Dinking around online in a slow moment at the store, I found a pretty cool blog called Free Range Kids. Having read a few of her posts, I encourage you to do likewise.

I don't have any kids of my own, and my stepdaughters are both over eighteen. Still, I see folks being "helicopter parents," and wonder what they are teaching their children, aside from fear of "different."

And I think that fear of "different" is one of the more severe problems we face in our society right now.

Fear, and how it is allowed to run people's lives, has broken up relationships. For me. It was a major factor in why I broke up with a woman I had figured I would be marrying. She was afraid of life in too many ways.

I understand taking reasonable precautions. I also realize that the balance point of reasonable/outrageous varies from person to person. I'm comfortable with riding a bike instead of driving most of the time. I do take measures to make my riding safer, like riding where I will be seen by other road users and making my bike easier to see than most. Some think it nuts that I'd expose myself to as much danger as they perceive me facing on a daily basis.

I've looked at a fair number of statistical analysis exercises, and riding is safer than driving in many ways. I'm certainly less of a threat to the pedestrians, other road users and inanimate objects near my path than a car would be.

In any event, have a look at Free Range Kids. Drop Ms. Skenazy a line, or leave me your thoughts.

Back on the bike

After three days of driving to work, I got to ride this morning.

I keep having to justify driving. Saturday, I drove to maximize time after work with a friend who was scheduled to come to town. I was miffed at myself when I realized that I could have hauled the tandem then instead of driving on Monday. I was also disappointed when I talked to my friend and learned that he had a sinus infection and was staying home instead of coming to town.

So, I drove Monday to haul the tandem out so that I could have my machinist friend examine it, as mentioned previously. I drove Tuesday to haul the bike home (and to avoid riding in near-gale-force winds).

Tuesday's high note was that I got to eat dinner with Jenn and her oldest daughter. I think the shorthand for it is IMMD.

I got to ride today, though. It felt good. I'm looking forward to my ride home as well.

The Screamer is atilt

When we bought our Screamer in August, I figured I had enough "hours in type" that I didn't need to do a pre-purchase test-ride. Over the first several times Jenn and I rode it, I worked on tweaking the seat position and handlebar position to get them where I was most comfortable, but I always felt things were a little "off."

For one thing, the captain's seat had a peculiar and disquieting ability to move on the roll-axis. I made a temporary fix for this with some folded aluminum foil in the form of a shim between the RANS Rad-Lok seat clamp and its centering rail, and went on our merry way.

The thing still felt a bit "off," though. My right knee would rub the front brake cable once in a while, and the handlebar felt as if it was off-center to the right. If I centered myself on the handlebar riser, I was off-center in the seat, but the bike felt a bit better otherwise. It took me a few rides to zero in on this, but there it was--my seat was following my political bent by leaning to the left.

I removed the seat and figured out a primitive, if effective, way to measure whether the Rad-Lok rail was centered on the frame, using a couple of carpenters' squares (the top and bottom tubes of the frame are of differing diameters). The rail was off-center by a thirty-second of an inch.

1/32" doesn't seem like much. However, at one inch from the axis of rotation, that 1/32" translates to over 3/4" at the top of a 22" tall seat--enough to be awkward for any length of time.

Of course, as we are the third owners of the bike, RANS was not about to do any warranty service work. To their credit, however, their staff was willing to brainstorm with me a bit, which led me to consider making or having made a new rail to center the seat--this time with the screw holes offset enough to have things more in alignment.

I spoke with a friend and customer who is a machinist by trade, figuring that he'd have access to better milling equipment than anything I have, and hoping that he'd have a way of getting a more accurate measurement of the problem.

He didn't have a ready improvement on my measuring trick, but was willing to help me with the rail. I picked up the new rail from him a while ago. I plan to install it on the bike tonight and see how it works. I won't be able to ride the bike for a few days, yet, though. While he and I were measuring and figuring out how things go together, the struts supporting the seat back broke.

I'd rather they break in the shop than during a ride. They can't be but so expensive, so having a new set won't hurt the wallet as much as having them break during a ride would hurt other parts of me.

