Insert photo here

[Insert Photo of Bicycle Police Officers Here] I saw a whole gaggle of bike cops outside my office as I left. I asked if I could take their picture, but I was told that they "have to worry about photos being taken of them and put on the Internet and blogs" so you just have to imagine 5 bicycle cops, armed to the teeth. They were straddling Trek Police bikes with cheap LED headlights, and Blinkies hanging off the back of rack-mounted trunk bags.

I found out why I rarely see bike cops, though. They told me that they usually only work from 5pm - 3am. I don't blame them. You'd have to be a lunatic to ride through KC during the day. Oh, wait...

Supposedly, there's something going on at Sprint Center that they need to attend to, which has called them to early duty. Perhaps Garth Brooks parked his double-wide illegally.

I'm still sore from yesterday. I'm taking the bus home. See ya tomorrow!

Thrashed.

Yesterday's hectic itinerary thrashed the heck out of me. I went night-night pretty early (for me), netting a preposterous six full hours of sleep. I didn't pack for this morning. I simply bid my wife farewell as she departed for work, then disintegrated into a pile of human wreckage on the bed. I know. 50 some miles. I'm a featherweight.

I wimped out and rode to the bus with the acrimonious wind ripping at my face and clawing little passageways through every seam in my clothing. I had not layered properly for such a short ride. I would have likely warmed into it a bit had I chosen to ride the full trip.

Lorin, Bob, JR and I sat around drinking coffee and discussing computers. Somehow, we got onto the topic of firearms which then led to the philosophy of concealed-carry laws. Fortunately, we're all adult enough to agree to let others have their own opinion, but it was a good point-counterpoint volley that entertained our brains for a few minutes. Sometimes I think Lorin intentionally plays Devil's Advocate on issues he really doesn't have a firm opinion on, just to see what happens when he gets others riled up. It's not a bad thing at all -- it's often fascinating to watch discussion burgeon because of it. On a side-note, I find it interesting that the two of the most liberal people I know own firearms and understand the benefits of CCW laws -- not to stray too far off into politics. Now, where'd I put that XD-40 Sub?

Random Tunage:
Binary Finary - 1999
Deep Blue Something - Breakfast at Tiffany's

Like an old friend

The homeward was nice with a stiff cross/tailwind. I swung by a steakhouse about half a mile from home, which required me to use Nieman to Marshall. This is part of the same route that I used to ride when I lived in Olathe. To get to Nieman, I took Turkey Creek trail's new steep climb to Switzer, then down Edgewood Blvd.

After getting the food home and eating, I took off to the Recovery ride. With total darkness on my side, I went ahead and rode 87th street to get there. In the hour between when I left my apartment and when the ride started, the temperature had slipped almost 10 degrees. I can't believe how many people were out on the ride, I think I counted 20.

After the ride, I had to make a trip to the grocery store that's about 2 miles the other side of my apartment from the ride location. With temperatures falling further, I was starting to get pretty chilly. I made it there and back home, though.

I logged about 54 miles today total.

Random Tunage:
Vertical Horizon - Everything you want
Lisa Loeb - Do you sleep

Jason Interviews The Infamous Bike Snob NYC

Bike Snob NYC is one of my favorite occasional reads. He says almost exactly what I'm thinking when it comes to bike fashion faux pas. Jason from RocBike.com interviews the witty, chiding bike snob that's recently taken the blogosphere by storm. I'm downloading it now, but I'm 100% sure it's worth a listen. It has to be.

What's with the colors above me?

The morning sky looks strange this morning. Usually it is black, laced with a combination of ethereal, feathery entities and sharp, pulsating glitter. Now, for some reason, it's a gradient of vibrant fire into a deep pink, fading to a slate color from east to west. What the heck is going on?!

Oh, that's right. It's this "Sun" thing that I haven't seen on my way to work in seemingly ages.

