Musings on New Year's Goals and Cycling

I'm not immune to the compulsion that many of us feel at the end of the year to reflect on the past 12 months and evaluate changes for the future.  There is some actual value in this, though it may seem annoying and useless.  If you think about it from a business perspective, the old adage 'you can't improve what you don't measure', it makes sense.  In business or engineering, practitioners are constantly defining metrics, setting goals, and measuring their performance against those goals.  Based on the metrics, they make adjustments to their business process or engineering methods, measure again, and so on ad infinitum, in their quest for continuous improvement.  This is exactly the purpose that the traditional year end reflection serves; you evaluate your progress against goals and adjust your goals accordingly.  Sometimes you make those goals more modest, more achievable.  In the business world they call these SMART goals (specific, measurable, realistic, and time bound).  There is no point in making a goal that is unrealistic.  Chrysler, for example, shouldn't set a goal of toppling Toyota in its quest for manufacturing excellence, or BMW as the undisputed king of the sports sedan by the end of the year.  They instead might set a goal of turning a profit, or getting all of their cars to 'average' on a reliability rating.  Similarly, our own personal goals can be adjusted from year to year to be more SMART.  I have made a similar move this year as it relates to cycling.

Cycling is one of those things that brings true enjoyment to my life.  Strava and competitive events provide hard data to track my performance on the bike, the number of miles, my average speed, watts, rankings on segments, place finish in races, etc.  By those measures, I've ridden a lot of miles, almost more than I've logged in a car this year.  I've set many PR's on Strava segments and, in most of the races I entered, I didn't come in dead last. In short, cycling gave me a lot this year.  But I think I can do better by focusing on my strengths.

Cycling is one of those sports that has many disciplines, each favoring a different sort of physiology.  It's a little like American football in that sense.  It takes all sorts of body types to make a successful football team.  There are the gigantic linesman.  Their job is to be as close to either the irresistible force or the immovable object as possible on the line of scrimmage.  Then you have the running backs and half backs who are either extremely fleet and quick with their feet, or they can smash through the linesman, finding holes to gain a yard or two.   Then you have the tight ends and wide receivers who are tall  with good hands for grabbing balls from the sky, but also fast in order to get open down-field.  And of course there are the defensive ends who are matched up with them physically.  You get the idea.  Cycling is somewhat similar.  I might also compare it to running.  In running, you have the lithe, lean, sinewy distance runners who amaze us by their ability to run at amazing speeds over distances that boggle our minds.  At the other extreme are the more heavily muscled sprinters with their explosive speed and mind bending leg speed.  In between there are the middle distance runners who have very nearly the same speed as the sprinters and can suffer incredible anaerobic pain for 800 meters to a mile.  Finally, there are the quarter milers.  At the world class level, these are sprinters who can suffer unimaginable pain, and extreme anaerobic activity for 45 seconds of hell on earth. 

Cycling is a little different from these events in one crucial way.  There is a machine involved.  The machine is human powered, but it is a machine nonetheless.  In running, for example, almost all elite male 400 meter runners have the exact same physiology.  Regardless of their race/ethnicity, they are about 6' to 6'3" and weight 165 to 180 pounds.  The size and shape of the body and the type of muscle fiber influence the outcome greatly.  Sure, there can be very fast 400  meter runners of different sizes, but when you look at the very top of the sport, the pattern is clear.  In running, the body is the entire machine, and the design of the machine is very important to the outcome.  In cycling, the man made machine removes many of the variables.  The total machine is the human body and the man made machine together.  The interface between the human machine and the man made machine reduces the variables three; 1) how much power the rider can produce and for how long, 2) the weight of the rider and bike, and 3) the wind resistance produced by the rider and bike.  Since the bicycle bears the weight of the rider, and the weight of the rider far outweighs the bicycle, rider weight only comes into the equation during acceleration and climbing.

