I'm back home

...but still VERY busy, catching up on stuff that didn't get done while I was gone and stuff that needs to be done for upcoming projects. I don't know when I'll get time to go through the recordings I made of my various thoughts during the trip, but I hope to do so soon.

In short, Team Type 2 finished Sunday morning, at 7 days, 15 hours and 10 minutes, two whole minutes ahead of the last finishing team in our division. Given that we had one team member and one crew member go into low-blood-sugar-related urgencies, several team and crew members fighting intestinal bugs (at least four shifts of racers went out missing a rider), some severe weather we didn't face last year and a couple of other extra challenges this year, I'm not upset. We learned a lot. Would I do it again? Perhaps. I have some conditions I would place on future participation, and Jenn and I will talk about those in the coming weeks.

Most of the race is a blur for me, but I remember being in absolute awe at what scenery I had opportunity to see out the RV windows, especially in southeastern California and Arizona. We were in the area of Monument Valley part of the time, and I couldn't help but think about geological time and how many centuries it would have taken to create the rock that became Monument Valley, and how many more to remove what had been removed to leave the magnificent sights that remain. I also thought about seeing that rock, over there, and thinking about how a century or so ago one would think in terms of "it's going to take me a week to get to that rock on foot, and I'd better have enough water with me to get there and to my next water source..."

In the short term future, I am:

Moving! We closed on the house less than fourteen hours before leaving for California. The moving party is scheduled for this weekend should anyone reading this in time feel like joining in the celebration. Food and home-made ice cream will be available, as will an assortment of beverages--some adult in nature.

Working like crazy to catch up with various things at the store. I am sure I have an assortment of item descriptions to fine-tune, in addition to doing some repairs that were waiting for my touch.

Getting ready to do RAIN in a few weeks. I was seriously preparing myself to say I wasn't ready, and to offer to drive support for Larry and Ed instead of riding. I've been talked into considering having Jenn on the back of the tandem and going a bit less than twenty miles an hour all the time, but I have to discuss it with Jenn before deciding. 160 miles in one day is simply a long day on the bike in that light. I remember struggling with some grades late in the day, and zooming up others, with no good reason for different performance levels on an hour-by-hour basis. We'll see how the discussion goes this evening...

If I don't have time to make blog entries, I know those of you who care will understand.

Are we ready to RAAM?

Yep, we are all but off to the races!

Final load-out is happening in another hour or so. My gear is already loaded, one of the perks of being a driver of the Rider RV.

It's been a very busy couple of days, to be sure. Tech inspection went very well--only one minor point, and that was a burned-out light bulb in one vehicle's taillight.

Of course, with preparation for something like this, there is always the list of forgotten stuff, stuff that everyone thought Henry was bringing, but Henry thought someone else already had it there, and so on. Part of the "busy" is dealing with that.

Then there was the dinner problem. To be fair, it was a case of inaccurate expectations. The hotel where we stayed in Carlsbad was not equipped nor staffed to deal with sixty hungry riders and crew, so dinner at the hotel didn't work very well. The barbeque I had off-property wasn't bad, but it wasn't the best I'd ever had. It did beat going hungry.

RAAM is about the riders, though. I'm here doing something I do reasonably well to make it so the riders can do their part. They get to show off soon. 2:00 local time this afternoon is race start. Their bikes are ready. Their legs are ready. Their hearts are ready. The "hay is in the barn."

We are ready for RAAM.

California, here I am

It's been a tumultuous couple of days for me. The closing, scheduled for Tuesday morning 8 June at 10:00, almost got pushed back until after my trip. This was not an option, for several reasons, not the least of which being that the seller had all her household belongings packed for travel.

Even a few hours' delay would have killed the deal for me. It was quite the emotional roller-coaster. It did finally happen, though. We closed on the house Tuesday afternoon. It's ours (well we share ownership with the finance company, but...). Jenn and I spent Tuesday night there, and got up far too early (and not early enough) so that we could fly to California Wednesday morning.

Several folks' flights were delayed, so we didn't get as much done Wednesday afternoon as we wanted. I spent some time working with another RV driver on our crew, building her confidence level in the unfamiliar-to-her environment of a vehicle with about four times the shadow size of her normal car. I spent some time later working on the Team Type 1 race wheels--installing Tufo Tubular Rim Tape instead of traditional rim cement and getting the team tires ready.

I spent almost all day building bikes for the race. Several of them desperately needed cleaning, despite team emails to the riders suggesting that they clean their bikes before shipping them for the race. Once the bikes were cleaned, we applied electrical tape panels then reflective tape on the electrical tape (so the reflective tape could be removed later without harming the paint schemes). We replaced a fair number of cables, some chains, a cassette or three, and a tube or two, then added lights as required by RAAM rules.

It took a while to do all this--Team Type 1 racers each have two bikes (road and time-trial styles) and Team Type 2 has road bikes (save for one rider who brought two bikes), for something like twenty-five bikes for three mechanics to build, tune, and kit out for the race.

We had a team meeting later in the evening, and were reminded of the importance of observing several key rules of the race. Some of us were assigned debit cards for specified purchases, we clarified a few other operational issues (showers are inside the RV, instead of a less-than-satisfactory outdoor shower system, for example) and some introductions were made. It's going to be an interesting trip. There will be some photo sessions tomorrow, followed by official inspections over safety issues and a couple of meetings so that RAAM officials can assure themselves that all racers and crew have had opportunity to hear about any changes to the rule book, the route book or anything else they think we need to know.

My mental clock is on some unknown time schedule. It's going on 3:30 EDT as I type this (12:30 in the morning out here), and I'm tired. I'll probably have stuff to edit into this post at some point. I hope I can remember it when I'm in a place to post it...

Count down timers

It's not that I'm anxious or anything.

Really.

As I type this, the closing on our house is a bit more than twenty four hours away.

Our departure for RAAM is a bit less than forty-eight hours away.

Still lots to do before I'm ready for either...

I'm about forty miles short of two thousand logged miles for 2010. I *might* get more than half those miles in tomorrow's errand-running. I may get a few more in on Tuesday, depending on how the timing works on the house closing and other tasks I need to accomplish that day.

I'm afraid the number of bike miles may have to take a lower priority than getting things done quickly, though. I still have lots to do before leaving Wednesday morning. I can't plan to have time to shop for stuff out west, but there will be some stuff I'll have to buy, just because I can't take it on the airplane with me.

Just a few more days...

The anxiety level has been pretty far up there of late, what with the house closing approaching, my trip to support Team Type 2 in RAAM, time away from the store, lots of repairs and new bikes to make happen at the store, getting ready to move as soon as I come back from RAAM, attempting to manage the LBC New Rider Clinics, and whatever else gets tossed on my plate.

There was some question whether the loan would actually happen, but that apparently got resolved today (if it weren't for the very last minute, NOTHING would get done in this country!). The lawyer in whose office the closing is scheduled to happen reported to my realtor that they have a green light for the closing this coming Tuesday.

Wow. Tight timing. No room for delays, no room for performance failures and no room for performance anxiety (or at least no room for it to flourish...).

When I get back, I will have time to get home, change clothes, and get on the bike for the class. I have part of my preparation done now, and will wrap it up over the weekend, during forced breaks from sorting/packing stuff in the house for the move.

I can't wait for July, when I get to prepare for Ride Across Indiana. I figure I have the base miles from my commuting, but I don't have the long miles. I'll have to cram a double-century prep into about three weeks. Fortunately, RAIN is not a double century, and is no tougher to accomplish than some of the local century rides. Hopefully, the annual Madisonville Century will be on the schedule, as it's as good a gauge for me as any.

Which of course reminds me that I have some schedule preparation to do before I leave town...

Back to the checklist!

I just looked at my page on mycyclinglog.com, and realized that I'm about a hundred miles short of two thousand miles for the year. Will I break two thousand before Wednesday morning? I'm sure I'll get there by the end of June.

Even as disappointed as I was with my May mileage count, I still rode more than I drove. Had I found time to ride club rides on Sundays, I would have done better, but getting ready for the upcoming move seemed more important, somehow.

Still lots to do before the weekend...

It's a new month

June is upon us!

Lots of stuff going on for me: The house purchase is starting to look like it might actually happen! There are only a couple of pieces of the puzzle left to assemble (I hope), and most of what's left is out of my hands at the moment. I'm still shepherding as much as I can, and planning for the crunch time to come next week as best I can.

I'm up against a deadline or three, you see. Our closing is scheduled for Tuesday morning. I'll have Tuesday afternoon to change (and repair a couple of) the locks on the house, before we fly out to California Wednesday morning for RAAM. We'll spend Wednesday afternoon, Thursday, Friday and Saturday preparing for our race, which starts Saturday afternoon. Not to worry, I have an assortment of folks set up to do random drive-by inspections at both houses, to make sure nobody burns down either one while we are gone. All the good stuff is already boxed up, anyway, and one would have to go through a LOT of boxes to figure out where it is.

Nothing like a little stress in one's life.

Before I leave town, I have to prepare the lesson plan and working materials for the New Rider Clinic class to happen on the 21st, as I will fly home just in time to get home, change clothes, air up the bike tires and ride to the class. Maybe I'd better have a back-up plan in place for that, too, eh?

