AG: Listen!
 

You should be familiar with all the noises that your bicycle makes in
normal operation. If a noise changes, or if you hear a new noise
FIND OUT WHY.

--
joy beeson at comcast dot net
http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/
The above message is a Usenet post.
I don't recall having given anyone permission to use it on a Web site.

AG: Listen!
 

On 1/16/2016 10:48 PM, Joy Beeson wrote:

You should be familiar with all the noises that your bicycle makes in
normal operation. If a noise changes, or if you hear a new noise
FIND OUT WHY.

I'll second that, _especially_ if the noise comes from anywhere near the
front wheel. Check those out immediately! :-(


--
- Frank Krygowski

AG: Postponing the Mixte
 

Way back when, I thought that when I got to this age, I would buy a
mixte. Turns out that mixtes went extinct before I did; the name is
still around, but more often than not it's applied to a drop-frame
bike, rather than to a bike that replaces the top tube with a pair of
mixte stays that run from the head tube to the rear drop-out.

But it also turns out that I can still ride my diamond frame. I
simply have to remember to put my leg over the top tube knee first
when mounting, and go foot first, knee last when dismounting.

And I've stopped being embarrassed about needing to grab my ankle with
my hand to help my foot clear the saddle.


--
joy beeson at comcast dot net
http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/
The above message is a Usenet post.
I don't recall having given anyone permission to use it on a Web site.

AG: Postponing the Mixte
 

Joy Beeson wrote in
:


Way back when, I thought that when I got to this age, I would buy a
mixte. Turns out that mixtes went extinct before I did; the name is
still around, but more often than not it's applied to a drop-frame
bike, rather than to a bike that replaces the top tube with a pair of
mixte stays that run from the head tube to the rear drop-out.

But it also turns out that I can still ride my diamond frame. I
simply have to remember to put my leg over the top tube knee first
when mounting, and go foot first, knee last when dismounting.

And I've stopped being embarrassed about needing to grab my ankle with
my hand to help my foot clear the saddle.

Fais ce que doit!
--
Andrew Chaplin
SIT MIHI GLADIUS SICUT SANCTO MARTINO
(If you're going to e-mail me, you'll have to get "yourfinger." out.)

AG: Postponing the Mixte
 

- Joy Beeson / Sun, 24 Jan 2016 04:51:51 +0100


Way back when, I thought that when I got to this age, I would buy a
mixte.

You are lucky in one way: Others never even thought of
becoming that old.

Turns out that mixtes went extinct before I did; the name is
still around, but more often than not it's applied to a drop-frame
bike, rather than to a bike that replaces the top tube with a pair of
mixte stays that run from the head tube to the rear drop-out.

I lately repaired such a bike to give it on to a girl who
needed some old stuff for the city which won't get stolen
probably. And of course, I did a test-ride. It was the more
rigid design, where the top-tube replacements go straight
to the rear-wheel axle mount. But still, this isn't comparable
to a diamond outline. Damn physics.

This frame-geometry wasn't really fun, althoug it was good quality.
Wobbly, doesn't run straight on when rolling free after acceleration.
'Deep-entry'-frames usually have the same flaw, even worse.

My solution: Test an 's'-size MTB with old (BMX-style)
frame outline. There the top-tube rises to something like
70 cm only (for royalists: 28"), and still has a solid
'diamond' type frame outline. The shorter wheelbase of such
a bike is much less a problem than a wobbly structure
(in fact, you might like the handling very much ... it is
like driving a small car with lot less inertia than a big one)


But it also turns out that I can still ride my diamond frame. I
simply have to remember to put my leg over the top tube knee first
when mounting, and go foot first, knee last when dismounting.

And I've stopped being embarrassed about needing to grab my ankle with
my hand to help my foot clear the saddle.

Safety and functionality first.

1. I drive trucks occasionally. When I have to maneuvre with low sight,
I get out if the cabin, walk around, look. Spectators sometimes
ridicule, but damage account turns to zero with this plan. Damage
account zero is good.

2. I hurt my knee last year. No, not by sports, by a very silly thing
(not worth talking, very cold outside, trying to catch a bus whereas
the next one would have been there 10 minutes later -- stupid).
My first tries to mount a bike again looked rediculous. So what?

Most of the sporty happy young people have grandpas and grandmas
they really love.


jk


--
no sig

AG: Negative Exercise
 

Negative exercise should be more widely known. It's a form of weight
lifting in which you put the weight down instead of picking it up.

You can control the descent of much more weight than you can lift.

My left arm atrophied while I was in a body cast, and when the
exercises my doctor prescribed had done all they could, I resigned
myself to never again being able to lift my hand high enough to signal
a right turn. (This must have been *way* back when, because it didn't
take me long to discover that if you give a through-the-car-window
right-turn signal while on a bike, drivers wave back.)

A few years later, my spouse joined a Nautilus club, and I went along.

When I got to the overhead press machine, I not only couldn't lift the
handle, the only way I could get my left hand on the handle was to
pick it up with my right hand and put it there.

But if the attendant lifted the weight, I could put it down. As weeks
and months went by, the weight I put down increased, and after I'd
done my set of negatives, he would pull the pin out and I would
attempt, vainly, to lift ten pounds.

In a weight room, one counts one's reps silently, so as not to
distract other patrons who are also counting their reps. But one day
I *shouted* "ONE!" and instead of glaring at me, the whole room
applauded.

I can still lift that arm just as high as the other. But I forget to
make a point of it for weeks at a time, so it hurts more than the
other arm when I do it. But normal activities such as getting the
toaster off the top shelf keep my arm reasonably free.

--
joy beeson at comcast dot net
http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/
The above message is a Usenet post.
I don't recall having given anyone permission to use it on a Web site.

AG: Oops!
 

Today I was riding close to the curb on Park Avenue when I saw a
sunken manhole centered on the line I was following.

A glance in the mirror showed that the car behind me would overtake
precisely when I reached the manhole, and that the driver had already
committed to a path that would have given ample clearance if I were a
stationary object, but didn't leave me any room to dodge.

I managed to slow enough that when I reached the manhole, most of the
car was ahead of me and I could thread a safe path between the hole
and the car. I did not spare a glance to determine whether the
"manhole" was actually a drain.

I spent a lot of the rest of the trip muttering
"Always leave yourself room to dodge to the right.
Always leave yourself room to dodge to the right.
Always leave yourself room to dodge to the right.
Always leave yourself room to dodge to the right."

--
joy beeson at comcast dot net
http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/
The above message is a Usenet post.
I don't recall having given anyone permission to use it on a Web site.

AG: Virtual Stop signs
 

There is a virtual stop sign at the mouth of every driveway, alley,
parking lot, and anywhere else that something that isn't quite a road
intersects a road or a street.

If two equal byways intersect and nobody has bothered to put up a sign
saying who has the right-of-way, it's a four-way stop.

--
joy beeson at comcast dot net
http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/
The above message is a Usenet post.
I don't recall having given anyone permission to use it on a Web site.

