it has had a hard life would be an understatement.

I bought in new in mid-93 for $500 and took it to college where it went though its paces as a muddy trail monster, and washed in the dorm showers. It turned into a semi-commuter during the later part of school and then turned into a full-on 'get my ass back and forth to class' during grad school.

I lent to to a good friend who also provided daily thrasings for his commuting purposes for about three years.
Its a tough bike!

Now it is back to me, hanging in my garage...waiting for re-birth.

The bike hiding behind it is a pimped 86-87 R.L. Osborne General 20" freestyle bmx bike. THAT bike is a WHOLE other post. My first baby.

Anyway back to the Kona...it needs a new headset, bottom bracket, crank set, rear cogs, and shifter. I want to put on a single ring up fron and leave 8 in the back to minimize the look but still leave a good range. I might change the stem and bars to add a different style bar more like a ram horn style to extend my strecth on it a little.

Time will tell how well the rebuild goes...do it like Johnny Cash... 'One Piece at a Time'