The word of the day is "Balmy". With temperatures in the mid-50s and no wind to speak of, it was a nice ride to work at a moderate pace, with a few sprints upwards of 30 MPH just for fun to see what drivers' reactions would be if they saw a cyclist keeping up with them in traffic on the Boulevard. I made a hot batch of pressed coffee right before I left, and took my little travel coffee press with me on the ride. I didn't take a single swig of water on the way in. No, I was powered by freshly ground, freshly pressed, strong, black coffee. Then, I went polar opposite when I got downtown and chased it with a sugary, diabetic-coma-inducing mocha. As I write this, my foot WILL. NOT. STOP. TAPPING. Powered by the trifecta of caffeine, carbs, and more caffeine, I am flipping WIRED right now. Gnnnaaaarrrr!!!!!!!11!!!11!@ - It doesn't help that I'm listening to 135-BPM Trance/Dance stuff right now. WAKEY WAKEY!!!

Oh yeah, I stopped on my way up Main to take the above photo, which includes The Pitch's office. Those of you in KC might want to keep an eye out for Wednesday's issue of The Pitch. A little birdy told me there might be something bicycling-related in there. Those of you outside of KC, feel free to keep an eye on Pitch.com Wednesday. I'll link to the article if I see it.

Random Tunage:
DJ Relay - Tokyo Pop
Iio - Smooth (Steve Porter Mix)

Wee hours

I finally got home and settled into bed at around 1:00AM this morning.

Not much more than an hour later, the power went out. I sleep with a fan running in my room. When it stops, I notice it. My cell phone also thought it became unplugged, and made a little noise. This woke me up.

My apartment gets completely and totally dark when the power goes out at night. I like darkness. Most nights that my wife is at work, pretty much every light in the whole place is off. I don't need a night light. In fact, I'll often throw a towel or something over the alarm clocks to kill the last of the green glow in the bedroom. Darkness doesn't creep me out at all. Complete and total silence, however, seems like sensory deprivation torture to me. It doesn't take much. The gentle whirr of a fan at its lowest speed does the trick nicely.

The power was of for maybe a minute. I barely had time to open my eyes. I drifted off into restful sleep again. Moments later, the power failed again, but only for a few seconds. Then, at about 2:30, power stopped. Period. After a few minutes, I called my wife at work to see if the campus 4 miles from home still had power. Indeed, they did. After a few minutes of sitting in bed in complete and total darkness and silence, I decided to report the outage.

After another 10 minutes of making some vain attempt to sleep in my own little sensory deprivation hell, I decided to forget it. At this point, it was closing in on 3:00AM. I looked out all the windows and saw no light except for the stars, the faint glow of a few cellphones on porches and candles through windows. I decided to see how far the power outage had spread.

By only starlight, I went out back and grabbed my Sorrento. I took the lighting off of my road bike by feel, and then shuffled to our office, where only a few small LEDs provided lighting. My network hardware is powered by battery backup. My eyes were more than able to use what little light was available to find my NiteRider helmet mount. Strapping it to the helmet? Different story. I resorted to firing up the DiNotte on low, which lit up my whole apartment. All geared up and ready to roll, I took off into the murky air. Temperature: 39 degrees.

I saw the guy who lives under the tree behind the gas station. He always scurries and hides from my headlights in the morning. He was sleeping now, though. Yes, there's actually a (presumably homeless) guy who lives under a tree near my apartment.

Going up the Quivira viaduct, it was completely dark on the north side, but lit up on the south. The outage was apparently close to 2 square miles from what I could tell, and I could see pretty far in every direction. Since I was already out, I kept riding down to the college. Once there, I putzed around on my mountain bike for a bit, then went inside to hang out with my wife until it was quitting time. We swung back by home so that I could grab my wallet to buy breakfast, and the lights were back on.

After breakfast, I finally got some sleep. What a night. It was an interesting way to log some miles in the wee hours of the morning.

Too nice to waste it

It was just awesome this afternoon. I had a meeting until 3:00 and nothing to do after that, so I escaped a little earlier than usual today. The temperature was perfect, traffic hadn't kicked up too much yet, and winds were minimal. I couldn't waste it. I hit the bike, and got home a little after 4:00. A quick soap-ninja scrub-down and some errands (by car, sadly) later, I was ready to go to the meeting.

We're probably going all over the place after the meeting, so no bike at the Maul tonight.

Sunday I was hoping for a 150-mile week. I ended up packing almost 170 in, and that's assuming I don't get on the bike at all this weekend.

Not a perfect start to November, but it's close.

