A hot day today - 83F predicted but it was that hot by 9am so it was probably going to be hotter at 2pm. Amber and I decided to ride to the Crema in Seal Beach but add an hour of kayaking at Sunset Beach on the way.
There wasn't much wind on the way to the coast until we got close to the ocean. Turning North we picked up an unusual tailwind which was lovely. The beach path was predictably crowded so we rode carefully until we were passed by a crazed guy on a mountain bike who was threading through the crowd at a very unsafe 17-19 mph. Amber and I kept pace with him but more cautiously which is more work as you are constantly slowing and accelerating. When we got within a 1/4 mile of the end of the bike path the pedestrians had thinned out to almost nothing so Amber and I blew past him at 27 mph. No response. I think our point was made.
We got to Sunset Beach kayak rentals and they were busy. Lots of eye candy, especially one surgically enhanced woman wearing a thong. Amber and I kayaked for an hour then jumped back on our bikes and headed over to The Crema. There was the usual 45 minute wait so we headed over to the Seal Beach pier and hung out for a while. More eye candy and another thong. Nice! I dread the day when gay men start wearing thongs - or straight ones for that matter.
There is a small bike store going out of business across the street from The Crema so we checked it out. It's always sad to see a local bicycle store going out of business. The guy manning the store was a body builder in cycling gear two sizes too small (to make sure that EVERY muscle was clearly defined!). As I have just finished reading "Seven Deadly Sins: My pursuit of Lance Armstrong" by David Walsh, I found it odd that someone who so obviously abused steroids, HGH, and probably testosterone, would wear cycling gear. There's no race that he could enter and pass the drug test - they wouldn't even need a urine or blood sample.
The Crema was awesome as usual and I got to say hello to Heather. The servings were particularly generous today so Amber and I we pretty full when we climbed back onto the bikes. On the way back on the beach path we saw a cyclist riding with one hand and towing a kayak with the other. Some of the best kayak handling skills I've seen in a while!
The beach path got really crowded before Huntington Beach pier so we jumped over to Atlantic which was much better. After getting onto the SART we got passed by a strong teenager - earphones, no helmet @:-( - that's the emote for exposed brains - so I jumped onto his wheel and he pulled us up to a group of five riders who were riding a very nice paceline. We stayed with them until we were within three miles of the Anaheim stadium and they pulled off. We thanked them profusely.
It was bloody hot at the end of the ride. I'm sure it was more than 83F. We had a great ride and the kayaking made it even better.
Monday, June 23, 2014
Wednesday, June 18, 2014
Autonomous cars and you
I recently read that while the incidence of teen drunk driving has halved in the past five years, the number of teens (and older drivers) texting while driving has skyrocketed and is now the leading cause of teen death's and injury while driving. I've lost friends to both drunk and distracted drivers and totally believe this to be true.
If you search for "Autonomous cars" in Wikipedia you will find that Google is a leading player in the development of autonomous (or self-driving) cars. They already claim their autonomous cars are safer than human-driven cars as they have racked up a total of 700,000 accident free miles. Both California and Nevada have amended their laws to allow for testing of autonomous cars on public streets and highways. Michigan and Florida are looking into similar changes.
The legislatures of both states are also looking at laws that would help establish liability in the case of accidents involving autonomous cars. One day soon we will be able to buy autonomous cars although they will be expensive at first. Google estimates they add $150,000 worth of equipment to a car to make it autonomous - about half of which is the radar array.
Although autonomous cars might be available within five years it might be fifteen years before I can afford one. But eventually driving your own car may be something only rich eccentrics do. If 99% of all traffic accidents are caused by the 10% of cars being driven by humans, the cost of insuring a human driven car will become more that even the most die-hard individualist can tolerate.
So if your car is doing the driving, you can text and drink as much as you want and I and all my cycling friends can ride safely knowing your car will respect our safety more than you ever did.
My only question is - will they invent self riding bicycles? What would they look like? Would I want one? If I can say I want everyone to drive autonomous cars, do I have the right to say I still want to ride my bicycle?
If you search for "Autonomous cars" in Wikipedia you will find that Google is a leading player in the development of autonomous (or self-driving) cars. They already claim their autonomous cars are safer than human-driven cars as they have racked up a total of 700,000 accident free miles. Both California and Nevada have amended their laws to allow for testing of autonomous cars on public streets and highways. Michigan and Florida are looking into similar changes.
The legislatures of both states are also looking at laws that would help establish liability in the case of accidents involving autonomous cars. One day soon we will be able to buy autonomous cars although they will be expensive at first. Google estimates they add $150,000 worth of equipment to a car to make it autonomous - about half of which is the radar array.
