Unexpected benefit?

From the SF Chronicle website "Tired of pricey gas, police pump up bike patrols". It's an AP piece about how many jurisdictions are booting their bike patrols because they are hitting the limit of their budgets for fuel for the '07-08 fiscal year.

Living in Baltimore I can say that the only bike cops I see regularly are on patrol around the Johns Hopkins medical campus (hospital, med school, nursing school, public health school) and I don't know if they are there for city duty or private work. JH University pays off duty cops to boost its personal security force, and the bikers may be part of that. (On a side note, there are also a couple of Segway cops that patrol the same area).

I have seen articles about bike patrols at the Inner Harbor, but can't recall seeing the cops myself. I've felt for a long time that getting cops out of cars and back on the beat, either on foot or bike, making them people again instead of anonymous Officers in their cars will help some of the public relations issues. Maybe we'll have a chance to see.

Mugginess, gutter lines, and a test ride

I had a busy weekend, helping a friend move into town and get settled in before she starts nursing school next week. I did find time to FINALLY take the Trucker out for a test ride. Saturday was just about perfect for riding - some high clouds, a light breeze, about 65F. I hit the BWI trail with my friend Karen for the shakedown ride of the Trucker and it was great. I guess I'm one of the lucky ones, with my Brooks B17 being comfortable to ride on its first voyage. The barend shifting worked great, frame felt solid as a rock, no real issues. The only thing I need to look into is adjusting the cable on the rear deraileur. When it was set or indexed shifting it had a tendency to ghost-shift on me. That went away when I switched over to friction (I love barend) but I would like to adjust it. I think it's a result of the one (failed) attempt to break the bike down and pack it.

This morning I decided to ride to work, despite a very grey sky. It is definitely approaching summer here, juding by how thick the air was on the ride. It was warm, but felt like I was riding through pudding the air was so thick. I don't know if it was the weather or what, but I also was having a hard time with the gutter lines today. Three or four times I tried to slide from the gutter back into the street and one of my tires got hung up, making me slide along the edge and feel a little unsettled for a minute. I hate it when that happens because I always think about what happened to my buddy's wife in that situation where she did tip. Unfortunately she was using toe clips and her shoe got hung up. She didn't do any serious damage, but ouch.

Headwind and laundry

Riding into work this morning I hit a nasty headwind. Thankfully, my ride to work is primarily down a slight slope so the wind didn't matter much. Other than the breeze it was a great morning for a ride. I was up a little earlier than normal so traffic was light, the predicted (Sat) rain blew itself out last night so the sky was clear, and it was a beautiful 55 or so.

This week my dad and younger brother are visiting, so I don't have much choice about riding to work. I want to leave my truck at the house in case they decide to go out and do something. That does mean that I'll be picking up my dry cleaning on my bike today. I have an idea of how I'm going to carry it and it will be interesting to see if my plan works.

I have a rear rack with folding Wald grocery baskets on either side. My plan is to hook the hangers on the bottom of the basket on the right (drive) side of the bike. That basket will be closed. I'll then drape the items across the rack and down into the basket on the left (non-drive) side, which will be open. Hopefully it works.

Bike to work week, Day Five

Made it back on my bike today, since today is the official "Bike 2 Work Day" in Baltimore. (Side note, WTF is there a number in there? are Balti-morons really so thick that they don't know what "to" means. Sorry, pet peeve.)

It's nasty today, pretty heavy rain, but there was still a decent crowd at the rally point at City Hall. Because of the rain I didn't bring my camera, but I would say when I rolled through around 7:45 there were 20-30 people chewing on bagels and chatting. Some were under the tents, some were out in the rain. A rough estimate (going on stereotyping from outfits) would be that a little more than half were messengers of some kind. There were also a few older guys in old-school heavy yellow slickers, and a whole mess of bikes. Some were locked to benches, lightposts, anything around, and a lot were just propped up on stuff or sitting free on kickstands.

I didn't drag my @$$ out of bed for it, but there was supposed to be a little shindig and ride with Mayor Dixon. I like my morning rides but I'm not getting up two hours early in the rain just to go on a little ride with the Mayor and some dud from the Oriels.

There wasn't a lot of swag being given out. I know some BtW events give a lot of stuff. I got a canvas tote (which I then managed to get filthy by setting it down on the little shelf where I lock up while it was wet) and a t-shirt. It looks like they had sponsors for the event in general (REI, Adventure Cycling) and then each jurisdiction (surrounding counties and Baltimore City) have other sponsors listed under the name of the jurisdiction. I'm guessing that if I hit one of the rallies in one of the surrounding counties (Harford has the most sponsors) there might have been other stuff. I'll put pics of the shirt and (now messy) tote when I get home.

Bike to work week, Day Three

Today was absolutely beautiful. Sunny, warm but not humid, and the traffic seemed lighter. It may be because I laid in bed for an hour because I just didn't feel like getting up. The ride home will probably be overly warm, but I may end up stuck in my office late this afternoon.

I did see a confusing wrong way cyclist this morning. As I was coming down the mild hill I saw a safety-jacketed (neon lime) guy riding uphill. He was on my side of the road (strike one) and on the sidewalk (strike two). My first thought was that he was a newbie, someone who had gotten excited by Bike to Work Week and hopped on an old 10 speed, grabbed the jacket from a bike shop because he was concerned about safety, and went for it. As I got closer though it was clear that he was a semi-experienced rider and his bike was equipped for touring. He had large, nice look panniers on the back, apparently filled with work clothes (he was in shorts) and he had the physique (at least the legs) of a regular rider. He was too focused on his climb to see me, or I would have said something.

