Ah spring

"Hey asshole — get a car!"

Now that the weather's nice, more windows are rolled down. The witticism came as I pedaled past a passenger in a vehicle turning left from Tody Goodwin Road onto Beaver Creek Road to go even more deeply into the comparative nothingness of southeastern Chatham County. Except to emphasize that the bon mots emanated from the passenger, who may have been letting someone else drive, draw your own conclusions.

Greetings aside what a day to ride, even in Chatham County. I got in about 70 miles. The distance kept me on track for two goals: at least one 100k ride per month and a monthly tally of 416.7 miles, to put me on pace for 5,000 miles for the year. Though I made it for March, I'm still 205 miles behind for the year. Rationalization: summer months are better for piling up miles than winter months.

I expect my fan reached his destination hoarse as assholes were everywhere. The weather is cyclingtacular. And I own three cars.

Welcome to BikeFriendlyville

Or welcome back, anyway. The new issue of American Bicyclist, the house organ of the League of American Bicyclists, arrived today. This issue's theme is the league's Bicycle Friendly Communities program, of which Cary is one at the bronze level. Fifty-eight municipalities throughout the United States have made the cut at some level. The league first recognized Cary in 2003. Town efforts have include a bicycle-education video produced in English and Spanish, the Cary Cycling Celebration, wide outside lanes or striped bike lanes on all collector streets and thoroughfares and a requirement that new developments include bicycle parking facilities. The wide outside lanes are the real deal and allow me to be passed safely when both cars and I are hauling ass.
Living in one of the great 58 is pretty cool but I also know from visiting my mom in Fort Collins, Colo., a silver-level community, that there are more possibilities. Fort Fun practically insists that you pedal and accomodates bicycles on the road so effectively that efforts here seem primitive. Cary has a ways to go to reach those heights.

A dash of humiliation goes a long way

I turned in a 55 miles ride in just a hair over three hours today. Worth bragging about, as I just have. I took the Old U.S. 1 route (Googlemaps appears to be down; once I can get to it you'll see the route). As I crossed over N.C. 55 in Apex I saw two cyclists ahead of me. Good. Maybe someone to ride with or maybe just riders to chase. The first guy made a quick left but the second continued straight. I noticed after a minute or so that the gap wasn't closing and I was doing 23 mph. Never letting up, as the front man did from time to time, my speed varied between 22 and 26 mph (how cool is that?). I figured I make up room as the road became more rolling and I did. As I got closer I noticed a handlebar setup I wasn't used to seeing — was this guy a time trialer? Just east of New Hill I noticed the widest tires I'd ever seen on a road bike. But they weren't so wide on a mountain bike, as this was. With front and rear suspension. West of New Hill, after about six miles, I caught him. He was gracious enough to let me lead for a while but it was obvious I was an impediment. He politely excused himself and left me in the dust.

Do a little work to get what's yours

Here's how a couple of phrases could end up paying off big time for those of us who ride to work. Legislation rolling through Congress would extend the definition of transportation in tax law to include bicycling. That change would allow employers to offer certain benefits — that could even include cold, hard cash — to employees who cycle to work.

This sounds similar to a system that's been in place in Great Britain for some time. Of course, if it's as similar as I think it is, employer participation is voluntary. Tell your senators and representative you think this change would be a good idea. This has the tire marks of a League of American Bicyclists lobbying effort all over it.

My plan had been to post this a week ago and include a link from the league leading to prewritten letters that could then be sent with a handful of mouse clicks to our senators and representatives. However, reading through the league's letters, I noticed that they were using bill numbers from the last session. I e-mailed to point this out but never heard back. Maybe it was my smart-ass comment about Mark Foley having been a sponsor in the last session (I did not say a pedophile can't like bikes or that he could not offer me a financial incentive to ride to work). A check today reveals the league has removed the prewritten letters from its site instead of correcting them. Anyway, if you're feeling compelled to prod your elected officials, the correct bill numbers are S. 858 and H.R. 1498.

What am I missing here?

