| New Bike Ideas |
[Jul. 6th, 2009|11:22 am] |
My bike recently was stolen. I'm processing the renter's insurance claim, and I have a reasonably optimistic feeling about that. My bike is basically my surrogate car, though, so I need to get a new one and soon. The Trek FX 7.3 I'm bumming off my wife just takes too much effort for not enough speed, so I'd like to get into a new bike ASAP.
I had been riding a Trek Portland. Aside from sometimes not going as fast as I'd like, this bike was a total dream and there's not much bad I can say about it. I really, really loved the mix of performance, comfort, and versatility I got from it. It was my work commuter and also my weekend ride, and I've done metric centuries and a full century on it.
But...I can't help but wonder if $1,700 is perhaps too stiff a price for what I'm getting.
There are a few things that stand out. Many other manufacturers are making aluminum frames with carbon forks for much less. I think they might be a bit lighter than this one, too. I live in San Jose, CA, and I'm not sure I need disc brakes on a road bike any more because, unlike my former home of Florida, rain seems really uncommon here. In fact, with a Trek Portland, I feel like maybe the premium I'm spending just gets me disc breaks and essentially no other features.
So, I went down to Performance Bicycle this past weekend, and they don't sell Treks. I asked the guy to show me some road bikes that would take a rear rack. He showed me a Schwinn Letour GS (or maybe it was the GSX in the same line...I forget) and a Fuji Newest 1.0, both of which he assured me could take a rack.
I don't really have any experience with bikes outside of Trek, so I don't know what each company is known for doing best. So, I thought I'd throw it out to the peanut gallery for ideas, advice, snark, etc.
My general use: commuting with panniers (17-18 mph average speed minimum), rides of 60+ miles, in-town riding, errands, multi-day bike camping, charity rides, maybe cyclocross one day
Some stipulations: must be a road geometry with drop bars, must take a rear rack (prefer a chainstay of 43cm minimum), and I don't think the extra weight of a steel frame is justified
So, what do you think? What would you buy? |
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| nickelodeon. |
[Jul. 6th, 2009|10:55 am] |
If you've ever watched Nickelodeon's old cartoon "Doug," you might get a kick out of this.
( skeeter's bike ) |
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| Picture Post I |
[Jul. 6th, 2009|02:12 am] |
These are my pictures from Juneau. We went to visit the only glacier that you can drive up to, Mendenhall. It is quickly melting - about 200-300 feet per year. 40 years ago it was only a few feet per year. Global warming FTL.
( Mendenhall Glacier ) |
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| Home again |
[Jul. 6th, 2009|01:46 am] |
Well, I'm home. Priority debarkation got us out and to the airport way early, and they managed to put us on an earlier flight. VIP status rocked! Customs was a breeze compared to every other time I've had to go through.
The flight wasn't awful, but it did involve two screaming children, one right behind us and the other right in front of us. I watched the Hannah Montana movie (shut up! It's cute and cheesy!) and have had two of the songs from it stuck in my head ever since. I also watched 17again, which was equally cheesy and less cute.
I still feel like the ground is moving under me, like I feel the motion of the ship. Which is rather disorienting when you're on land.
Not all of my pictures are uploaded yet, but a few are.
I'm in the process of uploading pictures now, but not all of them - I still have pictures of the stateroom, and the few I took in Victoria on my camera rather than computer so they won't be up yet. But I've got a few of the ship and Juneau and the White mountain pass |
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| How my heart aches.... |
[Jul. 5th, 2009|09:20 pm] |
Soooooo I go to my dad's and stepmother's house today for a family get together. I help dad do some little things - get a new weed eater to start, mess with some landscape timbers and then I wash up and grill hamburgers, brats and dogs...most of my father's sisters were there along with my cousin and my step brother with his family yada yada yada...things are good but then...my father who sometimes gets lewd (yes I know I am my father's son) but he was getting pretty blue with my cousins new girlfriend...then we hear a fight down the street and a few people start to talk about the yelling and my father starts with "well they are a bunch of "N' word and so on...a guy he used to work with starts in with a joke and then my step brother continues with another.... I said enough twice...but they continued, and the "N' word is falling like rain, my aunts are sitting there with stunned looks on thier faces...one I might add has twice been married to a black man and her daughter is mixed...I lost it...I seen red, I yelled to Leesa let's go and in front of the whole family dressed my father down, I ended telling him I loved him, kissed him and my aunts and left...I feel like shit. I am saddened...
He has in the past said some borderline things and we have tried to passively show/tell him we don't like like it etc but I feel like I was right in saying something but may have gone about it wrong...I don't know...my heart aches! |
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| One last bike computer question:) |
[Jul. 5th, 2009|01:18 pm] |
Is the actually computer readout part easily removed say if I use it to bike to school and then want to toss it in my purse so it doesn't get stolen?
