It's AUGUST already!

Seven months of 2011 have elapsed. I broke the 5000 bicycle miles mark a few days ago. Two of the four New Rider Clinics have wrapped up. Jenn is acting as primary teacher for the third and will for the fourth as part of her certification as a League Cycling Instructor. Life is pretty good, despite the heat of summer being oppressive as always (and it is getting to me more this year than in past years for some reason).

Despite the actions of the miscreants in our nation's capitol, we seem to still have a country left. Hopefully this will be the case in a few weeks, when the illegitimate holders of power decide to manufacture another hypocritical "crisis" to justify their paychecks (and overblown self of entitlement...). I've long referred to our nation's capitol as Washington, District of Concubines, and the whoring out of the GOP to the baser levels of society continues to justify the name.

And, since I have time to say so, I've now had my Ergon pedals for two weeks. I've ridden the Raleigh a few times with these pedals, and like them quite well for short rides (like less than eight or ten miles one way).

Given that I tend to wear Vibram Five-Fingers shoes when I'm not pedaling a bike, I had to try the combination right away. My first ride on this pair of pedals was to the New Rider Clinic on Bowling Boulevard, a short ride with the new riders, and the ride home--about nine miles altogether. I was probably even been pulling a trailer at the time, but my log doesn't indicate either way. I am liking these pedals with the soft shoes (Image borrowed from the Ergon web site).

New Rider Classes

The third New Rider Class series for this summer has begun, and the first two have ended. Jenn held court for the third installment of the July/August series last night, and did a good job of showing the students some of the technical clothing they could consider to help extend their riding season from "fair weather" to downright ugly stuff.

After her presentation, we all went for a little bike ride. It's a familiar route to the volunteers, of course, that encompasses a bit of Cannons Lane, a bit of Dutchmans Lane by Bowman Field, some neighborhoods near Seneca Park, and so on. During the ride, I noticed a regular "thump, thump, thump" from my front wheel, and, sure enough, there was a spot on the tire where the carcass plies had apparently suffered cuts. Hoping the tire would get me home before dark, I went on with the student who was riding beside me. I noted too that Jenn was about a block behind me, also with a student.

However, after making a turn, I was eying my mirror to be sure Jenn saw the turn and didn't see her. My student and I stopped for a moment, and since I still didn't see Jenn and her student, I opted to turn around and see what was what. I backtracked about two blocks, to find Jenn trying to get her chain unstuck from between the cassette and the spokes. I pulled out the tool box I was carrying for the class (trailers are wonderful things), hoping beyond hope that I had cassette tools with me, only to find that I did not. After toying with her bike for a moment, I told her to take my bike and the two students back to the parking lot, then deal with me as appropriate. I had water, I had a fairly safe place to hang out, I was good.

Long story short, Jenn had to go home and get the truck and come fetch me, her bike and the trailer she had been pulling. Once we got home, I was able to remove the cassette from the wheel, untangle the chain, inspect things, and reassemble the bike correctly. Two spokes will probably have to be replaced soon, but nothing else shows any real damage.

Of course, once I fixed her bike, I got to "re-tire" the front end of mine. I'm a little bummed that this tire got cut this way--it had over eight thousand miles on it, perhaps more than ten thousand, and there was still tread life left. The new tire has a bit taller profile, so I have to recalibrate the cyclometer by what appears to be four percent based on observations during my commute today.

I'm nearing to five thousand miles for 2011 YTD. This is a personal record for this early in the season. I'm likely to continue to set personal records on a daily basis for the remainder of the year.

Fried-day

Now that my legs are mostly recovered from RAIN and the cramps I suffered that day...

I've put 188 miles on bicycles since RAIN, despite heat, humidity, and some headwinds. Indeed, my ride home from work yesterday was marked by being a 4H ride: Hazy, Hot, Humid Headwind. The whole time.

Wednesday, I rode over seventy miles on the Globe (Yay! for Ergon grips that were good even without the gloves, even with sweaty hands the whole time!), including to and from work, to and from Iroquois Park for test night of the June/July New Rider Clinics and two laps of the road test course for that clinic. I was not setting any speed records coming home, especially since I took the trailer to Iroquois with me so that I could do some grocery shopping en route home. I rode the Vanguard to work three times this week, mostly because it's more comfortable in general, and partially because it's more comfortable in the heat.

Apparently there is some miscalculation in my system. The Globe's odometer now shows over two thousand miles, but I've only logged nineteen hundred and something. I suppose there are miles I've forgotten to log somewhere. All the riding it on teaching days is keeping it far ahead of the Vanguard in the YTD miles, which seems odd to me given that I prefer the ride of the Vanguard. I admit to liking the brakes on the Globe best of all my bikes, though. Something about disc brakes and increased stopping power...

And I still hold over 18% of the Louisville Bicycle Club's CO2 miles, with 62 members reporting. I just have not done enough longer rides, or performance riding in hot weather, to be able to complete RAIN this year.

MY PEDALS ARRIVED!!

