Check Engine Light: Advantage Bicycles

One of the key advantages of riding a bike is that there are no idiot lights to deal with. The most idiotic of all idiot lights is something called the check engine light. When this light is illuminated something is wrong with your car’s engine. It could be a big thing. It could be a trivial matter.

I suspect that this is all a ruse to get you to spend money on your car. It works.

I was planning on driving Mrs. Rootchoppers 2004 Accord to the dealer for an oil change and an overdue state safety inspection. Total cost of these two items is $50.

I went to start the car. It sounded like I was going to have to get out and turn the crank. The engine did turn over but I made a mental note to add a new battery to the list. The bill was now closer to $200.

Then I realized that the check engine light was on. Danger Will Robinson. I was soon to learn that this particular dealer charges $139 to ascertain the cause. This involved plugging a thingie into the gizmo and writing down the code on the display. Good work if you can get it.

Of course, the car ran fine all the way to the dealer, but I needed to pass inspection and the check engine light was between me and PASS. Arg.

I dropped my car off and pulled Little Nellie out of the trunk for the frigid ride to the office.

The mechanic called and said the reason for the check engine light was a bad solenoid (in plain English, this is an electronic doodad) in the fuel system. He also said the engine was leaking oil.

Not good.

Long story short, $1,000 later I got the car back. Smoke was coming out of my credit card.

Ow.

At least the three mile ride to and from the dealer confirmed that the new shifters on Little Nellie cured it’s shifting woes.

The check engine light stayed off all the way home. The low-on-gas light came on instead.

Retirement Practice

It’s cold and dreary outside. Not a good day for a bike ride. Or a hike. Or much of anything outdoors. I am trying to find things to do. It occurs to me, I had better get used to this. Soon I will be retired. For the first time in my life I face the interesting challenge of having to come up with my daily schedule on my own. This is likely to be doubly difficult since the overwhelming majority of people I know will still be working. Anyway, somebody else has been calling the shots for most of the last 55 years. Now it’s my turn. It’s actually a fairly daunting prospect. I wouldn’t mind learning an instrument, taking a language course (Spanish, ASL), taking a bike repair course. All are things that I could have done in the last few empty nest years and haven’t. The reason is that, other than hiking and biking, I am a sloth. Yeah, well….

Today’s schedule will include comparing my bikes with a tape measure. Sounds exciting, no? Bicycling is no fun when your bike doesn’t fit properly. Right now I have two that fit that description.

I have yet to dial in the fit on my Cross Check. I loved riding it when I first bought it but it wrecked my body when I got off the bike. Sad face. The Mule recently got new handlebars. I think in the process of working on it, the bike shop inadvertently changed my saddle height a tad. And the handlebars have a slightly different reach to them. So the fit, which was dialed in, is now a bit off. Fortunately, the set up on my Bike Friday, which was custom made to mimic The Mule of old, is unchanged. So it’t time to compare and tweak. Little changes make a huge difference. Pro tip: if someone tells you that your saddle is an inch too low, raise it in increments of no more than 1/4 of an inch. A one inch increase will almost certainly cause problems in your knees, back or neck. Also, as you move your saddle up, you’ll might actually find a sweet spot that you’d otherwise miss.

The rest of my day will be taken up with reading back issues of magazines that have accumulated on my nightstand as I read a stack of books received for Christmas. I also received season one of House of Cards so that’s probably worth a plowing through before baseball season starts. And there’s always the time sucking bald eagle cam.

Unfortunately none of these activities helps with my ever growing body size. (Seefood diets are not a good idea during the winter months.) I read often about people who do a cleansing of their bodies. This usually involves eating nothing but fruit and veggies and other good things, sometimes combined with some sort of yogic practice. For me a cleansing comes when I do my first long ride of the spring. It’s usually a daylong ride. I don’t ride it particularly fast. And I am not looking to ride massive hills. The benefit comes in the unrelenting effort over many hours. I am typically exhausted at the end, but this day of self abuse resets my metabolism. It has never failed me. I will probably do one of these rides in a week or two. Maybe out to Whites Ferry. Or do an out and back on a long rail trail.