Although autonomous cars might be available within five years it might be fifteen years before I can afford one. But eventually driving your own car may be something only rich eccentrics do. If 99% of all traffic accidents are caused by the 10% of cars being driven by humans, the cost of insuring a human driven car will become more that even the most die-hard individualist can tolerate.
So if your car is doing the driving, you can text and drink as much as you want and I and all my cycling friends can ride safely knowing your car will respect our safety more than you ever did.
My only question is - will they invent self riding bicycles? What would they look like? Would I want one? If I can say I want everyone to drive autonomous cars, do I have the right to say I still want to ride my bicycle?
Monday, June 9, 2014
I broke the streak of bad luck
Amber and I rode the RMCC 400k on the 7th of June in Louisville, CO. My last two brevet attempts failed due to mechanical problems. I have also been having problems with my knee lately so I was a bit worried.
RMCC has an interesting way of running.brevets. You join the club for $25 and you can ride as many brevets as you want. They have a very full calendar so there's a lot of opportunity to rack up the km. If I lived closer I'd join up every year. On the down side - there's no support at all. You get your brevet card at the start of the ride and that's it. Definitely on the unsupported edge of randonneuring.
It's a two day drive to Louisville from Los Angeles so we kept an eye of the weather on the way here. Friday was predicted to have early storms, Saturday was cool but with minimal rain, and Sunday had heavy rain and even tornadoes. Our ride had temps from 55-60, steady wind about 10-15mph from the east, and only 30 minutes of rain.
We started at the ungodly hour of 4am and headed north into the cool night. It was overcast with leaden skies and recently rained upon roads. We were ready for rain but hoped it wouldn't come to that. Fear of jinxing stopped Amber and I making any comments about the weather.
The first real challenge was the climb up Poudre Canyon which was running very high. Even so there were quite a few rafters coming down. We saw a kayak pinned against a rock but there was no-one inside fortunately.
Then we dropped down Poudre and climbed up to Forks. Nice restaurant but a nasty climb alongside a busy road. We turned around dropped back down alongside the same nasty road. Then we headed north to Wellington where we started working our way back to the start of the ride.
About 9pm it started to rain which messed our Garmins up so that we got lost and missed a turn. This only added about three miles but it was three miles we didn't need. The rain only lasted 30 minutes and was actually quite pleasant. This last 100k was the most difficult to navigate because it kept crossing our outbound route which was very confusing. I went into calorie debt and spent the last 50 miles trying to get out but never really succeeding. Part of the problem there was the oddly spaced controls (19 miles then 40 miles, etc).
Around mile 220 we came to the scene of an accident. There must have been six police cars there blocking the road. Normally they would not have allowed us through but we asked very politely and a police officer escorted us through the accident scene. I've no idea how we would have completed the ride on time otherwise.
We got to the end later than we had hoped because the last 100k took 7 hours instead of the 5 that the others took. Nevertheless I managed to break two bad streaks - major mechanicals and DNFing on the Colorado rides. No flats, no mechanicals, no crashes, minor rain, great temps, minor diversion.
The next day we took it easy to help my bad knee recover. We watched the tornado reports on the television. Thank God we weren't out in that weather.
RMCC has an interesting way of running.brevets. You join the club for $25 and you can ride as many brevets as you want. They have a very full calendar so there's a lot of opportunity to rack up the km. If I lived closer I'd join up every year. On the down side - there's no support at all. You get your brevet card at the start of the ride and that's it. Definitely on the unsupported edge of randonneuring.
It's a two day drive to Louisville from Los Angeles so we kept an eye of the weather on the way here. Friday was predicted to have early storms, Saturday was cool but with minimal rain, and Sunday had heavy rain and even tornadoes. Our ride had temps from 55-60, steady wind about 10-15mph from the east, and only 30 minutes of rain.
We started at the ungodly hour of 4am and headed north into the cool night. It was overcast with leaden skies and recently rained upon roads. We were ready for rain but hoped it wouldn't come to that. Fear of jinxing stopped Amber and I making any comments about the weather.
The first real challenge was the climb up Poudre Canyon which was running very high. Even so there were quite a few rafters coming down. We saw a kayak pinned against a rock but there was no-one inside fortunately.
 |
| Top of Poudre Canyon |
Then we dropped down Poudre and climbed up to Forks. Nice restaurant but a nasty climb alongside a busy road. We turned around dropped back down alongside the same nasty road. Then we headed north to Wellington where we started working our way back to the start of the ride.