For several months, now, I've been talking about my membership on the Ergon Commuter Team, and the cool stuff I get as part of that membership. I've been using my grips for a couple months, now, and my gloves for a month or more. I'm very happy with the grips, and would be happier with the gloves if they were a bit larger so that I could remove them more readily (I got the largest size offered, and my hands are still a bit big for them--not a big *ahem* surprise for me, as I often buy XXL gloves, and would buy XXXL in some models if offered).

The backpack thing was a disappointment. Ergon's corporate offices in Germany opted to not sell the pack I was expecting in this country, so I don't get one to test. That's the way of things sometimes, so I won't hold it against the fine folks at Ergon's US headquarters in Colorado. They have been great folks--responsive to emails, excited about their products, knowledgeable and all that.

Apparently, the pedals had some manufacturing hurdles to overcome as well. The original hope was that I'd see them in March or so, but Ergon finally got them to sell a week or so ago. Mine arrived today.

All along, I had figured on putting this set of pedals on the Raleigh in warmer weather, and on the Globe in really cold months (so I could wear warmer boots and pedal to work). The Raleigh hasn't seen much use of late, as the trailer hitches I installed on the Vanguards, the tandem and my Globe work well with the Burley trailer, and most of my use of the Globe has been in times when the Raleigh would just be a bit slower than I'd like (the Globe and Vanguard are about as fast as one-another, but the Raleigh is slower than either of the others by a noticeable margin). Now that the Burley trailer is configured for the quick hitches, it won't connect to the Raleigh (the hitches use the rear axle for connection, and the Raleigh's axle is too short for this). I can use the Raleigh with the Safety 1st trailer, though, so it will get some use as a grocery-getter in coming months.

Today was the second meeting of the July/August New Rider Clinic series. When I got home from the store, the pedals were in a box on my front porch, left there by the UPS driver. I mounted them on the Raleigh, and swapped out my Shimano bike sandals for my Vibram Five Finger shoes. I wanted to really feel these pedals, you see...

I'm pleased. Quite. Pleased. A couple of friends noted the new pedals, and wondered why I would use them instead of my habitual SPD/flat dual use pedals on that bike--until I wiggled my toes in my Vibram shoes!

Ergon makes a deal out of their choice of moving the cyclist's foot closer to the centerline with these pedals. There is NO room for a pedal wrench between the pedal and the crank arm--one installs these pedals with an 8mm Allen key. The platform is large. I mean, LARGE. It's contoured, which will work quite well for their intended use, which is largely "citizen cyclists," those who ride instead of driving while wearing normal clothing most of the time rather than cycling-specific clothing (including shoes). For such folks, these pedals ROCK.

Let me rephrase that. If you really prefer pedals that involve wearing cycling-specific shoes with cleats that interlock with the pedal, you might not like these. For my almost thirteen-miles-each-way commute, I'll probably stick with SPD pedals most of the time. However, for going to the grocery store a couple miles away, where being able to wear my Five Fingers shoes has some value to me (i.e. not having to change shoes to go to the grocery), the Raleigh is going to see a fair bit more use now. I LIKE these pedals.

RAIN

Another RAIN is in the record books. I'm not happy about it, though, as I set a new-for-me record. It's the first time in eight trips that I did not finish the ride. I'm not totally sure what went wrong, and my tendency to over-analyze stuff like this is kicking in. Some of the results of my cogitation on the matter only serve to anger me more.

I had hopes for this ride. Jenn has been riding more than last year and I have been riding a lot more than last year. We rode fairly well on our trip a couple weeks ago. The bike was in fine form (although a bit heavier than I remember it being...). We knew what we needed to do to better last year's time. It just didn't happen.

The first forty miles of RAIN are often rough on me--I've nearly quit at the first rest stop on two other occasions out of frustration with my performance. I've also learned that sometimes one's supposed riding partners will simply ride off into the distance, caught up in their own excitement and adrenaline rush. I had no illusions that Jenn and I would have any riding buddies except for each other this time, although we picked up a fellow out of the Indianapolis area early in the day who kept with us until midway between the first and second stops.

I felt very good after the first stop, but could not keep that momentum going all day. I just don't have enough long-mileage days this year, nor does Jenn.

Lunch was probably the worst I've had on this ride--I preferred the prior "cold cuts sandwiches" format, as the lines--all four of them--moved the riders through the system far faster than the single-line catering job they had. Also, the food was tepid at best, and of poor quality. The catering firm had cards out on a table in the steam tray line, as if they expected folks would take cards home and do more business with them--NOT. The "macaroni and cheese" Jenn had was cold. The meat I had had been cooked, but was not very warm and certainly was not bar-b-que in the sense that it had not been prepared by basting it in sauce--one added sauce to taste AFTER the meat was on the plate.

By the time Jenn and I reached the new drink stop, I had experienced one of my signature horrible leg cramps. Both thighs and one calf had cramped at once, forcing me to hard-stop the bike and stand--in a sunny place, of course--for about ten minutes before I could move my legs again. Once we reached the drink stop, I got off the bike for a good half-hour trying to cool down. I wanted to press on, though, so we saddled up and got going again. I had a good hour or so, but by the time I reached Dunreith Fire House, the site of the last official rest stop, my pace was falling off again, and quickly. I realized that finishing the ride in the allotted time would be unlikely, and the attempt would be harder on me physically than dealing with the anger (and to admit it, shame) of calling it quits right then and there. Of course, as I stretched out on my trailer for a bit of rest before packing things up, my leg cramped again, and it was a painful one.

