Cycle Commuter - Adventures in Bicycle Commuting

• Miles ridden: ~100
• Miles driven: 424 (134,965)

Today, July 1, marks the precise half-way point of the year… I’ve been lucky enough to ride about 176 of the 183 days of this year thus far. I stopped recording my miles when it became apparent that I shouldn’t be riding until I could get things looked at. I now have to wait for a PT appointment.

Summer has arrived, and rather abruptly at that. The past month, I’ve been watching my conditioning slowly deteriorate. In a way, it’s heartbreaking… but in another, it’s oddly inspiring. I’ve been here before. I’ve started from scratch before, and I’ll be doing it again. True, it’s quite frustrating to see so many friends and strangers out riding in this glorious weather… especially when they ask why I’m not riding. The reality of using my car a lot more is also frustrating… but it is what it is. I won’t heal if I ride, it’s as simple as that. Besides, there are many more things that I could be dealing with that’d be a whole hell of a lot worse.

So, once I am healed, I’ll be starting from scratch. What was once easy will be difficult, and I’ll have to work my way back into condition one step at a time. In the meantime, I’m idly fiddling with my bikes and doing those things I’ve wanted to do… like tweaking a brake pad or overhauling a bb.

On a different note, I’m very pleased that Spain won the Euro. Watching the game made me want to get out on the pitch and knock the ball around again. I’m sure watching the Tour will offer the same result. To be honest, I don’t care who’s the favorite or about all the drama between the teams/riders… my attention is solely on Garmin-Chipotle. In a way, it’s more fun to watch the sport when you’re not constrained by the hopes that your team/athlete goes big. Of course I want them to do well, but like their modest goal of the TTT at the Giro, I’m only hoping that they ride their own rides and have a great time.

The funny thing is, the tape was looking pretty good for 10 months of use… until last month, which even then wasn’t that bad until the third week. Turns out that three flats on the road in rainy conditions doesn’t bode well for white tape. Who’d have thunk? So, black tape for the Double Cross now.

Plans for the next bike got rolling yesterday with the arrival of a bitchin’ new set of fenders. Of course, the plans for this bike have been brewing for a while… the fenders are just the beginning of what’s to come. It makes perfect sense that one would build a bike when they’re unable to ride, right?

Went for a walk this morning and pondered the walkability of my neighborhood. Farmer’s market, two grocery stores, a couple coffee shops, two schoools, library, post office, a plant nursery, couple banks, video store, lots of little independent shops and about eight restaurants. There’s a bike shop, too, but it’s (tragically) under questionable management. All that within roughly a half-mile radius of the central intersection, though the majority is within two blocks of it. Not bad.

Apparently, when someone recently started riding the train, their comment was “Everyone has their threshold limit. Mine was $4.25 a gallon.” In the past week, I’ve had several different people send me links or cutouts of newspaper cartoons that depict the use of a bicycle as a means of coping with the rise in gas prices.

I saw a Civia on the waterfront today. Unfortunately, I was in a car so I didn’t get a chance to chat the rider up about their bike. Very surprised, but pleased, to see one. Kinda like seeing a rare import… not flashy, but certainly uncommon.

On his way out to ride home, G gave me a bit of a jab about how I needed to start riding again ’cause he was getting lonely. Trust me, buddy, I want to ride, but every time I do—even for a short 2-mile ride—my Achilles flares up and I’m back to where I started. This is seriously frustrating, but as another colleague put it, if I don’t take care of it now, it’ll haunt me for much, much longer.

So, I’m driving a lot more than I have since the beginning of the year and praying that I’ll heal faster.