About 9pm it started to rain which messed our Garmins up so that we got lost and missed a turn. This only added about three miles but it was three miles we didn't need. The rain only lasted 30 minutes and was actually quite pleasant. This last 100k was the most difficult to navigate because it kept crossing our outbound route which was very confusing. I went into calorie debt and spent the last 50 miles trying to get out but never really succeeding. Part of the problem there was the oddly spaced controls (19 miles then 40 miles, etc).
Around mile 220 we came to the scene of an accident. There must have been six police cars there blocking the road. Normally they would not have allowed us through but we asked very politely and a police officer escorted us through the accident scene. I've no idea how we would have completed the ride on time otherwise.
We got to the end later than we had hoped because the last 100k took 7 hours instead of the 5 that the others took. Nevertheless I managed to break two bad streaks - major mechanicals and DNFing on the Colorado rides. No flats, no mechanicals, no crashes, minor rain, great temps, minor diversion.
The next day we took it easy to help my bad knee recover. We watched the tornado reports on the television. Thank God we weren't out in that weather.
Monday, May 26, 2014
I don't have to...
I rode the Beachwood BBQ ride with Amber last night starting at 5:00pm at Anaheim Amtrak. This is a great ride especially when you need to beat the heat of the SoCal summer. The only thing I don't like is that we always have a headwind on the way out but only a weak tailwind on the way back. Also, I get nervous with all the homeless people living under the bridges.
On the plus side it's nearly all bike paths or very quiet roads with only about four miles of PCH. As it was a fine Memorial weekend evening the beach path was fairly busy but not as bad as I expected.
When people are behaving recklessly I like to communicate clearly that there are cyclists approaching. Most people appreciate the heads-up, but some take it personally and get offended. I don't care it they're offended as long as I don't hit them.
<rant>
I saw a depressingly large number of reckless cyclists on the ride. It's no surprise that so many motorists actively dislike cyclists when I see so many behaving like they do. Here's a list of "I don't have to's that I see far to often. Please don't be one of these...
I don't have to ...
Wear a helmet
Ride on the right side of the road
Put my hands on the handlebars
Use lights or reflectors at night
Be able to hear what's going on (I get sick of calling 'on your left' to people that have deliberately made themselves deaf with iPods)
Signal or look before I turn
Have an elementary understanding of the traffic laws or even common courtesy
I hear "It's a free country" too much. America is not a "free country". Afghanistan is a "free country" ie lawless. Go cycle over there if you want to be unconstrained by laws.
</rant>
On the plus side it's nearly all bike paths or very quiet roads with only about four miles of PCH. As it was a fine Memorial weekend evening the beach path was fairly busy but not as bad as I expected.
When people are behaving recklessly I like to communicate clearly that there are cyclists approaching. Most people appreciate the heads-up, but some take it personally and get offended. I don't care it they're offended as long as I don't hit them.
<rant>
I saw a depressingly large number of reckless cyclists on the ride. It's no surprise that so many motorists actively dislike cyclists when I see so many behaving like they do. Here's a list of "I don't have to's that I see far to often. Please don't be one of these...
I don't have to ...
Wear a helmet
Ride on the right side of the road
Put my hands on the handlebars
Use lights or reflectors at night
Be able to hear what's going on (I get sick of calling 'on your left' to people that have deliberately made themselves deaf with iPods)
Signal or look before I turn
Have an elementary understanding of the traffic laws or even common courtesy
I hear "It's a free country" too much. America is not a "free country". Afghanistan is a "free country" ie lawless. Go cycle over there if you want to be unconstrained by laws.
</rant>
Saturday, May 24, 2014
Lucky Greek 100k
I took advantage of a few cool days to ride my Lucky Greek 100k permanent after work last night. It was as windy as always but the perfect temperature. I even had a few sprinkles of rain on the way to Corona and saw some fireworks. On the way back the wind (tail) died down a little screwing me but that's par for the ride. Lots of frogs sitting on the bike path on the way back but I don't think I hit any.
I'm glad my sore knee didn't get any worse during the ride. In fact it was less painful at the end than at the beginning. Weird in a good way.
On the way back I noticed how I slow down at night. This is a widely reported phenomenon. You think you're riding at 16mph and you look down and see you're riding at 13mph. One other thing I notice about riding at night that I haven't heard anyone else talk about is the way my perception of time changes. Many times I've thought it was only 1 or 2am only to see the rosy fingers of dawn on the horizon.
There was a package from Peter White on the doorstep last night. I had ordered a crown fork mount for my Lumotec dynamo light and also a fiber spoke.