We got to the finish area in Richmond, where the other three riders were waiting for us. They had long since finished and showered, and I got to then be chagrined that I had kept them waiting so long. Several among our party were quite hungry, but some were not, leading to discussion of whether there would be a group meal before hitting the road for home. I was not in on this discussion, which was probably a good thing, because I would have gotten pretty surly about my need for food.

Even though the food was decent, and the quantity was reasonable for the money spent, I was still unsatisfied, and some of the table discussion hit me the wrong way. Then, of course, came the navigation for getting home from Richmond, which involved some more ego battles among others. I did my best to stay out of it, as all I wanted was to get home and be done with the day. I was in a bad mood all the way home, and am still a bit put off by the whole experience as I type this.

I may or may not ride RAIN next year. If I do, it will be under a different arrangement than this. I had wondered the other day whether I really want to do long events any more. I rarely ride the Strada that I prefer for such rides these days, since the vast majority of my bike miles are utilitarian in nature. I enjoy being on the tandem with Jenn, but we are not fast enough as a team to ride long group rides and stay with people. I don't have to decide today, though, so I'm probably better to delay that decision until I cool off a bit.

By the numbers, 1, 2, 3, 4!

Four thousand two-point-something miles. That's how far I've ridden my bicycles in lieu of driving so far this year.



I've put 4469 miles on bikes this year, according to the records on mycyclinglog,com. I sometimes wonder about that number, as the odometer on my Globe shows a few more miles than the log shows--about a hundred miles, in fact. Since I don't know whether that mileage is due to errant calibrations or forgotten postings, or something else entirely, I don't know what to do with that information. I finally figured out why the tandem odometer wasn't agreeing with others, and got that fixed (I think). I may take it out for a short spin Friday morning to verify calibration before riding RAIN this weekend.



Yes, Jenn and I are riding RAIN this Saturday. It will be our second as a tandem team, and my third on a tandem. It will be my first on this tandem, but this tandem's second RAIN (our friends Nita and Larry used it last year, before Jenn and I bought it from Nita). It's the second tandem I've ridden on RAIN. Since a tandem bike has two riders, I thought it would be fun to recognize all the twos in this--let me know if any more twos come to mind...

Anyway, we figure on setting another team best. Last year's average speed was a touch over sixteen miles an hour while rolling, with an overall elapsed time a touch over twelve hours. We took a couple of very long breaks--especially at lunch, when I was fighting hot spots in my feet. This year, both of us have been riding more on a daily (or at least weekly) basis, and we haven't had to fight the stressors of moving two weeks before the event or being on the road for two weeks for Race Across America shortly before that or the whole closing on the house thing fourteen hours before leaving for RAAM before that.



To mention another "two," this weekend will also be my second wedding anniversary. I haven't mentioned it lately, but I am still going on an unbroken string of days being happily married. Every day sets another record for me. Life is, indeed, good.

People pass out of our lives

This post contains some sad stuff. You have been warned.

David Whitney died Monday morning. He was 24. David was an up-and-coming bike racer, coffee-maker, drummer, pharmacy student, budding bike mechanic, and much much more. He died driving his car, although his bike was on the rack at the back of the car. The article in the Oldham Era web site pays scant tribute to who David was (although I must admit, such articles rarely satisfy the friends and family of the subject person).

I knew David as a nice guy who loved to ride, and who was riding well. He was exploding into his bicycle racing career--he had four podium finishes in three weekends earlier this year. He was, as I often say I am, "loving life."

On Tuesday evening, I was talking to my mother, and learned that a cousin had not been heard from since Saturday. She was not one to ignore phone messages, but she had not returned any calls since talking to her mother (my mom's sister) Saturday afternoon. Anne's husband was out of town, visiting his own family in Canada (their home is in Maryland), and also was not getting calls returned.

He had the local police break into their house Tuesday evening, and they found Anne dead on the living room sofa. I don't know when she died, other than between Saturday afternoon and Tuesday. I learned of this Wednesday morning.

Anne had been my favorite cousin. She had fought an assortment of inner demons for many years, some perhaps spawned by the sudden and untimely passing of her father due to a massive heart attack in 1973 or so. As a result, some of her life choices were perhaps harder on her body than they might have been. I don't have reason to suspect suicide at this point, but I really don't know. The autopsy may give the family some answers, or it may not.

On top of all that, my sister reminded me in a phone message last night that yesterday would have been my paternal grandfather's hundredth birthday. He had the temerity to pass on five years ago, again before the rest of us were ready to miss him. I received some pictures of him and of my grandmother (including one of her with her parents) from my father via email today, and seeing them was a bittersweet experience for me.

All of this has made my brain fuzzy for the last few days. I've not been able to focus on tasks as well as I need to do. I suppose I have a legitimate excuse, but it's still hard to not get stuff done that I really need to do. I still have been riding instead of driving, including riding the Globe with the Ergon grips for all of my transportation on Wednesday, and I even managed to get to the press conference about the Big Four Bridge yesterday. I just couldn't DO much about being there.

