Things a non-cyclist might not understand

Crazy Biker Chick (who doesn't sound that crazy to me!) has a wonderful open letter to motorists here:

http://crazybikerchick.blogspot.com/2006/09/things-non-cyclist-might-not.html


BTW, I'll be off riding The Big Lebowski 600K in Oregon this weekend. With luck I'll have some tales to tell when I return.

Keep 'em rolling,

Kent

Disraeli Gears

I've logged a lot of fixed and single speed miles over the years but the bike I'm riding the most these days is this beat-up old orphan Bianchi mountain bike. The Bianchi has three chainrings up front, seven decadent gears in the back and deraillers, so of course my fixed and single speed pals tell me that I've gone soft. Maybe I have, but for now I'm having fun scooting around on the Bianchi.

But there has been a problem, most of my bikes wind up having some kind of a name, not a personification exactly but more a shorthand that sums up the bike. My Monocog pretty much always will be the Monocog and the Kogswell seems sufficiently Kogswellian but this Bianchi mountain bike doesn't seem like a Bianchi to me. It's not celeste, it's not an Italian road machine and it doesn't have a bit of Campy gear anywhere on it. It may have a Bianchi sticker on it somewhere under all the stickers I've added to it but it doesn't feel like a Bianchi. It's something else, something I haven't quite identified yet.

The bike came very close to being dubbed the "Strawberry Pancake" thanks to my evil friend Tarik. If you want to understand the story, you will follow this link here:

http://tsaleh.blogspot.com/2006/08/pancakes.html

If you value your sanity, you won't click on the above link.

Alas, I did not follow the advice in the above sentence and I have had the wretched Strawberry Pancake song stuck in my head for weeks and I have this bike that is sort of strawberry colored (and the crossbar's real low). Something needed to be done.

In an effort to clear my mind, I regressed to my wasted youth (as Meatloaf noted "a wasted youth is better by far than a wise and productive old age") and have been running classic rock through my head and digging through what we used to quaintly call "albums."

Which brings me to Cream's classic album Disraeli Gears. I got to wondering about the name and found this fascinating tidbit in the Wikipedia entry at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disraeli_Gears

The title of the album was an inside joke. Clapton had been thinking of getting a racing bike and was discussing it with Baker, when Mick Turner, one of the roadies, commented on the performance of "those Disraeli gears", meaning to say "derailleur gears". The band thought this was hilarious and decided that it should be the title of their next album. Had it not been for the roadie's malapropism, the album would simply have been entitled Cream.

So what bike am I taking down to Oregon this weekend? Not the Bianchi. Not the Strawberry Pancake. Nope, I'm taking the bike with those Disraeli Gears.

The Salmon Return to Issaquah

Every autumn the salmon return from the sea and swim up the Issaquah Creek. We have a salmon hatchery downtown and the first weekend in October there is a big street festival called Salmon Days. But the salmon have their own schedule and they are already returning. I hopped on my bike this afternoon and snapped a few pictures with my cheapo digital camera.

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The late afternoon light under the Dogwood bridge made the water glow. It took a few tries to get a shot of a salmon swimming in the light.

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The salmon really have to struggle in the shallow waters of the creek.

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The salmon range in size from about 15 to 30 inches long.

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Near the hatchery the salmon pack the creek much like cars pack in on Front Street at rush hour.

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The salmon motif is all over Issaquah. My panniers are made from recycled coroplast campaign signs and here you can see the salmon that was part of last year's campaign.

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This year's slogan is "Born to be Wild" and one of the "Ofishal" Salmon Days T-shirts features a fish on a chopper. Salmon Days is one of those corny small-town things that fills the town with tourists and a lot of us local folks try to lay low until it's over. Soon the tourists leave and the fish all die and the town stinks like hell for a few days. Then the gulls and the rains come in earnest, strip away the last of the carcases and we spend the winter sipping coffee, riding in the rain and watching the mists cloak the mountains.

