Gratuitous mileage crowing post

It's almost the end of the month. Jenn and I were ride marshals on the Mayor's Ride this morning, and of course rode the tandem to and from the ride. We stopped at Nancy's Bagel Grounds en route this morning for a bagel or three, then hustled to Waterfront Park for the shindig. On the way home, we ate at Shiraz on Frankfort Avenue, then stopped at Plant Kingdom for some flowers for Jenn to put in some pots here and there around the house.

By the time we got done with the Mayor's Ride, I had changed something like five flat tires for folks who had no supplies. I had adjusted a half-dozen seats while installing the giveaway flashing lights. Riding home, I felt really tired--more so than seemed reasonable given the output so far. However, I stopped at a convenience store and realized that part of the problem was hydration--I was underhydrated. Not enough to be a big problem, but enough to affect my available power. The quart or so of tea I drank at lunch, coupled with the liter of water I drank before getting to lunch, did a lot to get me back on the road. I was still a bit tired, but didn't feel as "off" as I had been feeling.

Now for the numbers: May 2011 has become the biggest mileage month since I started recording miles on mycyclinglog.com. My previous best effort was July of 2010, with 815 miles. I still have a round trip to work tomorrow, and I already have 820 miles for May. I have over 3300 bicycle miles for 2011 YTD, and over 2900 of those miles are "riding instead of driving" miles. By the end of the week, I will probably break the 3000 mark on that score--the more important one for me now. I'm apparently not slacking as badly, as I now have a bit over eighteen percent of the Louisville Bicycle Club's "CO2" miles (up from seventeen percent a couple weeks ago, but still down from the roughly twenty percent I had a couple months ago). The new bike has taken over as my apparent commuter bike of choice (despite that the Vanguard is more comfortable), as it's easier to manage in town when locking outdoors as an issue, and I'm using it for rainy days instead of the Vanguard. The Ryan Vanguard is showing a bit less than nine hundred miles for the year, and the Globe over 1400. The Raleigh has five hundred and some miles on it. The Strada less than a hundred (although the Strada and Giro combined show about a hundred miles of club riding). The Screamer has about 420 miles on it this year.

It's been several days...

...since I posted. I was unable to post from home, due to some browser setting on Jenn's lap top computer (the desk top unit died a couple weeks ago). There is something odd about a setting in the browser at work, making it hard to type anything there, PLUS things have gotten busy enough that I rarely have time to even look at emails or field calls related to the New Rider Clinics, let alone type out a blog post.

On Bike to Work Day, Jenn and I rode to Seneca Park to ride downtown with whoever met there. We had a good-sized crowd, including Mayor Fischer. Once we got folks where they needed to go, Jenn and I had breakfast at Toast on Market, then I had an errand in Saint Matthews (the store wasn't open when I went by there earlier that morning). On my way back to Fourth Street Live for the lunch time festivities, I found Jenn coming out of Bargain Supply, where she had been appliance shopping (we are considering replacing our range and fridge). After the festivities, we stopped in there again so that she could show me what she had found. We also ventured to another store on Market to see what they had to offer.

On Saturday, I rode the Vanguard to work, and Jenn brought out the tandem so that we could do the shop ride. During the ride, I decided it was time for me to do some service work on the tandem--the shifting was not suiting me, nor were the rear rim brakes, and there were a couple other minor squawks I wanted to address. Once done with that, we loaded it in the truck for the trip home, and as it was raining, left the Vanguard at the store. If you've been reading my blog for over two months, you can probably see what is coming.

Yep, on Wednesday (the first day I had time to do so), I hauled a trailer out to the store so that I could get two bikes home at once. This time I changed things a bit, by pulling the Burley instead of the Safety 1st, and rode the Globe to work instead of the Raleigh. It was a slight change hauling the Globe on the Burley, but it worked just fine.

Somewhere in all this, I caught wind of a plan afoot that involved riding bicycles to Lexington to greet Joe Ward during his stay in the Merkey Cancer Center fighting a form of blood cancer. It sounded like more of an adventure than the Horsey Hundred, and had potential to cost far less since we wouldn't have to drive to Georgetown and back with similar bike miles.

The ride to Lexington went pretty well. There were ten of us as far as Lawrenceburg, then two guys got separated from the main group and went on ahead. The remaining eight rode in to the UK campus about four thirty to find a sign in the courtyard below Joe's window that said NO BIKE RIDING. As we waved to Joe, one of the guys tried to lift the sign over his head. Deciding that it was too heavy for him to do so, he walked back from it. I hefted it, and found I could briefly shake it overhead one-handed, and did so for a couple of photo ops.

