Taking The Long Way

I was hoping to get a ride in Sunday before it got too hot. I also needed to go down to the shop to complete some paperwork. By the time my chores, like mowing the lawn, were out of the way it was getting a little late. I decided to combine the bike ride and the trip to the shop. So I rode on Hill Road to Pierce Park and Pierce Park to Cartwright. This is probably an eight to ten mile loop with a few climbs thrown in.

I didn't want to take the time to put on my special bike clothes, nor did I want to wear them around once I got to the shop. I have some shorts with a gusseted crotch and I wore a short sleeve cotton shirt.
I'm not yet convinced that "clipless" pedals are unnecessary.
There are shoes that will accept cleats which are recessed in the sole so one can still walk in them. I think this is a good way to go for a multi use set-up on a bike.   


 



Some type of capacious saddle bag or handlebar bag comes in handy for carrying all the odds and ends. In mine I carried spare tubes, tools, my Converse All Stars, a  camera and lunch.

Steel Bicycle Frames

Between three and four thousand years ago, which would have been the Bronze Age, people in India and the middle east discovered that if they heated a certain type of dirt enough, in a low oxygen environment, and added some carbon, they ended up with iron. If they heated it up again and added some other stuff they had steel, which was easier to make things with and had enhanced durability.

  How did they do that? Why did they do that? Think of all the trial and error through the generations, an individual not knowing exactly why he was doing something or where it would lead. That never ceases to amaze me.
  Over time, other generations discovered how to refine the process and add other alloys to give the resultant steel properties such as weldability, and resistance to fatigue and corrosion.
  Then they figured out how to form it into tubes. These tubes could be welded or joined together with sleeves called lugs to make the now traditional, double triangle bicycle frame.
  Over more generations, other tinkerers figured out how to shape and taper and swage the different tubes, in order to give the resultant bicycle certain characteristics.

  The simplicity, beauty and pure functionality of this fundamental design, to which nothing can be added and nothing taken away is perhaps one of humanity's greatest achievements. I.M.H.O.