Anyone know why automobiles get such worse fuel economy in the winter than in the summer? I know my diesel van gets worse mileage because of the winter mix of diesel, but why do regular gas automobiles get such worse mileage?

I go to this website The Clymb every few days. Right now they have a bunch of cycling stuff cheap on it. I remember when they used to sell one item at a time and now they have dozens of different manufactures. It is a member’s only site, but only takes a minute to sign in, just an email address and password. They have Crank Brothers Candy pedals in the bike section. Last week they had Vittoria tubulars, but I didn’t see them today. I get $25 if someone I refer eventually buys something. They sell lots of other stuff other than cycling related too, mostly camping, climbing, hiking, etc. Here is the link.

Does anyone have any leads where to get some Clement PDX tubulars? Seems like they are sold out just about everywhere.

The weather here in Kansas got cold recently. Anyone know what you body does to compensate or adjust for cold weather. I know when you go to altitude, your body kicks in to make more red cells, but what changes occur in our bodies, so 40 degrees seems freezing cold in the summer and fairly warm in the dead of winter.

I did a blood test a week ago and then had my finger pricked and my hemoglobin measured just a few days later. How can my hemoglobin change 1.5 points in just a few days? I’d assume I would feel a lot better riding with a hemoglobin reading of nearly 17 g/gL.

I’m considering racing cross this weekend. There is a race down in Tulsa on Sunday. There is also the Iowa State Cross Championships near Des Moines.

This is from my Honda Insight. It gets around 50 mpg during the summer and now is is over 20% less. On premium gas no less.

It’s nearly 2 am and I’m pretty beat. Another day where time seemed to get away. I realized yesterday that I wasn’t going to have any luck getting longer wires for the Di2 I was putting on my cross bike. I decided that I couldn’t drive 3 or 4 hours to a race without that bike, so I spent most of the night spicing the existing wires and adding length to both the rear derailleur wire and the wire from the shifters to the bottom bracket.

It really didn’t take all that long, I watched a movie with some friends in the middle of it. I have to admit that it turned out great. Each Shimano wire only had two small wires. I had to go over to “The Shack” and get some shrink fit tubes to cover the soldering unions, but other than that, it was pretty quick and simple. I added 8 cm to the chain stay wire and 15 cm to the common wire to the union box.

Eventually, my bike is going to be all internally routed. I don’t have the correct seat tube battery or that is what I’d be doing now. Anyway, I didn’t get my bike back together, so I’m skipping the race tomorrow in Iowa and riding with the group from my house at noon. That is, if, I get my bike back together before then. It is supposed to be near 70 tomorrow, but it might be raining. That would be a drag. I’ll see how I feel and how the rest of the day goes before I decide about driving to Tulsa to race on Sunday. It is supposed to in the upper 70’s on Sunday there, which would seem pretty hot racing cross.

Okay, I’m heading to bed. Sorry about the lame post, but that is pretty much all I did today.

I got some extra wire off an old printer cable.

Then, I soldered the wires together after putting the shrink wrap over the wire loosely.

I put small shrink wrap over the individual joints and a bigger piece over the whole exposed area, covering the 4 places I soldered.

I had to add close to 6 inches on one of the wires.

This is the state my bike is in now. Nothing taped on clean or any chain or brakes on either. I’m using an 11 speed chain. It is supposed to shift a lot smoother on the 10 speed cassettes.

The were selling these at Radio Shack. Plus, when you paid they asked if you wanted to donate to the LiveStrong Foundation. I wonder how that is going for those guys?