77. Glove Heaven

Sometimes I ask, is it really worth it?  The rain and wind; waking up and finding a flat tire; shoulder to shoulder with an SUV; hills upon hills; lost helmets and gloves.  A couple of weeks ago I found myself down to two pairs of gloves--some ski gloves for when temp's in the teens and 20's but otherwise quite unusable, and a pair I found along the roadside a few years ago and keep as a spare when my mainstays haven't dried out.

I need something to keep me going, but wary that "a wicked and adulterous generation looks for a miraculous sign," I keep quiet.

Then during one of my periodic passes by the REI return bins I found a pair of cycling gloves in perfect condition (returned because they "weren't waterproof enough") for $11.  A couple of days later a pair of lightweight gloves that had been missing for a couple of weeks turned up in Sage's trunk.  And tonight the lost left of my regular gloves shows up in my rarely driven car.

I believe, I believe.

76. Candid Camera

this from my favorite environmental lawyer Kym, about a camera-toting London cyclist.  I have a camera for my helmet (or handlebars, I guess).  One of these days, I'll edit and post my production, not as exciting as the following:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12334486

75. Directions

I have no problem with municipal promotion of bicycling, but this sign is just silly.  For one thing, the Capitol Hill the sign refers to is just two blocks up the street, over a freeway--it's not like there is any other way to get there from this starting point.  Moreover, cyclists in this city of hills and rain are pretty determined; casual cyclists a rare breed.  We're independent; we'll decide what routes we take, one-way streets and directional signs notwithstanding.

74. Roll, Baby, Roll

I don't know whether it's genetic or something I learned along the way, but I'm pretty good at rolling up when I fall (as opposed, for example, to sticking an arm out as a brace, a sure way to fracture a wrist).

So when I fell yesterday, I instinctively curled up.  So no ligament injuries, just bruises.

I think the bike's ok, and I put black duct tape over the tears in my rain pants.

73. Bricks

Recipe for a fall:
1. Dark
2. Wet
3. Speed: Bus arrives with its 3-bike rack filled, requiring me to race ahead to the transit center where I can safely leave my bike overnight and still catch the bus (as opposed to waiting 30 minutes for the next bus)
4. Light rail tracks crossing my route

5. and bricks:  in an prettification move, as the rails were installed bricks were laid down between them instead of concrete or asphalt.  Need I comment on the slippery factor of wet bricks?

I went down, my head bounced off the payment (thanks, helmet), my rain pants tore, and my handlebars twisted, but I got back on and still made it to the transit center.  I just can't bear weight my knee.  But it bends, so I can cycle.

72. Happy Christmas

It wasn't a hint but a direct request:  I needed a bike stand for repairs, tired of putting the bike upside down, or laying on its side as I bend over while crouching on the dirty garage floor. So I send my money to St Paul, Minnesota and on Christmas day put it together.  A few days later I used it to install fenders, two months into the six month rainy season, better late than never.

The bike on the hoist is my wife's as is the one seen in the background, up the "garage tunnel" that leads to the house.  Hanging vertically on the far left is my spare bike, currently in need of a new rear derailleur--sounds like a job for SuperStand.

71. New Year's Resolution #1: Be Nicer

Nicer to my fellow commuters, that is. No barely audible muttering (with facial expression to match) when someone delays the commute by asking directions about King County bus schedules from a Pierce County driver or by fishing through a backpack for pennies and nickels to make the fare and then looking at the other riders, asking, "Does anyone have change for a five?

So, I'll start carrying at least five one's to make change or just to give to someone who doesn't have the fare.  Who am I to judge?

70. Emigrating to Denmark

More than 30% of working Danes commute by bike.  Cycling traffic jams are common, with fixes on the way that may increase that percentage to 50:

http://www.grist.org/article/2010-11-28-copenhagen-denmark-plans-bike-superhighways.

How hard is it to learn Danish?

69. Don't [text] while cycling

My colleague Al competes in a couple of ironman triathlons a year, top in his age group.  Dedicated.  Disciplined.

During a training session a month ago on clear day and a straight road, he was going 20 miles an hour (a speed I achieve only on a substantial hill), bearing down on a truck. He looked down at his handlebar odometer and started to fidget with it, perhaps changing from speed to distance or some such thing, and failed to take note that the truck had stopped.

