Wet weather again

It wasn't precipitating when I left the house this morning. The forecast was for 30% chance of snow. I was only mildly surprised, then, when I was partway to the main office and it started snowing. I decided that by the time I turned around, went home, changed clothes, and drove to work, it would take too long, and I wasn't doing bad as it was, so I kept riding.

It was just flurries at first, of course, and the temperature felt warm enough that it would only get the streets damp instead of icy. I stopped at the Liberty Street office for my agency to process some paperwork, then got back on the bike for the rest of my trip to my New Albany office. The mild discomfort of riding the Raleigh instead of the Ryan was offset by imagining the thoughts of motorists--"There goes some nutcase on a bicycle! In THIS weather!"

I may have mentioned before that I don't mind riding in snow flurries. The water involved doesn't seem to get me as wet as rain does at the same ambient temperature. Still, my experience this morning was encouraging, as I now have less fear of hypothermia for my commute. I have to remind myself sometimes that with my body mass, it takes a while to have that sharp a drop in core temperature. As long as I don't have a problem that keeps me still for a long time, I should do fine.

I tend to wear thin light layers for riding. One of my reasons for not riding in temperatures below 25F or so is that I don't want to put on that many layers to have a bike ride. I have some thicker layers at home, but am reluctant to use them because I sweat freely in the thin layers I already use, and I don't want to deal with thicker layers saturated with sweat if I can get the thinner layers to evaporate the sweat. It seems that I just need to do some more experimentation so that I can determine how what I have works, and follow the advice of the Nike commercials.

Just do it.

The weather for the next couple days looks better, precipitation-wise. It's supposed to get chilly tonight, making me less excited about riding tomorrow morning, but we'll see. Maybe I can find a pair of gloves at the house that are warmer than what I have been using.

Rationalizing things

I drove to work today. The rain gave me reason to rethink riding for one day. My commute is a bit less than an hour, and with temperatures in the low to mid-thirties, rain brings a threat of hypothermia that I wasn't willing to face down. This time.

We all have our weather minimums--some won't ride if it's below 60 outside, some will ride in sub-zero weather. I don't know why I'm fussing at myself for having my own limits and knowing them and working within them. At some levels, it feels like I wimped out on riding today.

On the other hand, I would NOT have enjoyed the ride to work today, nor the cleanup once arriving at work. I got to enjoy an extra few minutes of solitude before leaving the house, and an extra minute in the morning shower. I still got to work a bit early. I won't be tired from hurrying home on the bike when I go to trainer tour tonight.

I'll be fine.

I may even get to ride tomorrow. Weather permitting.

following blogs

I have followed a couple blogs for a while, and added another today. The first two I put on my list are local folks--one I've known for several years, and one I met through an email list server for local utility cyclists. Through reading comments on these blogs, I've encountered a few other bloggers (if that's the term--I'm woefully behind on the lingo). One such person is rebuilding an old Fuji, and is relating some of the fun being had on that project. As the owner of an older bike, and the partner to a woman with an almost-as-old bike, AND as a former bike shop service manager, such projects always intrigue me. I really enjoy seeing people willing to put effort into getting on bikes.

When I worked in the shop, I often discouraged people who wanted to revitalize such bikes, or at least who wanted to pay me to do so. The expression I often used was along the lines of, "If you went to sell this at a garage sale, you could get $15. If you put $125 into fixing it, including tuning, tires, tubes, cables and brake pads, you could get $50 for it at a garage sale."

It's different, though, when one does the work instead of hiring it done by a shop. It becomes a much more satisfying experience--one that builds self-confidence, even, especially if it's the first time one does such a thing. Most of that $125 figure I mentioned was labor, too, so the cost comes down a bit. Another factor is that the bike is not likely to be sold right away--if one puts that sort of time and energy into it, the bike will probably get used more or there is an emotional attachment to the bike for some other reason (equally valid, I must add). I reaquainted myself with this phenomenon as I reworked and modified my Raleigh over the last few months. I figure on using Jenn's new-to-her old bike as a teaching tool to help her learn about fixing bikes. I know from experience that she will enjoy that opportunity to learn and do stuff.