If you've ever watched a grand tour closely, such as the Tour de France, you'll notice that there are many rider types on a team.  There are sprinters, who tend to be more heavily muscled.  These riders sit in the peloton for the entire stage and shoot out of the pack at the very end in tremendous bursts of speed.  At the opposite end of the spectrum are the lightweight climbers.  These 130 pound riders dance up the mountains while the sprinters, no less fit, fall farther and farther behind, hoping to finish within the time limit.  There are the time trial specialists.  These are the big diesel engine riders that can produce tremendous amounts of power on solo efforts over relatively flat, short courses.  They can cover that distance faster than the pure sprinters or pure climbers.  Then there are the very rare all around riders who can do everything reasonably well.  Those are the special few who have a shot at wearing yellow into Paris and becoming household names despite the relative obscurity of cycling as a sport.  Even more obscure than road cycling and the grand tours is the sport of track cycling.  Once the most popular spectator sport in the the USA, there are now only a handful of velodromes left. 

What does all of this have to do with me and my annual cycling goals?  Quite a bit actually. At 6'3" conservatively and hovering around the 200 pound mark, I am very far from the ideal climber.  Even though my size enables me to produce much more power than a 130 pound rider, the power to weight ratio is not in my favor.  However, I do have a slight aerodynamic advantage to the lighter rider.  So, on a flat surface, with more power on tap, an aero advantage, and no climbing to slow me down, I have scenario that suits my physiology.  This past year, I tried some time trial races.  Though with a 13 year old road bike with no aero technology and no organized training, I was a mid pack finisher.  This is where my muscle fiber type comes into play.  As a predominantly fast twitch, tending towards mesomorph body type, the ideal event for me is also short.  The typical time trial is at least 12 miles long.  My ideal event would be a minute or so or less in length, and flat.  Where does one find such an event in cycling?  On the velodrome of course!  Luckily, Portland has a lovely velodrome at the Alpenrose Dairy.

So, for 2013 I resolved to do something crazy; focus on my natural strengths and train and compete as a track sprinter on the velodrome.  As part of this effort, I've started working with Brian Abers' BRIHOP program. It's been a couple of weeks so far and I've already learned a lot.  It's a great group of folks.

Chicago Makes a Play for Seattle's Cyclists

More and more people are recognizing the power of the cyclists!  Check this out from the Seattle Bike BLog.

2013: The year of the Phred

One of my riding friends, whose name shall remain anonymous, has seen some of my goals for next year and declared them Phreadly (sic). Since some of these goals involve Cat 6 Strava racing, he's absolutely right.  So with that, I declare 2013 the year of the Phred.  In recent history, cycling has seen the glorification of the bike messenger, which led to rise and fall of hipsters pathetically emulating messenger style by purchasing fixies and riding around on them in their skinny jeans and parking them in front of coffee shops.   Then there is the tweed ride crowd.  Those who dress up in late 19th century or early 20th century knickers and caps. And of course, the ever present 'serious roadie' and their preening, primping, and look down they give to us Phreds.  Well, they're all out in 2013.  In is the dork.  The guy with discount jerseys, the wrong socks, the glasses on the inside of the helmet straps.  The guy with the chain ring smudge on his unshaven calf.

Let's hear it for the Phreds!

Gangnam style in cycling cleats?

I've only seen 5 second snippets of the original Gangnam video.  But I had to share this goofy parody from SRAM.

The Coffee Ride: Humor

There have been many parodies of pre and post coffee ride cyclist talk.  This one is yet another take on the Hitler scene that's been done to death.  But hey, why not share?

An evening with the BTA

Had a nice evening last Monday hanging out with the BTA (Bicycle Transportation Alliance) folks at the Velocult bike shop in Portland. Velocult is a neat little place.  I'm pretty sure everyone has had this idea of combining a coffee shop with another business, or a bar and another business.  In college, I always thought it would be a great idea to combine a bar/coffee shop with a laundromat.  It would kill I'm sure.  Of course, the coffee shop in a book store is well worn territory.  Well, bike shops are not immune to this idea.  At Velocult, vintage bikes from the owner's collection line the walls.  There is a Murphy bed like stage that folds down for live music.  There's a bar with a good selection of local brews.  The bike mechanic does double duty as bar tender. The centerpiece is a large oak table in the middle of the store for hanging out.