Neither Rain Nor Gloom of Night

This evening we held an afterwork seminar on the subject of bicycle commuting in the rain and darkness. The text of my remarks is posted here:

http://www.carsstink.org/peterson/NeitherRain.html

Passing Clearance, Helmets and Lane Position

A study in the U.K. made the news recently, primarily (I think) because it fits so well into our "fearful soundbyte" model of news presentation. So televisions have been blaring with well-groomed talking heads saying things like "Is your bicycle helmet putting you at risk? Find out at 11:00!" The Walker study of 2,500 passing cars showed that test cyclists were given 8.5 cm (3.3 inches) more clearance by cars if they were not wearing helmets and the alarming headlines quickly followed.

The most unfortunate thing about the fearful soundbyte is that many people don't look beyond the soundbyte. But there is more to the story and this link is a good place to start:

http://www.helmets.org/walkerstudy.htm

The above page looks critically at the study and brings up a very relevant variable in the cyclist/motorist interactions, the lane position of the cyclist. John Forester has long advocated "taking the lane" in his Effective Cycling book and courses. But the Effective Cycling folks are not without their critics as well. As with many things, I find it most useful to listen to what the loud voices have to say and try to find the part that seems true and workable. A recent discussion on the Bicycle Touring List on this subject made a lot of sense to me and I'm directly quoting the two people involved with their permission:

A fellow named Bob very nicely summarized the Effective Cycling "take the lane" strategy and Alberto responded:

I think you make a good point that I seem unable to follow: being more aggressive in taking the lane as opposed to the extreme right position on the road. It makes a lot of sense to make cars "see you" in the lane so they supposedly have to venture into the opposing lane to pass you with sufficient space. Riding with my friend Paco, who is a seasoned racer and does many training miles on the road, I find it very uncomfortable to follow his technique of taking the lane so aggressively as I ride close on my right. I find that cars tend to get more ticked off at him than me, though, as they cannot pass until they have clear room from the opposing lane. It is true, however, that cars seem to squeeze closer to me than to him, though I've never felt in danger in my position.

Very interesting idea to think about and work through.

Seasoned touring cyclist Mark Boyd replied with this advice with the list:

I think keeping far right does encourage people to pass close, but sometimes that is what you want. When I am riding in light to moderate traffic, where passing is not difficult, I will take the lane because that is safer. However, if traffic is heavy, I will do every thing I can, including getting off the road periodically, to help cars and, especially, trucks, get by me. Under those circumstances, I think taking the lane is rude and, while possibly safer for me at the time, will anger drivers and increase the chances that they do something unsafe for bicyclist in the future.

Riding a bicycle safely in traffic on the road requires cooperation between the cyclist(s) and the drivers. Both groups need to recognize the rights of the other group and act in ways that help the other group share the road with them. Taking the lane can be a good thing or a bad thing. The experienced rider should be able to decide which it is in any given circumstance.

I follow the rule that, in traffic, I should ride as near the edge of the road as practical. It is up to me to judge where that is. It can, and does, change as road and traffic conditions change. It can, and does, depend on the drivers behavior. If I 'give' drivers the lane because they need it to get past me and the result feels dangerous to me, I'll take it back again or, in extreme cases, get off that road.

Like Mark, I try to ride safely and courteously. All of us on the road are trying to make our way in the world.

I've mentioned this before, but it's worth repeating. A good page on cycling safety is Michael Bluejay's How Not To Get Hit By Cars at:

http://bicyclesafe.com/

Ride safely,

Kent

Seattle's Stolen Bike Listing

M.J. Kelly over at Cascade Bicycle Club has set up the very handy Seattle Stolen Bike Listing. You can read about and subscribe here:

http://www.cascade.org/Community/stolenbikes/

It would be great to live in a world where we don't need such things but even though most people are good, there are enough rat bastards out there to make things like locks and stolen bike listings something we all have to deal with. And if you see a really sweet orange 56cm Rivendell Rambouillet with shellacked brown cloth tape on handlebars and a tubus luna rack, good-guy philosopher Dave Shapiro would love to hear from you.

Be careful out there,

Kent

Commute Seminars: Ride Into Fall & Winter

I'll be presenting a couple of bicycle commuting seminars on the next two Mondays. If you are in the Seattle area, feel free to stop on by. I'll also be posting written notes on these subjects shortly after the seminars.