The commute was a bit different today, too. Jenn spoke with Bob (owner of Bluegrass Bicycle, and my boss) at the Mayor's Ride on Monday, and their discussion led Jenn to think Bob would find value in looking at our Burley trailer. Since I was riding the Raleigh to work today, anyway (the Ryan seat mesh broke last week, and I'm a bit concerned that it would break worse if I keep riding it before replacing the mesh), I pulled the trailer to work with me. As I was getting ready to go home, I found I had reason to visit my mom for a bit on my way home. Going to her house involves a roughly half-hour addition to my travel time (it's about a half-hour to her place from work, and about an hour home from her place), so I did that. I had removed the headlights from the Raleigh the other day, and had yet to reinstall them, so I needed to leave Mom's in time to get home with some light left.

Mom lives near Long Run Park. Best route home from her house is roughly Aiken Road to Old Henry Road, Avoca Road to Anchorage, then KY146 to Lyndon Lane to Westport Road. Not a bad ride at all, frankly.

Except that Avoca Road is closed to through traffic right now. I figured (rightly, as it turned out) that I could walk whatever section was truly closed, so I rode past the closure signs. Apparently, some of the embankment supporting one edge of the road (beside a railroad track that serves the quarry operations off Old Henry Road) failed--there is a stretch of pavement two or three feet wide and forty or fifty feet long that is six inches or more below road grade. I can see why they would not want motor vehicles to pass each other along there!

And, yes, I got home before dark!

Bird web cam

Web cam feeds can be tedious! Even so, some have glorious moments to show. This one, for example. It's a nest cam, showing a mating pair of American Bald Eagles and their young. Neat that someone was able to get the cam there, and that the Eagles are ignoring it. The baby bird isn't overly pretty to my eyes, but the parents are doing their part anyway. Maybe it's not about looks...

On selling utility cycling

I often link to Copenhagenize.com. I enjoy reading Mikael's comments. I think he is right with many of his opinions regarding how to sell cycling as an alternative to motoring. Mikael's view is that he rides because it's quicker than driving. Riding, for him, is done in whatever clothing he's wearing at the moment, or with minimal changes to what clothing he's wearing at the moment. Riding, to him, is done in street shoes, on flat pedals (at least a lot of the time). It's even--gasp!--easier to ride than to drive.

On a recent post, he quotes one of his readers who put forth a slightly different view. Brian Glover's point is that cycling for transport isn't perceived as being sexy enough. He goes on to say that "sexy enough" varies by location, and that what is perceived as a great reason to cycle in Greenville North Carolina may not work in Washington D(istrict of) C(oncubines), or Seattle, or Louisville KY, and that "selling" utility cycling in disparate areas requires more awareness of the nuances of the specific areas.

I happen to agree with both of them. As a cycling advocate, I like the idea of telling folks I ride because I prefer it over driving. I enjoy that I get where I'm going as quickly (or sometimes more quickly) than if I were to use a car. I am certain that if more high-profile folks in our area would ride bikes instead of driving cars, the followers would take notice.

One problem is that there would be a certain percentage of people who would simply write off the popularity of those high-profile people and call us losers. As Brian Glover points out, "Even when cycling clearly is the fastest, most convenient way to get somewhere, they won’t do it, and they’ll look with disdain on anyone who does."

My workday commute, at twelve miles each way, takes me longer on a bike than in a car. I still prefer to ride, but I recognize that I'm a bit eccentric by the standards many use. I use a bicycle to get around close to home (within four or five miles) because it is easier and quicker (or at least about as quick). I get to park closer to the door of whatever store I'm patronizing. I like myself better when I'm not at the wheel of a car (I have far less patience with other road users when I'm in a car. See: Motor Mania).

In short, to get more folks to ride instead of driving cars, we as cyclists need to recognize that folks will act in what they think is their own best interest. My commute takes longer by bike than by car. I ride a bike whenever I can (I have weather minima, and sometimes am hauling stuff that I can't haul readily with a bike). It's still in my own perceived best interest to ride--I feel better about myself, I get some exercise, I get to re-allocate the funds I would have spent on driving...

My errand-running is also done by bicycle, for the same basic reason: It's in my own best interest. I can tick off observable benefits to my self--physical and emotional--that I gain by cycling instead of driving.

That I see a non-mainstream activity as being in my best interest makes me something of an oddity. I'm comfortable with that. I embrace that, in fact.

Brian discussed a survey (since ended, so no link found showing results) that asked why folks ride bikes for utility. The question Brian wanted to see asked, with answers that were decidedly not overly polite, was:

“Why do you choose to do something that, in the eyes of 95% of your society, marks you as a freak and a loser?”

No one will say this out loud, of course – it’s not polite – but it’s the truth. And no one will answer this question honestly, either, but if they did, the choices would look like this:

A. I am too poor to get around in any other way. I have no choice. I
am abject.

B. I have had my rights as a citizen stripped from me because of
repeated, unforgivably bad behavior (i.e. drunk driving
convictions). I am an outcast and a pariah.

C. I think most mainstream people are idiots, and I actively seek
out their disapproval. I am a rebel. If the majority of people
around me start biking, I’ll hate that too.

D. I genuinely don’t care what other people think of me. I am an
independent thinker. I also have enough job security and social
status that I can afford not to care what other people think of me.
I am either uncommonly strong, or uncommonly privileged.

My own answer is pretty close to (D) on this one, even though I don't consider it an accurate description of me. Job security in this day and age is ephemeral for too many. I have a job that is a good fit for me, but it's a small store, and we always want to have more revenue than we have. Social status can be a point of contention with me--I admit to falling into the trap of reverse-snobbery too easily. I may be uncommonly strong in some way--willingness to be different than the norm, for example--but don't see that as a strength so much as merely a trait. I hardly consider myself privileged, until I look at what I have compared to folks with less income or mobility or fewer family/social ties or whatever other scale one measures wealth and realize that I am quite privileged.

Yep, I have the privilege of living in such a way that I can ride a bike to work on a regular basis, ride one bike or another to accomplish much of my errand-running, can walk to do some things, and otherwise leave the car in the driveway. It's in my self-interest to live this way, as I get to allocate my earnings into things more enjoyable than car payments, gasoline bills, car parts and higher insurance premiums in favor of better-tasting food, a nicer place to live (lower utility bills being part of what defines "nicer"), more comfortable clothing (kilts aren't as cheap as jeans, although a kilt will outlast several pair of jeans...), and so on.

I also have the privilege of acting in my own perceived best interest, and that means riding a bike to work a majority of the time instead of driving.

Bike to Work Week recap

For Bike to Work Week, I got the dubious pleasure of driving to work. Twice. For the third week in a row, I exceeded my car mileage for April.

Driving more than three times as much as I did last month is not something of which I'm proud. I'm not going to beat myself up over it, at least not in principle. However, it's a frustrating reminder that with what is happening in my life over the next four weeks, I won't be getting any long miles ridden. That doesn't bode well for RAIN, but I've done that ride with less-than-ideal preparation before.

And, yes, I even drove to work yesterday. I had an excuse, though--I knew I was going to be hauling a bunch of stuff home that would be at best unwieldy with a bike trailer.

I rode an assortment of bike miles this week. I rode the Raleigh a fair bit--for errands prior to the Monday evening New Rider class as well as to the class itself, to the Bike to Work celebration downtown, then out again with the trailer for some shopping (in two different directions, no less: a visit to a nice wine store on Frankfort Avenue and then to Westport Village to window-shop at The Trail Store). I even got to ride it for a while last night, in search of a small tool box for my upcoming trip across the country.

I rode Jenn's Giro 26 to work on Wednesday, as I'd had contact from a fellow who wanted to test-ride one for his upcoming bike journey. I rode home in something of a hurry, so that I could change jerseys and bikes and ride the Vanguard to the Ride of Silence. Good thing, too, as I wound up staying downtown for dinner with friends after the ride, and it was dark when I rode home (the Giro doesn't have headlights). I rode the Vanguard to work on Thursday, as is normal for me.

I didn't work on Friday, but had scheduled the day off so that I could attend the Bike to Work celebration downtown. I had been invited to join Team LBC in the Louisville KY Commuter Challenge. It surprised nobody that we won, as one of our team accounted for something like ten percent of the points earned in the entire contest ('twasn't I). We won a custom helmet mirror for each team member and the coveted "Golden Handlebars," along with bragging rights to enjoy until this time next year.

Saturday was "drive to work day" for me, as mentioned above. After work, I went to my mom's house to help her sort out final details on an apron she made for me.

Over the years I've worked in bike shops, I have worn out several commercially-produced shop aprons--usually tools wear holes in the pockets to the point that fixing the apron is time-consuming enough that replacing it works better. I mentioned this to Mom, and added that a layer of rip-stop nylon inside the pocket might prevent or delay the wear-through time. I took an old apron out to Mom so she would have a template, and she created an improved version in time for my birthday a couple months ago. We used various lessons learned from that apron's construction in tweaking the design for the second apron. I'll use the second one at home, for the most part, but she wanted to get it to me in time for me to take it on the RAAM trip.

I'm trying to sort out the packing for my trip. As established readers of my musings know, part of my duties for RAAM involve working on bikes, so I will need tools. I don't relish the thought of some TSA agent accidentally or otherwise losing any of my tools during an airport inspection (although I know that there are some conscientious agents, horror stories abound). I've made arrangements to send out my tools and repair stand via UPS, and will send them home again from Maryland once we reach Annapolis.

In the box with my tools, I will send my portable power supply for my CPAP machine. It's mildly entertaining to watch the TSA folks' expressions as they see the battery come through their x-ray device, but it's also a serious enough thing that I'm even happier not having to schlep the battery around with all the other crap I'm carrying on the airplane.

I'm trying to decide whether to buy a "netbook" or something like that for the trip, to enable me to type more of my thoughts before forgetting them. I would then be able to periodically update this blog during the race, read email and generally keep up with other stuff I like to monitor. I don't know that I'll have much time to do so--what time I spend online would be during my off-duty hours, and I may be more interested in sleeping then. I don't expect to have much time for such frivolity as blogging while I'm on duty, and am not sure how sharp the delineation between on- and off-duty will be. I suppose I could go low-tech, and write down my thoughts as I go, figuring on rewriting/revising as I upload it after I get home.

Bike to Work Week

It's Bike to Work Week. As I've said in prior posts, most of the folks who read this already "get it." Bike to Work Week and Day are more about those who are on the proverbial fence about riding to work--those who want to, but who feel there are too many obstacles for them. It's about encouraging them to ride and helping them to find ways over or around those obstacles.

Of course, I wound up driving to work today. It was raining, and I thought I heard thunder, as I did one day last week.

I almost committed to driving to work tomorrow, too, until I realized that the reason I was considering driving--to get Jenn's Giro to the store for a test-ride by a potential recumbent buyer--could also be accomplished by riding the bike without needing the car to haul it. I have clothes at work and I have lunch stuff there, so I won't need a lot of cargo space.

On a more somber note: Wednesday, 19 May is the day for the annual Ride of Silence. Many communities across North America and even the world will observe this event, held at 7:00 PM local times, to honor the memory of our cycling friends who have been killed in crashes with motor vehicle (mis)operators. I have several folks to remember this year, including my friend Sharon, who was almost as active in the local cycling community as she was in her home in Alabama.

Whoo HOO!!!

I've been antsy over the last couple of weeks due to the house-buying experience. "Will it go through as hoped? Will the bank agree that we have the wherewithal to buy the house?"

Late last week, another piece of the puzzle arrived--the loan company's appraisal of the house.

It was $4500 less than the contract price. Not going unnoticed by any of us, it was--to the dollar--the same amount we had initially offered on the house.

Apparently it would be all but impossible for the seller to get more money for the house at this point. The pool of buyers has all but gone away with the end of the first-time home-buyers' tax break program, so if she refused the reduced price it would likely be a LONG time before she could sell the house for more money, and she certainly would not be able to sell it to someone who, like Jenn and me, are buying using the FHA program.

Still, given the difficulty the selling realtor had getting her to sell for our second offered price, we were nervous. Would she come down that last few thousand dollars?

I learned late last night that she had. We'll have the signed addendum to our purchase contract at the appraised price tomorrow or Thursday.

The seller asked that we schedule the closing for 8 June. Good for us, as we plan to fly to California on 9 June. Jenn's daughters will be minding things while we are gone (along with some friends of ours that my step-daughters may or may not notice doing drive-by checks), and the closing is early enough in the day that I expect to have time to change the locks on the house before we skip town. I wouldn't expect problems from this seller, but I still feel better having my own locks installed. There was one deadbolt that is misaligned a bit, and I'll have a chance to fix that while I'm changing the key cylinders.


I've not been riding much the last few days. I rode to work Saturday, and rode to Mom's from work to help my stepfather plant a tree in their backyard. Jenn picked me up at Mom's house so that we could visit some of her family that evening, so my commute was only eighteen of the usual twenty-four miles. I'll hit the Tuesday evening ride in a bit, and get some miles on the Strada just for kicks.

I also now have my newest kilt. I've been saving for this one for a while, and it's been a pretty cool way to buy. It's an RKilt, with some traditional details but made on a more modern form. I couldn't justify getting a leather kilt, although having seen the one Robert (the creator of RKilts) was wearing this morning I can see why a lot of folks like them so well. However, I've been reading enough good things about his attention to detail and the "hand" of his hemp fabric that one of these has been on my "eventually I'll get one" list for a while. I need to wash it one more time before I start wearing it (and certainly before I take pictures of it), but the test-fit felt VERY good.

As I said, it's made of hemp, and the more I read about hemp the more I think this country has some serious cranio-rectal insertion problems! If the North American Industrial Hemp Council can be believed at all, hemp would easily displace tobacco as Kentucky's leading legal cash crop, and make a run for being the leading cash crop by making the current leader harder to grow (hemp cross-pollinating with marijuana plants leads to lower-THC marijuana, not higher-THC hemp). It's easy to learn the difference between the two, so reasonably-well-trained LEOs *should* be able to discriminate. Besides, hemp is typically grown densely-planted, to get it to grow more fibrous, whereas pot is grown widely-separated to get it to leaf better.

Of course, small minds prevail on such things. Go figure. Yep, keep us from growing a plant that has dozens or hundreds of uses, that requires far less chemical help than cotton and makes a better fabric, that provides an oil that was the original fuel for Rudolph Diesel's engines, has longer fibers and is thus better for rope, and much more.

...and the fabrics made from hemp are so darned durable! At least, that's what I keep reading. I look forward to seeing how this kilt wears. I plan to wear it when I crew on RAAM next month.

May--may we all bike to work

As mentioned previously, May is Bike Month. There is an assortment of stuff happening associated with this, including Bike to Work Week and Bike to Work Day (May 21). There are bike safety classes to be found, presented by Bicycling for Louisville and the Louisville Bicycle Club. There is a Commuter Challenge going, by which one can win some cool prizes and the adoration of your peers (or something).

I know that a few folks read what I put here. I get comments from time to time about something I put here but nowhere else online, and from people I don't know. I presume that most of the people who bother to read what I say are already bike-friendly enough that you want to ride to work even if you haven't figured out how to deal with the details. I don't have to convince you to bike to work, although I'm happy to help you figure out those pesky details.

I don't know how to convince others, though, aside from riding to work myself, talking about riding to work (I get to keep my bike in the store, and "casually" refer to it when talking to customers), and encouraging those who also ride to work to encourage others who haven't done so.

We don't have to ride to work to "save the environment," "stick it to the oil companies," or prove anything. I ride to work with those things in mind, yes, but mainly I ride to work because I like myself better when I am riding than when I'm driving. I enjoy the ride more than the drive. Sure, I save money on gas, car repairs and car insurance. Sure, I am keeping one more car out of the traffic jams (and still getting to work in a reasonable amount of time). I realize that I have some good fortune in that I'm able to keep my bike inside while at work, safe from idle hands who would toy with the various doo-dads mounted on the bike (or "borrow" said accessories), and that I also enjoy the good fortune to work in a place where cycling to work is not such a weird thing.

Anyway, it's May. It's Bike Month. It's Bike to Work Month. Soon it will be Bike to Work Week. Ride--to work, to the grocery, to the Post Office, to the Library, to the coffee shop, to your friend's house a couple miles away--and enjoy riding. Encourage your friends to ride.

"Work to eat, eat to live, live to ride, ride to work"

It's not always the bike slowing you down

I wanted to deposit my paycheck this morning on the way to work, so I stopped by the bank branch nearest my commute route--at Hurstbourne and KY22, across from The Summit shopping megaplex.



When I was done there, I was faced with the choice of riding back south to Westport Road or taking the more direct route to work, KY22. I was a bit later than I really wanted to be by then, so I opted for the more direct route. Yeah, KY22 is a bit nervy for cyclists, but I've got that chip on my shoulder thing going.



Shortly after crossing under the Jefferson Freeway (some call it the Snyder...), I saw a farm tractor coming the other way, equipped with round-bale loading gear front and rear, followed by a pickup truck pulling a wagon for hauling round bales. They were followed by a LONG line of cars--probably more than fifty. I figured that nobody would pass me for a bit, since I was occupying the only eastbound lane and am not in the habit of letting folks pass me in a narrow lane. I could be smarmy and say, "Sorry 'bout your luck," of course...

Anyway, over the next half mile or so, I was passed by a few cars. After a while, though, it started seeming that traffic in my direction was very sparse. After I passed the entrance to Briar Hill subdivision, I noticed what appeared to be that same farm tractor about a half mile back. I was moving fast enough that I could reach Central Avenue in plenty of time to pull off and watch the parade of motorists behind that tractor--all fifty or so of them!

Once there was a sufficient break in traffic, I continued on my way. It was a bit over a mile to Crestwood from where I pulled off, and in the first half mile, several more cars passed me, only to have to slow again when they encountered the line of traffic crawling along behind the tractor (of course, folks that were not the first ten in line had no idea what the "problem" was, or why it didn't go away once they got past that pesky bike rider...). My last half mile approaching Crestwood was spent riding as part of the line waiting to get through the traffic light at KY22 and KY329 (at the Dairy Queen).

I was chuckling a good part of the time, knowing that anyone behind me (and a fair number of those who passed me in that last mile or so) could NOT blame me for slowing them down, even though they did not realize that the delay was caused by something gas-powered.

And, by the way, my return home will tip me over the 600 mile mark for April--AND the 1400 mile mark for the year to date!

hehehehehe

Home again!

Wow. I drove more on Sunday than I had in almost all of April to date. I drove more in the seventy-two hours from Sunday morning to Tuesday evening than I have in the entire month of March and April prior to Sunday.

