i'd move to norway for this

Check out this great story from TreeHugger.com:

Norway's Public Roads Administration (southern region) is giving its own
employees a vacation subsidy if they travel to work on their bicycles. For each
week or five-day period that an employee rides a bike - or walks - to and from
the office, Statens Vegvesen will compensate with four hours of vacation time.
When the cyclist rides an entire year to work, that's equivalent to an extra
week of (paid) vacation. The Administration points to increased health benefits
to cyclists, but also is using the incentive to decrease road congestion.

In Denmark meanwhile, the Socialist Folkparty, one of the country's
larger political groups, is proposing to offer cyclists almost two Danish crowns
per commuting kilometer ($.36). Who knows how far the proposal may get:
cycle-happy Copenhagen is considering banning heavy trucks from the inner city
and is installing sensor-driven lights to alert vehicles to cyclists, but deputy
mayor for environmental issues was criticized (though the Lady Mayor seems
supportive) for his proposal to remove cars from one of the city's major
arteries, Nørrebrogade, to make more room for cyclists and pedestrians...

What would it take to get American companies who are serious about their impact on the environment (not to mention those that care less) to subscribe to a similar methodology?

I work for a sizeable financial brokerage firm and they have a "Trip-Reduction Program" which is merely a drawing each month for a $15 Target gift card. To qualify, you must use alternative transportation (carpool, vanpool, bus, bike) once a week for the entire month. They mainly "push" the carpooling thing, and by that I mean they have a poster in the break room. To my knowledge, there is one other person in my office (out of 200+) who does a multi-modal bike-bus commute...and yet I have never won the TRP drawing.

I am glad that my company at least makes some effort to encourage alternative transportation, but they certainly have a long ways to go. I also know that not all companies in Norway are offering a program like the one described in the TreeHugger article, but still, I cannot help but feel that America is years behind something like that.

mr. bicycle, i'm calling in sick today

I have been fighting some crud for the past few days, but until today I have been able to ride. This morning, I woke up with a stuffy head and sore throat, and I just felt that the benefits of biking just would not outweigh the drawbacks, and so I caved in and drove. I usually feel pretty pathetic when I drive, and I think the guilt (albeit self-imposed) is a healthy way to not allow myself to settle for driving as regularly. In addition to mentally feeling pathetic, my body feels more sluggish on the days that I drive. I’m not as awake when I get to work, and I am generally more tired throughout the day due to the lack of early morning pedaling. The fresh air and exercise are also great “stress-busters” - and yes I know this will not be news to any reader of this website.

There are basic principals of health/anatomy/immunology that govern how the body responds to physical stress when fighting illness. The Mayo clinic online covered this topic and gave the general statement that if your symptoms are above the neck - stuffy nose, sore throat - then it is safe to proceed with exercise. If symptoms are below the neck - congested chest, hacking cough or fever - it is wise to refrain from exercise. At this point, the health-boosting effects of exercise will cease to apply.

Some of us (myself included at times) think that we can “sweat out” a sickness by engaging in intense exercise when fighting a cold. While this may help relieve simple symptoms like stuffiness, in the end you are most likely going to hurt your body’s ability to fight the sickness. “Your immune system fights best when it isn’t stressed,” says MedicineNet.

Your immune system fights most effectively when it isn’t stressed. Research studies show that a moderate fitness program helps boost the immune system, lessening the chances you’ll fall ill with a cold or flu. But scientists also note that a single rigorous exercise session or race can actually make you more susceptible to bacterial or viral infection.

So listen to your body when you feel sick and need to rest — a hard workout could impair your immune system for several hours, allowing unwelcome guests to make your illness worse.

And make sure you give your body enough time to recover before you return to exercise after a serious illness like the flu. Come back too soon and you may actually send yourself into a relapse of the illness, which further slows your return to everyday activities.

I will say that bike commuting has seemed to help my body prevent illness these past months. I have historically gotten sick twice a year for as long as I can remember: in the fall and then again as winter gets close to spring. This is the first time that I have felt sick in over a year, and it has certainly been less intense than experiences past.