Date: Monday 9/18/06
Time: 5:30 PM to 7:00 PM
Location: Bike Station Seattle, 311 3rd Avenue South 206-224-9252
Subject: Neither Rain Nor Gloom of Night
Description: Practical advice on how to equip you bike and your body for commuting through the dark and the damp.

Date: Monday 9/25/06
Time: 5:30 PM to 7:00 PM
Location: Bike Station Seattle, 311 3rd Avenue South 206-224-9252
Subject: Roadside Repair
Description: A discussion of what tools to carry and how to use them to deal with flat tires and other mechanical challenges.

Both of these after work seminars are free and open to the public. No prior repair or commute experience is required.

Keep 'em rolling,

Kent

Bob Shaver's Patent History Blog

Bob Shaver is an attorney with a really interesting blog that contains images that Bob has scanned and cleaned up from a bunch of old bicycle patent drawings. It's fascinating to see just how long ago people were making things like suspension systems. You can see the blog here:

http://patentpending.blogs.com/patent_pending_blog/bicycle_technology/index.html

327 Words "Patchkit" Alleycat

Dave has decided to become the master of the 327 word essay and he's damn good at it. And today he wandered into the Bikestation to tell me about an alleycat race he's created. It sounds like a wonderful way to spend a Saturday afternoon/evening. Some details are here:

http://327words.blogspot.com/2006/08/327-words-patchkit-alleycat.html

A Lacing Pattern For Cycling Shoes

While browsing a surprisingly compelling website on shoelaces, I found this:

http://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/bushwalklacing.htm

It was the key to keeping laces out of the drivetrain in the pre-Velcro days of yore.

Tape Case Bike Light

Now I've certainly done my share of DIY projects but while I find this one interesting, I won't be building it any time soon. The guy who did this put a lot of work into making the light and making a nice webpage detailing the construction. You can see it here:

http://www.spacetoast.net/STP/177.html

But really if you value your time at all, there are lots of LED headlamps, flashlights and bikelights that fall into the sub-$20 pricepoint of this project. So why am I posting this here? Well, it is kind of nifty. And I'm thinking maybe you clever folks in the blogosphere will add a bunch of neat comments with links to your own home-brew lights and/or great bargain bike lights you've discovered.

Keep 'em rolling,

Kent

Janet's Cool Bike Stencils

Somebody who goes by the name of Janet Bike Girl has created a very nice archive of bicycle stencils. You can see and grab high res images of the stencils here:

http://tinyurl.com/jzlht

Janet is obviously a very cool person and has made these stencils freely available under the Creative Commons NonCommercial-ShareAlike License, so people can freely use and modify the images for their own noncommercial purposes. I'm thinking I'll print out some of the stencils and use them to make a few T-shirts or maybe some "Bike Parking" signs.

One More Bike

I'm pretty good at not buying things, but I have this tendency to adopt things. I'd adopted an aluminum bike that I named Al but I managed to pass Al on to a poor college student. I'm still trying to pass my old PX-10 onto someone and that bike has migrated down to the Bikestation and I know it'll end up with some messenger or urban hipster soon. So I should be making progress in terms of simplification.

And then an old steel mountain bike comes along. A little too small perhaps but maybe something fun to mess around with. Strip off the broken Gripshifts. OK, I'm only going to do this if it's a no money kind of thing. But I do have a big pile of parts. And tools. And time. And I do get this urge to putter.

Beth in Portland likes old stem shifters, maybe I will too. For now the gears will stay. A long seatpost and a Butt Buddy get the saddle high enough. Knobby tires get swapped for something slicker. Rough enough to wander, fast enough to be fast enough. I don't care much about the optimal but I'm fascinated by what is sufficient.

All my bikes wind up looking like my bikes. Brand names tend to get buried. Stickers tend to get cut-up and repurposed. Old campaign signs are made into fenders. All that really matters is where the bike hits my butt, my feet and my hands. The rest will be whatever it is. The Cowboy Junkies said it best, "the beautiful is not chosen, the chosen becomes beautiful."

