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.