So there I was looking through my bicycle newsgroup alerts and saw a hit at alt.energy.homepower for a solar-powered bicycle. Since it's an open forum and I'm tired and irriated, this was the most diplomatic thing I could write:

Solar energy has a lot to recommend but I am skeptical of this application. Isn't the point of a bicycle that the rider expends the energy? Riding a bike that weighs 75 pounds would be like riding an anvil. I'm all for being chintzy with fossil fuels but it seems to [me] this vehicle sacrifices efficiency in many ways for the sake of being solar powered. Though admirable intentions are at work here I think someone missed the point.

Less diplomatically I have to ask two questions: what are they thinking and how fucking lazy do you have to be?

The other retirement

The valve nut for my front inner tube bent and then broke off this afternoon as I was preparing for another go at my own private time trial. This situation necessitated replacing, after two-and-a-half years and how many thousands of miles I don't know, the original tube. After putting on the new tube and several attempts at refitting the original front tire, it became clear that the bead of the tire would not seat properly. The tire, like the tube, served me extraordinarily well. Both will be missed.

My own private time trial

As I mention in this post, this 9.35-mile back-and-forth fills the bill when I want to ride hard — for me — but not long. In the original post, I said I wanted to bring this one in 30 minutes or less, with emphasis on less. Today I came in at 27:51.9: 20.13 miles per hour, after two rides last week that blasted through the half-hour barrier. While for an overaged schlepp I'm thrilled and proud of my 20.13 mph, I'm also willing to put my effort in some context. David Zabriskie holds the Tour de France time-trial record at 33.97 mph over a course of 11.8 miles in 2005. I don't expect to race Zabriskie any time soon. Even with his longer route he will have finished his first beer by the time I join him. Figuratively, anyway, since he probably hasn't enjoyed a beer and cheeseburger in a much, much longer time than I have.

Is this really necessary?

One of my favorite generic irritated questions to ask is, "How fuckin' lazy do you have to be?" Granted, I'm extremely grateful that I don't have to grow my own wheat, mill it, keep a yeast colony growing and cut my own firewood, among other things, to make the bread for my peanut butter sandwiches (or, for that matter, shepherd my own peanuts from seed to lunch). But for instance, as much as I love my car, it irked me that the model only came with power windows. How much effort does it take for someone to roll down the windows him- or herself? Same with television remotes. After all, I can get up and use the switch on the television. It is not an imposition. So when I saw this article, I had to wonder if someone had missed the point. Oh yeah, one more thing: we all drive stick in this house. It's just not that hard.

Retired

A friend of mine recently had his first experience getting a flat fixed. That made me realize that I'd ho-hummed getting on my third tire and fourth or fifth tube on my rear wheel over the weekend. The first tube I replaced took about an hour; the procedure for time and tubes this time took about 10 minutes (the first tube I put on had two holes in it). I've read rears go bad more quickly because they bear more weight. A bead failed on the first tire. The second tire died a death of maybe a dozen cuts and nicks. It also appeared to be fatally compromised by what felt like several strands of jewelry wire. The third tire is holding up well after 16 miles. Those first two tires managed to survive a variety of indignities, including rocks, nails and cotter pins. The tubes did not endure the indignities as well and suffered from some I inflicted, such as a valve stem I kicked off and particularly pointy rock that I hit at just the wrong angle. Not to mention nails, pins and wire. Yet at the other end of the bike, after thousands (eight? 10?) the original front tire thrives. Go figure.

A glimpse of the buffalo

There I was, closing in on the middle of nowhere. Another cyclist turns right from a side road to my left and starts coming toward me. "Huh," I said. "His jersey has blue sleeves and a red body just like the one I'm wearing." As we near, I realize his jersey has the same message as mine: "New Belgium Brewing Company." Go down a couple of entries and you'll see what I'm talking about. I didn't just give a polite cyclist's wave, I pointed. I've never thought of southeastern Chatham County a site for synchronicities but maybe I'll have to reconsider.

C'dork's Friday ride guide: nine miles for any time

I may go on this ride tomorrow. Or I may not. It's tremendous virtues include that it is short and goes through scenic, rolling country, including some of the N.C. State vet school farms, a state park and a forest managed by the N.C. State forestry school. Not so virtuous, perhaps, is the subdivision of big-ass honkin' houses that's gone in between the forest and the state park. But the silver lining in that, from my selfish perspective, is about a mile and a half of beautifully paved road between the park and Edwards Mill Road that makes this ride possible on a road bike. Particularly as the days get longer this route will make a terrific after-work sprint, at least by my leaden, old-man standards. My goal for this ride is 30 minutes or less, with an emphasis on less.

