Weekend News

Well, the only bicycle news I have from the weekend is that we took in my wife's bike to get overhauled. They are going to pull the drivetrain, clean it up real good and adjust everything else to get it into good shape. We are also going to have them install some new pedals that she has been wanting (Shimano makes some great pedals that are platform on one side and have cleats on the other) since one of her pedals broke in the crash.

It is really a bummer having her off the bike since most of the riding I do on the weekends involves her coming along. However, she says she feels like she would be ok doing some shorter safe rides (no big hills) already, so we should be good to go once her bike is out of the shop.

The other news I have is that I will be on vacation from the 4th of July for two weeks. I may get up here and post about how much I wish I had a folding bike with me to ride around wherever we are, or maybe post some pictures, but don't expect all that much in the way of news during that time.

For those that are interested, we are taking a road trip with my in-laws. Spending some time in Zion National Park, Mesa Verde National Park, the farm where my great-grandmother lives, the town where her grandmother grew up, Santa Fe and the Grand Canyon. Should be a real blast, assuming we don't all kill each other from being in a car together for two weeks.

Anyway, I've just about hit the small two minute window where I have internet service while on the train so I need to make sure this is ready to post. Hope everyone has a great day.

-Matt




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Gig tonight

For those of you in the area:

I will be playing at the San Diego County Fair tonight. From like 5-7pm in the Sports Hall, just to the right of the main entrance. 

I play with the Pep Band at San Diego State University so we will be playing between speeches by Football Coach Chuck Long and Basketball Coach Steve Fisher.

Should be a good time and I'll be debuting my new 5-string bass. Emily will be there too with her sousaphone (tuba).

Hope to see you there!

-Matt

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Gloves

I'm in the market for new cycling gloves. I know what features I want, but I'm *cough, cough* too lazy/busy to go find them.

Here is what I want. To start, all of the general safety and comfort features that seem to come standard with good gloves (good padding in the right places, etc.) I want three fabrics used: A thin spandexy, lycra-y fabric for the back of my hands, a leathery but breathable palm fabric to promote grip and an absorbent material to go around the thumbs to wipe sweat from my face. The two things I want that might make these gloves harder to find: bright colors and reflectivity. I want bright yellow or orange colored fabric on either the palm (preferable) or on the back of the hand so that my hand signals are as visible as the rest of my ridiculous (but safe) get up. My reasoning is the same for a reflective strip or panel but for nighttime visibility.

Can anyone find a pair that fits this criteria? Hopefully I'll get around to looking at some point soon because as you can see, the pair I'm using are in dire need of retirement.

-Matt







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Cycling in 40-degree Weather

I've noticed that some of you are finding this blog after a search for "can you ride your bike in 40-degree weather?" Although it is not really the right season for this question, I'll go ahead and give it a go (even though there are other fantastic bloggers out there who are far more qualified to answer).

My answer is: Absolutely!

I should preface that by saying that 40-degrees is about as cold as it gets here in San Diego. But then, I've lived here all my life and to me 40-degrees is pretty dang cold. The key to riding in colder weather is knowing your ride and having the right gear.

Knowing your ride is important because it affects what gear you will need. If your ride is less than 5 miles on flat ground, your body won't really have time to warm itself up so you'll need to bundle up. If your ride is more than 15 miles or there is a big hill in the first half of it, you will either want to stop and lose layers before the hill or suck up the cold while your body warms up from the riding. Just know that it will be really cold when you start and you will hate yourself for being out there. Then, as you go along, you will warm up and forget that it cold at all. Until you get to that big down hill that blows cold air all over your sweat soaked body (don't worry, once you slow down you warm right back up. So plan your wardrobe around your route.

Now, when I say you need the right gear I don't mean that you need to go out and spend $300 on long cycling pants and all that. (But if you do, use the REI link at the bottom of this post). When I started riding in cold weather I didn't buy anything, I just used things I had around already.

Things you will need to ride comfortably in cold weather:

Polyester Pants (like Dickies)
A bandanna or tall socks
2-3 long sleeve layers
A beanie (or skullcap)
Winter gloves

Let me explain.
The polyester pants do a better job of keeping the wind off your legs than cotton pants. Wool works even better at keeping you warm so if you have some wool pants laying around, go ahead and use those. I have several pairs of dickies that I don't use (from back when I worked food service in college) that do a great job of keeping my legs warm.
The bandana and tall socks are to keep your pants out the chain. Either tie your bandanna around the leg or pull your sock up over the bottom of your pants.
The key to keeping your torso and arms warm is layering. As you ride you will get warmer and want to remove a layer. I would usually lose the cotton layer that had already been soaked with sweat. That bad boy will chill you to the bone if it sees any air flow.
I found that my ears were always cold when I rode. Painful cold. So I just loosened the strap on my helmet and started wearing a large beanie that covered my ears. Again, polyester or wool here is key.
My final piece of gear was a pair of Isotoner gloves I've had for cold weather for about 8 years. The didn't look all that nice anymore so I was comfortable sweating them up with my hands. They did an admirable job keeping me warm.

