Lubing the Bike Fleet; The Wonderful De-Crudding Tool

4 of the five bikes in the fleet that got either lubed,
de-crudded, or their brakes adjusted

Just barely off the injured list, I was not going to get onto the water today, but a short ride was feasible—after getting the family bikes ready for the rest of the season.

Marg's Jamis Dakar first (not shown) -- needed a lot of TLC, lube and brakes adjusted, and a frayed cable needed trimming and an end cap. ... Oh and a broken spoke snipped out. There are at least 31 others in the wheel, but it's a tiny bit out of true where the spoke was broken. that's a fix for another time -- but now I know why it was rubbing in one spot for a while.

Pumping up a slew of flat tires was an interesting workout. One that got me shirtless pretty quick on such a hot day. A friend asked me why not use a compressor. No, at my age, any exercise like that is better than time spent in the gym.

I had a tarp out to catch excess lube, oily scuzz, dirt and vegetal matter that I scraped from four or five derailleur pulley wheels and rear wheel cassette cogs ... don't need that in the grass or for the dog to eat.

Bottom of photo the great cog decrudder and brush. P.S. the
Pro-Link bottle now contains home-brew lube.

From among the tools I found the magic de-crudder. Amazing implement that does a great job excising scads of mud, dirt and organic debris from between the cogs on mountain bikes. The tarp showed just how much fell out; shocking. A must have tool.





[Link to visual home brew lube recipe photo]

Waves Galore

It's easy to "love New York" on a perfect day like this. Almost summertime, June 1, and you get a clean ride on the LIE/Bethpage Parkway, Southern State, and RM Causeway .. no traffic, as quick and smooth  a ride to the beach as you can have. How often does that happen in Western "Parking Lot" Nassau?

But where was everybody? Well obviously a lot of folk on the beach, but the water was bare, save for one lone kayaker. Had this place to myself. Although I'd rather not have.

Most of the surfers had left already, surfed out from surfing since 7 am most likely. I'd seen several boards , strapped atop cars, going the other way. 

But normally, when it's a lightweight 3mm/2mm wetsuit/no-booties-needed weather, there's usually a very full surf lineup at RM5. 

Or there used to be. 

The break got crummy in the storms a several years preceding and after Hurricane Sandy, and RM5 became less of a surf destination. The sandbars offshore had eroded and the waves stopped breaking as the water was so deep right off the beach. Now they are back, and the place is worth surfing again.

Definitely could have used the moral support, though.  Mea Culpa.  I did not "social media" this very much, except for one LIW YahooGroups post, and a quick call to Chuck.  

SURPRISE
This was a bit of a surprise session. A good surprise. One minute I was in bed sipping Sunday morning coffee, reading the Creature From Jeckyll Island, then the next, came a phone call from Rob ... "Can Will and I get a pickup from the ferry in Bayshore in an hour or two?" ... 

"Why Bayshore? ... if you're in Saltaire," I said, "I can pick you up by near the Fire Island Lighthouse turnaround ... after a quick paddle, that is."  

Sure .." and  from there the clock was ticking to round up water, and supplies, walk the hound of the Baskervilles, check the leaky plumbing situation in the bathroom ... you know, the usual Sunday morning oddities.

30X MORE DIFFICULT

Like most SUP-ers on Long Island, I've done plenty of bay supping, that goes without saying, but ocean trips have been infrequent this past year,  half of which was lost to physical therapy, since I finally caved-in and added a SUP to the Surfing and Windsurfing quiver last May. 

While the bay is easily a "head dry" paddle experience (if I want to avoid a dip in the North Shore Western Sound bays pollution), the ocean is a very different kettle of fish. If it isn't glassy it can get super tippy with little encouragement. And with the menacing mass of even a 9'6" SUP, you want to make sure you are not taking too many tumbles near the impact zone.  I used every bit of my 15 years experience of ocean surfing and windsurfing timing the entry into the water. It wasn't a super difficult entry, but like a windsurfer, the SUP has a lot of surface, so if you get caught by a rogue wave, things could get tricky in a hurry.

Once the initial knee paddles over the incoming swells was over, it was easier paddling to near the break. But once there, that's where you are most vulnerable. That long turnaround from facing the swell to facing away from it.

BARELY A BREEZE 
Although the "wind," such as it was, could barely even be described as a breeze today, the water was nevertheless still pretty lumpy for SUP surfing, making for some interesting hula movements. It did not look pretty I'm sure. They say you get used to it pretty quickly. But in the meantime, off you fall, clutching the paddle in both hands. Swim back to the board, or better still, pull the leash and board back to you for a quicker recovery. 

