Finally posting, a week later. I wrote this post many days ago and held off posting waiting until I could upload pictures. Last week I was out of town (no riding, no posting) and never did get the pictures taken. Lacking a new post I'm slapping this up.
Or the bike rack, as the case may be.
Last Friday Fritz over at Cyclelicious did what he called a "bag dig" to see what he had in his mess bag. His dig was inspired by Jennifer in Chicago doing something similar and posting the results. And Fritz, in turn, inspired a number of others including Noah at KC Bike Commuters posting a list and contest, Ed at CycleDog listing two different bags (one of which apparently carries an invisible cinder block - I was wondering where mine got to), Jared in Austin dumped his bag, Da' Square Wheelman found a short story written a little ways back, Steve braved his Sack of Doom, and just to keep the cyclic nature of reality in full swing, Jen returned to the fold with a second (third, based on the title) evaluation of her gear.
And now, because I won't be riding tomorrow and will be missing my bike, I'll jump in. I carry two bags normally. On the bike is an Out Your Backdoor 5-way bag. I have it hung on my handlebars (which still needs a little adjustment because, as you can see in the pic, it hangs funny with the headlight there). It works great as my "bike stuff" bag, with the tools going in the small front pocket, and the lock and other large items going in the main compartment. Since the bike parking at my work is hidden away I can leave this on my bike without worry (although on the occasions where I've had to leave my bike overnight in the garage I've brought the bag up to my office).
The other bag I carry is my Timbuk2 messenger bag. I had one for my original commuting bike, before I got a rack, and just stuck with it. Especially while in grad school using the "bag on a rack" model worked great for me - no sweaty back and no repacking. Among the different items that get tossed in the mess bag are the thermometer and Purell strapped to the zipper, my pocket Constitution and Bill of Rights from Cato (you never know), EMS and NIMS FOGs (Field Operation Guide) from Informed (I'm an emergency planner - gotta be ready), a small "Paddler Medic" first aid kit from Adventure Medical (a gift from when I used to teach wilderness first aid), a pocket knife, a Mag lite, and a couple of pens. Most of the time I also have my portfolio/pad, and during school (and today for other reasons) I toss in my laptop. My lunch is in an ACME lunch bag from Reusable Bags, with a SIGG cutlery kit. Finally, after getting burned one too many times I got in the habit of tossing my pump into the mess bag, to make sure I have it.
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Commute 2/14/08
Time of departure - 7:50
Temperature - 28F
Fairly standard commute ride today. I've gotten used to the higher volume of traffic that I see (compared to when I was getting to work at 7).
Today I want to talk about the "helpful" driver that I'm sure everyone has encountered. This is the car (in my case today a newish Suburban) that sees you tooling down the road and decides they know what you want them to do, and they go out of their way to be "helpful". With very few exceptions (so few I can't think of any now) they aren't. They cause problems in traffic, make you do something you weren't planning on, or just muck things up.
Today's encounter went like this: One section of my ride is a long a fairly main street, which has cutouts into the sidewalk for cars, essentially an extra lane for parking and bus stops except at either end, where the sidewalk bulges back out. I ride in that area when it's open because it gives me a whole lane for long stretches and the way the lights work they're usually red when I get to the bulge and have to merge back into traffic. Today I was sliding along in a cutout, traffic was stopped, and the light turned green. I had noticed that the suburban which was just next to me had the right turn indicator on, so I cut my speed anticipating that they would pass me and make the turn. I wanted to let them get by before I pulled out of the cutout (since if I didn't I knew they would honk and try to run me over). Instead, I get a "helpful" driver who slows down even more than me, and then taps the horn when I don't pull out in front of them. I ended up having to stand up and mash to get back up to speed and not screw up traffic for the 15 or so cars behind them.
Moral of the story - just as many bike advocates push the idea that we should ride predictably, we need to get the message to the drivers that they need to drive predictably.
Temperature - 28F
Fairly standard commute ride today. I've gotten used to the higher volume of traffic that I see (compared to when I was getting to work at 7).
Today I want to talk about the "helpful" driver that I'm sure everyone has encountered. This is the car (in my case today a newish Suburban) that sees you tooling down the road and decides they know what you want them to do, and they go out of their way to be "helpful". With very few exceptions (so few I can't think of any now) they aren't. They cause problems in traffic, make you do something you weren't planning on, or just muck things up.