I took my sister to Charlotte, North Carolina for some testing related to a medical condition. She is embroiled in a battle with an insurance company over their denial of a claim, and her attorney felt that corroborative testing would help their case.

Without going into details, the trip was worth doing.

I got a chance to remind myself that I can drive longer distances well enough that I'm okay with doing my job on RAAM in another month or so. I also got to test some ideas on a "go bag" to keep in the cab with me.

I was concerned that my trip would prevent me reaching my goal, stated a few days ago, of logging six hundred miles on bicycles in April. As of my departure Sunday morning, I showed about 518 miles.

However, I also needed to visit my Chiropractor after driving something like 1150 miles in three days. My Chiropractor (actually both of them--a husband and wife team) has an office in LaGrange, a mere seven miles from the store where I work. It took me about thirty minutes to ride there, and another thirty or so to get back to work. It added fourteen miles to today's riding, which puts me at 556 miles or so for the month. The 48 miles I'll do riding to work and back tomorrow and Fried-day will just barely get me over that goal line.

On the ride home from work (yes, I rode the Raleigh, mostly to get over my foul mood caused by the rain), I was climbing out of the small valley behind Pewee Valley on Rollington Road, when I saw a bird in the roadway. It looked big--bigger than a crow--but vultures usually don't just hang out walking in the roadway.

As I neared it, I realized that it was, indeed, a turkey vulture. I was concerned about passing it, to some extent, in that I didn't want to startle it into a mistake like flying into me. Those things weigh up to five pounds, and a five-pound bird striking one beak-first would be painful. I rang my bell to get it to face me, and sure enough, it took flight exactly away from me, but not before letting me get within fifteen feet or so of it.

It took roost in a tree and watched me as I cycled past. I was moving too fast to be considered dinner, I suppose.

Fine with me.

Aw, phooey

As I type this, it's raining. I really dislike riding in the rain. I'm debating driving to work, knowing that doing so will spoil a streak of riding that has lasted since late March.

If my ride to work was more like five miles, I'd probably go ahead and ride. That it's an hour of getting soggier by the minute takes much of the fun out of cycling to work.

Part of the problem is that my rain gear, such as it is, gets hot fast. I'd be as wet from sweating as from rain--although a bit less muddy.

And when I looked for my rain cape yesterday, I couldn't find it.

The cape I have is fair for light rain and short rides, but is far from waterproof (unlike the claims made on the web site where I bought the thing).

I may see if I can find it, though, and ride the Raleigh.

edit added: After typing the above, I realized that I was in a foul moment, and could get out of that mood by riding to work, despite my usual aversion to riding in the rain.

I also figured out where the cape was hiding.

Yeah, it was a wet ride, and I couldn't figure out why it felt like I was riding into a headwind (aside from the usual additional drag attributable to the cape). Motorists weren't any nicer or uglier than usual, although I didn't get quite as many out-the-window comments as on some rides (I figure the twits who would yell out their windows had them closed due to the rain).

Oddly, the bottom bracket on the Raleigh felt loose once I got about a third of the way to work. I didn't feel anything in my ABC Quick Check, although I admit to having rushed through that a bit. When I got to the store, well before opening time, I tossed the bike in a repair stand long enough to tighten the bearings a bit, and it feels much better now. I also hammered in that pesky right wedge pin again--I don't know why this bike is giving me more wedge pin trouble than any other such crank I've fixed in the last thirty years, unless it's a matter of no longer being able to get decent pins.

Anyway, I may leave work early this afternoon if I can. A friend has an art show opening tonight, and it would be good to see the paintings.

And I'm in a better mood, having continued my list of days not driving to work.


Just to keep from driving (myself nuts).

May is Bike to Work Month

I was looking at my ride log on mycyclinglog.com the other day, and noted that I am on track to exceed six hundred miles for April. This will barely beat my mileage total for March.

I've not done many club rides these last two months. I drove out to Westport to do a couple of Larry's excellent WINGS (Westport Incremental New Goal Series) rides--once on my own, and once with Jenn. I've done a couple of the Saturday afternoon LBC rides from Bluegrass Bicycle after my Saturday shifts there as well. I've even managed to do a couple of the Sunday afternoon rides from either Heine Brothers' or Baptist East/Milestone Fitness. However, I've not done a lot of long-mileage days.

In other words, most of my riding has been getting back and forth to work. The last time I drove to work was in March.

Accordingly, I'm not really in the target audience for things like Bike to Work Month/Week/Day, despite being a staunch proponent of biking to work.

Instead, I'm one of those folks who encourages others to try it. Once a week. Once or twice a month. A few times a year.

I've heard the usual excuses--"I can't arrive at work all sweaty," "I can't afford the extra time," "I have to haul stuff," "Work is too far from home" and more. They are just that--excuses. If one really wants to ride to work, one can do so. Where there is a will, there is a way, as the old saying goes.

I don't mean for that last paragraph to sound so condescending. I also fully recognize that for some, the idea of riding a bicycle two miles seems an almost Herculean task. "Five miles? Ten? Impossible for me!" they say. I'm fond of recounting a friend's confession that "seven miles is a goal" when it comes to riding a bike. As an advanced cyclist, I find it useful to think of such folks and remind myself that I, too, once considered seven miles a long bike ride.

At any rate, Bike to Work Month is coming. Soon. There are all manner of local challenges and celebrations in the works, aiming to get folks to consider riding instead of driving. There are education programs, as well--both the Louisville Bicycle Club program, which I manage as the VP Education, and those presented by Bicycling for Louisville.

I fully realize that most of those who read my online blathering are already bike-friendly. Many of you ride to work or to do errands at least once in a while, if not often. To a large degree, Bike to Work Day/Week/Month observations, while they celebrate your efforts, are also to encourage our friends who are not so enthusiastic about the idea. We want to help them get that old bike out of the garage/shed/basement, air up the tires, lubricate the chain and cables, do that ABC Quick Check, strap on that helmet and go for a bike ride. There will be a few preparatory rides leading up to Bike to Work Week and Bike to Work Day--one is on Saturday, so that folks aren't pressed for time and can figure out routes without the stress of having to look great at the end of the ride (and share tips for regaining that great office-ready look once at the office), there is another the Friday before Bike to Work Day (May 14th), and of course on Bike to Work Day itself (May 21st). On Bike to Work Day, there will be an assortment of incentives--I think Heine Brothers' Coffee is going to offer a free cup of coffee to anyone stopping by on their bikes during their trip to work, for example. The Bike to Work Day team are working at getting more incentives implemented as I type this.

As I learn more, I'll post more here. Encourage your friends to try biking to work.

Hooray!!

I just heard from our realtor: We have a signed contract on a house! There were a few nail-biting moments, as is often the case with house purchases, and there is still much to do before we move in.

Next step for me is to decide on a home inspector and termite inspector. We get to do the loan application in the next few days as well. Hopefully we can lock in a decent interest rate that will remain in effect until closing. The seller is delaying the closing a bit due to some family plans, but we'll get possession of the house in early June.

I get to move again. Right after coming back from our RAAM trip. I get to go from driving an RV for a week to driving a moving van for a couple days. It will be a LOT of work, and a good part of it is going to have to be done in May (packing stuff we don't use all the time, mainly).

Time to buy the boxes...

Drat

For several months, I've been hearing periodic ticking from the rear wheel of the Vanguard. I've put threadlocking compound in the rim joint, I've inspected the spokes numerous times to see if any were broken, I've checked the cassette and freehub mechanisms, and have never found the problem. The noise went away for a time, but recently has not only returned, but gotten worse.

I had some down time at the store today, so I got the bike in the stand and removed the rear wheel for more detailed inspection. The spokes are all nice and tight, none are broken, and the cassette is fine. In the course of cleaning it, however, I noted that there was an odd line of schmutz around the shell, parallel to the flanges. I cleaned it off, but there was still a line. Sure enough, I have a crack in the hub shell. It's all the way around the shell. My hub is being held together by the collective forces of all that spoke tension and the axle holding the flanged ends to each other.

There doesn't seem to be any danger of catastrophic failure--it's been like this for a year or more. Still, it's an opportunity for me to build a new wheel for the bike.

This is the second wheel built on that hub. I built it early in 2001, shortly before I bought my V-Rex. It remains the only wheel set I've built using all alloy spoke nipples--and purple ones, at that. The hub dates to some time in 1999, when I installed it to replace the Sovos hub original to the bike (the rim on the original wheel was about dead, due to an assortment of pothole mishaps).

More than ten years on a hub and nine years on a rim, with something like ten or twelve thousand accumulated miles, is good enough, I suppose. They are wear items, after all. I'm no small guy at 220#, and the Vanguard has a heavy rear weight bias. Since I built this wheel, and have not been gentle to this wheel, I'm okay with needing to replace it. I built it to ride it, not to hang it on a wall and look at it.


On other fronts, I've been surprised a few times of late by folks who tell me I look thinner. I've not been doing any active work on weight loss--indeed, I've lost maybe fifteen pounds (or ten, depending on what the scale says tomorrow morning) since this time last year.

I suppose I may be altering my body composition a little bit by riding instead of driving. Logging my miles has proven to be even more effective than this blog at helping me make sure I ride to work more often than driving (although the fact that the car is in Georgetown with my younger stepdaughter is also a factor over the last couple weeks).

That I am apparently building muscle mass while losing body fat is interesting. I'm not losing any inches off my waist, I don't think, but my kilts are fitting a bit more loosely around my hips...