I need to get out of this brain fog. Maybe sleep will help. Good night.

Random thoughts on my ride home

As I worked through Crestwood on my way home this evening, a train passed by me, heading in roughly the same direction. For half a mile or so, I was matching its pace. However, it started going faster soon enough, and pulled farther and farther ahead as I pedaled toward Pewee Valley. I never could be sure, but it seemed to have an affect on traffic: For over a mile, there were no cars trying to overtake me on KY146, and rare cars between Pewee Valley and Westport Road, where I could cross the tracks, the train having pulled far enough ahead by then. It was nice to not have any cars behind me for a while, especially on that segment of 146.

I diverted from my normal route to get some beer at a liquor store I used to frequent when I lived in Douglass Hills. That store seems to have seen less profits of late--the selections are fewer than they once were. Still, they have some varieties of beer that are harder to find closer to home, so I selected some Belhaven Scottish Ale and some Fuller's London Porter to stow in my panniers for the trip home. I recently found some Thirsty Dog Twisted Kilt somewhere, and thought it was at that store, but they didn't have any.

Thirsty Dog Brewery makes a fairly decent porter called Old Leghumper, too. It's almost as good at Dark Star Porter from BBC, and about as tasty (but not quite as potent) as Arcadia's London Porter. Yeah, I'm a dark beer guy.

Once home, I went back out to get something that was already chilled, as there was little of interest in the 'fridge aside from a Woodchuck 802 Cider that I was leaving for Jenn. If you like a dry cider, the 802 is quite yummy.

I rode the Globe today, just because I could. Big number for the day is 4306 YTD, with 3840 CO2 miles YTD.

Car-Free Happy Hour--almost

Jenn and I rode the tandem to Car-Free Happy Hour tonight. We met some folks who decided it would be fun to ride as a group from the formal entrance to the UofL Belknap Campus, but...

not before having a flat tire. Not just your normal, run-of-the-mill flat tire, but a blowout. On the front. On the tandem. It was my first front tire blowout in YEARS, and the tire is flexible enough that it made the bike unmanageable immediately. Fortunately, we were only going about ten miles an hour at the time, so the fall was not so bad. I booted the tire with a folded dollar bill, as I teach in all manner of classes. It held for about eight miles. The hole in the tire was just too bad.

We were on our way home by then, on Eastern Parkway nearing Poplar Level Road. The tire simply let go--again--with no warning other than the thumping every revolution that I knew (or thought) meant I had a bulge from the failing carcass plies. I managed to keep the bike upright the second time, but we decided without even doing any more looking that the tire was not going to get us home. We weren't willing to trust it again. I called my stepfather, and he was willing and able to bring his truck to haul us home.

As it happens, with RAIN coming up in two weeks, I recently ordered a spare set of tires for the bike. I suspect that I bruised this one when on the gravel roads during our trip Tuesday, as I had noticed a slight bump in the tire when we were nearing home. I had noticed it again on our way to Car Free Happy Hour, but the tire didn't feel like it was going to give out so soon. I'll be ordering another front tire tomorrow.

Lesson 1: if you feel a bump in a tire, inspect it closely. Replace the tire rather than ride on it.

Lesson 2: dollar bills work for a while, but not as well on tandems with the extra weight they carry. Park Tool makes tire boots that work better.

Lesson 3: Maybe it's a good time to find a place to carry spare tires on the bike...

Overnight trip

Jenn and I had wanted to do more riding this year, especially since we were not doing the Race Across America thing. The Bike Virginia summer tour always appeals to me, although I've only made use of three opportunities to ride it. This year's adventure returned to southwest Virginia, the same general area I got to enjoy the first time I did their tour in 1993.

Sadly, it wasn't to be for us this year. The reasons are not really but so good; one was that I never felt the store had adequate staffing to deal with my absence, the other (and larger) was that I put off registering until I figured we'd have staff, and found that I missed the registration deadline.

Jenn, of course, had scheduled vacation months in advance, so she's off this week regardless.

Not being the best planner around, it took me until yesterday to finalize routing and destination for what became our two-day self-supported tour. Self-supported, in this case, includes things like two CPAP machines (ten or twelve pounds each), a tent, sleeping pad, sleeping bags (forecast lows in the high 50s for our destination), a change of clothing, and a way to carry some food. All of that stuff got stuffed into the Burley trailer. That trailer has developed a tire-scrubbing behavior that will need some attention--with the load, it reduced our average speeds from sixteen or better to less than twelve. Crawling up some long grades at less than four miles an hour on roads like KY 146 or US 42 or US 421 out of Milton is quite an adventure in traffic "calming."

I'm still not sure whether the destination was more important or the journey. It was good to get out on the bike. It was great to ride with Jenn, even if we were both feeling a bit out of sorts that last ten miles getting home (shifting when one is tired can be a bit less smooth than is ideal, and dealing with the captain's tired shifting is apparently an even larger challenge). We didn't fight over it, of course, but worked on dealing with the fatigue a bit and went on.

