April 2007

The weather is getting nicer, which is bringing out this years crop of rookies, those who want to try cycle commuting for the first time, as well as the ‘fair weather birds’, those who cycle commute during the 5-6 good weather months, only.  There are usually 6-10 regulars who get on the train I ride most mornings.  This morning there were 6 additional folks, none of whom I have seen on the train before.  The rookies are easy to spot; they look lost and do not have destination tags on their bikes.  Both the rookies and the ‘fair weather birds’ are causing problems in the general order that has prevailed on the train through the winter.  The regulars sort the bikes by destination, most knowing where the others get off.  When I got on the train this morning the outer bike in 5 of the 8 stacks were getting off at the next stop, 1 was not tagged, and the other two were getting off at the same station, 4 stops before mine.  Chaos reigned as those of use going further up the line were re-ordering the stacks to get our bikes to the inner parts and make the queues managable.   My bet is that a lot of the rookies will take the end of the week off, as the forecast is calling for cooler and possibly damp weather.   For now, it looks as if training camp has started; will have to make sure the conductors remember to carry some extra destination tags with them.

and 15 degrees F of air temp can make.  I went out early this afternoon and the cooler air temps had me reinvigorated.  I did not push hard, just did steady tempo and soon found myself nearing the base of Old La Honda Road.  What the heck, a quick right turn and I was on my way to Skyline.  I was on the Colnago, which still has a standard double, so no gears to dig down to when needed, but I set a good tempo and was soon passing folks with regularity.  After the first mile I realized the tempo was a bit too fast so I throttled back about 10 RPMs on the cadence and kept plugging away.  I picked the tempo back up at mile 3, as I was feeling good.  I usually sprint the last hundred yards or so, but a jeep coming down was taking too much of the road so I just kept my pace to the stop sign.  It has been at least three years since I timed myself on that climb, but given the times of some of those I passed I am sure that I did the climb today somewhere in the low mid-20’s (23-24 min.).  Not bad for a BUG (Beyond Ultra Geezer) with big gears.   Can’t wait to get the compact crank on that bike and see what I can do on the climbs.

I do much better in cool temperatures than hot; I start to have issues when the thermometer goes above 90F. I lived in Arizona for a few years, but chose the northern part around Flagstaff where a mid-90 day in July is rare but may be followed by temps near or below freezing that night.  In that era I would refuse to go to Phoenix to visit ‘family’ from May through September.  It is hard enough to deal with the LA like sprawl without having to do it triple digit temperatures.  And the old saw that it was ‘dry heat’ was not entirely true in those days as at that time they used flood irrigation in the cotton fields in town and even in neighborhoods in town.  When the irrigation gates opened and neighborhoods went under water you could get triple digits temps and 90%+ humidity in areas of town, a nasty combination.

Yesterday the thermometer climbed into the 90’s around the South Bay and lower peninsula.  I went out for a ride but it quickly became apparent that the heat was getting the better of me.  The legs were dead and even moderate climbs were more difficult than normal.  I worked through a series of short climbs in the Los Altos Hills area, ending on Moody Road.   The climb up Moody to Page Mill was a slog; I was working far too hard for the progress I was making.   I lowered the pace, kept drinking, and made it to the junction.  No way was I going to turn left and go up Page Mill as I was having enough problems and know that I always have problems in the heat when I hit that steep section between gate 3 and gate 4.  I turned right, and made the stop at gate 1 to refill the water bottles, taking the opportunity to soak the helmet and back of the jersey.  That cooled me down enough that I felt I might be able to ride to Skyline, but know myself enough not to follow that foolish thought.  I opted to continue riding the lower hills of the peninsula.  And I stopped at Carvel’s near the end of the ride for a cool down ice-cream cone.  Yummmmm.
The Wife is, in general, the opposite; she can shiver when it is 80F.  But she does have problems with exertion in the heat, as do I.  So I am feeling sympathetic and empathetic as she races in Madera where the temps yesterday were mid-90’s and she had to race both a crit and a TT.  When we spoke yesterday afternoon she was still trying to bring down the core temp after overheating on the TT, but has hope that today’s road race will be in cooler temps, both because of the earlier start time and the general cooling trend in the region.  Good luck, Ms. Chatterbox

A guy I have corresponded with in the past, Wiley Davis of Bozeman, Montana, is starting a quarterly magazine devoted to utility cycling. The magazine, called Practical Pedal, will start publication this summer and subscriptions for the first year are free. It will be interesting to see how well it does, and if it can be an effective voice for the utility cycling community.

Wiley has his own blog related to the magazine launch. I found a recent article interesting as it equates bicycling and Open Source software. I am working on an Open Source software project, and am actually sitting in the lobby of a major Open Source software conference as I write this post. This blog runs on Open Source software: WordPress, MySQL, and Linux. His blog post has a photo of a ‘UNIX’ brand bicycle, which I have not heard of before, but find it interesting since I have been involved in the UNIX operating system community since AT&T let it out of Bell Labs circa 1974 or so.

Check out Wiley’s blog and, if interested, sign up for his magazine. And the usual disclaimer applies: I have no financial interest in the magazine or his blog, just interested in the subject matter.

I rode topless yesterday. I left home without the helmet and did not realize it until 20 miles later when we stopped to top off the water bottles at the Woodside General Store. Strange that I did not realize I did not have the helmet on, and that The Wife did not either. When I realized there was no helmet on my head a couple sitting there said they thought I had one on when I rode up, but it was nowhere around.  When we got home the helmet was sitting there on the rack of the commuter bike.

The last time I started a ride without a helmet was in late September 2002 as we were heading out from Volterra, in Tuscany, to do quick pre-dinner loop. We were going to ride west across the valley to the next hill town, Montecatini Val di Cecina, and about a block into the ride I realized I did not have a helmet. We were climbing a steep hill to get to the main road heading west; I did a quick U-Turn and rode back to the hotel, got the helmet, and met My Companion (now The Wife) at the junction with the main road. I cannot remember the last time, before yesterday, that I did an entire ride without a lid.

The Wife will be watching me closely from now on to make sure I have the helmet on before leaving the house. She was very worried yesterday after we realized I did not have it, and threatened to cut short her training ride to accompany me home. She got more worried later in the ride, but she has already written about that.

I am a sandal person. My regular footwear at work are Teva sandals. It is a very rare day when I put on closed toe shoes. I even wore Teva sandals at my wedding reception, given a pass to do that by The Wife. Up until three years ago about the only time I was in closed toe shoes was on the bike. I would put on the closed bike shoes in the morning, ride to work, change to the Tevas, then reverse in the evening. Then I found the Shimano SPD Sandals. These alone were enough to get me to change from SpeedPlay X pedals on one bike to SpeedPlay Frog pedals so I could ride in the sandals and free the toes. Over time the X pedals on all my bikes got replaced with Frogs and I started riding in the sandals almost exclusively. I have ridden in them on tours, in the snow, in rain, in freezing temperatures, and the only concession I have made is to change what I wear between the foot and the sandal. In wet weather I put on SealSkinz waterproof socks, in very cold weather I may have on two pair of wool cycling socks, and if it is very warm I may let the toes go au naturel.

The sandals have become something of a conversation point. Frequently, other riders will realize I am wearing sandals and ask about them. The usual questions are:

• Q: What about cleats?
• A: Any SPD (2 screw) compatible cleat can be mounted.
• Q: Are they stiff enough?
• A: Define ‘enough’; I have no problems, even on steep climbs.
• Q: Don’t your feet get cold?
• A: Sometimes, but they do in shoes, too. I use socks to regulate temperature.

A few weeks ago, when the Colnago came to live with us, I broke out the SpeedPlay X/2 pedals and the Sidi Energy shoes. That was OK, but on the longer rides my feet started complaining, as usual. Last week I put Frogs on the Colnago for the Sea Otter 100 mile Road Tour, mostly for ease in walking at the rest stops. Today I was conflicted as I went to the garage to go out for the ride: put the X/2 pedals back on and ride with closed shoes, or use the Frog/sandal combination. The sandals won.

I still have two pairs of closed toe cycling shoes. The Sidi Energy shoes I use with the SpeedPlay X pedals are now about six-seven years old, but still holding up. I saved them from the shears of the ER nurse after I got drop kicked (presumably by a motor vehicle) [WARNING: Graphic content if you follow this link] in March 2002. Her excuse was she could not figure out the release. The Sidi Dominators, now with Frog cleats (formerly with Time ATAC cleats), are embarrassingly new looking though they are four years old. Perhaps I should give them more of a chance, but the toes keep screaming that they want to be free.

I saw the following sign on a strip mall in San Mateo:

Chez Nicole
Donuts and Chinese Food

Hmmm, French name with donuts and Chinese Food. Really makes one want to stop and try it out ….

1. If you are going to drive to Laguna Seca, get there early or be mentally prepared for the slow crawl to the (distant) parking area.
2. If you drive in, be mentally prepared for the slow crawl back to town.
3. If you do not need the car, stay near the Fremont St./Hwy 218 junction (Seaside/Monterey border) and ride to the event; in most cases this is likely faster than driving in and parking.
4. If you ride to the festival, avoid the Hwy 68 entrance … unless you like steep climbs.
5. If you have a choice of bikes, take the lighter one as you will be carrying it up and down stairs at the bridges.
6. If you have Look or SpeedPlay pedals, keep the cleat covers handy.
7. Be prepared to stand in lines.
8. If rain is in the forecast, keep the raingear handy since your car will likely be very far from where you are at the moment the rain starts.
9. Above all else, even if you are not racing in a circuit race, take some time to ride the track.  Great surface, a short but steep climb, followed by an amazing twisting descent with properly banked turns so you can get up some speed!  Whee!!!!

Every April the Sea Otter Classic, a celebration of cycling, is held at Laguna Seca raceway near Monterey, CA. Laguna Seca, which means dry lake or lagoon in Spanish, sits in an old, dry lake bed. Or should I say, usually dry lake bed. My wife raced, with her team, in the Cat 4 Women’s circuit race last Friday, a beautiful sunny day, albeit a bit on the windy side. I was stuck at work, but made it to Monterey in time for a team dinner courtesy of their largest sponsor, Tri-Flow. We planned to stay the weekend, mixing in some cycling with some relaxation, a celebration of our wedding anniversary. Saturday we searched out breakfast items, ending up by luck at a place called “Kathy’s Cafe” in Monterey where we had a large and filling breakfast. We then dressed to cycle, and headed for Laguna Seca to pick up our registration packets for the Sunday ‘Road Tour’ (100 miles, they said) and to spend some time helping out in the Tri-Flow booth in the exhibitor’s village to thank the team’s sponsor. The weather forecast for Saturday had a chance of rain, and they said a ‘few hundredths of an inch, or less” for the South Bay, more to the north. Being further south we expected very little, and were hopeful that the light rain that had fallen overnight was all we would see.

We arrived at the track about 9:30AM, and parked in the far reaches of Wolf Hill and hiked to the registration tent. It took only a few minutes to get the registration material, after which we headed into the village to find the Tri-Flow tent. It had started to drizzle lightly as we had walked from the car, but as we headed into the exhibitor area the skies opened and the deluge started. We ducked in and out of shelter to avoid the rain, but got distracted by the Women’s Pro Circuit race in progress on the track. As soon as we got near the start/finish line, under a bridge, the race was halted due to mud and debris flowing onto the track due to the runoff from the rain. With no action to watch we darted out from under the bridge and found refuge in the Toyota Hybrid Energy trailer, waiting for a reprieve from the downpour. After a while, with the rain continuing to fall steadily, we left the shelter of the trailer and hopscotched from tent to tent until we found the Tri-Flow folks, who were shutting down due to the lack of traffic during the rain. The walkways had become pools of water if the surface was more gravelly, or mud puddles if the surface was the local clay, all of which made walking less than fun. From atop the Yokohama entry bridge the old lake bed was once again taking shape as a water reservoir. Thoroughly soaked we decided to make an exit and headed for the car. Just inside the entrance to the parking lot some bozo in an oversized 4WD truck gunned his engine trying to climb a small grade, throwing mud everywhere, including all over me; injury to the insult of carrying significant water in the fabric of my clothing. The rain continued, more or less constantly, until 2:30-3:00PM which led us to abandon all plans for outdoor cycling activities for the day though my wife did do a 45 minute stint on the trainer indoors.