Monday, Monday

Looking at the forecasts, I may or may not get to ride later this week. I am not quite set up for riding in rain at near-freezing temperatures. I ordered a rain cape the other day, so that may change in the not-too-distant future. I'll have to do some experimenting with it once it arrives to judge my willingness to use it.

Given that I've ridden in slightly colder weather than we have this morning, I had no excuse for not riding today. Jenn left shortly before I did, as she was catching the bus for her return to work (she was off work the whole of last week). It felt good to ride, too.

I'm finding it interesting that while my Ryan is faster than the Raleigh, I enjoy something about riding the Raleigh. This is weird for me, as I've been a hard-core recumbent enthusaist for a long time. The Raleigh has been an interesting experience for me, to be sure. The rain cape mentioned above will only work for me on the Raleigh, for example. It's one of the few bike-specific accessories I've bought (not counting bike-specific parts like saddle and rims). Almost all of my other gear is utile on either commuter bike.

On other topics:

Jenn bought a commuter bike Friday. She found a Peugeot at Goodwill for $50 or so. On inspection, the tires, tubes, brake pads, and cables seem sound. The largest repair issue is that both jockey pulleys are broken. Since it is a 1980s-vintage Simplex derailleur, I don't know whether the easily-available Shimano pulleys will work. If not, a replacement derailleur won't be hard to install. Over the coming month or three, we'll get fenders, a rack, lights and better pedals to upgrade the bike from its current state to commuter rig. I'll probably mount a different set of shifters as well, as the current down-tube shifters are less-than-ideal and thumb shifters are easier to use and easy to obtain.

We got the LG&E bill over the weekend, and almost took the bike back. $50 or so for the electric portion, but over $250 for the gas to heat the house for a month. Wow. We now have some ceramic heaters to warm areas we are using without having to heat the whole house as much. I'm willing to take the trade of doubling the electric bill if we can halve the gas bill.

Back to town, back to work, back on the bike

I managed to get away for a few days over the holly-daze. It was good to see my grandmother, good to share some of my home-state haunts with my girlfriend and good to be home.

I rode the Bicycle Club's Polar Bear ride on the 1st, so was on my bike for the first time in about two weeks. I rode the Bacchetta, just in case I needed to keep up with a few folks. I got to ride with Earl Jones, the club president, and talked with him about my goals as VP Education, a post to which I expect to be elected in a couple weeks.

I have a busy year ahead of me. In addition to being the presumptive (although hopefully not presumptuous) VP Education for the Louisville Bicycle Club, I will be teaching some classes at Bluegrass Bicycle based on the Park Tool School curriculum. Another shop in the area is offering some free clinics, but I suspect the instruction will be cursory at best. We plan to offer an Intermediate course developed by Park Tools, and will offer more detailed modules from the Advanced course as staff timing permits. The schedule is not yet finalized, but will be posted soon. The LBC is involved in the Bike Summit II coming up in February, and I will be part of that process. I will be primary instructor for the LBC "New Rider" clinics from early May until the end of August.

But I've also had a chance to start the new year off right: I rode the Vanguard to work today. I finally took the time to correct a noisy brake issue that had been frustrating me, and the bike is once again a joy to ride. While I was in bike-fixing mode, I installed a different batch of brake pads on the Raleigh in hopes of gaining some stopping power on that bike. It stops better, but I need to tweak the pad alignment a bit to reduce noise from THAT bike now. In any event, the Vanguard has more load capacity, and I needed to carry some clothing items and other odds and ends to work after having been away for a week.

It's good to be back on the bike.

Despite the recent record-high temperatures, I've been off my bike recently. Why? I've been out of town for a few days, visiting my grandmother. She and my grandfather (my father's parents) have been a source of stability in my life. They bought their house in 1947, and she lives there still (my grandfather died in February of 2006). My trips east have been too few of late--a function of lack of resources and lack of vacation time--but it was good to get back. I plan to attend the Louisville Bicycle Club's New Year's Day ride tomorrow, and if weather cooperates ride to work for my return to the working world Friday.

traffic lights

A friend's blog had comments a few weeks ago about stop light timing and its effect on average traffic speeds in the downtown area. I was thinking about this post during some recent travels downtown, as some of the streets I travel on a regular basis are within the grid of the timed lights. However, while many of the one-way streets are synchronized, some of the intersecting two-way streets are not so well-organized. Perhaps a better way to put it would be that they are, indeed, synchronized, but in such a way that guarantees one has to stop for each light.