Random Tunage:
Peaches - AA XXX
Mittelstandskinder Ohne Strom - Live Tropical Fish

Took the bus this morning

150 miles in 4 days. I know, it sounds kind of wimpy (at least given my stats from July), but it's all I had in me. Last night, my legs were pretty torn up. I'd already decided to take the bus this morning before I went to bed. This morning, the ol' leggies were down-right sore.

Last night's ride wasn't bad. In fact, the weather was beautiful with the exception of some headwind. I was getting worn out pretty quick on the home stretch, though.

I have my monthly meeting at the Maul tonight, so I'm not sure how I'm getting home. I need to go home before the Maul anyways, so if I'm feeling up to it, I might ride the whole way, but I'll probably just wimp out and take the express bus again. Who knows?

Typing my 500th post with frozen fingers

Well, Dan did it yesterday, and here I am with my own 500th post.

Boy was it chilly this morning: a notch below freezing upon departure according to the thermometer on my bike. Right after I left home, I had some nincompoop lay on his horn for about 5 seconds behind me. I'm not sure what the deal was there. As usual, Quivira had a clear lane in which I could easily be passed without the fanfare of a blaring klaxon piercing the crisp air. I'm certain that the multiplex-dwellers adjacent to the road were thankful for the early awakening. Perhaps they'll have time for an extra cup of coffee this morning.

When the motorist's ADD kicked in and he grew bored of honking at me, he decided to change lanes, then slow down to make a left onto 79th. The motorist needed the left lane anyways. His horn sure showed me who's boss, though. I am simply not worthy of using the road in the mighty presence of that four-cylinder, front wheel drive supercar. I am still in awe of the 90 foot-pounds of street-shredding torque. Oh, wait. That's not even enough torque to snug the lug nuts down on most cars' wheels.

With the rogue motorist satisfied that he's got the superior machine, I was able to relax and enjoy the scenery. Little frosty tips adorned foliage on the roadside. Blades of grass glistened and danced like pale green emeralds in the intense white beam of my headlight. The world seems to be quieter when the air is frigid.

It took me a while to settle into a groove where my body could stay warm without sweating. It was made more difficult by my feet and hands being under-layered. The desire to warm up my extremities pushed on my will to stay sweat-free. At freezing temperatures and being miles away from any public place that's open, sweating is a losing battle. I kept my pace work stable and rode onward with increasingly cold extremities. Had the need arisen, I could have pulled out some of my work clothes to keep warm. I always carry a pair of socks to change into at work. I could have stopped to double-layer my feet. I could have pulled out some of my old plastic bags from inside my panniers to wrap around my hands, keeping the wind from penetrating the thin cloth of my gloves. Stopping just makes me colder, though. I fought through it.

Once I got to Main, I pushed significantly harder, finally allowing my whole body to warm up very nicely. I knew I'd have the ability to dry off over coffee.

Random Tunage:
Underworld - Pearls Girl
Steve Porter - Vodka Cranberries

October Recap

As you can see, my mid-month average miles failed miserably. Still, with over 460 miles logged this month, I don't feel too bad about slacking.

The lethargy showed on the scale, too. My mid-month weigh-in put me back in the clydesdale club at exactly 200 pounds. I managed to lose some of that, but I always seem to bounce right off the 190 pound mark. So much for the downward trend. I stopped riding with weight loss as my primary goal back in December of last year, so I'll just keep riding along and having fun doing it. It doesn't matter how much I weigh, really. I know I'm healthier now than I've been since high school. I'm just a numbers freak that likes to keep track of as many metrics as possible.

What's in store for November? I just want to clear 4,000 miles for the year (that would mean riding 300 miles), get acclimated to the cold, and know when to make compromises using public transportation if I feel like I'm going to get sick. That's a tough game, because at any given moment I could be forced to sit shoulder-to-shoulder with a hacking, wheezing, sniffling, coughing nincompoop that doesn't know the first thing about courtesy. Twice last winter, public transit riders got me sick.

So, there you have it. That was my October at a glance.

I'm thinking of a change...

I recently bought a domain, KC-Bike.net. I've been volleying on what I'm going to do to it. Initially, I was thinking of moving away from my blogspot domain name, but now I'm wondering if I shouldn't use KC-Bike.net as a repository for my commuting-centric informative writing, product reviews, advice, and whatnot, and keep this website around for posting my ride reports, photographs, rants, and all that good stuff.