I hear we have a second eaglet. Time for some mindless viewing….

It’s Spring – Eagle Mania Is Here

We’ve had a very mild winter, despite the crummy weather this weekend. Our flora is confused. Our forsythia has taken its merry time to bloom. Daffodils and crocuses seem to be resisting.

A sure sign of spring are the young deer I saw the other morning in the park near my home. But our biggest sign of spring has gone viral. Bald eagles. Once nearly wiped out by DDT seem to be taking over, much like our exploding population of Canada geese.

The real show is at the National Arboretum in DC. It has two cameras perched above an eagle nest and people are spending countless hours watching for the eggs to hatch (one down, one to go), eaglets flopping around in the nest, and mama and papa eagle bringing and eating big hunks of fish.

Here’s the link to the cameras: http://www.eagles.org/dceaglecam/

I was feeling a bit left out. I normally see quite a bit of eagle action on my commute, especially at sunrise. There’s been very little this year. I know of three nests along my route. One is just south of the beltway next to the Belle Haven Golf Course. For several years this nest was occupied but the pair of eagles abandoned it a few years back. It’s very much exposed and right next to the GW Parkway. For whatever reason, it seems to be a popular spot for eagles to visit. In the mornings, I often see an eagle or two perched on a branch near the nest, facing the sunrise.

About a mile farther south, just past the Tulane Drive turnoff is a massive nest. I only found this one a couple of years ago. (Pro trick: keep an eye out for photographers!) By its size, it seems obvious that this nest has been there a long time. It was near the Tulane nest that I found skeletal remains of a Canada goose and a small animal. This one is extremely hard to spot even when you know where it is. It’s also on a curvey section of the trail. Pull over to check this one out.

The next nest, at least until this week, is near the Morningside Drive exit of the GW Parkway, about a half mile further south on the trail. Like the Tulane nest, this one is on the left between the trail and the river. This is a whopper too. And it has been occupied in recent years. I haven’t seen eagles at either the Tulane or the Morningside nests yet.

But there is good news. Right between the Tulane and Morningside nests is a new nest. In fact there used to be two small nests, so small that I thought they might be osprey nests. They were each on wee islets at the southern end of Dyke Marsh. One of the islets is gone, trees and all. The other, closer to the trail, is still in one piece. The other night I spotted two bald eagles at the nest. One keeping lookout the other in the nest. I think we have babies on the way.

So just when winter starts wearing me down, spring lifts me up. In about a month, we will be seeing snapping turtles laying eggs along the trail.

Speaking of turtles laying eggs, the turtles often bury their eggs on the edge of the trail. As I was riding home, I notice several dents in the edge of the trail, about the size of a turtle. Could it be that the excavation the turtles do for their egg clatches are undermining the trail’s edge?

Nature is so cool.

So is my bike commute.

I love my bike commute.

Errandonnee 2016 Control Card

Here’s the list of errands. To qualify as a finisher you need to do 12, in 7 of 9 categories. Here are mine:

Errand No. 1: Dry Cleaner

This qualifies in the Store category. That’s one category.

I rode 2 1/2 miles round trip for this one. Nice people who run businesses in your neighborhood deserve your business.

Errand No. 2: Drug Store

This one goes in Personal Care. That’s two categories.

This one was also about 2 1/2 miles round trip. Asthma sucks, so to speak.

Errand No. 3: Bike Shop

This one goes in the Store category. That uses up this category.

The Bike Shop is about 4 miles from home. So the round trip is 8. Support your local bike store or you won’t have one no more.

Errand No. 4: Ride to Work

This one is in the Work category. Clever, no? That’s three categories.

Depending on the odometer and the route this is 28 1/2 to 31 miles. I think this one was 29. I have the best bike commute ever.

Errand No. 5: Ride to Happy Hour

This one goes under the Social category. This is category number four. I rode a few blocks up a hill to get to this one. So the mileage may be 1/2 mile, tops. Even happy hour can’t make Rosslyn appealing.

