The awesomeness....

On my ride home tonight I was passed by a, dare I say, dapper gentleman (slacks, cardigan, neatly-trimmed grey beard) riding

a unicycle.

It was one of those days where my desire to have had a camera in my bike bag was unimaginable. He was moving down the sidewalk in the opposite direction, an older Bell (all white, obvious red logo) on his head looking like he'd stepped out of a college-based coming of age movie.

As I said, the awesomeness...

GPS oddities and my commute

A little while back I switched from a wheel magnet based bike computer to a GPS one. This was mainly to make it easier to track my running and biking with a single device (read: toy). I had a couple of odd runs before I figured out that you have to wait until the signal is strong (correct number of blinks per minute) before starting off. Now though, I'm having a different issue.

Simply put, the GPS doesn't like my place of business. I can sit outside my building for 10 min (and I have) waiting for the signal and it won't come through. On multiple occasions I've given up waiting and ride the short distance (0.6 mi) from the building to Jack London Square and re-tried, only to get a connection in about 30 sec. Annoying, if not actually significant.

Punch it...

Last time I rode, home specifically, I encountered another rider heading my way. He passed me when a light changed and, mainly because I was in the @$$-end of my ride, the part where no matter how great I feel when I'm putting along my legs start to die on me, I decide to pace him. Keep in mind that I was in mountain shorts (nobody wants to see me in spandex these days) and had a pannier on the back end full of clothes, and my semi-companion was in nothing but bike clothing with a wee-little Camelback.

For about 2 miles (out of my 10) I went harder than I've done for a while - held better than 17 mph and cranking at around 85 rpm. It felt great.

The next morning - not so much...

Perfect temperature for riding

I rode in yesterday and my morning commute is done in work clothes. I discovered that 56F is the perfect temperature to bike in long pants and a button, long-sleeved shirt. Cool enough that I didn't overheat, warm enough that I didn't need any excess "stuff".

Riding home it was 60F, which was just about perfect for riding in my kit.

Keep in mind that I've ridden in everything from snow to 100F+, bone-dry and muggy-wet. I do love riding in extreme heat, if it's dry, but that's a special event kind of thing. For my daily, regular riding give me the mid-60s.

Did Bell make "British" versions of their city helmets?

Riding in this morning I found myself wondering that, are there "British" versions of the Bell city helmets (the Citi and Metro)? These helmets were great because they have little accessory kits that include a mirror, rain cover, and air vent plugs for cold weather. My morning commute it primarily through downtown Oakland on one way streets, most of the time on the left side of the road. That makes my (ordinarily very handy) mirror almost worthless, unless I want to check out the parked cars.

When I got to work I noticed that the visor has a slot on the right side for a mirror, but that the one I have is left-sided only (which makes me wonder if there really are left-handed smoke shifters, no matter what the people at the Wolfeboro Trading Post said). Are there right-sided ones for people who use the other side of the street?

On a less-whimsical note I could see this being handy for international touring, especially if there is just a second wee little mirror to pick up.

I am stronger than pizza (tonight)

Tonight was my first bike commute in a long-ish time, probably a couple of months. It felt much longer than it was given that it took me the same time it always has (around an hour). There's one stretch where I always feel whooped and wish I had SAG support and for some reason when I hit that spot tonight (it was already full dark) I wanted pizza so bad I could almost taste it. Then, just a few blocks from home I passed a Little Caesar's and I still wanted pizza, even if it was pizza pizza.

But no, I'll be good and heat up my stew.

Two good pieces of kit

Despite the unpleasant weather (40s, drizzle) yesterday I set myself up to bike home. I had my new bags from Swift and loaded them onto the bike to test out.

The first thing I noticed when I got the box a couple of weeks ago was that the bags were beautiful. Swift lets you customize the bags and I couldn't be happier with how they cam out. The attachment is simple - I tossed in a little extra to have a bungie attachment with an S-hook for the bottom so all I did was hook the bungie on the bottom and pull up until I could hook the top bar on the rack. The two bags worked great for what I wanted to carry - my work clothes, computer, and some notebooks. With a second set of bags (which I have) I can easily load enough gear for a short trip (couple of days) without trouble. When the weather turns enough for me to test the bags out with a full tour, I'll let you know.

