Dave Dash

Another bike bites the dust

2009-03-22T00:00:00-07:00

Bauer Transit, a local corporate shuttle service, has commuters attach their bikes to racks on the rear of their busses.

This always alarmed me because it increased the danger factor of attaching and detaching your bicycle. The straps were always precariously worn down. This Wednesday the 18th, however, the straps were just fine. I ride the shuttle a few miles from downtown Mountain View to the Mission College Yahoo! Campus. Unfortunately this Wednesday my bike was not there when we arrived.

The driver had missed an exit and we must have clover-leafed quite a bit. I kept looking out the window and not recognizing the familiar things that dot Highway 101. Amidst this maneuvering and correcting turns, the securely fastened straps must have loosened.

The bike racks are similar to ones that you would install on a trailer hitch. Normally they are fine, and you can strap them down, and of course you are keeping an eye on them. On a corporate shuttle there is no way to see the bike unless you use a video camera - whose screen was not turned on.

When we arrived to Mission College, I no longer had a bike. I did the math, about $1100 went into that bike, and that's not a high end bike by any means - it's just my ride to work.

The driver graciously offered to look for the bike, and an hour later he brought it to me, after it had been run over. It suffered very little damage that I could tell, but upon further inspection by a local bike shop, the frame was as the shop owner said, "totalled."

I hate spending money as it is - and I hate it when my trust gets violated. I've told Bauer and Yahoo! that our shuttle racks are unsafe and should be replaced with front-racks as you would find on busses. I always received "no" as an answer.

I put together a list of all the non salvageable items and will see if I can get Bauer to cover my costs (even the brand new 8-speed hub I added, was not worth salvaging :( ). Then there's the bike-attachment issues. I really like my bike - the way people really like their cars. I've had this for two and a half years, and I've liked it since.

In the mean time, I'm looking for a new bike. Looking at Dahon's folding bikes. They seem to match my commuting needs. I think I can get a Vitesse D7HG for a fraction of what I put into my Breezer. The cost still hurts - bankrupt economy or not.

Update: Bauer gave me a check on April 28th, after I made a request a month back and following up with the workplace team at Yahoo! I used this money to help purchase a Bike Friday Season Tikit.

Flat means you're walking home ;)

2007-05-11T00:00:00-07:00

[tags]flat, biking[/tags]

I used to/still have a cavalier attitude toward flats. I figured when/if I get one, I'll lockup and bus home, or walk.

Yesterday, in 80+ degree heat, I chose walk... I went a mile to the Dunn Bros coffee shop cooled down and went a mile to get home.

Despite better judgement I fixed my flat when I got home in my very warm garage. With the right tools fixing a flat is easy, but the pouch I carry... is missing a lot... namely a wrench to undo the wheels and a pump.

Here's a tip for flats:

Place the nipple for your tube in the middle of the "INFLATE TO x-y PSI" this can be a frame of reference to find out where your tire was penetrated. Once I found the leak on the tube (conveniently on the opposite side of the tube from the nipple), I found on my tire some tiny orange glass or plastic that had sliced into my tire.

We'll see how well my patching is. Time to buy me a wrench and a pump ;)

Biking Shoes

2006-08-09T00:00:00-07:00

I think I now have more shoes than my wife. I just bought some Shimano's biking shoes, bringing my total pairs of shoes up to 7:

Nunn Bush Dress Shoes: These are the shoes my brother suggested I get as dress shoes. They are dressy, but they are also comfortable for walking. I've had them forever, and wear them the least.
Black shoes with some red: These were some laceless shoes that I used to wear regularly. Now they are dirty and I use them for working around the house.
Semi-casual black shoes with zippers: These shoes are/were my daily work shoes. They aren't dress shoes, but they are black so they work for going to the office.
AVIA tennis/running shoes: These are an inexpensive pair of shoes I bought last year, when I wanted something sportier than my zipper shoes. They've been real nice for biking (using toe-clips), and I liked wearing them around the office.
Brown sandals from India: These are the sandals I wore at my engagement ceremony and wedding and now they are my lounging shoes.
Even dressier shoes: These were another cheap pair from India (actually the sandals were somewhat expensive). I got them because they were cheap. I plan on leaving these at my office.
My Shimano SH-MT20 shoes: I took the plunge and bought some Shimano shoes and clip-less pedals.