AG: Virtual Stop signs
 

On 2/6/2016 10:01 PM, Joy Beeson wrote:

There is a virtual stop sign at the mouth of every driveway, alley,
parking lot, and anywhere else that something that isn't quite a road
intersects a road or a street.

One seminar I attended advised teaching little kids to recognize
"edges." As they described it, there was an "edge" where a sidewalk
crossed a driveway; or where it crossed a street; or where a driveway
entered a roadway, and so on.

They claimed that it was possible to train kids to recognized "edges" as
hazards that required looking both ways.

I suppose that could work. It's a shame, though, that a similar lesson
hasn't been drummed into motorists, with the expectation that they would
yield to any pedestrians at an edge. Motordom won that one.


--
- Frank Krygowski

AG: Virtual Stop signs
 

Joy Beeson wrote in
:


There is a virtual stop sign at the mouth of every driveway, alley,
parking lot, and anywhere else that something that isn't quite a road
intersects a road or a street.

If two equal byways intersect and nobody has bothered to put up a sign
saying who has the right-of-way, it's a four-way stop.

YMMV according to jurisdiction. Here, the old rule of the road applies: Thou
shalt yield the right of way to he who approacheth from the starboard hand.
It is thus written into the Highway Traffic Act.
--
Andrew Chaplin
SIT MIHI GLADIUS SICUT SANCTO MARTINO
(If you're going to e-mail me, you'll have to get "yourfinger." out.)

AG: Special Clothes for Cycling
 

Back in the sixties, schools brought in members of minorities to talk
us out of our prejudices. One was a motorcyclist who went through the
lyrics of a then-popular song about a fool who was the terror of
highway one-oh-one, explaining how "black-denim trousers and
motorcycle boots, and a black leather jacket" were practical safety
equipment -- but not (everyone chuckle) the eagle on the back.

I don't have very many posts in my buffer, so I think I'll do the same
for cycling clothes.

(And now the buffer is empty, so I'll post it.)

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Shoes and socks are your connection to the power train; they are as
much component as clothing.

Bike shoes need a firm sole to protect your foot from the pedals, and
it helps a lot if the shoe can be attached firmly to the cranks

All my shoes are bike shoes now that I've learned that it's closed-toe
shoes that are causing my corns. How the toe can make a difference
when the corns are on the sides of the foot I don't know, but there it
is. Perhaps it's that sandals are usually adjustable in width; my
lace-to-the-toe Duegis seem to cause less trouble. Or maybe it's just
that I never walk in the Duegis.

So I no longer save new black oxfords to walk to church in, and regard
my oxfords exclusively as "city bike shoes", to wear when I frequently
get off and walk, and have to unclip for a light or stop sign every
block or so.

I have shoes with wooden insoles and slot cleats that I wear whenever
I'm reasonably sure that I won't have to walk and wear off the
irreplaceable cleats. I can ride farther in these, and climb steeper
hills.

Summer or winter, you can't beat pure wool for socks. They allow air
to get at your feet, and don't feel nasty when sweaty. (But feeling
dry when they are wet makes it hard to tell whether or not they are
ready to put back into the drawer after you wash them.) Wool socks,
even partly-wool socks, are hard to find, and when found are more
likely than not to have advertisements knitted in.


Next is the traditional black shorts. These don't come in women's
sizes, and washable wool by the yard is extinct so I can't make my
own, so I wear linen knickers. I sometimes wear jeans, but I have to
pin them at the ankles, I have to take anything large out of the
pockets, and they rub on my knees if I don't tie strings around them
just below the knees -- it's easier to change pants.

Pity I can't wear black shorts. They don't catch on things as my
knickers sometimes do, and tight-fitting pants protect from abrasion
better than loose pants. In the days when bike shorts were made of
wool and lined with real leather, you could glue them on with cold
cream or a special "chamois fat" to guarantee that there would be no
friction between the chamois and your skin. This greatly improves
comfort during a hundred-mile ride, but you really, really want
something to change into at the finish line.


The special shirt:

I missed a question on an Effective Cycling test once. I was supposed
to say that "to prevent wind-flapping" was a reason to wear a jersey.
Since, at that time, I'd see someone wearing no shirt at all every
time I went out, I'd have checked "prevent sunburn", but that wasn't
on the list.

You can prevent wind flapping with any tight-fitting shirt, including
T-shirts and turtlenecks. (Not to mention that my current jerseys do
flap: http://wlweather.net/PAGESEW/BLOG1XV/SLEEVG6h.JPG
http://wlweather.net/PAGESEW/LINJERSY.HTM )
The reason for wearing a jersey instead of a T-shirt is the pockets:
pockets for stuff you want to get at while riding, and pockets for
stuff you want to be sure goes with you when you walk away from the
bike.

I have five pockets in my jerseys instead of the traditional three.
Three are the traditional back pockets: one for my handkerchief and
reading glasses, one for my wallet, one for keys, sunscreen, lipstick,
and so forth. (I used to carry Halt in this pocket too, but then we
moved to Indiana and Hoosiers -- in this county, at least -- don't
encourage their dogs to play in the street.) Two pockets in front
were originally modeled after the pockets on men's shirts, then moved
up to avoid the part of my chest that is sharply curved. The right
one, originally for starlight mints, now holds my cell phone; the left
one holds notebook, pencil, spare handkerchiefs, and shopping list.

All my jerseys have high necks to reduce the area that has to be
covered with sunscreen. I don't do anything special to the necks of
winter jerseys, because I always wrap the tails of my scarves around
my neck to prevent wind-flapping.


Headgear:

I used to wear a gilligan hat
http://www.wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/CENT2015/HATS.HTM
and found it the perfect headgear for outdoor activity: the brim can
be turned down on the side where the sun is, and turned up on the side
where it isn't.

But on a bike, there is risk of a hat blowing off. When I first
started riding, I held my hat in place with an antique hatpin. Then
one day I fell off the road and rolled down an embankment, and got up
thinking "I did all that with nine inches of sharp steel on my
head!!!" I went straight home and sewed bonnet strings onto my hat.

That worked very well until we planned a ride from New York to
Indiana, and the group decided that if we were going to be on the
bikes all day every day, we ought to wear those new-fangled hard-shell
helmets.

What a helmet mostly protects you against is getting yelled at by
ignorami -- the latest helmets frankly eschew protection for the back
of the head in favor of exposing the suspension for easier adjustment
-- but once I started wearing a rear-view mirror on my helmet, the
increased range of vision more than compensated for the loss of vision
caused by a helmet's limited and un-adjustable protection from sun
glare. One can, after all, tip one's head and roll one's eyes.

I have one of the special cycling caps -- if I haven't mislaid it --
but never wore it on the bike and can't say how it works. Bicycle
caps are like baseball caps, but have no button on top, come in sizes
instead of having adjustable straps at the back, and the bill is very
short so that it doesn't block your view of the road when you are down
on the drops. The abbreviated bill also fails to catch the wind, so
it shouldn't blow off.


