CPAP

How the doctor described it:

What it's really like:

Operation HTHU: The Suffer-ring

As I rolled out this morning, I made a promise to myself: No more granny ring. I've spent far too long in the small chainring on The Twelve. My new route has more hills, but it's not spectacularly hilly. I can do this. Mission accomplished, and my average speed is back up a bit, too, no surprise.

The rat maze.

he bizarre maze of residential roadways between 103rd and 91st streets still messes with me. I can honestly say I have never taken the exact same route twice, riding to work or riding back home. Part of it is me trying to find the friendliest route. The other part is me just missing turns. For instance, Knox crosses Connell about 8 different times, and one of those times, I should probably turn. I always miss the turn, if I even find myself on Connell in the first place.
  

Also, I've been having trouble working out since I started the new heart meds a few weeks ago. It feels like my body runs out of steam a lot quicker than usual. The cardiologist said that the stuff I'm on has been known to knock dozens of beats-per-minute off a person's maximum heart rate (that is, the fastest one's heart is able to beat under strenuous exercise) and that he wouldn't worry if my max HR had gone from the 180s down to the 150s or so.

Today, I wore my heart rate monitor and went full-on King Of The Mountain sprint on 108th street as it veers south and uphill to become Lamar Ave.


Nope. Ticker's still working fine.  I saw low 180s, but by the time I could get my camera out, I'd slowed down a bit. I guess my fatigue just means I had better harden the hell up. I'm working on that.

It's Limited Warren T!

Always good to see Warren out and about.

Bike week has begun!

As usual, I plan to hit several Overland Park sponsored events.

Let's meet up at some of these!  It looks like the old Deanna Rose stop got axed, but in its place is Quivira Park. I will be there Monday! Tuesday's event is a no-brainer. It's half a mile from my office.  And, of course, I can't miss Friday's event at City Hall. Aside from Tuesday (I'll probably get there around 8:15 since it's so close to work) I plan on 7:00, 7:15 or so for the others.

The days are getting longer...

But there's more night riding in my future!  Enter: Dynohub. An awesome early b-day present from The commuterDude himself!

Also, I went to the hospital this week with an episode of Atrial Fibrillation. I'm okay now, but my heart was in an irregular rhythm for about 10 hours. A little bit of a scare. After having a bunch of tests run by my new Cardiologist and Pulmonologist, they agree that sleep apnea probably caused it. I've got a sleep study coming up, but both of them say that the best thing I can do is keep on riding, so here's to more Dark Side Rides!

Second bike commute of 2013

March 2013 DSR

Tired of dealing with aging and/or unreliable lighting, I picked this up yesterday. a Dark Side Ride provided the final nudge to pick up something relatively inexpensive in the "to see with" category. The optics leave something to be desired, but it's bright enough for my riding style. 120 lumens, but it does okay with them. The Flare 3 tail light is superior to my SuperFlash, but not by much. It offers much better side lighting.


The route. I wasn't keeping track. I don't think it was quite 20 miles by the time I count the 3 miles getting to and from the start.  Jason and Al were also in the mix.


Quick blurry shot of the Twelve. It was a beautiful night for a ride. For those keeping count, this is my second ride the bike in 2013, if you don't count little errands within a few miles of home. I'm slacking.

First bike commute of 2013.

It took me long enough to get around to it. The route shown last night was the plan. The reality is that I missed a turn somewhere on the way to the office and my wayfinding intuition took over. Some parts of the planned route didn't make any sense at all once I got there (like the jog onto the bike path at 123rd before Foster) and were similarly replaced ad-hoc.

There seem to be no better ways to cross 435 than taking sections of 103rd and Antioch in rush hour traffic without adding significant time and mileage to the ride. That little stretch is the worst of it. The rest of the route is quite pleasant.

Total mileage for the round trip: just under 20. Not a bad day on the bike, but my lack of conditioning was apparent.

