Rode the bike yesterday

 Had taken a bit of a break over wet season due to the rains, but rode the bike to work yesterday - last time I rode to work was 12 December. A slump of 64 days, or just over two months. Admittedly the rains shouldn't be too much of an issue as it's always warm here, but I was slack and didn't want to be riding around soaking wet.

All things considered, didn't do too bad: 49 minutes to ride there, 59 minutes to ride home in the afternoon. Though I did do a few PoGo stops on the way back. Getting a sub-50 minute ride there in the morning was pretty good, for not having ridden in two months.

I had planned to ride tomorrow but I don't think I will. We had a semi-decent workout this morning which wouldn't have been an issue but I was stopped early and didn't get a chance to cool down and stretch. I know me - I'll be sore in the morning!

Aaaandd... first flat tyre

 Got back to the bike after work getting ready to go home and found the front tyre was flat.

   -_-

Rather than pulling the wheel apart straight away, I figured I'd have a go at just pumping some air into it. If it was a small hole with a slow leak, then I might be able to just ride home. Or ride part way, pump some more air in, ride some more, repeat as needed. Fortunately I made it home using this method without needing to pull the wheel apart - which was nice because it was raining, and I don't think the patches will hold if the rubber is wet when applied.

This reinforces my idea that part of the repair kit needs to be a spare tube. Flat tyre? Swap out the tube, pump it up, patch the tube with the hole at home where it's easier and can get a better seal.

I know I've read about loads of riders who totally hate the slime, but I haven't seen too many giving the reasons why. The most common ones I've seen are that it can make a mess if it gets out of the tube (such as when doing larger repairs), it makes a patch not stick when you get a puncture larger than the slime can handle and it gums up the valve so you can't get air in.

The first two are easily solved with the spare tube, the last one may be fixable or may also just be a new tube solution. Either way, at the moment I'll keep using the slime as it seemed to work great on the old bike and see how it goes.

But not planning on going over to tubeless tyres. I prefer a tube that can be easily patched or swapped out.

It's holding

 Rode to work and back today on the fixed flat. I swear it feels like the pressure is lower and gives more rolling resistance, but pressure gauge says it's holding. And I'm sure if it had a leak, I couldn't have done two 16km rides (there and back) without it getting noticeably low.

So I'm going to declare success and say it's holding. In my bag of tricks I'm now carrying a spare tube, so if I do get a flat on the way to / from work I can just swap out the whole tube and worry about repairing the one with the puncture when I'm at home.

In other non-bike news (it seems like all my posts recently have been about the bike) pretty much all my other hobbies are on hold. Not for any particular reason, but it seems like lately I haven't had any motivation to do any of my other creative outlets. It's like all I do when I get home or have some time off is sit and stare at my phone. Very not happy about that, almost getting to the point where I want to install some type of parental control app to reduce the amount of screen time I have. Or at least quantify it so I can have some hard numbers. Though "too much" should be all the data I need.

First flat

 So I didn't ride in the last few days and I was walking past my bike in the shed, checked the wheels as I walked past and the front tyre was flat.

Dang!

No biggie, at home, so a good chance to see if I can change a tyre on the side of the road if I need to!

The good news is that I can change a tyre with the simple tools that I carry, and the bike pump I've got can put enough pressure in there to get me home. So if this happens on the ride to/from work, it won't totally stop me. Took just under 30 minutes to do the change, though if I was really smart, I'd just carry a spare tube and patch the holy one at home.

Edit: turns out the patch was no good. An hour later and the tyre was dead flat again. I think I know where I may have gone wrong, so I'll have another go at it.

Edit Monday morning: second attempt was still holding pressure in the morning, yes! I'll pull out the compressor this arvo and put it to full pressure.

Another big improvement

 Still going on about the bike riding!

So, on the weekend I was able to do some more modifications on the bike. I replaced the tyres (and tubes) which were ... I have no idea how old. At least ten, possibly up to fifteen years old I think. Old and cracked rubber, the sides were breaking and I could see the reinforcement starting to poke through. Definitely on the way out, and the last thing I'd want is a tyre bursting on the way to work. A puncture I could fix, a failed tyre would be impossible. The original tubes seemed ok, so I'll hang on to those as emergency backups.

I also picked up a new (to me, got it from a second hand shop) bike seat post that was longer, so now I have the seat up a lot higher. Now I can actually extend my leg when pedaling! Much less stress on the knees, able to put much more power down and able to use higher gears. Instantly noticeable difference.

My first ride was about 1 hour 10 minutes each way (or so), my old best time was 55 minutes or so, today's ride was 44 minutes (and a few seconds). A ten minute improvement! Not sure how much of that was attributable to the tyres and how much to raising the seat, but it's good to see improvements.

