Tour De Revs!

Three Lutheran Reverends, One Bike (made of bamboo!), 100 days and 13,000 miles.  This is a bicycle tour worth seeing.

From one of the people helping with the TDR:
"I'm leading three guys on a bamboo bike from Gardner to Western Lenexa Wednesday. www.tourderevs.org. We are leaving King of Kings Lutheran Church in Gardner at four."

I figured I would pass it along. Doing some research, it looks like the Lenexa stop will be at Kaw Prairie Community Church, 9421 Meadowview Drive. ETA: 5:30. If you're in the area, check them out in Gardner or Lenexa tomorrow (Wednesday, July 29)

Photo Dump: One Tone Paceline 2009

If you're on Dial-up, just go take a coffee break or something. Come back in 5 minutes. Then this page might be loaded all the way. I took well over 100 photos on this trip, and have tried to narrow them down to something manageable for this post.

Let me preface this by saying that each and every participant on this ride made it as great as it was. ALL the riders are to be thanked for this event! All I did was spam some people on some mailing lists and make some suggestions on the route. The final route, the date (and thus the perfect weather), the meeting points, the rest stops and pretty much every little detail of this ride came from the group.

Good conversations happened between diverse groups of people who've never met before. I saw instant rapport form that honestly transcends having bicycling in common; these were just very friendly folks that happened to have all found themselves on loaded bicycles at the time. To each and every one of you: THANKS!


I rolled out at about 11:15 to meet up with the first group of riders at Lenexa Senior Center. I wasn't expecting to find Jason pulling a kiddie trailer, but there it was. This was my first clue that awesome things were about to happen.


Amnee, Jason, Carol and John ready to go. We talked for a bit and admired the rigs.


Jason's Gary Fisher. I hadn't seen this yet. Nexus-8 equipped.


Carol's Jamis Coda carrying the wide, light things.


Rolling out down KC Road


Jason


The Lenexa Group


Price Chopper in Olathe


commuterDude


The Bikes. We had 10 riders at this point. Tim, Chris, Gene, Randy, Keith, Amnee, Jason, John, Carol and myelf.


Gene's Burley Trailer. Not nearly full.


Being pulled by a nice Trek XO2




Randy of KansasCyclist







Holding to the right to let the car behind us pass. The entire trip, our group held up MANY motorists. Surprisingly, all were courteous except for one while we rode through the park later on.





As we wove through the country roads that connected disjointed suburbs, we would also get several roadside cheers, looks of awe, and double-takes from other cyclists. I've got to say it was awesome seeing this many loaded bikes all at one time, even from within this One Ton Paceline.

Down Old KC Road, I hit the descent HARD to catch the video of most of the group riding past.


We stopped at Lake & Dale before the arduous death-slog to the park. There, we topped off water bottles, picked up some refreshments (i.e. beer and candy bars) and moved along.

Hillsdale Lake


The arrival.




About an hour after we showed up to the camp, Darius showed up. He was coming from further West than any of us and got a late start due to things back at home. His shelter was one of the more peculiar things I've seen. He hung a mosquito net from inside this cover, and used a camp pad on a sheet of plastic. Lightweight, versatile and very functional. I like it.


Chow Time!


Let me interject for a moment. When I say we had a diverse group of people, you can see I wasn't talking about skin color. Let's face it. Most of us were slightly (or in my case not-so-slightly) pudgy white folks. The diversity really shows when you start talking about our ideals and philosophy for a camping trip like this. And there were very few things more diverse than what we all brought to eat and how we decided to prepare it.

Dehydrated fruits and veggies, freeze-dried meals, military and civilian Meal-Ready-to-Eat type stuff, CLIF bars/snacks, cook-at-camp burritos, and sandwiches were consumed. Light-and-Expensive backpacking cooking systems, home-made stoves, fondue heaters, and in some cases no cooking at all were all well-represented.

Someone brought SPAM! I didn't eat it, but I was cheesing for the camera.


MRE for Chris.


Gene's JetBoil. It brought two cups of water to a rolling boil in under one minute. Yes, really.


Some of the crew at the feeding trough.


Gene's Solar Charger. It's worth mentioning that Gene's cool toys are also used to help educate children about the outdoors including backpacking classes through the OEL.


BOIL, Damn you! One highlight I'm sure will stick in everyone's head is sitting around the picnic table (which wasn't level by any means) while my stove fell over, spilling flaming Everclear all over the place. Fortunately, we got the flames put out before anyone or anything got hurt. Note: my little pot stand needs to go away. I set it on the ground after that. It boiled water plenty fast, but after watching Gene's JetBoil do the same thing in about 45 seconds (yes, really) 5 minutes seemed like an eternity.