No stress today...

We got a counter-offer from the home seller. Wow. She came down a whole six hundred dollars from the listing price.

We've countered the counter-offer, and expect to hear a response tonight.

No stress at all. Nope, no sir.


On my ride to work today, I got to enjoy tracking an eastbound train as it went eastbound from St Matthews by listening to its horn. As it neared various crossings the horn would sound, and I could hear it clearly from Westport Road. It seemed that I was almost keeping up with it--the timing of the horn and the angle relative to where I was told me which crossing the train was nearing.

angst-laden day

"When in trouble, when in doubt,
Run in circles, scream and shout!"

I'm reminded of this expression when I think about my level of angst today, where it originates, what I'm going to do about it...

We made an offer on a house last night. To finalize the sale, we have to get financing, pay for an assortment of inspections and insurance plans--the usual first-time home buyers' hurdles. Lots of folks do this sort of thing every year. Some of those folks have more financial resources than we have, some less. Some have good reason to worry, some ignore those reasons and buy more than they can afford.

We looked at our budget pretty closely prior to this decision. There isn't as much room for error as I'd like, but this house is in excellent condition, it's fairly new (ten years or so since construction), and our incomes should improve over the coming year or two. We'll figure something out.

In any case, I have a raft of errands to run soon--starting with a trip to the bank once it opens, and continuing with an assortment of not-really-related-to-home-buying tasks. Life goes on regardless of what happens with the offer we've submitted.

We've looked at eight or ten houses, after culling from dozens more based on their MLS profiles and a few drive-by looks. There have been some that we really liked, but couldn't afford, some that we sort-of liked, but which were almost inaccessible, some that we could have lived in, but were never passionate about, and some on which we differed sharply in how we responded to them. Some had decent locations, but were crappy houses. Few have walkability ratings on par with the house we have been renting for the last two years.

I hope we get this house. It's a charmer. It's in a decent area, our commutes are shorter by a few miles, and the trips to the grocery won't take much longer. I can envision riding to Jenn's office with her on my way to the store in the mornings, without being far out of my own travel path.

It's going to be an adventure.

More Saturday thoughts on Sunday morning

There wasn't enough house-hunting to be done Saturday afternoon, so I rode the club ride from Bluegrass Bicycle before heading home. I wound up with just under fifty miles for the day--and had I gotten organized, would have ridden another few on the Raleigh to do some shopping just to trip the next color in the MyCyclingLog report.

I rode yet a different bike on the club ride. I'd ridden Jenn's Giro a couple of times, including once on the club ride last season, because it was a) there, with my Strada at home, b) I either didn't have one of my own bikes there or c) didn't want to ride the Vanguard, wanting to ride something faster. On that fairly hilly/rolling twenty-four or so mile course, I managed to average a bit over 17mph. I have not yet gotten around to attaching the cadence sensor on this bike, so I couldn't monitor that, but I could still feel it pretty well.

On the way home--on the Vanguard--I had another ugly-attitude motorist encounter. It would be pretty funny except that such twits (or their female counterparts) are herding large, dangerous hunks of metal in such close proximity to me as I travel from place to place. I also wonder whether such people recognize the example they are setting for their children who happen to be in the car with them when they act such jerks, or whether they see any sense of irony in their being such jerks when they accuse me of being selfish by cycling instead of driving.

In any case, I was feeling pretty good as I rode home. I was pedaling well, feeling reasonably strong if not fast. In one somewhat odd moment, a motorist pulled up beside me a bit west of Westport Middle School and opened his passenger-side power window to ask if he could take a picture with his cell phone. Aghast at the attempt to multi-task in traffic, and not interested in having my picture taken, AND conscious (far more conscious than the driver, apparently) that there was other traffic wanting to pass me, I waved him off. Thankfully, he took the hint and drove off. I don't know whether he realized the danger in which he could have been putting all of us, and doubt that he did.

A bit later in my ride, as I was nearing the construction (constriction?) zone on Westport Road, my legs started telling me that they could cramp if they wanted. I kept the cramps at bay until I was well off Westport Road and into the neighborhood I often use to get out of the constriction zone--indeed, I was in the parking lot behind the Hubbards Lane Kroger store and the attached shopping center before having to stop and shake out my leg muscles a bit. I didn't have the severe cramps I've had on other rides, but it was worth stopping for a moment and letting the muscles settle a bit before riding the last mile or so to get home.

Saturday thoughts

I started this blog in part to keep myself accountable for riding to work instead of driving most of the time. At some level, I feel I have to justify driving, simply because I prefer riding and like being able to look back on all the days I left the car at home.

A month or two ago, a friend sent out a link to mycyclinglog.com, with a request that folks creating profiles there join his Louisville commuter group. After tinkering with it on a day off work, I figured I'd continue playing along. It gives me a better record of what cycling I'm doing than this blog does.

I can (and have done so) look back on my entries here and get a pretty good idea of where I rode and how far. However, if I lack time to post each day, I have to think about it enough to give myself clues and so on. MyCyclingLog works a bit better for me in this way.

Being part of the group also gives me a gauge against which I can compare my riding to that of others in the group. I must admit that it's fun being in the top five members...

I also find that MyCyclingLog has some easy-to-use reports so I can compare my riding this month to prior months. For example, by the time I log my round trip to work and home today, I will have logged more miles for April than the entire month of February, and that even if I re-route my trip home to meet Jenn during our house-hunting. Looking at my March report, I doubt I'll exceed those commuting miles in April, although I will likely find more opportunities for club miles that will add to my April total faster than commuting does.

Of course all this commuting comes with its downside. Twice in the last two days, my trips to work have been punctuated with "ugly motorist" encounters. Friday morning, a guy in a pickup truck going the other way blew his horn a long time upon seeing me, and flipped me off as he went by. I don't know why--I certainly was not a factor in his drive at that point. I can only figure he likes being a jerk.

This morning, as I crept up the rise on Houston Lane approaching Mt Mercy Drive in Pewee Valley, a different pickup truck came up behind me. That section of Houston Lane is very narrow--probably less than twelve feet wide. There is no way in the world I am going to let a motorist try to pass me there. Of course, the guy had to run his window down and cuss at me for blocking his way, complaining that he couldn't get around me.

I didn't take the time to remind him that there is exactly no legal support for his sense that slower traffic must yield to him simply because he can climb that hill faster. Or simply because he wants to be jerk. I largely ignored him, or appeared to from his perspective. If his threats had escalated, I would have reported him for terroristic threatening at some point, but at this point it's not worth the trouble--it's enough to think in terms of "he likes being a jerk," and go on enjoying the rest of my ride.

The fantasy of having a sympathetic police officer who would be a hard-nose with such twits witness such events is still fun, though.


On the house hunt: There was a house in Middletown that we liked, but there was a house of Westport Road that appealed more for a variety of reasons. Sadly, we got beat to that house, and there was enough other interest in the house that a bidding war could have begun. While still thinking about the house in Middletown, we've opened the search a bit more.

I was reluctant to consider houses off Murphy Lane, for example, as I do NOT like Murphy Lane as a bike route. I looked at a map of the area, though, and have found some work-arounds which open that area a bit. Sadly, many of the houses in that area are reminiscent of "Vinyl View Vista Village" stuff, and I really dislike vinyl siding for a variety of reasons (some of which are even logically supportable). I'm having to resign myself to the idea that unless I can come up with an extra hundred thousand bucks for a down payment, I'll have to deal with at least some measure of vinyl exterior cladding or siding. I'm not terribly happy about it, but there it is.

On a windy day...

...you either feel REALLY slow, or that you are exceptionally fast.

I kept thinking of this adage as I rode to work Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. I felt stronger than usual, and noted that I was using higher gears than I usually do when riding to work.

On the way home, I felt like I was riding into more wind than usual--I was--but I still did well on my speeds and times.

On Tuesday, Jenn showed up at the store a bit before closing time, so that we could do some drive-by house inspections. She's pushing to buy a house while we can get the big tax credit, and I have agreed with the prospect--as long as we can get a house we can afford to buy AND maintain.

In my work with New Directions, I saw a lot of folks who bought houses based on their ability to get credit, but who didn't think in terms of having enough room in their credit rating or budgets to allow for repairs and maintenance of those houses. Decades later, the houses are in disrepair and they don't have the money to get things done. I don't want to put myself in that position.

On the other hand, houses that I think are in a reasonable price range tend to be well outside my commute range from work. The effective cost of living in such a house would be unreasonable in terms of additional commute time/costs or other values. It's tough to find a house that meets both sets of needs, especially since we didn't get started on this process until late in the tax credit timeline.

Sunday afternoon club ride

My bike ride for the day wasn't my usual commute, but the Sunday afternoon LBC ride out of the Heine Brothers' on Chenoweth Lane (actually the office building across the street). Jenn wasn't going to ride today, so I took the Bacchetta, figuring on pushing myself harder than I do in my commuting.

I rode out with some fast guys, and was able to stay with them through Cherokee Park--probably because they didn't drop the hammer until they got well down Lexington Road. The stretch between Grinstead Drive and Baxter Avenue usually is the site of a fast pace line. I was feeling pretty good until the first curve, when the front guys wound up the pace a few notches more than I had on tap.

I managed to catch them, mostly a function of a traffic light that caught them just before they hit Jefferson Street. I rode hard for a bit, but was dropped by the time we got to downtown.