Our destination was a friend's farm in the hills behind Vevay, Indiana, not far from Bennington Pike. The road to their place used to be gravel from end to end, but got paved some time in the last ten years--at least from one end to their place. From their place to the other end (the shorter distance, of course) there is a steep hill that Switzerland County has not had the money to pave. The end of the road at the bottom of that hill features a creek crossing as well, and links to another gravel road that has its own problems--a wash out a year or two ago has closed the end nearer to our route, and the resulting lack of traffic means that the gravel is often VERY loose coming from the other end. Since all that gravel was on the shorter distance for us, we wound up walking a mile or two, including that aforementioned-steep hill, at the end of our ride when we were already tired.

I suppose well-traveled gravel roads are not as bad. This one had a LOT of loose 5s and 7s on top, with not a lot of dense-grade dust mixed in to stabilize things. It hasn't been rolled or graded or oiled in I don't know how long. There was mud from recent rains. Some folks like riding on such roads. I like staying upright on my bike, especially when the penalty for falling is gravel embedded in one's (and one's stoker's) skin.

For the return trip, we opted for the paved route. Although longer by a few miles, it was far more comfortable, and yielded better average speeds.

As much as I would like to put more about our trip on here, though, I'm tired. Jenn is off to the bus station with her older daughter, as my stepdaughter is going to study for a month or so in Quebec. Jenn's very tired, as am I, so it's time for me to get the bed ready for her return to make it easier for her to simply fall into it.

One more fun factoid: Our little tour poked my June 2011 mileage total to make it my highest month since I started recording on mycyclinglog.com. 854-point-something miles for the month, and we still have car-free happy hour tomorrow (and a few errands beforehand).

I can't help it...

As of my return home today, I have logged over 4000 miles of bicycle use this year. This includes 3561 miles of bicycling instead of driving since the beginning of the year, split among five bikes: My Vanguard, with 1255 miles, my Strada, with almost 89 miles, my Raleigh, with 525 miles (yeah, I rarely ride that one now that I have the Globe), the Screamer tandem, with 421 miles (Jenn and I plan to put a fair number of miles on that in the coming week or three), Jenn's Giro, at 48 miles, and the new-in-March Globe, with a bit over 1660 miles (yeah, it became my "it's threatening to rain or it's raining" bike, and April and May saw a LOT of wet days).

June isn't over, but I've logged more miles in June 2011 than I did in all but three months of 2010, and I'm only a few miles shy of besting one of those months. I don't know whether I'll beat my May 2011 numbers, but it's possible. I have a few days off from work this coming week, and since I fouled up and didn't get us registered for Bike Virginia before the deadline, Jenn and I will try to do some day tours on the tandem. We might even sneak in an overnight trip somewhere just to do it.

My CO2 miles are still at a bit more than 18% of the Louisville Bicycle Club's Commuting group miles. My nearest competitor among that group is more than 900 miles behind me in overall miles, and over two thousand miles back in CO2 miles. I'm sure some of the mileage junkies in the club have more bike miles, but I haven't done all that math, as they are mostly club miles which are not why I'm crowing.

More numbers games

In my recent crowing about mileage numbers, I had missed one that had been amusing me earlier in the year: how my YTD miles for 2011 compares to my miles for 2010.

At the moment, I am over one hundred miles ahead of my 2010 numbers for the end of August. By August 31, 2010, I had logged 3693 miles. I've logged over 3800 for 2011 so far, including over 3400 CO2 miles. My CO2 miles alone get me beyond my total for July 2010 by 500 miles.

At this point, it's quite possible that I'll reach eight thousand miles for 2011.

Another boring mileage post

As I got home from the New Rider Clinic David is teaching at Iroquois Park this evening, I hit a double whammy. 3800 miles year to date by bicycle, and a sort-of weird one. At the start of the year, I set the annual goal on mycyclinglog.com at six thousand miles. At this point, I'm obviously over half-way there, and the year is not half over. I've been watching the "average daily miles needed to reach the goal" stat with some amusement over the last couple months, as the number keeps dropping. As of now, I need to ride an average of eleven miles a day to reach six thousand for the year.

Nothing really special about the CO2 miles (as in, ridden instead of driven) number right now, except that it's over 3350. It will probably break 3400 this weekend.

It was raining a bit when I left for work this morning, but quit part-way to Crestwood. It decided to rain on me for the last mile or so, just because it could. I did manage to get to the store ahead of the heavy weather that came shortly after I opened. I was glad. There was lots of lightning, and I prefer to not ride when there is lots of lightning.


Oh, and I made the Ergon blog the other day. I had Jenn take a couple pictures that would, hopefully, show I was using the grips and gloves, and put one in a prior post. I'm still pleased with the gloves, aside from that they are a bit small (the largest they offered was XXL--I could probably wear XXXL in their sizing), and hard to get off my hands.

I recently ordered another kilt from SportKilt. It arrived yesterday. I haven't had a chance to wear it, and may not get to. I ordered a large based on the extra-large I already have that is a bit too big around for me. The large is a bit too small. We'll see what the manufacturer says about things...

Where did the weekend go?