So, I'll let you guys vote. One vote per IP Address. Sorry for the cheesy look of my informal poll. I whipped it together in about 5 minutes at the coffee shop this morning. I'm not trying to make money blogging, but it does seem like a lot of my really good and useful content gets lost in the messes that are my daily rambling. I'd like to make the useful articles easier to find and more prominent. Personally, I think I will have to keep two separate sites to pull it off nicely.

Either way, KC-Bike.net will happen. At this point, it's just a matter of what I'm going to do with it.

Let me know what you think.

Mid-50s morning

It was almost warm enough for shorts this morning, but I'm glad I didn't wear them. My cargo pants and a long-sleeve T-shirt was just perfect. I kind of suffered from bike hypnosis this morning, and didn't really wake up until I begun the slog up Main street. I'd love to tell you how my ride was, but I really don't recall much.

I do remember that the road bike was a welcome change, though. I wasn't any faster than I have been recently, but it was just nice letting the bike carry the load, sitting in the more comfortable saddle, and having a middle chainring that's geared perfectly for most of my commute. On my hybrid, I find myself switching large to middle all the time. On the Trek, I stay in the middle chainring except for fast downhill sections, and never worry about spinning the middle chainring out at my usual commute pace.

I saw the usual people this morning. We discussed geeky things over coffee.

Random Tunage:
Sarah McLachlan - World On Fire
Information Society - Walking Away

A real butt-kicker of a ride

Photo: The sun is getting low early in the day. I crossed this bridge just in time to see a really interesting shadow layout.

The headwinds were about as malevolent as they come, and my upright position on the Diamondback Outlook doesn't make it easy to minimize my frontal area. I spent my entire homeward trip struggling against the breeze. Aside from the extra effort, it was a quite enjoyable ride with temperatures in the low 70s. Once I got off my bike, I could really feel the burn.

My gimpy wrist is feeling alright today, so I think I'm going to give the Trek another try in the morning. I haven't ridden it since I fell off of it, which is what caused my wrist problems in the first place. I need to give it a proper shakedown run this evening to make sure everything is still straight and true. Looking at it from across the room, I can already tell that I scraped 4 teeth of the large chainring. It doesn't look like much carnage, but I can see it from 15 feet away simply because the rest of the chainring is anodized. I'll make sure everything runs smoothly tonight.

Despite 2 weeks of hanging dormant on my Delta Vincent /vin rack, the tires are still holding air perfectly, and I know for fact both tubes are running with multiple patches. I'm actually quite pleased with how the Park Tool glueless patches are holding up. I know I rarely have to top the tires off with regular use, but I was expecting to have squishy tires when I pulled the Trek off the wall this evening.

Random Tunage:
Tumor - Come To Daddy
Eiffel 65 - Blue

Wow. That's random. Some serious darkwave followed by some of the cheesiest eurodance stuff the turn of the century had to offer. Can you believe Blue made it to #4 on US charts back in '99?

I carry a lot of stuff.

Photo: Most of the stuff I carry. Not shown: MacBook (Forgot to unpack it), Phone and Access Card (in pockets already), lunch (in fridge) and Camera (being used to take the photo).

Do I really need all of this stuff? Well, I don't NEED all of it, but it's nice to have. This crap is all in my backpack though, and it makes me miss my panniers. I get sweaty back syndrome when it's above 50 degrees. In the colder weather, the extra back coverage is actually nice to have. This morning? Not so much.

Let's work our way down the 3 loosely-formed columns from left to right.

First column: Tire Levers, USB cable and Park MTB3, Dinotte spare battery holder and 2 keychains (home/bike and some work stuff), Earphones, MacBook Power Adapter.

Second column: Spare inner tube and bike computer, Cable lock, NiteRider.

Third Column: Pager, belt, Gerber multitool (all of which are going on me soon) and Jimi Wallet.

Anyhow, I had a nice, smooth ride in this morning. No psychotic and/or blind drivers trying to run me down. Nothing exciting at all. The DiNotte proved itself pretty well today. I switched it to the most annoying blink pattern once I got to Main, then slogged onward. The whole bike coffee club was out in full force again this morning.