I ride to the store. I ride to smile. I ride for fitness. I ride to work. I ride so my kids can feel the wind in their faces. I ride to save money. I ride in plain shoes and clothes. I ride because of curiosity. I ride to feel symbiotic harmony of body and machine. I ride to check out the neighborhood. I ride to save the planet, one revolution at a time. I ride for poetry. I ride to loosen up and not take things so seriously. I ride to keep a competitive edge. I ride to show others that they too can ride. I ride the same roads. I ride because I respect that guy that caught me, uphill, on his single-speed cross bike. I ride because the weather can, and will, get shittier. I ride for a different perspective. I ride for the elegance. I ride because I’m stubborn. I ride to smile at those little unexpected moments. I ride to catch that wheel ahead of me. I ride for that moment, beyond The Wall, where it all disappears. I ride because of great conversations. I ride clean. I ride for community. I ride to see the dawn spread and dusk fall. I ride to fly through one green light after another on a road oddly devoid of traffic. I ride because I asked myself if I could ride there instead of driving. I ride because of a goal. I ride for love. I ride because it scares me. I ride for stories. I ride to understand it. I ride for fluidity. I ride because I won’t ever be the fastest. I ride for utilitarian, multi-modal existence. I ride because this could be anywhere. I ride because of muscle memory. I ride for pain. I ride for little moments of glory known only to me.

I ride to ride.

It’s about baby steps. It’s about starting small. It’s about doing what’s significant to you, even if it’s riding around the block only once a week. I have to keep telling myself that as I’m attempting to let my leg heal.

Thursday and Friday I commuted by bike to the train. My Achilles immediately flared up Thursday morning, but that feeling of being in the saddle again overcame any aches or fears. I needed to ride. Friday afternoon, I headed straight for the pub to watch the replay of the Netherlands v. France Euro game. Those boys are playing some phenomenal footie. On the way home, I passed a couple who were out on a pair of awesome cruisers and decided to wait for them at the next light. We ended up having an awesome conversation on the side of the road. Not unlike seeing someone in Spain wearing a hat from your hometown college, there’s an inherent curiousity when running into other people on bikes in your neighborhood. I hope to ride with them again sometime.

Other bits of randomness… Allergies suck. The sun (finally) came out for more than a few odd hours. Inspired people are awesome.

I forgot to ride yesterday.

In other words, there was a slight hiccup in the Ride A Day Project… I’d made it 159 consecutive days. It dawned on me a little bit after waking up from a Sudafed-induced coma. There’s a part of me that’s a little disappointed, but at the same time it is what it is… nothing more than that. When I told someone who’s been aware of the daily routine, their immediate response was “Well, now you’re free!” True, indeed. Granted, I’d suspected that I might miss one or two days… but I’d always hoped there’d be some great reason why, like “I was climbing a mountain” or “I was in the midst of a fever-induced hallucination”… not “I forgot.”

I’m planning on trying to ride every day from here on out of course, but there is a certain bit of relief in knowing that I’m no longer shackled to the finite goal… now it’s an imperfect goal, still a goal of course, but an imperfect one, which I kinda like better.

The Achilles is better, but still a bit… off. When weighting the ball of my foot and pushing up, as I near full extension I can feel slight bits of crunch (or ripping). Time will heal it, along with cautious use. The unseasonably cool/rainy/windy weather has continued. When asked how his ride in to work was this past Thursday, F replied “It was a great early April ride”. That sums it up fairly well… April in June.

Numbers for May:

• Miles ridden: 1,072
• Miles driven: 372 (134,541)

I must admit that I’m pleased with the proportions of miles; even better, I’m responsible for a little less than half of the miles driven, as friends and family borrowed my car a bit at the beginning of the month. So far this year, I’ve ridden 2,566 miles and put a total of 1,599 miles on my car.

Curiosity got the best of me and I recorded some numbers over the past month. Apparently I climbed ~29,778 ft., burned ~46,726 calories and had an overall average heart rate of 129.4 bpm. My fastest speed was 38.7 mph, my overall average was 15.1 mph. It took me about an hour and 35 minutes of riding to complete the morning commute; an hour and 47 minutes of riding to do the afternoon trip. The coldest it got in the morning was 39 degrees, with an average of 48. The afternoons were typically around 61 degrees; the hottest it got was 77. I had three soy chai lattes.

Numbers really are impersonal.

Gawbless free streaming from Norway. Totally stoked to see Slipstream nail the TTT and Vande Velde in pink. Whoever questioned the aerodynamic-ness of a ’stache can now chew on it. Great start to a Saturday, as far as I’m concerned.

I took that shot a little over four years ago. I still remember how slowly that old man was pedalling up the slight incline, though he wore a concentrated grin as he did so. I’d essentially forgotten about that shot for the past couple years, and as I look at it again, I can’t help but smile.