CX mania

Last Thursday was a busy day off work for me. I had a stop in Hikes Point for some CPAP supplies, then wanted to be at the dedication ceremony for the new Cyclocross facility at Eva Bandman Park on River Road.

I'm not historically a 'cross racer kind of guy, but I'm quite impressed by this facility. The racers I've heard discuss the course give it high marks for being tough, challenging, and creative. That we are getting the Masters' World Championships here in 2012 and the World Championships here in 2013 says a lot about where this site rates for the cyclocross racers.

I only hope they work out something for those auto-centric folks so they have a closer place to keep their cars, only to improve spectator attendance. Most of us would ride there and find a place to lock our bikes.

After the dedication and unveiling of the new sign, I went to do some shopping in town. Jenn wanted me to get some stuff for her howloween costume (she won the contest at the party we attended Saturday evening), and I needed some lunch. Sol Aztecas was a good choice for lunch!

Then it was out to beyond Iroquois Park a bit for some new shoes at Swag's. I've been a periodic Swag's customer for fifteen years or so, and enjoy the quality of service and knowledge Swag has his staff exhibit. After choosing and buying the shoes, I opted to enjoy some solitude in Iroquois Park.

When I lived in Old Louisville twelve years ago, I had a Wednesday afternoon ritual I enjoyed. I would get the latest issue of LEO on my way home from my day job, get on my bike and ride to the top of Iroquois Park. I'd find a quiet place on the upper meadow, sit and read the LEO, maybe read a chapter of whatever book I was enjoying at the time, and ride home. I sometimes stayed up there until dark (I had lights on the Ryan even then), and got to see owls seeking their evening meals, deer grazing in the meadow, and other dusk-time wildlife. It was good to revisit that simple pleasure, if only for a little while.

Then it was on to the First Birthday Party for Car-Free Happy Hour, held at Vernon Lanes that evening. It was good to see the friends old and new that were there. I even tried bowling again--scored something like 89 for the game! I have a bowling ball at home, but hadn't thought to bring it with me on the bike. It needs some redrilling before I want to use it much, though, as the thumb hole has gotten small over the twenty or thirty years since it was drilled. I didn't know that bowling balls could "heal" by making a hole smaller--or did my thumb get larger in diameter since I was twenty-three?

The USGP Cyclocross races were held at the new park over the weekend. I didn't get to go Saturday (someone had to mind the store while the boss raced...), and Jenn and I had stuff to do around the house Sunday, but all accounts I've read say it was a great course and a grand weekend of racing. Sounds like a lot of pain to me, but some folks seem to enjoy it.

Visibility

I've discussed visibility a fair bit lately. One thing I haven't mentioned in the "motorist claims (s)he didn't see me" bit is that as I travel Westport Road, I am able to notice how far back people pay attention to my presence. When they see me, some even use their turn signals to indicate to others their intention to change lanes. Many motorists see me far enough back that they are able to integrate into the left-lane traffic as far as a couple hundred yards behind me.

Rhetorical question time: If they can see me that far away, why can't the rest?

To play with that question a bit, one possible answer is that so many motorists simply don't think that far ahead. They are too busy fiddling with the doo-dad of the moment, whether it be their cell phone, their fast-(urp!)food, their GPS navigation, radio, electric razor, makeup or what-the-hell-ever to pay attention to their surroundings in a meaningful way. As a result, they are surprised to see a slower road user, and their surprise leads to their anger, which in turn becomes a tirade at me when the real problem is their own inattention.

Think they are mad at themselves? I doubt they would admit it. They are too busy blaming "that d@#$%! cyclist" for making them pay attention to their driving.

One of the reasons I like my Vanguard is that visibility from the bike is wonderful. I'm in a fairly natural seated position, with my head upright--much like the position of an automobile driver. I have good lateral vision, and excellent long-range sight lines without neck strain. My view to the rear is a bit different than what someone on a conventional bike would have, but I'm also pretty adept at using a helmet-mounted rear view mirror. Since I'm not wrapped in a glass, steel and plastic coccoon, I can hear other traffic from far enough away to tell something about the intentions of the operators.