After I was at work for a while, I got a text from Jeff, who lives a few blocks from my office. He'd picked up Leopard for me (thanks!) and I got it from him, then zipped around town a bit, putting on almost a mile to go 5 blocks to my HR office -- damn the one-way streets! I saw Michael, a fellow associate where I work who frequents the same Monday night ride I go on.

So yeah, I saw a bunch of friends today. It was a balmy 52 degrees when I took off from home, and the forecast for my ride home is in the 70's. The NWS observations have been showing wind in the single digits. It can stay that way as far as I'm concerned.

Random Tunage:
Wizack Twizack - Jack Acid
Bruce Hornsby - Mandolin Rain

Great evening!

I got out of work a little after 3:00. When I departed, I knew I'd be faced with headwinds at about 10 MPH, but the temps in the mid-high 60's more than made up for it. I took off down Broadway and did the old Merriam Lane to Turkhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifey Creek route. Despite the headwind, I kept a pretty decent pace for riding the Outlook.

When I got home, I found the DiNotte waiting for me, which I wasn't expecting until later this week. Giddy as a school girl, I knew I'd have to try it out tonight. After grabbing a quick bite to eat, I made the ride to the Mexican joint that's now hosting our rides. We rode a little extra distance this evening to go ride past an old haunted mansion. Unlike our usual ride, there were a few high-speed runs and some gnarly death slogs. All in all, a good time and well worth the extra half-hour added to the ride. I made my return trip from the recovery ride all alone. My NiteRider started fading very quickly since I used it for an hour on my way to work, and sparingly on the darkest parts of the recovery ride. It doesn't take much to rack up 90 minutes of use. The last 5 miles or so of my ride home was done simply by the DiNotte, which held up very nicely.

Total miles today: a little over 57. That's what I call a good Monday.

Random Tunage:
Underworld - Juanita
Hooverphonic - Battersea

Got my DiNotte!

I got my DiNotte 200L in the mail today, and was able shake it down a bit tonight on the Monday night ride.

With 3 different flash modes and 3 different brightness levels, it's versatile. The beam pattern is simply a wide, sharp-edged round flood with a very intense spot. The DiNotte 200L seems about as bright as my NiteRider Evolution was before I upgraded the bulb (10W Halogen) with a bluish-white color. It's probably a bit dimmer if you use a light meter, but the vibrant color of the beam makes things pop out of the darkness more.

Running the 200L in tandem with my 15W Halogen bulb on the handlebars is like riding by daylight. The 15W halogen bulb is noticeably brighter than the 200L, but with a run-time of merely 90 minutes on a 9-hour charge, there's a trade-off. I'm interested to see how my helmet-mounted solution holds up, especially paired with my halogen.

It looks like there's a lot of extra weight on my helmet, but the mars 3.0 and the DiNotte light engine are surprisingly lightweight. The 4 AA batteries probably make up the most weight, and my initial test with everything attached to the helmet isn't the least bit uncomfortable.

A proper full review is coming soon. I need a week or so to compare this with my halogen setup.

Monday Madness

Blurry Photo: Workers are putting up a Mor(m)on Billboard. No offense meant to members of the LDS. There's a pretty strong following here in KC.

Anyhow, This morning was a bit crazy. I ran across Karen at about 75th. Near Johnson Drive and Merriam Lane, some f'in old hag in a big old boat of a station wagon damn near took the both of us out. We had a green light and were going through the intersection. She turned directly into our path. Had I not hit the brakes, I would have broadsided her. I rolled up along side her, kind of shaking my fist. Her geriatric ass was putzing along at about 8 miles per hour, hunched over her steering wheel with her seat scooted all the way forward. A little yippy Pomeranian adorned the passenger seat, looking at me, then looking at her pet human as if to say "What the ****, Eunice, you just about creamed those bicyclists!"

I backed off and Karen followed suit. Eventually this lady's ginormous heap of crap exceeded 20 MPH at which point I could finally settle into a comfortable pace again without riding next to -- or in front of -- this wretched old hag, who would likely turn me into a speed bump. I swear, people over 60 should have a mandatory eye check, book test, and driving/parking test every year. My grandmother is 93 and does just fine. I've ridden with her and I'm totally comfortable. It's not how old people are. These people definitely need to be weeded off the road on a case-by-case basis. I couldn't reach my phone, but I thought about stopping and calling the cops. It was too late, though. I was working a brisk pace and stopping would have allowed the morning cold to soak into my bones.

