Suckin' wheels

I did the 100K Firecracker Ride this morning in about 3 1/2 hours, thanks to the people in front of me. As I rode I saw a few other folks I know but no groups I'd ever ridden with. So I'd catch the end of a paceline, let them tow me along in their draft and then move forward to another group when the line came apart. This is a very rude way to ride, but I did it anyway. Some of the pulls I got were incredible and I would've been happy to reciprocate but I was only allowed the front a couple of times. Anyway, when I got home I was comparatively fresh as a daisy. Lesson? If a solo stranger can catch your line, let the stranger pull when his or her turn comes.

Turning and churning and burning

Dear Cycledork,

I've been working pretty hard lately on my daily 7.5-mile commute, so yesterday afternoon I decided to dial it down a notch and just enjoy the ride home. Much to my surprise, my time actually improved. This suggests to me that I've been wasting a lot of effort, and that I need to pedal smarter, not harder. Any tips? Just for context, the ride is quite hilly, with about 400 vertical feet of climbing in each direction.

-lady macsquish

Dear Lady:
Funny you should mention this observation. Not only have I seen this advised and suggested in numerous places, I have been trying it myself lately. And I'm getting the same results you are. In most flattish places on my commute I'm dropping back a gear and staying at about the same speeds or going a little faster. Descending I'm backing off two with no drop in speed. Climbing I'm relaxing by a gear in some places but I'm also a masochist and enjoy pushing it on hills. Little bumps are easier to get over at speed since it's easier to keep spinning. Result: my cadence is up, my speed is up, my heart rate is up. I'm considering the semiultimate experiment for this weekend: riding my favorite so called time trial route. My guess is I will be down one or two gears and be at or better than my best time. Look for the report.

As far as hows and whys, I am not immediately able to lay my hands on the best explanation I recall reading on the benefits of spinning — riding so that the cadence, or revolutions per minute of the pedals, is higher. But since I wanted to provide someone else's made up explanation rather than my own, I found this at trifuel.com, a site for people way too interested in these sorts of things and who don't think they have to address lay people (in other words, you're on your own with most of the jargon):

When you pedal a bicycle, your muscular system produces power to propel the bicycle and your cardiovascular system delivers oxygen, fuels the muscles, and removes waste products such as lactic acid. Selecting your optimal cadence is a matter of keeping these two systems in balance. The optimal balance is different for each person.

Spinning at higher cadences reduces the watts-per-pedal-stroke, a measure of the force required to produce a given wattage. This makes the workload more tolerable for the muscles. Most experts believe that this is because fewer fast-twitch muscle fibers must be recruited to create the high torque levels required at low cadence. Pedaling with a too-low cadence increases reliance on fast twitch fibers, causing premature lactic acid accumulation, which makes your legs burn.

Pedaling with high cadence, however, does waste some energy. Imagine setting your bike up on an indoor trainer and cutting off the chain. If you spun 100 rpm, the workload would be zero watts, yet your heart rate would elevate significantly above resting. Just moving your legs fast does use energy. Research has consistently demonstrated that cycling at 40 to 60 rpm generates the lowest oxygen consumption for a given wattage. Pedaling at too high a cadence overloads the cardiovascular system's ability to deliver oxygen to the muscles. The most obvious symptom of this is ventilatory distress.

High-cadence pedaling works your cardiovascular system more, but reduces the relative intensity of the leg muscles. The key, then, is pedaling with enough cadence to keep your watts-per-pedal-stroke at a level that your muscles can handle, but at a cadence that will not overload your cardiovascular system. The optimal balance is different for every rider.

I will translate one phrase: "ventilatory distress" means you can hardly fuckin' breathe. What I get out of the rest of this passage is that cadence is a tradeoff between pushing your legs and pushing your heart and lungs. And another thing: there is not a direct correlation between higher cadence and higher efficiency.

Other sources, such as Bicycling Magazine's 1,000 All-Time Best Tips, point out that becoming comfortable with higher cadences in lower gears can help riders become more comfortable with higher cadences in higher cadences. So keep trying it, see what happens and keep us posted. I'll do the same.

Yours in velophility,

Cycledork

That has made all the difference

Dear Cycledork:

I see a lot of bicyclists in my area drive on city streets, county roads and highways, which are often busy and have narrow shoulders, when bike trails run alongside the exact same route. Why is that?

Though I am admittedly not an avid bicyclist myself (I log a couple hundred miles a year, tops) I far prefer the safety of recreational trails than being on the road. I understand that trail riding can be limiting for long-distance riders who cover more ground than most bike trails provide, but why not take the trail when it's available? Is it uncool for "serious riders" to be seen on a bike trail?

Sincerely,
Mystified in Minnesota

p.s. I don't mean for this to seem "anti-cyclist" and I do acknowledge bicyclists' right to a share of the road.

Dear Mystified:

No anticyclist vibe inferred and what a great question.

Uncoolness doesn't have much to do with it. Safety does. Speaking for myself, I'll ride in the road instead of on the trail for a couple of reasons, which may boil down to one: I don't want to kill anyone — me included.

At this point I consider myself an experienced rider (+/-10,000 miles all seasons, all hours, all levels of traffic over the past 3 years) who goes faster than most of the traffic on the bike trails around here in North Carolina's Triangle. From my perspective, and I'm guessing the perspective of other experienced riders, riders on the trails are unpredictable. Trail riders, or more fairly, less experienced riders, are more likely to be moving slower than I am and are more likely to stop suddenly or move across the path unexpectedly. If I'm going 20 mph and they're going 12 mph and I fail to anticipate their action the results could be catastrophic.

Here's a sobering thought: drivers are, in most ways, more predictable even if they're assholes. Even though I can't take my eyes off them for a second I have a much, much better idea of what to expect. My guess is the riders you see feel the same way. Another way to put it is that it's a lot easier to ride defensively when it's clear I'm the one who will lose catastrophically.

All of that said, this is one particular school of thought, advocated by groups such as The North Carolina Coalition for Bicycle Driving and inspired by the classic "Bicycle Transportation: A Handbook for Cycling Transportation Engineers" by John Forester. Foresterians eschew segregation of auto and cycling traffic because, as the coalition puts it:

"Bicyclists are drivers of vehicles. Every street is a bicycle facility. Bicyclists have the right to access every destination reachable by public roads, and this right is protected by the traffic laws of every state. North Carolina law specifically defines bicycles as vehicles and assigns bicycle operators all of the rights and duties of drivers of vehicles on roads. Scientific analysis of bicycling practice in the United States shows that bicyclists who behave as drivers of street vehicles and follow the Rules of the Road enjoy travel that is much safer and much more convenient than those who do not."

I'd also like some clarification on your definition of "bike trail." Is it separate from the road? If so, how is it separated? How wide is it? What sort of surface does it have? Do pedestrians use it? Is it one way or two way? The answers to all of these questions would affect my willingness to use it. There is a two-mile stretch of road not far from the my house that has a paved, +/-10-foot wide, two-way bike and pedestrian path along a windy two-lane road. For the reasons stated above, I take the road every time. I'm also grateful to the transportation planners who had the foresight to consider riders such as myself in that stretch of road and mark it with signs with a bike on them that state, "Share the road."

The road does belong to all of us, motorized and otherwise. That said, there are creative ways to share. When I'm in Fort Collins, Colo., for instance, I use the bike lanes that are ubiquitous there. Though strict Foresterians would consider the spinelssness of my concession contemptible, for me it boils down to predictability. Drivers and cyclists there are trained that cyclists will be in the bike lane toward the right of the road on both sides. Drivers know where to look for me and cyclists are not surprised to hear someone call, "on your left."

