Bicycle: 6 Phnee: 1

[mousme]

Okay, my bicycle is mocking me.

1- The bracket for my old u-lock doesn't fit my new u-lock. *grr* I had to put it in my pannier in order to take it with me this time. I will have to take apart the old bracket (which is rusted and thus going to be a bitch to do) and install the new one.

2- The little flashy-light thingies are fiddly and impossible to install properly, at least for a layperson such as myself. The front light hangs loose (thus pointing downward, which is unuseful in the extreme) and no amount of coaxing on my part could tighten it further. It's also composed of fiddly detachable bits, one of which flew out of my hands and onto the sidewalk two floors below me while I was trying to install it. The only mercy is that it didn't fall into the greenery that inhabits our front yard.

3- The rear light thingy fell off mid-transit (see: fiddly and impossible to install properly, above).

4- For the first time in my bike-riding career, the cuff of my favourite jeans got caught in the chain of my bicycle and tore spectacularly.

5- I swallowed two bugs. The first one got caught in my throat, so I ended up making very attractive choking/cat-puking noises. Charming.


Otherwise, I managed to make the round-trip to work and back in exactly one hour. Thirty-five minutes to get to work, twenty-five to get back.

6- I got back unscathed in spite of the asshole in the black Ford F250 who deliberately tried to run me off the road on Rose de Lima, but then my body rebelled right after I wrestled my bike up the stairs. I abandoned the bike outside on my balcony, and downed a litre of water and Gatorade in the space of about two minutes. I've been sitting in front of my fan, recuperating. I feel better now.


On the whole, I am counting this as a win, though mitigated. Now I am off to see a movie. :)

Comments

[mousme.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm going to bring my bike back to Eddy's Bicycle shop and see if they can help me out with installing them so that it all works.

Speaking of which, do you happen to know where I can find the information on what makes a bike road-worthy and legal? My Google fu is weak today. :)

[cpirate.livejournal.com]

I don't know of any particular regulations. Judging from what I've seen on the road though, the minimum qualifications appear to be two wheels and a death wish.

My personal checklist for a bike I'd feel confident riding, however, is:

* Brakes in good working order, i.e. strong enough to make your rear wheel skid without exerting undue force on the lever (you don't want to skid your rear wheel, it's less effective, but you want to be able to).
* No rust on the chain.
* Lights, if you're riding at night.
* Plugs for the ends of the handle bars - if they're open, they can act rather like an apple corer on you in an accident.
* Gears that change sanely.
* No mysterious wobbles or ominous creaks coming from the drivetrain.

This alone seems to give me higher standards than about 60% of the bikes I see. Sigh.

[mousme.livejournal.com]

This alone seems to give me higher standards than about 60% of the bikes I see. Sigh.

Heh. So far I seem to meet the criteria. So I don't need a license or anything like that, right?

Also: ouch for the handlebar thing. I had no idea. >_<

What constitutes "gears that change sanely?" Mine change when I tell them to change (although they make a weird clicky noise for a while after that).

[cpirate.livejournal.com]

No, definitely no license or anything. That'd just be way way too much of a hassle for everyone involved. As for the handlebars, yeah, nobody really talks about it enough. But then you think about how things go everywhere in an accident, and what happens to apples when they meet an apple corer.

As for "sanely", I just mean that they change when you tell them to, and not when you don't. And further that there's no combinations that don't work or make the chain fall off or stupid things like that. You just want to be sure that you have power when you need it. Note that you're supposed to avoid certain combinations that make the chain deflect too much (e.g. big chain ring up front to big cog in back), but that's just to avoid wearing out the chain prematurely, they should still work.

Your gears are fine, though that clicking noise tends to drive me bananas. It's super easy to fix though, there should be a little barrel adjuster where the cable meets the derailleur, and you probably only need to give it a quarter or half turn one way or the other. Then just (get someone to) hold up the back wheel while you run through the gears to make sure you didn't make it worse.

[mousme.livejournal.com]

Note that you're supposed to avoid certain combinations that make the chain deflect too much (e.g. big chain ring up front to big cog in back), but that's just to avoid wearing out the chain prematurely, they should still work.

