"Do you know how dangerous this is?"

The above question was asked of me Thursday evening, as Jenn and I rode the tandem out to Mom's for a visit. As we were climbing out of the valley at Floyd's Fork on Aiken Road (always a butt-kicking hill, despite its short duration), a motorist passed us, but as he pulled alongside, he ran his passenger window down and (I think) asked the title question. I think he meant that what I was doing was dangerous, and I really don't think he had any idea of the level of irony in his asking while he occupied the wrong side of the road in an area with a double-yellow center line (and on a blind hill, at that). I, on the other hand, knew quite well what I was doing, and that where I was riding was the best place on the roadway for the situation. I've read the manual, you see, and I probably have a better grasp of the rules of the road than that driver, based on that short display of his sense of danger. I also would be willing to bet a fair bit of money that I have more bicycle miles this month than he does.

In other riding updates, I've really been enjoying the Ergon grips on the Vienna. I noted a while back--here or on facebook--that they feel better without gloves than with any of the gloves I now own, so unless it's cool enough that gloves make sense, I ride bare-handed. I haven't heard a timeline on getting my Ergon gloves to try them with the grips--they are claimed to be designed to complement the grips--but I'm looking forward to seeing how they do. I have been told to expect my pedals late in May. No word on the backpack, yet, sad to say.

I can't fuss. I don't have to pay money for this stuff. I would like to be able to write about it, though, since that is my part of the Ergon Commuter Team deal.

I haven't crowed about numbers in a few days, so here goes: Total bike miles, YTD: 2376. Total CO2 miles, YTD (as in, instead of driving a car), 2007. Yes, that's two thousand seven miles instead of driving a car so far this year. That's a bit more than nineteen percent of the Louisville Bicycle Club's 10311 logged CO2 miles YTD. With only 590 miles for April so far, I probably won't break last month's 806 miles, but that's okay. There were four months in 2010 that saw me go more than six hundred miles, and I'll best two of those months (April and September of last year) by the end of this month.

The 1978th anniversary of the First Zombie Uprising!

To quote P.Z. Myers:

Y'all remember what many of our neighbors are commemorating this weekend: the first Zombie Uprising of 33AD.

⁵¹ At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split ⁵² and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. ⁵³ They came out of the tombs after Jesus' resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people.

It's funny how this amazing awesome story didn't make it into any other historical accounts. Somebody ought to turn it into a novel — you'll have both the evangelical Christian audience and the graphic horror audience at the same time! Think how much fun the book signings would be!

 Yeah, I have been accused of being an iconoclast. So sue me. Just don't try to eat my brain...

Stormy

We weathered the weather events without harm. There was a CATV wire or two across my driveway this morning, and I'm sure I'll find a few extra twigs scattered about the yard when I look more carefully, but the house is intact, as are our trees.

The next-door neighbor was not so lucky. There is an apartment building next door to me, with four or five units. A tree near my garage lost a branch about a foot in diameter, and it landed on the windscreen of one of the tenants' cars. I'm not sure how much damage was done (I didn't get in and poke around enough), but I don't think it would be a total loss.

Lots of folks in the path of this storm had no electricity, at least for a while. I figure I'm fortunate, and I'll accept that good fortune.

The bike ride to work this morning was uneventful, aside from a bit of crosswind that sometimes made for interesting traffic interactions.

Now that such comments are out of the way, I'll get to the over-the-weekend stuff I've been meaning to put down--I've spent much of the last two days busy with after-weekend follow-up stuff and the assorted fire drills at the store, and haven't had time to put my thoughts in order for this blog (not that they are in any order now...).

Jenn and I drove to Lexington Friday afternoon for her League Cycling Instructor seminar. I went along as an assistant to the instructor, and to soak up some newer ideas for my own teaching. It's a long weekend of class work and parking lot drills, with not much riding otherwise (I had accumulated about twenty miles over two days). However, the candidates learned quite a bit about themselves as teachers and about teaching their eventual students. We met some new friends in the bargain, so it will be a good thing overall.

The League of American Bicyclists has made some subtle changes in their programming, in that candidates who complete the seminar are not fully considered to be League Cycling Instructors until after they have helped teach a few classes post-seminar.

And, yes, Jenn will soon have her full LCI status.

Road Diets

Several years ago, I happened on a bumper sticker that read something like: "Adding roads to reduce traffic congestion is like getting a longer belt to deal with obesity!" With this in mind, and for all the reasons one can find on the CART site, I am going to be at the School for the Blind in support of changing the way Brownsboro Road is used in the Clifton area.

I've been surprised at the lack of vitriol seen in the comments sections of a couple of articles on this in the CeeJ. Usually some car-obsessed clown will insist that "roads are made for cars" (never mind that this road opened long before cars were common) or some such drivel supporting his presumed right to go forty-five or faster in a thirty-five zone. I fully expect some of that sort of nonsense will rear its ugly head before it's all said and done.

I also saw a comment below this post in the Commute Orlando blog (itself a worthy read) saying that someone in California had found his average car speed to be seventeen miles per hour of use. That Commute Orlando post describes how energy is used in this country, based on a study done by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. It's pretty appalling to think that we as a society are happy to waste that much energy in just getting from point a to point b.

Are they serious?

A woman stepped out to get her mail, and was hit by a car. According to the CeeJ, the motorist will not have charges filed against him.

Seriously? No charges filed? Really? The law won't do anything to this driver for ignoring the fact that people may reach out for their mail on their residential streets?

The driver even admitted to having looked away from his path, for crying out loud! It's HIS FREAKIN' FAULT!! He was probably going too dratted fast, too!

I get sick of folks using my neighborhood as a speedy cut-through. I realize that it's a short-cut from Washburn to Lyndon Lanes, and is useful in that way. I don't much like it, but I can't change that. However, that folks go through here at speeds over forty miles an hour (listening to their engines, I can tell they are going pretty fast) is criminal. Kids play in this neighborhood. People are backing out of driveways.

I suspect that part of the reason that charges won't be filed is that there is a gaping hole in our law. Police are not able to charge a motorist appropriately when the motorist's behavior is so egregious. There was a push for a bill a couple years ago that would have helped correct this, but it fell short. Maybe we can dust it off and push for it again.

A day early

Okay, so my predictions were off by a day.

I broke the two thousand bike miles mark on my way to a friend's house this evening. About two miles later, I broke the 1700 "miles instead of driving" mark.As I type this, the Louisville Bicycle Club's CO2 miles are at 8550. I have twenty percent of those miles. It's almost embarrassing.

Today's riding: I had a meeting scheduled with Rolf Eisinger and Andy Dyson, to discuss education programs for the upcoming season. Since I was going by, I dropped off some fliers at Parkside Bicycle and Bardstown Road Bicycle shops, then went downtown for the meetings.

After the meetings, I rode to Santa Fe Cafe at Third and Haywood for lunch (always a good lunch there!!), then to the UofL campus to be on hand for my older stepdaughter's receiving an award for her excellent scholarship in her French classes. Since I had time, I then rode to Clarksville Schwinn to drop off some fliers, then home.

The fliers in question are paper versions of this schedule of classes that the Louisville Bicycle Club will be teaching this summer. I'll be teaching a fair bit on Mondays, with help from several other League Cycling Instructors, and David Wittry will be teaching the Wednesday evening classes once again.

Once home, I changed clothes, changed bikes, loaded some tools and a repair stand in a trailer, and rode to a friend's house to do some work on her bike. She is doing the Redbud Ride next weekend, and had been told her bike needed attention. I won't be at that ride, as I'll be at the LCI seminar in Lexington.

On my way to her house, I crossed the milestones mentioned above.

I just keep on logging the miles. Eventually, I'll get somewhere.

At current rates, I'll break the two-thousand-bike-miles mark Friday. I have at least twenty miles' worth of errand-running to do Thursday, which puts my two-thousand-mile point somewhere along my homeward route Friday evening. I may have to do the math and be watching my odometer that trip.

I opted for my Anchorage route getting home last night--it's a little calmer, traffic-wise, and has better wind protection than going home on Westport Road. I take Altawood Court to get off a stretch of LaGrange Road that is just unpleasant. As I cruised through Altawood, I startled some deer. I saw at least seven or eight of them, jumping a fence to get TO the road where I was approaching, then rushing off in all directions (some re-crossing the road a time or two, just to run more, I suppose). Two or three rushed off to my right, and four stopped in the yard to my left and stood to watch me pass by them. I guess since I was no longer moving toward them, they figured they could afford to see what I was going to do rather than keep running. A couple of them were small--as if they were not fully mature but were old enough to have lost their spots. I passed within about thirty feet of one of them, and the farthest of the four was no more than forty feet away from the road.

I like seeing deer--they are pretty. It's also true that I have mixed feelings about being that close to them--whether or not I'm on a bicycle. I don't want them to feel so threatened by me that they kick me, nor do I want one to not see me and jump into my path at the wrong moment. I usually don't have to worry about that, as they are pretty wary critters.

