putting fenders on my bike

It keeps raining in Texas - and precisely when I have window in my
day when I can ride. Got tired and decided to adopt rain or shine
riding policy. One of the professors I knew at Mathematics Dept
at UT used to commute on bike (65+ yo) every day of the year -
except those 2 days every couple of years when we get freezing rain.

But I digress.

Getting wet mud-butt from riding in rain is not my idea of fun so I
bought some fenders. Full size SKS P45 fenders. I ride touring
bike - steel frame, 36 spokes, wide MTB gearing - all chosen to
support all those extra pounds I carry. But I took off the rack from
it - and I just pretend it is a road bike - even though that illusion
comes crashing down every time I struggle to keep 8pmh speed on
some some hill and I hear "on your left" and another skinny roadie
is passing me and flying up that hill as if we were on flats.

So now when I put those fenders on I won't even be able to keep
that illusion when I am riding alone - every time I will look down
and see those fenders - it will say "you are riding a touring bike,
fat man". I guess that means I may as well put that rack back on
and embrace the touring/commuter image - start going grocery
shopping on a bike, get a Grateful Dead t-shirt and become one
car-less bike-zealots. Not sure I am ready for this.

Anyways - it is not really a question - I am just think loud at
4 o'clock in the morning.

On Aug 31, 4:02 am, Woland99 wrote:
It keeps raining in Texas - and precisely when I have window in my
day when I can ride. Got tired and decided to adopt rain or shine
riding policy. One of the professors I knew at Mathematics Dept
at UT used to commute on bike (65+ yo) every day of the year -
except those 2 days every couple of years when we get freezing rain.

But I digress.

Getting wet mud-butt from riding in rain is not my idea of fun so I
bought some fenders. Full size SKS P45 fenders. I ride touring
bike - steel frame, 36 spokes, wide MTB gearing - all chosen to
support all those extra pounds I carry. But I took off the rack from
it - and I just pretend it is a road bike - even though that illusion
comes crashing down every time I struggle to keep 8pmh speed on
some some hill and I hear "on your left" and another skinny roadie
is passing me and flying up that hill as if we were on flats.

So now when I put those fenders on I won't even be able to keep
that illusion when I am riding alone - every time I will look down
and see those fenders - it will say "you are riding a touring bike,
fat man". I guess that means I may as well put that rack back on
and embrace the touring/commuter image - start going grocery
shopping on a bike, get a Grateful Dead t-shirt and become one
car-less bike-zealots. Not sure I am ready for this.

Wrong NG. Try again in rec.bicycles.self-esteem-issues

---------------8snip------------------------------------------------------------------

On Aug 31, 6:08 am, Ozark Bicycle
wrote:
On Aug 31, 4:02 am, Woland99 wrote:



It keeps raining in Texas - and precisely when I have window in my
day when I can ride. Got tired and decided to adopt rain or shine
riding policy. One of the professors I knew at Mathematics Dept
at UT used to commute on bike (65+ yo) every day of the year -
except those 2 days every couple of years when we get freezing rain.

But I digress.

Getting wet mud-butt from riding in rain is not my idea of fun so I
bought some fenders. Full size SKS P45 fenders. I ride touring
bike - steel frame, 36 spokes, wide MTB gearing - all chosen to
support all those extra pounds I carry. But I took off the rack from
it - and I just pretend it is a road bike - even though that illusion
comes crashing down every time I struggle to keep 8pmh speed on
some some hill and I hear "on your left" and another skinny roadie
is passing me and flying up that hill as if we were on flats.

So now when I put those fenders on I won't even be able to keep
that illusion when I am riding alone - every time I will look down
and see those fenders - it will say "you are riding a touring bike,
fat man". I guess that means I may as well put that rack back on
and embrace the touring/commuter image - start going grocery
shopping on a bike, get a Grateful Dead t-shirt and become one
car-less bike-zealots. Not sure I am ready for this.

Wrong NG. Try again in rec.bicycles.self-esteem-issues

---------------8snip------------------------------------------------------------------

Shouldn't your reply be posted to alt.humorless.dislexic.ducks?