So as I go heat up some chicken noodle soup and down a gallon of water, at what point do you, the reader, say “enough is enough?”

time for a new year

2008 is here (I say that as if it were news) and I must say that I am excited about the year ahead. I have never really been one for setting resolutions but that is most likely attributed to my age. There is a certain instability of life that comes with being 24 years old - odds are I will be doing something completely different (career, personal hobbies, etc.) in 6 months from what I do now. However, I see a lot of exciting things ahead of me this year, and bike commuting is at the top of that list.

I have only been bike commuting since August 2007, but have biked an average 4 work days out of 5 for those past 5 months. I have been able to continue riding into winter since I live in Arizona - we've had a couple mornings in the upper 30s so far, but it could certainly be much worse.

After reading Jack's post I set up an account at bikejournal.com; hopefully I can keep up with my mileage numbers. I don't know the exact breakdown, but the cyclometer on my road bike has 3276 registered miles and it just turned 2 years old - meaning I am averaging ~1600 miles per year. In addition, my mountain bike shows 704 miles on the cyclometer (I have only had it since June), giving me a total of ~4000 miles biked in the past two years. I would say that I rode more miles this past year than the former, and assume the breakdown is more like 1800/2200. Based on how much I have been riding and what I predict to ride this year, I want to shoot for 2500 miles ridden in 2008 (this is a GOAL, not a resolution).



I head back to work tomorrow after being on vacation since Dec. 21. Our forecast for tomorrow shows sun with 46 degrees in the morning and 69 degrees by the afternoon. This has me so excited about getting on the saddle tomorrow morning as I head to the office. And what better way to spend New Years Day than getting my bike ready to go?! It is a bit chilly outside today but the winds are howling around 20 mph sustained, so it just feels right to stay inside, wearing my new fluffy slippers, and wrenching and scrubbing around on my aluminum steed.

After brewing a fresh pot of coffee, I got to work and scrubbed off all the dirt and grime from my wheels, frame, drive-train, etc. I made sure my shift- and break-cables were properly tightened and adjusted; made sure the chain and derailleurs were grit-free and properly lubed; sipped on my java and rocked out to some Nickel Creek.

The Velorution is coming at you 2008 - I have a feeling it will be a good year! May all of you have a safe and Velo-rific year. Happy Riding!

the day has finally come - it rained in phoenix

I got to ride in the rain today. To some, this might not seem like a big deal, or may even be a daily nuisance; but to me, it IS a big deal. I live in Phoenix. We never get rain. The past two weekends have ushered in some rain as this massive storm system moves across the mid-west and Rockies. When I woke up this morning, I was rather surprised to see moisture on the ground as I stepped outside to check how cold (read: brisk) it was.

At first I had to run through my alternate options of transport, but then I remembered that I have been waiting for this day since I started bike commuting in August! Granted, I yearned for that day in August for completely different reasons, but I still wanted to get some experience riding on wet roads - if for nothing more than my own cycling "continuing education."

I dressed the same as I have been lately, wearing a compression shirt, half-zip lightweight pullover and my bright yellow windbreaker, which naturally doubles as a rain jacket. It was not actually raining when I left, but the roads were wet, and I got some drizzles along the way.

Rains came on and went throughout the day, and I saw a little bit of a heavier downpour on the ride home - but still nothing too crazy. A good introduction to inclimate-weather riding.

The highlight of the day was the surprised look on my co-workers faces when they saw that I rode my bike to work, even though it was raining. Due to the lack of rain in this city, people in Phoenix seem to get thrown off enough by the thought of driving a car in the rain - let alone riding a bike.

In my continuing efforts to make bike commuting look as easy as it really is, I simply commented that riding in this poor weather was not much different than other days. I didn't dress any differently than I do on a cold day. Naturally, you want to be more aware of your surroundings and more attentive to drivers who might do something stupid, but a little rain is no reason to leave the bike at home.

That's right, the Velorution is waterproof!

how much time will $50 buy you?

I broke my shoe today. Bummer.

As I was walking down the steps of my apartment with my bike this morning, the heel of my cycling shoe got stuck on the lip of the previous step. As I continued moving forward, my shoe stayed in place and I ripped the top velcro strap right off of the shoe. Thankfully, my shoes have 3 straps, so even though I ripped off the most important strap, the shoe is still functional. It was looser than normal (obviously) but I was able to ride to and from work without incident. I will reluctantly begin a quest to replace the shoes - but I guess in the grand scheme of things, and in the eyes of Bicycling magazine, getting more than 2 years out of a pair of cycling shoes is pretty decent...well at least in the age of the "replace your gear each season" mentality that magazines like Bicycling proliferate.

