The capstone commute of 2010

The headwind this morning was insane, but the late spring temperature, oh the temperature! I don't know that I've ever had a December morning commute in the high 50s. Of course, that headwind stayed around all day long, so I had an evening commute with temperatures in the 60s and a wicked push all the way home. I got out early enough to watch the sun set behind me in the mirror, drop off some mail on the way home and run across a few other cyclists enjoying the weather.

I have tomorrow off, and it'll be a busy weekend. That makes today my last commute of the year and probably the last ride as well. It was a capstone commute in every sense. I couldn't think of a better way to wrap up 2010.

I have only a vague idea how many miles I rode this year (probably somewhere between 1,500 and 2,000) and it's been a whopper of a year, packed with changes that were almost exclusively for the better.

Everyone have a safe New Year's Eve, and here's to an awesome year to come!

Don't text and drive.

[via Engadget]

Edited to include:
Kansas ban on texting/emailing/messaging/whatever and driving starts Saturday.
[via The Grouch formerly known as Mark Rainey]

Frosty Morning

Cold temperatures and high humidity made for a very Norman Rockwell-esque post-Christmas morning commute.

First snowy ride of the season

It snowed Friday night into Saturday morning, and we got about an inch near my home. The wind scattered it around and cleared the snow from some spots while forming deeper drifts in others. No photos, sadly. This morning greeted us with 6°F and wind from the Northwest -- a crosswind for most of my trip.

I'm still trying to think of a name for my Schwinn. It took the patches of snow and ice in stride, but it's really slow.  I think I need to start leaving earlier. My clothing log let me down today, too. By the time I was a mile into my ride, I was way too hot. I was adequately layered up, so it was easy to fix.  For those who wonder what I ended up rocking today:

Head: Seirus Thermax Headliner balaclava. This one is really thin, and it spent about half of its time covering my mouth and nose, on and off. It's pretty much my favorite balaclava ever.

Torso: Cheap "Champion" brand base layer shirt plus the thin windproof outer shell of my skiing coat.

Legs: Chamois, base layer pants, flannel and cargo pants. I could have ditched the flannels, but it wasn't too hot.

Hands: Cheap "Thinsulate" mittens

Feet: 2 layers of smartwool socks, work boots

Except for my eyes, I stayed warm. I didn't want to mess with the ski goggles. Again, though... everyone is different. Your body type, fitness level, metabolism, effort and dozens of other variables make it hard to tell people what to wear when it gets cold outside.

New (used) winter bike

I am hoping to have a set of fenders and double-sided SPD/platforms on it sometime soon. One more winter cycling tip I accidentally came across this morning: don't use a strong minty mouthwash right before heading out into sub-freezing weather without a scarf.

(It feels like) winter is on!

I think this morning was the first ride of the season where the temperature was in the teens. Most of you know how I handle the cold-weather season by now. I know what works, clothing-wise because I've kept track of it since my first winter. I'm seeing the usual cadre of local cold-weather bike commuters as they ramp up for the chilly season, but I'm also seeing a bunch of my other cycling friends take a stab at it this winter. That's cool, literally!

As usual, I'm interested in all the different ways my fellow cyclists solve their problems. It sounds like some of them are opting to give pogies (or bar mitts) a try. I don't think they'd work well for me, since I have to leave my bike out in the cold.

Since this is my first winter at the new job, people are already in full-on quiz mode. The truth is that I might revert to the car a few times this coming winter. At my last job, I had the option to take any of four different bus routes when the going got tough. These buses would drop me off anywhere from 300 yards to 3 miles from my place. Now, there's no way to get home by bus, and the roads I have to take to get to and from work are likely going to be treacherous at least a few times over the winter. I'm definitely not shooting for the "more hardcore than you" badge.  I'll leave that to folks like Doug, who was and continues to be an inspiration for my winter cycling habits.

Of course, I plan on riding when ever possible. I'll probably be picking up The Mesa next week, and I'll start outfitting it for winter commuting.  I'll need a few things to round it out (see the Wish List, which contains other stuff I've been saving up for, too) but as far as I'm concerned, winter is on! Who's with me?

The JO needs your help!

From Johnson County Transit:

JCT is seeking letters of support from our loyal riders.  The L/N is partially grant funded due to the fact that we travel to/from Gardner, Kansas (considered a rural area).  Any Gardner residents that would like to submit a letter of support would be much appreciated.  Attached is a form letter - if you could sign and send to me we can include this with our grant application.  Thank you for all your support!  Email letters of support to cris.lowe@jocogov.org or fax to 913-715-2475.

Link to the form letter

I'm not from Gardner, but I know a few of you out there who are. If you support alternative transportation, I urge you to contact JCT.