This bike works for commuting or for exploring gravel roads or tiny trails. I could probably ride it to Inuvik or Patagonia or to the Safeway or the Starbucks. I don't know what I'll do with this. This morning I rode it along the Cedar River and I took some pictures. You can see them here:

http://www.carsstink.org/peterson/OneLessPed/OneLessPed.html

Keep 'em rolling,

Kent

Joe and the Joetator

Back in 1998 I wrote a series of articles for Recumbent Cyclist News. The story of Joe and the Joetator is the most memorable of those articles and Bob Bryant has generously given me the greenlight to put the tale up on the web. You can read it here:

http://www.carsstink.org/peterson/Joetator.html

The Road Not Taken

My plan for the weekend had been moderately ambitious. I would take Friday afternoon off, ride down toward Packwood, camp out Friday night, ride the SIR 3 Volcanoes 300K Saturday and then ride back home on Sunday. I told people I was doing this and I was looking forward to the trip. But my lovely wife has been going through a lot of turmoil at work and as things turned out, Friday was the day she was interviewing for the position of managing her tumultuous department. She'd didn't expect me to cancel my trip to be with her and in fact there was little I could do.

There was little I could do, but I could do one thing. I didn't ride to Packwood. I bought her a card and some dark chocolate and we went out to dinner Friday night. I heard about how the interview went. By the way, it's very hard to find a card to cover the possibilities of a) you got the job because you are skilled, talented and deserve it b) you didn't get the job because you work for morons or c) we don't know yet and the powers that be will decide at some future date. I settled on a card that said "In all the world, my favorite place is just being with you."

So, one less ride report for the blog. There will be other days and other roads.

But for the record, my wife doesn't work for morons. She is skilled and talented and is the new manager of the Dot Com department of the Issaquah Safeway.

Redline 925 Review in Dirt Rag

My review of the Redline 925 is in issue #122 of Dirt Rag and it's also available online here:

http://www.dirtragmag.com/print/article.php?ID=778&category=stuff_reviews

For those of you who wonder what happens to review bikes after the review is done, in this case my pal Dave wound up buying the bike from Redline.

Cycling Expenses

While hunting around for something else, I found something I posted to the iBOB list a few years ago about expenses and cycling. Here it is in slightly edited and updated form:

Jeff Potter (the editor and publisher of a neat magazine called Out Your Backdoor) wrote:

I find that adopting anything as a lifestyle results in that thing causing you to be broke. Even if you're on a big team and get most of your stuff for free or half price.

It's not just the travel that makes racing "expensive." I think that hobbies are all designed to tap you out, no matter what you make. They take what you have to give. They inspire you to give all you have. If you're buying it all cheap, used, then you're nickel'n'dimed to death. Well, you're tapped out.

Now I count Jeff as one of the good guys in this world but I'm going to argue the other side of this issue here. But first, I'm going to agree with him that "hobbies" tap you out. Yes, for most people a hobby is something they choose to do. It's fun, they don't need to do it. They enjoy it. Once you've used some of your time for earning what you need for food, shelter and clothing you spend the rest of your time and money on what you enjoy. Call it entertainment. Call it a hobby.

But that hobby, even if it's just a hobby is something you enjoy. Maybe it becomes your passion, a key focus of your life. Guess what, where you spend your time, that is where your heart is. That is where your wealth is. Your life is your wealth, how are you spending it? Are you tapped out? Well, if you feel you are, then you are. But if you find joy in what you've chosen, if you don't begrudge the choices you've made, I'd argue that you aren't broke.

People could look at me and say I'm broke. I currently own two bikes, I haven't owned a car in about 20 years, I probably make less per hour than most people reading this note.

But I'm the richest man I know. I share my life with a wonderful woman who knows that wealth has very little to do with money and everything to do with being at home in the universe.

Sure the magazines and the business of cycling or fly fishing or whatever exist and thrive by selling dreams. If I had Reynolds wheels I'd have won that sprint, if I had that carbon flyrod I have landed that trout, etc. Yeah, whatever. If Reynolds wheels make you happy, go for it. But don't whine that they cost $2K a set. That's what they go for. You decide if they're worth whatever chunk of your life it takes to earn that $2K.

But I need them to be competitive in the Cat 2 races and it's so hard to be a Cat 2...

Yeah...life is hard.

The Buddha tells us that life is suffering and when I saw the Buddha in Greenwich Village a few years ago he told me that "life is suffering, pal!" I read somewhere that when I meet the Buddha on the road I'm supposed to kill him but I was running late and had other things to do.

