... notariety!

Wow, unlike last week and the week before, these past few days have shaped up to be a bit more interesting than usual. The weather has become cloudy and dour, reminding me of the autumnal Septembers of my youth, back when the planet wasn't in quite as dramatic ecological decline.

Though the cozy colors of fall haven't yet shown themselves, I notice the weather turning cooler and the mornings becoming noticeably chillier... Hopefully we'll have a broader transition between oppressive heat and cutting cold this year than years past, though one can only hope. If we do get a gradient of weather that carries us predictably into winter, I've got at least a few more months that I can ride the Allez to and from work comfortably.

Riding through rain, sleet, or snow for months on end isn't something I'd really want to subject any mechanical device to, so naturally I've been flirting with the idea of buying a beater to get to and from work on and run errands in an effort to protect the road bike from less than ideal weather and temperatures. Since I'm not made of money like many cyclists are, I can't really afford anything that won't annoy the crap out of me without the replacement of a lot of parts, at which point I would honestly be better off just buying a built-up used frame from an LBS like BByB.

Fortunately for these apprehensions, I discovered a promotion by Specialized for their new brand Globe, which is geared (pun very much intended) toward urban commuters.


It seems that in an effort to generate grass-roots publicity, they're [loaning?] bikes to bloggers in exchange for being mentioned in posts a couple times per week. Of course, seeing as I now ride my bike seven days a week, that would be as easy as being a corrupt police official in New York.

You're supposed to post a link to your blog on their facebook page and show an interest in cycling to some degree which struck me as a deviously clever scheme to get "fans" of their company who have yet to actually try their product by cornering the facebooking crowd (thats basically everyone these days right?).

Anyway, seeing an opportunity to break into the time honored blogging tradition of reviewing stuff for companies, I of course became a fan of globe bikes and posted a link to here on their wall along with zillions of other bloggers and bloggers-to-be. Then this morning I logged in to facebook only to find that Globe bikes finds JSYNYC to be a "Cool blog."


They went on to say that they'll be making their decisions soon (if that was obscured by my excitement) and I do hope they let me review one of their new rides. Of course, I wonder which variety of "urban bike" (which for some reason translates into single-speed these days) they'll pair me with should they deem my posts conducive to their pandering.

Anyway, if they read this or not, I'll say right now that the free bike is going to be the default bad weather bike and the Allez will stay high and dry in the apartment. I'm sure they expect the bikes to come back with some amount of wear, because to properly understand the strengths and limitations of any product, one has to use the hell out of it. I think carting me to and from work on salty streets is about as much abuse as any bike could get, especially considering I ride hard enough to wear through a brand new chain in less than a year...

They might front me one of these dapper looking be-racked bikes which comprise the majority of their lineup:



I don't know if I'll be using it as beach furniture or for hauling casement windows, but I do have a very real need for added carrying capacity that will be much needed in coming months. However, I kind of hope to get one of the "Roll" bikes that appear to have a more aggresive frame geometry than the slow pedalers above, even though they're cheesily pre-fab single speeds.


It boasts a flip-flop hub for when you decide you're skilled enough to ride fixed, and white tires for added style. Also, I'm proud to announce that they offer this frame in "kiwi" which looks to be pretty darn close to the BADA55 'colorway' that I use to point things out or grade bike lanes on this blog. While I'm not one to be loud and outgoing about my clothing or accouterments, I think it would be magnificently ironic if I pedaled around on a garishly painted green bike as opposed to my usual black and white bike (oddly, they also offer the Roll in the ghost-bike 'colorway' as well, though that seems a little morbid to me).

Anyway, heres hoping I get a bike worth the trouble of twice a week saying "...so I rode the Globe in today..." And if you post semi-regularly, I encourage you to benefit from the marketing ploys of bike companies as well; one can never own too many bikes.

...YES!

I just had to re-post this late-breaking video of street justice in action.Judging by the surroundings, it looks like it went down somewhere in LES, a known stomping ground of messengers and the fixed scene in general... not people you really want to fuck with, to say the least.

Bike Thief vs Street Justis from triple on Vimeo.

Video via Prolly... thanks Prolly

While i generally deplore outright violence and vigilantism, I have to applaud these guys for standing up to a bike thief and teaching him a lesson. The NYPD pretty much doesn't give a damn about cyclist's rights, and as I've noted before, filing a 'police report' does more for insurance and proving your tardiness to your boss than it does justice.... At least not as effectively as a fist to the kisser and a stern warning, "DON'T STEAL BIKES!"

...SHIMANO!

Amid all the loud, annoying nonsense this weekend past, I staved off extreme boredom by buying more new shit!

I had noticed that my chain was wearing down after the daily abuse I put it through, so on Sunday I went and got a Shimano Hyperglide chain as a replacement for my previous stock one.


Again, after consulting the late Sheldon Brown, I came away with a deep understanding of the finer points of drive train maintenance and theory. One of the most profound statements I've ever heard regarding shift quality is that your derailleurs don't do the shifting, the chain does. At first this seems a little odd, because surely the sole function of a derailleur is to shift gears right?