He spent a week in the ICU, lost his lower teeth and still can't swallow. He gets Ensure down a feeding tube, not enough to keep his body fat percentage out of the negative .  He fractured his wrist, critical for his profession.  He'll be lucky if he is back to work by February.

I fully expect him to compete in a triathlon in 2011.

I put new brakes and a front light on my bike.  And it's getting darker, maybe a second flashing red light on the back.

68. Another Signs of the Time

Sure, bicycling is slower than a car (except when traffic is heavy and I'm loose with the traffic rules), but slowness itself means I see things not seen from inside a 300hp steel box.

I jump to a sidewalk to avoid a busy intersection, and I see a guy with a cardboard sign asking for donations.  I don't see the message on front, but I do see that behind the sign, he's texting.

Now I have no problems with the economically challenged and cell phones--they seemed ubiquitous in Ghana a few years ago.

It was the texting that got me.

67. Sign of the Times

We've all seen men using electric shavers while driving and women putting on make-up at stoplights, so no big deal when I saw someone trying to steady a mirror and eyebrow pencil during a bus commute.

But I did pause when someone pulled out a toothbrush and proceeded to brush her teeth in the seat across from me.

Of all days to not have a camera with me.

66. Bad Commute Day

A constant risk with a combo bike-bus commute is a bus rolling up with the rack already full.  A couple of times a year that's okay; I can wait 30min for the next bus, or just lock up my bike nearby (no, the driver is not going to wait; I just ride ahead to a stop where it's safe to leave the bike during the day or overnight--I'm faster than the bus in town so have time to lock it up) and get on the bus.

The other day I just missed one bus, and when the next bus came half an hour later, it had a full bike rack.  I said okay, it's a nice day; me and my ipod can wait it out.  But then then next bus was also full, even though it was a 3-bike rack.  And it was the start of a four day weekend for me, so not a good time to leave the bike locked up.  Finally got on the third bus--that's 90 minutes waiting for a *%#!@*& bus, almost three hours to get home.  Had I known, I might have camped out in my office overnight.

65. bicycle elbow or tennis elbow?

Stretch your arm in front, palm upward.  Make a fist and relax.  Try to make a fist again, but with the opposite hand applying resistance (pressure) to prevent you from doing so.  If this causes pain or discomfort at the inner (medial) elbow, that's bicycler's (or golfer's) elbow.

Now stretch hand with palm downward.  Raise hand up against pressure from the opposite hand.  If there is pain or discomfort at the outer (lateral) elbow, that's tennis elbow.

64. Cycler's Elbow

A couple of weeks ago my left elbow became very tender. The only change in my routine had been a couple of longer rides: 40 miles instead of my usual commute of 4-6 miles one way.

The pain is on the inner elbow (so that standing with my palms facing outward the pain is in that part of the elbow nearest my chest.  With my arm outstretched and palm upward, there is pain with attempted flexion (like making a fist) against resistance.  There is no pain when the palm is facing downward and the hand is flexed upwards against resistance.

Diagnosis?  MEDIAL EPICONDYLITIS, also know as Golfer's elbow.  These tendon/ligament injuries are often attributed to repetitive movements, which doesn't make sense for cycling.

What I think is happening is that the shocks and vibration not absorbed by the tires or front shocks travels up the arm and ends up at my locked elbow (I tend to ride with a straight arm).  The wrists are slightly bent and just send the energy upwards.  My right arm is protected because a few decades ago an injury left me with the inability to completely straighten and lock my right arm.  So on the right side the vibration travels up and disipates or is absorbed the the large shoulder muscle. I need to ride with left my arm slightly bent. Or I could stop cycling for a few weeks (yeh, right, now that's going to happen)

note:  not to be confused with "handlebar palsy" in which the vibration and shock injure the ulnar nerve, with symptoms along the length of the nerve and can include numbness or tingling, from the forearm to the 4th and 5th digits.  Handlebar and/or seat adjustments help by decreasing the stretch of the arm.

63. Go Boise

In Boise over the weekend with mucho relatives, talked to a bicyclist at church.  I told him I ride a bike everyday to work in my home city; his reply was an enthusiastic, "yeh, never any reason to drive, especially in Boise which is essentially flat," though even a flat ride in 100 degree (or 10 degree) weather is admirable.

