Duct Tape, WD-40, and a Glimmer of Dawn

Yellow Duct Tape. For the STYLISH Cyclist With Yellow Rain Pants!

While some castigate Wally World as an evil influence on society, I went shopping there on Friday because they have yellow duct tape, which none of our local hardware stores carry. They also sell WD-40 in individual cans, whereas Lowes wants me to buy a two-pack. I like WD-40 as much as the next guy, but I figure a can twice as big as I need is sufficient. I really don’t NEED TWO cans, each of which is twice as big as I need. What’s more, they sell better quality bike locks than my LBS.

Anyway, I put the yellow duct tape to good use in preparation for the day in the future in which it rains again. My eldest daughter said I’d be tacky to tape up my yellow rain pants with black or gray tape. I have concluded that rain pants need to be more robust if you’re going to wear them to ride around on slick ice than if you’re just tootling about in a rainstorm like a rainy weather dilettante, but we have few enough ice storms in North Texas that there seems little rush to get more solid items. Still, one needs to consider the time one returns home again.

That Lock Worked EVEN BETTER With a Few Shots of WD-40

This morning, I brought my newly acquired can of WD-40 along to work and applied it to my newly unfrozen U-lock. This week’s forecast is for spring-like weather, which means the rapidly shrinking pile of ice next to the bike rack should disappear before our next chill. It also means that the WD-40 application may not be strictly necessary. Well, in any event, it makes the lock smell good.

The Pile of Ice Left Next to the Bike Rack is Looking Pretty Yucky and May be Gone Tomorrow

What was really notable this morning was the faint red glow of the morning sun. I only left a few minutes later than usual, but it seemed much brighter and earlier than last week even as I first turned onto the road. Checking a source for sunrise/sunset times showed that sunrise is only 15 minutes earlier than in the darkest mornings of January. However, fifteen minutes combined with a clear sky, gave the first real glimmering of dawn this winter during the early parts of the morning commute. It isn’t bright enough to turn the headlight off, but we’re making real progress at last.

SPEAKING of WD-40, comments about its lubrication properties may have inadvertently led me to a new bike chain lube. It MIGHT even lead Rantwick to a better winter solution than what he confessed to. I also found a second potential solution that promises true 1000 mile lubrication life between applications, but that sounds a LITTLE TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE.

Soon, I'll See Sunrise on the Commute Again