What Happens When Wearing a Rain Poncho While Riding A Bicycle?

I don't mind riding in the rain as long as it is not cold; so when the weather finally warmed up again and the snow melted it was time to get back into my routine of bicycle riding.  It was spring, and it was raining but it was warm.

The rain was not heavy, so I put my backpack in a plastic bag and strapped it to the bike rack; then I put on my poncho, which I bought at a grocery store last year, and set off.  I do not have a lot of money for fancy high-tech equipment so I make do with the department store stuff and get creative, and this poncho is proof that you can be O.K. with the low-tech stuff.

The problem with ponchos is that the wind pushes them up while you ride and they wrap around your shoulders leaving the rest of your body exposed, so I tried an experiment- I used binder clips to clip the poncho to the bike in front, (binder clips are those stiff boxy triangle black metal ones). The clips were strong enough to hold it down.  I had to wrap the part of the poncho that I wanted to secure around something like the handlebar, the neck or the cross tube and then bunch the edge of the poncho and clip it together.  I tried to clip the poncho to the handle bars but felt it was restricting my movement so I tried to clip it to the cross tube.

 It worked well enough and I think with a few more attempts I will be much more dryer when I get to work. I think that if I clip it tightly around my wrist I might have part of the problem solved.

The binder clips and poncho came in handy when I arrived at work.  I locked up my bike and lay the poncho over it then used the binder clips to hold it on.  The bike was nice and dry when I came out after work.

I plan to always carry a few binder clips or clothes pins in my backpack from now on.

Review of my New Bike Schwinn Discovery Hybrid

My old huffy mountain bike was getting old and was taking more of my time to work on it than I was riding it. The last straw was a rear tire that was out of true and needed to be replaced entirely.

WHY THIS BIKE
We looked over the internet and did a lot of comparison shopping; and I did visits to some bike shops. We had several criteria: price was top on the list. We wanted something that would get me to work reliably and able to tackle all the hills between here and there. My experiment with a mountain bike converted to a commuter was OK but I learned I wanted something lighter, quicker and smoother rolling. The new comfort bikes seemed to hit the mark so we chose the Schwinn Discovery.

SHIPPING AND ASSEMBLY
We are very happy with amazon and got the special shipping so it came in two days. The bike was double boxed and well packaged.

I guess about 90% of it was already assembled. I just had to put on the seat, handlebars, front tire, peddles, and the front fender. Having been tinkering on bicycles all my life there really was no problem. I had to do the front fender twice, the first time I mounted the top behind the bar but that brought the front edge against the tire so I remounted it in front of the bar and it was fine. From opening the box to getting on it and riding was less than an hour.

Assembled it was a beautiful bike to see.

SHAKE DOWN
I rode it around the parking lot at our condo and several neighbors were immediately interested in where they could get one too.  I expected there would be a few minor adjustments, there always is when you get one of these in a box. I felt one break pad needed to be a tiny bit lower. And after I rode on the streets a few miles I began to feel that the break cable could be tightened a bit. The rear fender rubbed the tire slightly but a twist of the mounting screw to move the rod that held the fender quickly fixed it. I was pleased that for the most part the factory put it together well and seemed to have high standards.

THE TEST RIDE
I rode it on the bike paths and on the streets both flat and hilly. The performance was wonderful compared to the bike I have been riding. The frame is much lighter than my old mountain bike- that alone will improve my experience. I am thrilled by the shock absorbers in the front forks and the seat stem, since I have a bad back this is as good as it can get. It climbed the hills better than my old mountain bike and the gears were as smooth shifting as I could hope for.

Over all I am happy now that I have owned it for about four hours and would give it five stars out of five.

Why I love My New Schwinn Discovery

How I Fixed My Bicycle's Derailleur- Sort Of.

I have had ongoing problems with my old huffy that I bought from Toys R Us years ago. I have ridden in to work daily for a long time.

It has proved to be a good transport for the money, in fact it has been a great transport when I consider the savings it has brought us; but lately parts have been giving way to the laws of physics that say all things decay.

The derailleur was the latest, it literally came apart on me a few days ago and I was afraid the old friend was a goner. I am not much of a bike mechanic and I learn on the go, so it was with caution that I began to tinker with the mangled pieces of rolling gear and twisted housing.

Taking the derailleur off of the bike was easy since it was mostly in pieces, but putting one in its place was not so easy. I have a bike I found in the dumpster a few years ago that has been a source for many spare parts, so I thought I'll just take the piece off of it and fix my bike.

 My Huffy is a mountain bike that I have modified slightly for a commuter bike but the salvaged bike was a racing bicycle. The racing derailleur was still on the remains of the frame. The chain laced through it. I looked and looked but couldn't see how to get it off of the chain or the get chain out from wrapping through it. I gave up. Later I returned and looked the contraption over again. It had a hex head on one of the axes to the roller gear. I figured a hex nut meant there was a threaded bolt in there somewhere and if I took a wrench to it the thing would come apart. And that is just what happened, spilling a roller, an axle, it's barrel sleeve, and two washers on the concrete floor. I crawled on all fours for about twenty minutes looking for the parts and re-engineered the thing.

