This morning, for the 170th time this year, I rode to work. It was a chilly 26 degrees on that ride to work. On the ride home, just after turning south onto Crowley Road from Sycamore School Road, I reached my 2010 riding mileage goal, 7,500 miles. 4,768 of those miles were from commuting to work.

It became the first year of my adult life that I rode more miles on bicycles than I drove in motor vehicles. It’s a trend I want to continue.

I love my Bebop pedals. It seems unlikely that I’ll ever use anything else. And Bebop pedals are durable. I’ve used them for over five years and never had to replace a single set.

But, with Bebops, all the moving parts are in the cleats. And they do wear. They eventually get to where they won’t stay clipped in. A straight pull away from the pedal will unclip them. And it’s 50 bucks a pair to replace them!

The cleats use spring loaded dogs, front and rear, to clip into the pedals. It turns out, these springs fatigue, and that’s what makes them stop holding. You can take a screwdriver, put it against the cleat dogs from outside, and push hard enough against the dogs to bend the springs, opposite of the direction they usually bend, and the cleat will work perfectly again.

I ran across that technique in this old forum thread. I had a cleat on my commuting sandals stop holding this week, so I tried out that technique today, and the cleat is now working perfectly again. I don’t know how long it will last, but as expensive as those cleats are, it seems well worthwhile. I’m glad I saved the last pair of Bebop cleats I replaced.

I rode to work all five days again this week. I have ridden to work my last 21 work days. It was a windy week, especially tough riding home Wednesday evening against a 30 mph south wind, then turning around and riding to work Thursday morning against a 25 mph north wind.

I stopped by the Fort Worth Bicycles Inc on the way home Thursday to pick up some bar tape. With City Cyclist closed, Bicycles Inc is now the closest shop to my commute route, a little over a mile west of it. It’s not a very recumbent friendly place, but they do keep the place well stocked with bicycle parts.

I finally finished rigging the XStream today and did my first ride on it this afternoon. I rode 11.8 miles. I would have ridden further if the right bottom bracket bearing hadn’t migrated south for the winter. I’m used to seeing q-rings wobble up and down as I ride, but seeing them wobble back and forth was a bit disconcerting.

The XStream looks a bit different than when it arrived.

It followed me home from Greg’s place.