The Warcycling Gauntlet Has Been Thrown.

I've been war-driving since 2000, and war-biking almost since I first started riding. I do this only occasionally. There are very few variations I can make to my current work commute that don't involve riding on roads that are unwise to use in rush-hour. It makes little sense to scan that route on a daily basis.

I don't scan for wireless networks in order to find ones that are easy to break into. They're all easy, in some way or another. And I don't have any need nor desire to break into other peoples' networks. I can tether with my phone from anywhere I can get a signal, and many places offer free wireless Internet to patrons. I'm not in the habit of poking around on networks I'm not supposed to be poking around on. I like my freedom, thank you very much.

When my friend Lorin started riding his bike to his new job, it was a massive increase in bicycle riding distance, and he started scanning for wireless networks on the way to and from work. Some time in the last 24 hours or so, Lorin threw down the gauntlet.

One thing I didn't mention last night is that I went ahead and brought my warbiking rig along for the ride. I think CommuterDude was the only one that knew what I was up to. It made lots of sense, because the route went through many small residential byways that many normal war-drivers would completely miss. The two 19dBi omnidirectional antennae were mounted very surreptitiously to my panniers. In case anyone's wondering, I saw 423 wireless networks along the route, with more than 300 of those being brand new to the WiGLE database that Lorin and I are using to track this stuff. Of course, I have a 7-year-long head start on Lorin. We'll see if he can catch up. And I suppose this means I'll be canvassing wireless everywhere I go a lot more often.

November 2010 Dark Side Ride

That's right. We know no season. With our ride kicking off at 9:00 PM, a light headwind out of the East and temperatures in the mid-40s, five riders departed. Usually, the DSR crew heads off to rural territory, where only light traffic is seen, but this route was designed by DB, who decided to mix things up with some urban flair. We started in northern Overland Park and passed through almost all of the little suburbs in Northeastern Johnson County. Then, it was across State Line, where attractions included The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, The Plaza, Loose Park, Brookside (where we saw a spectacular chimney fire being put out and rode our bikes past a huge trailer full of aromatic Christmas trees waiting to be set up for sale), Waldo, and back to the starting point. The route had dozens and dozens of turns as we avoided most of the major thoroughfares in preference of smaller residential streets, but we had a few fun, high-speed runs on big-name roads like Cleaver II Blvd and JCN Parkway.

It was a blast, as always, but I forgot my camera. All I got were these crappy phone camera shots.

Beautiful fall morning!

Lenexa, originally uploaded by KC-Bike.

34°F. Calm. Overcast with a 100% chance of colorful leaves falling from the sky.

Long day.

7:50 AM:


8:40 PM:

Cast into darkness

Spring Forward, Fall Back. Seriously, this relic of tradition seems like one of the most futile things to hold onto. The fact that congress moved to bump DST for 2007 and forward didn't help matters any. Regardless, my evening commute (and likely the commute of many others) just got cast into darkness. Swiftly, instead of gradually. Not that it matters anyway. Soon enough, my morning commute will also be dark.

At any rate, this is your friendly reminder to make sure you bring adequate lighting and reflective gear with you for your evening ride home, and to be mindful of the sun's new position in the sky while you're on the road. Ride defensively and safely. This is especially for those of you who have to ride into the sun while it's low on the horizon.

Speaking of lighting, my review of the L&M Vis 360º is up at BikeCommuters.com.

October Recap

Man, what a month! Pretty much the usual commute thing, not much other riding. A little bit of driving to take care of some bizarre errands here and there that just couldn't be accomplished any other way.

Today, we turned the keys in for our old apartment. It seems like I've spent the last 3 weeks doing nothing but busting my ass at work, only to come home and bust my ass packing things into boxes, cleaning the old place up, moving boxes between apartments, unpacking those same boxes, organizing things and deciding what's going to remain boxed up for now. I'm a bit of a packrat. I gave away or discarded literally half a ton of random kipple that's been crowding my closets during the process of moving this time.

A lot of what's left had no rhyme or reason to how it was stored, with half a dozen large plastic bins all full of random computer, photography and bike stuff. Most of last week was spent finding a place for every thing, or a thing for every place, but I'm finally satisfied with how stuff is organized. Audio/Visual cables and hardware is finally stored in one thing. Networking stuff in another. Wall Warts and Power Bricks together. Bike parts together. I even have a 5 gallon pail completely full of ethernet patch cables. At least now I have a bunch of small messes of related items rather than one big mess sprawled across many different containers. I can't help but think I need to jettison some more of it, but you never know when you'll need an AUI to UTP transceiver balun or a NuBus Ethernet Card. Oh, wait. I needed one of each last week. Yes, really.