However, I came closer to one a dozen years ago. I was on my way to work, riding on Aiken Road near its bridge crossing Floyd's Fork. Two deer were running parallel to the roadway, but opted to cross the road to get into woody cover. They crossed ahead of me, but one forgot about the wire fence she had to jump, and ran into it twice, bouncing off and down the embankment so that her rump was within a few feet of me as I passed on the road. Had I crowded the fog line, I could have slapped her rump as I passed (and would likely have been kicked across the road for doing so--unwelcome hand-to-body contact between males and females is never a good idea).

Wind-ed, and another "gripping" tale

As much as I try to not gripe about weather, I'm going to gripe about weather a bit.

I'm tired of wind for the moment. It seems that I often have a headwind on my way to work, AND it turns around to give me extra challenges on the way home.

To be fair, it's probably coming from the north enough that it slows me in parts of each trip. Still, a 15-knot wind gusting to 25 or 30kts from varying directions is a bit more than I would say I enjoy.

At least the heavy rain yesterday hit while I was at work instead of on my bike. I didn't have to hole up in a store or something until the worst passed--which took a while.

Yesterday's ride to work was on the Globe, with the Ergon grips. The more I ride those grips, the more I like them on that bike. The differences between them and the stock grips are subtle at first, but become more significant with time. The Ergon grips are much stiffer than the Specialized ones, giving me better support (helpful for one who weighs over 220 pounds). They also stay where I put them, whereas the Specialized ones were twisting on me at times (maybe I'm putting too much weight on my bars?).

Since I had the Globe at the store yesterday, I got to show off the grips to a customer who had his bike in for its 90-day checkup (always a free service with any new bike sale). He got intrigued at the idea, and wanted to see what other grips Ergon offered. I showed him the ones I could get through Quality Bicycle Products, and he opted to have me order a pair for his Rockhopper.

I know full well that being part of the Commuter Team means I try to sell the product line. It was cool to see how it works as a bike shop guy--again. I often get to sell stuff to customers because I use that product myself--the "knowledgeable authority" advertising bit at its best, personal level.

It's back on the road!

After something like six months out of service, I have finally gotten around to reworking the Bacchetta Strada so that I can ride the thing instead of having it sit in the garage all the time.

In September of last year, I was almost home from work, having commuted on the Strada for a change of pace, when the right shifter broke. Since I was within sight of my house, I wasn't too upset--the same part of that shifter had broken before, and I knew what was going to be involved in fixing it. Since most of my club rides get done on the tandem with Jenn, anyway, I didn't feel rushed to get the repair done.

Some years ago, I pondered the idea of converting it from the B-Pivot steering system to the rigid riser found on the Corsa model. I got a blemished fork from Bacchetta at that time, and opted to save it for future use. Somewhere along the way, a friend gave me a Bacchetta handlebar he had bought for one of his projects that got canceled before the bar got used. Using these parts meant switching from the Ergo levers that were part of my Strada from the concept stage to bar-end shifters much like those used by triathletes (and similar to those on our Vanguards). Campy bar-end shifters are not inexpensive, of course, and not always available. I got a set a month or two ago, though, and a set of brake levers that are similar to those found on the Corsa bikes from Bacchetta.

Then it was a matter of carving out the time to do the work. I knew roughly how long it would take me to install all the parts, all the cables, the new cycle computer (the old one being integrated with the shifters), and tune it, and wanted to do most of it in one session. As it turned out, when I started doing actual work, I didn't have all the stuff I needed, so it became three sessions instead.

The first session was installation of the fork and BFT (Bacchetta Fine Tune--their headset pre-load system). Second session was installation of the controls on the new handlebar and cable work on the derailleur systems, as the brake cables I had were right for the old levers not the new ones. I found myself with some extra time on Sunday (see the post about finding the dog's home), so I took advantage of that time and finished with the cockpit work on the Strada.

Then I got to take it out for a ride--its first in over six months. The bike felt GREAT under me.

I also have been firmly reminded that I don't use my quads as much on other bikes as I do on the Strada. I was much slower than I normally would be on that bike. Still, though, it handled well. I like the new control arrangement. It's going to be a fun bike again!

best possible outcome, a few days later

I mentioned the other day that Jenn had found an apparently stray dog. The beagle or beagle mix female has a name--Cloe--and she belongs to a woman a few doors down the street from us.

One of Jenn's daughters had the dogs out for a walk, literally two hours before our appointment to take the stray to the Humane Society for them to find her home instead of us. A neighbor approached her and said something along the lines of, "That's my daughter's dog!! I'm so glad to see her!"

I have been walking Cisco in this neighborhood for eight or nine months, now, and had never seen this dog. However, now we know where to take her if she shows up again.

NEW GRIPS! and end of March mileage numbers

 As noted, I have had a chance to ride my new Ergon grips a bit. I put thirty-five miles or so on them Wednesday, and a round trip to work yesterday. In short, I'm quite pleased. The stock grips on my Vienna were not bad--they certainly look like someone learned from the same school as got Ergon going--but they lacked some support on the "wing." The stock grips tended to spin on the bar just enough to be problematic over longer rides, too. The Ergon grips have a built-in clamp that prevents such spin, and a firmer "wing" to better support the heel of my hand. The subtle reshaping closer to the thumb also makes a difference in my hand comfort.

I went ahead and ordered a pair of the BioKork grips for the Raleigh. My least favorite thing about the Raleigh is the mountain bike grips that are on it now--they have never been but so tolerable, especially over any distance. The BioKork have an assortment of features that appeal to me--the raw materials are more carefully selected than what is in most grips, and of course they are Ergon grips, thus more comfortable than most if not all others out there.

Now to find the old headlight brackets for that bike, as the CygoLite I was using on it is now on the Vienna. I can't justify buying a new dyno-powered light for that bike just yet, even though the Dynohub on the bike puts out the same voltage and wattage as many of the newer dyno-powered lights are designed to take. Maybe soon, though--I like the idea of lights with no battery recharging issues. The long-range plan for the Vienna (and for Jenn's Live) may eventually include dyno hubs and lights.

And now for the numbers:

Total bike miles 2011 YTD: 1785
Total bike miles that might have been car miles: 1547.
Total March miles: 806 (second highest number since I started recording over a year ago--highest number was July 2010 with 812 or so)

Yeah, I almost went out for a fifteen-mile ride after I got home last night. I figured I had another goal for next March this way, though.

Total miles for 2010, January through the end of May: 1838. I'm about two months ahead of where I was last year. We plan on doing a fair number of club rides and other preparation for things like Bike Virginia and RAIN, so I'll be putting out some pedaling in the coming weeks.

Mileage obsession, part IXLDIC or whatever...

I keep trying to not obsess over my miles this year, but the numbers are really fun for me this year.

Assuming my normal ride to work tomorrow, and home again, I will have a bit over eight HUNDRED miles for March. My top mileage month in 2010 was July, at 815. I don't know that I'll best that number, unless I go for a joy ride after work. Without any joy riding, I'll come up short on 1800 miles for the year by about fifteen. My "instead of driving" miles are now over 1500, but probably won't break the 1550 mark before Friday.

I had set a goal of 6000 miles for 2011. I'm 29% of the way there. If I average 15.31 miles per day for the rest of the year, I'll reach that goal. It looks as if I'll overshoot that goal some time this fall. Time to make a new goal...

Stray Dog

A stray dog found us last night. Jenn was walking Cisco in the neighborhood, and this beagle-mix was wandering around.

She seems a nice-enough dog. She pays absolutely no attention to the cats, although she prefers their food to Cisco's. She was somebody's pet, and I hope they want her back.

Jenn took her to our veterinarian, in hopes that she had a microchip. Microchips are a nice idea if your animal can get loose and you want it back. This dog didn't have one, though.

We are not able to keep her. We don't have the time to manage another dog for anything more than a couple days at a time. I'll be taking her around to a couple nearby places in hopes that someone recognizes her, but if we don't find her people in the next few days, I must find another home for her.

My grips are here!

As I was promised in a recent email, my Ergon GP1 grips arrived yesterday. I'll be putting these on the Vienna, as I think the BioKork ones I have coming later will look better on the Raleigh.

I even got a couple of Ergon stickers, one of which will likely find its way onto the underside of my tool box's lid with the growing assortment already there. I haven't decided what to do with the other sticker, but I'm not in a big hurry for that.

I have some errands to run today, so I'll put the grips on the bike before leaving. I'll be on that bike today, as the rain gear works better on an upright bike than it does on the Vanguard. I'll see how the grips feel, and let you know.

Both of you. (;-)

The Safety Myth, revisited

The Safety Myth, by the Lazy Randonneur, has been an interesting read. As a bicycle safety instructor, I think about my own safety, the safety of my students and the example I set for folks a fair bit. As a bicycle commuter, I am compelled to deal with the idea that negative outcomes can be a reality, and I must do what I can to mitigate the risks so as to avoid those negative outcomes to the extent I can justify.

A several of caveats, here: 1) When it's below 50F, I'm probably wearing a jacket made of IllumiNITE, unless I expect rain, in which case I'm likely to be wearing a "don't you effing DARE hit me" yellow rain jacket by Endura, which also has reflective spots on it here and there.I figure I'm going to wear the jackets already, so they may as well be easier to see, since I often ride in low-light situations. I'm not able to honestly berate anyone for "dressing like a traffic cone," as some riders like to do.