As a result, I wound up riding River Road largely by myself. That's okay--I needed to focus on a workout, and did. I kept my cadence up around 95 RPM for the most part, and my speed above 20 MPH for the most part, until turning onto Glenview Avenue for the ascent part of the ride.

My climb up Glenview was slower than I like, and a little more painful than I like, but I soldiered up the hill anyway. I was able to stay in the middle ring, though, which hasn't always been the case on that climb. Once on Lime Kiln, I usually accelerate through a couple more gears than I was able this time, but I still was able to crest over the I-71 bridge at eighteen or nineteen miles an hour.

I finished the ride with an average speed of 18.2 miles an hour, which is a bit off my peak-condition pace. I attribute the shortcoming to the fact that I haven't been doing hill workouts in some years, and my resulting sluggardly climbing. It really is my biggest weakness on the bike. My second largest weakness is a lack of courage on the descents that I blame on a fall I had several years ago. I am not sure how to work on fixing that one, but figure that doing a series of hill repeats on familiar roads would probably help.

BIG durned birds!

In a recent post, I yammered on a bit about seeing Cooper's Hawks. I enjoy seeing the larger raptors--they have an important role in our ecosystem, and they are simply gorgeous birds in most cases (allowing that at least other Turkey Vultures think a Turkey Vulture is attractive in some way...).

Imagine my delight, then, that there is a nesting pair of Bald Eagles in Jefferson County, Kentucky! I have no idea how long the link will work, as the Courier doesn't seem to do permanent archives online (at least without some fee involved), but the bit in the paper shows how excited many are at this news.

Things that make one think, "hmmm..."

In the course of my errand-running today I saw something that was a bit of a head-scratcher. Florescent-colored shirts are gaining in popularity, it seems, as many folks who work on or near roadways wear them, including the recycling workers, pavement crews, delivery drivers (I'm surprised that UPS hasn't figured out a way to incorporate more reflective piping in their uniforms), and so on.

Apparently, the guy I saw riding a scooter on Taylorsville Road today was such a worker on his way to his job. The usual sense of such wear is that it also increases safety awareness in one wearing it, but this guy wasn't too worried about safety--he was not wearing a helmet, or even sunglasses, as he rode his scooter down the road.

unposted comments from the last week

I may have mentioned that we have hawks living in our neighborhood. I am not sure whether they are Cooper's Hawks or Sharp-shinned hawks, but I think they are Cooper's Hawks. I hear them calling regularly. Friday morning, while toying around in the garage with a new-to-us toy (more on that in a moment), I heard one very close by. I backed out of the garage and looked up, and there were two in the tree at the other end of the garage. Sadly, I didn't have a camera in hand--one had some freshly-caught food in its talon, and flew off to savor it after watching me for a moment to see whether I was a threat.

Saturday morning, on the way to work, Jenn spotted one on a fence right by our intended route in time for me to stop the bike and enjoy watching it for a moment before it flew away. Again, sadly, no camera in hand--these are pretty raptors.

The new-to-us toy is a Burley Lite trailer that Jenn found during one of her thrift-store jaunts. She called me on Thursday to verify whether I'd want her to buy it. The price was excellent, so I agreed. Digging around on the Burley site, I found the owner's manual for the thing, suggesting that it is at latest a 1998 model. The copyright date on the manual is 1992, suggesting the model was built for at least a few years in the 1990s.

It differs from my existing trailer in several ways: the frame is similar in construction, as it's aluminum tubing. This one has hoops that guard the wheels, though. The wheels are larger (406 ETRTO), and built more like regular bicycle wheels (steel spokes, alloy rims), with quick-release hubs, compared to the 16" plastic wheels on my Safety-1st brand trailer. The hitch attaches to the chain stay and seat stay, unlike the existing trailer that only "grabs" the chain stay.

We've not decided how we are going to use the trailer. We are considering keeping it as a second cargo buggy, and have thought about adding a wood floor supported by the frame to protect the nylon pack-cloth floor already there. The wood floor would have the additional benefit of being able to support Cisco should we take him for a ride.



Jenn is certain that Cisco would enjoy going for a bike ride with us. I figure he'd enjoy it more if he got to sit/lay down on a more solid floor than the existing one, and if I make a plywood floor for the trailer, I'll add a layer of closed-cell foam so that his claws don't slide around so much.

Of course, another option is to sell one or the other trailer, and keep the one we like best. Both trailers are rated at a hundred pounds carrying capacity, but the larger wheels on the Burley should make that one easier to pull. I can pull the Safety 1st one with my Vanguard, as it only connects to the chain stay--the Burley attaches to both the chain stay and the seat stay, and the Vanguard already has its kickstand mounted there. I know I can pull the Burley with my Raleigh, and that Jenn can pull the Safety 1st with her Peugeot. We haven't tried the Burley hitch on her bike yet--I'm sure that "connectivity" will be a factor in our decision.

I'll have to get some pictures of this thing and post them soon.

dam(p) Sun(less)day

Blah. It's been raining off and on much of the day, and I am known for my dislike of riding in the rain. The title is a bit misleading, as there were moments of sunshine during the day, but still...

I did go out earlier on a two-mile grocery run round trip.

My older stepdaughter's birthday is coming up in a couple days, and she came over to celebrate with Jenn a while ago. She's looking for digs closer to work and school, and has mentioned to me that she wants to ride her bike more for transportation. I've offered her help in the past with bike-related stuff, and she's ready to start taking me up on my offer.

Jenn and I put in some time on the tandem yesterday. We rode to the bike shop, where she worked on the web site a bit (she does some of the web site maintenance for us). We did the LBC ride out of there in the afternoon before riding home. Total mileage for the day was a bit over fifty, and it felt good to get out like that. We wound up driving to a friend's house for dinner instead of riding, as Jenn's legs were tired.

Cars take up a LOT of space!

I have sometimes observed that "population density is not always measured in terms of people per square mile."

While some of you find and enjoy the double meanings, I will share another bit of population density information--this from the How We Drive blog of Tom Vanderbilt. If the roughly three hundred thousand US citizens lived in a concentrated area, at the population density, of, say, Brooklyn, which US state has enough area for us to live within its hypothetical borders? Have a look at this chart as you ponder this--the answer may surprise you.





Quoting from Vanderbilt:

An interesting point of departure from this graph that’s been making the rounds of the U.S. packed into one Brooklyn-style New Hampshire is one I’ve mentioned before, via the work of Brian Pijanowski:

If the percentage of parking lot area in the county (0.44%) is scaled to the area occupied by the conterminous United States, the entire states of Connecticut, and Massachusetts (12,550 + 20,305 = 32,855 km2 ) would be paved over with parking lots.

To put this another way: The American parking lot currently consumes much more space than the entire country’s population would if it were scaled to Brooklyn-style density.

I saw a comparison recently discussion cost-per-mile of roadway construction vs. vehicle-specific taxes paid on one automobile (can't remember where...). The summation was that the average motorist pays enough taxes on his or her car (license, fuel taxes, insurance taxes excise taxes on other car-related purchases) to pay for about two feet of roadway. Given that most cars are at least fifteen feet long, and given that there is no way anyone could drive anywhere if the roads were fully covered in cars, there is a LOT of space paved for car traffic that the car-specific taxes are not paying for.

I'd be interested in seeing some hard data on this, and will have to dig around a bit. Even if the numbers are off by a factor of two, it takes lots of wind out of the sails of the argument that "bicyclists don't pay for their use of the roadway!"

Seasonal milestones

I enjoy thinking about seasonal milestones. A few weeks ago, I realized that I had walked the dog every morning for several days without wearing gloves. On my rides to and from work, I've gone from a long-sleeve base layer under the reflective jacket to a short-sleeve jersey under the jacket, with perhaps a sleeveless runner's top under the jersey. I rarely wear my silk balaclava now.

I even did a couple of club rides over the weekend, wearing (gasp!) shorts instead of long tights!

Since we are on Daylight Time now (for about two weeks as I type this), I've been expecting to ride home from work without having to turn on the headlights. Today was my first time for that this season--and my first ride home from work wearing--you guessed it--shorts instead of tights for the season. I wasn't even wearing socks with my sandals--another seasonal first for the ride home.

How did that silly rhyme go? Oh, yeah, I think this is it:

Spring is sprung
The grass is riz.
I wonder where
the bikers is?

As nice as the weather is and has been lately, I'm disappointed to not see more folks riding instead of driving. Even riding instead of driving to the corner tavern, for crying out loud!

Oh, well. I got to ride today, so life was better than it might have been!

Sunday wrapup

Interesting thought of my day, prompted by the folks at the Freedom From Religion Foundation:

“Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.”

— Blaise Pascal, French philosopher, Pensees (1623-1662)

This is the same Pascal who is so often quoted by those who would impose a theocracy upon us, in the form of what is often called "Pascal's Wager." The Wager is often simply stated as, "would you rather worship a god and find there is none or ignore said god to find that he will damn you to hell for not being worshipful?"

Of course, Pascal's wager ignores that there may be hundreds of other equally-likely options rather than merely two choices as presented, among several other logical failures.

In other news, Jenn and I rode two club rides this weekend, for a total of fifty-five club miles or so. The Saturday ride was, as mentioned in the previous post, a scenic one from Westport.

