No cycling for a while

With the snowfall we've had, and the ice buildup, and the snowfall on top of that, and the freeze-thaw cycle making the surfaces hard and slick, and the...you get the picture.

In other words, no cycling for a while. There are too many icy spots and fallen-tree-induced bottlenecks in the travel paths.

At least I have electricity, unlike too many other folks around here. The number of people without power set a new record, on top of the record number of folks without power after the remnants of Hurricane Ike came through on September 14th.

I saw a comment online about how we had worse blizzards in 1976 and 1977, yet very few if any folks lost electricity. What that commenter failed to remember is that the snow those years was much colder, and never got above freezing. The freezing rain we had this time accumulated on things like power lines and tree branches much more heavily, breaking limbs which in turn took down power lines. Heavier snowfall, but totally different storms.

Oh, well, January is almost over. Hard to believe how fast it has seemed to go by.

Weather or not, here we go again

I'm very fortunate. I have electricity at home. We have heat.

It is not so good for many of my neighbors. Along my street, we have power. The street parallel to ours and a block north does not. They are among something like 75000 without power tonight, due to the ice and snow storm we've had over the last couple days.

The trees around here are really taking it hard. My next-door neighbor's Water Maple lost several branches today. Most of them fell in their back yard, but one landed on their roof and slid down the front face of their garage roof to the driveway. A car is in the garage, unharmed, but it won't go anywhere until someone removes the branch.

It's not that big a branch, though. When he comes home I may help him remove it. It won't take much. He didn't have time to deal with it before leaving for work this morning, and she is either off work today or got a ride to work (I didn't watch to see which).

Another couple of branches landed on their fence that borders my driveway. I heard the thump as it landed, but didn't recognize the sound. Immediately after I heard the noise, my cat rushed into the room where I was sitting at nearly full speed, having been startled by the ruckus.

I cleared that branch out of the driveway this afternoon. It didn't take long--probably ten or fifteen not-so-rushed minutes of work with a bow saw and a snow shovel. We cleared enough of the driveway to suit us, cleared the walkways, cleaned off the cars, and took some pictures of the neighborhood just for fun.

At this point, I expect I will be going to work tomorrow. I hope New Albany City offices are open, as I need some documents from them to facilitate moving a tenant into the apartments I manage, and that in turn needs to happen for this weekend if it can.

I must be getting old or something

Historically, I've been dismissive of folks who couldn't get around in snow. It isn't rocket science to drive a bit more carefully (although it seems to be, judging from the number of wrecks that happen), give a bit more room for one's own errors and the errors of others, and so on. I even made part of my living hauling folks' cars out of ditches and hauling their bent or broken cars to repair shops for a while.

Getting to work yesterday was mostly an exercise in patience--with folks who had trouble driving in a little bit of snow. Getting home had more to do with patience with poor surfaces, although dealing with incautious drivers was a factor for both trips.

By this morning, however, the snow is covered in ice. There is snow falling as I type this, and it is landing on ice. The combination is making travel treacherous at best. I spoke with my supervisor this morning, and he plans to stay home until at least lunch time. He suggested I stay home as well.

He's right--I don't want to go across either of those bridges in this. I'll call it as one of those, "discretion is the better part of valor" moments.

A couple of branches have fallen from a neighbor's tree. Neither branch seems to have effected any damage, although the noise from one caused a minor panic in one of my cats. He raced into my home "office" at roughly warp factor nine a few nanoseconds after I heard the noise. I didn't know what made the noise at first, but looked outside and saw the tree limb on the neighbor's fence. The cat is fine, now. He's purring as I type this.

safety thoughts

My friend Barry has a clear discussion of why red means stop, and why the "as soon as safe" practice advocated by some is detrimental to the safety of cyclists.

The ASAS philosophy says, among other things, that cyclists can treat a traffic light as a stop sign. If there is no other traffic affected by doing so, once the cyclists stops, he or she is free to go through the intersection. In the case of a stop sign, the cyclist is free to consider it a yield sign, not stopping, but at least being prepared to stop if there is other traffic present. Some proponents of the ASAS idea consider it quite acceptable to "thread the needle," or ride up the right side of stopped traffic. I will not do it myself, and strongly discourage the practice. It does NOTHING good for cyclists as a group. Indeed, it only serves to irritate other road users and further the notion that "all cyclists are scofflaws."

