January 2008

The Wife and I did a trip to Portland in late June/early July 2006 for some personal business. Knowing we would be there for a week or so we packed the S&S coupled touring bikes and lugged them northward with us. We found Portland to be quite accommodating and were soon comfortable pedaling around the city and out into the surrounding countryside, often getting around faster on bike than we would in a car. While we were there we heard that one of the city council guys was doing a once a month get-together on the first Thursday of each month to show off one aspect of the community and that the one coming up during our stay was a bicycle show. That Thursday we went east from the city and rode a part of the Columbia River Gorge, returning to town to in time for the event. It was not hard to find the show, we just had to follow all the bicycles! There were so many bicycles parked in front of city hall that there was not room for any more; in some spots bikes were actually stacked on top on other bikes due to the lack of parking space relative to need. We ended up lashing our bikes up a block away, the closest spot we could find that was not already taken. Inside city hall it was a combination handbuilt bicycle show and beerfest, the latter sponsored by Chris King. We got to ogle some lovely work by the likes of Sasha at VanillaBicycles, Natalie at SweetPea, Joseph at Ahearne, Tony at Pereira, and quite a few others. Lots of eye candy for those who love a nice bike. We were left full of bike lust and an enhanced desire for custom rigs, in part to support some of these excellent crafts people.

In just over a week from now, on Feb. 8th, the North American Handmade Bicycle Show opens its doors in Portland, moving north after running the first three years in San Jose. I wished I had an excuse to run up to Portland for a day or two; the convention center is a quick ride on the Tri-Met light rail from the airport. I’d love to ogle all the eye candy, do some interviews of builders, and get a sense of who is doing what. It is not just academic any longer. Sure it is nice to look, touch, and dream. But, The Wife has already gone on record as stating she would like a nice custom racing bike in the not so distant future so at some point we will need to talk to some of these builders. The Colnago I ride, which is a wonderful bike, is a tad too tall for me and at some point I will want to get a racing bike that is more my size. All the better to have it made by hand by someone with whom you can talk, convey your wishes, and, if the planets align, go riding with on an occasion or two. Anyone have some work to be done in Portland somewhere around the 9th of February? Give me a plane ticket, or two, and I will be there.

Back to cycling related topic. Yeah!!!

The Wife bought a second-hand PowerTap Pro this fall and has been using it to record and tune her workouts. When I first mounted it on her bike it did not work, but that was easy to resolve: it just needed new batteries in the hub. This past Sunday, at the Early Birds, she came up to me after her clinic to complain that she was not getting a power reading from the hub. I jumped on her bike (not an easy feat; we are the same height, but she has much longer legs … and uses a different type of pedal) and did a couple of quick loops. I was able to get an occasional read from the hub, but it was erratic at best. I assumed the batteries were dead, again. Sunday afternoon I replaced the hub batteries, and still no signal to the head. Hmmm. I put the head into test mode and ran the receiver test (test #2 for those who have read the manual); no indication that it was receiving any data from the hub. I cleaned the contacts on the head and the mount, changed the battery in the head, and did a visual inspection of the wiring, and still could not find out what was wrong. If all else fails, try looking at the manual. So I did. The only thing in the manual troubleshooting section that I had not considered was water in the hub. I saw no sign of moisture, but on the off-chance there is some I have the wheel hanging up in our garage with the hub open for now.

The amusing part of the exercise was looking at the manual. Take a close look at the bullet points I indicate; three of the potential problems are duplicated. Are these twice as likely to be issues as the other possible causes? Or maybe Saris/CycleOps thinks that PowerTap users need some points pounded into our skulls.

As an aside, my thought at the moment is that the problem is in the receiver/mount system. A system that costs $65-70 to replace (ouch!). The mount was broken and glued back together at some point in the past, and that glue failed last month. I used an epoxy to put the mount back together, but who knows what internal wiring damage might have occurred inside the mount either time it broke. I need to check the hub and head with another harness to see of that is the issue, but first we will see what drying everything out good for a few days does for us.

Time for an off-topic (where topic = cycling) rant:

My father lived for a bit over 75 years and as far as I know he never had a credit card. He considered them unnecessary and a bit evil, a temptation to overspend. He was a bit livid one time when his second wife admitted that she had used her credit card to buy Christmas gifts for ‘the grandchildren’. To him credit was something not to be taken lightly, a necessity when making big ticket purchases but otherwise to be avoided. I understand my father’s sentiments, but it is virtually impossible in today’s world to get by without some sort of credit card.

One of the many areas my father and I did not agree on was the realm of executive compensation. My dad was a blue collar guy, probably never made over $40K/year in his life, yet he felt that top executives at corporations deserved whatever they were paid. I thought, and think, that executive compensation in this country is completely and totally out of touch with reality. The compensation committees throw money and perquisites at execs not so much because the execs earn or deserve it but more because the execs may serve on the compensation committee for them or some of their friends. It is a complete ’scratch your back and you had better scratch mine’ mentality.

