bike news

[topaz]

Tthis week I discovered a free commuter parking lot in west Arlington. Bonus! Free parking, no grumpy notes left on my windshield from neighborhood residents, a couple extra miles biking each day.

Then I discovered, on Thursday evening, after leaving work late and stopping by Flat Top Johnny's for a beer with the co-workers, that the sign which says "parking 7:30am-6:30pm" really means "parking until 6:30pm, at which time the lot is locked behind a chain-link gate and big heavy chains." So I called my parents and got them to pick me up in Lexington -- an extra four miles or so of riding. Then the next day I rode from our house all the way to Arlington to pick up the car.

Mileage this week:

Tuesday	6.0	6.0
Wednesday	8.5	8.5
Thursday	8.5	12.0
Friday	20.8	5.5
Total	43.8	32.0	75.8

I seem to have found the limit of how much biking I can comfortably do in a week -- I'm still nursing my sore muscles. The funny thing is that I'm not accustomed to thinking of any of these days as a really long day of riding, and I've ridden 65 miles in a day before. Apparently when you're doing it every day it really does build up.

Comments

[gopower.livejournal.com]

Hi. Found your LJ through IHN. I recently started (well, today) biking to work. If it works out, it'd be a 14-mile or so round trip 2-3 days a week. My bike is cheap, but sufficient. I was thinking of upgrading the saddle though. Any suggestions? Thanks.

[qwrrty.livejournal.com]

Hi there! (What's IHN?) Sounds like a nice ride... I'm trying to find a nice consistent route between 15 and 20 miles a day myself.

My experience with saddles has been that the adjustment of the saddle matters much more than the saddle itself. My current bike has a plain old, boring generic leather saddle on it but I'm generally pretty happy with the quality of the ride. The key is to make sure that both the height and the forward/rear angle of the saddle are adjusted just right. (What would you call that? Pitch? Yaw? I think pitch.)

Height: The usual rule of thumb is to adjust the height of the seat so that when you're on the downpedal, your leg is fully extended but your knee isn't locked.

Angle: This is really tricky because even a tiny change in angle either way can make a big difference in your comfort, and even just tightening the saddle bolts can make the angle slip. I think that newer seatposts and/or saddles have a much easier mechanism for fastening and adjusting the saddle, but I haven't tried them myself. For the older saddles like mine, you need a fair bit of patience to get the adjustment right, or take it to a shop and ask them to help you.

All that said, I've heard good things about the split saddles with a little groove running down the middle for your tender bits. And I know people who swear by Brooks saddles. (http://www.brookssaddles.com/) If I start to have problems with my saddle I may try one myself.

Good luck!

[keyne.livejournal.com]

Hi there! (What's IHN?)

Misreading of lhn, I think, given the friendslists?