Keith, tweaking the centering screw on his Kogswell. If anything is a millimeter out of adjustment, he notices. Again, my Park MTB-3 gets used on someone else's bike :P


As the sun started going down, Gene and I fished near the boat ramp. I caught nothing, but Gene managed to wrangle in a few bluegill -- likely enough fish to feed a few of us back at camp. They all made it safely back into the water. I was really thinking about holding on to one to fry up, though. Meanwhile, Keith and Randy rode around the lake, exploring old bridges, cemeteries and buildings. Others did their own thing as well. I'm not too sure what else transpired while we were fishing.

Roasting marshmallows after dark.




Crescent Moon


Long exposures of base camp




I crashed out a little after 10pm. My little radio had gotten almost two full days of sunlight to charge its little 350 mAh NiMH cell. I'm sure it was as charged as it was going to get. To drown out the loud country music being pumped by our camp neighbors, I tuned into a favorite radio show of mine, DJ C-Vaughn's Liquid Buzz. This show is mostly breakbeat stuff. Not exactly good sleeping music. It was playing quietly enough to not disturb anyone else, but loud enough to take my mind off of the hideous country music. I woke up just in time to hear the 3:00 AM hourly Station ID sweeper. Surprised it'd been playing for 3 hours, I turned it off and went back to sleep.


When I woke up a little before 7:00, some people were already almost packed. Others were still sleeping.


Slowly but surely, breakfast came out.


Darius and I tried our own different method of coffee. I think he'll agree I won that battle with the coffee press. :)


My breakfast: re-constituted eggs with bacon (tastier than you might imagine) and coffee.


Randy, who seems to be reviewing a map of Hillsdale State Park, and Gene.


At about 8:00, we had all gotten most of our gear packed away and were ready to head out.











Shadow Panda.


People fishing in one of the streams near the lake


I caught Randy taking a photo over his shoulder.




We stopped at Price Chopper in Spring Hill for "breakfast" -- I thought most of us already ate?!




Randy and I sat outside and talked a while, reflecting on the ride, and discussing a possible better route than Webster to get back home through Spring Hill.

Keith decided to torment Randy and I with the scrambled egg smell. They did smell better than the ones I re-hydrated back at camp.


We cut over to Woodland






They don't call it the scenic route for nothing.




The quaint old downtown district reminds me of old-town Lenexa. According to Randy, most of the shops are no longer used at all.








And just like that, we were back among the soybean crops, tooling north toward what is left of Ocheltree. These days, Ocheltree's all but lost. Little remains of it aside from a few houses stuck under the new rail bypass bridge on 199th street. As America's transportation infrastructure shifted from rail to interstate highways, villages such as Ocheltree -- which at one time fared quite well -- fell to shambles.


We happened across what appeared to be a funeral procession for a fallen motorcyclist once we hit Ridgeview and 175th. Hundreds of motorcycles with a police escort passed by. I didn't get any photos of that. It was memorable, though.

Along Ridgeview, it's interesting to watch the signs of returning to suburbia -- as well as suburbia's mostly failed attempt to sprawl a bit more. The banner for The Estates at Wolf Creek declares "NEW HOMES" and clearly there is some stunted development going on. Plots of land that appear to have been bulldozed then left to sit dormant. Perhaps 191st Street is just a bit out of the way for people looking for homes -- unless, of course, they're coming from even further south.


Ever so slowly, street lights and sidewalks appear as the street numbers get lower. CommuterDude gets a raging case of barn fever -- the phenomenon of gradually picking up speed the closer you are to home. Jason and the full trailer took chase as Keith flew past Amnee. A little friendly (and fully-loaded) competition.


The newish railway overpass on Ridgeview. Interesting decor.


One by one, the participants peeled off to go to their homes. First Randy, then Keith, then Gene as the remaining five of us -- the original group that left Lenexa Senior Center -- beared northeast on KC Road, riddled with blighted rail crossings galore. Tires beware!


I'm amazed, frankly. No mechanical issues at all. Most of us have never done anything like this, and this was only my second crack at it. I can still stand to revise my methods. Everyone was pushed outside their comfort zone, and at the same time everyone seemed to be amped up about future trips along the same lines. I have some good advice and some brilliant ideas for some trips in the future. And rest assured: we will do this again!

Whee!

The S24O starts tomorrow! I'm excited! I have confirmation from more than 12 of the 17 who have shown interest and many of them have made it clear that they're okay with a rain-or-shine situation.

I had a clothing malfunction (bad tear in some shorts) and my first flat in something like a year this week. The rear tire valve stem had finally had enough. The tube, age: 6,000+ miles is survived by three Park Tool glueless patches from my Bontrager Select days and the one and only heavy nail that managed to weasel its way through the defenses of my last set of Bonti Hard Case tires. The current rear has over 3,000 miles on it as well. It should last me through the summer, I hope.   I patched the tire on the bus ride home and was back on the road in no time.

Also, my new Cascadia fenders are delayed. Not too big of a deal. The weather is nice and I can handle getting wet in these temperatures. I rode for more than a year without fenders. I think I'll survive.

Hopefully, those are the last of the setbacks for a while. I'll keep you updated with a few posts from the road over the next few days!

