Narrowing the field

In the last post I put up about the presidential race I indicated my hope that both parties would result in brokered conventions. There are a few different reasons I'd like to see the races go to the conventions without actually selecting the nominees, and I'll get into them below. Unfortunately, it looks pretty unlikely at this point. The Dems are down to the two rockstars, with bublegum popstar Edwards pulling out. On the Rep side, Rudy's great "late state" strategy fizzled and that race is becoming more and more about McCain and Romney.

Could they still hit the conventions split? Certainly. Edwards and Richardson are being actively courted for their support, and they could bring enough to one side or the other to keep the two Dems from reaching the magic number. On the other side, Huckabee it still in it, as is Paul, and while neither of them is drawing large voting blocks they could serve as spoilers and keep the total votes down. Alternatively, if Huckabee were to pull out and throw his support to Romney it might lead to a split between the religious wing of the party on one side and the military/defense wing on the other (with Rudy's endorsement, McCain has the hawk's in his pocket.)

Why am I so hot for brokered conventions? First, going the distance actually allows most people in the country a voice in selecting their party's nominee. The two-party system is still restricting of political choice, but at least there is a chance for the public the shape the argument if there is a hard fought primary between candidates with different opinions/attributes. Next, having the convention serve as a nominating platform rather than an anointment of a pre-selected candidate can energize the party, something the Dems at least are in massive need of. After nominating slightly animated corpses for the last two general elections they have a chance at doing something different, and the energy from a hard-fought convention could send their nominee out ready to fight. Finally, at least in a short list, a hard-fought convention gives a chance that the larger concerns of the nation will play a role in making the platform. When a candidate walks into the convention as the nominee, their platform (with a few changes to appease the party) is taken as the platform. The logic being that the nominee one more primaries than the other candidates, so their vision must match what the party membership believe. Well, it might match the party, but as we've seen in the last two general elections, the twp parties are splitting the electorate. If a candidate, from either side, wants to get into office and actually accomplish any of the massive changes that we need to move forward they will need to do it with the backing of at least some of the members of the other party. Fighting for delegates at the conventions means that the "electability" argument will be front and center, and there could be some push to recognize the planks of the platform that are 1) ridiculous and 2) keeping cross-over votes at arms length.

Could be.

Commute 1/31/08

Time of departure: 8:15
Temperature: 30

FINALLY! It has been a full week since I've been on my bike and I've been going crazy. On top of not riding I haven't been running, so there's been no real exercise of any kind. I wasn't able to bike commute because I had a number of things that I had to get to, too far from work to bike - Thursday there were meetings, Friday I took the Trucker out to Mt. Airy, Monday was shopping, Tuesday was swing dancing (gave a friend a ride) and yesterday was a doc's appointment. Bleh. I do not like being out of the saddle for that long.

Touring build begins

Yesterday I finally made it out to Mt. Airy, with my Long Haul Trucker, to talk to Larry and the other guys out there about building it up into a loaded touring rig. This has been a goal for more years than I can remember, roughly five at this point, and I've actually had the frame for almost two full years, just sitting on the floor of my apartment and then down in my basement gathering dust.

I first got interested in putting together a touring bike when my buddy Slav (from RMS) was planning a California coast tour with his wife. I was bike commuting from Concord to Alameda at the time, and we started doing some longish rides on the weekends around the Oakland Hills. They had recently purchased a pair of Bianchi Volpes and I was riding my 10 year old Trek 930. After they got back and I heard about the trip I wanted to do one of my own.

Initially I started looking at converting the Trek to tour on. For short tours it would have been fine but the top tube was a little short to be comfortable for the long haul, so I also started looking around at other bikes. For reasons I can't fully explain, something about the Trucker appealed to me the first time I saw one. After lusting for a few years, and hearing that Surly was changing the paint color, I was able to track one down in my size in the great "Gang Green" original color. Getting it built up was held off by being broke, and then being a broke student.

Yesterday was mainly talking parts, giving Larry an idea about what I wanted to go with. Some of the things (gearing, hubs/rims) I had a good idea about what I wanted both from Slav's experiences and looking at other touring bike specs online. Other things are pretty open at this point, which is something that makes me glad I trust the shop. The last thing I decided to add to the bike are a set of S&S couplers, which will make it easy to take it apart for travel. Since I can think of many different places within the US that I would love to go, being able to break the bike in half and carry it without penalty on a plane or train seemed like a good call.


