Month: March 2021

  • Shimanami Kaido videos

    Here are two videos from the second day of our Shimanami Kaido excursion. Maybe no commuting this week Meanwhile, I’ve been thinking about commuting via Dionysus this week, but each morning when I get up it looks like rain. Yesterday I could hardly see a thing out the window. It turns out only some of…

  • Shimanami Kaido reprise

    Shimanami Kaido reprise

    About a month ago, Fearless Leader Joe and I were discussing rides we’d like to do and he mentioned he wanted to ride Shimanami Kaido. The Halfakid and I did this one back in 2018 on rental bikes. We did the route in one direction only that time, opting to take the ferry back from…

  • The struggle is real

    The struggle is real

    I’m spending my day off work on important tasks like getting a clean bill of heath from the doctor and packing up Kuroko in the carry bag for an upcoming trip. Kuroko of course is right where I’d left her after sorting out the slow leak in the rear tire. Before disturbing her rest, though,…

  • Gettin’ the hang of this

    Gettin’ the hang of this

    Hot on the heels of Thursday’s success in tracking down and fixing a slow leak, I returned to the balcony this cloudy but mild Saturday morning to see if I could mount the final tire — the spare front wheel that I’d had no luck with a couple of weeks ago. I’ve been out on…

  • Rotten to the core

    Rotten to the core

    Here we go again Overall Kuroko’s new Panaracer tires have been a huge improvement over the René Herse skins with their weeping sidewalls. But a few days after I first got the GravelKings on, I noticed the rear had a slow leak. It would be fine for the course of a ride, but over a…

  • I’ve got kawazuzakura on a cloudy day

    I’ve got kawazuzakura on a cloudy day

    I don’t have a lot to say about today’s ride. I’ve been thinking about a new route that includes both Tamagawa and Arakawa. But the short version of that ride clocks in at 125km, and as Nana pointed out this morning, I should have got going before 9 a.m. if I’d planned to make that…

  • Laughing (to keep from crying)

    Laughing (to keep from crying)

    The day dawned cloudy and wet, but by noon it was warm with hints of sunshine. I decided to have a go at mounting the tire on my newly rebuilt wheel. I found the bottle of tire sealant right away, just where I expected to find it in the tool box. But it was nearly…

  • Not winning any design awards

    Not winning any design awards

    Today’s project is not related to cycling. I needed a box to send a small gift overseas, so I decided to fabricate one myself from an empty beer carton. I had a pretty good idea how I wanted to go about it, but I searched for some plans as a reference. After measuring the gift…

  • Smaller, lighter, more stable

    Smaller, lighter, more stable

    The Fedex man brought my latest goodies today, a cockpit bag and a musette. I already have a cockpit bag, but this one is smaller to leave more room for my … more room when I dismount. My phone juuuust fits in the bag. The true challenge will be when I put in the multitool,…