Gloves:

Cycling gloves are a leather pad held to the palm side of your hand by
the barest minimum of glove, originally coarse cotton lace. I saw a
pair of the traditional crocheted gloves for sale recently, but it was
far too large for me. A cycling glove must fit very tightly, so that
your hand can't abrade itself against the inside of the glove.

Weight-lifting gloves are a bit longer in the finger, but work just
fine -- after all, the original purpose of both gloves is to protect
your hand while you are gripping a bar.

Like a helmet, the secondary purpose of a glove is the more-important
purpose. If you fall, you put out a hand to catch yourself. The
doctor who X-rayed my broken clavicle told me that this is a
hard-wired reflex and you can't do anything about it -- and it's just
as well; a broken clavicle or a broken arm can be repaired; brain
damage can't.

So when your palm hits the rough pavement, you want a bit of tough
leather protecting your tendons. Even the mildest road rash is very
inconvenient if it's on your hand, and a small bit of glass could
cripple you for life.

Back in the days when I wore three pairs of hand-knitted gloves, I
dispensed with the cycling gloves -- I knit tight and the yarn was
tough; three layers were at least as good as leather.

Ha! There's a topic for a new post: how to knit winter cycling
gloves.

Now that I wear store-bought gloves, I wear modern all-plastic,
no-ventilation, too-hot-to-wear-in-the-summer cycling gloves under
them. And I stay home when I need three pairs. It doesn't happen
that often now that we live a bit farther south.

I didn't score any new "fifty-cent"[1] gloves this fall, and the last
two pairs that I bought, I had to pay extra for decidedly-undesired
conductive fingertips. This may be the end of an era.

Warm gloves for cycling should be yellow, or at least white, so that
people can see your hand signals. To keep all the dirt on one side,
mark them right and left. I make a small bar tack in red thread on
each cuff to mark the back of the glove.

It's possible to operate the controls of a bike while wearing split
mittens. I think these are called "lobster-claw gloves" when sold in
stores. Mittens are essential in freezing weather because your hands
lead into the wind no matter how you ride, and you can't work your
brakes if your hands are numb.

[1] When these gloves first appeared, they were two pairs for a
dollar. They cost significantly more the following year, but I still
think of them as fifty-cent gloves.


--
joy beeson at comcast dot net
http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/
The above message is a Usenet post.
I don't recall having given anyone permission to use it on a Web site.

AG: Special Clothes for Cycling
 

On Sat, 13 Feb 2016 23:51:37 -0400, Joy Beeson
wrote:


Back in the sixties, schools brought in members of minorities to talk
us out of our prejudices. One was a motorcyclist who went through the
lyrics of a then-popular song about a fool who was the terror of
highway one-oh-one, explaining how "black-denim trousers and
motorcycle boots, and a black leather jacket" were practical safety
equipment -- but not (everyone chuckle) the eagle on the back.

I don't have very many posts in my buffer, so I think I'll do the same
for cycling clothes.

(And now the buffer is empty, so I'll post it.)

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Shoes and socks are your connection to the power train; they are as
much component as clothing.

Bike shoes need a firm sole to protect your foot from the pedals, and
it helps a lot if the shoe can be attached firmly to the cranks

All my shoes are bike shoes now that I've learned that it's closed-toe
shoes that are causing my corns. How the toe can make a difference
when the corns are on the sides of the foot I don't know, but there it
is. Perhaps it's that sandals are usually adjustable in width; my
lace-to-the-toe Duegis seem to cause less trouble. Or maybe it's just
that I never walk in the Duegis.

I would suggest that your corns are caused by shoes that are too
narrow. Once warm weather arrives you might try wearing "flip-flop"
sandals for a week, If the corns get less tender you have found the
problem.

When I received my first issue of clothes in the Air Force they
ignored my explanation of what size shoes I wore and stood me on a
shoe sizing template and told me to hold my hands up by my shoulders
and dropped a 10 lb, sand bag in each hand and then read off my shoe
size. A whole size larger then I had been wearing, but I had no foot
problems for the next 20 years :-)


So I no longer save new black oxfords to walk to church in, and regard
my oxfords exclusively as "city bike shoes", to wear when I frequently
get off and walk, and have to unclip for a light or stop sign every
block or so.

I have shoes with wooden insoles and slot cleats that I wear whenever
I'm reasonably sure that I won't have to walk and wear off the
irreplaceable cleats. I can ride farther in these, and climb steeper
hills.

Summer or winter, you can't beat pure wool for socks. They allow air
to get at your feet, and don't feel nasty when sweaty. (But feeling
dry when they are wet makes it hard to tell whether or not they are
ready to put back into the drawer after you wash them.) Wool socks,
even partly-wool socks, are hard to find, and when found are more
likely than not to have advertisements knitted in.


Next is the traditional black shorts. These don't come in women's
sizes, and washable wool by the yard is extinct so I can't make my
own, so I wear linen knickers. I sometimes wear jeans, but I have to
pin them at the ankles, I have to take anything large out of the
pockets, and they rub on my knees if I don't tie strings around them
just below the knees -- it's easier to change pants.

Pity I can't wear black shorts. They don't catch on things as my
knickers sometimes do, and tight-fitting pants protect from abrasion
better than loose pants. In the days when bike shorts were made of
wool and lined with real leather, you could glue them on with cold
cream or a special "chamois fat" to guarantee that there would be no
friction between the chamois and your skin. This greatly improves
comfort during a hundred-mile ride, but you really, really want
something to change into at the finish line.


The special shirt:

I missed a question on an Effective Cycling test once. I was supposed
to say that "to prevent wind-flapping" was a reason to wear a jersey.
Since, at that time, I'd see someone wearing no shirt at all every
time I went out, I'd have checked "prevent sunburn", but that wasn't
on the list.

You can prevent wind flapping with any tight-fitting shirt, including
T-shirts and turtlenecks. (Not to mention that my current jerseys do
flap: http://wlweather.net/PAGESEW/BLOG1XV/SLEEVG6h.JPG
http://wlweather.net/PAGESEW/LINJERSY.HTM )
The reason for wearing a jersey instead of a T-shirt is the pockets:
pockets for stuff you want to get at while riding, and pockets for
stuff you want to be sure goes with you when you walk away from the
bike.

I have five pockets in my jerseys instead of the traditional three.
Three are the traditional back pockets: one for my handkerchief and
reading glasses, one for my wallet, one for keys, sunscreen, lipstick,
and so forth. (I used to carry Halt in this pocket too, but then we
moved to Indiana and Hoosiers -- in this county, at least -- don't
encourage their dogs to play in the street.) Two pockets in front
were originally modeled after the pockets on men's shirts, then moved
up to avoid the part of my chest that is sharply curved. The right
one, originally for starlight mints, now holds my cell phone; the left
one holds notebook, pencil, spare handkerchiefs, and shopping list.

All my jerseys have high necks to reduce the area that has to be
covered with sunscreen. I don't do anything special to the necks of
winter jerseys, because I always wrap the tails of my scarves around
my neck to prevent wind-flapping.