I mounted the light mount and put the light on it. It's out of the way now and hopefully not interfering with my brake cables. I'll take a little ride today to make sure it's all good.
I took a look at the fiber spoke. This is an emergency spoke that will replace any length spoke (not a penny farthing!) until you can get to a shop. It's a little tricky to use and the instructions are printed too small for me to read without reading glasses so I made sure I understood how to use it if the time comes. I'll be carrying it in my Carradice bag on brevets and on vacation.
Hopefully an easy ride to Hangar 24 in Redlands with Sherry today. Need to head over to RadioShack to pick up a new battery for my bike computer.
I'm glad my sore knee didn't get any worse during the ride. In fact it was less painful at the end than at the beginning. Weird in a good way.
On the way back I noticed how I slow down at night. This is a widely reported phenomenon. You think you're riding at 16mph and you look down and see you're riding at 13mph. One other thing I notice about riding at night that I haven't heard anyone else talk about is the way my perception of time changes. Many times I've thought it was only 1 or 2am only to see the rosy fingers of dawn on the horizon.
There was a package from Peter White on the doorstep last night. I had ordered a crown fork mount for my Lumotec dynamo light and also a fiber spoke.
I mounted the light mount and put the light on it. It's out of the way now and hopefully not interfering with my brake cables. I'll take a little ride today to make sure it's all good.
I took a look at the fiber spoke. This is an emergency spoke that will replace any length spoke (not a penny farthing!) until you can get to a shop. It's a little tricky to use and the instructions are printed too small for me to read without reading glasses so I made sure I understood how to use it if the time comes. I'll be carrying it in my Carradice bag on brevets and on vacation.
Hopefully an easy ride to Hangar 24 in Redlands with Sherry today. Need to head over to RadioShack to pick up a new battery for my bike computer.
Sunday, May 18, 2014
The right tools for the job
Yesterday Amber and I planned to ride from Anaheim Amtrak to Solana Beach Amtrak and take the train back. This was to be our pre-Colorado 400k long climbing ride. It was not to be.
We're currently at the tail-end of a heat wave. Most of last week has seen record-breaking high temps here in the Southland and a spate of wildfires in San Diego county. We started early to try to avoid climbing Santiago Canyon in the worst of the heat. Caltrans decided to close the 91 freeway on Saturday morning (defund them!) so it took 20 minutes for me to get the two miles around the closure.
We left Anaheim a little later than I had hoped but I'm not sure it made much difference. It was still over 80 even by 9am. We got to Cook's Corner before 11am which meant we could have breakfast. Amber had their amazing French toast and I had a breakfast burrito. We met some northbound cyclists who told us that Camp Pendleton was closed to cyclists because of the fire. We don't like riding on the shoulder of the I5 even though it is legal, so we decided to catch the train at San Clemente instead.
The ride down the Alisal bike trail was as wonderful as normal and we popped out at the coast just north of Dana point. Heading south we were soon in San Clemente with almost three hours to burn. I was suffering from the heat and the remnants of a cold so I decided we needed to try a coffee shop that I've always wanted to checkout. I think it's called the Kahaluka or something. Anyhow I had a banana smoothie (to ward off incipient cramps) and iced coffee. Very nice.
We ran into Linda Cammell there with some friends. They started in Corona and rode down to San Clemente using almost the same route as us except they don't know where the Alisal Creek bike trail is. I will mail her the GPS file. I notice the Metrolink runs more frequently than Amtrak and has far better bike facilities. I'm going to look into that - especially in light of what happened when we tried to board an earlier train (read on).
There are two stations at San Clemente - one Amtrak and one Metrolink - weird. Thank goodness for smart phones and GPS systems. We had a hilly climb to get to the Amtrak station and on one of the hills my chain broke. It's a brand new chain with maybe 400 miles on it. It looks like the mechanic didn't align the pin correctly and it slipped out of one side of the link.
Three days ago I bought a chain tool. I fixed the chain in about 10 minutes. I haven't broken a chain for years. What are the odds I would break one a few days after buying a chain tool?
We got to the correct train station and waited for the next train. The conductor was a prick and wouldn't let us on because we had reservations for the next train. He had empty spots but still wouldn't let us on. We decided to ride up to San Juan Capistrano which is the next stop and catch our train there. Our GPS systems showed us the way.
San Juan Capistrano is a lovely small town - very much like San Luis Obispo. We waited there, listening to live guitar music from the café next to the station. It was very pleasant. The time for our train came and went - Amber checked the train status on her iPhone. It was running an hour late because an earlier train had broken down. Eventually it showed up and took us back to Anaheim. There were a lot of people on the train headed to Anaheim for the baseball game. I bet they were mad.
