tire inflation
Thu Feb 15 00:33:29 EST 2018
I should pay more attention to my tires. My steering has occasionally felt a little iffy, maybe once every 2 or 3 days. But it happened a couple of times today on the way to work. So I took a closer look at my front tire, and gave it a squeeze. It was getting soft. (The odometer distances to work have gotten longer, which is a clear sign of low inflation.)
There's several nice floor pumps in the parking cage at work. I pumped the tire up this evening, and there's quite a difference. As soon as I started moving, at low speed, the steering was very nimble. With a smaller contact patch on the floor, there was much less steering resistance. (On the down side, this also means there will be less contact area with the pavement for braking.) Once I really started moving, the bike felt much faster. The ride is harder with the tire harder. The rear tire got pumped up the day before, when I had the wheel off and replaced the broken spoke.
The front shifter stopped working the last half mile (0.8km) home. This is a long, straight downhill (on tonight's route) that's recently been resurfaced, so it didn't matter much. But the bike is in the house again tonight, and I'll take a look at it tomorrow. My first thought was that the cable broke, but I don't think that's the case. Maybe it's just slipped at the derailleur. That would be an easy fix; just adjusting and tightening.
Thursday 13:36
The front-shifter problem seems to have been just a slipped cable - fixed in about 30 seconds with an allen wrench.
It's T-shirt weather today, 58°F/14.4°C. We're expecting snow again Saturday night. (February is not spring.)
Friday 00:26
It was 74°F/23.3°C when I got to work this afternoon, and 67°F/19.4°C when I got home. T-shirt and shorts weather. I had strong headwinds coming home.
Tuesday 23:00
Lovely weather today - 78°F/25.6°C going in, and 65°F/18.3°C returning. The canal towpath was muddier than I expected.
On the way in I saw a cyclist who looked a lot like Erin from Pennsic leaving the trail at Fletcher's Boathouse.
On the way home there was a DC Police car on the Capital Crescent Trail. The cruiser pulled over and waited to let me pass. I wonder whether the police had the key for the gates at the Georgetown end of the trail? I wonder why they were on the trail to begin with? I wonder what/whom they were looking for? The park is officially closed at dark, but I've never seen this enforced. If they don't let bike commuters use the trail and the towpath, we'll just be on the streets - like Canal Road. That's obviously not better for cyclists, nor for the motorists. "Closed at dark" also doesn't make sense with hiker/biker campgrounds along most of the park.
There was a nice crescent moon ahead of me that I could see over the river once I got to the CCT. The trees haven't leafed out yet.
Wednesday's forecast is even warmer.
Wednesday 23:00
The ride to work today was 84°F/28.9°C, which is crazy for February. Coming home was 74°F/23.3°C in DC, dropping to 69°F/20.6°C at home. I don't think I'd had enough to eat. With the warmer weather, I had cold cereal for breakfast instead of the triple batch of oatmeal. I finished off the (months-ago) open box of a multi-grain/dried-fruit cereal, topped off with a little of something else.
The towpath was still muddy, and there's rain in the forecast for the next 5 days. I get annoyed, but then I think of the places with drought, and Capetown's impending "Day Zero". And the places like Tucson, Phoenix, and Las Vegas, where there simply shouldn't be so many people living - where people settled in spite of the obvious lack of resources.
And I can't understand why China's one-child policy was criticized while the rest of the world is overpopulating itself into serious conflicts - water is finite; farmland is finite; residential space is finite; energy is expensive; pollution costs are largely not placed on the polluters.
[This entry was originally posted as https://syntonic-comma.dreamwidth.org/959072.html on Dreamwidth (where there are
comments).]
I should pay more attention to my tires. My steering has occasionally felt a little iffy, maybe once every 2 or 3 days. But it happened a couple of times today on the way to work. So I took a closer look at my front tire, and gave it a squeeze. It was getting soft. (The odometer distances to work have gotten longer, which is a clear sign of low inflation.)
There's several nice floor pumps in the parking cage at work. I pumped the tire up this evening, and there's quite a difference. As soon as I started moving, at low speed, the steering was very nimble. With a smaller contact patch on the floor, there was much less steering resistance. (On the down side, this also means there will be less contact area with the pavement for braking.) Once I really started moving, the bike felt much faster. The ride is harder with the tire harder. The rear tire got pumped up the day before, when I had the wheel off and replaced the broken spoke.
The front shifter stopped working the last half mile (0.8km) home. This is a long, straight downhill (on tonight's route) that's recently been resurfaced, so it didn't matter much. But the bike is in the house again tonight, and I'll take a look at it tomorrow. My first thought was that the cable broke, but I don't think that's the case. Maybe it's just slipped at the derailleur. That would be an easy fix; just adjusting and tightening.
Thursday 13:36
The front-shifter problem seems to have been just a slipped cable - fixed in about 30 seconds with an allen wrench.
It's T-shirt weather today, 58°F/14.4°C. We're expecting snow again Saturday night. (February is not spring.)
Friday 00:26
It was 74°F/23.3°C when I got to work this afternoon, and 67°F/19.4°C when I got home. T-shirt and shorts weather. I had strong headwinds coming home.
Tuesday 23:00
Lovely weather today - 78°F/25.6°C going in, and 65°F/18.3°C returning. The canal towpath was muddier than I expected.
On the way in I saw a cyclist who looked a lot like Erin from Pennsic leaving the trail at Fletcher's Boathouse.
On the way home there was a DC Police car on the Capital Crescent Trail. The cruiser pulled over and waited to let me pass. I wonder whether the police had the key for the gates at the Georgetown end of the trail? I wonder why they were on the trail to begin with? I wonder what/whom they were looking for? The park is officially closed at dark, but I've never seen this enforced. If they don't let bike commuters use the trail and the towpath, we'll just be on the streets - like Canal Road. That's obviously not better for cyclists, nor for the motorists. "Closed at dark" also doesn't make sense with hiker/biker campgrounds along most of the park.
There was a nice crescent moon ahead of me that I could see over the river once I got to the CCT. The trees haven't leafed out yet.
Wednesday's forecast is even warmer.
Wednesday 23:00
The ride to work today was 84°F/28.9°C, which is crazy for February. Coming home was 74°F/23.3°C in DC, dropping to 69°F/20.6°C at home. I don't think I'd had enough to eat. With the warmer weather, I had cold cereal for breakfast instead of the triple batch of oatmeal. I finished off the (months-ago) open box of a multi-grain/dried-fruit cereal, topped off with a little of something else.
The towpath was still muddy, and there's rain in the forecast for the next 5 days. I get annoyed, but then I think of the places with drought, and Capetown's impending "Day Zero". And the places like Tucson, Phoenix, and Las Vegas, where there simply shouldn't be so many people living - where people settled in spite of the obvious lack of resources.
And I can't understand why China's one-child policy was criticized while the rest of the world is overpopulating itself into serious conflicts - water is finite; farmland is finite; residential space is finite; energy is expensive; pollution costs are largely not placed on the polluters.
[This entry was originally posted as https://syntonic-comma.dreamwidth.org/959072.html on Dreamwidth (where there are
comments).]