We went to dinner, and during dinner decided that we would, as a group, take advantage of the numerous offers to haul our bikes and selves home that night rather than ride home. There were only three or four riders interested in the return ride on Sunday, and I figured it would give me a chance to do some much-needed yard work.

Tomorrow is Bike to Work Day

I haven't really said much about Bike to Work Day/Week/Month this month. As I noted earlier, Bike to Work Day or Week is not so much about me as about folks who want to, but who keep finding obstacles to riding instead of driving. You've heard them, I'm sure: "I have too far to go," or, "I have to look nice," or whatever.

I ride thirteen miles each way, four or five days a week. I know of folks who double that. Many folks won't ride two miles. Why not?

My commute is far enough that it makes sense to change clothes when I get to the store. I have a place to keep several shirts, jeans, a couple of kilts, shoes, socks and such. My friend Kirk Kandle used to ride to Humana wearing a Brooks Brothers suit, or he learned how to roll it so that it wouldn't wrinkle as he rode to work in warmer weather.

When I worked for New Directions as a home repair coordinator, I needed my truck at work most days. I needed it at home on weekends. I drove to work Monday morning, hauling the bike. I left the truck at the office during the week, and hauled the bike home Friday evening, letting me ride home from work four days out of five.

Over the years, I've come up with ways to deal with many of the more common hurdles folks find as reasons, er, excuses for not riding to work. I figure a lot of the issue is that if one really wants, one can find resolutions for those challenges.

I've not driven to work since I don't know when, although I have gotten rides home using gas power five or so times in the last month. Customers notice my bike in the store and have that "A-HA!" moment when they realize they see me in my travels frequently. I feel that riding to work regularly adds some legitimacy to my statements to the effect that the highest, most noble use for a bicycle is transportation, and that utility cycling is a matter of several small choices that add up to bigger choices.

Sure, it helps that I work in a bike shop--I get better prices on parts for my commuter bike, and can trick out my rigs. But I could do much of what I do for far less if I would accept using older bikes (like my '74 Raleigh) or fewer doo-dads (the ring lock on the back wheel of my Globe is trick as all get-out by local standards, but I could make do with a U-lock if I had to).

Ride of Silence

As I mentioned in my previous post, I rode the Ride of Silence Wednesday evening. Turnout was a bit light, probably due to the wet weather we've been having.

Jackie Green recently asked if things like Ride of Silence wouldn't deter folks from riding, as it focuses on the bad things that happen to too many people. I think it worth honoring those missing cyclists, and letting other road users know that they were loved people, with parents, siblings, friends and perhaps children of their own, not just objects in the road to be gotten around as one gets to one's destination.

May Miles

As of Wednesday evening, when I got home from riding with folks doing the Ride of Silence, I topped my May 2010 miles. By the time I get home from work on Thursday, I will have topped three thousand miles for 2011, and twenty-six hundred CO2 (or bike instead of car) miles for 2011.

Just sayin'...

Objects in the Roadway

Thanks to this post on the Commute Orlando blog, I found myself reading this post from Andy Cline.

I like that the latter talks about operating on the roadway as if one is sharing a public space instead of as if one is the only user of the roadway and everything else is an object around which one has to maneuver. I have long felt that too few folks think about that they are sharing public space. They don't look beyond their own front bumper (or even beyond their windshields, some times), ignoring that others are around them who have equally-valid reasons for getting where they want to go. Doctor Cline mentions that acting as if one is sharing public space is harder to do than considering everyone and everything else on the road as objects in the road (I'll use the word obstacles, here). It requires that one recognize that others have equal rights to use the space. It also requires that one is cognizant that other road users deserve our care and attention.

With occasional lapses, I've tried to be this way for a while, myself. I suspect I came to it through being a cyclist--at least in part. I have found that being a cyclist makes me a better driver, although I haven't always been able to articulate why as well as I would like. I think part of it is this recognition that since I am not simply an object in the road (despite what some drivers seem to think), neither are they. They, too, are people, deserving of care and respect simply because they are living beings. I am compelled to pay attention to what they are doing, in part due to my lack of a cage like theirs.

Any thoughts on this?

I must be slacking

I'm hoping that third time's a charm--the first two times I posted this, I got the "your post was successful" message, only to find a blank post.

I no longer have over nineteen percent of the Louisville Bicycle Club's CO2 miles as logged on mycyclinglog.com. I'm down to about seventeen percent.

