sunday ride

cold morning. rode from ust to mall of asia (moa) and back. plenty of cyclists in moa. as in, plenty of cyclists. i tried a bigger gear most of the way and it burns. stop near the power station to drink. i really need to practice that drinking-water-while-riding-slow thing.

the ride back was pretty good but there's a headwind so the going is a little slow. the ride gets pretty dang cold with a cold headwind. but the sinus did go away though so that's a relief.

maybe next time i'll do a couple of rounds in moa instead of the "touch and go" thing i've been doing. its a great time to ride. temperatures are in the low 20s, air is a little dry.

pasko na.

blood work

i had some blood work done a couple of weeks ago and i just got the results today.

its mostly within normal levels except for my cholesterol - 232 (max range is 200), triglycerides - 185 (max range is 150) and ldl - 161 (max range is 150). my hdl is low - 34 (min range is 40).

i really should bike regularly now. i've started already every sunday mornings for two sundays now and i'm not pushing it yet because i feel like i'm restarting. later on i'll probably do more frequent rides.

i'm not really worried because i don't really eat fatty foods that often although i should cut down on the sweety stuff.

ugh.

riding and rain

in my case, those two doesn't mix well. i have a steel bike and its been raining. there's two "tropical cyclones" — if you will, that's flanking the country. screenshot came from pagasa.


i want to ride for a bit but can't.

so what do i do? work is always a good aternative. and then play around with what i can change with kikay (my bike).

the most immediate would be changing the brakes. my current ones have been loose mostly because of use and age. the brake set is as old as the frame so i'm looking at last year's ultegra as a replacement.

the other stuff that i thought of was upgrading the drivetrain from seven to 10 speed. yeah. late in the game and all. but the plan is to still use downtube shifters but in the 10-speed incarnation and just change the rear hub and derailleurs to 10-speed. this way, i bypass the weight penalties of sti.

or i could just replace the chain.

another is plan is to convert the thing to a fixie. but that's for another post. besides, i can't find any parts here in the pinas.

newton

i went to newton with lito today. bike shop. very nice bike shop. it has a lots of stuff that i like but cannot afford. ha! they sell colnagos. dura-ace downtube shifters and tools.

but no track stuff. the kind lady at the counter showed me the shimano 2008 catalog and its not there. but i did see plenty of goodies. so now, i have to do some research on the shimano part numbers of the track specific stuff that i may ask them to get for me. unless i can ask javaman to do it. 8D

there's also a very nice cannondale frame that's at 50% off:


because:

its off by 50%.

har har.

i have a lot to save up for. i'm not sure if that is bad. or good.

frames

i just saw this pic of a mountain bike frame. its full of holes! well, triangles, actually. but its apparently ridable and lighter than usual — 2.7 lbs for a standard hardtail. the bike is called arantix from delta 7 sports.

i'm trying to think of how heavy a roadie version would be...

full day

i've had a full day today.

kiara sunning after a bath

i biked around the neighborhood trying to get familiar with the surroundings. i encountered the corner of oroquieta and tayuman -- street names i remember hearing from my mom. i cleaned and waxed kikay (the bike) after a late breakfast. the cleaning included making the spokes a little shinier. har har. i also cleaned cherry's mountain bike. now its all shiny fuzzy all over. i even tested it around the yard. man those tires grip like crazy. also cleaned the turtle's bowl -- the water was turning green already. had a late lunch. gave the kiara (the cat) a much needed bath. she didn't like it of course but i only got one claw mark out of the whole encounter. now she's all white. that's her on the photo sunning herself in the afternoon sun.

kicked a little soccer in ust with robin and then went to mass.

the day's not finished yet.

dining table

the dining table. leaning on the wall is cherry's mountain bike.

two rides

last thursday, lito and i went out for a ride in his area. i had to stay the night before so that we can ride out early enough. robin tagged along since there are no more classes and he could play with his friends while lito and i were riding.

we headed off to tiendesitas and lito showed me his usual loop. all asphalt so the ride was pretty smooth. it rained a little so the temps were really nice and cool. the rain did make the roads a bit slippery. i don't mind. i was racking in the kilos.

