The BipedFred Blog

I haven’t written anything lately because, frankly, I can’t think of anything new to say. Here’s a couple of snippets, nothing of any importance, but an offering just before I go dark for the rest of the summer.

-       I have about 1,400 miles on my Fargo now, mostly commuting but also some long gravel road rides.  I’ve pretty much worn the tread off the back tire and I’m simply going to replace it in kind with another WTB Vulpine 2.1″.  The Fargo makes a wonderful commuter and I’m glad I have it.

-       I still really like my Look Keo pedals but what they say about wearing out cleats fast is true.  My initial pair lasted about 800 miles before I started having a little trouble clipping in.  I think I simply need to trim the no-skid pads.  I replaced them with the non-no-skid pads and replaced those after one ride. They are sweet clicking in, but they are dangerously slippery even simply putting a foot down on asphalt. The cleats have a little mark on either side which is supposed to be the balance point or something. I burned a little mark in the sole of my Sidi’s right next to them so aligning new cleats and cleat changes are very simple.

-       I’ve decided that the City of Fort Collins simply doesn’t give a shit about bike facilities.  What we have now is all we will have for the foreseeable future. I doubt they will ever start building out the Mason BRT Line.

-       I’ve also decided that complaining about morons in the bike lane is futile. City Police and County Deputies will never do a damn thing about it. I see cop cars all over the place but they all have their windows rolled up and I doubt they even notice what’s going on around them.

-       I’m just over 1,000 miles on my Podio.  I love that bike and I’ve been dropping people on climbs lately so I’m very happy.  The darn thing is noisy though, all sorts of oddball pops and clicks and I’m not sure why. I figured out that my headset is making some of the clicks.  It’s a Cane Creek S-3 which I’m going to replace with a Chris King set, maybe as soon as next week.

That’s about all so I’ll sign off until next fall.

Ride Fast, Ride Far, Cya.

Here’s a thought experiment on the day Lance Armstrong abandons hope for a GC win at the 2010 Tour de France:

Lance joins Johan Bruyneel  as part of Radio Shack management, some title that puts him in the team car with Johan for strategizing and coaching plus some sort of Rider Development role.

Alberto Contador joins Radio Shack for the 2011 season.

Lance coaches/helps Alberto win the next six Tours (or five, depending on how he finishes 2010), beating Lance’s old record of seven wins.

Now that would be the best bike racing story ever.

There is nothing going on worth writing about.

Yippee skippee, it’s Bike to Work Day 2010.  Lots of people are riding bikes and there is much free food at Whole Foods Market.

The bikes (a tiny fraction):

The people:

These folks were demoing an electric assist bike with the battery located in a little trailer.  A fabulously clever idea, but they didn’t seem to be generating as much interest as the free coffee and oatmeal (What? No fritatas this year??).

Lots of people will be back to driving to work tomorrow after their little adventure.  Which is not necessarily a bad thing, I’m not so sure I want to share my morning commute with all those  nice people more than once a year.

Update 24-June-2010  The Day After Bike to Work Day:

Wrong again! I saw more bike riders on this morning’s commute than I ever remember seeing before, especially out in the hinterlands.  I must enjoy the taste of my own words since I eat them so often.