SpringfieldCyclist.com

Well, it’s here…..that time of year when I officially start getting grumpy.  Daylight Savings Time has ended and we’ve “fallen back”.  That point really hit home for me last night when I was firing up the Green Egg to cook supper.  It was dark enough that I had to go down to the garage and raid my bike light battery stash to put fresh batteries in my grill light so I could see how done the catfish we were grilling was.

With the changing of the clocks, my commute takes on an entirely different perspective.  I’ve gotten pretty used to riding to work in the dark, and the past two mornings have been so nice because I’ve been hitting the road by about 6:45, which puts me out when the sun is just beginning to peek over the horizon.  I love that time of morning….there’s nothing better than the bright sun kissing buildings and trees as it comes up.  When you couple that with the light traffic that time of day, riding to work is a fabulous experience.  I need to make myself stop to take advantage of some of the photo opportunities I’ve been seeing.

Riding home in the evening, however, is an entirely different matter.  I know it won’t be long before it will be full-on dark as I leave the parking lot.  Right now, I’m riding home in the twilight so it isn’t as bad as it will be in another month.   It also seems like any kind of change (getting dark earlier, rain, ect.) causes more traffic for me to have to deal with.  Interestingly, the worst area of my entire homeward commute is on Bennett Street between Glenstone and Oak Grove.  I’ve decided that a lot of drivers use it to bypass the Glenstone & Sunshine intersection because once I get past Enterprise Street the number of cars thins out.  I also noticed a steady stream of cars last night on Eastgate.  By the time I got across Sunshine, I was more than ready to be out of the traffic.

Let me pass along a cycling tip…..

The computer on my road bike is the oldest one I own.  It’s the original Cateye Enduro that I put on my first bike.  It’s served me very well, it’s simple to use, and over the years I’ve standardized on that particular brand and model.  That way I don’t have to remember how to operate different computers on all my bikes.  Right now, I own three, and need to buy another for Pam’s bike.

 

The problem with this one is it’s getting old and has been slid on and off of it’s mount enough that moisture can get into the contacts.  When that happens, it has a tendency to cut out on me.  I can usually jiggle it a bit and get it to come back on but it’s aggravating.  You can see from the shot below that there is actually a bit of rust forming on the top contact of the mount.

 I was almost to the point of swapping this computer out with the one on my mountain bike when I had an idea.  Why not try a little dab of dielectric grease on this mount?  It can’t hurt and it’s cheap…..

 Well, I’m pleased to report that after a month and lots of wet riding, it’s working like a charm.  I’ve not had the computer cut out once since I cleaned the contacts and coated them with this stuff.  Based on these results, I’m planning to coat the electrical contacts of my lights with it next time I change the batteries since they also have a tendency to corrode and rust.

God bless…

TW

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This entry was posted on November 3, 2009 at 7:01 pm and is filed under bicycle, Bike Commute, Cycling, daylight savings time, Dielectric Grease, Fitness, rain. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.

Tags: bicycle, Bike Commute, cold weather, daylight savings time, Dielectric Grease, Fitness, rain

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