If you think it through, what the derailleur does is move the chain so that it can shift gears by hopping up or down the cassette to an adjacent sprocket. Thusly, the chain is where all of the actual shifting of gears takes place, and verily, it is frequently the culprit of many of the discomforts of a well-used bicycle.

Taking this advice to heart, I bought and installed the highest-end chain available; which at a measly $45 is one of the best places to spend the extra buck on your bike. I immediately noticed a profound improvement in my shifting thanks to Shimano's latest technological advances.

Their brilliant engineers have developed a kind of chain that can shift very quietly and smoothly under full power, as opposed to having to let up a little on the pedals as in older drive train setups. In order to further facilitate smooth shifting, they also developed Hyperglide cassettes with oddly shaped sprockets that appear to be broken or missing teeth, though are carefully engineered to quietly accept the chain as it moves from sprocket to sprocket.

This is probably one of the most overlooked aspects of bicycles since chains are usually grease-covered pant-leg enemies, though many similarly discreet advancements have been made by Shimano and have since become standard fare in bike componentry.

Having read up on the curmudgeonly Campagnolo and their famed snootiness, I have developed quite a bit of respect for Shimano as a multi-national corporation. Most innovations in any technical field are introduced in the "top-down" manner, where the latest improvements are available only on the most ridiculously expensive components until they gain notoriety. These improvements then eventually trickle down to the lower end components that regular people like me can afford until they are proclaimed "industry standards".

Shimano worked in the opposite way for many many years, where they focused on using heavier and cheaper materials to focus on improving the basic functions of drivetrains. If the innovations caught on (and they did) they would bring it to their more finely crafted and expensive products to cater toward those concerned with outright performance.

Using this marketing strategy they've introduced and continue to manufacture the very best in modern cycling equipment such as Shimano Total Integration (STI) brake/shift levers, Shimano Pedaling Dynamics (SPD) clipless pedals, Shimano Linear Response (SLR) brakes, Freehubs, etc...

Basically everything that you take for granted while riding is thanks to Shimano and their egalitarian business practices.

Then again, some people like to paint themselves as 'purists', rejecting anything that dares challenge the good name of Campagnolo. Personally, however, I am a staunch Shimano customer and Campy parts are as welcome on my bike as Obama is in middle-American classrooms.


(Oh yeah, I just discovered that true-to-form, Campy is copying Shimano's new electronic shifting with their own version... way to innovate, huh?)

... oh the irony

So this is what the new Sands St. separated bike lane has been reduced to; a parking spot for cable repairmen. If you've ridden this luxurious route to or from the bridges, like me you will wonder how these guys thought it was ok to hop the 6" curb that's obviously meant to deter vehicular traffic from violating the bike route.

Whatever, it's ok they're just doing their job right?

Speaking of jobs, some of us have jobs that consume our lives; we derive a sense of worth and accomplishment from the daily struggles at the office and know that it's for the benefit of both ourselves and the companies we work for.

Then there are those of us whose jobs are pointless and trite, though because we could be worse off, we stick around to continue the flow of income to fund "real life" which happens on the weekends and evenings.

Even lower on the great career totem are people like me, who've somehow gotten stuck getting paid little more than unemployment insurance would provide, yet stick around in vain hopes of one day being financially or productively vindicated even though the boss has more pressing matters to attend to.

I suppose that if you stay in the latter two situations long enough, you start to define your life by other means as necessary for coping with the extreme inequity of your situation. I have started filling my time with cycling and blogging, for instance, and I feel slightly heartened to read that others derive pleasure from similar things as well.

NYC's best Woody Allen impersonator to-date fills his mornings, weekends, and evenings exploring the city's 600+ miles of bike lanes. Apparently he's recorded each bike lane he rides and for how long and far, and has just completed riding on every lane in the city, culminating with Chrystie St. recently.


Well, this utterly shames the Bike Lane Rideability Index with its comprehensiveness. Though I do hope to one day have ridden every bike lane as well, and document each one here for the benefit of all, I doubt I could do it in the befuddled and self-depricating manner of Mr. Kronenberg there.

Curiously, he rode all that way on a $120 department store mountain bike. I guess it goes to show that any bike is better than no bike.

Speaking of which, I've put a few miles on my 'poor-man's road bike'; my odometer just rolled over 1000mi on my commute in this morning. whopee.

...all about tires

As you may or may not know, I recently bought a new set of tires for my bicycle. I went to Ride Brooklyn for my purchase and was again quite satisfied with the level of service and selection there.

See, when I need to buy something bike related (which is surprisingly often), I sort of go on auto pilot on my evening commute, first trying Bicycle Habitat which I think suffers as the most widely known bike shop in the city. Every time I go there I have to wait around forever to learn that they don't have what I want, and this experience was no different. Not only did they not have the tires I was hoping to get, they didn't have a single matching set of 700x23's, which is pretty lame for such a big and supposedly "well-stocked" bike shop.