So we relied on having the right tools several times during the ride. The broken chain; monitoring a late train; last-minute route changes, all these issues were handle adroitly by having the right tools with us.
We're currently at the tail-end of a heat wave. Most of last week has seen record-breaking high temps here in the Southland and a spate of wildfires in San Diego county. We started early to try to avoid climbing Santiago Canyon in the worst of the heat. Caltrans decided to close the 91 freeway on Saturday morning (defund them!) so it took 20 minutes for me to get the two miles around the closure.
We left Anaheim a little later than I had hoped but I'm not sure it made much difference. It was still over 80 even by 9am. We got to Cook's Corner before 11am which meant we could have breakfast. Amber had their amazing French toast and I had a breakfast burrito. We met some northbound cyclists who told us that Camp Pendleton was closed to cyclists because of the fire. We don't like riding on the shoulder of the I5 even though it is legal, so we decided to catch the train at San Clemente instead.
The ride down the Alisal bike trail was as wonderful as normal and we popped out at the coast just north of Dana point. Heading south we were soon in San Clemente with almost three hours to burn. I was suffering from the heat and the remnants of a cold so I decided we needed to try a coffee shop that I've always wanted to checkout. I think it's called the Kahaluka or something. Anyhow I had a banana smoothie (to ward off incipient cramps) and iced coffee. Very nice.
We ran into Linda Cammell there with some friends. They started in Corona and rode down to San Clemente using almost the same route as us except they don't know where the Alisal Creek bike trail is. I will mail her the GPS file. I notice the Metrolink runs more frequently than Amtrak and has far better bike facilities. I'm going to look into that - especially in light of what happened when we tried to board an earlier train (read on).
There are two stations at San Clemente - one Amtrak and one Metrolink - weird. Thank goodness for smart phones and GPS systems. We had a hilly climb to get to the Amtrak station and on one of the hills my chain broke. It's a brand new chain with maybe 400 miles on it. It looks like the mechanic didn't align the pin correctly and it slipped out of one side of the link.
Three days ago I bought a chain tool. I fixed the chain in about 10 minutes. I haven't broken a chain for years. What are the odds I would break one a few days after buying a chain tool?
We got to the correct train station and waited for the next train. The conductor was a prick and wouldn't let us on because we had reservations for the next train. He had empty spots but still wouldn't let us on. We decided to ride up to San Juan Capistrano which is the next stop and catch our train there. Our GPS systems showed us the way.
San Juan Capistrano is a lovely small town - very much like San Luis Obispo. We waited there, listening to live guitar music from the café next to the station. It was very pleasant. The time for our train came and went - Amber checked the train status on her iPhone. It was running an hour late because an earlier train had broken down. Eventually it showed up and took us back to Anaheim. There were a lot of people on the train headed to Anaheim for the baseball game. I bet they were mad.
So we relied on having the right tools several times during the ride. The broken chain; monitoring a late train; last-minute route changes, all these issues were handle adroitly by having the right tools with us.
Monday, May 12, 2014
I understand
Many years ago, as I bought a truck from Longo Toyota, the salesman seemed more excited than me. "Are you excited about your new truck?", he asked.
"Not really," I replied, "it's just a car."
He seemed crestfallen.
Last year, when I realized my beloved Serotta had been stolen it was almost as if my child had been kidnapped. When I recovered it I was ecstatic. It lives indoors now.
I've owned it over 15 years. I estimate I've ridden about 75,000 miles on it and spent about 6,000 hours riding it. It means far more to me than any car ever could.
This brings me to the closing lines of Mike Carter's excellent book "One man and his bike".
"And finally, I'd like to say thank you to my bicycle. I love you, but not in that weird way that can get you arrested. I'm sure that anybody who loves their bike will understand what I mean"
I understand.
"Not really," I replied, "it's just a car."
He seemed crestfallen.
Last year, when I realized my beloved Serotta had been stolen it was almost as if my child had been kidnapped. When I recovered it I was ecstatic. It lives indoors now.
I've owned it over 15 years. I estimate I've ridden about 75,000 miles on it and spent about 6,000 hours riding it. It means far more to me than any car ever could.
This brings me to the closing lines of Mike Carter's excellent book "One man and his bike".
"And finally, I'd like to say thank you to my bicycle. I love you, but not in that weird way that can get you arrested. I'm sure that anybody who loves their bike will understand what I mean"
I understand.
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