Headgear:

I used to wear a gilligan hat
http://www.wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/CENT2015/HATS.HTM
and found it the perfect headgear for outdoor activity: the brim can
be turned down on the side where the sun is, and turned up on the side
where it isn't.

But on a bike, there is risk of a hat blowing off. When I first
started riding, I held my hat in place with an antique hatpin. Then
one day I fell off the road and rolled down an embankment, and got up
thinking "I did all that with nine inches of sharp steel on my
head!!!" I went straight home and sewed bonnet strings onto my hat.

That worked very well until we planned a ride from New York to
Indiana, and the group decided that if we were going to be on the
bikes all day every day, we ought to wear those new-fangled hard-shell
helmets.

What a helmet mostly protects you against is getting yelled at by
ignorami -- the latest helmets frankly eschew protection for the back
of the head in favor of exposing the suspension for easier adjustment
-- but once I started wearing a rear-view mirror on my helmet, the
increased range of vision more than compensated for the loss of vision
caused by a helmet's limited and un-adjustable protection from sun
glare. One can, after all, tip one's head and roll one's eyes.

I have one of the special cycling caps -- if I haven't mislaid it --
but never wore it on the bike and can't say how it works. Bicycle
caps are like baseball caps, but have no button on top, come in sizes
instead of having adjustable straps at the back, and the bill is very
short so that it doesn't block your view of the road when you are down
on the drops. The abbreviated bill also fails to catch the wind, so
it shouldn't blow off.


Gloves:

Cycling gloves are a leather pad held to the palm side of your hand by
the barest minimum of glove, originally coarse cotton lace. I saw a
pair of the traditional crocheted gloves for sale recently, but it was
far too large for me. A cycling glove must fit very tightly, so that
your hand can't abrade itself against the inside of the glove.

Weight-lifting gloves are a bit longer in the finger, but work just
fine -- after all, the original purpose of both gloves is to protect
your hand while you are gripping a bar.

Like a helmet, the secondary purpose of a glove is the more-important
purpose. If you fall, you put out a hand to catch yourself. The
doctor who X-rayed my broken clavicle told me that this is a
hard-wired reflex and you can't do anything about it -- and it's just
as well; a broken clavicle or a broken arm can be repaired; brain
damage can't.

So when your palm hits the rough pavement, you want a bit of tough
leather protecting your tendons. Even the mildest road rash is very
inconvenient if it's on your hand, and a small bit of glass could
cripple you for life.

Back in the days when I wore three pairs of hand-knitted gloves, I
dispensed with the cycling gloves -- I knit tight and the yarn was
tough; three layers were at least as good as leather.

Ha! There's a topic for a new post: how to knit winter cycling
gloves.

Now that I wear store-bought gloves, I wear modern all-plastic,
no-ventilation, too-hot-to-wear-in-the-summer cycling gloves under
them. And I stay home when I need three pairs. It doesn't happen
that often now that we live a bit farther south.

I didn't score any new "fifty-cent"[1] gloves this fall, and the last
two pairs that I bought, I had to pay extra for decidedly-undesired
conductive fingertips. This may be the end of an era.

Warm gloves for cycling should be yellow, or at least white, so that
people can see your hand signals. To keep all the dirt on one side,
mark them right and left. I make a small bar tack in red thread on
each cuff to mark the back of the glove.

It's possible to operate the controls of a bike while wearing split
mittens. I think these are called "lobster-claw gloves" when sold in
stores. Mittens are essential in freezing weather because your hands
lead into the wind no matter how you ride, and you can't work your
brakes if your hands are numb.

[1] When these gloves first appeared, they were two pairs for a
dollar. They cost significantly more the following year, but I still
think of them as fifty-cent gloves.
--
cheers,

John B.

AG: Hand-knit bicycle gloves.
 

The last time I tried to write this pattern I intended to sell it to a
magazine that might give me a whole half page to explain it. It grew
into a tome on knitted-glove theory so huge that I still haven't
finished it. I think I've got an off-site backup of the abandoned
manuscript posted on the Web somewhere.
Ah, here it is:
http://wlweather.net/joybackup/ZGLOVES/MITTSEA1.95
There are eight files in all, numbered 1 through 8.

So I'll assume that you've read the section on pants in Barbara
Walker's _Knitting From the Top_, the chapter "Gloves" in _Mary
Thomas's Knitting Book_, and everything Elizabeth Zimmerman ever
wrote. (I think Schoolhouse Press keeps most of Zimmermann's work in
print, and they had _Knitting from the Top_ the last time I looked.
Dover reprinted "Mary Thomas's Knitting Book", and now has it in
e-book too.

And I'll assume that having absorbed all this data, you can knit a
pair of gloves with no more pre-planning than figuring out how many
stitches to cast on.

Having found the back-up files, these paragraphs from the introduction
are a good summary:

"If I wear mittens in cold weather, I can't work my brake levers --
but if I wear gloves, my hands get so cold that I can't _find_ my
brake levers. Two-fingered mittens let me work my controls and still
keep my hands warm enough to function.
"I made the mittens in two parts: thin embroidery-wool liners
fitted over cycling gloves, and heavier outer mittens. The liners can
be worn alone in cool weather, and they are thin enough that the outer
mittens can be worn alone in intermediate weather. When the weather
gets downright bitter, I replace the cycling gloves with wool gloves;
three layers of springy wool make an adequate substitute for the
padding in my leather gloves."

Work gloves in the usual way until you get to the place where you
split for the fingers, then split into two fingers instead of four.

I like two or three inches of K2 P2 ribbed cuff for the liners, and
for the outer mitten, K2 P2 ribbing starting in the middle of the
forearm and tapered to the wrist. K2 P2 is elastic enough that you
can make the outer cuff to fit over bare skin and still pull it on
over the sleeves of your jersey and sweater and undershirt.

Plain stocking stitch is best for the liners, in a very tight gauge. A
slip-stitch pattern for the outer mittens will turn the wind -- I like
linen stitch.

I sewed a patch of reflective tape on the backs of the outer mittens;
this helps with hand signals and also turns the wind.

From the wrist to the knuckles of the liners, I worked back and forth
in the round so as to put a yellow patch in intarsia on the back.
There is a boundary stitch on each side of the yellow patch.

One boundary stitch is the turning stitch: work it with the yarn in
your hand, turn the work, slip the first stitch (which was the last
stitch of the previous row) and continue with the yarn in your hand,
purling or knitting as appropriate to the side you are on. When you
get back to the turning stitch, you will have the other yarn in your
hand. Work the turning stitch with it, turn, slip, and work back as
before.

The other boundary stitch is the yarn-changing stitch. Each time you
come to it, work it with the yarn in your hand, then drop that yarn
WITHOUT WRAPPING OR TWISTING THE YARNS TOGETHER IN ANY WAY and
continue with the other yarn, which you dropped there the last time
you passed this stitch. When you pick it up, be careful not to loop
it around the yarn that you just dropped.

