2,010 miles this bicycle, this year

This is the fifth season that I have owned and therefore operated NewLOOK.  And it is the fifth season in which I have ridden this wonderful bicycle at least 2,000 miles.

At the end of today's ride that is the mileage on TOTALODO, also known as total odometer.  11,000 is also a pretty nice milestone.

Geez, the bar tape is starting to look a little tacky.  And that's not even the worst spot on the bar.  Over near the brifters there are a couple of pretty unsavory patches.

Replacement of the tape seems like a strong possibility for a middle of winter at least a little bit of bicycle content episode.  I am willing to entertain comments regarding whether I should replace the silver tape with silver (which matches the saddle but consider that the saddle is looking a little tacky too) or go with the traditional black which is the traditional color because black does not show grease or dirt.

I note that in the Vadnais post I got so excited about having the GRider out at that destination lake that the post completely omitted reference to the high drama of that day.

We got out to the garage in full dress for the big destination ride when what to my wondering eyes should appear but that dang front tire was acting like it was flat.

I may have had one some other time in the more than 56,000 miles I have ridden since I started keeping the BikeLog but I honestly cannot remember another instance of the FRONT tire being flat.

Part of the reason why it strikes me as so completely not ever done before is that the whole ritual of dragging the rear tire off the bicycle and out through that wilderness of chain, rear derailer and rear hub is totally absent on a front flat.  You pop the brakes out to maximum width, open the quick release and take the tire off.  Just like that.  I think I would have remembered if I had ever done that before.

But back to the Vadnais ride:  the tire was flat in the garage, it had not flatted while I was out riding on my previous excursion.  This convinced me that I had a slow leak, an impression confirmed when I pumped the tire up and it pretty much seemed to hold air.

We took the ride and eventually got a lot farther from home than what is probably a good idea with tire issues.  When we paused at Vadnais for the photo opportunity I urged the GRider to hurry along with the comment that it was best that we proceed as my tire was going flat with every minute we spent out there.

We made it home just fine though.  The tire seemed soft but not yet anywhere near flat.  But I checked again before I went up for the night and it was F-L-A-T.

So I spent yesterday morning mostly on tire repair.  Please note that I am not THAT frugal that I require that tubes be patched and reused after having once failed.  It isn't frugality.  The truth is that if you do not locate the problem in the tube and identify what in the tire might have caused the tube problem all that will happen is that you will put a new tube in and then that one will be flat pretty much immediately.  Having expended that effort in locating the hole in the tube the actual additional amount of effort to apply a patch is minor indeed.

So yesterday I found the hole in the tube, matched up where on the tire the hole in the tube would have been and located the small sharp thing on the inside of the tire that was the cause of all of the drama.  Removal of the small sharp thing was as usual a thumbnail flick, I am not even sure exactly what it was but I know it was sharp.

I am bicycle repairman, hear me roar.

After that I missed out on a ride because I got bogged down in a whole red packaging replaces blue packaging and red packaging requires a black key which is NOT included instead of the blue packaging white key which always WAS included.  The customer service phone number included in the red packaging turned out to be a menu of recorded messages which concluded with you must go on the website to resolve this and goodbye.

That's what I call a quality customer service telephone experience.

It took most of the afternoon but everything seems to be back to normal and it only cost me my time and $2.80.  Considering that I have LOTS of time, not too bad.

But today I got to ride.

South is impossible, the wind today made north unpalatable.  I tried east.

The issue with east is that you can't really get very far without going through a couple of iterations of Glacial River Warren.  Since the geology guy isn't here I will go ahead and interpret.  Glacial River Warren means extremely deep gorges scoured by glacial runoff ten thousand and more years ago.  No water there now, just a long and quite steep downhill and then uphill on the way out and then a long and quite steep downhill and then uphill on the way home.

Did everyone notice that the last thing I have to do before I get home is a long and quite steep uphill?

Because while out riding today I surely did notice.

There are other issues with going east, one of the most significant of which has been the condition of the pavement on this bridge deck on Wheelock Parkway a few blocks east of Rice Street.  The last time I rode here the pavement was SO awful that prudent bicycling required slowing to about 5mph the better to dodge the next GIANT pothole or GAPING crack.  All better now.

I, for one, LOVE new pavement.

I was kinda farting around over there on the east side debating whether to make it a full fledged Lake Phalen ride or possibly diverting to explore what's up at the city end of the Gateway Trail.  Eventually a nasty looking uphill (hey, I knew it was there, just when I saw it today I decided I didn't want to do it) on Wheelock diverted me over to the Gateway.

I first rode down towards the city end.  The old railroad bridge over the freeway was always to me one of the charming aspects of the trail.

No more.  Here's what you get when you arrive at the spot where the bridge used to be.

So I rode the other direction, out to about, oh, Milepost 3.  The Gateway is one of the oldest of the state trails and I am prepared to say based on today's experience that it is now officially obsolete.

The pavement is really horrible.

I exited near Lake Phalen and still could have made that loop over to the lake but that would have been south and at that point I was looking to stay north based on my feeling that the River Warren crossings are slightly less severe farther north.

I ended up mostly on Larpenteur for the ride home.  It is a busy street with too much traffic and not enough pavement but which ended up being a hill which I totally could climb without anything even remotely resembling difficulty.

It was a really pleasant day out there, much too cool for August but August is usually TOO hot and TOO humid.  Today was nice.  I was mostly JRA on the east side of Saint Paul, I pronounce myself to be satisfied.  Completely.