I'm looking now at the Cateye Strada RD300W in case you need the specific brand information:)
Thanks again!! I got my Axiom panniers yesterday and hubby went out with me to my school and I practiced using the Kryptonite lock I have (I've never had to lock up a bike before) and he also installed the mount for my nifty lock this morning too underneath my seat.
Just a few more goodies and I'm all set unless of course this is a never ending cycle..lol |
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| A Weekend Past... |
[Jul. 5th, 2009|01:36 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  recumbent | ] |
Almost, anyhow.
Had a very casual, relaxed time yesterday with the Folcwalds and Delean_de. Too much food, which is always the win, and just enough white wine.
Should have remembered about my back nearly siezing while standing in the kitchen doing food prep. Playing "Hick-UP!" with the kidlet (lifting her up and shouting "hiccup! hiccup!" every time she hiccoughed) probably not best idea, although Funny as Hell (now, waittaminit...you're supposed to hick-UP not hick-DOWN, silly monkey). Woke up at 1:00 AM ish with Screaming Backpain of Doom.
Moving? Bad idea. Sitting up? Not such a good idea.
Dammit.
Sheldon adjusting well; he's supposed to go back to his old home today buuuuut we'll see how that goes.
(Sheldon!)
Caught the dogs sleeping curled up with their backs touching yesterday; they moved when they noticed. Most of last night they slept within inches of eachother, too. Today was playing with Holly and Sheldon watched, nervous a little, but nobody tried to eat anybody. These are positive signs.
NOT going to my nephew's second birthday party today, which blows, because of Screaming Backpain of Doom. Stoopid Backpain.
There's the lot. |
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| Victoria |
[Jul. 5th, 2009|01:37 am] |
1. Henry is home!
2. We spent the morning lounging around and then packing our suitcases. That's right, the trip is over tomorrow. We did a city tour of Victoria in the evening, which had the best driver ever. He was hilarious and gave us almost twice as much time as he was supposed to. Afterwards we went to the Tepanyaki (hibachi) place. I could barely eat because Kevin insisted we should eat BBQ before leaving the ship.
Also, out of internet time. See ya tomorrow intarwebz! |
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| Happy 4th |
[Jul. 4th, 2009|09:41 pm] |
Hope everyone in the US got their fill of dogs and burgers and everyone else has a good weekend.
Happy birthday America!
(running back outside to watch more fireworks in the rain) |
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| Attention! New bikes on the way. |
[Jul. 4th, 2009|08:14 pm] |
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Just an FYI for all the fixie and track bike guys and gals. Specialized is releasing a new Langster frame. 520 Reynolds tubing, traditional fit, true track set up. Frame and fork will run about $440 through your local dealer. I can't wait, already ordered my 2. Red and White will be the 2 color options, the red one has chrome rear triangle. As soon as I get pics, I will post them, End of July is expected delivery date. |
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| Hubbys ?: Trek 7.2 or Specialized Crosstrail Sport |
[Jul. 4th, 2009|01:55 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  curious | ] |
Hey again,
My husband test rode both bikes this morning and loves them both equally but of course I cant get him both so we need help on deciding which is the best for his needs
Trek 7.2@ 599
Specialzed is 749
He'd be using the bike on bike paths and packed dirt trails(river valley ones from those in Edmonton) and on the street. No extreme biking though...lol
TIA
Fiona
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| (no subject) |
[Jul. 4th, 2009|09:41 am] |
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Would I get noticeably better performance if I bought one of those tools to remove the bottom bracket and cleaned all the sand and junk out of there? I don't know offhand what type of bottom bracket I have but it's a $350 Schwinn Sierra hybrid/comfort bike, so probably a cheap one. |
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| Idunna 81 - "Odin" |
[Jul. 4th, 2009|10:58 am] |
The next issue of Idunna, number 81, will have a theme of Odin--Your Intrepid Editors are indulging themselves in the fact that eighty-one is nine nines, and besides, we haven't run an Odin issue in ten years (wow!).
You--yes, YOU--if you have something to say about Odin, whether or not you are a Troth member, we would like to hear from you, and we would like your article, poem, essay, paper, and so on. Heck, last issue had a sketch or two I wouldn't've minded as a pinup, like Raven Livingston's "Oski".
If nothing else, consider a few paragraphs for our "Close Encounters of the Þriði Kind" section, also known as "How I Found Odin and What He Did to Me When He Found Me". If you got recruited at a black metal concert, a Swedish folk music recital, a poetry slam, a data center, we want the story. If you ran into him as a drifting grifter or out hiking, we want to hear about it.
Submission deadline is 15 August, which is a month and a half away. Contributors get a copy of the issue or, if already Troth members, one more issue added to their membership.