Swimming with a paddle feels like being a frog on one crutch.

WAVES GALORE 
At first I couldn't believe it ... Waves galore, some bomber sets among the waist-to-thigh-to-chest-to occasional head-high mix.  RM5 west end of the parking lot.  Based on this, I'd say RM5 is back. Maybe not as user friendly as before, but definitely breaking nicely in places. I'll have to try a lower state of tide with the surfboard. Still trying to keep up with the SUP when it takes off. It looks so different from surfing. Need to get into a surfing stance sooner from the parallel paddling stance.

PLAN A or? Now since I would be picking up son and friends on the way back from Fire Island, I only had room for one board in-between the seats today,  so I took the SUP ( I figured waves would be small and the SUP is more of the do all option). I did not expect good-sized waves at high tide. I guess you just have to bring a plan B option if you can.

And here, I could easily have used the surfboard instead (which would be my preference, although maybe not the preference of my neck. A long prone paddle out the neck is still not ready for; so on that level the SUP was the quicker, easier way to the outside). 


For a first time back I played it cautious, and tried not to overdo it, sticking to an hour of paddling and lugging the beast up and down the sand. Surprisingly much more aerobic than paddling on the bay, but that's a good thing, aslogn as you don't have too much for lunch.

Windless in silence for a change.

We've had a lot of wind recently ... on workdays ... so a little calm on the weekend was welcome, especially since I had a cold and was not doing anything but catching up on those things you put off when it's windy sailing weather. I crossed the Sound today, not many water craft out, the sight of all that water stretching east, rippled by a light breeze, those little islands below the Throgg's Neck Bridge, traffic moving well, it was all good for the soul to see, the expanse of it all. 
...

we all need a little ...

One of the quietest nights I've walked the dog on ... and listened to, since September 2001. 
59F here and the sudden drop in temp it feels like the 40s.

Living not 20 miles from three of the world's largest airports, there's usually always some kind of background roar or aircraft, automobiles, motorbikes, fire engines and whatnot around here.
We're about the second or third town past where the metropolitan buzz ends these days. [it has spread nearer and nearer, such that we often begin to think our town is becoming like a part of the NYC Borough of Queens, sometimes.]

For a moment I almost felt transported to
... here.

But tonight the silence was so deafening I stopped walking with the dog, for us both to listen. Before all there had been was the sound of dogs barking and people sneezing. A cat scurrying away into the bushes. and then nothing. I checked the stars on this deep blue cloudless night — like I did before I hurt my neck — and they were all in place, no constellation tainted by blinking lights of passing planes. And the silence in between them as quiet as our breathing could be. That's the great thing about some hunting-type dogs, they can instinctively summon stillness, too.

You stop dead; they stop and stand at full alert.

The big quiet lasted about maybe 5 or 10 minutes, I guess. So rare around here I almost wondered if something wasn't wrong. Even when the wind keep the flight paths west, there's usually plenty of planes twinkling their tail lights, or wing lights like so many distant fireflies, nose lights coming in like beacons.

The last time it went so quiet was shortly after 9/11 when the only aircraft to punctuate the silence were National Guard jets flying fast at high altitude through a then-eerie silence.

Quiet, dark nights are probably the norm for most of the country folk among us. I can remember what it was like from boyhood, to lay down in a field on my back, in the darkness returning from town to the last street by the edge of the farms where I lived. No light. just stars.

Now, however, I've been so urbanized, and this long-ago pastoral area has become more hustle-bustly, that quiet is almost disarming. I'm not sure we'd be able to deal with it if we moved to the country. (though we can quickly get used to it on vacay in a place like Cape Cod, given the chance.)

... or even here ...

When I used to check the constellations, I'd pick the darkest streets for the best viewing some of them; try to memorize the star groupings and check them later against star maps.

Pain in the ass when the new guy, who came to live opposite the little dark street with the best star-viewing area, installed a motion-sensor light on his side door, effectively blasting the night with flooding blinding halogen beams, if anyone, or any car passed within 100 yards ... and this a relatively busy street, so the damn thing was always on. Glad to say it's gone now.

I count blessings when the end street light bulb gives out once in a while, and the night reclaims its darkness. For we still have some small parcels of woods to suck out the light like a vacuum ... and near them, you can hear all the stars and see all the silence.

Yes, I know, I need to take some fresh,
night-time happy black dog photos

I wonder what my young dog makes of all this. Yeah, I know. "There's that branch of fine crunchy twigs I was eating that my person took from me and threw away this morning, now I got it back! and I'm chew it to pieces and eat it all up."