Unfortunately, I have trainings and meetings tomorrow at far to great a distance (would be 60 + miles round trip) to ride to, as much as I would love to take the LHT out on the road. I will be riding Friday though, if only to see what the shindig in front of City Hall will be.

Bike to work week, Day Two

I may just stick with that picture at the top of any post where I did bike commute, as a way to hold myself accountable. At the least, I'm going to do it for this week.

I did ride in again today. The weather has taken a turn for the best and it was a beautiful ride. Clear and sunny, but still cool and with no hint of the humidity I'm sure is right around the corner. It reminded me of mornings back in California. I was a little behind my desired departure, which meant that when I got close to the major intersection for 83/President St the car back-up was waiting for me. I've commented on this before, but it still never fails to amaze me. On the particular E/W route I take in the morning, where it hits the N-bound 83 (out of Baltimore, towards the beltway north of the city) the back-up to turn onto 83 runs back 5 or 6 blocks. Depending on where I am in traffic I either wait until I get near the front and move between "parked" cars waiting at the light, or I just take the lane and keep moving over to the left. In the end, I position myself on the right side of the non-turn lane, so I can go straight.

Last night riding home I had a bad case of lead-legs. I don't know what caused it, but I felt like I had just finished a century. I was wishing that my bike had more than 3 speeds, and that all of the extra ones were lower than the current first gear. Guess it just shows how much I need to be riding.

Bike to work week, Day One

So today kicks off bike to work week. I initially thought I wouldn't be riding, significant day notwithstanding, because of a remote off-site meeting this morning. However, since I forgot the clothes that I was going to take to the cleaner near work I figured I should go home and get my bike instead of driving. I am glad I did.

My house is between my meeting and work, so I would have driven right past my bike to get into work. As I said, I was planning on taking some clothes into the cleaner (since I was thinking I'd be driving I wanted to fit in other errands) and I forgot them. Because of that I got to ride in the light mist, on relatively empty roads. Commuting at noon, instead of 8 AM, was a breeze. Easy to catch lights, not as many cars, not as many buses, it was great.

I have determined that I need spats of some kind if I'm riding in the rain. I have full rain pants that I wore, and they do the job. I also have full fenders which work great, but like all fenders they seem to leave my shoes vulnerable. I know many people who add a leather or rubber mud-flap to the bottom, but I just love the clean look of an un-flapped fender.

Decisions, decisions

The Swamp returns

The weather has turned, and summer is on its way back. A short, 10 minute walk from home to campus has left me soaking wet. I can only hope that the swampiness today is only because of the clouds that are thinking about dumping out a good thunderstorm, but I doubt it. Weather Underground is giving me 70.6F with 76% humidity, which calculates out to about 72, but it feels a whole lot hotter.

Depending on the rain I may or may not ride tomorrow, and if I do I'm back to my summer clothes. That means a t-shirt and shorts, probably sandals, and packing my work clothes.

Muddy Angels

Since I used yesterday's post to talk about Susan's cancer battle I figured I'd keep the trend going and talk about another "cycling for a cause" topic. This is one I didn't even know about until I attended the national Medical Reserve Corps meeting a few weeks back. It's the National EMS Memorial Bike Ride. It takes place 5/17-23 and there are two different routes:

• NYC - Roanoke, VA
• Somerset KY - Roanoke, VA

There is a third ride, the Louisiana EMS Memorial Bike Ride taking place 5/9-10 which runs from New Orleans to Baton Rouge.

The rides are about honoring EMS personnel who have been injured, become ill, or died in the line of duty. They encourage people to make the full 7-day, 600 mile ride, but it is also possible to do just one or a few sections, register as support, or donate.

I am a former EMT. I never worked on a rig, but provided medical support in a couple of different places. I wish I could take the time to do at least part of the ride but I'll actually be hosting my dad and younger brother during the ride. I do intend to sponsor though, and I hope that others will as well.

Class

One of my favorite cycling blogs is Fat Cyclist. Elden brings a great sense of humor and humanity to cycling. Unfortunately, he also deals with a lot of pain, chronicling his wife Susan's ongoing battle with cancer. That battle recently took a turn for the worse, and Elden (AKA Fatty) wrote about some of the most impossibly difficult days I can imagine. Yesterday he put this up:


I have always respected Lance and felt that he was good people, now I have proof. Take the time to visit Elden's blog and share your thoughts and support for he and Susan in this trying time.

When you KNOW you should be on your bike

I drove to work today despite the decent weather (60 this morning, supposed to be around 80 this afternoon). I'm having a BBQ tomorrow and needed to 1) get rid of my recycling (Baltimore picks up every-other week and I've been out of town for the last two pick ups) and 2) get stuff to grill. I realized just how guilty I feel about not biking when I was waiting to pay and saw the only other person from the Health Department who rides go by. She saw me and waved, I waved back, and then took my time getting to the office (a block or so from the lot) to ensure that she had finished locking up and was inside before I got there. Why? She's a 5 day commuter, I don't know if she owns a car, and I felt guilty that I wasn't on my bike.

In other news: I picked up the Trucker from the shop last week, but between the race over the weekend and work this week I haven't been able to do much other than the short test ride (in my work clothes) at Mt. Airy. At that time I was willing to say it was the single nicest bike I've ever been on. Tonight I'm going to treat the saddle (B17 Championship) with Proofide so it will be ready for use on Sunday. I don't know where I'm going to ride, which will depend on whether or not I have company and the weather. All I know is that I will be riding.