day 20: how to cope with a flat

It was bound to happen eventually: my first commuter flat. And what better object to pick up with my bike tire than an old, rusty nail?

Within 100 yards of my building - and once riding down Central Ave. (aka construction zone 2006-2008) - I noticed my rear tire get squishy. Never a good feeling. I glanced down quickly and could immediately tell that I had a flat. I had to ride it out for about 20 yards until I could make a turn to get off the road. Once I was safely off of the road, I dismounted and inspected the tire. I quickly noticed a small button-sized nail head, flush with the tread of my tire. That thing was WAY down there...

I carried my bike inside my building, and proceeded with my normal routine. Throughout the day, as time allowed, I tinkered with the tire to see what sort of fix would be required to get myself home. I pulled the nail out and gave the pedals a few cranks to get the rear wheel spinning, which would allow the slime sealant to flow to the hole and plug it up. Once I had my bike up to my office, I turned the bike upside down, and propped the rear wheel (by running a pencil between the spokes and resting on the chainstays) with the puncture on the bottom. This would allow gravity to do it's work and get the sealant to pool up around the puncture.

About mid-afternoon, I tried pumping some air into the tire, but it just wouldn't hold air. This is why you should ALWAYS carry a spare tube.

Once work was over, I changed into my riding clothes, and went to work replacing the tube with a new one. Now, my spare tube is just a standard tube - no sealant or extra thick walls - so I knew I would have to be extra careful on the way home. After unhooking the tire from the rim, I pulled out the old tube and inspected the inner casing of the tire to make sure there was no glass or any other objects embedded in there that would tear my replacement tube. ALWAYS check the inside of a tire when changing tubes - there are few things worse than having your spare tube pop after installing it because there was a thorn or shard of glass stuck inside your tire.

Sure enough, I made it home safely. Tonight I will take off the rear wheel and pull out the spare tube I installed today. I will replace it with a brand new slime tube so I am not riding a bike that is simply bandaged - I'm going for the surgery, not the first aid! I will take some pictures and post those tomorrow.

That's all I will say today. I am working on writing a 4-part Guide to Bike Commuting that will be published on a few friends' websites. When they are all finished, I will also post them on this blog - so be sure to be on the lookout for those. And be on the lookout for rusty nails!

It will take more than a flat tire to stop me! Long live the Velorution!

day 19: my wallet was full, until i got in my car

Today is the beginning of the final week of my commuting "experiment." I will use the term "experiment" loosely because I fully intend on continuing to commute by bike after the month is over. Here are last week's numbers:

• Miles driven: 100
  
• Miles commuted by bike: 90
• Miles ridden on bike for non-commuting purposes: 16
  
• Money spent on gas: $0
• Money spent on car repairs: $350 - this one hurt a lot
  
• Money spent on bike: $0
• Estimated calories burned while biking to work: 1022/day (45 minutes of moderate biking, 2x a day) = 5110 for the week (according to a very simple weather.com calorie burn calculator)

So there is some good and some bad there. The Good: I biked more miles than I drove last week. The Bad: I did so because I had to ride my bike home and back to an auto shop where I took my car to have a new starter installed, thus the $350 on car repairs. Ouch. It stings to have to spend so much money on something I rarely use these days. Additionally, that's $350 I could have spent to buy an old road bike and convert it into a commuter-specific fixed gear bike (that is my plan for a project bike).

A pretty funny experience did come out of it though. My car died in the parking lot of my girlfriend's apartment on Thursday night. Since I don't drive to work, that did not affect my ability to get to work on Friday one bit. That is a REALLY cool feeling. On Saturday morning, she picked me up early and we attempted to roll start my car in her parking lot (one of the benefits of driving a car with a manual transmission). The two of us were unable to get enough speed by pushing the car, but were able to draft two college kids who walked by. Caroline is a trooper for helping me roll-start my car.

Once the car started, I swung by my place and picked up my bike (gotta love the roof-rack), and drove to the auto shop. After leaving my car there, I headed towards home. I decided to take a mini-detour and swing by a car dealership on my way home; and let me tell you, those car salesmen were drooling like dogs when I rolled onto their car lot on a bicycle.

"Hey there son, can I talk you into trading that nice bike for a car today?"

Obviously, a guy riding a bike is in desperate need of a car...

And boy did they try to sell me a car. No luck for them though. I bet they had a nice chuckle about it after I rolled away at the behest of my own legs and energy.