I thought they are both bicycles they both have gears, chain, crank and derailleur so the parts should be interchangeable. I was wrong. The part from the racer seemed to have more of a back angle to it. The mounting hole for the stabilizing nut was a different size and threaded which the huffy wasn't. There was a tiny flange designed to keep the part from spinning around the axle that was different.

Both were pretty shot so it didn't matter if I made it worse, indeed I don't think I could have made it worse. I filed the flange off of the part until it was smooth and hoped for the best. I had to find a bolt that would fit the new racing part to the old huffy frame. The clamp for the cable was rusted and had to be worked free but after a while I was able to thread the cable through. It looked like it would work- maybe.

I put the wheel on and turned the crank. The wheel turned. There are adjusting screws on the derailleur but no matter how long I spent I couldn't get it to go to all positions. The chain was a fraction too small to accommodate the higher back angel of the new part, but I could get it into most of the gears.

It is not a perfect fix but it is going to have to work for the time being until I can get a new solution.

Which may be a new bike.  

How I Rode Home With A Broken Gear Derailluer

I admit I do not take good care of my things so I accept it when they fall apart; and that is just what happened as I was bicycling on my way home.

I should have taken warning when the eight year old bicycle was complaining in the morning. I could sense it was not happy because with each turn of the crank there was bumpiness in the feel of the chain. I looked and discovered that the derailleur was bent and the bottom roller was slightly sideways. That it was bent was not surprising since it was a cheap part made out of sheet metal for a bicycle that sold at a toy store. It probably is more amazing that it lasted as long as it did- considering I rode it almost daily.

I carry a few tools these days since the bicycle has been showing signs of rebellion or senility and I have had to stop and fix little things on the way lately. I took a pair of pliers out of my backpack and twisted the soft metal one way and another to make it straight again. The metal must be suffering from fatigue because it was bent sideways again by the time I got to work and the roller was bumping on the inside.

I was naively hopeful of making it home after work without calling my wife for a ride. I got about one block and my chain fell free of the derailleur and began to beat against the spokes. I saw the roller was gone, the metal was twisted in two ways and the one side was flipped up.

There was not a hope for a roadside repair. I had about six miles to go so I started to walk. I admit I am a little slow in the brains, so it took me about a mile to figure out that I could sit on the seat and push myself along. If I rode in the gutter my right foot could push against the curb nicely and like a scooter I was riding again. At the top of the first hill I just sat on the seat and coasted down to the bottom. I rode the momentum until the bike slowed to almost stopping.  I kept on with my curb scooting for a while and made it over the next hill this way.

Now I began to think, I still had three miles to go and the scooting against the curb was getting old so I figured why not lay the chain over the front sprocket by hand and lay it over the back gears, since the power is on top and if the bottom dangles it shouldn't matter. I would be riding as if it was one gear. So I gave it a try and with only gravity and tension holding the chain in place I pushed off and began to crank. It was working! But after about twenty feet the bike hit a bump and the chain bounced off the gear, the front sprocket spun freely and flung my foot forward. I tried again and got about fifty feet, and the same thing happened again, I just had to be careful not to hit an potholes. But I couldn't keep the tension up and the chain came off again letting my crank spin freely. I kept tying it again and again but my frustration got the better of me after about two miles of going a hundred feet at a time and then resetting the chain.

There was nothing for it but to walk where I had to and coast where I could. It was about the only time I was thankful for the rolling hills because after pushing to the top I was looking forward to a long coast to the bottom.

It was after dark when I got home. I just put the bike under the tarp in my back yard and tried not to think about it. 

How I Prepare for Bicycling In Extreme Cold

The other day the temperature was about 30 degrees with a wind chill in the single digits. Since my son had the car I had no option but to bicycle the seven miles to work.I know there is some high tech gear for cold weather riding but I am just the mail room guy and can't afford the good stuff.

I had already bought some gloves for my hands since it had been getting colder day by day. In this cold, the knit gloves would not be nearly enough so I tied some grocery bags over my hands to break the wind. I put on a sweatshirt over my long sleeved undershirt and a windbreaker over that. I put on a pair of nylon shell pants over my sweat pants.

I thought with these precautions I would be able to face the challenge of the cold. After putting plastic bags over my gloves I found that I couldn't snap on my helmet and had to take the gloves off, put my helmet on and then start over with the gloves and bags.

I know these measures helped but not so much as I had hoped. My mouth, nose, and throat hurt from the cold. When I arrived at work my fingers were stinging and my feet were in pain from the cold.  I ran cold water in the sink and put my numb hands in; my hands were so cold that the water felt like it was burning. It took about a half hour to change into my work clothes.

The next day was even colder. This time I found some large gloves and slipped them on over my knit gloves then put the plastic grocery bags over them. I put on two pairs of socks and then tied grocery bags over my shoes. I put on two pairs of sweats and nylon pants over them. I added a jacket over the windbreaker and a ski cap under my helmet. Last I wrapped a scarf around my nose, mouth, and throat.

Bundled up I was ready for anything. The cold was still bitter and my eyes watered badly. With two gloves and grocery bags over my hands, I couldn't push my glasses back up my nose and they kept slipping lower and lower until I had to stop, take off the bags, and gloves to push them back in place then reassemble the gloves and bags on my hands. That was the only real problem I had, the layers worked.

It took a lot longer to get ready but it was worth it I was much more comfortable even if all those shopping bags made me look homeless.