My plan for completing the 100 Pushups program fell completely apart as I encountered nights where I averaged 4 hours of sleep after an eight hour day working and an equal amount of time spent on moving tasks. The balance of my day was taken up by everyday boring stuff and a bike commute to keep me sane.

I'd imagine I have another week or so of getting settled in.

Putting additional stress on things, I barely listened to any music in October. Music gets me through things, and there just wasn't time to put the headphones on and get into the zone at work. And at home... you already know.

At any rate, I'm stoked for what November will bring. Stresses at work and at home are settling down. The temperature's falling, and we're going into one of my favorite times of the year to ride.

New (to me) winter commuter on layaway

The Goat has served me well over the last 4 years, but it will cost more to fix it up this season than a solid used bike. This Schwinn Moab 3 should fit the bill nicely. I have nothing but good things to say about used bikes from Bike America. This one belonged to an employee (or Owner?) and it has been completely tuned up with fresh tires, brakes, cables and shifters. I put a deposit down this afternoon, so she will be mine in a few weeks! I will put the frameset from The Goat away for another time.

In Today's News

Stocking caps are making headlines.


I had to be in to work really early today, and temperatures dropped into the mid-30s overnight. That means it's time to start breaking out the real winter commuting gear. I was still dressed pretty lightly, but this is the first time this season I've needed a stocking cap.

The early commute also gave me the perfect opportunity to do a totally dark ride with the Light & Motion Vis 360 (shown left) that I'm testing out for BikeCommuters.com. At an advertized 115 Lumens, I was figuring that this light would end up being most useful as a "to be seen" light, but it actually casts a really good beam that's totally suitable for night-time riding at speeds of 15 MPH or so. The fact that it's helmet-mounted makes it good for Pothole Patrol. The side markers are brilliant and eye-catching, and the rear light is suitably luminous as well. I expect a full review to be done in the next week or so.

To test it, I took it out with a few other headlights I own, and took pictures of beam patterns. Its competition:

• A Bell Orion I found on the roadside back in early 2009, loaded with a pair of fresh CR2032 batteries. This embodies the ubiquitous cheapo front headlight from discount stores. It's usually helmet mounted. I made a handlebar mount for it when I found it (missing the helmet mount)
  
• Blackburn Flea
  
• NiteRider Evolution Halogen (15W Bulb)

I'll save the beam comparisons for the full review, but here are some teaser images.







And the beam shot from the Vis 360. This was the darkest spot I could find at my apartment complex this morning, far from the best place to do this sort of thing, but gives you a good idea of the beam pattern. I can say it's not nearly as bright as my halogen, but it knocks the socks off of my Blackburn Flea. It had better, for the price!


And off topic, we're finally getting settled in at our new apartment. We had a lot of help moving, but the tedious process of organizing and unpacking has seemingly only just begun. Oh, and the Brown Recluse spider infestation that we were dealing with at our old place won't likely be a problem for much longer, even if some of them did move with us. I found this friendly guy on our first day at the new apartment. It's a Wolf Spider (Hogna carolinensis, specifically) sitting atop a 50-cent piece (Diameter: roughly 1.2")


I really like large spiders such as Silk Spiders, Orb Weavers, Wolf Spiders, Tarantulas and Nursery Web Spiders. They are typically very gentle, but eat most smaller spiders and any other bugs nearby. I'm pretty sure the days are numbered for any Recluses that happened to stow away in our belongings.

Moving Again

No, I'm not switching jobs, nor am I leaving the area. I'm not even leaving the neighborhood. This weekend, my wife and I are moving around the corner from where we live now. As such, there's a lot going on, and I've had a lot of errands to run during the day. Today, I drove, but on my way to one of my errands over lunch, I saw something that's hopefully good news. The worst railroad crossing on my workbound commute is getting patched up:



I'll be back into the usual swing of things shortly.

By the numbers

By the numbers, originally uploaded by KC-Bike.

In the US, there's a 68% chance you're charging that "green" plug-in electric/hybrid with fire and smoke. Dumbasses. Source.

Randy pointed out to me that 100% of traditional vehicles are petroleum-powered.

Of course, some traditional vehicles with small, efficient engines use less fuel than certain hybrids do. As always, gas-powered vehicles can be used frugally by combining trips, choosing closer destinations, car-pooling and walking or bicycling for trips when feasible. Cars themselves aren't the enemy. Sprawl, gluttony and excess are.

Hal grades your bicycle locking skills

Elizabeth from BikeCommuters.com posted this to Facebook today. Hal is a wrench at a popular Manhattan bike shop. He takes to the mean steets and criticizes bad bicycle locking jobs.



