November 2007

The socializin’ over the weekend exposed me to some type or types of nasty microbes.  I am fighting them off, but that puts a crimp in my riding, playing, working, snuggling, … all sorts of things.  Sometimes I see value in being a recluse.

As I sit here avoiding social contact due to the nascent cold I have moved my blogroll off to blogrolling.com.  A bit of tweaking CSS, PHP, and other stuff to get it right.  My apologies if it looks a bit funky as I try to massage it into submission.

I am about to convert my commuter bike to a fixie, or fixie/SS.  The Wife is apparently not thrilled with this decision.  Me thinks her mental picture of fixie rider is the messenger types she dealt with when she lived in San Francisco.  I will convert, to get away from all the maintenance hassles, chain suck, etc. of the derailleured version of the bike, but need to be sensitive to her fears and assure/convince her that fixie !=  messenger and, more importantly, fixie != death.

Thursday is usually either city commission meeting night or yoga-then-taqueria-with-the-ladies night.   Think tonight will be yoga-at-home-then-under-a-warm-blanket night.  Time to crack into the extensive collection of yoga DVD’s.

On Thanksgiving day I turned a year older, and when we returned home today there was mail to remind me not only that I am getting older but that I have retirement options with various pensions effects. Sigh. In the years BW (Before Wife) I spent the anniversary of my birth doing long rides, meditating, being self-indulgent; all the good introvert activities. Now I spend time with her and her family, being ’sociable’, getting reminded that the calendar has flipped another year.

To compensate for all the socializing of Thursday we decided to get a bit ‘dirty’ on Friday. One of our occasional rides on our visits to the San Luis Obispo area is to ride out towards Lopez Lake then turn up Hi Mountain Road. Hi Mountain is a serene little country road that slowly climbs past horse ranches, farms, and even an Italianate Villa. About 6-7 miles past the turn-off from Lopez Lake the road pavement ends and a dirt Forest Service road begins. Usually we turn around at that point and return from whence we came, never wandering down that dirt path. But this time we decided to do the dirt, planning on riding the whole shebang to the small town of Pozo, home to the well known Pozo Saloon, a 9 or so mile trek on a dirt road of variable quality with numerous creek crossings. We went, we rode, we gave up. About 3-4 miles down the dirt track conditions had deteriorated to the point that we decided that going further on 700cx23 racing tires was probably not a great idea. So we reversed course. On the way back towards town we compensated with a few more miles through the local wine and horse country before heading towards lunch and some afternoon relaxation.

The Wife, who has never been fond of dirt riding, wanted some more. But not a lot, just a bit more for the weekend. Her choice for Saturday was to ride from home base in Arroyo Grande, through the mobs of tourists and shoppers to San Luis Obispo, then up Prefumo Canyon Rd. to the summit, cross a mile or so of dirt connector. descend down See Canyon, then loop back through SLO and return to Arroyo Grande. Great weather, outstanding views of Morro Bay, and lots of fun were found on the ride, along with one nasty piece of glass that got wedged into my rear tire. The Wife was whooping it up and actually enjoyed the dirt riding; now she wants to find some more. Perhaps next trip we need to take bikes with bigger tires so we can spend more time on the unpaved stuff. I think the inner ‘dirty girl’ is emerging!

A few years ago I read an article, I forget where, which said something to the effect that there was no such thing as a road bike or a mountain bike, there was just bike. The point being, do not get hung up on having a specialized bike for each purpose, rather just use the bike you have at the moment to fill your needs. Of course there are limitations to this philosophy, e.g., I would hate to slog through a boulder strewn mudhole of a trail on a carbon fiber bike with 20mm wide tires, but to a degree any bike can fill a range of purposes.

A corollary to the statement above is that there is just cyclist, not road cyclist, not mountain cyclist, not commute cyclist, etc. I am a cyclist. I ride on roads, I ride on dirt (a little less, perhaps), I ride on the track, I ride for recreation, I tour on a bike, I commute on a bike, and I use a bike as a transport mechanism for cargo as well as myself. There are too many labels to apply, but just one will do: cyclist.