I'm referring more to streets in the eastern section of the grid--Campbell, Wenzel and Shelby come to mind--on which I travel fairly often, but on which I must stop for almost every light and wait a LONG time for a green. It's also hard to do the "as soon as safe" departure from a traffic light, as motorists almost willfully misunderstand the maneuver and rail at that cyclist who just blew the light. Or, as has happened, I start out to follow another motorist through the intersection, only to have that motorist stop suddenly to offer me safe passage!

Examples

In an earlier post, I mentioned that keeping a blog has been viewed by some as egocentric behavior--why does anyone else care what I'm writing about my own life? I've been thinking about this in conjunction with why I write about my bike to work efforts as well. I mentioned accountability in that same post as one factor--seeing my own efforts described online later on encourages me to continue, and knowing I'm keeping track of my own efforts and having that record where others can see it...well, it starts getting fuzzy from there.

A bit less than three years ago, my grandfather passed away, after gracing us with ninety-four years of his company (well, I only got to enjoy forty-five years of that, but...). A few weeks later, I typed out some thoughts relative to one of the many lessons I learned from him. Here is a link to that piece. The gist of the thing still holds. I'm making my point about riding by riding. Writing (or blogging) about it is beside the point, but it helps me want to ride more, and is therefore a good thing for me to do.

Even I admit that it's cold

Historically, I have been one of those disgusting people who didn't get cold. In high school, my band director nicknamed me, "Old Anti-Freeze" after I arrived at school one morning wearing a flannel shirt with the sleeves rolled up, no coat, and not complaining about the cold at all. It was about 6 degrees Fahrenheit that morning.

However, in one of what I suppose is one of those "as we get older" things, my metabolism hasn't supported that ability as much. I'm noticing a much more pronounced dislike for cold weather than has been my norm this year.

One result of this is that I'm not even a little bit interested in riding a bicycle if the temperature is below freezing. I've worked on it a bit this year, and managed with temperatures in the mid-twenties, but once it's below 25, I'm done with riding outdoors. I don't want to put on enough layers of clothing to be able to ride. It's that simple.

Small wonder that I didn't ride to work today, with the morning low about 5F and wind chill readings in the -8 or -10F range. Tomorrow's weather doesn't look to be an improvement, as it is supposed to snow early in the day, with the snow turning to rain as the temperature gets above freezing.

The holly-daze season is also going to be a factor for me. Holiday family gatherings will dominate my off-work focus for this week. Scheduling gatherings has been nightmarish--with all the split families and attendant obligations, it's hard to get everyone in one place at one time. It kind of makes me wish I didn't have so much family, but then I wouldn't have the support system I now have (nor would I be in a place to offer such support to others within the system). Add to this that I'm planning to visit relatives in Virginia soon, and my non-work time is busy.

Thursday again

Yet another day I didn't ride to work. Since I was driving, I gave my s/o a ride downtown for an appointment she had this morning. Got to work early, looked at the C-J web site, and found that a small plane had crashed this morning. The pilot died in the crash, sadly. On the positive side, the only real estate showing any damage was the golf course on which the pilot tried to land--no houses were hit. I feel bad for the pilot's friends and family.

The Holly-daze season is, of course, upon us. The holiday party at work is Friday, and I may or may not get to ride my bike tomorrow (I've been a weather wimp about riding this week--something about ice on the roads...). It's an "on the clock" thing, so I will go, and likely have a bite to eat while there, but I don't feel like I'm really a big part of the work experience for most of my coworkers, as I'm off in my own little hamlet most of the time.