As soon as there is something to post pics of I will do, but as of now the fork is at Mt. Airy and the frame is being packed for shipment to Bilenky Cycle Works in Philly to get cut and have the couplers added on.

pics: Helmet - Slav Dugenny, bike - Bilenky Cycle Works

Commute 1/23/08

Time of departure 7:55
Temperature 34F

A little cold, but warmer than the weekend. I'm still trying to figure out something that will keep my eyes from tearing from the cold/wind on my morning commute. There's a decent downhill which lasts for close to a third of the trip and I always end up squinting to keep the tearing to a minimum. The goggles I have for the rain won't do any good - they're vented motorcycle goggles which let air in around the lenses to keep them from fogging up. Sunglasses don't work and most of the time it's a wee bit too dim for me to be comfortable with shades on. Oh well.

Today will be a one-way commute. A friend emailed me last night to say she had some staff passes to a pre-showing of the U2 3D IMAX concert flick at the Maryland Science Center. Downside is that I'll be stuck at work an hour or so longer waiting to get picked up, upside is I'm going to the show with a couple of my best friends from school, who happen to be very attractive ladies.

A plethora of bicycles

delayed post from Friday afternoon

Yeah, I like The Three Amigos as a kid and the "plethora of pinatas" scene is one that always made me laugh.

In this case I'm borrowing the line to refer to the extreme number of other cyclists I encountered on my trip home on Friday. I'm used to seeing a bike or two on the way home, usually a low-end MTB being used for pure utility transport. Friday though I saw seven different cyclists, of all varieties. First two, not riding together, were messenger-looking guys. Since I was in downtown and it was early afternoon (about 3:00 PM) I'd be willing to guess they were at the end of the working day. Other thing than look that makes me thing "messenger" was the way they both drifted partway across an intersection, against the light, and held position in the middle until cars had passed to let them keep going.

Next couple of riders I saw were the traditional, low-end MTB. Young twentysomething on one and an older, weathered guy on the other. Again, not riding together. In fact, the older guy was riding the wrong way in traffic. Typical Baltimore riding, although he was all the way over instead of in the middle of the road like most. Something about the MTB riders in town, I guess they figure the paint lines that separate the traffic directions are there as a guide for where they ride.

Last three were together, some kids on bikes outside a rowhouse. Just kids being kids, hanging out talking to the woman in the house.

I don't know why there were some many riders out on Friday. The weather was nicer than it's been for a while, but it wasn't great. I could see if it was warm, the way it was a few weeks back, but it was just "not cold". Oh well, who cares what caused it, it was nice to see some fellow travelers.

Commute 1/18/08

Time of departure: 7:50
Temperature: 30F

Yesterday we got hit with a sudden and serious snow. A few inches built up but were mostly eliminated later in the evening when the snow shifted to a misty rain. Bummer, I was hoping to have the fun of riding in the snow. What I did have to deal with was a narrowed area to ride in (there were some residual piles in the gutter that bled out into the lane where I normally ride) and for some reason getting honked at.

Normally my ride is pretty mellow. I tool along at the right side of the right lane on a two lane street. Sometimes there are cars that sit behind me waiting to pull into the left hand lane to pass and sometimes they pass in the right lane. There's enough room but since there aren't many bike commuters in Baltimore I think most drivers aren't all that comfortable with passing a bike. (Also, for some reason it seems that drivers here like to be in the middle or over to the right side of the lane. When I was taught to drive I was told to basically ride the left line, guess that lesson, along with the one about treating a non-functional light as a four-way stop, isn't covered in Maryland.) Anyway, most of the time I don't have much to deal with from cars. Today though I had two cars honk at me, and only one to two minutes apart. The first clearly wanted me to get off the road, but the second seemed like they were just saying hi.

I know some drivers think that's a good thing to do, and other cyclists have written about it far more eloquently than me, but if you do pass a bike, just pass them, don't honk, yell or whatever to get their attention. All it does is mess with the cyclist's head and make it more likely that they'll do something twitchy.

Commute 1/16/08

Time of departure: 7:55
Temperature: 30F (18 MPH wind = 18F w/ wind chill)

Yeah, little chilly this morning. It's not even so much the cold that gets me on days like this, but the muscle-suck. The strength drain that occurs when it's nasty cold out so your legs feel like lead from the get go. If I had trained last night (like I was supposed to) I could understand it. Cold + exercise + more cold = slow recovery. But no, I went out to dinner with a lady-friend instead of doing my trainer ride.

Meh, just means I have to do more tonight.

