When it comes to computers, I find myself to be fairly agnostic. I’m neither Mac nor PC nor Linux nor Unix nor [insert your favorite OS].

I’ve worked with enough types of operating systems throughout my engineering career to consider them simply as utilities to accomplish a task. I don’t have much alliance around one specific platform or another. Sure, there are some versions that do things more elegantly than others, but I truly feel that “content is king” and don’t concentrate on the tool.

That said – I have been waiting for an update to Apple’s Macbook Pro systems and am now considering the purchase of one as a next computer with their recent announcement. The sucky part – they are ridiculously expensive compared to other laptop of equal capability. But, the Mac OS is something that offers some specific functionality – especially around image editing and digital media creation – that I am wanting to get into as a hobby. The purchase may result in total depletion of every penny returned to me by the Federal and State governments but that is why money exists.

This is what I was able to contempt during Tuesday’s afternoon ride. Here are the stats:

  • Tuesday, April 13th, 2010
  • start time: 5:30pm
  • distance: 24.2 miles
  • speed: 17.7 mph
  • duration: 1:22
  • 2010 odometer: 262

This is the lovely view of a backyard for 6 months of the year for any Minnesota pool owner.

The big challenge during the ride involved the wind. There was a VERY brisk wind out of the east that was humming along at around 20 mph. That is near my limit to ride, as anything over that velocity sets up a miserable experience on the bike. I’m fairly hardcore when it comes to riding – but I have my limits and will not suffer through 25 mph winds for a few moments in the saddle.

I chose my route with hopes to avoid as much direct headwind as possible and either have the wind behind me or acting upon me as a cross wind. Since the wind was from the east, there was no way for me to adjust the route so that I had the wind at my back on the second half of the ride. That would have involved me riding toward downtown Minneapolis – which is not worth the effort. Instead, I headed directly south to Lake Minnetonka and snaked my way back north to Long Lake and through Medina before returning home. This maximized the time that the wind was at either my left or right side and gave me only 5 or 6 miles that I had to face it directly. All of the miles with a headwind were stacked at the end of the ride. The majority of the other miles offered a strong cross wind that had me leaning my bike from side to side in order to prevent myself from blowing over.

My New Steed™ behaves interestingly in the cross wind. It responds much more dramatically than the Old Steed™ and I find myself needing to make large corrections to keep moving in a straight path down the road. I recall a ride with my brother where we crossed a bridge over the Mississippi and I felt/heard a vibration noise. Once I got across the bridge, I stopped, thinking that something was broken on the bike. Instead, I’m sure it was the cross wind we encountered over the river howling through the wheels – with my suspicions mostly on the bladed spokes. The newer bikes have great aerodynamic profiles that slice through the air when moving forward, but also create a much larger cross section from either left or right side.

Whatever the impact, riding in the wind sucks for any rider. I’m a masochist on the bike, but I do have my limits. Tuesday afternoon got mighty close.