I was unquestionably exhausted Friday night, despite letting off the throttle on both rides that day. I’m curious to see how this week goes, as it will be the first full five days of rounders. Guess I’ll find out either way. Speaking of ways, the wheels on the One Way are nearing completion. The front wheel is done–just needs to go through the final truing. I started lacing up the rear wheel Friday on my lunch break, but got out of sync and didn’t notice it until I was just 8 spokes from being finished. Got a good chuckle out of it at least.

Starting with the Chrome Shins, I added a few new items to the (sadly neverending) gear list. Of particular note are the Tifosi Pave sunglasses and the Deuter Futura 28 pack. The defining awesomeness of the Tifosi Pave sunglasses are the EC (Extreme Contrast) Fototec photochromatic lenses. In a few seconds, the lenses will go from almost clear to a dark tint, all depending on the light conditions… which means no more switching out lenses. Admittedly, my previous sunglasses (Smith Thresholds) offered greater coverage and fit my face better. However, with the Thresholds I would often have to carry a different set of lenses for my morning and afternoon commutes. The photochromatic lenses eliminate that need. Score one for technology. (As a semi-relevant aside, I dislike riding with polarized lenses and was glad to find at least a few photochromic options without polarization.)

The Deuter Futura 28 came as a result of me wanting to try something different. I love messenger bags and all, but it was time for some change. I looked at a number of different options, including the Crumpler Mahoubar, Ortlieb Flight, SealLine Urban, and Timbuk2 Lex packs among others. Deuter eventually one out because of the AirComfort backpanel construction, built-in raincover and easy access options. I ended up cutting off the compression straps and doing a couple other small mods, but so far the pack has worked very well in its commuting role. No downpours yet to test out the raincover’s effectiveness, so the jury is still out on that one. I will say this: I enjoy having a bit more “breathability” across my back.

There’s something satisfying in that.

I’ve been contemplating my riding options as of late–while there are many things that I want to love about the One Way, I have to admit that there are numerous problems. I’ve taken steps to repair and/or replace the sources of the problems, however I have to ask myself whether or not it’s worth it. I’m much more comfortable on the Double Cross, that much I know–but do I sacrifice it to the rigors of everyday commuting? I keep reminding myself of various points of views I’ve heard over the years… that it’s just a bike, a tool to be used; that a bike is a work of art, a beautiful machine that’s to be loved and treated with care; that parts are going to inevitably need replacing, tuning, truing and accepting that is the first part of bike ownership; that serious bike ownership requires acceptance of the “stable” or “quiver” perspective–there’s a bike (a tool) that fits a job better than others. Finding a happy middle ground between all those points is the tricky part. I’m considering my options.

Having not commuted by bike, I decided to go for a quick spin after work yesterday. While forcing out a rhythm on a climb, a white truck started coming down the hill. A half-block away, it was steered across the yellow line and directly at me. It straightened out, albeit in the oncoming lane, and revved the engine as it flew by me. The windows were tinted, so I never saw who was driving… but I did have a few choice words for them as they passed.

As I’ve spent more time on the road, I’ve grown more and more convinced that it’s not so much a question of if, but when I will get hit. I don’t want that to be the case, but it’s shit like what happened yesterday that makes me wonder just how wise it is to ride on the roads.

I don’t want to be paranoid about every driver out there. There are far more “good” drivers than “bad”; unfortunately, it’s the ones that could kill me that I’m worried about, and there’s no easy way of telling “them” apart. It’s that “them” thing, too, that bothers me… because once “Us” and “Them” distinctions are made, it gets harder to remember the things that bridge that gap.

I’m sure, too, that most drivers have encountered more than a few “bad” cyclists that either ride in an unsafe manner or behave in a combative manner toward cars. There’s no excuse for bad cycling, either.

Ultimately, I just want there to be understanding between cars (and their drivers) and cyclists… not this sense of distrust and tension.

In other, less dramatic news: at the top of the hill, I was waiting at a stop sign when a guy rode past on a nice bike… I was too busy looking at his bike to notice the incredibly attractive girl on a single-speed a little bit behind him until she’d passed in front of me. Oops.