I needed to be at a Club Ex-Comm meeting at four yesterday afternoon, so I drove to work. It would have taken me an hour and a half to get there by bike from the store, and I knew better than to think I'd get out of the store before 3:00. I missed a nice riding day.

Today, we had stuff to do around the house. Jenn has a Premier Jewelry Party coming this week, so the house needed to be spruced up a bit. It's not quite done, but we are a lot closer. We hadn't let it get too far away from us this time, which helped. Still, I missed a nice riding day.

Shortly after I got to work yesterday, my mother called me to inform me that my sister was having to have her cat euthanized. Caruso had been with her for thirteen years, and was probably four years old when he came to her. He had one of the more musical purrs I've ever heard from a cat. She is grieving heavily, as she (like yours truly) is very much a cat person. Neither of us has had children--we have had cats instead. I feel bad for her, as I know what heartache it is to lose such a close friend. I wrote on this blog in April of 2009 about losing my cat Aloysius Ebenezer Qat, Esquire, and what a friend he had been for the thirteen years I had him in my life.

We know our cats won't outlive us, but we get another, anyway. They bring us joy and entertainment in many ways. We miss them when they go, and somehow we never forget any of them. I've had some wonderful feline friendships over the years, and still think about each of them from time to time.

trying to catch up with things

Again, it's been ten days or more since I posted here. I haven't had much to say, aside from the occasional mileage boast. What I have been wanting to do, though is post a couple images of my new Ergon gloves. Sadly, I don't have any good ones yet. I do have this, though, showing off my wicking t-shirt from Commute Orlando:

I've been saying for a while that other gloves don't seem to do as well with these grips as riding bare-handed. However, since receiving the gloves earlier this week, I've been impressed at the comfort improvement, despite the distinct lack of padding compared to typical cycling gloves. My only complaint with these gloves is that the XXL size is a bit small for me, and thus takes a while to get off my hands.

It's almost disgusting for me, a long-time die-hard recumbent guy, to have put so many miles on this bike since I got it early in March (something like 1500 miles to date), but I've enjoyed having a new bike. I'm also getting spoiled on having disc brakes. This bike is my typical choice if I'm teaching (it's the closest thing I have to the bikes most of my students ride) or if I'm attending meetings downtown (easier to lock than my Vanguard). I also tend to prefer it if the weather is nasty--and we've had a BUNCH of rain this season.

Timothy made a comment on a Facebook post suggesting that I had left recumbents behind, based on the miles I've been putting on the Globe. A look at my stats for the year showed me that I had been neglecting my Vanguard too much of late, so I rode it to work today, and plan to ride it tomorrow. I won't get to ride to work on Saturday, as I have a time crunch after store hours. Still, I have half again more miles on the new bike than on the Vanguard, and it will take time to catch up. I'll have time to ride it a lot in the coming months, though. It won't take but another month or two to get another five hundred miles on it.

David Wittry has begun his New Rider Clinics out at Iroquois Park. I'm being a volunteer as much as I'm able with store hours, figuring that I can learn from him and better teach my own students. The round-trip to Iroquois adds thirty miles to my day, plus whatever riding we'll do for the class, so I get some fifty-plus-mile days every week for a while!

I'll likely ride the Globe to work on Mondays and Wednesdays for a while, due to commitments to New Rider Clinics. I get to ride the Vanguard the rest of my work days, though.

Gratuitous mileage crowing post

It's almost the end of the month. Jenn and I were ride marshals on the Mayor's Ride this morning, and of course rode the tandem to and from the ride. We stopped at Nancy's Bagel Grounds en route this morning for a bagel or three, then hustled to Waterfront Park for the shindig. On the way home, we ate at Shiraz on Frankfort Avenue, then stopped at Plant Kingdom for some flowers for Jenn to put in some pots here and there around the house.

By the time we got done with the Mayor's Ride, I had changed something like five flat tires for folks who had no supplies. I had adjusted a half-dozen seats while installing the giveaway flashing lights. Riding home, I felt really tired--more so than seemed reasonable given the output so far. However, I stopped at a convenience store and realized that part of the problem was hydration--I was underhydrated. Not enough to be a big problem, but enough to affect my available power. The quart or so of tea I drank at lunch, coupled with the liter of water I drank before getting to lunch, did a lot to get me back on the road. I was still a bit tired, but didn't feel as "off" as I had been feeling.

Now for the numbers: May 2011 has become the biggest mileage month since I started recording miles on mycyclinglog.com. My previous best effort was July of 2010, with 815 miles. I still have a round trip to work tomorrow, and I already have 820 miles for May. I have over 3300 bicycle miles for 2011 YTD, and over 2900 of those miles are "riding instead of driving" miles. By the end of the week, I will probably break the 3000 mark on that score--the more important one for me now. I'm apparently not slacking as badly, as I now have a bit over eighteen percent of the Louisville Bicycle Club's "CO2" miles (up from seventeen percent a couple weeks ago, but still down from the roughly twenty percent I had a couple months ago). The new bike has taken over as my apparent commuter bike of choice (despite that the Vanguard is more comfortable), as it's easier to manage in town when locking outdoors as an issue, and I'm using it for rainy days instead of the Vanguard. The Ryan Vanguard is showing a bit less than nine hundred miles for the year, and the Globe over 1400. The Raleigh has five hundred and some miles on it. The Strada less than a hundred (although the Strada and Giro combined show about a hundred miles of club riding). The Screamer has about 420 miles on it this year.