If I don't find what I'm looking for there (which is frequently) I'll stop by Toga in downtown and see what they've got. Though they usually have a broad inventory, I always get the feeling that I'm getting shafted a little when I go there. So often I just leave without buying anything, and see what Ride Brooklyn has.

As usual, they not only had the exact tires I was hoping to buy, but even the colorway that I wanted too! Ride Brooklyn is moving up in my book, I can tell you that. Here's a blurry shot of one of them in all its branded glory with my tired coworker in the background.


Maxxis Xeniths are foldable due to the nifty Kevlar® bead so getting them on the first time was a little weird. It was like wrapping a wheel with a broken slap-bracelet until I managed to pump it a little so the tube would encourage it to start taking shape. Though after getting them on and pumped up to around 125psi, I took a quick spin and what a difference they made!

Though it is possible that being brand-new tires, they highlighted the inadequacies of my previous set of Specialized Mondos which I wore down to nothing, after a few days of varied riding on the Xeniths, I can say confidently that they're simply better all around.

When it comes to bike stuff, the old mantra of "you get what you pay for" couldn't ring truer; and at $65 a pop, these bad boys are at the top end of racing clenchers, and it shows on the sidewall where in big white letters 'HORS CATEGORIE' is emblazoned. Perhaps it's just marketing mumbo-jumbo, but I like to imagine they allow me to climb faster on the numerous "beyond categorization" climbs we have here in the northeast.


So the reason I'm going on about tires today is because in researching which tires would be best for my riding style, I consulted the venerable Sheldon Brown and came away with a very thorough understanding of another common misconception people almost unanimously ascribe to.

You may have noticed that both of the sets of tires I referred to above have no tread pattern whatsoever, which may strike you as a slippery solution to old rubber. When I first got my bike, it came with treadless tires as well, and I was very cautious about cornering until I got familiar with the tire's limits, but still I doubted their effectiveness during less than ideal weather. "Surely bald tires have a propensity to hydroplane," I thought.

Thanks to bike-nerds who have the desire and know-how to figure things like this out for the rest of us; apparently it is nearly impossible for bicycle tires to hydroplane, even with no tread pattern! Sheldon spells it out most succinctly:

Bicycles canNOT hydroplane because:

1. A bicycle tire has a curved road contact. Since a bicycle leans in corners, it needs a tire with a rounded contact area, which tends to push the water away to either side.

2. A bicycle tire is narrower [-than a car tire], so not as much water is in contact with the leading edge at once.

3. The high pressure of bicycle tires is more efficient at squeezing the water out from under.

4. At high bicycle speeds, hydroplaning is just possible for car tires, but is absolutely impossible for bicycle tires.

It turns out that true hydroplaning is difficult even for cars, and is of greatest concern for airplanes landing on wet runways, so Sheldon then refers to a table calculated by "the aviation industry" which shows that a round-section tire running at 40psi (think mountain bikes and beach cruisers) would have to hit water at 55mph to initiate a hydroplane; at 100psi it would have to be travelling at over 100 mph; and at 120psi (a typical racing bike tire pressure) one would have to go nearly 115mph!

So for most cyclists in cities, a treaded tire is no more useful than the guards on the GWB. Further proof of this comes when you examine the road surface which you're riding on. The asphalt or concrete is riddled with little indentations that are bigger than typical tread patterns found on most road tires. Since the tire is flexible and bends over these bumps and dips anyway, the tread really serves no purpose whatsoever except to reduce the amount of rubber in contact with the road at any given time.

Though apparently tire companies have noticed people's apprehension toward treadless tires because of this assumption, and mold patterns into tires to increase sales despite knowing that they tend to eat away at performance.

Unlike the great helmet conspiracy, this trend is motivated by profit directly and is a curious example of how catering to the unsophisticated reduces quality and efficiency for others. Because people are scared of slipping and falling, so-called 'racing slicks' are branded as "Hors Categorie" or "Open PRO" (whatever that means) and subsequently a surcharge is added because you want what is deemed by the idiocy of others to be pro-level equipment.

Sometimes companies will even go so far as to sell mediocre products at grossly inflated prices thanks to these marketing shenanegans. The tires I just replaced, the Mondos, make a great example of this phenomena.

After riding on them for thousands of miles, I noticed that I kept thinking they were flat. I'd reach down and pinch my tires at every other red-light wondering why they felt so doughy. Understandably, this started to bug me and after doing a little research, I found that this is a common problem on Specialized's mid-range racing tires. Some have speculated that inferior rubber is used so they wear out fast and you either keep replacing them or spend the extra buck on their "pro level" tires.

Whatever the case may be, the bottom line is this, if you notice your tires when you're biking, one of three things could be wrong:

1. you don't have them inflated to high-enough pressure.
   
   
2. your tires aren't as expensive as they could be.
   
   or,
   
   
3. you're looking at them, which is dangerous.

Anyway, here's to my vain hopes that signage will one day be more accurate, as evidenced by this brutally honest bus stop ad...


...and less like this car that was photographed and forwarded by a friend: