Gravel Is Out, Linoleum Is In

Remember when all the cool people were riding on gravel?  Well, it looks like riding drop-bar bicycles over tiny pebbles is over.  According to Strava, your living room is the new gravel:

Indeed, in January of this year over 15% of Strava dorks uploaded indoor rides:

While this may sound like a lot to you, as a Strava user myself it seems incredibly low to me, because I haven't seen anyone log an actual outdoor ride since at least October.  No, it's all Zwift rides now.  "Wow, I wonder what so-and-so is up to," you think, and then you check the route map of their latest ride and see that like 90% of it is underwater:

Alas, following people on Strava now is basically like eating grated parmesan: you think you're getting the real thing, but a distressing percentage of it is just artificial filler.

Of course, just as I've become a total Strava wanker, I'd no doubt be Zwifting too if only it weren't for my living arrangement, which is probably the only thing keeping me honest.  See, space is at a premium here in the Tenovo household, and I'm not about to drag a trainer into the mix.  I'm sure if I lived in the suburbs I'd be Zwifting my life away in the basement on a daily basis, partially because I'd have the space, and partially because when you move out of New York City you're not allowed to take your pride beyond the city limits.  (I do have a little pride left, though the space required to store it is yet another reason I can't fit a trainer in my home.)  As of now, however, I simply pretend I'm taking a bold ethical stance.

Then again, it's not too hard to ride outside all winter long here.  Single-digit temperature days are fairly rare, and in the event of snow the city salts the streets like a pretzel and plows them more or less immediately.  This means that at the very least I can at least manage a ride down to Central Park, which is what I did today:

We'd gotten some light snow this morning, but prior to that it had been warm and rainy, meaning the trails would be far too soggy.  So I set out on the Milwaukee for an urban ride instead:

As you may recall, the rear hub on the Milwaukee is rather draggy.  So before setting out I solved the problem by ditching those wheels and putting on different ones:

In fact, they're the very same ones the bike arrived with in the first place--Shimano RS21s, a cheap pair of wheels they don't seem to make anymore:

I've abused them on various bikes since then and they've given me nothing to complain about.

I also replaced the brake pads, since I just happened to have two fresh pairs I must have bought some time ago in an uncharacteristic fit of preparedness.  The upshot of all this labor is that the bike stops, the chain doesn't sag, and as of now I can even access more or less all my gear combinations!

I'm ready for winter.