It's been several days...

...since I posted. I was unable to post from home, due to some browser setting on Jenn's lap top computer (the desk top unit died a couple weeks ago). There is something odd about a setting in the browser at work, making it hard to type anything there, PLUS things have gotten busy enough that I rarely have time to even look at emails or field calls related to the New Rider Clinics, let alone type out a blog post.

On Bike to Work Day, Jenn and I rode to Seneca Park to ride downtown with whoever met there. We had a good-sized crowd, including Mayor Fischer. Once we got folks where they needed to go, Jenn and I had breakfast at Toast on Market, then I had an errand in Saint Matthews (the store wasn't open when I went by there earlier that morning). On my way back to Fourth Street Live for the lunch time festivities, I found Jenn coming out of Bargain Supply, where she had been appliance shopping (we are considering replacing our range and fridge). After the festivities, we stopped in there again so that she could show me what she had found. We also ventured to another store on Market to see what they had to offer.

On Saturday, I rode the Vanguard to work, and Jenn brought out the tandem so that we could do the shop ride. During the ride, I decided it was time for me to do some service work on the tandem--the shifting was not suiting me, nor were the rear rim brakes, and there were a couple other minor squawks I wanted to address. Once done with that, we loaded it in the truck for the trip home, and as it was raining, left the Vanguard at the store. If you've been reading my blog for over two months, you can probably see what is coming.

Yep, on Wednesday (the first day I had time to do so), I hauled a trailer out to the store so that I could get two bikes home at once. This time I changed things a bit, by pulling the Burley instead of the Safety 1st, and rode the Globe to work instead of the Raleigh. It was a slight change hauling the Globe on the Burley, but it worked just fine.

Somewhere in all this, I caught wind of a plan afoot that involved riding bicycles to Lexington to greet Joe Ward during his stay in the Merkey Cancer Center fighting a form of blood cancer. It sounded like more of an adventure than the Horsey Hundred, and had potential to cost far less since we wouldn't have to drive to Georgetown and back with similar bike miles.

The ride to Lexington went pretty well. There were ten of us as far as Lawrenceburg, then two guys got separated from the main group and went on ahead. The remaining eight rode in to the UK campus about four thirty to find a sign in the courtyard below Joe's window that said NO BIKE RIDING. As we waved to Joe, one of the guys tried to lift the sign over his head. Deciding that it was too heavy for him to do so, he walked back from it. I hefted it, and found I could briefly shake it overhead one-handed, and did so for a couple of photo ops.

We went to dinner, and during dinner decided that we would, as a group, take advantage of the numerous offers to haul our bikes and selves home that night rather than ride home. There were only three or four riders interested in the return ride on Sunday, and I figured it would give me a chance to do some much-needed yard work.

Tomorrow is Bike to Work Day

I haven't really said much about Bike to Work Day/Week/Month this month. As I noted earlier, Bike to Work Day or Week is not so much about me as about folks who want to, but who keep finding obstacles to riding instead of driving. You've heard them, I'm sure: "I have too far to go," or, "I have to look nice," or whatever.

I ride thirteen miles each way, four or five days a week. I know of folks who double that. Many folks won't ride two miles. Why not?

My commute is far enough that it makes sense to change clothes when I get to the store. I have a place to keep several shirts, jeans, a couple of kilts, shoes, socks and such. My friend Kirk Kandle used to ride to Humana wearing a Brooks Brothers suit, or he learned how to roll it so that it wouldn't wrinkle as he rode to work in warmer weather.

When I worked for New Directions as a home repair coordinator, I needed my truck at work most days. I needed it at home on weekends. I drove to work Monday morning, hauling the bike. I left the truck at the office during the week, and hauled the bike home Friday evening, letting me ride home from work four days out of five.

Over the years, I've come up with ways to deal with many of the more common hurdles folks find as reasons, er, excuses for not riding to work. I figure a lot of the issue is that if one really wants, one can find resolutions for those challenges.

I've not driven to work since I don't know when, although I have gotten rides home using gas power five or so times in the last month. Customers notice my bike in the store and have that "A-HA!" moment when they realize they see me in my travels frequently. I feel that riding to work regularly adds some legitimacy to my statements to the effect that the highest, most noble use for a bicycle is transportation, and that utility cycling is a matter of several small choices that add up to bigger choices.

Sure, it helps that I work in a bike shop--I get better prices on parts for my commuter bike, and can trick out my rigs. But I could do much of what I do for far less if I would accept using older bikes (like my '74 Raleigh) or fewer doo-dads (the ring lock on the back wheel of my Globe is trick as all get-out by local standards, but I could make do with a U-lock if I had to).

Ride of Silence

As I mentioned in my previous post, I rode the Ride of Silence Wednesday evening. Turnout was a bit light, probably due to the wet weather we've been having.