Given that folks so often change lanes so far back from me, I have to believe I'm fairly easy to see as well. I've made it easier, certainly, with the large reflectors I made and my habitual choice of brightly-colored shirts, not to mention the various "be seen" active lights I use (I counted the Planet Bike Superflash lights in my garage the other day--not counting the two on Jenn's Peugeot that are now in Sarah's keeping, we have about a dozen). All of the bikes used for commuting have reflective stripes on the tires (the lone exception being the front tire on my Vanguard, and if that tire ever wears out...). All of the utility bikes have extra reflectors in addition to the CPSC stuff. And Jenn's bike has those Halo rims...

In short, anyone who cannot see me is either a) not looking, b) is vision-impaired enough that they shouldn't be driving or c) lying about it. I've had reports that I was hard to see in certain situations, even from a fairly astute driver. Those situations included a fair number of reflective barrels lining the roadway (construction zone) on which the speed limit was 25 (and was not enforced, but that's a separate issue), and where motorists are supposed to be going slower and watching for unusual things to happen. What do I need to add there? A Xenon strobe? How irritating is THAT for a motorist who gets stuck behind me at a long traffic light?

How well do YOU know the rules?

During the hour and a half to two hours I spend getting to and from work most days, I have a bit of time to ruminate on the state of drivers' education--and several opportunities to see just how poor that state is.

I frequently think that we don't retest enough (ONCE being more than we do...). I'm sure that many folks would have trouble passing the same test they took at the age of sixteen (or whenever they take it now--I've lost track since I don't have any kids who are just learning to drive).

Imagine how pleased I was to find this online test, then. It's a "written" test put out by GMAC Insurance, as a way of bringing attention to the need for more knowledge about driving.GMAC reports an over-20% failure rate (defined as score less than 70%). Kentucky ranks 42nd in the country at passing this test, with state average score of 74.9%. It's appalling to me that drivers don't know any better than this, but not terribly surprising.

When I am driving, I sometimes think along the lines of "would I pass a driving test today?" I'm not always so sure. I know I do things that would cost me points (one hand on the wheel, protocol issues regarding my use of the clutch and shifter, I'm not always good about using my turn signals (although I do use them more than the average motorist in this town, I don't use them all the time), and who knows what else. Given my score on the written test (90%), I suspect I would do well enough--especially if I would be aware of being tested.

As a League Cycling Instructor, I have reason to say that I know the traffic rules better than many motorists. Indeed, I frequently encounter motorists who I am SURE would flunk this written test, and who I'm equally sure would not care that they flunk it unless they would lose their current driving privileges by failing. Of course, some of them probably know this at some level, and would refuse to take the test out of fear of what they would see quantified.

I think the same thing about vision testing. I get the occasional motorist telling me I'm hard to see. Mine is the one on the left, but neither of these bikes are hard to see:

I have to think that a person who cannot see me on this bike is either a) vision-impaired to the point that it would be illegal for him or her to drive or b) needs to scan for smaller other road users. There is no third option that does not challenge the honesty of the person claiming to have not seen me. Given the number of crash reports where the at-fault party has said, "I just didn't see that car/bike/pedestrian," I think people are showing criminal neglect when driving. Paying attention to one's surroundings is of paramount importance when using the roads. Knowing the rules of the road--and following them--is part of the contractual obligation of a driver's license.

News Flash: Red Pickup dude found

I'm admittedly short on the details, but rumor has it that the Oldham County Police have found the owner of the red Dodge pickup that has been harassing cyclists. The OCPD asks that if you have LEGITIMATE information about incidents you have had or experienced others having with this guy that you please contact them with that information. I don't think they want speculation or second-hand stuff so much as first-hand accounts with time and date at this point.

My hopes are that they will find a way to use him as an object lesson on traffic safety. Perhaps this series of events will aid efforts to get HB88 passed in some legislative session SOON.

I'm for public service work for this guy, partnered with a few hours of instruction and a requirement that he ride a bike for a couple thousand miles over the next year.

It rained last night

Yes, it's newsworthy that we had rain last night. We had more rain from that storm system than we had experienced in over a month, mostly as a function of drought conditions from the latter part of August until, well, last night.