While it is not ultimately the shoe manufacturers fault that the velcro strap ripped off my shoe, I am still disappointed that I have to replace the shoes. There is still one perfectly good shoe remaining that will become useless. I will continue to ride with these shoes until I honestly feel that they threaten my safety or ability to ride.

On the bright side, had the strap not ripped off, I most likely would have fallen down the 2 or 3 remaining steps as my heel got jammed in between steps, and would have landed (painfully) on the cement with a bike on top of me, or worse, me on top of the bike.

Every cloud has a silver lining it seems...

the laughing hyena boy of self-conciousness

I was laughed at on my ride home yesterday evening. Part of my commuting route takes me past a local inner-city high school. On most days I avoid the school during peak traffic hours, and yesterday was no exception. I was riding beyond the "school zone" when I approached a group of upstanding young lads (sarcasm). The shortest and pudgiest of this group (anyone who has ever gone through high school knows one of these kids) stops in the middle of the street as I maneuver around the group, giving them plenty of room since half of them were not paying attention to what was going on in their immediate environment. This kid who stopped points at me and gives this heinous, hyena-esque laugh. As soon as I pass them, he turns and continues on his way.

Now, having the benefit of being an intuitive fellow, I was able to recognize this laugh for what it was: nothingness. But my other cycling brethren may not be so lucky. While I was able to discern that this is simply the standard, malicious sort of behavior exhibited by most males in the 12-15 age range (not to say it doesn't get better after), and that this sub-sect of the human species is very well capable of getting inside someone's head with such actions, it did not get to me.

Young boys have the distinct ability to act in such a way that one's greatest doubts of self-consciousness will come out. I am confident that this kid had no reason for laughing AT me (I wasn't even wearing my neon yellow windbreaker), but he was simply all "hopped up on pixie sticks" and goofing around like young lads do. Still, this sort of behavior has the tendency to slip inside someone's head and cause them to seriously doubt every facet of their existence.

OR, maybe he did, in fact, have a reason for laughing so violently at me and now I need to go buy all new cycling gear to make myself look cool. Uh oh...here we go.

playing hooky

I took the day off from work today. This has been the first vacation day that I have used all year just for the sake of not going to the office. I did not have any travel plans, or anything on the agenda. My family had been talking about traveling for Christmas this year, so I planned ahead and was really conservative with the days I spent away from work all year. When I did take time off, it was used to travel back east to visit family and friends. I must say, it was nice to not be in the office on a Monday and just use the day to relax and get caught up on some reading and some writing.

After sleeping in and catching up on some errands around the house, I grabbed my laptop and coffee mug (that I use instead of a paper/styrofoam cups) and went to a coffee shop that sits right across the corner from a LBS called the Bike Barn. I had a cup of coffee and did some reading and writing. A pleasant afternoon. When I had satisfied my writing needs, I walked across the street to the Bike Barn (it really looks like a barn...) and grabbed a new set of tires for my road bike. I had gotten 2 flats in the past 2 weeks due to glass and rocks in the road.

When I started commuting on my road bike, I did not make any modifications, and have been riding on 700c x 23 racing tires. These have served me just fine and have not been too uncomfortable but they have about 1200 miles on them and are starting to get too many cuts. When I got to the Bike Barn I found a set of Specialized tires with "Flak Jacket protection" that is supposed to reduce the amount of punctures in the tires. I figure if I couple these with some slime tubes, I should be pretty flat-proof, at least for a while. I also got a slightly wider tire, 700c x 25 to give myself a bit of a smoother ride.

I spent the later part of the afternoon removing the old tires, cleaning my wheels, then mounting the new tires. Since I was in a "wrenching" mood, I figured I would go ahead and clean the rest of my bike. I do this pretty regularly, so "cleaning my bike" usually only requires a warm, damp rag to wipe off all the dirt and grit.

Now that I have a clean bike with brand spankin' new tires and tubes, I am really looking forward to my ride to work tomorrow morning!