Monday, March 08, 2010

Studs off

Over the weekend I pulled the Kuwahara off the bike hooks in the garage and knocked the dust off of it.  Pumped up the tires, replaced the saddle I'd robbed earlier this winter, and gave it a quick once over.  Thanks to a super craigslist deal I picked up another B17 this winter, so now I can have Brooks on the Kuwahara and the winter commuter.  Hopefully this will reduce the amount of saddle swapping I do. 
 
Out of curiousity I checked my records to see when I have stopped riding the studded tire bike in past years.  I've been using Google Documents to track my bike mileage since 2006.  In 2006 I transposed some of my mileage from the spiral bound notebook I'd been using, but I didn't have a bike associated with those miles.  So 2007 is the first year I can accurately say when I stopped riding the studded commuter. 
 
2007 - Last ride was on March 9
2008 - Last ride was on April 1
2009 - Last ride was on March 11
 
So it's not my imagination, it's getting to be about that time.  I rode the studded bike today just to get the lay of the land, but after the warm weekend and the fact that it never dropped below freezing last night, the Kuwahara could be getting the nod sooner rather than later.  Of course, we've got hockey tourney blizzards coming up, so I won't pack the studs too far away.

5 comments:

The Old Bag said...

You know you're going to be making the weather worse for all of us by announcing it -- maybe instead of "Studs Off" you should just write that you're making a couple of treks out w/o them just so's you're ready when nice weather rolls around.

WheelDancer said...

I did a nice long ride yesterday on the studs and while I saw tons of other cyclists, I was the only one sporting hardware. I have a spare set of wheels that I can swap out for a quick change between studded and not. Not sure why I didn't think to rid those yesterday...

Frostbike said...

Yeah, that's the story. I'm just making a couple of treks out with them. Let's go with that.

Bill Connell said...

I just made the switch this past Friday night, with a spring cleanup and swap back to slicks. I always forget how great that first ride is, with a clean, quiet, well-lubed bike. Beautiful weekend for riding too.

Cpt. Haddock said...

Hey Pete,

I found you because I'm interested in fixing up a 70's Schwinn Suburban and thought you might have a tip or two. Can't find any contact info for you so I'm hoping you'll read this and get back to me. Thanks!

Parker

itsparker@gmail.com