Ride was uneventful. I did get to watch some poor mope having to push a car across that ugly intersection I wrote about on 1/9. (Great, I've only been at this for a couple of months and I'm starting to self-reference, the crazy is coming soon...) I don't know if he was a passenger in the car to begin with or one of the streetside newspapermen (not being sexist, I've only ever seen guys doing it) that decided to help out. I like to think it was the latter, that even in nasty-@$$ Baltimore there are people willing to help out someone who's car broke down in the middle of the off ramp for a major route into town at the start of rush hour.

Politics

While I did start this blog primarily so I, too, could wax rhapsodic about cycling, I had other things I knew would creep (or in this case charge) in at some point. The other biggies in my life are politics - if there was a twelve-step for political addicts I'd need the 24-step version, and Buddhism. Today I'm not going to babble about my faith, since that's not really my thing (live, don't talk) but about politics.

I am a "small l" libertarian. For those who aren't familiar with the "small l"/"large L" argument in libertarian politics, it boils down to whether or not you are a member of the Libertarian Party (I'm not) and adhere to traditional libertarian philosophy on all subjects (I don't). Where I fall is in the "the smallest amount of government intervention possible" camp. Some things work better in the market, some things work better with a little regulation, and some things need to be managed by a central power. The trick is balancing and making sure that the managing is helping things run better.

That isn't really what I wanted to talk about today though. What I'm interested in discussing is the presidential primary, and my hopes for the races. I'll start by saying that I didn't vote for President in the last two elections. I'm registered Democrat, in California, which let me avoid the "I need to vote for the Dem guy or the state might go for the other one", given that the odds of California going for GWB were pretty slim. Gore didn't excite me, Lieberman made me not want to vote for the ticket. The next round was Kerry/Edwards and I couldn't think of a single reason to vote for them, especially since their whole campaign was "We're not Bush/Cheney" which wasn't anywhere near enough for me. In both of those elections I did vote on state and local issues, as well as the congressional candidates, I just skipped over the President.

This year I was hoping there would be someone to care about, there's not. What I'm hoping for now is a brokered convention. In essence this is where nobody makes it to the convention with enough votes to be the nominee. That means lots of politicking and trades to try and put together a coalition large enough to win, very similar to what you see on a regular basis in parliamentary governments with more than two political parties. It won't make a huge difference, since it would be intra-party politicking and not inter-party, but it could actually make for an interesting race.

It is possible, if not likely, that the Republican race will go that way. If Mormon-Mitt can get himself back on track and pull in some delegates before Super Tuesday there could be four semi-viable candidates left after it, with the votes split enough to bring them all to the convention with a fighting crew behind them. Unfortunately, the Democrats have pretty much been narrowed down to two rock stars and a bubblegum pop star trying to stay viable. If they stay split it would mean that Edwards could control the convention and short of coming home tonight to find my house a smoldering crater I can't think of many things that would upset me more.

There will be more political posts to come. Especially on days like this where I don't bike commute because of meetings, only to find out that the meeting was moved to a different day without anyone letting me know. Oh well. I'll hopefully get some miles in on the trainer when I get home tonight.

Commute 1/14/08

Time of departure: 7:15
Temperature: 45

A little chilly but not too bad this morning. I'm more concerned about the rain that might be coming down. Packing the messenger bag was a little rough. First, I had a lot of papers that I had taken home from work on Friday, hoping to get some things worked on over the weekend. A lot, as in, close to a five inch high pile. And how much work was done? Not much. Basically, there's a slightly different direction to planning (that's what I do in real life, pandemic influenza planning) that I wanted to try out and since it's not what had been agreed upon at work I figured I do it at home. Well, I didn't so I guess it will wait for next week.

On top of the gigantic pile of papers (mainly articles and other jurisdiction plans) I have my lunch. Since I'm trying to control what I eat packing a lunch is very important. In the past two weeks I've lost close to 10 pounds, mainly by changing my eating habits. I didn't do my shopping over the weekend, so I'm missing the bag of apples that normally sits on my desk, which meant I had to come up with an alternative snack. All I had at home that fit the bill was a couple of grilled sweet potatoes from Friday, so I stuck one into the deeper Tupperware and I'll have that. Lunch is usually two sandwiches, eaten about an hour and a half apart and normally with a piece of 2% string cheese. Well, again, thanks to not shopping I have no string cheese. All this means is that my lunch is bulkier than normal but will actually be smaller.

So now I have: 1) the big @$$ pile of papers, and 2) two Tupperware containers. Added to that is my rain gear, in the case just the pants because it's cool enough to wear the pea coat, and reflective vest which I like to wear if I'm riding in the dark or rain, since the pea coat is black. I could barely get the bungie wrapped around the rack. Going home will be easier. No papers, the Tupperware can be stuck inside one another.

