Fixed Perceptions

So I got everything running right, and went out after dark (after mid-afternoon, then) to give fixed riding a try.  I've tried one road bike at a shop years ago, but this was MY bike, that I'm used to, that fits me as perfectly as I can make it.

THOSE.

I tried it on the level first, just to see if everything was tight enough.   Yep.  I tentatively took on a hill.  Not a big deal.  It really feels like the way I already ride, to a large extent.  Especially climbing hills.


CRANKS.

But two things gave me pause (paws?)- turning, and things like hopping up onto curbs/dropping off of curbs.  I would say that these two things apply pretty directly to riding in the woods.  And while I primarily bought this fixed cog thinking of the Danvers Rail Trail, and other flat non-technical areas, it does pop into my mind.


JUST.

So how do you lean into a turn when the cranks don't stop moving?  Just time it?  Just make sure to keep the bike upright while you round the turn?  That will be something to work on.  And while it's easy to hit curbs like a freight train or steamroller, the weight transfer I'm used to will certainly be tricky.  Copy that for dropping off of something (and by that, I don't mean 10 foot drops, I mean more like 1')


KEEP.

Still, there IS something amazing about controlling the bike's speed and never touching the brakes.  This was only my second ride (counting yesterday's mini-ride) on the bike with this set-up, and it's undeniable there's something neat going on.
 

COMING.

On the other hand, though- I like my coasting moments. I don't think I'm quite ready to give those up.  Not completely.  But this is just one after-dark ride.  And the Christmas lights were pretty, too- by the way.  I was pursuing a moment there, y'know- fixed gear- late december, and Xmas lights, dark early....


AROUND

I'm in the running for a Rapha photo competition.  And I honestly think mine could win just on photographic merit.  But I'd like to stack the deck just a little.  So will you all please go to

http://www.rapha.cc/cyclocross-photos-week-one and vote for me?  I'm picture 'C' of the green van.

Thank you.

Polaroid Opposites

Rapha Continental chillin' somewhere in CO.  From Velonews.com

spooky view of Arizona fire smoke.  From H. Irminger's twitter (I think).

Clearing Off The Harddrive, #1100

The Rapha-Focus truck.  So much goodness inside...

1

Former world champ Bart Wellens, racing in the US.  Too bad he didn't come to Gloucester.

Mo Bruno Roy, in a muddy CX race.

Gloucester Cyclocross Weekend!

Bikes took over the weekend for sure.  Friday took the family to the CXworld.com team launch party.  Had a good reminder there, as while we were all drinking beer and eating chips, I noticed the skinny racer kids sitting down quietly and eating veggies and dip.  Oh, right....  Honest- my new eating style starts TODAY.

We played with Swiss CX champ Christian Heule's daughter for awhile (he won on Saturday).  Cute kid.

Here are just a few of my nearly thousands of pictures.  My article on Hamilton-Wenham Patch has a few more.

Dad, what are you drinking?  Dad!  DAD!

Powers Passes Pits

There's much more to say, but it's early....  And I have to get to work.

Coupl'a Days...

The Gloucester GP is this weekend!  I'm working on a story for Patch, as well as taking some photos which may be for myself or may show up somewhere.  I'm borrowing this photo from Lyne at Podiuminsight.com of local woman Mo Bruno Roy- this is what it's all about!  Pray for rain!

An "Interesting" article by Brian McGrory

Make Boston bicycle-free

Brian McGrory, Globe Columnist / Jul 15, 2011 03:14 AM

As Mayor Tom Menino prepares to roll out an ambitious bicycle-sharing program on the streets of our great city this month, offering hundreds of bikes for short-term rental all across town, I might urge him to go in a slightly different direction.

He ought to ban all bicyclists from Boston instead.

Ban them as in, here’s the city line, Lance, there’s a bike rack. Lock it up, and flag yourself a nice air-conditioned cab. Maybe you won’t be sweating so much when you walk into work.
Oh, I know, bikes are the future. Bikes are clean. Bikes are quiet.
I couldn’t agree more, which is why this is not an indictment of the bicycle, an efficient, affordable instrument of transportation. But to paraphrase the National Rifle Association, bikes are not the problem, it’s the people on them.
And those people are the scourge of the city. I don’t mean anything negative by that. It’s just plain fact, painfully clear to anyone and everyone who has ever exercised their government-sanctioned right to sit behind the wheel of a combustion-powered vehicle and drive on roads that were built for, yes, cars.
In a crowded city like Boston, with narrow streets, daring pedestrians, and delivery trucks double-parked nearly everywhere, this task can already be perilous enough. Throw in a bunch of cavalier cyclists who believe with every cell of their beings that they own the road, and it’s near impossible to get around.
Here’s the biggest problem with urban bicyclists: Their personalities. They exude a sense of superiority as they sip vitamin water amid an afternoon breeze while I, just for argument’s sake, may be tucking into a Filet-O-Fish in the sealed confines of my car, quickly abandoning hope of finding parking near my gym.
That superiority leads them to blast through red lights and stop signs with no hesitation, swerve into traffic with the entitled expectation that everyone else will screech to a halt, glide the wrong way down streets, across sidewalks, through pedestrian malls, constantly yelling, “Watch it, dude!’’
They are a self-celebratory lot, these cyclists, parading around in Lycra even though most of them inexplicably have shapes that beg for L.L. Bean, proselytizing through ham-handed bike commuter days, gathering at their little festivals to talk about how they’re saving the world. Shame on us for buying into their act.
And these are the good cyclists, the ones who actually own their own bikes. We’re about to get hundreds upon hundreds of amateurs pedaling all over our city who have no idea what they’re doing. Orthopedists will be flocking here like it’s the Gold Rush of 1849.
I caught a glimmer of hope this week when Boston Police announced plans for a crackdown on reckless cyclists in preparation for the bike-sharing program. Finally, sanity. Cart the offenders away in the backseats of squad cars, just for the irony. I called yesterday to see how it was going. Over the first two days, police handed out no - that’s zero - citations, and 40 warnings. It gets better. They gave out more than 100 free helmets to offenders. Oh, and everyone got a local bike shop 20-percent-off coupon.
That’s some crackdown, folks.
Let me stress, these cyclists are more than welcome in the suburbs, riding in flocks along uncluttered roads. I figured they were perfect in Cambridge, until I learned that there’s a bit of a rebellion going on in the kumbaya capital of the world. Police have begun cracking down on sidewalk riders, and a courageous councilor named Henrietta Davis publicly admonished reckless cyclists in December.
We can’t let Cambridge, of all places, beat us to the punch. Our mayor likes being on the vanguard these days, and this is our big chance: Boston, America’s Bicycle Free City.

Brian McGrory is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at mcgrory@globe.com