Enter the current credit crisis in this country, a fiasco that was brought on by greed at many levels. Too many folks involved could have used a bit of my dad’s skepticism on credit. But let’s concentrate on the top of the food chain, the executives at the lending institutions that were raking in cash and dispensing without due diligence to almost anyone who wanted a home, then selling off the notes to investors around the world. Some of these execs are now raking in big payouts as they exit the companies which are left to write off Billions in bad loans. This morning the news outlets were carrying reports that one of these execs, Angelo Mozilo of Countrywide Financial, has decided to forego roughly $38M in payouts as he leaves the company, a move that the first news reports said was due to his concern over shareholder discontent with the payout. A more likely reason he is trying to let go of a piece (a small piece, in the big picture, by the way) of this payout may be this letter from Rep. Henry Waxman inviting Mr. Mozilo to come Washington on Feb. 7th to ‘xplain to the House Committe on Oversight and Government Reform why he deserves to get that much money considering the mess he helped create. The former CEO’s of Citigroup and Merrill Lynch got similar invites. Since the original invites were sent to the execs,  the heads of the respective compensation committees that approved these payouts have been invited to the little confab and asked to bring all documents related to the process of determining the compensation packages. Included in what is to be produced for the committee includes “All documents regarding the retention or dismissal of outside advisors retained to assist the compensation committee, the board of directors, or management” and “Documents sufficient to identify all outside advisors involved in determining any compensation (including severance terms)”.

That Feb. 7th meeting could be interesting. Sounds like Rep. Waxman and friends are looking to figure out the network of back scratchers in this little microcosm. Wonder if this will lead to any attempt at reform legislation? The cynic in me thinks not, just a few red faces but no real change. Sigh!

One of the skills supposedly covered this week in the Early Birds was to ride into and fill gaps in the pack. For me this week has been all about trying to ride in the gaps between storms. The National Weather Service doppler maps have been yellow and orange far to much of this week for me to get out for serious riding much of the time. I worked from home on Monday, then commuted on Tuesday through Thursday, but then opted for staying off the bike, and drier, when the heavy, sustained rain of Friday reared its head.

The small startup for which I work just got access to the ‘gym’ in the business park where we rent office space. I thought that taking a day off the bike on Friday and doing some weight work would be a good idea. Then I got into the gym on Friday. Let’s just say I have friends with better setups in their garage than is in the so-called gym. Oh, well, at least I did a bit of weight work and some work on the abs before using the shower, the only bright spot in having access to the gym. With access to the shower I can now do training rides on my way to work and not offend my co-workers.

Saturday was supposed to be more of the same weather; our friend (and teammate of The Wife) Erika decided to host a garage trainer workout party for the team but invited some of us with Y chromosomes to participate, too. I was thinking I would take the rollers and demonstrate my skills, similar to the guys in the video (yeah, right …), but the weather was clear, calm, and warmer than the past few days, all leading to the decision to do the workout on the road. It was great out, doing hill intervals until the legs felt like mush, then a nice tempo ride on a southern loop back home. The hills to the east, which had been covered in snow and clouds all week, were clearly visible with only a couple small patches of white stuff left near the top of Mt. Hamilton. I was wishing there was something left in the tank so I could go ascend that monster, but opted for home and lunch, instead.

The rain had started again on Saturday night, so I was expecting a possible ‘pass’ on the Early Birds, especially since ‘Meet the Teams’ was delayed a week so The Wife was not obligated to go and sit for hours under the big top while handing out food and beverage to potential recruits. Sunday morning we awoke to dry roads and partly cloudy skies, with nothing of interest on the doppler. So a quick, carbo dense breakfast and we loaded up and headed to Fremont. The Wife participated in the Women’s clinic while I socialized and watched the growing gray mass to the south. The rain held off … until about 30 seconds after my group started on the road. Perfect timing! Sheesh. The shower was brief and after a couple of laps the only weather issue was the stiff 15-25MPH wind out of the southeast. By that time I was in caloric deficit mode, having left home in such a hurry that I neglected to grab any extra food items, which meant digging deep into the reserves to stay with the yellow ‘mice’ who kept punching the pace up. In the end I was able to keep integrated most of the time (one brief bit OTB) and got a pretty good workout.