As I slogged up Main some 20 minutes later, I saw the guys putting the billboard up. I stopped for a swig of water and to snag a picture. A few blocks north of there, I stopped for coffee. JR was already there, quaffing a steaming green tea concoction. No sooner could I get my order placed, and Bob was there somewhat clumsily dismounting his Schwinn SuperSport, followed moments later by Lorin on his own Schwinn. They basically ride matching Schwinns, with the exception of Lorin's being a few years older and having nearly a decimeter more frame height. As I sat down with my own Mocha, along came helmetless headphone lady and the guy on the black Diamondback Outlook. No kidding, there were six bicycles practically piled in front of the SE corner of City Center Square.

Despite temperatures in the low 40s, there were bicycle commuters out in droves today. I saw a few more pedaling around town on my way to drop some mail off at the local R2D2 Mailbox. Then, it was off to work.

Random Tunage:
Butthole Surfers - Pepper
Say Anything - Baby Girl, I'm a Blur

Lazy weekend

I didn't do anything this weekend on my bike. I should probably take my hybrid out back this evening and clean the grime and gunk off the drivetrain from the past few weeks. A few days, I rode in the rain. The Boeshield T9 lubricant is keeping the chain rust-free but I can tell it needs to be wiped down at the very least.

I wasted my weekend away learning some new skills and playing with geeky things. I feel like I got quite a bit accomplished this weekend, but I'm still hung up on a few things related to setting up this Linux server. I've been into OpenBSD for so long that I've allowed a whole ton of features to creep into the Linux mainstream without learning much about them. That's for a different blog, I suppose. You're here to read about bikes.

Looks like my morning commute will be in the mid-40's, just like Friday morning. A long-sleeve shirt wasn't quite warm enough, so I'll figure something out to warm my arms up. Dare I say I wish I'd have bought some cycling-specific arm warmers? This is the perfect weather for them. I really, really want to make this a full week of round-trip bike-only commutes. I'm also planning on hitting the Tienda Casa Paloma Recovery Ride again tomorrow night. I'm hoping I can wedge 150+ miles in this week.

My wrist is still gimpy, but getting better. I probably could ride the road bike tomorrow, but I'd rather not agitate my wrist until it feels totally healed. So, here's to another week of being alive and pedaling.

Random Tunage:
Chris Tomlin - Not to us
Goo Goo Dolls - Better Days

Supposedly, I am a dumbass...

or at least that's what the guy in the white panel van on 87th street wants me to think.

I'm not quite convinced. After all, he's the one that has 20 ounces of gatorade all over his shirt.

I'm just kidding about the gatorade. I think.

Random Tunage:
Nirvana - Come As You Are
Kimberly Locke - 8th World Wonder (HiBias remix)

Left a little late

I escaped from home at about quarter-to-six this morning, at least 5 minutes later than I wanted. It was a good 10 degrees warmer than yesterday morning, so I ditched the windbreaker and used my long-sleeve shirt. Unfortunately, it didn't keep my arms warm at all, but otherwise the ride in was pretty comfortable. The road was moist for some reason this morning, but it wasn't raining when I was riding, and the moisture was thin and sparse enough to keep my bike from throwing water onto me.

For the most part, I took my time getting downtown. A train at 67th forced me to use the trail instead of riding on Carter to get to Merriam Lane.

I saw a few other cyclists on the road this morning. Karen was out, and right after I left home, I saw this guy who rides the sidewalk with a bright LED light pointed down right in front of his bike. I see him on occasion. Downtown, there were a few more including Lorin and JR, who gave me hell for showing up late. I just didn't have the energy this morning to push it hard.

Yesterday was my first full round-trip in a few weeks, and I wouldn't have thought it would be so bad, but my sit bones actually hurt the whole way in this morning. It seems that riding just a few miles per day isn't enough to keep you from getting saddle butt. I only put in about 30 miles yesterday but today, I hurt just as bad as I did after my century-day back at the end of August. Really, I didn't hurt that bad afterward, but the fact that I hurt at all after just 30 miles tells me that I really need to get myself back into gear.

Random Tunage:
Sunscreem - Love U More
4 Strings - Let It Rain