Velomobile bug has bitten

I keep getting more and more enthused about velomobiles. I think they are really slick machines. I want one (or three).

Of course, we'll have to do some stuff around the house first, like build bookshelves in the office so I can get the three dozen boxes of books out of the garage, find a way to store the table and chairs that are in the garage (make use of space over the door), and find something to do with some of the other stuff that's been there since we moved out of the house on Kennison Avenue over a year ago. At some point, I am thinking that if we haven't used it in over a year, it may find its way to Goodwill or something.

I'll also have to save up some money, as the FAW+ that makes the most sense for me to buy as a first VM will cost me somewhere in the $4500-5000 range to get and build to my liking.

Still, I keep looking at sites like alleweder.jp-web/de with all the pictures and descriptions of how things work for these guys who have ridden them for years. alleweder.net is also a treasure trove of images. I don't read German or Dutch, so I have to do the google translate thing to see what's happening in the text, but I am enjoying thinking about what I want to do with my own when I can get one.

I'm thinking in terms of WWII-bomber-style nose art. Or maybe some Jackie Stewart-inspired band of Armstrong tartan. Or a bunch of rivet-sized dots of reflective vinyl all over the place. Or who knows what? My artistic imagination is not as good as what some other folks I know possess, and I don't even have the thing yet. I've got time to figure that out later.

Gripping tale

I finally got around to installing the GP-1 BioKork grips on Jenn's Globe yesterday. Her report?
Well, to paraphrase, she now has more power on her bike--she is going faster because her cockpit feel is more stable. Her wrists aren't "collapsing," so to speak, and her control of the bike is better.

Who'd a thunk a better set of grips would make her faster?

I must have been invisible.

I must have forgotten to turn off the cloaking device this morning.

There is a guy who passes me most mornings as I ride to work along Westport Road. This morning, though, I saw him before I got to Westport Road--I was on Lyndon Lane, alongside Westport Village. There is an access road that parallels Westport Road running between Lyndon Lane and Herr Lane, and he was on it heading for Lyndon Lane when I recognized his car. As he approached his stop sign, I started looking for bailout options, because it was becoming clear he was not going to stop for his sign.

Sure enough, he came out onto Lyndon Lane as I passed in front of him. I yelled several times in effort to get his attention before he saw me. I rode a few yards farther, then stopped to give him my opinion of his "stop" at the stop sign.

He eventually admitted that he didn't see me before he pulled out from the stop sign. He did say he saw the car coming the direction opposite me, leading me to think he gave no more than a cursory glance in my direction. I asked him why he didn't see me before he blew his stop sign, and he had no answer (keep in mind that, given the temperature was about 40F, I was wearing my Illuminite jacket, which is pretty bright yellow despite its many years of use). After asking that he look BEFORE he pulls away from stop signs, I went on my way.

As I rode to work, I started to wonder whether the guy realizes that, if I'm in the lane, the lane is mine, and that he is not to enter my lane from a stop sign until AFTER I pass by the intersection. Some folks seem to think they can just drive on in the lane when I'm there--in clear violation of Kentucky Revised Statutes.

I also think that there are many motorists who fail to see really obvious things like school buses. Like the woman who was arrested for hitting a school bus yesterday, insisting that the bus move, then driving away. She wasn't arrested for hitting the school bus. She was arrested for driving on a suspended license (DUI charges), failure to maintain insurance (hard to maintain insurance when one is not licensed to drive, even temporarily), and leaving the scene (never a good idea regardless of any other circumstances). In a bit of poetic justice, two law enforcement officers (in this case, U.S. Marshals) witnessed the event and stopped her.

Why do people like that still get to drive cars at all? Why are we as a society not better about keeping such folks out of the driver's seat? Your thoughts?

6000 miles of riding instead of driving!

I broke the 6700-mile mark on my way home from work tonight. I broke the 6000-miles of riding-instead-of-driving mark some fifteen or twenty minutes earlier.

I'm not done riding for the year, of course. I have no real intention of driving any more than is necessary. My threshold for "necessary" is higher than most folks' norms, to be sure.

I like the dyno headlight, but don't think it puts out quite enough light for rainy streets. I'll probably use one of the CygoLite sets as a helmet light much of the time, as they are much brighter than the dyno system.

Several friends have far more miles on bicycles this year, but their miles are typically club miles or training miles instead of utility miles. Mine aren't any better, they are simply different, but I'm still happy to have the ability to ride a bike instead of driving.

a slightly different set of numbers

A facebook friend posted a link to Mr. Money Mustache's blog post on "The True Cost of Commuting." The post opens with a vignette about a couple who decide they want to move into the author's neighborhood, based on its charm. They decide that they can justify the forty-minute commutes both will have to make getting to work and getting home--nineteen miles or so of mixed-highway and -surface street travel.

The couple thought it wasn't so bad. The numbers tell a different story.

If I use my car for work, the IRS allows me to consider $.51 per mile as the vehicle use cost as a work expense. Since my 1994 Ranger was paid off within a year of my purchasing it at the end of 1999, my cost per mile is probably a bit lower. Offset that benefit with the fact that my fuel economy is not very good, though, and I could pick a random number of about $.45 per mile.