Once you figure out that cold weather riding isn't that hard you might want to upgrade a few things for comfort and ease of use (listed here in the order I would purchase them):
I would start with a reflective leg band or two. This replaces the bandanna or tall socks. Just wrap it around the bottom of your pants. Really, you should get some of these anyway and just always wear them. The movement of your legs makes them far more visible than your stationary reflectors.
Next I would get a bacalava. This is kind of a full face covering like you see on olympic skiers. This covers your ears like a beanie and if you need to you can pull it up over your mouth and nose if you want.
Next would probably be a non-cotton layer for your torso. I currently wear a thin breathable, wicking layer covered with a cotton sweatshirt and then my cycling jacket. Probably next winter I'll replace the cotton layer with something that wont soak up all my sweat.

So there it is, everything you need to know about how to stay warm in cold weather (that a guy from San Diego could tell you).

-Matt

Let's be honest here. This will be handy for very few of the readers at this point in time. I did get a hit from a search for riding in 40-degree weather. Mostly, however, I wrote this so that I wouldn't have to do it next October.





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Rudeness

I don't know which is more surprising that a guy in a truck took time out of his busy commute to tell me how much I was slowing him down or that it hadn't ever happened to me before.

My ride from the office to the train station passes over the freeway crossing both onramps. As I approach the freeway, the bike lane becomes two car lanes that both get on the 5 north. I ride in the middle of the left exit lane. I figure that way any cars that can't wait the 30 seconds it takes me to get past the first onramp can always just get into the other lane and pass me, meanwhile I stay out of the one lane that becomes the onramp for the 5 south.

Today as I did that section of the ride I kept an eye out for cars behind me (to know how much effort to show) and I noticed a truck behind me, biding his time. This is not uncommon, so I thought nothing of it. That is, until he shouted at he passed me "Get out of the lane, idiot!"

Unfortunately, I cannot claim to have taken the high road or chased him down to explain the law (he was getting on the freeway). I shouted that he should F off and then after a little bit shouted an explanation that he should just use the other Fing lane.

I'm not known for my modesty of language.

Once I was able to gather myself from this interaction, I found myself flummoxed on how I could've better dealt with the situation. I like to think that I subscribe to the idea put forth in the The Cycling Dude blog post about "Shake don't Wag." (Link) But what could I have done here?

(Honestly, I've been sitting on that article for awhile. I've wanted to write about it but not until after I had a chance to try it out, which never came up.)

-Matt




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Just a note

I won't be posting mileage from last week. I didn't keep track after the accident. Doing a much better job this week however. I promise.

-Matt




Direct link to REI Cycling store

Comm-unicycle

Sure news organizations everywhere are reporting that bicycle sales are up but only the Globe and Mail in the UK (paid link, sorry) is reporting on the news that you really care about.

Unicycle sales are up 400% in Halifax.

Not sure how much this relates to commuting, but there is a long distance unicycle tour going on in UK. So theoretically it could be done.

The story also notes that until recently there was little innovation for the (apparently large) unicycle community. They are developing their own types of unicycles to fit their needs much in the same way that mountain bikers did.

Would you give up your two wheels for one?

-Matt





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Bike Crash

Ok. It's been a few days. I had several posts written that I was ready to put up but then I got a call that put all of this on the back burner. My wife Emily had fallen on her bike and was at the emergency room.

Ok, before you freak out like I did, she was mostly fine. No broken bones or serious trauma. Still, I was in Carlsbad with a bike and needed to go home before going to see her so that I could get a car to take her bike home. So I rode home to the train station and called a very good friend of mine whose husband (also a good friend) does a lot of bicycling and they have a bike rack on the roof of their one car. She was kind enough to pick me up from the train station and give me an my bike a ride home (thanks Deanna!!!). I then changed very quickly, got the direction to the hospital, grabbed my keys and ran out the door.

Here is what happened (probably more interesting than what I did): She was riding home by her normal route and during the short, but steep, downhill section her bike got out from under her and she slid on her right arm and leg. A nice woman who was walking in the area helped get her out of the street and a wonderful man named Chris came back and gave her a ride to the hospital.

I need to take a moment here to thank Chris. Chris picked up Emily, made her bike fit in the back of his rental car, drove her to the hospital, kept her company while she waited to see a doctor and then waited on his own until I could make it there to get her bike from him (I showed up about 3 hours after the crash). Chris was in town on business and did everything that I couldn't do for her. Thank you Chris, so very, very much. I asked Chris if there was anything I could do for him and he only asked that I do the same for someone else in the future. I replied, "of course."

Here is where you come in. I like to think that I would do the same for someone that needed my help regardless of whether he had helped her or not. So, I'd like to ask all of you to try to pay it forward as well. Hopefully we can expand this chain of good deeds much faster this way. So please, please give help to someone you see who needs it.