2) When I walk the dog, I often wear a vest with highly reflective stripes. Our neighborhood gets used as a cut-through between Washburn Avenue and Lyndon Lane, and those motorists rarely observe (or care about) the 25-MPH speed limit or the stop sign seventy feet from my mailbox. Making myself easier to see at night is part of my effort to let them know that there is more to the neighborhood than their access to another street (which probably falls on deaf, or more likely obtuse, ears).

3) I am alive because I was wearing a motorcycle helmet at a key moment in my life, but that key moment would have been far less treacherous had I done a better job of controlling the motorcycle I was riding. Fully cognizant of this, I wear a helmet when I ride bicycles, in part because I like having that modicum of cranial protection afforded by the piece of Styrofoam atop my head. As an instructor, I wear one (properly adjusted) to set an example. I'm also compelled to wear one when acting as a Club officer and when participating in Club rides, due to our Club's insurance policies (and yes, I dislike how insurance companies run our country). It also happens to be a convenient place for my rear view mirror (a locally-produced mirror, at that).

4) I'm known for being fairly safety-conscious. I encourage use of eye protection more often than typical folks (don't ask me why you hear a voice of experience...), I acted as a Safety Adviser in at least two workplaces. On a youth camping/canoeing trip on which I was an adult volunteer, I was mildly kidded for being "safety guy," after a few days of being perhaps more watchful than was necessary.

In the roughly forty thousand miles I've ridden on bicycles over the last twenty years, I've not done a helmet test. Yes, I've fallen from my bikes--three or four times. Yes, at least two of those falls were my own stupid fault and nobody else could be blamed. In all cases, the minor injuries I suffered were to: a knee (once), some skin near my ischial tuberosity (one other time), and my over-inflated ego (each time). This is not to say I'm any manner of superman--quite the opposite, actually. I'm not an overly-timid rider, but I don't ride recklessly, either. My point is that cycling is pretty safe, especially when compared to other fairly mundane activities. I'm not but so sure I really need a helmet most of the time.

A helmet is an object of last resort, and when one needs that helmet, one doesn't have time to say, "Wait! Let me don my Skid Lid(tm)!" However, simply wearing a helmet does not make one safe. Taking The Lazy Rando's definition of safety (lack of significant negative outcome) as workable, I find that one's attitude is far more effective, and that wearing a helmet as part of that attitude is the only way the helmet can do any good whatsoever.

In The Safety Myth, Vik discusses mitigating risk versus increasing safety (the latter being far harder to quantify). He talks about how one can focus on specific risks one faces as a cyclist, and take appropriate action to mitigate them. Doing things like riding a street two blocks to one side of the larger road to be dealing with slower traffic, choosing lane position to be more visible to overtaking road users, or riding the bus on his rare very-low-visibility days is more sensible to him than paying $300 extra for a dozen blinky lights all over the bike.

Let's face it. No matter how many flashers and reflectors I mount on my bike, some twit motorist is going to tell me he couldn't see me. It's happened. I suspect that those same motorists would have trouble seeing an ambulance in full "I've got to get there to help your neighbor five minutes ago!" mode. Someone who will not see won't see me (and despite that you and I agree that such a person has no business at the wheel of a motor vehicle, society apparently disagrees--we keep letting such idjits drive).

Part of the point is that bicycle use is pretty safe, when it comes down to it. A couple years ago, a short quiz popped up online that gives us a sense of how safe cycling really is. The answers may surprise you, or may not.

More random thoughts in a couple of days...

Safety myth?

As one who thinks a fair bit on the topic of safety, a reference to "The Safety Myth," by The Lazy Randonneur caught my eye. It's a long read, but worth it.

It's thought provoking, and I'll have to get back to my thoughts on the topics raised. In the mean time, have a read, and let me know what YOU think.

Both of you.

Weekend riding, and the resurrection of another long-time bike

After helping with the Bicycling for Louisville office move yesterday, we had thought to ride out to Bluegrass Bicycle for the Saturday afternoon club ride. However, Jenn just wasn't up for that, so we wandered a bit on the way home from Second and Broadway, stopping for some browsing at Kathy Schmidt's Crescent Hill Trading Company, and what became a big grocery shopping trip at the Kroger on Hubbards Lane (good thing we had the two trailers with us...). Once we got home, we decided to have a date night of sorts and went out to eat at Taj Palace on Goose Creek near Westport Road. It had been a while since we had eaten there, and we enjoy their food.

We had also thought about riding the Honest Abe century out of Iroquois Park this morning, but neither of us was ready to deal with the wind for a hundred miles today. It's one thing to ride into a ten- or fifteen-knot wind (at ambient temperature close to freezing) for an hour en route to work, but quite another to ride into it for half of a hundred-mile day. We opted to ride to the 2:00 PM Heine Brothers' ride instead.

Before riding to that, I went out alone to get some dog food, cat litter and bird food at Feeder's Supply and some odds and ends at Whole Foods. I got home in time to change metaphorical gears and prep the tandem for the three-mile hop to Saint Matthews and the twenty-two mile club ride.

Once home from the ride, I spent some more time tinkering with my Bacchetta Strada. I had not ridden this bike since its right shifter broke in September of last year. I've had the parts to fix it for a while, but hadn't gotten around to doing the work. Last weekend, I decided it was time to have that bike back on the road, so I installed the new handlebars and shifters I had sitting in various parts bins (I had installed the new fork a couple weeks prior).

To clarify a bit: My Strada was built from a frame kit late in 2002, using Campagnolo components as much as I was able. Since I was, even then, a shop guy, I bought Record Ergo Levers, derailleurs, crankset, hubs (eventually an additional set of Centaur hubs for the spare wheel set), headset and bottom bracket. The bike won't accept Campagnolo brakes, so it has a set of Tektro Mini-V brakes on the rear and the proprietary Bacchetta brake on the front. I had broken a right shifter lever (the downshift lever, inside the brake lever) near the end of Ride Across Indiana in 2005, so when it happened to me again last September, I knew exactly what had happened and what I was going to have to do about it.

Since most of my club riding is done on the tandem with Jenn, I waited to get the parts until a month or two ago. I also started thinking more about changing from the Ergo levers to bar-end shifters and Avid Single Digit levers. I have a Bacchetta carbon fiber fork from a Corsa that was scratched in shipping, and the Bacchetta Fine Tune headset adjustment system to replace the B-Pivot I've had on the bike since the first one broke in 2005. The idea was to make the front end a bit lighter, and get away from the Ergo levers (which were chosen largely as a proof of concept thing when I built the bike in 2002). In conjunction with the Ergo levers, I was using a Campagnolo ErgoBrain computer--that had far more features than I ever used--that was integrated with the shifters so as to give me a visual indicator of what gear I was using at any given moment. It was cool in a gee-whiz gizmo sense, but was starting to be problematic and sometimes inaccurate in its information display.

Since I have almost fifteen years of experience with bar-end shifters on my Ryan, I decided it was time to try them on the Strada. I figure that I can sell the Ergo levers on EBay or something and recoup some of my outlay for the new shifters.

So, now, the bike has a stiff riser instead of the B-Pivot, regular brake levers and bar-end shifters instead of the Ergo combination levers, and will have a different cyclometer. As part of the conversion, I changed the brake and shifter cables and most of the casings.

I took the bike out for a couple of blocks as a brief shake down run, and was pleased. I have a little bit of minor adjusting to do with regard to the brake lever placement and cable routing, but I'm largely pleased with the new controls. I've ridden Jenn's Giro some over the last month or so, and have always felt it rode much like my Strada, but I am looking forward to putting some real miles on this bike again.

How fast is that cyclist going?

A recent post on the most excellent Commute Orlando blog got me to thinking about riding pace during my commuting.

My average speed during my commute varies in the twelve-to-fifteen-miles-an-hour range. One big factor is wind--I often have headwinds slow me down or tailwinds that help me move faster. I have to stop for traffic lights, which affects my overall time AND my average speed.

And regardless of my overall average speed, it takes within ten minutes of the same amount of time to get to work. If I assume that it will take me an hour, and enjoy extra loafing time I earn by going faster due to a tailwind, that's fine.

One thing about my speed, though: regardless of how fast I'm going, I'm never going to go fast enough to suit some motorists. To their way of thinking, anyone not going a little faster than they are is in the way--period.

I remember feeling that way as a motorist, myself. I still get that way at times when I know the road ahead to be clear, but some motorist is idling along at ten under the speed limit. I mean, if you don't want to go as fast as you legally are allowed, why drive at all? Why not ride a bike instead? Seriously, though, what I find most frustrating is motorists who are not paying attention to the road around them. I get that we as humans tend to act in our perceived best interests, but ignoring other traffic seems to be anathematic to that concept.

I am, not surprisingly, far more tolerant of bicyclists than many motorists when I'm in my car. I will often intentionally hold other traffic back rather than allow a motorist behind me to pass a cyclist in a dangerous manner.