I have almost six thousand miles of "riding instead of driving" this year--I expect to reach that number early next week, and keep riding the rest of the year when I can. Six thousand miles at forty-five cents per mile is $2700 I haven't spent on keeping a car on the road.

Sure, I've used much of that elsewhere. I've eaten more, since I burn a few more calories riding than I would driving. I've bought a new bike this year, and outfitted it to be a pretty nice commuter rig. There are costs associated with biking to work--wear and tear on clothing I might not otherwise buy, the occasional replacement inner tube, and so on--but nothing that totally offsets that $2700.

Just think: For two or three years' worth of riding instead of driving, I can finance a velomobile like the FAW+!

Put that road on a DIET!

The concept of a road diet is pretty cool. It recognizes that improving congestion isn't always about adding more lanes (I'm fond of an old bumper sticker I've not been able to find in a while that read: "Adding lanes to deal with traffic congestion is like getting a longer belt to deal with obesity."). In short, the idea is to take a four-lane road and rearrange things so that there is one lane going each direction with a dedicated left turn lane between them. The extra width of pavement can then be used for on-street parking, or a couple of bike lanes, or add sidewalks, or be removed to add green space, depending on the location.

There are a couple of road diet ideas being tossed around in the area. One is the US42 corridor between Mellwood Avenue and Hillcrest Avenue. In this case, I expect road safety to improve quite a bit, since motorists who are not turning off Brownsboro Road (as it is called in that stretch--Brownsboro Road as a name is on KY22 in places, on KY1694{I think} in some spot...) are kept to one lane, and those turning left have a dedicated lane for doing so (having less chance for head-on collisions). The remaining width is going to be used for much-needed pedestrian facilities (sidewalks) and beautification.

Just coming onto the local radar is the idea of putting Grinstead Road on a road diet between Cherokee Road and Cherokee Parkway. I've had a chance to look at the Public Notice, and have a few thoughts. I'll be arranging my thoughts a bit here, planning to send them during the public comment phase which ends later this month.

Not being a computer guru, I'm not able to get the images from the .pdf of the Public Notice to show on here (any help with that? Give me some clues in the comment section). Having the .pdf as another tab in my browser, though, I can switch back and forth to refer to it as I make my notes. There is also an article in the Courier-Journal about this, but it may go away (or require passwords) soon.

In short, I love the idea. I don't know that it will slow traffic in the area enough, but it will change things a bit. There is talk of resurfacing the lanes with non-skid asphalt, which on the surface (pardon the pun) sounds like an extra-abrasive treatment to enhance lateral traction, especially when wet (the area sees inordinate numbers of crashes per year, partly due to rain water mismanagement, partly because people try to race through the turns as if they are in a timed slalom event). Highly abrasive asphalt sounds like a recipe for worse road rash for a cyclist, so I want to see a sample of such pavement and ride on it a bit before I make judgements. It may be safer for cyclists, if only because the car is less likely to slide into us, or it may be like grooved cement roads that disrupt a cyclist's directional control just a bit.

Part of the discussion at the moment is that there is no plan for bicycle-specific lane markings. Since it's a state route, one envisions the state ignoring the Louisville Metro Government "Complete Streets" policy somehow. Still, it would be good to recognize that cyclists make use of that road fairly often. Giving cyclists climbing lanes on the two uphill grades in that stretch of Grinstead would allow motorists to move at speed closer to the legal speed limit, and reduce temper flares. Of course, there will be those who begrudge every nickel spent on bicycle-specific infrastructure, but they need to get a life.

David Morse mentions that in the ten years he's lived in the area, he has never noted a car parked along Grinstead Drive east of Willow Avenue. I have seen mommywagons along the eastbound curb as the Collegiate Academy school day ends, of course, and there is the "kiss and zoom" alongside Collegiate every morning as parents drop off Child, Esquire before their morning tennis match or whatever it is that the idle rich parents do. I'm not sure what to do with that sort of traffic problem, aside from suggest that the parents teach their spawn to use public transit (gasp!) or ride bicycles (groan!) or carpool and park somewhere other than Grinstead Drive (oh, the inconvenience!).

I rarely travel that section of Grinstead in that direction--if I'm going to, say, Iroquois Park, I use Lexington Road, go through Cherokee Park, and use Eastern Parkway, and if I'm going to the Smoketown area I tend to use Frankfort Avenue to Payne Street (using whatever connector I find best at the moment), then south from Breckinridge Street. I have been known to go home from points west/southwest via Mid City Mall (the ValuMarket there has a better beer selection than some liquor stores), and I'll use Glenmary instead of Grinstead until I get to the eastern end of Glenmary where I rejoin Grinstead. Going westbound, the climb on Glenmary is a bit steeper, and turning left to get onto Glenmary is often problematic, so the ability to use Grinstead through there would help lots of folks.

Still, anyone who is at all connected to the various cycling list servers in town knows of this road diet discussion, and has opportunity to comment. It would really be cool to have a bajillion comments feed through Bicycling for Louisville so they can walk into any discussions with "we have so-and-so-many riders who think this, this many who think this other," and influence further planning.