On Aug 31, 4:02*am, Woland99 wrote:
It keeps raining in Texas - and precisely when I have window in my
day when I can ride. Got tired and decided to adopt rain or shine
riding policy. One of the professors I knew at Mathematics Dept
at UT used to commute on bike (65+ yo) every day of the year -
except those 2 days every couple of years when we get freezing rain.

But I digress.

Getting wet mud-butt from riding in rain is not my idea of fun so I
bought some fenders. Full size SKS P45 fenders. I ride touring
bike - steel frame, 36 spokes, wide MTB gearing - all chosen to
support all those extra pounds I carry. But I took off the rack from
it - and I just pretend it is a road bike - even though that illusion
comes crashing down every time I struggle to keep 8pmh speed on
some some hill and I hear "on your left" and another skinny roadie
is passing me and flying up that hill as if we were on flats.

So now when I put those fenders on I won't even be able to keep
that illusion when I am riding alone - every time I will look down
and see those fenders - it will say "you are riding a touring bike,
fat man". I guess that means I may as well put that rack back on
and embrace the touring/commuter image - start going grocery
shopping on a bike, get a Grateful Dead t-shirt and become one
car-less bike-zealots. Not sure I am ready for this.

Anyways - it is not really a question - I am just think loud at
4 o'clock in the morning.

Hey, you just CAN'T lose when you have all that crap on your bike.

You'll be dry, comfortable and can get your groceries.

Then, if you can't keep pace with the 'young studs', they'll
understand because of all the junk you have on your bike.

If you do happen to be able to keep up with them (and maybe even pass
one of them) they'll think you are the 'stud of studs' because of all
the junk you have on your bike. :-)

Lewis.

*****

Hey, you just CAN'T lose when you have all that crap on your bike.

You'll be dry, comfortable and can get your groceries.

Then, if you can't keep pace with the 'young studs', they'll
understand because of all the junk you have on your bike.

If you do happen to be able to keep up with them (and maybe even pass
one of them) they'll think you are the 'stud of studs' because of all
the junk you have on your bike. :-)

Lewis.


Shhh! I'm still trying to figure out where it's raining in Texas!

Pat in TX

"Woland99" wrote in message
...
It keeps raining in Texas - and precisely when I have window in my
day when I can ride. Got tired and decided to adopt rain or shine
riding policy. One of the professors I knew at Mathematics Dept
at UT used to commute on bike (65+ yo) every day of the year -
except those 2 days every couple of years when we get freezing rain.

But I digress.

Getting wet mud-butt from riding in rain is not my idea of fun so I
bought some fenders. Full size SKS P45 fenders. I ride touring
bike - steel frame, 36 spokes, wide MTB gearing - all chosen to
support all those extra pounds I carry. But I took off the rack from
it - and I just pretend it is a road bike - even though that illusion
comes crashing down every time I struggle to keep 8pmh speed on
some some hill and I hear "on your left" and another skinny roadie
is passing me and flying up that hill as if we were on flats.

So now when I put those fenders on I won't even be able to keep
that illusion when I am riding alone - every time I will look down
and see those fenders - it will say "you are riding a touring bike,
fat man". I guess that means I may as well put that rack back on
and embrace the touring/commuter image - start going grocery
shopping on a bike, get a Grateful Dead t-shirt and become one
car-less bike-zealots. Not sure I am ready for this.

Anyways - it is not really a question - I am just think loud at
4 o'clock in the morning.

Screw the roadies and their Tour de Lance fantasies! What matters is whether
your bike is practical and useful for you and your needs. And what's wrong
with going grocery shopping on a bike while dressed in normal clothes and
(gasp) sneakers on flat steel cage shin-scraper pedals? The problem with the
bicycle in American society (and Australian society too) is that it's viewed
as either childs toy or elitist sports equipment. There's not enough
emphasis on bicycle as comfortable and efficient daily transport that just
about anyone who isn't a grotesque porker can use. By all means embrace your
steel framed tourer and just ride, damnit. Let others worry about the image.

One of my commuter bikes is a rigid-at-both-ends MTB refugee from the trash
heap with a gas pipe frame that has been brought back to life with nice
wheels, ancient Brooks saddle, a rattle can spray job and curvy North Road
bars with $10 friction thumb shifters. Local mid-teenagers borrow it and
every one of them has independently described it as "awesome". I think they
like it because it doesn't have ten pounds of low end suspension components,
wears well inflated road slicks and has a comfy riding position. But I'd
look in vain for anything as practical and comfortable among the pseudo
downhill bikes and flat bar hybrids on the floor at the LBS's.

I had a good day at the garbage dump recycle shop yesterday. The dead bikes
are usually department store junk but in one day I found not one but two $5
bikes that were worth having.
Bike One is an incredibly light drop bar MBK, an exact clone of one I was
asking about on this forum not long ago. On the minus side it has a godawful
Maillard Helicomatic rear hub with a missing cassette, probably the reason
it went out of use whenever. On the plus side, it is just late enough to
have an ISO threaded bottom bracket rather than French which will simplify
things in the future, though the existing cups and spindle are unmarked and
usable.
Bike Two is a Miyata Triple Cross flat bar job circa 1992. Its Vittoria
tyres are newer, still with moulding whiskers on them and held pressure when
I pumped them up. It was then rideable if you didn't mind being stuck in top
gear. Investigation of the early Rapidfire trigger shifter revealed that its
little pawls and indents were simply gummed up with hardened grease. A wash
out and a new shift cable later and it now shifts perfectly. Looks like
someone stopped riding it for a very small problem. Oh yeah, it also has
Bio-Pace chainrings. So in one bike I have two Shimano ideas that didn't
fly. Bio-pace chainrings and Mark I Rapidfire shifters with up and down
triggers both thumb operated in the same direction.
I'm very happy to have these butted and lugged Cro-Mo junkers. One will
become a fixie and the other will become a fantasy drop-bar road burner
though I'm not sure which will be which yet.

Anyway, I'm just thinking out loud at midnight myself.

Peter H

On Aug 31, 4:02*am, Woland99 wrote:
It keeps raining in Texas - and precisely when I have window in my
day when I can ride. Got tired and decided to adopt rain or shine
riding policy. One of the professors I knew at Mathematics Dept
at UT used to commute on bike (65+ yo) every day of the year -
except those 2 days every couple of years when we get freezing rain.

But I digress.

Getting wet mud-butt from riding in rain is not my idea of fun so I
bought some fenders. Full size SKS P45 fenders. I ride touring
bike - steel frame, 36 spokes, wide MTB gearing - all chosen to
support all those extra pounds I carry. But I took off the rack from
it - and I just pretend it is a road bike - even though that illusion
comes crashing down every time I struggle to keep 8pmh speed on
some some hill and I hear "on your left" and another skinny roadie
is passing me and flying up that hill as if we were on flats.

How the fark can you stay fat if ya ride?? My fixed gear finally got a
bit of a workout last night as I searched for an elusive alley cat
race I found out about too late in the game--but I've been getting my
riding in mostly on da Dew--a 29 pound fendered, double racked,
belled--defacto touring rig--with kickstand, and I'm on belt notch
zero. 200 miles a week of inspired shopping and other types of
screwing around. About to head out old Natchez Trace on it with some
sammies and maybe even a bath towel in hopes that the old rope swing
is there to dunk in the Harpeth River!

Ride, eat, ride. There's a diet plan that works for most of us.

On Aug 31, 8:49 am, "Peter Howard"
wrote:
"Woland99" wrote in message

...



It keeps raining in Texas - and precisely when I have window in my
day when I can ride. Got tired and decided to adopt rain or shine
riding policy. One of the professors I knew at Mathematics Dept
at UT used to commute on bike (65+ yo) every day of the year -
except those 2 days every couple of years when we get freezing rain.

But I digress.

