built for comfort, not for speed

Woke up this morning jonesing for a ride, but the road bike is in the shop, so I took the commuter bike down the Terry Hershey Trail. It was a bit like taking a Ford F-150 pickup round the Nurburgring. She was OK on the straights, a bit shaky on the faster corners but evil on the climbs. Terry Hershey is pretty flat but there are a few short climbs that I barely notice on the road bike. Very different on the commuter - I was out of the saddle practically every time, and worked up quite a sweat, despite the low 40's temperature.

no user-serviceable parts inside

I went to the bike shop this morning to see how my lovely Euro roadie was coming along. The clank from the bottom bracket was solved by some tightening and adjustments, but the mechanic wants to do an overhaul, since brakes, gears and headset all need work. He likes the bike, though, so hopefully he'll be gentle with her. Should be ready by Wednesday, which means no rides until next weekend, but she should be right for the season after that.

post-Xmas slump

At least in my mileage, due to a worrying, expensive-sounding clank from my bottom bracket during the last ride with Dale. The bike is in the shop right now - fingers crossed it will be back before the weekend.

In other news, I got playing with Google Earth and plotted out my routes a bit more accurately than I could with Google maps. Check it out...

Bambi and Pumbaa's revenge

A good ride with Dale today. He was just back from four day hunting trip in South Texas and didn't feel like an early start so we rode at 11.00. We were delayed for a bit while he looked for his cold weather gear (mid-40's but very sunny). He couldn't find it and settled for some purple sweat pants and woolly mittens, a Glamour don't if ever I saw one.

Dale bagged two good-sized deer and two wild boar on his trip, so I was in the mood to exact some revenge on behalf of the animal kingdom. First off, I left him for dead on Eldridge as we slogged north into a pretty strong wind (that's for Bambi!). We stayed together on the trail from Bear Creek to West Houston airport, and then on Barker-Cypress and Fry, but when we hit the west end of Terry Hershey I kicked it up a notch and got his heart pumping a lot faster than Pumbaa's is now. We finished off back at Dale's with a glass of red wine, where Robert, his oldest, told me I looked good in tights. Love these unsolicited testimonials -

the Brickell family gets its Xmas on!

Yes, we finally got festive and trimmed our tree! Looks pretty nice, huh?

wet,wet,wet

Woke up to the sound of thunder this morning, as a pretty good storm cell blew through the area. A quick look at the radar showed that the front had moved off to the east, so I leapt onto the bike (amidst protests from Susan - "Don't blame me if you get pneumonia") and pedalled off through wet streets. The new bike held up well - my feet are dry and I don't have the usual tiger stripe up my back.

Only two work days left and then I'm off until the new Year. The evening ride home has been difficult lately, because I have to negotiate a lot of traffic around the Town and COuntry Village shopping area. It takes about 15 minutes to pass two traffic lights less than 1/4 mile apart!

Ho, ho, ho

On Sunday evening Mary-Claire and I rode the Durham street Jingle Bell ride, a charity ride through the mean streets of River Oaks, Houston's ritziest section. The ride starts at dusk, so by the time we get to where the rich folks live it's dark and we can ooh-aah at their elaborate but tasteful Christmas lights. We dressed up our bikes with battery-operated flashing fairy lights, and I had M-C's Xmas ghetto-blasting mix (a little heavy on Bing Crosby for my taste) pumping out of my portable iPod player, until the batteries died, that is. The ride is about 8 miles and ends at Mission Burritos, where they lay on a mexican buffet. Great fun but a bit chilly. Here's a shot of M-C pre-ride: