November 2006

I have been riding clipless pedals almost exclusively for the past 7 or 8 years.   I did try some platforms with Power-Grips for a short period of time about 3 years ago.  Yesterday, to make it easier to do some other activities along my morning commute I changed from the clipless pedals to the platform pedals that came with the 1988 Trek I use as my regular commute bike.  The first day reminded me, in part, why I had switched.  The pedal/toe clip arrangement held my feet a bit more static than usual, which led to some irritation of my always problematic knees, especially the left which has been a problem all fall.  And the tennis shoes I wore are a bit wider in the heel than the sandals I usually use leading to frequent contact between my heels and the chainstays.  And I had one near tipover as I had trouble pulling my foot out of the toe clip at one busy T-intersection.  But I decided to continue the experiment today, but I did remove the toe-clips.  The knees are happier, but it did lead to some humorous incidents.  One in particular that had my wife shaking her head was as I started out at an intersection with my pedals at 12 and 6 o’clock, and tried to pull the lower pedal up.  Of course, without clips or cleats all I succeed in lifting was my foot.  Ooops.  I may continue the experiment maybe with some wider BMX pedals.

As a transportation cyclist, and occasional driver, it drives me nuts to see cyclists out after dark with inappropriate lighting. Tonight I was riding on a very dark tree lined path when I came around a curve to find a cyclist with no lights going the opposite direction. Riding without lights is just plain wrong; it is unsafe for the un-lit cyclist and it is a danger to other users of the roads and paths. Lights are so inexpensive I see no reason why any cyclist should not have decent front and rear lights at least bright enough so that others can see them from appropriate distances. A week ago I had the opposite problem along the same path; a cyclist with an overly bright and improperly aimed front light coming straight at me. HID and other very bright light systems have a purpose, but it is not transportation cycling in a city. They are too bright given the need. And worse, most who use them just point them forward with no thought about where the beam is aimed. Getting a high-power HID light straight in the retina on a dark path is a danger. Stay lit, but use appropriate lights folks!

We spent the Thanksgiving weekend with my wife’s family, doing the family dinner (on Friday) and some more family business throughout the weekend. But we did get out to enjoy some nice windy fall-like weather on the bikes. Friday morning, while dinner was cooking, we did a quick 28-mile loop through some of the California Central Coast wine country, musing on the reasons the leaves on some grape vines were brown, some yellow, some red/yellow, and others still green. No definitive answer, but the leaves that were still all green were Chardonnay. Somehow in doing a loop we managed to plan it so there were headwinds most of the ride, with tailwinds on one very short segment of about a mile.

Saturday morning we did a somewhat longer loop with a bit more climbing. We rode to the Avila area and climbed up See Canyon Road to the crest of the hill, then continued across a mile or so of dirt path to continue on Prefumo Canyon Road. Some short and very steep sections on Prefumo Canyon Road ended at a point where we got million dollar views of Morro Bay to the north of us. Great views that would be even better if something could be done with the smoke stacks of the power plant. Somewhere along that segment of the ride I passed the 8,000 mile mark of riding for 2006. I knew it would happen that day, but it is just an arbitrary number so I did not keep track and do a formal marking of the event during the ride. I would prefer to think that the view at the top was my award, or reward if you prefer. The descent on Prefumo Canyon Road was nice though a bit technical in places. Once down into the valley then we had to deal with the Thanksgiving weekend shopper traffic. The multiple distracted drivers turning into the Home Depot and Circuit City were a potential danger we watched and avoided as we made our way eastward to Edna Valley wine country and a planned stop at a deli for lunch. The take home lesson for the day is that if you plan a lunch stop at a spot where there is no alternatives for several miles then it is good to check to make sure the place you plan to stop is open. We arrived at the deli, the lunch spot of multiple past rides in the area, to find it closed and in the process of being remodeled by new owners. With calorie stores low, we made a quick stop at a local winery, Claiborne and Churchill, for a half-dozen bottles of wine which I delicately packed into a pannier and small saddlebag. My wife and I then headed west to the coast in search of lunch. Kudos to the staff at Pasta Bella in Pismo Beach; they allowed us to park our bikes inside while we ate lunch with my wife’s parents. After lunch we completed the 42-mile loop, stopping once more along the way to view the Monarch Butterflies in a grove along Highway 1 in Pismo Beach. The weather for the day was cooperative: clear and cool with light winds most of the time. We even had some tailwinds in sections!

Today is the anniversary of my birth, an event that I try to downplay but those around me want to celebrate. I become quite reflective on this day each year, and much of my thinking happens as I ride. I think about the history of this date; it was 43 years ago today that JFK was assassinated in Dallas. I think about my life, and put it in the context of others. This morning my reflection was on my decision to change jobs, a decision I pulled the trigger on yesterday by submitting my resignation, and about the context of my life and careers in relationship to my father’s. My father was old-school ‘work for one company most of your life and retire with a pension’ type of person. That does not happen much anymore, and certainly has not been the experience of myself or my siblings. Lots of thinking, so much so that I missed a turn on my commute. Oh well, what is another quarter of a mile, anyway. A few years ago I got into the habit of making a long, solo ride across the mountains to the coast and back. Perhaps I will need to go back to doing some version of that type of ride in two years (my wife will not let me next year due to the date coinciding with Thanksgiving).

Having grown up where there were four distinct seasons I sometimes have issues with the basic two season schema where I live now in northern California. The dry ’summer’ with occasional hot spells punctuating long periods of foggy and cool is replaced with the ‘winter’ season that often has cooler temperatures and regular rainfall with little in the way of a transition. But there are times when a transitional Fall season tries to rear its head, and I glory in those few days each year. This past Sunday was just such a day. My wife had gone on a moderate training ride on Saturday returning with tales of the Fall-like conditions along one road as it follows a creek. So on Sunday I joined her as we reversed the route. The first 10 miles or so were the standard suburbia crawl, until we reached the upper stretch of Alpine Road as it follows the canyon of a small creek past isolated, but expensive, houses. Our 9:30AM start was in foggy conditions, but the fog burned off and the sun shone through as we started climbing up Alpine Road, reveling in the yellow-leafed Sycamores providing some ‘fall color’ to the ascent. It was but a tiny taste of a Fall season, but it is about all I will get for this year. Next year we may have to spend some time in the higher elevations of the Sierra Nevada into October to get a more extended view of a Fall color spectacular.

An interesting conundrum. At the moment my commute, by shortest route, is about 9 miles. The company I am working for now is closing the campus at which I work and in three weeks we will be moving. After the move, if I stay with this company, my commute will be 2.35 miles each way. Almost too close for cycle commuting, but too far to walk especially given that there are no pedestrian facilities for most of that commute, and I would be forced to dodge cars across a major arterial then walk in the lane on a frontage road … that fronts two different freeways. Recently I have been given an offer to join a new company, a startup. The VP of Products is an old friend, and the Chairman of the Board a great guy who has personally broken bread with me to sell me on his company. So what are the downsides? Well, there is the question of stability, leaving a company with 14,000 or so employees for one with 6 or so. I’ve done that before, so not a major concern. The biggie is that I will be taking on a commute that is 25 miles or so, each direction. How will I deal with expanding my commute to 2.5 times the current length, or 10 times what it would be in a few weeks. Time to ponder the options.I am lucky in that I live between two stations for the commuter train line in the region. One station is about 2 miles to the south, but a bit over 3 miles by road. Another is about 4.5 miles, by road, to the WNW from my house. The new work location is relatively close to three train stations on the same line. Given that I will not want to ride 50+ miles a day on the commute, or to put it the correct way, I will not want to dedicate 3+ hours of my life per day to commuting, the train option will be a given if I take the new position. How well does it play out? My wife had an early morning appointment today, so I decided to hit the road and test some possibilities. A quick check of the train schedule showed there were options at 7:13A and 7:18A at the station to the south, and one at 7:37 at the station to the WNW. We were leaving the house at about 7:05A, which meant it was unlikely I could ride the 3 or so miles to that station, purchase a ticket, and be ready to board a train at either 7:13A or 7:18A. So off to the WNW for option C. It was a pleasant ride under overcast skies with temps in the mid-50’s. No problems encountered, so I was ready on the platform, ticket in hand, about 10 minutes before the train arrived. I joined several other cycle commuters in the ‘bike car’ for our trip north, a rather quick trip on the ‘Limited’, meaning it skipped the first 3 stops after I boarded. It was a nice ride of just over 30 minutes to my planned stop. After leaving the train I did a mile or so through an industrial district then another half mile or so in a nice neighborhood of post-WWII houses before coming to the turnoff for the office park in which I may end up working. The train option, even with just the ‘Limited’, took just over an hour and required about 7.5 miles of riding. Not bad, and if I get an ‘Express’ or ‘Bullet’ train I should be able to shave off a few more minutes. Would definitely need some reading material and the iPod, though.Time to try the trek home, and for that leg I attempted to ride the entire distance. Problem was, I had not mapped out the route and the first 8-12 miles were to be in areas with which I have just a passing familiarity. I found the fire exit out the back of the business park, a way I could avoid the one road in and a way that is not open to those driving to that business park (guess the neighborhood does not want the traffic). The first mile or so went smoothly, then looming in front of me was the 50 lb gorilla, or more correctly a 90 or so acre horse racing track that is squeezed between the railroad right-of-way and a major freeway. I was unfamiliar with ways to navigate around the facility so I opted to skirt to the west, and a bit more to the west. Soon I was in the hills, riding through pleasant neighborhoods with far too many stop signs. Turning one corner, looming ahead was what I had feared: a several block long hill, with one section that must be about a 20% grade. Not knowing of options to the flatter lands to the east, I continued climbing, then descending, then climbing again, for several miles. I did pass a couple of roads I knew could lead me down to near train stations, but I ignored those as I wanted to ride the entire return. About halfway home I did re-enter familiar territory and did divert down into the flatlands for the rest of ride. It was almost 27 miles from the office park to home, a figure I should be able to cut by 2-3 miles once I figure out how to get around the race track. It is not something I would want to do daily, but it is possible. By the way, once I was home I immediately turned to the east and rode the 9 miles to my current office. I had managed to turn my normal 9 mile commute into 43 miles of riding and a 20-something mile train trip.At this point, it looks like the commute may be manageable if I: (a) work from home a couple of days a week, and (b) use the train to do the bulk of the miles between home and the office. Time to talk the wife and come to a decision on the change. Stay tuned ….

There was a lot of company during my commutes over the ’summer of $3 gasoline’; it seemed that the high cost of solo vehicular commuting led many to get onto their bikes and ride to work. I was out of town the week after Labor Day, but when I returned there were notably fewer commuters on local roads. Through September the numbers slowly dwindled, a trend that continued through October. Since the change to Standard Time from Daylight Savings Time, a change that results in it getting darker much sooner by the clock, the number of cycle commuters has shrunk to near none. On October 30, 2006, the first commute day after the time change, I counted 5 other cycle commuters in the 15 miles I commuted to work (one was my wife), and none on my way home. At the peak in the summer I would usually see many dozens on the same route, in each direction, and would rarely be in a place where there was not another cycle-commuter within sight. It is truly the time for the ‘hard-cores’ to show that cycle-commuting can work year-round in our climate. Some high visibility clothing, good lights, warm cloths can allow one to commute on their bike at any time of the year.See you on the road!

Welcome to the musings and commentaries of the Wandering Cyclist! I am a dedicated cyclist, using a bicycle as transportation and for recreation. I spend a great deal of time seeing the world from the saddle of a two -wheeled human-powered conveyance. It is early November, 2006 and I have ridden almost 8,000 miles to date this year. The bulk of those miles are commuting to and from my job at a major software company at a remote campus. The commute at this time involves dealing with freeway interchanges, expressways, high-speed arterials, and, depending on route, a number of other obstacles. A small amount of my yearly mileage comes from cycle-touring. I find that the slow speeds, and need to spend time with the land and the people, give a more intimate touring experience than one gets when using motorized transport. And in between commuting and touring, my wife and I spend time cycling for recreation, a means to get some exercise, socialize, and get to know more about our region of the country. And, for my wife, the bicycle is a means to feed an intense competitive spirit. In these postings I hope to give you, the reader, a bit of an insight into my dealings with the world from atop the saddle of my bicycles. And perhaps a bit of my thinking about my role as and advocate for the bicycle and bicycling in our world.