No, I'm not a shoe-junkie. I really just need the pair of shoes that I can use for working around the house, the biking shoes, and the dress shoes. But now I have a whole bucket of choices for a while. I might store some of them for a while.

New Breezer

2006-08-04T00:00:00-07:00

I picked up my new bike Wednesday night from Jim at Hiawatha Cyclery courtesy of my friend Jason dropping me off at the shop. Well, I'm glad I have a commuter worthy bike. Between the time my bike got stolen and today, I had 100 excuses not to ride, 100 reasons to be somewhere, and a 100 bikes on hand to use or borrow. What I really wanted was my Trek, and I was hurting pretty bad. I think this Breezer will fill the role nicely.

Most people I know, don't bike as much as I do - or rather, don't bike as their primary means of transportation. Here's what I had at my disposal. Included were reasons I didn't want to ride them:

Huffy Mt. Bike: This was set for winter mode, and I really didn't want to ride a mountain bike around town in the summer... not one that's so heavy.
Huffy Beach Cruiser: Had to install a bike rack so it was commuter worthy. Can't really bike to work without a rack.
Katie's Bike: I rode it once into work. It's setup properly, but the dimensions aren't for me.
Coworker's Specialized Road Bike: Felt too expensive... I'm not used to road-bikes. Not a commuting bike, etc, etc.
Cannondale F400: This is a pretty sweet, light mountain bike that my brother found. It's small, it's a woman's bike, it's not set for commuting and needed a lot of work. But it was an interesting find. Might turn that into a hybrid for Katie if I can figure it out.

I'm sure there were more offers, but most people don't have commuting bikes. They either have mountain bikes, or road bikes, but nothing well suited for commuting, even though a lot of bikes get repurposed for just that. So it's no wonder why I'm the first person to pick up the nerdy looking Breezer from Hiawatha Cyclery.

Sure, it's the nerdy bike. It's really good at what it does, but it doesn't look fast or zippy, but it looks smart. It's bright green (not Midnight Blue like I had wanted, but not bad either), has all the bells and whistles to dorken it up: rack, fenders, bell, generator-lights. It's a 3-speed internal shifter. And it's begging for some new toys (since all my old ones were stolen with my bike).

Since Jason dropped me off, I had 7 miles to cruise through town through Minnehaha Parkway. I was dressed up slightly, but no need to worry, this bike had a chain guard. Jim gave me directions to the Parkway as well as a complimentary water bottle and cage to keep me hydrated (or at least give me the option of hydrating myself). It's an excellent place to try out a new bike with plenty of hills and curvy roads.

My first adjustment which was immediate was the 3-speed internal shifter. I immediately felt like I could graduate to 7-speeds if I had the money, but at the same time, there's a comfort in having only three choices: low going up hill; medium on flat surfaces; and high going down hill. Took some getting used to the grip shifter (I kept wanting the gears to shift backwards). The toughest part with three speeds is some hills could have used a lower gear, the higher gear could have been higher, but I made do. I think I'll be fine with this though. Especially for in town errands. I'll also have to get used to a diamond frame. My Trek had a downward sloping top-tube that made stoplights pretty easy.

I need to get used to the bell, it's something I know I should have, but never got. Now I have it, so I can finally use it. I hate having to alert people to my presence. I really like the ring lock that locks the back wheel. So many days do I pull my bike out, and realize, crap, I need to get something from the house before I leave. Now I can easily free lock it.

As for the toys, I'm really excited that Performance Bike is having it's double points weekend. I plan to score a grocery pannier, some tool packs, tools, and maybe a bike computer for new ride. I still have a gift certificate for the store too, so I'm in luck.

Before I start going on adventures, time to record the serial number and keep it safe (and probably leave the numbers with Jim).

My bike was stolen

2006-07-17T00:00:00-07:00

Details are on Metroblogging

I am a threat to my own security.

1998-12-08T00:00:00-08:00

Fort Max - poking into God's territory for over 100 years.

I want to see Patch Adams this weekend. I just might do that. I also want to see Star Trek: Insurrection. I think I want a gun. A ray gun...

Cool Info is moving to pair networks. I will be working on a news article entry system that mimics what I use right now. I'll work on it over break.

