Today I set out to break my personal best daily mileage, previously 115 miles. Of course, my previous record was 100 miles on my road bike, followed by 15 miles on my mountain bike towing both my kids.

I biked to Concord before joining the Charles River Wheelmen in their Climb to the Clouds century ride up Mt. Wachusett. I met my buddy Mike from work there, and together we braved muggy temperatures in the mid 80s, overcast skies mixed with occasional sun, downpours and thunderstorms. We went to the top of the mountain, the view was no where as good as the picture here, which is from last October. I was also supposed to meet my friend Sanjay along the route, but he called in sick with a fever. I guess I’ll have to do this again next weekend with him. In any case, after doing the entire century route, I still had to get home, so I ended up logging a grand total of 135 miles. My heart rate monitor says I burned about 8,000 calories, so we’re going out for some pasta tonight.

I didn’t ride at all Saturday, but my commute home from work on Friday resulted in two simultaneous pinch flats. I was riding with Tamara from my office, and we were almost to the parking lot where we meet (where her car was conveniently parked). I thought I’d take a short cut and avoid a traffic light that never changes for bikes. I went off the road into some grass and, blam blam! Two flats. Tamara gave me a ride home, and after inspecting and changing the two tubes (both with snake bites). I drove back and figured out what happened. I followed my tracks in the grass, which went right over a sheared off 2″ square sign post. It was sheared off at ground level, hidden in the grass. I had perfect aim because I hit it with both wheels at about 15mph.

Also in very exciting news, my buddy Ken and his wife Lisa had their first baby on Thursday. He arrived at over 9 pounds, so I’m sure he’ll be ready to ride in a bike trailer early. Congrats Lisa and Ken!

This was the first weekend in a while where we pretty much had no plans. I figured I’d probably find some time to go for a nice long road ride. Get up early, get on the road by 6:30 or 7, stay out for 5 or 6 hours, etc. Yeah right.

I forgot how nice it is to sleep in. And by sleep in, I mean a nice leisurely 8am. Saturday turned into a family ride day, which was fantastic. Did 17.5 miles on the Minuteman trail, starting in Bedford. The trail is long and flat, compared to the Assabet River trail which is a significant down hill to Hudson, and a nice significant uphill back to Marlborough. In any case, we also got a great trial of the Thule tow hitch rack that my Uncle Fred gave us. It is so easy to use and mount compared to my old trunk rack.

Today I decided to finally spend time working on my bike rather than riding it. I had some long overdue maintenance that I just haven’t been able to carve time out for. I did spend about 3 hours working on the bike, but I was still surprised that all the repairs turned out to be fairly easy.

I started by taking off the rims, stripping the tires and tubes off, taking off the cassette, and hitting everything with citrus degreaser. Then I trued the wheels, which was one of the repairs I was scared of. But, turns out to be fairly easy - would probably be harder if they were further out of true to begin with.

After cleaning the wheels spotless, I cleaned the tires and tubes and re-mounted them on the rims. I then installed a new cassette (my favorite 11×28 set), and set them aside. I removed the chain and the rear derailer, and cleaned most of the bike with degreaser. I spent a lot of time cleaning the front derailer and crankset.

I mounted a new rear derailer and attached the cable, then put the wheels back on. I measured and linked up a new chain, then worked on adjusting the new derailer. Put a nice light layer of teflon lube on the new chain, and wiped it clear - and now I vow to take better care of my drivetrain. Everything is crisp and clean, and hopefully I can try to keep it that way! I’ve got 7,600+ miles on this bike (and 700 miles on my MTB in the same timeframe), and am only on my third chain and cassette. Somewhere I heard you should replace your chain every 1,000 miles and cassette every 2,000 - so I think I was very overdue. I now have a chain checker and a chain cleaning machine, so I can maintain it better, and hopefully the bike will continue to shift well (or hopefully better now!).

One thing I’m really happy about is that I bought a cheap bike, and am getting the most out of it. Anytime I need to replace a part on this bike the replacement part is really cheap. Whether I was riding a $5,000 bike or a $450 bike (that’s how much I paid!), I’d still need to replace these parts. Replacing an 8-speed Sora derailer for $30 is a lot less than a 10-speed Ultegra ($80), even the 8 speed chain ($10) is less than a 10 speed ($25). So, next time you see someone riding a $5,000 bike ask them how much their last tuneup was, and how many miles per year they ride. I ride a $450 bike and ride 3,000 miles per year.

Marshall Wolff/Metrowest Daily News staff

I was interviewed this past Friday for a series of articles in the Metrowest Daily News on rising fuel costs. The newspaper also sent a photographer to take some pictures of me getting ready for my bike commute.

My parents came up for Mother’s Day, and to visit my kids school (on Monday). We went out to the playground and we had a great chat while watching the kids play. I mentioned that I was interviewed for the paper, and being that today was Sunday it should probably be in it. Then we went out to Fresh City for dinner. After our meal we stopped by the little coffee house section, where they had the newspapers and took a look. Everyone was shocked when we realized, right there on the front page, was a big color picture of ME. The article continued on an inner page, and there was another picture of ME.

That was very exciting, so we went to Ben and Jerry’s to celebrate.

• Consumers shudder under fuel spike

Thanks go out to Aaron Wasserman for interviewing me and writing the article, Marshall Wolff for taking some great photos (including the one included here) and the Metrowest Daily News for publishing it.

I was able to successfully install my copy of DeLorme Topo USA inside my Windows XP virtual machine in VMWare Fusion on my mac. I was able to export all my map data from my last machine, and imported it no problem. I’ve got all my routes and data from all my bike rides from last year, and am ready to start planning this year’s Middlesex Century route.

I had to enable 3D graphics in order to get the 3D DirectX 9 view to work. VMWare says this is experimental, and that I don’t have the correct features in my graphics card, but it seems to work anyway. I won’t mind if it crashes once in a while. I usually keep the 3D mode off until I need to examine a way around a mountain.

I’m very happy with it running, this is the fastest I’ve seen this program move.

In five days of biking with my home made studded tires, I’ve given myself three flats. The first time was on my third day, on my way to work, about 3/4 mile from my office. I started walking, but was picked up in just a few steps by of all people, our department VP. I fixed that flat in the office, and ordered some Slime tire liners from Nashbar. After the day of work I rode home with no issues.

The next time I rode in, I got another flat. This was a real slow leak, so I managed to get all the way to the office. I hadn’t gotten the tire liners yet, so I decided not to repair, and got a ride home with my good buddy Carl. I took a break from riding while waiting for the parts to arrive. After I got the liners, I had to do some “custom fabrication” by duct taping two liners side by side to get full coverage, and installed them in each tire (so needed 4 tire liners total - my total parts cost has gone from $26 to $46 for two tires).

Today I rode in. A nice toasty 14 degrees Fahrenheit this morning. The roads were mediocre, I don’t think the plow truck drivers actually know how to use the plow. Actually, comparing the roads to the roads I remember in my Buffalo, NY youth, the plow truck drivers in New England really don’t have a clue. The ride in was awesome, had an awesome day. Then, on my way home, in the dark (but a warmer 27 degrees), I got a flat. Carl and Brent were just leaving so I was able to catch them by cell phone, and super-buddy Brent picked me up.

I told myself after all the effort I went through in constructing the tires, putting in the liners, and all the flat repairs, that if I got one more flat I’d be done for the season. I bought a trainer, and figure at the worst I could actually use it with my road bike (which is sad being stored in the freezing shed). After I put the kids to bed I went down to the basement and took a look. The stud heads had not punctured the tire liner, but rather a piece of grit ingrained in the duct tape perfectly positioned over a stud caused the hole. So, I removed the taped grit, inspected the rest of the wheel and liner, added a secondary liner (an extra sliced tube), and re-assembled. Now if I get another flat, again again, this time for real (maybe), I’ll stop for the season, maybe.

Actually, I think my plan will be to bike in the morning but get rides home - at least until I prove that the tires are more flat resistant. The next step would also be to actually buy a studded tire, at least for the rear (where I keep getting the flats) - either that or virtual-commute with my trainer in the basement, laptop and VPN.

Thanks go to Sarah for the “no cycling” picture.

Here are some links I found while looking for an appropriate image for this post:

• Lords of the Logistic
• Bike Hugger

And more links about studded tires:

• Peter White Cycles: Studded Tires
• Bike Tires Direct: Studded Tires (cheapo Innova for $35 each, or better Schwalbe for $50)
• Stud your own bike tires by Byron Kuster at Silent Sports
• Kent’s Bike Blog: Studded Bicycle Tires (lots of good comments)