Spandex Is Great, Thanks.

I have written about spandex / lycra before on this blog, noting how crabby people some seem to get about it. Spandex just seems to be a magnet for comment and unless you are super fit and good looking, some measure of derision.

 

This, combined with a desire to look more normal off the bike (like at a restaurant or something) led to my purchase of baggy cycling shorts offering chamois liners. The best of both worlds, right? In most cases so far, yes. Most cases. The ones that don't involve crazy stupid mental hot weather like that being experienced by many right now.

 

In this kind of weather the chance of me "layering" below the waist is zero. Spandex/lycra cycling shorts allow the breeze to cool you as you ride, unlike just about any other garment I can think of other than a Speedo! Take that visual and put it in your special mind vault now, before it burns, and put spandex cycling shorts in its place. They're not so bad now, are they?

 

Thank God for my good old spandex shorts. They are making the commute bearable rather than just plain psycho.

 

 

Yer Pal,

R A N T W I C K

Summer

Work, Baseball, Karate, Soccer. Mix well. Repeat. And Repeat.

 

I'll write often again some day, I hope. Please check back soon because I've got some video and stuff I'll get to sharing asap. R A N T W I C K

Snack God

Here in London Ontario there are now a few big Asian supermarkets. They are like any big supermarket in many ways. In other ways, not so much. It is kind of like taking China Town in a big city and repackaging it for mass consumption by suburbanites. I love these stores, because despite wishing I weren't so boring, I'm about as average a white man as you can get; a perfect target audience, if you will. They have so much cool stuff I've never seen before!

 

I had to buy these just because of the outstanding name and packaging:

 

Lonely God Potato Twists

I bet God really is kind of lonely these days. I mean, the numbers of religious people seems to be at an all-time low, as far as I can tell. Thankfully, that doesn't stop His or Her or Its minions from gracing our villages full of medieval-style towers with potato twists, thank Whoever!

The potato twists themselves were kind of rotini-shaped and had the taste and texture of slightly soft (like squeak against your teeth soft) sour cream n' onion chips. I ate half the bag anyway, because when I bought 'em, I made a commitment. It's just the kind of stand-up Lonely God fearing man that I am.

God might be lonely, but the helpers are super happy. I would be happy too, I guess, if I had a magic snack wand and could fly! I'm gonna try to spend all day feeling like this helper-minion-angel, sprinkling awesome weird joy snacks composed of goodwill and MSG and onion powder on all whom I meet. It'll beat being a jerkface angry man who just yells profanities at everybody all the time. I am just so sick of that.

 

 

Yer Pal,

 

 

R A N T W I C K

Happiness is a New Chain

I was failing to love my summer commuter in a proper fashion and had not replaced the chain in too long. I got around to that and new brake pads and front tire on the weekend. I measured the old chain and thankfully I had done the work in time, such that the cogs probably haven't suffered much, if at all.

 

Nothing is quite like a smooth running fixed gear with a new, perfectly tensioned chain:

 

 

When I see other people on fixed gears, I sometimes notice some sagging in the chain; I feel sorry for those bikes. They need a little more love.

 

For the detail people: Those thingies at the back of the horizontal dropouts are chain tensioners or "tugs". They aren't really necessary, but the wheels I bought on ebay came with them and I like using them because they make it easier for me to dial in the chain tension just so. Front chainring is a Blackspire Mono Veloce 130/44. Rear cog has 17 teeth, works out to 69.3 gear inches and has served me very well around town.

 

 

Yer Pal,

R A N T W I C K