There are some roads I will not ride on. Ever. At some point I have to acknowledge the hostility the road, its users and designers show toward cyclists and take another route. Even on the roads I will ride on not all drivers, nor all cyclists, are willing to share regardless of schemes for everyone to have a piece. But for me, the best way to show my good faith is make clear to drivers that I only need what I'm using and they can have the rest.

Yours in velophility,

Cycledork

Why can't I do this at home?

Today I rode to Estes Park. All in all, it was about 25 miles up, 25 miles down and 45 miles rolling or flattish. And I rode it a lot harder, especially up, than last year. So here's my question, especially for any of you folks who know anything about conditioning: why is it that my last two rides of similar distance in North Carolina nearly left me for dead but I returned from this one fresh as a daisy? No doubt it is cooler and less humid here. I'm guessing that the weather helps keep me hydrated. Stopping for lunch (two slices of pizza and iced tea) probably didn't hurt either. But I don't get it. Let me hear your ideas.

By the way, I took U.S. 34 both ways. The high speed was just a hair under 39 mph. I did hit 45 mph yesterday coming down from Horsetooth. There was a lot of traffic and wind in the canyon today. The wind helped me on the way up and slowed me on the way down. I also learned that it's really not so bad to hug a granite wall in a two-foot wide patch of gravel when a semi is passing me on a curve.

Popsicle flavor of the day at Carter Valley Campground: tropical blend. There's one left in that box and I'm hoping it lasts long enough for me to get it.

Fort Collins: bubble town of the Bicycle-Friendly death wish

It's no surprise that a city with great bike facilities has lots -- shitloads actually -- of people who use them. Right on and in a huge way. Nevertheless, it blows my mind how utterly oblivious the huge majority of those riders are to risk. I announce my dorkishness, for instance, by being part of the minority who wear a helmet. Earphones and -buds are ubiquitous. Road signs are for chumps. Forget about any indication of directional change. Riding time is the perfect time for that involved phone chat. No need to watch traffic, including other riders, since bicycles here apparently operate in protective bubbles (not mentioned in the Bicycle Friendly Community commendation). Local authorities must not have been alerted to my arrival as my bubble hasn't shown up yet.

Confession time: I do not stop at every stop sign and I don't signal every time I'm required to. But I do slow down at every intersection and I do look. And I avoid not stopping when a car is approaching my bike perpendicularly.

I understand that many of the riders I see are older adolescents and young adults who are still invulnerable. But they do things on bicycles that even they would be embarrassed to do in a car (see above). I also understand that age does not necessarily confer maturity or judgment, yet it's not just the bezillion college students who remove their brains whenever they ride. It's people approaching my advanced age who are old enough to know they have something to lose.

Don't get me wrong: it is too cool that bikes are so heavily used here and catered to. The bike racks in my mom's apartment complex are jam packed. How great would it be for every place to embrace cycling so thoroughly, especially if riders reciprocated in a way that didn't make me worry about killing them.

C'dork's Saturday cycling tip: one way not to die

Ride long enough and it will happen: pedalling along, minding your own business as well as that of the surrounding traffic, as you approach an intersection or junction the car behind you passes so it can immediately turn right in front of you. Well, even if it doesn't happen to you, it happened to me this morning. It's probably the fourth or fifth time someone's done it to me over the last three years.

How I deal with it: First of all, I watch the road, see where I'm going and where the opportunities for automotive mischief — intersections, side roads, potholes, suddenly ending shoulders and so on — are. At the same time, I'm keeping an eye on oncoming traffic and an ear out for cars behind me. This morning I could smell that the car on my ass would pass and turn on to the upcoming side road. Though I slowed slightly I had to maintain some momentum since I was on a slight grade. With about about 150 feet or so to the junction, she passed. Since I expected it I braked and stopped, let traffic pass and got going again. One more thing I would have done, had I really been thinking, was downshift one or two gears to make restarting on the rise a little easier.