We were there to brainstorm ideas about how to increase interest in bicycle commuting outside of the BTA's premier month long bike commute challenge in September.   There was a great group of folks representing all ages and types of bike commuter, except perhaps a hipster representative.  It may simply be that hipsters have quietly been reabsorbed into society.  But...everyone else was there.  For instance, I had a great conversation with an older lady who, at first glance seemed like the typical commuting geek you might see overdressed in excessive rain gear riding a commuting specific bike.  We ended up having a great conversation about tire width, the evolution of steal bike frames, and more.  I also shared my idea for clay-mation videos depicting common bike commuting scenarios.  Anybody know a creative type who could help me put those together?   

Lustworthy Handmade, Local Carbon...mmmmm

I've always been drawn to US made bike frames.  It's some sort of strange mix of a little nationalism, combined with a buy local to keep the money local sentiment.  A US made bike frame gives a little extra something to the bike.  It's sort of like wearing a nice pair of American made Allen Edmonds. When it comes to bicycles, there have been a few hold-out major manufacturers who have continued to make bicycle frames in the USA.  Trek only makes their most high end bikes in the US, and Cannondale recently halted their US production of frames, outsourcing everything to Taiwan.  Of course, if you are into steel bikes, there are hundreds of custom bike builders who will make you a bike.  But for those of us who have ridden modern carbon, there's simply no way we're going back to steel.  Steel is reel alright...reel heavy, noodly, flexy.  It ain't carbon.

It turns out that Argonaut Cycles has come to the rescue.  If you want to be the King of all Phreds, and you can afford it that is.  For me, it is enough that I know it exists!

Beginner Cyclocross

Middle aged people of late seem to gravitate towards sporting activities in which the primary objective appears to be getting extremely muddy.  One example of this sort of event is the Warrior Dash.   

From the Oregonian

     Another recent example is the Tough Mudder series.  This series is more obvious in the appeal to the middle aged mud compulsion, putting it right their in the name. 

From the Tough Mudder Web Site

Perhaps in these tough economic times, we need less expensive ways to indulge the midlife crisis.  Porsches?  Corvettes?  Harleys?  Not many folks can afford them these days what with being all upside down in their mortgages and all.  But sliding down hill in the mud like those drunken nights in college during the rainstorm?  That's a completely affordable way of indulging the middle aged dip.  Don't get me wrong, pretending to be a child is a good thing.  No reason to stop having fun just because your bones are more brittle.  It turns out that, like in many things, cycling is way ahead of the rest of the world.  The sport of cyclocross has been around for quite some time, as evidenced by this vintage photo.

Being a cycling enthusiast, I thought I would try the sport of cyclocross.  All the other cycling people were doing it after all.  With my head full of grave concerns such as "will people think I'm  trying to be a hipster?",  I entered into the world of 'cross (as the cool kids call it).  It's my belief that there is nothing more pathetic than a wannabe hipster.  Hipsters themselves being hyper obsessed with their image, priding themselves in identifying the exact moment that something that was obscure and interesting 5 minutes ago is now over.  Imagine being hyper obsessed and self conscious and being 5 minutes behind?  It must be awful. 

But I digress.  Back to cyclocross.  Being a beginner, they make you race at the unholy hour of 8:40 AM.  The fast and exprienced guys get to sleep in, set up camps with canopies, heaters, trainers, grills, etc.  I arrived at the venue, Pat's Acres, breakfast sitting uneasily in my belly, for the Canby Cross-Word CX Challenge.  I've spent extremely little time ever riding a bicycle off road. Pre-riding the course, with slick deep mud, puddles, a soft sandy river crossing, and technical forested sections put fear in me.  Skittering across the slick mud, teetering high in the sky, my 6'3" on 61cm 'cross bike made me feel like Bambi on ice.  After shakily making my way around the course, I strongly considered a no-start.  Very seriously if you must know.  You see, I didn't feel any need or compulsion to get muddy. Also, I knew that in the anxiety of a race, with other riders inches from my wheels, I'd go down, take other riders with me, and end up with tire tracks across my face.  When the start time arrived, I decided to ride anyway.  Starting at the back of the pack, I immediately found that I was riding up on the wheel of slower riders.  Maybe I wasn't so bad at this after all.  I went around one, then another.  My engine was starting to warm up and I was feeling the fitness of my many thousands of commuting miles.  As I ticked off the laps, my confidence in handling the mud grew.  I began feeling the flow of the trail.  I was anticipating the corners with quick upshifts and downshifts, using my weight.  I passed another rider.  I tasted mud, and I didn't care.  I was getting faster.  I stood out of the saddle Then the bell lap and it was over.  It was exhilarating.  I wanted to keep riding, keep racing.  I know I could have passed more people.  Just one more lap.  Afterwards, I realized I was caked in mud, as was my bike.

