Dumb Lights

Last night was like Christmas. I worked late at the County and Lise went out with a group of coworkers. I arrived home to find three packages. We ordered a rack, stem adaptor, and woman's saddle from Nashbar. A stem and set of panniers arrived from an ebay purchase. Lise hasn't been comfortable with the single speed I built for her. I had used an extra Cinelli stem that was just lying around- without any regard to how it might actually fit for her. It was a standard stem with a slight drop. The bars ended up lower than on her road bike. There really is no such thing as a rising quill stem, so I purchased an adaptor so I could use a regular threadless stem. Lacking a protractor, I needed to do a bit of trigonometry to determine the stem angle of her Specialized, which she wished to replicate. I measured all triangular dimensions, plugged it into the formula, an determined she needed a 17 degree rise in 110mm. There was an exact match on ebay in a "buy-it-now" auction. It wasn't the most elegant solution, but it would work.

The stem was an exact match to the geometry of the Specialized. I unwrapped the bars, removed the old stem, and began setting up her bike. I easily arranged the bars and brakes to the same point as on her road bike. I also tossed on her new saddle, a woman's Terry Liberator. I have yet to install a rack on her bike. I picked up this heavy duty number for only $16.99.

I clipped on one of the ebay panniers onto my frankenbike. Performance Bike was sold out of these, but some ebayer had a ton of Performance stuff and was selling it below their regular retail prices. They are quite well-made- especially for the money. I think we will each use just one. The previous night I picked up a couple of NiteRider tail lights that I ordered from REI. They were about $7 each. I had an old bar plug blinkie that was too large for the moustache bars, so I whittled the fins down with a knife so it would fit in the left bar end. I mounted one of the tail lights, strapped a light to the bag, and readjusted the other tail light. I ended up with four tail light sources and reflective piping on the bags. That should be good enough. Off to bed.

This morning I woke up well before the alarm, around 5-ish. I really don't know when I started becoming more of a morning person, but then again, I was awake until almost midnight, so I guess I'm burning the candle at both ends. I blamed it on the 12-hour Sudafed. Anyway, I thought I would leave early for work. This was my first ride with the pannier. I had been using a grocery bag inside a garbage bag, strapped to the rack with a shock cord net- truly ghetto. The pannier fit nicely, and I had plenty of heel clearance. It was much easier keeping things organized. I was ready to leave home- it was close to 6 am. I turned on all the blinkies- lighting my bike up like a Christmas tree.

I was a few blocks from home and noticed the headlight seemed rather dim. It became darker and darker as I approached the parkway. By the time I crossed under Nicollet, I had almost no light. I hadn't recharged it for a few days. I have a bad habit of overcharging the light- I think. It has a NiMH rechargeable battery pack- and a trickle charger. It is not an intelligent charger by any stretch, and overcharging can shorten the lifespan of the battery. It truly is a dumb charger. It will simply let you destroy the battery. Normally when I charge it, I use the charger on a timer, but still- it is all guesswork. I had never run out of juice before. The past few mornings I'd only needed maybe fifteen minutes of light. Today I would need it all the way to the river.

I hopped onto the path, rather than the road. For some reason, it seemed safer than the road for riding without a headlight. The trouble was, there were all sorts of other bikes without headlights on the path- and dog walkers. I was hoping for the best regarding storm debris on the trail. Eventually I made it to the river, slightly behind my normal schedule.

As I headed along the river there was more pre-dawn sunlight, and I could see we would have an amazing sunrise. After I crossed 35 E, I passed within a few feet of a young deer and its mother (I presume). At the last second, they ran into the brush. East of downtown, the sun started peeking out above the bluff. I snapped a few photos, and resumed my commute riding at a relaxed pace, passing by a homeless man sleeping on top of one of the picnic tables near the Lafayette Bridge. I could see a ribbon of headlights as Warner Road wound around the cement plant. The temperature was perfect. The sky looked like something from a Maxfield Parish painting. Best of all, it is Friday. It took an extra fifteen minutes to arrive at work, but it was worth it.