Its a thorn...

... in my back tire. That was the diagnosis on the flat in the back. By lunch time the tire was completely down. Since I would be nervous removing the back wheel of a normal bike to find and fix a flat at home on the weekend I basically bit the bullet and got it fixed in town. There are a three bike shops within walking distance of the office: one that caters to "serious bikers" (i.e. prepare to pay a lot), one that didn't have the greatest reviews on Google Plus, and then there was Griffin Cycles. Gave them a buzz, took the bike over, and 4 hours and 26 dollars later the bike is fixed.

Breaks and a slow leak

Tinkered with the breaks a little more and now the back break feels great, so knock on wood I have that issue licked for the time being.

There's a new issue though. I recently purchased a bike pump as I was noticing, after a month or so of riding, that the back was feeling a little low. I filled up at the local gas station and both the back and the front were down to 35 psi (the tire says keep between 40 and 60). Bike pump arrived and now I check on Sunday evenings the tire pressure and top up if needed. Last night when I attached the pump the gauge read ~20 psi, which was a little worrisome. I inflated to 60 and thought nothing of it. This morning as I'm getting the bike out the front door I give the back tire a squeeze and it feels mushier than I thought it should. Out comes the bike pump and low and behold its below 40 again. Back up to 60 I go and I'm on my way.

By the time I get to work I have to pop up a curb, which I do gently, and it feels like the curb is hitting the rim. Not good. When I'm up in the office I give the back tire a squeeze. Its mushy again. And when I put my weight on the seat and get a good look at the tire it looks like its not fully inflated.

I fear I have a slow leak somewhere. Not fun. Luckily there's a bike maintenance area that includes a tire pump just as you get on the Capital Crescent Trail so (assuming the equipment works) I should be able to fill up on the way home. Finding and patching the tire, however, is going to be more of an issue. I'm dreading taking off the back wheel since I have to worry about power and electronic cables.  I may just punt and take it to the local bike shop here in Bethesda and have them work on it.

Brakes

Still having issues with the back brakes. About once a week I needed to restring the brake caliper so that the brakes would engage. Today I decided to take a more detailed look to see if I could figure out the cause. When I removed the right brake pad I noticed the problem: the pad only covered half the rim (I should have noticed this right away as the inner half the rim was "clean" while the outer had buildup of road gunk). Only half of the pad was getting any work, and it was grinding down faster because of it.

I fiddled with the pad and got it set where it should be, rewired the caliper and all is well for the moment. Since now the bottom half of the pad that wasn't getting used is now the primary contact with the hub I expect to continue to have this issue until its ground down to the level of the top half.

I'm also going to look at replacing the back caliper brakes with a disk brake. The Path+ I rented over the summer had them, as do some of the more recent Capital Bike Share bikes.

The weather has been fantastic the last couple of days. Hopefully spring is here to stay.

"Bicyclists: Still Terrible"

I had an interesting interaction today that reminded me of this Washington Free Beacon article (and this one, and this one too). During my morning commute I cross Rhode Island Ave on R street ( which has a bike lane). Now, I tend to be pretty conservative when riding the bike, especially when I'm on roads / bike lanes; I don't pass anyone going slower unless the road itself is empty, at which point I'll swing wide into the road and pass. For the most part, I'll be content to follow the pack in front of me. I also tend to obey things like stop lights (a rarity among bicyclists I've found).

So this morning when crossing RI Ave the are a number of bikers just ahead of me. One, on a road bike (I'd like to think it was a super-douchy fixed gear job, but I'm probably projecting) is a good 3 or 4 feet right of the bike line, and going substantially slower. One of the nice things about pedal assist is its pretty damn torquey; you can get up to speed quickly. So I pass this guy (lets call him the Ginger Prick); again, he's a good 3 to 4 feet out of the lane. Next stop sign I stop (there are a couple of people in front of me) and pulls aside and proclaims "YOU KNOW THAT'S CONSIDERED BAD ETIQUETTE."

What is, staying in the bike lane and going past someone way outside of the bike lane who is creeping along?

He then cuts in front of me he proceeds to squeeze pass the next two people in front of him who were -- unlike he -- actually in the biking lane, while cars are passing on the left, and then promptly blows through two red lights.

Apparently biker etiquette is don't, under any circumstances, pass the Ginger Prick. Live and learn.

I spoke too soon

The crap hit the preverbal fan weather-wise here in DC and I haven't biked in almost 2 weeks. Ice and snow are the issue. The temperatures have never really gotten above freezing so the Capital Crescent Trail is mostly (I assume) an ice-rink.

An update and some stats

I'm getting close to a month of riding and everything is going fairly well so far. The seat cushion I bought has been very helpful, but I lost it during one of the rides so I had to purchase a new one. I'll make sure it has a tighter fit.

I was noticed I was more hunched over riding the Prox than I had been with the rental bike, and I was starting to feel it a bit in my lower back. It never occurred to me that I could adjust the height of the handlebars. So I finally did and its made a world of difference.

The back break is still very mushy, and gets looser and looser by the day. I've had to restring the cable break a number of times on the back calipers, but after a few days of riding the back brake becomes almost useless. I'm probably doing something wrong; I'll have to do a little research into setting up brakes. It looks like the frame is set up to use disk brakes, so I may investigate upgrading to those sometime in the future.

Some stats: 

Since January the 19th I've done 16 round trips with the Prox, saving ~$122 (assuming I would have metroed instead) or ~$100 assuming I would have metroed to work and rental biked home) and have traveled ~360 miles.

Some new gear

I'm not used to actually maintaining a bike so its time I started purchasing some items:

• In case of flats: Genuine Innovations G2628 Ultraflate Plus Tire Inflator and XLC Tire Repair Patch Kit.
• A nice case to sit on the back rack (the rack is a little smaller than a "normal" bike): Axiom Robson LX Trunk Bag (with neat fold-down panniers).
• Black soft gel relief bike saddle seat cushion pad cover (because when compared to the rental bike seats, the one on the Prox leave certain body parts numb).