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.