Some would say it's human nature to decide what the law should be, according to one's own interests, and obey what one thinks the law should be rather than obey the actual law. Whether it is human nature is debatable, but the effect remains, and many motorists think the law should be for bicycles to stay off the roadways, or if bicyclists insist on being on the roadway, they, the cyclists, should ALWAYS yield to motorists--motorists, in their opinion, being the ultimate road users. Some cyclists, on the other hand, take a much more militant stance than my own. I don't think I need to weigh in on this debate at the moment, but it is helpful for us as cyclists to consider their position in the interest of developing defensive cycling skills.

When I did a google search on "as soon as safe bicycle," the first link in the resulting list was this one from Bicycle Safe on how to not get hit by cars. On reading the page, I find a couple places where I would change the order of strategies they offer, but I agree with most of what is said there. I encourage readers to follow that link and have a read.


There has been some discussion among local bike safety folks over the tactic of riding "invisible." The Bicycle Safe site cited above echos my thoughts on this closely. Quoting that site: "It's often helpful to ride in such a way that motorists won't hit you even if they don't see you. You're not trying to BE invisible, you're trying to make it irrelevant whether or not drivers see you." In addition, I make myself easy to see, by a) wearing brightly colored shirts or outer layers, b) having good passive reflectors on all sides, c) having good "be seen" lights front and rear, with spare batteries aboard for each, d) riding where I'm supposed to be riding, to more easily be seen by other road users and e) having a decent "see where I'm going" light up front. Some suggest what they call "controlled erratic cycling," as a way to keep motorists from being complacent about their interactions with us. Perhaps there is some validity to this, if done in moderation. However, some are quite immoderate in such things, which again incites motorists who think that one or two examples of bicyclist behavior is the norm and therefore all cyclists should be punished over the one or two who ran a stop sign in front of them a month ago (and if you can find the logic in their position, your logical patterns are more flexible than mine).


There are a couple of caveats: I sometimes act as if a stop sign is in fact a yield sign. I am prepared to stop if there is other traffic to witness my presence. If I am second to arrive at a four-way stop, I am at least second (if not third) to leave the intersection. I stop at traffic lights. However, there is one traffic light that does not recognize bicycles where I will sometimes follow the ASAS principle. I fully realize that I'm being something of a hypocrite here. The alternatives are a) sitting at a light waiting for a motorist to trigger the left-turn light--which could take several cycles of the rest of the light--or b) going some distance out of my way. Given that the light in question is part of the one legal place to cross the Ohio River for something like fifty miles in either direction, and that it ignores my presence as not having enough metal to trigger the light, I consider this case to be one of civil disobedience--I know I could be fined over it, but am prepared to defend myself by saying the signal is faulty as it does not recognize a valid road user and needs to be repaired.

Let it snow, let it snow...

It isn't as if we could stop it from snowing.

With snow on the ground, my haul to work (in the car) was even slower than my ride to work usually is. When I arrived at my office, my supervisor was sitting at my desk, and was genuinely surprised to see me. I told him it was just a little snow, and that snowfall is measured in feet rather than inches.

He has reason to dislike driving in snow. He's been in two wrecks due to snow, and both involved injuries.

The snowfall has disrupted other things as well. UPS has some of their salaried staff on call to work at the air sort, to pick up slack caused by folks not being able to get to work. Schools are not in session today.

And all over a little snow flurry. As I mentioned, snowfall is measured in feet not in inches. Anything less than a foot is a mere flurry, and the greater inconvenience is that folks don't know how to drive in it.

That and the fact that I needed new tires for my truck a month ago.

Gloves!

Having been a weather wimp of sorts because I don't like to suit up for sub-28F temperatures, I ordered a pair of better gloves. They finally arrived today. With the threat of winter precipitation being screamed at us by the local weatherliars, what is a guy to do but the only sane option--take the gloves for a test-ride!

I took out the Raleigh, just because. Although I'm mainly a recumbent guy, I'm strangely attracted to the simplicity of the Raleigh (although anyone who has been inside a three speed hub knows they are not but so simple). I guess one thing I like about it is that it only has three speeds, and the shifter is easy to operate with heavy gloves. The gloves made a big difference over what I'd been using, and coupled with some minor strategy differences will get my threshold down to about 20F.