Problems with drivers

Maybe it's everyone getting back into the swing of work and school, but it seems that the bike blogs are a little more crowded than normal with stories of road problems. I saw two recently and they got me thinking.

The first was by Jeff Moser, who posts at Cycling Carson City and also at Commute by Bike. Jeff's post was about riding a little earlier than normal and being crowded almost off the road by a truck. It appears that the crowding was intention since he "could see him looking in his mirrors, making sure he got as close as possible without actually hitting me." Clearly unacceptable behavior, but unfortunately the driver was too far away from Jeff before he was able to react and get a plate number.

The other post was by Dave Moulton, at his blog, and was in response to comments made after he discussed the Matthew Paris apology. The comment was asking what cyclists can and should be doing to improve our standing on the road. Dave's post is a great discussion of how to advocate by riding and how many of the things that aggravate cyclists about the way cars operate on the road are mirrored by the way pedestrians view some cyclists. I highly recommend reading both the post and the comments after it if you do any city biking.

In the comments on Jeff's post there are a few people who mention getting into violent altercations with drivers who have done similar things, and a few of the comments on Dave's post reference the same. This is also a common refrain in the Advocacy & Safety and Commuting pages at BikeForums. If you as a cyclist are crowded, threatened, yelled at or otherwise annoyed by a driver the best thing to do is yell back, key the car, smack the car as you ride by, or any other of a number of more extreme responses. Some riders have posted about following cars until the driver stops and getting into an argument about the law and the way the driver was driving.

Maybe it's the fact that I've never had to deal with an intentional problem like Jeff and many posters at BikeForums, but I just don't see continuing the anger and violence as the right solution. I've been crowded, honked at, shouted at, and have felt threatened by cars. I've been angered by them and said nasty things under my breath and often more loudly. Then I realize that my being angry is doing nothing to the driver and is ruining my time on the bike.

I ride for pleasure primarily and I'll be damned if I'm going to let some anonymous driver ruin that pleasure by making me tense and angry. Holding onto the bad feelings the encounter creates just causes problems for the rest of the day. The best way I found to think of this comes from "The Awakening of Faith" and says "One's mind should become like a mirror, reflecting things but not judging them nor retaining them." In The Compass of Zen, Zen Master Seung Sahn discusses this same idea at great length, with the result being that in order to achieve happiness it is important to develop the capacity to react to the things in front of you (reflecting) but when the thing is gone your mind should let it go in the same way the mirror does, rather than dwelling on it, judging and retaining it.

After all, if I wanted to be tense and angry I'd be driving my commute, like them.

No commute 1/10/08

Today I have to run some errands, of the larger/farther variety so I drove in. If I had been able to get up at the right time I would have been able to bike and then head back out with the truck after I got home. The tightest issue is getting to the post office by 5 to pick up my rollers. I'm getting used to riding the trainer, and now I'll have the rollers to play with too. Hopefully that will keep me on the bike enough.

The main reason I had trouble getting up today is that I've started running again. A few years ago I did a few sprint triathlons in the Bay Area series "Tri For Fun". They were a blast, and then I stopped training. I'm getting back into it as part of my general regiment, and have signed up for a race in the spring. It's part of the LA Triathlon Championship Series, at the end of April. Why LA? Because my older brother, who recently completed his first Iron Man (#1257), lives out there and is going to run the race with me. That gives me added incentive to get off my butt and be in decent shape for it. I could completed it, as I am now, by walking the whole of the run. Doing the race with Kent out there means I've got to make a decent showing of it.

Commute 1/9/08

Time of departure: 7:50
Temperature: 64F

Yeah, it's 64F in the middle of January. There's a strange weather pattern that happens in this area about this time every year, where there is a nasty cold storm followed by a few days of balmy, spring-like weather, and then back to winter. On the one hand it is nice to be able to ride without a heavy coat, on the other it is almost too warm and I might need to start changing clothes if it stays like this. It also increases the likelihood of rain over other forms of precipitation, and between a light rain and light snow, I'd rather have the snow.

The ride was pretty uneventful. I can tell that we're out of the vacation period though because there are a lot more cars on the road this week than last week. The place I use to judge the traffic load is a corner a few blocks from the office. The street I ride crosses a street that becomes a minor N/S expressway at that corner, and the backup for cars turning right onto the expressway indicates how far into the commute I am. If I leave early in the morning and hit it at 7:00 there aren't many, maybe one or two right at the corner, like any other major street intersection. If I'm running a little late and hit it after 8:00 it's a whole different story, with cars stretched back 2-3 blocks to the post office. The problem there is that the turners clog the lane that goes straight, so I end up between the traffic lanes and have to watch my right to make sure there isn't someone in that lane going straight when I try to slide back over to curbside.

