Comments on: Getting Away With Something

By: Unknown

Unknown — Fri, 23 Sep 2005 00:29:53 +0000

dug -I like the way you think!!BTW, it was an awesome ride up Madonna Mtn and down our locally famous Rock Garden… : )

By: Fat Cyclist

Fat Cyclist — Wed, 21 Sep 2005 20:21:46 +0000

chris, that is an excellent observation and i will address it in tomorrow’s post. yes, i really will. unless i think of something i’d rather write about.see you saturday. i’ll be the one wearing a reeses peanut butter cup jersey.

By: Chris

Chris — Wed, 21 Sep 2005 19:04:38 +0000

Hey, I distinctly remember you writing an entry on how to talk down how you were feeling anytime you were getting ready to do a group ride. This provides you with a convenient excuse any time you were not the first to complete a ride or reinforces your supremeness if you do finish the ride first. Yet, here you are talking up how you will be the first to make it to the top of the zoo. Contradiction or cake as motivation? Not that I will beat you up but I think a friend or two and I will join you for the ride.Chris

By: Unknown

Unknown — Wed, 21 Sep 2005 18:01:46 +0000

you go zuke. night riding isn’t about commuting, and commuting isn’t night riding. just because it’s dark when you ride to or from work, doesn’t make it night riding. it’s more like dark commuting. night riding is about joy, freedom, and nasty crashes. commuting is about getting somewhere in spite of the dark. night riding is about riding in the dark.

By: Unknown

Unknown — Wed, 21 Sep 2005 17:40:23 +0000

Ooooooooooo! How timely!! Tonight is my mtn bike team’s 1st regular night of the beginning of the "off-season" to start riding w/lights on the trail. Personally, I love it, cuz of all the things you perfectly described & also the solitude/quiet on the trail (no hikers!). I’ve ridden 2 years now with 2 Nightrider HIDs: one bar-mount + one helmet-mount. Sure, it was expensive and yes I have to eat 10/$1 ramen for a month, but this setup CANNOT be beat – it’s like riding with the freakin SUN shining from your bike, especially compared to even my old 30-watt regular halogens. W/only a helmet-mount, you lose some depth perception, and w/only a bar-mount, you can’t see around corners. But with both, it’s totally confidence-inspiring… even through rock gardens. 4 times the light output and twice the burn-time… I recommend it! :)Anyways, great entry! Now you got me excited for tonight’s after-work ride!!!!! Wait, it’s only 10:30am PST… I still have 7-1/2 hours to wait… damn you! :)

By: Fat Cyclist

Fat Cyclist — Wed, 21 Sep 2005 05:09:40 +0000

a.toad – if the cake tasted good it came out right. it’s not a pretty cake, it’s delicious. the problem with pretty cakes is they taste like styrofoam.mumo – my weight change was nothing special. i always gain weight for monday and drop it by tuesday. i have talked with other office-dwellers and they have observed the same effect. we know the reason why, too, but we don’t talk about it in polite company. or here, either.james – that reminds me of one of the hazards of riding with a helmet-mounted light. if you’re riding in dusty or foggy conditions, you can be totally blinded by the dust/fog that’s illuminated right in front of your eyes. whenever i bike commute in the dark and fog — which is often, during the winter — i constantly hear music from "the shining" playing in my head. and some guy saying, "redrum, redrum." and my cadence goes to the rhythm of the phrase, "all work and no play makes jack a dull boy." amazingly, that phrase works very well with a riding cadence: the sentence is nothing but monosyllabic words.how’s your neighbor?

By: Ariane

Ariane — Wed, 21 Sep 2005 04:40:19 +0000

That’s a good idea; arranging a group Zoo-ing. I wanna go too… the next time I am in Seattle, I’ll try it. By the way, are many of your readers actually in Seattle? It seems like most are in Austrailia…. PS: thanks– the cake is indeed yummy (though I’m not sure if it came out right.)

By: James

James — Tue, 20 Sep 2005 23:58:51 +0000

My morning ride wasn’t just dark, it was foggy. There’s a fair bit of car traffic on the route, even at 6am, and the headlight glare totally washed out my vision at some points. At other times, the fog moving through my headlight beam mesmerized me. Certainly it wasn’t the usual Tuesday ride, even though the route is the same.As for lights, I’m using a Nite Hawk Digital Emitter. It’s a single LED that runs off of 4 AAs. The mount is a little funky – it sits high off the handlebar, and it’s not cheap. But the light is good and it’s not a power hog. Apropos of riding in the dark – does everybody (in the USA) know that the Energy Policy Act of 2005 changes the end of DST to the first Sunday in November, from the last Sunday in October? I’m not sure what we’re going to save, but it’s sure not headlight batteries.

By: Unknown

Unknown — Tue, 20 Sep 2005 23:56:28 +0000

Great blog, as usual! Big Bravo on the weight today! And your quiz is a hoot. You have such a clever mind to think up all these great things all the time. I’m old and I just dredge up some memories or a poem or just something that happened today, so what you do is really impressive to me.

By: Fat Cyclist

Fat Cyclist — Tue, 20 Sep 2005 23:10:14 +0000

dug – yeah, the cold + treacherous trail + dark somehow multiplies the adventure of any trail by 2. maybe more. you get home, and the fight-or-flight thing is still going strong. you pinned the feeling beautifully. c’mon over here and give me a hug; i miss you, man.bob – for a commute, set yourself up with a flashing red LED light on your bike, another on your backpack, and then a couple of the strong LED headlights you can get at REI now for cheap. those things are plenty strong enough for commuting, and they don’t go through batteries very fast. i still use my mountain bike light setup for commuting, though, and recharge it each day. i ziptie it into place good and tight at the beginning of the winter and just leave it there ’til spring. a niterider HID system, for what it’s worth. way overkill for commuting.big mike – so how’d the race go after such a big ride just to get there?wayward – mtb as a commuter bike is a great idea especially as the weather gets icy and you want more traction. just ride low-pressure.