I'm still beset by brake gremlins, however. After years of recommending Kool Stop Salmon brake pads for all sorts of applications, I'm about done with them. They are stupidly noisy on my Ryan. The compound was, or so I heard somewhere, based on the compound used on the Scott Matthauser Superbrakes of the early 1990s. I found a few sets of the Scott Superbrake pads in my parts bins recently and figured I'd try them on the Raleigh. Yep, they stop better, even though they are fifteen years old or more. However, and especially in the cold, they are NOISY! I think I'll have to go back to the old pads on this bike for winter.

My ride was cut shorter than I'd like by my headlight. It's a 1996-vintage Vista Lite 6W Halogen set, with a lead-gel battery pack that weighs about sixty pounds (or maybe it just seems that heavy). I replaced the battery early this season, rather than buy a new light set ($24 vs $150+). Last week, I got a bit more than halfway to work and realized that a) my battery was about dead for the day and b) I had left the charger at home. I switched the flasher light to steady beam and turned off the headlight. It was getting enough lighter that I could see the road fairly well, but still needed to be seen by other road users.

Anyway, I charged the battery for a few hours that night, and again while at work the next day, totaling less than a full charge session suggested by the manufacturer so as not to over-charge the battery (it doesn't have over-fill-protection as do some of the newer batteries). Sure enough, it started going dim on me tonight, taking away some of the fun of a night ride. I suppose the temperature is a factor, but it shouldn't be dead yet!

I'll disconnect it from the charger before going to bed tonight. If the roads aren't totally fouled in the morning, I may ride to work just to do so.

Invasion of kilted guys

As I've noted before, when I'm not on a bicycle or getting ready to ride a bicycle or just have gotten off a bicycle, I'm probably wearing a kilt instead of trews. After having a sense for some years that there was something wrong with a society that won't let men wear a manly analog to a skirt without having to invest tons of money in formal Scottish hand-tailored outfits, I encountered an image of a guy wearing a Utilikilt a bit more than a year and a half ago.

I bought one, and dug around online to find out more about contemporary kilts. There is a ton of information on the web--some of which is even useful--so sure enough, I encountered a number of forums where folks who like kilts discuss things. My favorite of these is the Brotherhood of the Kilt, although I also post on the forum at XMarkstheScot.

A common thing on these forums is for members to get together for a "kilt night," which can be as simple as folks getting together for dinner and a few brews at a restaurant of someone's choosing. Some of these things run to formal wear, but I'm not a formal wear kind of guy, and BBC in St Matthews is not a formal kind of place.

We were getting ready for a group shot when Jenn took this picture:



Jenn took the group shot with another fellow's camera. Good thing, too, as it has a much stronger flash than mine.

In the course of doing weekend chores and recovering from being out too late for the gathering, I didn't get to ride on Sunday. I would have enjoyed riding with the RCCS folks, but will have to work on doing so next time.

Saturday morning

It's cloudy and cool...not cold enough to not ride, but I need to get other things done this morning. Jenn's car is making noises that we need to diagnose and perhaps fix (It's probably time for brake pads).

Another person has joined the very small list of folks who are reading this (thanks, Tex, for the shout out Friday afternoon--sorry I didn't recognize you at the time).

Tim (Tex), David and others have formed the River City Cycling Society. Their mission is to ride their rides regardless of weather, but with what appears to be an ethos similar to the one we had when the Louisville Recumbent Riders' Group was active--slowest rider sets the pace. I may ride with them from time to time, but as I'm a club officer, and doing a fair bit of teaching over the next six months or so, my fun cycling will likely be with more of a speed focus.

Their formation coincides with a recent round of unrelated commentary on the Louisville Bicycle Club's forum regarding the perception that the club riders are mostly "hammerheads." I may share some expanded thoughts on this perception and its causes at some point.

I wish these folks well, and look forward to riding with them some. My own experience was that folks had a great deal of fun, for a while, but eventually moved on to other interests. Some of our riders opted to ride LBC rides at faster paces, some have all but disappeared after following newer interests. The core of RCCS is folks who ride almost daily and who are dedicated year-round riders, so I expect their results will differ from mine.

TWO DAYS IN A ROW!