I can go twelve, or eighteen, miles an hour, and the motorist behind me doesn't know the difference. His speedometer is not but so accurate, and differentiating those two speeds is hard to do for most folks. I could be going five miles an hour for all he knows, and he seems to think that's all I'm doing judging from how much longer it takes to pass me than he allows. If the motorist coming the other way has to swerve, slam on her brakes, flash her headlights or honk at you for passing me, you really needed to wait a bit and pass when it's safer to do so. You don't need to honk your horn at me, either. I know you are there. I know that having to actually think about getting past me interrupts your iPhone text messaging session or your daydream, and that having to think angers you.

Yeah, you are angry about having to think instead of being able to dreamily go on your way, blithely ignorant of the damage you can cause. I'm angry too, though. I'm angry that so many motorists are so willfully ignorant of the problems they cause by not paying attention to their driving.

The mileage obsession continues

I mentioned a couple days ago that my month-to-date mileage for March has surpassed all but four months of 2010. As of my arrival at home this evening, it's down to three months of 2010. In September I rode 604 miles, and I've ridden 608 in March this year. In April of last year, I rode 612. I'll get beyond that marker tomorrow, just going out for a casual spin.

I have about thirteen miles to go to reach 1600 miles for Year to Date. If I ride twenty tomorrow in the course of getting from place to place (i.e. shopping), I'll break 1400 "instead of driving" miles.

This mileage obsession is going to get old, I'm sure, but it's fun for the moment.

I got an email from Ergon today, with a UPS tracking number. The enclosed packing list shows some decals and a pair of grips. More to follow, I'm sure...

New utility bike for young families

One benefit of being in the bike business is that I learn of cool stuff from time to time. In a new issue of Bicycle Dealer, I spied an ad for Zigo products. They offer a 3-speed or 7-speed bike with a detachable kid pod that mounts in lieu of the front wheel (which comes with the bike for solo use).

The pod also folds for storage, accepts an optional front wheel for use as a jog stroller and can be converted to a trailer for use with a more conventional bicycle. The features list is pretty impressive.

Almost makes me wish I was twenty again.

No, not really. Maybe in a few years one of my stepdaughters will want to have kids or something. Or, maybe not. That's not my decision to make. I would enjoy being able to sell a fleet of these things, though. It would be cool to see a bunch of them cruising around town.

Milestones

It's been a while since I did a "firsts of the season" post.

I've been hearing what I thought were red-wing blackbirds for a few days, but today I saw my first one of the season. I've heard folks jokingly call them "Sergeant birds" for their tendency to perch on a fence and act bossy with their red and yellow patches on their wings. I always enjoy seeing them this time of year--they are a harbinger of spring as surely as are robins (which I've been seeing and hearing for weeks).

There has been some hawk activity near the house--we hear one or several almost daily. Jenn spotted one perched on a swing set in a backyard along our route home after our Sunday brunch, watching for its own meal, I am certain.

Today was also my first ride to work in short pants for this season, although I've ridden in short sleeves several times by now.

A couple other neat sightings over the last few days: On Rollington Road, there was a dead animal--not sure whether it was a raccoon or opossum--but twice this week I've gone by as a turkey vulture was having a snack. Each time, the bird acted as if to fly away, but stayed in place as I rode by well toward the other side of the road. Each time, a take-off in the direction the bird was facing would have put the bird in my path, and I really don't want to collide with the head of a turkey vulture as he or she is taking off. This morning, I passed the bird and there was a car not far behind me. I didn't get to see how the bird dealt with the car passing by--I was busy watching where I was going through a series of road patches and minor pot holes and making sure the motorist was far enough away from me.

I've seen several deer over the last few days--once as many as five--and those on my normal commute routes. It must be something about their daylight clock time being close to my commute time. I doubt I would have noticed the deer had I been in a car.

I logged my commute today, and poked around at some of the stats available to me at mycyclinglog.com. I'm really having a good time with the numbers so far this year! So far in 2011, I've ridden 1559 miles (I keep finding myself tempted to go for a ride around the block to get that extra half mile or two miles...) and logged 1352 miles instead of driving a car. In March alone, I've ridden over 580 miles, and the month is far from done--which puts my monthly mileage for March ahead of all but four months of 2010 (and likely to beat two of those four). If Jenn and I ride the century we intend to ride this coming Sunday, that might make March a record month for miles (although I doubt it--I rode more than 800 miles in July of last year). Last week, I rode more than I did during all but two weeks of 2011--and one of those two weeks was the week we did RAIN. As of today, I've already bested something like twelve weeks out of the fifty-two in 2010, and it's only Tuesday!

I'm getting to ride a LOT.

I think Spring has Sprung

It's officially Spring, now, anyway. And what a day!

Temperature on my way home--after dark--was 72F!

And, to top it off, I broke the 1500-mile mark for YTD on my way home!

Detail-ish stuff:
We opted to drive hauling the tandem to Prospect Point for the Metric Century Timothy had on the club schedule. I have been on all those roads before--the route was described as the Ironman course loop in reverse--and knew it would involve a hill workout that Jenn and I both needed. We had a great ride, with an average speed somewhere in the mid-14s, despite our mutual lack of hill training (our average speed on RAIN last summer was in the mid-16s). It was a bit chilly at the start, but I was moderately comfortable in two thin jerseys, one pair of tights, and cycling gloves most of the day. I got a bit warm at times with two jerseys, but cooled off on the next downhill section. Note to self: explore the option of keeping a pair of cycling shoes on the tandem for Jenn. She left her shoes at home. Again. Borrowed shoes are not ideal for one's stoker.

Shortly after we got home yesterday, my sister called to invite Jenn and me to have Sunday brunch with her, my mother and stepfather at Ramsi's Cafe on the World. Having eaten brunch there before, we were quite happy to accept the invitation! We met there at 10:00, and had a great time socializing and catching up on the little day-to-day stuff, and the food was tasty.

The first time Jenn and I had brunch there, it was not crowded at all. Apparently the word has gotten out--it's a GREAT brunch buffet, with lots of vegetarian and vegan options and an array of food that isn't the drab dull Shoney's or Frisch's fare. Yes, there are some of the "standards" of a breakfast buffet, but there are also some more interesting choices.

Jenn and I briefly discussed whether to ride the tandem or our commuter bikes, and both wanted to ride the tandem.

The Louisville Bicycle Club has a standing 2:00 PM Sunday ride, with one per month starting at Baptist East/Milestone Fitness Center's parking lot off Bowling Boulevard. We had a club General Membership Meeting scheduled for after the ride, and an Executive Committee meeting for after that. Jenn didn't feel well enough to ride--not sure why--so I  left the house at almost the last minute to do the ride by myself. In my  haste, I opted to ride the Globe this time--partly because it was easy enough to get it out of the garage, partly because I figured the ride would be crowded and I didn't want to herd the Vanguard around in all that, partly to let some folks see the new bike. I was pleased with the bike's performance--I was cruising out River Road in the high teens, and could get over twenty miles an hour easily enough most of the time. I was certainly not the fastest rider, but I didn't embarrass myself for being on a heavy bike like the Globe has become.

After the club meeting and ex-comm meeting, I rode with LBC President Andy Murphy for a bit so that we could both vent about some stuff and talk about ideas we both want to pursue. We went our separate ways in Cherokee Park, and I turned for home. After a quick stop at the Kroger on Hubbards Lane for an evening snack, I finished my trip home.

The new bike now has 282 miles on it. I have 1500-something miles YTD. Last year, it was some time in MAY before I crossed that milestone!

Some time in the next two weeks, I should be getting my Ergon stuff. I can't wait. I'm looking forward to trying the grips and gloves to see if they are more comfortable than the grips on my Vienna with the Specialized gloves I'm using. To be fair, the Specialized full-finger gloves are a bit small for me, and that may be part of the reason for the discomfort. I had a conversation with the folks at Specialized, and have expressed that their XXL gloves are pretty snug. They admit that their hand sizing is a bit on the small side. They don't offer XXXL, though...

My newest bike

Being, as I am, a self-absorbed American, I have to step away from the horrors the Japanese folks are facing and talk about me.

Or at least about my latest bike. I finally got around to taking some pictures of it today, in daylight.

I like how the gray/brown color works with the black accessories. If the crank arms were black, I'd like that even better. I was a little concerned that the grips and seat were going to be lighter than they are. They aren't too bad, but I still think I'd prefer they be black or darker gray. I'll be getting Ergon grips--probably these guys--for this bike at some point, and they will be darker.

This is the first time since 1992 that I've had a front pannier rack on a bike. I still have the old Blackburn LowRider I mounted on my Linear that year, but I haven't mounted it on anything since then. These pannier racks are the Axiom Adventure series, and mounting them in conjunction with the Planet Bike fender was a minor challenge--more so on the left side with the brake caliper in the area.