Emily got real bad road burn on her right leg and a deep cut on her right elbow to go along with a slew of other smaller cuts and scrapes and a bruise on the back of her left knee. She got scrubbed up and a stitch in her elbow, a scrip for antibiotics and painkillers and then we got to go home. She stayed home on Thursday and Friday (mostly because she is required to wear pants and closed-toed shoes in the lab and she didn't think she could get pants on).

Tonight she finally got to wash off the sweat and sunscreen from the tragic ride (she was told not to shower for two days) but this meant removing the gauze that covered the wounds. Not Fun. But we got through it and now she smells much nicer (and the wounds look like they will heal up without too much scarring).

So what good came out of this? Well, hopefully everyone who reads this will pay Chris' good deed forward. Also, I finally get to take her bike in to get it overhauled (it is the bike she got in middle school and I think it was part of the reason she fell). Also, I got to play hero husband (once I got there) and help her do things so she is crazy in love with me right now. (Well, crazier in love me, she loves me pretty crazy usually.)

Now before anybody can ask, she has health insurance and the bill shouldn't be too much trouble for us to cover. If you'd like to help, do this instead: Buy some raffle tickets for Fatty's birthday raffle. (Read his post about it here.) The proceeds go to the Lance Armstrong Foundation to fight cancer. They are giving away some great stuff (including a beautiful Ibis road bike). The only catch is that the drawing is tomorrow and you need to get a handful of $5 tickets by tomorrow.

If that isn't good enough for you, then buy yourself something nice from REI through the link at the bottom of this post and we'll take a small commission on that.

-Matt





Direct link to REI Cycling store

Missed Train

Well, it was bound to happen. I missed the train.

Normally, this wouldn't be an issue because I usually take the second to last train south, but I've been working late and taking the last train home so far this week. And today I missed it by (according to my best guess) about 7 minutes.

Seven minutes can cost you a lot of time.

Luckily, the first time I took the Coaster (for my interview) I came home before the afternoon trains started running, so I had an idea of how to get home without the train. So I knew just to follow PCH (Hwy 101) and to keep an eye on my rear view mirror for the aptly named 101 bus.

I caught the 101 bus in Solana Beach at about 6:30pm and rode it down to University Towne Center where I switched to a 41 bus around 7:15pm. From there on to the trolley at 7:50pm which I took to the 13 bus and rode the last half mile home from my bus stop. I got home at 8:40pm. If I had caught the train I would've been home by 7:15pm.

Seven minutes cost me an hour and 25 minutes.

What a bummer.

Tonight I've earned a home brew and a quesadilla.

-Matt




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Off the Beaten Path

One of the curses of using the train as part of your commute is that there are set times when the train comes. This means that if you want to get home or to work earlier, you have to check the timetable to see how much earlier you have to leave. Even if you leave 45 minutes early, if you are catching the same train, it won't do you any good.

However, you can also take that time to do some exploring on your way to the train.

Usually on my ride to work, I take a side road that gets me off the main drag for a mile or so (and cuts out one of the minor hills). This little side road has one cross street that has always interested me: Via del Lago (Way of the Lake or Lake Way in Spanish). On Monday I chose to take a short trip down the road to see if there actually was a lake like the street signs said.While I wouldn't say there was a lake, (maybe there was further down) I did find a neat little pond with benches where you could sit and enjoy nature for a bit (a least whatever nature you can get next to an office building.

So take the time to check out those side roads and different routes. You never know what you will find.


-Matt




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New Commute Photo Dump

Finally got around to downloading pictures from my camera. Here are the ones from the few times I've remembered to take pictures on my new commute.

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Week Riding/Driving Data

6/8-6/14

Miles on Bike: 69.9

Miles in Car: 99

Sorry to be so late with this. Rode the exact same number of miles, but drove less. That should count for something

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Interesting from Friday's ride

When I ride to the train in the mornings my route starts out with 3 miles down the street next to my residence. Yesterday, I did not have a single car pass me (going in the same direction) on that stretch of road. At one point I came up on a truck at a stoplight, but they got their green (thankfully, since the light is at the bottom of a hill) and pulled off before I could pass them. Another car came up behind me, but turned on the intersection before they would have passed me.

Strange, usually there are many more cars on this road in the morning.

-Matt





Direct link to REI Cycling store

Bikepod?

Is this a sign of the iPod having made the big time, or (more likely) bicycles making it?
Apparently, Cannondale (according to techradar.com) is designing an iPod dock for a bike. The goal is similar to that of the Nike+ program (the special sensor that fit into a special shoe that would keep track of how much running/walking you were doing in your iPod) in that the goal is to give you information about your cycling habits (say, the same info that a bike computer gives you).

I'm sure it is likely to come with some way to download it and keep track in some program and probably will display the info on the screen of your iPod while you ride but...

Is this really necessary? Or is it just some coolish thing someone is cooking up in order to sell more bikes?

-Matt




Direct link to REI Cycling store