"The Bigger, the Better" is a Lie
Last week, I wrote about the perplexing state of American auto usage while reminiscing about the bike being a symbol of freedom to a young boy. Another thought about cars that perplexes me - and coincidentally scares many people away from bike commuting - is that they keep getting bigger! The logic of many soccer moms or elderly citizens is that they desire a safe car for them and their family. Unfortunately, Americans are tricked into thinking that a bigger car means a safer car. And in order to "keep up with the Joneses," we are constantly having to buy cars that are bigger and bigger in order to keep our families safe.

The really unfortunate side effect of this is that you end up with people (who NEVER need to transport 8 people) driving Suburbans and Excursions. You have kids buying these big cars for who knows what reasons. And you have college students driving huge SUVs with massive tires, talking on the cell phone while they drive, and blaring music. The common theme behind this all: they are distracted drivers. And distracted drivers are a cyclists worst nightmare.

All of a sudden, bike commuting becomes a dangerous and unfeasible option in most cities because people can't responsibly handle the car they drive. My Dad always warned me to be careful when I would go out driving: on a road trip or just to go out at night.

"Be careful," he would say.

"Oh, I will," I always replied, usually adding some information about precautions I had taken to help ease his mind.

"Yeah, but unfortunately it's not you that I don't trust - it's all the other idiots on the road."

Same thing, every time. And he has a point. And I hate that he has a point. But the way I see things: the more cyclists that are on the road, the more drivers will start to take notice of them. I never hope for anyone to have be martyred for a cause - and it is extremely sad that cyclists fall victim to accidents with cars (no matter whose fault it is) - but the only way for cyclists to gain a spot on the road, alongside the cars, is to be present. And the only way for cyclists to remain safe on the road, alongside the cars, is to behave in a predictable and visible manner - making sure that you are easily seen, and making sure that you obey the same rules any driver would be expected to obey.

Happy and safe riding - the Velorution depends on it!

day 18: it's friday

Happy Friday. It's been a good week:

• The Oregonian reports that Portland drivers log 20 percent fewer miles a day than most U.S. urban dwellers and spend less on cars and gasoline as a result, the region's economy saves $2.6 billion a year, or about 3 percent of the area's annual economic output.


• A story in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette tells of Tom Walker, a man who kayaks to work.


• I've been keeping tabs on the French Velorution (warning: this site is courtesy of a Google translation of a french website). About 6 weeks after Paris "sprinkled" the city with 10,000 self-service bicycles, the general consensus is: "This works!"


• Commutbybike.com featured a post about Trek Bicycles calling cyclists to a level of activism.

We all can ride and we have only one planet. Trek and Trek dealers challenge you to join us in making the world a more bike friendly place. You can start by riding your bike. It’s the greenest thing you can do to help the earth.

• TheDay.com (New London, CT) ran a piece titled "America's Car Culture is Killing Us." While I think his argument is a little skewed and selective, he makes a good overall point:

The future is not in cars. We'll always need cars to run around town, but not for the daily grind of commuting. Congestion, pollution and geo-politics tell us that traveling in this century will not be like traveling in the 20th century. Why should we invest in out-dated thinking instead of investing in making transit work?

And of course, a Friday would not be complete without a link to No Impact Man!

• Tuesday's post summed up the perspective from which I hope to engage my Velorution project, and life in general:

My point is that a big boost to the environmental cause might come with spending a little less time making people scared of a worse life and a little more time inspiring them towards a better one.

day 17: memories and white tees

When do we lose interest in bicycles as a means of transportation? When do we say to ourselves, "Self, I don't like the fact that I have to 'work' to transport myself from one place to another...I want a machine to do that for me, because I am modern (wo)man and more technology makes everything better..." ?

I know there is more to these questions than I would like to think. We use cars because of issues of safety, distance, avoiding the elements, transporting those who cannot transport themselves...yeah, yeah, I know. While I could 'debunk' most of those, I will save that for the 3000 word essay that I will write for the NY Times someday. Until then, let's take a stroll down memory lane.

Yesterday morning, I saw 3 kids riding 2 bikes to school. One of the bikes was a bmx bike with pegs on the rear axle, so the 3rd kid (presumably the boy's little sister) was standing on the pegs and holding onto the seat. As a kid, I never lived close enough to school to ride my bike. But looking back I sure wish that I had. I love you anyway Mom and Dad...