Since people are asking what to bring on an S24O

I've had a few emails from people asking what they should be prepared to bring on their bike camping trip. This applies not just for S24O adventures. These are things you might want to take if you're backpacking or doing a short overnight camping trip too. Obviously you won't want ALL of this stuff, but it's a good place to get some ideas.

Essentials

Bedroll

• Camp pad
• Sheet or light blanket (or sleeping bag, depending on climate)
• Small pillow

Lightweight food that doesn't need refrigeration

• Sandwiches
• Dehydrated Fruits and jerkies
• Dry Soups
• Specialty: Freeze Dried Meals or MREs

Recommended

A change of clothes. You aren't really going to go the whole trip in your bicycling/hiking digs are you? 

• If so: Ew. Icky. Gross. Camp far away from me. :P

Fire is Good

• Flint/steel starter (sometimes with magnesium)
• Waterproof matches
• Windproof lighter

Tools

• Knife
• Basic multi-tool
• Bike stuff (tubes, patches, air pump or CO2?)

First aid

• Antiseptic
• Bandages
• This list can get very long. Don't over-do it. You're camping.

Nice to have 

Shelter

• Tent
• tarp
• bug net

Some way to cook, prepare or eat food if required

• mess kit
• pot
• stove
• fork

Hygiene (fellow campers will thank you)

• Mouth wash
• soap
• comb
• towel
• rag

Activities

• Swimwear
• Camera
• Book
• Binoculars
• Frisbee
• Fishing gear
• Flashlight, book light or small lantern (for after dark)
• Marshmallows for roasting
• Star charts
• The list goes on and on...

This time, I am packing:

• Bible
  
• Tent
  
• Light fleece sleeping bag
  
• Small pillow
  
• Shorts/T-shirt
• MRE/Freeze-dried meals
  
• AA Mini-Mag Flashlight
• Mess kit (with a Lexan SPORK!!! Sporks are AWSOME!!!)
  
• Penny Stove
• Fire (lighter and flint)
• EVERCLEAR. (it's fuel and anti-septic, I promise.)
• Small fist-aid kit
• Extra Socks
• Camera
  
• Radio
• Mouth wash (or should I use everclear? I promise I'll spit it out.)
• Comb
• Rag
• Bike Bottles
• Single-person Coffee press (and maybe enough coffee grounds to go around. maybe.)
• Frisbee
• Fishing gear
• Swim trunks
• Mobile Phone
• Cable lock
• My usual wedge pack commuter bike fixing stuff

Thanks to some research, warmer weather, and cheap/free lighter-weight gear, I've figured out how to get my load scaled down significantly, allowing me to pack some more fun goodies.  Props to Apertome for pointing out the old "strap the tent poles to the top tube" trick. 

That may sound like a LOT of stuff (and it is) but rest assured it is a mere 23 pounds added to the bike -- about 8 pounds less than the last time. Honestly, I've probably had the bike weighted down with 23 pounds a few times on my commute. To compare, this is how my bike looked last time:

Last time, both panniers were stuffed almost to capacity. This time, I actually have enough room in them to pack the bedroll and tent within, but I figure it's better to keep them on the rack and avoid puffing out the panniers too much.

I took the bike for about a mile ride with this gear, and it handles quite well. Riding with the poles attached to the top tube will take some getting used to.

On "being green"

Some of you may know I don't consider myself "green" but it's usually the first thing people assume about me when they find out I use my bike for transportation.

I run into a lot of people who think "green" is cool. I also have started running into people who see environmental impact the same way I do, or close enough.

Here are some examples.

A guy I won't name is a pretty big sustainability geek. He's looking at any way to get as much as possible off the grid. Rain barrels, "alternative alternative energy sources" (think peltiers, piezoelectric, ambient/atmospheric electricity harvesting and the like) and some of the more efficient sustainable power generation technologies. Hint: Solar isn't there yet. Talking to him for a few hours, he told me I'm probably greener than I give myself credit for. I say bullcrap. I think he "gets it" when a good chunk of his peers fail at stewardship.

While having my mop chopped a few weeks ago, my stylist said he needed a new car and was looking at Toyota. I kind of rolled my eyes. He mentioned Scion and I breathed a sigh of relief. The conversation turned to fuel economy and eventually sustainability. He thinks people buying hybrids are playing an important role by beta-testing (and somewhat bankrolling) the technological bootstrap for highly efficient vehicles, but he doesn't understand why people think they're being green. He's also as perplexed as I am by on-grid charging of plug-in EVs and hybrids -- The fact is, they're practically coal-fueled and a lot more inefficiency is introduced in the delivery, conversion and storage of that electricity. The stuff just doesn't add up. This guy gets it.

Explaining how my bicycling habit affects the parts of town I'd be willing to move to to someone this afternoon, I had to bite my tongue when the gentleman sitting across from me decided to pipe up about his myopic adventures in being green. Recycling: okay. Civic Hybrid? Really? When he bragged about gas mileage, I couldn't resist telling him I can cover 30 miles on the energy contained in a decent-sized sandwich. The truth is, his hybrid gets worse mileage than some other small cars that use a small, efficient gasoline engine. They cost quite a bit less, and you don't send toxic batteries to the landfill (or at best, some re-processing plant) every 5-8 years or so. This guy doesn't get it.