In some situations there will be even less space and less time to react. What cycling safety folks advise in such cases is to turn right on the inside of the car. I had just enough distance and shoulder that I didn't need to even though I considered it. Keep in mind it's a move that's probably hard as hell to rehearse. Just be ready.

Upshot: the driver's body language indicated an appropriate level of embarrassment and I didn't get flattened. Though not optimal the result is acceptable.

The end of the world

May be west of Clayton on N.C. 42. Loyal reader htrouser did warn me of this likelihood even though he was not specific about where. The Tour de Wake went fine for the first 60 miles or so into Wendell, where my navigation started to falter. Even with a cue sheet I still had to know the secret names of the streets that turned into the roads I needed to be on. I also didn't help myself by not studying carefully enough to confirm the route around Clayton. Instead I took the long way through town, twice, before learning the identity of the secret street. By this time I had probably added 15 unneeded miles. When I finally got out of Clayton it seemed for one of the few times when I've been on a bike that the road was getting longer instead of shorter. So when I got to the intersection of I-40 and N.C. 42 after 87.8 miles with the prospect of 40 more to go in 95-degree heat, I decided sense was in order and I called the college student. She was prompt so I didn't tax the patience of the gas-station employee who was kind enough to let me wait inside.

There are several lessons to learn from this, the first time I have ever bailed on a ride. O the ignominy. First, know the route. Second, eat adequately before leaving. No matter how well the fluids are laid in — I had about a gallon with me and I replenished every 15 to 20 miles — the body still needs some calories to work with. Third, when it's that hot, leaving earlier is better. The original idea had been to leave around 8 a.m.; instead I hit the road about 10:22 a.m. Mistake. Fourth, consider the distance-temperature tradeoff. Even five degrees would have made the attempt easier.

Cycledork remains convinced that it is possible to complete the circumnavigation of Wake County. I believe the gap in N.C. 42 between I-40 and N.C. 50 can be filled and that I will succeed. Of course, if I fall off the edge, I will never be heard from again.

Hangin' with the Bs

Well sort of. Most of the people on this ride — The Spin Cycle B ride, advertised as between 17 and 19 mph — wouldn't have had any trouble on last night's ride. Maybe they just wanted to relax by going at A pace for most of the night. But it was a much more enjoyable group experience than last night. Some shaved legs, lots of hairy legs. A range of frame materials. Smaller percentage of team kits. And much more open. Huge thanks to Mike, who, when I told him I was new to group riding, told me what to do for 25 miles. Some of it I understood, some I didn't. I have no idea if I'm educable or not. Anyway, the rest of the group was willing to let me grab a wheel even though I never pulled. I'm optimistic that if I show up Tuesday I won't be asked to leave.

The A ride

Dropped like a hot sack of cat shit. Smoked like a spliff of Rastaman ganja.

Most bike stores, including the The Spin Cycle, offer a variety of group rides, with skill levels ranging from the slowest at C to the fastest at A. My plan was to go on Tuesday's B ride, but the significant threat of rain — it was dripping on my ride home — kept me in. I figured what the hell, I'll try the Wednesday A ride. And after nine bikeless days and the last two with only my commute, I was itching for some miles.

Of the 12 or 15 riders who showed, I was one of two with a metal frame; among the minority with unshaved legs and not wearing a team kit; and the only one with a visored helmet and unmatched tires. I knew I didn't fit; the reception I got made it clear they knew it too.

My plan, even before I arrived, was that I would hope to draft someone as far as it would get me and when I got dropped make my own route instead of working to find the group. The plan worked for about 10 miles. Me and another guy got left behind on a long descent. It was like watching the Millenium Falcon engage the hyperdrive. The other guy did everything he could to outrun me and not acknowledge me. I'd give him room and then I'd reel him back in. That happened a few times. Anyway, we rode in proximity to each other for about five more miles before I let him go. He was thoughtful enough to indicate he was turning south.