It's a sign of the season (and general mood) that I find getting to ride to work two days in a row something to celebrate. My self-imposed weather minimums have prevented my riding too often of late.

I guess it means I'm not a "hard core" utility cyclist, at least by some standards, but that's okay. My commute is longer than some, shorter than others, but I ride when I'm comfortable doing so and when my time constraints allow.

I'll have several days in February that I'll almost have to drive, simply because I have places to be soon after the day gig. I'm teaching a bike maintenance class in Crestwood (actually there will be two sessions of this class). In March, I will be teaching an introductory course on four occasions. In May, I will begin teaching the LBC's "New Rider Clinics, which will go all summer.

Hopefully I will get to ride some this year...

Good day to ride!

I got to ride to work today! YAY!

I was even a few minutes early, despite rolling out a few minutes later than I like. I rode the Raleigh today, and was pleased at the amount of time I spent in direct gear (as opposed to indirect or overdrive, the other two options on a Sturmey-Archer hub). I've been thinking about getting a slightly larger cog for this hub, as I rarely use top gear with the current gearing and find indirect a bit high for my preferences (I like to pedal at 85-95 rpm most of the time). The morning low temperature of 25F didn't feel as cold today for some reason, and didn't sap my strength as is usually does. While not speedy, I did not feel sluggish. I don't have a speedometer on this bike, and don't have plans to install one, so I don't have a handle on just how fast or slow I'm going.

As I rode toward downtown from home, I encountered another cyclist. Dana works at one of the hospitals in the medical district and was on her way to work. She had not heard of Bicycling for Louisville or the Utility Bike list server, but was interested in the resources and shared ideas she could find. She also sounded interested in the upcoming Bike Summit once I made her aware of it.

That she hadn't heard about the Summit already pointed out to me that the efforts to include more folks haven't been as successful as I'd like. I'll have to make some noise with the powers that be to let them know of gaps in the media coverage.

The day after...

...and the nation is still abuzz over the new President. I got to watch the Inauguration at a friend's house, among several friends. The Inaugural Address was suitably somber, without taking a lot of cheap shots at prior administrations (though there were many that could have been taken, and a few that WERE taken). It is pretty amazing to think of 1.5 MILLION people being there for the events of the day, not to mention the millions more watching from afar.

Regardless of one's personal political leanings (and I think mine are pretty clear), it was an impressive spectacle.

But otherwise, life goes on. I'm not set up to ride in sub-25F weather, so I've not been on a bike much of late. As noted in prior post, I am officially the VP Education of the Louisville Bicycle Club, and my first Ex-Com meeting will be next weekend (yay! I think...).

As a member of the Executive Committee, I am already aware of some of the planning for local cycling events. I attended a meeting on one such event today, and am excited about the opportunity it presents the community. I am not sure how much has been made public, and I don't want to speak out of turn on the plans, so I'll simply leave it at suggesting you leave your calendar open for the weekend two weeks after the Mayor's Ride on Memorial Day. Also keep in mind that the Masters' Nationals bicycle racing events will be in Louisville a couple weeks later.

On a more personal note, Jenn did her first multi-modal trip to and from work today. We did a fair bit of work to her bike over the long weekend, and I mentioned to her that it's a good idea to test-ride a bike after doing so much work to it. We never made the test-ride happen, and she got to learn the value of the check ride when she got off the bus this morning. No injuries, but we had to replace the quick release skewer for the rear wheel.

And it looks like I'll get to ride to work Thursday!

snow what?

My employer considers today a holiday, so I'm at home instead of at work. Jenn has to work today, but is off tomorrow to help her daughter with some things and go to a lunch celebrating the Inauguration of our President.

Part of me wants to come up with some sort of deep thoughtful comments on the pairing of today and tomorrow--the day we celebrate the efforts of Martin Luther King Jr. and the day we inaugurate our first President of African-American heritage. Through the campaign process, I didn't think about Mr. Obama as African-American. I thought of him as human first, as I was raised and continue to believe that we are of but one race--human. The color of our skin should not matter, although it does to some folks. Our names matter greatly--it is our identity, after all--but that his name is not one found in WASP name lists should not matter at all. It doesn't to me. It certainly doesn't imply that he's a terrorist, as some would have us believe.