Despite greenwashing's best intents, there are a lot of people shuffling resources around without actually doing anything good -- robbing Peter to pay Paul, so to speak -- people being "green" themselves without realizing that their actions cause problems elsewhere, to wit:

• Manufacture and disposal of large battery packs for cars that get such "good" (not really) mileage
  
• Allowing old, inefficient appliances and/or cars to remain in use (giving away or selling) or take up space in a landfill
• Manufacture and disposal of mercury-loaded CFL bulbs

I guess that's my curmudgeonly rant for the night. It comes down to stewardship, really. As a civilization, we've inherited something great. It's a gift to us, really. We can either do things that make it a better place or we can trample on it. Let's just make sure our efforts aren't all for naught.

Speaking of off-grid energy. I found a good deal on one of these:


I don't really want it because it's sustainable. I got it because it was inexpensive and I love gadgets. Plus, some cool features that will make it a serious camping winner:

• Small and light
  
• Hand-Crank charging
• Solar charging
• Flashlight
• AM/FM/Weather Radio
• Has a USB port so you can charge things with the hand-crank.

Playing around with it, it appears that it will take a good deal of cranking to pump a few minutes of talk-time into a dead mobile phone. The weather radio on this picks up a better signal than any other weather radio in my house, aside from the one built in to the alarm clock -- but it's powered by house current only.

Feeding The Fish

This afternoon, my wife decided she'd like to take the bikes out and go fishing at Black Hoof Park. It's been an exceptionally awesome weekend as far as the weather goes. I really hope that next weekend is just as nice.

I hit almost 40 MPH by tucking and coasting down Prairie Star Parkway on my way to the lake. Most Lenexa riders know this hill well. It's a slog-fest coming back up it, but it's a blast to go down.


MUP tunnel under the railroad


Climbing up 91st street west of Woodland, I happened across a Ferrari F430. I'd say "you don't see that every day" however it was in a notoriously affluent slice of town where I used to deliver pizza. I saw plenty of cars more expensive than the F430 (with an asking price of a paltry $200,000 or so) -- No pics. I couldn't get my camera out fast enough.

I came in off the east side of Black Hoof Park and stopped to take this panorama. Click for big.


Goofing off with color curves.


Spillway zoom


More spillway, from mezzanine level.




A li'l bit of the ol' off-roading


Bikes :) hard to tell, but my wife's non-collapsing fishing pole is in the bucket on my rack.


While I was at Black Hoof Park trying out my new fishing set-up again, I also decided to fire up the backpacking stove and make a batch of French-Pressed coffee. I am now quite confident in this stove's ability to perform, and it all packs into the mess kit. I am going to be daydreaming of this S24O all week.


Oh, and we didn't catch anything at the lake. Schools of small panfish were making quick work of our bait -- their tiny mouths resistant to our best efforts and our smallest hooks. We were basically out there just feeding the fish. Hopefully, some larger specimen at Hillsdale Lake become my dinner next weekend. If not, I have a backup plan.

Final update: One Ton Paceline S24O: Camping at Hillsdale

We have less than a week to go, so here's how it'll go down Saturday (July 25th, 2009)

Those who care to follow me can meet at the Lenexa Senior Center (Santa Fe Trail Drive and Pflumm just north of 95th St) at about 11:30 AM. We'll take Santa Fe Trail Drive / KC Road to Ridgeview, down to 159th and backtrack over to Mur-Len.

We will all try to meet at Price Chopper at 159th and Mur-Len and leave there at 1:00 PM. At 10 MPH or so, people joining me in Lenexa will probably arrive at Price Chopper with time to spare for bathroom breaks, snacking, or topping off bottles. We'll continue south from there, probably on Mur-len.

Here is an updated map, but we'll take Mur-Len south to 175th and then cut back over to Ridgeview, probably.

Recap:

• Lenexa Rendezvous: Meet at Lenexa Sr. Center, depart 11:30 AM
• Southern Olathe Rendezvous: Meet at Price Chopper, 159th and Mur-Len, Depart 1:00 PM

If you plan on joining us at any other point along the way, let me know in advance.

For those who've asked, this one is going to be rain-or-shine. The extended forecast isn't terribly reliable this far out, but it doesn't look like rain. Either way, I'm camping.

I'll have my phone on. If you have any questions leading up to this or along the way, don't hesitate to call (but e-mail probably works better throughout the week).

Obviously, I'm not giving my mobile number out over the Internet. If you need it and plan on attending, let me know ASAP.

Maybe it's the new backpack?