A commuter bike gets locked to stuff. For my Vanguard, I keep a six-foot cable with padlock in a pannier pocket. The Raleigh has a coiled cable that simply hangs over the handlebar and stem when I'm riding. For this tricked-out Vienna, though, I felt it worth getting one of the very Euro Abus wheel locks. This one has the ability to add their dedicated cable, shown here:

I couldn't bring myself to mount the faded panniers I've been using on the Raleigh on this bike, and didn't much care for moving the big blue companion set that lives on the Vanguard over, either. So, since it is a new bike, I got some new panniers--a set of Axiom Cartier DLX model. I like them okay so far--I don't expect the durability of the Arkels some of my friends have, but also don't have the investment in them. As a wish-he-was-more-of-a-backpacker, I know how to keep stuff dry in a bag like this--it's a bag of bags. Simple zip-lock bags help keep stuff organized and dry. It would be nice if the inside surfaces of these bags was a brighter color, though. I like the asymmetrical top flaps on these bags. The lock fits in the side pouch on the left bag, and the right bag side pouch holds the flat kit.

One of the fun details on the Globe bikes is their head badge. Owners can put just about anything of the right size in there--a picture of a favorite cat, cartoon character, or in my case, a  business card. This one was in there for a couple of very wet rides to and from work. I figure it'll get replaced from time to time, just to have a decent-looking one in there.

And, no, I haven't gotten around to taking out the wheel weights, er, spoke reflectors.

Bicycle as emergency vehicle?

I've not posted much about the seemingly endless tragedy folks in Japan are facing right now. It's overwhelming to me to ponder such levels of disaster. It's simply heartbreaking to think of the human toll being faced by friends and families of those known dead, or simply missing with no knowledge of their whereabouts. As a cat and dog person, I also think of the heartache folks feel about their missing animals, and the panic so many of those animals felt in their last moments. This is to say nothing of the dangerous situation with their nuclear power plants...

As with many such horrific events, the news coverage gives us glimpses of deep human strength. It also sometimes shows us that normal, everyday actions can seem enormously dramatic. Witness the 83-year-old woman who was alerted by the tsunami sirens and got on her bicycle to ride to safety.

To too many in our culture, it seems odd that someone that old would decide that her fastest, best mode of transport to reach a safer place would be a bicycle. I don't think it odd at all, myself, but a bicycle is my first choice in personal transportation. It seems perfectly reasonable to me that a person who has ridden as a primary transit mode for many years would think of a bicycle before getting in a car. It is far more mobile in tight quarters, and can be pushed or carried around obstacles that would stymie a motorist.

Yeah, I'd want to save my bike first, before the car. I wouldn't have to depend on a gas station with the bike.

Catch up moment

I rode the club ride out of Bluegrass Bicycle on Saturday afternoon--on the Giro 26 Jenn keeps at the store. I then rode the Vienna to Mom's for a visit before heading home. It was good to be wearing sunglasses for over two hours of cycling in one day for a change.

Of course, Monday and Tuesday of this week featured wet weather, so it was back to clear lenses for all cycling. A forecast for today suggested that we would see some sunshine, but I'm not overly optimistic at the moment.

Since the time change happened over the weekend, I was looking forward to not needing my headlight for the trip home. As cloudy as it's been, though, I had to have it on for about half the trip last night, and all the way home Monday evening. Good thing I had it on, too. On my way home Monday, I almost got left-crossed by an inattentive motorist.

I was heading in Westport Road in front of the Kroger near Hurstbourne Parkway, and had reached the light that allows eastbound traffic to turn left into the parking lot that serves Kroger, a Wendy's, and several other businesses. A fellow in a full-size Mercury (same size as the current Ford police cars used by Louisville) started to turn left (he had a green light but not a green arrow--my light was also green), prompting me to do a brake check. My rear wheel fishtailed a bit, which led me to swing my handlebars side to side to manage the skid (MAN those disc brakes work well!). I think my headlight flashing in his face finally got his attention, and he stopped abruptly. I'm sure he heard my voice after that, but I doubt he heard my words. It took a mile or two for me to work the adrenaline out of my system, but I enjoyed knowing that I had that opportunity.

Over the last couple days, I've had entirely too much opportunity to "enjoy" headwinds. Fifteen-to-twenty-knot headwinds each morning have been unpleasant at best. Then, of course, the wind shifts by afternoon so I get a headwind on my way home.

The headwind last night was enough reason to go home via Anchorage instead of Westport Road, as the Anchorage route has a bit more protection from wind. It's also much quieter most of the time than Westport Road, and between the headwind and rain, I wasn't in the mood to mess with the goofballs rushing to the movie theater (or whatever waste of gas they were doing) on Westport. I even used New LaGrange Road from Whipps Mill Road instead of Old LaGrange Road as I typically do, in order to verify my cyclometer calibration against the mile markers I knew I'd see.

The new bike now has something like 243 miles on it. I figured it was time to ride the Vanguard a bit more, so that's the bike I used to get to work this morning, including a stop by Stock Yards Bank on 22. I then rode 22 to Crestwood instead of going back over to Westport Road. I didn't get the benefit of a farm tractor holding traffic off my back, as happened for me last April.

Speaking of last April, my log entry for April 30 also mentioned that I tipped 1400 miles for the YTD that day. I haven't logged my trip to work yet, but I think it will tip me over 1350 miles for 2011--almost six weeks earlier than I reached that milestone last year!

Wet out this morning

...but the new Endura Luminite jacket did its job admirably! Anyone who couldn't see that thing as I pedaled along Westport Road was either blind or looking the other way.

I didn't even get too warm inside it, thanks to the pit-zips.

Of course, the weather forecast depended on which site I checked--the forecast available through the Courier's site had likelihood of rain at 10% before noon, then up to 60% for a couple hours, then drying off again by the time I would be riding home. It was raining when I left the house.

By the time I got to Crestwood, I had been through a couple patches of the rain that felt (and sounded) more like sleet. By good fortune, the ground is warm enough that the roads are not likely to freeze today. You see, I don't have my ice spikes yet.

I wound up not riding on Sunday. I took my sister to collect her new motor home, and got home from that jaunt in the afternoon, a bit late to join the club ride out of St Matthews. That's okay--I still have almost two hundred miles for the last week--and that is better than all but four or five weeks in 2010.

Racking up miles

I broke the 1100-mile mark for 2010 on Monday, the 7th. I broke the 1200-mile mark on Thursday, the 10th. I'm something like fifteen miles shy of breaking the 1300-mile mark, and figure to do so on Sunday, the 13th (unless things keep me from riding).

For weeks, it seemed like the most I could manage was 100-130 a week. Now I'm up to 200 in less than a week--almost, as I type this, and I was tempted to go out for another fifteen miles tonight, just to make it happen!

I may reset the annual mileage goal. At the moment, it's set at 6000. I'm over a hundred miles ahead of YTD track to make it. MyCyclingLog.com gives me information such as "Average daily distance of 15.99 required to meet this goal." It was 16-point-something yesterday. Riding over fifty miles today made a difference! It will be interesting to see how that "Average daily distance to meet goal" number changes over the coming months.

The wind made things a bit challenging on the club ride after work. I was on the Giro, which I hadn't ridden since November. I haven't been on my own Bacchetta since September. My muscles are not used to that riding position, and I was sure feeling them complain about it. Now that daylight savings time is about here, I'll get to ride my Strada to work once in a while and get my legs more accustomed to that more aero position. I'm not ready to rig a light mount for that bike so that I can ride it at night just yet.

I haven't been on that bike for so long for a couple reasons: a) when Jenn and I are doing club rides, we ride the tandem, and b) the last time I rode it, I broke a shifter part as I was downshifting to stop at a four-way-stop-sign controlled intersection--less than a hundred feet from my driveway! I have the parts to fix the shifter, but have been thinking for some years about changing the handlebars on that bike and using bar-end shifters instead of the Ergo levers now on the bike. At the same time, I've opted to install a newer fork (from a Bacchetta Corsa) and eliminate the B-Pivot in the stem for a while, just to see how I like the bike that way. I have the parts I think I need, but haven't been able to make time to do all the work. The new fork is on the bike, but I have yet to rework all the cables, which I will need to do before the bike is again roadworthy. Maybe I'll do that this week. It would be good to get out on that bike some again--it's the fastest bike I've ever owned, and I miss riding it.

Car-Free Happy Hour, March 10th, recap

For some reason, my link to the CFHH poster in a prior link was only working erratically. Maybe it sensed my feelings about karaoke or something.

Aikiko's is a karaoke place. I knew that before attending, and went anyway. I don't much care for karaoke, for a number of reasons I won't bore any of my three followers with here. I went because I could, and to show support for the CFHH concept. I got to see some friends, show off the new bike a bit, and enjoy a couple of bottles of Woodchuck Hard Cider.

On the way home, I stopped by BBC in St. Matthews for a chat with Ron Schneider and others who were at Drinking Liberally, and enjoy a pint of Dark Star Porter.

Yes, I drank a few adult beverages last night. Over the course of five hours, I had four beers and some meal-sized quantity of food. It was NOT enough that I would have gotten up to sing karaoke--I don't think I could drink enough that I would do that, and still be able to stand up without fighting off the effects of alcohol poisoning. Also, the semi-cold air was bracing as I rode home.