The official (or officious) weather service report called it at a bit more than a third of an inch, with a total for October of .44 inches. I've fired pistols with wider bullets (I was in ROTC in high school, and during summer camp got to fire a total of six rounds of .45 caliber ammunition--haven't fired a pistol or rifle since about that time in my life).

Of course, the weather was coming my way as I was heading home. There is an observation involving my old pal Murphy and his law somewhere in all this...

As I was getting ready to leave the store, Jenn called to see if I needed a ride. I told her I'd be fine for a while, and would call her if I changed my mind at some point. Three minutes later, as I was spooling up the revs on the pedals, I heard my cell phone ringing. I'm not in the habit of answering the thing when I'm pedaling, so I left it be.

As I was working through Crestwood and toward Pewee Valley, I decided that instead of going via Westport Road as is my usual route, I would go through Anchorage and follow LaGrange Road home from there, to put me closer to Jenn's workplace should I need to get her assistance (she had driven the truck to work). I was seeing lightning off to my north, but it wasn't close enough that I felt threatened. I got to Lucas Lane in Anchorage before I started getting rained on, but it went from sprinkle to hard rain in moments. Visibility was getting worse, but was still manageable--until I got in front of Central State Hospital (not to be confused with Central (state) High School at 12th and Chestnut in Louisville, my alma mater).

I stopped for a few seconds under the Hurstbourne Parkway bridge to clear my eyes a bit--salt from my helmet was washing down into them causing part of my visibility problems. Deciding my stopping place was not as safe as I'd prefer, I got moving again and went to the "stop and rob" at the corner of LaGrange Road and UPS Drive.

I called Jenn, to find that she was out looking for me, and had gotten off my usual course by a mile or more. I told her where I was, and she was amazed that I'd gotten that far without being concerned over lightning strikes. She came to where I was, and as there was still a fair bit of lightning in the area, took me the rest of the way home.

An hour later, the rain lessened enough that the visibility was again tolerable, but I'm just as glad I wasn't waiting out that hour in front of a Circle K "stop and rob" store. I could find edible food at home, for example...

The episode will, I'm sure, lead to some discussion over how I deal with weather when I'm on a bike. I apparently have a different idea of what is manageable from the bike seat than Jenn, even setting aside my well-known dislike for riding in rain. Of course, rain and night mixed are even less fun than either alone, but can still be managed with reasonable care. I have no desire to get hit by lightning, but haven't done any deep research to tell me how much of a problem that is likely to be when cycling on a thirty-pound steel bike with an additional ten or fifteen pounds of stuff hanging on it.

Christian rudeness

I was riding home from work the other day, and near the intersection of Westport Road and Indian Springs Drive, a motorist honked his horn at me just before passing me too closely. I caught up to him at the Freys Hill Road intersection, and challenged him on his horn use. He claimed it was to let me know he was passing me. I told him I could hear his car from more than a hundred yards away, and blowing his horn was viewed as more of an "in your face" statement--sort of a "get the F&$^ off the road" thing. He replied that he'd blow his horn any time he wanted.

It was no real surprise to me that there was one of those little icthus things on the rear of his car--no doubt put there to proclaim that he's a good Christian. The overwhelming majority of the people who are rude to me on the road has either one of those little fishy things, a license plate with "In God We Trust," or some other broadcast of "I'm a christian!"

If they have to tell the world that they're Christian, instead of letting us figure it out by their acts and attitudes, are they really? Or are they, as a friend of mine quipped a couple decades ago, "hypocristians?"

In other words, I found this motorist's behavior decidedly un-Christian, or decidedly christian in its hypocrisy--you decide.

It's ROADWORTHY!! Jenn's bike update project, part II

In June of 2010, I presented Jenn with her birthday present: Her own Ryan Vanguard. A week or so later, I had accessorized it so that she could show it off during a "show off your ride" day at work. It looked like this until recently:


With the new parts installed, it looks like this:

In the second picture, the bits of reflective vinyl I put on the handlebar to make the bike a bit more visible show up a bit more. The reflective stripe on the tire shows well, too. You can get a sense of the reflectivity of the back rim, but it is overshadowed, if you will, by the reflective sidewall stripe on the tire. The rack trunk is mounted above the rack instead of right down on it to facilitate easier pannier installation and removal.