Each boundary stitch is worked with each yarn in alternation, and each
yarn turns at the boundary and goes back. This sounds as though the
boundary should be checkered -- one expects the two colors to
interdigitate -- and that is the way you would draw it if you graphed
the pattern. In practice, the two colors link together sort of like
warp knitting, and you get a vertical line of black next to a vertical
line of yellow.

The joins are impalpable, and you can't tell the turning seam from the
color-changing seam.


--
joy beeson at comcast dot net
http://wlweather.net/PAGESEW/
The above message is a Usenet post.
I don't recall having given anyone permission to use it on a Web site.

AG: Hand-knit bicycle gloves.
 

Joy Beeson wrote in
:

snip
And I'll assume that having absorbed all this data, you can knit a
pair of gloves with no more pre-planning than figuring out how many
stitches to cast on.
snip

Time is too valuable to spend it knitting like Madame Defarge. I can knick
down to my LBS and be away in minutes with something that is adequate,
water-repellent and reflective.

In very cold weather I wear woolen poacher's mitts inside nylon shells.
They're good down to -15C (3F). I suspect the size of my hands may be why I
do not find myself challenged operating my brakes.

If the bottom truly falls out of the thermometer, I still have two pairs of
these:
http://www.aasurplus.ca/surplus/prod...litary-arctic-
mitt.
--
Andrew Chaplin
SIT MIHI GLADIUS SICUT SANCTO MARTINO
(If you're going to e-mail me, you'll have to get "yourfinger." out.)

AG: Hand-knit bicycle gloves.
 

On 2/21/2016 10:25 AM, Andrew Chaplin wrote:
Joy Beeson wrote in
:

snip
And I'll assume that having absorbed all this data, you can knit a
pair of gloves with no more pre-planning than figuring out how many
stitches to cast on.
snip

Time is too valuable to spend it knitting like Madame Defarge. I can knick
down to my LBS and be away in minutes with something that is adequate,
water-repellent and reflective.

I don't think the motivation for most knitters (or other clothing
crafters) is time efficiency. There is art, there is joy in the
challenge of producing exactly what you (or someone else) wants to wear,
there is intellectual stimulation and, I suppose, more.

(I know a very intelligent woman who is a qualified restoration
architect and who is very active in the community, on multiple boards,
committees, etc. In many meetings, she has knitting needles clicking away.)

As for myself, I don't knit. But I have constructed my own handlebar
bags, and some other special purpose bags. I designed and made them
because nothing on the market met my quirky criteria.

If I were to design and make an item of clothing, I think it would be a
lightweight windbreaker. I'd like an array of certain special pockets
opening in certain ways, a built-in concealable hood, hidden sleeve
extensions to act as sort-of-mittens when needed, some reflectivity,
plenty of sweat vents, self-storage in a built-in pocket or pouch, etc.
I've never found one on the market that provides exactly what I'd like.

--
- Frank Krygowski

AG: Retraction
 

On 12-12-2015 22:03, Joy Beeson wrote:
I recently discovered that now that Chuck Harris is dead, it is no
longer possible to buy a helmet mirror.

It's rare that I can't afford to look back, but I used to have a
hand-sized mirror in a pocket that I could pull out and look at. It was
salvaged from the glove compartment of a Volvo that I scrapped.

--
Wes Groleau

AG: Faster than a speeding turtle
 

On 12-19-2015 21:18, Joy Beeson wrote:
Wear what's comfortable and ignore the fashion critics.

I wear the same things I wear anywhere else. For me, cycling is
transportation, not sport, and though I might be a little uncomfortable
riding, I'd be a lot more uncomfortable looking like a dork when I get
to my destination. To each his own!

--
Wes Groleau

AG: Ride Report
 

Tol'ya the buffer was empty. But while riding, I realized that I'd
never told you how to wear a scarf, so that essay might be ready for
next week.

Lovely day, and going to Pierceton would have let me wear cleats for
the first time this spring, but I've *seen* Pierceton. It's a good
place to go for lunch with a few friends, but not a good place to dine
alone. There are lots of antique shops, and most of them would have
been open on a Saturday, but I *am* an antique. I do enjoy going into
the shops, particularly the one where I have to put my hands on the
steps to get up the stairs (the buildings are antiques too), but only
when I'm already there.

So I settled for a loop around Sprawlmart. Pleasant shopping, but it
didn't increase my miles.

I think I'll go punch the details into
http://www.wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/CENT2016/INDEX.HTM


--
joy beeson at comcast dot net
http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/
The above message is a Usenet post.
I don't recall having given anyone permission to use it on a Web site.

AG: Carrying paper
 

When you are carrying reproduction copies, cut two sheets of
corrugated cardboard a little larger than the sheets of paper, with
the corrugations in one sheet at right angles to the corrugations in
the other. Put the paper between the cardboards and secure them with
rubber bands or a tight envelope.

Wrap the package in a plastic bag, then put that package into a second
bag, and put that package into a third bag. It doesn't matter whether
it looks like rain; the less likely you are to get rained on, the more
likely you are to get sprinklered or puddled.

If the third bag is wet, you are definitely going to get water on the
second bag, but so little that you can probably get it off without
getting water on the first bag, therefore the first bag can't get your
paper wet.

If you are careful.

It always struck me that the copies were priceless on the way to the
print shop, and worthless on the way home.


--
joy beeson at comcast dot net
http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/
The above message is a Usenet post.
I don't recall having given anyone permission to use it on a Web site.

AG: Hand-knit bicycle gloves.
 

On Sun, 21 Feb 2016 15:02:19 -0500, Frank Krygowski
wrote:

If I were to design and make an item of clothing, I think it would be a
lightweight windbreaker. I'd like an array of certain special pockets
opening in certain ways, a built-in concealable hood, hidden sleeve
extensions to act as sort-of-mittens when needed, some reflectivity,
plenty of sweat vents, self-storage in a built-in pocket or pouch, etc.
I've never found one on the market that provides exactly what I'd like.

All I wanted in a windbreaker was pockets that opened by pulling the
zipper down, so that I wouldn't have to use both hands to open the
pocket, and so the inevitable leak would be at the top of the pocket
where a pencil couldn't worm its way out. I'd have also liked to be
able to stuff the windbreaker into one of the pockets, but that wasn't
a dealbreaker the way preventing me from getting at my handkerchief
was.

The market refused to provide.

When it came time to design my own windbreaker, I had the additional
problem of allowing access to my jersey pockets.

When my ratty old wind shell got too small around the hips -- it was,
of course, designed to fit a man, and in addition didn't allow for
carrying stuff in jersey pockets, so it was pretty tight to begin with
and getting too small to use didn't take much weight gain -- I opened
the side seams and hemmed them. The slits in the sides didn't harm
the function in the least, and when I wanted my Halt or my
handkerchief, I could just slide the appropriate hand back and it
would slide under the back apron straight into the pocket.