Where the 'dork pedals

Notice the Web links at the right of the picture. These are all sites I frequent and that have been blogged about specifically (e.g., Sheldon Brown) or are places from where many of you have followed links to come here (e.g., Cycling Plus forums). Cycledork is only about several months delinquent letting readers know where the good stuff is. Expect to see more links in the future.
One link that I don't believe has been referred to previously is New Belgium Brewing Company. New Belgium, which brews Fat Tire Amber Ale among other things, is in Fort Collins, Colo. I go to Fort Collins every summer to visit my mom. My bike comes with me. Fat Tire, of course, refers to the rubber of the cruiser depicted on the ale's label. Years before I ever hit the road and meant it, since I was a Fat Tire drinker, I knew that New Belgium was into bikes. "Tour de Fat: A Ballyhoo of Bikes and Beer" is one of its biggest promotions.
Anyway, in 2005, on my first ride in anything like mountains, I pulled into the overview at the top of Horsetooth Reservoir, and caught another cyclist, J.T. He was taking the scenic route to Estes Park to pick up his car; I was just out for a spin in south central Larimer County. Anyway, we rode together for about 15 miles. During that time I learned he had started his dream job a few months before as a brewer at New Belgium and for fun he was a semipro (my phrase) mountain-bike racer. Beer brewing bike racer leads me on my first ride along the rollers? Let's just say the realization of that white buffalo vision quest and the wisdom imparted still affect me and for the better: hydrate; get plenty of sleep. And to my knowledge it involved no hallucinogens.

The other Thor's younger brother

The accompanying picture is of Ted, the Norse god of bicycle repair. Recently deciphered runic texts, provided by Carl Fogler from the annals of Trygve Lode, reveal the following:
"[Ted] is holding Mjollnir, the fabled metric wrench of the gods, feared by the Rime Giants (sometimes translated as Corrosion Ogres). His purely historical headgear should not become the subject of helmet wars."
Lode goes on to explain the nature of Mjollnir — and its continued existence — as well as other, underappreciated elements of Norse legend: "[T]he so-mythical-as-to-be-utterly-forgotten Spanner of the Gods had fallen into my hands. While rushing home to fetch this legendary tool — aided and abetted by the redoubtable Terrylee — the long-lost Norse myth, 'Spam and the Spanner,' which told the story of how Spam came to be the sacred food of the Vikings was...um...recovered."
Sometimes the mead really does drip from Valhalla.

I want my cycling.tv

Start asking too many questions, following too many threads and end up watching videos of stage races in Scotland. Cycling.tv appears to be a production of Procycling, a U.K.-based print magazine. In one way it's hard to relate to professional cycling because it's so far removed from the world of cycledork but on the other hand it is cool to watch because the riders are so good. So you'll pardon me if I have to get back to secrets being revealed by Norwegian cycling god Thor Hushovd. Then we've got to move these refrigerators, we've got to move these color TVs ….

Something to aspire to

I found this in the Cycling Plus forum. Some day.

CD's Saturday cycling tip: newspaper cycling blowout!

On this side of the Atlantic, I think we're more likely to see newsroom positions restored and monkeys flying out the butts of publishers before we see anything like the Guardian's cycling extravaganza. This is good, basic cycling stuff for the largely noncycling public. Cycling know-it-alls are already sniffing in online forums that this 92-page section has missed the point. The point the sniffers miss is that when the mainstream press doesn't doesn't ignore cyclists, it often depicts them as, well, eccentric, effete, monocle-wearing sniffers. Jeeeeezus. This section, even if it is from a suspect leftist publication bent on driving cars off the planet, might even get a few more people — sans monocle and nose drip — out on bikes. And with a major newspaper is investing that much in newsprint and Web resources to talk about cycling, it would surprise me if there aren't a few primates aloft in the Guardian offices.

An empty handbasket after all

To my surprise, February turned out to be adequate. I lamented a few weeks ago in this post that rides not taken were going to make all the difference in my mileage for the month. On Feb. 20, I had 108 miles. When I came in last night that number had tripled. Three decent rides to complement the commute will do that in a week.