My first "real" bike was a Christmas present when I was 7 or 8ish. It was a blue kids bmx bike, with white tires and a white molded plastic seat. The seat had a cutout that acted as a handle, because you see, the chainstays had tiny platforms which allowed someone to stand on the rear. Pegs weren't as prevalent on bikes back in that day.

I remember having so much fun on that bike - riding to Omni baseball card shop, or to the BP to get a Pepsi on a hot summer day. I remember riding down the big hill around the corner and skidding at the bottom. I remember riding down "Space Mountain," a single-track dirt trail between our neighborhood and the park. Back in those days, a bike meant "Freedom." It meant being able to get myself from A to B, without having to drag anyone else into aside from my friends. If I wanted to go somewhere, well I just had to pedal my little butt over there.

On a different note, I wore a long-sleeve shirt for my commute today - to see if it helps keep you cooler in the heat. It was a Nike Dri-fit shirt, so it is made of a technical fabric that wicks away moisture. All in all, it certainly didn't make me feel cooler, but it didn't feel any worse than a short sleeve shirt either. It certainly aids with sun protection. The key difference was while you are riding, you don't get the breeze on your arms, and you notice. BUT, I still doubt that it made me sweat any more than normal. Phoenix is one day away from setting a record for the most days over 110 degrees in a year. The current record is 28 (held by Phoenix...). Yesterday was #27.

I do it all for the Velorution.

day 16: let's get down to bees-ness

Before I forget, I used MapMyRide.com to set up a new map of my route. This site is great because it gives you greater control of your route over the plain ol' Google maps. This site allows you to enter waypoints or mark spots of interest (water, bathrooms, etc.) among many other things. I mapped my commute out - but it still gives me a total distance of about 7.55 miles, whereas my cyclometer says 8.5 after each ride. I guess the distance from my door to the actual address location, plus the pedestrian overpass, and the circle around my building add up to an additional mile.

I was confronted by a winged insect of some sorts today on my ride home. This got me thinking, what about bees? I am sure that would be quite an unfortunate event - to have a bee either fly down your jersey or stick to your arm or something like that. Can you imagine?

Even though it was reported earlier this year that the bee population in the US has decreased drastically this year, it is still a real possibility that you might confront one while on a bike. And I think part of my mantra on this blog has been: be prepared. So what sorts of things would one need to prevent the likelihood of a sting, or to treat a sting?

• Wear sunglasses to protect your eyes and gloves (full-fingered would do best) to protect your hands. These are two areas of your body that are pretty vital to protect...
• Wear bike shorts to prevent a bee from flying up your shorts...no need for explanation there.
• Wear a bandana under your helmet to add an extra layer of protection to your scalp.
• Wear a cycling jersey or tight-fitting shirt - a similar concept to the bike shorts. It keeps anything from flying its way between your skin and your clothes.
• Carry a basic sting treatment kit with sting ointment - especially if you are allergic.

Now this is in no way meant to be a scare tactic. In all reality, the likelihood of a bee running into to you is not THAT great, but it still can happen. Prevention is the best cure, right?...that kind of applies here. Thankfully, whatever hit me today was pretty shocked by the impact I guess, and I just brushed it off.

It looks like the city has marked off part of the street I ride to work on (see left). The street is currently only a two-lane road (one lane each way), but is extremely wide for a single lane. I am hoping this doesn't mean they are planning a road expansion project that includes widening the street to a 4-lane. I see survey crews out in the mornings. Or maybe they are planning on striping off a 6-foot wide bike lane?...the street IS a designated bike route.

For now I will keep my fingers crossed. And due to the conditioning of humans to drive withIN the lines, this stripe does actually influence drivers to stay farther to the left - and of course I am happy with that.

Lastly, I have been getting more comments at work as people see my bike. I recently moved into an area where I am around more people, and don't have as much privacy as I used to. Because of that, a handful of people walk by my bike everyday, and each one asks whose it is. I am getting pretty good at explaining that I ride 8.5 miles to work - and Yes, I do it in THIS heat.

There are even a few people at work who have expressed to me an interest in trying to find a way to incorporate biking, or at least multi-modal commuting into their life. Hooray for that, and Hooray for the Velorution!

day 15: go speed racer

My morning commute got spiced up a little by a(n) (imaginary) game of cat and mouse. While stopped at a traffic light, another cyclist came up behind me, scanned the road, and then took off ahead - ignoring the red light we had. Thankfully, there were no cars crossing in front of us, and he did in fact have a clear shot. When my light turned green, I proceeded on my way.