So I figured that when I got around to making a new windbreaker, I'd
design it with side slits. This took so long that I bought yellow
nylon for it twice, having forgotten that I had already bought some
the second time that I stumbled across suitable fabric. Which meant
that twenty or thirty years ago, after I catered a night fire dressed
all in black, I could make myself a yellow poncho without giving up
hope of making a windbreaker. I've long since left the Auxiliary, but
still carry the yellow poncho, which folds down to nothing, among the
emergency supplies in the back seat of the car.

But when I finally got around to making the windbreaker, I had a
better idea:

http://wlweather.net/PAGESEW/BLOG2XVI/BAC93_6h.JPG
same shot at absurd resolution:
http://wlweather.net/PAGESEW/BLOG2XVI/BACK_93.JPG

This was partly because it was a beta for my wool overjersey.

http://wlweather.net/PAGESEW/BLOG1XVI/SL9VE_6h.JPG

The beta failed to reveal that the waist was three inches too low. So
now I'm keeping an eye out for yellow flannel; I could use a second
overjersey of lighter weight.

--
joy beeson at comcast dot net
http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/
The above message is a Usenet post.
I don't recall having given anyone permission to use it on a Web site.

AG: Unexpected uses
 

I closed the curtains in the sewing/typing room yesterday -- those
curtains usually function only as a place to file small tools and
notions. The leak in the middle was held closed with a wooden
clothespin stenciled "GEAR '89 Saratoga".

One of the convention-goers said that he was utterly baffled that two
clothespins would be included in the welcome package -- until he used
them to secure his map to his handlebar bag.

I don't carry clothespins on the bike, but a backpacker told me that
he was once very glad that two clothespins had fallen un-noticed into
his pack: the lean-to was full, and he and his companion had to
improvise a tent out of their ponchos.

I do keep two clothespins in my suitcase so I can make a skirt hanger
out of a dress hangar in the hotel. I drill a hole into a handle of
one of the pins and carry a piece of string in case I need a third
hand. (The kind also called a "sewing bird", not the kind that holds
your brakes closed.)


Since I'm the only female cyclist on Usenet, I won't bother to explain
how and why I stuff an eighteen-inch square torn out of an old
pillowcase into my bra; suffice it to say that I keep a few spare
sweat rags in my saddle bag.

Once upon a time, Sunset Street was under Pike Lake, but the sidewalk
wasn't, so I rode on the sidewalk. Just a few feet from the bridge
marking the end of the flooded portion, the sidewalk dipped under the
lake to cross a driveway and didn't come up again. By then the
nearest place where I could cross the railroad was miles behind me, so
I took off my shoes and socks and waded across the road. The water was
quite clean, but I picked up a lot of sand between the edge of the
flood and the place where I could sit down and put my shoes back on. I
was very glad that I had a rag to dry my feet and wipe off the sand.

Another time I set out to ride to Sidney, buy lunch in the orchard
store, and come back through Sprawlmart. About halfway to Sidney, I
put something into my middle pocket next to THERE IS NO WALLET IN THAT
POCKET!!!

I had left it home.

I do keep a folded bill in my patch kit in case of just such an
emergency, but I'd recently suffered the tragic loss of an emergency
kit that was the result of forty years of refinement, and hadn't yet
replaced the patch kit. Glumly, I lunched on emergency bars in
Sidney, and turned around to go home.

About three-fourths of the way home, I discovered that the safety pin
that kept the ankle of my pants out of the chain had popped open and
fallen off. No sweat, I always carry a few spare safety pins IN MY
WALLET. (There are now safety pins in my emergency kit.)

It turns out that a sweat rag tied around my ankle holds my pants much
more neatly than a safety pin. But if I ever do it on purpose, I'll
use a bandana -- people mistook the white cloth for a bandage and
asked how I'd gotten hurt.

And, of course, it's a comfort to know that if I run short of nose
tissue, I've got a cloth handkerchief in my saddle bag. I stuff a few
paper towels in there too.

--
joy beeson at comcast dot net
http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/
The above message is a Usenet post.
I don't recall having given anyone permission to use it on a Web site.

AG: Repairs and Upgrades
 

Never throw the old one out before you are sure the new one works.

--
joy beeson at comcast dot net
http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/
The above message is a Usenet post.
I don't recall having given anyone permission to use it on a Web site.

AG: Repairs and Upgrades
 

Joy Beeson wrote in
:

Never throw the old one out before you are sure the new one works.

The quick way to a full garage and cellar. ;)
--
Andrew Chaplin
SIT MIHI GLADIUS SICUT SANCTO MARTINO
(If you're going to e-mail me, you'll have to get "yourfinger." out.)

AG: Never startle anyone
 

"Thou shalt be predictable" is the whole of the traffic law; all else
is commentary.


--
joy beeson at comcast dot net
http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/
The above message is a Usenet post.
I don't recall having given anyone permission to use it on a Web site.

AG: Never startle anyone
 

On Sat, 26 Mar 2016 23:05:18 -0400, Joy Beeson
wrote:


"Thou shalt be predictable" is the whole of the traffic law; all else
is commentary.

I believe that you have just uncovered the secret.
--
cheers,

John B.

AG: Never startle anyone
 

On 26/03/2016 11:05 PM, Joy Beeson wrote:

"Thou shalt be predictable" is the whole of the traffic law; all else
is commentary.



Certainly lesson one when training new club members. Right before hold
a line.

AG: Thinking of getting a mirror because it's hard to look back?
 

Thinking of getting a mirror because it's hard to look back?

DON'T DO IT!!!!

(Please read the all caps above in the hysterical tone you would use
when you see someone about to poke his fingers into a running garbage
disposer. A certain amount of hysteria in the rest of this post might
not be amiss.)

A MIRROR IS NOT A SUBSTITUTE FOR LOOKING BACK.

A mirror is for monitoring the situation behind you. Sometimes it
helps you to time looking back for the most-effective moment, but
using a mirror never replaces a glance over your shoulder.

So don't buy a mirror until you have mastered looking back. Using a
mirror too soon will prevent you from learning a vital skill.

Well, if you *can't* look back because you've got ankylosing
spondylitis, a mirror won't make your situation worse.

--
joy beeson at comcast dot net
http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/
The above message is a Usenet post.
I don't recall having given anyone permission to use it on a Web site.

AG: Making a scarf into a coif
 

When I was a girl, little girls wore scarves on their heads in cold
weather. The scarves were tied in what later came to be called
"babushka" style: Fold a square in half, drape the middle of the fold
over the top of your head, tie a square knot under the chin.

Short of a fur-lined aviator's helmet, this was the warmest way to
cover a head that we knew of.

After growing up, I found a warmer way: instead of tying the scarf
and leaving drafts around the knot, overlap the corners under one's
chin, tucking one corner under the other, then pin the other near
one's ear.

Which is all very well when walking, but it tends to billow out into
the field of view of one's helmet mirror.

Using a large scarf, crossing the corners under the chin, and tying
them together in the back keeps everything smooth and close to the
head.

But with a thick scarf, that leads to a pile-up around the neck.

Solution: put on a thick scarf just large enough to pin under the
chin. Cover it with a thinner three-cornered scarf the size of a
triangle bandage or boy-scout neckerchief.

