Rainy Days and Mondays...

Two quick tips today.

Tip one: If you ever have to rethread your shift cable through the barrel adjuster screw at the der, say you had to put a new one on the bike, the screw that is, but want to reuse your old cable and the cable has started to unravel after you removed the crimp end don't try to force it through the screw. You'll just cause the cable to fray even more and end up needing to replace the whole cable most likely. Instead, take a small bit of plumber's teflon tape, available at any lumber yard, and give a quick twist around the end of the cable. You can then easily slip the cable through the new adjuster screw with the tape acting to both bind the cable to itself as well as lube the passage through that tiny little hole.

Tip two: If you want to mount your GPS to your bike, but don't want to pay for the GPS mounting kit from the manufacturer, zip ties are your friends, as shown below.

Of course, this depends on your model of GPS, but most come with some sort of clip system to attach the gizmo to yourself. Use that to mount to the bike. With my Garmin Colorado, I removed the carabiner clip from the plastic doo-hicky that attaches to the back of the unit. I then zip tied the doo-hicky to the stem and handlebars with just a bit of old tube between plastic and stem to keep it nice and snug and quiet. Bam - cheapskate's GPS mount.

And here's a random picture of the bus floor.

Eventually I will get around to discussing tools every commuter should have, as well as my preferred clothing for commuting as I prepare for this:

*Image by J Mabry, who happened to be walking into the building at the exact time that I arrived that moment. It was well below zero and he blames the temps on the picture being so out of focus. I, on the other hand, have no excuses.