Bike Apps - Are They Useful? or Amusing?

  Bike Repair Free

http://www.bikerepairapp.com/

This seems like a really cool app. This is a recount of my first exposure to it.

After a friendly disclaimer about not being responsible for over-tightened or loose nuts and bolts the app opened with a menu of bike topics. I was particularly curious about what was included in “What to Wear”.

Eureka! No more guessing about what ensemble to en-robe myself in when the temperatures change.

Well now isn’t that just kitschy? For a mere $3.99 I can unlock everything in the app. But right now only the wheels section is unlocked.

Let’s head on over to the wheels section to see if the information is valid enough to make me want to spend my hard-earned cash on the rest.

"Wheels" is under the “Tips and Tricks” header. Upon opening the wheels app I have 17 troubleshooting options to choose from. Since I just ordered new Mavic wheels let’s take a look at what is covered by “My Mavic rear wheel makes a howling sound when freewheeling at high speed”

 First a brief description of what the problem could be. Then a description of the solution. And then, when you press the “step by step” button, a full color image of the wheel with instructions is revealed. Yowza. Pretty impressive. Makes me wonder just what might be revealed in the “what to wear” section (ROFLMBO).

Let’s look at one more solution in the wheels section. “How do I move one cassette to another wheel?” Same sort of deal as with the screaming wheel. Description of the problem, solution, and illustrated, step-by-step remedy. Whoa. What’s that? "Related Tips and Tricks"? Ah. Another teaser. 

I so wanted to see why the cassette was getting rusty. But alas, it will cost $3.99 to access that jewel.

Just for fun let’s open another section from the “Tips and Tricks”. How about Miscellaneous?

I clicked on each tip but all of the tricks were locked. You guessed it, $3.99. However, in my limited opinion, every one of the miscellaneous issues could be fixed with duct tape.

What about the Section header “Guides”? Looks like only the Wheels section can be accessed again. Pretty much what you would expect.

Instead let’s bravely wander over to the “miscellaneous” tab again. Hehe.

Well what do we have here? A “59$ Bike Repair jersey” I guess we now know what to wear, we just need $3.99 to unlock it.

There is this cool, visual glossary available with the free app. 

And a section to keep the history of your bike components and maintenance. Only one bike can be entered in the free app. To add more - $3.99.

#freebikeapps  #bikerepairfree  #miscellaneous  #unlockeverything

Should I unlock the App for $3.99

Eight Simple thoughts on Friendship

I didn’t ride this past weekend. It wasn’t because the weather was wet or falling temperatures, anyone who knows me knows that doesn’t stop me. Instead, I chose to spend over twenty hours in a car to drive to North Carolina. I was only a little reluctant about the long trek, mostly because I wouldn’t get to lay my head on a pillow until 3 a.m. The kiddo’s big week at school was this weekend, too. She was part of the crew for the major production. So I stayed up late Thursday night to see Beauty and the Beast, the musical, got up early to go to work Friday, stayed till after 4 o’clock, and finally got on the road about 5:30 p.m.

http://martimocahbee.com/

http://martimocahbee.com/

This all came to pass because a week or so go I was hanging with a friend of mine, you have met her in previous posts - her nickname is Trekkie. In a whim of spontaneity, she and I decided we would take this road trip. I had seen a Facebook post that one of our mutual friends was going to be showing her pottery at the Carolina Designer Craftsmen Guild. Marti Mocahbee is her name and we had not seen her for fifteen years or more. (If you like pottery, or are in the market for a beautiful, handmade piece, be sure to look her up HERE.)

I am not going to tell you all the details about our trip, driving from Cincinnati to Raleigh all night long is a not-so-fun adventure. November means the sun sets early and the deer are very active on the dark, rural highways. Have you ever driven along a highway and seen eyes reflecting back at you from the side? Creepy!!!

Rather, I want to tell you my thoughts on friendship and maybe impart some genuine thoughtfulness. 

Now for The Reluctant Cyclist’s thoughts on Friendship:

1.   Friends are a priority.
2. If for some reason you think about an old friend, take that to mean you are supposed to reconnect. Whether something happens that makes you think of them, you hear their name mentioned somewhere, or you see an advertisement that they will be exhibiting at a craftsman’s guild 500 miles away, it is a sign. 
3. You don’t necessarily need to drive 500 miles, a simple phone call may be sufficient, but there’s nothing quite like being there.
4. When those old friends are all women the conversation will eventually be about hot flashes.
5.  Real friends may change addresses, partners, or hair styles, but they never really change. We all have short hair now, two of us have a different spouse, one of us is a grandma, and we all live in different houses than we did when we met. But the conversation picks up right where it left off, usually about the other neighbors from the old street.
6. It’s a good idea for old friends to start new traditions.
7. You may never know the reason you met, but something would be missing had you never met. If we would not have moved onto Worthington Ave. way back when we would not have known the quirky circle of friends who lived there. And, not only would we have missed out, but our kids would have never known the “best times” of growing up.
8.  Middle-aged women driving long distances need to make many stops.

Now that I’ve fed you all my cheesy thoughts on friendship, the true test came as Trekkie and I turned for home. We were once again confined to the interior of a Subaru Crosstrek for 500 miles. 

250 channels on the satellite radio can’t thwart the monotony of North Carolina to Ohio. The dilemma was that we started to eat and drink out of boredom. Of course the more we drank the more we had to stop. And then, true story – we thought maybe listening to a football game would help the time pass. In our effort to find the New York Giants game on the radio we missed our turn onto the AA Highway in Kentucky and added nearly an hour to an already excruciating drive. We never found the game and finished the drive listening to “Forensic Files” on HLN.

Now, I guess Trekkie and I need to head to the west coast…

#martimocahbeepottery #AAHighway #friendship #trekkie #thereluctantcyclist

Transportation Routes are Different than a Walk in the Park

Cincinnati has an issue on the ballot in a couple of days to create a charter amendment to fund Parks with very little oversight and no input form the people who live there. We would all love to see more funding for parks and I am not going to get into the political, or even financial, shortcomings of this issue. I want to talk about the multi-use trails that are included in this proposal.

We talk about providing safe avenues for pedestrians and cyclists. Cincinnati has many families living on the outskirts of the city and in some of the surrounding suburbs who do not own a vehicle. These trails and walkways are not a “walk in the park” to them, they are a very necessary form of travel into the city center and back home. Whether by choice or life situation, these citizens need mobility.

The city should not be lumping bike and pedestrian routes into an issue for park funding. Any infrastructure that is to be installed to move people throughout the region should be considered a function of the Department of transportation. Since when did walking or riding a bike to work or school become recreational?

We have sped up our city streets so much in past years that the safety of students and adults alike is threatened. That is not a park board issue. Wasson Way and River Trail West are means of safe transportation for people, just like River Road, Westwood Ave., and Columbia Parkway. Stop treating people who prefer not to, or cannot afford to be a part of our car-centric society as if they don’t count. We vote, too.

I will let someone else discuss the ridiculousness of giving all the decision making power for such issues to the Mayor. 

#issue22 #rivertrailwest #wassonway #cincinnatibybike