Getting wet mud-butt from riding in rain is not my idea of fun so I
bought some fenders. Full size SKS P45 fenders. I ride touring
bike - steel frame, 36 spokes, wide MTB gearing - all chosen to
support all those extra pounds I carry. But I took off the rack from
it - and I just pretend it is a road bike - even though that illusion
comes crashing down every time I struggle to keep 8pmh speed on
some some hill and I hear "on your left" and another skinny roadie
is passing me and flying up that hill as if we were on flats.

So now when I put those fenders on I won't even be able to keep
that illusion when I am riding alone - every time I will look down
and see those fenders - it will say "you are riding a touring bike,
fat man". I guess that means I may as well put that rack back on
and embrace the touring/commuter image - start going grocery
shopping on a bike, get a Grateful Dead t-shirt and become one
car-less bike-zealots. Not sure I am ready for this.

Anyways - it is not really a question - I am just think loud at
4 o'clock in the morning.

Screw the roadies and their Tour de Lance fantasies! What matters is whether
your bike is practical and useful for you and your needs. And what's wrong
with going grocery shopping on a bike while dressed in normal clothes and
(gasp) sneakers on flat steel cage shin-scraper pedals? The problem with the
bicycle in American society (and Australian society too) is that it's viewed
as either childs toy or elitist sports equipment. There's not enough
emphasis on bicycle as comfortable and efficient daily transport that just
about anyone who isn't a grotesque porker can use. By all means embrace your
steel framed tourer and just ride, damnit. Let others worry about the image.

One of my commuter bikes is a rigid-at-both-ends MTB refugee from the trash
heap with a gas pipe frame that has been brought back to life with nice
wheels, ancient Brooks saddle, a rattle can spray job and curvy North Road
bars with $10 friction thumb shifters. Local mid-teenagers borrow it and
every one of them has independently described it as "awesome". I think they
like it because it doesn't have ten pounds of low end suspension components,
wears well inflated road slicks and has a comfy riding position. But I'd
look in vain for anything as practical and comfortable among the pseudo
downhill bikes and flat bar hybrids on the floor at the LBS's.

I had a good day at the garbage dump recycle shop yesterday. The dead bikes
are usually department store junk but in one day I found not one but two $5
bikes that were worth having.
Bike One is an incredibly light drop bar MBK, an exact clone of one I was
asking about on this forum not long ago. On the minus side it has a godawful
Maillard Helicomatic rear hub with a missing cassette, probably the reason
it went out of use whenever. On the plus side, it is just late enough to
have an ISO threaded bottom bracket rather than French which will simplify
things in the future, though the existing cups and spindle are unmarked and
usable.
Bike Two is a Miyata Triple Cross flat bar job circa 1992. Its Vittoria
tyres are newer, still with moulding whiskers on them and held pressure when
I pumped them up. It was then rideable if you didn't mind being stuck in top
gear. Investigation of the early Rapidfire trigger shifter revealed that its
little pawls and indents were simply gummed up with hardened grease. A wash
out and a new shift cable later and it now shifts perfectly. Looks like
someone stopped riding it for a very small problem. Oh yeah, it also has
Bio-Pace chainrings. So in one bike I have two Shimano ideas that didn't
fly. Bio-pace chainrings and Mark I Rapidfire shifters with up and down
triggers both thumb operated in the same direction.
I'm very happy to have these butted and lugged Cro-Mo junkers. One will
become a fixie and the other will become a fantasy drop-bar road burner
though I'm not sure which will be which yet.

Anyway, I'm just thinking out loud at midnight myself.

Peter H

Thanks Peter - good point on emphasis - years ago when I was commuting
daily to work I rode commuter bike with fenders and had simplest cyclo
puter on it. I did not worry much about making good average speed and
had fun doing it. That bike would not pass for a racing bike even for
group of blind Martians. Somehow when I came back to cycling 9 months
ago I decided to do it scientifically - bought GPS cycloputer and
started keeping logs and averages. And all that is fun when you are
moving forward. But I was sick for a month - did not ride, some weight
crept back and suddenly OMG! my usual after-work 20miles took 5mins
longer than usual and 10mins longer than best time.... And now those
fenders threaten to rob me from whatever is left from that image of
me getting better on bike...