Earlier in the day, I ate lunch with my long-time friend Harry. He likes to take me to lunch to celebrate my birthday, and this was the first chance we had gotten to do so. The fish and sweet potato fries at Flanigan's are quite good, by the way.

As I worked my way to Flanigan's, I stopped by Jackie Green's bike shop on Frankfort Avenue to get a new rain jacket. Dave Morse, who now goes by 8Dave, has one of the Endura Luminite rain jackets, and is quite pleased with its effectiveness. I tried working a way to order a single from the distributor for evaluation purposes at the store, but without success. I wound up buying my own from Jackie's Bike Couriers shop. So far, I like it for wet weather. It keeps the rain out of my jersey. It ventilates better than a solid vinyl jacket would, since it has pit-zips. It is bright yellow. I mean yellow as in, "Don't you DARE hit me, you idiot motorist!" yellow.

I'm still fond of my yellow Illuminite reflective wind shell, and will likely keep wearing it most of the time. But if it's going to be a wet-weather ride, I now have another weapon in my arsenal for being less likely to drive a car that day.

On the way home from BBC, I broke the 1200-mile mark for 2011. Not bad for the tenth of March. Just for giggles, I set my 2011 goal at 6000 miles in mycyclinglog. It tells me I'm fifty miles ahead of where I need to be to get to that goal at this point in the year.

I got off work early yesterday, in order that I may do some errands and attend the Mayor's Budget Forum in Middletown. One errand was to pick up the reflective vinyl I ordered for the Vienna. I didn't have the bike with me, so we didn't get to compare the color. When I got home, I found the color to be a bit yellow by comparison. I'll have to take it back by some time and see what can be done about that.

I was on the Vanguard doing that, but got the Vienna out for my next errand--getting a haircut in St Matthews. I typically go to a small, established barber shop near Lexington Road and Frankfort Avenue. The barber who cut my hair yesterday has worked there for nigh on fifty years, apparently, and now works two days a week.

Anyway, I hadn't really been thinking about it, so I wasn't watching the Vienna's odometer. It turned over 100 miles on my way home from my haircut.

With the impending bad storms, we opted to use gas to get to the forum last night. We did carpool, though--Jenn and I met at Mark Luking's house and rode to Middletown with him, then I hauled Jenn's bike home in the truck afterward.

It was good to go to the forum. I have managed to attend two of them--the one at Shawnee Park Golf Course last week being the first. Mayor Fischer commented that many of the comments he has received have been more about priority in spending than about how to save money, so I tailored a comment with that in mind later in the session. A couple of Metro Council members have attended enough of these that they've been noticing the reliable bicycle presence. Hopefully that will work in our favor...

Why I ride, revisited

Last May, I posted on selling utility cycling. I found the post as I was searching for references to the GMAC National Driver Test site.

It was good to read my post about utility cycling, though. It reaffirms my attitude about why I ride, which is mainly that I enjoy riding more than I enjoy driving. That I can multi-task (exercise while commuting, thus eschewing a gym membership for cardio workouts), save gas and wear on the car, reduce my insurance costs, reduce traffic congestion and the like are merely byproducts. I think that in many cases, we as advocates work too hard to sell the byproducts and not enough to sell the core issue: riding instead of driving can be MUCH more enjoyable than driving.

I had to work to wrap my mind around whether to ride to work today, though. It's raining, and is likely to continue to rain all day. I took Jenn to work, as she was a bit late for her bus, and then burned extra gas by going back home to get ready for my own work day. It kind of offsets a lot of my efforts at not burning gas, and there is some aggravation and guilt associated with that. On the other hand, I just wasn't in the mood to deal with the internal grumbling I knew would commence as soon as I got on the bike and pedaled down the road.

Tuesday's ride to work with a long-time friend

I rode the Vanguard to work, after leaving it sit for over a week.

I had ridden the Raleigh to work last Tuesday, thinking I would bring home the new bike that night. I got to bring it home Wednesday evening. I rode it again Thursday and Friday, and drove Saturday. I rode the new bike again on Monday, for some reason--probably still wanting to enjoy some new bike bliss.

Wanting to enjoy my long-time favorite bike, though, I pumped up the tires on the Vanguard this morning. I had been pleasantly surprised at how fast the Vienna feels compared to the Raleigh, and wanted to see how the big purple bike fared on that scale.

I wasn't disappointed. It's still comfortable enough and low enough that the speed compares favorably with the new bike. I've long known that the Vanguard is not a particularly fast bike--I bought my first performance recumbent in 2001 based on it having a perceived ten percent speed improvement over the Vanguard. My current "go-fast" (well, sort-of fast...) bike, my Bacchetta Strada, is probably fifteen percent faster on level ground than the Vanguard with similar perceived effort, and climbs MUCH better.

But the Vanguard remains my most comfortable bike. It can haul stuff--lots of stuff, if need be. It's my most versatile bike in that regard--I don't mind riding it long distances (although I tend to prefer the Strada for club centuries), I can haul stuff with it, and deal with most weather with it.

I'm going to the Mayor's Budget Forum (or whatever the formal title is) in Middletown tonight. I have a bit more to do before I leave the store, so I'd better get back to it.

The Fifties are Nifty!

 Or so I'm told.

Today is another of life's milestones for me--my fiftieth birthday.

I wound up not getting to ride, as I had hoped to do. Sometimes life gets in the way of such things. There were a couple of other birthday celebrants having rides today, and I could perhaps have gone on one or another of them. Instead, we had a small gathering at our house, and I spent much of my morning helping finalize preparations. I made a beer run around one this afternoon, and wound up driving for some stupid reason--probably had to do with the fact that I was already dressed for the gathering (in a kilt, as would be expected) and didn't want to change clothing around to ride in the somewhat chilly day. At least that's the rationalization I'm going to use this time.

I don't mind that I didn't ride today--not much, anyway. On my way home from work tomorrow, I'll break the eleven-hundred mile mark for 2011, and I'm fine with saving breaking the 1100-mile mark >before< my birthday for 2012, just as I've opted to save the "first thousand by the end of February" for next year.

We (Jenn and I) had a nice group of folks over for snacks and dessert. It was an interesting mix, by design. I had friends I've known for many years and friends I've known for a couple years. I had friends I've met through cycling and friends who knew I ride but were not as involved with cycling. It was fun.Both of my stepdaughters helped a great deal with cleaning and food preparation. I appreciate them greatly--they are good people.

It's common for folks to ruminate on this or that at such milestones. If I didn't know what day I was born, this would be just another day. However, birthdays are important in my family, and fifty is a milestone of note in our culture.

That said, I don't seem to have many profound thoughts bouncing around inside my head--only verbose ones. It's good to have family and friends, and to have some of each gather with me to celebrate. Twenty years ago today, my mother and stepfather moved into their current home. I was hoping to develop a dating relationship at the time, and when it didn't happen (and in spite of that I knew it would not have been an especially good idea for it TO happen), I went into a depressive tailspin that was profound enough to last me a while. I came through that--with help--and found something of a new me. I went on to enjoy the next ten years more than I had the prior twenty or more. I realized then--and still firmly believe--that the radio advertisement claiming that such and such station was playing the music from the best years of my life was lying to me. The best years of my life are coming.

One friend who attended commented that she had not ever seen me as happy and content with life as I now seem to be. She credited my marriage with much of that. I'm not sure but what it's one of those "which came first, the chicken or the egg" things, though. Yes, I'm pretty happy with life overall these days. When folks ask how I'm doing, my pat response is, "I'm loving life!" I think that being happy in life is part of why Jenn and I got started as we did. I think being with Jenn has helped me be happier, to be sure. I don't think it's a one-way arrow, though. I think being happy helps me be happier.

In any case, I'm glad to be able to enjoy life. It's a marvelous day in paradise, wherever paradise is, but it's not a bad day here, either.

Mileages

I'm a couple days late talking about my end of February numbers.

I wound up not breaking the thousand mile mark before March, with something like a twenty-mile shortfall. That's okay, I have a goal for next year this way. I probably could have done it, but had other things going over the weekend. Still, I rode over five hundred miles in February, which is probably some sort of personal record. That I already have over a thousand miles for 2011 is certainly a personal record.

I looked at the odometer reading on the truck the other day, and realized that it has over 1200 miles on it for 2011. This is NOT what I wanted to see--more miles on the truck than on bikes. I haven't gone over the log entries that are there (we haven't been very good about recording individual trips) to see how we are using it and why we have more gas miles than bicycle miles.That analysis will have to wait until next week some time. I'll also ask Jenn about her bike miles so far this year and see how she's doing.

She wound up riding all the way to work yesterday morning, despite the wind. She wants to use the bus most of the time to reduce the amount of time she spends working up a sweat on the way to her office. She realized she was going to miss the bus, though, and turned accordingly when she got to Lyndon Lane. She has some shopping she wants to accomplish this evening, so she drove today.

New bike goodness

I've ridden the new bike to work twice now, making for two round trips (including the shake-down run coming home Wednesday evening). I'm finding little adjustments to make in things like handlebar angle, shifter angle, and minor tweaks on the shift systems that are part and parcel of new bike break-in processes.