In short, he's looking for 3 things:

1. Use a really sturdy chain and lock (not a cable) to secure your frame to a large, immovable object.
2. Make sure both wheels are secured to the frame or to the immovable object with more than just the axle nuts or QR skewers.
3. Make sure the seat is properly secured (again, with something more than the seatpost collar)

I usually don't worry about my seat when I park at work. I have a thick towing chain that I pass through both wheels and the rear triangle, then around the bike rack. If I'll only be in and out (like the grocery store) I'll often use a cable lock, but I'll pass it through both wheels, the frame and the seat rails before attaching it to the rack. In higher risk areas (such as when I was riding to a not-so-great part of downtown Kansas City, MO for my monthly check-in at the unemployment office), I use both techniques at the same time.

Hal's comment on quiet streets generally being safer is generally spot-on, but you could be asking for trouble if your lock-up spot is too secluded and you frequently lock up there for long periods of time. He also discusses the fact that locks only buy you time. As a security guy, I would say that it's more complicated than that, but not by much.

• If someone really wants YOUR bike (because it's the most expensive one they came across, because they hate you, or because it's the only bike around), then locks only buy you time.
• If someone just wants something easy to steal (including individual bike wheels, seats, etc) and yours is locked up better than the others in the area, thieves will usually choose the easier target.

It's not as big of a problem in Kansas City as it is in larger metro areas, but bicycles are generally a commodity on the street. A working bicycle can be traded for about $25-$50 in goods or services unilaterally on the black market. It doesn't matter if it's a discount-store Bike-Shaped-Object or a carbon fiber track bike. Generally speaking, though, thieves are willing to put a little more work (and risk) into making extra money out of nice bikes by parting them out and fencing them or by trying to sell them as if they're the owner, either in person or on sites like Craigslist.

I'd still like to know where Hybridzilla ended up. I checked all the pawn shops, all the online places and the local newspaper want ads. I like to think it found its way to someone that appreciates and rides it much as I did. It was purpose-built for getting around reliably.

Random Tunage:
Derek Howell - Frozen
Cascade - Escape

Time to consult the clothing log

My breaking point for shorts is 50 degrees Fahrenheit. As the fall has moved in and morning temperatures dropped into the low 60s and 50s, I think this is the first year that I trusted myself to believe that I'd regret throwing layers on. This week, however, has greeted me with low 40s. Psychologically, my brain processes this as "just a little above freezing," and the temptation to break out the balaclava, wool socks and ski coat becomes very real.

This time of year, I'm really glad that I kept track of years past and what kinds of clothing worked particularly well at given temperatures below 50 degrees. This morning, I rode in my work pants, a synthetic shirt, some light gloves and a hoodie. Truth told, it was still a little warm. I opened the zipper on the hoodie and kept my speed down to compensate. I used the hood under my helmet for ear coverage, but I think a headband and a light windbreaker would have been a better call. Duly noted in the log.

Utility cycling is all about finding your own groove.

Random Tunage:
The Crystal Method: Busy Child
64-Bit - The Arrival

Corinna West wants your help

I enjoy writing narratives, but I'm certainly not a poet, nor am I skilled in visual arts. I do, however, believe wholeheartedly in what our friend and fellow cyclist Corinna West is doing, though. I'm re-publishing an email I just got from her. If you or someone you know might be interested in helping out, contact her using the info at the end of her e-mail. I re-hosted the attached documents she speaks of on Google Documents, and linked them at the bottom of this post.

Hi Poetry Friends and Bicycle Friends,

In case you haven't heard, I got a really big federal grant to share the idea that people can get better from mental illnesses by using wellness tools such as poetry, exercise, mindfulness, spirituality, advocacy, and community building. The grant is targeted toward young adults aged 18 - 25.

We will be doing 10 health fairs at First Fridays where we are doing bicycle based peer support using a movable display attached to our bicycles. We'll be talking to people about mental health and recording people who want to try freestyling (making up poetry on the spot). We'll be selling art, so this is a great fit for you if you ride a bike, make artwork, and have some personal experiences with mental health issues. If you know someone like this, please forward the application to them.

The other thing we are doing is 10 open mic contests at universities throughout Missouri. Attached is the call for artists for feature poets for this. I am looking for people who can share poems about overcoming adversity, especially positive mental health related poems. Any poems about struggles in your life and using poetry as a resource might be considered for this feature. Many of you have poems that fit for this project.

The application instructions for both are included. I will pick the first people by October 21, so try to have your CV/artist resume, sample poems if you're a poet, and cover letter to me by then.

Please forward this on to anyone else who may be interested.
--
Corinna West, MS, CPS
Creative Director, Human Hand Wordworks

PO Box 172351, Kansas City, KS 66117
816-392-6074
http://corinnawest.com/

PPP Call For Artists

PPP Bicycle Peer Support Opening