In any event, he has a tough job ahead of him--convincing those who voted against him that we ALL need to work hard to overcome the legacy of his predecessor. World opinion of the US DOES matter--we must trade with global partners after all. Isolationism is not an option, although it seems some who clamor for ignoring what the world thinks of us also rush to buy the latest imported trash at Mal-Wart.

It's a mess. I can't fix it alone, so I do what I can to make my life and the lives of those around me a little better than they might otherwise be. I try to buy locally, I use less gasoline than I might, I encourage kindness.

While it is not a significant accumulation, there is snow on the ground. It's the first time I've seen snow since moving to this house I so enjoy. It's time to go take some pictures. Later on I might go for a bike ride.

Annual Club Banquet

It is now official: I have been elected as the Louisville Bicycle Club Vice President for Education.

I simply have to not be officious.

I ran unopposed for the slot. It's a volunteer position, meaning I don't get money but get to work a LOT for the good of cycling in our community. I've done a lot of the "nuts and bolts" work before--I am a League Cycling Instructor, and have been involved in the Club's education programs for several years in one capacity or another. Now I get to be "behind the scenes" more, and participate in Club Executive Committee meetings, receive email through the Club web site, be privy to all sorts of scandalous information on what the club is doing--in short, an enviable position. Yeah, right. If it's so enviable, how come nobody else ran?

The guys who had held the post before me did very good jobs. I hope I can honor their work by continuing it, and do well on my own scale.

Otherwise, the banquet was fun. We got to socialize a good bit before and after. The food was banquet fare--nothing to cause excitement, but nothing poisonous, either. They didn't have beer (although they had a couple of options of canned swill masquerading as beer).

It was the first time for me to wear my latest kilt. My mother made me one for the recent gift-giving holiday, and it's just too nice to wear to work on a daily basis as I do with most of my contemporary kilts. It turned out nicely, and I'm happy to have it.

Jenn also spent some time today modifying a sport coat I'd found at a thrift store to make it a kilt jacket. It's now a couple inches shorter overall, and the hem approaching the placket (if a jacket has a placket, or if that's the right term) curves more to accommodate the sporran. She did a great job, and the jacket looks good with the new kilt. If folks are eager to see pictures, I'll add one in here somehow.

Since I've gotten a vote for pictures, I'll show one:

Here's to today's heroes!

We have several heroes to thank today.

First, the pilot and copilot of the airliner in New York. You've no doubt seen the reports--Airbus took off, encountered a double bird strike and lost power in both engines, pilots landed the thing on the river in a manner that allowed all souls aboard to exit the plane in a semi-orderly fashion with no loss of life (save for the birds that had the horrible luck to fly into the path of the jet).

Second (through, I don't know--a bunch), the firefighters who are busy as I type this clearing up not one but two very bad fires on opposite sides of town this morning. Pictures on the Courier-Journal's site show them with visors coated with ice to the point that vision is not possible without risk of eye damage. The fires were both so severe that by the time crews arrived, they had to fight both from outside the buildings rather than stay inside. From what I've read so far, most of the damage is limited to the involved building on each site--the crews were able to protect surrounding buildings from severe damage.

Oh, and did I mention that the ambient temperature was about 0? Fahrenheit, that is. Darned cold to be throwing water at a fire.

...and too darned cold for me to ride a bike today.

Too cold to ride

Since the weather (a topic on everyone's mind) is too cold for me to ride, I've not had much to say about riding this week. One friend rode to work yesterday, and part way home, only to find that the combination of weather and idiot motorists was more than he was willing to tolerate. I certainly don't hold that against him--I didn't even get on my bike.

On the other hand, I drove out to Crestwood to work on a customer's bike, and picked up more parts for Jenn's commuter rig. Next thing to do is move it and some tools inside so that she can work on it in the relative comfort of the house--my garage is not heated.

I don't expect to ride my bike for a few days yet. I don't have the right cycling gear for sub-zero wind chill ratings.