The other piece of kit I wanted to crow about is my Fat Cyclist woolie (sorry, it's a limited edition and there hasn't been any info on the next version). Like all FC gear it's made by Twin Six, and it's fantastic. Yesterday was the first time I really tested it in poor weather, I'd worn it on cool days before but not in the cold. I was wearing the jersey with a day-glo vest over it and shorts, and within a few minutes I was plenty warm. I will soon be ordering a few more wool jerseys for winter riding.

Clothes make the ride?

I managed to get off my @$$ and ride into work this morning (well, ride to BART and plan to ride home). Most of the time when I've ridden in I've kitted up since that's what I wear to ride home (12 miles - bike shorts are nice). Today I just put on my work clothes since the morning ride is so short. I noticed something odd though - there's one major intersection between my house and BART, and I normally crosswalk it. Today though I just pulled over and turned with the traffic in the left hand turn lane.

I'm perfectly comfortable taking the lane, and traffic isn't so brutal that the crosswalk is safer, so I don't know why I took the lane today instead. My only thought is that most of the time when I kit up I'm doing back road or bike trail riding, and most of the time when I'm in street clothes I'm running errands and commuting. Either way, I was more vehicular in the my riding in my street clothes.

Anyone else find their riding style changed based on what they wear?

An almost fully-loaded commute

I have avoided commuting to work on Mondays because I usually have my laptop and a big heap of papers that I've brought home to work on over the weekend. This week was no different, except that the heap was closer to two heaps because of the (work-related) trip to Carson City last week. But I also did some riding there that both 1) reminded me how much I luv my bike and 2) demonstrated conclusively (and emasculating-ly) how much more I need to be on it. So I loaded up last night to make sure I would ride this morning. The result:


The back end is my Two Wheel Gear garment pannier (that I luv almost as much as my bike) and the front end, strapped to the top of my Nice Rack is my backpack with many heaps of papers and my laptop. I'm not a fan of a high load like that, the front was a bit wobbly, which reinforces the need to get some normal panniers that will mount on the sides (and low, an advantage of the Nice Racks) in the near future.

I will post about the rides in Carson. One was on dirt and really fueled my desire to get my hands on a twenty-niner, the other was a solo trek around town. Both were great and both hurt (see note above on emasculation) in that good "this ride kicked my sorry @$$" way. But more on that soon.

Being too close to transit

In one of my last posts I mentioned that one of the things making it tougher for me to ride is how easy it is for me to take public transit. I want to expand that a little so I don't sound like a whiner without anything to really complain about.

Previously, when I lived in the Bay Area, I lived a few miles from BART, and my work was more than a few miles from BART at the other end. That meant that getting to work required me to drive the whole way, including fighting the San Francisco commute both directions, or biking. Easy choice most of the time, even when biking meant leaving home ~ 04:00.

Now, I live a 10 minute walk from BART and my work is directly outside of a BART station. This means that biking is almost more hassle than not. I have to get up in the morning, pack my work clothes into a bag, kit up (for the ride home), haul my bike up to the platform and then down at the far end. The payoff? A fantastic 12 mile ride home. It really is a conflict.

I plan to join a gym near my work when I get back from my latest trip. This will give me access to showers, which might, let me repeat and be honest MIGHT, be what I need to get me to bike both directions at least a few days a week.

My commute

I've been meaning for some time to take my camera with me on my commute home from work (the to-work commute is mostly me in the BART train, not very exciting) and get some pics up. I finally got around to it. I've posted more, along with the little map thingee, at flikr. Keep in mind that I don't have a camera with a GPS, so some of the map placements are rough.

Approaching the Oakland AMTRAK station at Jack London Square

Two-way bike lane on one side of the street to provide access to the ped/bike bridge from Alameda to Bay Farm Island

On the ped/bike bridge

Crew team (one of three I saw) working out in the channel near the Oakland Coliseum

The entrance to the Oakland International Airport

I have a heap more (72 pics total) at the flikr link above. They run from the bike room at work to my workshop at home. Hope you enjoy them, I know I enjoyed the ride where I took them.

My bike-to-work day

I have been off and on with biking to work lately. A combination of being a short walk away from BART and working some long/tiring days have had me in kind of a funk. For bike-to-work day I made an extra effort though, and it paid off with pancakes.