As a cyclist, I ride where I have to ride to accomplish whatever task is appropriate. Most of the time I want to get from point A to point D, and the route chosen is bound to a large extent by those two points, the origin and the destination. I do not choose points A and D because of the type of route that connects them; point A is where I am and point D is where I want to go, and the route is then chosen to connect the dots as effectivley as possible.

The current issue of Momentum has an article on riding in cities based upon a limited survey done by a researcher in Vancouver, BC. The article hints that city planners and cycling advocates should work towards implementing the preferences from this limited study, bike-only paths and multi-use paths (MUPs), rather than focusing on accommodations in the current road infrastructure. The problem with that type of focus, towards paths, is that until the path network is more or less as dense as the current road network the use of such paths becomes a route-centric view of cycling rather than an origin and destination centric view. In other words, my trip now goes from point B to point C because a path exists, even though I really want to get from A to D. How do I get from A to B and then from C to D? How much longer is the A-B, B-C, C-D combination then a more direct road-based trip from A-D? Factor into this discussion the fact that MUPs are among the most dangerous places to cycle, so if the objective is safe carriage then we are really talking of bicycle specific accommodations (paths) if the objective is to create a ’safe environment’ to foster cycling rather than the illusion of one. Creating an origin-destination centric network of such paths seems to be a rather daunting, and expensive, task. So I have to ask, can we afford to insist on separate accommodations, fighting for scarce resources to create a limited network of routes that do not get us from our origins to our destination just so we can be separated from other traffic? Or do we accommodate, learn the skills necessary to share the roads, teach others those skills, lobby to get better driver education and testing, and work to foster a better environment with the resources currently available? I am a cyclist, and my answer is I want to get from point A to point D and I will choose the path that accomplishes the goal today. See you on the road, trail, track, or path, whichever is close and available at the moment.

There seems to be a secret that some CalTrain bike commuters have figured out, but quite a few have not. I ride home on a bullet train, a train that is often quite full with regular threats that we might not be allowed on the one, standard bike car at the north of the train. Myself and a couple of others in the cognoscente usually place ourselves about 50-70 ft south of where the scheduled bike car, the one at the north end of the train, generally sits when the train comes to a stop. Occasionally another bike commuter will pass and ask why we are sitting so far away from everyone else. Occasionally one of these commuters will join us, and every once in a while one catches on to what we are doing and wants to know the ’secret’.

For those who ride CalTrain and have not figured out the secret formula, here it is (Note: this works for trains using Gallery cars, only, not those using Bombardier cars). About half the time the train has two bike cars, not just one, and if the second bike car is present it is usually the second car from the south end of the train. All of the Gallery equipment bike cars are cab cars, cars that can be used to operate the train. As such, they have side mirrors, and are the only cars on the train that do have side mirrors. Sometimes, as in the picture, they have been folded in. The knowledgeable commuter can scan an incoming train for cars that have side mirrors to see if there is a second, less crowded, bike car available. Our placement on the platform is a mid-point between the guaranteed north end bike car, and the potential mid-train second bike car. We scan, then move the appropriate direction on the platform depending on what we see as the train is approaching.

The hard drive in The Wife’s PowerBook died late last week. It was her gift to herself as she left the employ of Apple to go elsewhere, and it has become her primary computer and our travel computer. Yesterday we dropped it off to have the hard drive replaced and an attempt made to recover the data off the old drive.

While in the neighborhood we went to a local bike shop to look for a replacement stem for The Wife’s commuter/touring bike.  One of the many changes to her bike’s the past couple of month has been to replace the too wide bars with the nasty (non)anatomical bend with the bars off one of my bikes.  The bars we put on her bike have a flatter ramp, are wide but not too wide, and have no (non)anatomical bends.  One other feature is that the sweep back towards the rider a bit, which brought the hoods most of 2cm closer, the reason we were searching for a new stem.  We walked into the shop and asked someone we knew to look at the stems, in particular a stem for a 1-1/8″ threadless steerer to hold a set of 26.0mm handlebars.   The gasp and the stare said it all, but it was annunciated as well.  26.0mm bars are old, and they order very few stems for something that old.  I tried to hold my tongue, but did mention something to the effect that there are probably at least an order of magnitude, more likely two orders of magnitude, more bikes around that take 25.8-26.0mm bars than there are bikes that take OS (31.8) bars, apparently all the road stems this shop wants to order.  Bet it I looked through their stock I could have found more than a few new bikes with 25.8-26.0mm bars, but I did not want to spend the time.  With that kind of mentality, no wonder we had a hard time find a 1″ threaded headset last spring, and hate to hear what they would say if I asked for a 7sp freewheel.