Here's the "cue sheet" from my route starting at about 87th and Quivira, with notes:

• Turn right onto Quivira Rd
• Turn left onto W 91st St
• Turn right onto Reeder Dr
• Turn left onto W 92nd St
• Turn right onto Switzer Rd
• Turn left onto Taylor Dr 103rd - I totally missed it this morning. It cost me some time and finding my way out of cul-de-sac hell.
• Continue onto Perry Ln
• Turn left onto Wedd St
• Turn left onto Connell Dr
• Turn left onto W 99th Terrace
• Turn right onto Grandview Dr
• Turn left onto W 103rd St -- Lots of impatient people heading to highway on-ramps.
• Turn right onto Antioch Rd -- Lots of impatient people heading to highway on-ramps.
• Turn left onto W 108th Terrace
• Slight right onto Lowell Ave/Lowell St
• Turn right onto W 115th St -- JC nichols subdivisions are all mazes.
• Turn left onto Lowell Ave  -- JC nichols subdivisions are all mazes.
• Slight right toward Lowell Ave  -- JC nichols subdivisions are all mazes.
• Turn left toward Lowell Ave  -- JC nichols subdivisions are all mazes.
• Turn right onto Lowell Ave  -- JC nichols subdivisions are all F***ING MAZES!
• Turn left onto W 123rd St
• Turn right onto Foster
• Turn left onto W 132nd St
• Arrive at Metcalf and 132nd St.

All in all, not a bad route. The homeward route was exactly according to plan, but in reverse. 

New job. New route.

I have been more than a bit mum lately. I accepted a new job at the beginning of the year. My old team was awesome, and I keep in touch. My new job is where my passion really is, though: Information security research. While I feel like my old route was as bike-friendly as it could get out here in suburbia, by comparison my new route is a bit more daunting. You can clearly see how my bailiwick is sectioned into islands by highways, where crossings are few, far-between and often part of high-traffic interchanges riddled with frenetic and distracted motorists. The beta test of this route starts tomorrow!

Late

Pretty much the only thing I like about days where I end up at work later than usual: No traffic.

Hi!

Dear friendly driver on Santa Fe Trail Drive,

I saw you wave. I probably know you but just don't recognize you without your bike and helmet. Hi back at ya.

Dark Side Ride: Once in a blue moon

Although "Blue Moon" has several definitions, the one that seems most popular is the coming of a second full moon within the same calendar month. Since we had a full moon on August 2nd, we're going to get in by the skin of our teeth on August 31st. The last time we had this kind of Blue Moon was in December of 2009.

With that, we're celebrating with yet another edition of the Dark Side Ride.

Where: Meet at the Wendy's parking lot just north of K-10 and Woodland Rd in Lenexa.
When: Friday, August 31, 2012. We roll out at 9:00 PM sharp. Be there early enough to roll at 9.
Route: It'll be a surprise! Expect 20-30 miles.

A few things to note:

1. Usually, our DSR includes a stop by a convenience store for the emptying of bladders as well as the purchasing and consumption of beverages and snacks. I have a feeling this route will not include such accommodations.
2. We ask everyone to use helmets, reflective/hi-vis gear and to bring along lighting that's good for up to 3.5 hours of darkness.
3. I have a feeling that Blue Moon might be available after the ride. It would only be appropriate.

Maiden Voyage

Round trip: about 6 miles.
Average speed: Slow, but mostly on purpose. I really should throw a cyclometer on Frank.
Fun level: OFF THE CHART.
Lessons learned: That flimsy aluminum U-Channel bracket on my rear drop-out really needs to be replaced with steel U-Channel. Other than that, everything looks good.

Load included a 35 pound pail of cat litter, fresh veggies, a box of cookies, salad dressing and some other stuff.

I actually like my bikes, thanks.

In the past 3 days:

After the monthly KCPUG meeting half a mile from home: "Are you riding because your car is broken? I can give you a ride, man."

(in response to the trailer): "... or you could just drive your car."

Is there some new wave of anti-bicycling advertisement I'm missing?  In other news, my wife thinks my bike trailer looks like something a homeless bum would use. I think the blue bucket of doom just needs a camouflage paint job and/or a few (dozen) bumper stickers on it so it more closely resembles something designed for the zombie apocalypse.