After the Race, the Ultegra got a little dirty

Miraculously to me, everything still worked!

Feeling the flow

Turns out that there were quite a few other middle aged folks out getting muddy with their bikes.  I went to test my fitness against other riders.  But I ended up gaining an appreciation for the sort of fun that only playing in the mud can give.

An update while watching le Tour

For cycling enthusiasts, the day we've been waiting for all year has arrived.  The Tour de France has begun, our DVR's will be busy for the next three weeks, and our spouses will be annoyed by our normally active outdoorsy selves as we watch the Tour and fast forward through Road ID and Michelob Ultra commercials. Spoiler alert, Bob Roll doesn't find a riding partner this year either...

Have any of you been following the controversy surrounding bike share programs and helmet use?  Bike share programs are popping up in cities around the country and they are proving to be very successful.  That sounds like a very good thing right?  Well, it now seems that this is a new front on the culture wars.  Cyclists are now being called Limousine Liberals.  In fact, some folks who call themselves 'conservative' are suddenly feeling all nanny state, big government, getting all up in your private life by noticing that many bike share users don't wear helmets.  Not only that, but they have become very concerned about non-white poor people too!  What's behind this turnabout?  They point out that but bike share users tend to be white and highly educated.  They 'worry' that the program isn't doing enough for non-white uneducated folks.  Wow! isn't it refreshing to hear so much concern for non-white low income folks from this unexpected advocate?  I wonder about the motivation.  Could it be that they are suddenly adopting this attitude because they have somehow linked bicycling with a political ideology, one that they think is opposed to theirs? It does seem that in some circles, usually circles that don't intersect much with cyclists, that people project attitudes onto cyclists as a group that just don't exist in any significant way.  I've personally talked with folks who sincerely believe that all cyclists think that they are smugly saving the environment, and that we all look down on motorists.  That we are all elitest, psychotic environmental warriers because. x Why else, they reason, would we ride our bikes in the rain? There are some eco-warriers among cyclists, but in my experience, even here in liberal Portland, OR, that most cyclists are not eco-warriers.  They cycle for many reasons.  Those include:

1. It's faster than being stuck in traffic.
2. It's time efficient in that you get a great workout during a time you would normally be sitting on your butt.
3. It's enjoyable.  It's certainly more enjoyable than stopping at the same stop sign over and over again while sitting in your car.
4. They are competitive nut jobs, and they are training for competition.
5. Weight loss.  Many folks I know who are by no means eco-warriers have become cycling enthusiasts as a result of achieving life changing weight loss and health benefits.

I admit to certain libertarian leanings, but with a dose of realism as well in that I acknowledge that there is a role for centralized government beyond which pure libertarians believe. My generally sympathetic views towards libertarian ideology make it especially hard to read this article. The video hows the author riding a bike share program bike in figure eights, exclaiming "why should I subsidize figure eights?".  The fallacy here of course is that public roads and highways are heavily subsidized with general fund tax dollars, and that nobody ever uses those roads for recreational driving.  Why should my tax dollars fund rich people driving their Mercedes to the beach?  Why are rich, educated white people using taxpayer subsidized roads to drive their expensive cars?  Why don't they have their own roads?  Why Shouldn't we be outraged by this, just as we should be outraged by rich, college educated whites using bike-share programs?  The arguments here are so sophomoric that, if I hadn't seen it myself, I would not have believed any thinking person falling prey to them. 