At work this week we are reviewing the specifications for the next version of our product. One big open issue is what to name various components and features, and the one piece for which no one can come up with a good name has been temporarily dubbed ‘what-if’. All the talk of the ‘what-if’ widget has me thinking about how my life, any life, can be viewed in retrospect as a series of options taken, and the ‘what-ifs’ scenarios that might have transpired if we had exercised different options, made other choices.

The 1995 film “Before Sunrise” and 2004 sequel “Before Sunset” present an interesting ‘what-if’ situation. In the first movie, Jesse and Celine meet on a train in Europe, exit together in Vienna, have a night of discovery, romance, and passion, then promise to meet again at the same spot at a later date but never exchange contact information. The sequel has Jesse and Celine discussing what happened and how it affected their lives. ‘What-if’ they had extended past the one night? ‘What-if’ they had exchanged contact info so that they could have communicated rather than missed that arranged second meeting?

I had a somewhat similar situation present itself. In the early 70’s I was flying home to visit my dysfunctional natal family for the holidays. The first flight landed at the newly opened Dallas-Fort Worth regional airport, which closed due to fog as soon as the plane I was on touched down. For the next 24 hours myself and thousands of others were trapped in airport terminals, airlines wanting us close so we could board the plane and get into the queue as soon as the airport opened. I met a very nice young woman in the terminal, and for most of that 24 hour period waiting for better weather we spent time talking and getting to know one another. When the fog started to lift she invited me to head to San Francisco to spend the holidays with her. For some reason I still cannot explain I opted to get on my plane to Denver. ‘What-if’?

Choices of majors in college, choices of careers, jobs accepted versus jobs not taken, all lead to ‘What-if’ thoughts in retrospect. Eight years ago a lot of things in my life changed all at once; the one thing I decided to keep as an ‘anchor’ in my life was my job. Shortly after I made that decision a consultant started working for the company at which I worked, and a year or so later the two of us ended up working closely together. Fast-forward some years and that consultant is now The Wife. ‘What-if’ I had chosen to change jobs along with everything else?

It would be wonderful if we could have foresight into what roads each choice we make would lead to in the future. Without that, all we can do is look backwards and say ‘what-if’.

When I worked at SJSU my walk to my office took me past a huge Gingko tree near the corner of 4th St and San Carlos, or more correctly a huge female Gingko tree. In the fall the rather rancid smell of the gingko fruit permeated the area. It is a rather foul smelling fruit, yet there were many folks there harvesting the ‘low lying fruit’ on a daily basis. A co-worker and I would banter around ideas to describe the odor; we finally got stuck between ’sour owl shit’ and ‘putrid cat vomit’.

I complained a few weeks ago that there was no feel of fall this year. Today I have to retract that comment. The wife and I headed out for a leisurely ride, first heading west into the Los Altos Hills then south to Saratoga and back. On our way to the Los Altos Hills we routed ourselves down Calderon in Mt. View and across El Camino Real (ECR) where the road becomes Phyllis. Between ECR and Barbara on Phyllis there are a number of Gingkos, all in various stages of becoming bright yellow. Most of these Gingkos are male, but a few are female so we got to experience the odor of the Gingko fruit. Very much a fall experience.

There was a bit of fall along much of the route. Along the creek in Stevens Canyon, the vines on Mt. Eden, along Hwy. 9 going back to Saratoga. It is good to have some autumnal experience, makes the now short days a bit more palatable.

The Wife had to be to work early this morning for a conference call with co-workers in India, so after fixing her breakfast and cleaning up I was well ahead of schedule for my normal departure to CalTrain. So I decided to ride the entire commute and forego the train for today. The commute route is a Tour de Southern Peninsula; a bit of Sunnyvale, then I have to traverse

• Mountain View
• Palo Alto
• Menlo Park
• Atherton
• Redwood City
• San Carlos
• Belmont

before ending up in San Mateo. Lots of ‘burbs! Overall it is not too bad of a route, except for that section of Middlefield between 8th Ave and Jefferson in Redwood City. Far too narrow, way too many driveways and side-roads, more than too many parking spaces, all compounded by too many pot-holes.