Sunday morning we arose way too early in order to make the 7:00AM mass start of the ‘Road Tour’. We ate breakfast, packed the car, checked out of the motel, and headed for Starbucks on the way to the track. We got better parking on Sunday, next to the Skip Barber driving school in the middle of the raceway area. While my wife got ready to ride I made some last minute decisions; I added a long-sleeve wool base layer under the short sleeve jersey and ditched the arm warmers, then I changed the SpeedPlay X/2 pedals for SpeedPlay frogs so I could ride in sandals rather than my closed shoes. I think both were wise decisions. We got to the start line a few minutes before 7:00AM, after I warmed up with a few laps of the parking lot. At the start line, on the famed track, we joined a couple of members of my wife’s club and team. The tour was a clockwise loop around the northern Santa Lucia mountain range, crossing the range just west of Greenfield using Arroyo Seco and Carmel Valley Road. The journey east and south/southeast was fast, with a brisk tailwind most of way. We were disorganized at first, but at about mile 33-34 we started a paceline with me pulling most of the way to the lunch stop at about mile 40. We left the lunch stop as a double paceline for a ways, then a single paceline as we crossed the western edge of the town of Greenfield and started heading west/southwest to the canyon mouth. I continued to pull most of the time, and we were passing many of the riders who left the lunch stop ahead of us. As the grade became steeper, we ceased pacelining and rode a gentle, relaxed pace up to the 2350′ summit.  At the top there was a cold wind howling, threatening to topple the Port-O-Lets, and leading most riders to spend a minimum of time at the rest stop. The 20 miles or so of Carmel Valley Road heading northwest from Cahoon Summit was more effort than normal as the wind was coming straight up the canyon and forcing us to work on the descent rather than just coast. We turned off of Carmel Valley Road at the Laureles grade, which is where my wife finally paid the price for all her efforts on Friday as well as having to push into the descent off the summit. We made a s-l-o-o-o-o-w crawl to the top of Laureles, all my wife could muster by then and a tempo that caused my back muscles to clench. Just as we crested on the grade and started the descent down toward Highway 68 a clueless woman in a BMW, trying to enter the Laureles Grade road from a side road without looking to her left first, almost took my wife out missing her by mere inches. That scare caused a bit more caution than usual on the descent. The tour organizer’s had one last laugh on us, the ascent back to the track from Highway 68 on ‘B’ road with a wicked bit of an ascent which kicked up to about 15% near the top. The final odometer check showed just a tad more than 96 miles for the ride, a bit short of the promised 100, but I made up part of the shortage up by taking a lap on the track after the post-ride BBQ lunch. It was my longest ride of the year, longest on the Colnago, and first significant ride on the Toupe saddle. The Colnago still needs some adjustments, I still need to get used to the saddle, but I felt strong throughout the ride and still feel good on the next morning. Now to decide on what the next long ride will be ….. and whether or not to do the circuit race next year.

Last night one of the local television stations aired the old Seinfeld where Kramer accidentally gets vanity license plates that say ‘ASSMAN’. I feel a bit like ‘assman’ the past month with the continuing saga of trying to find a saddle that fits. For a while I rode the ‘Terry Fly’ exclusively; a decent saddle, a bit on the heavy side, and a bit too much padding leading to an aching arse after 65-70 miles. I have reverted to the old school leather saddles, the Brooks B17 standard, on my bikes. The B17 is large, heavy (540g), hard, but just what my backside needed/wanted. I have no ill effects on rides greater than 100 miles with that saddle. Enter the Colnago C40 last month, a light, race-worthy bicycle, that came to me complete with a Fi’zi:k Aliante saddle that is a svelte 200g or so with its carbon rails. I gave the Fi’zi:k a good trial but my body revolted. Based on recommendations I switched over to the Selle San Marcos Regal, the favorite of Tom Boonen and some other pros even though it is a bit ‘heavy’ by weight-wienie standards at 300g. The Regal was even worse than the Aliante! I needed something more comfortable, something that was not a ‘brick’, and something my rear could stand for 6-10 hours at a time.

Looking at what worked, in general, the B17 and the Fly, in comparison to what did not work for me, the Aliante and the Regal, the most obvious difference is one of shape; the B17 and the Fly are flat across the contact area, the Aliante and Regal are concave. My operating assumption is that my sit bones are not the towers of some folks, leaving more of the backside to contact these rounded saddles, the source of my discomfort. Late last week I got a recommendation for the Specialized Toupe saddle, a minimalist beast that is flat across the rear and a relative featherweight at around 150g. Then on Saturday I got a second recommendation. With a commitment to ride the Sea Otter century next week I did not have time to dally. A new Toupe was installed on the Colnago last Saturday night and given a 35 mile workout on Sunday. Still some issues, mostly to do with positioning myself on this hard little platform. It is so thin that I had to pull another 2 cm of seatpost out to accommodate for the bulk of the Aliante that was there no more.