good friday, cherry wanted to exercise so we headed off to the mall of asia early morning. she walked and i rode. again. i actually tried to catch a paceline but my speed and endurance wasn't there yet and i got dropped quickly.

but i was cycling. and that's good. i decided to just practice my spin until i got tired.

been riding

i know. no new stuff again.

well, there is. actually.

i've been out. riding. on my bicycle. meeting new people. having coffeee with friends. its been great so far. i'll write the stories down in a bit. its holy week and the summer vacation is here so i should have more time to write.

the craving

before when i tried to stop smoking, the craving was really bad. i caved in then. recently, i was going through this thread on bike forums on stopping smoking and what genericbikedude posted:

what worked for me was just a little awareness trick. try focusing all of your awareness on your feeling of the craving. look at it and pay attention to it, rather than looking at its effect on you (making you feel bad, anxious, etc).

if you can relly focus your attention on the craving, you'll find that there is really nothing there. and by the time you've relaxed your mind enough to make this work, the craving tends to pass anyway.

the same trick works for physical pain (but to a lesser degree!) and anything that causes anxiety.

makes sense to me than anything i've tried before.

notes and shoutouts

lito: dude, christy was asking when you'd drop by at the bike shop and get that chain replaced

jay: good to meet you bro and the best of luck tomorrow on getting in a team for the tour

eboy: nice sweet opera dude. opera — carbon/titanium road bike dressed in carbon records. caramba. glad to meet you.

kikay notes: jun mentioned that rey ranada was the one who brazed my bike and ave was the one who filed the lugs. even i get confused with the tidbits i get.

just a ride

yesterday, i went out to on the bike a bit. bad ride. i was concentrating too much on the spin, the pedal stroke, the frigging traffic, forgot my water, breathing too little. ugh.

today's ride was a lot better. i just rode. no agenda. no targets. to time constraints.

i just went out for a slow ride. i had time to look around the city, stop for a drink and observe the traffic and the people.

i also got to visit one of the cbike shops i frequent — christy's — and i got a second bottle cage and some story swapping with new friends.

traffic was bad going back home that i had to weave in traffic. it was fun but i didn't want to do it all the way home so on to the wide sidewalk of roxas. surprisingly there was very little people traffic.

got home tired but satisfied with my ride.

riding the bulls

last sunday's ride was my first real test on using the bullhorns. there was a little pain again on the palms near the thumbs at the start of the ride but it went away on the third of the ride. i am assuming its my hand position on the new bars.

i was used to holding on to the brake hoods when i had the drop bars and, compared to the width of the handles, the brake hoods were thicker and therefore more comfortable. so now i'm toying with the idea of thickening that part of the bullhorns which i use more often with bar tape to make it more comfy.

i also adjusted the horns a tiny bit more to point up and this made things a little more comfortable while i'm on the "wings". i still have to get used to that sloping part of the bars nearest the stem but they are, more or less, the same when i was using the drop bars.

one advantage i found out was that i have a better and stronger grip on the brake levers. this is good especially in those moments when you need to suddenly use the brakes

and, somehow, i find it easier to climb with the horns. i don't know why.

i have to ride some more...

sunday ride

this sunday was my first "long" ride in manila in a long while. the route was from mendiola - left to legarda - onto ayala bridge - ayala boulevard - across taft towards manila hotel - along roxas boulevard - passing the cultural center then right to world trade center and then left to macapagal then finally to the mall of asia. that's around five to six kilometers i think. i was riding with a friend of mine — lito.

when we got to the mall grounds there were already a large number of cyclists there. there was even a group that numbered around 200+ all gathered in one big bunch. must be a big ride. there's lots of bike traffic. wow. we went around a bit and i decided to rest. we still have to go back. lito went on to ride some more with a group that went around the mall.

the ride back was uneventful and we arrived home safely.

good ride for me. i had real good fun just riding — smiling while pedaling. rides seem to be easier when you ride with friends.

to cyclists who know the area, this would be considered a short ride but to a person going back to cycling from a long lay off, its a long ride. my target was just to get to the cultural center, have some coffee, ride back and i'd be happy. i went beyond that target.