When I get to work, I often come to the office in a T-shirt or a synthetic running shirt, and shorts -- usually cargos, depends on my mood and the state-of-the-laundry-pile, though. In a strictly biz-casual environment, I often get a few comments about my bicycle commuting regalia. Backpacks aren't uncommon around here, but panniers look strange when you're carrying them -- especially TWO of them. So I'm no stranger to getting the odd comments. I always head straight for the locking bathroom and change. People know my routine.

This morning, the comment was a new one. "You look ready for a hiking trip! I want to work in that department!"

I chuckled before explaining my situation. Maybe it was my new backpack (scored cheap at Costco last night, the Purchase Order was approved by my lovely and wonderful household CFO)



I got my Kensington Contour for Christmas back in December 2006. It's served me quite well, but it's kind of ratty and I've made some impromptu fixes to it along the way. Last night, a buddy of mine asked if I need a new backpack for my birthday, jokingly poking fun at how tattered it's become. I suppose it was about time for a new one anyway.

Usually, I'm an avid fan of the panniers. When it rains, I often use my backpack and take the bus. I use the backpack because it's a pain to remove both panniers and bring them onto the bus, and a bigger pain yet to get them back onto the bike for the two-block trip to the office once I get downtown. It also sucks to leave one or both panniers out in the elements on the front of the bus, especially since one of them contains a wallet, mobile phone and often a fairly expensive laptop computer.

This is all to say that there are times when the backpack simply makes more sense. Short jaunts to the bus certainly qualify. I'd have likely rode all the way in but I got barely a wink of sleep last night. I tagged Lorin and we hit coffee. I doubled my caffeine intake with a quad-shot beverage, and augmented my backpack with a few cans of Mountain Dew from the fridge for good measure.

I think I'm probably going to go to sleep right after work tonight. 6 hours of sleep in the past 72 hours is NOT good for the mind, the body or soul.

If any of the dozen-or-so people who reads this happens to be from Las Vegas, I'll be in town again for the annual DEFCON conference at the end of July into the beginning of August. And like last year I'll be sure to take lots of pics. I picked up some last-minute side-work that will cover the trip's expenses. The conference schedule is packed pretty tight, but let me know if you'd like to meet for lunch on Friday July 31. There's a block of time in there over the early afternoon hours (starting about 1:30) where there's not much interesting stuff going on.

Fender Gerrymandering

The past few mornings have been adequately soaky. While I've missed the downpours themselves, the pulpy roadway with all its grime has been right there, waiting to make a mess of me. I never came right out and said it, but I recently stripped the rear fender from my bike -- or rather, I removed the three or four fender pieces from my bike based on their inability to stay in one piece, keep from rubbing the tire and actually keep stuff from splashing up onto me.

Fortunately, I was ahead of the game yesterday morning. When I heard the thunder outside, I still had about 10 minutes to get out the door. I stripped the mudflap from my mountain bike and snapped it down to the top of my cargo rack with the spring clip. It didn't keep grime off the back of my legs, but it did keep me from getting the stripe up my back.


Meanwhile, JR ordered a pair of Planet Bike Cascadia fenders for me. I hope I like them as much as other commuters do. Many of the people whose blogs I read seem to use and love the Cascadias. I had bad, bad luck with the SKS Commuter fenders. Even though they were Plastic-covered aluminum and not just plain plastic, they still cracked into pieces. The front is still only cracked in one place, and being held together by some black duct tape. Gerrymandering, indeed. My poor Twelve.

What they're saying...

Scathing review of the official Lenexa Midnight Bike Ride. (Found via kcbike.info) Ouch.

It makes me even happier that people came out to make the alternative ride so fun.
Commuterdude loved it.

Warren loved it. And got some photos worth looking at.

I forgot to mention that Mark gave me a nifty home-made coke-can alcohol stove after the ride.

Last week, I built a stand to hold a pot over a can of sterno (using bike spokes, of course!)


Sterno sucks (12 minutes to boil 2 cups of water?!) so I had to put Mark's coke can to the test. While Methylated spirits, HEET
and many other forms of alcohol will burn just fine, I opted to try the good old standby: Everclear (95% Grain Alcohol).


I had a good flame and boiling water in just about 5 minutes. After I did my boiling test, I opened a can of soup and heated it up for lunch. I just need to make a decent windscreen for this rig. As it stands, all of the stove bits (mason jar lid, can stove, and pot stand) fit inside my nesting mess kit.


When you're camping, Everclear has several advantages over other fuels. First off, it's food grade, so it isn't tainted with toxic chemicals like denatured alcohol, so I don't need to worry about contamination. It burns well, as you can see. It's also great for cleaning wounds, as a solvent, and maybe even to mix in with a beverage =)

Now, to find something to store it in that's convincing enough to detract the Park Ranger, since Hillsdale Lake bans hard liquor. Gee... let me think...

Midnight Cave Ride recap

A.k.a. Slippery When Wet

CC Attribution: Bikes Are Slippery When Wet by Jim Carson

I was looking over my bike last night in preparation for the ride and saw that my bike computer read 11:08 already. I had been dealing with a problem at work (I'm the primary on call for my security group) and I must have lost track of time. So much for arriving at 11:15, or 11:30 for that matter, without hammering it.