Jenn's mother expressed some concern over my habit of wearing kilts when I'm not cycling or doing other cycling-related stuff, especially in the cold weather we're experiencing. I tried to be polite when I mentioned that my job at the bike shop was the first one I'd had as an adult that didn't involve extended periods of time outdoors in all manner of weather--I worked for a bit more than nine years at UPS as a ramp rat, driving Tugs, fueling aircraft for two of those years, loading and unloading aircraft cargo decks and the like. I know how to dress for weather when I need do so. I choose to not dress for the combination of sub-25F temps and cycling, but am quite capable of dealing with sub-zero temps for hours at a time if I need to be.

Cold morning

...but not as bad as what's on the horizon for later this week.

I was having trouble getting motivated for work this week. Some days, I come to work to have an excuse to ride my bicycle a while. I had some stuff to do at the Liberty Street office, which made my timing such that I got to enjoy the colorful morning sky as a crossed the bridge.

Weather is supposed to turn foul again tonight and for the rest of the week. I hope to ride some, but I'll have to make the calls on a daily basis. Barry's blog entry for Friday is a nice outline of the decision tree.

On the "Jenn's commuter bike" front: I'm using this bike to teach her how to do her own repairs and tuning. In time, I want to teach her how to teach the stuff, with an eye toward having her able to teach some intro to intermediate courses for women. For now, she's doing an overhaul on her "new" 1980s-vintage Peugeot commuter rig. She cleaned and repacked the crank and headset bearings Sunday. She will repack the wheel bearings this week some time, install a replacement derailleur and shifters, and mount the rack, lights and fenders over the coming week or so. She is excited, as she will then be able to get to work using one bus instead of doing a transfer (that takes a lot of time unless the planets align perfectly), and have the ability to ride the bike home instead of the bus when weather permits.

Another week has come and gone

It was not the best week for cycling to work. I did get to ride to work twice, though. My hopes for riding Friday were dashed by a lunch meeting that was announced on Thursday--I wasn't really ready for an extra round trip over the bridge that day, and as I mentioned, the low Friday morning was a bit below my usual minimum.

I wound up driving out to the bike shop after work to work on a bike that had been damaged in the owner's garage. It's amazing what a slight bump from a car can do to a bicycle frame. The bike needs a new wheel in addition to the cold-re-forging of the rear frame triangle. I also collected parts for a wheel set ordered by another customer. I found out today that the customer had intended to build the wheels himself, but was discouraged from doing so by the shop owner--who himself has not mastered the technique--in favor of having me build them. I got them laced at home this morning, only to find that the spoke nipples are an odd size for which I do not have the correct wrench. Took them to the shop and did what needed doing there in the afternoon, and while at the shop, started buying parts and accessories for Jenn's commuter rig.

I mentioned her "new/old" bike in another post here. She bought an early-1980s Peugeot mixte frame ten-speed bike that frankly looks like the ancestor to today's hybrid bikes. Like me, Jenn loves her recumbent bike, but also like my 'bents, her 'bent won't fit on the TARC bus bike racks, and she wants that "multi-modal" option for her commute. Today's haul included a scrapped derailleur for pulleys for her existing one, a rear rack, some fenders, a light set, dual-use pedals, and a few cold-weather clothing items. She'll do a guided tune-up on the bike tomorrow and we'll install the rack and fenders so that if weather permits, she can start biking to the TARC route this week. She is excited about this--if the weather is decent, she can ride all the way home from work, and use the "Bikes on Board" feature of TARC buses to get to work clean and fresh. Very cool, indeed.

One of those days

I woke up more-or-less on time this morning, but simply could not get motivated to get out of bed and start on the morning pre-work rituals. I did most of them, but slowly. My legs were telling me that they would not relish the ride to work today, so I drove.

David posted last night under the title "Commuting by bicycle-a love/hate relationship." He didn't delve deeply into the topic, mentioning that he doesn't hate anything about the cycling part of commuting, but allowing that he dislikes "closed-minded idiots." He's right: closed-minded idiots can ruin anything (if we let them).

Like David, I enjoy (or at least try to enjoy) my bike rides to and from work (and most of my errand-running bike riding is enjoyable, to boot). Sometimes, I have to work to find the fun part--during yesterday's ride, part of the fun was imagining the reactions I was getting from motorists seeing some guy on a bike in the blowing snow. Sometimes it's even harder.

