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A dirt commute

George Privon — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 20:37:28 +0000

I had resolved to ride my bike to work today. As I was getting ready, I decided to try something new. The result was a commute which generally looked like this:

Sometimes the trail was much harder to see and covered with downed trees. I spent about half the ride on roads and the other half on sections of the Rivanna Trail. In the 1+ hour commute I certainly didn’t set any speed records. But if the cuts on my arms and legs are any evidence, it was an adventure!

Sadly, probably not one that I will do frequently as it took me about 2-3x longer than commuting on the road, but it certainly made for a fun Saturday ride.

Tire damage

George Privon — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 00:31:22 +0000

Last week I had a little incident on my bicycle which resulted in a punctured tire. I haven’t had a chance to look at the tire until recently, and was surprised to find that it wasn’t simply a pinch flat in the tube. There was a hole in the sidewall too! (This caused a few more blown tubes as I had missed the hole when checking the tire).

So, even if I’d had a spare tube that night, it might not have done any good since the new tubes just kept popping.

Ill prepared

George Privon — Wed, 26 May 2010 13:42:48 +0000

Yesterday I finally talked myself into commuting to work on my bicycle. My first two years in Charlottesville I think I biked to work roughly half the time. In the last year, I’ve done it only a handful of times. Having access to a parking lot sure makes you lazy.

I had been meaning to get back into commuting to work and did so yesterday. Kinda.

The ride to work in the morning went well, no issues and I didn’t feel too horribly out of shape for biking up hills with a backpack on (I need a lighter laptop!). So far so good. After work I rode over to meet some friends for trivia night and to wrap up discussion on this year’s Huskey Research Exhibition. Also went fine.

Around 10pm we concluded trivia (coming in 8th place out of at least double that number of teams) and headed out. Less than a half kilometer after getting on my bike I felt a stiff jar, heard a loud pop, and then a short hiss as all the air leaked out of my front tire.

I immediately stopped the bike and gave the tire a quick inspection.. no sign of damage. But the tube was definitely flat.

Ordinarily I would have pulled off the tire, replaced the tube and continued on my merry way. But, as I was preparing to leave the house in the morning I thought “Oh, I should grab the spare tube”, then thought “Nah, I’ve never had a flat while commuting, it’ll be ok”. My commuting incidents are usually more spectacular than a flat tire, so I didn’t bring the tube.

Oops.

Fortunately a friend was able to pick me up and drive me home, so it ended up alright. I will certainly think twice next time I consider leaving the spare tube at home..

I remember now…

George Privon — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 14:00:52 +0000

Around 11:00 last night I was in my office packing my bike panniers and suiting up for the bike ride home, when I was wondering why I had refused the ride home a friend had offered me.. It was fairly cool out, and definitely dark. The ride home would have been much quicker, warmer, and easier than bicycling. But, for some reason I opted to bicycle.

About halfway home, I remembered why I ride…

.. It’s for the long uphill section where, for twenty seconds, there are no cars… you have the road to yourself. The only thing you can hear is your own breathing. The only thing you can see is the small patch of road ahead illuminated by your light.

And then, you turn off your light and you see the highway stretching ahead, lit by the moon.

Bike MS Ride Summary

George Privon — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 14:58:54 +0000

26-27 Sept was the 2009 Bike MS event. I wrote briefly about this fundraiser in the past. Thank you to all who donated!

The morning got off to an interesting start, with cool weather and rain on the drive from Charlottesville to Buchanan (site of the race). However, the weather looked ok as we pulled into town. We did the final registration, then hopped on our bikes just in time of the final (delayed) start. There weren’t very many people riding, some having started during the previous wave, others completely bailing on the event (out of 80 who signed up, only 30 actually showed up).

Andre, Charles and I did a 50 mile loop, while the others did a 25 mile ride. I won’t go into the gory details, suffice to say it was cool weather (mid 50s) and rainy for most of the ride. That made for some interesting riding. We briefly got lost (due to my inability to read signs ) which tacked on another 6 miles, but hey, what’s a charity ride without getting lost?

