The last three months have been depressingly free of significant biking, but I'm excited to start getting some commuting in next week. Between the improving weather, rising gas prices ($4/gallon is coming) and the beginning of Daylight Savings Time, it's definitely the perfect time to start turning the pedals regularly again.
Last night I finished putting the cranks back on my Trek and cleaned up the cassette on my back wheel. I also took the studded tire off that wheel and replaced it with one of the new Continental tires I purchased a couple weeks back. My gut feeling is that the new tires will be a bit faster than the ones that originally came with the bike, but my recent lack of riding is probably going to completely negate that improvement for a while.
](https://cdn.10centuries.org/saacki/1bb492eb45bf6e972615f96bfad6684e.jpg "Blood blister")
I still need to swap the front tire (without further injuries hopefully!), reroute my ridiculously installed cycling computer sensor wire (didn't know what I was doing the first time around), clean and wipe down everything, and most importantly lube the chain again. Lower priorities include extending my front fender so that my bottom bracket and drive train can get some additional protection since they're still exposed to road splash. I know that it's pretty common to use part of a milk jug to extend bike fenders, but I have some heavy duty vinyl material that I want to try first.
At any rate things are shaping up on the cycling front and commuting should resume Monday.