This morning started off less than ideal. About two miles from home I realized I had left my water bottle on the kitchen counter. Shite! Easy to correct; I stopped at a gas station/mini-mart and purchased a bottle for the trip. At the intersection of Whipple and Arguello in Redwood City as I was taking a drink from the aforementioned bottle, with left foot clipped in and a 15 lb bag hanging off the left side of the rear rack, it became obvious that I had not sufficiently triangulated the body and the bike slowly dropped over to the left. Shite, shite, shite! I lifted the bike back up and proceeded. Then about a mile from the office, right in front of the San Mateo police station I heard a sound coming from my rear wheel. Was it another blowout? Nope, tire looks fine. Ahhh, the rubbing of the rim against the brake pad give a clue; it was a pling! Or more correctly, two plings! Guess I know what one task for this weekend will be; the spoke replacement weave.

The 4th issue of Urban Velo is out and much of the magazine this time is given over to articles about “roller racing”, aka “Goldsprints”. This seems like my type of racing, at least for the winter: in a bar, on rollers with a fork mount (less likely to crash after one too many beers), lots of noise and pandemonium.

I was wondering why we do not have “roller racing” locally; I can find references to “Goldsprints” in NY, Chicago, Warsaw (!?), and even during Interbike in Vegas. There is a website that has information on building your own setup complete with OpenSource software for monitoring/scoring. Cool! A couple of bikes, a couple of roller sets, a computer, a bit of added hardware and we can set it up in any friendly neighborhood bar. But we may not need to go those lengths: there is a fairly new website that hints that “Goldsprints” is coming to SF! But maybe we should build our own so we can practice beforehand(?).

It must have been four years ago or so, this time of year, I got a phone call while cooking dinner from my best friend (now The Wife for those following the trail here). She was stranded at the corner of Cuesta and Miramonte in Mountain View, the point to which she had ridden on her commute that night before the ‘bottle cage battery’ for her light had died completely. It was a call for the SAG wagon as she had no desire to traverse across Mountain View in the dark with no means of illumination. I put aside dinner for a while to go pick her up, and to start a conversation that went on for a couple of weeks regarding strategies for commute lights.

The solution we came up with was simple, if a bit spendy. I outfitted her commute bike with a new front wheel, one built around the Schmidt Original Nabendynamo (SON) generator hub. I added a pair of halogen lights, a Busch & Müller Lumotec Oval and a Schmidt E6. The Lumotec provides a nice general light with a lot of spillover while the Schmidt has a bright, focused beam. The Lumotec has an LED that is charged while riding to provide some light while stopped at stop signs and lights, but for good measure I added a small CatEye EL-400 battery light as an additional light source and emergency flashlight. The setup has worked fine, almost flawless minus a couple of burned bulbs in almost 4 years of use. With this setup installed, The Wife needs to flip one small switch when it gets dark and she has sufficient light to get her home without worrying if her batteries will die along the way.The setup I bought for my best friend worked so well that I outfitted my commuter with a similar setup. About two years ago I swapped that setup over to my touring bike and outfitted the commuter with a generator light rig built around the much less expensive Shimano hub. Both work great, and I find it useful to have lighting at the flip of a switch any time of the year. We used them two and half years ago when touring in France and Spain to provide light in the numerous tunnels we had to negotiate.

The generator hub seems to evoke a lot of interest. I probably field an average to at least two questions a week on CalTrain about the hub and lights. The most common follow-up question, after ‘is that a generator hub?’ is ‘how much drag does it produce?’ The answer is ’slight’ (Shimano hub) to ‘barely notice it’ (SON hub); as someone who used to commute with a sidewall generator I understand the concern but drag is not an issue. About the only thing that will improve on the generator hub setup for commuting, in my opinion, is having reliable LED based lights that can be powered off the generator. That would negate the relatively minor burned-out bulb issue and make the setup virtually maintenance free.