New "personal best"

Ride in to work today, time was 59 minutes flat. Nice improvement over last weeks 1 hour 7 seconds....

But, today I "cheated" and had my id ready. All my previous rides I'd had it in my bag, as it gave me an excuse to stop and get off the bike, rummage around in my bag and fish it out. Then drink some water as well. To me it felt like I was stopping from 2 up to 5 minutes there - something I didn't need to do on the way out which gave my rides home a few minutes bonus.

This morning I prepped and put my id in my pocket instead, so as I approached I was able to pull it out and was waved through almost without stopping. Assuming that was the only difference between my last ride and this morning, I saved 67 seconds by having it ready. Guess the pause just felt longer when I'd stop to rest.

I think it'll be a while before I beat 59 minutes, but it's good that I'm now under an hour. And already shaved 15 minutes off my first ride!

New personal best

 Nice! Rode to work again today (didn't yesterday) and managed to get there in one hour and seven seconds. I thought it would take me longer to get my times down.

First day's ride was 1h11m / 1h/18m, second day was 1h14m both ways. So from an average of 1h14m down to a hair over an hour, that's a big improvement! I had made it a goal to get my time down under an hour, but didn't think I'd be able to do it this soon! Pretty sure the alterations I've been making to the bike helped - still want to get the seat higher.

The ride home was a bit slower - 1h8m. But that's a Friday afternoon in the heat with the extra traffic plus some extra humidity due to the afternoon rains we'd had.

The padding, it did nah-thing!

So, I rode to work and back yesterday and again today. Covered 63km in two days - not too bad for an old codger who hasn't done a bike ride longer than a few km since I was in my 20's!

However, I made a pretty big mistake yesterday setting up the bike - I didn't test!

I put the new seat on with the taller post, added an old t-short for padding and oiled the chain and gears. The bike ran better, the increased height helped but needed to be higher. Biggest issue? The new seat is smaller, narrower and worst of all - made of a harder compound than the original! I didn't realise because I didn't test yesterday, but I realised my mistake before I even reached the end of our driveway - and it's a short driveway! The t-shirt basically did nothing for me.

Rode in to work, scrounged around afterwards for anything else I could use for padding and wrapped it on with tape. It didn't help much, but was a slight improvement for the ride home.

Interestingly, my time kind of improved. Yesterday the ride there was 1 hour 11 minutes in the morning, then 1 hour 18 minutes on the way home (hotter, more humid and more traffic to deal with). Plus there is one nice long downhill stretch on the way to work, which translates into a horrible uphill stretch on the way home - so a longer time on the return journey is expected. The interesting part is today my time was 1 hour 14 minutes there (bit longer, with the harder and more uncomfortable seat, plus the wear on the body from not recovering from the previous day's ride) but my time home was also 1 hour 14 minutes. Which means that after three previous rides I was able to shave four minutes off my return journey, even with the uncomfortable seat.

After I got home I did another swap - kept the new taller post (and increased the height again), put the original wider seat back on and added two layers of foam padding, with a layer of plastic to try and keep the sweat off and help the foam last a bit longer. This time I took it for a test ride after completing the adjustments and it feels a lot better.

Not "good", but better. Might need to look into gel padded seats or something in the future, depending on what is available in my budget range. Tomorrow morning's ride should be enlightening. Is the new padding sufficient, or is it still too hard?

Ride to work!

First time riding the bicycle to work today. Just under 32km round trip, and was quite hot in the afternoon on the ride home.

Sore. Very, very sore - especially the knees. Bike wasn't set up properly, had the seat as high as it would go but was still only half knee extensions. So it was putting a lot of stress on there, especially on the uphill stretches.

Made some modifications after I got home, including swapping the seat out for one from another bike with a longer metal support so now I can get my legs almost to fully straight when pedaling. Should help with the knees. Also added a bit of padding to the seat by way of an old t-shirt taped on. I don't think it'll be adequate, but better than the cheap plastic seat that's on there, which should help with my butt.

Going to ride to work again tomorrow. I must be  masochist...

Tomorrow is going to hurt

 Short version: car is in at the mechanic's for a while getting repaired, the few people I have that I can bum lifts off to work and back are all busy on other schedules or at other locations and I won't have a way to get to work.

Bike it is! It's actually been a while since I rode a bike at all, and many years since I've done a long ride... so it'll be interesting.

Weekends' work

Over the weekend I (finally) got around to servicing our bicycles. The important ones are good to go but my one is pretty much just good for parts now.

Took the pink one out for a ride this arvo, was good to do some exercise. Got a bit of numb bum now though.

Definitely rides better now that I've adjusted the seat and put more air in the tyres. Still need to adjust the gears a bit, they're a bit off.

Just a tad cheaper than fixing a car up...