Bike To Work

And so today marks day one of my summer bike to work saga.

Last year I wanted to bike to work, but two thinigs stopped that. First and foremost my office was, at the time far away from any lockerroom with a shower. There was no way I was going to stop at the gym, change and shower and hen get back on the bike and bike anther mile or so to my office and get sweaty again. Nor was I going to go to my office and be smelly all day. Now my office is within walking distance of the gym so it's on.

The trip is 12.5 miles (half my usual weekend ride). It is mostly up hill. with the last portion being entirely up hill. That portion is about .5 miles but it is not good for someone who really doesn't do too much hills. I expect that within the next 3 weeks or so I will be able yo get up the hill without a drink break. The problem is that it is about a half mile from another longer but less steep hill. So all that back to back hill climbing is not good riht now.

We had a little incident this morning though. I went off course to attempt not having to cross a road, when I rn outof road. Apparently some overgrown bushes had cut into the shoulder and rigt beside me was a NJ transit bus. Needless to say I will not be going that way again.

Overall it took me abot 1 hour to make the trip. That is slow by my nomal standards, but then again my normal standards do not include these kinds of hills. I expect to drop these times by end of summer.

Anyway, big props to Maemomapper, GPSlim and a Nokia N800 which I used to map out the route. I will ge the elevation changes a-la-Tour de France.

And for those wondering, this is not an attempt to save on gasoline though by calculations I save at least $4.04 (current price of premium unleaded) per day of biking to work. The plan is for twice weekly trips so the savings on gas work out to bout $10 bucks a week. However, the purchasing of energy food and drink serves to offset some of that savings.

the $80 oil change

You know, up until Feb, I had two 20 year old cars. I do most of the maintenance myself. I do the regular oil changes, fuel filter, spark plugs, distributor, etc. I haven't paid for an oil change in many many years. So yesteday I go to Speedly lube No. 99 to change the oil on a recently aquired Z3. The manufacturer apparently specifies synthetic oil. That joint ran my $80 bucks.

On top of being charged for the oil, they tacked on some 10 buck extra for doing a synth change. Oh did I mention that one jackass there broke my interior door handle and didn't even have the decency to say so? Last time Speedy Lube No. 99 get's my car, either one. Oh and then there was the unasked for car wash. I hand wash my car because I don't think putting a convertible through a car wash is a good idea but there it was on it's way down before I could stop them. Oh and the final straw being they reset the service interval light. Did anyone ask to have the service interval light reset? No. Apparently no one at this place has been told about how the service interval light on BMW's are for things other than oil changes. All I wanted was the oil change and I said so.

Now I'm not sure whether the previous owner had done synth changes before, but given that I'm going to need to change out the oil when the temperatures stay above 60 degrees (in the next month). I'm not happy to think I'll be tossing this oil I just paid for, for a heavier mix and I think I'm going to forgo the synth since as stated I have a 20 year old that has never seen synth oil and runs just fine thank you.

$80 oil change indeed.