Today's encounter went like this: One section of my ride is a long a fairly main street, which has cutouts into the sidewalk for cars, essentially an extra lane for parking and bus stops except at either end, where the sidewalk bulges back out. I ride in that area when it's open because it gives me a whole lane for long stretches and the way the lights work they're usually red when I get to the bulge and have to merge back into traffic. Today I was sliding along in a cutout, traffic was stopped, and the light turned green. I had noticed that the suburban which was just next to me had the right turn indicator on, so I cut my speed anticipating that they would pass me and make the turn. I wanted to let them get by before I pulled out of the cutout (since if I didn't I knew they would honk and try to run me over). Instead, I get a "helpful" driver who slows down even more than me, and then taps the horn when I don't pull out in front of them. I ended up having to stand up and mash to get back up to speed and not screw up traffic for the 15 or so cars behind them.
Moral of the story - just as many bike advocates push the idea that we should ride predictably, we need to get the message to the drivers that they need to drive predictably.
Monday, February 11, 2008
Commute 2/11/08
Time of departure: 7:50
Temperature: 15 (24MPH wind)
Wow, it was COLD this morning. I didn't realize just how cold until I got to work and plugged the info into the wind chill calculator and it gave me a -2F. No wonder my jawbone hurt on the downhill.
Freezing and all it felt great to actually be on the bike again. What felt less great is the realization that I may only be able to ride one more day this week. Tuesday I have meetings and a class, Wednesday I have a different class (Park Tool School, finally learning a little more in depth how to work on the bikes) and Friday I'm going out after work and have to be able to pick a friend up.
Hopefully I'll be able to ride Thursday, but the back of my brain keeps telling me I have a meeting of some kind, even if the calendar doesn't.
Temperature: 15 (24MPH wind)
Wow, it was COLD this morning. I didn't realize just how cold until I got to work and plugged the info into the wind chill calculator and it gave me a -2F. No wonder my jawbone hurt on the downhill.
Freezing and all it felt great to actually be on the bike again. What felt less great is the realization that I may only be able to ride one more day this week. Tuesday I have meetings and a class, Wednesday I have a different class (Park Tool School, finally learning a little more in depth how to work on the bikes) and Friday I'm going out after work and have to be able to pick a friend up.
Hopefully I'll be able to ride Thursday, but the back of my brain keeps telling me I have a meeting of some kind, even if the calendar doesn't.
Friday, February 8, 2008
Life, today
Because of work it has been 2 weeks since I've run, and yesterday marked my first day back on my bike. The picture above begins to hint at my state of mind right now. Hopefully the weekend will be better.
I ain't holdin' my breath.
Monday, February 4, 2008
Sheldon Brown: 1944 - 2008
"I have always loved riding bicycles,especially for the feeling of freedom and self-sufficiency that they give." Sheldon Brown
When I started my afternoon blog-crawl I found a story that stopped me cold. Sheldon Brown has passed away. For those who have never heard the name, you have missed out on one of the greatest members of the cycling community. In addition to creating some of the most experimental bikes around, as well as fantastic new must-have products for cyclist, Captain Bike maintained a massive database of information on almost every conceivable bike topic.
I first discovered the articles when my buddy Slav came back from his first bike tour and infected me with the desire to go on one. Not knowing much I typed "bike touring" into Google and one of the pages that came back was Sheldon's. After that I started to notice references to him on BikeForums on a pretty regular basis and eventually realized that some of the archived posts I was reading had been written by him. The cycling world has lost a great man and I hope his family and friends can take comfort in knowing just how many people's lives he touched.
Friday, February 1, 2008
January summary
Days worked: 21
Days bike commute: 11
Days with meetings (impossible to bike to): 4
Percent bike-able days ridden: 11/17 = 65%
Weight at start of month: 277.2
Weight at end of month: 266.2
Change: - 11.0 pounds
Not too bad, but not great. There was far less trainer riding than I was hoping for, so I'll need to establish a better plan to actually get on the road bike at least two days a week as well as increase the time I spend running. My weight loss is proceeding, but a little more slowly than I would like, which means that the added biking and running time is even more important.
Days bike commute: 11
Days with meetings (impossible to bike to): 4
Percent bike-able days ridden: 11/17 = 65%
Weight at start of month: 277.2
Weight at end of month: 266.2
Change: - 11.0 pounds
Not too bad, but not great. There was far less trainer riding than I was hoping for, so I'll need to establish a better plan to actually get on the road bike at least two days a week as well as increase the time I spend running. My weight loss is proceeding, but a little more slowly than I would like, which means that the added biking and running time is even more important.
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