Stash 'em for when you need' em

Emergen-C.  Mike Vitti turned me onto it a good decade ago.

That, Zicam cold remedy spray,  and a very good Saline spray, usually will stave off a good percentage of colds. Whole family had this cold but I resisted for weeks. Now it his with a swift and knee-buckling vengeance. 

Odd, because at lunch I felt well enough to run. But so it goes.

It hit around 4 or 5 p.m. My new box of  Emergen-C from CVS was water damaged... Have to return it. I had none left there. Maybe at home?

You never know when you are going to run out. When your kids discover them, your stocks will expire in double quick time.

They went through my camelback.  None left. The pantry? None left. Work bag? None left. Cycling clothes bag? Napa. Car? Nothing....
Golf bag... Bingo!

Might be too late for Emergen-C, saline,  and Zicam to solve this sudden sore throat, but we can but hope.

After a long day at sea

Z-Dogg,  hits the hay early,  after a long afternoon of play at the shoreline... That salt water will make you sleepy every time.

4-Club Wind

In golf terms 4-club wind means you better take a club four levels — or about 40 yards — longer than the one you'd normally select. If a 9 iron takes out out to 135 yards, go with a five. In windsurfing terms it means it's blowing 4.0 to 4.5. Oh well, never mind, can't always get the forecast right.


Legs and fitness feel good after what was a pretty arduous 650 feet of MTB climbing today.

POSTED No trespassing. 300 feet up above the golf
course and Hempstead Harbor.

I should have been windsurfing both days, but made other plans early Saturday, when I saw the forecasts looked weak.  In fact I figured the wind would be so puny, I would introduce Z-Dogg to SUPing on O-Bay.

But just as I was about to bolt, Chuck suggested golf, and I felt ready for that, too (I figure it had been around a year since my last 9-hole round; we were well overdue). So Z-Dogg got her walk but not her swim.

Meanwhile, down below, the previous day. A 4-club breeze
did little to stymie the new swing. Memo—clouds
like these mean wind at the surface.

A quick warm up at the range. The new grip is working well -- finally straight shots. ... I seem to have mostly eliminated the hard hook  — I open the club face slightly at address. And the second part of the equation is a very easy relaxed swing, i just drop down from the backswing with gravity and accelerate from there. Strangely it delivers as long, if not longer, of a ball flight as if it had tried to whack it with all my might. Today I pulled out a series of clubs and within two swings they were dialed. Didn't bother with the Driver. But when I pulled it on the course for fun, I topped the first, and nailed the second like a missile. Made the first four fairways, including a stellar low 5 wood to about 240 leap-frogging a linguine-like ribbon of fairway, water and other hazards, to within two putts of a made birdie. After something like that it doesn't matter how the rest of the round goes.

Z-dogg: collecting IOUs for swims and SUP sessions?
She hears rumors there are ducks on the bay. That's gotta
be good if you're a part-lab, no?

Next day, a hard MTB ride in the local dirt and hills. The wind and rain came up again, as a front came through, so I waited in my cycling gear for a couple of hours for the worst of it to pass. There was no way I was not going to get out there an burn some calories.

To once again avoid a miserable windy ride, I set a course of the highest hills in the neighborhood, including some trails in the trees. There, it did not matter whether the wind was blowing or not, as the steep 300 foot hills block just about every breeze. Legs felt tired from yesterday's golf, "remind me, why am I riding this hill again." OK they'll feel better later ... and sure enough they did. Changed up the hill route a little ... I look forward to doing this with a 15 lb lighter bike, but am using the MTB again today, while the roads are still in their potholed prime.

View Through the Hilltop Bushes

Ain't much of a view, I'll grant you that. But the fact that I got to the top of this hill means that I grinded my way up quite a few others to get there... and back.  

300 feet of elev. looking out across the harbor to Glen Head
on the other side. [Photo looking thru a high cast iron fence.
Bet there's some good but treacherous
 mtb'ing to be found here.]

A good if not great day for a ride... Just the right temperature,  not too sunny, not too windy, no wind missed, no surf missed (to my knowledge). 

Conquered the beast hill of Longview, which seems to be a milestone in any season that is interrupted by injury — which this fall/winter/early spring was.

It is so good to be back on the bike riding after so long and back on the water SUP ing this week after 6 months absence.

Now if only the roads could get a few more potholes fixed and the road bike could come into its element. Lenny has had blowouts each of his last few rides.

On that note though, some good news, Shore Rd. completely resurfaced. Should be a great section now. The bad news, cars will be going down there even faster than they should, or realize.