I didn't give much thought to performance expectations when buying this bike. I figured it would be roughly as fast a the Raleigh, perhaps a bit faster since it has more and closer gearing steps that would make better use of my preferred cadence range. This morning's ride to work involved a stop by the bank to make a deposit. The bank branch closest to my commute is at Hurstbourne Parkway at KY22. It's MUCH faster for me to go directly to Crestwood on 22 from there rather than go back south to my accustomed Westport Road corridor for the later segments of my trip, but KY 22 is not a bike-friendly road. The speed limit is higher than on Westport Road, despite that it's narrower and has shorter sight lines in many places. Once past Chamberlain Lane, it's two-lanes all the way (with a couple of wide spots that have become turn lanes).

I've ridden KY 22 from Hurstbourne or so to Crestwood a few times, and I don't mind it once in a while, but I prefer to avoid it. I rode it this morning, though, as I didn't want to ride all the way back over to Westport Road with that extra mileage and time.

I found that I was going as fast as I do on my Vanguard on 22. The tailwind may have helped more than I thought, of course--the headwind I fought all the way to work yesterday certainly took its toll on my average speed. In general, though, this bike may be a touch faster than the Vanguard over this particular course.

The new bike's saddle feels narrow to me, but that may be primarily a function of being used to the Brooks B-66 sofa on the Raleigh. The handlebar position feels fairly good, if unusual after so many miles on the North Road bars on the Raleigh. The stock grips are pretty decent--they are inexpensive imitations of some of the Ergon grips I can get for this bike in another month or two when the 2011 stuff comes out. Ergon has some similar grips that also add bar-ends, and I may consider them for this bike at some point.

Speaking of Ergon, I'm due to receive my Commuter Team goodies in the next few weeks. I'm pretty excited about it--I'm looking forward to trying their new pedals, grips and gloves on the Raleigh. When the pedals are available, I'll probably get a set for Jenn's new bike, since she is riding to work wearing street shoes to save changing time at the office. I'm also looking forward to the backpack, surprisingly. I've mentioned that I haven't been a backpack person when I'm on a bike, since I've been on recumbents for so long and since I figure that weight in a pack is on the bike AND on me rather than simply on the bike. However, I see some versatility in using a pack that doesn't come as readily when using panniers for all one's carried stuff.

Car-Free Happy Hour, March 10th

It's almost that time of the month again! A week from tonight, it's CAR FREE HAPPY HOUR!

I intend to go, although the focus on Karaoke has me a bit concerned. I don't think I've ever been drunk enough that I would get up in front of a bunch of folks and sing--I don't really like how my voice sounds and don't really want to spend the time (and money) taking voice lessons to fix that. Hearing other folks who have never really practiced staying in tune when they sing do the Karaoke thing is not my favorite, either. However, it's not about my ears so much as it is about socializing with other good folks who like to ride/walk/TARC instead of driving a car.

And a couple of the folks who will be there have already asked that I bring the new bike for them to see.

The New Bike is Home

I rode the new bike home tonight. Its shake-down run doubled as my homeward commute, pulling the Safety 1st trailer onto which I had tied the Raleigh.

I didn't use the workstand this time--just the trailer. I tied the top tube to the crossbar of the trailer's frame, then tied the wheels to the front corners of the trailer much like before. The rear wheel of the Raleigh was to the right instead of to the left this time, so I attached an additional taillight to its handlebar as a marker so overtaking road users could give me enough room.

I'm not sure I want to use the new bike to pull a trailer on a regular basis, unless I upgrade the Burley's hitch to use a quick-release connector. I'm not certain it would work, but Burley still offers a five-pack of axle connectors so that I could put one on each of several bikes in the garage and have that trailer work on each bike with a quick-release pin. This would be an improvement over the current situation, as the Burley trailer will now only work with the Raleigh, due to the shape of the rear triangle near the dropout. Both of the new bikes have disc brake calipers in that area, and the Ryans have a different shape rear end to their frames. Right now the only trailer we can use with a Vanguard is the Safety 1st. I can use the Safety 1st on the Globe bikes, but would prefer to not do that due to the location of the brake line.

As for the new bike, it rides quite well. I found it largely quieter than the Raleigh over bumps, probably because of the way I have the two taillights mounted on the Raleigh. The wheels roll better, to be sure. The Globe is livelier than the Raleigh by a fair measure.

It's going to be a fun bike to own.

Well, DARN Part III

So, it turns out I don't get to blame FedEx, after all. Or maybe I will, anyway.

The Specialized warehouse had some really big computer issues over the weekend, and it took them until late in the day to resolve things enough that they could get bikes out the door and on the truck. FedEx considered it a late pick up, and added an extra day to the transit time as a result.

On the upside, the stuff I ordered from another supplier will be here in time for me to mount it on the bike before I go home tonight.

Well, DARN Part II

I think Specialized needs to contract with a better carrier.

The bike they are sending me (so that I can rob a fork from it to fix my new bike) was supposed to leave their warehouse yesterday. FedEx shows that they picked it up Monday evening a bit after 8:00 PM. It shows as arriving in their sort facility across town a bit shy of 5:00 Tuesday morning--yes, that's more than eight and a half hours. It makes me wonder what the driver was doing joyriding around Columbus all night long and missing morning sort deadline.

It probably is not Specialized's fault that FedEx delayed my gratification. I suppose I could consider it as keeping the bike at the store another day so that the last couple of add-ons I ordered can get here before I ride it home.

On the positive side, though, I've had a chance to look at the Portland Design Works Radbot taillights mentioned earlier. These things are pretty cool, and VERY bright. They are likely bright enough to aggravate a few motorists stuck behind me on two-lane roads. I like that they have a reflector integrated into the cover (right below the LED lens). I also like that they come with a bracket so that one can mount the light to a rack reflector tab (or any other common reflector bracket, which gives even more flexibility in mounting options).

I haven't been this excited over a conventional bike in a long time. It's weird. I'm normally more excited about recumbents than about wedgie bikes.

bike hauling

So, the new bike is still waiting for its replacement fork. That should arrive Tuesday, and I should be able to ride the new bike home Tuesday night.

Since I wrapped up another Tool School session today, I figured on bringing home my repair stands (both of them) and my tools that I took to share so that we would have enough tools for some of the lab sessions. I pulled my Safety First trailer (since it will connect to my Vanguard) to the store in the morning rather than drive my truck.

During the day, Jenn called me, laughing, to report that her front brake on the new bike worked a bit too well. Her new bike has its first bit of road rash--a scrape on the corner of the basket. Sad, but it's over with--it's no longer pristine, so she might as well enjoy using it now!

As I readied for work this morning, I started thinking about whether I could haul my Raleigh home using the trailer. I had an idea that might work, but I was going to have to test it before riding home. It wasn't quite crazy enough to appear on www.thatwillbuffout.com, but it was a bit inventive.

I started by mounting one of my repair stands in the trailer, with its legs spread as far as they would go. I secured them to the back end of the trailer, both to keep the stand down in back and keep the legs spread to support them on the trailer frame. I then tied the stand to the cross bar on the trailer, and put the bike frame in the work stand clamp. I used some of my new inner tube bungee cords (with the IT-clips mentioned in a prior post) to tie the bike's wheels to the front corners of the trailer frame. I turned on every flasher I had, and hit the road.

Since it was dark by the time I left the store, I didn't really get to look at the expressions on folks' faces as they passed me. At one point on my ride home, I was followed by a tow truck for a quarter-mile or more--I can only imagine what the driver was thinking ("Huh! A tow bike!"). 

Aside from a couple of tense moments, it went just fine. One of the tense moments was when I was looking for a place to get off the road, as a police car was going to overtake me very soon. The motorist going the other way at the time had stopped too close to where I was, and I needed to get up the road a bit before I could reach a driveway. The cop passed me with his engine in full song. Since his was the third cruiser to pass me in a couple minutes, I figure that there was something pretty exiting happening. Not really needing any extra excitement, I opted to go my own way rather than see what they were doing--I of course could not have kept up with them had I wanted to follow them.

The other tense moments had more to do with traffic than the load--there is something about a bike being carried by some nut riding another bike that gets overtaking motorists to give said nut a bit more room in general, but some motorists still don't "get it." One passed me with plenty of room, but took a LONG time to get back in the correct lane, earning him a honk from an oncoming motorist. 

Anyway, that it worked as well as it did gives me an idea that might work for getting the new bike home Tuesday evening. I can pull the trailer to the store with the Raleigh, then pull it home carrying the Raleigh with the new bike.

Might as well break in the new bike right, eh?

Well, DARN

After getting some actual revenue-generating work done yesterday, it was time to build a couple of commuter bikes. I toyed around with some of the accessories (the locks, taillights and hooks mentioned in my last post), then started unpacking Jenn's new bike.

Boy, is it purty!

I teased her a bit with some cell-phone pictures as I put stuff together. She arrived shortly after closing time so that she could see it first hand.

One of the things I like about her bike is that the internal gear hub (IGH) is silent. Coupled with the Gates belt drive, it will be a nice quiet bike. Jenn likes that she won't feel it necessary to tie back her pant legs (at least most of the time).