Winter Storm Warning

Since folks around here have so little skill at driving on winter-weather-affected surfaces, and since I have a corporate function to attend after work this evening that requires more stuff than I'm ready to haul on my bicycle, I drove to work today. Big deal, right? Why am I putting this on my blog?

Frankly, I'm using this as a diary. I'll be able to look back on it and work toward managing my self more effectively (or not--new habits are hard to get started some times). There seems to be a lot of introspection, perhaps it's fashionable this time of year or something. Gee. Me, being fashionable. THAT's odd.

Wet Monday

What with the prognostication from the weatherliars saying something to the effect that the sky will indeed fall (or at least drop ice on us), I opted for the cage today. No need to be a target for ice-aided directionally-challenged folks on my ride home.

I will need to drive tomorrow as well, as the agency annual meeting is tomorrow evening. This event, while not overtly mandatory, is hard to not attend if I want to stay employed. The dress code is such that I am not outfitted to carry all I'll need on the bike, so I'll drive. This event will also preclude my attending the Trainer Tour, which is the last one of the month. The church where Trainer Tours are held has other plans for the room--something to do with an upcoming holiday or some such.

Fried-day again

Was able to ride to work again today. I've ridden the Raleigh quite a bit more than I expected I would, and I keep wondering why, since I've been such an avid recumbent guy for so long. Some reasons include: I haven't taken the time to completely rid the Vanguard of its rear brake squeal, and that squeal ruins much of the calm I get from riding; the Raleigh is a bit easier to get into and out of the office; it's simply different.

It has its own idiosyncratic traits, however. It has developed a noise that I have tracked to the saddle springs. The leather saddle is tearing at a couple of the rivets anyway, so I got another saddle for the bike (Yippee! I get to break in a Brooks saddle!). I'm not fully satisfied with the brakes, but given that the original brakes are center-pivot, properly-sized replacement brake sets are going to be hard to find. I have a set of the old Scott Matthauser brake pads saved from another bike I used to have and I may try them this weekend and see if they grab better.

All this working on bikes stuff makes me wonder if I need to get back into the bike shop biz full time...

Narcissism

A post on another blog got me to thinking about this topic, the sentiment being "why does the rest of the world need to know what I'm thinking?" I've given it some thought, recently and a week or six ago, and I'm still not sure I know the answer. Perhaps it's partly an online diary, so that I can go back at some point and see what I was thinking at a particular time in my life. It's partly a way to celebrate one's successes and commiserate when things don't go well, especially in our somewhat more insular society (compared to a few decades ago, or at least what we like to remember from those years). As far as my bike commuting, writing about it helps me hold myself accountable for riding instead of driving--it's a motivator toward doing what I want to do anyway.


...and I get to show off a bit.

Short work week almost over

Wow. Two articles about cycling in the C-J in three or four days--one an op-ed from Jackie Green and another an article about a new bill giving police an accountability path that is being pushed for by Bicycling for Louisville among others. Predictably, the vehement anti-bicycle chest thumpers are all over the C-J online forums, hammering on a few cycling advocates who are mostly presenting calm, reasoned, intelligent discourse.
After letting the rain convince me to not ride yesterday, I rode today. Rode to the agency office on East Liberty, then to my own office in New Albany, only to find an email, sent about the time I left the agency office, telling me to be at the agency office at 9:30 (It was about 8:55 when I saw this). Oh, and it's about a 40-minute ride from one office to the other. For the day, I will have four bridge crossings instead of my customary two.
I rode the Raleigh today, just because. It has developed a new noise that seems to be coming from the saddle--an old abused neglected Brooks B-66 that was originally worth much more than I paid for the bike. I have another saddle in reserve (another B-66, of course), and will likely install it in the next few days so that I can ask whether the old one can be repaired.
I intend to do the Trainer Tour this evening, although I don't know that I'll feel very strong.

Day off

I'm taking a couple days off work, partly to use some vacation time that I'd lose otherwise. I get to do some stuff around the house, ride a little bit, do some reading, go for another bike ride...a great day, in other words.