Of course, since I held that nineteen percent figure, five or six more folks have started logging miles. The weather has improved a little bit (although one wouldn't know it looking outside yesterday), so more folks feel like riding their bikes for utility.

I would like to see my mileage totals be more like ten percent of the club's CO2 miles, at my current rate of riding. It would mean that lots more folks are using their bikes instead of just recreating on them.

May you live in interesting times

...is a double-edged wish. I'm feeling it right now, as the President of the Louisville Bicycle Club, Andy Murphy, has resigned his posts (including that of Director for Old Kentucky Home Tour). The unofficial email organ--kycyclist--is ablaze with discussion, as is also the back channel among the executive committee.

There is a General Membership meeting scheduled for this Sunday. Apparently the venue that was planned has been deemed no longer available, perhaps in anticipation of a contentious meeting. Go figure. Seems like a great way to quell damaging dialog, n'est-ce pas?

The metaphorical snowball that has been formed is going to grow. I suspect something along the lines of an avalanche is in the offing.

Until now, I've considered the VP Education position I hold to be fairly low on the drama scale. I show up for meetings, toss my opinion out when I feel I have one to share, vote as I see best for the club, and generally just want to teach my classes without a lot of extra melodrama.

Interesting times, indeed...

End of April numbers post

I know, I did some numbers crowing ten days ago. Still, here are the numbers for April:

I logged a bit more than fifty-five hours on bicycles in April, and about seven hundred sixty-two miles. Since I typically log my work ride and most of my errand jaunts as round trips instead of as several separate trips, I tracked thirty-eight trips by bike. There were two days in April that I didn't get on a bike at all, and a couple during which I only went a little distance.

Compared to March, I had fewer miles. March was my second-highest monthly mileage since I started tracking the numbers last year. April 2011 was fourth by a couple miles to August of 2010.

I didn't make note of what day the Tempo died last April, but as it was in April of 2010, I can say we've been a one-car family for a year now. We borrowed a car from Jenn's parents briefly at some point, but haven't used it since we gave it back some time last May.

Jenn keeps talking about getting a fuel-efficient car to allow us to leave my truck sit more. I keep looking at what it would cost to have two cars again, regardless of fuel costs, and am thus wondering about replacing the truck with something that could pull my utility trailer (built to haul bicycles) and get better gas mileage the rest of the time. I find it hard to justify buying a ten- (or twenty-) thousand-dollar car that gets forty MPG if we can find a three-thousand dollar car that gets thirty. The annual costs associated with car use are high enough with either that I don't want to take on debt costs for four or five years to get ten better MPG at ten or fifteen thousand miles a year. If we were driving thirty thousand miles a year, it would be different. I need to sit down some time soon and play with the numbers a bit more.

We had more than thirteen inches of rain in April 2011. It's not done raining yet. I got soaked yesterday and again on my way to work this morning. If it keeps up, I'm going to be easier to convince that we "need" a second car. My thought, however, is that by the time I'm convinced to buy something, it will quit raining and we'll experience drought conditions for a couple months. As tired as I've gotten of rain, I'm not yet ready to buy a second car.

Bike Month is all but here

Bike Month, Bike to Work Week and Bike to Work Day are fast approaching!

They aren't so much about folks like myself, as I already bike instead of driving a car much of the time. They are about encouraging folks to try riding instead of driving. Lots of seasoned riders are happy to brainstorm with new riders to find solutions for challenges that keep those new riders from using a bike instead of the car. Here is an article from someone who is finding out just how encouraging the cycling community can be.

On a local scale, the folks at Bike Louisville, Bicycling for Louisville and the Louisville Bicycle Club are having some friendly competition to see who can do the most by bike. It involves tracking your bike use through Green Light Ride, but registration is easy and free. Go for it! Win the COVETED Gilded Handlebars!

Rainy ride to work

Decisions, decisions.

Jenn had a doctor appointment this morning. It was raining, and she knows I don't like riding in the rain. She was willing to haul my bike and me to work then drive to her appointment, but by the time we could have hit the road, there would not have been near enough time for her to get to Crestwood then to her appointment near the Gardiner Lane Post Office. She was willing to be late, but I saw no need for her to throw off her doctor's schedule for the morning and affect other patients over a little water falling from the sky. I've ridden in worse.

Despite my general dislike for riding in wet weather, I'm more willing to do so this year than in prior years. I'm not sure how to attribute this change. Maybe I'm getting (more) stubborn or something.

Yeah, we've had more than a little water fall from the sky. The river is well above flood stage, meaning that I will probably have to move the first meeting or two of the New Rider Clinics to higher ground.

"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.