You may as well have written that in Swahili for all I understood it. Maybe I will take a closer look at my bike during the week to see what happens when I change gears. I don't learn well by reading. I have to be shown things in order to understand, which is a pain in the ass for someone as curious as I am. ;)

Thanks for the other tips! This is proving to be most educational.

[dizietsma.livejournal.com]

As you change gears you need to make sure that the chain is as straight (parallel to the bike) as possible to prevent undue wear on it.

If you're on the biggest (outside) front gear you should to avoid the biggest 2 or 3 (inside) gears on the back, because it puts your chain at too great an angle, which is bad because it shortens the chain's lifetime.

Similarly, if you're on the smallest (inside) front gear, you should avoid the 2 or 3 smallest (outside) gears on the back, again to avoid putting the chain at too great an angle.

[mousme.livejournal.com]

Ah. Well, I think I understand. Sort of.

[dizietsma.livejournal.com]

When you look at how the gears are arranged on your bike, and you imagine the line the chain makes, just think in your head that this line should stay as straight as possible, and it will become obvious which gear combinations to avoid.

[mousme.livejournal.com]

I'll make a point of looking at that tomorrow. Just in case I'm doing bad things to my bicycle chain without meaning to.

[taxlady.livejournal.com]

I had a license for my bicycle when I lived in Montreal. I bought at a bicycle shop. It cost about $3.00, back in the '80s. I was given the impression that the police would take the theft of a licensed bicycle more seriously.

[mousme.livejournal.com]

Looks like I shall have to do some inquiring. With any luck I won't get my bike stolen. It's over ten years old, although it's in good condition, so that may work in my favour. Come to think of it, I think it's about twelve years old. Yikes!

[dizietsma.livejournal.com]

Legal requirements for a bicycle in Quebec (as ganked from the Highway Safety Code (http://www.canlii.org/qc/laws/sta/c-24.2/20070516/whole.html)):

* one white reflector at the front
* one red reflector at the rear
* one amber reflector on each pedal
* one amber reflector attached to the spokes of the front wheel
* one red reflector attached to the spokes of the back wheel

At night every bicycle must also carry at least one white headlight and one red tail-light.

[...The white headlight...] must enable the [...rider...] to discern a person or an object at a distance of 10 metres.

The headlights, lights and reflectors prescribed must be visible at a distance of not less that 150 metres.

They must be kept free of any obstructing matter that reduces their effectiveness.

Every bicycle and non-motorized scooter must be equipped with at least one brake system acting on the rear wheel. The system must be sufficiently powerful to quickly block the rotation of the wheel on a paved, dry and level roadway.


Flashing lights are allowed by omission. The law only bans "road vehicles" from having flashing or rotating lights (unless they're allowed to, like police). But in Quebec a bicycle is not classed as a road vehicle.

[mousme.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

I guess I really have to work on installing those lights properly now. Yeesh. What a pain.

[dizietsma.livejournal.com]

Seriously, these laws are NOT enforced, as you will very quickly discover when you see cyclists whose bicycles flagrantly do not meet the requirements toddling right past police cars and not raising a single eyebrow. I would say that of all the cyclists I pass at night, less than 20% have lights on. When you buy a bike here, the chances are it will be fitted with white reflectors on the spokes and not the regulation orange and red. Bike shops will be puzzled when you request they swap-out your white ones for the proper colours.

Despite all that, I keep my own bike within regulations. I am not afraid of the police stopping me and fining me, as I said they do not enforce these regulations. I am afraid of the insurance company lawyers who try to get their murdering clients off the hook by demonstrating that the poor cyclist they ran-over didn't have a correctly equipped bicycle, and was therefore less visible.

[mousme.livejournal.com]

That's what I figure, too. It's less about being compliant than about making sure I've done everything in my power to keep safe and fend off insurance company lawyers in case of need. :)

The Course Of Wisdom

[ankhorite.livejournal.com]

I am afraid of the insurance company lawyers who try to get their murdering clients off the hook by demonstrating that the poor cyclist they ran-over didn't have a correctly equipped bicycle, and was therefore less visible.

::: applause :::