I turned north and took a quick route back to The Spin Cycle. Austin, the one guy who did talk to me, was still packing his bike when I got there. He asked how my ride was and I told him OK — after all, I did get nearly 40 miles in and went really fast for parts of it. I also said that I knew I got dropped because I was too polite. Instead of holding back while the bikes in front of me coasted part way down the aforementioned hill, I should have gone into the middle of them and maintained my draft. I might have gotten dropped later but it would have gotten me through that point. Austin agreed.

The plan for Tuesdays and Thursdays for the forseeable future is to kick ass on the B ride until I'm sure I need more of a challenge. Then we'll see what happens.

Cycledork says …

If you wear headphones when you cycle, you're a fuckin' moron. I've seen two riders since Sunday, including one this afternoon, with their ears covered. Numbskulls. Sensewise, hearing is a very close second to seeing when it comes to bike safety (I rank touch, smell and taste as 3, 4 and 5, respectively). I love my iPod probably even more than the next guy, but I also love knowing that a vehicle is approaching. And that the sounds from the engine, tires and exhaust tell me if it's a motorcycle or a semi. Wearing headphones is stupider than not wearing a helmet. At least if you're dumb enough not to wear a helmet, you have all of your senses working for you. Sort of, anyway. With headphones, you have chosen to ignore key sensory stimuli. For me, I would so much rather that the wages of ignorance are not death. And that can be the payoff when you can't hear the truck coming.

The $1,000 — or less — question

A friend of mine e-mailed me the other day, told me he expected to come into some spare cash and was considering buying, among other things, a road bike and accoutrements. Below is the gist of my response. Courtesies not included in the original but provided here were implied. Because I have too much time on my hands, I'll probably follow this with my $1,500 and $2,500 recommendations over the next several days.

Dear Esteemed Friend:

I love e-mails like this. A monkey would be really, really cool but a road bike will never throw shit at you and then laugh. If you got a hovercraft or time machine, however, there'd be no point buying a road bike. I'd take either one (time machine first, hovercraft second) instead of a kickass road bike.

Back to the assumption that a road bike is your first choice. Here are my choices, in order of manufacturer's recommended sale price: Giant OCR3 ($650), KHS Flite 300 ($689), Specialized Allez Triple ($710), Cannondale R400 Triple ($779.99) and Trek 1200 ($849.99). Any of these bikes will get you to your local landmark and back and feeling badass to boot. Common advantages are triple chainrings (the big cogs in front, and triples are a whole lot easier to to ride uphill when you're learning to ride a road bike uphill) and carbon forks (which take a lot of the sting out of riding over potholes and other irregularities). Common disadvantages are that you have to relearn how to shift (shift from bigger rings to smaller on the front as you're hitting the bottom of a hill and your chain is loose instead of waiting until the middle of the uphill when the chain is tight) and the seat (saddle) is a piece of shit not suitable to any ride more than 40 miles (this bears no relation to the sense of badassedness you should feel at the end of your ride).

I derived these recommendations from recollection bolstered by information garnered from www.roadbikereview.com. I knew which models I had in mind but the Web site gave me the specifics I wanted. My search was for road bikes costing between 0 and $1,000. More than half the bikes meeting those criteria had no price and are expensive as shit if you're serious about owning one.

Do purchase the bike at your favorite independent local bike shop (which will carry some but not all of the brands and models I've identified above). When the doing the deal see if you can get the bike shop to throw in some clipless pedals beside the crappo pair the bike comes with.

