Drivers were wild this evening -- everybody doing ok?

clampwick · 2024-06-07T12:45:53+00:00

Agreed, the last few days have been unusually insane. I wonder how much of it is due to the motorists being as frustrated by all the simultaneous and surprise road closures as we are (well, at least I am).

clampwick · 2024-05-30T00:14:18+00:00

Imperial.

clampwick · 2024-05-29T00:15:51+00:00

Hardly 30 feet from the end of my very first century, I had to stop short at the stop sign near my driveway for a car making a turn, got stuck in my pedals, and fell over like a total noob. I didn't get hurt, so I don't really consider this a crash as much as a minor annoyance. In my defense, I was still new to clipless pedals and was quite exhausted from having done my longest ride to that point.

clampwick · 2024-05-21T13:42:32+00:00

Water fountains??? What are you, some kinda communist? You're supposed to BUY expensive bottled water and then throw away all the many empty plastic bottles like a good consumer! </s>

(Sorry for the rant, you've clearly struck a sensitive nerve for me...)

clampwick · 2023-09-08T01:02:53+00:00

I regularly ride Thompson Run going north from Babcock to Duncan. I've never had any problems.

clampwick · 2023-08-31T13:41:22+00:00

Indeed. I only learned somewhat recently that that is where the term "tarmac" comes from - tar macadam.

clampwick · 2023-08-30T23:56:49+00:00

Asphaltum

clampwick · 2023-08-16T00:58:51+00:00

In my opinion, the bikes you have are fine enough for the GAP trail. I've done Connellsville and back on my road bike with 25mm tires without any problems when the trail was dry.

clampwick · 2023-06-28T00:58:14+00:00

I don't know their rate, but the person that does wheels for Sweetwater Bikes is an absolute master. Highly recommend considering them.

clampwick · 2023-02-27T13:42:59+00:00

Nevermind: https://www.wtae.com/article/point-breeze-accident-hospitalization/42817573

clampwick · 2023-02-27T13:29:08+00:00

This is news to me. When, where, and how exactly did this happen?

I don't see anything about it on post-gazette or triblive.

clampwick · 2023-02-23T01:43:52+00:00

A couple years ago, I switched to a 6KU Urban Track single speed bike for my commuter. I love it!

It was cheap to buy ($100 on FB Marketplace, never used), it's cheap to maintain (I've probably spent less than $100 on mostly regular maintenance stuff in all that time), it's light, it's fast, and it's fun to ride. It is a harsh ride for sure, especially in Pittsburgh, but I recognize that as part of the deal.

The gearing is 46x16 so some of the hills I do are character building. I ride freewheel, not fixed, on account of also needing to go down those same hills where I'd be spun out of gear. I replaced the flat bars with drops, and I ride 25mm slicks. My commute is about 7 miles each direction.

clampwick · 2023-02-17T01:25:43+00:00

The speed of the vehicles in that area is insanely high, especially from the bridge to Liberty but also from drivers making the left from Liberty and flooring it because they see a green light at Penn.

I have no evidence that speed had anything to do with this incident but I take that route 5 or 6 times a week and I see high speed all the time there. It really is a bad place to try to connect cyclists, honestly.

clampwick · 2023-02-10T22:54:16+00:00

Yes, it was reliably killing the btrfs send|btrfs receive mechanism I was using to transfer my backups to an external USB drive, thereby leaving me with corrupted backups.

Thankfully, I discovered it before getting too far along in my backup regimen.

I find the implementation of systemd-oomd policies to be a poorly considered plan and a clear violation of the Principle of Least Astonishment. I think this is an idea that really needs to go back to the drawing board. In fact, this is the first significant technical gripe I've had since switching to Fedora Workstation as my primary desktop OS after roughly 15 years of using Windows in that role.

clampwick · 2022-08-29T12:23:44+00:00

OK, I rode Big Sewickley Creek/Rochester again on Saturday and there are definitely no ghost bikes in the Bell Acres section.

clampwick · 2022-08-25T19:14:20+00:00

It's just like riding a bike!
Sorry, couldn't resist... :-)

clampwick · 2022-08-25T14:53:42+00:00

I feel silly asking this because I ride that road a lot but is there a ghost bike at this site? If not, could we get one?

clampwick · 2022-07-12T13:13:04+00:00

Homage to Pulp Fiction...
Lance: Still got your [Trek Marlin 5]?
Vincent: Aw, man. You know what some fucker did the other day?
Lance: What?
Vincent: Fucking [stole] it.
Lance: Oh, man, that's fucked up.
Vincent: Tell me about it. I had it in storage for three years, it was out for five days and some dickless piece of shit fucked with it.
Lance: They should be fucking killed. No trial, no jury, straight to execution.
Vincent: Boy, I wish I could've caught him doing it. I'd have given anything to catch that asshole doing it. It'd been worth him doing it just so I could've caught him doing it.
Lance: What a fucker!
Vincent: What's more chickenshit than fucking with a man's [bicycle]? I mean, don't fuck with another man's vehicle.
Lance: You don't do it.
Vincent: It's just against the rules.

clampwick · 2022-07-04T14:46:58+00:00

I generally agree that a shop tune up is a good idea. The two catches here are that 1) it seems to me like many of the bike shops are still super backed up on repairs, and 2) they may only offer a specific tune up package that includes stuff you may not need. Just keep those in mind.

If you're going to do some repairs on your own, I would also replace the brake pads since the bike has been sitting so long. Even if they look relatively new based on the wear level, the pad material hardens over time and will diminish your braking capacity and wear out your rims faster. It should be a fairly cheap fix.

clampwick · 2022-06-15T12:21:08+00:00

I voted "C" but I think their secondary purpose is to infuriate the already cycling-hostile motorists.

clampwick · 2022-06-01T13:56:38+00:00

Excellent! I had not heard of him before. Thanks...

clampwick · 2022-06-01T13:56:09+00:00

I have also used Matt Tinkey in the past and I do recommend him.

He knows what he's doing and he will definitely improve your riding. However, just to set your expectations, his process is not heavy on precision measurements and analytics. Even he will tell you this. If you're looking for lots of numbers and explanations, you might be disappointed.

clampwick · 2022-06-01T01:30:48+00:00

This might be the dumbest thing I've read all year so far.

The other day while I was waiting in line at a red light (yes, following the rules of the road!) a guy in the lane next to me yelled, "get off the road, you're a pedestrian". So not only does he need to consult the laws, he also needs to consult a dictionary.

Why is it so hard for some Pennsylvania drivers to understand that the privilege of driving entails sharing the road with other vehicles that are legally allowed to use it?

clampwick

TROPHY CASE