The Sunday ride was a typical 2:00 PM ride out of Baptist East/Milestone Fitness Center (once a month location), with the threat of rain. We had a few drops of rain close to downtown, a few more as we rode along River Road, and a few more later in the ride, but rode the longer route anyway. It was fun to ask Jenn to reduce power by ten percent a couple times so that I could modulate our speed more easily when riding in a pace line at close to twenty miles an hour!

There was a club meeting afterward, and an executive committee meeting after that. By the time we got to leave Milestone, we were facing a ride home in a rain shower. Aside from getting wetter, riding in the rain isn't so bad--unless the temperature is low enough to risk hypothermia. A ten-minute ride home is not likely to create such a problem, and ours certainly did not.

I think I've logged all (or at least most of) my miles from February and January on the MyCyclingLog.com site. I'm still behind David Crowell for our group's miles, but he has a longer commute than I do. He also did a better job of riding to work in cold weather.

Saturday once more

On Friday, I didn't get to ride much. The weather was GREAT for cycling (or doing just about anything outdoors), but my riding was limited to an errand or two in the early evening.

I drove out to Mom's in the morning to do some yard work for her. I weeded much of the landscaping across the front of the house, and put out the contents of several bags of mulch. This took about five hours--much of it digging wild onions out of the landscaping (ugh!).

When I got home, I HAD to get on the bike, even if only to do an errand or two. I had ordered a couple of books from Carmichael's Bookstore on Frankfort Avenue earlier in the week, and received a call telling me hat they had arrived. Especially given that both books have to do with cycling as a transportation mode in our society, I rode to fetch them.

Today's riding involved driving, though. Jenn and I took the tandem to Westport for one of Larry Preble's WINGS rides, this one a thirty-mile example of what I call a lollipop ride. The route goes out to a short loop, then returns from that short loop the same way we got to the loop. It was a scenic ride, as are many of Larry's routes. There were a few hills, and a few little rollers. We had a good ride, though. No, make that "we had a great ride." Larry has a batch of pictures on his site, including several of Jenn and me.

good moments and bad moments

Yesterday morning, I was pleasantly surprised when Jenn informed me she was riding to work. I was elated. She'd been driving to work too much of late, for a variety of reasons.

I was teaching the last session of the March installment of our store's Tool School classes when Jenn called to check on something--I'm not really sure what--and was reminded that I was teaching still, and would have to get back to her. I called her after my students left to find that she was still at her office. I rode there to ride home with her--something I enjoy.

For an assortment of reasons, though, I was unable to get my morning routine done in time that I could ride to work. I missed my departure window by ten minutes or so, and opted to drive on this gorgeous spring-like morning rather than be late to work.

Bah!

Oh, well. I get to build a bicycle wheel today. Things will improve.

Or not. One of my mother's dogs has been having trouble with a tooth, and is going in today for some more diagnostic examination. The tooth damage may (or hopefully may not) be severe enough that dealing with it would be a major (as in, over $1000) expense and still not greatly improve his quality of life. It's hard to justify doing that much work when on a limited budget, and still leave the dog with ongoing problems. He's a sweet-natured dog, and I'd hate like heck for Mom to have to euthanize him over this, but I also understand not being willing to go to heroic measures that have little chance of really helping. I'm hoping for the absolute best results for all.

Car-Free Happy Hour

Another Car-Free Happy Hour is behind us. There was some competition for attendees, as the Urban Design Studio of University of Louisville had a presentation conflicting with the CFHH, but that just meant that those of us at Sol Aztecas on Fourth Street (just up from Theater Square and just down from Fourth Street Live) got more food and beer.

The food was great, and portion sizes were HUGE.

Even so, the main point is socializing with folks who don't always use cars for transportation. The highlights of CFHH are the speakers Katie McBride manages to find and the social time after their presentations.

Presenters this time were David Burman (I hope I got the spelling right...) and Chef Ian.

David Burman has been a plumber for a couple decades, and got to thinking about all the time he was spending on the road in his van full of tools and supplies instead of actually doing revenue-generating work. His ponderings eventually led to considering a bicycle as his vehicle of choice. He's working up a box bike from Joe Bike, with the idea of riding a quick bike to the job site (in his chosen service area), figuring out what he'll need to do the job, and going back to his office/workshop to collect the necessary tools and supplies, using his "Box Bike" to haul the stuff to the job site.

For the time being, he's limiting his service area to a couple of ZIP codes in the Highlands area, but envisions a time when he can have several plumbers working for him based in other neighborhoods to expand his customer base even more.

In other words, he's thinking locally!

Chef Ian, on the other hand, is set up to deliver over much of the metro area (at least within the confines of the Watterson "Distressway"). Ian operates Soup Bycycle (web site not yet launched--send an email to soupbycycle@gmail.com for menus and delivery schedule). Order before midnight Friday, and one day the following week he'll ride his bike to your house (or office) and drop off your soup (and Blue Dog bread), collect your money, and wish you good eating! It reminds me of the days when the milk delivery person put the twice-weekly delivery in the box on my front porch--you can leave a check taped to the inside of a cooler if you won't be home at delivery time.

After each presented on his business model, we wandered outside to ogle their bikes. David's plumbing bike isn't done yet, but is well on its way to becoming a great rig for the job. Ian uses a Surly Big Dummy, with a modified Trek kids' trailer to haul his cooler. There was discussion of minute details of each others' bikes, of course, even among the rest of us. Folks at these gatherings love seeing rebuilt old bikes, relatively new bikes that are set up as commuting rigs--the whole gamut.

In honor of the event, I did all my errand-running on a bike instead of in a car. The Raleigh still does a good job of pulling the trailer, especially now that I have the larger cog on the rear hub.

Bad driving, celebrated?!?!?!

Maybe I'm missing something, here. There is a new show on The Travel Channel (which I don't get, BTW, since I don't have a television), called "America's Worst Drivers." The web site claims it to be a reality-show elimination (a good metaphor?) challenge with the worst driver's car eventually going to the crusher (and the worst driver gets a bicycle to ride instead of driving--now THERE is a positive message for cycling as transportation!).

My computer won't even let me see the "sneak peek" video to see if there is anything of merit in t he show, so it must be bad.

From what I can tell, they are trying to find a humorous way to say, "get the really bad drivers off the streets." I hope so, anyway. What I see so far is that they are putting the contestants, nominated by friends/family as bad drivers, through obstacle courses designed to humiliate them into becoming more aware as drivers. The whole concept sounds a bit like a Jerry Springer stereotype, to me. I mean, who is going to set themselves up to be ridiculed like this, and for how much money?

On a rainy Sunday, with what little hopes I had of riding a century washed away, I was poking around online for a while. A discussion on bentrideronline's forum regarding traffic lights led me to a slide show presented here, most notably, here.

With due credit to Dual Chase Productions, LLC, I'll present one of their slides.




I really like this one for many reasons. It shows how a cyclist should situate himself/herself in an intersection to be "seen" by the sensors that operate the traffic light. Coincidentally, such intersection placement also serves the function of making the cyclist FAR more visible to other traffic in and around the intersection, aiding in the eventual safe passage of the cyclist through the intersection once it's legal to proceed.

Their slide shows could be some nice teaching tools. I may have to invest in them.

internal conversations

As I rode to work today, I had several internal conversations going. An assortment of things went wrong before leaving the house, distracting me to the point that I was almost too late to ride (driving is quicker by ten or twenty minutes). As a result, I was not in the best of moods when I got on the bike.

I figured that riding to work would improve my mood--it usually does, even when my mood is already positive. It did, despite the driver that cut me off approaching a traffic light.

One of the internal conversations was yet another review of anti-cyclists' argument that bikes should not be on the roads (I had a brief real conversation on this with a motorist a couple days ago...). The details aren't so important here, but ran to thinking that it's a shame we don't educate motorists better before we allow them the privilege of driving. The few questions on the test now are hardly enough to suggest that driving is a big deal, not a given.

Of course, society largely considers driving an unassailable right, unless one is found guilty of pretty heinous crimes at the wheel (and even then...). It's taken a long time to educate folks that driving while inebriated rises to that level, and will take another long time to convince them that cell-phone use while driving is similarly problematic.

A shorter, but more entertaining, internal conversation regarded a license plate I saw on my way to work. The plate read: 1XY 4XX I can only presume it to mean that the family consisted of the father, the mother and their three daughters, although it could have meant that the man has four wives/girlfriends (I think it was the former rather than the latter). A friend of mine has three daughters, and referred to life in his house as being "full of Estrogen." His daughters have grown and, with maybe one exception, have moved out of the house (I think), but some of the stories he shared...

Anyway, there were a couple of other moments when other road users seemed to conspire to slow me down, adding to my frustration at running behind schedule. It was tight, but I got to work on time (I like to have a few extra minutes before work to shift my mental gears).

As I type this, it's raining. Hard. Gulley-washing hard. I hear thunder. The sky is very dark. The satellite radio is playing Texas Flood, the tune Stevie Ray Vaughn made famous twenty years ago. I'm hoping the coincidence is not an omen.

We need the rain. It will be good to wash the salt off the roads, and dilute it a bit so as to ease its effect on the plant life alongside the roads. I hope it doesn't shut off the electricity...

Edit: Not five minutes after hitting "publish post," the electricity went off for a fraction of a second--long enough to reboot the computer. I also got to see that the roof has a leak under severe weather--something that will be brought to the landlord's attention.