This was the first time I've really had my Blackburn Flea out on truly dark stretches of road before. I must say that for a relatively wimpy 40 lumens, the strobe mode is certainly eye-catching and illuminated reflective signs very far away.

When I got to Merriam Marketplace, it was only 11:03. Then I realized that I was looking at my odometer earlier, which I intend to reset monthly, but often forget.

A few minutes later, "Wildcat" Al showed up.


And then Badger and his wife... This is one of the color schemes offered on the 2009 Trek 2.3 WSD. I like it. A LOT. And it comes close to matching Badger's Sea-foam-green Rivendell Atlantis.


Drew and his friends showed up via Turkey Creek Trail.


Lots of mingling was going on by 11:40 or so.








Mark Rainey's Trucker. This is how his kick-stand works.


And you also have to love the headset bottle opener.


Warren, (who's been podcasting Bicycle Commuting In The News at LimitedWarrenT.com) was adamant that I called this the Un-Lenexa Midnight Ride yet still wore his Lenexa Midnight Bike Ride shirt? Iiiiiiiinteresting :)


Eric is a relatively new bike commuter who's heeding my advice to stick to a mountain bike on this ride. He recently scored a nice Technium on Craigslist. Like Jason and I, Eric does InfoSec work. I know of one other infosec bicycle commuter in town, too, but he doesn't have a website.


At Midnight, I gave a little talk. The typical "Two abreast. We stay together and re-group. Try not to break too many traffic laws. I hope you got lights and helmets." Schtick. Then we rolled out. By my count, we had a total of 25 riders. It was at least that many, but I could have missed a few. Some joined us part-way through the route.

Our first re-group was at the new gas station near Roe and Southwest Blvd. The traffic light split our group.




Sorry for the blur. This was taken at the entrance to the cave. Seeing the faint shimmer of moisture on the slope, I gave a warning for people to be mindful of their speed and to try to stay away from using their front brake if possible. (Braking with the front on slick surfaces can lock the wheel up easier and cause a problem)


There were two decent wipe-outs coming down the hill to the cave. It's been slicker than it was last night, but it was still a bit challenging. One group bit it at the bottom of the hill while a few others wiped out half way down. Everyone was okay, save for a few scrapes. We all got our selves together and continued the route through the cave.




Most of us walked our bikes out of the cave. Good Call.

Return Trip: We got split up at Southwest Boulevard and Rainbow. Only a few of us made it through the light. This was the rest of the group:


C'Dude, Warren and his son Peter


Riding through Rosedale:


Back at the Marketplace, cDude shows his battle scars (he got taken out by a wipeout in front of him)


Reed is huge on Twitter.


After we got back, some of us went to Denny's for some post-ride carbs. Mark and Nancy locking up.


When you go to Denny's (or pretty much anywhere open 24 Hours) at 2:00 in the morning, you never know who you'll run into. This couple wanted me to take their picture, too. I gladly obliged and handed him one of my cards. The Cigarette was just for show -- he whipped it out for the photo. I thought it was funny. Nice to meet you!


With that, there was much pigging out and discussion.








And looky what we have here! We got a ride report from this family about the official Lenexa Midnight Bike Ride. The official word: Lenexa PD says Midnight is too dangerous. The '07 and '08 rides both had something interesting happen with things NOT related to the ride that could have put the riders in jeopardy. One year, a search party was looking for an escapee in the area. The next year, a high-speed chase on Renner bisected the ride when police were forced to shut down the intersection for a few minutes. The word is that Lenexa is looking at moving this to an early morning ride -- say 6:00 AM or so (that's early?!) and returning to the cave route. That might be acceptable.


Again, big thanks for all who came out, spread the word, and had a good time!

Midnight Un-Lenexa Cave Dark-Side-Ride-o-Rama of Awesomeness

We've had a few last-minute sign-ups, a few who are confused on the date, and some who didn't get the last round of e-mail. I'll just post it here for everyone to see. I'd still like it if everyone was accounted for, though. PLEASE SIGN UP if you think you'll be attending.

"Midnight" is a confusing word. So let me clarify. The ride will start at the stroke of midnight SATURDAY NIGHT INTO SUNDAY MORNING. That means get to Merriam Marketplace LATE Saturday night. I'll get there sometime around 11:15 or 11:30. I recommend not getting there any later than 11:45 PM.

This ride is a combination of July's Dark Side Ride, and an alternative to the traditional Lenexa Midnight Ride, because they changed their route and location in such a way that detracts from most of the features that made it fun. Sure, riding on a bicycle in the dark rules, but after that, the Lenexa Midnight Ride has nothing. We're going to fix that by adding a cave.

To discuss more dark-side rides throughout the year (most of which do NOT include a cave, start earlier in the night than Midnight, and usually have a distance of 25-40 miles), sign up here.