We'll see.

Soccer (or futbol, if you prefer), and music

As astute readers (both of you) know, I have two stepdaughters, the younger of whom is on a soccer scholarship to Georgetown College. This is her senior year there.

Jenn told me Friday morning that Saturday was "Seniors Day" on the soccer field. Jenn and Brad (the father) were to be on the field for the celebration after the game.

I have long said that I cannot and will not take credit for what Rachel has accomplished. Her accomplishments are her own, and stem from who she was well before I met her in 2007. I can be proud that she is doing well in school, and of who she is, but I cannot take credit for creating her. I was not upset that I wasn't part of the on-field celebration (although I was there to take pictures). It was good to see her. Her team won the game, which is always a plus. They looked much better as a team than when I last watched them--their efforts in practice and in the games since are starting to pay off.

Bracketing our trip to Georgetown were our two trips to the Garvin Gate Blues Festival. I've been a fan of this festival since I first learned of it in 1989. Indeed, it was that festival that got me started doing a lot of photography, focusing, if you will pardon the pun, on blues musicians as they played. I spent a lot of time and more money shooting pictures of guys playing in night clubs around town from fall of 1989 until some time in 1991 or '92 before realizing that I was not going to be able to spend the time and money to make a great photographer of myself. I got some images published, and am proud of some of those images.

I've missed a couple of the Garvin Gate festivals over the years, but not many of them.

Anyway, after work on Friday, I pedaled furiously to get home so that we could go, and we got there in time to see the Walnut Street Rhythm and Blues Band play their set. This band, largely made up of sons and a nephew of the late Foree Wells, has been playing together since they were kids, and it shows. They are TIGHT on stage. Their singer is very good, too.

After they left the stage, we were treated to a set from Karen Lovely. Wow. Her song, "Still the Rain," is nominated for a song of the year-type award, and if it doesn't win, it's up against some amazing competition. The woman has some pipes! Her voice has some hints of Grace Slick from the 'plane days, but with more dynamic range. Her album, "Still the Rain," is worth getting if you like blues, or rock, or haunting pop, or...

Saturday night's headliner was Grady Champion. After hearing Karen Lovely the night before, I was disappointed. His show was mostly a string of his interpretations of blues standards the crowd had already heard four or five times in the weekend, and while his band has talent, their show was not as moving as a show of more original music like the one I had seen the night before.

In other good news I learned at the Festival, Cee Cee James is coming to town! I learned of her music through XM radio a bit more than a year ago, and became a fan instantly. Her voice is often compared to that of Janis Joplin, and while I hear the resemblance, it seems to be more coincidental than intentional. Either way, I consider it a compliment to her. She's worth a listen or twenty. I'm looking forward to meeting her next month when she is in town.

I have a dentist appointment in the morning. By the time I get home from that appointment, I will have logged 5800 CO2 miles for 2011. My YTD total mileage is 6440.

I revised my goal for the year a couple weeks ago, having blown past my original goal of 6000 miles. I've set the new goal for 8000 miles. If I ride an average of 17.7 miles per day for the rest of the year, I'll make it. I may have to reset the goal again.

After a false start over the weekend, I got Jenn's dyno light working tonight. The Alfine Dyno hub matches her Alfine 8-speed internal gear hub, which suits my aesthetic sensibilities. It's only a minor shame that I couldn't get the white Supernova E3 Pro from Quality Bicycle Products--the silver/grey one looks pretty good as it is. Unless she rides it to work tomorrow, I should be able to mount the E3 taillight tomorrow.

My wife has a bling commuter rig. She will soon have Ergon grips to make it even nicer.

light stuff

Having made the switch to dyno lighting on my Globe (with additional battery flashers), I'm starting on Jenn's Globe next. I was able to find her a silver version of my Shimano Alfine dyno hub, and it conveniently matches Jenn's Alfine 8-speed internal rear hub on her Globe. We now have the headlight and taillight in hand. I'll cut new spokes today so that I can rebuild her wheel with the new hub over the next couple of days at home. I created version one of a bracket that will mount the headlight under the front of her basket (subsequent version(s) will look a little better, but be mechanically similar).

All this is because I've tired of keeping track of battery life on the CygoLite headlights we've been using. One of the three batteries has lost a lot of burn time compared to its rating, and while a replacement battery isn't horrendously expensive, freedom from dealing with the problem is worth something to me. Dyno systems, while still pricey, have gotten more affordable in recent years. That the lights bolt in place makes them a little more secure, especially in low-risk places where Jenn locks her bike most of the time.

The Supernova E3 asymmetric light we got her is available in two colors via my primary source--black or grey/silver. The Supernova web site shows the light in several other colors, including white, which I think would really blend in on her bike. However, she seems pretty stoked about the one she has, and methinks buying the European white one would cost a bunch more.

I think part of that is that dyno lights are still something of a niche market in this country--we are still too wrapped up in automobile-centricism to see utility bikes sell as well as, say, that deformed dog toy called a football. Even so, they make a lot of sense for folks who ride in low-light situations on a regular basis.