Errand No. 6: Ride to Work # 2

This uses up the Work category. Another 29 miler.

Errand No. 7: Bank

This one goes in Personal Business. This is category number 5. Lets’ see I get to go to wokr and see sunrises, bald eagles, ducks and geese and egrets and herons and redwing black birds and jets taking off and landing and monuments and riverscapes and….you get the idea.

Errand No. 8: Bank

Another Personal Business entry. That’s it for this category.Tis one was – 1/2 mile because it chopped off my usual commuting romp through Jones Point Park.

Errand No. 9: Friday Coffee Club

This finishes off the Social category. This one is really only 2 1/2 miles. That’s the diversion from my 29-ish mile commute. To get to this one, I rode through a drone free zone near the Washington monument. I tried not to talk in a monotone here.

Errand No. 10: Hikenneuring

This goes under the Wild Card category. Category No. 6. This was an inventive 4 mile ride to a bike shop followed by a 4 mile hike home. I learned that my legs are not ready for serious hiking, but this was a good way to tune them up.

Errand No. 11: Lost Food Rescue.

Another Wild Card entry. All used up. This was an insane trip to a grocery store located 100 yards from the bike shop. Except I made the trip separately by bike. This wasn’t intentional but the trip involved retrieving cookies and coffee. Well worth the 8-ish mile effort.

Errand No. 12: Seeds!!!

This is falls in the You Carried What on Your Bike category, which is my category No.7

Another 2 1/2 mile trip to the hardware store with the intent of picking up a humongous bag of bird seeds. The store was all out of the bike crushing bag so I went with a ten-pounder and a bag of grass seed. Riding home was somewhat unbalanced but manageable. I thought about putting this one in the Arts and Entertainment category because I probably spend 1 or 2 hours each week watching the birds come and go to our feeder.

So ends my errandonnee. I did a bunch more errands but I already used up the categories.

Here are the pix of my adventure.

The End of the Errandonnee Is in Sight

Today is the final day of the 2016 Errandonnee. I didn’t actually plan it this way, but I had scheduled an eye doctor appointment for today back in February. I have glaucoma. The symptom of this eye disease is an increase in intraocular pressure. I have this pressure problem in both eyes. My right eye pressure spiked when he measured it last month so the doctor proscribed an additional medication for it.

I decided it would be less complicated if I worked from home. The distance to the doctor in Old Town Alexandria is 5 1/2 miles. I rode the Cross Check because I didn’t need to carry anything except a lock.

The skies were gray but the morning rain had stopped. The ride was uneventful. I like my eye doctor. It is only a coincidence that he is a bike commuter but that makes gives our conversation a focal point.

He tested my pressure and found that it was lower than at any time he’d been measuring it, which is several years. Yay drugs! What was interesting was the fact that the pressure in my left eye which hadn’t gotten any additional medication was also way down. Yay no drugs!

I rode home in a good mood and even decided to climb the Park Terrace hill. This hill is best climbed with a granny gear but the Cross Check doesn’t have one. I made it without much pain.

For those readers who are averse to taking medications, I looked up some research. Marijuana is known to reduced intraocular pressure. Its effects are short-lived meaning you’d have to get stoned 24/7 to get the desired medical result. Meditation has shown to have miniscule beneficial effect. Yoga, particularly asanas that involve inversion, that is, with your head down, is bad news. Basically, I can be limber and blind or stiff and sighted.

So concludes the medical portion of our program.

(I know I only need 12 errands but I have to get them in 7 categories. Otherwise I’d just ride to work for seven of the errands.)

Errand No. 14

Category: Personal Care

Distance: 11 1/2 miles

Observation: The pressure test for glaucoma is painless. It involves having a machine guided by the doctor gently putting a pressure probe against the eyeball. If you think this is icky, blindness is ickier.