There were plenty of rest stops along the way with food and drink. The ride was quite well supported! I hadn’t done a 50 mile ride in at least a year, but I managed to make it through, probably due in large part to the frequent “refueling” points along the way.

Once we finished the ride, we were treated to a nice fried chicken dinner! Despite the rain and cold I had a great time. I’m definitely looking to go back next year to ride and support the MS Society.

Support the MS Society!

George Privon — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 17:38:53 +0000

In a bit over three weeks, I will be riding in the “Best of the Blue Ridge” Bike MS ride. As part of this, my team I will be raising money for the MS Society. The team is primarily composed of members of the Astronomy Department here in Charlottesville, and we have named ourselves the Orange and Blue Stragglers (Orange and Blue being the UVa colors, and Blue Stragglers being an interesting open problem in astronomy). We will be doing the 50 mile ride on Sept 26, and have each pledged to raise at least $250! Please help us reach this goal.

Donations of any size are appreciated!

Click here to donate!

Bikes bikes bikes

George Privon — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 17:16:29 +0000

The 2009 Tour de France is now under way, having just wrapped up the 9th stage. The race is still pretty tight and will probably stay so until the race hits the Alps in a week. I’ve managed to keep tabs on most of the stages, watching them live on the internet or replays in the evening. It’s been a pretty good race so far.

Correspondingly, I have taken it upon myself to do some needed maintenance on my bicycles. My Giant OCR-3 is now in pieces in the living room, mostly re-greased and ready to go, but with a few minor things to do before putting it back together. I’ve also given my XC mountain bike a once-over and it is mostly ready, but is having a persistent issue with the headset. Needless to say, my hands have been covered in bike grease for several of the past few evenings. It’s been good times.

But, I’ve also been riding bikes, not just disassembling them. I’ve done some of the usual commuting to work in addition to getting out and mountain biking once a week around McCormick Observatory. It’s great to have a bit of suitable biking terrain right there next to the office.

Easter & Post-Easter

George Privon — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 00:05:31 +0000

I had a pretty varied Easter yesterday… did a little bit of everything. I dusted off my road bike and did a 21 mile ride with Andre through the rolling hills South of Charlottesville. It was a nice ride, certainly doable, but a bit of a workout. After that we had a BBQ at my place and watched the 2009 Paris-Roubaix. It was a good race, unfortunately lacking a sprint finish in the velodrome in Roubaix. The evening was rounded out grading and a movie with Aleya. All in all a fairly relaxing weekend.

Today has been fairly uneventful.. After staying up late finishing the grading, I slept in. When I checked my email I was greeted with a mini-flood of emails from students asking about labs. Must be a deadline today The afternoon has class as usual. I must admit, I’m very much looking forward to the summer so I can focus on research for the next few years!

But now, time to get some homework done for tomorrow…

Memorial Day Ride

George Privon — Mon, 26 May 2008 21:30:53 +0000

One of the great things about Charlottesville is the outdoors activities which are easily accessible. This includes mountain biking, and suitable trails are scattered around town. My favorite place is Walnut Creek Park, which is just south of town off Old Lynchburg Rd. Fortunately, it is only ~10 miles away from my house…

So, this morning I headed out around 7:45 to hit the trails. After the 10 mile “warm-up” ride to get to Walnut Creek, I started by bombing down one of my favorite trails which features some nice technical turns as well as a stream crossing. Nearly two hours and 14 miles later, I emerged from the woods, almost totally wiped out. There are some great trails down there, most built by the Charlottesville Area Mountain Bike Club I believe. Lots of good climbs and rocky patches keep things interesting.

Almost 4 hours after I left, I returned home, only dragging a bit though. 35 miles under my belt and a great start to the week.

Bikes

George Privon — Mon, 19 May 2008 00:41:13 +0000

Bikes

Originally uploaded by GeorgePrivon

Here’s a nice shot of bicycles for you to enjoy. I took this near the downtown market in Charlottesville yesterday. More pictures from the Market yesterday are available here.

Shot with a Nikon 35mm camera with Ilford PanF 50 film.