There is a piece in the C-J's Forum by Jackie Green today, suggesting a crackdown on irresponsible use of the roadways and encouraging folks to visit the website: www.safestreetslouisville.org. Of course, the usual hue and cry from the anti-cyclist twits is in evidence, along with some reasoned responses to the vitriol by folks who "get it." It's a shame we cannot levy extra taxation on "being a jerk." It would pay off the national debt in no time.

A bit nippy out there

I had to drive to work yesterday (well, maybe I didn't have to, but it worked out best to do so), as I needed to pick up some plumbing parts for the apartment building where I work--the parts were at a place on Bishop Lane, which is way out of my way, and I didn't have time to ride that far out of my way. I drove today, too, as I have a personal weather limit for cycling that is several degrees warmer than the temperature at the moment. I'm bummed, but I'll be okay. I at least got to ride a couple days.

I've gone to two of the LBC's Trainer Tours so far this year. Last night's session found me not ready to spin that hard. It was a tough workout, and I was lazy for too much of it. When I got home, I was tired and a bit sore, so I got some benefit from it, but it was not a fun time. I suppose it really isn't supposed to be fun, though, and I know that doing these workouts will help me when I do more club riding in the spring (and when weather and time permit over the winter). It WILL get better.

Trainer Tours

Last night was the first Trainer Tour of the season. The Louisville Bicycle Club offers 20 club miles credit for participation in this. The set-up is that folks bring their bicycles and stationary trainers for said bicycles (some folks use rollers--more on that some other time), set them up in a large room and do a cycling-specific workout to one or another in a series of videos. It's much less boring that doing such workouts alone, as there is some opportunity to socialize before, during and after the workout.

I plan to use these for "speed work," and use my regular commuting time to maintain general fitness. What I found last night was that my speed strength is way down from what it has been, despite the mileage I'm getting on my commutes. I was pondering this instead of concentrating on the workout part of the time, which may have been a factor. Oh, well, I have to start somewhere, I suppose.

Trainer Tours are Tuesday and Thursday evenings (with a few holiday exceptions) from now until the end of February (and there may be a few in March). Go to www.louisvillebicycleclub.org for details.

On another front, relating to my spill of a few weeks ago: Since I know people who know other people, my expression of outrage reached ears of folks who want to make that crossing safer for all cyclists. Ideas are bouncing around as I type this, with an eye toward painting something close enough to Uniform Traffic standards to help motorists realize that cyclists need to follow a certain path to cross the tracks safely, and help cyclists navigate that crossing safely by giving them room to do so apart from motor vehicles. More as it develops.

back to the bike

After wimping out yesterday due to wet weather and having to haul stuff, I rode this morning. I have to rush home this afternoon, so that I can participate in the LBC's "Trainer Tours" tonight. This will be my speed work for the winter time, with my commuting being my general maintenance work. At least that's the plan.

On my way to work, I sometimes count the cars that pass me on the bridge. This morning, the twenty cars that passed me waited until AFTER I had passed the mid-point (approximate--I'll call the middle expansion joint the mid-point for ease of use). Some mornings, I'll be passed by thirty or so cars, some mornings as few as fifteen. Afternoon pass counts (from pillar to pillar) usually range from thirty to fifty, with some well beyond (I don't count them on days I'm too busy riding safely in heavy traffic). I sometimes catch sight of an unusual truck as I approach the bridge and look for it when I get to the KY side to see how my speed compares to the interstate speed. Often as not, I beat folks who are in the right lane to use the exit at the end of the Kennedy bridge. Some weeks ago, I mentioned elsewhere that I got to Mellwood Avenue at Spring Street east of the old Stock Yards in time to see a truck cross the bridge over Mellwood on I-64 that I had noted as I pulled away from the old Colgate plant. I'd had to stop for no telling how many lights, but still made as good of a time for a slightly longer distance than someone using the interstate!

wet weather

I admit to not being fond of riding in wet weather. I just don't like it. At all. Coupled with near-freezing temperatures, I REALLY don't like it. While I hate to drive over that, I'd rather not get out and have no cage around me if it gets icy this afternoon, as it could if the snow in the forecast comes as predicted. Besides, I had more stuff to haul to the office than I had room for on either bike.