Check your lights (and batteries), brakes, tires, chains and quick-release levers in advance. No one will be inspecting bicycles for safety at this event.

Show up at Merriam Marketplace with enough spare time to get your bike set up. I recommend showing up no later than 11:45 PM on July 11th, 2009. It's Saturday night.

At the stroke of Midnight July 12, we will all depart, riding northeast on Merriam Drive. We'll take it all the way to Kansas City, MO (where it's known as Southwest Boulevard) with re-group points along the way and turn right on 31st Street.

There's a large hill on 31st street. We'll re-group at the entryway to the cave and I'll unlock the door if it's not already open. We'll ride through the cave loop counter-clockwise, then come back out to return to Merriam Marketplace.

Every time I've been in the cave, there's been a thin, slick mud on certain parts of the roadway. I've never wiped out on it, but my road bike's narrow tires have gotten squirrelly in some parts. I'd recommend using a mountain bike for this ride. Also, the hill coming out of the cave is pretty steep.

Afterwards, some of us will undoubtedly be hungry, and for some of us, it wouldn't feel right not to wolf down some pancakes or breakfast after the ride. There is a Denny's at Shawnee Mission Parkway and Eby that's open 24/7 which is riding distance from Merriam Marketplace. Feel free to join some of us there for the after-party.

If you have any other questions, feel free to contact me via the form on the right, or here in the comments.

Bikes, bikes and more bikes!

I was up late last night working on a proposal for something that I'm happy to say panned out quite well. In fact, today has been nothing short of awesome for a multitude of reasons I won't bother enumerating here. Suffice it to say, I am happy and will refrain from using sarcasm for the day. Oh, and my *everything* hurts from my wimpy workout yesterday. But that's okay. Because life rocks for now.

We cyclists had a unique "problem" at the bus this morning. Lorin and John C were both waiting at the bus stop with their bikes. This doesn't surprise me. John C and I were both on the bus with our bikes yesterday and Lorin usually takes an earlier bus. Today, Lorin had agreed to meet me for coffee. That means trying to get three bicycles on a rack made for two.

That didn't happen. John C brought his singlespeed on board the crowded bus. I think he got the short end of the stick because he's the skinny one who happened to be the most unburdened of the three of us. We all gathered for some pre-work caffeination with JR -- who hadn't shown up by the time I took this picture, but he'd have parked out of fram anyway.


I've been seeing more bike commuters lately -- many of them are of the suit- and business-casual attire wearing variety. It could be due to the lofts downtown, or due to transit. Regardless, more and more people are riding downtown with every passing week, so it seems. I would have taken more photos but I was all out of battery by the time I took the one above.

Also, fellow bicycle commuter, security nerd and blogger Jason would like some help trying to identify another bicycle commuter who got taken to the hospital on his watch a few days ago. I'm not one to tell people what to do or how to ride, but seriously? Helmet: Good

I See You Ate One Too

Clever. I ride past this thing a few times per week, but never have stopped to photograph it.


100pu Week 1 Day 1: 6/6/4/4/5 - My abs were still sore from the initial test from Wednesday night. This batch of pushups was a butt-kicker. I just need to tell myself that it's "the good pain" ... isn't it?

One Hundred Pushups

Anyone who knows me well knows that I haven't lost significant weight in the past year. Initially, I started bike commuting out of necessity, then I kept doing it because I was losing weight (and lost about 60 pounds at my best), and somewhere I just quit caring about the health benefits. I bike and bus all over the place. I get more exercise than many people in America's Fat Belt, but I've succumbed to complacency.

This has left me with muscular legs, a heart that's stronger than it's ever been before, above-average lung function, and yet I still don't have a lot of core strength. My weak, useless arms and flabby belly remain from my decade of lethargy. I haven't GAINED any weight in the last year, but I haven't actually improved my fitness, either. To that end, hammering more miles won't get me where I want. Sure, a refined diet and more calories burned would eventually start melting away my excess weight but it wouldn't do much for my upper body.

So, the goal is simple. Last night, I started the 100 Pushups program. It was my initial assessment, and I was able to execute 10 well-formed consecutive pushups. Weak, but you have to start somewhere. The goal is this: in 6 weeks, be able to do 100 in a row.

After doing just ten measly pushups for the initial test last night, I'm already feeling it this morning: abs, pecs, arms -- all of them are letting me know they're accounted for.

Has anyone tried this program before? Any luck?

Independence Day and Monday Night Recovery Ride

As usual, I participated in massive amount of explosives and fire on Independence Day. While we didn't have professional-grade stuff like last year, my friends and I all got to set off a bunch of smaller things. And I mean a bunch.

Jon is actually made of explosives. :)


A few repeater cakes (pre-fused multi-shot aerial displays) staged in the yard.


Jon, Angji and Joel setting up a few bottle rockets.


This made me laugh, particuarly seeing Jon cheer as the projectile launched. I made it from a sequence of images taken with an intervalometer script on my camera (thanks to CHDK)


Angji shows off her Twitter Glitter. By the way, this was just about the most underwhelming piece of the night, aside from one ironically called "The Migraine". Both of them were basically a 4-shot roman candle. At least Twitter Glitter could be described in 140 characters or less.