It should be obvious to everyone by now, regardless of your political leanings, that communities that are completely car based are ugly, loud, obnoxious, and unpleasant.  Some of us have never known a walkable, bike-able community and know nothing better than four to eight lane suburban boulevards feeding cul-de-sac's miles from the nearest grocery store, restaurant, or coffee shop.  But if you follow the market forces (high housing prices), the places that the market says people really want to live, those places tend to be less car dependent, more walkable, and more bike-able.  Even if all you want to do is go for a walk around your neighborhood or go for a jog (a group of people who don't seem to be tarred with the limousine liberal brush), one would rather live in a less car based place.  What's political about that?

My cycling glasses!

If you're a regular cyclist, you know that eye wear is extremely important.  Well, I finally invested in some real cycling glasses.   The primary barrier for me, in addition to cost, has always been my severe near sightedness.  I'm over -6 in both eyes.  After suffering burning eyes in a near freezing downpour rain last winter, I needed something to keep the water out of my eyes at a minimum and to provide more protection generally.  I was finally motivated to act.  If you have my prescription, you have only two options ; wear contacts or Bolle's prescription inserts.  The prescription inserts were not able to go all the way to my prescription, but they went as far as they could and I can't really tell the difference on the road.  They aren't perfect in their correction but they are more than adequate.  I'm happy with the purchase so far.  Contacts are not a realistic option for me.  I wore contacts for many years in my teenage and early 20's and my eyes eventually developed a sort of allergy to contacts.  Despite all of the advances in contact lens technology, I simply can't get comfortable with them.

New  wheels!

My Rolf Vectors finally wore out.  The braking surface had worn to paper thing levels, and the hubs were so far gone that they could not be rebuilt.   I estimate that they had 25k to 30k miles on them, so I feel I got my money's worth out of the Rolf's. I got a smoking deal from the Beaverton Bike N Hike on a pair of Easton EA 50's.  The wheels were a great value, but I've got to tell you, these are tire stretching, thumb numbing, tire iron snapping wheels.  I spent hours trying to get a used Conti gator skin onto the front wheel, and with numb thumbs, gave up and took it to the closest bike shop.  They mechanic there, with a tire stretcher, was not able to get it on.  Somewhat panicky, I went back to Bike n Hike thinking I would have to return the wheels.  They were able to get the tire on by using a similar tool and ganging up on it.  I'm hoping...HOPING that by switching to a foldable, and the wheel breaking in a bit, and the rim tape compressing, that I will be able to change the tire if needed in the future.  Otherwise I could be stranded.  A search of the web shows this is a somewhat common problem with EA 50's.  It seems like a manufacturing defect to me.

Summer riding, almost

Living in Portland means riding in the rain...a LOT.  It's the second week of June and still raining pretty much every day, although today was truly stunning.  But you expect rain in Portland.  Tomorrow is back to normal (meaning rain).  What you don't expect is the odd, inexplicably aggro behavior from motorists you find in many other cities.  Here's my strange motorist story du jour.  I have a favorite loop near my house that takes me over a nice little 1000 foot 'mountain' and through some picturesque wine country.  Not bad for a 24 mile loop that starts from my house.  So yesterday, I decide to go for a spin.  As I approached a stop light that is part of the few miles of suburban sprawl I must ride through in order to get to the wine country, I noticed a little blue Ford Escort that wasn't pulling away from the green.  It was just sitting there.  As I passed by in the bike lane, I noticed that two chubby teenagers, a girl and a pasty looking boy were both leaning to the right giving me the finger.  I was a bit astonished and perplexed.  They then zoomed forward and lurched to a stop at the next light a few hundred feet down the road.  This time the light was red, forcing me to stop.  I looked over again and sure enough, as we sat there, both had their middle fingers out, but this time, since they were stopped, I could see that they were staring straight forward, not looking at me, but with big, pleased with themselves grins on their faces.  Clearly they thought they were being fiendishly clever, and couldn't wait to tell their friends about their exploit with the cyclist later.  I couldn't help thinking to myself "these must be those kids who are fed too many large sugary drinks and processed food.  It mus also affect their intelligence".  Maybe I'm just being nostalgic, but it seems to me that back in my day, we really WERE clever when cruising about in our cars and antagonizing others.

Here is the link to the loop.  Watch out for a blue Escort.