Someone in the City of Oakland hierarchy organized a pancake breakfast/booth show/speeches event in front of city hall, and I work all of two blocks away, so I pretty much had to stop by. Because I was still in my bike funk, I rode the Schwinn and planned on only riding the short hops from my house to BART, and from BART to the office. I had forgotten how much of a workout (on the quads specifically) pedaling that monster was, and in my nice clothes no less.

I was met at the first BART station by some early volunteers. They weren't supposed to be up and running until 07:00, and I went by about 06:45. One of the guys came over to give me a bag and asked if I wanted any of the beverage/food they had, but since I was hopping a train I passed. When I got to Oakland I got a nifty "I biked today" sticker, like the "I gave blood" ones you get at blood drives. I also got a couple of pancakes, some coffee and OJ, and saw some interesting booths. I was pretty early (07:30) and most of the booths were just getting set up. I hung out for a little while and then wandered back to work.

There was one other guy from my office that rode, and where ever it was he went, he got a t-shirt. We did run into another guy in the building when we were heading out that night who had ridden for the first time that day (although I got the impression he had ridden before, just not to that particular location). All in all, a lot of fun.

Judging fitness

As I rode home yesterday I found myself thinking about the different ways I judge my fitness, or more accurately my cycling strength. I was started on this line of thought when I realized that I was in a much higher gear (big chainring rather than middle, nearly the same cog) and was still feeling pretty strong. Then I looked at my speed and found it significantly higher (16 MPH vs 12) than normal. Finally, I took the few mild hills (overpasses) by standing rather than having to downshift.

All of this has got my thinking about the best way to really judge my cycling strength. I don't race, nor do I care to (and let's face it, if I tried to they'd have to create a whole new weight class, what would you call a Clyde class for someone in the Clyde class? Clyde-squared? sounds too much like the chi-square from biostats to me) so simple road-speed calculations don't mean much. I also only record my cadence to see if I'm steady, so that doesn't mean much. I used to use gearing as a judge of fitness/strength, by which I mean that the steeper the hill I could climb without shifting the stronger I felt I was, but does that mean anything about fitness?

I'm going to shift to the miles-to-bonk (MTB) standard, by which I mean how far can I ride before I stand up in the pedals, breathe deeply, and say "Wait, I have to go how much farther?" I figure this standard will come in handy as I torture myself on the 2nd Annual 100 Miles of Nowhere Ride (or in my case, 50) at the end of the month. Yes, I have done the insane and registered for the ride, and for some reason I'm looking forward to it. What does that say about me?

FINALLY, redux

Again, I find myself saying "finally I'm back on my bike". This time I've been limited in my riding by weather (wind and rain) and travel for work. In the last week-and-a-day (that would be six workdays) I've ridden three times. Last Monday I chopped the ride short because I was feeling horrible and rain was threatening - I have a Brooks with no cover. Friday I rode and felt really good. Today I proved to myself that I was feeling better by jumping a number of gears and increasing my average speed significantly.

More than that, I'm just glad to be back in the saddle.

I want this

When I bike commute these days it's one way, BART in the morning and biking in the afternoon. One problem with BART is that there aren't many bike spaces on the trains. What has been done for cyclists is that a few of the spaces for wheelchairs have also been tagged for bikes. Some mornings there are a few bikes in each car, more than enough to make it worth having some kind of reserved space. Maybe even something like this.

Sure, that type of rack works best if there isn't much rain, but at least from May through October the Bay Area is pretty dry. The picture links through to the CommuterPageBlog which is where I saw the picture. Follow the links there to get back to the original.

"Riding" vs "training"

A recent post on the Bike Noob blog asked "When does your riding become training?" The thrust of the piece was that there is "riding" - getting on the bike and having fun, and "training" - getting on the bike and doing a certain number of miles/hours because you have to get in shape for something specific. In the post, the author (Ray) discusses his upcoming MS 150 ride, the need to "train" for it, and his dislike of "training" compared to "riding".

As this stuff tends to, his post got me thinking. This time it got me thinking about my own riding vs training questions. I now have to admit that not only do I dislike "training", I just don't do it. Like Ray, I ride because I enjoy it. I do not enjoy riding on my trainer, just like I enjoy jogging and can't stand treadmills.

