A long way to pedal

I picked up this link from Harrison, my transportation planner buddy. My second year as a commuter may have started this morning but some roads go on forever. Thoughts of cycling in the Northwest often leave me drooling and whoozy, but the article clarifies that we ignorant Americans have miles to ride before we're truly cycling friendly.

Welcome friend

My buddy who runs Peripheral Vision probably knows about as much about cycling as I do about photography. On the other hand, Cycledork can say much more certainly that I know much less about cycling than Peripheral Vision knows about photography. I am equally as confident the gap will not close any time soon. If you want to learn about pictures and how the pros take them check out this site, which is included in "Where the 'dork pedals" on the right side of the screen. If we're lucky maybe we'll see some bike shots on the site.

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.

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.

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.

New heights indeed

If Bicycling's climbing special makes cycledork want to take a nap, Procycling's "50 Greatest Climbs" from the January issue makes me want to hide under the bed. Four rides in the United States make it: Brasstown Bald in Georgia (No. 46), Mount Evans in Colorado (No. 42), Flagstaff Road from Boulder, Colo. (No. 33) and Mount Washington in New Hampshire (No. 13). It was surprising that only Mount Evans and Mount Washington made Bicycling's unranked, alphabetical-by-state list. Appropriately for a magazine published in a country with a longer history in international cycling than the United States, 43 of the other 46 climbs are European (the other three are in Colombia, Australia and Malaysia). Most are legendary even among those of us who have trouble distinguishing between a genuine hill and a false flat. While I've had my own successful badass, albeit unlisted, uphill adventures in Colorado, I am naively and probably hilariously curious enough to want to answer this question for myself: how hard can Mont Ventoux really be?

Look — down the road …

It's Bicycle Repairman! Kudos to Gears 4 Beers Google discussion group for posting it.

CD's Saturday cycling tip: medals to the pedals

This is too cool not to share. I have several alerts set up through Google and found this site as a result of one of them. I had no idea that toe clips go back as far as 1896 or that clipless pedals date from when Nixon was declaring peace with honor. For all who wonder about pedal history this site from an industry giant is indispensable.

Bikegasm

My palms have sweated the last couple of days over the tabloid-sized Road: The Journal of Cycling and Culture Buyer's Guide. There is a woman on the front wearing a skintight red latex body suit with matching spiked-heel platform lace-up boots holding a playful but undeniably diabolical pitchfork. She is standing in front of what appears to be a group of racers hurtling through the mountains. Additional titles on the front list the gear detailed inside with the summary, "All the candy you could ever want!" Indeed. I had to hurry yesterday to look through the 288 road and race bikes and the pertinent cyclepornic details in a scant 45 minutes: Shimano or Campy or SRAM? Carbon, titanium or alloy? I'm hoping to take a good, long look at wheels and then maybe I'll turn to shoes or pedals or helmets. Then, after I've rolled over and had a cigarette, I'll take a good long look at the bikes again. And again. And again.

The end of cycling as we know it

Curt DeForest Jr. may be a man decades ahead of his time. Or he may be a complete freak. Anyway, he claims that his human-powered, flywheel-driven cage both eliminates the seat and can cruise at 50 mph. Check it all out at BODY RITE. All he needs to save the world for cycling and from the bicycle seat is a few million — just like me.

On to new heights

The new issue of Bicycling arrived yesterday and there it was, right on the cover: "100 Best Climbs in America." Key stats for the article include miles, average grade and feet of vertical gain. Nearby, relatively speaking, are two in North Carolina, three in Virginia and two in South Carolina. There are some buttkickers included, friends, the kind that make cycledork want to take a nap instead of hit the road. These rides are the sort of thing that makes me feel craven and flaccid for even suggesting The Electra challenge.

How it turned out

I was able to get in rides yesterday and today after all. There was a little mist while I was out in the middle of nowhere but the rain so confidently predicted by my favorite source for weather information never materialized. Neither ride was the jaunt CD's Friday Ride Guide envisioned. Instead Saturday's and Sunday's rides were truncated versions of Friday's vision. I just had to feel like a champ on Farrington Road before I turned at Hollands Chapel Road.

Like so many weekends this one did not turn out as planned. A friend who's covered my butt called and needed help moving Saturday. My only questions were where and when. The two hours — don't get me wrong, they were well spent helping a friend — were hours originally planned for the 2100. But we haven't been on the back side of the solstice long enough for that benefit to show up in terms of noticeably increased light for weekend rides. With threats of rain for today, I figured Saturday's ride would wrap up 2006 for cycledork. The predicted rain still hadn't started by 1 p.m. Sunday so I pulled myself together and cranked it out at a little more than 19 mph.

I bought a new cycle computer in early June. The odometer reading after I got in today was 2,456. That's about 100 miles per week and factors in three weeks when, for a variety of reasons, I did not ride at all. But after May 15, when I went to work I rode a bike every day except two: May 22 and June 14. On the first of those days I got a flat down the street from cycledork central so I took the easy way out by coming back to headquarters and getting in the car. On the second, as Tropical Storm Alberto came through, it was clear to me I was unequipped to deal with the weather. I have both worked and spent to equip myself properly since and the work is still in progress. We're all familiar with cycledork's aversion to wet feet, the miraculous arrival of the secret weapon and the plusses and minuses of various rain pants (don't be surprised if a rain-pants review shows up soon).

So what's the payoff for all of this, particularly over the last seven months and the miles? It's that cycledork's healthier than he has been in my adult life. I'm a rock and my doctor gushes when he reviews my lab results. It's a finger to an employer's auto-insurance requirements so subtle it will likely never be noticed. It's everything learned about how to ride and how to commute, two related but separate activities. And it's the rush — the only ones cycledork's had that are better are sex and skiing. See you on the road.

CD's Saturday cycling tip: go toward the light

How tired are you of approaching a traffic light and standing and standing while traffic just keeps zooming by perpindicularly or — even worse — the traffic coming at you gets a turn or two? Well good news. There is a way to approach that light and keep rolling. I've tried it and it works. A couple of times, when I timed it just right, it was so smooth my foot didn't even come out of the pedal as the signal changed. It's not necessary at every intersection but at some lights these techniques are a life saver. The article's on the website for a local group, the North Carolina Coalition for Bicycle Driving. Some of these guys have heard of me (in a noncycling capacity) and, obviously, I've heard of them. Don't be surprised if we all get to know each other better.

A Virginia flier

In the mailroom here at cycledork central we receive untold volumes of bike-friendly offers, solicitations and propaganda. One of the most recent was a brochure extoling the Bike Virginia Captain John Smith Adventure scheduled for June 22 through June 27. The basic cost is $230 per adult. Though you may not have received a leaflet describing the tidewater opportunity, you can register for the ride here. Adventure indeed. Imagine what thrills Captain Smith or Powhatan or Pocahontas could have had on a two wheeler.

The secret weapon …

Like so many other solstice miracles, arrived today. A pair of Sidi Hydro GTX. Ah, the magic of Gore-tex. And what a perfect day to see what they're made of — pouring down rain, about 50 degrees. I haven't seen it rain this hard since Tropical Storm Ernesto. Anyway. So I get my gear on, do about a mile. The boots are bulletproof from the outside. Once I figure out how to keep water from getting in — and it was only light seepage into the right shoe — I'm golden. And again, about those Illuminite pants. Reflective, warm, yes. Waterproof, no; another wet-ass four-minute ride. I'll be looking at Plan B and beyond to protect myself from the elements below the waist.