The triangle scarf can also be worn over a balaclava to keep the wind
from whistling through. (Or to keep one's helmet pads from sticking
to the wool when you try to slide the helmet into place.)

Or the triangle scarf can be lined with a thick lambswool scarf too
small to pin under the chin.

The traditional triangle bandage is made by tearing a forty-inch (one
meter) square out of an old sheet, then cutting the square
corner-to-corner to make two bandages. A scarf or neckerchief can be
made by hemming the triangle. To get a forty-inch square out of a
thirty-nine inch fabric, straighten the end, mark each selvage one
inch from the straight end and draw your bias line from there --
you'll get half of a forty-inch square with one corner nipped off;
when hemming, nip and fold the other corner to match. (If this isn't
elaborately discussed in "Rough Sewing: Flat Things", nag me.)

================================================== ==================

Now to the subject line: when it's *really* cold, tie the triangle
scarf forward of the babushka position, so that it projects around
your face about as far as the brim of a hat. This cuts off your
peripheral vision, so grab the brim in the middle of each cheek and
tuck the edge under, folding back to where the scarf lies smooth
against your head. Continue this fold upward until it turns into a
dart that pulls the brim at the top down against your forehead.

Now everything is smooth and out of your way, and a great deal of your
face is protected from the cold breeze. (Put stiff grease such as
Vaseline or stick-type sunscreen over the exposed portions.)

The result looks very like the coif worn under armor in the middle
ages. This too, is under-armor; I suspect that a hat is needed to
keep it from unfolding. Since I can't do without a hat to shade my
eyes, I've never tried wearing a coif on its own.



--
joy beeson at comcast dot net
http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/
The above message is a Usenet post.
I don't recall having given anyone permission to use it on a Web site.

AG: Doorways
 

I've noticed another difference between the flatfoot and the road
bike. Back when I belonged to a health club and parked the road bike
in their airlock, I could hold the door open with my back while I
pushed the bike through.

I can't even reach the door -- and it's a panic-bar door -- when I'm
pushing the flatfoot. I must lower the kickstand, park the flatfoot,
open the door, lower the doorstop, go back for the flatfoot, park the
flatfoot, and go back to kick up the doorstop and close the door.

Back when I parked the road bike inside, I always pretended to be
searching for something in my panniers until I was quite alone.
Someone who sees you struggling with a burden invariably wants to
help, and he invariably stands in the doorway while holding the door
open.

Once I left or arrived just as the special bus delivered a woman on
crutches. When I stood behind the door to hold it open for her, she
got the most *astounded* expression on her face.


--
joy beeson at comcast dot net
http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/
The above message is a Usenet post.
I don't recall having given anyone permission to use it on a Web site.

AG: Doorways
 

Joy Beeson wrote in
:

I must lower the kickstand[....]

"Kickstand"? Heaven forefend!
--
Andrew Chaplin
SIT MIHI GLADIUS SICUT SANCTO MARTINO
(If you're going to e-mail me, you'll have to get "yourfinger." out.)

AG: Doorways
 

On Sun, 17 Apr 2016 15:29:10 -0000 (UTC), Andrew Chaplin
wrote:

"Kickstand"? Heaven forefend!

Flatfoots have no top tube. Really hard to lean one on a pole.

And mine came with the kickstand as part of the frame, so you don't
get clamp distortion.

But there's a downside to the all-in-one-piece philosophy. I wanted a
smaller chainwheel, and learned that it's welded to the crankset --
changing it would cost a substantial fraction of what I paid for the
bike.

So I'm stuck with a two-speed bike, the steering being too antsy for
me to ever want to pedal while going downhill.


--
joy beeson at comcast dot net
http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/
The above message is a Usenet post.
I don't recall having given anyone permission to use it on a Web site.

AG: Doorways
 

Joy Beeson wrote in
:

On Sun, 17 Apr 2016 15:29:10 -0000 (UTC), Andrew Chaplin
wrote:

"Kickstand"? Heaven forefend!

Flatfoots have no top tube. Really hard to lean one on a pole.

I lean the saddle or crank the against the pole.
--
Andrew Chaplin
SIT MIHI GLADIUS SICUT SANCTO MARTINO
(If you're going to e-mail me, you'll have to get "yourfinger." out.)

AG: Doorways
 

On 4/18/2016 7:16 AM, Andrew Chaplin wrote:
Joy Beeson wrote in
:

On Sun, 17 Apr 2016 15:29:10 -0000 (UTC), Andrew Chaplin
wrote:

"Kickstand"? Heaven forefend!

Flatfoots have no top tube. Really hard to lean one on a pole.

I lean the saddle or crank the against the pole.

40 years ago, a British friend showed me his trick: Put the curb side
pedal just behind the direct downward (6 O'clock) position; prop that
pedal on the curb, and lean the front wheel into the curb. The force of
the curb upward on the pedal tries (weakly) to drive the bike forward;
but the wheel turned into the curb prevents it from moving.

It works, although it's not super-stable. For a bit of extra stability,
add a Blackburn Stop Block
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5087/...71eb9ec3_o.jpg
or something similar. Comparable devices are easy to make.

But most of the time, I just lean my bike against a wall (with the Stop
Block applied), or lie it down.


--
- Frank Krygowski

AG: Doorways
 

Frank Krygowski wrote in news:nf493t$opr$1@dont-
email.me:

On 4/18/2016 7:16 AM, Andrew Chaplin wrote:
Joy Beeson wrote in
:

On Sun, 17 Apr 2016 15:29:10 -0000 (UTC), Andrew Chaplin
wrote:

"Kickstand"? Heaven forefend!

Flatfoots have no top tube. Really hard to lean one on a pole.

I lean the saddle or crank the against the pole.

40 years ago, a British friend showed me his trick: Put the curb side
pedal just behind the direct downward (6 O'clock) position; prop that
pedal on the curb, and lean the front wheel into the curb. The force of
the curb upward on the pedal tries (weakly) to drive the bike forward;
but the wheel turned into the curb prevents it from moving.

I do that daily as I leave the House and turn to lock the front door.
--
Andrew Chaplin
SIT MIHI GLADIUS SICUT SANCTO MARTINO
(If you're going to e-mail me, you'll have to get "yourfinger." out.)

AG: Clipped wings
 

When you pin your pants at the ankles, resist the temptation to use
the resulting wings as handles to help you get your foot over the
saddle. This puts excessive strain on the pins, which may cause them
to bend and open.

No there's no story to go with that -- the buffer is BARE.

Somebody ask a question.


--
Joy Beeson, U.S.A., mostly central Hoosier,
some Northern Indiana, Upstate New York, Florida, and Hawaii
joy beeson at comcast dot net http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/
The above message is a Usenet post.
I don't recall having given anyone permission to use it on a Web site.

AG: Doorways
 

On Mon, 18 Apr 2016 11:16:14 -0000 (UTC), Andrew Chaplin
wrote:

I lean the saddle or crank the against the pole.