Running is Bad for You

For a blog title "No Excuses Cycling", I've been full of excuses the last 6 weeks.  I'm noticeably thicker around the middle and thinner in the thighs, primarily evidenced by the fit of my 7forallmankind. They actually fit better.  It should seriously take a lot longer to lose fitness and get fat than 6 weeks don't you think?  This leads me to a mini-rant on running, a boring, jarring, and slow form of human powered locomotion relative to cycling and without the beautiful, complex and expensive carbon fiber machinery. Nonetheless, it promises a very effective aerobic workout in a short period of time relative to other workouts.  And, while it's very boring, it also means you don't have to think about it...at all.  With those seductive attributes, I was drawn in.  But, learn from my mistake, running is bad for you! 

Seriously though, hope seems to be on the horizon.  My excuses may be over. This has been a fairly good weekend for the calf and I will try riding later this week.  I'm actually beginning to think it may have been a tendon or ligament behind my knee that was strained because, as the healing has progressed, the pain is localizing in that area.  Those Sevens will be baggy in the waist and tight in the the thighs again soon.  This time, I'm going to resist the temptation to go too hard too fast.  I'll only do what my strength level allows.

As I've been lying about getting fat and skinny in the wrong places, I've also been catching up on some reading.  I recommend two cycling oriented blogs.  Bike Snob NYC and Grit and Glimmer.

The 70's Cycling Boom and the Future

May is national bike month, so it moves me to muse on bicycles, motorists, and their interactions.  Like what I suspect is pretty darn close to 100 percent of all cyclists, I am also a motorist.  But this post will not be about cyclist rights or motorist rights.  Instead I'd like to reminisce a bit about an earlier time.  I learned to ride without training wheels in 1972, and shortly after got a brand new Schwinn Stingray.  I immediately began riding it everywhere.  I wasn't unusual.  Every kid in town had a bike and also rode everywhere.  In the town of 25,000 people, there were no roads in town with more than two lanes.  There were no traffic jams of any kind.  The schools had row upon row of bike rack filled with bikes.  The entrances to the city parks were filled with bicycles, with the parks themselves filled with kids of all ages in unsupervised play. That is of course an entirely different topic.  I rode my bike in that town until I left for college.  In all of that time I don't remember a single example of car-on-bike or bike-on-car aggression.  I don't remember any controversy of any kind about whether or not cyclists should be on the road.  I don't remember any motorist ever once complaining that a cyclist was slowing him down in any way.

The 70's were one of the documented cycling booms, and it hit Austin, Minnesota with full strength.  Perhaps it's nostalgia, but something ugly has happened to this country in the ensuing 40 years.  The number of miles we drive has skyrocketed.  Our roads have become gridlocked with traffic.  Our main streets have mostly deteriorated and big box stores with 40 acre parking lots milling with herds of SUV's on the outskirts of town have taken their place.  In an attempt to accommodate all of the motor vehicles, our roads have expanded to four, six, and even eight lane boulevards.  But as soon as these boulevards are built, they immediately become gridlocked.  And so we build more, and they too become clogged.  These boulevards are ugly, loud, and unpleasant places for everybody, but especially for cyclists.  People sit in their cars, stuck behind thousands of other cars.  As a participant in our society, I have spent many many hours sitting with them in my cars.  Many of the people in those cars, for whatever reason, become absolutely unglued by the sight of a cyclist.  Not the thousands of cars jammed onto the same road they are, causing them to require 30 minutes to travel 4 miles.  No, it's the one cyclist that gets them unhinged.

At times I have despaired at these changes.  But lately, I have renewed hope that it has all only been temporary, and we are beginning to regain our senses and returning to a more civil society.  Seeing ordinary people out on bicycles lifts my spirits.

Bicycle Traffic Jams

I ride almost exclusively on the west side of Portland, out to Beaverton and the western countryside.  On one occasion, I took the family into town for an appointment on the east side on Burnside, just over the Bridge.  As I sat in the car waiting for them to come out, I was astonished at the stream riders heading up Burnside.  It the evening commute, the weather wasn't particularly nice, so these weren't mere fair weather riders.  It was a bicycle super highway of relatively fit, happy people going home from work.  Well, thanks to Nathan Farney and Gabe Graff, here are some photographs of a legitimate bike traffic jam caused by a bridge raising due to a passing ship.