Next week I plan on returning for the last Early Bird of the year, in part to do some interviewing with some of the local teams to see if I stay with Team Unattached or opt for one of the more structured groups. The requirement for a Master’s program and that training rides be in the geographic area I live and/or work in has narrowed the field to three candidates. A fourth squad, the green and whites is out as the anti-social aspect of some of the membership which has made the team a bit of a pariah in the bigger community; wearing the green and white would make some of my friends loathe to ride with me and might harm some of my advocacy work in the region. So it is down to the black/blue/whites that carry the name of the largest city in the region (and which I must join, anyway, to ride in their twilight crits), the red/yellows which has the most extensive sponsorship (and biggest track presence of the three), or the red/whites which are centered near where I work. I had crossed off the red/white group, The ratio of X chromosomes to Y’s is way too close to 1, but two of my friends have reportedly committed to the team. Decisions, decisions. All to think about while I do circles of the business park.

Saturday I decided to test the lungs, the legs, the mucous producing machinery by doing a brief jaunt into the Los Altos Hills area. The legs were OK, not great, but the lungs were straining to find room for some air in between the resevoirs of mucous that had filled over the past two weeks. Even though I was riding tempo I kept the speed moderated, in part a concession to the lungs, in part to make sure I had control as I fired off countless ’snot rockets’. By the time I got home the throat was agitated, leading to a few good coughing fits through the rest of the day. Hmmm, perhaps it was a bit too soon to climb back into the saddle.

Did I learn my lesson and throttle back? You must be kidding! Sunday I got up ready to put myself out there in Early Bird #3, having missed #1 and #2 due to the combination of weather and the now infamous cold. But I needed to warmup first, right? And what better way to warmup for a few circuits of the industrial park than to ride 19 miles to the event? Little did I know what was in store.

The first surprise was rain; about 2 miles from home I entered the precipitation zone, light but steady, enough to get me and the bike thoroughly covered in that black, oily road run-off. At about mile 4 I seriously considered turning around and going back for the car, but was I smart enough to take the wise choice? Noooooo! Surprise #2 was a drive train problem, finally traced to debris that had gotten thrown up into the rear cassette. As the problem started I considered turning back and getting the car, but still I was not smart enough to follow my intuition. Surprise #3 was flooding on the approach to the Dumbarton bridge and the entrance to the bike lane on the bridge. I had to ford through water 2-3″ deep to get started on my way to cross the bridge, and by this time it was too late to consider turning back for the car. If that was not enough, right after crossing the bridge I realized my rear tire was going flat. When it rains, it pours, as they say.

By some miracle I did make it to the Early Bird with a few minutes to spare. And to add to the fun the first 7 miles of the trip back was straight into a stiff headwind. Mucous production seemed to have increased, and keeping that in check while riding in the pack was loads of fun; I am sure some of the other riders were amused at the long strands that kept dripping off the nose. And all that fun and games tweaked the throat even more, leading to more and longer coughing spells through the afternoon and evening. I am so ready to get back to my normal, healthy self. But moderate? What’s that?

Lex Luthor is always devising ways to be near kryptonite so that he cannot be defeated or harmed by SuperMan, who is severely weakened in the presence of the substance. I feel as though someone has found a kryptonite analog that weakens me and has hidden some of it near someplace I frequent. I rarely get ill, and on the rare occasions I do the illness is mild and I recover in a day or so. The past three months have proven to be an exception to the norm, with two long bouts with severe colds,  and I am trying to figure out why. The latest version has  lingered for 12 days. Tough to get out and do any time on the bike when you keep coughing up huge chunks of matter. To date I have missed, besides my own self-motivated rides, the fundraising points race at Hellyer last Saturday and the first two Early Bird clinics/crits. I am really itching to get out and do something this weekend, and right now the signs are looking positive.

On one of the days home from work due to the disease I did venture onto the scale. I avoid the scale for the most part, too easy to get obsessive. But I had dropped 14 lb since I blogged that I wanted to trim down a bit before the coming racing season. If I go down much more I will be near the lightest I have been as an adult, excluding the pathological 120 lb I hit when fighting malaria. With the weight down it is time to get in some good power development work. Hope to see folks on the road starting tomorrow!

Caught off-guard

Yesterday evening there was a post to the NCNCA mailing list noting that the registration for a number of early season races was open and that the M35+ 4/5 field for the Snelling RR was filling quickly. I took a peak at the registration page for Snelling and at the time I first looked there were 37 registered with a field size of 50. Within less than an hour the field was full. I knew that our Engineering manager at work was intending to race in that field but his name was nowhere to be found on the registration list. I asked him this morning and he was a bit perturbed; no indication on the NCNCA site that registration was open, and he uses secondary sources of info (club e-mail) to get salient info from NCNCA. Ooops. Looks like he may be sitting this one out … unless he wants to race with the Cat 4 field.

I am sitting here musing on my own registration. The best field for me, the (open) M45+ field, has a 37 registrants at the moment, and a field size of 50 so a decision will need to be made soon. At this time I am thinking not; 5 weeks away, I am coming off a week of having mucous filled lungs, and it would mean that The Wife and I would be spending the whole day there (her race is at 8:20A, mine would be at 12:30P. Decisions, decisions.

