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Grout Removal
Nothing much exciting to write about on the biking front lately. I was off work last week, and didn’t do much biking, but this week I’m back at it again. August has brought some slightly more pleasant weather so far, but still not much in the way of rain, other than the occasional torrential downpour. …
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Disabled List
2011 has been a bad year for me in the injury department. A couple of Saturdays ago, I messed up my ankle during a home improvement project (I should know better by now — it’s physically impossible for me to get through any home improvement project without some kind of injury. Maybe that’s why I’m…
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Today’s temperature: 60°F
OK.. Wishful thinking. This is summer in Maryland, so 60°C is probably more like it. But I keep a log of all my bike commutes, and as part of that, I always record the ride-time temperature. After this past Friday’s ride, my average ride-time temperature topped 60°F for the first time in 2011. It seems…
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Planet Bike FTW
Well, it happened. I rode my fender-less road bike to work today, and now it’s raining. So much for my theory that “30% chance of storms after 3:00” means it isn’t going to rain near Baltimore until evening. I have a set of Planet Bike “SpeedEZ” fenders for this bike, because full fenders don’t really…
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8000 Miles
I hit 8000 miles on my road bike at the beginning of yesterday afternoon’s ride. I was coasting down through the UMBC campus in the 92-degree heat, on my way to Poplar Ave. That’s part of my usual strategy for beating the heat on hot summer afternoons. The two keys are: take it easy, and…
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Maryland Summer
Well, it took 6 months, but I finally picked up a ride on 2010. Today marks my 16th ride of June, compared with 15 last June. Looks like I’ll finish up June with 17, as I plan to ride tomorrow, and I’m off on Wednesday the 30th. July is relatively low-hanging fruit too; I rode…
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Nearing the halfway point
Getting close to the end of June, and the midpoint of 2011. I’m on pace to finish June up with 75 or 76 rides, which is around 10 fewer than the same time last year. Most of those rides were lost in February and March, for which my crash on Feb 8 is partially to…
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Summer Showers
Finally got my single speed bike back in service this morning, just in time to ride it to work in the rain. This is the time of year where you almost hope for showers to provide relief from the humidity. Indeed, the ran stopped about halfway through my ride, and I started sweating almost immediately. …
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Beautiful Morning
There are so few nice mornings this time of year in Baltimore, that I couldn’t let this one get by without writing about it. This morning’s ride-time temperature was 62°, dewpoint 51°, sunny with a light breeze out of the northwest. I wore a long-sleeve jersey for the second morning in a row, which is…
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Code Orange
Well, just like last summer, this one looks to be nothing but bad air days as far as the eye can see. And of course, on these days we’re all supposed to stay inside or drive around in our air conditioned cars, thereby creating MORE smog and continuing the downward spiral. And in beautiful eastern…