I use my workstation as a development machine for my web pages via Front Page and the Personal Web Server. The root page used to be an old web site that I had for Fort Max that I only developed on my computer and uploaded to the Internet. It was very corporate sounding, back when I cared about that stuff for ftmax.com. It never occuured to me that if CCSO did a scan of my computer, they would notice that my workstation is the host of a corporate web site. Here is some mail:

Date: Sun, 6 Dec 1998 08:48:01 -0600 (CST)
From: CCSO Security 
Reply-To: security@uiuc.edu
To: davedash@uiuc.edu
Subject: dorm room connection

I have noticed that the machine 130.126.72.54 has a web page for a commercial
entity. This is strictly in violation of university policy and state law.

If this page is not removed immediately, your network connection will be 
disabled and student discipline charges filed.

-- 

 [      Security Officer                |       CCSO/University of Illinois   ]
 [      security@uiuc.edu               |       1304 West Springfield         ]
 [      (217) 265-0000                  |       Urbana, Illinois   61801      ]

Don't bother entering that address, there's nothing there, since I deleted the site (it was a dated one that I never used) and locked it. It's so strange some of the things that I take for granted can be stripped away so fast.

I finished reading Xenocide. Very Deux Ex Machina, I've heard bad things about Children of the Mind as well. I can imagine why. I will, however, finish reading the series as I am curious as to what Mr. Card is trying to achieve. I did like the book. I read at least over 100 pages on one day.

The Onion will have an MTV Christmas Special supposedly. This should be interesting, hopefully someone will record this for me. It's funny, Onion is one of the better sources of humour, we need more things like that on TV. Canadian TV has funny stuff that crosses the line, as does British TV. It's in our best interest to mimic these, instead of remaining prudish about our humour. Damn you America for spawning crap like SNL and MAD TV.

Since I have no original ideas, here's my Christ Day wish list:

Sony Netman or Diamond Rio PMP300
PCS Cellular phone with cellular service for one year (so next year someone else can get me a year of service)
IBM Laptop SCSI whatever you can or a DELL Inspirion must have DVD support
SGI 1600SW with Number Nine card
SONY DCR-PC10
Soundblaster Live
UMAX PowerLook 3000
Lego Mindworks
Something with a pretty LCD screen that goes on my computer.
A ray gun.

That's my Christmas want list. It's unlikely that I'd ever get any of these (for Christmas this year) since most things are in the $1000+ range. I will however go for the laptop this summer (with DVD support) if you people fail to appease me. If you do get me an LCD toy, it better be pretty. None of that stupid LCD stuff.

I ate at Burger King yesterday. It was very good after a disconcerting school dinner. I shall eat out more often. I will try to avoid Burger King for a while. Their sandwhiches are good, but they are the kind that make you not want to eat their for a few months.

InSoc - we make life easier

1998-12-05T00:00:00-08:00

"They're after me!"

I read more of Insoc.org. The guy is really really cool. His music is awesome. He's good at the computer stuff he does. His propaganda is hillarious. I also agree with his opinions on drugs. I wish more musicians were this cool.

So I was reading this astrological reading...

VIRGO (Aug. 24-Sept. 23): If you want something enough you will eventually get it. Your heart tells you that is true even if your head says it is illogical. Of course, if the something you want is something you were destined to have, it could arrive any time - like today, for instance.

This tells me nothing new. The first sentence is something that a lot of people believe, but their is no real way to prove. The second sentence probably applies to everybody. There are some things that just aren't feasable that we may want. If I'm destined to have something, yes of course I could have it at any time.

I really love this journal thing. It's an excuse to not talk to people individually. Why bother? Most people are bound to not give a care about one or two (at least) of the things I talk about. Why risk having one of your ideas ignored? So I have this journal system. I can post any damn idea I have that I feel needs to be shared. If someone's interested and they read it, they can talk to me about it more. If they aren't interested they just skip over it and I don't feel like an idea of mine has been ignored or not understood.

I think I know why I dislike my roommate. He's inconsiderate. I'm currently working on my final paper for speech and he's currently watching Street Fighter videos with a friend. He could have asked. It's blatantly obvious that I'm working on a paper. I'm not going to make a situation awkward and ask him to not watch this. It is his room too, I just wish he's be a bit considerate.

Ugh, I was a bit foolish to eat a Chicken Cordon Bleu for dinner. Not only do I remove the ham inside it, but the cheese that's in it doesn't agree with me. It's a pity that the insides of me are so much like my brother (lactose intollerant). One day they'll synthetically make food that tastes good.