But I digress. Where was I? Oh, yeah. You can be hardcore into your thing without getting caught up in money. Yvon Chouinard lived out of his VW bug, forged climbing gear in the field and was basically a great climbing bum. The man was so broke he ate catfood but he did OK for himself.

Moitessier had great adventures and was one of the greatest sailors ever. Most of his adventures were done on budgets that wouldn't cover the insurance payments on a Hummer H2.

Enough rambling for now.

Have fun out there.

"Society is a system of lures, I'M THROUGH WITH IT."
-- Jack Keroauc, Some of the Dharma

A Lightweight Commuter Bike?

Let's just speak hypothetically here. Suppose a guy who tends to have pretty beefy, simple bikes (say something along the lines of a Redline Monocog or a Kogswell Model G) happens to possibly be in line to get an old (1990ish) Klein Rascal. Now I know the lugged steel crowd will cringe here but the Klein is aluminum. And it's a really ugly shade of purple. On the plus side it's got a steel fork and it is old school; no boingy bits and a seven speed XT drivetrain w rapid fire shifters. Still, not really my, uhm make that "this guy's", kind of bike.

But did I mention the bike is steekin' light? Wicked light. And it's got these odd, short little rear facing track ends. It could really be a dang light single-speed down the road but for starters it might be fun to keep it light and shifty.

Rattlecan paint it black. Trade the knobbies for street tires. But make a goal of this project to keep it light and fast.

Could it be a light, fast commuter bike?

If you had suck a project what would you do?

How would you deck out such a bike?

Could you keep the budget for this project at zero?

All hypothetically speaking, of course.

Nice Ride - Pictures and a very brief report

On Sunday we had mixed weather for the "Nice Ride for Dave Nice." You can read a bit about the ride and see pictures here:

http://www.carsstink.org/peterson/NiceRide/NicePics.html

Keep 'em rolling,

Kent

Nice Ride Info

The picture above is from last year's ride on this route. Doesn't it look pretty? Doesn't it look like the riders are having a good time? I think everybody did have a good time on a good route, so we're doing this ride again. Here are the details.

What? The Nice Ride for Dave Nice. Dave is a pal of mine who was racing the Great Divide Mountain Bike Race this year when he got his bike and stuff ripped off while he was taking a nap. Yeah, major bummer. Dave learned a valuable lesson -- check out this post on his blog:

http://cellarrat.blogspot.com/2006/07/new-mt-napping-routine.html

So what is this ride? It's a ride mostly on gravel rail-trails and gravel roads from North Bend to Snoqualmie Pass and back. It's a bit over 60 miles (just under 100 kilometers) and it's just a fun ride, not a race or anything. The route is rideable on a roadbike with fat tires, a cyclocross bike, a hybrid or a mountain bike. You probably don't want to do this on 23mm skinny roadie tires, however.

There is a couple of mile long dark and spooky tunnel up at the pass. You'll need lights for the trip through the tunnel. It's cold in the tunnel as well, so you might want to bring along an extra layer.

Why? Even though various of Dave's pals scraped together cash for a replacement bike, he still has to replace his gear and finance his race for next year. Dave's a good guy who had some bad luck and I came up with this scheme to help him out. We're doing this ride and we're collecting donations. This ride is FREE but anything you want to donate will be sent to Dave.

When? Sunday July 30th, 9:00 AM.

Where? We're meeting at parking area at the corner of North Bend Way & East McClellan Street in North Bend. I'll be riding up from my place in Issaquah. If you want to get up early and have a longer ride, drop me a note and we'll work something out.

What about food? I don't know how many people are showing up for this and I have no idea what kind of food people want or how much to bring. So let's do this. Bring what you'd like to eat and some food to share. It'll be kind of a potluck. We'll picnic up at Hyak.

Do you have a route sheet? Yep. I'll have copies of the cue sheet that I'll hand out at the start, but you can preview it and/or print your own copies of the route sheet here:

http://www.carsstink.org/peterson/NiceRide.html

I also used Bikely to map out the route and you can check that out here:

http://www.bikely.com

OK, I think I've got the basics covered. If anybody has any questions or comments, email me or use the comment feature of the blog.

Keep 'em rolling.

Kent