If they throw in the pedals, that means you'll need shoes. Clipless pedals are worthwhile because they allow you to go some much faster. So much more of the energy from your leg pushing down on one side and pulling up on the other goes into propelling the bike with clipless pedals than with standard flat pedals. Because your favorite independent local bike shop will gouge you on shoes and shorts, get accessories such as shoes and shorts, and maybe even pedals, at some place like Performance Bicycle. Performance is the cycling equivalent of Wal-Mart. But take in your pedals (or your bike if your pedals are attached to it) and tell them you need inexpensive shoes and cleats that are compatible with your pedals. Clipless pedals do have a learning curve. You will fall and be embarrassed more than hurt. It's OK. You'll fall at very low speeds. I've only fallen twice.

Get a pair of cycling shorts. You'll be happier and probably unchafed that you did. Yes, spandex and a crotch pad (chamois — indeed a little alpine goat-like animal used to die for the comfort of cyclists; now it's all wicking synthetics) will make you feel ridiculous. That feeling will last for six months. Then you'll be buff enough you can wear the shorts in your modeling photo shoots. . . . I hope all of this helps. Let me know if you have questions.

Yours in beer and bicycles,
Cycledork

CD's Saturday cycling tip: sand trap

Around here, municipalities prefer a sand-and-salt mix as their approach to snow and ice on the roads. A key tactic is to spread the mix at intersections of interest. For cars this works fine and on a mountain bike in the snow and ice a rider won't even notice. Things gets trickier after the precipitation is gone and the road is dry because the sand is still there. The trick is compounded as the passage of cars tends to sweep the sand on to shoulders or into corners — just the sorts of places road cyclists tend to ride or turn through. The situation is now as slippery in such spots for the cyclist as it was for the driver before the sand and salt. My morning commute has two notable dunes: one at Trinity and Chapel Hill roads, the other just down the street at Trinity Road and East Chatham Street. Cycledork claims no technical expertise but I try to avoid the sand if possible. If that's not possible — and in some situations crunching forward on sand and gravel is the best solution — slow down, especially through corners. If traffic allows, ride around it. Obviously, that's not always an option. So be vigilant. Watching and looking are always good habits, particularly when approaching a potential hazard. The payoff here is that sometimes that sand bar has enough tire tracks through it to actually provide a clear(er) path. Especially on a road bike, avoid braking while in the sand unless, of course, you want to slide.

CD's Saturday cycling tip: working yourself into a corner

Cycledork manages most curves and turns with all the panache of a barge on a pond. Nevertheless it's understood that there are ways to smooth the transition from going in one direction to going in another. Approaching the turn or curve, bring the knee to the inside of the movement up. Sometimes it helps to go a little to the outside of the original travel lane before the turn to get to the inside of the new travel lane. Even though there's a front wheel that turns, try not to turn it through the direction change. Lean the bike instead keeping the front wheel straight. Brake ahead of the curve or turn. Avoid using brakes in a curve or turn for the same reason that action should be avoided in a car — it's a recipe for skidding and losing control. All easy to say, harder for c'dork to accomplish. But the results when it comes together are enough to keep me working at it. Maybe techniquewise cycledork can eventually trade up from a barge to a sunfish.

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.

CD's Saturday cycling tip: go ahead — peek in that window

Every now and then, on our way to the open road, we find ourselves driving through areas with cars that are parallel parked, among other urban auto hazards. To keep those clods from clotheslining us with their doors, use your right eye to look in their rear and side windows. Think of this as the cycling equivalent of using the mirror and watching the road at the same time. If you see the driver or a passenger on the left-hand side, slow down or give a wider berth or both. But give props — and a wave — to the folks you see who are actually watching out for traffic before getting out of the car.

CD's Saturday cycling tip: let your fingers do it

… by letting others on the road know what you're doing and where you're going. It's so easy: stick your right arm straight out with a pointed index finger if you plan to turn right. Stick your left arm straight out with a pointed index finger if you plan to turn left. Do these things whether you're making a full 90-degree turn or shifting from the shoulder to the lane. Turn your left hand so your palm faces backward if you slow down. Our bargain for using the road, according to the State of North Carolina, is that we need to follow the rules even if it means watching our motorized counterparts ignore them as we do right.