Speaking of Zombie Apocalypse, I spotted this last week. It turns out I know the owner.

Franken-Trailer

Raw materials:
I had these two specific un-used items in my hoarder stash that I knew would go into this project. The wheelchair was very used when I got it (for next to nothing) on craigslist years ago. The hard rubber tires are yellowed and weathered, but the frame was sturdy and the bearings are in good shape. Weighs about 30 pounds. Rated for 300 pounds. I also had a Coleman brand captain's chair with a ripped back. It served us well on a decade of camping and fishing trips. I had originally planned on trying to fix it, but we have enough of these already.

When I started, I didn't have a plan. The wheelchair was a pain to take all the way apart. I left the wheels attached to each side of the frame, but I took the seat back and cushion off, leaving the two halves connected by two bars forming an "X" between them. I got those apart and was left with a whole mess of parts.


It was clear that the two "X" pieces would be used to brace the frame, but in a different configuration. Out comes the cut-off wheel on the Dremel. You can see the cuts I made. I placed the un-altered cross-member in frame for comparison. The piece can swivel by a somewhat tight-fitting piece of tube that fit the inside diameter of the frame and cross-member. Pulling it out was a genuine pain in the butt.


The other cross-member got chopped up even worse. I cut each end's tubular frame piece in half. This was so I could drill through the frame near the handles, and attach bolts through it to give the frame extra stiffness.


It was about this time that I decided to turn the trailer into a "bucket hauler" so the next part was to build a platform for said bucket. This is where the captain's chair came in. I turned a few screws counter-clockwise,  drilled out a dozen or so rivets, and had broken the chair down into a neat stack of useful steel tubes and a pile of canvas, plastic feet and busted rivets.  I had to chop the tubing to length, so again out came the dremel.  I drove six screws through the bottom of the blue tub and into these horizontal tubes.

I held everything together with machine screws and nuts I had laying around, but I ran out of hardware here. I needed to pick up more of the same, but I also had to whip up a hitch for the bike, too. I spent a few bucks on screws, nuts and a clevis pin. I used a piece of the chair tubing with a bend in it to get the tow bar away from the bike, otherwise right turns would be almost impossible.


To allow the bike to lean while turning, I attached the trailer to the bike with two thicknesses of tubing, and cut a pair of slots in the outer one so that the screw driven between them can swivel.


Here it is hooked up to Frank. One of the front wheels is missing on the original wheelchair because it was getting in the way of the tow bar.


Unhooked, the tow bar doesn't touch the ground. Not that it matters too much. With one front wheel, it probably won't stay upright with a load in the bucket.


It pulls like a dream, but I haven't taken it on a grocery run yet.

Weekend project

I decided I really need a trailer, but I don't have any money. I sacrificed an old wheelchair for the frame and wheels, and a broken canvas captain's chair for its tubing to build extra support and the hitch. I'm ankle deep in metal shavings, broken dremel cutoff wheels, and drilled-out rivets.

The hitch arm will angle inward more than this, but you get the general idea.


More build photos to come.

Behaving Badly.

This badly behaving cyclist should be arrested for road rage. Yep.

The comments are worth it.

Tip o'th' hat to Fritz.

The story hits me as mostly a work of fiction, inspired by a few real-life events and an imagination run wild. At least that's what I hope it is.

No Excuses.

No excuses.


I finally got to bed at about 1:30 this morning, when CNN stopped talking about science and began their incessant droning on politics and hot button issues. I wasn't going to use Curiosity as an excuse to not ride. First morning of low-70's? Couldn't resist!

Clever decorations...

I'm not entirely certain what took my wife and I so long to make a visit to one of the area's SPIN! Neapolitan Pizza restaurants. I've always noticed that their restaurants are loaded with ample bicycle rack space, and my local bikey friends tend to frequent it a lot. I should have guessed that there was some kind of bicycle culture in the shops' DNA given the name. I did not expect to see gear clusters hanging from the ceiling, though. Also: darn fine pizza, salad and gelato!