62. GoogleMaps part II, mea culpa

I repeated my Tacoma-Seattle run recently, combining the Google bike route with some modifications. I  discovered that the main problem with the first GoogleMap misadventure was understandingly (understandably?) ignoring a road with no signpost, a gravel lane that dead-ended into a farm; just a farm entrance I thought.  That's the city's problem, not Google's.  This second time, I pedaled down it and found that it led to a trail that was totally bikeable and a nifty route though the forgettable town of Milton.  So Google forgiven.  My time was a little over 3.5 hours (compare my earlier 6 hr disaster). And would have been even shorter had I spent less time on the serpentine Green River Trail.

61. Paper or Plastic? Presta or Schrader?

With some free time at work, I thought I could complete a long-planned project to replace mountain bike tires with a smoother "urban" street tire, thinner and smoother.

In the rain, the smoother tire is theoretically better than the knobby mountain style: more tread touching the ground at any given time, so better traction.  Also, because the street tire is thinner, there is less traction so a more efficient ride.  Am I the only one to sense a contradiction here?  Must be quantum mechanics

So I pull a tire off, put the new one on and grab the pump.

I can't believe it, I had a schrader pump and presta tires.  Dumb.

I could put the old tires back on and bicycle to a store, but they're not open yet, and besides, I'm philisophically opposed to backtracking of any kind.  So I find a co-worker who's an avid cyclist.  As predicted he has a compact presta pump with him which I borrow.  An hour of pumping later my tires are just half full (I'm thinking, do I not know how to use a pump?), so I just walk to the bus stop, then walk again home, where I have an adaptor.  Finally the tires are full.  Time wasted: 2 hours

WELCOME

Welcome to the new site for GREEN COMMUTER.

It's complicated, but I had to separate my different blogs, and it seemed that the best way was to transfer "green-commuter" to "greencommuting."

I didn't like the hyphen, anyway.

60. Bike to Work Month

May was Bike to Work month across the country; not the best month for cycling in Seattle, but it's a big country, and someone has to give in.

I logged in an acceptable 257 miles, about 30% more than last year, much of it in drizzly if not rainy weather.

I did bike every work day, which was my primary goal.

59. Bike to Work Day

Today was "Bike to Work Day."  I put my bike in the Volvo, drove to Fed Way Park & Ride then cycled 11.8 miles in the the cold rain to work.  Why drive at all? Tomorrow after my night shift, I'll bike/bus back to FW, pick up the car and drive to pick up Sage at the airport that's just a few miles up the road.  I'll have 15 minutes from end of shift to catch the bus; no problem.

It took me an hour because I still don't have a working high gear, and the faster I cycled, the more rain swept up from the front tire into my face.  Put on a fender, you say? Like you said you would last fall?  But the monsoon season's almost over, so maybe I'll wait it out.

I could have met with follow cyclists on the steps of city hall, greeting our new cycling mayor, but no, there I am alone on Hiway 99, through Milton and Fife, past the native American smoke and firework stores, the truck stops and trucker motels near the port, and finally up the hill to St Joseph's.

58. Googlegate

Sure, I knew that Google Maps for Bicycles is still in the "beta" phase, and even if it weren't, I should have brought a traditional road map, but still naive after all these years, I just printed up the Google directions and started the 44 mile trip home. After a light night shift and weather predicted for sunny mid-60's, I was looking forward to the ride. Six (yes, six) hours later, I wheeled into the driveway, thinking, dumb, dumb, dumb. It wasn't all Google's fault. For a while I followed the Green River trail upstream when I knew my destination was coastal not glacier. And the headwind didn't help.

57. ZipCar

I've talked with Deb a couple of times on the bus. She teaches math at a vocational school in Tacoma, commuting from Seattle, using the same bus-bike strategy that I do. Her car is up for sale. She thinks she may sign up with ZipCars, which allows use of car for $50 annual membership and then $10 dollars an hour, insurance and gas included. I can't imagine living without a car, even though I can go a couple of weeks without driving anywhere (alone, anyway, in the city on weekend errands, my wife is the driver). So I'm impressed with Deb's impending dive into the world of non-car ownership.