If you are interested, please reply to this message, drop me a PM, or e-mail my LJ name at snugharbor.com for more information.
Thanks!
-- Lorrie
*You can also email our Idunna editor, Diana Paxson, here: greyhavn (at) earthlink (dot) net.
Cover art! Artciles! Essays! STUFF! Patty says send it all in :) |
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| Ketchikan |
[Jul. 3rd, 2009|11:41 pm] |
So I now own more jewelry than I have in my entire life up to this point. By a lot. First of all, you get a lot of free jewelry for sitting in a presentation thing on how to save money on jewelry. Makes sense. Right? Then, we bought a few nicer pieces. All at huge discounts, of course. Being rich must be awesome. And seems to be a self-perpetuating cycle. Like, once you're rich enough to afford a cruise, you get discounts on the nice jewelry to make you appear even richer than you are, etc. Must be nice.
We honestly didn't do anything other than a bit of shopping though. Kevin's legs were hurting him, and I was exhausted. Plus there wasn't really much to do in the amount of time that we had. Honestly 6am to 1pm is an awkward time to be in port.
This afternoon was a honeymooner party. We met a couple who got married the same day we did and were showing off our purchases. Back on the topic of the rich being too rich, we had both had a run in with a particular young woman who wanted to trade her engagement ring for a blue diamond. Kevin and I heard her discussing this with her father and saying it was only 9 or 10 thousand dollars. Amber overheard her saying "well I called my fiancee and he said he'd prefer if I kept the one he bought, but do what I must. So he said OK!" and she traded it in. Sighs. A simple diamond isn't good enough? I mean, fuck, the engagement ring should be more emotionally attached than that! |
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| Posty McPostyPants Posts Again |
[Jul. 3rd, 2009|05:42 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  geeky | ] |
Nipped off to The Yarn Boutique, wherein I decided that the Jamieson's Spindrift was too scant per skein, too scritchy withal, and available in no color sufficiently sunny.
BUT! The owner of the store is Helpful on a scale not heretofore seen since my last romp through Purlescence. She kept waved different yarns at me--and I was nearly tempted by Kauni Effektgarn, but the EU color is too fiery to be solar (I mean, seriously, Sol is a type G, not M) Dale Baby Ull? Well, eject that high-minded astronomical theory, because that one is too yellow to be golden; needs more red...
(I'm unskilled-at-best at most visual arts, but hanging around ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) dpaxson, lferion, and others has made me care more about color than any keyboard jockey who doesn't specialize in website design should.)
After thrashing through the store and chirping happily about all, we settled on Mirasol's Tupa, which at 50/50 wool/silk in their color 801 should be a very sunny, sunflowery gold indeed. The gold, however, was in their warehouse, and had to be fetched by the owner's husband, who was in yet a third location, all of which added up to more time for more temptation.
Dangerous.
"Hey, y'know what would make that even more sunflowery?" I asked myself, "if the center bit were a nice warm brown". Thus, a hank of 810 (Dark Auburn) was added to the stack.
And then, well, the owner was so nice, I finally broke down and bought a ball winder...
Oh, hey, this will be pretty slippery--look! Wooden shawl pins and this one looks sunny! Yay!
Now I remember why wolfs_daugher recommended this store! They have Harry Potter scarf yarn! I consulted the usual site, and indeed YB had the colors for the requested house (Ravenclaw), but I don't like their suggestions--old country blue is too greenish grey and insufficiently corvine. Instead, I went with Cascade 220 Heathers, in 9449 (a deep, luminous cobalt with a nigh-subliminal turquoise halo, like the sky in deep twilight) and 9491 (a medium/light heather grey). The gentleman in question, a master costumer, will listen to important details like "hand wash only!", so he can has 100% wool. *grin*
Now we'll see how long it'll take dpaxson to knit it...heh!
-- Lorrie |
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| Bad ...... oh so bad |
[Jul. 3rd, 2009|04:25 pm] |
I said I wasn't buying any more plants. I said nothing other than fertilizer for the garden. Took my sis to Spencer's lawn and garden today to pick up some Iron supplement for her plants. I got my small bag yesterday. They had a sale. Pots. Big pots. Big foam pots for $1.00 a pop. So I got all 8 they had in stock. How could I not? I need more pots, not so much for this year, although I needed a bigger one for my one tomato, but next year and these are the size I was looking for, the smaller ones are about 15" and the larger are 2 foot pots. Yay! Then I had to get a spicy oregano plant. I think I'll transplant the tomato into the smaller size pot (which is still bigger than what it's currently in) and put the oregano plants (got one as a gift) in the old tomato pot. Now I'll have my spicy oregano that is soooooooo tasty. |
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