On Aug 31, 9:08 am, landotter wrote:
On Aug 31, 4:02 am, Woland99 wrote:



It keeps raining in Texas - and precisely when I have window in my
day when I can ride. Got tired and decided to adopt rain or shine
riding policy. One of the professors I knew at Mathematics Dept
at UT used to commute on bike (65+ yo) every day of the year -
except those 2 days every couple of years when we get freezing rain.

But I digress.

Getting wet mud-butt from riding in rain is not my idea of fun so I
bought some fenders. Full size SKS P45 fenders. I ride touring
bike - steel frame, 36 spokes, wide MTB gearing - all chosen to
support all those extra pounds I carry. But I took off the rack from
it - and I just pretend it is a road bike - even though that illusion
comes crashing down every time I struggle to keep 8pmh speed on
some some hill and I hear "on your left" and another skinny roadie
is passing me and flying up that hill as if we were on flats.

How the fark can you stay fat if ya ride?? My fixed gear finally got a
bit of a workout last night as I searched for an elusive alley cat
race I found out about too late in the game--but I've been getting my
riding in mostly on da Dew--a 29 pound fendered, double racked,
belled--defacto touring rig--with kickstand, and I'm on belt notch
zero. 200 miles a week of inspired shopping and other types of
screwing around. About to head out old Natchez Trace on it with some
sammies and maybe even a bath towel in hopes that the old rope swing
is there to dunk in the Harpeth River!

Ride, eat, ride. There's a diet plan that works for most of us.

Thanks Brother Otter - you radiate true wisdom (as always).
Well here what it really was - I am reading Mike Magnusson tour
de obsession "Heft on Wheels". Quite enjoyable and loaded in self
deprecating humour. Then I noticed how really hard it is for me
to put those damn fenders on - and clinging to silly image.
So I wrote that message.
BTW - weight was dropping but I got sick in the end of July
and did not ride very much until this week - and now, armed
with Mike's example I will start riding 250mile weeks and eat
2 or 3 protein shakes and starve myself 70 pounds down.

On 8/31/2008 2:02 AM Woland99 wrote:

It keeps raining in Texas - and precisely when I have window in my
day when I can ride. Got tired and decided to adopt rain or shine
riding policy. One of the professors I knew at Mathematics Dept
at UT used to commute on bike (65+ yo) every day of the year -
except those 2 days every couple of years when we get freezing rain.

But I digress.

Getting wet mud-butt from riding in rain is not my idea of fun so I
bought some fenders. Full size SKS P45 fenders. I ride touring
bike - steel frame, 36 spokes, wide MTB gearing - all chosen to
support all those extra pounds I carry. But I took off the rack from
it - and I just pretend it is a road bike - even though that illusion
comes crashing down every time I struggle to keep 8pmh speed on
some some hill and I hear "on your left" and another skinny roadie
is passing me and flying up that hill as if we were on flats.

So now when I put those fenders on I won't even be able to keep
that illusion when I am riding alone - every time I will look down
and see those fenders - it will say "you are riding a touring bike,
fat man". I guess that means I may as well put that rack back on
and embrace the touring/commuter image - start going grocery
shopping on a bike, get a Grateful Dead t-shirt and become one
car-less bike-zealots. Not sure I am ready for this.

Anyways - it is not really a question - I am just think loud at
4 o'clock in the morning.

Ignore the peanut gallery. Many lose weight when they add riding to their
daily routine, some (take me) do not. It helps us maintain, rather than
"reduce" (as my mother would have put it). When roadies with their 20-inch
hips blow past me I like to consider that they're having fun, I'm having
fun; you're fetching groceries, they can't carry squat on their bikes. Put
fenders, wings, spinners, banners and/or squeeze-bulb horns on the bike if
ya want or need to. Zealotry is optional.

--
Mike "Rocket J Squirrel"