On my ride home from work yesterday, I was almost blown over by a gust of wind. This has not happened to such a degree in several years, and was all the more surprising because the wind gusts were forecast to only be twenty-five knots or so. On the other hand, I was on my Raleigh, and as I may be a bit large for that bike (judging from how far the seat post is out of the frame), I sometimes feel a bit more precarious atop it than I ever feel on my 'bents. As I approached the Clark Bridge, I noted that the flags by the Southern Indiana Tourism agency at the foot of the bridge were almost straight out from their poles, and opted to walk my bike (on the sidewalk) rather than ride across. I spent more time getting across this way, but felt far safer doing so. At times, gusts were pushing me around more than I like as I walked, so I don't feel bad about my decision. I was not in the mood to get blown over by a gust of wind just as a car came along.

The rest of my ride home was almost uneventful, the event of note being that for the second time this week, I've turned off Shelbyville Road onto St Matthews Avenue to find Jenn walking home from her bus stop at the corner. We get a chance to talk outside of the home this way, and it's fun.

Wet weather again

It wasn't precipitating when I left the house this morning. The forecast was for 30% chance of snow. I was only mildly surprised, then, when I was partway to the main office and it started snowing. I decided that by the time I turned around, went home, changed clothes, and drove to work, it would take too long, and I wasn't doing bad as it was, so I kept riding.

It was just flurries at first, of course, and the temperature felt warm enough that it would only get the streets damp instead of icy. I stopped at the Liberty Street office for my agency to process some paperwork, then got back on the bike for the rest of my trip to my New Albany office. The mild discomfort of riding the Raleigh instead of the Ryan was offset by imagining the thoughts of motorists--"There goes some nutcase on a bicycle! In THIS weather!"

I may have mentioned before that I don't mind riding in snow flurries. The water involved doesn't seem to get me as wet as rain does at the same ambient temperature. Still, my experience this morning was encouraging, as I now have less fear of hypothermia for my commute. I have to remind myself sometimes that with my body mass, it takes a while to have that sharp a drop in core temperature. As long as I don't have a problem that keeps me still for a long time, I should do fine.

I tend to wear thin light layers for riding. One of my reasons for not riding in temperatures below 25F or so is that I don't want to put on that many layers to have a bike ride. I have some thicker layers at home, but am reluctant to use them because I sweat freely in the thin layers I already use, and I don't want to deal with thicker layers saturated with sweat if I can get the thinner layers to evaporate the sweat. It seems that I just need to do some more experimentation so that I can determine how what I have works, and follow the advice of the Nike commercials.

Just do it.

The weather for the next couple days looks better, precipitation-wise. It's supposed to get chilly tonight, making me less excited about riding tomorrow morning, but we'll see. Maybe I can find a pair of gloves at the house that are warmer than what I have been using.

Rationalizing things

I drove to work today. The rain gave me reason to rethink riding for one day. My commute is a bit less than an hour, and with temperatures in the low to mid-thirties, rain brings a threat of hypothermia that I wasn't willing to face down. This time.

We all have our weather minimums--some won't ride if it's below 60 outside, some will ride in sub-zero weather. I don't know why I'm fussing at myself for having my own limits and knowing them and working within them. At some levels, it feels like I wimped out on riding today.

On the other hand, I would NOT have enjoyed the ride to work today, nor the cleanup once arriving at work. I got to enjoy an extra few minutes of solitude before leaving the house, and an extra minute in the morning shower. I still got to work a bit early. I won't be tired from hurrying home on the bike when I go to trainer tour tonight.

I'll be fine.

I may even get to ride tomorrow. Weather permitting.

following blogs

I have followed a couple blogs for a while, and added another today. The first two I put on my list are local folks--one I've known for several years, and one I met through an email list server for local utility cyclists. Through reading comments on these blogs, I've encountered a few other bloggers (if that's the term--I'm woefully behind on the lingo). One such person is rebuilding an old Fuji, and is relating some of the fun being had on that project. As the owner of an older bike, and the partner to a woman with an almost-as-old bike, AND as a former bike shop service manager, such projects always intrigue me. I really enjoy seeing people willing to put effort into getting on bikes.

When I worked in the shop, I often discouraged people who wanted to revitalize such bikes, or at least who wanted to pay me to do so. The expression I often used was along the lines of, "If you went to sell this at a garage sale, you could get $15. If you put $125 into fixing it, including tuning, tires, tubes, cables and brake pads, you could get $50 for it at a garage sale."