Crackle.


Boom.

This afternoon, Chris was jonesing for a ride. He's on the road to recovery from knee surgery (yikes!) so he showed up at my place around 6:00 and we rolled out to meet the Monday Night Recovery Ride folks. Talk about a perfect night for a ride! We had about 20 participants.


My next vacation day isn't until September. Thankfully, it looks like I have some fun weekend bicycle trips planned to pass the time until then. The Midnight Cave Ride is this weekend, and we're looking at 30+ participants for that ride. We're still lined up to have quite a few participants for the group S24O camping trip at the end of July, too.

Product Review: Blackburn Flea

I picked up a Blackburn Flea headlight last week. My halogen only lasts about an hour, and with some more night riding coming up soon, I felt like it'd be best to snag a "to be seen" light that has at least a 2 hour run time to supplement my big "to see with" light.

The lights themselves are lightweight and small. Unlike other smallish lights (such as the "hipster cyst" Knog Frog), they're also rechargeable. In the cycling world, that all adds up and usually means that MSRP is somewhere in the $ARM^LEG range.

The Blackburn Flea can be purchased as just the headlight or tail light, with a slight discount offered for buying them both at once. I bought only the front light, as I really don't need the rear one. MSRP for each is $29.99. As you can see from the Amazon embed to the left, it's considerably cheaper to just buy it online for about $22. Strangely, it's also cheaper to buy the Flea Front and Rear separately -- About $44 total -- than it is to buy the Flea Combo which even via Amazon commands the full MSRP of $54.99

The Flea lights mount with velcro straps (included). The front light has a plastic track to hold it to the velcro, while the rear light uses a metal clip (which can be used to attach it to a belt, wedge pack or helmet strap. Either way, these lights attach easily to many places on a bicycle. I opted to be boring and put it on my handlebar.


Both front and rear offer 3 different light patterns. The headlight has low, high and strobe while the rear offers steady, flashing and sweeping modes. On high and flash modes, the headlight puts out about 40 lumens. This is enough to see a small patch in front of your wheel or enough to look down at your cyclo-computer. I feel it's better suited as an attention-grabber to alert motorists of your presence in low-light conditions. I don't think I'd want to depend on this light to see the road. Both lights have LEDs with both a narrow spot and a wide peripheral ring (as shown below). I won't bother much with a front-beam shot, as it would be mostly unimpressive. It throws light in front of you and will make your presence on the road known -- especially when you've got it strobing.


The unique part is the charger. Unfortunately, even if you get the combo, you only get one charger (as far as I could tell by looking at the package). This pretty much negates the $5 you save by buying them together at the local bike shop. The charger has wires wrapped around it and fits inside a small rubber case. The whole assembly easily fits on a keychain.


To charge, you un-wrap the wires and let the magnetic contacts adhere themselves to any 1.2-1.5V battery, while snapping the charger to the underside of the Flea light. A large D cell should yield more than a dozen charges. I just use rechargeable AA cells. The LEDs flash while charging and stop once the internal battery has fully charged.


Expect 3-6 hours of run-time from the headlight (Supposedly, flashing mode is the most efficient) and 6-12 out of the tail.

Overall impression: I wouldn't pay full retail for these, but for about $22, it's a handy supplemental light for those times you'll be riding under the streetlights and don't need help seeing the road, you just want to be seen. I'd rank it right up there among my favorite (relatively) inexpensive bike commuting gadgets. Its tiny size, modest run-time and clever charging mechanism won my geeky heart over. I'm just not sure I'd be willing to pay $30 each for them.

Related:
Product Reviews
Tricks of the Trade

Short week

Many financial companies are closed tomorrow, mine included. This is in observation of Blow Stuff Up Day err... Independence Day. But I won't be blowing anything up until Saturday.

Last week, the sweltering climes hinted of August more than a month early. This week, it feels like May in July and the bikes have been out out in full force.


I wandered to the grocery store to pick up my lunch yesterday and saw another one of those strange single-sided fork bikes locked up outside. It's a Cannondale F29. Not sure how practical an expensive cross-country 29er is for getting around KC for errands, but it beats a car, I suppose. As one friend of mine pointed out, it will tackle the pot-holes and steel plates with ease. And we do have plenty of those around here.


On my way back from grabbing lunch, I stopped by the fountains next to Barney Allis Plaza.


While there, I took some pictures for my review of the Ryders sunglasses I got last week. After a week of testing, I've got to say I like them a lot.



Grandstand Burgers. I met my wife there, but just got a snack as I had a late lunch. If you're in the area and like burgers, this little gem north of I-35 on Antioch (at Merriam Drive) serves the best I've had in KC.


A nice, relaxing swim put an end to another perfect summer day.


With that, I'll probably be silent until sometime next week. I'll be sure to take plenty of pictures of explosions.