Part of the component selection included that the Apex parts are black. The brakes I chose are dark grey enough that they look almost black at a glance. I had to replace the fork, as noted before, to allow using linear-pull brakes at the front wheel. The caliper brakes that were on the bike originally were what a friend and I refer to as vacuum brakes. Yes, they suck.

The hardware issues I mentioned in a prior post were easy enough to resolve, once I focused on them. One fender strut was rattling against a rack stay, so I adjusted its angle a bit to separate them more. The screw holding that rack stay to the frame had loosened a bit as well, so it now has some threadlocking compound on its threads (as does its companion on the other side) to keep such from being an issue going forward. I raised the rack trunk a bit more from the rack, as the panniers were getting hard to mount and remove.

It's little tweaks like this that make a bike far more enjoyable--one doesn't have to worry about things falling off, and can thus focus more on keeping the bike upright and in the right part of the road. The bike rides well now. Jenn is happy with her birthday present.

A couple of quick disjointed items:

Car-Free Happy Hour is back for its first birthday bash! The latest event will be held at Vernon Lanes on Story Avenue on the 21st of October, starting at 5:30 pm!

On my way to work, I sometimes see a recent-model Toyota FJ. You've probably seen them, even if you paid them no mind. They are a "sport cute" designed to evoke sentimental memories of (or wishes for such sentimental memories of) the Toyota Land Cruisers of the mid-1970s, but with lots more luxury. It looks like this:

Supposedly making you think of this:

At any rate, the one I have seen a couple times now has a sign on its back window that reads, "It's a mid-life crisis thing...you probably understand."

I didn't understand.



Jenn's bike rode well for her on its test ride last night. We went on a five- or six-mile shakedown run, and the biggest complaint is that there seems to be some loose hardware in the rear rack or fender mounting systems. I need to do a minor tweak on one shifter's position to make it easier to use as well. I hope to get some images in the next few days.

Jenn's bike updates, part I

When we returned from our RAAM adventure, I presented Jenn with her birthday present--a shiny black Ryan Vanguard of her own. I had planned on updating the drive train from the beginning, but it was a while until I could make it happen.

Over the last few weeks, I've been gathering parts, ordering stuff, having Jenn take part in selecting components and so on. Everything finally was on hand at the end of last week (or so we thought--more on that in a moment), so reconstruction started yesterday.

I had offered to Jenn that she could do the work if she wanted--after all, she wanted to do the overhaul on her Peugeot she used as her commuter rig until this summer. She responded that she wanted to think of the bike as custom-refitted by me, so I have been doing the work.

I enjoy doing refits like this, so that's a good thing.

A partial list of upgrades:
SRAM Apex drive train (crankset, derailleurs, chain & cassette), black in color
Avid Single Digit brakes and levers, dark grey in color
new fork to support the linear pull brakes, black powdercoat to match the frame
Velocity Aeroheat rims in their nifty Halo powdercoat (reflective!!), which is dark grey in daylight
Schwalbe Marathon Racer tires with reflective sidewall stripe (hey, it's a commuter rig--I want there to be NO mistake that someone is there!)
black spokes with nickel-plated spoke nipples for durability (and a little "pop" against the darker rims and spokes)

and the low point: the only hubs I could find that were a) black in color, b) reasonably priced and c) didn't have disc mounts were Shimano Deore. Given that these are essentially the same as the 2001 LX hubs, and as good as the late-90s XT stuff, I think they'll be fine. They may have the Shimano labels removed from them at some point, though...

The wheels went together well, of course. Velocity rims usually build well for me. The fork installation was no problem, either--of course no problem was expected. Components that bolt on rarely give me troubles, either, and didn't this time.

Murphy's Law did rear its ugly head a couple times, though. The shifters (SRAM TT bar-end shifters) wouldn't fit into the ends of the handlebar extensions without some filing. I spent some quality time with a file, and resolved that issue. Then, as I was installing the cables, I was reminded that the front brake requires a tandem-length cable, of which I had exactly zero on hand. I'm not satisfied with my routing of the rear brake cable, but that's a five-minute fix. The front cable will take me another five or so to install and adjust.