Jackie Green recently asked if things like Ride of Silence wouldn't deter folks from riding, as it focuses on the bad things that happen to too many people. I think it worth honoring those missing cyclists, and letting other road users know that they were loved people, with parents, siblings, friends and perhaps children of their own, not just objects in the road to be gotten around as one gets to one's destination.

May Miles

As of Wednesday evening, when I got home from riding with folks doing the Ride of Silence, I topped my May 2010 miles. By the time I get home from work on Thursday, I will have topped three thousand miles for 2011, and twenty-six hundred CO2 (or bike instead of car) miles for 2011.

Just sayin'...

Objects in the Roadway

Thanks to this post on the Commute Orlando blog, I found myself reading this post from Andy Cline.

I like that the latter talks about operating on the roadway as if one is sharing a public space instead of as if one is the only user of the roadway and everything else is an object around which one has to maneuver. I have long felt that too few folks think about that they are sharing public space. They don't look beyond their own front bumper (or even beyond their windshields, some times), ignoring that others are around them who have equally-valid reasons for getting where they want to go. Doctor Cline mentions that acting as if one is sharing public space is harder to do than considering everyone and everything else on the road as objects in the road (I'll use the word obstacles, here). It requires that one recognize that others have equal rights to use the space. It also requires that one is cognizant that other road users deserve our care and attention.

With occasional lapses, I've tried to be this way for a while, myself. I suspect I came to it through being a cyclist--at least in part. I have found that being a cyclist makes me a better driver, although I haven't always been able to articulate why as well as I would like. I think part of it is this recognition that since I am not simply an object in the road (despite what some drivers seem to think), neither are they. They, too, are people, deserving of care and respect simply because they are living beings. I am compelled to pay attention to what they are doing, in part due to my lack of a cage like theirs.

Any thoughts on this?

I must be slacking

I'm hoping that third time's a charm--the first two times I posted this, I got the "your post was successful" message, only to find a blank post.

I no longer have over nineteen percent of the Louisville Bicycle Club's CO2 miles as logged on mycyclinglog.com. I'm down to about seventeen percent.

Of course, since I held that nineteen percent figure, five or six more folks have started logging miles. The weather has improved a little bit (although one wouldn't know it looking outside yesterday), so more folks feel like riding their bikes for utility.

I would like to see my mileage totals be more like ten percent of the club's CO2 miles, at my current rate of riding. It would mean that lots more folks are using their bikes instead of just recreating on them.

May you live in interesting times

...is a double-edged wish. I'm feeling it right now, as the President of the Louisville Bicycle Club, Andy Murphy, has resigned his posts (including that of Director for Old Kentucky Home Tour). The unofficial email organ--kycyclist--is ablaze with discussion, as is also the back channel among the executive committee.

There is a General Membership meeting scheduled for this Sunday. Apparently the venue that was planned has been deemed no longer available, perhaps in anticipation of a contentious meeting. Go figure. Seems like a great way to quell damaging dialog, n'est-ce pas?

The metaphorical snowball that has been formed is going to grow. I suspect something along the lines of an avalanche is in the offing.

Until now, I've considered the VP Education position I hold to be fairly low on the drama scale. I show up for meetings, toss my opinion out when I feel I have one to share, vote as I see best for the club, and generally just want to teach my classes without a lot of extra melodrama.

Interesting times, indeed...

End of April numbers post

I know, I did some numbers crowing ten days ago. Still, here are the numbers for April:

I logged a bit more than fifty-five hours on bicycles in April, and about seven hundred sixty-two miles. Since I typically log my work ride and most of my errand jaunts as round trips instead of as several separate trips, I tracked thirty-eight trips by bike. There were two days in April that I didn't get on a bike at all, and a couple during which I only went a little distance.

Compared to March, I had fewer miles. March was my second-highest monthly mileage since I started tracking the numbers last year. April 2011 was fourth by a couple miles to August of 2010.

I didn't make note of what day the Tempo died last April, but as it was in April of 2010, I can say we've been a one-car family for a year now. We borrowed a car from Jenn's parents briefly at some point, but haven't used it since we gave it back some time last May.

Jenn keeps talking about getting a fuel-efficient car to allow us to leave my truck sit more. I keep looking at what it would cost to have two cars again, regardless of fuel costs, and am thus wondering about replacing the truck with something that could pull my utility trailer (built to haul bicycles) and get better gas mileage the rest of the time. I find it hard to justify buying a ten- (or twenty-) thousand-dollar car that gets forty MPG if we can find a three-thousand dollar car that gets thirty. The annual costs associated with car use are high enough with either that I don't want to take on debt costs for four or five years to get ten better MPG at ten or fifteen thousand miles a year. If we were driving thirty thousand miles a year, it would be different. I need to sit down some time soon and play with the numbers a bit more.

We had more than thirteen inches of rain in April 2011. It's not done raining yet. I got soaked yesterday and again on my way to work this morning. If it keeps up, I'm going to be easier to convince that we "need" a second car. My thought, however, is that by the time I'm convinced to buy something, it will quit raining and we'll experience drought conditions for a couple months. As tired as I've gotten of rain, I'm not yet ready to buy a second car.