Widget

I've added the energy use widget from Fritz over at Cyclelicious. Rather than repeat everything he said about it, I'll just give the link to his post. Short version - it's a nifty little counter that tracks the amount of money spent on imported fossil fuels in the US this year. Check it out at his site if you're interested in how it works or to grab it for your own site.

Commute 1/7/08

Time of Departure: 8:00
Temperature: 47F

It felt a lot warmer this morning than the thermometer said. If I hadn't been running about 15 minutes behind schedule (because I did not want to get out of bed) I would have taken my coat off and just strapped it to the rack. As it was I got to work a little warmer than I like. That will mean being hot most of the morning since the heat in the building seems to be set by the season. Since it's winter it must be cold outside which means the heat must be cranked up to make half of the building unlivable. But, since it's also an ancient building the heat only seems to work in about half of the offices, so some people melt and others freeze. A/C is the same way, and unfortunately for me my office is one that is warm/hot all of the time.

I finally got around to getting new tire levers to carry with me, and actually remembered to pack my pump. I still haven't figured out what I want to do as a permanent solution. I may try and get another hanger so I can use the same pump I use on my roadie (Topeak Road Morph) rather than buying a new one. For now, while the road bike is strapped to the trainer that makes the most sense.

Commute 1/4/08

Time of departure: 7:00
Temperature: 22F

About the same temperature as yesterday, but for some reason my ears didn't hurt as badly today. I remembered to adjust the front brake tension last night so it worked much better. I think I may have gone a little too far with it though, since I barely have to pull the handle to feel the braking. Oh well, it's a simple adjustment. I'll play a little more when I get home.

Somehow I killed my front tire, again, a few blocks from work. It dropped the way it has in the past - going from fine to flat in less than a block. The only part of this that is bothering me is that I have a liner in the tire and I didn't see anything on a quick inspection. Since I no longer have functional tire levers (had a plastic set, broke one of them trying to put a too-small whitewall tire on about a month ago) that means a trip to a bike shop of some sort over the weekend. I also don't have a pump with me (I bought a CO2 inflator and can't get it to work right, maybe I'm just dumb) so I'll have to hoof it a few blocks to the closest gas station with air and pump up there.

Commute 1/3/08

Time of departure: 6:50
Temperature: 22F

I knew the ride would be a little rough this morning when I headed out the door carrying the bike and the cold was a little painful. I'm going to have to figure out something for my ears. The do-rag and slight bit of hair that's grown back in since I stopped shaving kept my head from hurting, but my ears feel like they froze. Next ride I'll probably try to pull the do-rag over them just to see if it helps.

I need to check the brake adjustment. Coming down the one main hill that I have (which runs close to half of the wee little commute) I just was not slowing down, with both brakes applied full-tilt. It may be that the cable on the drum brake has stretched a little and just needs to be retightened. I'm not too surprised about the slip on the rear - that one never catches very well and with the cold, semi-moist air it was just about worthless. Either way I'll be playing with both of them tonight.

The ride home is going to be a little bit longer than normal. Instead of a straight shot like I normally take I have to make a detour to a package shipping place to send my little brothers' gifts out (yeah, I'm that late) and then up to Hopkins to have coffee with a former co-worker. If the temp is anything like now the coffee will be welcome.

New toys, part 2

Yesterday I finished hooking the Raleigh up to the trainer and took it for a spin. After a short test ride earlier in the day I took a slightly longer one later. Today, again, I did about an hour on it.

I can say that it's not quite as good as riding outside. For one thing, it feels like there's a slight angle to the thing, like the bike is tilted over to the right. Not enough that I can see it, it just feels a little odd. I keep twisting the handlebars over to the right to try and counter it, then straightening them back out. Maybe I'll get used to it. That or I'll figure out that it is indeed tilted and to something to fix it.


As part of getting the Raleigh hooked up to the trainer I moved the computer sensor to the rear wheel, That way I can still record "miles" ridden in addition to the cadence and kcal data that I'm getting. Because it's a wireless unit I've had to move the computer itself onto the top tube. Since the main thing I have it for is recording the full ride (as opposed to doing laps or watching time/speed/cadence for some sort of goal) it's okay. I may get tired of having it there, but for using the trainer at least it's either there or no mileage.

I am still waiting for the rollers and front wheel riser to arrive, so for now at least I'm getting some good use out of the Baltimore Yellow Book. Most use I've gotten out of the thing since it was dumped on my porch a few months back.