Hopefully I will be able to get some pictures online soon. I sent a few to Jenn by phone while I was working, just to tease her a bit. They were phone images, so they weren't as useful as they would have been had they been from a decent camera.

I figure she'll get to test-ride it tonight. I know I'll have some tweaking to do with shifter angles, brake lever angles and such. The shifting adjustments should be done already, though. I found that the deraileur hanger was bent a little bit, which was keeping it from shifting as well as I would expect Apex to work. Having the tools to deal with that problem, I made the adjustments and things worked as expected.

Maybe I'll get some pictures on here in the next few days...

car free lite, sort of

I got to spend a short week totally without a car.

My 1994 Ford Ranger has over 220,000 miles on it. Stuff has worn out. Stuff has rusted to breaking point. I think I did a post on here over a year ago telling how I had dropped it off at a service provider after realizing that a support for one of the rear axle springs had rusted to failure.

Some time last week, I discovered that the rear end of that spring was unattached to the frame of the truck. I took it to the same garage Monday morning and left it with them with instructions that it didn't have to be done that day or the next. I also asked them to inspect the drive shaft, as I suspected failed universal joints and carrier bearing. Sure enough, all three universal joints were worn out, as was the carrier bearing. After having a little sticker shock over the estimate, I approved the work. The next day, I received a call informing me that I could pay an extra $40 to have the truck back the next day, or not pay it and pick it up Friday--it seems a part was not on hand in town and had to be shipped in from out of town.

Of course, I chose to wait another day. I can do without a truck for a day for $40 without much drama, even if I want to haul boxes (as I did Thursday) or rims (as I did Friday).

In the course of the week, it occured to me that I was REALLY car-free for a few days. I didn't have the option of the fallback position of driving if I was late to work, or whatever. It was neat to think that I'm in a much better place to deal with that than many folks in town who would have to rent a car to deal with their auto-addiction.

I don't pretend to be car-free. I still have uses for my truck, and am not ready to get rid of it. I'll keep it--or one like it--as long as I feel justified in maintaining the thing (and price for the work done this week is a factor I had to justify), as it enables me to do things I want to do, like haul a kayak to the river or the lake, haul the tandem to a bike ride that's farther away than I want to ride, haul material for home projects in one trip rather than buy a Bikes at Work trailer and need to make two or more trips, and so on.

It's also nice to have the truck when the roads are too crappy for me to enjoy my ride to work, as I'm sure will be the case some time in the next six months or so.

My log shows that I rode a bit less than six hundred miles in September. I have not corrected entries for the computer mis-calibration noted before, but I don't think the error is large enough to get me to seven hundred.

The numbers on a web site, however, are just that. They are only numbers. My leg muscles aren't as worried about the formal number--they just know I'll be riding until they won't work any longer.

The last couple days have seen me pulling a trailer a bit. We had a part-availability issue at the store, so Thursday I went to another shop to get the right size part (none of our suppliers carry Cannondale-specific hardware, and Cannondale won't sell to non-dealers). We had a couple boxes of stuff to donate at Goodwill, so I stuffed one of the boxes in my non-Burley trailer for drop-off at their St. Matthews location. I stopped at Kroger to get some stuff for dinner later that day, as my path to work would go right past the house (more or less--we aren't right on Westport Road). From the house, where I got the smaller box of donation stuff, I stopped at the Whipps Mill Goodwill store which is closer to my to-work route.

That got the trailer closer to work--enough so that it made as much sense to dead-head it to work with me as take it home before going to work. Since the rims for Jenn's bike upgrade were scheduled to arrive yesterday, having the trailer at the store was a good thing--it's easier to haul them in a trailer than on top of my bike. The rims (and the trailer) are at home now, and the wheels will likely be built this weekend.

Tomorrow is Harvest Homecoming bike ride. We have not pre-registered. We may go, or not. We may ride out to watch some Cyclocross racing at Fisherman's Park. We may stay home and rebuild Jenn's bike.