Sunday, September 20, 2009

Fallizing



This weekend has been a whirlwind of family activity and apple-related goodness. The apple hunt on Friday was pretty good. My two favorite trees were barren, but my buddy Patrick found a couple to replace them and my parents' tree had a banner year. I've had pieces from two apple pies. I made 40 pints of apple sauce. And 5 pints of apple butter. And I've still got about 20 pounds of apples to process.

Liza says we're also getting a pile o tomatoes this week too. And the plums will be ready in a week. And Joe tells me that he's got pears for the taking. Yikes.



Here's some random stuff.



My new Deep V is already dented. I'm bummed. I think if I try to fix it I may break it. I think I'll bring it to Glen of Elephant Fame and see if he can work some magic before I destroy it. I've been running the black CX'y RB-T on the high drive trails just about every morning. I've been really enjoying it and I've progressively been getting more and more comfortable bombing down a section that I used to pick through sort of carefully. I know that's where this wheel found this dent. Erg.

The good news is that the wheel is still true. These rims are tough.



I gave the daily commuter a shake down today. I really neglect this poor bike for how hard I treat it. But not today. I repacked the rear hub (even put new bearings in it. Thanks Willy). I put a new chain on it. And I put new brake pads on it. I don't know of a single bike shop in town that stocks Kool Stop Salmon brake pads for cantilever brakes (smooth posts).


I rarely order from the online price divers, but I this year, I ordered my brake pads from some online-mega-whore-shop. With shipping, I paid about $9/pack for 10 packs. If I order through an LBS, it's a pain for them and me and then they charge me around $12. So there.



Maddie took this pic.

13 comments:

  1. Nice haul on the fruit, I'm getting hungry reading about it.

    Ouch.....you put a ding in yer bling, and a pretty good one too. ( you know, they do make mtn. bikes for that sort of riding ;)...)

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  2. Wow! you've a got a tree of an apple? I love apple. But it can't live here in our country.

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  3. Hey John, Did you get the list of possible dates (chronological not of the palm tree variety)?

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  4. Bicycle parts/accessories manufacturers ought to send gear your way for stress testing and get the Speare stamp of approval. ;-)

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  5. Willy: "put a ding in your bling" -- good stuff there.

    EvilElf: Context please? Possible dates for what?

    Travis: Sounds good to me, though, any uncoordinated, poor-line-picking, gorilla would do just as well to stress test stuff.

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  6. The sporama celebration. I emailed you last week. I will send them again.

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  7. Congrats on being a Blog of Note....and your plethora of apples ;)

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  8. Love the blog! can I suggest that you have a profile that explains you are into bikes? It took me a while to realise the theme. My little blog will never get to "celebrity status". I just waffle on about random nothingness. Congrats to you tho!

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  9. Last pic. it's a nice flower.. Is that baby's breath flower? I think as you drive your bike and you saw it and took a pic with it :-)

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  10. Nice blog. Congrats on making the blogs of note list. Visit my blog at http://tcbastron.blogspot.com

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  11. John, you might destroy fewer rims bombing the bluff trails if you had a bike that could run tires fatter than 35 mm. Get a real fat tire bike and those trails will be more fun than you possibly imagined!

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  12. Annie: thanks. Maybe I'll update my profile. I guess I've assumed that the title of the blog was a hint, but I guess if you don't bike, then "Cycling" has other meanings too.

    Anon: I've ridden fat tires (2.3") down the bluff and it's fun; I just prefer the handling of my RB-T on those trails. And since so much of the ride is climbing, I really prefer the RB-T for coming back up! But I'm getting sick of ruining good rims, so I may end up following your advice.

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  13. Nice apples..... oh, and good blog too ;)

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