Previously, when I was pulling down a couple of hundred miles a week, I did my training by having a long commute home and riding it three to five days a week. That's my goal again. In this case, my commute is only 12 miles or so if I take it straight. I have a couple of options though, which include going up into the Oakland hills or just stretching the trip out past my house and looping back up. For now, the 12 miles is enough to whoop me but good by the end, but hopefully that won't last too long.

I can hear those hills calling.

Training update - 23 March

Last week I only got one ride in. It was another commute ride, so slightly over 12 miles in just over an hour. After only three of these rides my legs are getting much stronger. The first day I did it I wasn't sure I'd get home, the second day I made it home and was twitchy for a little while after. The third day I got home and felt good - tired, but good.

This week I'm working from home  (well, my mom's house) so I won't have the commute to motivate me. I've accepted that training is something I just don't like to do (by "training" I mean going to a ride just to train, as opposed to commuting or riding with friends - see Wednesday's post for a more extensive discussion) but I'm going to have to force myself to do it this week.

Commuting mojo

In the months that I haven't ridden my commute I've lost my commuting mojo. Specifically, I have lost my red light mojo.

There was a time where I could drift through town without missing a light. Sure, I'd have to hustle through some yellows, but I didn't have to stop. These last few days I've had streaks where I've had to stop at every light, five or more in a row. And since I'm rolling through a town like Alameda, if those lights are turning it means there's cars coming.

On another note - when I wrote about the TwoWheel Gear bag I mentioned that there wasn't a blinkie loop. I was wrong. I found the loop when I was packing the bag up for another trip to work. The little bag on top has a blinkie loop on the back, which puts the light right up on top. The downside is that at least with the light I'm using (Cateye TL-LD1000) unless the pocket is full the light flops over on its back. For now I'm going to keep playing with the way I load the bag to see what I can do to keep that pouch full, but in the ling run I'll probably try and figure out a good way to attach the light to the rack directly. 

Training update

Last week there was a big jump in my training. As before (years before, the last time I lived in the Bay Area) it's easier for me to fit lots of miles in by commuting. Last week I did about 25 miles over two days, about an hour each day.

On the good side - the weather should make it easier for me to keep commuting by bike, and it shouldn't be too long until I can hit four or five days a week. My hope is that once I get up to that many miles in a week I'll be in better shape for weekend rides, and then I'll really be able to see what I can do.

On the bad side - in a couple of weeks my mom is coming home from the hospital and I'll be staying with her in case she needs any help. This means much less riding. Coming right at the start of my training this could be a problem.

Next week, or some time in the near future, I'm going to start adding weight info to my weekly training update. Honestly, I want to make sure that it's regularly going the right way first.

Product review (Initial Impressions) - TwoWheel Gear suit/pannier

A while back I mentioned that I had purchased one of the nifty suit bags/panniers from TwoWheel Gear. Until I started bike commuting again this week I hadn't used it. Now that I have, I can give my initial impressions.

I likes it.

The main compartment has a little velcro closure that goes over the hooks from hangers, which makes it easy to put the clothes in, a clipping strap that runs across the middle of the bag where it fold to go over the rack, and another strap near the bottom. All of which make sure your clothes  (in my case slacks and a long-sleeved dress shirt) stay in place.

On the outside are two pouches, one faces up when the bag is on the bike and the other faces up when the bag is hanging up. I don't know if it was what the designers intended, but the way I will be using this is to put things like my lunch in the "upright on bike" pouch, and things like shoes and toiletries in the "upright when hanging" one. Lastly, there is a small pocket that sits in the middle of those, which ends up on top of the rack with the opening facing the rear of the bike when the whole thing is mounted.

The bag held everything I needed to put in it, but I did have a few problems. First, the bag was tough to zip/unzip. I think it was probable because the material is stiff from being new. The other big issue is the lack of a loop for a blinkie. I used the clip for the shoulder strap, but it was sideways and the light came off on a bump. Maybe there's a loop that I missed, but I don't think so.

I'll write another review when I've used it a little more, but at this point I'm ready to say that if you commute more than a few miles and have to wear nice clothes at work this may be the bag for you.