Something right in the world

 True confession time.  Long ago I lived for a while in Texas.  Mostly West Texas.  During that time a lot was changing.  Dallas Love Field was abandoned, for the most part, for Dallas Fort-Worth Regional.  That was bad, for the most part though it did enable a young startup to get some cheap space at the most abandoned airfield and Southwest Airlines was born.  The Dallas football team won the big super-duper extravaganza bowl, and all of us in the sticks got to see ads all day long of the prima-donna QB, Roger Stenchback, hyping posters of himself on the couple of cable channels available.  And then the owners of the football team build a new stadium, closer to the new airport than the city, and showed how full of themselves they were by leaving a hole in the roof so that “God can look down on his Cowboys” (I kid you not, that is what they said, and say, about the opening in the roof of the almost dome).  And so I became an ABD football fan, Any team But Dallas.  And so something is right with the world when they lose and appear on the morning news all tearful and whining.

… for rain and all the ‘benefits’ of riding in the rain. The first real series of storms for this winter started last Thursday. After riding to work in the rain on that Thursday I had a flat on the rear. Friday it rained harder. Made it to work and home without problems, but then on Saturday I found that the front tire on my commuter was flat. Rode that bike again on Monday, in the rain. As I as pulling into the office park I could feel that ever so subtle softness in the handling of the rear as I came around the corner, sure sign of another flat on the rear wheel. Three days of bike commuting over that 5 day stretch of rain, three flat tires. Not a pattern I want to continue.

This morning was my first day of commuting since that stretch; I have worked from home, due to a cold, for the past two days. As we loaded onto CalTrain at Mt View one of the cyclists, a young woman, was a bit frantic. She had a flat, her second in two days and she was caught without a set of tire irons. I loaned her mine and offered to help, but she refused the assistance. A while later she came and asked me for an opinion; she showed me a 3cm gash in the sidewall of the tire and asked it I thought it was the reason she was getting the flats. Since one could stick a finger through the gash I was fairly confident there was a relationship. She did not seem to know about ‘booting’, so I dug in my bag for a piece of Tyvek (FedEx envelope) and ‘booted’ her tire sufficiently for her to get from the train to shop for a replacement.

It is the season to be prepared. Flats are going to happen, especially with the wet roads. Best to be prepared and carry all the tools and materials needed to keep yourself on the road.

Gadzooks, what a mess the weather dealt the past few days. On Thursday I endured the moderate rain on the commute to work, and hit a dry patch for the homeward bound trip. But Friday was another story; the commute from home to the Mountain View CalTrain was directly into the wind, probably constant 15-20MPH with stronger gusts, driving the rain through every exposed opening in the raingear. At one point I had to stand and push as hard as possible, for about a mile, to keep upright and moving. Not many other folks braved the rain, either. Few people were on the train, with or without bikes. On the trip home the rain was not as hard but the winds were still strong. The major task on that leg was maneuvering around obstacles. The southern end of Delaware in San Mateo was partly flooded as the water was coming up out of the storm drains onto the road. Trees and branches were down, lots of debris, a regular obstacle course.

With round 3 hitting on Saturday I decided to do the garage workout session rather than hitting the open (and wet) road. I started with 30 minutes on the rollers for a warmup, then moved to the trainer for another hour and three quarters. Talk about brain dead; the mind went numb within the first 15 minutes on the trainer! And within an hour other body parts were threatening to go numb, parts I would rather never lost sensation, so I worked hard to keep the blood flowing. Now I remember why I avoid the trainer sessions except when necessary.   Riding into 25MPH winds with driving rain is nothing compared to an hour plus on the trainer!  Unless the weather cooperates I expect I will be spending more time in the garage this winter so I need to find something to keep the old neurons between ears firing and the blood flowing into ALL the extremities.

Happy New Year! 2008. Leap year and election year. Time to abuse my tired old body a bit more. To that end, I ‘partied’ with a couple hundred friends at the San Bruno Mtn. Hill Climb this morning, doing the brief 3.5 mile ride to top as a celebration of the start of another year.

To cut to the chase, I placed 13th of 20 in the Cat ‘Old Fart’ group. More important to me is I was slower than my target time, and slower than I was on the pre-ride on Sunday. Lots of excuses could be made, but the bottom line is I did not have my ‘A’ legs and lungs today. I did OK, but not as good as I could have done. Next year I will have to do better. The Wife slogged her way to the top, but she was doing it as a ‘ride’, taking her old, late 80’s steel Mondonico for a nice morning jaunt.

It was nice to get some cheers at both ends of the race. Kimmy Gibbler and Velo Girl were leading the sendoff at the bottom. As I approached the top I was confused as I heard my name being called as I neared the finish line, then I recognized Hernando and his camera. Most of all I need to thank The Wife for pushing me to get things together the past couple of weeks, running the warmup, and being a great supporter.