Documentary of note

I've been seeing some forum and blog traffic about Bicycle Dreams. I finally got around to checking out the film's web site, including the trailer for the movie:



The film was shot during the 2005 RAAM, and focused on several of the solo racers. Aside from being of interest to me as a cyclist, it's especially interesting to me at the moment due to my involvement in the 2010 Race. I've not seen the entire movie yet, but will be ordering the DVD from the web site so that I can digest it in chunks (and perhaps watch it multiple times or share it with others).

While the motivations that drive solo RAAM competitors fascinate me, I have no desire to attempt such a thing. It's simply too far outside my personal physical fitness/mental toughness envelope. However, I'm looking forward to being on the crew for Team Type 2 as they compete this year, knowing that at the end, I'll be almost as exhausted as they are from lack of sleep, almost continuous adrenaline surges, and the rest of the excitement of making it happen.

Club ride for a change

I managed to work out the details so that I could ride one of Larry Preble's WINGS rides this morning. WINGS denotes Westport Incremental New Goals Series, and is a group of progressively harder rides of various lengths, all starting in Westport KY, right against the Ohio River.

As I was doing this one solo, I took the Strada out for the first time in at least a month or two. It was good to get back on that bike, and enjoy its capabilities for speed (which far outstrip my own) and crisp handling. Oh, and it climbs faster than my other bikes, too.

Climbing is important for any ride starting in Westport, as anyone familiar with the area knows. KY524 loops into Westport, with each end reaching US42. Of course, since it's a Larry Preble ride, it's scenic as he can make it. We got to climb a few grades, and I got to use my small ring a few times over the course of the thirty miles I enjoyed today.

I felt VERY slow for much of the ride, but I found that by the time I was halfway done, my legs were warmed up and spinning comfortably. I was still slower than I like to be on the climbs (who isn't slower than he or she would prefer on EVERY climb?), but overall I felt good to be on the Strada, and I was wishing I'd had time to ride that far again.

Since I did the club ride, I didn't ride to work. I drove, so that I could make it to the club ride with the fast bike, and I'll haul it home tonight after showing some folks how to do things to their own bikes.

Blogging and logging--more online toys

A friend of mine posted on one of the local list servers recently, asking that folks log their bicycle miles on My Cycling Log. His idea was that there is no good way to gather statistics on how much folks are riding, and it would be cool to have some more concrete numbers than we have.

The drawback, of course, is that not everyone who bikes for utility a) has web access, b) internet savvy enough to use the site, c) cares to do so. Any benefit to the community based on cycling rather than driving would thus be under-reported by an unknown percentage.

Still, it's yet another way to spend time online, so I created a user account and joined in the fun.

I was able to use cues from this blog to figure out when I rode, where I rode, and will plug in rides as far back as the first of the year over the next few weeks. After entering the data for the last two weeks of my own riding, I played around on the rest of the site a bit, to see what it does. It's kind of fun to see how my friends are doing with their riding, all in one easy-to-find place.

For my own part, I've ridden to work twice this week (and tonight will mark twice that I've ridden home from work...). I wandered around a bit on Monday, after meeting with some bike education folks over lunch to discuss topics including the upcoming Bike to Work celebrations. All that got duly logged as above.


There is some buzz about Google making an option in their Google Maps directions for bicycle friendly routing. OF course, as with any on-line tool, it helps to know the tool's limitations and prepare accordingly. One person commented that it suggested a route from Lexington to Somerset that spends FAR too much time on US27.

However, Google admits that the system needs input. There is a method for giving them suggestions on roads that are safer or less safe than the routes the system devises (I've not toyed with it enough to figure out that process as yet, but will probably do so soon). It will take time for their algorithm to get sorted to the point that it's more useful, but it's a great start.

Yet more challenges

The few of you who have read this for a while know that Jenn got bitten by the century bug last year. Her first hundred-mile bicycle day was on the Pottershop Century that is part of the Old Kentucky Home Tour. A couple weeks later, there was the Louisville Bicycle Club's "Pretty good first century" ride, which we also did.

Interest piqued by those experiences, and perhaps some interest in getting me on the bike more, led her to suggest that we go play with the Mad Dogs yesterday morning--despite that it meant her getting out of bed before 8:00 on a Sunday morning, which is often a challenge.

Yesterday's ride wasn't a century--good thing--but rather a time trial that serves as the prologue for the Tour de Mad Dog, a series of twenty-some-odd century rides through the LBC Touring season.

While the contest of Tour de Mad Dog depends on things other than how fast one rides ("stage winners" are selected by a drawing at the end of the ride), contestants still have to ride a fair number of century rides to stay in the game. We'll see how our cycling year goes, but apparently our goal is, in part, to complete the Tour de Mad Dog challenge at some level.

The time trial was short--less than six miles, which didn't even reach the standard of a 10K. It was billed as challenging, but given the terrain, it was one of those "it's as challenging as you make it" time trial courses. Neither of us were in top form for such an effort, but we didn't do badly, either. Our time--16:56--put us in the middle range of riders. Our legs feel good this morning, suggesting to me that we didn't put every ounce of effort we could have into the race. That's okay--I'm happy that my legs feel good this morning.

During our race, I admittedly wasn't as focused on racing as I might have been. My mind kept wandering over to the place where I pondered putting forth an effort like what I was doing, for about that length of time, then doing it again three-quarters of an hour later, repeating that cycle for eight or ten hours, then sleeping while my other four teammates did that for their shift. That's how the Team Type 2 and Team Type 1 racers will do RAAM, while I drive one of the RVs the team and crew will use as portable sleeping quarters during the race.

I'd have to train myself quite a bit to do that...

Random thoughts on a Friday morning

Tomorrow, I will celebrate the anniversary of my arrival in this world. I am twenty-five, with almost that many years' practice. As is seemingly common in our society, ruminations happen at such junctures. Where am I, where am I going, and why am I in this handbasket?

We had some discussion over age at dinner with a friend the other night. I had been saying for some time that I had more fun between thirty and forty than in the fifteen or twenty years prior to turning thirty. Since turning forty several years ago, I've had a fair bit of fun as well. I don't mind that I'm going to be fifty in another year, although I may change my mind by then. Life is good.

During that discussion, I recalled hearing a radio station advertise that they played the music of "the best years of your life." Regardless of when the music they played was recorded (I think it was WRKA, when they played mostly music from the 1960-1975 era), I took exception to their claim--the music from the best years of my life has yet to be recorded. Life keeps getting better for me.

It's gotten better in increments, of course. Sometimes the increments are subtle. Sometimes they seem to be measured in negative values, but only momentarily--the overall trend remains in the "improvement" realm of the gauge.

One of the improvements over the last few years has been being with Jenn. With some prior girlfriends, there was hesitation on my part--I wasn't sure enough of her, myself, or the relationship between us to commit to lifetime partnership. Each former partner has affected who I am, to be sure. I cannot deny that, nor would I--it would demean myself and each of them.

But I feel more stable with Jenn. I'm more willing to be interdependent with her--helping her when stuff goes awry for her, and accepting help from her when my own stuff goes haywire. Celebrating the good that happens with and for us.

Each of us came into this with the explicit goal of having a healthy positive relationship. Neither of us was willing to spend time on something that would be detrimental to our health or well-being. I have my mother's marriage to my stepfather as a far better example than her marriage to my biological father (among others I've observed), and my stepfather's example of what it means to be a man in society and in close relationships, as proof that good can happen, and that I can be an agent of good happening.


Now that I've wandering far afield for a moment, I want to type out some other thoughts while they are in mind.

Jenn and I have been, perhaps simply by accident, tinkering with a "car-free lite" type of lifestyle. Her work has been pretty hectic of late, to the point that she feels it prudent to drive to work instead of cycling (she has hinted that there is more to it than energy levels, but I haven't pushed it). Her car goes a week or more at a time without being used--she prefers driving my truck in general (again, I have been willing to accept this as apparent reality without asking for elaboration). I've been riding to work more reliably (and the absence of ice on the roadways has been a factor in this).

I've been saying for some time that my ride to work is between thirteen and fourteen miles. Out of curiosity, I reset my trip odometer for the first time in over seven hundred miles yesterday, so that I could tell just how far it is. When I got to work, the odometer showed 11.8 miles, a good mile and a half less than I thought it would. The thing has had gaps in readings before, but once it's reading it usually continues for the day, so I think the number is valid. The average speed I saw before resetting the trip distance was consistent with my sense that it takes me about an hour to get to work or back--I'm no speed demon on this bike!

But it still puts the lie to the sense that Crestwood is "way out there" from Louisville. It's twelve freaking miles from Trinity High School, for crying out loud, not twenty or forty. The round trip is about as far as the Sunday Afternoon ride from Heine Brothers' Coffee shop purports to be (although there is more variation in terrain and traffic). It's not a difficult ride by most standards (well, by club ride standards, anyway--I'd figure it an honest 2 on the 1-4 difficulty rating system, although that system doesn't really have a traffic component to it).

People who learn that I ride to Crestwood from St Matthews for the "get to work" thing seem astounded--even some cyclists think it's a long way to ride (What? You just rode fifty miles on this morning's club ride, and you think twelve miles is a long commute on a bike?).

Preparations continue for RAAM. We have our flight reservations in place. Jenn is helping recruit more crew members (she recruited a friend of ours recently, and our friend has made the crew!).

The last Tool School session for the season (unless we get a group that wants to do one) will begin this Sunday. As I type this, there are a couple slots open for folks to join in the fun. We'll see how it goes.