Getting by with few bikes

As a father with one kid a freshman in college, and the other a freshman in high school, I'm looking at 7 more years of extreme college expenses and years of paying PLUS loans to follow.  Like many cycling enthusiasts, I yearn to have a stable of bikes, each with its own specific purpose. The way I figure it, I need 8 bicycles to meet my most basic needs.  In order of importance, these are:

1. The comfort road bike.  This bike is exemplified by the Specialized Roubaix.  For long hours in the saddle such as weekend solo rides through the countryside, this ultra light bike with a set of lightweight climbing wheels gets the job done in comfort.
2. The aero road bike.  Pioneered and best exemplified by the Cervelo S5, the aero road bike is the stiff, fast, light machine for the fast group ride on the weekends.  Grinding your friends into submission on long pulls and sprinting for town signs, the aero road bike is the tool for the job.
3. The cyclocross bike.  When fall rolls around and the road season ends, road cyclists aren't yet ready to hang up their wheels.  It's time for 'cross season.  The cyclocross bike is a drop bar road bike with beefier wheels and more wheel clearance for mud.  Also, mountain bike pedals are used instead of road pedals for quick mounting and dismounting.  I like my Norco, so here is their top end example.    
4. The time trial bike.  You may know these as triathlon bikes, these are either super dorky or super cool depending on your point of view.  The time trial bike is built for maximum speed in the individual timed effort.  Everything, including comfort takes a back seat to aerodynamic efficiency in this category.  Once again, Cervelo typifies the breed with the very successful Cervelo P3.
5. The track bike.  I gottsta have a track bike.  Riding the old ill fitting club bike simply sucks.  I'm a sprinter/jumper by genetics.  Being big and strong with fast twitch muscle means the track bike features big in my priorities.  Track bikes are fixed gear, no brakes, and with aggressive geometry once again prioritizing handling precision and speed over comfort.  A Veloforma Pista Pro seems about right to me.
6. The short trip cruiser.  Don't want to put on cycling shoes for a trip to the grocery store?  Riding around the block with the kids?  Imagine how ridiculous you would look on the time trial bike!  You would only look slightly less ridiculous on any of numbers 1 through 5.  No, you need to have the short trip cruiser.  This bike should be upright, comfortable, and with a simple platform pedal suitable for any type of shoe. 
7. The mountain bike.  OK, so even a dedicated roadie needs a mountain bike, and possibly many.  Since this is a minimal list, and not a dream list, I stick with the "cross country" bike.  These are all around machines designed for traveling long distances off road through a variety of terrain.  They are lighter weight than the purpose built down-hill bikes, for example.  At the risk of sounding like a Specialized bigot (I don't own any Specialized bikes), the classic Stumpjumper is a good example of the breed.
8. The commuter bike.  Last place?  How is it that the bike that will be ridden the most, and relied upon to get you to and from work on a daily basis be the last on the list?  The reason is really that a few of the other bikes can be made to function as a commuter.  More about that in a moment.  Bikes designed specifically for high speed, performance commuting are a relatively recent phenomenon, although they have a lot in common with the traditional touring or randonneuring bike with fenders.  The Trek Portland is an early example, though the spec was steadily dumbed down throughout its life and finally discontinued due to being insanely overpriced for the spec.  The Kona Honky Inc is a good example of a smart spec, but needs fenders and lights added after the fact to be functional as a commuter. 

I don't have 8 bikes.  So in order to do all of the cycling activities I want without owning 8 bikes, I need to make a single bike work for many purposes.  For this, it means using a standard road race bike as a daily commuter.  The first product that makes this possible is the SKS Race Blade Fenders.  These things make no noise, stay in place, and keep me dry.  Best of all, they go on and off in minutes with no hardware required.  The second thing needed is a good set of lights.  I don't have anything special for the headlight.  That's an investment I need to make.  Currently I have an el-cheapo blinking LED white light that uses AA batteries.    I'd really like to call your attention to this little guy, the Serfas TL-ST.