Vasanapping

Each spring the bike riding season in DC begins with the Vasa ride. This is an event put on by the Washington Area Bicyclists Association and the House of Sweden, a.k.a. the Swedish Embassy. There is a family ride of 16-ish miles, the Halvasa of 31-ish miles, and the 61-mile Vasa ride, known in Malmo as the Whole Lutfisk. Okay, I ma 25124970033_bdd5088f21_m y that up.

It was also the first day of Daylight Savings Time. So we lost an hour of sleep. Michelle is WABA’s event coordinator. She is known to carry a divining rod in her messenger bag. Of the time change, she said this:

“I only control the weather. I do not control time.”

That’s a relief. I think.

I drove to the ride because it was cold and dark and I had misplaced an hour overnight. I blasted the Chieftains because my peeps own this month, dammit. (Oddly, all Chieftains’ songs sound the same to me. Even dirges end up sounding like rowdy nights at the pub.)

At the start I talked with Michelle and Colin, WABA’s Jimmy Olsen, and with Michael from Friday Coffee Club. (Actually he’s one of three Michaels. Michael is the new Katie.) Michael was riding the short ride and I didn’t see anybody to ride with so I rode the 32-ish ride alone. I know the course by heart so there was no need for a cue sheet. Ride out K Street to the Capital Crescent Trail. Cross over the canal at the boathouse. Ride up the steep hill to MacArthur Boulevard. Ride MacArthur Boulevard until it tops out (literally) at Great Falls Park, bang a right on Falls Road. Ride until you see the WABA pit stop at Potomac Village. Drink from Ursula’s stash of Gatorade in the back of the truck. Look around for people to talk with. Seeing no one you know, retrace your path one half mile. Hang a looie into Avenel. See the big houses. See the pretty golf course. Bang a right on Persimmon Tree Road. See more houses. See a different golf course. Bang a left on MacArthur. Repeat the first 10 miles in reverse.

The route was a fitting place to try out the newly tweaked saddle height on the Cross Check. I think I am pretty close to dialing my set up in. My arms were a little sore but that could just be muscle atrophy from riding my recumbent so much. I did a 100 yard stretch on the canal towpath at the cross over point. Dang, if this bike isn’t awesome on gravel. Can’t wait to do the Whites Ferry century loop on this beast.

At the end of the 25130723163_e981fa864b_m ride, I went into the embassy and had a cup of warm blueberry soup. It’s a thing. It tastes great after a cold ride. Did you know that the word “babe” is a direct translation from Swedish for Swedish Soup Lady? It’s true. I swear. I took a picture to prove it. Also, they said “Get well, Ricky!!!” because Ricky got clobbered by a car last week and they miss him.

I didn’t see anybody I knew so I left after one cup. Outside I ran into Tom and Kirstin. She’s Ultrarunnergirl . She and Hubs were doing an ultrasugarthon in Georgetown instead of riding the Vasa.

Greg, WABA Executive Director, appeared. He was all smiles after running a half marathon yesterday. You smile when the pain stops. It’s a running thing.

And so, I headed home. After a totally unhealthy lunch, I turned on the Nats spring training game. You know that hour of sleep that I lost? I found it. And a couple more.

Baseball cures the sleepy beast.

Tack to WABA, the Swedish embassy folks, and to all the volunteers.

In the Swing with the Errandonnee

It was Friday. So I rode to Friday Coffee Club. It was warm so the clubbers were outside. The place was mobbed. At the end of the month, Swings House of Caffeine, the only home Friday Coffee Club has ever known, is closing for a year while the building is being renovated. The temporary interim site is a bit too far afield for me. So my days of going to Friday Coffee Club are numbered.

Errand #10 25397285380_7eca9b5bf2_m

Category: Social

Miles: 32

Observation: Friday Coffee Club has been such as success that I don’t know half the people who go these days. And it is so crowded that I often don’t get a chance to talk to the people I do know. What a complainer. I think I need a cup of coffee.

Satuerrandonee

I made a list. Not all of it was errands but there was stuff to be done.

