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.)