Made of silicon, it wraps around the seat post or seat stay and gives amazing light.  The battery is still going strong after many hours of night time flashing on my commutes.  It's minimalist, functional, efficient, and inexpensive.  Sure, the road bike sees way more dirt, grit, rain, and grime than most.  But until I hit the lottery and can buy all 8 bikes I need, the road bike has to serve many purposes.

The calf strikes again

You'd think that at my age I would have learned a few things.  I was a track athlete in college with solid coaching.  I learned about strength training and the importance of warming up, and not over doing it. But there I was, in the gym on the treadmill doing intervals.  I was with my lovely wife and we were side by side doing a minute of high intensity with a minute rest.  I was cranking the speed up a little more each time.  On the 10th or so interval, I cranked it up to 12 mph and was cruising along, enjoying how smooth and fluid I was running.  I imagined that the other people in the gym were turning to admire my graceful form.  Heart 'Magic Man' was cranked on the iPod and I could barely stifle a self satisfied smirk when....'ping'....it was my calf.  OK, maybe it didn't actually make a sound but, in my memory, I could swear there was a ping.  My calf was pulled.

I have a history of long recovery times when it comes to calf pulls or tears.  Long as in 6 months...or even a year.  It's always the right calf.  Maybe it's never recovered from the first bad tear.  As I limped at a slow walking pace on the treadmill, my wife casting worried glances my way, I suddenly found 'Magic Man' to be annoying instead of rockin'.  I turned the volume down as I struggled to let this sink in.  I'd pushed it too hard.  I wasn't ready to run that fast.  Heck, I hadn't been running much at all lately.  I'd spent all of my time on the bike getting ready for the racing season.  Now I was lame.

This came on the heals of a week of travel with no bike, followed by a week of stomach heaving, feverish sickness.  What makes this all the more difficult to deal with is that I had gotten myself in pretty good shape throughout the winter.

With the calf not making much improvement, I started riding my commute again.  Yes, it ached, but it wasn't getting worse.  At least I was getting some cardio in, and I was taking it easy.  As the day of the Estacada time trial approached, I agonized over weather or not I should race.  At the last minute, I signed up.   As I neared the start house, I downed a bottle of noticed everyone had water bottles.  So I started asking folks if it was 10 miles or 20 miles.  It turns out it was over 20!  It was 10 point something out...and another 10 point something back!!  OK, well, unwatered, I set off.  Within the first minute I knew that I had damaged the calf.  Favoring the leg, and limited by my lack of cardio fitness, I rode on, determined to finish and perform respectably.  I did end up averaging just over 19 mph.  I would have been happy with that, given the hills and the strong winds, if everyone else hadn't been so much faster.

A time trial and trials

This is me riding the Jack Frost Time trial in the Eddy Merckx class.  Picture is courtesy of Oregon Cycling Action.  It was a cold, drizzly morning, spent in the parking lot at Vancouver Lake park alternatively on the trainer, sitting in the car staying warm, or walking to the porta potty for a nervous pee.  People watching is always fun at bike races.  I particularly enjoy looking at the vehicles that people use to bring their bikes and bodies to the races.  Next time I'll get some pictures!

I had lifted weights very hard the Sunday prior to this event, which had me doing a robot walk with legs feeling like cement until the Thursday prior.  I did get some riding in on that Thursday and a little on Friday and Saturday.  Certainly not ideal preparation for the time trial.  Nonetheless, I was signed up and rode.  I was scheduled to be the very last guy out, but a Cat 1 rider on a full time trial rig ended up going after me.  Suffice it to say, I was the last one in. I didn't want to race on my fat 25c commuting gator skin tires, so I switched to an alternative set of wheels with 23c tires just before the race.  Unfortunately, I waited too long to get the magnet adjusted on the spare set of wheels so I was without speed the entire race.  I simply rode as fast as I could go, occasionally dipping over the edge such that I had to back off and recover.  The finish line also came as a surprise, partly as a result of not being able to track distance on my odo.  The result is that I had more left in the tank than I should have at the end of the race.  So while I am not real happy with my performance, I got a pretty nice picture out of the experience. The results of the race are posted on the OBRA (Oregon Bicycle Racing Association) web site.