It's different, though, when one does the work instead of hiring it done by a shop. It becomes a much more satisfying experience--one that builds self-confidence, even, especially if it's the first time one does such a thing. Most of that $125 figure I mentioned was labor, too, so the cost comes down a bit. Another factor is that the bike is not likely to be sold right away--if one puts that sort of time and energy into it, the bike will probably get used more or there is an emotional attachment to the bike for some other reason (equally valid, I must add). I reaquainted myself with this phenomenon as I reworked and modified my Raleigh over the last few months. I figure on using Jenn's new-to-her old bike as a teaching tool to help her learn about fixing bikes. I know from experience that she will enjoy that opportunity to learn and do stuff.

Monday, Monday

Looking at the forecasts, I may or may not get to ride later this week. I am not quite set up for riding in rain at near-freezing temperatures. I ordered a rain cape the other day, so that may change in the not-too-distant future. I'll have to do some experimenting with it once it arrives to judge my willingness to use it.

Given that I've ridden in slightly colder weather than we have this morning, I had no excuse for not riding today. Jenn left shortly before I did, as she was catching the bus for her return to work (she was off work the whole of last week). It felt good to ride, too.

I'm finding it interesting that while my Ryan is faster than the Raleigh, I enjoy something about riding the Raleigh. This is weird for me, as I've been a hard-core recumbent enthusaist for a long time. The Raleigh has been an interesting experience for me, to be sure. The rain cape mentioned above will only work for me on the Raleigh, for example. It's one of the few bike-specific accessories I've bought (not counting bike-specific parts like saddle and rims). Almost all of my other gear is utile on either commuter bike.

On other topics:

Jenn bought a commuter bike Friday. She found a Peugeot at Goodwill for $50 or so. On inspection, the tires, tubes, brake pads, and cables seem sound. The largest repair issue is that both jockey pulleys are broken. Since it is a 1980s-vintage Simplex derailleur, I don't know whether the easily-available Shimano pulleys will work. If not, a replacement derailleur won't be hard to install. Over the coming month or three, we'll get fenders, a rack, lights and better pedals to upgrade the bike from its current state to commuter rig. I'll probably mount a different set of shifters as well, as the current down-tube shifters are less-than-ideal and thumb shifters are easier to use and easy to obtain.

We got the LG&E bill over the weekend, and almost took the bike back. $50 or so for the electric portion, but over $250 for the gas to heat the house for a month. Wow. We now have some ceramic heaters to warm areas we are using without having to heat the whole house as much. I'm willing to take the trade of doubling the electric bill if we can halve the gas bill.

Back to town, back to work, back on the bike

I managed to get away for a few days over the holly-daze. It was good to see my grandmother, good to share some of my home-state haunts with my girlfriend and good to be home.

I rode the Bicycle Club's Polar Bear ride on the 1st, so was on my bike for the first time in about two weeks. I rode the Bacchetta, just in case I needed to keep up with a few folks. I got to ride with Earl Jones, the club president, and talked with him about my goals as VP Education, a post to which I expect to be elected in a couple weeks.

I have a busy year ahead of me. In addition to being the presumptive (although hopefully not presumptuous) VP Education for the Louisville Bicycle Club, I will be teaching some classes at Bluegrass Bicycle based on the Park Tool School curriculum. Another shop in the area is offering some free clinics, but I suspect the instruction will be cursory at best. We plan to offer an Intermediate course developed by Park Tools, and will offer more detailed modules from the Advanced course as staff timing permits. The schedule is not yet finalized, but will be posted soon. The LBC is involved in the Bike Summit II coming up in February, and I will be part of that process. I will be primary instructor for the LBC "New Rider" clinics from early May until the end of August.

But I've also had a chance to start the new year off right: I rode the Vanguard to work today. I finally took the time to correct a noisy brake issue that had been frustrating me, and the bike is once again a joy to ride. While I was in bike-fixing mode, I installed a different batch of brake pads on the Raleigh in hopes of gaining some stopping power on that bike. It stops better, but I need to tweak the pad alignment a bit to reduce noise from THAT bike now. In any event, the Vanguard has more load capacity, and I needed to carry some clothing items and other odds and ends to work after having been away for a week.

It's good to be back on the bike.