The Oracle of Apollo
Snippets from the life of Apollo Lee

So, today, I took the bike in for the third day in a row, had the final derailleur put on the rear, and noticed that it still skipped gears when I stood up to shovel. At the last minute, the mechanic decided we should probably change the freewheel, too. The last three days, I paid for the following: rear derailleur ($25), right shifter ($20), freewheel ($16), mirror ($12), light ($22). That’s more than $100 spent on a bike originally bought for $375.

I got it home, went upstairs, changed into my kit, and went for my 25 miler. It didn’t skip at all. Looks like $100 does the trick. Boy, does it ever do the trick. I broke my all-time average speed record again. This time, I added a fifth of a mile per hour and flirted with a 30 kph average speed. It was quite fun to ride with the triathletes and steam past them on a bike completely inadequate for any kind of mileage.

Today: 26.27 mi in 1:24:43 (18.6 mph avg / 30.5 mph max)

Today, I was talked to by security. They didn’t want my kind around. They wanted me to leave immediately. Not because of something I said, but because of how I looked.

This afternoon, I set out on my 24 mile ride around 5:15. I decided to do one of my frequent loops. My route took me down Middlefield Road in Menlo Park through Palo Alto, out Channing Road and Embarcadero over US 101, down Bayshore past the Google campus, over the freeway again and up Bayshore/Miramonte to Foothill Expressway, and home.

One of my timing splits on which I gauge how fast I am on this route is the parking lot outside the Google π building — not adjacent to the building, but all the way against the street on the far side. I pulled into the parking lot, calculated out my miles, wrote them down in my Palm, and was getting ready to shove off when I got a phone call. Ten seconds later, Google security rolled up on me. The security guy in the truck made it known that I was absolutely not welcome there. I assured him that I wasn’t doing anything awry, that I had taken a phone call and would be gone in about 45 seconds. Some employee at Google called security and told them to get me off their property. Then, I realized that I’m the stupid one.

I was wearing my purple Yahoo jersey. I didn’t even realize it until the security guy pointed out that I was the “competition”. After assuring him that I don’t work at Yahoo, I shoved away from their parking lot and sprinted down the road. I guess if I stop on the right side of Salado Drive in the future, I should make sure I’m wearing my plain yellow jersey.

After the incident, I set my all-time personal best average speed. I have now averaged 18.4 miles per hour. That’s a good indication that I might be getting my legs back and that I might even be improving.
Today’s ride: 24.32 mi in 1:19:16 (18.4 mph avg / 28.0 mph max)

Sorry about the scare, benevolent Google people. I meant you no harm.