56. Clueless in Seattle

"Are we in downtown Seattle?" asks a young woman riding on the Tacoma-Seattle express. Buildings rising 40-50 stories line the bus route as she asks.
"Yes, he replies," we're in downtown Seattle.
"Can you tell me where the McDonald's is?"
"Which McDonalds?
"Well just let me off here."
"Wait a minute," the driver and I reply in unison.

We tell her there's a McDonalds near Westlake Center, but that is still several stops away. She stays on. Turns out that there are six McDonalds downtown, so when she asks directions on the street, who knows where she will end up. I hope she has return fare.

55. AAUGH!

Day off Monday, so I stay up late, close to midnight, get up late, around 8 and wander upstairs to look at emails and stuff. Thinking that I don't want to return to work on Tuesday with an overflowing inbox, I log onto my office work station and whoa! I see I have a full day schedule; I'm supposed to meet someone in 15 minutes. I call in to let them know I'm coming, put on clothes and drive in, an hour late, but at least I'm there.

Yes, I DRIVE in to work. Just three months into the year, I've lost my 100% public transportation award. I'm devastated. I should have called in sick.

54. Bike Mechanic, Part II

Status report

Initiating event: Gear shifter stuck (broken?)

1. Learn how to spell derailleur.

2. Took shifter apart; can't see what's wrong. But at least I adjusted the rear cable so that it's stuck in a middle gear.

3. Adjust the front derailleur, you know, the one I never use because it has been out of adjustment ever since I bought the bike. Too bad, though. The lowest gear isn't low enough for the steepest hills I face every day (coming and going), and the highest gear isn't high enough to allow max speed on level ground. How did I ever manage with my 3-speed blue-the-color-of-my-eyes Schwinn in the seventh grade? Maybe because Twin Falls is essentially flat.

4. Total embarrassment when I see how dirty my gears are.

53. Equal Rights

As reported in Wired, Federal policies will now have to consider cyclists and pedestrians as coequals with motorists: http://www.wired.com/autopia/2010/03/lahood-policy-statement/

I have mixed reactions about this. Let's face it, except in small flat cities with mild climates, cyclists will always be a tiny minority of commuters. I'd much rather see energy and money directed towards public transportation than for bicycle lanes, etc.

On the other hand, any change that makes commuting more annoying, expensive or slower for individual drivers, can't be all bad.

52. Bike Mechanic

Never been much of a bike mechanic. A little oil; change/adjust brakes--that's about it. But a couple of days ago my bike fell over and now I can't shift the rear gears. Should I take it to a bike shop and have a tune up that will cost half of the bike's original price? Or do I take up bike repair at this late stage in my life? I'll see what the weather's like tomorrow.

51. Two Glove Day

Friday was a 2 glove day, meaning that my gloves were too wet from the morning ride to wear coming home. I usually have a second pair with me, so no problem. It was also a two sock day. That's more of a problem because even though the socks are dry, the shoes are wet so by the time I get home, socks and feet are wet as well. I could have an extra pair of shoes at work; I'll work on that. Or I could use my waterproof shoe covers. But the problem is that I don't really appreciate how hard it's raining until I'm too far into the commute to turn around and come back. Sometimes life is very complicated.

And while we're on the subject of shoes, I have succumbed to the latest shoe fad.

50. Macho Cycling

Have I mentioned how I hate it when another cyclist passes me and then immediately slows down? So tonight, I speed up, not enough to pass, just close enough to keep my options open. My route has a left turn but I continue to tail him straight--uphill no less. Then at the top of the hill I pass him and immediately turn left, increasing my speed. I could look back to see if he also turned. But I don't want to give him the pleasure of knowing that he has power over me. I ride fast for a few blocks then another left to return to my route. He's nowhere to be seen. VIctory!

49. Thou Shalt Not

For those who worship the god of cycling, listening to an IPod while cycling is forbidden right up there with helmetless riding. One creative apostate claimed that "books-on-tape" were okay because unlike music, gaps between words allowed one to hear street noises. Say what?

I don't worry about missing some sound. It's not like I change lanes because I can't hear a car approaching. And horns are as likely to project anger as a concern for my safety. But the distraction could be my downfall, focussing on a New Yorker commentary instead of what's ahead of me.

But I spend almost an hour a day on my bike, same routes more or less. It's boring.