May flowers... and bike rides

[north woods gal]

Thanks. Will play around with the handlebar position.

Always amazes me how you can so often ride over a ton of junk and not get a flat and then just the smallest thing gives you one. Very rare to get puncture flats due to road debris in our area, thanks to low traffic and folks not littering, much. Also, no nasty thorns in our area, which were a nightmare when I lived in the plains states.

My biggest danger of getting a flat on one of the MTBs or fat bikes is a pinch flat from going too low on the tire pressure and the tube getting pinched between the rim and tire. That usually means a new inner tube, because the inner tube tear is spread out over a large area and the puncture hard to locate. Only had one, this winter, because I dropped the pressure way low, down to the recommended minimum, while the fat bike was in our warm house, then headed out into the frigid cold. That change of temp from toasty warm to zero cold was just enough to drop the pressure even more and half hour, later, got the flat. In the winter, I now only check and adjust pressure when the tires have been out in the cold long enough for the pressure to stabilize to the cold. Just a reminder for anyone else nutty enough to ride in serious cold.

[ny biker]

Thanks. Will play around with the handlebar position.

Always amazes me how you can so often ride over a ton of junk and not get a flat and then just the smallest thing gives you one. Very rare to get puncture flats due to road debris in our area, thanks to low traffic and folks not littering, much. Also, no nasty thorns in our area, which were a nightmare when I lived in the plains states.

My biggest danger of getting a flat on one of the MTBs or fat bikes is a pinch flat from going too low on the tire pressure and the tube getting pinched between the rim and tire. That usually means a new inner tube, because the inner tube tear is spread out over a large area and the puncture hard to locate. Only had one, this winter, because I dropped the pressure way low, down to the recommended minimum, while the fat bike was in our warm house, then headed out into the frigid cold. That change of temp from toasty warm to zero cold was just enough to drop the pressure even more and half hour, later, got the flat. In the winter, I now only check and adjust pressure when the tires have been out in the cold long enough for the pressure to stabilize to the cold. Just a reminder for anyone else nutty enough to ride in serious cold.

I seriously doubt I'll ever ride in those really cold temps, but you raise a point that I had not thought of. I typically top off my tires outside because most of my bike rides don't start at home so I keep my frame pump in the car. For my car tires, a drop in temp from the 60s or 70s down to the 40s will lower the psi significantly and cause a noticeable drop in mpg. So I suspect that if I pumped up my bicycle tires inside my 70 degree home and then went out to ride in 40-degree temps, there could be a noticeable drop in psi, though not necessarily enough to cause pinch flats.

Of course there won't be a chance to find out any time soon -- we're expecting a heat wave for the next few days, temps in the 90s and humid.

[north woods gal]

90s? OMG. Highs in the 50s for us, later in the week.

Pinch flats become a possibility when you play with pressures down around the minimum recommend psi for the tire, which is often the case with mountain bikes and fat bikes to improve traction and so on. That temp related change in pressure for road bikes is more likely going to just change performance of the tire, but on a long ride, that can be significant.

Interesting point, though. What kind of pressures does everyone run on their road tires? I'm usually between 80 and 100% recommended pressure on my road bike tires. On my MTBs and fat bikes, unless I'm heading out for some pavement work, I'm usually somewhere between minimum and 60%. For instance, on my fat bikes with their 26x4 or 4.8 tires, the recommended pressure range is only 5 to 15 psi and I never run more than 12 psi and, then, only for pavement work. My trail riding is usually between 5 and 11 psi. If I go too high on the tire pressure with fat bikes for trail work, I start to get a lot of bike bounce on rough trails and lose some control. Too low and I also lose some steering control, i.e., the bike is too slow to respond. Only 2 psi on a fat bike tire can make a world of difference.

[Crankin]

I used to pump my tires to 120 psi, in the hopes of preventing flats. Now that I've had Gatorskins for 3 yrs., DH has convinced me to lower that. I keep it at 110, although he keeps telling me to go down to 100.
Did a small ride this morning, as my group was riding out of Kittery, Maine and I have stuff to do. 15 miles, in Acton and back to West Concord. I was miserable the whole time, not just from my back. But, I did it and feel good now. It's going to be hot here, too, 80s later today and over 90 tomorrow. I will be riding to the gym at 5:15 am tomorrow, do my class, and ride home, a total of 2 miles. Thankfully the ride we are leading is next Thursday and not tomorrow!
Back to western MA to do some riding with our friends this weekend.

[ny biker]

I think I pump my tires to 100 psi. Or maybe it's 110, I'll have to look at my pump. (I always just pump them up until the needle on the gauge points to a certain number but am forgetting right now what that number is.) I think tire pressure is one of those topics that people don't agree on. There are those 2 or 3 friends who send you articles where someone compared different tires at different psi and found that you're supposed to run really low pressures, and that you're supposed to determine the weight on each tire with the bike fully loaded and you on it to determine your optimal pressure. These articles always make my eyes glaze over and frankly they seem hard to follow since each tire they measure is different. I did lower my psi from 120 down to whatever it is now but when I tried going lower I felt that I was a bit slower. If I'm riding in the rain I will lower the pressure by about 10 psi for better grip.

So that's for the road bike. For the mountain bike, I generally inflate the tires to the max psi marked on it if I expect to be riding on pavement, lower if I'll be on dirt. I once rode it on a combination of paved trail and unpaved bridle path next to the trail and found myself bouncing and struggling to maintain control on the unpaved part, because the tires were close to the max psi.

Meanwhile, still no bike rides for me. The weird lump in front of the sit bone is smaller than it was after my last ride but still not gone. I'll be traveling this weekend so won't be riding anyway. But I'm not sure if I should see a doctor about it. I'm spending so much time and money dealing with the ankle tendonitis and I really don't want to spend more on a doctor for this problem. I just want it to go away on its own. There is no pain, it's just a lump that gets larger if I ride my bike.

p.s. re: in addition to the crazy hot weather, we're also seeing cicadas that have come out three years ahead of schedule. I think maybe it's the apocalypse...

[north woods gal]

NY, if the lump is going down, I'd do a wait and see, but hold off on more riding in the meantime. Going to the doctor, even for routine checks, is on my list of most hated things to do.

We had a rare tornado over in the northwest part of Wisconsin, last night, and it killed one person and injured others. No tornadoes for us, over here in the northeast part of the state, but lots of T storms and rain and much more on the way. My trails are getting mushy, but are still ridable. My goal is to spend an hour, every day, on trail work and add in some road work when I can. Doing both seems to keep me in the best overall condition.

[ny biker]

Earlier today I read that it was 95 in Boston, hotter than in DC. Yesterday I thought it was odd that I was seeing lots of dead cicadas but not hearing any live ones; this morning I could hear them. Anyway despite being beaten by Boston, we had another hot humid day today.

I spent 35 minutes riding the recumbent stationary bike at the gym last night. Not the best workout but I did manage to work up a sweat. I forgot to bring a crossword puzzle to help pass the time but I did have the scarf I recently started to crochet, so I tried to work on that. And so I can report that it is possible to crochet while pedaling a bike, but it is more difficult than if you are sitting still -- I think I removed more stitches than I kept because they looked messy. The inexpensive acrylic yarn I'm using may have contributed to my problems, though. I need to find a good LYS (local yarn shop ).