and i want to ride some more.

kikay the bull

i got time a couple of days ago to switch from the drop handlebars to bullhorns. i didn't want to spend for new bar tape so i just used the old one. the only glitch in the switch was that i had to replace the rear brake cable because it was too short.

so far she looks awesome (to me at least). remember beauty and the beholder.


i tried her out on a short ride and it was fun! i don't know if its because there's something new on my bike or the ride itself or the new position. i went from mediola to the national museum and back. my palms near the thumbs developed some slight pain but it was gone on my ride going back. just to be on the safe side, i tilted the horns up just a little.

oh, and half of ayala bridge was closed for repairs so traffic sucked bigtime.

suzue hubs

one of the bikes shops that i visit gave me this pair. sweet. they're oldies but unused. i think it even predates the suzue juniors or the basic. there was some binding when i turn the axles so i have to disassemble the thing and check the insides.

the pic was taken after i cleaned out the hubs of the old grease and repacked with new lithium grease. the bearings and the races were still intact. it just needed a bit of re-adjustment to take the binding out.

i did some measurements and it seems these things are pretty old. the over locknut distance of the front is 96 mm, the rear is 125 mm (114 without the axle spacer).

they're not really fixed gear hubs but i got them free so i can't really complain. i'm not sure i'm comfortable about putting a fixed gear sprocket there. let's see.

strike one off the list, i think.

bullhorns

i got these profile horns over the weekend from christy's. its cheap at 300 pesos (around us$ 6). i'm not even sure if its 2nd hand because there's no nicks or dings or scratches. i think its a good buy.

and since i was there already i had my wheelset double checked by jun — the bike mech i've known for about 10 years already. he's pretty good at it too.

so scratch one off the list. and i'm a happy cat. i'm even thinking of swapping my drops for this thing. but not yet.

more hunting then...

btw, i dropped by one of the nearby lbs and i saw a pair of suzue hubs for 350 pesos. they're high flanged and they looked used because there's no shine in them. i'll investigate further when i get some extra cash.

bullhorn measurements: 26.0 / 400. i'm not sure how much the drop is.

first ride

after i trued off the wobble in my rear wheel, i rode for a few kilos today in manila. this is something i haven't done in several years and it felt good.

the streets are a little more crowded with cars and jeeps than i remember but it was still manageable. there are certainly more bikes these days which i think is pretty good.

i'll try to ride longer within the week. i want to drop by jun at christy's to have my wheels double checked. my truing skills are rusty.

measurements (kikay)

list of measurements that would be good to know (for my reference):

frame:
top tube: 52 mm center to center
seat tube: 49 mm center to center
bottom bracket length: 68 mm
fork spacing: 100 mm
rear dropout spacing: 130 mm

seat post: 26.6 mm (weird; today's standard is 27.2)
stem: 26 mm
stem length: 110 mm center to center
handlebar: 42 mm (it says 52 - 42. i don't know what the 52 is)
crank length: 170 mm

did i forget anything else?

project fixie: the list

and now, here's the begging list:

1. road frame
2. fixedgear hubs/flip-flops
3. 700c rims (*)
4. pedals (?)
5. headset
6. bottom bracket (?)
7. cranks (?)
8. seatpost
9. saddle
10. front brake caliper
11. front brake lever
12. handlebar
13. did i forget anything else?

if you'd like to donate a used item that on the list to this project, send me mail. i'll try make it worth your while.

notes:
2007.02.20: i got a set of suzue freewheel hubs for free. not a fixed gear hub but they're free.
2007.02.13: got the handlebar already last sunday — black profile bullhorns. nice.
2007.02.04: it took me a couple of hours searching but i couldn't find the items with a question mark. they must be in another storage area which i haven't look yet. but i did find a saddle that looks like a flite but isn't and an extra ultegra 53t chainring.
(*) i have two araya 27" rims — one has a big taco and the other one has a tiny little taco. i'm not sure if the first one can still be fixed but i think the second one still has a life. i have to check with the lbs.
(?) i know i have these but i have to hunt them down in the house in san pablo.

i like: (or something similar)