Tried the saddle-and-crank park on the street-number post on my way
out the driveway the last time I rode the flatfoot, and it worked. The
crank isn't nearly as far forward as I thought it was. (The curves of
the tubes create an optical illusion that makes the distance between
the bottom bracket and the seat post look much longer until one
mentally extrapolates the straight portions of the tubes.)

The short reach explains why it's so hard to pedal. Not as hard to
pedal as the child-size paddle boat that drifted up on our beach a few
years ago, but hard enough that I don't really mind that I can't go
through a traffic light on it.

(Eventually a motorboat came by with two children, and the father
escorted them as they pedalled home. It's a small lake -- and I
presume that shorter legs were less inconvenienced.)

--
Joy Beeson
joy beeson at comcast dot net

AG: Endurance
 

You can keep going forever if you spend five minutes of each hour flat
on your back with your arms stretched out to the sides. In warm
weather, there should be a bottle of water by one hand and a bottle of
juice beside the other.

The trick lies in finding a place where you can do this without
attracting ambulances.

In Thatcher Park above Albany, New York, there is or was a flat-topped
wall just high enough that it's obvious that a person who got up there
is in good condition. So one can rest up before the four-mile coast
to New Salem, whoopty-doo.

No-one has ever bothered me while I was resting in a graveyard, but
graveyards are not strategically placed. And in some, all the shady
spots are full of poison ivy.

Once I tried flaking out on a lawn that was frequently covered by the
racing team from R.P.I. That doesn't work unless you bring the team
with you.


--
joy beeson at comcast dot net
http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/
The above message is a Usenet post.
I don't recall having given anyone permission to use it on a Web site.

AG: Snacks
 

This is mostly from memory -- now that my range is so short, I nearly
always plan on eating at a fast-food joint, and the food I carry has
to stay good through several expeditions that don't meet with an
emergency.

Aside: you should always carry some bike fuel that you don't plan to
eat. You won't need it often, but when you do, you will be *very*
glad that you brought it.

Once, on a supported tour, I was too tired to fight the crowd at
suppertime . . . and by the time I noticed that the crowd was people
going back for seconds, they had run out of food. But I had two
high-calorie muffins in my luggage, and did just fine.

That incident is probably why, whenever I fantasize about feeding a
randonneur tour -- those guys are a cook's daydream -- whatever the
menu, my plans include giving unopened boxes of spaghetti and cans of
spaghetti sauce to Our Father's House.

The main menu would never be pasta -- I once read an interview with a
Boston-Montreal-Boston rider who said that he got so fed up with pasta
that he would have killed for a baked potato. So my menu features an
oven filled with one huge potato per person (plus ten percent for
error), a sack or two of raw small potatoes and two microwaves (three
if I can borrow Kiddie Kollege's microwave) for seconds, and several
crock pots of toppings.

Jambalaya would be good, but doesn't allow for individual taste --
suppose you put garlic in it and someone is allergic to garlic? Two
kinds of rice and the aforementioned crockpots of toppings.

Of course, any peasant food would be good bike fuel. But I don't
think I'd be good at serving tortillas even though one can buy them
ready made. Fish and poi? No way to get the ingredients even if I
knew what to do with them.

Could go back to my own peasant roots and serve good ol' Hoosier
tamale pie, but that's the same problem as jambalaya, and I don't
think anyone under seventy would recognize plain polenta as food.
Shucks, there are people older than I am who won't touch it.

Perhaps spanish hamburger and an assortment of starches?

And that's enough to make a post; this being the only post in the
buffer, I'll save my original topic for another post.

If I can remember what I meant to say.


--
joy beeson at comcast dot net
http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/
The above message is a Usenet post.
I don't recall having given anyone permission to use it on a Web site.

AG: Snacks
 

On Mon, 9 May 2016 22:58:53 -0400, Frank Krygowski
wrote:

Peasant food? I nominate pierogi! Preferably with a variety of
fillings, not just the classic potato.

If you can come up with a way to make them hot and ready to eat while
cycling, I'll nominate you for canonization. (And two popes ago, you'd
have been a shoo-in!)

I think the support crews for the Race Across America have worked that
out. It is rumored that one rider rode no-hands while using a Frisbee
for a plate. I hope he ate with his fingers.

Just looked up "pierogi" on Wikipedia. Sounds like something you
could drop into a pot of boiling water a few at a time as riders
straggle into the feeding station.

Also sounds a lot like my favorite lunch at the Chinatown Express.

Garnished with fried onion? As good for on-demand. The fast riders
get fried onions, the stragglers get caramelized onion.

A little farther down, I got to "fried in butter after boiling".
Freshening them up in butter would be quicker than boiling to order,
and they could be kept warm on a steam table.


--
joy beeson at comcast dot net
http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/
The above message is a Usenet post.
I don't recall having given anyone permission to use it on a Web site.

AG: Snacks
 

On 5/7/2016 8:45 PM, Joy Beeson wrote:

This is mostly from memory -- now that my range is so short, I nearly
always plan on eating at a fast-food joint, and the food I carry has
to stay good through several expeditions that don't meet with an
emergency.

Aside: you should always carry some bike fuel that you don't plan to
eat. You won't need it often, but when you do, you will be *very*
glad that you brought it.

Once, on a supported tour, I was too tired to fight the crowd at
suppertime . . . and by the time I noticed that the crowd was people
going back for seconds, they had run out of food. But I had two
high-calorie muffins in my luggage, and did just fine.

That incident is probably why, whenever I fantasize about feeding a
randonneur tour -- those guys are a cook's daydream -- whatever the
menu, my plans include giving unopened boxes of spaghetti and cans of
spaghetti sauce to Our Father's House.

The main menu would never be pasta -- I once read an interview with a
Boston-Montreal-Boston rider who said that he got so fed up with pasta
that he would have killed for a baked potato. So my menu features an
oven filled with one huge potato per person (plus ten percent for
error), a sack or two of raw small potatoes and two microwaves (three
if I can borrow Kiddie Kollege's microwave) for seconds, and several
crock pots of toppings.

Jambalaya would be good, but doesn't allow for individual taste --
suppose you put garlic in it and someone is allergic to garlic? Two
kinds of rice and the aforementioned crockpots of toppings.

Of course, any peasant food would be good bike fuel. But I don't
think I'd be good at serving tortillas even though one can buy them
ready made. Fish and poi? No way to get the ingredients even if I
knew what to do with them.

Could go back to my own peasant roots and serve good ol' Hoosier
tamale pie, but that's the same problem as jambalaya, and I don't
think anyone under seventy would recognize plain polenta as food.
Shucks, there are people older than I am who won't touch it.

Perhaps spanish hamburger and an assortment of starches?

And that's enough to make a post; this being the only post in the
buffer, I'll save my original topic for another post.

If I can remember what I meant to say.

Peasant food? I nominate pierogi! Preferably with a variety of
fillings, not just the classic potato.

If you can come up with a way to make them hot and ready to eat while
cycling, I'll nominate you for canonization. (And two popes ago, you'd
have been a shoo-in!)


--
- Frank Krygowski