Jenn also likes that this bike is rock-solid stable, unlike her Peugeot had been. That old bike had never been but so stable.

Once I got hers together, I started on my new Vienna. The color was the shade I was expecting--sort of a tan-gray mud color. Most of the bolt-on stuff already on the bike was black. When I added the fenders, bottle cage, disc lock and rack to it, the black accessories turned out looking pretty good.

Then I tried to install the front wheel. Wait a minute--the wheel isn't going into the fork correctly. Drat--the fork end got bent in shipping! Can it be straightened? Probably not--it's a pretty bad bend, but let's try levering it out a bit with this prybar SNAP!

A call to Specialized's warranty department yielded that they had no spare forks, only complete bikes from which to scavenge parts. So, on Monday they will ship me another bike, and I can either pull the fork from it and install it on my bike or build it and repackage the bike with the broken fork. I think it will be easier to swap forks at this point--besides, I got to spend a little time last night installing more of the accessories on the bike I already have on hand. I should get to ride the bike Tuesday. I was hoping to ride it some this weekend, but I have no real desire to have the front wheel come off the fork while I'm riding. I've seen pictures of what happens, and it isn't pretty.

I am going to like this bike, though. It looks good, despite that the color is kind of drab. I'm thinking about going to a sign store and having them print a panel of reflective vinyl roughly the color of the bike, so that I can make some reflective bits for it that will blend in in daylight but show up when struck by headlights at night. Just because I can.

IT-Clips

Here's something to make use of those tubes that you have patched until they can't be used any more: IT Clips!

This unassuming little gizmo (actually two pieces) creates an adjustable-length bungee cord out of old inner tubes. The packaging comes with two metal hooks, so that one can go from complete loop to hooked-end cords in a couple of snaps:

I got a couple pairs of each size (road and mountain bike tubes) for testing with Jenn's new Globe Live 3 Mixte's front rack. These are pretty cool! I haven't put them to use as of yet, but they seem pretty sturdy. I'm glad to know these are available. Let me know if you want me to get you some of them!

Bike stuff

I ordered the bikes the other day. They arrived at the store today, as mentioned in my last post.

As I was examining the Crosstrail, I noted that it had threaded sites for a disc lock--those oh-so-Euro locks mounted (often) on the underside of the seat stays that immobilize the rear wheel, quite independent of locking the bike to a relatively immovable object such as a lamp post. My Vienna has similar threaded inserts, judging from the online images. Jenn's Live doesn't seem to have them, but I haven't had opportunity to examine the actual bikes yet. That comes tomorrow some time (after getting some work done--there are some repairs awaiting my attention when I get there in the morning).

I looked at the online catalogs for a couple of our primary parts vendors, and found this series of such locks at one. There is a model that has as accessories either a chain (with a fabric sleeve) or a cable that mates with the main lock. Here's the lock:

And here are the optional cable and chain:

I opted for the cable, as it's a shade longer than the chain (and likely lighter). I don't know if the little pouch will come with it--I expect to receive what I've ordered tomorrow morning some time. Anyway, here's a shot of the combination in use:

All three images are shamelessly copy/pasted from the Abus web site, by the way--I like the concept of these locks, but not enough to plagiarize the images.


The locks come with self-tapping screws, should the bike on which they are mounted not have pre-installed holes. I also have the ability to install threaded inserts into some frames, and may be able to do so if necessary here, just to make the installation a bit tidier. These locks are not cheap, nor are they light, but they seem a bit more practical than some I've seen--out of the way when not in use, easy to put into use and so on.





Jenn's bike comes with fenders. Mine did not. However, I have a set ready to mount, along with a rack for the rear. What I don't think I have is taillight mounts to go on the racks (Planet Bike makes a gizmo that bolts to a reflector bracket and accepts the SuperFlash taillights), although I think I have the rest of the odds and ends I need to make these bikes commute-ready. I'm not ready to buy more headlights this month, so I figure to move light sets from Jenn's Vanguard and from my Raleigh to the new bikes for the nonce.





Having read about them in another blog--probably Tex's Luavull Cycling--I've decided to try a different taillight than my standard Planet Bike Super Flash. If memory serves, Tim is quite hot on the Portland Design Works Radbot 1000 lights.

I know of brighter taillights, but given that these and my long-time favorite the SuperFlash are both visible at over a mile, I don't see the point. I honestly think that if the taillight is TOO bright, overtaking motorists will get target-fixation and run me down (or run me down to make the bright light quit flashing in their eyes). I don't see many bicycle commuters on my route, and the two or three I see on occasion are usually going the opposite direction, so I don't have time to look at their visibility profiles.

I guess that since I work in a bike shop, I tend to like having a tricked out commuter rig. I also want my wife to have her own tricked out rig. I don't just settle, in other words.

Transportation pictures

As I noted here and here (among other places), we've been thinking about additional options for commuting. The bikes arrived at the store today. More on them in another post.

Of course, I had scheduled the day off, thinking I was going to a Mayor's Budget Forum, and got the dates wrong! The Forum I thought I was going to attend is actually scheduled for Monday, which I have also scheduled as an off day. There is another Forum scheduled for next Tuesday (8 March), and I plan to attend it as well.

I'm going to as many of them as I'm able, simply to make it clear to Mayor Fisher that bicycle infrastructure is important to me and to my friends. I have long said I'm not a fan of poorly-designed bike lanes, but I believe in the need for well-designed ones as a way to encourage folks to ride more--whether for pleasure or utility or whatever. Cycling for ANY reason is an important part of our transportation picture, for reasons that both of my readers already know well. Sadly, though, work realities will keep me from attending every one of the forums. I've missed one, already, for example. I look at it as sort of like voting--in the "Vote early, vote often" sense.

There are many things I think that we as a community need to do, and not enough money for half of them. However, I think that investment in public transit and other alternatives to single-occupant motor vehicles will pay far greater dividends than investment in more lane-miles of interstate.

I got to hear portions of a program on NPR the other night titled, "Back of the Bus." I intend to sit for a while and listen to more of it if I can figure out how to make my computer play the audio. If not, I'll read as much of the transcript as I can. One thing I heard in the ten minutes or so I was able to listen the other night was that when MARTA, the light rail system around Atlanta, was being built, a lot of poor neighborhoods were bulldozed to make way for the project. In the three or four decades since, however, one important factor has arisen as an indicator of real estate prices--proximity to a MARTA station. Where poor neighborhoods were razed for MARTA, new owners have increased the property values many-fold, so that the poor who were displaced by MARTA now cannot afford to live close to it.

Atlanta was not alone in this. City after city leveled houses and shops in less-affluent areas creating space for limited-access freeways that would allow folks to live in segregated suburbs and work in the city, not having to live in integrated neighborhoods. In my own lifetime, I remember the "white flight" of folks leaving Jefferson County due to a school desegregation plan that had me graduate from a high school twenty miles from my home in Middletown instead of one six blocks from my back door. Much of Oldham County's growth in the 1970s and 1980s was due to this phenomenon, and its growth continued right up until the housing boom went bust a couple years ago as folks figured that Oldham schools were better than Jefferson County's, Oldham County neighborhoods were more homogenized, and so on.

Cheap gas and faster roads contributed to this, of course, and the latter is discussed in "Back of the Bus" as well.

Of course, now that gas is getting far more expensive, folks are starting to think about living in town rather than "out in the 'burbs." Some are predicting that many suburban neighborhoods will soon resemble areas of blight now only seen in really poor areas of our west end, with many abandoned large McMansions boarded up to keep out the miscreants. I don't see it happening in the next five years, but I may be wrong--there are certainly pockets of suburbia in other metro areas where clusters of houses sit vacant due to foreclosure after folks lost their grip in the economic downturn.

Along with this, folks are starting to realize that they don't HAVE to take little Johnny to ball practice across town--there is a league down the street that will do. Little Megan can take music lessons within five miles of home instead of fifteen miles away--her success is largely determined by her own diligence, anyway. And who

I think this is an important group of concepts for our local politicians. It will take political will that reaches far beyond a term or two, and I doubt that we will see it happen in this era of tea party nutcases like Rand Paul and the current (mis)governor of Wisconsin--both seemingly determined to give even more wealth to the already-obscenely-wealthy. One of the things I was glad to see when Jackie Green ran for Mayor was that he forced some discussion over how transportation figures into the future of our community.

The Reason for the Season is Axial Tilt!

Before I forget (again): I had noticed one day last week that the sky had not gone completely dark by the time I left work. Last Friday, I could still see the remnants of the sunset (or, well, at least a little light) when I left the store. I didn't see any sunlight when I left Monday, in part because it was raining hard when we closed for the day and in part because Jenn came to get me and didn't get there until almost 7:30, after first going to Middletown to get some food for one of the cats.

Still, it's nice to have seen some light at the end of the metaphorical tunnel, telling me that spring is on the way.

Oh, and, while I did get a ride home this evening, I rode to work this morning. By the time I get to work on Wednesday, I should have over 900 miles for 2011 year to date!