After a long morning of newspaper reading, I headed out on Little Nellie for Spokes Etc., my local bike shop, in Belle Haven. I put an old Brooks B67 on the bike the other day as I shuffled saddles around while one was out for repair. The B67 is wide in the seat and has bouncy springs. So the ride to Spokes was different in a good way. In fact, I may just leave the B67 on the bike for when I ride the Five Boro ride in New York City.

I wore hiking boots so that I could comfortably hoof it home. The errandonnee does not including Hikonneuring but I am a rebel and their is a wild card classification for one errand. One the way home I stopped at a hardware store. I needed to buy five things. One of the things was a furnace filter. These are big panels of very lightweight material. I don’t think putting it on a bike would work well. I hoofed it home with the panel and some painter’s tape in hand. (The filter will be taped over the air return vent during our floor refinishing project next month.)

Once home, I spent a few minutes tweaking the saddle heights on my Cross Check. I am pretty sure it was ever-s0-slightly too high. After a very small adjustment I rode it around the block. Zoom. We are good to go for tomorrow’s Vasa ride!

I then rode The Mule for a few hundred yards. I think the bike mechanic raised the seat to use the seat point as a clamping point. When he lowered the seat, he didn’t lower it enough. In his defense, we are talking about a difference of a few millimeters. I dropped the saddle a bit and, sure enough, it was much more comfortable.

Mrs. Rootchopper goes grocery shopping after her 7:30 pilates class on Saturday morning. Today she left behind some salted caramel fudge cookies and some ground coffee beans. The cookies are crack. Coffee is, well, COFFEE!!! She called the Safeway store and talked to Cynthia, the employee who found the bag. Off I went to retreat the lost goods.

When I got to the store there was no Cynthia to be found. An employee asked for the receipt. It was from a different Safeway store, right next to the bike shop. Argh! You mean I have to bike 3 miles to get my coffee? Yay!

Off I went on The Mule. The newly adjusted wheels were pinging up a storm. Hopefully the spokes will settle in and the noise will stop soon.

At the Safeway store, I met up with Cynthia. She helped me find the items that she had re-stocked several hours earlier. She was cheerful and helpful. Safeway should give her all the raises.

I headed back home the way I came, on busy Fort Hunt Road, a two lane road mostly with no paved shoulder. At one point I was cruising along at 17 miles per hour. A long line of cars was coming toward me. A long line of cars was stuck behind me. I kept plugging away when a silver minivan revved up and passed withing three inches of my left hand. How its mirror missed me I’ll never know.

I like to think that I can be a mindful kind of guy. Having just had my life pass in front of me, I considered the situation. I was, as the saying goes, in the moment. I usually try to reserve my sign language skills for near death experiences. I sat up. I raised my right hand and I gave the van driver a mighty middle finger and a loud “FUCK YOOOOOUUUU!”

My attention went back to the bike riding. The rest of the following traffic gave me ample room as they passed. I hoped to catch up to the silver minivan at the next traffic light but it turned away. I wanted to express my gratitude to the driver for giving me reason to practice my sign language skills. And perhaps smash the passenger side mirror to bits.

Another day.

I rode back to the hardware store for more not so hard wares. I bought some grass seed, because there are big patches of dirt in my lawn, and some bird seed, because there are big flocks of bird on my lawn. (They’ll probably eat my grass seed, now that I think about it.)

I had planned to buy a 25 pound bag of seed but they didn’t have any that size. It’s a good thing. 25 pounds of seed would make for a very lopsided load on a bike.

As it turned out the two bags of seed made for some interesting handling. I made it nearly home and had adjusted so well to the weight that I took a right turn fast and my bike nearly fell over. Oops.

I made it home. Errands done. I think I have two wild card errands today. The Bike/hike errand and the retrieval of the lost cookies and coffee. The seedy hardware store run qualifies as a you carried what on your bike.

Errand #11

Category: Wild Card: The Bike/hike errand

Miles: 4 by bike/ 4 1/2 on foot.

Observation: It would have been much more efficient to do this one by car. It would not have been nearly as much fun. And we all know what the Cat in the Hat said: “These things are fun and fun is good.”