Well it turns out the two of us were headed in the same direction until I was almost to my building. I played a little mental game with myself and tasked myself with catching up to this other cyclist. What can I say, it is the inner-competitor in me. I kept my eye on him - kept tabs on the time between us by focusing on a stationary object and counting the seconds it took me to reach that object once he passed it. I was always gaining ground on the guy, except at traffic lights. He would always pause, look both ways, and then go - whether there was a red light or green light. I, on the other hand, stopped at each red light until it was green.

The moral of the story: risking a nasty collision in order to NOT sit at a red light isn't always fastest. I eventually caught up with the guy - despite my compliance with traffic laws. Maybe I am just too fast for my own good :)

On a different note: I found this awesome water stand on the way home. I don't know if these exist elsewhere or not - but it sure is a nice "backup" to not carrying enough water on those really hot days. If nothing else, it would be nice to have when going out for a training ride - if for no other reason than to avoid clunking through a gas station in full cyclo-gear to fill up a water bottle at the soda fountain. I am pretty sure there is a cost for this water, but I have seen similar stands in front of grocery stores that let you fill up something like a 5 gallon jug for 25 cents! So I imagine this water stand is similarly priced.

I am off to a concert tonight, so that is all I have to say for now. Here's to the Velorution.

day 14: they're just jealous of my...ok it IS goofy looking

I decided to take the road bike to work today - partially because I was running late, and partially because I just wanted to. There is no doubt that the travel is faster on a road bike. In fact, my average speed for the day was about 3.5 mph faster than it has been previously. I will certainly not take the road bike often because the roads I travel are not the smoothest, or the slightest bit free of glass, rocks, construction hardware...

This morning I was running a wee bit behind (it IS Monday afterall), and so I made a last minute decision to swap bikes. I had done some tune-up work on my road bike this weekend, so I knew that it was mechanically up for the task. I simply moved my under-the-saddle bag from my usual bike, swapped out the MTB tubes for some spare road tubes, checked the tire pressure, and I was good to go.

Thankfully it was a good ride without trouble. There were times (potholes, glass) when I was worried about popping a tire, but I apparently made it to and from work unscathed. The only damage that was done was emotional. Ha, well that is an OVERstatement. As I was leaving the locker-room this afternoon, preparing for my departure home, I overheard some giggles. The locker-room is inside of the building's "fitness center," or treadmill room, and there were two ladies (not the "fittest" of the bunch either) who were mid-conversation as I emerged from the locker-room in full lycra garb. Now I don't usually don the bike shorts to ride to/from work when I ride the (modified) mountain bike, but since I was going roadie today, I felt it appropriate. As I walked by, I hear the conversation stop, and a valley-girl-esque, "Oh...My...God..." followed by giggling. As I was heading thru the door, I *wanted to turn around and make some witty remark about the difference in body-type and my ability to fit into bike shorts, but I knew that it would not be worth it. I exited the room without hesitation, and pedaled off the frustration. Thankfully, it only occupied my mind for 100 yards or so...

Otherwise, it was a solid ride - and it felt good to be back on the bike after two days off. I still feel a slight level of fatigue in my legs when I wake up every morning, but it goes away more quickly each day. I can feel the strength that I am building in my legs as a result of biking so often. Being on the road bike today, after 2 and a half weeks on the MTB, I felt much stronger and more efficient. I'm enjoying killing two birds with one stone, and using my commute to work as an opportunity for exercise, and to a certain extent, training.

While I have always enjoyed riding a bike, and have used it as a means of fitness/competition for a few years now, it is becoming more of an extension of who I am now. As this month has progressed, I have yearned to be on a bike more and more - in between commutes to work, and on the weekends. It's like I said after about a week of bike commuting, this feels like the "norm." Getting up and packing my backpack and hopping on my bike feels natural - getting into a car feels a bit more off.

Last week's numbers:

• Miles driven: 120 (I had guests in town)
• Miles commuted by bike: 90
• Miles ridden on bike for non-commuting purposes: <1>
• Money spent on gas: $40 (filled 'er up)
• Money spent on bike: $0
• Estimated calories burned while biking to work: 1022/day (45 minutes of moderate biking, 2x a day) = 5110 for the week (according to a very simple weather.com calorie burn calculator)

I want to continue to strive to get those car miles down...it's definitely a challenge.

Sorry there were no pics today...my bad. Otherwise, Vive la Velorution!