Errand #12

Category: Wild Card: Rescuing the lost foods

Miles: 8

Observation: Never assume you know where to go. According to my driver ed teacher: “When you assume, you make an ass out of you and me.” Truth be told, he was doing the ass thing just fine without my help.

Errand #13

Category: You carried what on your bike?

Miles: 1/2

Observation: I spend at least $200 each year on birdseed. It’s worth every cent to be able to see the seasonal birds coming and going. Buying birdseed is like buying a bag a spring. If you don’t have a bird feeder, get one! If you put cayenne pepper on your seed, the squirrels will leave it along. (I buy my seeds already peppered.)

Nice Day for an Aborted Ride

I decided to work from home today. I made the decision a week ago. The weather was perfect. Shorts and t-shirts in early March. Enjoy climate change while you can because its’ gonna suck when all those tropical diseases work their way north.

At lunchtime, I decided to go for a quick ride. My first excursion was 1 1/2 miles on The Mule to test out the work done by Spokes Etc. last week. I was a little worried that the chainrings, which I chose not to replace, might not play nicely with the new chain. No worries. The bike is much faster now with a bottom bracket that isn’t rusted and brakes that don’t stick to the rim.

Once that was taken care of I planned to go for a quick jaunt on my Cross Check which I haven’t ridden in months. Off we went. Then I felt the saddle, a Brooks Flyer made of leather, wobble. I took a look and found that the tensioning bolt was bent. This meant that the bolt could snap at any minute. I tried tightening the bolt and headed out for a ride anyway. I made it about a mile from home when the bolt snapped.

Sad face.

I sent it to a bike shop in Seattle that repairs Brooks saddles. They repaired the saddle on The Mule and they did a good job.

I put the Flyer saddle from Little Nellie on the Cross Check because I am taking Little Nellie in for service on Saturday. I put a Brooks B67 on Little Nellie just to keep the seat hardware in place.

An Unwelcome Sign of Spring and Errand No. 9

There was a chill in the air this morning. Since I was riding Big Nellie, I decided to wear tights. Cold air up your pants leg causes shrinkage and other discomforts.

It was a meditative ride. I find myself riding much faster now that I am not all layered up and now that I don’t pay a wind chill penalty for speed.

All was going well until a large young man passed me on a mountain bike.Judging by the effort he was putting into going 13 miles per hour and his clothing, I’d say he was new to bike commuting. Speaking of clothing, he wore shiny, baggy gym shorts. The kind that, unfortunately, slide down. After he passed I found myself right behind him, staring unavoidably at his bug fat hairy butt crack. BFHBC will ruin any ride. This went on for about a half mile because I was unable to pass him. I’ll take freezing cold weather over BFHBCs any day. I passed him on the small hill south of National Airport. He had to stop at the top, an elevation gain of no more than 20 feet. For the sake of the rest of the bike commuters, I hope he was adjusting his shorts.

On the way home I stopped at the bank (again) to deposit a check. So another errand hits the books.

Errand No. 9

Category: Personal Business (2nd use of this category) 25623508146_865f001688_m (1)

Miles: -1/4 mile (the diversion reduces the length of my commute)

Observation: The day was so nice that even a BFHBC couldn’t ruin my ride to work. Aren’t you glad I didn’t take a picture? Rebecca, the Commissioner of the Office Bike Commuting Matrix, found one online.

On a more serious note: George Martin died. I have been a Beatle fan since I was a little kid. George Martin produced the soundtrack of my life, both directly through the Beatles recordings and indirectly through his influence on so many others. He was incredibly talented. In recent years as digital recordings became available, you could hear how he used tricks to cover mistakes and other unfortunate things in Beatle records. McCartney’s voice cracking on a high note in “If I Fell.” Covering the “me” with a McCartney bass note at the begining of “Come Together” when Lennon sings “Shoot me” repeatedly. His string arrangement on “Yesterday” made my mother, a fan of Robert Goulet and Dean Martin, recognize that the Beatles were making real music. RIP.